Volume 9: Molten Mine Chapter 463 Ke Lan's Suspicion
"That's true." The agent nodded awkwardly.
"I think they might have encountered some kind of intelligent creature. This creature not only enjoys playing with its prey, but also knows how to hide key clues so that later comers will have no way to follow..." Ivan said.
"Since this thing is meant to leave no trace for later comers, why doesn't it just destroy the body? This should be more convenient for it. There is no need for it to dump a skinned body in the tunnel... Moreover, if it wants to hide key clues, there is no way it won't find the note held in the body's hand, right?" The hound raised several doubts.
"This is not difficult to explain." The scalpel and scissors flew up and down between Ivan's fingers, but he didn't stop talking. "I just said that this intelligent creature likes to play with its prey, so it must enjoy the process of making its prey fall into fear and suspicion, and then mentally collapse and fall into madness. The more torture the prey endures, the stronger its pleasure will be... That's why we see a skinned corpse here, and the secret language that has troubled us for a long time."
"It's still not right." The Hound shook his head. "People who don't know the secret code will only feel confused when they see it, and won't feel any fear at all. Only people like us will have a 'stress reaction' to this sentence... Could it be that this monster can tell fortunes and predicted that we would run here, so it deliberately arranged this situation?"
"They calculated that we would come here..." Ke Lan silently repeated this sentence in his heart. His first reaction was the assessment of the Undead Crew. Perhaps all this was a trap set by them... But on second thought, even if the Undead Crew knew the true meaning of this secret phrase, even if they knew the secret of 'Aguna Kotor', they could not have calculated that their group of people would be able to find Park Sang-woo's lifeboat in the Molten Mine Area, and could also learn about the existence of this tunnel from Park Sang-woo's mouth.
If this was a set-up, then the instability of this setup was comparable to a tanker truck driving at high speed on a rugged mountain road, and the truck was loaded with nitroglycerin that had not been desensitized. If there was a slight bump, the result would be...
Let's give him a 10% chance of the reconnaissance team finding Park Sang-woo in the huge Molten Mine Area, a 10% chance of Park Sang-woo holding on until rescue, and a 10% chance of the reconnaissance team getting through the dangerous squeeze zone and rescuing Park Sang-woo... Although this calculation is very crude and has no actual data to support it, the probability in reality will only be lower than this 10%...
If you pick any one of these things, with a 10 percent chance, someone with a bit of luck could run into it, but if you multiply so many “10 percents” together, the final probability is pitifully low.
This value is almost equivalent to the probability of the "great god" imagined by Ke Lan in the "Sick Village" evolving successfully naturally.
But everything that happened later proved that this imaginary perfect mutant did not exist. The people who actually controlled the sick village were the Undead Crew. The entire South 16th District Space Station was not a chaotic no-man's land, but a large-scale testing ground firmly under the control of the Crew. Even the "wall of flesh and blood" that was openly displayed and worshiped as a god by the sick village residents was just a cover-up to cover up the truth.
Based on the Undead Crew's usual style of doing things, it is impossible for them to do something with a probability of only a few tenths of a thousandth... For them, a probability of 50% can be considered an extremely high risk.
Unless there is no other choice.
But they obviously have a choice.
Only a pauper with nothing will become a gambler, while those at the pinnacle of power will only pursue a plan that is foolproof.
In Ke Lan's impression, only the group of crazy people on the island country of Japan in the old era would do such things as "gambling on the fate of the country" at any time.
Of course, if they win the bet, the profit will be huge; but if they lose the bet, what awaits them is an endless abyss...
The arrangement of the Undead Crew could basically be ruled out. Ke Lan felt that even they could not have expected the current situation of the reconnaissance team.
…
"The autopsy is completed. Apart from the skin being peeled off and the abnormal disappearance of blood and body fluids, there is nothing abnormal on the body." Ivan stood up and took off the gauze in front of him that served as a surgical towel. Because there was no blood on the body, the gauze was very clean and not stained with much dirt at all.
Alfonso's body was put into a black body bag and stuffed into the cargo hold behind the Valkyrie. Because of his strange death, his body was far more valuable than those of the three researchers. Although the initial autopsy failed to reveal the real cause of his death, if the body could be brought back to the Ark, the crazy people in the institute would definitely be very interested.
"Don't be so nervous." Ke Lan glanced at the tense-faced Layton and Zhuoligetu and said, "If the monster that killed Alfonso dumped his body here just to make the next batch of prey fall into fear and panic, then we shouldn't let it do what it wants."
"I know..." Layton muttered quietly, "But if we show fear, that thing should let us jump around for a while, right? If we act too calm, it might lose interest and jump out to kill us..."
"Coward." The Hound turned his head and rolled his eyes at him. "I'm not afraid, so why should you be afraid?"
"Old dog, this is not like you. Isn't your usual principle to follow your heart? Why are you so tough this time?" Leighton said.
"If we have the chance to escape from here now, I will turn around and run without saying a word, but the problem is that we can't run away. Since we can't run away, there is no point in being a coward... Even a desperate dog will jump over the wall. I hope that monster will jump out soon, which is better than living in fear like this."
"...Have you ever encountered such a desperate situation with no way out when you were leading troops before?" Ke Lan suddenly asked.
"I have encountered it, and more than once." The Hound stretched out the little finger of his right hand to pick his nose, then wiped his hand on the magazine bag and continued, "I read a novel about Chinese soldiers in the old era. There is a sentence in it that I still remember clearly - 'When two people meet on a narrow road, the brave one wins'... Now this tunnel is not very wide, so it should be considered a 'narrow road'."
"Okay." Ke Lan nodded.
