Volume 5: Bottomless Sinkhole Chapter 286 Trial
Looking at these remains, Ke Lan couldn't help but think of the 776 Special Forces Team that disappeared forty-eight years ago... The years between the two were extremely close, and both appeared inside the Alpha Ruins, which had never been set foot by humans...
What happened when the Ark first landed on Alpha more than forty years ago?
What is the purpose of the 776 Special Forces Team and these people now?
Even Lieutenant General Maginot said frankly that he didn't know the details, so who could know their affairs...
Wait a minute!
Ke Lan's mind suddenly shuddered, and the five big words "Undead Crew Club" instantly appeared...
According to Maginot, the Undead Crew has existed for hundreds of years, which means that before the Ark landed on Alpha, they had already controlled the highest authority on the Ark... As the holders of the highest authority, they must know the missions performed by the 776 Special Forces Team and the owner of these remains.
However, forty years ago, neither the underwater city nor the glacial ruins had been discovered by humans. The former was submerged under trillions of tons of sea water, and the latter was covered by snow-capped glaciers... At that time, most of the Ark's strength was invested in the battle to clear out the indigenous creatures near the landing site. The intensity of exploration for the remains of the Alpha civilization was completely incomparable to what it is now. They couldn't even find them, let alone send people into the ruins.
"If I can meet the Undead Crew next time, maybe I can..." Ke Lan thought about it and immediately gave up the idea - since the mission records of the 776 Special Forces Team were deleted, it means that the Undead Crew would not want others to know about their existence. If I ask them rashly, there is a great risk that they will be killed directly...
At least one thing that Maginot said to himself was true: Never take the initiative to provoke the people from the Undead Crew... These people can easily abandon the entire East 9th District Module, let alone an insignificant little hunter like himself.
Perhaps, there is only one way to find out these secrets, that is, as "Hermaphroditus" said, when I become a member of the "Undead Crew", these secrets will naturally be revealed...
Ke Lan believed that the guy was definitely not just talking...but, with what identity should she join the Undead Crew?
As a living CPU? Abandoning the body, only retaining the brain, and then inserting hundreds of electrodes and various catheters into the cerebral cortex?
With the current level of technology, such a "brain in a jar" can indeed be preserved for hundreds of years... It can almost be said to be "immortal", but just thinking about this appearance is enough to make Ke Lan shudder...
Could it be that the bodies of this group of "Undead Crew" are all of this kind? Considering that they can remotely control Victoria's cyborg body through cables, maybe... it's true...
Just as Ke Lan was daydreaming, the voice from before sounded in his mind again, instantly pulling him back to reality -
"Prepare to start the handover procedure."
"Test subject number 153 has been activated."
"The behavior pattern is modified to the third set of preset options."
"The first stage of the trial begins. Countdown... five..."
The pink flesh python appeared from behind the statue, went around the statue's waist, slowly slid to the top of the statue's right knee, and then, with a "pop", fell to the ground.
"……Four……"
Ke Lan took a few steps back, staring at the python in front of him, and slowly pulled out his pistol.
"……three……"
The meat python began to deform, it turned back into that pink meat paste state, and then wrapped around a skull on the ground.
Countless differentiated tentacles drilled into the large and small holes on the skull, filling, squeezing, and pressing against each other... The bones that could not bear the heavy weight made crisp "cracking" sounds, and fine cracks instantly covered the bone surface... But the skull did not burst apart, the flesh paste was like glue... It crushed the head into pieces, but also glued the pieces together firmly.
Compared to its previous "harmless" appearance, it now exuded a suffocating sense of oppression, and its powerful tentacles showed its aggressiveness clearly... Ke Lan began to sweat from behind, and he smelled a smell called "danger", which was like the fishy smell of a giant sea monster in the bottomless abyss...
It's terrifying, but there's nowhere to escape.
"……two……"
The tentacles extended and began to pick up the bones scattered on the ground, then pieced them together one by one...
"……one……"
Five seconds later, a strange human body appeared in front of Ke Lan. It moved its limbs and walked towards Ke Lan step by step.
It has a human head, but no human facial features. Its face is flat, as if a layer of rubber was laid on the facial bones. The eye sockets and nasal cavity are three empty black holes. It has no lips, and two rows of white and neat teeth are exposed, just like the mask of a skinned ghost on Halloween.
"Is this the so-called... trial?" Ke Lan took a deep breath and raised his gun.
He first aimed at the opponent's head, but just as he was about to pull the trigger, he suddenly changed his mind and moved the crosshairs to the knees -
Although this thing has a human body, it is not a human after all, and its head is naturally not a vital part. Instead of shooting the head, it would be more effective to break the joints to restrict its movement.
"Bang!"
The deafening sound of gunfire from the large-caliber hunting pistol echoed in the hall. The 12.7mm armor-piercing bullet directly shattered the right knee of the humanoid monster. The humanoid monster, who lost his support, immediately fell to his knees on the ground.
But the next moment, those tentacles shot out, grabbing the bone fragments still flying in the air without missing a single one... In the blink of an eye, the right knee of this thing had recovered to its original state.
"This thing... can't be killed with a bullet?"
Although Ke Lan thought so, he still pulled the trigger repeatedly, pouring out the remaining bullets in the magazine.
Several large holes were shattered on the humanoid monster's body, and the kinetic energy of the bullet made it retreat again and again. The last shot that shattered its cervical vertebra even knocked it to the ground... However, when it stood up again, all the injuries on its body had healed.
