Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 246 Stone Tablet Test
"There's nothing we can do about it. If we knew that half of the people who entered the ruins would go crazy, who would be willing to go down with such a small reward?" Danner said, "Almost all the big hunting groups that know about this will do the same. Everyone has tacitly accepted this unspoken rule. Otherwise, how can we make money?"
"Besides," Danner continued, "this isn't really a lie. After all, this is an S-class ruin. People in our business know how dangerous S-class ruins are. It's already very difficult for half of the people who enter to come out alive, not to mention that they're just suffering from madness... Who knows, maybe someday those crazy hunters will suddenly return to normal, right?"
Danner glanced at the hound, then at Ke Lan standing behind him, and said, "If you also plan to mine the stone tablets in the tiankeng, it's best to choose this operation mode - these jobs don't require high technical content, and those rookies who have just entered the industry can also complete them. It just so happens that these new guys are eager to get the exploration records of high-level ruins to improve their qualifications, and the hunting group can save personnel expenses to the greatest extent. Isn't this the best of both worlds?"
"..." The Hound wanted to reprimand the other party, but he couldn't think of the right words for a moment - it is true that these large hunting groups concealed the risks in the ruins, but the S-level of the ruins is obvious, and any hunter who has received basic training courses knows what the S-level means. They dare to choose tasks of this level, which naturally means that they are willing to bear the corresponding risks.
In fact, Ke Lan and the others were the same. Although they already knew that more than half of the people who entered the bottomless cenote went crazy, compared to the 60% mortality rate of other S-level ruins, this was already the "safest" S-level ruins...
"Taking advantage of loopholes in industry rules and the rookie hunters' eagerness for quick success..." Ke Lan said, "It's unethical to do this, but it doesn't violate relevant regulations, and it can also maximize the interests of the hunting group... From an official perspective, they need enough relic tablets to study the secrets of Alpha civilization, and to obtain such tablets, someone has to take risks... In their eyes, these crazy hunters are completely an 'acceptable price'."
In the business of relic hunters, the lives of rookies are actually very cheap. Every year, more than half of the hunters who die in the ruins are newcomers who are participating in the mission for the first time... To put it bluntly , they are actually a group of consumables. If the lives of these people can be exchanged for spoils of sufficient value, then this "deal" is not a loss.
Ke Lan and the others all started out as rookies and worked their way up step by step. They know better than anyone how cruel reality is.
It is precisely because of this that, even if it is just a temporary team, they will never abandon their teammates easily unless they are in a truly desperate situation - no one knows if they will be the one to get hurt next time. If they abandon the injured teammate today, they may be the one to be abandoned tomorrow.
"Yes, you are right!" Danner nodded repeatedly. "If these rookie hunters were to explore other ruins, they might be killed right away. Here, at least they have a 50% chance! If they are lucky and nothing happens when they return, they can make money and gain the qualification to explore S-level ruins. This kind of good thing is hard to find anywhere else!"
"Mr. Dana, do you remember how many of these hunters under your command went crazy after they returned?" Ke Lan asked, changing the subject.
"The hunters sent here now were taken away by the headquarters after they returned. I don't know how many of them went crazy, but I do know who were in the first batch... Including myself, there were seventeen people in total, all experienced hunters, and exactly ten of them went crazy." Dana recalled while counting on his fingers.
"Have you been down there too?" Ke Lan asked hurriedly when she heard Dana claim that he was among them.
"At that time, we knew nothing about this ruins, and we had no idea that half of the people who went down there would go crazy... Of course, if I were asked to go down now, I would definitely not dare to do so. This thing is just like a lottery, with a 50% chance, which is too weird... However, I think it is worth taking this risk - as an insider of this matter, the headquarters directly promoted me twice, my salary and bonus increased several times, and I was also asked to be responsible for managing the new recruits who came later." Danner smiled, "This is the benefit I exchanged my life for."
"Then do you know why half of the people went crazy? When you were in the tiankeng, did you feel anything unusual, or hear any weird noises?"
"Strange sound? To be honest, there was only the sound of whistling wind in the tiankeng, and you couldn't hear any other sound at all. As for the abnormal feeling, let alone that, when I went down, I was concentrating on how to maintain the balance of the suspension cable. Who would have the mind to care about other things?" Dana said.
"Did you have a nightmare after you came out of the tiankeng?" Ke Lan asked again.
"Nightmare? Tsk...it seems you know a lot." Dana couldn't help but glance at Ke Lan. "Those crazy brothers did tell me that they have been having nightmares recently and often wake up in the middle of the night. But I'm different. I sleep until dawn every day and don't even remember what I dreamed about the night before."
"What about the other six hunters who didn't go crazy? How are they doing now?"
"Five people took a long vacation, and there was also a hapless guy with a strong sense of justice who wanted to... Never mind, let's not talk about him." Danner said, waving his hand, "These are all the things I know. As for the actual situation below the tiankeng, you can use a drone to fly around and you will know everything. By the way, let me remind you that drones must not go below 300 meters, as the magnetic field interference is relatively strong there, and electronic equipment will malfunction."
…
After asking some irrelevant questions, Ke Lan and the others returned to the "Greece" with the purchased stone tablet.
"So, what's written on those stone tablets?" As soon as he sat down, the hound asked Ke Lan impatiently.
"These are all experimental records." Ke Lan's face looked a little solemn.
"What experimental records?" This time it was Ivan who spoke. As a doctor and biologist, and also a "container" parasitized by the seeds of erosion, he was naturally the most sensitive one to such things.
"The records of biological weapons experiments include some similar to the Seed of Corrosion... However, this one we bought is an exception."
"Is there anything special about this stone tablet?" Leighton asked, looking at the big lump of ice in the foam box.
"This stone tablet contains a prayer, and its content is very similar to the one we found in the sarcophagus." Ke Lan said word by word.
Everyone's breath was held in their throats. After several seconds, Hound spoke up, "You mean, this stone tablet... might have that kind of... that special function, which can allow one of us... to master the language of the Alpha civilization?!"
“Not sure, but I can give it a try.”
