When the topic turned to Earth Milk and mutations, Bryce suddenly hesitated. He stared at Lin Xi with a sharp, inquisitive gaze.
He initially thought Lin Xi was only so worried because she saw those things at the end of the corridor, since those half-human, half-insect monsters looked rather shocking.
But out of an older brother's instinct, he suddenly felt his stomach tighten when he saw Lin Xi's somewhat dazed look.
It seems something bad is happening.
There was a time when Bryce had the same feeling when facing Savile (at that moment, Bryce thought of "Number One's" eyes, which looked just like Savile's, and this made him instantly furious), and Bryce's nerves were suddenly on edge.
"Has something happened, Lin Xi?"
Lin Xi remained silent for a short while, hesitant to speak, his face pale.
“Let’s talk about it when we get to a safer place, Bryce.”
Bryce heard Lin Xi say that.
"you--"
“Bryce…” Alyssa had been observing the interaction between the two brothers beside her. She was more sensitive than Bryce to Lin Xi’s strange behavior, so she interrupted Bryce’s questioning in time.
She shook her head at Bryce.
Bryce fell silent again.
"..."
Lin Xi bit his lip tightly, staring at the two people beside him. That feeling, as if something was violently churning his insides, returned. He desperately hoped it was just a hallucination and not really like the rumors said…
You should commit suicide.
Through Ando Shizuo's voice, the words spoken to him by the ghost of three hundred years ago were previously regarded as ridiculous ravings by him.
But at this moment, it felt like a heavy stone pressing down on his chest.
And so, in the unusually somber atmosphere, the three of them walked with bated breath through the passageway at the edge of the deck.
Without personal terminals, all their actions became extremely difficult.
Bryce and Elisa were already itching to kidnap some crew members to solve this serious problem, but what happened next was completely unexpected—the mutated crew members who had been wandering around inside the spaceship with empty, numb eyes had all disappeared.
From bow to stern, the Helios was as quiet as a ghost ship.
"This is absolutely bizarre."
Bryce vaguely sensed some movement and chased after it in the direction it came from, but the person who should have been there had already disappeared.
Bryce muttered, sounding somewhat exasperated.
Do you think this is a plot by Taran?
Then, he turned to Elisa and Lin Xi and said.
Elisa raised an eyebrow and shrugged at him.
"Maybe? But it's also possible that someone is trying to solve our problems instead."
She thought for a moment, then said meaningfully.
Then, she glanced at Lin Xi.
It took Lin Xi a while to realize what was happening. He shook his head frantically, "No, it wasn't me—"
Even Bryce was now giving him a strange look.
Lin Xi choked up for a moment.
He suddenly realized that what Elisa had mentioned earlier was not his special ability, but "Number One".
"I don't know. I had no idea when it crawled out of its pupa, and I never imagined it would be so deadly..."
Lin Xi said dryly.
"But I think it likes you quite a bit."
Elisa couldn't help but speak as she recalled the actions "Number One" had taken in front of them.
"Although it does look a bit scary, it appears quite docile in your presence."
"Oh, please, Alyssa, what are you talking about?! That thing isn't Lin Xi's pet, it's a monster."
The moment Bryce heard Elisa mention "Number One," he instantly transformed into a hedgehog, his voice becoming shrill.
"Number One is not a monster."
Lin Xi retorted instinctively.
"It was very docile in the greenhouse and seemed perfectly normal. I really don't know... why it turned out like that."
That was terrifying, evil, and maddening.
Moreover, it possesses such powerful destructive force.
“Normal?” Bryce’s face contorted. “It looked especially evil when it was disguised as one of those big, fluttering moths, and you’re saying that’s normal?”
"I said, it was normal at the beginning..."
Even Lin Xi herself didn't know why she suddenly started speaking up for "Number One".
"Alright, guys."
Finally, Elisa forcefully stopped the argument between the two.
"Whatever it is, at least it doesn't seem to have any ill intentions towards us, and that's enough. You know, there's still a group of ordinary humans on our spaceship who have turned into disgusting insects."
As she spoke, Elisa once again thought of Taran's swollen, shiny insect-like body in the warehouse, and she suddenly shivered.
"Perhaps the star butterfly that Lin Xi was raising was also affected."
She said.
At this point, Elisa suddenly turned around and called out to the empty corridor behind her, "Thank you for your help... Mr. 'Number One'."
Elisa carefully chose her words, and when she called out "Mr. Number One," Bryce stared at her in shock, his jaw seemingly about to drop.
"...However, we need personal terminals. If possible, please reserve a few for us."
