"To be honest, who am I hoping can answer these questions for me?"
The speaker was Solian.
He lowered his eyes, stared at Lin Xi, and then spoke slowly.
Lin Xi looked back at him but did not answer.
...
The first person to notice something was wrong was a recorder on the engineering team.
During a routine inspection, he discovered that the air filtration system in the cabin where the Ando couple were located had been operating at high load, and then the old component could not withstand the pressure and burned out.
On Earth, this would be considered a minor component malfunction, but they are now on an unnumbered asteroid.
The offline air filtration system will lead to excessively high carbon dioxide levels in the sealed living quarters. If left unattended for a long time, it could even cause the occupants to suffocate and die in the most serious cases.
So even amidst the chaos following the insect attack, the recorder diligently marked the malfunction.
Next, just like Lin Xi before him, the recorder found that he could no longer contact Ando Shizuo using his personal terminal, which made him a little worried.
What followed seemed to follow a logical progression—like in all murder cases, after discovering that the Ando couple were unreachable, the recorder contacted his superior. The nonchalant superior initially didn't pay much attention to this minor issue; after all, the situation on board was quite dire after the crazed insects attacked the spaceship, and the engineering department had a lot to do.
However, after checking the Ando couple's cabin access records, the unfortunate engineers discovered that the situation was not as simple as they had thought—they found that the Ando couple had remained in the cabin the whole time and had not left.
Sensing something was amiss, the engineering staff had no choice but to come to Ando Shizuo's cabin in person, and then they managed to open the metal door.
Incidentally, before seeing the body, everyone thought that the horrifying smell that wafted out after the door was opened would be the greatest harm to them.
After a clueless newcomer recklessly turned on the cabin lighting system, about half of the people screamed and fled from the Ando couple's cabin door.
The other half of the people stood still, completely paralyzed by what they had seen.
"...When we saw Shizuo Ando, he was standing directly beneath Mrs. Ando's body, covered in blood, some of it his own, some of it Mrs. Ando's. Of course, we are quite certain that most of the blood came from the monsters, whose corpses were surrounding his feet."
Sorian's cold, flat voice rang in Lin Xi's ears. Although it sounded like a calm narration, Lin Xi couldn't help but shiver after hearing his description.
This conversation took place in an office with security measures in place.
Lin Xi, Elisa, Solian, and Bryce all sat around the same metal table, their faces tense.
Of course, Lin Xi knew very well that, according to Solian's idea, it would be best if only the two of them were in this room.
He didn't know what had happened, perhaps because he was the last person to see the Ando couple alive? In any case, Solian always seemed to be suspicious of something.
However, Solian's request was destined to be impossible to fulfill.
Bryce could never feel comfortable leaving Lin Xi alone with someone like Solian. He was unusually insistent, even rude, on staying by Lin Xi's side.
The reason why Elisa was also on one side of the metal table was because she bluntly stated that she was tired of listening to all conversations behind the one-way glass window like a villain in an old movie.
In short, thanks to the insistence of the medical officer and the vice-captain, this room appeared, this metal table appeared, and at this moment, Solian even had to sit here and listlessly summarize the situation to the other three with a lifeless appearance—yes, at Elisa's request, he recounted everything in the cabin where the Ando couple were located in a straightforward manner.
"Ando Shizuka... Professor Ando looked terrible. He was covered in blood, and even when he saw strangers arrive, he didn't move. He just kept his head down, like a scarecrow stuck in a field, without any reaction. In fact, at first, everyone suspected that Mr. and Mrs. Ando were already dead."
After all, he didn't make a sound for a long time, and the way he looked, well, I think you can guess, he really didn't look like a living person at that time.
However, when my men approached him... just as we were about to examine the monsters, he suddenly moved.
At this point, Solian, who had always appeared cold and cruel, slightly narrowed his pupils.
Seeing this, Lin Xi, who had been observing him, frowned slightly. Lin Xi could sense that when recalling the scene of meeting Ando Shizuo, a faint sense of fear seemed to seep out from the cracks of the hard shell of this man who seemed as cold as steel.
A few hours ago—
Inside the Ando couple's living cabin
"Don't touch my child."
Shizuo Ando raised his head amidst the screams of the crowd, but his expression revealed that he hadn't really noticed what kind of nightmare he was in.
His eyes were dark and murky, his cheeks were a horrifying bluish-gray, and the bulging veins throbbed beneath his thin skin like some kind of parasite.
The first person to approach him screamed in fright at Ando Shizuo's sudden movement.
After triggering a wave of panic, Shizuo Ando suddenly stopped. He stared blankly ahead, and after a long while, a soft whimper escaped his throat.
"Dr. Ando?"
"Ando... Dr.... what happened..."
Someone, barely suppressing their fear and clinging to their shattering reason, asked him.
Naturally, the person did not receive any response.
Ando Shizuo's body gradually began to sway from side to side, and louder, continuous whimpers slowly escaped from his throat. The sound did not sound like a human being, but rather like a wild beast.
What's chilling is that almost as he was sobbing, a faint smile was also on his face.
His lips curled upwards, revealing pink gums and teeth. This twisted and unnatural smile made him look like someone with intellectual disabilities. If one didn't know his identity, probably no one would guess that not long ago he was a kind and gentle university professor.
"...Don't be afraid, I...I'm a good person."
He murmured, his pupils dark and empty, making his sunken eyes look like two small holes poked into a mask.
