[New book "Resurrection Empire", please collect it!!!]

The tranquility of the early morning was broken by a miserable scream.

The frightened people ran out of their rooms in panic.

Samantha Swan covered her face with her hands and squatted at the door of her dormitory in horror.

Five meters to her side, a medium-thin man was lying on his back on the ground. A large hole as thick as a bowl was burned in the man's chest. The place where the man fell was exactly the door of his dormitory.

Due to the thorough burning, the inside of the hole had been carbonized and no blood flowed out of his body. Three blood lines appeared at the corners of his eyes and mouth.

He had been silent for a long time and was dead completely. His eyes were wide open, his face full of fear and confusion, as if he had seen some terrible scene before he died.

The deceased was Matsuda Masahito, the man who was supposed to drive the tunnel boring machine to other scientific research bases today.

"What's going on?"

Siceta frowned and came forward, squatting down to check carefully. There were two eye boogers hanging from the corners of Siceta's eyes, indicating that he did not sleep well last night, and even looked a little sleepy because he got up early, but the quality of a professional soldier still allowed him to quickly adjust back to his state and perform his duties. As the only military personnel in the base, he was responsible for security, and it was naturally his task to deal with accidental deaths of personnel.

Samantha trembled and said, "I don't know what happened. I got up early as usual and prepared breakfast for everyone. Who knew I would see this scene when I opened the door."

Samantha was still trembling as she tried to slowly crawl towards Matsuda Masahito. Her eyes showed sadness and fear, as well as a trace of doubt and confusion.

Nur Ahong frowned, and his eyes drifted to the other corner of the wall without a sound. It was an ion beam gun hanging on the wall of the lobby so that it could be removed at any time in an emergency.

In the base, the only thing that could leave such a burning injury on Matsuda Masahito was that gun. But only the team leader Nur Ahong and the soldier Siceta have the authority to turn on the ion beam gun safety device.

Siceta keenly caught Nur Ahong's suspicious eyes and immediately argued loudly, "Team leader, what are you thinking? You don't think it's me, do you?"

Nur Ahong: "Then is it me? What is my motive for committing the crime?"

Siceta was immediately silent.

Everyone has been together for some years, and everyone knows what kind of person Nur Ahong is. He is rigorous, self-disciplined, focused on work, and has almost no personal hobbies. He strictly abides by work principles when dealing with anyone, and almost never has personal relationships with anyone, only doing official business. Nur Ahong has no personal conflicts with Masahito Matsuda. Moreover, he gave Masahito Matsuda an order to go out today yesterday. For Nur Ahong, the uncontrollable variables in the plan made it impossible to carry out the plan, which was probably more painful to him than taking his life.

But Siceta was different. He and Masahito Matsuda had always had conflicts.

In the past, Siceta did not kill Matsuda, which could be understood as his kindness and arrogance, but it could also be understood that the double supervision of the strict surveillance everywhere in the base and the military intelligent computer system on his combat uniform suppressed his murderous intention.

Now, with the failure of all the high-tech equipment in the base, the information collection function of the monitoring and intelligent computer naturally disappeared.

Siceta opened his lips and looked at the other two people present, as if he hoped that others would defend him.

But Ou Xiameng and Liang Zhichu were silent. The base is now in full lockdown, and no one is opening the door from the inside, so it is impossible for anyone from the outside to break in. So the murderer must be one of the five people present.

Although there is no evidence, logically speaking, Siceta is the most likely culprit.

Ou Xiameng did not rush to speak, because she was already beginning to worry about whether her experimental mission could be completed smoothly.

A life was lost, which meant that the inside of the base was no longer safe, and it also meant that the large amount of data she had collected with great effort had lost its security. These data have not yet been subject to final verification, and she does not know whether there are backups in other bases.

Liang Zhichu did not think too much, but stepped forward, carefully examined the round hole in Matsuda Masahito's chest, and visually inspected it.

Immediately, his pupils shrank slightly, and he looked at Nur Ahong nervously, and even glanced at Siceta with a slightly fearful look.

Nur Ahong understood and said loudly: "Execute the responsibility of the team leader! Revoke Siceta Roy's weapon use authority!"

Only the cutting-edge facilities in the base were damaged. For the sake of stability and reliability, there is a backup system in the authority recognition mechanism of the ion beam gun and combat uniforms, which is a voiceprint recognition device attached to a traditional semiconductor chip.

As Nur Ahong finished speaking, the ion beam gun on the wall made a slight clicking sound, and then a cold electronic voice rang out, "Lieutenant Sicetta Roy's armed authorization has been revoked."

