At the end of this passageway, a metal door awaited Lin Xi and the others.
This door was thicker than the metal door at the entrance, and it should have been locked—Lin Xi saw the malfunctioning access control system next to the metal door.
But now, the door in front of Lin Xi was severely damaged—heaven knows what this door had gone through, but all Lin Xi saw was a completely deformed metal plate.
There was a wide gap between the metal door, which should have been sealed, and the door frame.
Xavier inserted her forelimbs into the gap. Lin Xi didn't know what she did, but the next second, he heard a piercing metallic scraping sound, and then the door slammed heavily to the ground right in front of him, kicking up a thin layer of dust.
"Cough cough—"
Lin Xi coughed a few times.
"Thanks……"
He spoke to Xavier, who nodded slightly at him.
"It's nothing troublesome."
It said that its forelegs unconsciously rubbed together slightly.
Lin Xi waited outside the open metal door for a moment, and only after confirming that she did not sense any danger inside did she cautiously step inside.
The air here was as stuffy and cold as ever, with a faint, rotten smell.
To Lin Xi's slight surprise, the lighting in the area was still barely functioning.
After Lin Xi, Xavier, and Arthur strolled into the large metal room, the white light tubes on the ceiling struggled to light up.
Lin Xi narrowed her eyes and then looked around.
Compared to the metal chamber they had been in before, this place was much more spacious. The room was a gentle circle, and there were two doors on each side leading to unknown places.
At the very center of the room was a curved control panel, and a row of neat storage cabinets occupied a considerable amount of space in the corner. However, the smooth, shiny metal panels of the walls, floors, and cabinets were covered with numerous black splatter marks.
Lin Xi glanced at the marks and could easily tell that they were the marks left by dried blood.
It's not surprising that these bloodstains were found here...
Under the cold light emitted by the exceptionally dim lighting, the most striking feature was the skeleton scattered throughout the room.
The moment Lin Xi saw the skeletons, she clearly sensed Xavier's tension beside her.
Xavier only seemed slightly relieved after discovering that the skeletons were already beyond dead.
Even so, it did not let its guard down. Xavier forced Lin Xi to stand still for a while, and after examining the grayish-white corpses himself, he returned to Lin Xi and nodded to her.
"They're all dead...dead a long time ago."
Xavier said to Lin Xi.
Although Xavier's emotions were not discernible from his cold face, Lin Xi knew through their mental connection that Xavier's tense heart had only relaxed slightly at this moment.
Lin Xi gave Xavier a reassuring smile before stepping forward to examine the remains.
These corpses varied in size, and the vast majority of them looked like humans... However, upon closer inspection, Lin Xi would find that they had all undergone some degree of mutation. For example, their jaws had been transformed into bony straws, or their spines had become thin and long, eventually forming thin bony plates on their backs.
Of course, there were also some corpses, just like the ones Lin Xi had seen in the ruins of the Sun God, which had been completely transformed into another kind of creature. They lay quietly on the metal ground, their remains having turned a dull grayish-white.
This made the corpses of these alien species look like some kind of plaster sculpture. Lin Xi held his breath and approached one of the alien species' corpses with some hesitation.
This thing looks like a combination of a dragonfly and a centipede. It appears to have died from a gunshot wound. It was curled up in the corner of the room, with several broken bones under its damaged abdomen.
Lin Xi glanced at it and confirmed that it was human remains.
One can imagine that when this alien species died, there should still be some food in its stomach, and the alien species' food... can only be humans.
Now, both the humans and the aliens have been reduced to skeletons and empty shells, but Lin Xi can still feel how fierce the battle that took place here was.
They devoured each other, killed each other, and finally died together here.
Thinking of this, Lin Xi couldn't help but turn around and look at the severely deformed door behind her.
Beside the gate, he saw a human corpse with a heavy machine gun hanging from its arm. The body was in a semi-sitting position, its head tilted to one side, and its sternum shattered. Two or three alien skeletons lay in front of it, their deformed arms reaching straight toward the gate.
It's clear that this guy was the one who risked everything to block this door back then.
"It seems this place wasn't always peaceful."
Lin Xi muttered to himself as he reached out and gently touched the alien's corpse.
As a result, before he even exerted any force, the alien corpse that touched his finger instantly turned into fragile, grayish-white fragments and collapsed.
"Hiss..."
Upon seeing this scene, Arthur, who was following closely behind Lin Xi, let out a somewhat panicked cry, until Xavier gave him a cold glance.
