Volume 16 Tower of Babel Chapter 910: Desperate Situation
"No, the 'giant brain' in the ring city is out of control... Its restraints were destroyed by the natural disaster just like the ring city ruins, and its tissue cells are growing wildly without restraint... But the giant brain in the tank in front of us, I think, should still be under control." Hound said, "Maybe it's watching us through some monitoring equipment now."
"You mean, this giant brain...it is still functioning normally?" Chi Hanfeng's eyes twitched violently.
"What do you think that red light was ? How did the hall light up? Who was operating the cleaning robot?" The Hound took a deep breath and continued, "I not only suspect that the giant brain in the tank is still functioning, I even suspect that it is the core brain of the entire underwater city."
"Then we have stumbled into the core hub of the underwater city by accident?" Chi Hanfeng was stunned for a moment, "This luck is too good, right? It's so good that I even doubt whether it deliberately lured us in."
"It's not really a coincidence. We originally started our search from the central area of the underwater city. We searched so many places, but only here did we see any signs of life..." The hound's voice suddenly paused, and then his expression suddenly became extremely solemn.
"I smell that scent again!" whispered the hound.
"I... I also heard the whispers I heard in the submersible just now!" Ghost Owl opened his eyes wide, "The words 'Leave... the... bed'!"
Several people's eyes were suddenly focused on Chi Hanfeng. Chi Hanfeng was stunned at first, then hurriedly took out a pen and paper from his shirt pocket.
"I, what should I do?" Chi Hanfeng looked at the hound with a questioning look.
"Close your eyes and just scribble a few words! Hurry!" the hound urged, fearing that the "revelation" that had finally appeared would slip away right under his nose.
"Okay, okay, I'll try." Chi Hanfeng gritted his teeth, took a few deep breaths, then sat down cross-legged on the ground and closed his eyes.
The hand holding the pen was shaking, and the tip of the pen slipped away as soon as it touched the paper, poking a hole at the edge of the paper. Chi Hanfeng's performance was like that of a primitive man who had never used a pen, or a toddler who had just begun to learn to write and draw.
"Lao Chi, don't be nervous, relax, you have to relax, do you understand?" the hound said anxiously.
But Zhuo Ligetu grabbed him, shook his head silently at him, and signaled the hound to look at the paper on the ground.
The lines drawn by Chi Hanfeng with a pen seem messy, but in fact they form a standard English letter on the paper - "Y".
"He's writing... in English?" The Hound asked in astonishment. "Is this... is this the content of the 'revelation'?"
Zhuo Ligetu nodded and used his eyes to tell the hound to be quiet.
The second character drawn by Chi Hanfeng was also an English letter, a big "O". The circle was drawn almost along the edge of the paper. This "O", like the previous "Y", filled the entire piece of paper.
Each letter covers the previous one. If I hadn't watched Chi Hanfeng write from beginning to end, I'm afraid that the end result would have been just a graffiti with countless messy lines stacked on top of each other.
"Y...O...U..." The hound read out the letters one by one.
What finally came together was a very simple sentence.
"Are you humans from Earth?"
"Or...you are humans from Earth."
Since there was no punctuation mark at the end of the sentence, no one knew whether it was a statement or a question.
"Is it...talking to us?" The hound looked at Zhuo Ligetu in astonishment, then suddenly turned his head and looked at the giant brain soaking in the culture tank.
"Do you think the one talking to us..." Ghost Owl pointed at the giant brain, "is it this one?"
…
…
Tower of Babel, Upper Town, Jungle Hunting Ground.
Ke Lan did not use the Holy Words, not because he did not want to, but because he simply could not use them.
Real battles are not like those in cartoons. When the protagonist uses a big move, everything around him will stop in time, and the villain will just watch stupidly as the protagonist finishes chanting... In reality, if you want to release a big move that requires "chanting a spell" in close combat, all that awaits Ke Lan is ruthlessly "interrupting the spell" again and again.
It’s not that he didn’t try to recite the Holy Word while in the time-stopped state. Last time at the ruins of the Ancient Bronze City, another “self” was able to use the Holy Word while in the time-stopped state. But when Ke Lan intended to copy the other party’s operation, he found that the situation was completely different.
Although Ke Lan's thinking is completely unaffected in the time-stop state, as soon as he starts to recite the holy words, the time-stop will be forced to end... The first time Ke Lan tried it, he was completely unprepared, and was caught off guard by a heavy blow from the Sphinx. Most of his body was torn to pieces. If he hadn't used the living armor to condense a huge "airbag" in time to separate himself from the Sphinx, he might not even have that small half of his body left.
"Hu... Hu..." Ke Lan could no longer feel his limbs and torso. Except for his chest and head, the rest of his body had been replaced by living armor. Even with Ke Lan's recovery ability, it would take several days to fully recover from this level of trauma.
Ke Lan had no plans to recover his limbs. The new limbs would be destroyed by the opponent soon anyway. Moreover, these limbs could not match the living armor in terms of strength and power... If the living armor could connect with Ke Lan's sensory nerves, Ke Lan would even plan to replace all parts of his body except the brain with living armor.
It was like a "cyborg monster" that had been transformed so that only the brain was left as before... But even so, Ke Lan's trend of defeat was irreversible.