The same voice also came from Sicetta, and his combat suit also lost its function.

Sicetta's body sank suddenly. The combat suit with its function turned off lost its anti-gravity function, and suddenly became as heavy as a thousand pounds, and even restricted his freedom of action.

Liang Zhichu then said, "The distance between the wound on Matsuda Masahito's body and the axis of his shoulders is 22 centimeters, and the error on both sides does not exceed 0.5 centimeters. After losing the assistance of the intelligent aiming device, I am afraid that no one can shoot so accurately except professional soldiers. You can't do it, team leader. After all, although you have the right to use it, you don't practice shooting very often."

Liang Zhichu's subtext is self-evident. But when he said this, he seemed very painful and even a little self-doubting.

Four years ago, during an outbound inspection mission, Liang Zhichu was threatened by a ferocious mechanical beast on the J919. At that time, it was Siceta who fell from the sky and saved his life. Since then, the two have had a good relationship and often talked about everything and exchanged life ideals together. Liang Zhichu understood what kind of person Cicetta was. His emotions told him that he couldn't be the murderer, but his mind told him not to panic.

Siceta looked aggrieved and sad, and said painfully: "Brother Liang, you don't believe me either? Don't you know me? Although Matsuda and I often quarrel, I just think it's a joke and teasing him. How could I kill him? What do I want? I'm not crazy. Although some unexpected situations occurred in the base, I am a professional soldier. In my military career, I have experienced more than one situation that is ten times more dangerous than this. My ideal is to become a leader like Chen Feng. How could I shoot at other humans? Team leader Nur Ahong, you have reviewed my resume. You should know that I have used my life to cover my comrades on the battlefield more than once. In my heart, Matsuda is my comrade-in-arms just like you!"

...

In the end, everyone did not imprison Siceta, but only revoked his right to use arms.

There are two reasons.

First, apart from reasoning, there is indeed no substantial evidence to prove that Siceta is the murderer. There are no Siceta fingerprints on the ion beam gun that has not been used for a long time. According to the management mechanism principles of the scientific expedition team, when there is only one professional soldier, the freedom of movement of the professional soldier cannot be revoked based on reasoning alone. Otherwise, while eliminating a suspected potential crisis, a greater crisis may be brought about.

Second, there have been deaths in the base, and contact with the outside world has not been restored. No one knows what happened on the planet, and whether there will be hidden external enemies who suddenly appear to attack the base. The base and other people need Siceta's protection. If he is imprisoned, it will take a lot of time to release him in case of an emergency.

Throughout the whole day, everyone basically gained nothing. Masahito Matsuda, who was supposed to go to other bases, is dead, and the information has not been sent out.

Neither has contact with the outside world been restored, nor has any useful evidence been found in the case of Masahito Matsuda's death.

In the past nearly ten thousand years of history, mankind has not encountered such a bizarre situation for too long. Unsolved vicious homicides have not appeared for many years.

In daily life and work, people have become accustomed to the help of the omnipotent quantum intelligent computer. The sudden loss of more than 99% of intelligent assistance is like being blindfolded and having one's eardrum punctured. People's living environment is completely broken, as if they have returned to primitive society.

No matter how smart and calm a person is, he will not be able to calm down for a while.

Just like yesterday, in order to prepare meals, Matsuda Masahito, who worked part-time as a mechanic in the base, was called by Samantha to work for a long time before he found a way to activate the induction furnace heating device by short-circuiting the wiring to create a surge. When Ou Xiameng and Liang Zhichu were trying to rescue the data, they also used a mechanic screwdriver to open the sealed box that should have opened automatically. Fortunately, this situation was taken into consideration when it was originally designed, and it was not made fully enclosed. Otherwise, with the material performance standards of the black box that stores data, even a god would be at a loss.

Everyone was busy for two days, but no problem was solved. Most of the time and energy was spent on re-adapting to the basic common sense under the low-tech level, so that thinking became a little rigid, and everyone's logical analysis ability more or less declined.

...

"Do you think it could be Cicetta?"

In the evening, in the living room of Ou Xiameng's dormitory, Liang Zhichu said with a heavy heart.

There was some self-denial in his tone, but it was

also full of doubts. At this time, the two had just had dinner in the cafeteria. Liang Zhichu "shamelessly" followed Ou Xiameng into her dormitory, because he was worried about Ou Xiameng's safety, and he would sleep in Ou Xiameng's living room tonight. Ou Xiameng did not refuse. In the past, the two of them often stayed together all night because of work. She didn't think Liang Zhichu had other thoughts. Even if he did, it would be useless. Liang Zhichu should be very clear that as a descendant of the Ou family, he would not consider his children's love affairs before he achieved academic results that satisfied him.

