Alien Relic Hunter

For some reason, a bold idea suddenly popped into Ke Lan's head: Could these people all be experimental samples of some "social experiment"?

Perhaps, in the eyes of Nieto, the owner and manager of the nest, these people cannot be regarded as "people", but can only be regarded as mice? Is that why they were allowed to enter Genting?

Just when Ke Lan was confused, a figure covered in flames ran out of a building on the right. He wailed loudly, beating the flames on his body with his hands as he ran... But right before him The moment he raised his head and saw Ke Lan, he seemed to have forgotten the pain of being burned by the fire, and even the screams stopped abruptly at this moment.

The next second, he turned his head decisively and returned to the burning building...

It's just that this man's burns were too severe. Before he could run into the courtyard gate, he fell to the ground, struggled a few times, and then stopped moving.

"Am I that scary?" Ke Lan looked down speechlessly and looked at his current appearance - although Ke Lan, who was wrapped in living armor, did look a bit scary, but compared to the one in the nest city in the Age of Disaster, Those twisted monsters that can only be described as abstract can be seen everywhere. At least Ke Lan still maintains the general outline of a human being. The standard of the living armor is also closer to the military standard armor of the old era... Logically speaking, it shouldn't be It's only right that people have such a fearful reaction.

Why would that person turn around and run away when he saw me? Would you rather run into the burning house you just escaped from than ask for help from yourself?

Ke Lan couldn't understand.

Although the man was too dead to die, Ke Lan still used a tentacle condensed from the living armor to drag his corpse over - this time Ke Lan was lucky: even though the distance between him and the corpse was enough It was more than twenty meters, but there was no boundary of space debris within this distance. The tentacles successfully dragged the body in front of Ke Lan.

The flames on the corpse have been extinguished by the tentacles, but this flame does not seem to be an ordinary flame. The man who could run and shout more than ten seconds ago has now completely carbonized his skin, flesh and organs, and has been exposed in many places. Bones like charcoal.

Medically, burn levels are generally classified as "third degree to fourth degree", and the most serious "third degree burn" is just "injury to the entire thickness of the skin, as well as deep muscles, bones, internal organs, etc., and the injured person is in serious danger of life" ", and the corpse in front of me looks like it has been soaked in molten iron with a temperature of thousands of degrees...

Ten seconds ago, only the clothes and hair on his body were burning. But ten seconds later, most parts of his body had been charred. Even napalm bombs, which are famous for their inhumanity, are not as efficient at burning people. so tall.

In fact, the most terrifying thing about the lethality of napalm is that violent combustion can deplete all the oxygen in an area. Those who die from napalm actually die from lack of oxygen and suffocate. The proportion of people who die from napalm is actually much greater than those who are burned alive. The dead people... many of the charred corpses that looked horrible were actually suffocated or choked to death before being burned.

According to the feedback from the living armor, the oxygen in this area is actually quite sufficient, far from suffocating people... And those flames don't seem to be so scary. Ke Lan just slapped them all with his tentacles a few times. Well, in fact, as long as this person lies on the ground and rolls around a few times, he may be able to put out the flames on his body.

The ignition point of the human body is actually very high. Taking the corpse disposal facility on the Ark as an example, the temperature of the cremator must be above 800 degrees Celsius... Under normal circumstances, as long as there is no napalm or the like on the body, It is not easy to set a person on fire unless his clothes are made of very flammable materials that burn at a high temperature.

Burns are very common, but it's really weird to want to burn a person into what he is now.

The tips of the tentacles turned into two sharp scalpels, cutting open the charred corpse, removing the carbonized muscles and organs, and revealed the bones in front of Ke Lan's eyes.

Soon, Ke Lan discovered two things that were not very reasonable.

The first unreasonable thing is that the skeleton of this corpse is very normal - in the hive city, normality is the biggest abnormality. Half a million years ago, disaster had swept through the entire hive city, and even the owner of the hive city was not immune. Logically speaking, no one could escape except the group of "tunnel dwellers". But this corpse showed no signs of distortion, whether it was the bones or the faintly distinguishable outlines of charred organs.

