Chapter 241 [Revised] Evil Creatures Crawling Quietly
It’s actually not difficult to find the mother machine. There is a ready-made control room in the palace.
Like other countries, there is a main control console in the office of the monarch or head of state. It contains operation buttons for ultimate heavy weapons such as missile launchers.
The Imperial Palace - Abida Palace is no exception.
It's just that Cade is incompetent and has never opened this room since he took office.
The deputy secretary received instructions from Heinz, obtained authority, and waited at the entrance of the palace for the technical personnel sent by the cult - the brain nerve and information science engineer, Coconut Octopus, and his graduate student disciple and assistant.
The deputy secretary read: "Midnight snack?"
The engineer slowly shook the hand he extended: "Coconut octopus, the coconut in coconut octopus, the octopus in Octopus family, didn't you read my resume before you came here?"
Of course the deputy secretary had seen it.
This "midnight snack" is also a member of the octopus family. Although they are both octopuses, this guy's brain is much smarter than Cade's. At only 30 years old, he is already a leader in the field of brain neuroinformation science.
I heard that this person is quite arrogant and a scientific madman who is oblivious to what is happening outside. At first, the deputy secretary didn't understand how such a person could be connected to a highly secularized religious group, until they looked up Coconut Octopus's family tree and discovered that his grandparents were both from Earth and that he was born in New Columbus, making him a third-generation immigrant.
There are many Electronic Buddha believers on the New Columbus planet, and the Coconut Octopus family should be one of them.
The deputy secretary had no interest in commenting on this religion that had quietly infiltrated every walk of life in the empire in just ten years. He led his men straight down to the fourth underground floor.
According to the sea level, this place is already below the sea water and the surrounding temperature is relatively low. As soon as he walked in, the graduate assistant shuddered at the cold air that came towards him and subconsciously rubbed his arms, which were still covered with short sleeves.
"It's so cold," the graduate student muttered, "I have goose bumps."
"The palace's maintenance worker also said so. You'll get used to it after a few visits." The deputy secretary said casually, glancing at the two of them. "However, Dr. Coconut Octopus has reached the pinnacle of his abilities. He probably won't have the chance to come again."
Coconut Octopus said "hmm" in a contemptuous manner. He was already used to others praising his professional level.
But the graduate student felt strange and vaguely felt that the deputy secretary had something else to say.
They walked through the narrow corridor and came to the iron door at the end. According to the procedure, one only had to swipe the card to open the door, but what surprised Coconut Octopus and the assistant was that the deputy secretary stopped before opening the door and knocked three times, "dong, dong, dong."
This behavior is indeed a bit strange.
Because they all knew that there would be no one inside at this time.
The knock on the door made the graduate student even more uneasy. In his impression, this step would only be taken deliberately when staying in a room at the end of the corridor in a haunted hotel.
The purpose is to let the "things" inside know that they are coming.
He couldn't help rubbing the goose bumps on his arms. He glanced sideways and saw a large, winding trail of blood seeping out from the cracks in the ceiling of the corridor behind him. It was dripping onto the dark green anti-static floor in a thick and smelly way, and was quietly crawling towards where they were standing.
His face turned pale, and he pointed there, stammering: "...blood, blood!"
"Huh?" The octopus turned around in surprise.
The deputy secretary also looked over. Compared to the young graduate student, his reaction was much more normal: "Oh, this is just some brightly colored fungi and algae. This place is close to the sea, the underground is humid, and buildings are sometimes invaded by algae. It's not a corpse hidden in the ceiling."
After hearing the explanation, the graduate student touched his nose awkwardly and said, "Sorry, I misread it."
Coconut Octopus scolded him coldly: "I gave you the opportunity to come here to train you, not to let you scare me here. If you do this again, your junior sister will come instead!"
“…I’m sorry, teacher.”
The graduate student nodded in response, thinking that he must be too stressed out by his heavy workload, otherwise why would he be frightened by a common lichen.
He took another look at the slimy fungus-algae complex that was dripping onto the ground. It was very thick and sticky, almost threadable, which showed that the fungi inside were very active. If they were given some meaty humus, they would multiply with great rustling pleasure, covering the entire corridor and even his feet.
He vomited at his own imagination.
In his opinion, fungi are definitely not kind creatures. This thing can grow mushrooms on corpses, and can also sign a "symbiotic agreement" with other creatures in order to survive in extremely harsh conditions. Like invasive algae, plants, and sometimes even flesh-and-blood animals.
In order to achieve the goal of survival, they will stop at nothing and do whatever it takes.
With a creak, the door opened inward.
The deputy secretary took a step back politely and said, "The operating table is inside. Please come in. I have other things to do, so I will leave you for now."
After the secretary left, they went inside and were really surprised by their first impression - this place was very old and the equipment was so old that it seemed like it was from the early 20th century. If the green light on the operating table hadn't been on, they would have doubted whether this place could be used normally.
And there seems to be a problem with the ventilation system.
Compared to the corridor which was still ventilated, the windowless room smelled more stale and filled with a musty odor that made people feel uncomfortable.
"This place smells terrible," Coconut Octopus frowned and covered his mouth and nose with his sleeves, "and these old machines. What on earth were they thinking that they hadn't eliminated this outdated garbage?"
"This should be a custom-made operating table from the previous emperor's time. It's more complicated and more difficult to use than the ones we have now."
