Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 931 The Fire of Life
I don't know why, but a bold idea suddenly popped into Ke Lan's head: Could these people be the experimental samples of a certain "social experiment", right?
Perhaps, in the eyes of Nieto, the owner and manager of the Hive City, these people cannot be regarded as "human beings", but can only be regarded as guinea pigs?So they will be allowed into Genting?

Just when Ke Lan was puzzled, a figure covered in flames ran out from a building on the right hand side. He wailed loudly and beat the flames on his body with his hands while running... But just as he was The moment he looked up and saw Ke Lan, he seemed to have forgotten the pain of being burned by the fire, and even the screams stopped abruptly at this moment.

In the next second, he turned his head decisively and turned back to the burning building...

It's just that this person's burns were too severe. Before he could run into the courtyard gate, he threw himself on the ground, struggled for a few times, and then remained silent.

"Am I that scary?" Ke Lan silently lowered his head and looked at his current appearance—although Ke Lan, who was covered in living armor all over his body, did look a little scary, but compared Those distorted monsters that can only be described in abstract words can be seen everywhere, at least Ke Lan still maintains the general outline of a human being, and the standard of living armor is closer to the military standard armor of the old era... Logically speaking, it should not It's right to have such a fearful reaction.

Why did that person turn around and run away when he saw him?Would you rather run into the burning house you just escaped than ask yourself for help?
Ke Lan couldn't figure it out.

Although the man was already dead, Ke Lan dragged his corpse over with a tentacle condensed from a living armor—this time Ke Lan was lucky: although the distance between him and the corpse was enough It was more than 20 meters away, but there was no boundary of space debris within this distance, and the tentacles smoothly dragged the corpse to Ke Lan.

The flames on the corpse had been extinguished by the tentacles, but this kind of flames seemed to be not ordinary flames. The person who could run and shout ten seconds ago had completely carbonized his flesh and internal organs, and many places had exposed his body. A skeleton like coke.

In medicine, burns are generally divided into "three-degree and four-degree burns", and the most serious "third-degree burns" are nothing more than "wounds to the whole layer of skin, as well as deep muscles, bones, internal organs, etc., and the injured are in serious danger of life." ", and the corpse in front of him seemed to have been soaked in molten iron at a temperature of thousands of degrees...

Ten seconds ago, only the clothes and hair on his body were burned, but after more than ten seconds, most of his body parts had been scorched. Even napalm bombs, known as inhumane bombs, were not effective at burning people. so tall.

In fact, the most terrifying part of the lethality of napalm bombs is that the violent combustion can completely deplete the oxygen in an area. Those who died from napalm bombs, the proportion of people who died of suffocation due to lack of oxygen is actually much higher than those who were burned alive Dead people... Many charred corpses that looked terrible were actually suffocated or choked to death by smoke before they were burnt.

According to the feedback from the living armor, the oxygen in this area is actually quite sufficient, far from being suffocating... And those flames don't seem to be so scary, Ke Lan just slapped them with his tentacles a few times and extinguished them all In fact, this person may be able to extinguish the flames on his body as long as he lies on the ground and rolls around a few times.

The ignition point of the human body is actually very high. Take the corpse treatment facilities on the Ark as an example. The temperature of the cremator must be above [-] degrees Celsius... Under normal circumstances, as long as there is no napalm or other things on the body, It is not easy to set a person on fire, unless his whole body's clothing is made of very flammable materials that burn at a high temperature.

Burns are common, but it's kind of weird to want to burn a person like this.

The tips of the tentacles turned into two sharp scalpels. They cut open the charred corpse, removed the carbonized muscles and organs, and made the bones in front of Ke Lan's eyes.

Soon, Ke Lan discovered two unreasonable places.

