Alien Relic Hunter.

Corridor No. [-] is not connected with No. [-], No. [-], and No. [-], which are the three regular garbage channels, but is located in the deepest part of the garbage treatment plant. The corridor leading to this channel is covered with various stickers Warning signs, the meanings of which are pretty much the same:

"Danger ahead."

"Non-staff do not enter."

"The staff on duty at Channel [-] please pay attention to check the protective equipment and weapons."

"If there is any abnormality, report it immediately and close the safety gate."

……

And so on.

"I can understand wearing protective equipment." After listening to Ke Lan's translation, 33 nodded and said, "After all, hazardous waste is either poisonous and harmful substances to the human body, or radioactive waste... But why do you need to bring weapons? Is it garbage? Can you also jump up and bite?"

"This channel is more than ten kilometers long, and it can be regarded as a relatively simple small ecological circle... Although it is impossible for ordinary creatures to survive in this environment, any thing that can survive in this channel, They must be monsters that have mutated so much that they can't even see their original appearance." Ke Lan said, "The purpose of carrying weapons is to prevent these mutated creatures from running out of the passage, right?"

"For example...a mutant rat that is covered in rotting flesh, covered with radioactive ore crystals, and stands taller than a human?" 33 whispered.

"Have you ever seen this kind of creature? Is it an indigenous creature from Planet Alpha?" Ke Lan asked curiously.

33's description is very detailed, it doesn't look like a monster image made up at random... But Ke Lan doesn't have a name that can match it in his mind, even in the movies he has watched. There are not many similar monsters.

"I've seen it, but it's not an indigenous creature of Planet Alpha, but a mutated creature on Earth." 33 recalled, "That was the first mission I received after I transferred to the Airborne Rapid Response Force, and I just joined the army at that time In less than a year, I can only be regarded as a rookie, so I am particularly impressed."

"Being able to work in the field force for a full year is already considered a boss in the eyes of the guards..." Ke Lan couldn't help complaining. In his opinion, 33 is definitely a self-deprecating statement. .Although the airborne quick-reaction troops of the field troops are not top-level elites, they can definitely be called the first-line combat power, at least much stronger than the troops led by the old dog before.

33 ignored Ke Lan's complaints, and said as he walked: "It was a six-month confidential mission. The captain told me that the combat intensity of the mission would not be very high, so we didn't carry too many heavy weapons... But on the contrary, the environment of the mission site was extremely harsh, and every soldier participating in the mission was issued the top-level individual protective clothing at that time, and each squad was assigned a field pollution treatment vehicle."

"This configuration...it seems that the mission location is in a heavily radiated area." Ke Lan continued.

"That's right." 33 nodded, "In the depths of the Prism Basin."

Although Ke Lan has not heard this place name many times, as a relic hunter, he still has some understanding of the "characteristic" places on the surface of Alpha Planet.

...

Although the Prism Basin is not a relic of the Alpha Civilization, this place was also artificially created by the Alpha Civilization, rather than the natural landforms on the Alpha Planet—according to experts, the Prism Basin may have been originally used by the Alpha Civilization. A "garbage dump" where radioactive waste is buried.However, under the multiple effects of tens of thousands of years of wind, sun, and geological movements, the soil cover above the radioactive waste collapsed, forming a huge sinkhole with a diameter of hundreds of kilometers, and in this sinkhole, prismatic objects can be seen everywhere. Crystals with strong radiation are exposed above the surface, and the name "Prism Basin" is derived from this.

Glancing at the warning signs that he couldn't understand posted on both sides of the corridor, 33 continued: "This is a mission in cooperation with the research institute. A research team of the research institute will conduct field investigations and Experiment, our task is to protect the personal safety of the team members of this subject."

"What about after that?" Ke Lan asked—since the mutated rat left a deep impression on 33, the process of this mission should not be too calm.

"Those researchers brought a dozen cages of mice to serve as observation objects. They injected half of the mice with anti-radiation, and the other half with the substance extracted from the body of the 'Scorpion'. Synthetic preparations, I remember those researchers called that thing 'reduced serum'. Because I was in charge of guarding the temporary biological laboratory at that time, so the whole experiment was carried out under my nose. Oh yes, the edge The stone scorpion is an indigenous creature that lives in the Prism Basin, and it is said that they can even feed on that radioactive waste."

33 took a breath, and continued: "After injecting the two preparations, they put these mice outside and let them move around on their own—of course, each mouse was implanted for tracking and monitoring. A chip of physical state."

"I can almost imagine the next development of the plot..." Ke Lan muttered, "In that environment, the reliability of the chip must be a mess, right?"

"That's right, not only the chip, but even the drone used to receive the signal from the chip crashed several times in the Prism Basin. In the end, we had to switch to manual tracking... A total of 120 mice were injected with Prism." I remember that the number of stone scorpions survived was exactly 36, but after two months, we only recovered [-] of them, no matter whether it was a living sample or a dead body."

Ke Lan: "Nearly half of it is missing."

"Although the found mice all have varying degrees of mutation, they have not developed highly threatening attack organs. Neither the research team of the research institute nor we are aware of the danger. In addition, there is still a long way to go before the end of the mission." In four months, they immediately decided to continue further research on the basis of this part of the data... As for the mice that were not found, they became the task of the team that patrolled on a daily basis.

But one day in the middle of the fifth month, the team that was patrolling that day did not return to the camp until the evening handover time, and the communication could not be connected due to radiation interference... Although this kind of thing is rare, but It happened a couple of times in five months too... At first we thought they were just lost, but after half an hour of timeout the captain decided to send two teams to find them and I was in both teams.

...

