Lin Xi was unaware that her own transformation had caused Scripps, hundreds of kilometers away, to collapse physically...
Of course, even if he knew, he wouldn't care about it now.
At this moment, he was enveloped in a fleshy sac made of the flesh and blood of the clone captains, and his mind seemed to be in a state of extreme clarity and extreme chaos at the same time. He seemed to still be himself, but... he seemed to have become a different person.
Everything around him was tinged with red, warm and damp, as if he were surrounded by a mutated, gigantic womb. The bloody smell emanating from the deformed body of the experimental subject brought Lin Xi a sense of peace. He felt completely relaxed, like a tiny infant nestled in its mother's amniotic fluid... A continuous stream of energy flowed into his body through his capillaries, his blood was flowing, and his cells were constantly differentiating and mutating.
He devoured all the energy that was transferred into his body with almost greedy intent.
However, Lin Xi didn't realize that just as he felt as relaxed and warm as if he were back in his mother's arms, his body was spreading...
Alternatively, "dissolved" could be used to describe his current state.
The hideous half-human, half-insect body that had once filled him with immense terror was now becoming blurred.
First, Lin Xi's skin and carapace dissolved into the mucus, followed by her muscles and bones. Finally, even Lin Xi's internal organs were transformed into thick cell plasma under the action of the violently secreted enzymes.
At this moment, the only tissue within the fleshy sac that maintained its shape was a few slightly viscous buds hidden deep within Lin Xi's body. Surprisingly, even in this state, Lin Xi's will did not dissipate with his body's decay. On the contrary, his will was gradually becoming more solid and powerful.
Lin Xi realized she was dreaming...
However, unlike any dream he had ever had before, this time he saw the blurred memories of countless life forms from ancient times to the present.
He dreamt of the planet AS192, where the smallest insect was swallowed up by a creature with a surface covered in vibrant colors the moment it emerged from the ground.
He dreamt of a colossal being in the vast galaxy, feeding on stars, devouring once bright and scorching stars...
He dreamt of the Sunu people, and how their ancestors, under the watchful gaze of that dying alien god, abandoned their highly advanced civilization, ventured into the most desolate regions of the universe, and ultimately degenerated into the most primitive and uncivilized race in endless wandering.
He dreamt of humans, incredibly weak humans, and how, within cold metal parts, their bodies gradually transformed into another kind of creature, ultimately collapsing and dying because they couldn't withstand the mental strain.
He dreamed of what was happening now, and he also dreamed of the distant past...
In the end, Lin Xi even dreamed of the android she so utterly loathed and dreaded.
Now he knows that the android is actually an advanced artificial intelligence created by humans. It has a number given to it by the Academy of Sciences as its name, but everyone on the spaceship, including its beloved human, calls it HAL.
Hal's appearance made Lin Xi involuntarily pull back her wandering thoughts.
The numerous dreams abruptly ended, then burst one by one like bubbles. Lin Xi's dream finally coalesced into the artificial intelligence named Hal.
This time, the dream host that Lin Xi possessed was an insect located inside a petri dish... In order to study the severe mutation that appeared on Captain Scripps, scientists took out the queen female insect from a certain insect nest in AS192.
Now, Lin Xi is calmly observing the two people outside the petri dish through the eyes of this ordinary female insect.
In stark contrast to the dilapidated Apollo, this spaceship appeared so clean and bright, with a vast expanse of space. And the man standing in the middle of the bridge, dressed in a captain's uniform, evoked a sense of familiarity within him.
The female insect's dream is about a conversation between Scripps and Hal.
Scripps' expression was solemn, his eyes filled with deep sorrow, while Hal, facing Scripps, had an unusually calm expression and empty eyes, just like all androids.
At this moment, the anonymous android is calmly and eerily reassuring the man in front of him in a serene tone.
"...I sincerely suggest you reconsider your decision. You don't need to, dear Captain Cripps. You're number one on the ship's roster, which means your death will cause an unavoidable and significant loss to the vessel, affecting the safety of the entire ship—"
“HAL, please, stop saying those things to me. You’re not some kind of AI that just mechanically repeats everything,” Scripps interrupted HAL. “You know the situation perfectly well…”
Scripps turned his head, his gaze sweeping blankly over the petri dish.