Elisa certainly noticed Bryce and Lin Xi's incredulous behavior, but she didn't seem to care much.
"Oh, right, and it shouldn't be too bloody, that's a bit scary."
She even had the mind to add a final sentence.
When she turned around and continued leading the way, it took Bryce and Lin Xi several minutes to regain their tongues.
"Elisa, you...you can sense that monster?"
"Bryce asked in horror."
Elisa shook her head: "Of course not."
But then she glanced at Lin Xi and said, "I just wanted to give it a try."
She said.
Lin Xi: "I don't feel anything."
He's telling the truth.
At least at this moment, he did not sense the presence of "Number One".
After Elisa shouted those words, there was no unusual movement around them.
"Okay. It seems it really isn't here."
Elisa said.
Lin Xi was somewhat alarmed to find that there seemed to be a hint of regret in Elisa's tone.
To be honest, Elisa's previous actions were less about genuinely wanting to solve the predicament the three of them were facing, and more about trying to liven things up.
At least after she brought up the topic of Star Butterfly in front of Lin Xi and Bryce, the silence between the two brothers eased considerably.
After a while, the three of them stopped in front of a passage that looked like it had been abandoned for a long time.
"We've arrived."
Elisa stared at the passageway, then sighed and said.
"...If I remember correctly, there's an elevator through this passage that leads to the lower deck; it's a temporary passage for the maintenance engineers."
Elisa said.
Thanks to her recent struggle with the mountain of spaceship blueprints, after three hundred years, this old spaceship has been completely altered, with only some obscure facilities remaining in place. After all, replacing such large equipment would require too much money and manpower.
Elisa had been privately complaining about the ship's many unusable parts, but at this moment she couldn't help but be grateful for their existence.
“Now let’s just pray,” Elisa said somberly. “Pray that thing will still work… and that we can find a way around the obstacles and figure out a way to turn on the machine without a personal terminal.”
After saying that, she took the lead and walked into the corridor.
Sure enough, the elevator was there, with dark oil seeping out from the door cracks, making it look as if the spaceship itself was bleeding.
A metal mesh door separated Lin Xi and the others from the elevator platform. The yellow and black paint had almost completely peeled off, revealing the reddish-brown pitted rust at the bottom.
As for the control buttons on the right side of the metal door, they look utterly useless.
Thick, cotton-like dust had accumulated there, as if no one had maintained the place for two hundred years.
"..."
Lin Xi and the other two stood in silence in front of the elevator for a while.
Do we have any other options?
Bryce asked cautiously—though as he said this, he was already dismantling the metal plate beneath the control platform, preparing to forcefully gain control of the lifting platform.
"Unfortunately, no."
Elisa sighed.
“Unless we’re willing to risk being caught by the Tarans and take one of the few elevators we know of, given our current codename and danger level, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
Elisa added.
Almost as soon as she finished speaking, the metal platform in front of them shook violently, throwing out a large amount of dust.
"Cough cough cough... That's... That's great..."
"This old thing can still be used... cough cough..."
Lin Xi and Elisa covered their mouths and noses and let out a small cheer.
However, their joy was short-lived when a sharp alarm blared from the control panel in Bryce's hands.
"Oh, shit!"
Bryce abruptly shoved the cut wire back in as it was, cursing loudly at the same time.
The alarm stopped abruptly, but Bryce's face was as dark as if thunder was about to strike.
"Which bastard did this?! This thing's internal program has overridden the terminal system! It's one thing to trigger an alarm if it's forcibly disconnected, but it also forcibly locks up the device! Good heavens, this isn't a bridge facility, it's just a piece of junk elevator platform that hasn't been used for hundreds of years—"
"Forehead……"
Elisa gave Bryce an awkward smile.
Bryce: "..."
Elisa: "...Before I updated the security system, I never imagined that one day I would become a defector."
She offered her explanation with a wry smile.
Lin Xi rubbed his temples, interrupting the staring contest between the two people in front of him with a slight headache.
"So, the current situation is that we have to get our hands on personal terminals, right? And we can't attract Taran's attention."
"That's right."
Bryce and Elisa spoke almost simultaneously.
"So...we still need to go back to the central area and try to get a few personal terminals from other people..."
Before Lin Xi could finish speaking, a distinct noise suddenly came from behind him.
"Click-clack—"
"who?!"
Lin Xi suddenly turned around and raised his gun, pointing it in the direction from which the sound came.
A somewhat terrifying white face was carefully hidden behind countless pieces of discarded material, with only its eyes showing.