Ke Lan recalled what this person looked like when he was still alive - even though his whole body was wrapped in flames, it could still be seen that there were no obvious mutations on the surface of his body, and there were no tentacles or growths. Not to mention the large-scale distortion that is common on corpses.

There is a huge gap between the skeletons of eroded skeletons and human skeletons. Except for Wilson's "special model" of eroded skeletons, other eroded skeletons that Ke Lan has seen basically cannot maintain their original human shape... If the person in front of him is also the same. If he was just a "phoenix", then he shouldn't have been burned to death by fire - with this level of injury, Wilson would have recovered to his original state and stood in front of Ke Lan.

The second unreasonable thing is that the degree of carbonization of the bones seems to be higher than the skin, flesh and organs... Those relatively thin bones, such as collarbones and ribs, Ke Lan gently touched with a "scalpel" It shattered into pieces, and the surface of a relatively thick bone like the thigh bone showed fine cracks. Ke Lan just stirred it a few times with the tip of the knife, and the blackened and broken bone residue... No, to be precise, it should be carbon powder. Then it started to fall down. Maybe with a little more force, the thigh bone could be broken directly.

It takes time for the flames to burn through the skin and muscles and reach the bones. The human body is an excellent insulation material. For more than ten seconds, this person's bones should never look like this.

Wanting to make the bones crispy like this - Although Ke Lan has never roasted human bones, during the hunter's hunting party dinner, they roasted the cow's leg bones in a large oven, and the leg bones were roasted for eight times. It takes several hours for a fork to easily penetrate the bone... Moreover, the oven is a closed environment, so the temperature inside is definitely higher and the heating efficiency is better than in an open environment.

In the place where Ke Lan is currently, the temperature of the metal floor is about 360 degrees, and the air temperature is slightly lower, about 150 degrees Celsius. In this open environment, heat will continue to transfer to the temperature At a lower place, even if the body is wrapped in flames, it is not difficult to reach the high temperature of seven or eight hundred degrees.

Moreover, there is another doubtful point, which is the most bizarre: if the bones were roasted like this, there should be no skin and meat left on the corpse - Ke Lan and the others roasted the beef leg bones, and the meat and meat on the surface of the bones were All the fat has been removed, and the actual part eaten is the bone marrow. But even if they didn't scrape off the meat attached to the bones, after eight hours, there would be very little left on the surface of the bones.

As if Ke Lan remembered something, the "scalpel" attached to the tip of the tentacle suddenly stabbed the corpse's thigh bone, cutting the already fragile thigh bone in the middle.

"As expected...the carbonization degree inside the leg bones is higher than the surface of the bones, and the bone marrow has almost been evaporated..." Ke Lan murmured to himself.

The end of the autopsy, the behavior of the person just before his death, and all the unreasonable things, combined, can only mean one thing: this fire burned from the body of the deceased, more accurately, from the bone marrow. Burned.

When the body appears to be intact on the outside, the body has been severely burned. When the flames penetrate the skin and appear on the body, the man is actually hopeless... His organs and bones have been carbonized. , being able to run out of the house can be regarded as a miracle of life.

"Could it be that...the source of this fire is actually these people?" Ke Lan took a deep breath, "Is it the spontaneous combustion of the human body that ignited these buildings?"

No...it doesn't seem right. The range of spontaneous combustion of the human body is very limited. Ke Lan has seen many examples of spontaneous combustion of individuals. Although these examples are very strange and have not been scientifically explained yet, they are usually burned together with those who spontaneously combust. The only items that were in direct contact with him, such as clothing, bedding, or nearby curtains, there were no examples of the entire house being burned down along with the spontaneous combustor.

Even if the blood flowing in the veins of the spontaneous combustion person and the marrow in the bones were fuel, it would not be so powerful.

