Chapter 59
"what are you up to?"
Since Shen Shiqian had already followed them here, there was no point in hiding it, so Feng Ran simply told him.
"I need to capture a few mutants, alive."
Shen Shiqian: "Then we'll have to go down into the black crystal mine tunnels to look for it."
The emergence of alien life forms is influenced by the cosmic environment and energy pollution. Therefore, they are fond of energy-rich planets near black holes. Natural black crystal ore produces toxic gases when it comes into contact with oxygen during the mining process. So even if the concentration of dark matter in the cosmic environment is not high, there is still a chance of alien life forms emerging. However, the process will be much slower and the probability will be very small. It is not surprising for the mining team members to see alien life forms when they carefully dig deep into the mine. They will only feel sorry for the pitted and uneven ore that has been eaten by them.
Shen Shiqian brought Feng Ran to the mining base to change into protective clothing. When they reached the mine tunnel, he was still a little worried: "Do you really have to go down there yourself? I can pull you out for you."
Feng Ran put on a gas mask, revealing only his firm and sharp eyes, and walked into the mine tunnel: "It wouldn't be good if the alien species tore the protective suit. Besides, it's only meaningful to test it in an environment favorable to it."
Shen Shiqian: "What do you want to test?"
Feng Ran thought for a moment, then took out a small syringe gun and gave it to him: "Here are two different types of concentrated ammunition, C73 and G26, which are being tested. If you find an aberration, don't shoot at vital areas first. Shoot it at different tissues and observe the situation."
She held another one containing three kinds of potions, saying, "If you don't know how to do it, just watch me demonstrate in a bit."
Because the two of them were going down into the mine to look for the alien species, the mining team members in the mine were temporarily asked to evacuate. The other patrol team members who came with them were worried about their safety, so they changed into protective suits and followed behind.
Zuo Ling: "Miss Feng Ran, I'd like to try this too. Do you have any more guns?"
Feng Ran was utterly speechless at this tail, and couldn't help but think of the pile of junk from this morning. Even through his mask, you could see that his face was very dark: "That's all. Let anyone below S rank get out. I'm not responsible if they get accidentally injured."
So, only the First Army Corps Commander Li Er and the Second Army Corps Commander Sha Li remained following behind them. Feng Ran didn't have a good look towards the Second Army Corps Commander either. Originally, the gift he gave Feng Ran was a land-based vehicle. Feng Ran was quite excited when she received the car keys, but Zuo Ling told her that General Sha Li's car was not easy to drive because he was a doting father to his daughter and had all of his daughter's photos printed on all his cars. He even felt embarrassed when his colleagues in the military would hitch a ride in each other's cars...
Even with protective gear and a mask on, Lear still looked more elegant than others. If others were to comment, they would say he had the air of a grown-up Basil, the epitome of a cool and collected man: "Miss Fengran, do you want to pursue a career in scientific research?"
Feng Ran glanced at him and then pursed her lips. No, she actually wanted to rebel.
Feng Ran: "It's just a hobby; the future is uncertain."
Lear: "Then I think it's really impressive too."
Not wanting to be ignored, Shali chimed in, "Miss Fengran, why did you let Zuo Ling take back all the things we gave you? Did you not like them?"
Feng Ran really wanted to roll her eyes at him. "You've already said it, why are you still asking? Everyone needs either emotional intelligence or intellectual intelligence, right?"
So Feng Ran said it very bluntly: "I thought those were bribes, and I felt that was wrong."
Shali was about to defend himself when he saw the warning look in his marshal's eyes. After all, they had indeed done the gift-giving behind Shen Shiqian's back. If he said any more, he would be dragged into a duel. So he shut up.
The deeper they went, the higher the concentration of toxic gases in the mine tunnels became. They finally passed the markers indicating the current mining progress of the mining team. Beyond that point lay vast stretches of unmined natural black crystal ore.
