Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 262: Hands Under the Ice
"Glacier Ruins A-087? The twin ruins of the 'Bottomless Sinkhole'?" Qin Zhao's eyes flashed with shock. "You said you've been here before... Could it be that you're the legendary team that found the core area of the glacial ruins?"
"So you are my idols? Can you sign an autograph for me after we get out?" Martin asked excitedly.
"...Legendary team? Idol?" Hound laughed self-deprecatingly, "If I could , I would rather not have this title than come to this damn place again."
"Why? Since you were able to survive here last time, then this time..."
"Be quiet." Ke Lan turned around and glanced coldly at Qin Zhao and Martin. "Listen carefully. I'll only say this once: don't make any obvious noises, don't use any equipment that emits strong light - always pay attention to the ice above your head, under your feet, and on both sides. If there is any movement, stop immediately and use body language to warn your teammates."
"Is there something in the ice? Is it a monster?" Martin asked stutteringly, "Senior... please don't scare me. "
"Shut up." The Hound growled, "I don't bother to scare you. If you want to save your life, do as we say."
Hound said so, but in fact, even he himself was unsure - although the memories of everyone except Ke Lan were modified by some unknown force, Ke Lan had told everyone about the process of the battle. If it weren't for Asano Akira's action, everyone in the team would have been killed by the centipede-like monster...
But now Asano Akira is still asleep, and they can only rely on themselves.
Ke Lan held up the flashlight and walked carefully to the ice wall on one side. She placed the flashlight on the ice surface and then gently turned the adjustment knob to increase the brightness little by little...
There's nothing inside the ice wall.
There were no strange pieces of meat, nor the giant eyeball that could move freely in the ice... There was nothing in the ice wall, just like when they turned back from the 100-meter giant gate...
"It shouldn't be the same ice track." Ke Lan said to the hound in a very low voice, "There should be many ice tracks like this, and this is just one of them."
"So where do you think this road will lead to? That hundred-meter-high gate?"
"I don't know, but the A-087 ruins have sunk deep into the ground. Even if we can find the 100-meter giant gate, it will be difficult to get out of the ruins." Ke Lan said, "And what we found at that time might just be a shallow 'false core'... Fortunately, we didn't make further explorations in that place, otherwise, the glacial ruins would have collapsed long ago."
"But no matter what, at least we got out of those nine stone chambers... Now there is only one road in front of us, and we have to go on it even if we have to bite the bullet." The Hound pulled out his pistol and finally checked the bullets in the magazine.
Because they had no plan to go directly into the ruins at the beginning and there was basically no possibility of a fight , Ke Lan and his team left most of their weapons on the "Greece". The only weapon they could take out now was a pistol for self-defense.
Among the crowd, the one with the strongest firepower has to be Layton. Although he didn't even bring a pistol, his mechanical body was equipped with a large number of weapons. Coupled with the small shield generator, he was equivalent to a human tank. Naturally, the position of the vanguard was transferred from Ke Lan to Layton.
"Let's go." Ke Lan took a deep breath and said.
Layton nodded silently. He held the shield-shaped mechanical arm across his body, and with his other hand resting on the rocket launcher on his shoulder, he walked step by step towards the depths of the ice track.
Following closely behind him were two rookie hunters holding pistols, flashlights and hunting dogs in the middle of the line, followed by the strongman Zhuo Ligetu carrying three body bags, and Ke Lan took the initiative to take on the responsibility of covering the rear.
The most nervous among the few people was Martin. He wanted to talk to Qin Zhao, but Qin Zhao completely ignored him. He could only mutter to himself in a voice that only he could hear. His eyes were always fixed on the heels of the hound in front of him, and he didn't dare to raise his head to observe his surroundings.
On the other hand, although Qin Zhao's face was also very pale, she had been carefully observing the ice walls around her, and from time to time she would raise her head and glance at the top wall of the passage directly above her.
"The gap in quality between these two people is really too big..." Ke Lan muttered in his heart... But what he didn't expect was that the first person to discover the abnormality was Martin, who had been staring at the floor!
Just when the team was more than a hundred meters away from the exit of the underwater passage, Martin suddenly stopped. He pointed at the ground under the hound's feet, his face full of fear. Just when he was about to shout, Qin Zhao reached out and covered his mouth in time.
When Qin Zhao looked towards the place Martin knew, his whole body suddenly trembled violently and froze in place.
"What's going on?" The hound walking in front noticed something was wrong. He turned his head, first glanced at the two frightened people, and then lowered his head.
"What the hell... What the hell is this thing?" The Hound performed better than the two rookies, but only he knew the answer... When he saw what was under the ice, his shirt, which had not yet dried, was instantly soaked with cold sweat and stuck to his back.
"Stop moving forward." Ke Lan raised his hand, signaling everyone to stop, and then walked forward quickly.
It was a hand, a hand with a bone structure similar to that of a human, but it was definitely not a human hand.
The surface of the palm was covered with taut pale skin, no blood vessels could be seen under the skin, and there seemed to be not many muscles. The structures of the phalanges, metacarpals and wrist bones were clearly visible - just like humans, each finger except the thumb had three flexible joints, and the ends of the fingers also had nails made of stratum corneum... However, this palm was too slender. Although its width was similar to that of a normal human palm, the length from the wrist to the fingertips was nearly thirty centimeters. The stretched phalanges and metacarpals showed a strange and morbid tension. He only stared at this palm for a few seconds, and the image of it piercing through his chest and grabbing his heart appeared in his mind.
It didn't look like a hand, but more like a weapon specifically designed to kill people.
This hand stretched out from the depths of the ice, and the tips of its fingertips were less than one centimeter away from the ice surface... From the angle where Ke Lan and the others were looking, they could only see a section of the forearm below the wrist at most. As for the true body of the owner of the hand, it was completely hidden in the darkness.
"This posture... is like..." Ke Lan murmured.
"Like what?"
"It's like a person who is about to drown, stretching out his hand and trying hard to touch the water." Ke Lan said.
