Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 270 In the Egg Sheath
"I'd rather meet a cockroach, even a giant cockroach hundreds of times bigger." The hound whispered, "Compared to those ghost things, cockroaches are cuter."

When the hound said this, Martin couldn't help but think of the hand that disappeared under the ice just now, and he nodded in agreement: "I really think...it seems to be the case."

"Don't think of things too simply." Ke Lan patted Layton's shoulder, "Try to see if you can dig an egg case from above."

"It should be possible. These things are not embedded in the ice, as long as they can melt away the sticky ice particles around them." Layton nodded and said.

"It's best not to use heating. I'm worried that the temperature rise will cause the contents of the egg case to hatch." Ke Lan said again, "Use purely physical methods as much as possible."

"Okay." Layton's mechanical arm made a crisp "click" sound, and a palm-sized circular saw protruded from his palm, and began to spin at a high speed.

The blades of the circular saw are pitch-black, a bit like carbon fiber, but they also have the unique luster of metal materials. Ke Lan can tell at a glance that the blades of this circular saw are made of [-]% pure Nino alloy. It is no exaggeration to describe it as cutting iron like mud.

Layton raised the circular saw and cautiously approached an egg case at the outer end. When the whirling blades came into contact with the ice, there was a tooth-piercing rubbing sound, and the fist-sized egg case responded. And fell, fell into the specimen box already connected below.

And the next delicate work is not something that electric circular saws can do—Ke Lan asked Layton to fix the egg case with a mechanical arm, while he himself held a lancet in one hand and a handle in the other. The smallest file, first use the file to file off the remaining ice on the surface of the egg case, and then push the blade along the edge of the egg case little by little.

Ke Lan's hand was very steady, the blade hardly trembled at all, and it was inserted into the egg case very smoothly.

"There's something in there...I feel like the tip of the blade is hitting some soft tissue."

But whether the thing inside is dead or alive can only be known after opening the egg case.

Ke Lan began to use a little force, using the edge of the egg case gap as a fulcrum, and slowly pried the upper part of the egg case away...

Generally speaking, an egg case of an earth cockroach can hatch ten to fifty nymphs depending on the species, but this giant egg case that was pried open contains hundreds of tiny nymphs. translucent vesicles, each vesicle is a separate larva...

But these translucent vesicles are not wrapped in cockroach nymphs, but curled up into balls... red meat worms!

The meat worms in these vesicles are still wriggling slightly...they are alive!

Ke Lan, Hound and Layton raised their heads and exchanged glances in unison. In each other's eyes, they all saw the kind of dread and fear that could not be expressed in words.

They are no strangers to this kind of bugs... Ke Lan still clearly remembers how those people from the Mitsui Consortium were swallowed up by the "tide" formed by these bugs - they only need a few seconds to kill a person All the flesh and blood on his body was eaten away, not even the bones were left!
"How did this thing appear here?!" the hound said seriously.

He raised his head, glanced at the ice road in front of him that was almost completely covered by this egg case, and couldn't help but flinch: "If these egg cases are full of this kind of bug..."

He didn't continue his words, but Ke Lan and the others knew exactly what he wanted to say - if the red meat worms with egg cases broke out of their shells when they passed through this passage, the whole team would be in an instant destroyed in between.

Thinking of those bugs getting under his skin and walking wantonly through his flesh and blood, Ke Lan couldn't help feeling itchy sensations on his body—even if he really had to face death one day, he would never choose this Just thinking about it is a horrible way to die.

"Then what should we do? You can't go back, can you?" Layton frowned and said, "Old dog, Ke Lan, you two have many ideas, you decide."

At this moment, Qin Zhao's voice suddenly came from behind: "Well, this kind of bug...is there any problem? You seem to be very scared."

Ke Lan glanced at her. Due to the confidentiality agreement they signed, the truth of the Leviathan incident cannot be revealed, but it is still very simple to explain the horror of this bug.

"These bugs feed on humans...or not only humans, they will devour any organisms they can touch, and can digest them in a very short period of time. Their movements are very fast, and they gather like a tide. Overwhelming, even flamethrowers and energy shields can hardly stop these bugs... If, I mean, if all the bugs in the egg cases hatch, the few of us will not be enough for them to stick between our teeth .”

Hearing what Ke Lan said, Qin Zhao's already light-skinned face suddenly became paler, and Martin frantically groped for himself with an unnatural expression.

"I...I feel so itchy...Could it be that bugs crawled on me?" He said hastily.

"If there are really bugs crawling on you, even if it's just one, you should have lost several pieces of meat by now." Ke Lan glanced at him and said in a deep voice, "Itching is because of psychological effects, don't scare yourself. Own."

"Oh... oh." Martin nodded hastily, "Then, is there any way to kill this kind of bug?"

"As I said just now, flamethrowers, energy shields, or other explosives can easily kill these individual bugs, but it's useless."

"Useless?"

"The number of them is too huge... You can't kill them all... And if the insects in front die, the ones behind will immediately swallow the corpses of the same kind and turn them into a part of themselves... Even if you can reduce the insect swarm It can’t be done on any scale.”

"Hiss..." Martin grinned and couldn't help taking a breath, "Senior, what should we do now?"

"Forward or backward, there is no other choice." The hound looked back at the ice road behind, and said, "Go forward, you have to step on the egg cases of these bugs, no one knows if they will suddenly hatch... ...In the future, I can only go back to the nine stone chambers, and then be suffocated to death in there."

"There is a third way," Ke Lan said. "At the position of the hand just now, there is a crack in the ice. If the crack is cut open, there may be a third passage below."

"Ke Lan, are you crazy? Then I would rather choose to step on these egg cases." The hound couldn't help but said.

"Actually, my choice is the same as yours, I'm just talking." Ke Lan shrugged, "The temperature in the ice passage is very low, these egg cases should be sealed here by the Alphas, so I think there is a high probability that they will not incubation."

(End of this chapter)