However, whether or not there is a mutant species is still a matter of probability. It wasn't until they were almost at the end of the mine that Feng Ran discovered some black crystal ore that had been irregularly bitten and broken. Judging from the damage and the degree of fragmentation of the ore, it should be a small and immature mutant species that had just been born not long ago.
The searchlight shone on the crushed ore, and Lear looked at the ink-like stains on the surface of the ore: "It should be a Kraken, but since it's hiding, it means it hasn't fully transformed into an adult yet, otherwise the thorns and keratinous armor on its tentacles would be very difficult to deal with."
There are many types of alien creatures. They can be classified into three categories based on their appearance: sea, land, and air, which are similar to traditional creatures. However, unlike traditional creatures, they do not have strict environmental restrictions. Some of them are birds with hooked tails, giant pythons with many crawling legs, and leopards with crystals as hard as iron. They sound strange, but they are actually quite ugly.
The Kraken that Lear mentioned was a monster that resembled an octopus, with a soft body and a carapace-covered head. It had eight eyes in total, and its tentacles were large and thick, with thorns and horny armor. Where there were no horny armor, there were fleshy growths that produced corrosive substances, making it extremely ugly.
Shali: "That really came to the right place."
Adult Kraken possess immense strength, and the more energy crystals they consume, the thicker their armor becomes, reaching a strength rating of B. Alien species are categorized into four levels based on their danger: A, B, C, and D. Level D are the weakest, easily dealt with by ordinary people and mining teams. Level C are more troublesome but can be handled with specialized equipment and weapons. Level B requires larger weapons or combat specialists familiar with Level B aliens. Level A, however, has a chance to evolve into Legion-level aliens; their initial intelligence is significantly higher than the other three levels, making them the most difficult to deal with.
In order to study the alien inhibitor, Feng Ran also investigated and learned a lot of information about aliens. The probability of finding Kraken in the mine was indeed very small, but she felt it was not enough. She regretted that it would be better if it were an adult.
Shen Shiqian probably used his mental power to perceive the surrounding environment and quickly discovered the little monster's hiding place.
"Behind the fissure layer of that black crystal mineral at the two o'clock position."
This little Kraken was born not long ago and was only the size of a palm. It hid behind the black crystal ore like a flattened ink cake. Because it was so small, it didn't have any thorns or keratinous armor on its tentacles, and the shell protecting its head had only grown a few bulges.
Shali volunteered to step forward, and after groping around in the crevice for a while with his not-so-nimble fingers, he finally managed to touch its tentacles and pull it out of the crevice.
The ink cake, dropped on the ground, made a splattering sound and remained motionless, continuing to play dead.
Destroying something whose tissue structure hadn't even fully developed made Feng Ran feel incredibly unfulfilled; it was less rewarding than dissecting corpse remains. She felt that all the effort she and Fran had put in these past few days had been inexplicably wasted.
She squatted down and used a spotlight to flip the ink cake over. The little Kraken was covered in dust and fell with a thud, its eyes too scared to move.
Feng Ran looked up at Shen Shiqian: "Can we take it back and let it rest for a while?"
Shali quickly stopped her: "Miss Fengran, this is illegal! Even the Academy of Sciences wouldn't dare to raise them, they won't allow it."
Feng Ran added another mark to the list of people who had been wronged by the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Although these alien creatures only eat energy minerals in their juvenile stage, once they become adults, they will eat anything. The Academy of Sciences had considered using them for experiments before, but not only did they not react to drugs, they also took experimental equipment, materials, and even the glass and metal floors of the isolation room. In the end, the military had to shoot them to prevent the entire Academy of Sciences from being eaten.
Shen Shiqian was well aware of the potential harm that might result from feeding the seemingly harmless Mo Bing too much. Although he wanted to support and assist Feng Ran's research, it was indeed a difficult situation.
"Okay, okay."