Ou Xiameng shook his head, "Now everyone suspects Cicetta, and even his right to use arms has been revoked. But you still came to me. So I know that you think the murderer is not him, but someone else."

Liang Zhichu was stunned, "Am I so obvious?"

"Of course."

"Uh, okay." Liang Zhichu scratched his head and grumbled, "Is it because you know that Cicetta and I are good friends?"

"It's not just this reason, but the evidence is indeed insufficient. Cicetta seems to have a motive, but the motive is not strong enough."

Liang Zhichu: "Yeah. I hope it's not him."

In the middle of the night.

Liang Zhichu tossed and turned on the sofa in the living room, unable to fall asleep. He couldn't help thinking about the tragic scene of Matsuda Masahito lying on the ground, and tried to deduce and analyze the whole thing. He wanted to use his ability to clear Ciceta of suspicion. But what troubled him was that if it wasn't Ciceta, then theoretically the biggest suspect would be the team leader Nur Ahong, which was terrifying and even more difficult to accept. In addition, assuming that Ciceta was not the murderer, then the real murderer must still be at large, hiding in the crowd, and no one knew when he would jump out and who would be the next target.

In the absence of any idea of ​​who the murderer was and the murderer's motive, he could only assume that everyone who was still alive was in danger.

...

Another new morning, another miserable scream.

But this time, the deceased was Liang Zhichu. The

one who screamed was Ou Xiameng, who had just walked out of his bedroom door.

The young scholar who once had great ambitions and always yearned for classical love fell quietly at the door of Ou Xiameng's dormitory. A

meter-long alloy rope was tied around Liang Zhichu's neck, hanging loosely.

There was a circular mark on his neck, which penetrated nearly two inches into the flesh. The edge of the mark was purple-red, and the purple-black bruises spread outward. His eyes were wide open, his pupils were dilated, and the whites of his eyes and the mucous membranes around his eyes were a penetrating crimson.

Ou Xiameng looked at him from a distance, seeming a little unbelievable and a little scared.

She and Matsuda Masahito did not have much interaction. In three years, they did not say more than three hundred sentences, and most of them were work-related.

So when Matsuda Masahito died yesterday, although it was described as tragic, it did not have much impact on her.

In the cosmic age, sudden death is not uncommon, not to mention that the small-scale war between humans and compound eyes has not stopped. In the distant Virgo Supercluster, the super-large-scale war between humans and compound eyes is happening every day and every moment.

Even the Andromeda Galaxy, which has been managed into an ironclad kingdom and turned into a logistics base, is still disturbed from time to time.

Ou Xiameng has seen many deaths, but she has been working hard and diligently as her right-hand man at work. Yesterday, in order to protect herself and the people who still live with her, she died quietly. She found it difficult to accept the reality.

"He was strangled to death."

Nur Ahong squatted down, opened Liang Zhichu's mouth, and saw the tongue with several bloody marks from teeth. He said so.

While speaking, he raised his head and stared at Siceta with a scrutinizing look.

Siceta was just approaching, half squatting on the ground, with a sad look in his eyes.

With trembling hands, he tried to pull at Liang Zhichu's collar, but pulled back.

Suddenly, he felt Nur Ahong's gaze, and he looked up. The sadness on his face was gradually replaced by great grievance and anger.

"You killed him! You killed him!"

Sicetta suddenly fell into a rage, and tried to strangle Nur Ahong's neck.

Bang!

His head suddenly turned black, and he fell forward and fell to the ground.

Behind him, Samantha Swan grabbed the barrel of the ion beam gun with both hands, gasping for breath.

...

Fifteen minutes later, Sicetta Roy slowly woke up.

He tried to move, but it was difficult to even bend his fingers. His combat suit had been modified by Nur Ahong and turned into a restraining tool for prisoners.

There was still a dull pain in the back of his head because he had been hit hard just now.

His vision gradually recovered, and Siceta saw his situation clearly.

This was the prison cell at the bottom of the base. It was originally designed to detain compound-eyed invaders or species on J919 that were of research value and more dangerous. But it had never been used in the past. Unexpectedly, the first person to move in was himself.

He was sitting on an iron chair with his hands trapped on the armrests of the iron chair by arc-shaped shackles.

Nur Ahong, Ou Xiameng and Samantha sat behind the interrogation table opposite.

At one end of the interrogation table, the alloy rope that strangled Liang Zhichu was placed in a transparent polyethylene bag.

"Awake?" Nur Ahong, who was in the middle, asked in a deep voice.

