Chapter 123 Chapter 123
Chapter 123
No one could refute Ethan's words. Not to mention refutation, they didn't even have the idea of resisting.
——Because this accident was so tragic.
Even worse than last time.
This can be seen from Leander's expression and the fact that those ten people have not slept since they came back last night. The situation of those ten people is really quite tricky.
Most people are now even regretting why their superiors did not listen to Ethan.
No! In fact, their team leader originally intended to be more cautious, but...
Thinking of this, everyone present looked in one direction.
Professor Bill sat there expressionlessly.
Professor Bill really didn't know how he had fallen into such a situation. After all, Ethan's previous conclusions were a bit outrageous in the novel. Only some horror movies that didn't pay attention to cause and effect would use this kind of evil god sacrifice to pollute others.
——But who would have thought that this kind of situation would actually happen in reality!
But now is definitely not the time to admit mistakes. Besides, he was just making a suggestion and he was not the one who really led this action.
Professor Bill thought about it and looked at Theodore - then he was so frightened by Theodore's icy gaze that he swallowed his words and started firing at Ethan.
"They are not all crazy, Professor Ethan. Isn't Ollie sane? If the military doesn't reimburse the cost of the plastic surgery, I can mobilize social connections to donate money to help."
Professor Bill said this with anger on his expressionless face, looking as if he had been wronged.
There was a sudden commotion in the conference room. No one present believed what Professor Bill said at all and even wanted to refute him.
But before these people could speak, someone spoke up.
"... As for the two people who had limb hyperplasia before, if we ignore the fact that they could grow limbs after recovery, the surgery on these two people is not that difficult."
Leander spoke in a calm tone, as if he was defending this person, which surprised many people present, and also made Theodore and Harrison frown.
"This is not Leander's character..."
The medical assistants in the medical team looked at their team leader in disbelief.
If you are not the team leader, do you really not know who is the culprit who makes you work overtime?
Fortunately, Leander's next words put their minds at ease.
"——However, the situation this time is different. Even in modern times, surgery to shrink a person by one size is considered a critical surgery."
Professor Bill's eyes suddenly widened.
The medical assistants on the team cheered a little.
"Even if the limb proportions of those ten people are quite disproportionate, it won't work. Their skulls alone cannot be reduced in size, and even plastic surgery AI is not recommended."
Professor Bill looked at Leander as if he was betrayed, but Leander put away his smile, with dark circles under his eyes, and showed the information on the holographic screen and said:
"——Oli Sri, this patient's body proportions and dimensions were originally within the normal range. However, at 14:20 yesterday afternoon, Capital Star time, his body suddenly began to change abnormally."
"First, the bones in the patient's limbs grow at an unnatural rate, especially the long bones, such as the femur and humerus, which grow far beyond the normal physiological range."
"This abnormal growth caused his thighs and calves to increase dramatically in length, as did his arms, causing his originally moderate build to suddenly become abnormally tall."
As Leander spoke, he also pulled out Ollie's body model after the previous physical examination and compared it with the current one.
This intuitive feeling made the scalps of some people who had never been on a battlefield or had never come into contact with the human body tingle.
"As bones grow, muscle tissue also expands rapidly. The proliferation and hypertrophy of muscle fibers make the muscles of the limbs become abnormally developed, not only increasing in size, but also seemingly increasing in strength. However, this growth is not evenly distributed, causing the muscle lines to appear distorted and exaggerated."
"In terms of body circumference, chest circumference, waist circumference and hip circumference all expand as the body grows. Adipose tissue and subcutaneous tissue also expand rapidly to accommodate bone and muscle growth."
"However, this growth has not been accompanied by a corresponding increase in skin elasticity, resulting in signs of tightness and stretching of the skin, and even cracks and scars in some areas."
Leander said expressionlessly, "Generally speaking, this situation is accompanied by severe pain, but that unknown force seems to have increased their dopamine and adrenaline secretions, causing them to become more excited and more tolerant of pain, to the point where they don't even notice the pain in their bodies."
"Throughout the process, the patient's body proportions were seriously out of balance, his limbs were too long, and his body was too large, giving people a sense of disharmony and weirdness. At the same time, due to the drastic changes in his body structure, his internal organs also faced tremendous pressure and challenges and needed to adapt to the new body size and spatial layout."
"At the same time, the patients were also under great mental pressure. After being away from the ruins, their consciousness gradually recovered. However, after realizing that their bodies were abnormal, their spirits collapsed again, especially Ollie Sri, who woke up first and escaped with his team members."