The first unreasonable thing is that the skeleton of this corpse is very normal - in this place of Hive Capital, normality is the biggest abnormality. 50 years ago, disaster had already swept across the entire Hive City, and even the owner of the Hive City was not spared. Logically speaking, except for the group of "tunnel dwellers", no one could escape the catastrophe.But the corpse didn't show any signs of distortion, whether it was the skeleton or the charcoal-shaped organs whose outlines could be vaguely discerned.

Ke Lan recalled the appearance of this person when he was still alive just now—even though his whole body was wrapped in flames, he could still see that there was no obvious variation on the surface of his body, and he didn't see anything like tentacles or growths. Not to mention the large-scale distortions that are common on eclipses.

There is a huge gap between the skeleton of the eclipse and the skeleton of a human being. Except for the "special type" eclipse of Wilson, the other eclipse that Ke Lan has seen basically cannot maintain the original human form... If the person in front of him is also a If it was only the "Phoenix", then he shouldn't be burned to death-this level of injury, in terms of Wilson, has now recovered and stood in front of Ke Lan.

And the second unreasonable thing is the degree of carbonization of the bones, which seems to be above the flesh and organs... Those thinner bones, such as clavicles and ribs, Ke Lan lightly touched them with a "scalpel" It was shattered, and the thigh bone, a relatively thick bone, showed fine cracks on the surface. Ke Lan just picked it up a few times with the tip of the knife, and the charred and broken bones... No, it should be carbon powder, to be precise. It began to fall down rustlingly, perhaps at least with a little more strength, the thighbone could be broken directly.

It takes time for the flame to burn through the skin and muscles and reach the bones. The human body is an excellent heat insulator. In ten seconds, this person's bones should never be like this.

I want to make the bones crispy like this——Although Ke Lan has never roasted human bones, they roasted a cow's leg bone in a large oven during the hunting god hunting reunion dinner, and the leg bone was roasted for eight hours. Hours, the fork can easily penetrate the bone... Moreover, the oven is a closed environment, the temperature inside must be higher than that in an open environment, and the heating efficiency is better.

In the place where Ke Lan is currently, the temperature of the metal floor is about 360 degrees, and the air temperature is slightly lower, about 150 degrees Celsius. In this open environment, heat will continue to transfer to places with lower temperatures, even if The body is wrapped in flames, and it is not difficult to reach the high temperature of seven or eight hundred degrees.

Moreover, there is another doubtful point, which is the most weird: if the bones have been roasted into this appearance, there should be no flesh and skin left on the corpse——Ke Lan and the others roasted the beef leg bones, the meat on the surface of the bones and The fat is all removed, and the real edible part is actually the bone marrow.But even if they didn't scrape off the meat attached to the bone, after eight hours, there was hardly anything left on the surface of the bone.

As if Ke Lan remembered something, the "scalpel" attached to the front of the tentacles stabbed at the thigh bone of the corpse, cutting the already fragile thigh bone from the middle.

"As expected...the carbonization degree inside the leg bone is higher than the bone surface, and the bone marrow is almost evaporated..." Ke Lan murmured.

The combination of the end of the autopsy, the behavior of the person just before his death, and all the unreasonable things can only explain one thing: the fire burned from the body of the deceased, more precisely, from the bone marrow burned.

When the body looks good on the outside, the body has already been severely burned, and when the flames penetrated the flesh and appeared on the body, this person is actually hopeless... His internal organs and bones have been carbonized , being able to insist on running out of the house can already be regarded as a miracle of life.

"Could it be...the source of this fire is actually these people?" Ke Lan took a deep breath, "Is it the spontaneous combustion of the human body that ignited these buildings?"

No... It doesn't seem right either. The range of spontaneous combustion of the human body is very limited. Ke Lan has seen many examples of human spontaneous combustion. Although these examples are very weird and have not been scientifically explained, they are generally burned together with the spontaneous combustion The only things that are in direct contact with him, such as clothing, bedding, or nearby curtains, have never been examples of the entire house being burned down along with the spontaneous combustion.

Even if the blood flowing in the veins of the self-igniting person and the marrow in the bones are fuel oil, it is impossible to have such a great power.