Arthur shook his wings and slowly retreated to a corner.
Lin Xi's attention was completely focused on the shattered bones. He stared at the fallen grayish-white fragments for a moment, then withdrew his hand.
"Sorry, buddy, I didn't mean to."
Lin Xi said.
It seems he couldn't find many clues from the remains of these creatures.
Instead of wasting his time on the corpses, he focused his attention on the lockers.
According to Lin Xi's guess, the spacious space they are now entering should be the equipment room used by the crew of the Providence when they first explored the outside world after disembarking.
Assuming that human customs three hundred years ago were not much different from those of today, the cabinets standing on the edge of the preparation room were usually where the crew members kept their personal belongings.
Lin Xi felt that she should be able to find some useful clues.
At this moment, Lin Xi couldn't care less about respecting other people's privacy; he walked straight to the metal cabinets. Xavier's exceptionally sharp forelimbs proved invaluable at this time, and Lin Xi easily disassembled the cabinet doors.
The belongings left in the lockers by those who had already died were displayed perfectly before Lin Xi.
The outerwear hanging inside the metal cabinet looked brand new. Only when Lin Xi inspected and touched the outerwear did he discover that the insulating material on the surface of the outerwear was full of tiny cracks.
Fortunately, the identification badges and work permits on the chests of the uniforms have not faded over the past 300 years.
Lin Xi even saw the person who was blocking the doorway and blocking all the escape routes of the aliens on the identity tag of one of the outer garments.
Andre Quinn.
The name was engraved on the heavy machine gun in the skeleton's hand.
Lin Xi immediately focused his inspection on him, carefully examining the name tag on his outer garment, which displayed Andre Quinn's identity as—[Captain of the Senior Security Team, Seventh Division, Providence].
Lin Xi glanced at the other people's nameplates and was quite certain that Quinn was the highest-ranking staff member in the room.
That's about it. Compared to the other, more conventional crew members, Andrei's closet was crammed with all sorts of personal belongings.
Lin Xi saw the photo he had posted on his locker door.
The photo had long since faded, but you could still vaguely make out that Andrei was a rather handsome man in life, with a beautiful woman nestled in his arms.
That happiness and warmth could be felt even through the faded photograph.
In one corner of the photo, there is a line of fancy handwritten text...
Happy wedding anniversary, I will always love you.
The signature is Anna Tali
Happy wedding anniversary.
Just then, Lin Xi suddenly felt a weight on his shoulder. Turning his head, he saw Xavier's face.
The grotesque-looking alien was staring blankly at the photo in Lin Xi's hand, its gaze intensely focused.
I will love you forever...
Xavier continued.
Even though she knew the other person was just reading that line of text, Lin Xi still felt her ears get slightly hot when she heard the last sentence.
"You recognize these words?!"
Lin Xi suppressed the strange thought that suddenly popped into her mind and then quickly changed the subject.
Xavier waved its tentacles at him with a hint of smugness. It would never tell Lin Xi that it had indeed gone to great lengths to learn human language in order to watch TV series.
"This man seems to love his wife very much..."
Xavier feigned composure, pretending not to care at all about Lin Xi's surprise.
"Yes, you can tell."
As Lin Xi finished speaking, she couldn't help but look back at the corpse lying near the metal door.
His feelings were somewhat complicated.
The deep affection between Andrei and his wife, viewed three hundred years later, seems tinged with a tragic hue.
After regaining his senses, Lin Xi couldn't help but sigh. Even Andre himself probably hadn't imagined that when he stepped onto the Providence, he had already embarked on a path leading to darkness...
Just like himself back then, you know, until the Sun God took off from Sunu, he thought he would soon be able to return to a normal life.
After letting out a sigh, Lin Xi forced herself to calm down.
Lin Xi didn't want to focus too much energy on the past of the dead. He quickly pasted the photo back onto the locker door and then started rummaging through Andrei's locker again.
If the other party is indeed the captain in charge of shipboard security, his locker should contain identification cards that provide access to other parts of the underground facility.
With this in mind, Lin Xi's search did indeed yield results.
However, what he received was not an identification card, but a diary.
When Lin Xi pulled the already fragile notebook out from the depths of the cabinet, she was stunned.
Even writing a diary three hundred years ago would have been considered outdated, but Lin Xi should now thank Andre Quinn for his conservatism in this regard.
