It's a very fresh, clean smell. It smells just like...
Plant juice?
hum-
There was a strange noise coming from the front. Xia Yibing's face changed and she stood up suddenly. She held a dagger in her right hand and a gun in her left hand and explored forward little by little.
Close...close...
As the distance shortened and visibility improved, she gradually saw more and more of these cables crisscrossing ahead.
They gathered together to guard a huge plant tissue that looked like a flower bud. This thing was three meters tall, with most of its body sticking out of the window, and was buzzing and emitting mist.
So that's how the fog came from?
Xia Yibing's expression changed again.
So will it be okay if we inhale the mist?
Is this how hallucinations come about?
Trying to get closer to the flower buds, she found that they didn't react to her at all.
They seem to be unconscious and just doing their job.
She stepped over them and continued walking forward with a strange mentality, and saw more... various... colorful... huge plants intertwined... and entangled with each other.
Vines as thick as thighs intertwined and squirmed softly, blooming glowing flowers on the ceiling.
Fine lines grow on the carpet, which converge into exquisite patterns, and a vague outline can be vaguely seen.
The woman was somewhat shocked.
Is it possible that such a plant kingdom is hidden in the buildings created by human civilization?
Is this a steel forest?
Where did they come from?
"pat..."
Just then, she heard the sound of liquid dripping.
The sound was not far from her. She approached carefully, shone the flashlight over there, and found something struggling and squirming in a flower bud.
"Pfft!"
Suddenly, the thing was spit out by the flower. It was vaguely recognizable as a human figure, lying on the ground covered in mucus, revealing a face that was fairly familiar to Xia Yibing.
That's Matt Sheary.
The woman's face quickly darkened.
Because she discovered that some of this person's body tissues had become different from before.
Chapter 6: Disaster in Deep Space ( in k)
"Matt." Xia Yibing stared at the flower bud with its half-open mouth still oozing unknown mucus onto the ground, then squatted down and gently called Captain Nightingale.
She didn't count on her luck - that the only survivor she found would regain consciousness and wake up quickly in a short period of time - she didn't expect such a coincidence or good thing to happen.
But Matt had moved himself. She saw with her own eyes before he was spit out, the outline of this person twisting and struggling inside the flower bud. Perhaps it was his unruly behavior that caused the flower bud to spit him out... Then he was awake before that.
"It's you..." The man on the ground let out a mosquito-like cry, "I'm so glad... Imaar... It's an acquaintance who came at this critical moment. This way we don't have to waste our feelings getting to know each other again."
"If you can stand up, do it quickly." Xia Yibing stood up and ignored him.
This thing knew her, which was good. He still remembered what happened in the past. On the one hand, this showed that he was not a fake - the real Captain Nightingale. On the other hand, it also showed that his thinking was still clear.
And he said so many words in one breath, so he must be fine. She didn't have time to waste on a patient with minor injuries.
"What a heartless woman." Matt struggled to get up, and in the process he discovered something abnormal with his body.
His arms... they were no longer human hands.
Starting from the elbow, the skin color became darker as it moved forward, and the surface of the skin became harder and more painful. He suddenly felt as if the bones that originally existed inside his arm were suddenly stretched out, completely wrapping the front of his arm, forming two thick and sturdy insect pincers together with his five fingers.
Have I turned into a bug man?
Although he was shocked at first, Matt quickly calmed down and began to study other changes in himself.
Soon he discovered several more deformities, and bone cuticles also grew outward from the knees below his legs. Compared with his arms, their deformities were less severe, and he could barely retain a few sharp "claws".
Also, his chest and the ribs in the middle of his chest seemed to be connected together. He felt pain or itching all over his body all the time, as if something was trying to break out of his body.
This was not an illusion... With a light "puff" sound, his entire face split open, torn into two parts from the top of the head down, and a brand new "Matt Hillay" broke out of the cocoon from the molting of the old body, with new changes on his body.
The biggest change was naturally his clothes. With this "shedding", all his clothes fell off. In addition, his skin all over his body felt soft and he was forced to stay still, waiting for the soft skin to harden little by little under the influence of the air. It took him three or four minutes to return to normal.
"I must warn you that you are no longer a human being now," said Xia Yibing.
She kept her flashlight pointed elsewhere and on guard, but the Korenko pistol she had exchanged from Darent was always aimed at Matt.
She was attacked by insect people.
