The hound was stunned for a moment, then nodded in agreement: "That's right... We are not a regular army, and the content of the mission is just reconnaissance. There is really no need to commit such a big death."

"Let's go, it's time to get down, the cruiser can't fly any further," Ke Lan said.

This molten mine area can be said to be one of the deadliest no-fly zones on Alpha Planet. Except for small drones flying close to the ground, any aircraft or warship entering this area will be attacked by automatic anti-aircraft weapons—

- Most of the buildings in the mining area have been turned into ruins. These automatic defense devices are one of the very few equipment in the ruins that are still functioning normally.

Most of them are hidden in rocks and will only be activated when an invasion of foreign enemies is detected.

A variety of high-tech camouflage methods, coupled with the huge number and irregular distribution, it is almost impossible to clear these automatic defense devices. Fortunately, they will only attack targets in the air. For those from the ground

"Intruders" who enter the mining area will not react in any way.

…

Radiation and toxic gases are everywhere in the mining area, and the average surface temperature is between 80 and 120 degrees Celsius. Near the magma river, this number can soar to hundreds of degrees - and this is just the temperature of the air.

, the temperature of the newly solidified lava under your feet will only be higher.

There was once a short video shot by a relic hunter on the Internet. In the video, he was wearing heavy protective clothing, carefully taking out a metal cup from the insulator, and then quickly raising the cup to shoulder level.

, poured out the water inside.

The water evaporated in mid-air before it even had time to touch the ground.

If the reconnaissance team wants to enter the mining area, they must wear a full set of protective equipment. Considering that there may be a fight, Ke Lan simply replaces everyone's protective clothing with high heat-resistant power armor with an internal oxygen supply device.

. But even so, the moment the door of the airborne cabin opened, the oncoming heat wave gave everyone a severe blow. Ke Lan only felt that the fine hairs on the surface of his skin seemed to curl up.

"Hiss...it's so hot!"

"This is just a marginal area, but the temperature is over 90 degrees Celsius?"

"You can use any stone to barbecue..."

Except for Ivan, no one in the team had ever been to the molten mine area. Exclamations and complaints about the high temperature continued in the communication channel until the temperature control system of the power armor began to operate, lowering the temperature inside the armor back to 2

At fifteen degrees Celsius, everyone felt a little more comfortable.

"It feels like I'm at the entrance to purgatory." The hound took a deep breath, and a long gasp sounded in the helmet, "I remember that in Chinese myths and legends, one of the punishments for the eighteen levels of hell is to be thrown into a frying pan.

Right? I think this place is not much different from a hot oil pan."

"Indeed." Layton nodded, "I just don't know if there are chopped green onions and coriander."

"You two are here talking about cross talk? One is complimenting and the other is teasing. There is quite a tacit understanding." Ke Lan complained in the communication channel, "Okay, it's time to get to work. According to the original plan, the brothers from the tactical team and the security bureau

We're camping here

, your mission is to build a support base with a defense standard of level 3 or above within 12 hours. If you find traces of heretical sects or exiles, send an alert to me, the cruiser and the Ark at the first time. "

Ke Lan said that the level three standard refers to a strength index commonly used for strongholds and fortifications. Strongholds with level three defense capabilities are required to have the physical strength to withstand earthquakes of magnitude 5 or above and strong winds of magnitude 12 or above, and must also be able to withstand

Only when the enemy is besieging the defenders with more than five times the combat strength of the defenders and persisting for more than 24 hours will it be considered qualified.

Most of the transfer stations built in various places in the wilderness of Star Alpha meet the second-level standard; while the mining base on the back of Leviathan is close to the threshold of the fifth-level standard.

If the heretical sect wants to storm a level 3 standard support base in a short period of time, it will have to invest more than ten times the combat power of the garrison. In addition, the garrisoners are all elite field force soldiers and security bureau agents.