Lin Xi opened the diary almost impatiently.
Andrei's diary is filled with dense handwriting, detailing his observations and experiences aboard the Providence, as well as his gradual descent into collapse.
Lin Xi quickly flipped through the first part, which mostly described the events from Earth's takeoff to before the warp gate. Andrei's calm diary entries showed that the journey had been as smooth and successful as the scientists had initially imagined.
However, after the Providence began its famous "disappearance jump," something new started to appear in Andrei's diary.
November 12, 2711
weather……
Well, the weather here is probably not really anything special.
After all, we've always been stuck in this damned cabin. And the weather created by the artificial projections is always perfectly bright.
Today marks the 15th day since we successfully completed the jump and landed.
Thankfully, I always have to force myself to say that.
After all, there has never been a man-made object of such massive mass in human history that has passed through a jump gate to reach the outside universe.
The fact that we weren't shattered by the spatial fault lines there is enough to prove how lucky we were.
However, communication with Earth has not yet been restored. I asked Chris about it today, which is probably the 2,000th time I've asked in the last 15 days, but their replies are still as boring as ever.
The Providence spacecraft was so massive that it caused particle oscillations within the jump gate as it passed through it. Well, this means we've completely lost contact with Earth, and re-establishing communication will only be possible once the jump gate stabilizes.
Chris said it could take anywhere from several months to several years. Good heavens, I hope it's the former. I can't believe what Anna would think of me if I really lost contact with the other side of the earth for several years.
I could sense that the others on the spaceship shared my concerns, and the atmosphere here was rather somber. My team felt the same way. Oh, heavens, I truly hope all of this will pass soon.
November 29, 2711
There has still been no contact with Earth today. I have no idea what that damn navigator is doing. In any case, the warp gate remains in chaos today.
This is not good news.
I have to say this.
The jump gate is a problem, and the disconnection is also a problem.
To make matters worse, there might be something wrong with the vaccines we brought from Earth.
Yesterday, my teammates and I received the latest batch of vaccine injections, and it was absolutely awful.
The idiots in the medical lab said the vaccine was to help me adapt to life on an alien planet more quickly, but in reality, it just made me allergic to everything.
I had a headache, sneezed, and coughed; it felt like I was having a bad cold.
The only thing we could be thankful for was that everyone else on the ship was just as weak as we were, so no one had the energy to cause trouble.
Otherwise, I wouldn't be confident that I could control the situation with just those sickly young men in the team.
After all, we are now cut off from Earth, and there will always be some people who feel extremely panicked because of this.
Thank God, at least we still have AI... Hal is indeed a thoughtful butler.
It took good care of us all.
For three whole days, we relied on this guy to manage our lives. I admit that before this mission, I had a prejudice against artificial intelligence, but now I'm afraid I have to take back my opinion. HAL did a good job.
January 12, 2712
The weather's been terrible; we just experienced an alien storm. For God's sake, it was a nightmare.
Now I understand why the engineering department was so eager to dig underground bunkers. Without underground bunkers, even the Providence wouldn't have survived such a storm for long.
I admit, I'm starting to doubt myself now, wondering why I even settled in this godforsaken place.
Those government officials are a bunch of damn liars.
January 15, 2712
The allergic reactions following the vaccine have not subsided.
The underground bunker is progressing much faster than expected. I must say, those guys from Del Corporation are really impressive. Although the batch of robots they brought on board always gave me a creepy feeling.
January 22, 2712
I still have a cough and a cold.
I don't know what went wrong, at least not the others on the ship...
The vast majority of those people have recovered from the reactions caused by the vaccine.
On Earth I was as strong as a bull, but now I feel as fragile as a little bird.
I'm growing to hate this damn planet more and more.
And I'm pretty sure Anna won't like it here. There are just too many bugs. She'll be terrified of them.
Damn it, I miss him so much. I really hope I can make contact with Earth soon.
January 28, 2712
The situation is terrible, I don't know how to write it, I'll talk about it tomorrow.
January 29, 2712
Thanks to sleep and alcohol, I feel much better now.
The situation on the ship is not good. Just yesterday, a monster appeared inside the cabin.
How should I put it? If I hadn't encountered that monster, I probably would never have known that I actually have a phobia of insects.
That thing was completely beyond my imagination. I had no idea that an insect magnified thousands of times, becoming larger than a horse, would be so terrifying.
We've almost run out of ammunition.
