Alien Knights

　　 Alfonso was naked, lying on the soft bed on the second floor of the laboratory building, and fell asleep. He may have been a handsome man in the past, but now his face is pale and thin, with a little bit of pain on his face.

　　 "This is the first time I saw the boss's face..." Walton curled his mouth and whispered to Leslie beside him.

　　 Todd squatted down on the side of the bed, looking at the two rows of small and evenly spaced holes in the knight’s spine, carefully disinfecting them one by one with the medical alcohol in his hands, and applying powder.

　　 These are the puncture wounds formed by the "dragon bone" parasites sucking the host's spinal fluid. Although it is minimally invasive, the wounds are extremely deep. If not handled properly, it may cause myelitis and even paralysis.

　　 Adelina sat on the bed, wiped Alfonso's forehead with a cloth dampened with water, and asked worriedly: "Master Todd, when will the boss wake up?"

"Generally speaking, three to four hours. But I think it's a bit strange. What I anesthetizes is only the "armor" on his body. He did not inhale the anesthetic gas in his mouth and nose. Why would he fall into a coma? "Todd was puzzled and checked Alfonso again. Except for the wound on his spine, the most worrying thing was his physical condition.

　　 Due to the long-term dependence on the "keel" to complete daily actions, the muscles of the knight's limbs have gradually atrophied. It's like a normal person who relies on a wheelchair for a long time, and when he gets out of the wheelchair one day, he finds that his lower body can't use strength.

　　 to Adelina, Walton and Leslie, after explaining how to help the patient recover. Todd returned to the lobby of the laboratory, returning his attention to the "keel" parasite that had just been taken off.

　　In the huge wooden barrel, one female and one male two parasites lay quietly in the nutrient solution. The "skeleton" that was originally used to bind and support the host's limbs gradually shrank one by one.

　　 Using the abilities of "Perspective" and "Eagle Eye", Todd repeatedly checked this strange giant parasite. The outermost layer of the insect body is a layer of horn skin that is as hard as steel, and the inside is a space similar to "airbag", which can be called "dermatomuscular sac" in professional terms, and then a layer of soft skin. muscle.

　　 This three-layer structure of the parasite body can not only resist the huge impact of the outside world, but also the dermatomyosac and the muscle layer provide a certain degree of cushioning, which can protect the host's body.

　　 Looking inside, Todd saw something strange. It was some gray-white medulla, which looked a bit like human nerves. This nerve-like substance is distributed throughout the inner body of the parasite, even the pointed hooks used to penetrate the host and draw nutrients.

　　 Seeing this, Todd thought for a while and put forward a bold hypothesis. Did the ether, which was originally used to anesthetize the parasites, enter Alfonso's spine through the "nerve lines" of these parasites?

　　 If this hypothesis is true, then even if the knight fell into a coma without inhaling ether, it can be explained.

　　 But this hypothesis is only a hypothesis, and it does not seem to be proved yet.

Um?

　　 Todd looked at the female worm's tail vertebra, and saw some egg-like objects. With full curiosity, he wore gloves, praying that the parasites would never wake up at this time, while carefully reaching out to the male and female parasites' mating tubes.

　　 Firstly, open the male's copulation umbrella by hand, and then pull out the mate thorns, and finally squeeze the female's reproductive tube with his hand to expel the eggs seen by the "perspective" ability one by one.

　　 There are six white worm eggs, about the size of a date, and the larvae inside can be vaguely seen in the sun.

　　 It seems that the reproductive mode of the "dragon bone" parasite is heterogamy (a sexually differentiated reproductive method produced by the parent body), and the eggs are womb-born (a reproduction method in which larvae have already formed in the eggs produced by females).

Todd found the glass tank originally used to cultivate rose buds in the laboratory, first disinfected with about 70% alcohol, and rinsed with sterile water 3-4 times; then created a darkroom in the laboratory to isolate Sunlight; The entire space was sealed with wax paper and glass to create a sterile environment; finally, sugar, coconut milk, oxygen scavengers and bio-amino acids were used to make the "double-material lactose peptone culture solution" commonly used in embryo breeding.

　　 Put the "Dragon Bone" eggs in and observe every 2 hours.

　　 After doing all this, Todd remembered another parasite that he had kept-"Hive".

　　 After the Battle of "Frankenstein" at the Watchtower, Todd brought the "hive" parasites that had been chopped back to the laboratory, where they were cultured.

Now, the "beehive" in the culture bottle has grown to six times its original size. From the appearance, it looks like a huge black jellyfish floating on the water. The tentacles below have been growing, the longest one. It is even more than one meter long and piles up at the bottom of the culture flask.

　　 "Honeycomb" is completely different from "Dragon Bone". Its reproductive method is "bud reproductive" (first split into a child from the edge of the mother's body, and then gradually grow larger).

　　 On the tentacles under the jellyfish, black earthworm-like nematodes (used to infect the host and turn them into puppets) are born, and over time, these nematodes can grow into new "honeycombs".