Immediately afterward, in the instant Lin Xi froze, a sharp and pointed forelimb, as scythe-like as a sickle, slowly emerged from behind the waste.
"Smack..."
With a few drops of blood splattering, three pale, stiff arms were thrown over, landing right in front of Lin Xi's toes.
"call--"
Lin Xi could hear Bryce let out a long gasp right behind him.
"Number One?"
Lin Xi couldn't help but speak up.
But after losing those three arms, "Number One's" enormous and terrifying body shrank back at an astonishing speed and disappeared into the shadows.
Bryce: "..."
Lin Xi: "..."
Elisa: "...Ha."
Feeling the gaze cast upon her for a moment, Elisa covered her mouth and coughed lightly twice.
"Feel sorry."
She said.
It must be said that the three arms that were thrown in front of them did look quite terrifying.
However, upon closer inspection, it can be seen that they all have personal terminals attached to their wrists.
The cross-sections of those arms were as smooth as ever—the muscles that had been cut open were slightly white, and apart from a little blood and tissue fluid that had seeped out, there was nothing else.
Clearly, before they were thrown over, someone... or rather, some insects had meticulously prepared these arms.
"Do you think... these arms have been washed? How did they manage that...?"
Elisa stared at her arm with great suspicion and then murmured a question.
"vomit……"
After she finished speaking, Bryce covered his mouth, trying to control himself but still involuntarily letting out a gagging sound.
"Feel sorry."
Elisa snapped out of her daze, gave Bryce an apologetic glance, and then apologized.
She paused, then added weakly, "Actually, I was just joking. I really didn't expect... I didn't expect it to actually understand."
Yes, that's right. After seeing these three arms that were completely free of blood, everyone remembered what Elisa had said to the empty corridor earlier.
Because a personal terminal was needed, "Number One" cut off three arms and threw them over.
Because it was emphasized that it shouldn't be too gory...
Well, although I don't know how "Number One" did it, it did manage to remove the bloodstains from the severed limbs.
Lin Xi's gaze shifted back and forth between the arm on the ground and the end of the corridor where "Number One" had disappeared. He had no idea what expression to use to face this almost absurd scene.
“That thing has been following us, hasn’t it?” Bryce’s face was ashen, like a ghost’s. “I think we need to be on high alert—I’ve never seen such an intelligent…monster…it’s too cunning, and no one can guarantee it won’t always be neutral towards us.”
"you're right."
Elisa nodded.
Then she pointed to the three personal terminals on the severed arm on the ground.
"Should we use it?"
She asked.
Bryce crouched down before she could, carefully and frantically removing his personal terminal as if defusing a bomb.
Then he took out disinfectant foam from his pocket and sprayed the three personal terminals several times before trembling as he handed them to Lin Xi and Elisa.
"This is the last time."
He kept muttering in panic.
Lin Xi reluctantly accepted their new terminal and then scanned the elevator control permissions on the side.
The elevator creaked and groaned with a chilling vibration, and then the metal mesh door opened in front of the three of them.
Lin Xi went in first, followed by Bryce and Elisa.
The elevator began to descend gradually.
"Thanks."
Just as she was about to leave the A-level deck, Lin Xi suddenly murmured something to herself, seemingly lost in thought.
At the top of the elevator is a mechanical level that almost no one can access.
A pale, half-human, half-insect monster shook its wings. Its eyes were still red and swollen, and its cheeks were still slightly damp.
But the moment that murmur, which no normal person could possibly hear, entered its ears, magnificent and beautiful patterns shimmered on the huge spots on the edge of its wings.
...
"Snap—"
With a chilling metallic clang, the heavy, old, dusty, and cluttered elevator finally came to a stop on the deck where the mercenaries were stationed.
Lin Xi took the lead and walked out of the elevator.
Compared to level A-1, this level is even more desolate and remote.
What should have been a corridor is now obscured by layers upon layers of discarded materials.
Lin Xi pushed aside a lot of clutter and finally found a gap to squeeze through.
Outside the clutter, the layout looks similar to the floor above.
However, the lights were almost off, and most of the cabins on both sides of the corridor were open.
This means that the central control system has failed in this location.
A heavy, putrid smell filled the air—the distinctive odor of rotting blood.
It can be said that upon seeing the scene before them, Lin Xi and the others felt their hearts sink heavily.
“It seems… Sorian isn’t having an easy time either.”
Lin Xi couldn't help but mutter softly to Elisa and Bryce.
They carefully explored the nearest cabin.
Judging from the remaining personal belongings and the level of filth in the cabin, it hasn't been long since the place became this almost abandoned.
