Volume 8: A Trip to the Sick Village Chapter 404: End of the Incident
The bullets in the magazine were emptied almost in an instant. Ke Lan did not even bother to change the magazine. He directly grasped the under-barrel shotgun installed under the barrel and loaded an 18.4mm caliber 00 buckshot (Note 1) into the chamber. The moment the bolt was pulled to load the chamber, he pulled the trigger and completed the firing.
“Bang!!”
Eight 0.33-inch caliber steel balls instantly penetrated deep into the throat. The face whose mouth was blocked by the gun barrel let out an inhuman wail, and black blood continued to spurt out from every orifice.
"The last shot was fired for Alyosha and the many agents who died in the East 9th District incident."
“Bang!!”
"This shot is for Major Ashkani and the fallen soldiers of the garrison."
“Bang!!”
"This shot was fired for Ms. Victoria."
After three shots, the face was completely shattered. The shattered pieces of flesh blocked the barrel of the shotgun, and black sticky juice flowed along the lines of the receiver and then dripped onto the ground.
Ke Lan threw away the assault rifle and pulled out a large-caliber hunting pistol, which he thrust fiercely into the eye socket of another face. The eyeball burst, and the debris and pus and blood left a black stain on the side of Ke Lan's face.
"The seven bullets in this magazine are in memory of Liao Zilang and Marshall."
“Bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!”
Ke Lan pulled the trigger continuously and emptied the magazine of the pistol.
"Ahhh——" That face let out a sharp howl, and next to it, another hideous and ferocious face, originally belonging to a middle-aged man, was desperately stretching towards Ke Lan, its upper and lower jaws constantly opening and closing, as if trying to bite off Ke Lan's throat.
"The vitality is really damn tenacious." Ke Lan pulled the pistol out of the eye socket of the face in front, and then smashed it hard. The alloy gun body and slide slammed into the mouth that wanted to bite people, and directly broke all its teeth!
"You monster, it's time to let the souls of those dead rest in peace." Ke Lan took out a grenade, pulled the safety ring, stuffed it into the toothless mouth, and then pushed the barrel of the gun hard, pushing it deep into the throat.
"boom!!"
A dull explosion sounded from inside the puppet's body. A dozen faces drooped and black asphalt-like "blood" slowly flowed out from their closed eyes.
But when Ke Lan shifted his attention to the other side of the puppet, he discovered that Ze Luo was far more cruel than himself.
Just like the top Japanese chef preparing sashimi, the invisible blade continuously sliced the puppet's body into slices so thin that they were almost transparent. Even the splashing black asphalt was restrained in mid-air by an invisible force.
"Are you...looking for something?" Ke Lan asked, glancing at Ze Luo who looked serious.
"Yes. The core of the puppet individual contains the other half of the crystal." Ze Luo replied.
"Half a crystal? Wait, are you talking about the thing that merged into my body? What was absorbed by my body... was actually only half of it?"
"Yes. That was after I separated it and let you take it away. If I had a complete crystal, I would have successfully transformed before being bombarded. At that time, I would have completely turned into that person's puppet and be at his mercy." Ze Luo explained to Ke Lan as he continued to slice the puppets into slices.
"Then the calling voice I heard at that time? Was it also because...?"
"Well, if you want to separate the crystals, you must find someone who can serve as a carrier. Apart from that person, you are the only one left among all the humans I can sense."
"...So, that guy didn't lie to me. He and I are really 'different' individuals. But...but why is it me? Is it because I absorbed the things sealed in the stone tablet ?" Ke Lan scratched his hair in distress, only to find that his hair had been sticky black asphalt into a ball. The disgusting feeling was hard to describe in words.
"However, after I came into contact with the stone tablet, the only abilities I gained were the language ability of the Alpha civilization and the memory fragments that were sealed by the Alpha civilization. Those were all things on the consciousness level and had no effect on my body. My body began to become different from that of a normal person after the East 9th District incident... that is, after I merged with the half of the 'crystal' you gave me."
Ke Lan continued, "I think that the physical requirements for humans who can serve as the carrier of the 'crystal' you mentioned must be very high, but at that time my body was just that of an ordinary human who was relatively strong. Apart from other things, Asano Akira, Layton, and Zhuoligetu were all much stronger than me in terms of physical quality... No matter how hard I thought, I couldn't think of any special thing about me."
"I don't know." Ze Luo replied, "I have no memory of my childhood and dormancy. My self-awareness was awakened after the sacrificial ceremony. All my knowledge comes from the victims who were sacrificed, that person, Chiron... and you. I can't answer your question."
"..." Ke Lan dropped her hands helplessly. Although Ze Luo could speak much more fluently now than a few hours ago, in a sense, she was still less than a year away from being "born". By human standards, she was still just a baby.
Although she was a creation of the Alpha civilization, she could not even speak the language of the Alpha civilization, let alone the secrets related to "crystallization".
Perhaps we should ask the founder of that heretical sect about this matter - as for his substitute, it was obviously brainwashed before being sent here, and even Chiron couldn't dig out anything useful from the substitute's memory.