　　 While the larvae of "Dragon Bone" were growing, Todd first analyzed the "Hive".

　　The test subject was four mice. A small "beehive" was transplanted onto the back spine of one mouse, and three black nematodes belonging to the mother of the former were fed to the remaining mice.

　　 To be honest, the result of this experiment was a nightmare that Todd didn't want to think about anymore.

　　 The result of the experiment is that the mice transplanted with the "Hive" can control the actions of the other three mice through the vibration of the mother's body. But at the end of the experiment, all four mice died without exception.

　　 A white mouse fed with black nematodes died of neurotoxin. The black nematode in the mouse can emit a toxin that destroys the host's nerve center, thereby turning it into a walking corpse.

　　 The death of the mouse carrying the mother of the "beehive" is horrifying. It was caused by a large number of sprouting black nematodes that broke through the body and died. Thousands of nematodes, accompanied by blood and internal organs, blew up the entire glass box in a mess. Every time Todd thinks about that scene, there is always a feeling of chest tightness and nausea.

　　 After examination and anatomy, Todd also got some information. Black nematodes have strict environmental requirements. When the temperature is higher than 40 degrees and the humidity is less than 40%, under sunlight, when the pH difference is large, they will lose their vitality and eventually die.

　　 The observation of the "Hive" parasites has been suspended for a while.

　　 In summary, there are the following points:

　　 One. "Honeycomb" parasites adopt "germination", which is divided into mother body (similar to jellyfish) and offspring (black nematode).

　　Second, there is a sound generator similar to a vocal capsule inside the mother's body, which can make a rattlesnake-like sound to control the host infected by the offspring.

　　 3. The host infected with the mother will be corroded by the sprouting offspring, and eventually explode and die.

　　4. The host infected with the progeny destroys the nerve center with the neurotoxin secreted by the progeny, and finally becomes a thoughtless walking corpse.

　　 5. According to speculation, as time progresses, when the children grow into their mothers, the fate of these walking corpses is expected to be the same as that of the mother host. Eventually, they will be eroded by the proliferation of their children and burst into death.

　　 VI. The child has poor environmental adaptability and is extremely sensitive to light, temperature, acid-base and humidity.

　　 Todd wrote the last of the observation report, and sighed while looking at the "beehive" parasite in the culture bottle. This thing is simply a biochemical nuclear bomb level weapon. Fortunately, in the world of the previous life, there is no such parasite, otherwise the scene in "Resident Evil" might really appear.

　　 Looking at the "Keel" larvae culture tank and "Honeycomb" culture bottle in the laboratory, Todd blinked and smiled bitterly. Is he a professional parasite farmer?

　　——————————————

　　 The parasite experiment came to an end. Todd walked out of the laboratory and went to visit Alfonso, who had regained consciousness and was recovering from strength on the hills.

　　According to the followers, the first thing the knight asked for when he regained consciousness, everyone did not expect to take a hot bath.

　　 Alfonso, who has been soaking in the bathtub for almost a whole day, can't use any strength on his limbs, and has to rely on others to climb out of the bathtub to change into clothes.

　　 But at least his spirit looks good, and the long-lost smile reappears on his face.

"I feel relieved." Alfonso said to Todd with a smile while rubbing his legs. "The power of "Keel", like a shackle from hell, has kept my soul locked for many years. Now I am free at last."

　　 Hearing this, his followers looked a little depressed.

　　 Adelina walked back to the cabin with Alfonso~www.readwn.com~Walton and Leslie accompanied Todd on an outdoor walk.

　　 The short fat man looked back at the door and slowly said: "The boss has said more than once that from the day he lost his family and became a different species, he will no longer be a knight."

　　 Leslie found a clearing and sat down: "Unlike us, the boss is forced to become a different species. He has tried countless ways to take off his "keel"."

　　 Todd leaned over and asked curiously, "Can you elaborate on it?"

Leslie glanced at Todd and nodded, seeming to have made up his mind: "There seems to be a strange disease in the boss's wife's family. Exhaustion and fatigue can cause physical exhaustion and death. A traveler gave it to A brass tube was said to save his wife. Unexpectedly, what was in the brass tube was "Sutherland's relic". The boss's wife became the heir and killed the family. The child. The boss just witnessed this scene when he returned home. At that time, he lost to his successor and was about to be killed. The traveler reappeared, not only blocking the monster’s attack, but also giving him that Set on "Dragon Bone." With the ability of "Dragon Bone", the boss killed the heir, and when he tried to find the traveler, the other party was gone."

　　 Todd recalled what Huggins had said, and then asked, "Who is that traveler?"

　　 Leslie shrugged: "I don't know, the boss has been looking for that guy for so many years."

Walton suddenly inserted a sentence: "For the boss, whenever he sees the "keel", he will think of his dead wife and children. He actually doesn't want to be a foreign species at all. Maybe he thought at first, The ability of alien species tarnishes the honor of the knight, and only then will he give up his position and become the hunter of the heresy court..."