We've only found the bodies of the squad, each of which has been gnawed beyond recognition... Judging from the gnaw marks on the armor, it was a large rodent that killed them. "

"Those mutated mice?" Ke Lan pouted. The plot is a bit old-fashioned, but if it can be made into a movie, the visual effect should still be very good... If you don't consider the bloody horror factor, it should be Very popular.

"Yes...but we couldn't find the murderers who killed the team, so we had to return to the camp to report the situation. That night, the camp was attacked by a swarm of mutant rats." 33 took a deep breath, His face turned slightly pale, "At first we thought that even if the missing mice were mutated, the number would be only 34 at most, but we forgot one thing, that is, they have a very strong reproductive ability...

There were at least 34 mutated rats that attacked the camp, and each one was more than [-] meters long. I don't know how they grew to such a large size in the barren Prism Basin... There is a lack of water and food here. In five months, from [-] slap-sized white mice to [-] huge giant mutant mice, it is hard to believe, but it happened.

As mentioned earlier, we did not carry heavy weapons. The most powerful weapons were grenades and under-mounted grenades. Even if a grenade hit directly, it would be difficult to kill a mutant giant rat. was breached.

Fortunately, after we reported the situation, the captain had already issued a request for support to his superiors. Not long after the battle started, a high-speed warship came to support the camp... But at that time, the living people in the camp added Together, there are no more than ten. "

"No wonder you are so impressed." Ke Lan sighed, "The group of people in the research institute are really familiar with the death-defying style I am always familiar with... By the way, how many of their people died?"

"They're all dead... Those mutated giant rats seem to have a certain amount of intelligence, and their priority targets are the biology labs and the researchers in white protective suits, and soldiers like us in orange protective suits are obviously not their first. One goal...these mutant giant rats seem to be here for revenge."

"What was the original purpose of this project? To develop a new generation of anti-radiation drug?" Ke Lan asked suddenly.

"No, I glanced at the computer screens of those researchers a few times, and their mission goal seems to be to study biological weapons that can survive in high-intensity radiation environments." 33 replied.

"...Then I can only say I'm going to die." Ke Lan curled her lips, "I can't live without doing my own crime."

After the story of 33 was told, the two of them almost walked to the end of the corridor. Here is a hall divided into multiple blocks. On the left hand side is a whole row of cabinets for storing equipment, and on the right is a room for storage. The shower cubicle for cleaning - this shower cubicle is naturally not used for bathing, but to wash off the radioactive dust or some other pollutants on the protective clothing... It's just that these shower cubicles have collapsed now It was all over the place, the metal partitions fell to the ground in all directions, and the protective film that originally covered the surroundings was torn to pieces. As for the water pipes, they were corroded and riddled with holes. It disappeared, leaving only a thick layer of rust mixed with dust on the ground.

...

500,000 years... The hall has not completely collapsed. It can only be said that the construction ability of the civilization that built this hive is still very strong.As for the deserted scene in front of him, in Ke Lan's view, it is similar to the city called "Pripyat" on the earth, but the photos he saw are only the latter because of a nuclear accident. Years later.

And this hive capital needs to add the word "ten thousand" after several decades.

"I've already started to feel some tingling on my skin." 33 said, he zipped up the zipper of the protective suit, pulled up the hood, covered his entire head inside, and only exposed half of the breathing mask on the outside—— The heavy-duty protective clothing they wore when they first entered the foggy forest had long been lost, and now the only thing they could take out was this portable protective clothing that was as thin as a sunscreen.

Ke Lan rummaged through those equipment cabinets, but couldn't find the protective clothing left by the hive civilization—this place has been evacuated, but it's a pity that he can only see the scene of the hall when it is in normal operation, and can't find it. You can't see what happened here when the "disaster" came.

"Pay attention to injecting anti-radiation Ning and Radiation-Xining Ning on time." Ke Lan said, and walked straight forward.

Radiation protection ability sometimes seems a little weak, but sometimes it is really useful.

Passing through the hall, and climbing over two unmanned safety gates, Ke Lan and 33 finally came to the exit of "Aisle No. [-]".

The channel wall of No. [-] channel is made of lead plates sandwiching graphite cores, and a thick layer of concrete is poured on the outside of the channel... This structure is somewhat similar to nuclear power plant reactors on Earth.

"500,000 years have passed, why is the radiation intensity in this place still so high?" 33's voice sounded very dull through the breathing mask, "Is this really just a passage for transporting radioactive waste?"

"Take the most well-known radioactive element uranium as an example. Among the three isotopes of uranium, the half-life of uranium-234 is 27 years, the half-life of uranium-235 is 7.1 million years, and the half-life of uranium-238 is as high as 45 billion years... For For these elements, 500,000 years is not a long time." Ke Lan told 33 Popular Science, "What's more, we don't know what elements are contained in the radioactive waste of this hive city... There are some elements, they The half-life of uranium is even longer than that of uranium."

"Compared with these things, a person's life is really like a flick of a finger." 33 sighed casually, then pulled out a hatchet made of Nino alloy from his waist, held it in his hand, and pointed at Ke Lan. He nodded and said, "Let's go, no matter how strong the radiation is, we can only bite the bullet and get through it."

"I'm fine. This dose of radiation is like scratching an itch to me." Ke Lan said, "On the contrary, you... If your body can't take it, don't hold on. It's not worth working hard for this little thing."

"It's okay, but the skin is a little itchy, and the back feels a little hairy...Compared with the environment in the Prism Basin, there is still some difference." 33 lifted up a strip of the breathing mask, and wiped it off calmly. It has flowed to the lips nosebleed.

[PS Thanks for the 200 coins rewarded by Yuluofuyun. 】