What's more, after the corpse in front of him was completely dead, the flame on his body was extinguished--Ke Lan only realized now that the flame was not extinguished by his tentacles just now, but by himself.

So... the burning of the flame is neither the marrow nor the blood of man, but... the life force of man.

When a person dies, it means that his vitality has returned to zero, and the flame that uses vitality as "fuel" naturally cannot continue to burn.

The name "Fire of Life" seems to be full of positive energy, but the real meaning represented by these four words is that Ke Lan, who is in the heat of hundreds of degrees, feels a chill behind his back.

This kind of flame is obviously not a conventional flame... Looking at the burning street in front of him, he suddenly understood the horror of the power left by the existence that Nieto said.

As long as the person is not completely dead, the flame will not be extinguished... This is an unsolvable ultimate move, no matter how powerful an individual is, it cannot withstand it-the stronger the strength, the stronger the vitality, and the more intense the flame, The longer you persist, the more intense the pain you will suffer... Just thinking about it is enough to make you shudder.

Death is the only means by which the "fire of life" can be extinguished.

Ke Lan began to hesitate whether to continue moving forward. If this kind of flame was contaminated on him... with his current means, I'm afraid it would be impossible to extinguish it.

Even if that kind of "fake death" can deceive that existence's sight, the "fire of life" is actually fueled by vitality. Ke Lan was preserved, and when Ke Lan returned to his original state, the little flame would rekindle in an instant... Even if Ke Lan could not be burned to death, he was still suffering from the burning pain deep in the bone marrow all the time.

This is like a monkey grandson locked in an alchemy furnace, but the alchemy furnace is an external source of fire, but this kind of fire of life is ignited from within his own body, and the life is endless and burning.

"What the hell happened to these people..." Ke Lan looked at the charred corpses lying around on the street, and couldn't help but sigh in his heart - being stained by this kind of flame, death may be the real relief.

"This space debris is too dangerous, you have to leave before the fire spreads." Ke Lan began to stretch out his tentacles in all directions, trying to find a space boundary to leave... But even if he increased the search radius to 30 meters, There is still no place where this space "borders" with another outer space.

Different from the space with only islands and abyss just now, this space is relatively complete. If you use a mirror as a metaphor, the island space is like finely broken glass shards, and this place is the larger one among the fragments.

If you want to expand the search range, you have to put your tentacles into those burning blocks, but Ke Lan won't do that unless you have to... Who knows if the tentacles will lead this weird flame to his body? body, if it really gets burned, it is not a problem that can be solved by "a strong man cut off his wrist".

Just when Ke Lan was in a dilemma, the scene around him suddenly changed, the flames and smoke disappeared suddenly, and the burning sensation from the air and the ground disappeared instantly—he found himself in a brightly lit room. The interior of the room.

The walls, floor, and ceiling of the room are all made of metal, and there are closed doors in all directions. There is no visible lighting device on the ceiling, but bright white light in cool tones fills the room.

"When was I swallowed by another piece of space debris?" Ke Lan took a deep breath, trying to keep his breathing as steady as possible - in any case, it was a good thing to be able to leave that place just now.

At least the room in front of him didn't seem to be in any danger.

"Your luck... is really good." Just as Ke Lan was looking at the scene in the room, a voice sounded suddenly.

"Who are you?" Ke Lan took a step back subconsciously, and the living armor condensed an airtight protective cover to wrap his body.

"The person you want to find."

"The master of the hive capital?" Ke Lan was taken aback, he had a very unreal feeling...to use a profound Chinese proverb to describe it, that is, "There is no place to find if you step through the iron shoes, and it takes no effort to get it"...Go up One second he was still thinking about how to get out of the flames, and the next second, he found the owner of the hive directly.

"So I say you are very lucky, the third space debris you arrived is here, and even the timing is almost perfect." The voice continued, "In 3 minutes, disaster will come here hive capital."

(End of this chapter)