“It was difficult, extremely difficult. I don’t know how I did it, thank God I did it… They were all very fast, and I knew that if they really used their full power, even ten of me couldn’t do anything to them. But I did it in the end. You see, I should have noticed it from the beginning. Liz was acting strange, she’d been acting strange for a long time… and my children… for God’s sake, I could tell they weren’t my children.”
The screaming crowd standing outside the hatch seemed to make him thoughtful.
“Hey, listen to me…” he muttered, with a hint of childish discontent, “I killed them for everyone on this ship… You should thank me… I struggled a lot… I know, yes, I know, but I couldn’t help it… At least a small part of their bodies were still my children…”
Shizuo Ando staggered forward two steps, looking almost like a zombie chasing its prey.
However, his movements were so clumsy that he accidentally kicked the monster's corpse at his feet.
Ando's movements suddenly froze.
He lowered his head and stared intently at the monster at his feet.
A hybrid of insects and human infants, something that would haunt an ordinary person's nightmares if they looked at it too long, but Shizuo Ando stared at it for a very, very long time...
Then he crouched down and, trembling, picked up the monster's corpse.
"sorry……"
He sobbed, murmuring to the terrifying monster in his arms, his voice much louder than before.
"I'm sorry... Daddy killed you... I'm sorry..."
Ando Shizuo's body suddenly hunched over, and he collapsed to the ground, beneath Liz's corpse and surrounded by the monster's carcass.
He kept kissing the human part of the monster's body in his arms, tears and snot streaming down his face.
The monster in his arms, quite coincidentally, had the face of a human baby. If one could ignore the carapace on its head with obvious insect-like features, from a distance, the scene really did resemble a heartbroken father holding his child and crying bitterly.
The monsters are real, and they are terrifying.
And Shizuo Ando's pain was also real.
...
Back in the present, in that temporarily opened secret room, Lin Xi interrupted Solian.
"You mean, Shizuo Ando confessed that it was him... that he killed those monsters?"
Lin Xi asked.
Solian nodded: "That's right. We examined the monsters' corpses, and each one had stab wounds from a sharp weapon. We also found the dagger that Ando Shizuo used to kill those monsters in his pocket. The blade of the dagger had the monsters' blood on it, and Ando Shizuo's fingerprints were very clear on the hilt."
“Those monsters…”
Just then, Elisa spoke up, but her tone was hesitant, as if she was struggling with whether or not she should ask that question.
“Those monsters came from inside Liz.”
Bryce glanced at Solian, then spoke before the man could—as if he could perfectly understand what Elisa wanted to ask.
As the ship's highest-ranking medical officer, he had already conducted a preliminary examination of the monsters that had already lost their lives... as well as Liz's corpse.
Although they were already mentally prepared, the four people at the metal table looked extremely grim after hearing this definite answer.
"My God..."
Elisa murmured.
Bryce reached out and grasped Elisa's cold hand.
He had a premonition that what he was about to say would probably make Elisa even more uncomfortable.
“What I’m about to say… I think you should be prepared, it’s not going to be pleasant,” Bryce said, feeling that Alyssa’s palms were damp and cold, which was unusual for her.
The thought that all this mess now rests on Elisa's shoulders fills Bryce with a deep sense of pity and affection for her.
He really didn't want to scare Alyssa, but he knew he had to say those things.
"I'll keep it short—those bugs were terrifying, but after some simple testing, I discovered they weren't some kind of damned space parasite infection as we had initially thought. I know many people think that way, after all, we just suffered an attack by alien bugs… But no matter how terrifying the bugs on this planet are, one thing I can say for sure is that the things that died in that cabin came from Liz Chan and Shizuo Ando; in other words, they were their children."
Are you kidding me?
This was clearly not the answer Solian had expected. He looked at Bryce in shock, his tone filled with doubt.
Bryce gave him an unusually cold look.
Without a doubt, Solian probably really believed that the sudden madness of the bugs earlier was related to the bug monster in Liz's stomach. It was too much of a coincidence, wasn't it?
Bugs, bugs, and more bugs.
Sunu was originally called the Insect Planet by those who hated it, and after their failed jump and landing on a strange alien planet, the Insects continued to plague the Sun God.
“I never joke about things like this,” Bryce said. “Let me remind you, Liz is a Sunu mixed-race, and we know nothing about the people on this planet, and then they chose to self-destruct. And, theoretically, Ando and Liz shouldn’t have had any children. Liz’s pregnancy was clearly God’s mistake… well, we just didn’t expect those children to end up… in that form… in front of us.”
He carefully considered his wording with some difficulty.
The exchange between Bryce and Solian was direct and intense, while Lin Xi, sitting on the other side, remained silent.
He had to take a deep breath because he felt a little out of breath.
Bryce was right beside him, but he felt that his brother's words were somewhat ethereal, as if he were underwater, listening to people talking on the shore.
"...One more thing to point out is that even if Ando Shizuo hadn't attacked these monsters, they probably wouldn't have survived. Yes, they look terrifying, but I examined their bodies, and they were only grotesque and frightening in appearance; their bodies themselves were incredibly weak. Let me put it this way, they were basically a bunch of underdeveloped things, and even if Ando Shizuo hadn't dug them out of Liz's stomach, they wouldn't have survived... Perhaps they were just a few pitiful deformed children."
Bryce shrugged and gave his conclusion.
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