Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 282 Funnel Cave
"Hiss... After hearing what you said, I always feel a little uneasy..." Layton muttered softly, "Is this Alpha civilization really so terrifying? Can you fall into a trance just by looking at some characters?"
"I don't know... The level of technological development of Alpha civilization is still a mystery." Ke Lan replied, "But I think some things may not come from Alpha civilization itself."
Let’s not talk about anything else, just the holy words that are like a "magic spell", their principles and effects have completely subverted all known physical laws. This is similar to the miracles in the religious texts of the old era. If Ke Lan hadn’t experienced it personally, he would never believe it.
Even with the technological level of the Alpha civilization, it would be difficult to give a reasonable explanation for this - the gaze that swept across him, the overwhelming sense of oppression, and the fear that was difficult to describe in words... Ke Lan did not think that the Alpha civilization had such ability. This was definitely from a creature of a higher level.
That is what the Alpha people call "God".
It is difficult for Ke Lan to imagine what kind of existence this is. Perhaps He is the universe itself, or perhaps He is an observer independent of this dimension - He looks at the civilization in this universe just like humans look at the bacterial colonies growing in a petri dish.
"You mean the god that the Alpha people believe in? I remember that the 'true God' that the heretic sects always talked about was the same thing, right? Does this god really exist?" Layton asked.
"He exists. But God is just a synonym. He should be a creature that is so powerful that it is hard for us to imagine. He cannot be confused with the omnipotent supernatural entity in religious concepts... Of course, from our perspective, He is almost omnipotent."
"Isn't that the same as God? In the old era, Shintoism believed in Amaterasu, Buddhism believed in Sakyamuni, and Christianity believed in Jehovah... But in my opinion, if the god that the Alpha people believe in really exists, then isn't it much more powerful than the gods believed in by these humans?"
"You think the gods in religious concepts are weak, but that's only because the vision of the people who 'created' these gods was limited by the times and the level of technology... For example, do you think you are a god?" Ke Lan said.
"What a joke, I'm just an ordinary person, what's the point of using me as an example?" Layton couldn't help but laugh and said, " Did you stay up late to read immortal novels before you set off?"
"But in the eyes of a group of ants, you are God." Ke Lan still maintained a serious tone, "Ants cannot understand human behavior, just like we cannot understand the existence of God... Suppose one day, you saw a group of ants in your studio. These ants crawled onto your table and made some strange shapes. What would you do?"
"...Well, if there really are such ants...I would probably be a little curious and see what they do next..."
"What if the shapes these ants form are human words, and the words are begging for food, how would you respond?"
"Well... that depends on my mood. If I'm in a good mood, I might give them some cookie crumbs... If I'm in a bad mood, let alone food, I'll probably just slap all these ants to death..." At this point, Layton was stunned, "So... it seems to be true..."
"Anyway, both choices are just a piece of cake for you. For the ants, the former is a gift obtained through a 'ritual', and the latter is a punishment from heaven for angering the gods... They are essentially the same." Ke Lan said, "I am an atheist. In my opinion, the so-called gods are just beings that are so powerful that lower civilizations cannot understand them."
"But no matter what this god is, it looks at us like ants... oh, maybe even worse than ants." Layton said, "When I think of this, I feel a deep sense of powerlessness... The things left on this planet Alpha alone are beyond the reach of human beings. When I think that there is an existence above the Alpha civilization that even they have to worship, I feel that we are really too insignificant... Do you think that this 'god' will accidentally sneeze and destroy the entire planet Alpha one day?"
"Who knows? Maybe the world will be destroyed in the next second. Then I don't have to worry about whether we will be trapped to death in this ruins." Ke Lan said, "Why did you turn your head to look at the things on the wall again? Didn't I tell you not to look at those words? Just stare straight ahead."
"Ah..." Layton sighed a little depressed, "The more you say I can't look, the more I can't help but pay attention to it... There are these words engraved everywhere on both sides, above, and below the passage. If I'm not careful, I will catch a glimpse of them... There's nothing I can do."
Ke Lan thought for a moment and said, "How about this, change positions and let Asano Akira take the vanguard position. You follow behind him, turn off all the lights, and just stare at Asano Akira's back... If that doesn't work, you can put your hands on his shoulders and close your eyes completely."
"...That's fine." Layton nodded, closed his eyes, turned sideways, and let Asano Akira walk to the front.
Perhaps influenced by the words on the wall, the mercenary described that they spent a very long time in this passage... But in fact, the actual length of this passage was only more than 100 meters, and it had a very steep slope. Going up this steep slope, Ke Lan and the other two quickly emerged from the water.
The last part of the passage was indeed a flight of stone stairs. The mercenary was right about that. The height difference between each step was nearly one meter, which was obviously not built for humans.
Ke Lan and his companions could not climb up the stairs like they would take a normal staircase. They had to use their hands and feet to climb up little by little. After climbing a total of 103 steps, they finally entered the "funnel-shaped cave."
"A total of one hundred and three levels... The height from the water surface is ninety-six point four six meters. No radiation dose exceeding the dangerous value has been detected in the environment. The temperature is basically the same as outside..." Leighton muttered to himself. These data may not be of any use in the next operation, but Leighton still recorded them one by one. This is a habit that a professional relic hunter must develop.
"This cave is really big." Ke Lan said - just as he had judged in advance, the cave was dry at this moment, there was no water at the bottom, and there was no light pink meat paste.
The place where they came out was almost halfway up the slope, and at the bottom of the cave, there was a circular stone platform with a diameter of about fifty meters, and an empty base was fixed in the middle of the stone platform.
