Alien Relic Hunter

"Tunnel Dweller... this name is quite vivid. As soon as you hear it, you know it is a creature that lives in the tunnel." Thirty-three looked at Ke Lan, but found that the latter's face became very ugly, and said in shock, "Why? Is there any other... unexpected information? "

"The Tunnel Dwellers... they may not have been mutated from irradiated rats... they... they were once residents of this hive city." Ke Lan said in a somewhat uncertain tone.

"What?! Is this the 'disaster' that Nieto said?" Thirty-three felt that his heartbeat seemed to have missed a beat. When he looked at the five tunnel dwellers trapped in the space cage, , the eyes have undergone tremendous changes compared to before.

"No...they are the ones who 'escaped the disaster'..." Ke Lan shook his head.

"What do the memory fragments unlocked in your mind say?" Thirty-three asked.

"It's a note. Judging from the narrative tone, it seems to be written by the last survivor of the hive city." Ke Lan thought for a while and said, "In addition to the tunnel dwellers, there are some other things. I still think it's all Let me read it to you."

[Content of the memory fragment: a fragment of an unsigned note]

I call those people "tunnel dwellers."

This is not a derogatory term. I have always had high respect and admiration for them.

They were the most sober people in the hive. When disaster struck, they did not panic, nor did they throw themselves into the arms of "His" like some cowards and those with weak wills.

They have strict thinking logic and almost harsh discipline. Any member contaminated by the disaster will be ruthlessly eliminated... but it is useless. The power of "His" is too terrifying and difficult to understand with our cognition. ...Even the blind, deaf or even in a vegetative state cannot escape disaster.

Disaster is like a super virus that can transcend the limitations of time and space, spreading crazily throughout the hive.

His will sweeps over all, praising the great true God…

No, damn...

Why do I praise Him...

It seems... the erosion is deeper than yesterday... I don't know how long I can stay awake... maybe, when I blink next time, I will become a part of the disaster.

I thought my will was strong enough, but in the face of disaster, I realized that I was just a weak person...

No, not even a weak person...

His will... His will alone is enough to crush our entire civilization...

This is the complete suppression of low-dimensional creatures by high-dimensional creatures... To Him, we are like little people painted on a canvas. He can arbitrarily change our appearance into strange creatures, or he can simply and neatly Erase us completely.

No one can compete.

No... I can't waste any more time. I should record everything as much as possible... If anyone who comes after me can see this record, maybe it can help them.

If there are any latecomers.

Although the "Tunnel Dwellers" tried their best to resist the erosion of disasters, the results of their efforts were minimal... The entire hive has become a paradise for disasters to dance, and the territory belonging to the sober people continues every day. Being eaten away...

Even fighting can't do it.

People controlled by disasters will be driven by instinct to "infect" more sober people. If you want to stop them, you must organize an army and establish a defense line... However, in the face of disasters, whether it is an army or a defense line, All have become consumables.

The consumables here do not refer to normal battle losses...but no matter how many soldiers are invested, these soldiers who are invested will inevitably be swallowed up by the disaster.

They are just the price to slow down the spread of disaster.

One-third of the soldiers will be "infected" as soon as they witness the disaster. From this time on, their humanity will enter a countdown, and the remaining soldiers, in the process of fighting the disaster, will There is no way to avoid the fate of being "infected"... The only choice for the entire army is to fight the disaster to the last person.

What makes people feel a bit sad is that these troops who were thrown into the battlefield as expendables, but the soldiers who remained conscious in the end, often died at the hands of their comrades who fought alongside them not long ago.

I know, that feeling must be very uncomfortable...

But what is even more pity is that the torn flesh cannot be thrown into His arms and become part of His supreme consciousness and body...

This loss is unbearable... Their lives have simply lost all meaning...

I...what am I talking about?

How much time is left for me?

(What followed was a long period of blank space and silence. In the middle, Ke Lan heard the sound of rapid breathing and the sound of a sharp weapon penetrating the body.)

I pierced the sarcoma on my shoulder with a military thorn, and the severe pain briefly awakened my brain.

I always felt that it wasn't a sarcoma, it was a developing brain, my second head.

I can even distinguish its facial features... It is not yet mature, but it already has a will of its own. I can see it smiling at me, and the twisted lips under the mucous membrane split open, revealing the stain inside. Bloodshot white teeth.

Perhaps, I should have cut it off when it first grew out... But at that time, Dr. Boson told me that this sarcoma contained several large arteries, and if it was cut off hastily, it would probably lead to uncontrollable disease. Heavy bleeding.

At that time, we had lost the hospital and all medical supplies, and everyone, including me, had been "infected"... It was only a matter of time for us to die or become part of the disaster. .

There is no point in excision, there is no point in treatment, there is no point in survival, there is no point in civilization.

Today is the longest I've been awake in a few days...but I don't think I'm getting better...

In my eyes, those people who have become weird seem to be becoming more and more normal. On the contrary, the people who are not infected look so scary, terrifying and ugly in my eyes. There is always a voice in my heart telling me, Turn those people into our appearance...

But I know, I'm a monster, I'm a monster, I'm a monster.

My body is covered with sarcomas...my body is covered with brains...

