Alien Relic Hunter.

Chapter 286 Rest (4000 words chapter)
Ke Lan and the others stayed on the shore of the underground lake for two full days.

The seriously injured mercenary died on the first night due to a bunch of complications caused by wound infection, while Ivan and Asano Akira didn't wake up until noon the next day.

It is almost the same as Ke Lan's initial guess. Ivan dreamed that he was completely swallowed by the seed of erosion and turned into an inhuman monster, slaughtering the ark uncontrollably... What made him feel the most fearful What's more, his self-awareness still remains in his body, but he has already been assimilated by the tyrannical and bloodthirsty personality of the Corroded Seed, and he can't contain this impulse at all... So much so that after waking up from the dream, His mental state is still in a very unstable state.

"I...I can't believe it...that was my own thought...I wanted to kill people...no, not killing...it was eating..." Ivan said in a trembling voice, behind his back His clothes were completely wet with sweat, his facial muscles twitched involuntarily, and the desperate and painful eyes, as long as he looked at him once, it would be difficult to erase them from his mind.

"Doctor, cheer up, it's a dream, it's just a dream!" The hound grabbed Ivan's shoulder, turned his body around, and shook him vigorously a few times, "You just had a nightmare, you didn't even It's not a monster!"

"No...you don't know that feeling..." Ivan said, his expression was so weird that people couldn't tell whether he was crying or laughing, "That's my own will, it's in my subconscious The hidden desire... I obviously haven't lost control of my body, but I don't want to stop my atrocities... Those flesh and blood tempt me... I killed people and then ate their flesh, I didn't feel disgusted or scared , on the contrary, it is full of a strange pleasure... This pleasure urges me to hunt more..."

He continued: "I don't know if I'm still a human being... Maybe I've turned into a monster..."

"Okay." Ke Lan stood up and interrupted Ivan, "Eating is a human instinct, so there's nothing wrong with it."

"But...I..."

Ke Lan turned around and walked away. When he came back, he already had a piece of not-so-fresh meat in his hand, with a lot of dark brown coagulated plasma stained on it.

Without saying a word, he walked directly in front of Ivan, and roughly stuffed the piece of meat into Ivan's mouth.

"This is... um... um... what?!"

"The meat just cut from the dead." Ke Lan replied calmly.

"Pfft! Whoa... vomit..." After hearing Ke Lan's answer, Ivan immediately vomited out the contents of his mouth, then knelt on the ground and retched.

When he vomited until his throat became hoarse, Ke Lan handed over a pot of water and said, "Rinse your mouth."

"I..." Ivan wanted to say something at first, but in the end he swallowed all the words. As a result, he took a sip from the kettle, rinsed vigorously a few times, and then spit out the liquid mixed with filth on the ground.

"He also said that he wanted to eat people, but he couldn't even swallow a piece of dead human flesh..."

Ivan was shocked all over, raised his head, and looked at Ke Lan in astonishment.

"Now, do you still think you are a monster?" Ke Lan looked at him with a half-smile and asked.

"...Thank you." Ivan was silent for a few seconds, raised the back of his hand, and wiped the water stains from the corner of his mouth.

Although he looked very embarrassed, his expression was much more normal than before, and his original calmness was restored in his eyes.

"Ke Lan really has you—" the hound said with a pout, "tsk, I can't think of such a way."

"From another point of view, Ivan, the dream you experienced has no reality at all...human beings are just containers for the seeds of erosion." Ke Lan said, "When the seeds of erosion enter a period of rapid change, After the 'nucleus' appeared, it had an independent consciousness... Human beings as a container, to it, are just a body that provides nourishment."

"There is a very classic sci-fi movie, "Alien", you have always watched it, don't you think that those monsters that 'break out' from the human body are transformed by that human being?" Ke Lan glanced at Ivan , continued, "Everything that appears in the dream world comes from your imagination - you think that human self-awareness can be attached to the mature erosion seed, so you feel that you have become a monster, but in reality You'd already be dead by then."

