Alien Relic Hunter

Chapter 970 The Prophet's Past

But in just 5 minutes, all the bloody eyes were extinguished, and with the sound of footsteps, the clown came out of the darkness - Soap and Noir noticed that although the smell of blood in the air was so heavy that it was almost overwhelming He vomited out, but the clown's body was very clean, not even a speck of blood stained on it.

"Just now... what was that?" Soap asked immediately.

"It seems to be a mutant mouse living in the pipe." The clown said, "This kind of thing is very common in this place."

"Mutated rats living in the pipes?" Soap repeated these words, "That is to say, the monsters in the underground labyrinth in the folk stories are real?"

"It exists." The clown nodded, "Part of the labyrinth is connected to the experimental site of the research institute, and occasionally there will be experimental creatures that escaped from the bondage and get into the labyrinth. Although the undead crew can control the ark, they can be found at any time. escaped creature and killed it. But maybe for observation purposes, they didn't do that."

"The...purpose of observation?" Soap's cheeks twitched twice, "What do you mean?"

"This underground labyrinth itself can be regarded as a huge test site, and it is a high-quality test site that can simulate food shortages, harsh environments, terrains and ecosystems. Put these creatures in it, the survival of the fittest, and let them survive on their own. The efficiency of evolutionary mutation is much more efficient than in the artificial environment of the ecological box." The clown said, "In addition, the protective partitions in the area adjacent to the main reactor and the labyrinth have been secretly removed. Under the influence, the radiation concentration in those areas will remain at a very high level... Organisms that can survive in that environment will have more tenacious vitality, and there will also be mutations that cannot be observed in the laboratory .”

In the biological laboratory of the research institute, the research team often uses radiation lamps to irradiate experimental organisms, or feeds them feed mixed with radioactive substances to induce these experimental organisms to mutate, but this experimental method is very inefficient. So much so that later, researchers often "released" large quantities of experimental organisms directly into high-radiation areas in the wilderness - the mission that 33 once carried out in the Prism Basin was such an experiment.

But most people would never have imagined that the research institute and the undead crew would be so crazy that they directly ignored the safety of the residents of the ark and transformed the underground labyrinth sandwiched in the ark's structural layer into a large-scale mutation testing ground.

"That is to say...we will encounter more monsters next?" Soap bit his back molars hard, stood up with his hands on the ground, and pointed his tactics deep into the pipe ——The ground and pipe walls were stained with a lot of blood that had not yet dried up, but none of the mutated rat corpses mentioned by the clown was seen.

"Huh? Where are the corpses of those monsters? Are they still alive? They ran away again?!" Soap raised the muzzle of his gun vigilantly, aiming at the depth of the pipe.

"They have become nourishment." The clown whispered, "Although compared with humans, these rats cannot provide nourishment at the soul level, but their flesh and blood have enough energy to just make up for the consumption along the way."

"Supply at the soul level?" Noir looked up at the clown, "Can you tell us what this means?"

"Actually, the four soldiers I killed didn't die." The clown said, "Absorbing their flesh and blood is only secondary. My main purpose is to absorb their souls."

"Soul? Are you kidding?" Soap narrowed his eyes, "Do people really have that kind of thing? To be honest... I don't believe it. There is such a thing as a soul. This is too superstitious, people are dead when they die, there is no difference between body and soul!"

"Soul...is just an adjective I found as appropriate as possible in the human vocabulary. You can also understand it as thinking, consciousness...but after thinking about it, I still feel that the word soul is the closest to that meaningful." The clown said.

"Isn't thinking and consciousness the currents generated in the human brain?" Noir said immediately, "It stands to reason that after brain death, all human thinking and consciousness will immediately dissipate. Even if there is such a thing as a soul, the relationship between the soul and the body is also Inseparable - the body is the carrier of the soul, and the soul without the carrier cannot exist independently."

"Thousands of years of human research, there are still many mysteries in the brain field that have not been solved." The clown seemed to become very patient, and explained carefully, "If you have ever met a person who survived that experimental project, you You will find that the power of human mind can actually be materialized and concretized... If the power of mind is strong enough, it can even be said to be "whatever you want"...Of course, in my cognition, it is possible to truly It is probably the only one who can achieve 'whatever you want'."

"What are you talking about, why can't I understand at all?" Soap interjected, "Don't discuss things like soul and body, I only care about one thing, you said those four soldiers didn't die, Isn’t this pure bullshit? I watched them die.”

"Their souls, or in other words, their consciousness... have merged with me." The clown said, "You can think that it is the intelligence dealer nicknamed the clown who is talking to you, or it can be considered that the five of us share Consciousness is communicating with you. It’s just that in this common consciousness, the original clown occupies a dominant position.”

After listening to the clown's explanation, although the soap is still a bit cloudy, there is a chilling feeling... Absorbing other people's souls and merging into one body sounds like something done by demons in fairy tales.

"Why did you do this, can you give us a reason?" Noir asked again, "I suspect that you brought the two of us with you because you intend to use us as a backup 'nutrient'... I guessed right Bar?"

"I would do that if I had to," said the clown truthfully, "but at least not now."

"What is the effect of absorbing the soul? Absorbing the flesh can at least allow your body to obtain energy... What about the soul? What is the use of this kind of thing to you?"

