Alien Relic Hunter

"You wait here, I'll get the food." Ke Lan said to Asano Akira, then stood up and walked over, reaching the end of the line.

The speed of distributing food was not slow. In less than two minutes, Ke Lan was already in line.

"Two pieces of food." He gestured to Akira Asano who was sitting over there with his eyes and said to the crew.

After seeing Ke Lan, the crew member's expression suddenly changed slightly, and then he silently took out two bags of food from the inside of the trolley and handed them over.

After taking the food, Ke Lan returned to Asano Akira, but as soon as he opened the bag, he discovered a problem.

The captain took it upon himself to replace their food with something else.

The other miners eat a synthetic nutritious meal similar to batter. It tastes like a semi-finished product after simply mixing flour and water. The flavoring is limited to a few grains of salt, and you may not even be able to taste the saltiness. out...

But although the contents in Ke Lan and Asano Akira's bags looked similar to the nutritious meals eaten by other people, they were actually white porridge made from polished rice. Ke Lan could even use his tongue to identify the ingredients. Among the ingredients: poultry meat torn into thin strands, delicious scallops and bird's nest melted into a paste...

This bag of porridge is probably several levels higher than the standard meals for the crew.

"..." Ke Lan sighed helplessly in his heart. Although the captain also had good intentions, the risk of doing so was really high... If the two people from the heretical sect noticed, Ke Lan and Asano Akira's Your identity will be revealed in an instant.

Moreover, no matter how delicious this bag of porridge is, Ke Lan can't bring up his appetite at this time - in such a cabin filled with all kinds of disgusting smells, no matter how amazing the food is, it will probably be obscured. A layer of shadow... What's more, the sticky texture of the chicken bird's nest porridge reminded him of the excrement flowing on the ground. This made Ke Lan feel nauseated. He didn't have a strong enough heart to swallow it. No more porridge in the bag.

And in order not to leave any traces, he had to eat them all...

Fortunately, the hunting dog did not participate in this operation. Judging from the sensitivity of his sense of smell, he would probably have collapsed before reaching the destination.

After distributing the food, the two crew members left. The whole process was relatively natural. Except for the slight change in facial expressions when they looked at Ke Lan just now, they didn't even look at them. This is still considered a good thing. Pretty good.

Due to the emergence of the heretic sect, Ke Lan's purpose of this trip was not only to find someone, but also added an additional task - after all, he and the heretical sect were already in a never-ending situation. If given a chance, Ke Lan would I'm happy to "add a little trouble" to them.

Although he did not bring the kind of stone cone that can restrain the corrosion seeds, Asano Akira's war blade itself has been melted with many stalagmite fragments. Even if the two people have parasites of corrosion seeds in their bodies, Asano Akira would be better in one against two. Even under such circumstances, they can be easily killed instantly.

Holding back the nausea and discomfort in his stomach, Ke Lan finished eating the bird's nest porridge in the plastic bag, then rolled up the plastic bag and stuffed it into his trouser pocket.

…

Two and a half days, neither long nor short... When the transport ship finally docked at the loading area of ​​the space station, three more miners' bodies were added to the sealed cargo hold.

These three people did not die from accidents like the first person before. They simply died because their illness was too severe and their bodies could no longer support them.

The reason why people suffering from severe radiation sickness in those documentaries can survive for several months is purely because of various medical methods that are hanging on to the patient's life: drugs, blood transfusions, nutrients, artificial organs and even stem cell transplants... ...Although it is difficult to bring the patient back from the brink of death, it is not a problem to keep the brain alive for a while.

Without these means and simply supplementing some glucose and electrolytes through intravenous drips, it would not take more than 15 days for a person with severe radiation to develop symptoms of nausea and vomiting until death.

When the three people died, the muscles and skin in the abdominal cavity had begun to dissolve, and pus and blood mixed with the dirt in the digestive tract dripped out of the dissolved openings - these things themselves were high-intensity radioactive sources. Although Ke Lan's body is immune to a certain degree of radiation, he can still feel subtle stings on his skin exposed to the air.

