Who are you?
Upon hearing Lin Xi's question, the deformed monster with pale skin trembled slightly, and the tentacles on its head began to shake rapidly.
Lin Xi looked at it suspiciously, feeling that the monster actually seemed quite happy.
"Lin Xi... chirp..."
The next second, the monster suddenly opened its mouth and let out a sharp, weak cry.
Lin Xi couldn't help but frown. This was the first time in his life that he had dealt with such a strange-looking creature (Lin Xi suspected that it might be some kind of alien creature), but for some reason, Lin Xi's intuition told him that a monster like the one in front of him should not have such a voice.
The alien's cry should be—
【Lin Xi——】
In a daze, Lin Xi seemed to hear a series of strange but affectionate murmurs. And that sound overlapped with some calls from his dream.
Who is calling him?
Lin Xi's eyes darkened slightly, and a wave of doubt rose in her heart.
He swallowed hard, looking at the white monster in front of him with suspicion.
Previously, due to his emotional state and extreme fear, Lin Xi had never properly examined the monster. Now, as they stared at each other, Lin Xi could finally see it clearly from head to toe. However, the more he looked, the more annoyed he felt.
No, that shouldn't be the case.
It was as if a voice was whispering to him in his heart.
Failed product...
Deformed organisms…
Waste that should be killed and devoured.
Useless relatives.
Wasted resources and nutrients.
...
Hiss—
It wasn't until a low, inhuman moan emanated from within his chest that Lin Xi realized he was actually threatening the white monster.
Lin Xi was startled—of course, the other party's reaction was far more intense than Lin Xi's.
The little white monster let out a low whimper. It suddenly lowered its head, shrank its neck, and quickly retreated, then slipped back behind the rock where it had been hiding.
"Damn it..."
Lin Xi immediately covered her mouth, and then shivered because of the new changes in her body.
Well, perhaps the real problem wasn't just his legs, but also other organs in his body. After all, before he lost consciousness, Lin Xi didn't remember being able to make sounds from his chest.
To make matters worse, just as Lin Xi covered his mouth, his fingers inadvertently touched something strange—Lin Xi's pupils constricted instantly, and he tremblingly extended a finger to tentatively explore inside his mouth.
Lin Xi was immediately terrified by the sharp mouthparts that were protruding from under her tongue.
"This is fucking ridiculous."
Lin Xi withdrew his hand, his face turning deathly pale, and let out a curse.
Could he have been secretly detained by some government department and subjected to biological experiments?
Lin Xi thought to herself, somewhat out of control.
His lower body was a gigantic, swollen, deformed insect-like body with wings growing from his back. He could produce various sounds from inside his body without using vocal cords, and he had grown a new set of mouthparts—what had happened to him to become like this?!
While Lin Xi was stunned by his various discoveries, something even more infuriating happened.
Perhaps it was because Lin Xi's earlier threat had caused the white, insect-like monster to misunderstand something. The monster rustled and busied itself behind the rock for a while, and then very carefully slipped out from behind the rock, forcefully pushing a wet, soft mass toward Lin Xi.
At the very beginning, Lin Xi didn't even understand what that thing was.
The white monster was so eager that it accidentally tore open the outer shell of the thing with the edge of its scythe-like forelimbs.
A strong smell of blood, accompanied by a pungent stench, assaulted Lin Xi's senses. Along with the stench, a rotting corpse slid out from beneath the white membrane.
That corpse also belonged to a monster.
Naturally, Lin Xi still couldn't recognize what it was. Was it a centipede magnified countless times? A scorpion? Or something else? Judging from its enormous size, this thing must have been very dangerous in life. But now, all the muscles and internal organs of that terrifying monster had turned into clumps of semi-solidified dark gray mucus, and its shell was wrapped in this mucus, appearing and disappearing intermittently.
Only a deformed head with shriveled eyeballs remained, staring intently in Lin Xi's direction.
"Oh my god..."
Lin Xi suddenly stepped back, and almost fell to the ground because his body was not used to it.
It was a mess, but Lin Xi couldn't care less right now—he was terrified of the thing.