His body trembled slightly when he saw the female insect in the petri dish.
"My death will not cause significant damage to the ship; on the contrary, my existence could jeopardize the internal security of the Providence..."
The man in uniform gave the android in front of him a particularly bitter smile.
He slowly stood up, and Lin Xi's gaze lingered on him.
He looked so familiar, especially his lower body, which was gradually transforming into an insect-like form.
This man looks like a monster that is half human and half insect.
"According to the regulations, I will fulfill my duties and I must ensure that you are not harmed by anyone. In this case, the definition of 'anyone' also includes yourself."
The android named Hal spoke each word clearly.
"According to your logic, you need to protect humanity, not monsters like me who are gradually mutating... Hal, you personally reviewed those data; you know what I've become. I am the origin of all monsters, and soon I will lose my will as a human, becoming nothing more than a breeding machine for those terrifying creatures. I will become a plague in this universe, and now, while I still have my own will, I must find a way to end my life. Only one Alien Mother can exist in the same universe. If I choose to commit suicide now, no new Alien Mother will appear for the next few hundred to tens of thousands of years... We must buy some time for humanity on Earth..."
"Excuse my bluntness, Captain Scripps. The research of those historians is incomplete. There is a great deal of fabricated information in the history of the Sulu. You should not end your life on such unsubstantiated rumors."
“But I have to do it,” Captain Scripps’s eyes grew increasingly desperate as he whispered, “...even without those historical data, I can’t go on any longer.”
“I am a murderer who has killed hundreds of thousands of people. I had to do it for the people I love on this earth, but... after I made that decision, death was my only relief.”
"Captain Scripps—"
"Now, in the name of the captain, I command you to carry out my orders."
Scripps abruptly interrupted Hal's attempt to stop him, and then said...
However, Hal did not obey his orders as he had imagined.
Yes, it did not carry out Scripps' suicide order.
Instead...
Lin Xi quietly observed the tragedy that occurred on the Providence, then he closed his eyes. In this dream, the insect he was possessing soon met its death in subsequent experiments.
Lin Xi's dream was shattered as a result.
But his dream didn't stop there; on the contrary, in his dream, he began to fall deeper and deeper, and he dreamed of even more things...
He dreamt of the series of panics and astonishing events he experienced aboard the Helios, and he dreamt of himself... having the most intimate encounter with a creature that looked like a star butterfly in the exhibition hall.
He dreamt of another dimension where he was transformed into a sacrifice offered to the gods in a temple, and was ultimately devoured completely...
He dreamed about...
He dreamed about...
He dreamed of far too many things.
These dreams—the past—made Lin Xi feel like a shooting star, constantly traversing the stars, until the very end.
He was drawn to the massive black hole.
All life will eventually perish, but His spiritual body—the being He, the Mother of the Alien Race, the creature that countless intelligent individuals born and annihilated in the stars attempted to describe—will be immortal, forever.
The moment Lin Xi realized this, the fleshy sac enveloping him began to twitch violently.
As Lin Xi's body disintegrated, the cytoplasm, which had become exceptionally viscous, began to churn, and the cell clusters suspended in the mucus—those buds—rapidly reconstructed and grew at a speed visible to the naked eye.
This mass of "primordial broth," brimming with abundant energy, began to gestate.
Lin Xi is rebuilding her body...
This time, however, he was no longer bound by the appearance of a human.
Tentacles, claws, cilia, suckers... and all sorts of other grotesque organs constantly generated in an instant, then quickly decomposed, and then reappeared again...
Outside the flesh capsule, the laboratory was completely silent.
The fleshy sac had devoured all the individuals it could summon, and it even disregarded the already dead King Bug clones in the freezing tank, re-incorporating them into its body and turning them into new energy.
As for the will of "Lin Xi," this insignificant individual, it became incredibly thin amidst the drastic changes...
Just like the individuals whose fragments of his consciousness once resided, the human Lin Xi is gradually dying, or rather, slowly fading away...
"He" devours the energy that exists in reality and the memories in the void...
