Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 250 Awakening
"Fly down!" Ke Lan shouted at the top of his lungs.
Going upwards and hitting the avalanche head-on would definitely mean death... The only way to gain a chance of survival is to accelerate the fall downwards and rush out of the avalanche coverage before being swallowed by the avalanche.
Ke Lan curled up in the air with difficulty. He bent his knees as far as possible and aimed the two remaining rocket thrusters on his legs straight up...
The huge white waves rolling down from the cliff were less than twenty meters away from him. Apart from the loud rumbling sound, he could not even hear any other sound. The biting coldness that came from the sky with terrifying energy, Ke Lan could completely smell the suffocating breath of death... Once caught up by the avalanche, he would be crushed to pieces in an instant.
Ke Lan felt like he was racing against death... The torrent of ice and snow was chasing him from behind, and he could only dive into the bottomless abyss below.
The light around him was gradually dimming. Ke Lan felt as if he had melted into the shadows. Even the loud noise from the avalanche above him was becoming distant... The chill was gradually disappearing. A strange warm current was crawling along his spine to his limbs. He could clearly feel the touch on every inch of his skin, but he had lost control of his body... He wanted to reach out a hand to touch his face, but found that there seemed to be something heavy and soft pressing on his arm, and he couldn't move at all...
Endless sleepiness was coming up, and his eyelids were almost completely closed, leaving only a gap in his eyelids as he made his last struggle... Ke Lan knew that he absolutely could not sleep at this time, but he could not even do such a simple action as biting his tongue.
“You’re dead…”
“Even if I’m not buried alive by the avalanche, I’ll probably die if I fall into the pit like this…”
His consciousness became increasingly blurred, and the darkness before his eyes gradually turned into chaos... But suddenly, a point of light appeared in the chaos...
Light?
Ke Lan was stunned for a moment. He felt that he was regaining control of his body... But he was shocked to find that he seemed to be no longer in the tiankeng...
He opened his eyes with force, and the spot of light directly above him continued to expand, gradually spreading to his entire field of vision... It was a lamp installed on the ceiling, emitting a soft and bright light.
The heavy and soft thing that Ke Lan just felt was not an illusion. It was a thick quilt, and the fibers of the fabric exuded a unique fragrance of detergent.
Where is this?
Ke Lan was shocked. She found herself lying on a bed!
Is this on the Ark... or somewhere else?
Ke Lan looked up and found a familiar figure sitting on the sofa beside him...
"Zofia?!"
"Are you awake?" Seeing Ke Lan struggling to get up, Sofia hurried to the bedside and helped Ke Lan up.
"What's going on? Why am I here?" Ke Lan rubbed his forehead, "Didn't I fall into a deep pit?"
"That was four days ago," Zofia glanced at him and said softly, "When the rescue team found you deep in the tiankeng, you were hanging on the wall and had lost consciousness... You had been sleeping in the medical cabin for three days and were just transferred to this ordinary ward yesterday. The doctor said that your injuries have basically recovered and you will wake up today... I happened to be free today, so I came here."
"An avalanche of that magnitude... I was hanging on the wall of the pit... and I didn't die?!" Ke Lan asked half-believingly, "How is this possible..."
"But you are still alive and well, aren't you?" Zofia stood up. "Are you hungry? Do you want to eat something? Your physical condition is still good. You are not limited to liquid food. You can eat solid food as well."
"Wait, what about the Hound, Layton... and the others? Have they been rescued?"
"What?" Zofia frowned slightly, "What are you talking about?"
"I say - is there any news about the other members of the team, Hound, Layton, Ivan, Asano Akira, and Zhuoligetu?" Ke Lan repeated it again. For some reason, he suddenly had a very strange feeling in his heart...
He always felt that these names seemed very strange... Although he clearly remembered all the memories related to them, these memories did not seem to belong to him.
"Who are these people...?" Sofia asked, slightly stunned.
"My teammates, they are my teammates - the teammates who went down into the tiankeng with me and encountered the avalanche! Have you forgotten? No, that's impossible... You should . Later, they and I completed the Leviathan mission that you entrusted to me..." Ke Lan tried hard to recall some details, but found that his brain was in a mess and he couldn't remember anything.
"Ke Lan."
Zofia sat down beside the bed, stretched out a hand, held his shoulder, and said seriously: "Although I don't know what you encountered in the ruins... But I want to tell you that you completed the Leviathan mission alone, and you were the only one who went down to the bottomless cenote this time... You told me before that many hunters who came back from the cenote went crazy. At that time, you thought that these hunters were attacked by something in the ruins. Have you ever thought that these teammates in your memory might also be hallucinations caused by your mental attack?"
"Hallucination?" Ke Lan subconsciously held his breath, a chill creeping up his spine quietly, "Hallucination... How could it be an illusion? Oh, by the way, registering a consortium-level hunting group requires five senior hunters as team leaders. I can't pass the document review by myself!"
"At that time, you found a few other hunters online to join the hunting team, but you were the only actual member of the hunting team. I asked you if you wanted to recruit more people, but you said that teammates who had not been through the process of getting used to each other would easily become a burden, so you planned to complete the qualification certification task alone first, and then find a way to expand the size of the hunting team..." said Zofia.
"I'm alone... What's going on? Leviathan... I'm also the only one to take on the Leviathan mission?"
"Yeah." Sofia nodded.
"That's impossible! I clearly remember them..."
"Your memory may be biased," Zofia paused and handed Ke Lan's phone over, "You can check the previous mission records yourself."
