Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 387: Perfection
There was another crisp "pop" sound, and this time, it was the man's head that exploded.
The head, like a watermelon hit by a sledgehammer, suddenly shattered into countless pieces of different sizes.
The red and white "melon flesh" mixed with "juice" splashed in all directions. A round eyeball flew far away, bounced several times on the ground, and stopped after hitting the wall on one side of the hall, spinning in place.
Although the metaphor of comparing the head to a watermelon has been overused in various literary works, Ke Lan still feels that this is the only way to accurately express what he sees.
The headless body twitched unnaturally, then fell face down. Many black tentacles rushed out from the broken neck, squeezing and entangled with each other like some frightened wild beasts... However, before these tentacles could completely break free from the dead body, the vitality in their bodies had been lost.
The plump and elastic mucous membrane became shriveled and wrinkled, the solid and strong muscles dissolved into flowing pus, and the tiny suction cups shrank into a ball, looking like the dried chrysanthemums that people used to make tea in the old times.
In just a few seconds, the monster "living" in the man's body withered and died, leaving behind only a weathered shell.
"He...he just died like that?" Ke Lan looked at the corpse in the distance with some disbelief. He could never have imagined that the founder of a heretical sect could be killed so easily.
"It's just a substitute." Chiron said, "A man who values his life so much would not be willing to take the risk of using his real body."
"Substitute..." At this moment, Ke Lan seemed to have caught sight of something out of the corner of his eye. He quickly raised his head and saw a dark object floating in the dome of the hall.
It was an ancient torture device shaped like a coffin, with traces of melting all over its metal shell.
"Iron Maiden." Ke Lan murmured. Although the appearance had changed a little, he still recognized it at a glance - this "big coffin" was the "Iron Maiden" that was hung under the dome of flesh and blood at the highest point of Arasaka Tower that day !
A black viscous liquid like asphalt kept dripping from the cracks, but the liquid did not fall to the ground. Instead, it drew a nearly circular arc in the air and returned to the Iron Maiden.
"You're finally here." The girl's voice sounded in Ke Lan's head again. He subconsciously wanted to open his mouth to say something, but found that his lips seemed to be glued together with super glue - not just his lips, his entire body had been fixed, and except for him and the "Iron Maiden" floating in the air, everything around him had turned black and white.
Ke Lan was very familiar with this scene. This was clearly the scene after the "time stop" was activated... But the problem was that he didn't use this ability at all!
Moreover, this time he did not hear the crying and wailing that he had long been accustomed to. The whole world was in a state of absolute silence. Even Ke Lan's own breathing and heartbeat disappeared as time solidified.
The Iron Maiden slowly descended from the air and hovered only five meters away from Ke Lan.
Although Ke Lan's body was unable to move, his consciousness was not restricted. He wanted to break free from the constraints of time stop, but found that no matter how he struggled, it was in vain. Even when he wanted to activate his "time stop" ability, he couldn't do it.
Just like the saying goes, " a small witch meets a big witch", he was completely suppressed by the other party.
"At the mercy of others..." Ke Lan couldn't help but think of this idiom... If he knew that this thing was in the "Sick Village", he would never come here - he originally thought that even if the thing in the Iron Maiden didn't die under the shooting of the Ark's main gun, it should have been captured by the gravity of Alpha Star and fell to a corner of the surface. But he never thought that this thing would drift in the low-Earth orbit for several days and then invade the passing space station!
"Who the hell could have thought of this!" Ke Lan couldn't help but feel that she was wronged.
The lid of the Iron Maiden slid open silently, and a large amount of "black asphalt " poured out from it, condensing into a smooth sphere nearly one person tall. Just as Ke Lan was staring at the sphere, a circle of ripples suddenly appeared on its surface, and then a slender, white and tender palm stretched out from the inside of the sphere.
For some reason, the phrase "untainted by the mud" suddenly popped up in Ke Lan's mind. Compared with the sphere made of "black asphalt", this dazzlingly white palm formed a very sharp contrast... For a moment, Ke Lan seemed to feel that all the light in this space was concentrated on this palm.
"The thing in the Iron Maiden... is a humanoid creature?" Ke Lan was a little surprised. Although the other party's voice was a "girl's voice", he was used to seeing all kinds of monsters and never really associated the girl's voice with a girl.
Among those people in the East 9th District who were parasitized by the Seed of Erosion, there were many women with extremely high looks... But no matter how beautiful their appearance was, in Ke Lan's eyes, it was just a body made of flesh and blood. Especially after the Seed of Erosion in the bodies of those beauties entered a rapid transformation period, no matter how beautiful their faces were, they would only be filled with horror and horror.
But this time was different... This time, Ke Lan knew clearly in her heart that the owner of this hand was not a human being, she... no, it should be "it", it was a monster created by the Alpha civilization, a monster with terrifying power... However, after seeing this hand, Ke Lan still had a pleasing feeling.
What appeared before his eyes was not, it seemed not, a hand, but a finely crafted work of art, a work of art that could never be replicated by human technology. Whether it was the shape of the bones or the texture of the skin, it could only be described with the word "perfect".
After the palm comes the wrist, followed by the forearm, upper arm and even the entire upper body...
Not long after, a human girl who looked about thirteen or fourteen years old and had an indescribably delicate appearance stood in front of Ke Lan.
She was naked, and every curve of her body interpreted the practical concept of the "golden ratio", but it also perfectly showed the girl's youthfulness. Her long pure white hair fell like a waterfall, extending to below her legs.
“You’re finally here.”
This was the third time Ke Lan heard these words, but this time, they did not come from the depths of his mind, but came from the mouth of the girl.
The girl landed on the ground barefoot and walked towards Ke Lan step by step. Wherever her feet touched, the flesh membranes turned into snow-like ashes and floated away, and then were frozen in mid-air in the blink of an eye.
The girl walked close to Ke Lan, raised her head, stretched out a hand and touched Ke Lan's cheek. At the moment when her soft fingertips touched Ke Lan's facial skin, the frozen time suddenly resumed its flow, and Ke Lan suddenly jumped back with a big step, distanced himself from the girl.
