Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 273 Water
Casually taking off the debris hanging on his body, Ke Lan turned his head and took a look at the huge crack that was close at hand.
Back off, run up, and jump.
Time freezes, observes, calculates, and then makes a decision.
The freeze frame is lifted, time flows, and everything returns to its original color.
The sword in Ke Lan's hand drew a graceful arc in the air, cutting off all the attacking tentacles. Then, at the moment of jumping to the highest point, he simultaneously unlocked all the release locks on the exoskeleton and broke free from this heavy "shackles" - the shackles fell into the abyss, and he fell to the edge of the other end of the rift.
"That's a beautiful cut!" the hound shouted.
Ke Lan didn't bother to chat and asked the two directly: "Old Dog, Layton, do you have any explosives left?"
"There are four more, which add up to almost two hundred standard unit equivalents." Layton replied.
"Gather everyone together, set up a short-range remote-controlled fuse, and throw it into the hole directly above!" Ke Lan said.
"Are you planning to use explosives to blow up those tentacles that are coming out?" Layton asked.
"No... I want to blast open a path. Apart from the cracks underground, the only way out of this cave is directly above."
"Are you sure? These tentacles came out of this hole... Who knows what kind of monsters may be in there..." said the hound worriedly.
"But at least the direction is correct... If we keep going down, we will only get further and further away from the exit of the ruins." Ke Lan said, "If we delay any further, there will be no place for people to stand here!"
"Then blow it up!" The Hound punched Layton's mechanical arm hard. "Blow it up, go for it!"
Layton took out all the explosives from his backpack, pulled out a piece of copper wire from the broken exoskeleton, tied them together, and just in case, he inserted the remaining six detonators - the explosives had been used up anyway, and there was no point in keeping these detonators, so it would be better to use them all at once, which would at least be a safety measure and increase fault tolerance.
"Everyone come over here!" Ke Lan shouted. Zhuoligetu carried Ivan and Asano Akira alone, and Hound pulled Qin Zhao. They all crowded together next to Layton. After Layton threw the explosives into the big hole with force, he directly activated the energy shield and propped it up above everyone's heads.
"boom!!!"
There was a loud explosion, and those wildly twisting tentacles were blown to pieces in an instant. The diameter of the entire cave entrance was expanded by nearly twice. Tons of blood poured in from above and hit the energy shield heavily. Suddenly, rising white steam filled the entire cave.
"What is this...?" Ke Lan stretched out his finger and wiped the liquid that splashed on his face, but was shocked to find that the red blood only stained a very small part of it.
This was not blood at all. The liquid did not have that disgusting smell of blood. Instead, it had a salty and astringent smell that was somewhat familiar to Ke Lan.
"This water... this is sea water!" The hound said in surprise, "What's pouring down from above is sea water! How could there be sea water here! This place is clearly a million miles away from the sea!"
"But... this sea water is not poisonous and does not contain radiation... this is not the sea water from Zhonghai," Leighton added.
"Ke Lan...are we still in a dream?" the Hound asked uncertainly.
"No... I can feel it, this is reality." Ke Lan said firmly. He had thought about this problem before when he drew his sword. For a moment, he believed that he was still in a dream. In the dream world, as long as his thinking was not restricted, the time stop would not have any effect on Ke Lan himself.
However, during the stagnant time, Ke Lan couldn't draw his knife at all.
This is absolutely reality.
"Could it be because of crustal movement... This area used to be an ocean, and a large amount of mineral salts precipitated from sea water accumulated deep in the ice layer. Then part of the glacier melted for some reason, and the mineral salts inside the ice layer dissolved in water again, forming the sea water we see?" Qin Zhao analyzed.
"If that's the case, then we're doomed - unless the entire glacier melts, this is a completely enclosed space and we can't swim out!"
"No, there must be an exit above." Ke Lan said, "Because this sea water is not naturally formed at all... This sea water should have been set up here by the Alpha people."
"Alphas? Why are they pouring sea water into the glacier?" The Hound was puzzled.
"Perhaps they are trying to raise some creatures that can only survive in the ocean, " Ke Lan said, pointing to the tentacles that were blown into pieces and floating on the water. "Like octopuses on Earth, they can only live in seawater. If they are out of the seawater, they will die quickly."
"Moreover, after you smashed the tumor, Cao Feng did not break free from control, and those tentacles are still attacking." Ke Lan continued, "This shows that this huge deformed tumor is only a small part of the creature's body, and most of its body should be immersed in ."
The sea water has already spread over the instep of the feet, and many equipment scattered on the ground have been washed into the cracks. Fortunately, before this, Layton had already picked up the breathing masks and body bags from the ground. Now, Ivan and Asano Akira, who were still sleeping, were "once again" put into the black polymer body bags.
"If we go up, won't we just run into this guy's real body?" said the Hound. "This time, we didn't bring those underwater weapons and equipment..."
"This creature's main means of attack are mental attacks and nightmares. Although it is huge, its physical strength is not high. Both the tumor and the tentacles can be easily destroyed... Moreover, after the explosion, there are no tentacles reaching out to attack us. It should have suffered heavy damage."
Ke Lan said as she handed her breathing mask to Qin Zhao behind her: "When the seawater fills up this cave, we will swim up!"