, and is equipped with a large number of weapons against the seeds of erosion. A conservative estimate is that this multiple must be expanded to at least fifteen to twenty times.

As long as this forward support base can be established, it will open up a safe area for the reconnaissance team on the edge of the mining area. If Ke Lan and the others encounter any difficult enemies in the mining area, they can retreat here at any time. With the help of fortifications

With their cover, they can take great initiative whether they choose to counterattack or retreat.

After arranging tasks for these people, Ke Lan led a reconnaissance team composed of twelve people and plunged into the depths of the mining area.

Since the landform of the Lava Mining Area has undergone tremendous changes after the earthquake, the original map has basically become a piece of waste paper. The only thing that can still be used as a reference is probably the latitude and longitude coordinates of the original garrison base.

Even if the rock formations shift or subside, the general location of the base will not change much, and Ke Lan and the others are heading towards the area centered on the original coordinates of the base.

The speed at which they are traveling can be described as a tortoise speed - almost none of the roads that took Ark a lot of manpower and material resources to repair are now passable. If these roads are compared to the meridians in a person's body,

Now this person has received a slap from an internal martial arts master, and all the meridians in his body have been broken, and there is almost no good spot left.

In many places, the cracks in the ground are too big for a single person to cross. Ke Lan can only let Valentina jump to the opposite side of the crack in the mecha and set up the zipline, and the others can use the slide.

The rope passes through the crack.

More than half of the cracks need to be passed through this way, and half of the time on the road is wasted on setting up and retracting the zip line - the hound also proposed a detour at the beginning, but the detour resulted in more encounters.

Wider cracks.

"Anyway, all the roads have been destroyed. It's better to just walk in a straight line and climb over when you encounter obstacles. This is the most time-saving route." Ke Lan said.

…

It has been five hours since the reconnaissance team entered the mining area, but they have only advanced less than 20 kilometers. They are still a full 150 kilometers away from the coordinates of the garrison base - and at this location, the surrounding area

The temperature had already exceeded the one hundred degrees Celsius mark, and the rubber armband attached to Layton's arm had melted into a black, viscous fluid that flowed along the surface of the armor.

"Damn... I'm almost exhausted..." The hound panted. The physical exertion of trekking in this kind of terrain was extremely terrifying. If it weren't for the power armor supporting his body, he doubted himself.

He had collapsed a long time ago due to lack of physical strength.

"There is another obstacle ahead...this time it is not a crack, but a hill." Layton said, "Old dog, can you still hold on? How about I carry you?"

"It's still holding up, it's not a big problem." The hound hung his head and waved his hands feebly. In this state, he no longer even had the intention of joking, and his speaking style changed from usual, becoming very concise and to the point.

.

"Hold on for a while longer, climb over the ruins in front of us, and let's rest where we are for fifteen minutes," Ke Lan said.

What is blocking the front is a collapsed building. Judging from the architectural style of Alpha Civilization, buildings of this style generally have more than a hundred floors and are at least 230 meters tall, but this building that appears in front of everyone

, only a section of ruins about 80 meters at the top was left, and the lower half, together with the foundation, sank into the magma.

The remains of the building lie above a thirty-meter-wide crack. Below is the slowly flowing magma. Bright yellow light fills the space inside the crack. With every step closer, the temperature rises sharply, so that the scene in the distance is

This is because the air temperature is too high, causing distortion.

"You guys wait here first. Asano Akira is coming with me. Let's check the strength of the building's wreckage first. If the strength is enough, we will climb over the wreckage. If there is a danger of disintegration, then we will use the previous method and use the help of

Zipline across the crack." Ke Lan said.

"That's right, old dog, you can take this opportunity to rest for a while and catch your breath." Layton took one of the hound's arms and helped him sit on a rock.

"Do you need our help?" Aya Breya walked up and asked.

"No, the fewer people, the better. With one more person, the combined weight of this equipment will be several hundred kilograms more. Even though the wreckage of the building looks quite stable, it might collapse immediately if you step on it.

