Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 36 DAS Agent
After checking Ivan's wound again and making sure that there was no abnormality deep inside, Ke Lan applied a toothpaste-like hemostatic gel on it, and then tied Ivan's arm and a piece of removed gun butt together with a bandage.
The broken bone fragments had been embedded in the flesh and could not be removed under the current conditions. They could only install a simple pain pump for Ivan. When he felt the pain was unbearable, he only had to press the valve to inject a small amount of anesthetic into the muscles.
"Ivan, I suggest you get a mechanical prosthesis after you return to the Ark." Ke Lan said tactfully - although the abnormal state cannot be observed with the naked eye, no one knows whether those seemingly normal cells have been infected by the seeds of erosion. If the heavy bleeding had not been difficult to control, he might have cut off Ivan's entire arm.
As I said, a life is always more important than an arm.
"You mean... there might be some residual infection?" Ivan tilted his head back, biting a piece of gauze in his mouth, his chest heaving violently.
"Yeah." Ke Lan nodded.
"It's too late... If that thing is a virus, it should have spread throughout my body through the blood by now. You'd better not touch me... Maybe I will turn into a monster covered with tentacles soon..."
Ivan smiled, but his smile was very forced.
"Unless you are completely hopeless, I will not abandon my teammates." The Hound suddenly stuffed a pistol into Ivan's arms, "There is only one bullet in the magazine If you feel that you are really going to die, use it to kill yourself. Don't let us do it - but before that, cheer up, we still have a long way to go!"
"The situation may not be as bad as imagined." Ke Lan said. He naturally knew that the mutation was not caused by the virus, and the spread speed might not be that terrifying, but he couldn't say this clearly. After all, he had no way to explain the information from unknown sources. He couldn't tell them that this suddenly popped out of his head.
Even if he wasn't sent to a biological research institute to get diagnosed, he would most likely be regarded as an outlier by others.
How could I be an outlier?
Ke Lan has always believed that he is absolutely a pure human being. He can accurately recall all his memories from the time he can remember until he boarded the transport plane.
He was born at the No. 10 Human Breeding Center in District 10 of South Ark. His genes came from reproductive cells donated to the breeding center by a healthy young man and woman. These cells underwent multiple examinations and screenings. Only after ensuring that there were no genetic diseases and congenital defects would they be combined in an absolutely sterile environment and then gradually developed into a mature embryo in an artificial womb filled with nutrients.
He spent his childhood in the Ark's public education facilities, where he learned basic knowledge and survival skills. His test scores were not top-notch, but they were not the worst either. At least the deviation value of each course was above 50 points.
When he was sixteen and was choosing his future career, he filled in "Ruin Hunter", simply because this profession allowed him to arrange his time more freely than other jobs and the pay was better.
Then there are more professional courses, various physical training and related tests, graduation, registration, and acceptance of tasks...
I haven't become rich overnight, but I have enough food and clothing.
He is just an ordinary person, not an outlier at all.
But how can a person who can understand the AlphaStar language be considered an ordinary person?
Ke Lan rubbed his temples irritably...
What was the origin of that broken stone tablet? And the monsters encountered in the ruins, the modified memories of others, the changed stone chamber, and this cult organization with an unclear relationship with the Alpha civilization...
It was too confusing. He felt that all the clues and information in his mind were like a tangled ball of wool, and he couldn't make sense of it for a while.
"Ke Lan, your expression is a little weird." Ivan sighed helplessly, "I know you are trying to comfort me, but facing an alien creature of this level, it is impossible to escape unscathed."
"You're not dead yet, stop pretending to be depressed over there!" Ke Lan let out a fierce breath and pulled Ivan up from the ground. "Don't think too much, let's go back to the Ark first."
Don’t think too much, this is actually what he is saying to himself.
"Ke Lan is right. There's no point in thinking so much. Instead of spending that time thinking about your girlfriend... I think her name is Natasha, right?" said the Hound.
"right……"
"And she's won the Women's Free Fighting Championship for two consecutive years." Layton added quietly.
“…”
"Okay, let's get ready to go." Ke Lan supported Ivan and threw his gun to Layton, while the Hound slowly lifted the door curtain.
"I'll go out first. If it's safe outside, I'll give you a signal." After the hound said that, he ducked out, sprinted a short distance, and then rolled into the side of a shack.
He threw out two shells - this was the signal agreed upon by the Hound and them just now, one shell meant to stay on standby, two meant to evacuate, and three meant to prepare for battle.
"Let's go!" Ke Lan supported Ivan and rushed out. As soon as they got outside, a bone-chilling coldness attacked them from all directions - the average is about minus ten degrees Celsius, and this is a high-latitude area, so the lowest temperature can even drop to minus forty degrees Celsius.
Layton followed closely behind, and the three of them quickly crossed the open space in front of the house and joined the hounds.
"What's going on? Have all the exiles disappeared?" Ke Lan just asked, but found that the hound had put on a protective mask.
"Hurry up, put them on." He pointed to the shack behind him. Through the gaps between the wooden boards, he saw that several exiled slaves who were huddled together for warmth were now in a coma, with an abnormal flush on their faces.
"What's going on?" Ke Lan and the other two quickly put on their masks.
"It's the hypnotic gas... I couldn't smell it in that room just now, but as soon as I came out, I realized something was wrong." said the Hound.
Layton was speechless: "Then why did you let us out?"
"It will only be worse in the house. You don't want to be killed by a shell for no apparent reason, do you?"
"Is it one of our own?" Ke Lan looked around. The only people who could use weapons like hypnotic gas could be from the Ark. But after what happened before, he was not sure whether the people from the Ark could be considered "one of our own".
"Not sure." The hound suddenly stopped shaking his head, and a slightly shaking red dot fell on his forehead.
Not only him, but Ke Lan, Ivan and Layton were also targeted by the sniper.
"Put your hands where we can see you, and then walk out to the open space." A voice came from above his head. Ke Lan looked up and saw a DJI drone hovering right above them, with its infrared camera pointed at the four of them.
The Hound raised his hands and was the first to go out.
"Don't shoot, we are not exiles!" he shouted.
A dozen soldiers wearing dark grey camouflage combat uniforms and full-face helmets suddenly appeared and surrounded the four of them.
"Trouble." The hound made a "tsk" sound and twisted its neck in dissatisfaction.
"What's wrong?" Ke Lan asked in a low voice.
"See their gray skin? They are not from the military, but DAS field agents."
DAS: “Department of Ark Security”
They rarely appear in the field of vision of ordinary people, but they are everywhere.
This group of people can be found in any incident that may threaten the safety of the Ark - in the eyes of most people, this group of people in dark gray uniforms are extremely dangerous. They are executioners with special powers, and the number of innocent people who died at the hands of these guys is far greater than that of real saboteurs.
One of their mottos is: "It is better to kill a thousand people by mistake than to let one go."