"He" devours everything, even his own dreams.
In the final moments before the dream ended, Lin Xi returned once again to the dream that contained Captain Scripps and Hal.
It was at the very moment that he attempted to devour Scripps that a subtle sense of stagnation arose.
"He" stopped his devouring, and the ancient consciousness slowly focused on the subject of the dream.
That man named Scripps was different; he was special.
Lin Xi thought indifferently.
"Do you remember? Who are you...? You shouldn't be defeated by the void. You must remember your existence..."
In the dream, the man who was standing on the bridge talking to Hal suddenly raised his head and stared straight into the void, as if he were looking directly at Lin Xi himself.
Theoretically, this is almost impossible, as the two of them exist in completely different dimensions.
That man shouldn't even have been aware of "His" presence.
But in that very instant, Scripps's will was accurately projected into "His" mind.
That questioning caused a slight tremor in Lin Xi's already incredibly thin will.
There seems to have been a time when someone kept repeating the same words in his ear.
But what exactly do these words mean? What does it mean to "remember who you really are," and what does it mean to "not be defeated by the void"...?
"Are you really going to give up everything? Are you really going to completely vanish into nothingness? Even if it means giving up everything... even if it means giving up that person..."
At that moment, the man in the dream underwent a strange transformation, reverting to the exceptionally terrifying and emaciated man. As he whispered, the man raised his arm, his fingertips pointing directly at a certain place.
Lin Xi's will involuntarily followed the direction of the man's finger—
Only at this moment did Lin Xi slowly pull himself out of that chaotic state.
He suddenly realized that he was now trapped in a thick soup of flesh and blood.
This place is filled with all sorts of deformed limbs, which are extremely ugly, yet at the same time reveal a strange kind of beauty.
Although they were just some unformed clumps of flesh and tentacles, they appeared incredibly ancient, yet so tender; they were indestructible, yet incredibly fragile...
These things looked like they belonged to some evil deity from ancient times, but Lin Xi knew very well that those strange, evil organs all belonged to him.
The absurd thing is that if Lin Xi were still an ordinary human being at this moment, just seeing the scene before him would probably drive him completely insane.
However, for him now, whether it is evil or beauty, these things are all part of him.
The only thing that needs to be taken seriously is probably the fragile individual encased in those wriggling tentacles and cilia, as well as the exposed nerve tissue.
Lin Xi gazed at the creature within her body with both human and alien eyes.
“Xavier…”
Crooked lips kept emerging from inside the fleshy sac, while they uttered soft chants, calling out the name of the individual.
These are his relatives.
Lin Xi thought to herself.
He savored the dream of this creature within his own consciousness. He saw how this alien species was born from the egg case, and how, under his watchful gaze and care, it gradually transformed from a tiny, butterfly-like creature into its current form.
As a queen beetle, it is indeed far too weak...
Of course, this may be because Lin Xi's own condition is not normal.
For some special reason, Lin Xi's transformation is not yet complete; he is still an incomplete being.
Worse still, Lin Xi's strong, human consciousness made him almost subconsciously favor those who were weaker.
Following Lin Xi's will, Xavier himself did not notice that he forcibly suppressed his own power.
That's why Xavier is here now—it's a tragedy.
The enzymes secreted by Lin Xi in order to transform could even completely melt his own flesh into a thick paste, and Xavier, who was encased in it, was undoubtedly melting as well... However, unlike Lin Xi, Xavier did not have an adult worm disc that could reorganize his body.
This means that once it completely dissolves in this mass of flesh, it will be digested and absorbed by Lin Xi, and then become nutrients that are absorbed into Lin Xi's body.
In a sense, Xavier had completely merged with Lin Xi, but in another sense, Xavier as an individual had also completely died.
Yes, Xavier will die.
It floated in the slime, its body mangled, having survived until now solely through its instincts as a hybrid queen beetle.
However, Lin Xi could clearly sense that the life force on its body had become very faint.
His family is about to die.
However, at this very moment... as if sensing Lin Xi's will, Xavier, who should have been completely unconscious, suddenly convulsed and twitched inside the flesh sac. It opened its eyes and stared straight at Lin Xi, who was undergoing differentiation and recombination, through the constantly churning and writhing flesh.