Layton drove several anchors into the rock wall that had not yet collapsed. These anchors were connected in series with steel cables. Everyone held on to the steel cables tightly, clinging to the rock wall, waiting for the sea water to fill the place up bit by bit.
…
As the rock formations on the top of the cave were continuously washed away by the influx of seawater, the water level rose faster and faster. At this moment, Ke Lan suddenly discovered that in addition to a large amount of pink and white minced meat, the influx of seawater also contained a special creature.
This is a small fish about ten centimeters long, as thick as a finger, and transparent all over. These small fish move quickly in the sea water. Whenever they encounter minced meat floating in the water, they will rush over, bite and swallow it frantically...
Although the appearance of these small fish looks delicate and even a little cute, judging from their eating movements, they are definitely ferocious creatures. Their mouths can expand to twice or even three times the diameter of their bodies. The folded fangs are three or four centimeters long when fully opened. With each bite, they can tear off a large piece of meat.
Through their transparent bodies, one could clearly see how the meat passed through their mouths and throats and was quickly digested in their bodies... What frightened Ke Lan the most was that after these transparent little fish had shared the minced meat, they began to bite each other. They stabbed their fangs into their own bodies, bit off their own heads and tails, and swallowed their own bodies along with the undigested food in their bodies... They seemed to be always hungry and insatiable... Even though their slender bodies had been bulged into round shapes...
"What the hell are these fish..." The hound also discovered these transparent little fish, and the one closest to him was less than ten centimeters away... Just as he stretched out his hand to grab the fish, the transparent little fish suddenly turned around flexibly and bit off a large piece of meat from the hound's mouth!
"Ah... Damn! This little beast!" The hound felt pain and quickly retracted his hand, but the little fish jumped out of the water, opened its mouth as wide as possible, and pounced on the hound's face!
Just when it was about to bite off the hound's nose, Layton finally grabbed the small fish in mid-air. With a slight force from his mechanical palm, the whole fish turned into a pool of meat paste.
"Old dog, be careful. These fish are very evil. Be careful not to let blood drip into the water, otherwise it will attract them all over here." Leighton said. He swung the killed fish hard and threw it far away. Immediately, dozens of transparent fish rushed over and started a new round of scramble and fight.
"Damn, why is this thing the same as a shark?" The Hound cursed and took out a roll of waterproof bandage, wrapped the wound at the base of his thumb tightly, and then pasted a circle of waterproof sealing film on the outside.
"I think... it's more like the piranha in a horror movie." Ke Lan said.
"Damn... I think I've seen that old movie from the Old Era." The Hound suddenly thought of a scene in the movie and couldn't help but feel his lower body tighten. He quickly lowered his head to look into the water - fortunately, the small fish were chasing the scattered flesh after the tentacles were blown to pieces, and did not swim towards them.
"The water level has reached our chest. It's about time for us to go up... Otherwise, the fish will come after we eat all the leftover meat." Ke Lan said.
Layton was still the pioneer. He put the energy shield in the front, vaporized the oncoming sea water and the transparent fish in the water, and forcibly opened a passage in the rapids - from the visual effect alone, it was somewhat like the water droplets in "Journey to the West".
Layton turned around and shouted to everyone, "A very strong vortex has formed above the cave entrance. Be careful and don't get swept away!"
At this time, Layton could no longer hold up the shield. The water flow was too large, and the energy shield could not completely evaporate it. Instead, it would heat the surrounding seawater into boiling water. He could only keep driving anchors into the rock layer and crawl forward against the water flow.
At this time, no one could say anything. Everyone could only silently endure the violent force hitting them... The only thing they could do was to hold on to the ropes tightly...
I don’t know how long it took, but the cave below and those bottomless cracks were finally filled with sea water. The pressure difference between the inside and outside of the cave finally disappeared, and the vortex also disappeared.
Looking down along the light of the flashlight, you can see a giant octopus-like soft-bodied creature with a diameter of more than 100 meters clinging to the rock. Its body is covered with countless long and dense "hairs", which are actually those young tentacles that have not yet taken shape. They move slowly with the sea water and look like completely harmless seaweed...
There was a huge and horrific wound in the middle of this "giant octopus". Ke Lan and the others had just crawled out of this wound, and right below the wound was the cave filled with sea water.
The "giant octopus" seemed to be dead. All its tentacles stopped moving and floated quietly in the water. More and more transparent small fish began to swim towards the wound, drilling in and out of the flesh of the giant octopus like maggots on rotten meat...
Fortunately, they rushed out against the current, otherwise, after the whirlpool disappeared, they would probably have run into a large group of hungry piranhas... At that time, these beautiful and ferocious transparent little fish would not be picky about food.
The hound kept his mouth tightly closed, his cheeks puffed up from time to time a few bubbles would come out of his nostrils - they were not a special kind of modified humans, and no one could breathe underwater. The only two breathing masks had to be used in turns, but even so, the remaining oxygen generator in the tank was decreasing at a rate visible to the naked eye.
Ke Lan swam to the side of the hound, patted his shoulder, and made a simple finger gesture to him - "swim upwards."
It is impossible for the Alphas to dig out a huge ocean in the rock. At most, it can only be regarded as a large reservoir. As long as you swim upstream, you will always float to the surface...