It was true that Matt knew her and knew what happened in the past, but who knew whether his brain was also affected while his body was being transformed.
"I know." Matt's voice didn't sound dull at all, it even sounded a little jumpy - similar to Darent's.
"Aren't you afraid?"
"If the death of me and others can buy you time and help you obtain intelligence, then our value will be realized." Matt said, "My greatest wish will be fulfilled, so why should I be afraid?"
As he shed his skin, the disguise he had put on his face also fell off. The face he revealed was very different from what Xia Yibing had expected - he actually looked only in his twenties? Why did this face look so young?
"Everyone has a story, Chief." Matt murmured, "If you still want to believe me...can we talk somewhere else?"
He didn't just care that this was his "birthplace", worrying about whether those wriggling vines would do something weird again, he also felt that those flower buds that were madly spewing thick fog out of the window were filled with gloom, weirdness, and ominousness.
He hated this place from the bottom of his heart, and just smelling the fog made him want to vomit.
This was a reasonable request. Seeing that there was indeed no other abnormality nearby, Xia Yibing took him to the first floor and found an empty classroom to temporarily house him.
It was just a short section of road, less than a minute after walking, but Matt's body started to itch again.
It was an itch that almost came from his soul. After arriving at the classroom, he quickly shed his skin again, and then remained stiff in the same place for about three or four minutes.
When he was stiff and unable to speak, Xia Yibing observed him and thought about something.
She didn't know much about insects, but she had handled several cases related to insects. Whether it was the theft of valuable experimental species or someone condoning poisonous insects to kill people, she was always there to verify the facts behind every related case.
She had looked up information - at the very least she had asked entomologists, so she knew - that the "insects" that had just shed their skin were actually extremely weak and unable to move for a period of time.
It's not that they don't want to move, but their bodies that have just shed their shells have not yet dried and hardened. They have strength but nowhere to use it.
The scene after Matt sheds his skin is very similar to that of this molting insect.
And after careful observation, she also noticed that every time Matt shed his skin, there would be an extra part on his body that looked even less like a human.
The skin on his chest was torn when he shed his skin for the first time, and there seemed to be something hanging underneath, but she couldn't see clearly.
But this time I saw it clearly - it was a bone shield. Made directly from ribs, this thing actually grew outside?
Yes... I seem to have heard that insects' bones are not inside their bodies. They are experts in "exoskeleton". The hard shell outside the insect body is actually their bones.
"After you can speak, I need you to tell me what happened to you after you came back until you ended up in this situation." Xia Yibing walked to the front and stared into Matt's eyes. "I hope you remember it clearly."
"...I can only tell you that they came suddenly."
"'they'?"
"Those are the giant plants." Matt was able to move now. He gestured to the woman and pointed upwards. "They are more and more as we go up. I suspect there is something like a 'source' hidden on the roof. Anyway, they spread all the way down and caught me and other Nightingale spies in a very short time. I just felt like something pierced my body and I lost consciousness. When I woke up, I saw you."
"So you don't know what happened to the others?"
"Yeah," Matt nodded. "I guess they're in the same boat as me."
You don't need to tell me this.
Xia Yibing bit her lips a little harder.
Things are troublesome.
very troublesome.
What's the problem? It's not that mutant plants are troublesome... Sarah has seen plant mutations before, especially carnivorous plants. There is a rumor about a "killer tree" circulating among the people. It is said that there is a tree that looks like a willow, but its drooping branches will actively entangle its prey, and then secrete an extremely terrible digestive enzyme from the branches, which can dissolve a living person into bones in just a few hours.
At that time, the remains of the bones will fall to the ground and turn into nutrients to nourish the tree roots.
Xia Yibing liked to browse the files of ancient cases, so she knew that many of these rumors were actually true. However, she was not worried about these things - she was not worried that these things would reappear as trouble, but she suddenly thought of a more critical issue that she had ignored in the past.
Why the insect man?
The so-called insect man was originally a name she came up with based on the insect man assassin she encountered for the first time. It was rather casual in form, but that guy looked exactly like a big insect, so what else could he be called if not an insect man?
But why - why is it insect people, and not orcs, clay people, liquid people, or even plant people?
She and Hitzfeld discussed that if these bizarre lives came from the dream world, from the so-called "Misros Dreamland", then they could be called "the remnants of Misros".
But why is it that the direction of their distortion is closer to that of insects?
