Volume 1 Glacial Relics Chapter 9: Meat
"Optical camouflage? Bring me a bottle of water, and preferably a nebulizer. Do you have one, doctor?" Upon hearing this, Layton ran over immediately.
"We have water, but I didn't bring the atomizer." Ivan said, throwing a large bottle over. "Use it sparingly. There aren't many supplies, and there's no water purification equipment on the transport plane. If we run out of water, we'll have to drink urine."
"I know." Layton took the bottle, "It's not a big problem if there is no atomizer."
He used a steel needle to poke dozens of small holes on to make a simple shower head. Then he squeezed the bottle hard, and dozens of tiny water jets suddenly sprayed out from the small holes. The water jets collided with each other and dispersed into a crystal mist in the air.
The optical camouflage used by humans is generally equipped on vehicles. It uses all-round cameras to capture the surrounding scenes, and then uses armored screens to restore them. This optical camouflage is not only easy to detect, but the camouflage will disappear directly when the armored screen is attacked. However, the optical camouflage of the Alpha civilization is completely different from that of humans. They use the interference phenomenon of light to directly cover the holographic projection on the objects that need to be covered. In this way, as long as there is a set of projection equipment, they can apply optical camouflage to any object. Compared with the bulky camouflage screen, the advantages of this method are self-evident.
During the early exploration of the ruins, traps disguised by optical camouflage caused the loss of many elite humans. With the accumulation of experience, humans have also summed up the three main ways to crack optical camouflage.
The first is to directly destroy the projection equipment. This method is the most direct and effective. However, the projection equipment is often hidden in some very secret corners. What's worse, there will be multiple sets of projection equipment blocking each other. At this time, the second method is needed - build a barrier around the obstruction to directly block the projection, so that the obstruction will naturally have no way to escape.
This method is generally suitable for areas with relatively open terrain, and has more stringent requirements on the equipment carried by the explorer. For example, a camouflaged entrance is located on the mountainside, and there are traps around the entrance, so human search is not possible, and the projection equipment cannot be found. If you want to use the second method, you must enclose half of the mountain. The amount of work is so huge that it is definitely not something that can be completed by one or two hunter teams.
As for the third method, it is the simplest to operate and does not require any special equipment. It is to sprinkle water directly on the cover and use the water vapor remaining in the air to disrupt the interference between the light. It can also achieve the effect of breaking stealth, but the disadvantage is that the effect is relatively poor and the duration is very short.
Along with the splashing of water mist, the area covered by the projection quickly became blurred, and a circular secret passage entrance vaguely appeared in everyone's field of vision.
"It looks like a manhole," said the hound. "I heard that in the old era on Earth, manholes had to be cleaned by people crawling in. They were full of excrement and scavengers. It's disgusting just thinking about it."
There are naturally manholes on Noah's Ark, a spaceship that is shaped like a giant city, but the sewage system of the Ark is equipped with fully automatic cleaning machinery. The profession of plumber has become a term exclusive to the old era.
"As a hunter, are you afraid of this?" Ke Lan was speechless.
"You may not care, but think about what my abilities are. Smell is dozens of times more lethal to me than to you!" The hound couldn't help but complain.
"Then just plug your nose." Layton curled his lips, "Okay, old dog, stop talking nonsense. Are you sure the smell disappears here?"
"Sure! If I can't track this scent, I'll go back and cut off my nose," the hound said firmly.
"Come on, it's still unclear whether we can go back. Let's see if there is a slot reserved for energy crystals. I see the manhole cover is not big, so it shouldn't take many units." As Layton said this, he sprayed a cloud of water mist from the bottle again.
"I can't see clearly..." The hound shook his head and squatted down. "Let me feel it... Ouch! Damn! There seem to be barbs on the manhole cover. Damn, it cut my finger!"
The hound jumped up cursing. Ke Lan looked and saw that there was indeed a large cut on his thumb. Although the hound had pinched the base of the finger, blood was still oozing out.
"Doctor! Help me stop the bleeding... Damn it, I shouldn't have just started. Who knows if there are any deadly alien bacteria on this broken manhole cover."
"If there is, you're dead. All the antibiotics I brought are in the cargo hold." Ivan was bandaging the hound's wound, but he suddenly stopped halfway through the gauze.
"What's wrong? Hello? Doctor?" the hound asked hurriedly, "Is it really infected?"
"No, your finger is fine..." Ivan shook his head stiffly and said word by word, "Look at the ground... the door to the secret passage... is open..."
Ke Lan was startled and turned around to look - indeed, just when their attention was drawn to the hound, the door to the secret passage had already opened silently...
"No way? Old dog, your blood can be used as energy crystal? Do you want to put more and try to open the gate outside?" Layton said in surprise.