"But what I can be sure of is that the reason why you can fit in with this crystal is because of you, and has nothing to do with the stone tablet." Ze Luo suddenly said, "The stone tablet and this crystal are the same kind of thing. Even if your teammates touched the stone tablet at that time, it would not be activated."
"Um?"
"You and that person are of the same kind." Ze Luo looked into Ke Lan's eyes and said, "It's not because you both inherited things from the Alpha civilization, but because you have been of the same kind since the moment you were born... Your relationship with him is like the relationship between me and the puppet individual..."
"You mean you're not a normal human being when you're born? I find this statement... hard to accept." Ke Lan shook her head. "I'm not a baby born naturally from a woman's womb. From the fertilized egg to the embryo to the baby, my condition has always been monitored by machines. If my genes deviate from those of normal humans... whether I mutate into a monster or evolve into a superman, the monitoring equipment should have discovered it at the first time. If that's the case, then my life in the first twenty years should have been very different."
"I don't know, but I have a feeling." Ze Luo said, and suddenly looked at Marshall's headless body in the distance, "You and they are not the same kind."
"Can I understand that you are calling me a non-human?" Ke Lan suddenly didn't know what expression to make. He could only pull the corners of his mouth, point his finger at the tip of his nose, and asked half-complainingly and half-self-deprecatingly.
"I'm not scolding you." Ze Luo shook his head. "I'm just telling you the information collected by my sensory organs. It doesn't contain any insulting meaning. Besides, I think that the phrase 'not a human' is not an insult."
"That's insulting. You're still young, don't let that pervert who doesn't want to be a human being lead you astray... Besides, aren't you looking forward to living as a human? Then remember that I'm a human being... Well, you will be a human being too in the future. We are all human beings, not some messed up monsters, understand?"
Ze Luo looked at Ke Lan expressionlessly, tilted his head, paused for a few seconds as if thinking about something, and then nodded.
I have to say, if you ignore the blood on the girl's body and what she is doing, she looks really cute. She would definitely become a popular character in any anime.
Anyway... the audience nowadays doesn't care what the character is, as long as it looks good...
"By the way, since you said that I am different from ordinary humans, can you tell me in detail what the differences are?" Ke Lan suddenly remembered this and asked quickly.
Ze Luo: "I can't explain it, it's just a feeling."
"Okay, it's no use asking." Ke Lan shook off the black asphalt on his hands with some disappointment.
The puppet should be dead. The human faces on its body had their eyes closed. No matter how Ze Luo sliced it, it no longer screamed. Ke Lan simply ignored this pile of rotten meat and turned to walk towards Marshall's body.
He gathered up the scattered fragments of Marshall's skull and wrapped them in his cloak.
Marshall's body still had a trace of warmth left, and his limbs were not yet stiff. Ke Lan stuffed the cloak wrapped in bone fragments into his arms, and then carried his body to the door .
This emergency lifeboat is an escape device used in emergency situations. Unlike a lifeboat, this thing is about the size of a coffin. Only one person can lie in a lifeboat and it does not have any power device. After being launched by a spaceship, it can only drift in the universe with inertia and gravity until it is found by friendly search and rescue personnel.
"But this thing is not bad for your final resting place. At least you don't have to be left exposed in the wilderness... No, I should say exposed in space."
Ke Lan pushed Marshall's body into the lifeboat and pulled the release valve.
"I will help you publish your poem on the Internet. Goodbye, and have a sweet dream."
Driven by compressed gas, the silver-white life capsule quickly slid out of the spaceship, and with a constantly flashing signal light, it slowly floated towards the dark deep space in the distance.
When the life capsule runs out of power and the signal light stops flashing, it will blend into the darkness and can no longer be found.
At least that was Marshall's last wish.
"Maybe we should let Asano Akira see him off for the last time." Ke Lan rubbed his hands with a sense of relief. "Oh, forget it. My head is about to explode. It's better to leave in a more decent way."
As soon as Ke Lan turned around, she saw Ze Luo inserting her slender white arm deep into the body of the puppet. The black and white formed a very sharp contrast visually. She had almost half of her body inserted into the pile of rotten meat... However, as soon as Ke Lan thought that this "rotten meat" was originally part of her body, the sense of incongruity of the picture was instantly reduced a lot.
"I found it."
Ze Luo pulled herself out of the "rotten flesh", and the black asphalt on her cheeks, arms, shoulders and neck was quickly absorbed by her skin. Except for the blood stains on her clothes, the girl's body once again returned to its white and flawless state.
"That half of the 'crystal'."
"Yeah." Ze Luo raised her clasped hands carefully in front of Ke Lan, like a child presenting a treasure to an adult. In her palms lay an irregular crystal with a texture like obsidian.
Half a pill, to be exact.
"This thing... can really control time?" Although Ke Lan had experienced this magical ability countless times, when the real thing appeared in front of him, he still couldn't help but ask.
"Yeah." Ze Luo nodded.
"So is this how you plan to deal with this thing? Eat it?" Ke Lan asked.
"You absorb it and complete the half crystal in your body." Ze Luo said.
"I'll absorb it? What about you?"
"Only you can fuse it. I can only use its power, but I can't absorb it completely ." Ze Luo said, "Otherwise I can't dig it out of the puppet's body."
