Alien Relic Hunter

As soon as he heard that he was going to pass through the egg-sheath-covered ice tunnel in front of him, Martin's face suddenly showed a look of extreme reluctance... But compared to the third path mentioned by Ke Lan, he could only hold on. Scalp followed the others.

"Pay attention to where you land, and be careful not to step on these egg sheaths." Ke Lan said - at this time, the team's position changed again, Ke Lan returned to the vanguard position, and the task behind the break was to hand over Gave Hound and Zoligatu.

The surface of these egg sheaths is covered with a layer of hard ice. To be honest, the hardness is not low. Even a modified person with extraordinary tonnage like Layton can step on it without any damage. This discovery finally made Ke Lan feel a little relieved.

If it were other bugs, if the egg sheath ruptures before the larvae mature, the larvae will basically die, but this red flesh bug is different... This creature cannot even be regarded as a "bug" in the conventional sense. , when they gather together, they can even build a giant beast like Leviathan. This alone is enough to overturn the biological theory that humans have developed for thousands of years.

Ke Lan didn't dare to treat these things as ordinary "bugs".

The team moved very slowly because these egg sheaths were not only hard, but also very smooth. Because they were covered with a thin layer of ice, stepping on them was no different from stepping on the ice, and they were not uneven hemispherical shapes. On the ice, every time you step down, you have to spend several times more energy to find a stable foothold. The whole person must also tense up at all times to maintain the balance of the body.

"I always have the feeling that... what I'm stepping on is not insect egg sheaths... but mines." The hound couldn't help complaining.

The arrangement of these egg sheaths was very irregular, and everyone basically trudged among them. Martin and Qin Zhao even slipped a few times. Fortunately, the egg sheaths they bumped into did not appear. any changes.

After advancing for about two hundred meters, the egg sheaths attached to the ice road finally disappeared. The hunter couldn't help but let out a long breath and said: "Finally, he crawled out of that pile of disgusting eggs... He Damn, my ankles are almost cramped."

"This ice road...could it be the spawning ground of these insects, but why is it in Li..." Leiton suddenly came to his senses when he said this. He glanced at Qin Zhao and the two people behind who were confused, and did not continue.

"It seems that our previous speculation was correct. This twin ruins should be the place where the Alpha civilization developed biological weapons, just like the research institute on the Ark." Ke Lan said.

"That would be troublesome. The security measures in the institute are so perverted that not even a mosquito can fly in. If this place is the research institute of the Alphas... tsk tsk..." Layton shook his head, " The situation is not optimistic.”

Hearing what he said, the hound gave Layton another roll of his eyes: "Can you close that crow mouth of yours? You don't know what to say all day long."

"Old man, you are too superstitious. You can't blame me for this kind of thing..." Layton said aggrievedly.

"Anyway, can you just stop talking nonsense? I'm annoyed by it." Hound scolded, "The problem now is how to get out of this ruins. Don't think about it. Look at that guy named Martin. Little bastard, I'm almost scared out of my wits when you say that."

"Uh...I, I'm actually fine..." Martin said weakly, but his trembling fingers and the stiff look on his face completely betrayed his true thoughts.

"There's nothing wrong with being a coward. Only cowards live longer, but it's not enough to be too cowardly. If you're too timid, you might as well change your career as soon as possible." Hound stepped forward and patted Martin's shoulder hard, but the latter's knee was He was so weak that he almost sat down on the ground.

Fortunately, the hound had quick eyesight and quick hands. He grabbed the opponent's arm and lifted him up with force. But at this moment, the hound suddenly let go of his hand as if he had seen a ghost, and then kicked Martin to the ground. He fell back several meters.

"What is that on your wrist?!" the hound shouted sharply.

Looking along the beam of the flashlight in the hound's hand, everyone discovered that Martin's exposed wrist was stained with a bright red color, and there were many bumps the size of rice grains bulging on the surface of the skin.

