"And so, I returned to the base alive, but the other team members went missing..."
The man narrating the story—no, it was Ah Hu—began to sob.
Although he didn't witness their deaths firsthand, he figured that being dragged underground meant certain death for them. Calling them missing was merely a form of psychological comfort for both him and Ye Hao.
"The purple tentacles you mentioned, are those the things that attacked you?"
After calming down, Ye Hao asked.
"Yes, we don't know exactly what it is either. It's a species we've never seen before, and it's probably a mutation."
Ah Hu paused for a moment before speaking.
“If we want to conduct research, we need samples, but… sample collection is too difficult.”
Ye Hao didn't hesitate and spoke directly.
"How about... I go and collect the samples?"
After listening to the gist of it, Ling understood what they meant: the samples needed to be studied, and the data collection was necessary, but no one was collecting them.
As an NPC, he definitely had to collect resources, especially since he came here to deal with the human crisis.
After finishing speaking, Zero added:
"Ah Hu, you know the place, right? Now, concentrate on thinking about that place, including the surrounding environment. I need to know its location."
As he spoke, Ling placed his hand on Ah Hu's head and probed into his brain.
Ah Hu responded and did his best to cooperate with Zero's investigation.
After finding out the location, Zero said goodbye to Ye Hao and the others, and went to the place where there were purple tentacles.
...
The surroundings were quiet, without a sound, but thanks to Ah Hu's reconnaissance, Zero knew that this was just the calm before the storm.
As expected, just as we had just discovered, cracks began to appear in the ground, and with a cracking sound, purple tentacles began to emerge from the ground, seemingly trying to drag Zero underground as well.
But who is Zero? He's an NPC. You think this little thing can hurt him?
Zero opened the system and took out isolation shields and protective gloves from the space.
He seized the opportunity, "captured" a purple tentacle, cut off a part of it with his knife, and put it into the isolation shield.
Looking at the patterns on the tentacles, a sense of déjà vu washed over me.
Where... do I seem to have seen him before?
I remember now!
Where he was before, there was a species of creature that looked similar to this thing—
It has a large head with many tentacles, but none of those tentacles can move without the head. Once they are separated, only the nerves remain active for a short time before they completely lose their vitality.
This one, although it is a type of tentacle and looks similar, is only a tentacle and doesn't seem to have been detached from somewhere else.
That's quite strange; it seems worth studying carefully.
With this thought in mind, Zero took the samples back to the base.
...
"Captain Ye Hao, I'm back."
Zero took out a sample and found Ye Hao.
But he looked dejected, as if something had happened.
"What's wrong? What happened?"
Seeing Ye Hao's unpleasant expression, Ling couldn't help but ask.
"Ah Hu... he's acting a bit strange."
Ye Hao sighed and finally spoke to Zero.
"After you left, I told Ah Hu to rest and recuperate, but when he left, I felt that the way he walked was a little strange."
Ye Hao looked up and spoke to Zero.
"What's wrong? Were you just injured?"
He asked without a doubt.
It's normal for someone to walk strangely if they were injured while out and about.
Ye Hao shook his head and said:
"No, he has no physical injuries. It's just that, how should I put it, he walks a little unnaturally."
Doesn't look human?
Zero pondered the symptoms in his mind, then suddenly remembered something and asked Ye Hao:
"I'm asking you, when he left, did he put more weight on his left foot than his right foot, and did he walk with a stiff gait, as if his limbs were very uncoordinated?"
Ye Hao thought about it carefully for a while, then suddenly clapped his hands and nodded, saying:
"Yes! I was just wondering how to describe it. It was stiff, like he hadn't walked in a long time, and he was putting more force into his left foot."
"Ah Hu is not left-handed."
Ye Hao added.
"He was parasitized."
Zero said.
"Parasitized? How could this be... Could it be those purple tentacles...?"
Ye Hao could hardly believe it.
"That's right, it's the purple tentacles. Didn't Ah Hu mention a potion before, and even take it before coming back to report?"
Zero connected this to the new drug that Ah Hu had mentioned earlier.
As he expected, the effects of this medicine were quite remarkable.
"Do you have any more of that medicine? Let me see."
Zero reached out his hand to Ye Hao.
"Yes, yes, yes, because very few of the potions were successfully made, and only each team leader was allocated one. Is there anything wrong with this potion? Isn't it supposed to temporarily render the human body inactive?"
Ye Hao placed the potion in Zero's palm and asked in confusion.
"The problem arises when it loses its activity, and I think its effects may be more than that."
Zero took out the analyzer from the space, opened the reagent, and poured a little into the mouth of the analyzer's dish.
After a while, the analyzer displayed the following lines:
RLON substance, highly resistant, easily splits, adaptable to all constitutions, RTT attribute value: 3 stars, WUC value: 200
Ye Hao looked at the words on the analyzer, somewhat confused, and pointed to them, asking:
"I understand 'highly tolerant, easily splits, and adaptable to all constitutions,' but what are 'RLON,' 'RTT,' and 'WUC'?"
“RLON is a substance with a purity of 99, which is mainly composed of source substances. RTT is a star level that changes the activity of human cells, and WUC is the rate of cell division.”
He explained with zero patience.
RLON, RTT, and WUC are all terms used by them, so it's normal that Ye Hao doesn't know them.
Seeing that Ye Hao still seemed confused after hearing his explanation, Zero summarized and said:
"It's true that this drug can render the human body inactive, but it has some other effects as well. At this level, it's so potent that any tissue can accept it without rejection, and the human body won't produce antibodies; it might even consider it part of the body. In other words, after Ah Hu was injected with this drug, his body did indeed temporarily lose its activity. However, we don't know what happened during the time he was unconscious. But now, his reaction, the data from the analyzer, and the purple tentacles—everything can be put together."
"So, Ah Hu has purple tentacles inside him?"
Ye Hao suddenly realized.
"Yes, and as I thought, he was parasitized."
Ling took a sip of water to moisten her throat.
"Then... what will happen to him?"
Ye Hao asked with some concern.
Zero couldn't help but give a silent compliment.
Upon learning that someone around him had been parasitized, his first reaction was not to worry about the danger to others, but to care about Ah Hu's condition. He is a good captain.
It seems he made the right decision to come here.
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