Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 377 Roadblocker
"What the hell is this!" Layton shouted in frustration, "There are only four of us, but we managed to split the troops into three groups... And Asano Akira is the same, he can't even see, what the hell is he going to chase!"
"If the number of radioactive mutants in the 'Sick Village' is limited to the level we encountered, no one should be able to stop Asano Akira... Now I am more worried about Ke Lan. He doesn't have any equipment on him, and his own abilities are not combat skills. If he encounters a strong enemy, it would be dangerous." Ivan said with some concern.
Just as he said, Ke Lan's skills can't actually be considered serious combat skills. Not to mention the Alpha language. Although time stop is a BUG-level skill that is enough to subvert the laws of physics, this ability is also more auxiliary in nature - if the gap in strength between the two sides is too large, even if you can see through all the offensives of the opponent and predict all the actions of the opponent, it will be of no help to the battle situation.
This is like equipping an ace pilot with an antique mecha from an old era. No matter how quick the ace pilot's reactions are, the sluggish and old mecha cannot keep up with his operations. As for the gap in firepower and armor, let alone - hitting the opponent will only cause scratches, and being touched by the opponent will be killed instantly. When the hardware gap reaches this level, any operation is just a cloud.
"What should we do now?" Leighton asked anxiously.
"...Find someone to ask, at least we have to figure out what happened here." Ivan said.
"Damn, I was so anxious that I forgot about this." Leighton slapped his forehead hard. "Several people here were brought here with Ke Lan and the others. They can't be as weird as those locals."
As he spoke, Layton flew directly to a sick miner who had arrived at the space station with them, reached out his hand, and dragged out the guy who was about to retreat into his bunk.
"You just stuck your head out to watch the fun, why are you so scared now?" Layton looked at the sick miner, a boy who looked only fifteen or sixteen years old. He was wearing an ill-fitting faux leather jacket. The part exposed above the collar was covered with traces of healed skin ulcers, extending all the way to the chin. There were two ping-pong ball-sized tumors above the right clavicle, near the neck.
Looking up , there was a head of messy, sticky hair, and dirty, bloodless cheeks and lips.
"It's lymphoma caused by radiation...it may be in the middle to late stages." Ivan whispered to Layton, then turned to look at the boy, "Don't be nervous, we just want to ask you a few questions. If you are willing to answer, we can give you a can and some painkillers."
The boy stopped struggling, but he didn't speak. His eyes moved from Layton to Ivan somewhat uneasily, and then moved back to the hand that Layton was holding his arm.
"Layton, let him go first."
"Let him go and he'll run away."
"Are you afraid that a sick child can slip away from under your nose?" Ivan said speechlessly, then changed to a friendlier tone and said to the boy: "We just want to ask some questions, we won't hurt you, let you go now, don't run, okay?"
The boy hesitated for a moment and nodded.
Layton loosened his hand, and the boy subconsciously shrank back, but he did not turn around and run.
"What do you want to ask?"
"What happened here just now, was there a miner who was sent here with you, and was taken away by the locals?"
"Just now..." The boy's eyes revealed a trace of fear, "Just now a man wearing armor came... This kind of armor... is very similar to the one you are wearing."
"People wearing armor? Armor that looks like ours?" Layton was stunned. "Could it be that this group of people also have power armor? Then why didn't they use it just now?"
"Don't interrupt." Ivan patted Layton's shoulder and said to the boy, "Go on."
"The man in armor selected a few people and asked them to... to kill each other." The boy continued, "There was a man who was very powerful... He killed three people and was then taken away by the man in armor."
"Was he the only one taken away?" Ivan asked.
"Well... the other people who were chosen died, but they dragged the bodies away." The boy replied.
"Indeed, there are still traces of blood on the ground." Leighton nodded to Ivan.
"It seems that the person who was taken away was Ke Lan." Ivan said to himself, "By the way, did you notice the other person? He was also a miner who came here on the same boat as you. He was a blind man with a guide stick in his hand. Did you see this person?"
"Blind? I haven't... never noticed..." The boy shook his head.
"Which direction did the armored man go?"