"..."
Finally, even the white monster was startled by Lin Xi's reaction. Its body stiffened, and its wings and tentacles were taut. Under the monster's burning gaze, it took Lin Xi a while to slowly come to her senses.
Lin Xi took a deep breath, and then another deep breath, adjusting her breathing rate and trying to calm herself down.
However, the deep breaths that usually worked so well only made him smell even more stench this time...
Heavens above, why does he even seem so familiar with this stench?
Lin Xi couldn't help but think as he watched the white monster drop that terrifying thing with a look of astonishment and uncertainty... Well, he had to admit that even this thing looked very familiar to him.
During this process, Lin Xi vaguely recalled some blurry images. Of course, from his perspective, he would rather he had never remembered those things—he remembered that he had eaten those things.
That must have been when he was extremely weak and his consciousness was blurred. Those sharp mouthparts that terrified him protruded from his mouth, piercing the soft membrane covering the rotting corpse like straws. And then he greedily and indulgently sucked the monstrous juices from the corpse.
"vomit--"
Recalling this scene, Lin Xi turned pale and began to vomit.
At that time, the person who provided him with this food seemed to be the white monster in front of him.
No, that's not right... It's not just that...
In Lin Xi's memory, there seemed to be some even more terrifying scenes.
He saw himself not only devouring these corpses like a demon, but he also nearly fed the little white monster to himself countless times.
Tentacles—Thorns—Counterattack—
Lin Xi suddenly turned around and looked at the thick fleshy membranes he had previously overlooked. Sure enough, he saw those thorny tentacles at the base of those membranes.
"No way..."
Lin Xi muttered in disbelief. He turned his head and looked at the white monster again. He wasn't surprised to find the horrifying, long, narrow wounds on the monster's naked body. Before, because of the monster's terrifying appearance, he hadn't noticed the wounds at all. And if he remembered correctly, these wounds seemed to be the ones he had left when he tried to kill and eat the creature while his consciousness was hazy…
Lin Xi was startled by herself.
He looked down in disbelief at his own human hands—
Could he really have such a terrifying, horrifying side?
In comparison, even the white monster seemed delicate and pitiful.
Lin Xi couldn't accept this reality.
No matter how much she told herself to stay calm, Lin Xi just couldn't manage it... It's a real shame.
After all, not everyone can accept that they ate so many rotting corpses while in a state of confusion, and that they even wanted to devour another monster.
Before this, Lin Xi had only seen similar things in horror movies about Martian leeches, but those were just boring human imaginations. Now, however, Lin Xi was facing an incredibly real and cruel reality.
"What the hell am I doing?"
Lin Xi asked herself softly.
His consciousness was momentarily clouded.
Do not succumb to your instincts.
At that moment, Lin Xi suddenly remembered the words that the man in his dream kept repeating to him.
A miraculous thing happened; at that very moment, Lin Xi finally calmed down.
All right--
Lin Xi forced himself to look at his lower body. He stared at his terrifyingly swollen abdomen and the thick, insect-like limbs that clearly belonged to another species, and gritted his teeth as he spoke to himself.
First, he had to accept one thing: he had indeed become a different monster.
Perhaps the strange things he showed before were all related to this change in him, but now, fear, despair, and panic are useless here.
The most urgent thing is to figure out what happened, and then figure out a solution. By the way, maybe Bryce can help him find a way; after all, his brother is a medical officer…
Yes, that's right. Someone like Bryce, who has traveled through interstellar space countless times, must have seen many strange cases. Perhaps the changes he's experiencing now are just some kind of ailment commonly seen during interstellar travel...
Lin Xi knew how weak his self-comforting words were, but at this moment he could only force himself not to think about them too carefully.
However, while Lin Xi was panicking because of his mutation, he did not realize that his emotional fluctuations were strongly affecting another behemoth not far from him—a real monster, a fully developed and powerful mutant.
What exactly happened?
The same question lingered in Xavier's mind.
It kept asking this question as it leaped off the cliff and sped toward the vicinity of the Helios wreckage.
Xavier had thought he would find new human aircraft here: if Lin Xi really came from Earth, he should be able to find traces of it.