Feng Ran compromised. Anyway, she had left a black hole, and there would definitely be an adult on it later. She poked the ink cake with the tip of the syringe gun, feeling a bit disappointed in its uselessness, and threatened, "If you keep playing dead, I'll cut off all your tentacles and soak them in formalin."
Kraken didn't know what formaldehyde was, nor could it understand human speech, but the natural dangerous aura emanating from Feng Ran made it tremble. It instantly went from being a black biscuit to a useless octopus crawling on the ground, its four eyes looking in different directions, refusing to look at Feng Ran.
Feng Ran carefully observed all of Kraken's immature body structures. Only the few bulges on its head could barely be considered soft tissue. It was so small that it probably didn't even have any crystals inside.
She filled the gun's sac with K64, the least destructive of the five agents, grabbed Kraken's head, and shoved the needle in.
Unsurprisingly, those bulges are places where calcium is collected and converted. Once the calcium in the organism's body reaches a certain level, it is then transported outward to form an exoskeleton covering the soft body on the head. However, it has both the keratinous scales of the plateless class and the thorns of terrestrial animals, so there are too many places where it needs calcium. But before it grows up, it only eats minerals. Feng Ran is very curious about how it grows into an adult.
Does crystal not only have the ability to store and utilize energy, but also the function of converting elements?
The little Kraken twitched in Feng Ran's hand, its tentacles thrashing uncontrollably, and its skin began to secrete a dark, oily slime. She quickly found a bottle and collected the slime, wondering if the corrosive properties of this slime would be effective against other types of alien creatures.
After the first drug experiment, Feng Ran collected a full bottle of mucus. The area where K64 was injected seemed to have developed tissue fluid edema, swelling up into an even larger lump, squeezing his right eye down to half its original size, turning him into a silly, asymmetrical-eyed octopus.
To avoid making it look silly, Fengran decided to put the S09 in the bulge on its left side, so that the swelling would be more symmetrical.
This time it secreted even more mucus. Feng Ran wondered if it was just an illusion caused by the dim lighting in the mine, but the tips of its tentacles looked a bit bluish. This time they didn't swell up because the bulge that collected and converted calcium had subsided.
The S09 agent contains a lot of busulfan and peroxides. If it were used on ordinary organisms, they would have died long ago. In fact, when Fran used alien remains in his experiments, the cell-decomposing power was very strong, like being doused with aqua regia. However, the Kraken only twitched uncomfortably and secreted mucus, without any other changes. Sure enough, there is still a big difference between remains and living organisms. Perhaps the crystals in the bodies of lower alien organisms will automatically become inactive after death and need to attach to other living organisms to be effective again.
But if Kraken's key tissues are destroyed and it lacks the ability to regenerate, does that mean that if all of its alien organs are destroyed, it will never be able to grow and evolve again and will only be able to live as an ordinary eight-eyed octopus?
Without replacing any other medication, Fengran continued to inject S09 into the other bulges on the Kraken. As a result, the head, which was originally covered with bulges and resembled a melon, became smooth all over. Except for the edema in the area where K64 was injected at the beginning, which was still particularly noticeable, it looked more and more like an ordinary eight-eyed octopus.
Of course, the price of destroying so many tissues was that the Kraken was about to collapse, and a large puddle of slime had been spilled on the ground. As all the calcium tissues were destroyed, it had nothing left to secrete, and its original dark black color turned bluish-green. It was so weak that its tentacles stopped flapping.
Feng Ran picked up a small piece of black crystal ore from the side and gave it to it. It slowly rolled it up with its tentacles and stuffed it into the cavity below. After wriggling for a while, it spat out the black crystal ore.
Feng Ran's eyes lit up instantly. He put the gun away and held it with both hands, turning to look at Shen Shiqian with a fanatical, irrational expression.
"Shen Shiqian, I want to raise it!"
Ignoring the reactions of the other three, she quickly got up from the ground and walked out of the mine tunnel.
"Let's go, let's go outside first, I need to feed it something else!"
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