Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 365 Sacrifice Ceremony
At first, the woman did not realize that the person being called was herself. It was not until two followers walked up to her that she raised her head with some trembling and carefully cast her gaze towards the servant of God standing not far away.
"God, God's Servant, the person you chose... is, is, me?"
She was completely frightened and bit her tongue three times in a sentence of less than twenty words.
The servant of God did not speak. He just nodded slightly and uttered the word "hmm" in a dull, nasal voice.
The woman's legs went limp instantly, and she wanted to get up from the bunk, but she failed after trying twice. Her legs and feet were completely powerless, and her tendons and bones were completely out of control, and even her facial muscles began to twitch involuntarily.
The two attendants waited only a few seconds before impatiently pulling the woman down from the scaffolding and dragging her in front of the servant of God like an animal to be slaughtered.
With the "previous experience" of the man just now, the woman did not dare to resist at all. She did not even dare to say the word "no" - the body that was ravaged by the "crushing torture" was lying not far away, the head of the body tilted to one side, the cheek pressed against the ground, the eyeballs that were almost squeezed out of the eye sockets and the extremely distorted expression seemed to be telling others the pain before death.
The blood plasma that splashed into the air gathered into round spherical droplets, floating around the corpse. The attendant who had just finished the execution stretched out his hand and caught several large drops of blood in his palm. He put his palm to his mouth, and a creepy licking sound immediately came from under his cloak.
The woman covered her mouth with her hands, trying her best to prevent her sobs from leaking out. Her legs were shaking with fear, and as soon as the two followers let go of her arms, she sat down on the ground.
"You should feel honored to be the chosen ones." The servant of God glanced at the woman lying on the ground, took a step forward, and threw out what he was holding in his right hand - they were two rough daggers made by rolling and grinding four-millimeter-thick carbon steel plates. Not only the blades, but also the edges of the handles had a lot of burrs. The dark orange-red rust and the dark brown dried blood were mixed together, completely wrapping the blade. Only a little metallic luster could be seen at the tip.
"Most of you should be familiar with the sacrificial ceremony. However, in order to take care of our new compatriots today, I am willing to waste more than ten seconds of your precious time to repeat the content and rules of the ceremony for you." The servant of God said, "It is a one-on-one, fair and glorious fight. The winner three times in a row will be chosen as a warrior of the great god; and the loser will become a sacrifice to the god and become one with the great god."
He paused, and continued: "Whether alive or dead, you will all gain the honor of dedicating everything to the great God..."
This was the longest speech the servant of God had spoken since he appeared. Ke Lan discovered that not only was his tone devoid of emotion, but the pauses and transitions between words were also very stiff. There seemed to be a trace of extremely difficult-to-distinguish electric noise mixed in his voice... This did not seem to be his natural voice, but rather a sound produced by some electronic device.
None of the words he spoke came from his own vocal organs.
It is normal for the vocal organs of organisms to be damaged by radiation, but what concerns Ke Lan is whether the person talking to them now is the Servant of God himself, or someone else?
Is this a pre-set recording or some special way of transmitting sound over long distances?
It’s a pity that Asano Akira is not next to Ke Lan now, otherwise with his hearing, he would definitely be able to hear more details.
Ke Lan couldn't help but start to doubt... Could this guy in the iron can be just a puppet controlled by someone?
"Okay, let's get started."
The two simple daggers were still floating in the air. They collided with each other and then floated away in opposite directions.
The young woman first glanced at the dagger, then at Ke Lan, and then she suddenly crawled forward two or three meters, raised her head, and said to the servant of God: "Master Servant of God, I have something to report to you--"
“Puff——”
Before she could utter the word "report", the rusty dagger had already pierced her throat, plunging her into silence forever.
A second ago, when the woman turned her eyes away from Ke Lan, Ke Lan noticed the change in her eyes - she was going to tell on him! This woman was trying to use this method to exchange for a chance to survive. Ke Lan had no choice but to step forward, grab the dagger and kill her.
When this woman was chosen by the servant of God, she was already doomed to die - whether she chose to report Ke Lan, or to fight Ke Lan in a duel according to the process of the sacrificial ceremony... both paths would lead to death.
The only way to survive is probably for Ke Lan to expose his identity and break off relations with the servant of God and others, but the consequence of doing so is that the original plan will be completely disrupted - and more people will die.
Ke Lan sighed silently in his heart and pulled the dagger out of the woman's throat. Immediately, a large amount of blood gushed out from the carotid artery that was severed along with the trachea. In the microgravity environment, the blood splashed far away, and its visual impact was even stronger than usual.
The woman stared, her hands unconsciously groping in front of her body for a few times, and then she fell to the ground.
Ke Lan held the bloodstained dagger and stared directly at the mask of the servant of God. The monitor camera on the other's helmet turned a few times and then locked onto Ke Lan's face - as if they were looking at each other. A dark red light flashed in the camera, and the servant of God nodded and said to Ke Lan: "First round, you passed."
There were no extra words or comments, not even a word about the words the woman had just said before she died. This made Ke Lan even more suspicious, wondering if this "servant of God" was just like one of those cheap smart home robots equipped with the lowest-end garbage AI, which only said some pre-set lines when key conversations were triggered.
If this is true, the program is really crude and anyone who has attended a few days of a crash course in programming could have written it.