After reading the report, Leander looked at Professor Bill with a tired face: "He has committed suicide three times within a dozen hours of returning to the starship. So..."
"Professor Bill, do you still think this is a cosmetic surgery?"
Professor Bill opened and closed his mouth, but finally uttered only one sentence.
“It was just an unexpected situation.”
After hearing this, Jiang Qi wanted to go up and beat the guy up. The other cadets at the bottom of the table could hardly sit still and wanted to go up and beat the guy up.
——If it weren’t for the AI chair stopping them, they would probably have really gone forward.
"Oh, an accident?"
Ethan's blue eyes looked at Professor Bill with mockery in them.
"Is it that my words are not simple enough to understand, or is it that my report has not appeared in front of federal lawmakers?"
"You are an idiot. Just be thankful that this incident was not made public for confidentiality reasons. If it affects the votes and the conscription, I won't be surprised if you evaporate right in front of me the next second."
Ethan said bluntly.
Professor Bill is still a scientific researcher after all. Although he is on par with those politicians in terms of offline aspects, he even has the potential to surpass them.
But he was no match for those politicians in cultivating his energy. He looked at Ethan gasping for breath for a long time and was unable to speak.
At this time, Barry, who was standing aside and dared not breathe for fear of becoming cannon fodder, finally received an order from his superiors.
Barry looked at the order in his hand with a complicated expression and spoke to the people present.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the councillors have held a meeting overnight and have reached a preliminary decision on the incident."
Barry's words made everyone present sit up straight and look at him.
This seemingly inconspicuous young man first sighed, and then began to read the document seriously.
The treatment for the injured was reasonable. All medical expenses were covered and there were subsidies. It sounded like nothing could be better than this.
However, the parliament was not so gentle to the participants in this operation.
"…the Judge Advocate General has filed charges against the military director and overall commander of the operation, Theodore Carrington, and other persons responsible for the operation."
Ethan was not among these responsible persons. He was not among them in the first place.
——Who made him only have C-level mental power?
However, it was this C-level mental power that allowed Ethan to avoid the accusation this time.
Theodore looked unhappy. He had been at the front line for too long and his superiors had been eyeing his position for a long time. However, he did not take it seriously because his military achievements were real.
...But God knew he would capsize in such a small place.
Theodore believed that as long as he stood in front of the military court, the military court would definitely search through all the evidence.
Other responsible persons, such as Harrison and Leander, looked even more livid.
They were not in any better situation than Theodore.
However, they also learned that the higher-ups were quite dissatisfied with this incident.
Even the president can't stop the accusations.
Professor Bill is in a safe position, after all, he is not from the military system, and the several projects he is working on are quite critical.
However, Professor Bill did not feel relaxed for long before he heard Barry speak with sympathy.
"…Specially hired expert Bill will be demoted."
Before Bill could utter an impossible cry, he heard Barry continue.
"…The head of the data team, Ethan Silas, is now appointed as the person in charge of this mission."
*
The people in charge who were accused that day, even the bad-tempered Harrison, left the meeting room quite calmly.
Although Harrison's face was still a little dark, at least he didn't overturn the table on the spot.
"It can only be said that people still need comparison. When seeing Bill's misfortune, other unlucky people feel that they are not so bad and naturally won't be so angry."
Gu Youxing was lying on the sofa in the shadow space, reading the letters from the original world and speaking.
With the aid materials, the Red Star Base has gradually grown stronger. Of course, this does not mean annexing other bases, but expanding the territory in a real sense.
Take over other bases?
They don't want to be the leader of the Beggars' Sect yet.
After Gu Youxing analyzed this point from the elementary school students' composition, he raised his eyebrows. It seemed that the base commander had not become senile in the years when he was away.
But it has been four years since he left...
Gu Youxing's eyes were wandering as he thought about this, while 777 on the side was still immersed in the previous question.
"Yes, the others would definitely be unhappy to see themselves being punished, but when they see that there is another person, they are demoted while their rival is promoted, and those who originally had no real power now have real power, naturally the others will feel comforted."
777's words dragged Gu Youxing out of his memories: "It can be regarded as sacrificing his happiness for the sake of the entire starship, but it seems that the parliament still has different opinions this time. Behind the accusations are the power games of both sides, but they have reached a consensus on not dividing power."
"Host, aren't you the one they designated to be in charge of delegating power?" 777 was a little confused. He has always been insensitive to these twists and turns of human beings.
