Volume 12: Yaguna Kotor Chapter 575: Blast to pieces without leaving any residue
"You don't plan to hide?" Ke Lan asked directly.
"The mission of this substitute has been completed. There is no point in keeping it." The prophet replied in the Alpha language - the language of the Alpha civilization does not require the human vocal organs , so even if the throat of the prophet's substitute has been pierced by a spear, he can still communicate with Ke Lan.
"What mission?" Ke Lan asked.
However, the other party did not answer his question immediately. Instead, after a few seconds of silence, he suddenly let out a sarcastic chuckle.
"Those things on you, were they given to you by them? I mean... the group of people from the Undead Crew."
Ke Lan also did not answer the other party's question. Although he could feel that the substitute was already in a dying state, he still did not want to be tricked into talking.
Seeing that Ke Lan was unwilling to answer, the prophet's stand-in actually laughed out loud "Hahaha" - the language of the Alpha civilization also includes "laughter", but because of the different language structure, their "laughter" can convey emotions more directly to the people who "hear" it.
There are only two emotions in the prophet's laughter, sarcasm and ridicule.
"They told those idiots on the Ark that the 'warriors' we created were monsters... But aren't they also creating monsters themselves? Hahahaha..."
The breath of the prophet's substitute became weaker and weaker, but he didn't seem to care about the coming death, and his laughter became more and more crazy.
“Hahahaha…how funny!”
"You're going to die soon." Ke Lan reminded him expressionlessly.
"It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter at all." The prophet's stand-in said. His body stopped breathing, and his drooping limbs no longer twitched reflexively. Sticky blood flowed along the javelin made of hollow steel pipes, dripping down drop by drop - if he could not still communicate with Ke Lan in Alpha language, Ke Lan would have thought that the person nailed to the dome was already a corpse.
"Why do you accept their gifts? For power?" the prophet's stand-in asked again.
"It's none of your business."
"You should know better than me... The more power you gain, the further you are from being human..."
"I am human."
"Do you really think you are still human? Hahaha, look at yourself now. In the eyes of everyone on the Ark, you are a complete monster! Human? This is really the funniest joke I have heard in the past few months!"
"If you insist on saying that about anyone on the Ark, at least my companions don't think so." Ke Lan retorted calmly.
"How come you don't know that they are not afraid of your power? Everyone can tell lies, right? Lying... is an innate ability of inferior creatures like humans, right? Apart from hindering the progress of the race and society, what is the meaning of this ability? You see, inferior creatures are inferior creatures. After tens of thousands of years of evolution, they are still so stupid and..."
"Since you are not an inferior creature, why did you lie to your believers? You promised them the power of gods, but only used them as materials for making biochemical weapons... Those people outside are actually still semi-finished products, right? The reason why you are so anxious to catalyze them is to stop me, right?" Ke Lan interrupted the other party - when it comes to arguing and bickering, he is not at all inferior to the other party, but he began to doubt that the prophet's stand-in was holding on to arguing with him for so long, could it be that he was buying time for the "thing" on the pyramid?
While staring at the prophet's substitute who was nailed to the dome with half his breath left, Ke Lan walked slowly towards the pyramid.
"I didn't lie to them. They did gain power, but gaining power comes at a price. This is the rule, and you and I are no exception." The prophet's stand-in laughed again. "So, what was the price you paid?"
"Have you really never lied to your subordinates? I won't expose you, just ask yourself... You really have a talent for comedy." Ke Lan also laughed dryly twice - isn't it just laughing? You can laugh, so can I laugh too. He didn't believe that a dying person could laugh longer than him?
"At least I won't lie to my own kind." As if realizing that he couldn't win the argument with Ke Lan, the prophet actually chose to back down.
"That's fine. I remember you told me that I'm one of your kind, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"If you think I am one of your kind, then you can't lie to me. So, Mr. Stand-in, where is your real body now?"
“…”
"Look, you're silent...tsk tsk tsk."
"I just refused to answer, it's not a lie."
"No, when you are silent, you are already lying..." Ke Lan shook his head. "Just a few minutes ago, you told me that you have no real body, or that every stand is your real body. But now, I just asked the same question in a different form, and your answer is different - silence is of course also an answer."
Ke Lan was certain that this guy definitely had a "real body" hiding in the place he thought was "the safest". If he wanted to kill the prophet, it would be useless to kill more substitutes, he had to get rid of the "real body".
"You seem to be more... ..." The prophet hesitated for a moment, as if he was thinking about the words, "more... more eloquent..."
"Thank you for the compliment." Ke Lan said immediately. At this time, he had already reached the bottom of the pyramid.
"You know, the word 'monster' is not actually a derogatory term..."
"Go on, I'm listening." Ke Lan nodded perfunctorily, "You've been holding your breath for quite a while, haven't you?"
"All living things worship power, and humans are no exception. People with power will be revered by others, but when the power of an individual is so strong that it breaks a certain threshold, so strong that others cannot understand or even feel fear, this individual will be regarded as a monster and an alien by others."
"Then what?"
"Don't you think you are an alien? The difference between your genes and those of the humans on the Ark is probably even greater than the difference between humans and gorillas, right?"
"According to what you said, it would be better for humans to regress to the era of slash-and-burn agriculture... In the eyes of primitive people, guns can also be considered monsters, right?"
"I said, monster is not a derogatory word... If 'monster' represents the direction of future evolution of the race, then I am happy to become a monster." said the prophet.
"Don't be happy, you already are."
This time, the prophet did not respond... Ke Lan could no longer sense his breath, and the remaining intention for "communication" disappeared without a trace in the blink of an eye.
The prophet's substitute finally died.
However, the troubles he left behind were far from over.
