Volume 15 Gray Fog Forest Chapter 781 "Genoa"
"These corpses... have also been transformed into biological weapons by the forest?" Ivan did not find the hell-like scene in front of him so terrifying... This kind of plot is acceptable in a horror movie, but in front of him, a veteran relic hunter who has experienced many battles, these resurrected corpses are not even as good as those ghost-faced giant owls just now.
The only thing that interested Ivan was the ligaments connecting the bones of these corpses and the muscles used to move the bones. They had all been turned into nutrients by the Mist Tree. But with just a few bones, not only could they not move, it was even difficult for them to maintain a human form.
The common monsters "Skeleton Soldiers" in fantasy works are condensed into shape and driven by magic, and this magic is used to replace ligaments and muscles... Once the "Skeleton Soldiers" are killed and lose their magic, even if the entire skeleton is not destroyed, it will instantly scatter into a mess of bones.
In a complete human skeleton like the ones you see in medical school, screws and gears are used instead of ligaments and muscles.
Without soft tissue, even if the hard bones are stacked into the shape of human bones, they will completely lose their mobility.
Ivan carefully observed the corpses that had escaped from the tree trunks. He found that each corpse had lost its spine, and instead had a "vine spine" made of several vines. The length, diameter and curvature of this vine spine were comparable to those of a human spine, and it perfectly fit into the gap left by the corpses after losing their spines.
Many hair-like tendrils spread out from this vine vertebrae and crawled all over the body of the corpse along the direction of the bones, especially in the joints, where a large number of tendrils entangled and accumulated, and some even pierced the bones directly, connecting two bones together in a string.
"So this is the thing used to replace ligaments and muscles... The working principle should be similar to the walker mecha we encountered before." After figuring out why these corpses moved, Ivan's interest suddenly waned, and the only trace of fear in his heart disappeared without a trace.
Only things that cannot be explained by science can scare him. As for those monsters that can be explained by science, Ivan would only want to tie them to the dissection table.
He raised the gun, aimed it at the "spine" of the corpse closest to him, and pulled the trigger.
The needle-shaped electromagnetic bullet fired from the Gauss rifle easily broke the replacement spine made of several vines, and the corpse fell to the ground like a puppet with its strings suddenly cut, and stopped moving.
Ivan breathed a sigh of relief - a problem that can be solved with a gun is not a problem at all.
But the next second, Ivan's expression, which had just relaxed a little, became solemn again.
Hundreds of tiny tendrils grew out of the cross-section of the vine spine, connecting the broken pieces together again. The corpse, which had fallen to the ground, trembled all over as if it had been electrocuted, and slowly crawled up from the ground.
At the same time, the corpses that had come down from the other mist trees also approached and surrounded Ivan.
"And the ability to regenerate... that's a bit tricky..."
Ivan took a half step back and glanced at the display screen on the side of the Gauss rifle and the equipment on his waist that was used to hang the drum magazine.
The screen showed that there were thirty-nine bullets remaining in the chamber. There were still three large-capacity drum magazines hanging on the equipment that could hold a hundred electromagnetic bullets. There were also four "high-performance batteries" with built-in energy crystals, which were specially designed for the Gauss rifle. He didn't have to worry about energy issues until all the bullets were used up.
There were a total of forty-six corpses "resurrected" in front of him... No, including the one that had just been "killed", there should be forty-seven. With just the ammunition in Ivan's hand, it was enough to kill each corpse more than seven times.
But the problem is that even if these corpses are killed seven, ten or even more times, as long as the "vine spine" is not crushed into powder, they can be resurrected infinitely.
This is like the dilemma that the protagonist often encounters in the early stages of common zombie movies - ordinary zombies are easy to kill, as long as you can hit them in the head with a bullet. A well-trained armed team can easily slaughter hundreds of slow-moving zombies.
But before zombies with special abilities appeared, the biggest pressure people faced in zombie movies was not the individual combat power of zombies, but their numbers.