"C-level mental power is basically equivalent to congenital disability in the political field, and it is also mentally retarded. Without political bargaining chips, it is basically a mascot. Rather than saying that Ethan, the person in charge, is here to share power, it is better to say that Ethan, the person in charge, is here to be a mascot and give them a warning."
Gu Youxing said casually while flipping through the letter.
"And I've scolded them several times before, which shows that I have no political nerves. If a person like this is put in the position of person in charge, he can be officially kicked out after the higher-ups have finished arguing about the candidates, or if they make another mistake."
All these twists and turns made 777's data stream begin to get tangled: "...So host, are you planning to be a mascot this time?"
Gu Youxing put the letter in his hand back into the drawer and said, "Now that this position is in my hands, there is no way I can give it up."
"Host, are you planning to fight for power? Or engage in some political struggle!" 777 said excitedly.
Gu Youxing looked at 777 with a puzzled expression.
"Although I'm good at this, why should I go into intrigue with others when there's a shortcut?"
Gu Youxing said as he clicked on the floor plan and control panel of the ruins.
"As long as they reveal a little life-saving information, if they dare to remove me from the position of person in charge, Theodore alone can tear them apart."
Gu Youxing said confidently.
"But host, you made them like that, and then turned around and revealed your design to make them grateful to you..."
777 once again witnessed the bottom line of his host and struggled to find a description.
"You are like a criminal suspect returning to the crime scene to act as an enthusiastic witness..."
*
This is definitely the case, but Gu Youxing would not admit it. After joking around for a while, Gu Youxing began to check the ruins to fill in the gaps.
"...Those people were really scared crazy by you, the host. Just a signal source invasion, a little hallucination potion, and a building mixed with [Cthulhu's Foot Skin], and everyone was scared like this."
777 sighed and said, "Host, you are indeed a genius. All the hosts who took this path before did not perform well. Some even became evil gods themselves. Unfortunately, many of them were exposed."
Gu Youxing said while adjusting the ruins: "It's probably because there were too many designs and the scene was too grand, but it came too suddenly, and those people basically didn't believe it."
777's eyes widened immediately and he said, "Host, how did you know that? Afterwards, when the hosts summarized the reasons for their failure, most of them said this."
"Because these routes sound cult and even a little scary, but in fact they are just scams, and the premise of the scam is to make people believe the concept that the scammer wants to convey to them."
Gu Youxing said: "Just like this temple, first they have to believe that this temple is a real ancient temple, and second they have to believe that there is really a strange energy here. The subsequent performance looks grand, but without the first two, it is just a castle in the air."
777 nodded in sudden realization: "So no wonder you, the host, didn't come up to show Cthulhu's arrival. Instead, you just made their bodies mutate, and then put some small details on the way, so that they would notice and imagine themselves getting scared!"
Gu Youxing nodded and said, "Those details are only useful to people with meticulous minds, such as clean and tidy streets. If these ten people are careless, those details will not be of any use and may even be discovered."
“But a careless person wouldn’t be chosen for such a dangerous mission,” 777 said.
"But we have to take these situations into consideration, and there are definitely things that careful people may not notice."
Gu Youxing adjusted the ruins and said with resentment: "God knows how long I have been designing to keep the walls of the temple gate moist but the ground dry and dusty. However, they haven't discovered this problem yet and are still struggling with the footprint."
777 looked at the host's rare resentful expression and comforted him: "Host, you also said that they might not be able to find it, but what about the host's footprints?"
777 asked curiously.
Gu Youxing said casually.
"It's about letting the projection on the scene project another row of footprints based on the soles of their shoes, and then letting them enter the subsequent plot according to the situation."
"Either there was one extra person among the ten, or there were four people in there but only three came out, and the other one is nowhere to be found now. Or like now, the extra footprint was made by myself an hour later."
777, who originally thought that he could hear the host, was just an illusion: …
"Host, if you keep picking on the details, sooner or later someone from another star will be scared to death by you."
*
No one knew whether the ruins after Gu Youxing’s adjustment would be scary enough, but everyone in the conference room was almost scared to death.
They were merely attending this seminar on the relics at the request of their superiors.
The only difference is that the speaker of this seminar is Professor Ethan, who was also asked by his superiors to give a seminar.
After Professor Ethan went to the ruins this time, he went into seclusion for half a month with a large amount of information. He didn't even know that the two unfortunate expedition members were gradually recovering.
