The strange insect flinched upon hearing the name.
"Da-da-da"
It couldn't help but take two steps forward, its middle foot landing on the ground with a sound similar to metal clashing.
Although they knew they needed to control their emotions, Elisa and Bryce couldn't help but raise their guns and aim at the insect behind Lin Xi the moment they saw its actions.
The giant insect, known as "Number One," stopped in its tracks instantly.
It hid its face behind its wings and stared blankly at Lin Xi.
Lin Xi did not make the two humans behind him put down their guns... Although "Number One" had anticipated this, that strange, hollow feeling, as if his heart was about to be torn apart, spread once again.
Of course, Lin Xi didn't raise the gun in his hand at it again. This was a good start, "Number One" thought vaguely. It even felt a little happy, after all, when it accidentally fell out of the mimicry, it was already prepared to face the intense pain that flashed through its body when it was bombarded by a pulse gun.
But after seeing it, Lin Xi did not do so.
He has become much gentler than before.
"Number One" stood motionless in the distance, and then thought.
But……
Number One had no idea what was wrong with his body.
Unfamiliar emotions surged within my body.
Savile?
It heard Lin Xi address him that way.
Is this its new name? Number One couldn't help but wonder.
It still remembered that when its will was about to perish, Lin Xi had made a promise to it outside its pupa.
He will give it a new name.
However, as time passed, its sense of self and its mind grew rapidly. It soon discovered that Lin Xi seemed to be calling not for it, but for another individual.
The surging tenderness in Lin Xi's eyes was something "Number One" had never seen before... However, that tenderness and affection vanished from Lin Xi's eyes the moment it inadvertently revealed its true nature, replaced by the wariness and fear that "Number One" was already familiar with.
It slowly retreated a few more steps.
It wasn't exactly unbearable—after all, they've been doing it this way for millions of years.
Biological instincts drive them to constantly modify and evolve their appearance and even their souls to cater to "His" preferences. Being mistaken for that individual named "Savill" is not a big deal.
However, the moment Lin Xi called out the name "Number One" to it, it felt as if it were being swallowed up by an indescribable sense of emptiness.
Immediately afterward, it abruptly shrank its body and darted away along the edge of the wall. The newly evolved human eyes possessed a fragile and strange quality; despite not being shot and feeling any pain, the eye sockets were inexplicably warm, and scalding liquid was gushing out without any effect.
"Number One?!"
Lin Xi couldn't help but call out again, but "Number One" didn't stop; instead, it ran even faster. He almost chased after "Number One" into the depths of the corridor.
"Lin Xi!"
Bliss called out to him from behind. In that brief moment of distraction, "Number One" had vanished without a trace.
Lin Xi stood there, staring blankly in the direction where "Number One" had disappeared. It took him a while to look away and then he looked at Bryce.
His brother looks like he's about to faint.
"Number One? Number One! If I remember correctly, isn't that the bug you kept?"
Bryce stared at Lin Xi, his face filled with longing—a longing for Lin Xi to give a negative answer.
"...Will Star Butterfly turn into this when she grows up?"
Before Lin Xi could speak, Bryce grabbed his hair and asked another question.
"You spend every day with this kind of thing?"
Lin Xi: "The last time I saw it, it didn't look like this."
He said this. But right after he finished speaking, images suddenly flashed through his mind: the half-human, half-insect monster that attacked him in the dead of night; the clearly mutated and deformed pupa in the greenhouse; "Number One's" astonishing mimicry ability...
Lin Xi's gaze darkened slightly.
Elisa nudged Bryce with her elbow: "Calm down, Bryce, that thing... that thing seems intelligent, maybe like Lin Xi said, it doesn't mean us any harm..."
As Elisa spoke, she glanced at the two motionless corpses, her voice gradually becoming unsteady.
"That thing—what exactly is that thing?"
Bryce still looked incredibly nervous.
His persistent questioning put Lin Xi under immense pressure.
Fortunately, the rustling sounds behind them quickly rescued Lin Xi from her current predicament.
They suddenly looked behind them. With "Number One" hiding nearby, these severely mutated crew members were completely still, and they were all trying to stay as far away from where "Number One" was.
But now, with the departure of "Number One", they are gradually becoming active again.
"Hehe...hehe..."
Those mumbled, indistinct sounds rolled out of their throats, and their utterly empty eyes were all staring straight in Lin Xi's direction.
Compared to their human counterparts who still maintained human form, the half-human, half-insect beings who exhibited obvious insect-like characteristics seemed to be more enthusiastic about this group of people.