What's more, after the corpse in front of him was completely dead, the flames on his body were extinguished. Only now did Ke Lan realize that the flames were not extinguished by his tentacles, but extinguished by themselves.

From this point of view...the burning flame is neither human marrow nor human blood, but...human life force.

When a person dies, it means that his vitality has returned to zero, and the flame using vitality as "fuel" will naturally be unable to continue burning.

"Fire of Life", this name sounds like it is full of positive energy, but the true meaning of these four words makes Ke Lan feel a chill in his back in the heat of hundreds of degrees.

This kind of flame was obviously not a regular flame... He looked at the burning street in front of him, and suddenly understood the horror of the remaining power of the existence in Nieto's mouth.

As long as the person is not completely dead, the flame will not go out... This is an insurmountable killing move, and no matter how powerful an individual is, it cannot withstand it - the stronger the strength, the stronger the vitality, and the more intense the flame will be. The longer you hold on, the more intense the pain you endure... just thinking about it is enough to make you shudder.

Death is the only means that can extinguish the "fire of life".

Ke Lan began to hesitate to move forward. If this kind of flame touches him... with his current means, he may not be able to extinguish it.

Even if that kind of "suspended death" can deceive the sight of that being, the "fire of life" actually uses vitality as fuel. Even if the host is reduced to ashes, as long as there is still a trace of vitality that has not been completely annihilated, the fire can was preserved, and when Ke Lan returned to his original state, the small flame would rekindle instantly... Even if Ke Lan couldn't be burned to death, he would still be suffering from the burning pain deep in his bone marrow all the time.

This is like Monkey Sun locked in an alchemy furnace, but after all, the alchemy furnace is an external fire source, and this fire of life is ignited from within his own body, and his life is endless and burning.

"What the hell happened to these people..." Ke Lan looked at the charred corpses lying around on the street, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart - if he was touched by this kind of flame, death would be the real relief.

"This space debris is too dangerous. You have to leave before the fire spreads." Ke Lan began to extend his tentacles in all directions, trying to find a space boundary to leave... But even though he increased the search radius to thirty meters , and still haven't found the "border" between this space and another space.

Different from the space just now where there were only islands and abyss, this space is relatively complete. If we use a mirror as a metaphor, the island space is like fine glass shards, and this place is the larger piece among the fragments.

If he wants to expand the search scope, he must insert his tentacles into those burning blocks, but Ke Lan will not do that unless he has to... Who knows if the tentacles will lead this weird flame to him? On the body, if it really catches fire, it is not a problem that can be solved by "a strong man cutting off his wrists".

Just when Ke Lan was in a dilemma, the scene around him suddenly changed. The flames and smoke suddenly disappeared, and the burning sensation from the air and the ground disappeared instantly. He found that he was now in a place with bright lights. Room interior.

The four walls, floor and ceiling of the room are all made of metal. There are closed doors in all four directions. There is no lighting equipment visible to the naked eye on the ceiling, but the cold-toned bright white light fills the entire room.

"When was I swallowed by another space debris?" Ke Lan took a deep breath and tried to keep his breathing as steady as possible - no matter what, it was a good thing to leave that place.

At least the room in front of me didn't look dangerous.

"Your luck... is really good." Just as Ke Lan was looking at the scene in the room, a voice suddenly rang.

"Who are you?" Ke Lan subconsciously took a step back, and the living armor formed an airtight protective shield to wrap up his body.

"The person you're looking for."

"The owner of the nest city?" Ke Lan was stunned. He had a very unreal feeling... To use a profound Chinese proverb to describe it, that is, "There is no place to be found after wearing iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get there"... Part 1 One second he was still thinking about how to escape from the flames, and the next second he found the owner of the hive directly.

"So I say you are very lucky. The third space debris you arrived is here, and even the timing is almost perfect." The voice continued, "In three minutes, disaster will come to this place. Hive City.”