This is probably the reason why the higher-ups asked Professor Ethan to hold a seminar. The purpose is to let the new person in charge come forward and not act like a mascot, making things difficult for them.
For this reason, the boss called Marshal Theodore to come and calm the situation, but strangely, Theodore did not make a fuss but nodded in agreement. Although the boss was very happy, after all, Bill also came to participate, he still felt a little strange.
Doesn’t Theodore hate Professor Ethan?
However, news soon spread that Jiang Qi would also participate, so naturally those who knew about it said "oh" in understanding.
But only Theodore himself knew that he really didn't know that Jiang Qi would also participate.
Back to the seminar, now those military academy students have become non-staff members of this mission. After all, they know a lot, but they can just kill them because Jiang Qi is among them. So it has become a normal thing for them to go to school on weekdays and work in the hospital on weekends.
However, Jiang Qi was quite interested in Professor Ethan's seminar. He was curious about the ruins, and coupled with Professor Ethan's previous kindness to him, Jiang Qi came to the seminar with great excitement.
——Then I felt a chill down my spine.
"...From the murals in the long corridor, it seems that this temple was a scene of sacrifice by people at that time. But what is strange is that in general, whether it is animals or humans, other sacrifices are usually tied up by people and sent to the altar."
Ethan said at the front of the conference room, motioning for his assistant to enlarge one of the murals.
Bill still looked disdainful.
"But in this mural, one of the people with a circle of lines around him is alone in an empty house. Judging from the iconic patterns on the house, it should be a temple, and this person seems to be curious and wandering around in this empty temple."
"As he traveled to more and more places, the black lines on his body became heavier. The circle of lines was gradually assimilated into the black lines. At the same time, the characters representing gods began to appear in the words marked below it."
Ethan explained calmly, and everyone present could see that although the mural was painted by an ancient painter, the lines were exquisite, and it became increasingly strange as they went further.
They can even see those people using the lines on their bodies to probe distant objects. The painting style is still clean, but in later murals the lines that make up the characters gradually become chaotic, and from time to time there are large clumps of black lines painted on people and houses.
The comparison between the before and after is weird enough.
However, despite the fact that everyone in the audience was a little frightened, Ethan remained quite calm.
"But they didn't specify which god they were offering sacrifices to, and it wasn't painted on the murals. Instead, they just used a character to replace it. Of course, it could be a monotheistic belief."
"By the time this little man walked onto the altar, the black lines on his body had grown thick enough to gradually cover his entire body. The lines on his body were already covered by the black lines. Then, the next second, other people came out to dance happily. The large number of happy and joyful square glyphs that appeared in the characters below also represented this."
Mona listened to the teacher's calm and indifferent tone and gradually moved closer to her colleague. She had to admit that although the conference room was full of people, she was a little scared.
"I will definitely not be able to sleep tonight. Those murals are too weird. How on earth can the teacher study such weird murals so seriously?"
Mona said, tapping on her holoscreen.
The colleague next to him was obviously a little nervous.
'Maybe this is why teachers are teachers, and we assistants are just assistants. So the level of mental power is nothing. Just looking at the teacher's current academic achievements, even if my mental power is one level higher than his, I can't reach it before I am 100 years old.'
The colleague said, tapping the holographic screen.
Ethan continued to look through the murals and explain.
"...Similar situations appeared in large numbers in the following murals, but most of them were people with spiritual power moving around on their own initiative."
"Some of the figures that did not actively move did not have black lines on their bodies, but their limbs soon became disproportionate - current evidence suggests that this was intentional by the painter - and then these figures fell down in the temple."
Ethan said in a calm voice: "These murals show that in ancient times, this temple had already begun to cause abnormal changes to the people at that time. Although I don't know why the people responsible for the sacrifices did not have any abnormalities in their bodies, the changes in the victims must have been caused by the temple."
Ethan said, and he also took out the murals painted in various eras as examples. The team members didn't see it clearly before, they only saw a bunch of black strokes, but after AI scanning and extraction, it appeared in front of them very clearly.
—and then scare the hell out of them.
However, at this time, Ethan still dropped the bomb lightly.
"Finally, after AI analysis of the materials of the last few portraits on these murals, it is very likely that they are the real person."
"It's just like some research institutes or cults in urban legends that desecrate the bodies of psychics."
"squeak--"
Everyone present subconsciously looked in that direction.
——Professor Bill subconsciously wanted to stand up, but was locked to the stool by AI in a somewhat awkward manner.
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