"Don't talk nonsense. Actually, I didn't even touch the crystal slot on it just now... To be honest, the secret passage that can be opened by sucking blood sounds weird. Otherwise, let's not go down." The hound held his fingers, his face slightly pale.
"There is only one road ahead. If you don't go down, are you going to die?" Layton rolled his eyes at him. "You are such a coward, old dog."
"That's because the brave ones have all died long ago!" the hound replied.
"But if I stay here, I'll die. If I go down, I'll die too. But at least there's still a chance to get out, right?" Layton seemed a little angry. "It's okay if you don't want to go down. Then you can stay here. I'm going down anyway."
"Stop arguing. Have you noticed a problem?" Ke Lan pointed at the entrance to the secret passage. "In fact, we should have thought from the beginning that the way to open the secret passage should be different from the gate. There are no crystals on the pilot's body, and we have also searched the wreckage of the transport plane. If crystals are needed to open it, then the body can't go down."
The Hound shook his head: "That's what I said, but I think there's something wrong with this secret passage. Going down there will definitely be dangerous."
"There is no problem anywhere in the ruins. Even if it is dangerous down there, can it be worse than a group of split-jaw insects chasing after you and biting you?" Ke Lan asked back.
"This... seems to be the truth..." The Hound gritted his teeth, "Forget it! Anyway, I have only one life left, and I have enjoyed everything I should have. I will die anyway, so I should leave quickly before I regret it!"
"Don't worry, I'll be with you even if you die." Layton patted the hound's shoulder, but this time he failed to control the strength of the mechanical arm, causing the hound to scold him.
"Remember to bring the Mongol with you. I don't want him to have bugs drilled into his head and then crawl down like a zombie." said the Hound.
The group found a large sleeping bag on the transport plane, stuffed Zhuo Ligetu into it, and then tied him to Layton's back with a rope - among the remaining people, only Layton could carry several hundred kilograms without affecting his movements.
…
The front end of the secret passage was vertically downward. Fortunately, there were many potholes , so everyone was able to climb down little by little. However, what puzzled Ke Lan was whether the controlled corpse could also perform such a complex movement that required the coordination of the whole body. This was much more difficult than simply running or crawling...
After climbing down for nearly two hundred meters, their feet finally stepped on solid ground - directly below the secret passage was a horizontal passage. Compared with the previous one they used to race against the swarm of split-jaw insects, this passage was wider and higher, almost enough for three "Junius" off-road vehicles to pass in parallel.
"The space below is much more spacious than that above... Could it be that the main passage is below?" Leighton guessed.
"Who knows? Let's go." The Hound urged anxiously, "I always feel that..."
Before he could finish his words, a crisp sound of "Pah!" suddenly rang out from behind him. The sound was like a flesh and blood body being slapped hard on the ground...
"Could it be the pilot's body?" They immediately raised their flashlights and shone them behind them. What fell to the ground was not a body, but a piece of rotten meat without a specific shape...
"Ugh..." The Hound felt his throat tightening and quickly covered his mouth. Layton pulled out an oversized Gurkha knife - it was the only weapon he had left besides the discarded machine gun.
"Hound! Can you smell that...that piece of meat? Is it from the pilot?" Although his expression seemed a little stiff, Ivan's tone was still calm.
"The smell of blood! Ugh... A very strong smell of blood... But it's definitely not the pilot's body... Damn it... Such a strong smell... I should be able to smell it from hundreds of meters away... Why was there no smell when I walked past there just now... Ugh..."
"A piece of meat..." Unlike the other people, Ke Lan was not that nervous. He just felt that the piece of meat looked familiar, as if he had seen it somewhere...
Where would that be?
"Move, move?!" The Hound screamed and pulled out his pistol to shoot, but his hands were shaking so much that it took him seven or eight seconds to even turn on the safety.
"Don't shoot yet, don't alarm it..." Ke Lan suddenly grabbed the hound's hand and said.
"It...it seems to be growing..." Ivan paused and swallowed a mouthful of saliva.
Just as he said, this piece of meat...is growing...
First, two pairs of limbs similar to "feet" grew out, and then gradually lengthened. One pair of "feet" moved to the sides of the meat, and the other pair of "feet" supported the ground, allowing the meat to "stand" up...
Then, the torso took shape... the head... the ten fingers...
A crack suddenly appeared, this was the mouth, and then white teeth emerged from the pink gums...
Nose, eyes, ears...
Within just two minutes, this lump of meat turned into a living human being. Except for the lack of any hair on its body, it even perfectly imitated the human's "promotion device"!
What made everyone even more horrified was that this "person" actually had a face exactly like the hound's! That huge hooked nose seemed to be carved from the same mold -
