Chapter 409 Yesterday Reappears
Under the light of the bonfire, at the corner of the spiral staircase ahead, wisps of strange black fog slowly rose...
"Is the thing that the demons were afraid of just now right below? But I can't seem to feel it..."
While thinking, Colin controlled the flames like a stream, flowing down the stairs layer by layer and into the area on the second floor below ground.
Through the flame perception, Colin "saw" that the layout of the underground second floor seemed to be similar to that of the underground first floor, with a "M"-shaped fork in the road and the same cold metal creations...
The difference is that some corpses appeared below and the black fog became thicker.
But overall the problem doesn't seem to be big.
After confirming this, Colin walked down with his four friends.
Just after coming down, something seemed to be triggered. Suddenly, some abnormal creatures appeared out of nowhere not far away.
Their shapes are very special, appearing in the form of mist. There are vague bright spots in the mist, like strange little nebulae.
At this moment, they rushed towards the corner of the stairs, as if they were planning to leave this place.
But when they sensed Colin and the others, they paused for a moment, and then thunder and lightning erupted in the clouds.
Lightning flashed and struck...
"Another life trapped in the 'reverse flow' of time..."
A thought flashed through Colin's mind, and the flames that had been prepared in his body exploded further, dispersing the lightning.
Then, without waiting for those things to decide whether to run or stay, he bent his body slightly and swooped down at them like a cheetah.
And in the process, he lifted the revolver and pulled the trigger continuously.
Bang, bang, bang——!
The gunshots were almost continuous.
Ordinary physical bullets with flames attached to them seemed unable to form an effective attack after passing through their bodies in the thick fog. However, the flames on the bullets directly ignited them.
One by one they exploded like willow catkins encountering fire.
“Ding ding ding~”
A large number of colorful crystals containing strange energy fell from the air.
"Tsk, gold coins exploded."
Colin's eyes wandered among the dozens of crystals, and then he saw that among the fist-sized crystals, there were some small metal objects...
They are about the size of an index finger, and are densely engraved with something.
He stretched out his hand, flames rolled, and he took those index finger-sized objects in his hand. Then he glanced around and understood the situation of the abnormal creatures he had just encountered.
"Containment label, number 6-978341, containment level, level 6 and below, low threat, low intelligence, special silicon-based life, experimental report, each '6-978341' can stably produce about 74 degrees of electricity per hour. With continuous power supply, it can survive for three years. The crystals after death can absorb stellar heat energy. Most of them can regenerate within three months to a year in a suitable environment. The hatching difficulty is medium level three..."
"The Starship Energy Department's evaluation is that the development value is low, not as good as the demon..."
"Tsk, 74 kWh per hour, that's still low?"
Ke Lin's eyes lit up. The company didn't think highly of this, but he felt it was quite good. Seventy-four degrees of electricity per hour, this one alone could supply electricity to a whole building...
The key is that it seems to be pollution-free and can be regarded as an efficient and clean energy.
The methods of stimulating it to generate electricity and limiting it are all on the metal plate of the containment label.
You can use it after you tidy it up...
As for the hatching method, in addition to separating them by unknown means, they can also be artificially forced into crystals, and then cut into a certain amount, exposed to the sun, and then they can become two...
The process is somewhat like potatoes, except that the results are less stable.
"Let's give it a name, let's call it 'Plasma Potato'. The company doesn't like this thing, probably because its upper limit is not high enough, but it's just right for us."
Colin nodded. The company, which was at its peak back then, despised it, but he did not despise it. He did not rush to hand it over, but instead took some of the crystals.
This kind of creature did not die from being drained of energy, so its resurrection time would be much faster. It would be able to come back to life in a few days and continue to contribute itself to human energy.
In Colin's opinion, this is definitely a strategic-level energy source...
As a person who is willing to share and never eat alone, after picking up a dozen or so, Colin did not forget to give one to his teammates. He also selected two "plasma potatoes" and handed them to the four people around him.
"Each of you can take half of these two," Colin instructed.
"What is this?" For Mushroom did not refuse, but was a little curious.
The other three did the same, all looking towards Colin for an explanation.
"See for yourselves." Colin handed out the containment number label.
Then……
"Hiss, damn, I feel like I've seen a new energy future besides nuclear energy..."
"Life Mentor Keaiduo" looked at the crystal in his hand with a shocked expression.
Although it is said above that the value is lower than that of the devil, the devil's energy is more difficult to mine and is far less easy and suitable than this.
Of course, the only limitation of this thing is that it has an upper limit to differentiation. It seems that if it exceeds a certain number of times, the efficiency will decrease, the difficulty of differentiation will increase, the results will be unstable, etc...