However, some of the cabins showed obvious signs of a struggle. The bloodstains on the ceiling and walls were nothing compared to what made the three men's expressions grow increasingly serious: the scratches covering the floor and walls.
Lin Xi squatted down and gently ran her fingertips over the long marks.
"It's an insect."
His lips moved slightly as he spoke with difficulty.
"These people have all turned into insects... Mercenaries and exploration teams already have the most mutated people."
But now it seems that the entire mercenary group has turned into those inhuman monsters.
"this……"
In an instant, the auras around the three people all became silent.
Do you think... there might still be survivors here?
Lin Xi checked several cabins in a row, and when he found a large number of human skeletons that had been almost eaten in one of the mercenaries' rooms, he almost couldn't breathe.
He couldn't help but mutter to himself—
"Of course."
Then, a hoarse, deep voice answered him.
At the same time, the cold muzzle of the gun was pointed directly at the back of Lin Xi's head.
A grizzled, gray figure suddenly appeared, as if he had grown directly from the stale, dark grime of the room.
And it took Lin Xi and the other two at least several minutes before they realized that the person who spoke was the very guy they had been searching for.
That arrogant, cold-hearted Solian who was always looking for trouble.
“Let me see who this is…” Solian stepped closer, his body reeking of blood. “Oh God, can I believe what I’m seeing? Elisa, Bryce, and… and our Linxi.”
Solian's voice was hoarse and deep, and it seemed no different from before.
But Lin Xi couldn't help but furrow her brows.
He could sense that the man pointing a gun at him was not as calm as he appeared.
“Solian? We mean no harm, I just want to talk to you.”
Lin Xi raised her hands, making a gesture of surrender.
Of course, at the same time...
His gaze was fixed on a dark spot in the room.
He didn't see "Number One," but his intuition told him there was something there.
Calm down, don't move.
Lin Xi spoke silently with her lips.
Under such lighting, and with this kind of communication without sound, Lin Xi didn't actually know if "Number One" could understand his meaning.
"Talk to me? Talk about what—how to continue choosing your sacrifices, you devil!"
When Lin Xi tried to talk to him, Solian just yelled something in a nervous manner.
Immediately afterwards, more ethereal and gaunt figures appeared, their plasma guns all aimed at the three of them.
Elisa and Bryce both seemed a little nervous, as did Lin Xi.
However, his nervousness was different from that of his brother and Elisa. He was really worried about "Number One". Although he had never seen the alien insect hunt, the fact that Robert had been cut into pieces and that Eric had been easily split in two proved "Number One's" powerful ability in this regard.
But Solian is different from those who have already turned into monsters. Lin Xi is still hoping to communicate with the "ghost" who claims to be the captain of the Providence through him—he has too many questions that need to be answered by that mysterious "ghost".
At this moment, what he was most worried about was that "Number One" would jump out and cut Solian into fresh pieces right in front of him.
Thank goodness, after holding his breath and waiting for a while, the monster didn't jump out of the darkness and start a massacre—that alone was enough to make Lin Xi breathe a sigh of relief.
“I am not a devil, nor do I intend to choose sacrifices,” Lin Xi said calmly. “I just want to solve the problem—this ship is in trouble, and I think you’ve sensed that, haven’t you?”
He didn't say much.
After all, these completely open cabins have proven his words.
"Shut up, don't try to seduce me!"
"Sorian shouted."
Although they sounded similar, Lin Xi keenly noticed a subtle shift in Solian's tone.
At the same time, both Bryce and Elisa spoke up in an attempt to ease the situation.
“Hey, Solian, you should know what kind of person I am. I can vouch for Lin Xi. We have a reason for coming to see you this time, and we have absolutely no ill intentions.”
Elisa said.
Although they had already heard from the ship's reports that Alyssa had been labeled a traitor, even the mercenaries had to admit that Alyssa was probably the most responsible and dedicated first mate they had ever encountered during the two years of the mission. After hearing her speak, the murderous intent and ferocity in the eyes of the other mercenaries, except for Solian, subsided to some extent.
But for some reason, despite not showing any signs of alienation, the group represented by Solian still behaved in an unusually neurotic and bizarre manner.
So even with Elisa's assurances, they remained unwilling to put down their guns and talk to her properly.
Lin Xi and the others were pushed and shoved by the gun barrels as they walked out of the narrow, dimly lit cabin.
Author's Note: Sister-in-law: I don't know why, but even though that child was shockingly ugly, I couldn't help but feel a little sorry for him...
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
