Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 267: The Master of the Hand
Layton drove a spike anchor into the top wall just above the shaft, then dropped a rappelling rope with a weight attached into the shaft.
With the "swish" sound of friction between the ropes, it didn't take long for the finger-thick rappelling rope to straighten. Layton tried to lift it, then shook his head at Ke Lan - this 200-meter-long rappelling rope could n't touch the bottom of the ice track.
"Although we can extend it later... all the ropes we have left are only about 300 meters long. If the shaft is deeper than 500 meters, we can only climb down little by little." Layton said, "Although the diameter of the well mouth is quite spacious and we can go down wearing an exoskeleton, an exoskeleton without thrusters is not safe..."
"This is the only way." Ke Lan said, "Distribute the equipment, and then we will go down."
Ke Lan and his team brought down a total of six powered exoskeletons, but two of them were severely damaged, one was slightly damaged, and only half of it could still function fully as a climbing machine.
Although Layton dismantled one of the severely damaged exoskeletons to repair the other two, in the end he only obtained four intact exoskeletons and one defective product that was partially missing and could only be considered "half".
"Six people, four and a half exoskeletons, how do you plan to divide them?" The hound's eyes swept over each person one by one, and then stopped on Ke Lan.
"My mechanical body also has some rock climbing capabilities, so I can just use that 'half'." Layton said first.
"The big guy is the vanguard, and he's using a defective one, so he definitely can't lead anyone. Now there are four exoskeletons and five people left. In addition, we have three immobile guys who need to be brought along." The hound continued, "Ke Lan, as the leader of the hunting group, you'll be in charge of the allocation."
"Yeah." Ke Lan nodded and pointed at Martin who was huddled in the corner. "First of all, Martin cannot have direct contact with other people because he is 'infected'. So I gave him an exoskeleton."
"There are three exoskeletons left now, four people who can move, and three people who can't move. Zhuoligetu's own exoskeleton is an enlarged one, which should be able to carry two people. Then Lao Gou and I will each carry one." After saying that, Ke Lan turned to Qin Zhao, "Who do you want to lead? Choose one yourself."
Qin Zhao looked at the hound, then at the tall and strong Zhuoligetu, and finally pointed at Ke Lan and said, "I'll go with you."
"Tsk, as expected, young pretty boys are more popular in the eyes of young girls." The Hound couldn't help but complain, and then tied the body bag containing Cao Feng to his back, "Alas, little sister, when you grow up, you will experience the charm of a mature old man like me."
"Come on, you?" Leighton smacked his lips. "I don't see any charm in you, but I see that your head is getting balder and balder."
Joking aside, everyone quickly put on their equipment. As for Qin Zhao, he fixed himself on Ke Lan's back support with his back to back - although it seemed ambiguous, there was actually no physical contact between the two of them. The hard exoskeleton covered more than 90% of Ke Lan's back. He could only feel the cold metal parts. As for the idea of soft jade, it was just a joke.
It's just... due to the angle, Qin Zhao's long ponytail just fell into the back of Ke Lan's collar. The girl's hair would brush across the back of Ke Lan's neck from time to time. Through the not-so-thick lining, Ke Lan thought a small insect had fallen into it, and when he reached out, he just happened to grab the other person's ponytail.
After Qin Zhao let out a cry of pain, Ke Lan finally realized what he was holding in his hand. He quickly let go of his hand and said "sorry" to the girl behind him.
However, Qin Zhao's reaction surprised Ke Lan and the others: she took out a folding knife from her pocket and opened it. She held her ponytail with one hand and used the other hand to cut off her long ponytail at the root, then stuffed it back into her pocket along with the folding knife.
The hound was stunned for a moment, then gave Qin Zhao a thumbs up and said, "Hey, girl, with just this one strike of yours, our hunting group will definitely kill you."
"Uh..." This time, it was Qin Zhao who felt a little embarrassed, "I just think long hair is indeed a burden..."
"I've seen a lot of women," the Hound's face suddenly revealed a trace of disdain, "I used to know a female secretary, I heard that she climbed up through connections, but somehow something went wrong and she was assigned to a field force... My goodness, half of her luggage was filled with all kinds of underwear, and the other half was filled with cosmetics and hair conditioners. She left all the self-defense weapons assigned to her in the dormitory, saying that secretaries don't need to participate in combat... Damn, that kind of woman, I get annoyed when I see her."
"Then...what happened to that secretary later?" Qin Zhao couldn't help but ask.
"Dead." Hound shrugged. "That unit suffered a defeat and was nearly wiped out by a large group of indigenous creatures. During the hasty retreat, she accidentally fell off the off-road vehicle. Logically, she shouldn't have died from the fall, wearing that standard armor. But her beautiful long blond curly hair got caught in the tank tracks... Half of her head was crushed, and red and white blood was scattered all over the ground."
"vomit……"
As soon as the Hound finished speaking, Martin could not help but retched. He looked at the others awkwardly and tried to move his exoskeleton, but due to an operational error, he stumbled and fell to the ground.
"Don't touch the red trigger!" Layton immediately scolded, "That is the emergency release lock used to release the support joint of the knee. It is used to help you escape when the exoskeleton is stuck in the terrain!"
"S-sorry... I bumped into it accidentally." Martin said quickly to Layton.
"It's no use saying sorry to me. If something goes wrong, you'll be the one who dies... But if it's because of you that other people get hurt, then it's no use saying sorry, do you understand?" After saying that, Layton looked at the thermometer again, "Ke Lan, it's risen another degree. We don't have time."
"Okay, I understand." Ke Lan nodded, "Are you all ready? If you have any questions, let's go down now."