As for the crew members, they were even less willing to come to the cargo hold - even if they found someone dead, they had no intention of collecting the body. They just came over and sprinkled some disinfectant and left. Fortunately, the temperature in the cargo hold was always maintained at about ten degrees Celsius, so the body did not rot.

With a harsh "click" sound, the door outside the cargo hold slowly rose up. The first thing that entered Ke Lan's field of vision was a confined space about fifty meters wide and more than two hundred meters deep - here is It is the unloading area of ​​the "Sick Village", and the air-tight valve at the entrance and exit of the unloading area may be the only facility that the Mineral Mining Alliance has spent money to maintain in recent years.

The transport ship of the Mitsui Consortium was hovering sideways on the side of the space station. The cargo hold was directly docked with the loading area of ​​the space station. Several crew members held riot-proof steel forks and drove the miners in the cargo hold off the ship as if they were driving animals.

Ke Lan noticed that at the edge of the unloading area, a group of people wearing tattered cloaks gathered. Most of them were stooped, and their bodies exposed outside the cloaks were covered with shocking proliferative tissue... And the most special one among them was one The man lying on all fours on the ground had his cloak stretched high on his back, as if there was a child riding on him.

But from the corner of the cloak that was held up, you can see that there is a huge sarcoma growing on this man's back. This sarcoma is covered with thick blood vessels. These blood vessels are connected to the skinny body below, and it has obviously become a An inseparable part of him...

With this level of alienation symptoms, even if the giant sarcoma is removed with surgery, the person will probably die immediately... It is impossible to tell whether it is a tumor growing on the person or a person growing on the tumor...

These are the residents of the "sick village". They kept a distance of about two hundred meters from the transport ship and stared coldly at Ke Lan and the other "newcomers" who were driven off by the crew.

Although he has not had formal contact with these locals, the first impression he made after seeing them in person made Ke Lan feel a wave of resistance from physical instinct. He always felt that these residents could no longer be regarded as human beings, even though they still retained their human appearance...

"This place... is far more uncomfortable than what was described in those records..." Ke Lan thought to himself. They glanced at the miners around them. These people seemed not to notice the danger. They were confused. There was a hint of curiosity in his eyes, looking at the surrounding environment and at the same time looking at the locals who were watching them.

"The eyes of these locals... look weird, as if they are sizing up prey..." Ke Lan approached Asano Akira and said in a voice that only the other party could hear.

"I don't feel murderous intent." Asano Akira said calmly.

"Of course there is no murderous intent. The way these people look at the miners is not the kind of 'I'm going to kill you' kind of eyes, but the kind of eyes that study which part of the creature's body the meat is more delicious... I think... A conflict may break out, so be prepared." Ke Lan continued.

"As long as I'm here, no one can hurt you." Asano Akira said a line that has appeared in many novels and film and television works... But Ke Lan also understood that he was definitely not showing off when he said this, even in the unloading area Each of the locals has the strength of the radiation monster in East Ninth District. If Asano Akira wants to kill them all, he will not waste too much time.

This guy is a "monster" that is difficult to explain using common sense.

Speaking of this, Ke Lan couldn't help but think of the purpose of their trip - the guy named "Marshall". According to Asano Akira, when this person was in the secret experimental force, his ability was among the best among all experimental subjects. And now that people like Akira Asano are so perverted, how strong would this Marshall be if his ability hadn't backfired on him?

It's hard for Ke Lan to imagine.

No way, there really is someone who can fly with a sword, right?

Before setting off, Ke Lan asked Asano Akira this question, but Asano Akira himself didn't know Marshall's strength... to be precise, except for himself, he didn't know the specific abilities of other experimental subjects.

Although the experimental subjects usually live together, the tests are all conducted in separate rooms, and the experimental subjects are strictly prohibited from fighting with each other. The reason why Asano Akira can know his crane tail is completely Because his number was ranked among the last few - the numbers of experimental subjects were all ranked based on their tested abilities. This was told to them personally by the person in charge of the experiment.