"Since there's no way out, I feel more at ease." The Hound laughed self-deprecatingly, "It's really outrageous."
As he spoke, he looked down at the screen on his wrist and said, "It's time to eat. In this situation, I don't have the time to cook porridge. Let's fill our stomachs with biscuits and energy bars first."
"Well, maybe the creature that killed Alfonso is now observing us secretly, so we should try not to reveal any flaws." Ivan nodded in agreement.
According to the rationing standards set by the Hound, the ration for each person per meal is one compressed biscuit and one energy bar, one meal every twelve hours. Although the volume of these two types of dry food is not large, the calories they provide are more than enough to meet the consumption of a soldier for half a day in non-combat periods. The only drawback is that this type of food is not very friendly to people with indigestion.
The Hound had already eaten a biscuit before, and he claimed that he was allergic to cocoa butter. He broke the energy bar that should have been his into two pieces and gave them to Zhuoligetu and Layton, who were the largest and had relatively larger appetites in the team.
Without thinking too much, Layton just put the thing into his mouth and started chewing. On the contrary, Zhuo Ligetu looked at the half of the energy bar in his palm and glanced at the hound with an expression as if he wanted to say something but stopped.
But the hound didn't notice his look, instead he walked towards the others carrying his backpack full of food.
"Old Dog, he's lying to us." Zhuoligetu patted Layton on the shoulder. "He's not allergic to cocoa butter at all, otherwise, he wouldn't have brought so many energy bars in his supplies... I remember when we first counted the remaining supplies, he took out six energy bars from his bag."
"Ah?" Leighton was stunned. Although he had known the hound the longest among the few people, he had never paid attention to such details as whether the hound was really allergic to cocoa butter. "Now that you mention it, it's true... He seems to have never mentioned this before. I remember that he seemed to have eaten chocolate a few times..."
"He left this for us on purpose," Zhuo Ligetu said. Although he looked like a rough and tough man, this Mongolian man was actually very careful and observant. Otherwise reacted so quickly on the transport plane and pulled Ke Lan back into the cabin in time.
At that critical moment, everyone else's attention was focused on Ke Lan. He was the only one who noticed that the falling box would drag down Ke Lan, who had just returned to the cabin. In fact, before Ke Lan's body began to lean back, Zhuo Ligetu had already loosened his seat belt and pounced on him.
It’s just that Zhuoligetu usually doesn’t talk much, and rarely shows his emotions on his face, so he gives people a rather “honest” impression.
"Fuck, why didn't you tell me earlier? I already swallowed it." Layton was stunned for a moment, then asked a stupid question: "Tell me, if I take it out of my throat now and give it back to him, will he still want it?"
"Don't be so stingy. If you don't find it disgusting, then Old Dog will." Ke Lan suddenly interrupted and explained to the two in a low voice, "As a distributor, Old Dog must be fair. But considering the individual differences among everyone, absolute fairness is actually a kind of unfairness. The two of you weigh almost twice as much as the rest of the team, so you naturally need to consume more energy when you are active. But if Old Dog gives you more food for this reason, even though we won't say anything, those agents from the Security Bureau will definitely have some thoughts in their minds, and he will have no choice but to give you his share."
"No, I can't accept this." Zhuo Ligetu said.
"Actually, there's nothing wrong with how he distributes the food. Old Dog is skinny and the lightest in the team. He's sharing some of his food with you, which is a kind of 'dynamic balance'... Believe me, as an experienced veteran, he's not that stupid and he certainly won't starve himself. If you two plan to compensate him, why not treat him to a big meal when you return to the Ark?"
As Ke Lan spoke, she stuffed her energy bar into Zhuo Ligetu's hand and said, "Actually, my appetite is not that big. If you don't have enough, I have more here."
"No, no." Zhuoligetu waved his hands repeatedly and said, "The food I have distributed is more than enough. If you don't want to eat it now, you can leave it for emergency use. After all, we don't know how many days we will be trapped here."
"Yeah." Ke Lan put the energy bar into her small bag and patted Layton's mechanical arm. "Have you finished eating? Do you want to go for a walk with me?"
"Take a walk?" Leighton turned his head and looked at the surrounding scenery, confused for a moment.
"Layton and I will go ahead to explore the way, and the rest of you will rest here for ten minutes." Ke Lan opened the team communication channel and said to everyone.
"Exploring the way?" The hound turned around and frowned, "Let's not do it. The most taboo thing in this situation is to act separately. What if that thing takes advantage of the two of you being alone and suddenly attacks you?"
"Don't worry, we won't leave your field of vision. It's just that the remote control distance of the drone has reached its limit. Layton and I will walk forward another 20 to 30 meters so that the drone can fly farther." Ke Lan said.
"Then you must be careful!" the hound warned.
…
The two men walked until they were thirty meters away from the main force, and then Ke Lan asked Layton to squat down, pretending to be fiddling with a drone.
"Ke Lan, what's the matter that requires you to bring me here? Can't we use the one-to-one communication channel?" Leighton asked.
"I need your help." Ke Lan said.
"What's the matter?"
"Don't rush to ask what I need you to do for me. Let me tell you what I just thought of." Ke Lan turned her head and glanced at the lifeboat fixed on the bracket in the distance. Ivan had finished his meal and was checking Park Sang-woo's physical condition.
"I suspect there is something wrong with Park Sang-woo." Ke Lan said in a deep voice.
"There's a problem? What's the problem?" Layton tilted his head. "Haven't you...already questioned him once? Is he hiding something from us?"
"It's hard to say... If my suspicion is correct, it only means that this guy's acting skills are too strong. Not only were we deceived by him , but even... even the big shots in the Security Bureau and the upper echelons of the Ark were deceived by him."