As a pioneer, Layton was the first to enter the shaft. He hung the buckle around his waist on the rappelling rope, used the claws and mechanical arms of the exoskeleton to support the walls of the shaft on both sides, and began to slide down to the bottom of the shaft at a moderate speed.
Behind him was Ke Lan with Qin Zhao.
Ke Lan followed Layton's example and stretched out the arms of his exoskeleton to both sides, pressing them against the wall of the well to control the speed of his descent. Qin Zhao, who was leaning back against him, was holding a steel pipe that had been temporarily modified by Layton. This steel pipe was originally part of the cutting frame. Layton cut it off, but retained the two blasting bolts at the end. If Ke Lan's exoskeleton malfunctioned, the steel pipe in Qin Zhao's hand would serve as a last resort.
It may be difficult for two people to hang on the wall of the well with just a steel pipe, but it is completely sufficient to use it as a "brake" to slow down.
Even though Ke Lan and the others did not choose the fastest gear, the speed of rappelling was still much faster than climbing. In less than five minutes, Layton had reached a depth of 200 meters, the end of the first rope.
"It's still the same structure below, there are no changes." Leighton shone the searchlight downwards. For some reason, within this vertical shaft, the searchlight could only illuminate a distance of about fifty meters at most - if it were placed on the ground, light of this intensity could easily pierce the night sky for several kilometers, but here, the dark and gloomy ice seemed to have the ability to swallow light, and no matter how bright the light was, it could not illuminate very far.
"Continue to descend." Ke Lan said.
Layton connected another two-hundred-meter-long rope, but this time, after throwing the counterweight down, he heard a muffled "bang".
The muffled sound couldn't help but lift everyone's spirits!
"I calculated the time of falling. The bottom of the well is about 150 meters away from our current position." Ke Lan said. He aimed the laser transmitter downwards. However, the red laser could not penetrate the thick darkness below, giving people the illusion that the well was bottomless.
"So the total is three hundred and fifty meters? I thought it would be a few thousand meters deep, but it's just this deep." The voice of the hound came from above.
"In this vertical shaft, any light can't illuminate very far, so this illusion occurs." Ke Lan explained, but as soon as he said this, he felt something was wrong - in the ice track above, their perception was disturbed, and they mistook the circular ice track that connected from beginning to end for a straight passage. If it weren't for landmarks like cracks and egg cases, they would probably have walked in it without realizing it... But in this vertical shaft, the thing that was disturbed turned into light.
Why did the designers of the ruins create such interference?
Were they simply trying to make it harder to escape, or were they trying to conduct some kind of test? Ke Lan didn't know, but the only thing she could be sure of was that the mechanism of this relic had a power they couldn't resist. They could only act according to the ideas of the relic designer and had no way of resisting it.
Then another question arises: What was the purpose of the designers of the ruins creating these secret rooms?
This is definitely not one of those entertainment facilities called "escape rooms" on the Ark. To be precise, this should be a part of the entire biological weapons laboratory. But why is there such a secret room with a bunch of puzzles in the laboratory?
Ke Lan couldn't help but think of something called a hamster box. In a hamster box, even if the hamster successfully passed through all the mazes, it couldn't escape from the box...
Ke Lan suddenly felt a sense of despair.
Even if they can solve every puzzle smoothly along the way, can they definitely escape from this ruins? No matter from which angle, the designer of this ruins will not lead them to the real exit...
The other end of the channel will always be the next "testing area".
But Ke Lan knew that as the leader of the team, he absolutely could not say these negative speculations now - everyone's mood was already very low, and the Hound's previous teasing of Qin Zhao was entirely for the purpose of adjusting the atmosphere. If he told everyone now that there might not be a way out if they continued to move forward, I am afraid that the whole team would fall into despair.
Ke Lan raised his head, looked at the hound above him, and gave a bitter smile in the darkness.
A shrewd man like Hound must have guessed something, but he also kept silent about it. As a field officer who had commanded many battles, he understood the importance of morale better than Ke Lan.
Everyone continued to slide down along the rappelling rope...Finally, the soles of their shoes once again stepped on solid ground.
That's right, the ground... not the ice.
To Ke Lan's surprise, the end of the shaft turned out to be a man-made cave. There was no black ice here. There were only square rock pillars neatly arranged in the cave, supporting a flat dome about 20 meters high.
"What is this place?" The Hound looked around with a flashlight in his hand. "Why do I feel like... this place is very similar to the mezzanine floor at the bottom of a modern building?"
"I think it's more like an underground garage." Layton took over the conversation and said, "By the way, Ke Lan, is there a concept of private cars in Alpha civilization?"
"I don't know if there are any private cars, but their means of transportation should be a shuttle-shaped aircraft that can travel freely between buildings." Ke Lan replied, "Hunters have found these aircraft in the ruins."
"Of course I know about that kind of aircraft. Many small anti-gravity devices circulating on the market now are disassembled from these aircraft. But I think this kind of aircraft should not be parked underground, right?" Leighton said.
"This place..." Ke Lan squatted down and rubbed the ground with a finger, "It looks like a battlefield... or an arena..."
"Why?" The hound's nose twitched slightly. "I can't smell gunpowder or blood. Why do you feel this way?"
"It's just a feeling. I don't know why, but when I saw these neatly arranged columns, I couldn't help but think of the ancient Roman Colosseum on Earth." Ke Lan said.
At this moment, he caught a glimpse of a black shadow flashing behind a stone pillar, and Layton quickly set up the machine gun and aimed it at the stone pillar.
"Did you see it clearly? What is it?" Ke Lan asked immediately.
"No." Layton shook his head, "But it seems to be a humanoid thing."
Humanoid... After hearing what Layton said, everyone in the team couldn't help but think of the hand that disappeared under the ice.
Could this black shadow be the owner of that hand?
