Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 289: Infernal Asteroid
Ke Lan subconsciously wanted to raise his arm, but found that his body did not move at all, but the metal giant's arm was raised instead.
It's the tentacles! Ke Lan reacted immediately... The tentacles that pierced into his body intercepted the nerve signals from his brain at the spine and then transmitted them to the operating system of the metal colossus.
Ke Lan doesn't need to operate this colossus manually at all. It is an extension of his limbs. For him, controlling this colossus is like controlling his own body.
The "hatch" in front of him began to close, and a liquid substance like egg white poured out from under the seat, gradually filling the "cockpit"... Ke Lan was worried about breathing at first, but he soon realized... this liquid was the same as the LCL liquid used in the medical cabin, which allowed him to breathe in it like a fish.
Ke Lan felt like a fetus wrapped in amniotic fluid, but unlike the amniotic fluid, this egg white-like liquid would flow along the respiratory tract into his lungs, seep into every alveolus, and directly provide him with oxygen.
"It would be even more appropriate if this cockpit was made into a long cylindrical plug." Ke Lan couldn't help but complain.
"The consciousness link has been completed, ready to be deployed." As this voice sounded, Ke Lan suddenly felt a distinct sense of weightlessness, and then a ray of light appeared in the dark cockpit...
He found that he was surrounded by lead-gray clouds. From time to time, several flashes of lightning would flash inside the clouds. The dull thunder sounds were sometimes far away and sometimes near. Occasionally, a few streaks of light would pass from the edge of his vision.
Teleport?
No, that's not right. This should be a virtual environment, similar to the simulated cockpit used to train pilots...
But it must be said that this environment was simulated very realistically. Through the consciousness link, Ke Lan could even feel the strong high-speed airflow constantly hitting the body of the machine, and the shoulders, knees, toes and other parts were covered with a thin layer of white frost.
"Is this... high in the sky?" Ke Lan looked down. There was thick cloud below and nothing could be seen.
Two crisp "crackling" sounds came from behind him. Ke Lan's perspective suddenly turned, and then he began to fall rapidly. The dark clouds around him began to retreat upwards. In less than ten seconds, he had penetrated the clouds, and the "battlefield" directly below finally appeared in his field of vision.
“This…what is this place?!”
It was a scene like purgatory: bright and hot magma flowed on the earth, black smoke mixed with gravel and sparks gushed out from various cracks and pores in the rocks, and raging flames burned on the furnace-like volcano. The violent tongues of fire shot straight into the sky, which reminded people of the sudden eruption of a solar prominence on the surface of a star.
Ke Lan had a hard time finding the right adjective to describe what he saw... The "Purgatory" described in the Bible was probably like this...
But in this sea of fire, there is a unique plant growing. It is a flower... a flower blooming in purgatory.
The diameter of its flower stem far exceeds the craters of the surrounding conical volcanoes, and its height reaches the clouds. It is covered with layers of leaves that have degenerated into scales, and dim flames flash in the gaps between these leaves.
The five radially symmetrical fleshy petals are like five islands suspended in the sky. The color of the petals is extremely gorgeous bright red, and countless dark purple veins like blood vessels spread out from the petals and extend to the edge of the petals .
Ordinary plants absorb water and nutrients from the soil, but this huge flower draws the flowing magma directly from the ground. The magma is boiling, emitting an orange-red light, and flows upward along the veins in the flower stem...
Soon, Ke Lan realized another problem: this place is definitely not Alpha!
Judging from the curvature of the edge of the horizon, the diameter of this planet is much smaller than Alpha Centauri. At best, it is just a slightly larger asteroid.
"Is this the battlefield where Alpha Civilization once stood?"
The height of the metal giant was still dropping rapidly. Ke Lan estimated that within thirty seconds, he would land on one of the petals.
But five seconds later, Ke Lan changed the angle of falling and chose a landing site about four or five kilometers away from the flower.
It was obvious that this flower was the target of the second stage of the trial. Landing directly on the petals was no different from delivering food - each petal was more than 500 meters in diameter. Compared with it, the metal giant, which was considered a behemoth to Ke Lan, was like a small insect when it landed on it.
And it was the kind of insect that landed on the Rafflesia.
In addition to this huge flower, there is another creature on the ground - a giant beetle with a body length of three to five meters. They have four pairs of transparent wings that vibrate at high speed and are entrenched near the crater... Whenever magma is ejected from the crater, they will rush forward and scramble for the gravel that is ejected along with the magma.
These beetles do not seem to be afraid of high temperatures. Their powerful mouthparts can easily crush the hot stones and swallow them into their stomachs. Occasionally, some of them are splashed by magma, but they just shake their bodies as if nothing has happened and shake off the magma on their bodies. As for their shiny black shells, they are not damaged at all.
The magma that just ejected from the crater emitted a dazzling white light, just like molten steel poured from a blast furnace. Its temperature was at least 1,400 degrees Celsius. In other words... the melting point of these beetle shells was even higher than that of steel!
The landing site chosen by Ke Lan was at the foot of a small volcano, where there was a circular island standing in the lava river. The diameter of the island was about 100 meters, the terrain was flat and open, and the edge of the island was nearly ten meters higher than the surrounding lava, making it a relatively safe place to land.
But as soon as Ke Lan landed, dozens of black beetles patrolling near the crater seemed to have received some summons. They all gave up foraging and flew towards Ke Lan.
"Tsk... what a hassle..." Ke Lan muttered irritably. He had chosen a remote enough location, but still couldn't avoid fighting.
The beetles flew very fast, and soon they arrived right above the isolated island.
