Alien Relic Hunter

"Joker, do you have a way to get in touch with the core mastermind?" Soap turned to look at the clown and asked, "As long as we can figure out the changing rules of the underground maze, we can put these powerful mutant creatures on the ground. "

"Yes, as long as there is a public communication terminal, I can use the backdoor I left in the core master brain to directly read the data." The clown said, "But the consequence of this is that the first time I connect to the core master brain, Our location will be locked by Zeus, and my identity will be exposed. If Zeus knows that I have also sneaked into the Ark, the ones who come to hunt us will not be just those little minions."

"That Zeus...is he very jealous of you?" Soap clicked his tongue and continued to ask, "Do you have any trump card in your hand that can kill him?"

"If there was such a thing, I would have used it a long time ago." The clown said, "It's just because Zeus is cautious by nature and extremely controlling. He doesn't like any uncontrollable factors in his plans... and In his eyes, I am one of the few 'uncontrollable factors'. So as long as he discovers my location, he will eliminate me as an 'uncontrollable factor' at all costs."

"That would be troublesome..." Soap's tone was full of regret, "If we can really release these monsters, we will definitely send a big 'suprise' to that Zeus. He is not the most annoying. Are there controllable factors? If these monsters run to the ground, then the Ark will be full of 'uncontrollable factors'. See if he feels uncomfortable!"

Just when Soap was thinking that his "monster ally" plan could be launched smoothly, the clown who was walking at the front suddenly stopped.

"What's going on?" Soap was distracted and almost hit the clown's back. Fortunately, the tentacle connected to his protective suit tightened in time, which prevented him from losing his balance and falling to the ground.

"Are there any dangerous mutant creatures nearby?" Noir suddenly became alert, raised his gun, and looked around nervously.

They are still traveling on the waste pipe plank road. It is not ideal to fight mutant creatures in this place, not only because the space is narrow and there is no room to dodge, but what is more terrible is that the aftermath of the battle awakens the giant above them. The moth, Soap and Noir will all be killed by the super radiation released by the giant moth, without even a chance to escape.

"No, it's a person, a human being." The clown's words showed a doubtful tone for the first time, "And he's also a... human being who has not been corroded."

"Humans? How can there be humans here?" Soap was stunned, and then whispered, "Could it be someone sent by Zeus? He has already discovered our traces?"

"No, if it is someone sent by Zeus, there is no way there are no traces of erosion." The clown shook his head and rejected it.

"Can you sense where that person is?" Noir asked.

"It's eighty meters directly below us."

"Can other information be sensed? For example, the person's status, vital signs, etc..."

"I can only sense a general location and the degree of corrosion in his body. No other information is known." The clown said, "But at least one thing can be confirmed, he is still alive."

Noir hesitated for half a second and asked, "Shall we go over and have a look too?"

"He's blocking the way we must pass. Even if we don't want to run into him, we can't avoid him." Soap curled his lips, pulled the bolt of the gun, and loaded a bullet into the chamber. "Don't forget Well, the path we are taking now cannot be stopped or turned back."

"I think you can try to contact humans who have not been corroded." The clown nodded, "Don't let your guard down... This sudden appearance of a person, to me, is also an unplanned and uncontrollable factor. ', in case we conflict with him, I may not be able to guarantee the safety of both of you."

"It's okay, we also have guns in our hands." Soap responded, "As long as you are sure that it is a person and not a monster, then there is nothing to be afraid of."

"Speaking of which, does the undead crew have all the information about the underground labyrinth?" Noir asked again, "Then have you ever found traces of human activities in the underground labyrinth before?"

"Never before," the clown said. "This person either entered the underground maze recently, or he is extremely familiar with the underground maze and can avoid the path of the detection robots every time."

"Extremely familiar with the underground labyrinth?" After hearing this keyword, Soap suddenly became excited. "Isn't our plan just missing such a person? Isn't this just the pillow that was handed to the side when I was sleepy? !”

"Don't be too eager to be happy. We don't know whether the other party is an enemy or a friend." Noir seemed relatively calm. "Even if that person is familiar with the underground maze, he may not be willing to assist us."

"Go and take a look first." The clown made a decision.

The three people slowed down their movement slightly and moved down quietly. As for the "person" perceived by the clown, it remained in place and did not move.

After walking around the waste pipe again, the three of them stopped and looked at each other silently - they all knew that as long as they walked a short distance ahead, they would be able to see that person. At the same time, they will also be exposed to each other's vision.

There is no cover on this plank road, and it is impossible to sneak up on him unless the clown hangs himself on the edge of the plank road with his tentacles and hangs directly from above.

However, this "sudden appearance" method can easily cause excessive stimulation to the other party and lead to misunderstanding - if the other party identifies the three of them as enemies, it will be troublesome.

The three people's primary goal is to negotiate - after all, that person may be a person who is familiar with the underground labyrinth environment. Such a person will be of great help to their next actions. Whether you want to implement Soap's "Monster Ally" plan or follow the Joker's original plan to sneak through the underground maze directly into the core area of ​​​​the Ark, if you can have a "guide", the difficulty of the operation will be instantly reduced by several levels.

"Let me go out first." Nuval said to Clown and Soap through lip language. He took off his weapons and other equipment and handed them to Soap. He took a deep breath and walked out as slowly as possible.

A thin human figure appeared in Noir's field of vision. He was leaning on the scrap pillar, holding a killed flying squirrel in his left hand, and holding an irregular piece of metal in his right hand, cutting the flying squirrel's abdominal cavity into pieces. Cut it open.