"That... over there." The young man pointed in a direction. However, Ivan knew that after walking thirty meters in this direction, there would be three forks in the road after turning the first corner. The further back you go, the more forks, paths and branches there are. It is impossible to be sure which road .
Ivan knew that he would not get anything out of him by asking any more questions, so he took out a can and a painkiller and stuffed them into the boy's pockets. The boy was stunned for half a second after receiving the things, and although he kept saying "thank you, thank you", it seemed as if he was afraid that Ivan and the others would take the things back.
"Old Yi, it's the same whether we ask or not. The clues are completely cut off here." Layton said depressedly, "Do you want the two of us to conduct a carpet search of this space station?"
"I think... Ke Lan might be okay now."
"Why?"
"Do you remember what the old man said earlier? He said that the broadcast was an 'oracle', symbolizing that the locals were going to select warriors and sacrifices for the 'god' they believed in... Combined with the information we got from the boy, I infer that this fight is most likely the selection ceremony. The people who were killed are the 'sacrifices', and the ones who survived are the chosen 'warriors'."
"Shit, you mean, they chose Ke Lan to be a soldier?"
"It should be..." Ivan's words were interrupted by a dull growl. The two men instantly took out their weapons and looked in the direction where the sound came from.
"Dong, dong, dong, dong..." Heavy footsteps sounded, then became faster and faster, and were rapidly approaching the two people's position.
"What?"
"I don't know...but judging from the sound, it should be a big one!"
Just as he finished speaking, a giant beast with a body length of at least six meters rushed out from behind the scaffolding on the right side of the two people. The scaffolding made of steel pipes was directly collapsed in half by it. Many of the people curled up in the gaps of the scaffolding were thrown out and fell heavily on the ground and the scaffolding on the other side.
These people were still lucky. As for those who were unlucky, they were simply buried in the collapsed scaffolding. The broken and deformed steel pipes and frames pressed on them and trapped their limbs. The more they tried to break free, the more serious the injuries they suffered.
As for the most unlucky few people who were directly hit by the giant beast, they exploded into a large mass of red paste-like substance, just like tomatoes hit by a speeding car.
"Why is there such a monster on the space station? Have the transport ships responsible for delivering the goods never discovered it?" Layton exclaimed, and he hung the Gauss rifle in his hand back to his waist and took out a more powerful automatic howitzer.
The main body of this monster is a human torso that is on all fours and has been magnified more than three times. However, there is no head on this torso. Instead, there is a tumor that has shrunk to the size of a fist and is covered with grooves on the surface. Combined with the deep black purple color, it looks like a large walnut under dim light.
On the back of this monster, there is a large cluster of flesh-colored tentacles, each of which is as thick as a human thigh. One side of the tentacle has densely packed suction cups, and the other side is covered with bulging thick blood vessels. With the pulsation of these blood vessels, dark purple blood continuously flows to the end of the tentacle, and then returns to the monster's body through another blood vessel.
But except for the tumor on its neck and a bunch of tentacles on its back, the rest of the monster was completely covered in iron-gray scales. Layton noticed that when the scaffolding collapsed just now, several broken steel pipes passed through these scales, but not even a trace of white marks was left.
At this moment, the monster pressed its front half of its body against the ground, as if it was sizing up Layton and Ivan - even though this thing didn't have an organ called "eyes" on its body, Layton and Ivan both felt like they were being "stared at".
The tentacles on the monster's back swayed slightly, and the sound it made was like a hissing sound like a snake spitting out its tongue. Just this sound was enough to make people feel a creepy chill crawling up their spine.
"Have you seen this monster?" Layton couldn't help but ask Ivan.
"Of course not..." Ivan shook his head slightly, fearing to alarm the monster that was "looking at" them. "Especially the scales on its body. Among all the known creatures on Earth and Alpha with scales , none of them match."
"But this tentacle gives me a familiar feeling." Layton continued, "Could this thing be a seed of corrosion? Anyway, there are rumors that this thing has a mutant species, so it's not surprising that it looks weird."
"As for the Seed of Erosion..." Ivan stared at the monster dozens of meters away, carefully reached behind his back, and took out a black crossbow.