But even so, it is still of great value in the eyes of everyone.
"It's worthy of being a battleship that can cross galaxies. If there's anything leaking out of it, it feels like it can solve the biggest problem plaguing our world..." The rookie sighed as he put the thing in his pocket, planning to go back and study how to use it.
If we could find the technology to allow them to hatch naturally, we would truly be entering a new era.
"Foul Mushroom" on the other side heard his words and couldn't help but joked: "By the way, if this thing spreads, there won't be any more 'Oil is gushing out of the backyard, it's so beautiful', right?"
“It’s hard to say. I have to be careful when planting potatoes next time…” The “Son of Sexual Abuse” pursed his lips.
"Okay, let's continue our investigation and see if we can find anything else."
Colin waved his hand, handed over a "plasma potato" to the company, and then continued to lead them with the "Sealed Right Hand" card.
There aren't many anomalies trapped in the "time reversal" on the negative second floor ...
However, their strength must be much stronger than those on the negative first floor, otherwise they would not have been able to come to this place. Unfortunately, although they encountered two other fugitives during this period, their value was not very high.
In other words, the value is not very high for them now.
In addition, Colin and others also saw some corpses, some of which were from different races and some were members of the starship.
"That's strange. At present, as long as they are not collected by the company, once they die or leave a certain range, they will be forced to go back in time and generally will not leave their bodies behind. So how did these bodies get left behind?"
In a passage, Colin and others looked at the body of a man in a faded brown coat with confusion on their faces.
The body looked like a mummy in the desert, and it had been dead for who knows how long...
As for the way he died, it was probably because he lost half of his head and had several large holes in his chest.
But even in death, he still held tightly to several chains, at the end of which were connected to the corpses of several strange creatures...
If nothing unexpected happens, they will both die.
"I can't tell what kind of creature it is. It should be an unknown species. Everything on it has been wiped out. It must have died completely. I can't even tell its strength level before it was born. But I feel like it shouldn't have been C-level..."
Colin withdrew his gaze and did not dwell on the unclear question.
He tried to trigger a mission to recover the body...
However, there was no response to the task, and the company currently does not seem to have any plans to take the employee back and bury him.
"I'm sorry, buddy. I can't take you away for now. I'm afraid you'll have to continue lying here."
Colin grunted, then walked through here and headed for the stairs ahead.
He also used the flames to sense the situation below. After confirming that there would be no surprises, he brought his four mobile eyes to the negative third floor...
Compared to the above, the black fog here is thicker and the atmosphere is more depressing.
Even the metal walls, which had never had any scratches on them, now had some permanent marks left.
"The monsters here must be quite powerful. After all, according to my estimation, to leave traces on these special metal walls, at least a level 3 containment creature can do it..."
"As for the monsters that are trapped in the 'time reversal', to be honest, they are quite troublesome. They will only be triggered if you get close to them. Otherwise, you can't sense them at all through the campfire. You have to activate the 'sealed right hand' to detect them..."
"But it takes too much energy to activate this thing all the time. It's impossible to keep it up all the time... Never mind, let's just take it one step at a time."
Shaking his head and collecting his thoughts, Colin continued to move forward as required by the mission and continued to look for the stairs leading to the next floor according to the mission instructions.
However, as they approached the stairs leading down to the negative third floor, Colin and the others noticed that there were more corpses that had not fallen into the "time reversal".
Sometimes a passage is filled with corpses in various states of death, and the intensity of the war is extremely high.
Even weirdly, in some places, even if Colin didn't go there, he could still hear sounds coming from there, or roars, or heavy footsteps, the whole place was extremely chaotic...
However, after walking over there out of curiosity to see if they could investigate something, they found nothing. They triggered nothing and saw nothing.
But after leaving, I could vaguely hear invisible whispers coming quietly, and see unknown figures wandering around...
It is no longer as "quiet" here as on the B1 and B2 floors.
"It's like a haunted place..."
Even with the blessing of Brother Shunzi's fire, "Life Coach Keaiduo" couldn't help but touch his arm and felt a chill down his spine.
He was not afraid of the visible monsters and demons, but he was somewhat scared of these invisible weird things.
"Be prepared for protection."
Colin gave a reminder, then controlled the fireball to hang behind his head and continued to move forward, leading the team.
The task requires you to continue investigating, but there is no specific limit on the extent to which the investigation is considered complete.
Even if they feel something is wrong, they have no choice but to continue taking action.
Ten minutes later, Colin solved a monster that was stuck in the "time reversal". When he passed a fork in the road, he couldn't help but take a deep breath...