Ke Lan had already climbed onto the small platform at the top of the pyramid. In the middle of the platform, there was a sunken pool. The pool was filled with a thick liquid that was very similar in texture to serum. A large cocoon made of a large amount of fine gray-white mycelium was soaking in the thick liquid.
The cocoon rose and fell slightly with the breathing rhythm of the thing inside, causing ripples to appear in the liquid in the pool.
Through the translucent mycelium, you can vaguely see a plump female body curled up in the cocoon.
However, the skin of this body showed a very strange dark red color...
"Is it... Dr. Renee?" Ke Lan recognized the identity of the person in the cocoon at a glance... He originally thought that the prophet would let Dr. Renee join the heretic sect to continue her research, but he didn't expect that he would directly use her as experimental material...
However, from a certain perspective, she has indeed joined the Prophet's "great cause", and she is indeed continuing her original research... and, she is more "deeply" involved in the experiment.
It must be said that this kind of self-sacrifice is indeed worthy of praise...but whether this is due to Dr. Renee's own wish, Ke Lan can't say for sure.
Judging from the calmness of the prophet's body, his goal has probably been achieved. However, since this thing has not yet broken out of the cocoon, it means that "it" is not yet 100% complete.
The sharp claws of the living armor directly tore through the mycelium and cut into the plump dark red body.
The claw blade cut into the flank, and with a slight pull, a huge cut was made. The slippery intestines immediately fell out of the abdominal cavity, and groups of blood like mist spread out in the pool.
It was only then that Ke Lan discovered that Dr. Renee's skin had not turned dark red, but that her skin had been peeled off, and the muscles and tendons under the skin were directly exposed to the outermost layer of the body.
There is a large amount of yellow and white fat tissue attached to the chest, abdomen, armpits, buttocks and thighs.
It's hard to imagine that this somewhat scary body was once so sexy and attractive.
Just when Ke Lan was about to further damage Dr. Renee's internal organs, the other party suddenly moved!
She stretched out her hands, tightly grasped Ke Lan's wrist, and then used Ke Lan's wrist as a fulcrum to jump out of the broken cocoon.
More intestines fell out of the hole, and there were also some severely deformed pieces of internal organs. They fell into the pool with a crackling sound, making bursts of crisp splashing sounds... and the owners of these organs did a somersault, quickly distanced themselves from Ke Lan, and landed on the other side of the pool.
She... no, it's "it" - it is no longer human. The loss of those organs seems to be of no concern to it, and the wound on her abdomen has actually healed almost completely at this moment.
Its recovery ability is even more terrifying than Ke Lan's!
It hunched over, its legs stretched straight apart, its ten toes gripping the ground tightly. Its upper body was bent low, its two still stiff arms were sticking to its sides, and its pair of cloudy eyes, whose pupils, corneas, and irises could no longer be seen, were staring at Ke Lan intently.
All ten of its fingers were bent at a strange angle towards the back of its hand - this was the price it paid for using Ke Lan's wrist for leverage. All ten of its fingers were broken by Ke Lan.
But Ke Lan originally planned to pull out its fingers, but the bloody claws only managed to remove a few dry muscle fibers... It recovered from this minor injury almost in the blink of an eye.
Its ten folded fingers could not be put back in place, but the broken joints and tendons grew back, and the mobility of the ten fingers was fully restored... Although the recovered hands looked weird, they seemed to be more flexible than before.
Ke Lan suddenly felt that even if he cut off Dr. Renee's head and stuffed it into its anus, the head would probably grow directly into its buttocks...
Could it be that this recovery ability, which is so bizarre that it can empty a person's SAN value, was given to it by its own cloned cells?
A flash of red light passed by, and Ke Lan instantly crossed the pool and appeared in front of Dr. Renee. His left hand stabbed into Dr. Renee's eye socket, the sharp claws of his fingertips went straight to the brain, and his right hand pierced through Dr. Renee's chest and crushed her heart.
Then, Ke Lan went to Dr. Renee's back and took her spine apart piece by piece. Without the support of the spine, her body immediately fell to the ground, and the upper and lower bodies were completely separated.
Ke Lan kicked Dr. Renee's lower body far away, and then punched her twice, smashing her skull and the brain inside into pieces.
The brain, heart, spine...these are the vital parts of a humanoid creature. However, the mass of rotten flesh in front of him had been destroyed by Ke Lan beyond human form, but it was still wriggling and struggling to stand up.
Its muscles were growing wildly, and so were its bones... but they had completely broken away from their original "human" frame... Compared to "recovery", Ke Lan felt that this thing was more like an unrestrained and uncontrolled tumor cell... As long as there was enough nutrients and growth space, it would expand without limit...
This is somewhat similar to the cloned cells that Dr. Renee described.
But at that time, Ke Lan would never have expected that the first time she would see this scene would be on Dr. Renee.
"What a hassle... With my current means, I can't kill it at all..." Ke Lan muttered - at this rate, even if Ke Lan smashed "Dr. Renee" into minced meat, it wouldn't die. As long as there was one cell that wasn't completely destroyed, it would continue to grow...
As for what it will grow into in the end, Ke Lan has no idea at all.
He didn't know what Dr. Renee's "nutrient source" was. He cut the body into several parts, but these parts were growing wildly on their own... If these lumps of rotten meat were put together now, both the volume and mass would be several times that of the original human form.
If it continues to grow, Ke Lan even suspects that this underground space can be filled with all this meat.
This is totally inconsistent with the law of conservation... Of course, there are more than one or two things on this planet that do not conform to the laws summarized by humans.
The key is, how can we completely eliminate it?
The first thing Ke Lan thought of was the fleet’s plasma cannon - using that thing, it should be possible to blast these rotten meats into nothing left, right?