This is the "Special Killing Crossbow MKⅡ for Seeds of Erosion" jointly developed by the Security Bureau and the Equipment Department of the Research Institute. It is an improved version of the crossbow used by those Security Bureau agents in the East 9th District. The crossbow arrow, which is shaped like a small harpoon, is divided into three sections. The tip is an arrow with a barb forged from Nino alloy, the middle section is directional high explosive and a circle of prefabricated fragments, and the end of the arrow shaft is embedded with a trigger-type syringe, which contains a trace of active cells of flesh-eating worms.
Compared with the "MKⅠ", the new killing crossbow does not need to be used with an injection gun. The directional explosive in the middle of the arrow shaft can enlarge the wound at the arrow point without damaging the arrow shaft itself. The prefabricated fragments can also cut off a large amount of flesh and blood. At 0.5 seconds after the explosion, the trigger-type syringe will be directly fired to inject the active cells of the flesh-eating worms into the target body.
Of course, the "MKⅡ" also has a flaw, which is that it must aim at the location of the "nucleus" to shoot. Otherwise, it is difficult to kill an erosion seed in the acute or mature stage with only such a small number of active cells.
"Don't use the crossbow yet." Seeing that Ivan had already loaded a crossbow arrow, Leidu hurriedly stopped him and said, "Even if this thing is really a mutant of the Corrosion Seed, its 'core' must be hidden deep inside its body. Don't waste ammunition yet."
"So what are you going to do?"
"Let's try close combat first." Layton took off the largest metal box on his back and took out a chainsaw sword with a total length of two meters from it - this chainsaw sword was made by him personally, the whole chainsaw was three point four meters long and was driven by a crystal engine.
There are a total of 48 teeth on this chainsaw, 40 of which are made of pure Nino alloy, and the other eight are memory alloy infiltrated with stalagmite fragments - there is one such special tooth for every five ordinary teeth, making this chainsaw sword, which can be regarded as a powerful weapon, also have fatal lethality against the seeds of erosion.
"Old Yi, hold the fort for me and let me deal with this monster." Layton said, and immediately started the engine of the chainsaw sword, making the forty-eight teeth turn.
I don't know if it was the dull engine sound or the high-speed rotating sawtooth that stimulated the monster, but it kicked its hind legs suddenly and pounced directly at Layton!
But Layton was one step faster. Several streams of compressed air suddenly blew out of the backpack behind him, pushing him into the air and avoiding the monster's attack. Then, the thrusters on the backpack shot two light blue tail flames upwards, allowing Layton to change direction directly in the air and smash the monster below with the chainsaw sword.
"Puchi!" The chainsaw sword weighing nearly half a ton drew an arc of nearly 270 degrees in the air, neatly cutting off the two tentacles on the monster's back. After completing this attack, Layton used the thrusters to change direction again, instantly creating a distance of more than ten meters between him and the monster.
"Tsk... It seems I guessed wrong. This thing is not the Seed of Corrosion..." Leighton looked at the two severed tentacles. The dark purple blood was gushing out from the broken surface, and the two broken tentacles were jumping wildly on the ground.
Normally, the parts of the Seed of Erosion that were injured by stalagmites or stone cones would quickly turn black as if they were burned by fire, and then wither and die. But at this time, the wound on this monster only showed the appearance of being injured by a sharp weapon, and there was nothing unusual.
It seems that this monster has nothing to do with the Seed of Corrosion.
"In that case, there's no need to risk close combat." Layton put down the chainsword and took out the howitzer again.
But at this moment, the scales on the monster's body began to expand - underneath these scales, there were lump-like glands. Before Layton and Ivan could react, hundreds of streams of light yellow liquid spurted out from the glands and stuck to their bodies.
The yellowish liquid solidified as soon as it came into contact with the air, just like spider silk. The two men only felt a huge force coming from these "silk threads" and were instantly dragged to the front of the monster.
"Fuck, what the hell is this?!" Leighton shouted anxiously and angrily. He pulled out a dagger and wanted to cut the silk threads, but when the blade of the dagger touched the silk threads, it got stuck and could not be pulled off no matter how hard he tried!