Perhaps Lin Xi had other troubles at the time, or perhaps he accidentally boarded the lifeboat, but now he has finally come to find him—
As it flew from its current habitat here, Xavier kept thinking about this. Its emotions oscillated between extreme excitement and extreme frustration.
Beneath the excitement lay a deep sense of unease.
Will Lin Xi still recognize it now?
Perhaps it should be angry; that's how it's always portrayed in novels and movies—
However, these complex thoughts quickly subsided the moment Xavier arrived at his destination, and then turned into deep despair.
The area around the ruins of the Apollo was just as desolate and peaceful as Xavier remembered.
There was no trace of new human activity.
Undeterred, Xavier conducted a thorough search around the ruins of the Helios, then stopped and stood frozen in place.
Everything is the same as before, no new detectors, nothing...
No, that's not right—
Xavier's wing fluttered.
Although no new detectors were found, Lin Xi's presence was undeniable, though so faint as to be almost nonexistent...
Xavier realized that the spiritual connection between himself and Lin Xi was becoming increasingly strong.
That primal drive from the depths of his being, and his deep longing for the Mother of the Alien... for Lin Xi, even caused Xavier's now grayish-white body to once again be covered with a metallic, neon-like sheen.
Its extreme excitement caused its wings to be stretched tightly outside its elytra.
Xavier paced impatiently in circles several times.
In the end, it succumbed to its instincts and once again flew in circles around the ruins of the Sun God, searching for Lin Xi's whereabouts in vain and with near despair.
This time, Xavier didn't come away empty-handed. Somewhere a few kilometers from the ruins of the Apollo, Xavier suddenly tucked his wings in and landed heavily on the ground.
Its tentacles stood up, sensing the movement of the air.
The next second, it suddenly stretched out its claws straight towards a certain spot on the ground.
The ground was covered with a layer of colorful, thick, velvety plants. These plants were very common on AS192, but the ones covering Xavier looked like ordinary vegetation.
But Xavier did not stop what he was doing.
The sharp thorns covering its forelimbs were very useful; it didn't take long for it to use its claws to pry open the plants covering the golden-red soil, and then a hole was revealed.
To an ordinary Earthling, this hole might just be a regular rabbit hole, or perhaps a habitat dug out by other small animals on this planet.
Xavier, of course, did not think that way. He stared intently at the black hole. Although he had never seen anything like it before, the instincts that had accumulated inside the insect's body for millions of years gave him an incredibly clear answer.
This is not a nest dug by some small animal at all; it is a vast and intricate underground kingdom built by its own kind.
And what it has found now is the ventilation shaft of the underground nest.
The discovery that there were other beings of its kind on this planet—if this already made Xavier extremely unhappy, what it discovered next made it even more anxious.
It crouched down and stretched its tentacles forward.
It carefully sniffed the air coming out of the vents through its collector.
During this process, the patterns on Xavier's body became more and more distinct, and the colors became more and more vibrant. This indicated that Xavier's emotions were becoming increasingly agitated.
This is perfectly normal; it will indeed get excited because...
Because Xavier discovered that he could faintly smell Lin Xi's scent inside the ventilation duct.
The flavor was faint and had a vaguely strange quality, but as Lin Xi's queen insect, she could never mistake the scent of her lover.
...
"Um?"
At the same moment, deep underground, Lin Xi and the white monster trembled violently...
However, at this moment, the emotions they felt were completely opposite.
The monster with its thin and deformed body displayed fear and panic in that instant.
As if it were facing some deadly threat, the monster raised its face, its red compound eyes staring straight at the top of the cave, its tentacles trembling uneasily behind its head.
As for Lin Xi, she felt a strange sense of peace.
It was as if, without his knowledge, he had lost a vital part of his body—and now, that most important part had suddenly returned to him.
Lin Xi unconsciously pressed his hand to his chest. Was it just his imagination? Just a moment ago, he felt as if his chest was filled with a warm and sweet emotion.
The panic and unease that had been raging through his body since he regained consciousness slowly receded like the tide, replaced by a sense of security and tranquility that words could not describe.