"Lin Xi..."
The next second, it let out a muffled call.
The voice was so faint, almost a breath, yet to Lin Xi at that moment, it resounded through the heavens and pierced directly into his soul.
Lin Xi suddenly remembered—that man had once told him to remember who he really was—he wasn't some ancient creature, he wasn't some alien mother, he was different from all the countless creatures in his dream, he had his own name!
He is Lin Xi!
He is Lin Xi of Xavier!
Time seemed to begin flowing anew at that moment, and the terrifying organs inside Lin Xi's body, which were constantly decomposing and recombining, all dissolved in an instant.
After a brief period of silence, the cytoplasm began to steadily and orderly form Lin Xi's body.
Under his will, Xavier's body, which had already partially melted, gradually became covered with a layer of new flesh...
...
When Lin Xi regained consciousness, the first thing he felt was the soft membrane tightly covering his body, followed by a suffocating feeling that filled him with panic...
Although he had similar experiences several times before, Lin Xi still couldn't help but feel panicked when faced with such a scene again. Not to mention, he found that his body was completely out of his control.
When he tried to raise his arm, he found that it was as limp as cheese that had melted over a fire.
He couldn't muster any strength, but the feeling of suffocation grew stronger and stronger.
Lin Xi began to struggle... Just as his mind was in chaos, something reached out from behind him.
Those were two snow-white and extremely sharp insect limbs.
The tarsi of the insect easily pierced the pia mater and tore it open to both sides, allowing fresh and cool air to rush into the pia mater.
Enveloped in a large mass of slime, Lin Xi slid directly from inside the soft membrane to the ground.
The creature that had been covering him earlier then crawled out.
Lin Xi collapsed to the ground, coughing several times, feeling as if his lungs were filled with a sticky substance with a faint fishy smell.
"Lin Xi..."
Extremely sharp insect limbs landed on his body.
The creature helped him turn over to make him feel more comfortable.
It can easily scratch metal with its limbs and thorns, yet it is always incredibly gentle when facing him.
It took Lin Xi a while to come to his senses. He looked up at the sky above him, and for a moment, he was speechless.
Standing next to him was Xavier.
After noticing Lin Xi's gaze, Xavier shook his head and waved his tentacles at Lin Xi.
Xavier was stronger and larger than before...
Its carapace visibly became thicker, and each of its limbs became sharper and more pointed. Of course, all of this is just the most basic appearance.
Lin Xi knew very well that Xavier now possessed even greater power.
Xavier waved his forelimbs in front of Lin Xi, seemingly getting used to his new body.
"I thought you would turn me into..."
Xavier hesitated for a moment before continuing, "To become human... the kind you prefer..."
Xavier's voice gradually faded.
Throughout the entire transformation process, Xavier maintained his own consciousness.
In the vast lifespan of this creature spanning billions of years, it was not the only one to have undergone modification by the alien mother in this way, but...
Those individuals that preceded it undoubtedly followed the mother insect's preferences and completely modified their bodies.
Compared to its own evolution, this transformation is more thorough and more fundamental.
Not to mention, Xavier is completely different from those individuals who have no will of their own. It knows that Lin Xi is not an ordinary mother of a different species, and it also knows that Lin Xi once had a human who loved her deeply.
In fact, when it was undergoing the transformation, it was overjoyed. If it really became like that human, perhaps Lin Xi would be even happier when she saw it.
Just thinking about that was enough to make Xavier happy.
But Xavier never imagined that when it saw its new body, it would see a body that was completely different from others—strong, ferocious, and containing unimaginable power.
There is no trace of modification in it that was guided by human aesthetics.
It is the most primitive form of a mutant.
If Xavier hadn't been able to clearly sense that the human in front of him was still his beloved Lin Xi, he would have almost thought that Lin Xi had been taken over by "His" consciousness.
Faced with Xavier's apprehension and helplessness, Lin Xi finally spoke slowly.
I think you're doing great right now.
Lin Xi said hoarsely.
You don't need to become someone else.
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