This should be a male human being, but he does not have any hair on his body, his skin is pale, and his skin has a strange smooth feeling. The existence of pores cannot be seen with the naked eye... It is like someone with strong self-healing ability. After a creature is severely burned, the scabs fall off and new skin grows back.

This man's face was like a skeleton. The bloodless skin stretched tightly on the skull, completely showing the outline of the bones. The eye sockets were sunken, and the upper and lower lips were thin and short, unable to cover the sharp teeth. -His teeth are completely different from those of normal humans. There are no differences between incisors, canines and molars. The entire set of teeth are fangs like wild beasts. Noir even felt that even if he did not rely on the metal piece in his hand, he could bite the flying squirrel into pieces and swallow it with just his fangs.

Noir took two more steps forward, but the other party didn't seem to see him at all. He was concentrating on handling the flying squirrel carcass in his hands - he skillfully cut through the fur and muscles, and pulled out the flying squirrel's intestines. It was stuffed into a dirty little bag. During the process, he would occasionally scrape off some fat-like substance from the removed internal organs and stuff it into his mouth haphazardly.

He seems to be very hungry, but he maintains his sanity as a human being... This is like humans in primitive society. Although they drink blood from their hair, they will not pounce directly on their prey after killing it... The difference in eating behavior, This is one of the biggest differences between humans and beasts.

This man was also wearing a set of very shabby off-white clothes and trousers. The cuffs and trousers had been frayed. There used to be some black words printed on the armbands and the back, but now these marks are fragmented and large. The area was peeled off, and it was impossible to tell what was once printed on it.

But Noir knew very well that the clothes on the other party had absolutely no protective effect.

Even if there were, the damage to the clothes had made it lose most of its effectiveness, not to mention that the man was not wearing a helmet or gloves, and even his feet were bare.

"Why is this person not affected by radiation?" A question appeared in Noir's heart.

He has seen many miners who unfortunately suffered from radiation sickness due to mining in radiation zones. The most obvious symptoms of acute radiation sickness are skin ulcers, muscle dissolution, and large-scale bleeding throughout the body; while chronic radiation sickness is similar to malignant tumors. It's just that compared to the tumors that grow in the body, patients with chronic radiation sickness will also have many disgusting-looking growths on their body surfaces - most of these patients will be sent to a place called the "Sick Village" go.

But the man in front of him, although he looked very strange, did not meet the symptoms of acute radiation sickness, nor did he meet the symptoms of chronic radiation sickness. In addition to malnutrition and poor hygiene, his physical condition did not seem to be the same. Not too bad.

The flying speed of flying squirrels is very fast. Noir has seen it just now. Since this person can hunt flying squirrels, it means that his skills will not be much worse. That is not something that patients with radiation sickness can do. to things.

"Hello, how are you?" Noir took another step closer and took the initiative to say hello.

The moment Noir made a sound, the man suddenly jumped up from the ground as if he had been burned by the floor, picked up the unfinished body of the flying squirrel, and ran wildly in the opposite direction.

"No, this guy wants to escape!" At this time, Soap also rushed out. Seeing that the other party was about to disappear around the corner, he hurriedly shouted, "Clown! Quick! Stop him!"

In fact, there was no need for Soap to say much, the clown had already taken action - two tentacles shot out quickly, wrapped around the man's ankles, pulled him directly, and then forcibly dragged him back.

"This guy didn't react when he saw me. I thought he didn't care. Who knew he ran away as soon as I said hello..." Noir said.

"He didn't see you. After living in the underground maze for a long time, his vision has completely deteriorated, but his hearing has become very sharp." The clown said.

"My hearing isn't very sharp... It's only twenty meters away. Some indigenous creatures would have been alarmed by our footsteps." Soap questioned.

"He just had his back against a waste pipe with strong radiation. The radiation released by the waste pipe will affect the human hearing center. It is normal that he did not hear our footsteps. Perhaps in his opinion, this area is the territory of the giant moth. , there will be no invasion by other powerful mutated creatures, it belongs to the 'safe zone', so we relax our vigilance." The clown said.

"By the way, who is this person? He looks like a ghoul from a horror story..." Soap looked at the man who was subdued by the tentacles but still struggling and said, "Speaking of which, Why can this guy survive in such a high-intensity radiation environment? Won’t he suffer from radiation sickness and die?”

"He is the same as me, his body has mutated." The clown said, "It's just that the source of my mutation is erosion, and his is a mutation in the true sense... To be precise, it is 'evolution'. As a human being, he originally He should have died in the underground labyrinth, but his strong survival instinct caused his body to evolve on its own, and evolved a constitution that can survive in a radiation environment. This probability is very low, but it is not completely zero."

Noir pursed his lips and moved his gaze from the man to the clown: "From your tone, it seems that you already know his identity?"

"This should be a 'D-class personnel' who was sent to the underground maze for experiments. The off-white pantsuit he is wearing is specially prepared by the institute for 'D-class personnel'. It's just that the above The locator and vital sign monitoring device have been removed... It is estimated that this 'D-class personnel' has been deemed dead in the institute's files, but no one expected that he could actually survive in such a desperate situation. , creating a miracle of life." Even the clown, who had never shown any emotion or anger, now had a hint of emotion in his tone.

"Who...are...you...?" After struggling to no avail, this D-class personnel spit out these few words from his throat with great difficulty - his voice was dry and hoarse, and his pronunciation was also very strange. It's weird and difficult to understand. It's obvious that he hasn't spoken to anyone for a long time, which has led to a certain degree of degradation in the vocal system and language center.