Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 26: Exiles
Bullets...shooting...enemies...monsters...
As the originally blurred scenes in his memory became clear again, Ke Lan's breathing became heavy.
The flesh that took human shape, the eyeballs that moved in the ice, the giant centipede made of flesh and blood...all of this was not an illusion!
These things are real! They are not illusions!
He had fired a gun! In the stone chamber, he had fired a gun at that centipede-like monster!
Ke Lan subconsciously grabbed the armrest of the chair, and the gun in his hand fell to the metal floor with a crisp sound.
"What's wrong with you? You don't look well?" The Hound asked, "Everyone was checked when we came up just now. Isn't there anything wrong?"
"It's just... I'm just a little exhausted..." Ke Lan responded quickly.
"Exhaustion? You don't look like exhaustion, you look like epilepsy." Ivan raised his eyebrows. "Although this is not my specialty, I know a doctor who is very good at treating epilepsy."
"...Forget it, forget it. I'm afraid that even if I'm not sick, I'll be treated for a disease." Ke Lan pretended to be relaxed and wiped away the dense beads of sweat on his forehead calmly.
If those hallucinations were real, then why were the memories of everyone else, except for himself, distorted? If it was just amnesia, that would make sense, but the problem was that everyone else had completely different and clear memories of the time period when he encountered those "hallucinations". It was as if he had suddenly traveled to a parallel time and space with a slightly adjusted script. In those few hours, Ke Lan and the others experienced completely different plots.
This is impossible.
Ke Lan was basically certain that what he saw and heard was definitely not an illusion. The missing bullets in the magazine were the most powerful evidence... But what about the others?
Even if the memories of other people were modified, why did the test tubes containing blood samples disappear when Ke Lan saw Ivan put them into his pocket? Could it be that Ivan threw away the test tubes unconsciously in order to " justify himself "?
But how to explain the stone chamber? There are many reasons for the disappearance of the monster's body, but how did the walls that were originally covered with knife marks recover? How could the big hole on the ceiling of the stone chamber disappear out of thin air?
There are so many things that don't make sense...
Just when Ke Lan felt his head starting to ache again, a sweet voice suddenly came from the front, interrupting his thoughts.
"The captain asked me to bring you food."
Ke Lan looked up and saw a female orderly in a skirt-style uniform and short light brown hair appear at the door of the lounge with a tray containing five boxes of steaming meals.
"Oh, just put it here, thank you." Ivan quickly pointed to the coffee table in the middle of the lounge.
"These foods were hastily prepared by the kitchen, so they may be a little crude. I hope you don't mind." The girl looked very young, as if she had just joined the army. Both her movements and her tone were a little awkward... especially when she was being stared at by the burning gazes of several grown men.
"How could I dislike it? Haha, having a hot meal is better than chewing on compressed biscuits!" In order to ease the embarrassment, the Hound stood up with a smile. He seemed to want to pat the orderly on the shoulder, but the latter dodged in panic.
"If there's nothing else...well...I, I'll go out first..." the orderly said stutteringly, turned around and ran away.
"Hehe... Layton, I bet you that this girl is definitely a virgin!" As soon as the orderly walked out, the Hound immediately put on a lustful and obscene expression.
"It's none of your business whether she's a virgin or not. Do you think she's interested in you?" Layton said unhappily, lying on the seat with his arms and legs spread out.
"Even if I can't succeed, it's good to feast my eyes. If you ask me, the guy who designed the uniforms for the Air Force must be a pervert. Look at that uniform skirt. Although the hem goes all the way to the knees, the slits on both sides go straight to the thighs. There's also a big V-neck top and a low-cut shirt... Tsk tsk, that beautiful valley is simply exposed, especially when she bent down to put the tray just now. Kids nowadays are really well developed..."
"Yes, I see. It's pink with lace." Leighton waved his only hand with a bored look on his face.
"Fuck, you saw it too! Why are you still pretending to be indifferent? Are you exhausted?" The hound jumped onto the sofa at the side in anger.