This comfortable and fulfilling feeling made Lin Xi's body slightly warm. He didn't even notice that two delicate, almost transparent wings were emerging from below his shoulder blades.
It wasn't until he heard a faint whistling sound coming from behind that Lin Xi suddenly turned his head and immediately noticed the new abnormality on his body.
Lin Xi was startled by herself once again—
Well, that made him much more sober.
A strong sense of disgust immediately overwhelmed the abnormal, internal pleasure.
What the hell is going on?
Lin Xi let out a curse.
In such a situation, suddenly feeling happy and joyful feels far more unsettling than feeling fear.
Thinking of this, Lin Xi bit her tongue hard.
Of course, he only felt a slight pain.
Okay, maybe that's what monsters are like.
Lin Xi said this to herself in her heart.
What worried him wasn't just the strange phenomena occurring in his own body, but also Bryce… He could still remember Bryce standing beside him when he lay down in the hibernation pod. Lin Xi knew, of course, how much his overly anxious brother valued him, but now, he had become a damned giant worm, and was being dragged by another monster into this dark, silent, and unknown dark cave.
So what about Bryce? What happened to him? Was it the same as his experience? And what about the others on the Helios?
Lin Xi forced himself to ignore the pleasure slowly spreading deep within his body. He struggled to support his body and began to slowly wriggle.
He walked step by step until he reached the white monster.
"You know where I came from, right? And you also know where the spaceship is?"
Lin Xi stared intently at the white monster, then asked.
After recalling so many things, he was now certain that although the monster in front of him was terrifying in appearance, it had no ill intentions towards him.
Then again, perhaps from an outsider's perspective, he is no different from the monster before him now—no, compared to the white monster that looks exactly like a giant worm, his half-human, half-worm form is probably the most disgusting existence.
Lin Xi murmured to herself with self-mockery.
The white monster in front of Lin Xi still looked very nervous.
It opened its mouth and emitted several strange hissing sounds that triggered Lin Xi's obsessive-compulsive disorder.
"Please, stop it, your yelling is giving me a headache."
Lin Xi muttered to herself.
The white monster's tentacles drooped down immediately.
Lin Xi frowned as she looked at it; that familiar sense of déjà vu appeared once again.
He therefore felt a strange sense of pity for the monster in front of him.
"Okay, let me think about how to tell you... You know what happened, right?"
Lin Xi composed herself, then couldn't help but speak to the white monster again.
His heart was pounding; on one hand, he felt incredibly stupid.
Who would have thought that one day he would be whispering to such a strange-looking creature, asking about his condition?
On the other hand, Lin Xi's intuition told him that he might indeed get the answer from the little white monster in front of him... and this time Lin Xi's intuition was right.
Although it couldn't communicate with Lin Xi verbally, the little white monster could respond to him with its actions.
The white monster would occasionally raise its head to look at the top of the cave. After hearing Lin Xi's last question, it turned around impatiently and quickly flapped its thin white wings to disappear into the passage connecting the cave.
It took a few steps and then stopped, its head rotating back at a terrifying angle. Its red compound eyes flashed for a moment in the darkness, as if signaling Lin Xi to follow it.
"You mean you want me to keep up with you?"
Lin Xi paused briefly at the entrance of the narrow passage.
He still had some hesitation.
For a moment, he felt as if his soul had been split in two, one half screaming wildly for him to stay. Meanwhile, the rational part of his body was telling Lin Xi that he should follow the white monster and find answers to the various strange phenomena in his body.
Lin Xi couldn't help but turn around and look at the place where she had been.
Just then, he heard that strange cry that gave him a headache again.
That was spoken to him by the white monster.
It was clear that it had no desire to linger in the cave any longer, perhaps because it sensed some danger?
Lin Xi thought, puzzled.
The white monster's low growl, filled with pleading and fear, finally moved him.
Lin Xi gritted her teeth, then moved forward, closely following behind the monster, heading towards the other end of the passage.
However, he didn't know that shortly after he left, another shadow suddenly appeared in the once dark and silent cave...
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