Alien Relic Hunter

This made Ke Lan couldn't help but think of Catholicism in the old era.

In the Middle Ages, this was the era when Catholicism had the strongest control over the entire continent of Europe. At that time, the church represented the supreme authority. The church not only had the power to crown emperors, but also had the qualifications to declare heretics. Everything they did, even launching wars, burning, killing and looting, could be covered with a high-sounding crown. The reason - this is the will given by "God", and the church is just the agent of "God" in the world.

In that ignorant era, few people doubted the existence of "God". Even if they did, they would be labeled as "heresies" by the church and sentenced to death.

But as the wheel of history rolls forward, more and more people realize that God does not exist at all... Since he does not exist, then whose mouth does the so-called "will granted by God" come from?

For most religions, "god" is actually just a symbol, and those who call themselves "god's agents" are the ones who truly hold power.

They created a fictitious idol, but announced to the world that this world was created by this fictitious idol... Now it seems that it is simply a big joke.

Although for the "Sick Village Sect", the "great god" they believe in and worship is real, in Ke Lan's view, this wall of flesh and blood called God can only be regarded as a puppet. , a puppet with the "incubation ability"... Looking back on what happened before, Ke Lan always felt that there were unreasonable places everywhere, and the most unreasonable place among them was the wall of flesh and blood itself.

The wall of flesh and blood cannot speak and cannot communicate with people. It is difficult for Ke Lan to even determine whether it has complete self-awareness - for such an existence, no matter how powerful it is, it is impossible to survive in a short time just by strength alone. In just a few decades, he became the "great god" in the eyes of the sick village residents.

From the day the word "god" was born, it should be an existence that is high and difficult for mortals to touch - and for a thing that is visible and tangible, no matter how much people revere it, it is impossible to place it On such a high position.

All of this is the result of human manipulation. Without the deliberate guidance of someone with a heart, even in another hundred years, the "Sick Village Sect" may not be born in this isolated suspended prison.

Ke Lan even suspected that the Wall of Flesh was not "wild" but was also manufactured, just like people in the old era used clay and marble to create statues of gods that did not exist in reality...

But the only difference is... it's alive.

Someone pushed it out and used it as an "idol" on the surface, while its creator was hidden behind the wall-the "behind the wall" is a pun, which refers to the person who put his identity and means behind the wall. Hidden behind a symbol such as the "wall of flesh and blood", it also refers to himself, perhaps hiding in this space behind the wall of flesh and blood.

This area obviously has a very special meaning to the people of the heretical sect, otherwise, they would not have stopped pursuing Ke Lan after he crossed the wall of flesh and blood.

The hatchery only occupies a very small part of the space behind the wall...

"A very exciting speculation." A strange voice suddenly sounded in Ke Lan's head, "I have to admit that you almost guessed most of the truth correctly, and as for some deviations in details, it is not harmful. "

"Who are you?" Ke Lan was startled by the voice, raised the ax in his hand, and looked around warily.

"I am the man behind the scenes as you guessed, the real controller of this 'sick village'." The voice said again.

"Can you read my thoughts?" Ke Lan secretly thought something bad. If this was the case, wouldn't he be "completely transparent" to this person? Then in front of this person, his secret would be invisible... He couldn't help but feel a fear that had never appeared before.

He felt as if he was tied to an anatomy table. A sharp circular saw cut open the skull along the eyebrows. The steaming brain was taken out by a pair of hands covered with sterile gloves and placed on a On top of a table filled with electrodes.

The precision laser cutting machine operated steadily and quickly, cutting his body into countless thin slices not even a millimeter thick, and his brain was connected to a biological computer, and all his thoughts , consciousness, and memory are like data stored on a disk, being decrypted one by one for people to browse at will.

"It's funny what you imagine, but they don't have to do it."

"Even these things can be spied on?!" Ke Lan gritted his teeth unwillingly. He simply stopped thinking about anything, closed his eyes, and forced himself into a state similar to meditation.

"Oh? Do you want to stop thinking to resist my prying eyes?" There seemed to be a sarcastic smile in the voice, "But what you abandon is just distracting thoughts. As long as your brain is still functioning, it is impossible to stop thinking. Down."

"Instead of doing this useless work, you might as well chat with me for a while." The other party said suddenly.

"Chat? You can clearly see what I'm thinking in my head, so what's there to talk about?" Ke Lan asked.

"Although I can read your past memories and spy on your current thinking, I cannot predict the thoughts that have not yet been born in your mind. Things in the future are uncertain...just like the famous Schrödinger's Like a cat, it is always unknowable until it is observed."

"..." Ke Lan wanted to refute him, but found that he couldn't find anything to refute.

"Go forward two hundred and seventy-two meters, turn left, enter the third airtight door from the right, go straight for another one hundred meters, pass through the fire escape, and you will be in front of me."

"A trap?" This was Ke Lan's first reaction, but he quickly rejected the idea - since the other party can understand his thinking, why use traps to deal with him...

Ke Lan found with some sadness that if this voice wanted to be his enemy, he had no chance of winning.

…

Following the route the other party told him, Ke Lan walked to the end of the fire escape. In front of him was a thick airtight door. The paint on the door had completely peeled off, and the exposed alloy surface covered the door. A gray-white oxide layer - this door is not covered by those fleshy films, and it looks particularly conspicuous among a large area of ​​dark red.

Ke Lan took a deep breath, grabbed the valve on the air-tight door, and turned it hard.

"Creak--"

With a tooth-gripping sound, the air-tight door was slowly pushed open by him.