"I have been eroded, irreversibly eroded." The clown said slowly, his voice was low and hoarse, as if a rough rope net was being dragged on a decayed wooden deck, Noir and Soap felt a little inexplicable chill……

"This kind of erosion will be reflected in both the body and the soul. Physical erosion is mutation, and I will become the monster you call me... But physical erosion will not be fatal in a short time, even Will give me great power, as you see."

The clown paused for a moment and continued: "The most troublesome thing is the erosion of the soul. It will gradually change my cognition and make me forget that I am a 'human being'. It will transform my thinking into a period without self-awareness. The program, this program will manipulate me to perform those 'should do'... and in the final stage of erosion, my soul will gradually be assimilated by him, abandon this weak body, and merge with him. "

Both Soap and Noir held their breath, waiting for the Joker to continue.

"If this degree of erosion is compared to a progress bar, when the progress bar reaches the end, I will lose myself and completely abandon my humanity... and become a real 'monster'." The clown said, "Including Zeus , those people, their souls have fallen, although on the surface they seem to still have reason, but what drives them is no longer their original will. They want to sacrifice all the human civilization on the ark to that existence , so it led to this disaster."

"I wanted to stop them, but I was too slow. I can only pin my hope on another 'person'. As for myself, I can only remedy the status quo as much as possible."

"But my degree of erosion is also in danger. In order to delay the time, I have to absorb the souls of those four people..."

"But," Noir said softly, interrupting the clown, "You just said that this kind of 'erosion' is irreversible. Since it is irreversible, how can we delay it..."

"If you compare erosion to a progress bar, I really can't push the progress back, but I can 'extend' the length of the entire progress bar... Absorbing and fusing those souls with low erosion levels, or even souls that have not been corroded, will It can increase the overall 'quality' of the soul... As far as I am concerned, I should have three more days of waking up."

"After three days, if you don't solve the problem, or find a new means of delay, you will 'eat' us, right?" Noir tried his best to suppress the fear in his heart, and asked in as calm a voice as possible.

The clown didn't answer, but just nodded silently.

"What will happen if we fail?"

"All will die, or, perhaps, become His bread." The clown murmured, "Our bodies will work for Him to the last moment, until the oil runs out, and our souls will be wiped out of ego." Consciousness, traveling through countless dimensions, is drawn to Him and becomes one with Him."

Noir: "So, in fact, you 'eat' human beings, which is no different from him, except that his appetite is much larger."

"You're right if you want to understand it that way." The clown suddenly let out a self-deprecating chuckle, "After all, I was created with Him as the object of imitation... It's just that the relationship between human civilization and that existence The gap is so big that it can no longer be described in words."

"Uh, to be honest, I always feel familiar with the set of words you just said." Soap said, "It's that kind of consciousness and soul fusion... I have participated in many combat operations to eliminate heretical sects, those lunatics I have also come into contact with quite a few, and there seems to be such a thing in their teachings. The pious are offering their bodies and souls to the 'great god', so that they can merge with the 'great god' and obtain eternal life... From this point of view, the people who bewitched these congregants should be just like what you said, corroders who have lost their will, right?"

"Almost." The clown said, "The prophet of the heretical sect should be the closest human being to that existence except for another person, but the more truths you know, the higher the level of power you come into contact with. The easier it is to be distorted..."

"Do you know that prophet?" Noir asked, "I heard that he was killed by the field army during the battle at the ruins of the ancient bronze city."

"I've known him for a long time, and he used to be a person who regarded the continuation of human civilization as the highest goal... But it didn't take long before he fell into madness. He killed half of the people who guarded him, and the other half The man was transformed into something like a puppet, he escaped from the containment facility we arranged for him, and hid in the residential area of ​​the Ark..."

"It should be easy to find out, right?" Noir wondered, "In the era when the Prophet appeared, the resident identity registration system on the Ark was already perfect, and he didn't even have a legal identity, even if he hid in a slum , should be able to be found out, right?"

"Someone inside the Undead Crew has also suffered from erosion, maybe Zeus, maybe others, with their secret help, the prophet's whereabouts were erased, thousands of Security Bureau agents searched in various blocks of the ark For six months, there was no gain... During this period of time, the organization that we will later call the 'heretical sect' gradually grew stronger.

"You should all know what happened next."

After the Battle of the Bronze City Ruins, many materials about heretical sects were released—including the report that the Prophet manipulated a group of Seeds of Corrosion to raid the Security Bureau stronghold and then successfully escaped from the Ark.In fact, with the control ability of the Ark at that time, the Prophet could be strangled inside the Ark... Even if the number of erosion seeds he controlled was doubled, even if the Security Bureau and the Garrison Army did not have the ability to "active ammunition" at that time. The thing that restrains the Seeds of Corrosion, relying on heavy firepower and crowd tactics alone, can also pile up the Prophet and those Seeds of Corrosion alive, but in the end he was let go.

"Before that, I already knew that there were traitors in the Undead Crew...and there was more than one," said the clown.

"Have you ever been a member of that Undead Crew Club?" Soap couldn't help asking, "That is to say, those big figures that General Maginot refers to... who can be contacted with the 'black card'?"

"Probably." The clown nodded, "For some reason, I had to leave that organization... But I left behind a plan, a plan that basically has no loopholes. As long as the undead crew members don't fall apart completely, this plan It will be carried out forever.”

"what's the plan?"

(End of this chapter)