Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 870: Changes
"Why doesn't the Supervisor have time to take care of it? Not only this game... even the daily operation of the entire hive city needs the Supervisor to coordinate. If she can't even do this kind of thing, then I think she can be thrown into the incinerator and replaced with a new one."
The supervisor he mentioned was obviously the manager "Neto". From his tone, it was not difficult to find that although the manager's authority level was level two, which was one level higher than the senior residents with level three authority, they did not seem to be very respectful of the manager... It seemed that the fact that the manager was a manufactured super biological computer was no secret within the hive, at least among the senior residents.
"No, you didn't understand what I meant... I mean, now... I'm afraid that not only this game, but probably the entire hive city is in chaos." Old Seven said with a gloomy face.
"Seventh Brother... what are you talking about?" Another horseman was stunned. "You can't assume that the entire hive is in chaos just because the supervisors and the managers of the hunting grounds don't respond to our messages... If something like this really happened, the entire hive would be plunged into darkness by now, right? But look, the simulated sun above our heads is still on, and the air supply system is constantly pumping fresh air into the hive... not to mention the alarm broadcast that will inevitably sound in an emergency."
"Actually, I started to feel something was wrong a few days ago... Have you been to the lower city?" The crosshairs of the hunting crossbow in Lao Qi's hand never left "Second Brother's" body. He stared at the group of tentacles that almost wrapped up "Second Brother's" entire body, and said slowly.
"Well, I have been there... But it was several years ago. The said he would take me to the downtown area to have some fun. You know, that kind of fun..."
"I mean recently." Lao Qi interrupted him.
"Recently? I haven't been there. Why should I go to that kind of place often? To be honest, after having fun there once, I don't want to go there a second time. As for the women in the downtown area, I even suspect that they don't take a bath once a month." The man said with a look of disgust.
I'm afraid it's not like I don't take a bath once a month...According to the living conditions in the lower city, it's already very good to be able to take a bath once a year...Ke Lan thought to himself.
"I just went to downtown last week to check out the recent drop in production on the food production line...and then I found a problem," said Lao Qi.
"What's the problem?"
"The population of the Lower Town has decreased a lot... and this news was strictly blocked by the administrators. Even my entourage and I were asked to keep it secret. After I came back, I went to see my father. He obviously knew about it, but he also asked me not to leak it out and asked me to go to the Lower Town ."
"The population is decreasing? Could it be that they have all gone to the Undernest? But aren't the living conditions in that place even worse than in the Lower City? If they really are short of people, can't they just pick a group of people from the Undernest?" Another one said, and suddenly paused, "Uh, could it be that the administrators have sent all the people in the Lower City to the surface?"
"The ground exploration team is composed of residents of the Bottom Nest. Even if we treat them as disposable, it is difficult to use them up in such a short time... After all, the elevator's transportation capacity is limited, and the equipment available for exploration personnel to operate on the surface has always been in short supply. Without equipment support, the people sent to the surface can't even survive a day. Even if the lives of the Bottom Nest people are worthless, there is no reason to waste them like this." Lao Qi continued, "What's more, I went to the Lower City District only half a month apart twice, and the population of the Lower City District has been reduced by at least half..."
"What did you say? The population of the lower city has been reduced by half?!" another person exclaimed, "I thought you said the population reduction was at most 10% or 20%... half the population, how is that possible?!"
"Nothing is impossible... This is just my conservative estimate. The actual possibility is... much more."
"Could it be that some kind of plague is spreading in the lower town? Is that why your father asked you to try not to go there?" The other man seemed to still hold out a glimmer of hope and asked tentatively.
"I haven't received any reports related to the plague... I even ignored the supervisor's warning and privately asked a few residents in the lower city..."
"What's the result of the inquiry?" another person asked hurriedly - not only did he want to know, but Ke Lan, who was staring at this scene, was also very curious.
"They told me that those people...all disappeared inexplicably. It is precisely because of this incident that people in the Lower City are now in a panic...The factory already had a large shortage of workers, and the remaining people were worried and unwilling to work. Several assembly lines were completely stagnant..." Old Seven stopped talking halfway. After a second, he squeezed out four words from between his teeth, "Did it finish eating?"
"What are you eating? Who has eaten?" The other man was stunned at first, then he immediately reacted and turned his head to look at the "Second Brother".
Their "Second Brother" had disappeared... not even a bone residue... or in other words, not even a trace of blood was left. The back of the mechanical horse was empty, so clean that not even a hair could be found. The equipment that originally belonged to the "Second Brother" was scattered on the ground, and the clothes were torn into countless pieces, as if they had been run through a meat grinder.
The ball of tentacles, which had become larger than a human, rolled to the ground. It first touched the body of "No. 32" nearby, and then moved to the body of the giant saber-toothed tiger.
But the tentacles did not attack the two corpses, but instead turned to the two people riding on the horses.
Although this group of tentacles had no concept of a "face" and even the front and back sides could not be distinguished, both the two people riding horses and Ke Lan, who had a God's perspective, had the same feeling - this group of tentacles was facing the two people... and looking at them.
This group of tentacles didn't seem to be interested in the corpses... After eating the "second brother", it was obvious that it regarded the only two survivors as its next target.
"Go to hell, monster!" The man was still trying to stop Old Seven from shooting a crossbow at "Second Brother", but this time he took the initiative and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
"Buzz!" The bowstring of the powerful crossbow made a loud sound, and the crossbow arrow made of Nino alloy instantly pierced through the center of the tentacle group.
