Lying on the bed, Ando Shizuo's lips were slightly parted, and his face was even paler than before. If Lin Xi hadn't confirmed that he still had a pulse, he would have looked like a corpse—his soul had already left this body. Lin Xi couldn't explain why, but that's how he felt.
Lin Xi looked away from his face, not knowing why he felt so sad.
Then, with just a casual glance, Lin Xi suddenly noticed some scratches on the metal wall near the small bed.
Lin Xi's eyes sharpened, and he subconsciously stepped forward to examine the area closely.
At first glance, the scratches looked like a bunch of meaningless lines, with some blackened bloodstains on the surface, just like the marks that all mental patients scratch on the wall when they have an episode—but Lin Xi still managed to see some clues in them.
Lin Xi felt... that they seemed to be some overlapping words.
It looked as if Dr. Ando was trying to leave behind a few words, but his wrists were shackled in a narrow position, so that the words could only overlap.
Lin Xi looked at Dr. Ando's fingers and wondered why he hadn't noticed it before—Dr. Ando's fingers were covered in scars, and his fingernails had almost completely fallen off.
Lin Xi narrowed his eyes, concentrating intently as he carefully discerned the intricate traces.
Be careful of Taran
These were the first words he recognized, but those two words were enough to make his heart beat faster.
The food contains...
What's in the food?
Lin Xi stared intently at the wall, racking his brains. In the distance, he could hear the roar of takeoff and landing aircraft coming from the other end of the corridor; the medical technician was coming soon.
Lin Xi broke out in a cold sweat. He knew very well that once the medical officer arrived, he probably wouldn't have another chance to study these clues—especially since these clues also involved Captain Taran.
Just then, Lin Xi suddenly realized his stupidity. He cursed himself for his stupidity in his heart, and then looked towards the position of Taran's other hand.
Sure enough, he saw some marks on the bed as well, but those marks were even more blurred than those on the wall.
John
Sacrifice
Star...God...
...
Although only a few words could be discerned, the meaning that those words put together was enough to send chills down one's spine.
In that brief moment, many seemingly unrelated clues suddenly became connected.
Lin Xi stared in shock at Ando Shizuo, who had completely lost consciousness. He couldn't help but reach out and shake his shoulders.
"Dr. Ando—Dr. Ando—wake up! I have something to ask you—"
In that instant, even Shizuo Ando's absurd claim that he was the captain of that famous ship from three hundred years ago became less important.
"Cough cough..."
Suddenly, Lin Xi heard someone coughing deliberately behind him.
He turned to look at the mercenary at the door. The latter stood there, looking pale and stiff, but judging from his eyes, he seemed to be gradually regaining his vitality. The mercenary was now staring intently at Lin Xi, his gaze strangely intense. The cough he had just made seemed to have been accidental—but soon, the medical officers who appeared behind the mercenary proved it wasn't accidental, but a deliberate reminder.
After all, several other men had arrived with the medical officer, and Lin Xi was disgusted to discover that they were Taran and Robert's subordinates.
"Hey, what just happened? What did you do to Dr. Ando?"
Upon seeing Lin Xi, one of the group began to press her for answers.
Lin Xi later learned that the surveillance camera's wiring had inexplicably broken again while he was talking to Ando.
That's why almost no one heard Ando's last words to him—except for the mercenary.
Lin Xi didn't expect the mercenary to hide anything from him, but he also wouldn't obediently stay in the solitary confinement room and endure such impolite questioning.
"It was just some meaningless talk. Dr. Ando fainted soon after due to his weak condition."
He crossed his arms and spoke to the group of people, then turned to the young medical officer.
"If you're so eager to know, you should hurry up and treat Dr. Ando."
Lin Xi responded coldly.
He endured his disgust and spent a short time in the solitary confinement with those Taran lackeys, hoping that the medical officer could wake Ando so that he could at least get some useful information from that man again.
Lin Xi didn't even need to guess; he knew those men had planned to extract something from the mercenary. Ando Shizuo remained unconscious.
Lin Xi eventually had no choice but to leave the confinement room. He had originally planned to wait until Ando Shizuo regained consciousness before meeting him, but news soon came that the insane scientist had become a vegetable.
With the death of his brain, the few words he left behind became an inescapable doubt in Lin Xi's mind.
Beware of Taran, there's something in his food... and John Bronson, sacrifices and the Star God.
Among these things, Lin Xi already knew from Bryce that something in the food bag could cause a person to go insane.
Then he immediately remembered that before John Bronson went mad, he was the ship's head chef, and that at that meeting... John Bronson had pointed directly at Taran's nose and shouted that he was the devil.
