The group walked along the corridor, passing countless cabins with their doors wide open, and finally stopped in a large hall that was clearly a recreation room.
The cabins and corridors are usually very dark, but here the light is very bright.
Moreover, Lin Xi keenly noticed that the light here was not the special red light found in emergency situations, but rather ordinary, normal white light—
This is sufficient proof that the system here has been separated from the main system on the Helios.
What Lin Xi was concerned about were the people in this hall.
The people here were clearly divided into two groups—one group consisted of the mercenaries who were pointing guns at them. This was not obvious in the dark living quarters, but now that they were in the brightly lit area, their paleness, haggardness, and panic were clearly visible.
They were all skin and bones, and looked less like space mercenaries and more like starving people in the slums of some colony planet.
"They must be starving," Lin Xi couldn't help but think. "Maybe these people noticed something was wrong with the food bags from the beginning and controlled their diet—well, that might be why they were different from the others in the hall."
Yes, the other people.
Lin Xi could sense that Alyssa and Bryce's gazes had also fallen on the other people in the hall. Although, whether it was appropriate to use the word "people" to describe them at this moment was debatable.
This hall was originally intended to be a storage area for equipment, but now all the weapons and equipment have been cleared out, while the metal railings that were originally used to secure the heavy shelves have been preserved.
Long ropes hung down from above and were then tied into nooses to tightly bind the bizarre, insect-like bodies.
Most of them still retain a basic human shape, but only a "basic" one.
Elytra, antennae, chewing mouthparts, segmented bodies—they all have these obvious insect features to varying degrees, and some even have a complete head. They mumble incoherently, their cloudy eyes devoid of any light.
A gaunt mercenary, seemingly having heard the commotion, emerged from the depths of the hall, a rope clutched in his hand. Behind him came a sound like a needle scraping against a blackboard.
“Hey, Solian.”
He looked up and greeted Suo Lian. Only then did Lin Xi realize that the other end of the rope he was holding was tied to a woman's corpse.
However, the woman was almost completely transformed into an insect. She had grown compound eyes and feathery antennae, and her sickle-like forelimbs were still covered in blood, with a small patch of torn flesh dangling limply below her elbow. A deep, dark hole was visible in the center of her forehead, from which a trickle of blood flowed. This woman had been murdered just as she was about to complete her final metamorphosis.
"Hal—"
Solian gave the man a brief greeting, his gaze falling on the woman's corpse. His brow furrowed slightly, and a hint of sorrow flashed across his eyes.
"I'm so sorry, Annie, she..."
“It doesn’t matter, at least I killed her before she was completely transformed into this monster, and I believe he still had a human will at that time,” Hal murmured. “My wife died as a human.”
Immediately afterwards, Hal turned his gaze to the three people behind Solian. He glanced past Elisa and Bryce and fixed his gaze on Lin Xi.
"Oh, it's you, you're the mother of these monsters... the summoner of doom..."
Hal, who had initially seemed somewhat indifferent, suddenly became agitated. He abruptly loosened the ropes, pulled out a laser gun from his waist, and aimed it at Lin Xi.
Before he could fire, something unexpected happened—
A mutant creature standing close to him, which had been panting heavily with its head down, looking almost on the verge of death, became agitated the moment Hal drew his gun and pointed it at Lin Xi. It suddenly arched its body, then leaped heavily, its sharp mandibles shooting straight out of its throat and biting Hal's wrist.
Hal screamed, and blood splattered as the laser gun fell to the ground with a thud.
"Damn it—Hal—"
"Hal! Are you alright—"
...
The mercenaries rushed towards Hal, frantically chopping off the monster's mouthparts to separate Hal from the creature. During this process, a young mercenary, unable to control his emotions, raised his gun and fired over ten shots at the monster that had bitten Hal. The monster's head was quickly blasted to pieces. However, the young mercenary's action was somewhat unnecessary, as the monster was already dead before he fired—its esophagus, connected to part of its internal organs, was dragged directly from its body through the mouthparts.
The bite it took at Hal earlier was an attack that exhausted its life force.