Martin looked down and was immediately frightened to the point of confusion. He grabbed his arm tightly and was about to scream, but found that a roll of bandage was suddenly stuffed into his mouth, blocking his voice in his throat. .

"Don't get excited, calm down, maybe you can still be saved." The person who put the bandage on was Ke Lan. He had already put on rubber gloves at this time, and several sharp medical knives were already clamped between his fingers.

Martin stared in horror, looked at Ke Lan's scalpel, and then at his wrist. He struggled nervously, wanting to speak, but couldn't.

Seeing this, Ke Lan reached out and pulled the bandage out of his mouth.

"S-Senior... you, you, you, you... are you... planning to... cut off the handle of my hand?" He said incoherently, with an obvious cry in his voice.

"Let me check it first. It doesn't necessarily require amputation." Ke Lan said, raised his head and glanced at the others, "You should also check yourselves to see if there are any similar symptoms on your skin, especially if you are exposed. parts."

After speaking, Ke Lan picked up the largest surgical scissors, cut lengthwise along Martin's cuffs, and unfolded the layers of thick fabric to both sides.

The red area is about eight centimeters long, extending from the wrist to one-third of the lower end of the forearm. The outside is lighter in color and the inside is darker. As for the rice-shaped lumps, they are only found on the inside of the wrist. .

"Do you feel itching or pain?" Ke Lan asked Martin.

"No, no." The latter was stunned for a moment, then shook his head vigorously.

"What about now?" Before Ke Lan finished speaking, the blade of the scalpel had already stabbed into the red skin, and the tip of the knife penetrated half a centimeter diagonally.

"Ah! Hiss... Huh?"

Martin's cry of pain was half-sent out before he swallowed it himself. He looked at the blade that had stabbed into his wrist with a puzzled look on his face. His expression was first confused, then frightened: "Okay...it seems like I can't feel it at all." Pain? Ah! Senior, my hand...is it useless?"

"It's not possible to draw a conclusion so early." Ke Lan said seriously, while the few people watching beside him didn't even dare to express their anger, "Since you can't feel the pain, then I won't use anesthesia, Layton." , use a robotic arm to hold him down and keep him from moving as much as possible - in addition, do not have direct contact with his body, and the parts of indirect contact must also be disinfected later."

As he spoke, Ke Lan had already turned the blade and cut open a lump the size of a rice grain.

The mass ruptured, and clear thick liquid mixed with a streak of blood flowed out.

"What is this?" the hound couldn't help but ask.

"I don't know." Ke Lan shook his head. He took out a test tube used to hold the specimen and used tweezers to squeeze all the liquid in the mass into the test tube.

But after the pus in the mass was squeezed out, the red skin around the mass returned to its original color, and Martin's face also showed a look of pain...

"Hiss...it hurts...I can feel the pain again...what's going on?"

"Although I don't know the principle, it seems that as long as you squeeze out the contents of these lumps, your arm can return to normal." Ke Lan said, took out a needle and inserted a few needles into the middle of Martin's forearm. Suddenly, Martin's newly recovered pain sensation disappeared again.

"Senior, I can't feel the pain anymore..."

"What Ke Lan just gave you was a occlusive injection, lidocaine mixed with dexamethasone solution. It would be damned if you can still feel pain." Hound said angrily. Although he is not a doctor, he is familiar with those commonly used medicines. I still recognize the signs... As a lone hunter, I basically have to deal with the emergency treatment of major and minor injuries by myself. If you open the first aid kit and don't even know how to use the things inside, then you probably don't know how many people have died. times.

After anesthesia, Ke Lan incised several tumors in succession. After squeezing out all the thick fluid in these tumors, Martin's arm finally returned to its original color.

Finally, Ke Lan rinsed the cut area several times with alcohol solution, then wrapped it with a bandage and sealed it with an isolation film like plastic wrap.

