Alien Relic Hunter

Then there was a minute-long silence, and the recording ended.

After listening to this recording, Ke Lan fell into deep thought, and Mo Jue seemed to want to say something, but seeing Ke Lan's appearance, he could only swallow the words that had reached his throat.

Judging from the conversations between Hruni and other officers and soldiers on the ship, they must have been eroded by "forbidden knowledge". As they researched and analyzed this knowledge, the degree of erosion continued to deepen, and finally...

The progress of erosion varies from person to person. For example, "Jack Garcia" who stayed behind on the battleship is a person with relatively weak resistance. He just saw a few people who were mutated by erosion, and then he himself also mutated. The "progress bar" was soaring all the way, and it was about to reach the limit of super eclipse.

And Hruny Yang, the captain of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate, is obviously the kind of person with extraordinary resistance. As the vague voice said - Hruny is obviously the one who has the most exposure to "forbidden knowledge", but He showed the slightest degree of erosion, and it took him a full year to turn into a corroded corpse.

But there is a question that makes Ke Lan a little confused: neither Hruni Yang nor the other battleship crew members are symbionts, and they cannot understand the writing of Alpha civilization... So what exactly did they find in the gray mist forest? What thing can cause such serious erosion to all members?

What is the "desperate reality" they mentioned, the thing that is "enough to cause the collapse of human society and the order of the Ark overnight"?

Is this the secret that Mo Jue's father has been pursuing?

Ke Lan felt that he knew enough "forbidden knowledge". In the words of the people of the Undead Crew, his own degree of erosion had reached a very dangerous level, but even so, his body was still There are no obvious signs of mutation... and the corrosion level of these people on the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate is undoubtedly higher than that of Yao Ke Lan.

Ke Lan took a deep breath and finally said nothing, silently opening the second recording file.

"Recording file 01001026, recording time: unknown."

"Captain! Little Jack can't survive!" A sudden shout sounded, followed by a high-frequency tapping sound of boots on the metal floor.

From the footsteps, I could tell that there were three people. They were walking very fast. One of them staggered a little, and his breath seemed not very stable.

The three of them walked quickly for about two minutes, passing through four automatic hatches, and finally stopped at a place filled with "beep-beep" sounds.

Ke Lan knew that this place should be the infirmary on the "Shaojiang Kai" ship. Those instruments that kept making "beep-beep" sounds were used to monitor the vital signs of the sick and wounded.

"Doctor Liu, how is little Jack's condition?" Hruni asked as soon as he came up.

"See for yourself." This was a female voice that seemed a bit mature. According to the crew list of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate in the archives, there were a total of eight military doctors on the ship, and only one of them was a woman named Liu Yi. " She must have been thirty-seven years old when the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate crashed. She had the rank of major and held a B-level medical license. She was already considered a rare senior talent in the fleet.

Generally, doctors of this caliber will not go to the front line. A C-level license for a ship's military doctor is considered a top priority, and a B-level doctor is qualified to serve as the full-time director of a certain department in the rear hospitals. , sending such an elite to a frigate as a military doctor is inevitably a bit overkill.

However, this can also be seen from the side, how seriously the Undead Crew took this mission back then.

Along with the unique friction sound when the blackout window was raised, Ke Lan heard someone take a breath of cold air.

"How did it become like this?" the voice that called Hruni at the beginning whispered, "Obviously... obviously when I came to see him in the morning, he could barely talk to me... Now, now... …”

"No longer...in human form." The vague voice that appeared in the first recording continued, "I know that this 'virus' will cause the human body to mutate, but in little Jack...this kind of mutation It seems to be very fast.”

These conversations made Ke Lan, who could only listen to the recording but could not see the picture, feel itchy. He directly pressed the pause button and asked the AI ​​of the central control computer: "It is impossible for Shaojiang to just change the recording equipment on the frigate. Audio was recorded, right? Where are the videos? Where are the photos? Where are the holographic image clips like those in the previous combat records? Are these things all destroyed and nothing is left?"

"The data was not destroyed, but was deleted manually." AI replied.

"Who deleted it?!"

"The captain of this ship is Hruni Yang," the AI ​​said. Although the AI ​​of "Shaojiang Kai" determined that Hruni Yang had been "contaminated", on the premise that no response was received after sending a report to the higher-level command organization, the AI ​​would not lock Hruni's authority on its own initiative, even if At this time, Khruni has turned into a monster, and he still has control of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate.

There is only one way for the AI ​​to rely on its own will to disobey the captain's orders without receiving instructions from higher-level authorities - Hruni orders the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate to attack those identified as friendly. Troops, buildings or facilities.

In that case, Hruni will be identified as a "mutator" by the AI. Not only will all control rights be stripped away, but the AI ​​will also use the security measures within the ship to restrict the freedom of Hruni and others until the fleet commander or This restricted state will not be touched until Ark issues the final processing instructions.

As for Hruny Yang deleting all the photos and video files after the battleship crashed... this is completely within the normal scope of the captain's power, and will not be judged as "mutiny" by the AI ​​at all.

Khruni's purpose in doing this was obviously to prevent those who later entered the Gray Mist Forest and found the wreckage of the "Shaojiang modified" battleship from directly coming into contact with the "forbidden knowledge"... But he did not delete all the records. , instead these recording files were left behind...

Is this a warning he left?

Ke Lan pressed the "continue playing" button.