But I don't want to cut them off. As a human being, it is normal only if the body is covered with heads... and a human being with only one head is a monster.

Why should I impale that head on my shoulder? Why should I do this?

Why do I think this way?

No, I'm a monster...those horrible and ugly people, they're the normal ones.

I used to be like them.

I should write this down and tell...who should I tell?

(Long stretches of blank space and silence, heavy breathing, and the squirming sounds of sticky flesh.)

(In Ke Lan's memory fragments, the picture he can see is just an illusory, boundless "paper", but what is written on it is an extremely standard printing font. Other than that, he What can still be heard are some intermittent sounds, which are probably the ambient sounds of the author of this note when he was recording.)

They fought and retreated, their soldiers finally exhausted... No one was willing to take up arms anymore... They believed that resistance was pointless.

But they didn't give up.

(After discovering that the note was still continuing, Ke Lan breathed a sigh of relief. The second paragraph had a longer blank space than the first. Ke Lan once suspected that the author of the note had lost his rationality... But fortunately, "he" Also haven’t given up yet.)

(The words on the "paper" are still increasing, and Ke Lan continues to read to Thirty-three.)

With the last hope of the hive city, they retreated into the passage originally used to transport garbage. Although they knew that the Lower City had already fallen to the disaster, this passage was relatively safe.

There is no one in the garbage channel, and it is safe without anyone... People are the carriers of disasters and the most direct medium for them.

However, when they retreated into the garbage channel, there were people in the place where there were no people before.

This is a paradox. Any place with people is unsafe, so no safe place can have people.

From a human perspective, there is no safe place.

Some people were desperate and blew up the passage, choosing to resist the disaster by dying... But those who entered passage No. 4 made new discoveries.

There is no one in Passage 4, but there are some things that are usually not noticed by the residents of the uptown area.

This was originally a garbage channel used to transport energy waste in the upper city. A large amount of radioactive material remained in the corners of this channel, causing the entire channel to become a heavily radiated area.

But areas with severe radiation are not equivalent to restricted areas of life... The great thing about life is that it is possible to create miracles in any desperate situation.

Those creatures underwent huge mutations under the influence of radiation, but the mutations not only did not kill them, but also gave them the ability to survive the radiation.

In a sense, this is not mutation, this is evolution.

The sober people who entered Channel 4 blocked the entrance and exit of the channel and reversed the direction of the one-way valve on one side. In this way, no matter whether they entered the channel from the entrance or the exit, when they reached the first one-way valve , the force exerted by the valve will push out the channel.

They were safe, for now.

But if no one replaces the one-way valve with a new energy module outside, this safety zone can only last for five years at most.

I don't know how many times they tried in the past five years...but in the end, they chose to edit the genes of those mutated organisms into their own genetic sequence.

They would rather become monsters deformed by radiation than become puppets of disaster.

They succeeded, but they also failed.

In the end, they did not become slaves to the disaster, but they were completely reduced to irrational beasts.

This is an attempt to represent human determination and dignity. I shouldn't laugh at them. I can't laugh at them.

I owe them the highest respect.

They may have found a solution to their problem, but maybe they're just a little short... just a little short...

Maybe this is fate.

Except for them who became "tunnel dwellers", everyone in the entire nest has been completely swallowed up by the disaster.

If latecomers can read this note, they may be able to find some clues to solve the problem from the "tunnel dwellers"... They are the group of people closest to success among us.

(The third paragraph is left blank, and the breathing sound is deliberately lowered and sounds very nervous.)

I heard footsteps coming downstairs, and it seemed to be a conscious person. I couldn't let him know that I was hiding here, but I couldn't let him choose this house as his temporary hiding place.

When I was awake, I had to find a hiding place that was secretive enough... I circulated among the buildings. In the process, I not only had to be careful of those who had become the minions of the disaster, but I also had to avoid those who had become the minions of the disaster. I am the same sober person.

Because I don’t know when they will fall into chaos.

And when I lose consciousness, my identity will change from prey to hunter... Although I don’t know what I did during that time, I woke up several times and found that my limbs were stained with With blood stains, broken meat, and even fragments of internal organs...

There are my own and there are other people’s.

The distortion in my body is getting more and more serious, and the time I wake up is getting shorter and shorter... When I can no longer wake up, it will be the time when I completely become a part of the disaster.

That may be a kind of relief... Give up my own consciousness and integrate into His thinking... Maybe I can find the truth that humans have been pursuing for countless centuries...

No...I shouldn't think so...

He is tempting me... He just needs nourishment to grow stronger, not...

There are no gods or believers in this world, only predators and prey.

The law of the jungle is an unshakable law of nature.

The so-called civilization has deceived us for too long, making us mistakenly believe that we can solve problems through means other than strength...

Our civilization is like a joke in the face of His power.

I don't know what the situation is like in other hive cities now. It may be better than ours, or it may be worse.

(Ke Lan was stunned for a moment, "Other hives"... does this sentence mean that there is more than one hive?

Did this suspected human civilization that once lived on Alpha Planet build many shelters like this? )

Our nest city has been completely destroyed... Fortunately, we have sunk it to the bottom of the sea before this. No one can bring the disaster out of this place... Everyone who leaves will be crushed by the sea water. …

This is the last thing we can do.