." Ke Lan declined Aya's kindness and quickly walked to the wreckage of the building with Asano Akira.

This building uses a one-piece alloy frame, which is also the design used by most high-rise buildings in Alpha Civilization. This frame is a bit like the steel frame in reinforced concrete buildings on Earth, but compared to steel bars tied together with iron wires.

, the one-piece alloy skeleton produced by Alpha Civilization is much stronger.

Ke Lan looked inside along the torn outer wall of the building. The internal structure of the building had been destroyed beyond recognition, but Ke Lan wanted to see if the skeleton of the load-bearing part had broken - if the skeleton of this part of the wreckage was completed

, then it is more than enough to eat the portions of people like them.

But at this moment, Asano Akira grabbed Ke Lan.

"What's going on?" Ke Lan turned around and was surprised to find that Akira Asano had already pulled his sword out of its sheath.

"There is movement inside the building, a lot of it." Akira Asano replied.

He said it on the team channel, and Hound and Aya could also hear it. This sentence immediately attracted everyone's attention.

"What? Is there any movement? Have you been discovered? I'll be right over!" Without saying a word, Layton directly picked up his weapon and planned to run towards the wreckage of the building.

"Don't come over yet! It seems we haven't been discovered yet!" Ke Lan quickly stopped Leighton's actions.

"Can you be sure what it is? Could it be some indigenous creatures that use the ruins of the building as a nest?" Ivan couldn't help but ask.

"There are no indigenous creatures in the molten mine area." Aya immediately rejected this judgment, "Of course, I am not saying that this environment is not suitable for the survival of indigenous creatures. Even in places with worse conditions, some creatures can be found to a greater or lesser extent.

Traces of... But in the molten mine area, even bugs are very rare. The Alpha civilization seems to have cleared out all the creatures in this area, and set up a 'barrier' that we cannot detect to prevent the indigenous creatures outside the mining area.

Enter the mining area.”

"If it's not an indigenous creature, it can only be a human being." The hound said solemnly, leaning on the ground with his gun and standing up. "Everyone, please be ready for battle. What is supposed to come will come."

The rest of the reconnaissance team cautiously moved towards the wreckage of the building, and more than a dozen black guns were pointed at the ten-meter-long crack in the outer wall of the building.

"Leiton, take out the mechanical snake you improved." Ke Lan ordered in a low voice.

"Understood." Layton nodded, the outer armor of his arm opened, and a small metal snake as thick as a little finger crawled out from the dark space under the outer armor and swam to the edge of the crack.

This small metal snake is actually a snake-shaped drone. The reason why it is designed in this shape is, firstly, for concealment, and secondly, so that it can get into some gaps and holes that conventional drones cannot enter——

Mechanical snakes like this are sold in equipment stores and black markets, but the original mechanical snakes are not as flexible as this modified version, and their functions are not as many as this one.

Layton changed the "Snake Eyes" camera to low-light mode, shared the footage seen by the camera with everyone in the reconnaissance team, and then controlled the mechanical snake to slide into the crack.

"The movement is in the middle of the wreckage, between the 17th and 19th floors from the top, about 45 meters away from us." Asano Akira said to Layton, guiding the direction of the mechanical snake.

Some places that are difficult for humans to reach are like walking on plain ground for the mechanical snake that can be attached to the wall - not long after, the little snake has arrived at the location where the noise was made, and everyone in the reconnaissance team also

With the help of its eyes, he saw the things dormant among the ruins of the building.

A total of thirty mature erosion seeds!

And it also includes three-headed mutants that Ke Lan has never seen before!

Among the three mutants, the most conspicuous one is the one guarded by many eroding species - it is more than four meters tall, with a slender body and a neck as long as an earth creature called a giraffe.

Similarly, there are more than a dozen slender tentacles like flexible antennas on the head of this mutant, which move slowly and rhythmically.
Chapter completed!