"Alright, alright, everyone knows you're a pervert, hurry up and eat, or it'll get cold." Layton picked his nose, "Oh, I can't move, old dog, bring me a box of food."
"You just know how to order me around!"
Despite the scolding, the Hound still took a box of food and handed it to Layton.
Although the orderly said that the meal was hastily prepared, it was actually quite rich, with vegetables, meat, and even a poached egg for each person.
The vegetables are fresh, very different from the kimchi and pickles in cans. The meat is not the common meat made from soy protein, but real pork belly, which is 30% lean and 70% fat. Even the poached eggs are runny.
"Damn it... The Air Force is really the superior one. We in the Army are like stepmothers. The food they eat is better than what we had during the festivals back then..." The Hound complained while eating his rice in big mouthfuls.
"Don't talk while eating, be careful not to choke." Ivan said. He was not used to using chopsticks, but fortunately there were two spare spoons on the tray.
“…Ahem…Don’t curse me…Water, is there any water?”
Just as the hound raised its head and looked around for water, there was a strong shaking, and a piece of braised pork dipped in thick red sauce rolled out of his lunch box, fell to the ground, and bounced forward several times.
“…cough cough cough…my flesh…cough cough…”
"Boom!!" There was another shake, accompanied by a dull explosion.
"Explosion? What happened?" Ke Lan and Ivan stood up from their seats at the same time, and Asano Akira subconsciously put his hand on the hilt of the knife.
"Ahem... Let's go to the bridge. I'm afraid we're in trouble." The Hound didn't even bother to find water. He just stood up and walked outside.
…
"Why are you here?" Seeing several hunters rushing into the bridge without saying hello, the lieutenant colonel was naturally a little displeased, but he did not show it, only his tone seemed a little stiff.
The Hound chuckled and said, "Is it the Exile's anti-aircraft firepower?"
"how do you know?"
"I guessed it." The Hound stroked the stubble on his chin with some pride. "I have dealt with these bastards for several years. I know their tricks very well."
"…It was indeed those exiles. The battleship was hit by two rockets of unknown type. Fortunately, the power was small and did not penetrate the armor. Now the energy shield has been opened." The captain frowned and pointed to the screen on the side. It was the picture captured by the external camera: in an open river valley, several people wearing khaki camouflage cloaks were running wildly, and several empty rocket launchers were thrown on the ground not far away.
"Isn't this a sitting duck? Why don't you fight back?" asked the hound.
"Please don't come to command me." The lieutenant colonel glanced at the hound, and then said awkwardly, "It's not that I don't want to fight back... The carrier-based aircraft on the ship have been sent out to perform rescue missions. This warship is not equipped with close-in defense guns. The only ground-attack weapon is the assault missile... The problem is that this river valley is very strange. It is shrouded in an extremely strong electromagnetic interference field, and the missiles can't lock on the target."
"So just let them run away like this?" Ke Lan couldn't help but ask. In his impression, the soldiers on the Ark didn't have the good temper of "not fighting back when beaten".
"That definitely won't happen. The battleship is adjusting its angle, intending to destroy the enemy with one shot using its main gun." The captain coughed twice and said seriously.
When the Hound heard the word "main gun", his expression was quite interesting: "Damn, isn't that just using a cannon to kill a mosquito?"
The main gun of the Iris-class battleship is a small plasma cannon. Although it is small, its power is extremely terrifying. This thing is neither a laser weapon nor a live ammunition weapon. Instead, it uses lasers to heat heavy hydrogen to extremely high temperatures, causing some of the electrons in the atoms to be stripped off to form plasma, commonly known as plasma, which is then fired.
Such a ball of plasma is enough to vitrify the entire river valley, and as for the exiles, not even a trace will be left.
"This one shot will drain at least a thousand units of crystals, right?" The Hound changed the subject, "How about this, let us take care of these guys. This will save energy and we can get some alive for interrogation. It's just right, I can vent my anger on these bastards, what do you think?"