Behind the door is a circular hall, with many mechanical arms of different specifications hanging from the top of the hall, but now these mechanical arms have been wrapped in fleshy membranes, looking like the limbs of biochemical monsters. .

In the center of the hall, there is a cone-shaped "meat mountain" piled up, and on the top of the "meat mountain" is a human body.

To be precise, half a body.

It was a bloated man whose upper body was covered with clear polymer tubes that extended all the way to the floor. His lower body is integrated with this giant mountain of meat that is more than ten meters high. On the waist and abdomen, the traces left by surgical sutures can still be vaguely seen.

Ke Lan shifted her gaze to his face.

This man only has half a face.

The area below the root of the nose has disappeared. A large amount of proliferative tissue has filled the gap on the lower side of the facial bones. Many blood vessels, nerves and fascia that should not appear in normal humans tightly wrap the back spine. , extending to the depths of the skull, beyond the reach of Ke Lan's vision.

"Please allow me to formally introduce myself - as you may have guessed, my identity is the 'Pope', the 'Pope' of this fictional religion, the creator of the Wall of Flesh, the actual controller of the Sick Village... ...Of course, I wouldn't mind if you called me by another name, 'Chiron'."

"Pope... Chiron?" Ke Lan suddenly had a very strange feeling, "Wait a minute... Chiron, is he the Centaur Chiron in ancient Greek mythology? The one who later became Sagittarius?"

"Exactly, that's where my name comes from."

"The Pope...the fifth card of the Major Arcana. The God...represented by the Pope happens to be the 'High Priest' Chiron...Are you a member of the Undead Crew? The fifth seat...the Pope 'Chiron'?" !" Ke Lan couldn't help but widen his eyes... This was the first time he saw the true form of a member of the Immortal Member Association.

"It used to be," Chiron said, "but I made a mistake, a very serious mistake. Because of this incident, I was expelled from the Undead Crew Club and exiled to this custom-built for me. In prison."

"A prison tailor-made for you?" Ke Lan was stunned, "The purpose of building this space station is not..."

"You are right, but this is only one of the purposes... Although I have been exiled here, I am still working for the Ark to make up for my mistakes and atone for my crimes."

"..." Ke Lan looked up at Chiron, who was a little surprised and speechless.

"Mann is right about what he said to you. The experimental project was not suspended, it was just changed to a different form, and I took over... This space station is not just my prison, nor is it just a shelter for those miners. , it is also a research institute that is not subject to the laws of the Ark...it has never been abandoned...it has been functioning since its construction until now."

"Then, those miners..."

"Yes, they are all experimental subjects. In essence, they are the same as Asano Akira." At this point, Chiron's voice suddenly stopped. After a few seconds, he continued, "It seems , you are not the only uninvited guest here today."

"I'm not the only one?" Ke Lan was startled and turned around quickly, only to find a figure quietly walking out of the fire escape he had passed through before.

It's the missionary from the remaining heretical sect!

"Ha." Chiron let out a dry laugh, "It's really interesting that the only two people can actually meet here."

"The only two people?" Ke Lan repeated Chiron's words with some confusion, then pointed the fire ax in his hand at the missionary and asked: "Who are you? How did you get in? "

"Who am I...a good question." A weird smile appeared on the missionary's face, "But I don't want to answer your question. If you want to know the answer, you can ask this pile of rotten meat. He might Will tell you."

But before Ke Lan could speak, the missionary continued: "You shouldn't be hostile to me. You and I are of the same kind, and we are the only ones of the same kind in the world."

The first half of what he said was in Chinese, and the second half... was the language of Alpha Civilization!

Ke Lan couldn't help but hold his breath.

"You guessed it right again." Chiron's voice rang in Ke Lan's consciousness, "He is the founder of the heretical sect... He and you are the only ones among all humans who have mastered the Alpha language."

"I don't like this statement." The founder of the heretical sect frowned and looked at Chiron on the mountain of meat with disgust. "Don't use the term 'human' to describe me... I am no longer that ignorant. An inferior creature..."

As he was talking, he suddenly looked at Ke Lan: "Don't you think this guy is hypocritical? Even though it has given up its human form, it still uses this disgusting term to define people like us who are far better than it. A more excellent existence, what is this? Is it possible that it is jealous of us? Hahahaha..."

His tone was so crazy that he laughed so loudly that he even bent over and lay on the ground, pounding the floor with his fists - "Hahahahaha...Ke Lan, can you imagine, a A caterpillar that failed to transform into a butterfly uses the word 'bug' to describe a human being... Hahahaha... This is really funny."

"...To be honest, I can't understand what's so funny about you." Ke Lan thought for a while and then said seriously.

"Is it possible that you still think you are human?" The man stopped laughing, looked at Ke Lan, and asked with some surprise.

"I'm not a human being, what else can I be? A monster?" Ke Lan asked.

"How can you be a monster? Just like you and me, we are 'gods'! Besides 'gods'... what other existence can have such power?"

"Sorry, I'm an atheist." Ke Lan said.

"Don't you want to become a 'god'?" The man stared at Ke Lan's eyes, "Eternal life, strength, authority, knowledge... no one can refuse these four things..." Hearing the truth in the morning, at night You can die, some people spend their whole lives just to touch the truth for a moment, and if you become a 'god', you will have these things forever."

"You are crazy, and not a little crazy." Ke Lan said.

"Desire, this is desire! Desire is the instinct of living things. Without desire, the existence of life is meaningless!" The man pointed at Chiron and continued to say to Ke Lan, "The existence of the Immortal Crew is human desire. The products of... It’s just that their desires are small and dirty, they are like rats in the sewer, and their ultimate goal in life is just a piece of rancid and moldy cheese!”