I saw that in the corridor for quite a distance behind the corner, there were corpses wrapped in brown clothes.
They are everywhere, leaving almost no room for them to stay.
"They are all human, and most likely warship employees. What happened here..."
Colin looked forward, his pupils turned upright and flickered with fire. He vaguely saw a staircase leading to the next floor a thousand meters away. At the same time, he saw countless corpses on the way to the staircase.
They are all company employees...
Eerie, strange, and yet... inexplicably, not scary.
"They all have their backs to the stairs. Judging from a rough estimate, they should be fighting something. But it seems that no monster bodies other than humans are seen. Why? Are they non-entity types, or were these people killed in an instant?"
"Forget it, let's do the same as before, don't think too much about it."
Colin looked at the stairs in front of him and then at the bodies on the ground. Although he had respect for these employees, he did so in order to avoid accidents.
He still manipulated the flames and burned the corpses on the ground...
"It was okay to have only a few before, but this time there are too many. If something goes wrong, we really might not be able to handle it."
Looking at the "new look" corridor, Colin collected his thoughts, then, holding three cards in his left hand at the same time and holding the revolver in his right hand, he continued to move forward.
However, when they reached the middle section, something strange happened!
"Die!"
With a roar, a female figure rushed over from the front. Her face was blurry, she had short hair, and was wearing a brown coat. In her hand, she was dragging a long sword that was constantly spewing out large amounts of flames.
When it appeared, the entire corridor was shaking and the temperature seemed to rise rapidly.
"Life Coach Keaiduo" and the others felt their scalps tighten, feeling that the other party was like a locomotive, and they quickly put up their defenses...
"The smell of a campfire? Is this one of ours?"
Colin was about to draw his gun and shoot, but he stopped when he felt a similar force. Flames also rose on his body, and he wanted to use this to verify his identity with the other party.
However, even though he did so, the other party still did not stop.
"Didn't recognize him, or has he lost his mind? However, he is quite strong, but definitely not a C-level personnel. He is most likely a D-level..."
As the thought flashed through his mind, Colin stared at the other party, ready to subdue him when he reached the "time stop" or "repulsion" position.
But just when he thought he would run into the other party...
The next second, the figure stopped halfway and suddenly swung out the big knife that was spewing fire .
"boom!"
The machete seemed to have hit something.
An illusory figure wrapped in cloth strips was forced out of thin air and chopped into pieces by a single blow...
However, before he died, he also dealt a fatal blow to the female personnel dragging the fire knife, cutting off the left half, nearly one-third of her head.
"This looks like the 'Bonfire Stalker'? His target isn't us. Wait, is this a historical image recreated by 'Time Reversal'?"
With his understanding of the "time series", Colin immediately realized the root of everything.
At the same time, he saw that the female member holding the flaming sword shook her body after her head was cut off. It was unknown what ability she used, and then a pale hand stretched out from the ground, picked up the other half of the head and handed it to her.
"These things, neither human nor ghost, are really troublesome!" She pressed the head back into place.
“Wow, such a strong vitality…” Several employees’ eyelids jumped when they saw this scene.
However, "Life Coach Keaiduo" glanced at the three of them and said:
"You don't have to underestimate yourselves. After the D-level upgrade, as well as the matching talents or props, you can achieve a similar effect even if your heads are chopped off."
Hearing this, several people let out an "uh".
But before anything more could be said, a large number of abnormalities rushed into the venue.
A new enemy is coming...
"At least the strength of a level 2 containment object." Colin felt the aura inside and made a quick judgment.
At this time, some faint figures appeared beside the female staff member.
"...Sir, you can't continue fighting... Leave now... This line of defense ... can't hold out for too long... You should withdraw quickly..."
"Leave this to us..."
"...will do everything...to stop..."
Compared to this powerful woman, those figures were very blurry, their appearances could not be seen clearly, and even their words were a little distorted.
It is even only slightly visible when he appears next to her, and at other times it is in a weak state that can be perceived but not seen or heard.
"Retreat?! There are still a large number of victims who have not been evacuated! The breeding grounds are also still in the process of being relocated. If we evacuate, what will happen to those people?! With your strength, can you stop them?"
She said this with disdain, with no intention of retreating. She held the knife and sensed the scene through the flames: "Ten minutes! Hold the seventeenth line of defense! At all costs!"
"You have been nominated for C-rank. There is a high chance that you will not die here in vain like the rest of us..."
"Fuck C-rank. If you can't even hold a position, what's the point of getting promoted? Nothing can be lost here! My intuition tells me that if we lose it, the entire battle situation may be affected. I don't want to become a sinner of mankind!"