The mercenary was telling the truth, bullets are useless when pointed at objects.
As for the human skeleton, it was just a skeleton.
Even if you grind it into powder, it can restore every bone to its original state... It's like crushing polymer materials, throwing them into a material recycling machine, and then printing them out with a 3D printer...
No, it is much faster than any other printer model on the market... The repair has already begun before the damage is done.
"You can't kill it with physical means."
Ke Lan thought so and took another step back, but a curtain of light rose up behind him, like an invisible wall of air, blocking his retreat.
This is an enclosed venue made up of dozens of hexagonal floor tiles. It is an arena, and he and the humanoid monster he is facing are the gladiators in this arena.
The opponent is still four tiles away from me...
This is a fight to the death, but the opponent is an immortal creature...
The humanoid monster suddenly stretched its right hand backwards, and countless tentacles as thick as hair swept towards the back, rolling up the fragmented bones, crushing them into smaller pieces, and then piecing them together into sharp sheets. When these tentacles returned to its body, it had a bone blade more than one meter long and strangely shaped in its hand.
"Does this mean hand-to-hand combat?" Ke Lan forced out a strange smile, as if mocking or helpless. "I didn't expect that the Alpha civilization, whose technological level completely crushes humans, would have a trial that is as primitive as the cold weapon era of the old era."
But Ke Lan also understood that this way of fighting was not only primitive... but also cruel. In the era of hot weapons, hand-to-hand combat rarely occurred in wars... but any army capable of hand-to-hand combat could definitely be considered the elite among the elite.
"What a pity... If I had known earlier, I wouldn't have rushed to return Asano Akira's knife..." Ke Lan sighed, and at the same time pulled out a dagger and a finely polished stone cone from an underwater cave.
Holding a stone spike in his left hand and with his fist folded in front of his chest, Ke Lan held a dagger in his right hand and thrust it forward, assuming a standard close combat stance.
The humanoid monster's knees and ankles began to bend, and streamlined muscle lines appeared in all parts of its body. These muscles began to contract and accumulate strength - starting with the spine and waist, then the thighs, calves and toes. Its soles pushed hard on the ground, and with the help of this strong reaction force, it accelerated suddenly, and in less than a breath, it had rushed in front of Ke Lan!
It held the bone blade in both hands and stabbed forward with great force, heading straight for Ke Lan's ribs.
However, the moment it started running, Ke Lan had already used his ability to stop time to see clearly its charge direction and attack angle, and calculated an evasive route - Ke Lan simply took a perfect step to the left, and the viciously angled stab slid past his coat, cutting a nearly half-meter-long hole in the tough fabric.
Ke Lan took advantage of this opportunity and swung the blades in both hands downwards at the same time, making two deep cuts on the outside of the opponent's right arm that were deep enough to see the bone!
"laugh--"
With a sharp sound, the area around the wound made by the stone spike instantly turned charred black, almost exactly the same as the changes that occurred when the Seed of Corrosion came into contact with the stalagmite. However, the wound made by the other dagger had disappeared without a trace.
Taking advantage of the momentum of the close combat between the two sides, Ke Lan took a step back and created some distance between himself and the opponent again.
During this brief confrontation, he discovered two crucial things.
1. The stone spikes that are effective against the Seed of Erosion are also effective against that guy. Although it will not show any fear, this thing can undoubtedly cause substantial damage to it, and the wound cannot be healed immediately.
2. Although the humanoid monster's main body has movement abilities that are completely inconsistent with biological common sense, when fighting with itself, it will imitate the principles of human muscle movement and pull the bones of the whole body through the contraction and relaxation of "muscles"... In this way, it can only display fighting skills that only humans can use, and Ke Lan does not have to worry about being attacked by dozens of tentacles that appear from nowhere while fighting with swords.
This should be the restriction set by the "Trial Program". From a certain perspective, the Alpha civilization still has a strong sense of martial ethics.
Without giving Ke Lan much time to breathe, the humanoid monster launched an attack again, but Ke Lan still saw through the trick by using his plug-in ability of time stop, and added another charred wound on its lower back.
Although this thing seems almost unstoppable, as long as we can get a restraining weapon like the stone cone, it is only a matter of time to get rid of it... Apart from its abnormal recovery ability, the combat capability of the humanoid monster itself does not exceed that of ordinary humans. If Asano Akira were here, he would probably be killed within three moves.
They crossed paths again. This time, Ke Lan simply gave up the dagger attack and used a stone spike to poke two bloody holes several centimeters deep in the opponent's hips.
But at the same time , Ke Lan also discovered something strange: every time he launched an attack, the opponent's height and body shape would undergo some subtle changes, as if it was adjusting in a certain direction... Not only the body, but also the originally flat face, was gradually becoming a little three-dimensional.
I don't know why... Ke Lan always feels that this face is starting to look familiar...
After the sixth round of confrontation, Ke Lan finally recognized it - that face was clearly his own!
It's gradually becoming itself!
The humanoid monsters' attack patterns also changed significantly. There were fewer direct stabbing and slashing attacks, and more predictions and sudden changes of moves. This made Ke Lan have to consider more and more factors when choosing an evasive route...
It is imitating itself! It is learning from itself!
It is the same kind of creature as the "blood and flesh centipede" that fought with Asano Akira in the stone chamber!