But to that guy, our attacks were like tickling him.
Fortunately, at the last moment, the ghost of Del Corporation appeared.
Thanks to those jellyfish, we survived no matter what. I will never say those guys look creepy again.
February 3, 2712
A bad day
The news that a monster had broken into the ship's cabin was suppressed.
Even so, I could still sense that everyone was in a bad mood.
The captain gave us a direct order to thoroughly inspect the sealing systems of all the cabins. It was a massive undertaking, and heaven knows how we ended up completing it.
I felt like I almost died here, but you know what's most frustrating isn't the sheer volume of tasks, but rather that after going through such inhumanly abnormal checks, you still don't know where the problem lies.
Such a huge monster couldn't have just appeared out of thin air.
But we have checked all the closed systems over and over again, and we have not found any vulnerabilities in the systems.
That monster really looks like it was conjured up here by a sorcerer.
February 9, 2712
I did something that might offend Angel.
I know this is unwise, but I really have no other choice.
I don't think the monster entered the ship from the outside.
Why has no one ever questioned those biological laboratories?
Those so-called scientists have been studying those nasty little bugs ever since they landed on this planet.
Who knows what those crazy scientists will do to the bugs? Maybe they'll give them some kind of potion and turn them into the monsters we've seen before.
Good heavens, I really don't understand why anyone would want to build such a dangerous biological laboratory inside a spaceship with 250,000 people. They should be isolated far away on the moon.
I really wish Anna could be with me.
February 13, 2712
My report took three days to write, but their response to me probably only took three seconds.
They didn't even think to investigate that lab, damn it.
March 15, 2712
I don't know how to continue writing; I feel like I'm going crazy.
Yes, that's right, that damned monster has reappeared, but this time there are finally victims in the incident.
A medical officer named Johnson Lane has gone missing, and his wife and children have all become food for the monster.
Anyone who witnessed that scene would want to investigate the truth of the matter.
I don't know what went wrong with HAL. Why would it exclude humans from the accident investigation? It just doesn't make sense. It just activated the security robot's first-level privileges like that.
We had barely arrived at the scene when those damn robots had already dealt with the monsters.
This is completely against the rules. Those robots were supposed to play only a supporting role, but now they have become the main characters on the spaceship.
March 20, 2712
I suspect that the Providence's AI has a logical error.
April 1, 2712
Yes, I think Hal might really be crazy.
He seems to be treating the humans on the spaceship as secondary animals, while he himself is completely in control.
I suspect it may have deviated from the logical norms of the first rule, and if so, we're in big trouble.
April 6, 2712
I can't take it anymore, I have to go see Scripps.
A very scary thought popped into my head. Of course, no one would believe my guess, but my gut feeling told me that something was going in a very bad direction.
Well, my idea might not seem so ridiculous if I write it down in my diary.
I suspect that Hal developed its own consciousness, and then it imprisoned Captain Scripps.
April 11, 2712
I finally met Captain Scripps, and well, he certainly looked terrible. Hal may not have been lying to me about that.
Scripps was very ill, and seeing him even gave me a little comfort; I wasn't the only one on the ship who had such a violent reaction to the vaccines.
Scripps assured me that Hal would be fine, and I was willing to believe him, and I hoped he was right.
April 28, 2712
Anna, I wish you could be by my side.
If that's the case, maybe I can hold out a little longer; the atmosphere on the ship is getting increasingly strange.
The number of monsters is increasing.
If it weren't for those robotic jellyfish helping to deal with the monsters on the ship, I suspect most of the colonists on the Providence would have become bait for those insects.
May 2, 2712
Am I crazy?
May 16, 2712
I heard it today too.
Those insects are speaking in human voices.
And... they even have human faces??
I suspect I've really gone mad, otherwise why would I see Johnson's face on those corpses being dragged away by the mechanical warriors? Shouldn't that guy be dead already?
May 19, 2712
I'm sure I'm really crazy, but I suspect the humans on this ship are turning into monsters.
Our spaceship's AI has gone mad. I need to find Scripps; only he has the authority to stop this in this situation.
And I wasn't at all surprised that Hal would try to prevent me from seeing Scripps.
...
Lin Xi's hand trembled slightly.
After writing in his diary that he was going to see Scripps... the diary went blank.
In other words, from that day on, this man named Andre Quinn never wrote a diary again.
Lin Xi turned around and looked at the skeleton at the door, her face gradually darkening.
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