The moment Mu Xing got his hands on the Plasma Cutter, he immediately aimed it at the baby monster and pulled the trigger.
This thing is an engineering tool, so it should also be usable as a weapon.
However, the instant he pulled the trigger, the orange Plasma Cutter remained unresponsive.
He tilted his head and saw a small screen on the handle.
It displayed: "Unlocked!"
"Damn it!"
Mu Xing was so angry he wanted to curse.
He unhesitatingly threw away the Plasma Cutter in his hand and simultaneously grabbed a nearby chair, smashing it at the baby monster.
With a bang,
The pouncing baby monster was sent flying by the chair.
The baby monster shrieked, crashing hard against the wall.
However, the monsters on the Ishimura had thick hides, and such a collision caused them almost no damage.
Mu Xing's goal was not to kill the monster, but to search the room for something to unlock it.
The search results disappointed him; he couldn't find any unlocking tools in the room.
However, he did find the Plasma Cutter's instruction manual and the name of the room's owner: Brant Cates.
He seemed to have heard that name somewhere before.
Just as his neck was being entangled by the baby monster's tentacles, he finally remembered.
Wasn't the monster in the locker room Brant Cates?
A maintenance engineer for CEC.
If this Plasma Cutter belonged to him, it meant there must be an unlocking tool in the locker room.
Like… the blue ID card on the locker room chair?
Mu Xing frantically opened the Plasma Cutter's instruction manual before the baby monster could strangle him to death.
He translated the text using his broken English.
Although most of the words were obscure and difficult to understand, he still managed to figure out the general working principle of the Plasma Cutter.
Pfft…
A sharp bone spike pierced his temple, killing him instantly.
…
Waking up again,
Mu Xing was reset above the engineer's room.
At this time, the baby monster had just left, giving him plenty of time.
He looked at the Plasma Cutter in the room again.
The core principle of a Plasma Cutter is to compress high-density plasma gas, causing it to generate instantaneous high temperatures that melt the material it contacts, thereby achieving the cutting function.
And this Plasma Cutter from the 23rd century is even more powerful, capable of converging plasma energy and firing it.
Although the range is at most twenty to thirty meters, it can still be considered a weapon for offense.
At the same time,
The Plasma Cutter also has horizontal cutting capability.
The cutter condenses high-temperature, high-density plasma on the cutting head, rapidly sweeping across the target, capable of instantly melting and cutting space alloys.
It can be said that this thing is effective at both long and close range, practically a divine artifact.
This time, Mu Xing did not act rashly; he knew very well that even if he got the Plasma Cutter, he would need an ID card to unlock it.
Which meant he needed to return to the locker room, which he called his Nightmare.
He first had to find a way to avoid the baby monster's search when it returned.
Then, after getting the cutter, he would return to the locker room.
So this time, Mu Xing did not choose to remove the filter screen from the vent, but instead prepared to investigate deeper into the ventilation duct.
He tried his best to reduce the sound of his movements, half-crouching as he explored deeper.
He had to keep moving forward while also keeping track of time.
The save point in the engineer's room was very important, and he didn't want to lose it easily.
After all, avoiding the baby monster's search was not easy.
After exploring for five minutes, he started to turn back.
The ventilation ducts of the Ishimura were incredibly complex, with even several layers.
The area he was in was clearly the crew's living quarters on the spaceship.
Most of the places he passed were crew rooms.
Moreover, not all ventilation ducts were connected; some were blocked by proliferating putrid flesh.
These disgusting-looking and even more disgusting-smelling putrid tissues were like the mutated biological organizations in Resident Evil.
They spread and grew wildly like roots.
Although these things had no offensive power, the nauseating stench, if approached, was enough to make one vomit yesterday's overnight meal.
On his way forward, many pipes were blocked by this disgusting putrid tissue; to cut through them, he needed a handy tool.
There was only one true passage, extending into a darker area of the spaceship.
Who knew what dangers might be hidden in the darkness there.
Bang, bang, bang…
Mu Xing finished his investigation and was afraid the save point would become invalid.
So he chose to actively draw the baby monster by vigorously hammering the ventilation duct.
Soon,
He heard familiar crawling and rubbing sounds.
However,
The sounds came from two directions.
From the darkness ahead, and from the passage he came from behind.
In other words, there were at least two baby monsters in this duct.
It was a good thing he hadn't tried to go further.
If he were trapped between two baby monsters at a save point, and unarmed, even if he could loop infinitely, it would be very difficult to survive.
The two baby monsters were faster, and Mu Xing directly gave up resisting.
The first to arrive was the baby monster that had turned back, while the other came from the depths of the darkness.
One wrapped him with its tentacles, and the other spat out green acidic venom.
Mu Xing endured the torment and pain, hammering the monster's head, which provoked an even more ferocious attack from both baby monsters.
They ended him directly.
…
In the ventilation duct,
Mu Xing woke up, clutching his shoulders in pain.
The burning pain of the venom still lingered.
The pain of death assaulted his Spirit again and again.
He wasn't sure how many more death loops he could endure.
Perhaps he would go mad from the constant torment of death before he could even survive 24 hours.
He tried to cheer himself up.
He slapped his cheeks: "Mu Xing, you can't give up yet, survive."
He tried to encourage himself.
In his last death, he not only explored further into the ventilation ducts but also silently calculated the time it took for the baby monsters to catch up and their patrol speed.
He already had a rough estimate in his mind.
He quickly started unscrewing the screws; this time, his movements were exceptionally light, not as forceful as the first time.
This would buy him more time.
And when he removed two screws, he suddenly stopped.
He held his breath.
The patrolling baby monster had returned, and what he needed to do was wait for the baby monster to leave.
He made no sound, minimizing his breathing and heart rate as much as possible.
This time, the baby monster returned and indeed did not discover him.
After waiting for about a minute,
Mu Xing began to unscrew the last two screws.
After removing the screws and lifting the filter screen, he cautiously entered the engineer's room from the ventilation duct.
After picking up the Plasma Cutter, he did not leave directly. Instead, he carefully opened a drawer and pulled out a palm-sized, battery-like module from it.
This thing was called a Concentrated Energy Storage Device, or more simply, an energy battery.
If he only took the Plasma Cutter and not the battery, it would be like having a gun without bullets.
It would be no different from scrap metal.
At the same time, he did not leave the instruction manual behind.
Finally,
Mu Xing found a pendant in the opened drawer.
He opened the pendant, and inside was a photo of an engineering man wearing glasses and a blonde, blue-eyed beautiful young woman.
They appeared to be father and daughter.