Siceta turned away and did not answer. There

was a brief silence of more than ten seconds in the room, and Ou Xiameng broke the deadlock, "Siceta, whether you admit it or not, we all want to know, what do you know, what happened last night, and why do you think the team leader is the murderer?"

Siceta finally reacted and slowly raised his head, "There is no other reason, because I know it was definitely not me. Then among all the people, only the team leader has the strength to strangle Liang Ge. As for the murderer who killed Matsuda Masahito, only the team leader and I have the authority to shoot. I have been suspecting the team leader since yesterday. But I didn't expect you to be so despicable. In order to avoid suspicion, you didn't use a gun when killing the second person, but a rope instead."

Nur Ahong said angrily: "Nonsense! Then tell me, what is my motive!"

"Motive? Motive again! Who knows what your motive is? I want to know too! Maybe you have been locked up in this base for too long and gone crazy? Maybe you have been infiltrated by the compound eyes? Or maybe you are just a fake person?" Siceta was even angrier than him.

Ou Xiameng spoke, "Siceta, what you said is still just the inference you got from assuming that you are not the murderer. From the perspective of the team leader, suppose he knows that he is not the murderer. Then the person who fired the gun on the first day must be you, and on the second day you chose to strangle Liang Zhichu with a rope because you could not use a gun. This possibility is obviously greater."

After Liang Zhichu's death, she finally stopped focusing on scientific research and began to try to use her wisdom to find the real murderer. "Yesterday, Liang Zhichu told me that he trusted you very much. But now it seems that it was a huge mistake for us not to imprison you in time."

Having said this, Siceta finally regained his military nature, gradually calmed down, and was no longer easily controlled by emotions.

He took a deep breath, "What I am going to say next, whether you believe it or not, is the fact I saw. Last night, after you all went to bed, Brother Liang came to me. He asked me seriously whether I did it. I looked into his eyes and told him firmly that it was not me. He left. I regret it now. I shouldn't have let him go back alone. Alas."

Hearing this, Nur Ahong, Ou Xiameng, and Samantha looked at each other, but there was only lingering fatigue in their eyes.

Samantha slowly picked up the bag containing the alloy rope from the side and said in a hoarse voice: "Don't quibble anymore. There are your fingerprints on this rope."

"What!" Sicetta was shocked, "This is impossible!"

"Nothing is impossible. These are not even fingerprints formed by oil, but the cuticle of your fingers caused the surface on both sides of the alloy rope to deform, leaving physical fingerprints. In the base, you are the only one with a body strong enough to leave physical fingerprints on the surface of the alloy, and you have this power. Even if your combat suit cannot be used, your strength as a professional soldier can achieve this effect. We have already done a comparison when you were unconscious, and it matches your ten fingers perfectly."

"This..."

Sicetta's pupils dilated and he was completely dumbfounded.

Nur Ahong stood up and said, "Okay, the interrogation is over. Whether you admit it or not, we already know that you are the real murderer. Wait for the military court's judgment."

The iron door behind him closed, and the three people outside sighed.

The three people did not feel relieved after solving the case, but only felt melancholy about the unknown future.

Only Siceta could manually control the ship, but he was the murderer, so safe evacuation became a luxury, and they could only wait for external rescue in the base. But the communication was delayed and could not be restored. No one knew what the situation was outside and when rescue would come.

Moreover, without professional soldiers and intelligent weapons, the energy shield outside the base had already shut down automatically. Among the remaining three people, only Nur Ahong had some fighting ability. Ou Xiameng and Samantha were basically useless. The security force of the base had declined to the extreme. Once it was attacked by the offensive primitive species on J919, something could happen at any time.

...

The remaining three returned to the base lobby. Ou Xiameng took the alloy rope from Samantha and observed it carefully.

After a long while, she said, "Actually, I still have a doubt. You see these very shallow marks, which should be Liang Zhichu's teeth marks. This means that when the rope was wrapped around Liang Zhichu's neck, it didn't reach the bottom at first, but was bitten by him. Although Siceta couldn't use combat uniforms, with his strength and skills, how could he give Liang Zhichu the opportunity to bite the rope? In other words, if Siceta really exerted enough strength to leave fingerprints on the surface of the alloy rope, then Liang Zhichu should have been strangled directly from the mouth. His head would be cut off."

"This..."

Nur Ahong pondered.

Samantha looked at Nur Ahong quietly and vigilantly, and said tentatively: "Could it be that there is actually a fourth person in our base now?"

"This is impossible!" Ou Xiameng and Nur Ahong said in unison.

...