Xia Yibing had never thought about this question before, but after discovering those huge plants with tangled roots and those vines entwined on the iron racks in Fran Middle School, that "steel forest"! She immediately had a guess in her mind.
After all... isn't it natural that there are bugs near plants?
The Mithros people chose "Lana" - chose this direction to explore deep space, and even used the power of "Lana" to create the "Yalai people", training them to be warriors capable of fighting against evil gods and monsters.
Every "Yalai" is guaranteed to be absolutely loyal and have terrible survivability. The combat uniforms they wear are simply woven with "Lana" plant fibers, which can blend with their flesh and even help them survive in the vacuum of the universe.
So in this interactive relationship, who is the master and who is the servant?
Xia Yibing thought about herself descending into the dream world, and after coming out, she found that the arm of "Sergeant Bird" also showed signs of insect transformation.
She thought this was enough to show that "insectization" was a continuation of the past - it was not a change or a phenomenon that originated from Namibia. It should have come from the universe where the Misros people lived, and it started when they chose the "Lana" path.
It seems that they are taking advantage of "Lana", but isn't "Lana" also taking advantage of all the people of Misros?
The Yalayans were transformed from the Homo sapiens citizens of Mithros. If "Lana" is regarded as a huge biological nest with subjective consciousness, then the Yalayans are "war bees". The Homo sapiens citizens who can theoretically be transformed into Yalayans at any time are "worker bees".
What a bullshit civilized world invaded by evil gods...Misros itself is a place full of weirdness and even evil!
What is the difference between "Lana" and the evil god?
It is even actively polluting all Misros people, trying to transform them into "bugs" that are dedicated to serving itself?
That's why she felt that there was a big trouble... In her original expectation, she and Hitzfeld guessed that the thing that had that dream was either a survivor of the Mithros civilization or the murderer "Mother of the Void" who destroyed the civilization.
The latter is of course the worst, that thing puts a lot of pressure on Hitzfeld. If it is really the second possibility, and the thing is in good condition - that is, it has escaped from the gray fog temple, then they can almost say that they have no chance of winning.
Then, because of the existence of insect people - Xia Yibing suspected at the time that insect people were a specialty of the Misros civilization - they began to tend towards a more optimistic estimate, that is, they believed that "the people of Misros may not have really died, otherwise there would be no insect people appearing in Manion."
Although they did not have the time to get together and discuss this issue in depth, Xia Yibing believed that if they determined that this dream and all the abnormalities were caused by the "survivors of Misros", then the biggest trouble they faced might be that these people wanted to "occupy this paradise of Namiia" and "redevelop the civilization of the Misros people here."
It sounds like we can still communicate, right? After all, the things I saw and heard in the dream have fully proved that the other party is at least a civilized race, and they have the concept of morality, so they are likely to be able to communicate, and this matter can be discussed... It's nothing more than bargaining.
Or they could choose to reject these people on Sarah's behalf and execute the murderers according to local laws.
(Note: This is because Xia Yibing also believes that the wreckage murders were also committed by these insect people.)
But the above part is the original expectation.
She now had a new idea, that is, she began to suspect that the dream was had by "Lana".
"Lana" is alive, there is no need to ask.
Maybe the people of Mithros were really extinct. Yusilian was not lying. When her real body followed the Kingdom of the Sun God there, the sun of Mithros had already exhausted its energy, or was simply sucked dry by the evil god and turned into star fragments.
But this does not mean that the civilization of Mithros will be cut off, because that civilization is extremely unique... It is composed of two major forces, the Mithros people and "Lana". The demise of one half does not mean that the other half will die as well.
A bold assumption...what if "Lana" didn't die?
What if it escaped the final mass extinction and happened to arrive in Namibia by traveling across the universe?
What if the plant kingdom that inhabits Fran High School is part of Lana? What if it drops a few seeds from the sky?
Doesn’t something like this deserve to be called “the Great One”?
A long lifespan, collective intelligence, an indescribable huge size...what's the big difference between this thing and those evil gods and foreign gods?
Thinking in this way, it suddenly becomes understandable that the "forest" chose Fran Middle School to start its development, and it is reasonable from every angle.
Because the last "Mime Demon Heart" is stored here.
Although it is not the original one, it was transformed by Connie's cheap father... causing her to lose the ferocity that a mimic should have after the deformation, and instead be able to control various instinctive impulses. But it is also the "mimic heart".
The importance of this thing...how can I put it?