"My imaginary... comes from my imaginary..." Ivan repeated this sentence softly.

"You think that monsters will wantonly kill humans, so when your consciousness is attached to monsters, you mistakenly think that you are killing people... You think you still maintain control over your body, but in fact, you are not Can't you control anything?" Ke Lan's tone slowed down a little, "It's just a dream, it's not a big deal... When I play a certain strategy game, I always execute the species (anti-harmony) family (anti-harmony) Harmony) extermination (anti-harmony) extermination policy...even processed all of a certain species into instant canned food...in reality, I have not become a big killer who kills without blinking an eye."

"I see." Ivan nodded and said to everyone, "I'm fine, sorry for worrying everyone."

"There's nothing to apologize for, it's a good thing to wake up." The hound patted Ivan's back vigorously, but because he accidentally pulled the wound that had just been bandaged under his ribs, he frowned, "Hiss...no Take painkillers...it really hurts...but just now, doctor, you almost scared me, I thought you were going crazy."

"Old dog, I suggest that you'd better sit quietly, and it's better to lie down...Although I have connected your broken bones for you, this position cannot be fixed with plaster. If it takes a long time to heal It's crooked, and I have to break it off and connect it again... If it accidentally gets inserted into the internal organs..."

"Fuck, don't scare me!" The hound's eyes widened in an instant, "OK, OK, I won't move around, okay?"

"If the rib is broken, you can use a chest strap for external fixation, and you can't do strenuous exercise for about a week. But if there are a lot of broken bones, you need to put a bracket in the body for internal fixation through surgery." Ivan said——and Compared with Ke Lan's "filler", he is the full-time doctor in the team.

"Not many, only two were broken, and the soft tissue contusion was more serious." Ke Lan said.

"Then I can help you make a simple chest strap, just find some elastic fabric and some bandages." Ivan said.

"That would be the best," said the hound quickly, "Ke Lan likes to scare me so much that I don't dare to move."

……

Asano Akira woke up half an hour later than Ivan, but compared with Ivan, he seemed much calmer.

Ke Lan: "Are you awake?"

Asano Akira: "Yes."

Ke Lan: "Did you have a nightmare?"

Asano Akira: "Well... a dream... I don't like it very much, but I don't know if it's a nightmare."

Ke Lan: "What did you dream about?"

Asano Akira: "I went back to the former experimental base and experienced it again."

Ke Lan: "And then? Did you go on a killing spree and knock everyone else off? Or did you see some indescribable monster and stepped on the ark like a hole?"

Akira Asano shook his head and said: "Nothing, everything is exactly the same as before, I am still the tail of the crane, and everyone who participated in the experiment is much better than me..."

He paused, and continued: "But they are all dead, or crazy, only I survived."

"In fact, I always knew it was a dream," Asano Akira said without any emotion, but Ke Lan heard a trace of reluctance, "But at least, at that time, I could still see it with my eyes." thing."

"Will you regret it?" Ke Lan couldn't help asking, "Participated in that kind of experiment."

"I have no chance to regret it, and it's useless to regret it." Asano Akira replied.

"Indeed, regret is the most useless thing in this world... so even if I do something wrong, I will only reflect on it, not regret it." Ke Lan said with emotion, "Only a mediocre person will waste time Waste it on regret."

"Ham, what are you talking about? Why don't you think about where to eat after you go out? Don't you Chinese have an old saying, 'The people depend on food'? Filling the stomach is the most important thing." The hound chewed Holding the compressed dry food like a bar of soap, he said, "I'm really fed up with this kind of pig food. It's either bland or salty, and it also smells like fucking synthetic fat..."

"Then what do you want to eat?" Ke Lan joked, "Do you want me to cut another piece of meat from that guy so that you can taste it, too?"

"Damn it, I'm just nicknamed 'Hound Dog', not a real hound, so don't mention this disgusting thing again." Yes, I heard before that there are quite a few good restaurants in the East Ninth District, such as sushi, tempura, teppanyaki, etc. Unfortunately, those restaurants accompanied the entire East Ninth District module into fireworks. "

As he was talking, the hound suddenly turned his head and looked at Asano Akira: "By the way, Asano, you must know where the Japanese cuisine is delicious, right? How many do you recommend?"