As soon as the words fell, a new round of fighting broke out.
Colin saw this figure wielding a long sword, and during these "long" ten minutes, he wielded the long sword to repel many enemies.
Even the second-level containment objects were forced to retreat under the life-or-death attack...
Although he knew she was not alone, in Colin's eyes, she was almost alone.
Most of the other members only appear when they are around her.
"Report! Emergency at the front line... The enemy is rushing in..."
"It's... a terrifying demon... a second-level threat. Some of the will of the first-level threat has arrived... conventional means cannot deal with it..."
“Hahaha, the will of a first-level threatening creature? It seems that I am indeed the key point that can influence the outcome of the battle, otherwise these guys wouldn’t have come!”
The female personnel with the power of bonfire sneered, her face broken and bleeding, looking straight ahead. She had no fear towards the coming power that was once called "God", only hatred.
"Three minutes and twenty-one seconds left. Brothers of the expeditionary force, it's time to sacrifice for the fate of mankind!"
"It's my life and yours! Everyone, activate the 'Bonfire Furnace Device'! Within three minutes! I will not allow any enemy to break through this line of defense! The seventeenth line of defense will not become a hole!"
She threw away the long knife, stabbed her heart with her right hand, pulled out a burning heart, and held it high above her head:
"I will take on the power of the Bonfire and fight alongside you!"
In an instant, scorching flames spread from the burning heart.
It was at this moment that Colin's eyes narrowed slightly, and he saw tens of thousands of figures in the spacious corridor.
The power of the "bonfire" was bestowed upon them, gathering at their hearts...
“Kill!”
Each member of the expeditionary force collided with the invisible enemy like a torrent of fire.
The defense line that was about to be breached held up again ...
However, not long after, an even more terrifying force descended here.
A large number of members fell to the ground and died.
The "time reversal" stopped, and the tunnel that was originally filled with flames returned to darkness, leaving only countless corpses on the ground...
"this……?!"
Looking at the corpses that reappeared, Colin's breathing stagnated at first, but soon calmed down.
"Without any contaminated aura, it shouldn't turn into a zombie or anything. But, was that the first-level containment object that descended just now?"
Colin thought for a moment and realized that the thing should not be trapped here.
Otherwise, it should appear in "Backward Time".
Instead of looking like it was hitting the air like just now...
Then he shook his head and collected his thoughts. He looked at the corpses on the ground that were so densely packed that there was almost no place to stand. He did not choose to burn them again. Instead, he stretched out his feet, used his toes to push away a space among the skeletons, and continued to move forward.
The people behind him wanted to follow where Colin stepped, like chicks following a hen, but after thinking it over, they decided to maintain their formation and continue moving forward as a group.
Not long after, Colin passed by the area where the female personnel had died. He subconsciously glanced there, but did not see her body...
On the contrary, where she was, there was a rare "open space".
After all, he was not a "fire bearer", and he might not even be in the reserve. If he forcibly used power to ignite himself, the result would be that not even a trace would be left...
However, although she was completely burned, something still remained.
A broken sword fell quietly in an inconspicuous corner of the corridor.
After thinking about it, Colin took out a hundred dollars, summoned a "money slave", and asked it to go over and pick up the things.
After visually verifying that there was no danger, he took it in his hand and opened its panel.
[A completely scrapped long sword: It once seemed to be an excellent item, but unfortunately it is now completely scrapped, and its properties have been erased. There is no possibility of repair...]
"Ah, what a pity... But from this point of view, she should indeed be just a D-class personnel, just an elite one."
Thinking of this, Colin subconsciously glanced at the people around him, and then couldn't help shaking his head.
They are all D-level members, why is there such a big gap?
"By the way, this employee seems to have only one piece of purple equipment? Counting the special heart, there should be at most two. Besides the heart, even if this long sword is repaired, judging from its performance just now, it probably won't be very effective..."
"It can't be said to be the worst among the purple ones, but it's not a top-notch one. If I show up in the company group, I might even be disliked..."
Suddenly, Colin suddenly understood why when he was fighting with that C-rank guy, the other party would often use their props to make a fuss, thinking that the excellent purple props were a complete waste in their hands...
If this person has an orange outfit, or that heart, it is the real "Fire Bearer" heart.
Maybe the battle situation here will be reversed.
At worst, if I changed this knife into a better purple one, maybe this wouldn't be so tragic...
Noticing Colin's look, several D-level employees looked at each other, all of them confused...
I felt inexplicably that I was being looked down upon, but I wasn't quite sure.