At least until John turned against him, he seemed to know something and had been on guard against Taran.
Oh, right, and the Star God...
Lin Xike would never forget how, in the very early days after the failed jump, Taran had become morbidly focused on the fossil sculptures in the warehouse.
The Sunu fossil sculpture had given him quite a fright.
After checking all the information, the last remaining word became particularly important to Lin Xi...
"Sacrifice".
Lin Xi muttered the word softly, and then he involuntarily shivered.
Just thinking about that word made him feel very uncomfortable.
Did Taran put something in the food bag that caused Ruo Ren to mutate... as a sacrifice to the so-called Star God?
Lin Xi frowned.
If it weren't for the strange, incoherent ramblings that Shizuo Ando spouted to him before he fell unconscious, he probably would have readily believed the information left behind and continued the investigation.
But now, Lin Xi always feels hesitant about the information she has found.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Lin Xi doesn't have much time to dwell on the mysteries left behind by Shizuo Ando.
Because right after his ill-fated encounter with Shizuo Ando, he was about to embark on his first space exploration mission.
Bryce was so worried about this that he was practically going crazy.
Lin Xi knew that he had applied several times to travel with him, but his position as medical officer forced him to stay inside the Sun God.
Looking at his brother's face, which was ashen from lack of sleep, Lin Xi held back and decided to wait until his brother finished his two-day, one-night cabin exploration before returning to the ship to discuss the information he had obtained from Ando Shizuo.
...
Forty-eight days after the jump failed.
Lin Xi, dressed in tattered exploration team uniform, slung an old-fashioned laser gun over his shoulder and swayed as he sat in the patrol car, beginning his first alien exploration.
The people sitting around him were a mixed bunch; a third of them looked tired and gloomy, but were incredibly skilled with the instruments and procedures—these were the original members of the exploration team.
Another third were energetic and restless, interacting closely with the exploration team—these were mercenaries.
The remaining crew members, who were in a panic, looking around anxiously, and wearing ill-fitting secondhand exploration suits and outdated firearms that should have been phased out thirty years ago, were naturally ordinary crew members who had been forcibly assigned to exploration missions.
Lin Xi had already subtly observed everyone when he got on the bus, and he regretfully found that there were no familiar faces among them.
Fortunately, just as she had comforted Bryce and Lin Xi before, Alyssa did assign crew members seriously. These people did not show any obvious hostility towards Lin Xi, and their eyes were still bright, unlike many mutated crew members who had consumed food bags and had empty eyes and excited spirits.
However, even though they weren't hostile, their attitude towards Lin Xi was far from friendly.
"Hey, Doctor—I heard you're that person, right—"
Just as Lin Xi was thinking with his eyes downcast, he heard the person opposite him speak in a drawn-out voice.
Lin Xi silently raised her head to look at the other person. It was a strange man. Judging from the insignia on his body, he should be a mercenary. His facial features were slightly crooked and his appearance was ugly.
Seeing that Lin Xi did not respond, he made a lewd gesture at Lin Xi.
"People say you can manipulate insects. They say that if you don't like someone, you'll implant insect eggs into their body and then, relying on your brother who's a medical officer, burn them to death in the treatment device, right?"
Lin Xi pursed his lips and remained silent.
Because he knew very well that any response he made at this time would provoke a stronger reaction from the other party.
"...I also heard you keep a giant bug as a pet. That thing is so ugly it'd drive anyone crazy just looking at it, but your tastes are just that extreme..." At this point, the mercenary with the crooked features deliberately lowered his voice, "I heard you sleep with bugs...is that right? The temple priests on that mad planet seem to have this kind of perverse habit too. They sleep with the bugs they keep and then give birth to a bunch of monsters. Did you learn this fetish from them?"
The mercenary's voice was filled with malice, and although he lowered his voice, every move people made was amplified inside the closed patrol car, and everyone inside could easily hear his question.
He did it on purpose.
In an instant, Lin Xi could clearly feel countless gazes focused on him.
Well, the mercenary did pick a topic that would grab attention. The insect worship on Sunu did indeed give rise to many secret customs that Earthlings would find completely unacceptable, but no one would like to associate such disgusting customs with themselves.
In particular, the mercenary mentioned "Number One".
Lin Xi's expression slowly turned cold.
Before coming to participate in the exploration mission, he spent a whole night in the greenhouse with the cocoon of "No. 1".
The cocoon looked better than before. Lin Xi couldn't quite put his finger on the specific changes, but he could sense them.
The thick cocoon shell still felt cold and rough to the touch, but Lin Xi could inexplicably sense a faint breath of life flowing inside the cocoon.
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