This horrific scene unfolded right before Lin Xi and the others' eyes. So fast, so cruel, so bloody.
Bryce's face was as white as starched linen, and Lin Xi heard him let out two strange gasps.
He suspected that Bryce was really about to throw up.
Well, when he saw with his own eyes the monster's wet, bloody entrails being pulled out of its deformed jaw, he felt a little nauseous.
"Heavens!" As for Elisa, she had already turned her head away the moment the smell of blood came out, unable to bear looking any longer.
However, this extremely impactful scene seemed to be nothing out of the ordinary to Sorian. He didn't seem to be moved at all, and his expression didn't even change.
Lin Xi swallowed, his throat feeling dry.
Solian was not a cold-hearted person. On the contrary, Lin Xi knew very well that he had a kind of concern and care for his companions that should not be seen in mercenaries.
The only reason he could remain so calm in the face of such cruelty and horror is that similar things have happened far too many times before.
"You're very lucky."
Solian moved the half-human, half-insect monster on the ground aside, and then whispered to Lin Xi.
"These disgusting monsters you created saved your life—"
Lin Xi pursed her lips.
He remained silent because he sensed something trembling slightly behind Solian.
"call……"
He was certain it wasn't his imagination, because Bryce and Elisa seemed to have noticed something was wrong as well, their breathing quickened suddenly.
Lin Xi turned her head and exchanged a glance with them.
Meanwhile, Solian was completely unaware that he had just escaped a disaster. He directed his few companions to lead Hal out of the hall, and then drove Lin Xi and the others to another corner of the hall.
Here, Lin Xi and the other two were tied up with special ropes.
Lin Xi could feel Solian walk up behind him and pull hard on the ropes binding him. The ropes, made of aramid fibers, were exceptionally strong, and Solian had even tied a knot that was so tight it almost cut into his flesh. Only after doing all this did Solian seem to breathe a sigh of relief.
He took a few steps back, crossed his arms, stared at Lin Xi for a while, and then spoke.
“You said you wanted to talk to me, so now you can speak.” He pointed to his personal terminal. “Of course, you better pray you don’t say anything nonsense, my patience isn’t very good right now.”
He paused, then looked at Lin Xi, his eyes filled with a malicious and cruel intent.
"As you just saw, my team members are probably less patient than I am—just like you claimed before, a lot has happened during this time."
He said in a low voice.
Lin Xi was still looking at the "people" tied to the frames. He should have just told Solian his purpose directly, but when he opened his mouth, the words that came out were something else.
“Those who are tied up…are your companions, right? You brought the crew members with problems out of the cabin and then bound them here. But they are still gradually becoming corrupted…After things became irreversible, you had no choice but to kill them.”
As soon as Lin Xi finished speaking, the muscles on Solian's face twitched slightly, and then he raised his gun and pressed it directly against Lin Xi's forehead.
"I warned you not to talk nonsense."
"Sorian!"
"We came here because of the alienation of the crew!"
Elisa and Bryce shouted simultaneously from either side of Lin Xi.
Compared to the other two, Lin Xi, who was actually the one with the gun pointed at him, was the calmest.
“You’re very upset…” Lin Xi said softly, “You still think it’s my fault? No, you’re starting to waver, aren’t you? Otherwise, you would have shot me the moment you saw me in the cabin. You want to know what happened, and you also want to know why I came to find you.”
Lin Xi paused for a moment, then continued, "...What exactly did John Brunson tell you? Why are you so convinced that I am the culprit behind all this?"
"Bang--"
Sorian suddenly fired, the bullet grazing Lin Xi's cheek and hitting the ground, leaving a scorch mark.
Lin Xi's eyes trembled slightly.
I thought you would answer me, not me.
Solian said, a hint of anger in his voice.
“I’ve met with Shizuo Ando before,” Lin Xi murmured somewhat abruptly at that moment. “Back then, Shizuo Ando suddenly acted very strangely…”
Lin Xi calmly recounted the strange occurrences that had happened to Ando Shizuo, while he kept an eye on Solian's every move.
He wasn't surprised—Solian's expression changed after hearing about the ghost of the Providence captain from three hundred years ago.
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