Chapter 241 - Insect Sea (Lower)
Number of Words: 3261 Update Time: 2012-11-27 12: 47: 00
It was especially quiet in the dark. The safe passage was shrouded in a layer of black fog. Even with the infrared vision from their helmets, the visibility couldn't exceed 10 meters. Inside the helmet, they could only hear their own breathing. The atmosphere was so heavy that it made people go crazy. The darkness was like a prison, you couldn't see what was outside the prison. All you knew was that no matter how far you walked, you still couldn't leave this prison.
If it wasn't for their mental fortitude, ordinary people would have already gone mad on this seemingly mindless journey.
Compared to the rest of them, Eva's expression was much more relaxed. If it wasn't for the black broadsword on her back, she would have looked as leisurely as if she was taking a stroll. However, if anyone looked closely at her eyes, they would notice that her pupils were constantly changing colors. It was obvious that she had no less visual patterns than their tactical helmets, and that she had more functions.
Switching between the pupils of these different colors, Eva was able to capture all traces of energy activity in the safe passage, thus building a stereoscopic model. At first, Eva's stereoscopic modeling was only a vague outline, but as more and more data poured into the model, it became clearer. The only difference was that Gemini's computational ability was based on the help provided by the intellectual brain, while Eva relied on the intellectual center of her own head to perform the calculations.
If Eva's head was considered a brain at this moment, then Eva's full strength calculation would be equivalent to a comet-level brain at this time, allowing her to perform huge data calculations. "Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu …."
Quickly, a 3D model was formed before Eva's eyes. Following the trajectory of the energy flow, she began to simulate the time within the safe passage.
Through the three-dimensional model, Eva could see a large number of scythes coming from the middle of the safe passage into the base on the second floor. They seemed to have gone through a bitter battle, and many of the bugs' bodies were injured to various degrees. But they succeeded in bringing back some food.
A living corpse!
More than a hundred living corpses hopped around and passed their sickles through the corpses, bringing them back to the safe passage like a string of fires. However, these large worms didn't eat the living corpses. Instead, a smaller green tornado appeared in the passage. The evolved versions of these worms used their scalpel-sharp forelimbs to cut open the torso of the living corpses. Then they laid on the corpses like parasites, and their bodies began to contract rhythmically, as if they were sucking something.
When each of the green tornadoes finished absorbing the spiritual energy, their bodies only expanded by a circle. These fat insects left the living corpses and followed them back to the third floor of the base. Only the corpses of the living corpses were given to the scythe bugs.
This was a scene deduced by the stereoscopic model based on the changes in energy in the passage. Although there would be some discrepancies with the truth, Eve's error rate would definitely not exceed five percentage points, which meant that she was not far from the truth. The scene of the green tornadoes sucking up the living corpses puzzled the woman. She had lived in the underground base for two years and had also captured other insect monsters as research materials, but she had never seen the green tornadoes act in such a way.
Green tornadoes evolved by scythes, which eat the brains of living things. These bugs had a round mouth, and when they ate, they would use their sharp legs to nail their prey. Then, they would open their mouth wide, and use the mouth organ to make a hole in the head with their broken teeth. Then, they would suck the brain paddle into the mouth of the prey.
However, the green whirlwind in the three-dimensional model was obviously not eating. They were more like sucking something from a live corpse and then leaving as transport workers. Just from the stereoscopic model, where did Green Tornado send the 'goods'?
A faint sense of unease swept over Eva's heart, and very quickly, this feeling was caught. After going through the data and analyzing it, Eve figured out that her uneasiness came from the three layers of the base that had quietly changed. Judging from the anomaly in the green whirlwind, the bugs in the third floor's base were probably not the ones that she was familiar with.
Could it be another evolution?
Eve thought silently and made a few careful gestures at the zeros. She did not have a tactical helmet, so she could not communicate with the others through the communication channel. Therefore, she could only communicate through simple gestures.
But all of them could see the seriousness on Eva's face, and they knew she must have found something.
As she came down the last flight of stairs, the fire door was in sight, and Eva suddenly raised her hand and made a stop. The few of them immediately stopped. The fire door at the exit was wide open, but the two Ripper that acted as scouts were nowhere to be seen.
Although these two Ripper were high level living corpses, they would not act according to Gemini's orders. Moreover, there was a large pool of dark red blood by the door, along with a bloody trail on the ground. From the looks of it, the Ripper seemed to have been dragged away by something.
The Gemini's expression was slightly uneasy, and the ordinary living corpses were no longer as quiet as before. Even the butcher was panting heavily, his hand tightly gripping onto his weapon, looking nervous.
"Make way." Eve ordered the Gemini coldly, as if she couldn't see what was at the door.