When faced with a tide of zombies transformed from the people of an entire city, what good would it be even if you could kill hundreds or thousands of zombies in a short period of time?
Sooner or later, the bullets will run out, the gun barrel will overheat due to continuous shooting, and people's physical strength will be exhausted... But zombies, on the other hand, have no sense of pain, do not know what fear is, and their numbers are almost endless... Even if their legs are cut off, they will use their hands to crawl on the ground and struggle to bite a living person... This is the most terrifying thing about ordinary zombies.
The best weapon against them is heavy firepower.
"Fear comes from insufficient firepower" is the eternal truth in zombie movies. If pistols don't work, use machine guns. If machine guns don't work, use heavy artillery. Add a few ground-to-ground and air-to-ground missiles... In addition to fear, what is gone are the zombies' ashes...
Even without missiles, as long as there is an advanced tactical mecha, it is enough to run rampant in the zombie tide... In fact, it doesn't need to be too advanced. The walker mecha that the Ark military has long eliminated is enough to crush the ordinary zombies in those zombie movies.
But the problem is that Ivan has no heavy artillery, missiles, or mecha... He only has a Gauss rifle with limited bullets.
And these forty-seven corpses before us can be regarded as an "infinite tide of corpses" until a way is found to prevent them from resurrecting.
Ivan reached into his backpack, and his fingertips touched several cold metal cylinders...
"Incendiary bombs... No, this thing is ineffective against them..." Before Ivan had time to be happy, the information he had read before setting off emerged in his mind, instantly extinguishing the joy that had just arisen in his heart.
The Mist Tree is not afraid of fire, otherwise exploring the Gray Mist Forest would not be so difficult.
The "Fuji spines" that control these corpses are the same thing as the Kiritake and Kirisumi bodies. Even air-dropped napalm bombs can't do anything to them, let alone thrown incendiary grenades.
Unless you use a weapon like a plasma cannon to turn it into ashes directly... If you rely solely on napalm to burn it, it may not be possible to turn the vine into charcoal even after the fuel is exhausted.
"If only the others were here..." Ivan sighed. Whether it was Ke Lan, Ze Luo, Asano Akira, San San or Valentina driving the Blasphemer mecha, they would have no problem dealing with these corpses that could be resurrected infinitely. But these ghosts happened to run into him, the one with the lowest combat power in the team...
"It seems that I am just a burden..." Ivan sighed helplessly, opened his breathing mask, held the gun in one hand, grabbed the wine jug with the other, and poured all the remaining liquid in the jug into his mouth in one breath.
"We can only fight to the death." Ivan threw the silver-white metal wine bottle hard and crushed it with his foot. "I just don't know how many shots I have to fire with the Gauss rifle to completely break these vines... If it really doesn't work..."
He glanced at the dark grooves on the cyborg prosthesis that were inlaid with stalagmite fragments - as long as those stalagmite fragments were removed, the unrestrained erosion seed cells would spread in a very short time, and he would gain power far beyond that of ordinary people... But if he chose to do this, he would never have a chance to turn back.
This has always been a trump card that Ivan has kept. Although he knows very well that the power of a Seed of Erosion is not that strong, this is the last trump card he can play.
“But perhaps, it would be better to end my life as a human being?” Ivan took another step back, leaning against the smooth wall of fog. “But I still feel a little unwilling…”
…
…
Deep in the gray fog forest, the crash site of the "Genoa" high-speed support ship.
Thirty-three was also confused - he didn't know why he only took a step back but ended up retreating into the wreckage of the battleship.
Logically speaking, that should be the direction away from the wreckage of the battleship... Before it was shrouded by thick fog, it was an open space.
"Could it be that some teleportation device was triggered?" Thirty-Three said to himself as he looked at the rusty and vine-covered cabin walls in front of him.
