Alien Relic Hunter

Judging from the clothing and equipment, this remains should belong to the same unit as Sergeant Collins, but compared with Collins, his death was simply horrific... It looked like he had been subjected to a famous torture method from the old era." Car cracked".

However, after a rough inspection of the remains, most of Ke Lan's doubts about this were dispelled - there was a certain degree of abnormality at the ends of the limbs of the remains: a large number of fleshy tentacles emerged from the gaps in the muscles. When they grow, some of them wrap around blood vessels and nerves, and some penetrate the skin and extend outside the body... It is not difficult for Ke Lan to imagine that if this situation is allowed to develop, then this arm will definitely also Becoming just like Ivan, all human tissues except bones were replaced by a large group of tangled tentacles.

The degree of alienation of this soldier is not as serious as that of Ivan, but it is only a matter of time.

In the absence of any means of suppression, cutting off the limbs is the only way to prevent the mutation from spreading to the torso. However, there are not enough medical conditions on this desert island. Even if the limbs are successfully amputated, the infected soldier It is also difficult to survive more than twenty-four hours.

"Their movements are still a little slow..."

On the sectioned surface of the torso, Ke Lan found a small number of tiny tentacles sprouting out like granules. These tentacles were less than half a centimeter in length and not much thicker than a hair in diameter, but this meant that the alienated cells had invaded. Into the torso of the infected person.

Before that, when Ke Lan removed Ivan's infected part, there was no abnormality at the incision, but even then, cells that could not be detected by the naked eye still spread into his body.

The cells of the erosion seed are like viruses, spreading at an unimaginable speed. Unless the contact part is cut off as soon as possible after direct contact, mutations will soon appear in various places throughout the body. At that time, It's too late to cut off the strong man's wrist.

However, looking at the condition of this remains, it seems that the mutation phenomenon stopped after the death of the host. Not only the torso, but also the amputated limbs still retain most of the human body tissues.

After a human dies, tissue cells will die within a few hours due to lack of oxygen supply. The inactivated cells cannot be assimilated by the erosion seeds, so the progress of the mutation is stopped...

"That's not right... Even if the human cells die, the cells of the erosion seed will actively steal oxygen and nutrients from the outside world. Even if it does not occupy the host's entire body, it should be peeled off from the host as a new individual. , instead of being buried with the host...could it be because..."

Ke Lan's eyes fell on the stalagmite that pierced the torso of the remains... The piercing point of this stalagmite was not randomly selected, but penetrated exactly where the heart was.

At first, Ke Lan thought it was to end the suffering of the infected as soon as possible, but now it seems that things are not that simple.

He pulled out a dagger, cut open the remains' chest along the puncture point of the stalagmite, and then pried it hard. With the crisp sound of broken ribs, the entire chest was directly exposed to his eyes.

The heart penetrated by the stalagmite was abnormally enlarged. Even in a dehydrated and shrunken state, it was about four times larger than a normal human heart, occupying almost half of the chest space.

"Is this the mutated heart..."

Logically speaking, the more developed the heart muscles of a creature, the stronger the creature's ability to exercise... But the problem is that the abnormally large heart in front of us can no longer be said to be strong. It is a pathological enlargement. When it grows to this size, not only will the function of the heart itself be affected, but it will also compress other organs in the chest... There is only one result, and that is death.

"It looks like a tumor..." Ke Lan looked at the heart carefully, his eyes scanning the wrinkled capsule on the outside of the heart, "It seems like there is really a foreign body inside?"

Naturally, this foreign body cannot refer to a tumor. The incidence rate of cardiac tumors is extremely low, and malignant tumors that can proliferate indefinitely are even rarer... Moreover, these soldiers will undergo a full physical examination before each mission. If If the tumor existed, it would have been discovered long ago.

"It should be that the cells of the eroded seed have invaded..." Ke Lan thought about it for a moment, and it seemed that Ivan's heart had not yet undergone such changes.

He carefully inserted the tip of the dagger, but the penetration depth was less than two centimeters, and the tip of the dagger came into contact with a hard object, making it difficult to advance even half an inch.

"There is indeed something."

Ke Lan cut open the heart capsule along the piercing position. Suddenly, a translucent egg-shaped object was revealed. It had a hard and smooth shell. The dagger Ke Lan had just pierced was covered by this. The layer of shell blocked it.

Through the light yellow translucent shell, you can vaguely see that it is covered with purple blood vessels. These blood vessels are wrapped with milky white nerve fibers, and around the periphery of the egg-shaped object, there are many shriveled and withered fleshy tentacles attached. .

And that stalagmite just pierced this thing.

For Ke Lan, this egg-shaped object is no stranger... He had already seen it once when he killed the first erosion seed. Not long ago, at the bottom of the abyss hatchery, those in the egg shell Each of the larvae that develops inside also has one of these things in their bodies.

This thing is the heart of the Seed of Corrosion - what is called the "core" in the message left by the Alphas.

"It turns out that crushing the nuclear can also kill the corrosion seeds... As long as this person can be replaced with an artificial heart, he might still be able to live..." Thinking of this, Ke Lan was suddenly startled, "If I could replace it with an artificial heart..." If the 'nucleus' in Ivan's body is found, it should be possible to kill those mutated tissue cells without getting the flesh-eating worms, right?"

However, Ivan's heart did not undergo this degree of mutation. Is it because the erosion seed cells in his body have not yet developed a "nucleus"? Or is it that not all "nuclei" are generated at the heart?

The corrosion seed in the exile settlement was taken away by DAS agents. This time, another nearly complete "core" appeared in front of Ke Lan. Naturally, he wanted to study it carefully... But just When he pulled out the stalagmite, a sudden change occurred!

The punctured "core" recovered almost instantly. The blood vessels in the "core" beat as powerfully as a heart, pumping the black and red viscous plasma into the tentacles connected to the "core". , these originally dry and withered tentacles suddenly became plump and began to grow rapidly!

It...is resurrected! !

Congratulations to the protagonist for successfully committing suicide