The growth rate of living armor is not infinite. Under such high-intensity combat, the consumption rate of living armor is extremely exaggerated, and the "reserve" in Ke Lan's body has gradually become stretched - let alone his legs alone. Originally, the living armor could be used to condense the shape of human legs, and even perfectly simulate muscles, bones and blood vessels. But now, Ke Lan only uses mechanical spring legs that require the least "materials". The shape of this spring leg is like the sports prosthesis that was often seen in the old era's disabled sports games - this is a helpless choice. No matter how good the performance of the sports prosthesis is, it is ultimately a simple mechanical structure, which cannot be compared with human legs, let alone those complex cyborg prostheses.
But Ke Lan had no choice. He couldn't even condense the living armor that he used as an attack weapon. The deep part of his body seemed to be hollowed out. Moreover, when Ke Lan used his mind to activate the living armor, his brain would feel waves of needle-like pain. This pain inexplicably made Ke Lan feel another feeling - "hunger".
That's right, hunger.
Although his gastrointestinal system no longer existed and only a small half of his esophagus remained, he felt an unprecedented hunger... The desire to eat was so urgent that even if there was a living thunder beast in front of him, Ke Lan felt that he could gnaw it until only the bones were left.
It's not that he didn't think about eating the Sphinx, but every time the living armor tore a piece of flesh from the Sphinx's body, the piece of flesh would quickly become inactive... Even if he swallowed it, it couldn't provide any substance or energy, let alone fill the deep pit of hunger.
Unless he could swallow the Sphinx whole.
It's getting worse...
Ke Lan was not able to condense a new living armor. Even the original living armor was accelerating its "degradation". Many tiny holes appeared on the surface of the simplified sports prosthesis, just like wooden furniture eaten by insects. Through these holes, you can see that the inside of the prosthesis is completely hollow...
“Crack!”
Finally, when he landed after a backward jump, the prosthetic limb broke due to the weight he could not bear. Ke Lan also lost his balance and fell heavily to the ground.
Naturally, the Sphinx would not miss such a good opportunity. It pounced forward immediately and smashed Ke Lan on the ground with its claws!
Not to mention dodging, Ke Lan couldn't even get up from the ground. He could only extract the living armor that made up his torso and limbs, and condense the last shield he could condense on the front of his body.
Under the arc-shaped blood-red shield, a broken "human pig" was lying there. The face of the "human pig" was shattered, revealing the bright red flesh and white bones underneath. One of its two eyeballs was missing, and the only remaining one was covered in blood and was extremely swollen.
The Sphinx's attacks hit the shield again and again. Cracks gradually began to appear on the shield and expanded rapidly... The Sphinx seemed to know that Ke Lan had no power to fight back and that it could kill the target as long as the shield was broken. Therefore, it did not choose other moves, but poured all its strength onto the shield - poured onto Ke Lan's last barrier.
"The trump card... there will be a day when it is empty..."
Lying on the ground, Ke Lan tried to recite the "Holy Word" for the last time, but the consumption of mental energy by the "Holy Word" was extremely terrifying. Now that even his consciousness began to disperse, how could he "recite" even a single word...
"I didn't expect to die in this way... It's so frustrating..."
All kinds of messy images flashed through Ke Lan's mind. He had heard in many places that when a person is dying, an environment similar to a kaleidoscope of experiences will appear in front of his eyes one by one... But the problem is, the images that flashed through Ke Lan's mind made him feel extremely unfamiliar, as if that was not his life at all.
"Bang!"
A huge bell rang suddenly, and for a moment, Ke Lan thought that his consciousness, which was already in a semi-dissociated state, was about to be shattered... But when he calmed down, he found that his mental state was much better than before.
"What's going on?...You, who are you?" He clearly felt that another consciousness entered his mind.
"Do you know why organisms need to continue to evolve?" The consciousness did not answer Ke Lan's question, but asked him a question instead.
"To become more perfect?"
"No. Living things evolve in order to survive," the consciousness said. "Survival is the most primitive instinct of all life forms. Life is called life because 'living' itself is the meaning of life."
"You, what exactly do you want to tell me? The time I have left... may not be much..." Ke Lan originally wanted to say that he didn't have much time left, but unexpectedly discovered that the world had come to a standstill at this time.
With Ke Lan's mental strength, he couldn't activate time stop... This obviously didn't come from his own strength?
Is it Ze Luo?
Ke Lan tried to call Ze Luo, but still no response.
He couldn't help but think of the "other self" at the ruins of the ancient bronze city... But he also knew that the consciousness no longer existed, and he clearly felt the other party's demise. If the consciousness can be called life, then the "other self" is dead and can't die anymore. As the carrier of the blood of God, that consciousness has been completely burned out, not even ashes are left.
"As long as you work hard to live, everything you do to survive is moving towards the ultimate evolution of life." The consciousness continued, "A strong enough will to survive can break through all shackles, including time and space."
"Are you kidding me? If you don't have to die if you don't want to, then humans can probably really live forever..."
"That's because human willpower is not strong enough to change the rules of the universe... However, humans have begun to try this, and Asano Akira is one of the results of this attempt."
"Well, I don't want to die now. Can you keep me from dying?"
"I can't, but you can. The ability of the Phoenix to be reborn infinitely is not true immortality... It is only the resurrection of the body, while consciousness is eternal."
The consciousness paused for a moment, then continued: "You are closer to that 'existence' than the 'Phoenix'... You are a more perfect life form than it, but you are not complete yet."
As soon as he finished speaking, a figure wrapped in a white robe suddenly appeared in front of the Sphinx.
Ke Lan recognized it immediately. This was the body called "Joker" stored in the "Black Coffin".
"As long as your will is strong enough, you can control the power... control this part of the power that has been separated." The consciousness said to Ke Lan.