"It is actually very difficult to completely remove the pus in the mass with this method alone..." Ke Lan said. He couldn't help but think of Ivan's infection with the corrosive seed. "In fact, it is best to ampute the limb. This method is the safest. …”

"Really amputation?!" Martin couldn't help being shocked and quickly reached out to cover his arm.

"But there are no conditions for amputation surgery now. If you ampute your limbs directly, you will most likely die from massive bleeding or wound infection." Ke Lan said, "But if you don't ampute your limbs, there is a possibility of recurrence at any time. You must always pay attention to yourself. The wound changes, and other people must keep a safe enough distance from you."

"Okay, okay, I remember! I will pay attention to it myself!" Martin nodded repeatedly when he heard that amputation was not needed.

"If there is a chance to return to the Ark, even if the wound has not changed, we must conduct deep debridement again. Do you understand what I mean?"

"I see!"

"As for this." Ke Lan raised the test tube containing pus in his hand, "I will hand this thing over to the people above. Someone from the research institute or the Security Bureau may come to you later, so be prepared. Prepare."

"Security Bureau?" Martin couldn't help but shudder when he heard the word, "I... I won't be silenced, right?"

"Thinking too much, do you really think that the people in the Security Bureau are all executioners?" Ke Lan glanced at him speechlessly, "However, if they really send people to find you, it means there is a big problem with this thing... At that time, if something happens to your body, only they will be able to help you."

"Will I be put on the autopsy table?" Martin asked.

"It's possible." Ke Lan nodded, "But if things develop to that point, even if you slip away from them, you won't live long, and your end may even be worse than being on the autopsy table."

"Worst than going to the autopsy table?" Martin's face suddenly turned pale, "Senior... I don't understand what you mean..."

"Then it's better not to understand." Ke Lan took off his gloves and stuffed them into a sealed waste bag along with the used surgical instruments, and then made a gesture to Layton that only they themselves could understand. .

The meaning of the gesture is: keep an eye on Martin.

He didn't know what these puss were, and he couldn't even determine whether these substances were related to the red meat worms in the egg sheaths... But one thing that was certain was that this thing could infect humans, and as an infected person, Martin has become an unstable factor in the team.

Although he has not mutated or otherwise changed, this does not mean that his condition can remain in its current state.

If he were replaced by a more cold-blooded hunting group leader, he might choose to abandon him directly - from a certain perspective, only in this way can this unstable factor be completely eliminated.

"Let's go, keep going."

…

After the surgery just now, the atmosphere in the team became a little more depressed. Even the hounds didn't speak much. Everyone walked in silence, but as they walked, Ke Lan always felt that the surrounding environment seemed to be starting to change. It got weird.

But this strange feeling does not come from vision, but a kind of alertness that arises from deep within...

"Something's not right." Ke Lan said softly.

"What's wrong?" asked the Hound.

"I can't tell." Ke Lan shook his head.

"Is it possible that you are too nervous?" Hound rubbed his chin, "This kind of ghost place, to be honest, everything is wrong. If it is right, then there is something wrong."

"No...it's not that feeling, it's just..." Ke Lan rubbed his forehead. He wanted to express his feelings, but found that he couldn't find the right words to describe them.

At this time, Leighton, who was walking at the front of the team, suddenly let out a whisper: "Hey, there seems to be something on the ground in front of us."

"What?" Hearing this, the hound immediately raised the gun in his hand and pointed the crosshair at the dark ice road ahead.

"Go over and have a look." Ke Lan suggested. Layton and Hound nodded. The three of them raised their weapons and walked up with very light steps...

And when they finally saw "that thing" that Layton was talking about, they immediately stood still as if struck by lightning.

A piece of clay explosive covered several cracks in the ice, with a metal detonator stuck on it.

"Hiss... we... why did we come back again?" the hound muttered in a low voice.

"Those are my explosives and detonators..." Layton said with a sullen face, "This is impossible, this is absolutely impossible."

The ice road is a straight passage with no turns or forks. Logically speaking, it is impossible for them to go back.