Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 393: Self-Destructing Monster
"Even if the corpse is a dead object, the control distance is too far..." Marshall looked around vigilantly, "Unless... that guy is in this hangar now."
"She's on the bridge." A voice sounded abruptly behind Marshall. He turned around abruptly and found that the girl called Ze Luo by Ke Lan had come out of the cabin and walked behind him at some point.
"I can feel it...she's not here, she's on the bridge." Ze Luo said again.
Marshall glanced at Ze Luo with some caution. He had just expanded his absolute control area to the maximum. The hemispherical space with a radius of 15 meters with him as the center was full of consciousness tentacles. He could sense even a mosquito flying in, but this little girl seemed transparent...
No, the word "transparent" is not accurate enough. It should be said that she is like a phantom - even though Ze Luo is now standing in Marshall's absolute control area, Marshall's mental power is still unable to sense her existence.
"This is impossible... This is clearly not a projection, it is a physical entity..." In order to verify this conjecture, Marshall decided to materialize the consciousness tentacles floating around Ze Luo and try to see if he could touch the other person's body. But when he did this, he found that the consciousness tentacles had long been out of his control!
As a "perfect individual", he was suppressed in his "domain of absolute control"?
This kind of suppression is different from the conventional suppression. The power of thought can be assimilated or suppressed, but it is almost impossible to be suppressed. Even with Marshall's strength as a "perfect individual", he cannot suppress the "tail end" Asano Akira. The most he can do is to offset the will of Asano Akira attached to the blade, but he cannot directly seize control of this will.
Even if he blew Asano Akira's head off, Asano Akira's thoughts would only dissipate as his brain stopped functioning. However, the seemingly harmless girl in front of him directly took away Marshall's control over those tentacles of consciousness.
"How did she do it?" Marshall's fear grew stronger, but he did not try to test her again - in this field, the suppressed person had no power to fight back. In other words, his life and death were completely in the hands of the other party.
Fortunately, she was on his side. If she was an enemy... Marshall glanced at the experimental subjects next to him whose strength was far inferior to his own - he was afraid that all the people here combined would not be a match for this girl.
"Can you sense the location of that thing?" Ke Lan turned and asked Ze Luo. He was not too surprised by this. After all, this puppet individual was separated from Ze Luo's body, so it was not surprising that there was a certain induction between the two.
"Well, she's on the bridge. She's not here... but some things are coming here. They have her mark on them." Ze Luo said, "The order she gave to these things is: kill all living things you see."
"Hatch No. 5 and Hatch No. 6, there is a large heat source approaching!" Ivan shouted almost at the same time. He raised his Gauss rifle and aimed at the two dark hatches.
A "buzzing" sound came from far away and soon turned into a dense "dong dong" sound. The frantic footsteps merged into a chaotic drum beat, and countless black shadows appeared in everyone's sight.
Unlike the previous monster whose hands had mutated into sickle shapes, these black shadows all ran on all fours. They ran headfirst into the beam of light from the searchlight and rushed out of the passage under the rain of bullets!
Apart from the spikes on their backs, the monsters did not mutate into any other offensive parts, which immediately gave Ke Lan a warning - "Suppress with fire! Everyone retreat! Find cover!"
As he shouted, he grabbed Asano Akira who was about to rush forward and dragged him back: "Everyone, pay attention! Don't engage in close combat with these things! The main attack method of these monsters is self-destruction!"
Even though Ke Lan had shouted in time, some monsters still rushed to the front under the fierce firepower. They pounced directly on the target closest to them - regardless of whether they knocked down people or not, the bodies of these monsters quickly swelled into balls like pufferfish, and exploded in the blink of an eye!
Countless black spikes swept in all directions, and those experimental subjects who had no time to dodge were hit one after another, and screams were endless - these people were just like the radioactive mutant that Ke Lan met in the "sacrifice ceremony", they had great strength but no tactical qualities or combat skills, they didn't even have the most basic awareness of obeying orders. After Ke Lan gave the order to retreat, many people still stood there in a daze, looking around.
"Chiron is right... We really can't count on these people..."
Apart from Ze Luo, Marshall and the "Servant of God", there were only a handful of people who retreated with Ke Lan and the other four - and it was only the first wave of attacks, and nearly two-thirds of the people on board the "Greece" had been lost.
Although most of the test subjects hit were still alive, Ke Lan and his team had no way of saving them in this situation. There was no cover where they fell, and rushing to save them would only increase casualties.
More monsters poured out from the passage. These monsters were mutated from the murdered crew members. In addition to the attack method of self-detonation, some monsters far away from the battlefield lay down, arched their backs, and used the explosive force when their muscles were squeezed to shoot the spikes on their bodies at Ke Lan and the others. Fortunately, compared with self-detonation, the power and speed of the spikes launched in this way are much worse, and the number is not that terrifying, so they basically do not pose any threat.
"Layton, raise the shield! Put up the mobile shield you brought!" Ke Lan commanded.
The hangar of the Grecia was actually very empty. Even though they had raised all the maintenance supports from underground after invading the control system, there were still not many places that could be used as shelters. From time to time, a few black spikes would pass through the gaps between the maintenance supports and fly over their heads.
"I only have three shields here, and I can only block one direction. Which direction?" Layton growled.
"Front! You and Ivan will be responsible for the frontal fire suppression, and I'll take care of the wings!" Ke Lan shouted as he dragged the weapons box that had just been taken down from the space shuttle behind the shield.