They tentatively and slowly crawled toward Lin Xi.
However, perhaps because of the lingering aura of "Number One" that remained here, they became increasingly fearful and anxious as they approached Lin Xi and the others.
“Gentlemen,” Elisa pointed her gun at the monsters and pulled the trigger, the pulse bullet drawing a long scorch mark in front of the monsters’ bodies, “I think we can discuss the true biological nature of that Star Butterfly later, but right now, we really have to get out of here.”
The other two men present certainly couldn't deny this wonderful suggestion in front of this group of restless monsters.
Lin Xi glanced at them one last time, then turned around and abruptly walked in the exact opposite direction.
Will they follow us?
Bryce observed them intently, his hands gripping the gun tightly.
"Judging from the current situation, no, I think they are probably afraid of 'Number One'."
Lin Xi said as she walked.
Of course, he wouldn't tell the two people beside him that, besides their fear of "Number One," there were other reasons why the alienated crew members were so obedient.
He told them to stay there—
The thought seemed to arise naturally.
Something formed inside his skull and then was… “radiated” out.
He could vaguely sense some strange, invisible fluctuation emerging, and he formed a mysterious connection with the bodies of those "things" that was indescribable...
Of course, as he gradually distanced himself from those monsters, that strange sense of connection was rapidly diminishing.
It quickly diminished to the point where it seemed as if everything before had been Lin Xi's hallucination.
As Lin Xi walked, he tried to clear his mind, but his brain seemed to be covered in something, and there was only chaos inside. The only thing he could clearly see was the feeling of fear.
Fear is growing.
He had a strong premonition that he was gradually becoming abnormal.
After all, normal people wouldn't hear the high-frequency screams coming from the monster's mouth, let alone use their mental power to make a group of wet, deformed monsters stay obediently far away from them.
Lin Xi could feel his heart pounding in his chest. The rumors he had previously scoffed at kept replaying in his mind. He was filled with doubts and had never wanted to find the so-called ghost captain of the Providence as much as he did now to get to the bottom of things.
So is he really some kind of monster? Did he bring this disaster onto the spaceship?
"Lin Xi?"
Elisa noticed his unusual behavior and called out to him worriedly.
"What's wrong?"
She asked.
Lin Xi then looked at her in surprise.
"N-nothing..."
He stammered.
After a while, he suddenly asked, "Elisa, you said you overheard a lot of things in Taran's warehouse. Did he mention exactly how much of the food bag's contents one needs to drink before starting to mutate?"
He paused for a moment, then said with difficulty, "Actually, I had drunk that stuff before."
"Hmm...I think...he didn't mention it..."
“You don’t need to worry about that,” Bryce answered Lin Xi on behalf of Elisa. “I’ve done experiments with the artificial cells on the ship, and generally only large doses of these cells will cause that kind of mutation.”
At this point, Bryce's face darkened; "That's why neither Elisa nor I were on high alert. We both thought it might just be a slow, gentle change."
To be honest, Bryce was also completely baffled at this point.
It has been confirmed that the main ingredient that causes the mutation comes from Sunu's earth milk.
However, Bryce knew very well that long ago, when Sunu’s Earth Milk entered Earth as a precious import, scientists on Earth had studied it countless times and conducted countless experiments on it. They only allowed Earthlings to consume it after they had completely confirmed that Earth Milk was a very effective anti-aging agent.
However, after arriving on this planet, the earth milk components that were supposed to help the crew of the Apollo had the exact opposite effect.
Bryce had no idea how any of this had happened.
If only he had known sooner...
"Nothing is more useless than regret."
Elisa noticed Bryce's mood and comforted him.
Bryce managed a weak smile.
He looked at Lin Xi: "Elisa and I, like you, drank that stuff before we realized something was wrong. But I've already checked our physical condition, and so far we haven't experienced anything unusual. I think there are probably quite a few other people on the ship who, like us, only ingested small amounts of Earth Milk, but because the amount of Earth Milk they consumed was so small, it didn't trigger any mutations."
The author has something to say: Actually, none of the predecessors before "Number One" were foolish enough to think as much as it did.
All you need to do is transform and please your wife to have more babies; you don't need love at all.
The tragedy of "Number One" lies in his unrealistic expectation of love.
P.S., in the lore... there's more than one Ohmu... if the first Ohmu that hatches isn't smart enough and doesn't evolve into a form that fits the mother Ohmu's aesthetic in time, it's very likely it will be eaten directly, and the remaining ordinary aliens will molt into new Ohmu...
Actually, in that sense, "Number One" is already very fortunate.
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