"This speed of mutation cannot be explained by biological or medical knowledge at all. It is not just the mutation that occurred in Garcia, but the situation is the same for each of us." Liu Yi said with a sense of powerlessness, " In the past six hours, Jack Garcia has not taken in any food. I have only given him the minimum amount of water and electrolytes... But now, look at the huge growth... If this thing is If the main components are protein and fat, then biology and medicine cannot explain this situation...even the law of conservation of matter in the narrow sense has been broken."

"Judging from the volume...this thing is at least three times the size of Jack's original body..." the vague voice said, "even if the filling inside is all water...all the water in Jack's body added together is There won't be so many. These growths seem to appear out of thin air..."

"Could it be moisture absorbed from the surrounding environment?" Hruni asked in a deep voice.

"This ward was completely closed, and I strictly controlled the amount of fluids provided to Garcia... In six hours, I replenished him with a total of 1,500 ml of electrolytes through intravenous drip. During this period, he There were two urinations in total, and the total volume was 502 ml. All the urine excreted was collected through the catheter into a special container, which he could not access," Liu Yi said.

"No... I mean, in the environment, after all, there is moisture in the air." Hruni said.

"The humidity in the ward has not changed at all compared to six hours ago." Liu Yi retorted, "With all due respect, Captain, if you want to use a scientific method to interpret the changes that have occurred in Garcia, then I'm afraid Going to be disappointed.”

"Science... Compared with Alpha Civilization, our human science is just like children playing house, childish and ridiculous. These things can definitely be explained through science, but this science is not the science of human civilization. "Hruni said and suddenly sighed, "The thing I'm most worried about now...is time."

"Captain, your physical condition is still very optimistic... at least better than ours. A conservative estimate is that it will take at least two to three years for your body to deteriorate to the extent that Garcia is now." Liu Yi said.

She estimated that Hruni could persist for two to three years without receiving "effective treatment", but in fact Hruni only lasted for one year before turning into a corpse. As for whether it was Liu Yi's miscalculation or Hruni's fault, it was Liu Yi's miscalculation. Later, it was discovered what caused the erosion to suddenly accelerate. Ke Lan still cannot find the answer to this question.

"No, I'm not talking about the remaining time of myself, but human beings." Hruni emphasized his tone, "Those people above clearly know all this, but all they want to do is cover up the facts... What they are pursuing It was just temporary stability, but I never thought about the future.”

"Isn't this normal? Those people in the joint parliamentary group are just a group of profit-seeking politicians. Even if they can be re-elected, their term will only be a few decades at most... When that day comes, don't Speaking of themselves, even their descendants are probably already ashes. There is a proverb in the old era to describe this attitude, which is called 'After I die, I won't care about the floods'... These people They only care about their approval rating during their term, and they dare not face any risks." The unclear voice said a long paragraph in one breath, and then breathed violently, which was obviously very important to him. Hard work.

From this passage, Ke Lan can be sure that at least Hruni and the others did not know about the existence of the undead crew. They always thought that this mission was assigned to them by the joint parliamentary group, and they wanted to cover up the secrets and truth. They are also members of the Joint Parliamentary Group.

Just when Ke Lan was waiting for Hruni's response to these words, a loud "bang" sound suddenly sounded. Mo Jue was so frightened that he drew the pistol from his waist and looked around nervously.

"It's the voice in the recording." Ke Lan said to her, while making a silent gesture.

It seemed that something unexpected happened at that time, and Ke Lan couldn't help but prick up his ears to capture every detail in the recording as much as possible.

"Boom! Boom!"

There were two loud noises again. In terms of timbre, this should be the unique dull sound of flesh hitting tempered glass... This reminded Ke Lan of the "Jack Garcia" who was locked up in the closed ward. .

His degree of erosion should be the most serious among the crew, that is, the one who only lasted forty-one hours before he stopped living. Judging from the current movement, he should have completely transformed into that person. A monster called "Corrosion".

Then there was a sound of metal colliding and rubbing and the gun bolt being pulled. Then Liu Yi shouted loudly: "Don't shoot! The observation window in the closed ward is very thick, and it is all made of bulletproof glass. You can't penetrate it, and it's impossible." Run out of it!"

"He... what is his condition now?" A young-sounding male voice asked, with a hint of trembling in his voice, "Dr. Liu... Wasn't Garcia's vital signs already very weak? ? You said he will die from organ failure at any time... But why does it suddenly jump out of the hospital bed now... Is this, is this the legendary comeback? "

"I don't know." Liu Yi's answer was brief, "But you all step back and don't irritate it. I'll try to inject a sedative into it first to see if I can calm it down."

During the conversation between the two of them, the sound of "bang bang" hitting the glass never stopped, but became more and more violent.

For the next few dozen seconds, no one spoke, only the sound of increasingly frequent bangs and fingers tapping on the keyboard.

Ke Lan waited until the forty-fifth second before Liu Yi's voice sounded again: "It's no use. I have tried all the sedatives on the ship, and the dose has been increased to the maximum that the current body surface area can withstand." Ten times, but the potion has no effect on it at all..."

"The glass of the observation window is about to be shattered by it..." Hruni said slowly.

[P.S. I have suddenly developed some interest in food novels recently, but with my knowledge base and experience, it is almost impossible to write a novel about food alone. But my hands are extremely itchy, and I really want to write... If I introduce you to some of the special delicacies on the Ark during the human alien colonization era in the form of a small extra theater, would you be interested in watching it? It can also be regarded as supplementing the background setting from a side angle...]