However, apart from causing the tentacles to stiffen for a short time, nothing happened. The tentacles directly "spit" the crossbow arrow out of their bodies... As for the wound, it healed in just two seconds.
"Can't kill it?!" The man was suddenly shocked and tried frantically to load another crossbow arrow. However, the faster he tried, the more his hands shook. He failed to successfully load the crossbow arrow into the arrow slot for three consecutive times. In the end, his finger was cut by the buckle on the side of the arrow slot, and he even dropped the crossbow arrow to the ground.
As if for the sake of competitiveness, this hunting crossbow that can obviously be set to continuous firing and automatic reloading was forced to be set to only shoot one shot and reload one shot. The reloading procedure also became a little cumbersome. According to Ke Lan's estimation, if he was given a day to familiarize himself with this hunting crossbow, it would take about two seconds to complete a reload if he performed at his best.
This is a good "sports equipment", but it is definitely not an "excellent weapon".
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" He cursed three times in a row and reached out to touch the quiver hanging on his waist… Perhaps because he was too nervous, or perhaps to prove the old saying "When it rains, it pours", his elbow actually hit the release button of the quiver strap. With a "snap", the quiver broke, the opening of the quiver hung to one side, and the spare crossbow arrows inside fell to the ground.
The man's face suddenly turned pale. Just when he gave up the crossbow and wanted to take off the hunting rifle hanging on his back, the tentacles finally crawled closer, suddenly leaped up and pounced on him.
Just when the tentacle ball opened its tentacles in an attempt to wrap around his upper body, Old Seven, who had been sitting still, finally took action - he had been observing the situation of the tentacle ball, and after discovering that his companions' crossbows had no effect, he was no longer in a hurry to shoot... until now, when the tentacle ball exposed the "core hub" connecting the tentacles during the attack, he chose his target.
Ke Lan, who was "watching", whispered a sigh of admiration in his heart - apart from the "No. 32", among the three people, the youngest one, the Seventh One, was the most mature and calm one. His thinking and sense of smell were very sharp, and his logical and associative abilities were also very strong. If the other two were the standard dandies, then the Seventh One could definitely be regarded as a true aristocratic elite.
If the other sons of this family were like the other two, then the position of heir to this family would most likely end up falling on the seventh son.
Ke Lan put himself in Lao Qi's shoes and thought about it. If it were him, he would probably make the same choice as Lao Qi in that situation.
The crossbow arrow pierced through the core hub of the tentacle group cleanly and exploded violently - while the other person was in a panic, Lao Qi had already replaced the ordinary crossbow arrow on the hunting crossbow with an explosive arrow.
The strong shock wave generated by the explosion pushed the tentacles in mid-air with nowhere to gain support out, but at the same time it also knocked the other man off the mechanical horse's back.
The man covered his face and rolled around on the ground frantically, howling, "Old Seventh—Old Seventh, you bastard! My face! My eyes! You blew them blind! You...you...ah! It hurts!"
He seemed to be completely unaware that it was Lao Qi who had just saved his life, and was cursing his fellow brothers madly.
However, the seventh brother did not pay attention to his brother, but kept his attention on the tentacles - after being blown away, the tentacles immediately bounced up from the ground. Seven or eight tentacles as thick as thighs moved quickly on the ground like insect limbs, shortening the distance again.
Just a few seconds ago, the tentacle was moving by wriggling like a mollusk, but now it has learned to "run".
“Whoosh!”
Another crossbow arrow shot out from the hunting crossbow in Lao Qi's hand. This crossbow arrow hit one of the "legs" of the tentacle group, and a large number of dazzling electric arcs burst out after the hit - like the explosive arrow, this is also a special crossbow arrow. Ke Lan estimated that its effect should be electric shock: when dealing with weaker targets, high voltage electricity can cause the target to go into shock or even die directly, and when dealing with stronger targets, it can also have a restrictive effect such as paralysis.
The electric shock did have some effect, and the tentacle hit by the crossbow arrow twitched violently, but the speed of the tentacle group did not slow down at all - it retracted the paralyzed tentacle and extended a new tentacle to replace the original "leg".
The bodies of these tentacles seemed to have extremely high electrical resistance, or in other words, they had an internal structure similar to an insulating layer. The paralyzing effect was limited to the tentacle that was hit by the crossbow arrow and did not spread to the entire tentacle group.
At the same time, an even more bizarre scene appeared: at the top of the tentacle ball, a tentacle as thick as two hands clasped together stood up, and at the end of this tentacle, a distorted human face was reflected.
The "Second Brother" who had just been eaten by the tentacle group!
The face was extremely distorted, as if a layer of tight silicone was covered on a normal person's face. The facial features and facial muscles showed an indescribable weirdness and horror... The next second, the pair of tightly closed eyes opened, and the dark eyes without whites stared dimly at Lao Qi and the guy lying on the ground.
Lao Qi had no time to load the second crossbow arrow. He glanced at his brothers who were still cursing him on the ground, pulled the reins hard, controlled the mechanical horse to turn around and run away.
"That's cruel enough..." Ke Lan nodded and commented, "But in this situation, it's not practical to save the person on the ground. The final outcome may be that both of them will be entangled by the tentacles... Using the injured person as a delay to buy time for yourself should be the best solution at the moment."
Although it is callous, it is correct.
The tentacle group did not chase after Lao Qi, but instead pounced directly on the fallen man and wrapped him up completely.
This time, it took only one-third of the original time to devour the man... Not long after, a second face appeared on the erect tentacle.
Two distorted faces were squeezed together, and four eyes without whites looked in the direction where Lao Qi fled.