Gemini immediately pointed his hand at a dozen live corpse archers and growled at them. Although the remaining zombie didn't want to die, under Gemini's domineering attitude, it could only obediently stand out and walk towards the door in a shooting posture.
These zombie archers were the soldiers of the base before they died, and after transforming into living corpses, they retained a certain amount of instincts from before they died. Although they were unable to judge the situation of the battle on their own, under Gemini's orders, they could still use their weapons to suppress the enemy.
After seeing the zombie archer drowned in the darkness outside the door, Eva took the lead and walked out of the fire door with the rest of the zombies led by Gemini. Outside the fire door was a deep passageway that, according to the electronic map, led to a resting area on the third floor of the base. There were all sorts of tunnels leading to every corner of the base.
From the third floor onwards, there were various weapons and biochemical research departments. From the information available to them, the base had been in operation for half a century before the catastrophe. Therefore, it was difficult to say that there were no dangerous weapons or biological weapons below the third layer of the base. However, most of them should be radiation and genetic models of living beings. These things were the main sources of mutated organisms in the base.
On the day after the catastrophe, although the underground base did not suffer a devastating blow, the impact from the meteorite caused some damage to the apparatus, including the cultivation trough and various types of utensils. The appearance of the radiation had caused a large number of creatures in the base to die. However, the life that survived through such an environment underwent a genetic change. As a result, there were scythe bugs, humanoid moths, vengeful goddess and other insect monsters.
A row of zeroes followed the passageway to the gate of the resting area. As they walked, there were bloodstains all the way and they directly entered the door of the resting area. The few of them nodded their heads and took out their weapons at the same time. Eva, her hand on the hilt of her heavy sword, remained in a position where she could draw her sword at any moment, and with a kick from her long leg, she landed on the door.
The strength of this kick was close to a ton, the heavy impact caused the door's bolt to break, and the entire alloy door fell into the world inside the door with a whistling sound.
A loud dang sound reverberated throughout the entire base. Under the cover of the living corpses, everyone rushed into the resting area. This area was nearly a thousand square meters wide, like a square. Not only were there various smoking areas, but there were coffee shops, bakeries, restaurants, and even a movie theater. It could be imagined that the base personnel of the old era would work here as the only place for them to amuse themselves.
But now, not only was this place abandoned, there were also some human corpses scattered around the plaza. It was hard to tell if they were the remains of the base personnel or the living corpses that were dragged into the base by the scythes.
The blood stains left by the Ripper extended under the lamppost outside a restaurant. The two Ripper's bodies had been reduced to a pile of mummified corpses. At least half of their bodies were missing, but it was unknown which monster's food they became. The line moved to the lamppost, and Eva crouched down to see that the Ripper had been torn to pieces by something else.
Judging from the smooth cut marks, it should have been caused by the green whirlwind. This worm was much smaller than the Scythe Worm, but the sharp blades of its legs were much sharper. Even if it was made of alloy, its armor would be evenly split in half by the green tornado.
Suddenly, Gemini let out a warning whistle. Eva stood up and looked to the left of the restaurant. The few of them also looked over, only to see a hound shaped insect flying out of the window of the shop. It flapped the four wings on its back, producing a buzzing sound, but was still able to hover in the air like a bee. The insect opened its round mouth and its stomach suddenly shrank. A round thing fell out of its mouth.
Everyone looked carefully. It was the head of one of the Ripper's.
When they found it, so did the bugs. That scarlet bug's eyes flashed with a greedy light, this bug immediately flew towards them at high speed.
"Be careful, it's Green Tornado!"
Yewa shouted, and almost at the same time, the Gemini had ordered the live corpse archer to call out to the bug that was lunging at them all. Almost all the zombie archers in the legion opened fire at the same time. Roaring gunfire created a base, the muzzle of the guns were still clearly visible even from a few hundred meters away, and even the hard shell of the Green Tornado was unable to withstand the surge of nearly fifty machine guns.
At first, the bullet could only leave a faint white mark on the insect's shell. However, it withstood hundreds of attacks within a second. The bullet's impact finally broke through the insect's defenses and entered its body. As a result, Green Tornado had been shot by the machine gun midway, becoming a hornet's nest. It fell to the ground and thrashed about twice. Just as he was about to prop himself up, a butcher came out of the crowd and smashed the front half of the Green Tornado into pieces with the heavy hammer that was welded together with the big iron rod in his hand. When the green and yellow bug juice overflowed from the hammer, the butcher raised his hammer and roared loudly.
However, the few of them did not have the time to be happy when they heard countless "sha sha" sounds, as if something had rubbed off the ground. A moment later, countless red dots appeared in the darkness of the resting area. He looked inside the helmet and saw a mantis the size of a car, as if it was a hundred times larger than a mantis. It had appeared in every corner of the resting area.
There were so many of them that when the densely packed figures looked at them, they looked like a sea of insects!