"I have never eaten Japanese cuisine." Akira Asano replied.

"Isn't it?" The hound showed a look of astonishment, "You...you are from Dongying, have you never eaten Japanese cuisine?"

"I haven't eaten it." Asano Akira said, "When I was a child, I ate the standard nutritious meals for Ark residents. After the compulsory education period, I joined the army and began to eat in the cafeteria of the barracks... oh, and there are executive meals. Standard military rations distributed during missions."

The "Standard Nutritious Meal for Ark Residents" mentioned by Akira Asano is just like its name. Its only function is to provide the residents on the Ark with all kinds of nutrition "enough to maintain good health". within the scope of consideration.

This kind of food is provided free of charge to every Ark resident in the compulsory education stage. Of course, those who don't like to eat can give up receiving it and spend credit points to buy other food instead.

Ke Lan also ate this kind of standard nutritious meal for a while. The outer packaging is a sealed plastic bag, and inside is a packet of something like flour, which is made into a paste with hot water and eaten. Seasoning is included to keep the taste of the batter from being overpowering.

In addition, there are several oral tablets to supplement various vitamins and trace elements that are not in the batter.

This kind of food is probably slightly better than the cockroach protein blocks distributed to the miners by those big consortiums. Even the hounds are now eating compressed dry food.

No one would want to eat this kind of thing if it weren't for filling their stomachs.

"You were also... born in a human cultivation center?" Ke Lan asked subconsciously. Only children of this kind of background will have a clean account without even a single credit point. Bad, it's not like eating this stuff every day.

"No, I have parents, but they were exiled when I was very young. As for the reason for the exile, I don't know." Asano Akira said, his tone was so indifferent that he was talking about two people who had nothing to do with him. People, "I signed an agreement with some people. After completing compulsory education, I must obey the content of the agreement and join the army. Otherwise, I will be exiled to the wilderness like my parents."

"So that's how it is..." the hound muttered, "When adults commit crimes, children who don't know anything are implicated... and they force children to sign this kind of agreement, those guys really give us soldiers the face Throw it away."

"Actually, there is nothing delicious about Dongying cuisine. Most of them are gimmicks. You can blow out a 'cooking god' after cooking a meal. It's funny when you think about it." Ke Lan changed the subject calmly, "By the way , Ivan, do you have any suggestions?"

"I don't care." Ivan waved his hand, "As long as there is wine to drink, it's fine."

"I think roasted whole lamb is good." Zhuoligetu said, "but the problem is that it is difficult to get a whole lamb on the ark. I only ate it once since I was a child."

"Why don't we go eat hotpot?" Qin Zhao stood up suddenly, "Have you ever heard of Chuanshu hotpot? It was very famous in the old era... I know a very good restaurant, and the price is not too expensive. You can choose real meat or protein synthetic meat according to your own conditions, and it is really delicious with the boss's special hot sauce!"

"Chuanshu hot pot?" Ke Lan was stunned for a moment. Although he had heard of it, he had never eaten it—the area where he lived was not very Chinese, and there were only a few restaurants with Chinese characteristics, " I think I can try it."

"Is it spicy? Spicy is good, I like spicy food!" Zhuoligetu clapped his hands and said.

"Hot pot... I know, it's the kind of cooking that puts the ingredients in the pot and then scalds them with sauce, right! I've wanted to try it for a long time. In fact, besides Japanese cuisine, my second The first alternative is hot pot!" the Hound yelled.

"Okay, that's it. Let's eat hot pot after we go out." Ke Lan said, "The chatting should be over, everyone, get ready, we're going to start working—"

[PS Some readers have been saying that the pace is fast, and I feel tired after reading. Recently, I have deliberately slowed down the pace. By the way, do you think the content is a bit watery? 】

(End of this chapter)