The graduate student entered the command and pressed Enter. The page flashed and slowly refreshed a series of codes. He adjusted his glasses and reported to the teacher knowingly:
"But it's not difficult for us. Let me see... the mother machine system destruction command, [Confirm destruction?] [Yes], [Waiting for the destruction process]..."
The page starts with a slow progress bar.
Is it really that simple? The graduate student was surprised.
To be honest, any sophomore majoring in information engineering can do this kind of work, there is no need to invite them over. After all, they are in the field of brain neurology and information science. They not only have to learn data programming, but also a lot of medical knowledge. Normally, they take over top projects such as "brain-computer interface" that challenge the limits of human science. Asking them to come and destroy a program is really an overkill.
However, his mentor looked at him as if he were an idiot and stressed impatiently:
"Do you think that's enough? We have to find the machine room and take a sample back. Where is the machine room? Where is it? This is our main task. Also, did you bring the axe, chainsaw and miniature explosives that I asked you to bring?"
"Yes."
"Why don't you hurry up?" Coconut Octopus pointed at the wall with experience, "Pry open this wall. Did you hear me? It's hollow inside. There must be something behind it."
The graduate students had no choice but to obey.
But the young man who was called to do the hard labor never expected that after he had worked so hard to chop down a plywood wall, he would actually see such a scene -
...Mushrooms...Magnificent mushrooms...
...Brain mushroom...A giant mushroom with pink wrinkles and grooves——!
He took a step back in confusion with the axe in his hand, mumbling incoherently: "Oh my God...what is this...am I dreaming..."
But I'm afraid that no matter how absurd the dream is, it can't produce such a surreal creature.
It is so strange that it completely exceeds human history's understanding of biological classification. As you can see, its main body is composed of two parts. The top part is a brain as big as a tree crown, which acts as some kind of strange cap structure; the lower part is an abnormally thin stem. Even people who don’t know much about mushrooms will instantly realize one thing when they see it for the first time: this type of “large cap and small stem” is often a member of the genus Amanita, which is highly poisonous.
At this moment, a voice interrupted his body trembling:
"——A miracle! This is a miracle!"
The mad scientist octopus happily stepped over the rotten wall and ran towards the creature with an anti-realistic structure.
"Look, this walnut-shaped cerebral cortex is so perfect!" His voice trembled with excitement, "and there is no useless skull! It is even more perfect. Look at these beautiful, curving ravines like rivers, how exquisite, the density of neurons inside must be terrifying!"
As he spoke, he suddenly turned around, scaring his apprentice.
"Well, what do you think?" he asked repeatedly.
The graduate student looked at his brain in panic and answered tremblingly: "...very pink."
"Yes... it's very pink and tender," after getting a satisfactory answer, the coconut octopus looked up with fascination, "It's fresh... alive... if it's sliced, it must be extremely fresh..."
The graduate student once heard from his senior that Coconut Octopus is a complete brainist - the so-called "brainist" refers to some people who believe in the supremacy of absolute rationality and IQ.
They firmly believe that the evolutionary strategy of modern aliens is wrong and has gone astray. In the interstellar age, humans should evolve into a state where only the brain organ remains, because only in this way can humans break away from their useless bodies and go further in the universe.
Coconut octopuses are particularly committed to this view.
He is an intelligent hybrid of human and octopus. The part of him that is an octopus gives him the most powerful brain in the ocean, because in addition to the main brain that occupies 60% of the neurons, he also has eight secondary brains, one on each of the eight tentacles. If there is anyone who would be obsessed with absolute wisdom, it would be him.
"Bring the equipment here quickly, I want to observe it closely!" The coconut octopus gave the order impatiently.
The young man trembled with fear, but still took the remote camera and carefully guided it around the room.
This room is 200 square meters. As the spherical camera flapped its wings and moved, the monitors in their hands honestly showed the picture:
The surface layer of the brain is the cortex, which appears to be soft and grooved, but is actually very tough and elastic, as if it were wrapped in strong muscles.
It stands to reason that such a material cannot be supported in mid-air; proportionally to the human brain, it is too heavy. However, the giant brain "floated" four meters high in the room as if defying gravity. Even the entire space is filled with it, occupying a large area, leaving almost no extra place for viewers to stand.
The graduate student had a vague idea that if the space was not closed, it would grow bigger and even burst the wall and flow into the street outside.
They gathered around it and observed it carefully, and were shocked to find that the "stalks" that supported the giant brain like sticks were actually vertically arranged neuron cells.
These cells are stronger than human beings can comprehend. They are as hard as steel bars and as delicate as optical fibers. Therefore, a giant brain weighing more than ten tons can be placed "lightly" in the air.
"…It's amazing! This is an unprecedented discovery. I can't imagine how excited those people who study materials science would be if I showed this to them."
Faced with the craze for coconut octopus, the graduate students were filled with fear and confusion. Everything was abnormal, and with his remaining rationality, he tugged at the corner of his instructor's clothes, "Teacher, where is the computer room? ... We have to find the computer room."
He trembled and dared not speak loudly, as if he was afraid of disturbing the brain floating above his head. Just saying these few words almost made him cry with nervousness.
"The computer room is right here." Coconut Octopus suddenly calmed down and said lightly.
"Where... I, I didn't see it..." The graduate student swallowed his saliva, "There's only that giant sculpture-like mushroom brain..."
Coconut Octopus interrupted him angrily: "That's not a sculpture!"
The young man heard him say in despair: "It is the creation of the evil god, the ancient firewall of this country, and it may even be--"
He whispered in a psychedelic tone: "The former emperor's true body."
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