Volume 4: Shadows Under the Neon Lights Chapter 208: Ghouls and Radiation Monsters
"There are at least two hundred lead chairs here ..." Victoria's face was expressionless, but her eyes were filled with gloom. "Each of them is stained with blood, and judging from the age of the blood, this place has been used for a long time."
"The experiment that Arasaka Yui mentioned should be the use of radiation and the biotechnology of the Alpha civilization to transform people into monsters like her..." Ke Lan murmured. Just from those twisted corpses, one can tell how much terrible pain these people who were used as "experimental materials" had endured.
Liao Zilang is one of them...
"I checked the number of deaths and cancellations in the East 9th District over the past six months, and there are only fifty-seven people... and there are less than two hundred registered missing persons..." Victoria said slowly.
"That is to say..." Ke Lan felt a chill running down his spine.
"Apart from the remains that were secretly disposed of by the Arasaka Group, this experiment should have produced a large number of 'finished products' or 'semi-finished products'..." Victoria nodded at him, "If you change your mind now and return to the blockade, you still have time."
"It's too late." Ke Lan said as he took off a grenade hanging around his waist - two hunchbacked radioactive monsters had blocked the exit of the factory. They were crawling on all fours, their bent spines arched high, their shoulders, backs, chests and abdomens covered with large areas of hard stratum corneum, but the skin on their cheeks had almost completely rotted and fallen off, revealing the pale skull inside. Their two swollen eyeballs were bulging outwards, as if they would fall out of their sockets at any time.
The bodies of the two monsters were pressed against the ground. Their vocal cords had completely lost their original function and could only continuously emit low "ho ho " growls. Their sharp bone claws rubbed against the ground, and the teeth-grinding scraping sounds echoed in the factory.
"There are also above our heads, on the metal beams, three... no, four." Victoria said, holding Nino's alloy steel claw in one hand and tightly grasping a pistol in the other, and standing back to back with Ke Lan.
"If all these monsters had the same fighting power as Arasaka Yui..."
"It shouldn't be... Arasaka Yui said herself that she was the 'final result' of this experiment... and these are at best semi-finished products. I just don't know how strong the semi-finished products are." Ke Lan said, gently flicking the safety above the trigger with his thumb...
These monsters did not give Ke Lan and Victoria more time. After a brief confrontation, they all rushed up at once.
"I'll deal with the two at the door, and you'll take care of the ones above!" Ke Lan said quickly, his finger had already pulled the trigger, and dozens of electromagnetic bullets, dragging blue streams of light, shot towards the two radioactive monsters that had rushed forward.
Victoria jumped into the air more than three meters above the ground, and swept her long and powerful mechanical legs around, kicking all four monsters that jumped down from the beam away.
"You're right. These monsters are indeed much inferior to Arasaka Yui in terms of strength and speed." When Victoria fell back to the ground, Ke Lan had already beaten the two radioactive monsters into a sieve... The blood of these monsters was dark green in color, with a pungent smell similar to that of rotten eggs. Moreover, when the pus and blood flowed out of the monsters' bodies, the radiation concentration in the surrounding environment suddenly increased significantly.
These mutated radioactive monsters are actually patients with severe radiation sickness. They themselves are a mobile source of radiation. Even if they are dead, their bones will continue to release radiation. This process can last for dozens or even hundreds of years... Unless their bodies are buried in heavy coffins made of lead-zinc alloy and then poured with a thick layer of concrete on the outside, the radiation can be completely isolated.
"But the problem lies in the number..." Just when Ke Lan killed the two radioactive monsters, more monsters came out from every corner of the factory.
These radioactive monsters are very similar to the ghouls of the old era, but compared to the ghouls, they also possess some characteristics of the Alpha native creatures, and these characteristics give them more powerful combat power.
Although the mutated ghouls due to radiation look very scary, most of them are not even as strong as a strong adult man. A military and police team equipped with old-era standard light weapons can easily clear out a deserted town with more than a hundred ghouls. The only thing they need to pay attention to is the strong radiation carried by the ghouls. As for the ghouls themselves, it is difficult for them to pose a threat to humans with modern weapons.
But these radioactive monsters are different. They are stronger and faster. They have sharp claws and solid shells... and more importantly, they are fearless of death... In their consciousness, there is only the desire for killing.
Except for individuals with severe brain damage, most ghouls retain their memories as humans. They will only attack humans when they have no choice... and when they encounter cleanup teams, the only thing they can do is hide and run away.
When the Arasaka Group was creating these radioactive monsters, they must have erased all of these people's memories of their "previous lives", except for special individuals like Arasaka Yui. If we have to find a similar example, the "zombies" in horror movies and apocalyptic novels would be closer.
"Change bullets, cover me." Ke Lan quickly emptied a magazine. Twenty to a hundred meters in front of him, there were more than a dozen corpses of radioactive monsters lying. However, the radiation released from these corpses had already made the radiation concentration in the factory reach above the dangerous threshold... With every breath, Ke Lan suspected that what he inhaled into his lungs was not air, but a handful of tiny steel needles. He felt a constant tingling sensation in his respiratory tract, and the scene in front of him began to become a little blurry.
"We can't drag it on here any longer." Victoria said sternly. Although Ke Lan didn't know whether she meant that there was little time left for the mission or that this place was too dangerous for them, in short, no matter which one she meant, they really couldn't stay in this factory any longer.
"Prepare to break out!" Victoria shot the head of the nearest radioactive monster to her, turned around and stood in the same direction as Ke Lan, "I'll lead the way, and you follow closely behind - if you slow down, I won't turn back to save you!"
