He struggled to open his right eye, the only one still able to see. His vision was blurry and bloodshot, revealing only a twisted, metallic hell shrouded in blood and smoke. The dim golden light in his left eye was as faint as a dying candle, with only a last, faint warmth remaining, testifying to the presence of that inhuman power. Energy level: 0.15%… His core energy circulation had nearly stagnated, the icy torrent frozen, leaving only an endless, icy pain coursing through his body.
[External Environment Testing: Gravity: 0.7 standard G… Atmospheric Composition: Complex Pollution… Contains trace amounts of oxygen… Nitrogen oxides… Heavy metal dust… Sulfides… Deadly…]
[Carrier's vital signs: Continuously deteriorating... Estimated survival time: Less than 1 standard hour...]
The cold reminder was like the final judgment.
The surface of a garbage planet... deadly poison gas... seriously injured and on the verge of death... energy depleted...
Lin Mo's consciousness drifted between excruciating pain and freezing cold. Despair filled his chest like icy molten iron. Even moving a finger seemed a luxury. Was this... the end? To die in this garbage dump, dirtier and more hopeless than even a mining ship? Not even worthy of becoming a component, only to rot and stink, ultimately becoming an insignificant part of this junk planet?
Just then—
Sand…Sand…Sand…
An extremely slight, yet unusually clear, friction sound came from outside the twisted hatch of the escape pod! That sound... was like something carefully turning over metal fragments!
Lin Mo's heart suddenly sank! Fear instantly overwhelmed the excruciating pain in his body! The "inhabitants" of the garbage planet! Those who struggled to survive in the toxic wasteland and steel ruins, beings more terrifying and twisted than the mining ship hyenas! They were like maggots that would immediately pounce on any falling "fresh food"!
He desperately tried to curl up, to hide himself in the shadows, but even moving his eyelids was incredibly difficult. He could only listen in despair as the rustling sound grew closer and clearer... Finally, it stopped outside the severely deformed and cracked observation window of the escape pod!
A face was pressed against the porthole covered in blood and dust, peeking inside.
That was not a normal human face. The skin was a sickly sallow color formed by long-term exposure to a polluted environment, covered with deep wrinkles and brown spots. One eye was turbid, and the pupil was a strange grayish-white, obviously blind. In the place of the other eye, there was a mechanical prosthetic eye that was crudely pieced together from rusty metal tubes, discarded optical lenses and exposed wiring, and it was constantly flashing a faint red light! The structure of this prosthetic eye was extremely crude and simple, and the lens made a harsh friction sound when it was extended and retracted, like the gasp of a dying beast. Its red light shone through the dirty porthole, sweeping across the tragic scene in the cabin like a searchlight, and finally... it locked firmly on Lin Mo, who was stuck in the ruins, covered in blood, and with only a faint breath left!
That gaze… there was no pity, no curiosity, only an almost inhuman, icy scrutiny! It was like evaluating the value of a pile of scrap metal, or observing a dying frog on a lab bench!
Lin Mo's blood nearly froze! A chill even deeper than when he faced Scarface Johnny and the Rust Brotherhood gripped him! This wasn't a human! This was someone who had lived in a garbage dump for too long, transformed by pollution and despair into something... something!
"Haha...haha..." Lin Mo wanted to make a warning or beg for mercy, but only a bellows-like, blood-foaming haha sound came out of his throat.
The "face" outside the porthole seemed unresponsive to his voice. The red-glowing mechanical eye focused on the faint, nearly extinguished dark golden light in Lin Mo's left eye. The red light flickered slightly, its frequency seemingly shifting ever so slightly.
Then, the face moved away. The rustling sound began again, seemingly moving around the wreckage of the escape pod. Soon, Lin Mo heard the harsh groaning of metal being forcibly pried and twisted!
He's tearing down the door! He wants to get his "prey" out of the tin can!
Despair, like an icy tide, completely drowned Lin Mo. Even the last vestiges of resistance were extinguished. He closed his right eye, awaiting his fate of being dragged out, dismantled, and disposed of like garbage.
Snap! Clang!
After a violent sound of metal tearing, a dazzling light (despite being the gray skylight of a garbage planet) mixed with a strong, pungent stench of rust, rotting organic matter, and chemical poisons suddenly rushed in! Lin Mo coughed violently, and every cough involved a broken rib, causing him to black out in pain.
A hunched, gaunt figure, wrapped in layers of tattered, oily cloth, emerged like a ghost from the forcibly torn hatch. His movements were slow, even a little stiff, but each step creaked against the twisted metal, producing a dull, steady sound. The crude mechanical eye, flashing a cold red light, gazed down at Lin Mo, condescendingly, like a butcher examining meat on a chopping block.
Lin Mo could smell the strong smell of the other person, which was like a mixture of old motor oil and rotten meat.
It’s over…
This was the only thought left in Lin Mo's remaining consciousness.
However, the expected tearing and dragging didn't occur. The hunched figure simply stood silently before him, its cold mechanical eye constantly expanding and contracting, its red light scanning Lin Mo's body, especially over his left eye and the several deep wounds on his chest that exposed the bone. The only sounds in the air were Lin Mo's painful gasps and the subtle hum of electricity from the mechanical eye.
It seemed like a century had passed.
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