Ke Lan did not focus all his attention on the stone platform, but paid more attention to the surroundings and top of the cave - the most valuable thing in the cave was undoubtedly the jar, and the jar had been taken away by the mercenaries. Although Ke Lan was a little curious about the contents of the jar, his main goal was to find a way to leave the ruins.
There are also a lot of stalactites hanging from the top of this cave. Guided by the flashlight, Ke Lan's sight swept through the gaps between each bamboo-shaped stone pillar. He could only see black or grayish-white rocks... Even if this cave was dug by the Alpha people, there were no signs of human processing in the structure of the cave itself.
Except for the lowest stone platform.
"Asano, can you hear the sound of the wind? It's that kind of... the sound of air flowing through cracks in rocks or tiny holes." Ke Lan asked Asano Akira.
Asano Akira shook his head and said, "It's very quiet here... and it's very dry."
Not only was there no sound of wind, there was no sound of water either - although this was a cave, the humidity was very low, and the stalactites hanging from the top of the cave had long stopped growing, and there were no water droplets containing large amounts of dissolved mineral salts dripping from their tips.
"Yeah, it's too dry here..." Layton squatted down and covered the ground with his normal hand. "There is almost no water in these sandstones. I even suspect that the guy was lying. If this cave was really almost filled up, these rocks should still be moist even if the tide has receded. It is impossible for them to return to such a dry state in a short period of time."
"It's possible that what he saw was an illusion." Ke Lan murmured, "It's also possible... that it really dried up."
"It's impossible for water to evaporate so quickly in a closed environment. What's more, the humidity in the air is not right," said Leighton.
"The accumulated water can be drained by the drainage device, and the humidity can be adjusted by the ventilation system... But whether it is drainage or ventilation, there must be a pipeline leading to the outside world. As long as we can find this pipeline, we have a chance to leave here."
Ke Lan walked down the slope carefully, then jumped onto the platform.
He remembered that the mercenary said that the water was gushing out from the base, so there must be a pipe inside the base connecting to the outside world.
Ke Lan carefully observed the pedestal that was right in front of her.
The base is a flat truncated cone with a trapezoidal cross-section. Its entire body is a purple-red color similar to that of pure copper. However, Ke Lan's alloy dagger could not leave any mark on it. This shows that this metal material is definitely not pure copper, and its hardness is far greater than that of pure copper.
"Leighton, can you tell what material this is?" Ke Lan called Leighton, who was studying the stone platform, over. Leighton's attainments in materials science were still better than Ke Lan's.
"Isn't this stuff just copper? It looks like it's of high purity..." Leighton took a glance and immediately came to the conclusion.
"Can you take a closer look?"
"If not copper, what else could it be?" A probe extended from Layton's mechanical arm. When the tip of the probe touched the base, it was bent directly, but there was still no mark left on the base.
"Hey...it's really not copper...This stuff has good hardness, but I don't know how flexible it is. If its physical properties are good, it might be a substitute for Nino alloy. I just don't know if the formula is complicated and whether it can be produced with human technology..."
When it comes to this, Layton instantly becomes excited. He once again takes out the circular saw made of Nino alloy, grinds off some metal powder from the base, and then points the welding gun at the powder - "flame color reaction" can be used to test the existence of some metals and compounds, and is a very commonly used test method in chemical laboratories.
The flame from the welding gun swept across the metal powder, and Ke Lan noticed that a hint of green flashed inside the flame. Although it was only for a moment, both he and Layton captured the change.
"Only green... it does contain copper." Leighton frowned, "But... all known copper alloys do not have such strength. Moreover, if it is a copper alloy, it should not show the color of pure copper... I am a little confused..."
"Don't think about it for now." Ke Lan interrupted Layton's mumbling, "Can you find a way to cut open this base? That guy said the water was pouring out from inside the base, so there should be a pipe connecting it to the outside world."
Layton tapped the shell of the base with his mechanical fingers, and suddenly a dull sound came: "This shell is very thick, at least seven or eight centimeters. No matter whether it is a welding gun or a circular saw, it can't be cut open."
Layton stretched out the circular saw, and Ke Lan saw that there were very obvious signs of wear on the teeth of the circular saw, and the central shaft was also slightly deformed. Just now, in order to remove the metal powder, the circular saw was only in contact with the base shell for a few seconds, and it suffered this degree of damage. If it continued to cut, the whole saw would probably be scrapped.
As for the welding guns, even if they put in all the fuel they carried, it would still be a drop in the bucket.
"Leighton, do you have an endoscope with you?" Ke Lan asked. This is a precision detection device that is widely used in medicine and industry. There are many holes as thick as fingers on the surface of this base. If there is an endoscope that can be inserted into these small holes, it can also explore the internal structure of the base.
However, Layton shook his head. "That thing is usually only used when repairing precision parts. Nowadays, equipment is modular. Whether it is repair or replacement, it is to operate the entire module. That kind of precision detection equipment is simply not useful... In other words, even if an endoscope can be used to detect the internal fault of a part, it is impossible to repair it in actual combat... So I never carry this thing with me."
The smallest detection device on Layton's body was the camera that was previously used as a periscope, but this camera could not be inserted into such a small hole.
"I left my medical endoscope at home... Just like you, emergency surgery does not require an endoscope, and surgery that requires an endoscope cannot be performed under emergency conditions." Ke Lan sighed, "In this case, I can only try a local method."
The so-called rustic method is to glue a few fingernail-sized lenses onto a wire, then insert the wire into the small hole, shine a flashlight, and use the reflection between the lenses to peek inside the base...