"Can you use guns? Raise your hands if you can." Ke Lan cut the seal on the weapon box with a knife and kicked the lid open.
Among the experimental subjects who followed, only three raised their hands.
The last stage of compulsory education in the Ark includes basic military training. For most of the Ark residents, as long as they have completed the last stage of compulsory education, even if they have no military service experience, they will still be able to master the most basic actions such as aiming and shooting, and changing magazines.
However, these experimental subjects are basically miners... Many of these miners recruited by mining companies are still minors. In order to make money early, they have been working in the mines before completing compulsory education... This is of course illegal, but the relevant laws can hardly form an effective constraint on these mining companies.
Ke Lan glanced at these young experimental subjects and couldn't help but sigh inwardly.
"Take it! Don't save ammunition, and aim at the parts of the monsters that are not covered by black spikes!" Ke Lan gave each of the three experimental subjects two large-caliber assault rifles. As for the spare magazines, he spread them on the ground. When the bullets were used up, he could just squat down and grab them to get new magazines.
"You three, be responsible for the monsters rushing over from the right. Remember, if any monster rushes within 20 meters or bypasses the cover, report to me immediately!"
"The rest of you." Ke Lan pointed at the "God's Servant" and several other test subjects, "You don't know how to use guns, so use this!"
He opened another box, which contained neatly stacked offensive grenades - although they were not as powerful as defensive ones, at least there was no need to worry about causing serious damage to the airship.
"Zeluo and I will take care of the left side. Remember, no matter it is the front, the left or the right, if any monster breaks through the defense line in any direction, we must immediately issue a warning to notify others!" Ke Lan shouted sternly, "Any monster that explodes within a dangerous distance may lead to our annihilation - I emphasize again, any one!"
After saying that, Ke Lan took Ze Luo with him and walked towards the left side of the mobile shield.
"Wait a minute! Where are Asano Akira and I? Which side are we responsible for?" Marshall realized that Ke Lan had not assigned him any tasks, and hurriedly asked, "Are you planning to let me watch the show?"
"Wherever there is a leak, you should go there to plug the leak - as for Asano Akira, he can only fight in close combat, so he is useless in this kind of battle."
"You underestimate me, don't you?" Marshall said unhappily, "Just now, the first monster exploded at close range, and I blocked it—"
Before he finished speaking, Ke Lan interrupted him: "You can defend against one monster, but what if several monsters explode around you at the same time? What if the power of thought attached to those black spikes is stronger than before? If you want to die, I won't stop you."
"I... " Marshall was speechless for a moment, and then he said to Ke Lan, "Then give me a gun."
"You didn't raise your hand just now, so I thought you didn't know how to use a gun." Having said that, Ke Lan still grabbed a gun from the weapons box and threw it to Marshall.
"Nonsense. After all, I am a soldier. Although I am not a regular soldier in one of the three legions, I still know how to use a gun." Marshall said.
Ke Lan did not continue to argue with him, but quickly walked to the position he was responsible for. In just a dozen seconds, Ze Luo had killed three monsters.
Her attack method was exactly the same as when she dealt with the substitute of the founder of the heretic sect on the space station before. The bodies of those monsters exploded from the inside almost without any warning. From a distance, it looked as if they had self-destructed in advance. However, the black spikes on the monsters killed by Ze Luo did not fly out in all directions, but turned into a black asphalt-like substance and splashed on the ground.
"Ze Luo , what's the longest distance of your attack method?" Ke Lan couldn't help but ask - with Ze Luo here, the left wing's defense line can be regarded as the most difficult to break through among the three directions. Ke Lan's existence is completely redundant.
"Fifty meters." Ze Luo said. At the same time, another monster that stepped into the "fifty-meter" death line exploded into a pool of sticky black pus and blood.
"Are there any restrictions on your means of attack? How many monsters can you detonate at the same time?" Ke Lan asked. He felt that placing Ze Luo on the left wing of defense was a waste of talent. If she could attack multiple targets at the same time, she should be moved to the front battlefield where the pressure was the greatest.
"Everything." Ze Luo said softly.
"What?" Ke Lan subconsciously scratched her ears with her fingers, "Did you just say... all?"
"Yes." Ze Luo nodded seriously, "There are still forty-seven enemies left in this space. I can detonate them all at the same time."
"Now it's forty-six," she corrected - and just as she finished the previous sentence, another monster was forced to self-destruct after being hit by a micro rocket from Layton.
"If you were placed right in the center of this group of monsters, would you get hurt?" Ke Lan asked again.
"No." Ze Luo shook his head, "They can't hurt me."
"Okay then." Ke Lan stood up, "Leighton, come here!"
"What's going on?" Layton shouted, his voice barely drowning out the roaring heavy machine gun in his hand. "I'm busy here, so just say what you want to say. If I stop firing, these monsters will rush over!"
"I want you to use your mechanical arm to throw Ze Luo right into the middle of these monsters!" Ke Lan shouted.
"What did you say?!" Layton turned his head and looked at Ke Lan in astonishment - but his finger on the trigger never loosened.
"I told you to throw Ze Luo into the middle of these monsters. She has the means to destroy them!" Ke Lan had to repeat it again.
"What are you kidding?" Layton asked in confusion, "Throw her out, or throw her into these monsters? Even if she can kill these monsters, the spikes shot out by the self-explosion will definitely turn this girl into a hornet's nest, right?"
"She will be fine! Do as I say!" Ke Lan couldn't help but emphasize her tone.