There were approximately 500 people participating in that experiment, but only less than 200 received numbers through the preliminary screening.

Akira Asano's ranking number is "No. 159", and that Marshall is...

No. 2.

…

At this time, the crew on the transport ship had moved the cargo boxes containing protein blocks, water recycling equipment and medicines to the unloading area. Contrary to what Ke Lan had expected, the locals who were watching from a distance did not come to grab them. Even if a container accidentally tipped over during transportation and the protein blocks wrapped in plastic film were scattered all over the floor, those people remained indifferent.

On the contrary, it was the miners who came here on the transport ship with Ke Lan and the others. Several of them couldn't help but started to pick up the protein blocks on the ground, but soon, the steel forks in the hands of the crew members hit them——

"Go away! You have already received your food quota for today!" The crew member yelled and pushed a miner to the ground with a steel fork. Then he raised his foot and stepped on the protein blocks that fell out of the miner's arms. Gotta smash.

"As for... Anyway, these things were originally issued to them." A familiar voice came from behind. Ke Lan turned his head and saw that Leighton, Ivan and the captain had already stepped off the transport ship. Standing not far away watching the unloading process.

"Why bother? Your men have crushed more than a dozen pieces of egg white, so what if you let them pick up a few?" Layton continued to say to the captain, "Or, there is some kind of management organization in this space station. , you need to hand this batch of materials into the hands of the managers, and not let these people get their hands on it?"

"Uh... there is no officially designated manager here. We will leave directly after unloading the cargo." The captain replied.

"Then why don't you let them touch it?"

"This...this is the rule of the alliance. The unloading process must be recorded. It is not up to us." The captain pointed to a crew member who was recording the video and said, "In order to prevent corruption, the entire unloading process has to be recorded." Everything must be photographed and uploaded to the alliance's database for filing. Before the transport ship leaves the space station, everything must be done in accordance with the rules set by the alliance. As for what they will do with these materials after we leave, it has nothing to do with us. ”

"It's really rigid." Ivan said in a complaining tone, "If this kind of video is made public, wouldn't it be very detrimental to the alliance?"

"It won't be made public. It's all internal data." The captain lowered his voice slightly, "And even if it were made public, no one would believe it."

The entire unloading process took about an hour and a half. The crew on the transport ship checked the air-tight valve of the docking channel one last time before returning to the transport ship. Then, the hatch was closed, the docking channel in the unloading area was closed, and there was a burst of jet engine noise. Amidst the sound, the transport ship quickly left this isolated space station.

More than two dozen miners, including Ke Lan, Asano Akira and the three corpses, were left behind. Layton and Ivan, fully armed, stood a little further away from the container, back to back. , watching the locals on the periphery very vigilantly.

Finally, these people came towards them.

They were divided into two groups. Some walked towards the cargo box, while the other group surrounded the new miners. As for Layton and Ivan, they were completely ignored by them.

When he was still more than ten meters away from these people, Ke Lan could already smell the unbearable odor on their bodies, but what was more disturbing than the odor were the weapons these people pulled out from under their cloaks.

Their weapons were mainly irregular concrete blocks and rusty steel pipes, and several of them were holding very sharp metal pieces. The front ends of the metal pieces seemed to be stained with some long-dried blood.

"Thirty-five... no, thirty-six people came over, holding crude weapons in their hands." Ke Lan whispered to Asano Akira.

At this time, Asano Akira had already grasped the sword disguised as a guide stick. His thumb had already opened the cloth wrapped around the handle, and the blade could be unsheathed at any time... But in the next second, Ke Lan Instead, she grabbed his forearm and squeezed it a little harder, signaling Asano Akira not to act rashly.

"Their target...is not us."

These locals came closer, but they did not attack the standing miners. Instead, they approached the critically ill patients who were lying on stretchers and were dying.

The concrete block was lifted high and then fell, and the feeble screams suddenly stopped.