Alien Relic Hunter

"How did you survive?" Soap immediately asked.

"I ran for a long time... I don't know how long..." Ulrich recalled, "I collected the little dry food and drinking water left under the rest of the people, and it lasted for about five days... No, maybe six days .

"Later, I remember that I had an illness... a very serious illness that almost killed me. At that time, I felt that every organ in my body seemed to be melting, and my skin was burning and hurting. Rubbing, you can rub the skin and the bloody flesh underneath... I can't remember, anyway, that feeling is more painful than death..."

"Then what happened next?" Soap asked again.

This is obviously a symptom of acute radiation sickness, and it is of the late stage of severe disease... Generally, people who have reached this stage can already prepare for the funeral. There is no way to snatch people back from Hades—the whole body cyborg prosthesis can replace those tissues and organs that are necrotic due to radiation, but the human brain is the only place that cyborg prosthesis cannot replace.

Although the brain is the most "resistant" part of the human body to electromagnetic radiation, in the late stage of acute radiation sickness, the lymphocytes and hematopoietic system of the whole body are severely damaged. Damaged system implicated - in the case of complete loss of self-immunity and hematopoietic ability, the invasion of viruses and bacteria, lack of oxygen supply, etc. will bring fatal threats to the brain... mild symptoms of cerebral infarction, In severe cases, it is directly brain death.

"I don't know...I can't remember how many days passed, these painful symptoms gradually disappeared...When the consciousness came back, the strength also returned...The original skin became a layer of dry, hard, The fragile shell took a long time to completely shed." Ulrich stretched out his hands, "The nails fell off and never grew back."

Soap looked down at Ulrich's hands carefully. Although his ten fingers had no nails, their fingertips were covered by a layer of hard cuticle, just like the claws of wild animals.

"You...you don't know how you survived?" Noir murmured, "Acute radiation sickness, did you recover on your own?"

"There is indeed such a possibility." The clown nodded, "The human gene sequence has infinite possibilities for evolution, and these evolutionary branches cannot be programmed even by the most advanced genetic engineering technology. Self-unlocking... The research institute conducts this experiment to allow these D-class personnel who are put into the test to evolve, or mutate, under the stimulation of the extreme environment. As long as a successful sample can appear, they can learn from this sample. Find a breakthrough point in genetic changes, and expand the scope of gene editing technology."

The existing genetic engineering technology of Ark Civilization is not as simple as inserting a few key characters directly into the code like computer programming... Every existing gene editing technology is obtained through countless trials and errors Valuable experience... There are countless kinds of genetic changes, and 90.00% of them will end in death. Only one path with a probability close to zero is feasible.The research institute's experiment is to constantly drive "experimental subjects" into these "fork in the road" and observe their subsequent changes.

Most of the forked roads lead to cliffs or traps, but as long as there are enough roads to choose, there will always be one or two that will make sense... And these "roads" that make sense will become the key research points of the next gene editing project direction.

For example, in the old era there was a rare disease with a [-]% mortality rate, and all those who suffered from this disease died of the disease without exception.But one day, a special patient was miraculously cured. The doctors conducted the most detailed examination on the cured patient and found some obvious special features in the patient's genes.

But the doctors don't know which special place led to the cure of terminal illness, they can only choose to try, using the most common "control variable method" in science to try a little bit... This is a very stupid method, but it is the most reliable method.

Gene therapy for this rare disease will not officially appear until it is determined that a mutation in a certain gene can give people immunity to the disease... But in the process, there will be countless clinical trials Of the patients died, only a very few "lucky ones" could choose the right "road" to survive.

Ulrich is such a lucky one in a million...or even one in a billion.

"No... I don't think the self-healing of radiation sickness is the key..." Soap glanced at the clown intentionally or unintentionally, "Radiation is not the key, the key is how you survived in this place for five years without being discovered by the Ark's detection robot To be honest, even if there is no radiation in this place, I don’t think I can stay here for five years. How did you avoid those mutant creatures, and how did you find your way here? Every structure of the underground labyrinth Every second is changing, and I don't believe you can remember them all - not even a clown!"

"What, what?" Soap's series of questions immediately stunned Ulrich. He has not communicated with humans for a long time, and even his language ability is still slowly recovering, and his brain will not recover for a while. Without switching from the previous way of thinking that was similar to that of a beast, he couldn't stand the barrage of questions like Soap, and almost shut down Ulrich's brain.

"Answer one question at a time, don't worry." Noir patted Ulrich's shoulder reassuringly, and also took out a diluted military stimulant, and stuffed it to him, "You tell us first , how did you discern the direction in this place?"

"The direction... I, I don't know either." Ulrich shook his head, "I just... walked around according to my feeling..."

"Then have you ever lost your way?"

"I don't know..." Ulrich still shook his head, "But if I want to go to a place, I can always get there... For example, here, I know that big bug up there is very quiet, and it doesn't threaten me, but Other monsters never approach this place because of the existence of this big bug. Therefore, every time I catch prey, I will come here to eat."

"Also," continued Ulrich, "this big bug has a strange smell, and I smell like... like..."