Ke Lan took the phone and hurriedly opened his hunter profile and found the mission record. Before he clicked on it, the series of "single-player missions" on the list had already deeply hurt his eyes.
How is this possible? !
Not only the Bottomless Sinkhole and Leviathan, but even the Underwater City and the Glacial Ruins are single-player missions!
And in the detailed mission records, all the content related to the Hounds disappeared, as if they had never existed in the world!
This is impossible!
Oh, right, the number! He still remembered the contact number of the Hounds!
Ke Lan quickly entered Hound's number into her phone and dialed...
However, after a beep, an electronically synthesized female voice came from the receiver:
"Sorry, the number you dialed is unavailable..."
Empty number?! How could it be an empty number? Even if they died in the ruins, the most they could do was just not be able to get through, so how could it be an empty number? The communication numbers of this era are different from those of the old era. Every number can be used for life and will never be cancelled. Even if the owner of the number dies, disappears, or is exiled to the wilderness, their communication number will be retained... Although these numbers cannot be connected, they can never be marked as "empty numbers".
If it is an empty number, it means that this string of numbers has never been used by anyone...
But Ke Lan just dialed this number not long ago!
He tried calling several other people, but without exception, all of them were unavailable numbers. Only one number was connected - that was Lieutenant General Maginot's number.
"Hello? Ke Lan? Are you awake? I heard that you almost lost your life this time. I shouldn't have given you that letter of recommendation..." Maginot said, "By the way, what is the matter with your call this time? Do you want to know the origins of those exiles who attacked the camp?"
"No..." Ke Lan said. He felt his throat was extremely dry, and his voice sounded a little hoarse. "I want to ask you a question."
"One person? Who?"
"Hunter... No, a man named Nick. He was once a colonel in the field force. He had a foul mouth and a bad temper, but he loved his subordinates very much. He almost started a mutiny over pensions and was eventually forced to retire... Do you remember such a person?"
"Uh... there are at least 800 people named Nick in the field forces... but it seems that there is really no one who has made it to the rank of colonel... and according to what you said, if this guy has caused such a big trouble, the senior officers above the rank of general should know about this guy, but I don't remember such a person at all... Could it be that you made a mistake?"
"I'm not mistaken. His name is Nick. After retiring, he became a relic hunter with the code name Hound... Do you still remember what happened on Line 34 in North District 9?"
"Of course I remember that. A group of thugs from a heretical sect hijacked a train. Fortunately, you subdued them in time and a disaster was averted. That was also the first time we met. How could I not remember it?"
"Nick was with me at that time. He and I helped pay the thug." Ke Lan said word by word.
"What? You... weren't you alone at that time? Did you have someone else with you? But you didn't mention it at all?" Maginot's tone was full of doubts, and it didn't sound like he was lying at all.
“…”
"If you want to find a guy named Nick, I can ask someone to help you ask, but you'd better not hold too much hope... No one can tell about the soldiers serving in the field forces..." Maginot stopped talking here and sighed deeply.
"Then thank you for your help, General." Ke Lan hung up the phone and stared silently at the door opposite the bed... Suddenly, he lifted the quilt covering his legs and staggered off the bed.
"Be careful...your injury hasn't healed completely yet!" Seeing this, Zofia hurriedly hugged Ke Lan's waist... Fortunately, Ke Lan's weight was not that heavy, so the two of them did not fall to the ground together.
"What's wrong? If there is anything, just tell me and I'll ask someone to take care of it. You just focus on recovering, okay?" Sofia's words were filled with some blame. She really didn't understand why Ke Lan seemed like a different person after waking up, and kept muttering names she had never heard of before.
"If those people are your former teammates, I can send people to look for them. Whether they are alive or dead, we will definitely find clues..."
"I want to go somewhere." Ke Lan said stubbornly, "I must confirm it with my own eyes, otherwise... I will never believe it..."
"Okay, where is it? Tell me the address and I'll drive you there."
The place that Ke Lan mentioned was Ivan's private clinic in the North Fourth District. There is an old saying, "The monk can run away, but the temple cannot." He just didn't believe that if the person disappeared, could the clinic disappear as well?
…
Half an hour later, Zofia's car stopped at the intersection that Ke Lan was familiar with.
North Fourth District, No. 11, Kangle Street, a completely unfamiliar building is built at a familiar location. It is a Chinese restaurant called "Hua Xia Kung Fu". A huge neon sign hangs just above the door. It is dinner time now, and there is a constant stream of diners coming and going. Even the tables on the street are full of people.
"Chinese restaurant? You want to eat Chinese food?" Sofia, who was sitting in the driver's seat, asked curiously, but Ke Lan had already opened the car door and walked quickly towards the Chinese restaurant.
He ignored the protests of the diners in line, the inquiries of the waiter and the surprised looks of the guests who were dining. He walked straight through the lobby, bypassed the display cabinets full of sample dishes, pushed away a restaurant staff member who came up to stop him, and kicked open the door to the kitchen.
Four or five chefs in white uniforms turned their heads at the same time and looked at the uninvited guest. Ke Lan walked into the kitchen in a daze. He looked around blankly, with a look of near despair in his eyes...
The ceiling of the kitchen was blackened by the smoke, and the chef's workbench and floor also had obvious signs of wear and tear. In addition, the exhaust fan on the wall was covered with rust... All these signs told Ke Lan that this Chinese restaurant had been built for many years and had not moved here recently...
"Sir, please tell me..." a chef asked tentatively.
"Your boss...where is your boss? I want to see him."