Of course, the lines are not the key. The key lies in the servant of God himself. Are all his actions the result of his own will, or is there someone manipulating him behind the scenes? If it is the latter, then Ke Lan must be careful - the words of the woman just now, and his obvious attempt to cover up his mistake, may have attracted the other party's attention.
The servant of God turned around and pointed at another person.
This was still an "old man", but his physique was much more muscular than the first guy who was subjected to the "crushing torture". He was over 1.85 meters tall, and his muscular body made it hard to believe that he was a person suffering from radiation sickness. His shoulders, elbows, and knees were all covered with a thick layer of cuticle. His finger joints were abnormally thick, and his nails had transformed into solid blunt claws, tightly wrapping the front ends of his ten fingers.
"...This guy seems to be a mutant." Ke Lan couldn't help but sigh inwardly that he was unlucky. How could such a low-probability thing happen to him?
Mutants are a type of human beings that have undergone benign mutations due to radiation. Their status is somewhere between the "second generation of people" in the sick village and the completely mutated zombies and radioactive monsters. The mutation of their genes has caused them to undergo changes that are difficult to say whether they are "evolution" or "degeneration" - the lifespan and body functions of mutants are also affected by radiation sickness, but unlike ordinary patients who become increasingly weak, their physical fitness will not only not be weakened by the progression of the disease, but will be greatly enhanced... The closer they are to death, the more powerful power they will gain.
Of course, what is meant here is being on the verge of death due to illness. Putting mutants in a dying state through external factors will not maximize their potential.
When mutants first appeared, the institute was most interested in them - but soon, the institute stopped actively accepting mutants because they found that these mutants were almost all irreproducible cases. Instead of wasting time and research funds on the topic of human mutation, it would be better to optimize the existing biochemical modification techniques.
After all, the power obtained through the latter is stronger and more stable.
These mutants are also a hot potato for their employers, the mining companies - they are similar to the "second generation people", which means they are a mobile source of strong radiation. According to regulations, people like them are not allowed to stay inside the Ark.
At first, some mining companies tried to incorporate these powerful mutants into mercenary teams, but they soon discovered that this approach was extremely stupid.
Not to mention that these mutants who are not liked by their teammates need to wear a lot of protective equipment all day long. The cost of additional equipment alone is enough to reach the level of a biochemically modified person with the same strength. The main problem with mutants is that they are extremely easy to lose control.
In essence, they are still patients suffering from radiation sickness, and due to the strengthening of their bodies, the pain they endure is even several times that of ordinary radiation patients. Even if they take a large amount of painkillers every day, it is difficult to suppress the pain.
Because of the difference in body structure, the nerve blocking surgery that can solve the problem once and for all can easily cause these mutants to become paralyzed...
Under all kinds of torture, the mutants' mental state can be said to be on the verge of collapse. Disobeying orders is a small matter. When they go crazy, they are also capable of doing things like destroying the camp and attacking teammates.
It didn't take long for the head of the mining company to discover that the best way to deal with these mutants was to send them to the "Sick Village" space station like other ordinary radiation patients and let them fend for themselves.
But then again, even though mutants went from being the hot commodity that the research institute valued at the beginning to being the "money-losing stuff" that everyone hated later, the probability of their birth has never fluctuated significantly - there will be only one mutant with a "benign mutation" among about 10,000 to 20,000 radiation sickness patients. According to this ratio, it is not certain that a mutant will be sent to the space station within a year... The chance of Ke Lan encountering one today and being chosen as an opponent is even lower than winning the first prize in the lottery.
Ke Lan suddenly had the urge to lift up the sole of his shoe to take a look. His luck was so abnormal. Could it be that he had just stepped on some excrement?
After being chosen, the mutant did not cry like the previous two. Instead, he strode to within ten steps of Ke Lan and grabbed the remaining dagger.
At such a close distance, Ke Lan saw that the inside of the mutant's arms were covered with dense needle holes and purple bruises. On his belt were several disposable syringes filled with painkillers. These syringes were labeled with the Mineral Development Alliance. It was obvious that these were part of the supplies delivered by the transport ship.
Ke Lan was basically certain that these painkillers were not his own, nor were they stolen from others.
The people living in the scaffolding residential area are "outsiders" who have not yet been recognized by the locals and integrated into the special social system of the sick village. To put it simply, they are still in the "probation period."
During this probation period, the locals would not give them anything except the minimum amount of food and water. Almost every patient in the "probation period" was extremely poor, otherwise, the woman would not have tried to rob Ke Lan for two painkillers.
The supplies this group of people had were extremely scarce.
Even if this mutant robbed everyone in the residential area, he would never be able to get so many painkillers.
Then there is only one answer, that is, he obtained these painkillers from members of a heretical sect, or even possible that they were sent to him by a priest or a servant of God.
This mutant was obviously "raised" here by a heretical sect.
The strength of a mutant may not be important on the Ark, but for a sick village with a very single population source, it is a rare fighting force.
The young woman also said that when the priest discovered Marshall, the expression on his face could be described as "surprise", which shows that they are very eager for powerful warriors.
Even without this sacrificial ritual, this mutant would be absorbed by them sooner or later... As for why the servant of God chose him as Ke Lan's opponent...
Ke Lan suddenly broke out in a cold sweat: Could it be that they have already noticed his abnormality... Is this mutant used to test him?