Ulrich repeated the three words "like" several times, as if he couldn't find a suitable adjective after searching his brain, and it seemed that he had forgotten those things that can be used as metaphors in human society, he stuck After a while, I said: "I don't know what kind of smell it is, anyway, it's a smell, it doesn't feel much to me, but it will attract some other small things to pounce on it, then I can catch it to a lot of prey."

Ulrich grabbed the corpse of the flying squirrel as if showing off, and said to Soap and the others, "This is what I caught here... It flies very fast, but as long as you see the opportunity to pounce on it, you will be able to fly." There is meat to eat!"

"From this point of view, this guy doesn't seem to be lost." Soap and Noir exchanged glances, "No matter where he goes, he can return to this place...Obviously, he has regarded this place as a 'safe zone' ' has."

"Could it be the instinct of a creature?" Noir wanted to reach out to support his chin, but there was nothing - the front chest of the protective suit and the helmet are connected together, and it looks like a piece split in two from the front. Like an iron barrel, the person wearing this thing can't even touch his own neck, not to mention his chin.

"I heard that there used to be a creature called a migratory bird on the earth, which would go back and forth between two fixed habitats every season, and some distant habitats even spanned half the world, but these migratory birds Never lost my way," Noir continued.

"This guy is human, and we are human, why don't we have this instinct?" Soap said, "Even the kind of cyborg who puts a positioning device in his head can't be in this underground labyrinth." Move freely."

The structure of the underground labyrinth is very complicated, with an extremely large number of upper and lower floors. This is a constantly changing three-dimensional space, not the kind of two-dimensional plane area that can be expressed with a map. Even without the device, they couldn't get out of this maze.

"He's different from us." Noir shook his head vigorously. "Have you ever seen an ordinary person who can recover from acute radiation sickness without any treatment? Just because of this alone, he is different from us."

Just when Soap was about to argue with Noir, the clown spoke up: "I don't think you have to be entangled in this kind of thing at all... We only need to pursue the result now. As for the process, I don't care. As for the reason, I don't even care."

"Uh... what you said seems to make sense, so how do you plan to pursue the result?" Soap froze for a moment and asked.

"Ulrich Nowitzki, do you want to seek revenge from the people in the research institute, and let those big white coats experience what you have experienced in the past five years?" The clown looked at Ulrich, shocked soundtrack.

"Yes! I want them to die! No, simply dying is too cheap for them! I want to make their lives worse than death, tortured... Ten times, a hundred times, a thousand times what I have experienced Give it back to them!" Ulrich, who had calmed down before, became agitated again, he swung his skinny arms vigorously, and he didn't even care about the prey in his hand being thrown to the ground.

"We have a plan, do you want to participate?" The clown asked again.

"what's the plan?"

"You should know that there are many very powerful monsters in this place, right?"

"I know... those monsters, some are even more terrifying than Thunder Beasts... I dare not even approach the fringe areas of their territory..." Ulrich involuntarily shuddered at the mention of those monsters. Both are much smaller.

"Can you perceive those powerful monsters in the underground labyrinth?" Soap asked with a hint of surprise, widening his eyes.

Ulrich nodded: "Yes...but I never get close to those places."

"Then if I want you to take us to find those monsters, can you find them?" The clown asked again.

"No! I will die, and so will you! You don't know how terrifying those monsters are! Anyone who sees them will be killed! Don't go near those places!"

"Strange, since you have been close to these places and never seen those monsters, how do you know they are scary?" Soap asked puzzled.

"I... I can't say it, but anyway, I know!" Ulrich showed a hysterical expression on his face, "If you want to go, go by yourself, anyway, I will never go near those places even if I die !"

"But you can determine the general location of those monsters, can't you?" asked the clown.

Ulrich was slightly taken aback, and nodded hesitantly.

"If we plan to put these monsters on the ground and let those white coats in the research institute face these monsters, are you willing to help us... This plan is very risky, but the feasibility is not low... As long as you It can help us solve two problems."

"Put these monsters on the ground and let them kill those damn white coats..." Ulrich stared at the clown in a daze, and asked after a few seconds, "Are you sure...you can do it?"

"As long as you are willing to help us, there is a high probability that we can do it." The clown nodded solemnly.

"How do you want me to help?"

"First, you have to help us locate these powerful monsters, so that we can find them." The clown said, "Second, you have to help us find the exit to the ground, and it must be big enough for us to The exit that those monsters passed through. Third, you have to tell us the route between those monsters and the exit... As for the most risky task of leading the monster to the exit, you don't need to participate."

"It's over, I think the second point is useless." Soap said to Noir, "If this guy knew the exit to the ground, he must have run out long ago, so why would he stay in this ghost place for five years? "

But Soap never expected that he would be slapped in the face in the next second——

"I know the exits. There are many exits leading to the ground... some of them are very large." Ulrich said confidently.

"Since you know the exit, why don't you leave here? Are you a masochist?" Soap felt a little uncomfortable on his face, and immediately asked back.

"There are those white coats on the ground...if I get caught by them...it will be worse than staying in this place." A very real fear flashed in Ulrich's eyes-for those people in the institute, he In addition to hatred, there is more fear in my heart.