From a certain perspective, his luck was the best among the lost people, because the others all "woken up" in an open space, and it was difficult for them to notice the abnormality of the environment for a while. They all thought they were near the wreckage of the "Shaojiang Modified" frigate, and before the thick fog covered them, they could not tell the directions at all... But Sanshisan was different. The first thing he saw after he "woken up" was a metal wall with badly peeling paint. The change in scene before and after was so abrupt that he came up with the idea that "he was teleported here."
"But if there is a teleportation device, Ze Luo should be able to sense the anomaly in the space... Hmm, but it is also possible that the thick fog blocked her perception, it is hard to say... This forest is really weird, Ke Lan and the other group of cheaters probably didn't expect that their cheats would fail one day..."
Thirty-Three flipped his wrist, and several black Nino alloy blades flew out from the interlayer of the arm armor, circled around his wrist several times, and flew back.
Sanshisan felt much more at ease knowing that his abilities were not affected.
The first thing to figure out now is where you have been teleported to.
There is no doubt that this should be a cabin inside the wreckage of the battleship... and this cabin should be located relatively inside, at least it has not been affected by the fog yet.
“Maybe I should go out and look for Ke Lan and the others… As long as we don’t get into a fight, those monsters shouldn’t be able to stop me…” Sanshisan thought, “But if they are also teleported, then the situation will be more troublesome… If I leave the wreckage of the battleship, the teleportation device may be triggered again, and I don’t know where I will be teleported to the second time…”
The "Shaojiang modified" frigate was at least familiar to him, and it was also a rare eye-catching landmark in the huge gray fog forest. When the battleship crashed into the ground, the bow of the battleship arched into the ground, but the tail of the battleship, which was broken due to the impact, unexpectedly stood up, and a part of it even passed through the tree canopy and thick fog - as long as the Blasphemer mecha rose into the air, it could locate the position of the wreckage of the "Shaojiang modified" frigate.
Therefore, it is the wisest decision to stay inside the wreckage of the battleship and wait for Ke Lan and the others - after discovering that they have been teleported, they will definitely find a way to return to the wreckage of the battleship. Instead of searching aimlessly for a needle in a haystack, it is better to stand still and wait for them to find you.
"So, my luck seems to be pretty good?" Thirty-three scratched his head and said to himself.
Thirty-three glanced at the air monitoring data on the mask display. The air in the cabin fully met the needs of human breathing, so he took off his breathing mask. Although the oxygen generator was in sufficient supply, as a veteran of the Field Corps with rich combat experience , Thirty-three knew the importance of supplies in field operations. Sufficient supplies were not a reason to waste. If you could save a little, you would save a little. Sometimes, it might be the little you saved that saved your life at a critical moment.
"I don't know when the fog will spread here... But maybe I can take advantage of this gap to explore this battleship first." Sanshisan made up his mind - although Ke Lan and the others had already explored the wreckage of the "Shaojiang Kai" frigate, they were only limited to the bridge part, and had not visited other cabins on the battleship.
"Perhaps... there may be some unexpected discoveries."
Thirty-three looked around the cabin he was in. This should be the smoking room on the battleship. There were lighters and trash boxes for collecting cigarette ashes and butts fixed on the bulkhead. Next to the trash box was a recessed cabinet with two handheld fire extinguishers embedded in it. A large right-angle sofa that could seat seven or eight strong men was welded in the corner. The simulated leather on the sofa had been torn into pieces, revealing the yellowed sponge and rusty metal frame underneath.
The "Shaojiang modified" frigate was in combat mode when it crashed. No one would run into the smoking room at this time, and there should not be any valuable clues in this place.
With this thought in mind, Thirty-three walked out of the open hatch.
But as soon as he walked into the corridor, he made a new discovery - and it was truly an "unexpected discovery".
The flashlight shone on the doorplate of the cabin opposite, and the word "Bathroom" was written in both Chinese and English on the doorplate... There was nothing wrong with that, but the problem lay in the line of small words below the doorplate.
"Exocet-class high-speed support ship Genoa."
"Shit... Is this the interior of another crashed battleship?"
