mother of all races

Lin Xi and Francis looked at each other for a moment, the latter's eyes were unusually calm, as calm as a robot.

But the strange thing is also here, just in his calm eyes, there seems to be something strange, something... that can make Lin Xi have a secret connection with him.

That feeling is extremely mysterious, mysterious and ethereal, almost hallucinatory.

In a brief trance, Lin Xi felt Francis' emotions slowly surging in his direction.It was an indescribable intimacy and love, sticky and dense, like substance.And Lin Xi's own soul is like falling into a swamp, slowly sinking in this emotion... sinking...

"Hey, Dr. Lynch... Francis... what the hell are you two doing?"

Just when Lin Xi was about to be completely enveloped by that "emotion", Jerry's rude shout suddenly came from the communicator.

Lin Xi couldn't help trembling all over.

Everything before was like a brief nightmare at midnight, which suddenly shattered after waking up.

The alien wind blew by, and the plants around the two of them once again burst into disgusting bright purple and green.

Only then did Lin Xi come to his senses, he shook his head subconsciously, and was surprised to find that he was just like this, inexplicably staring at Francis for a long time, and even forgot his current real situation.

Well, two men looking at each other until they are in a trance, this kind of scene may be called romantic on earth...in this situation, it will only make Lin Xi and Francis look stupid and reckless.

"let me go."

Lin Xi said to Francis for the last time, and after the words fell, he suddenly pulled his wrist back from the latter's hand.

This time, Francis didn't stop him.It's just that tiny ripples appeared in his calm eyes, he lowered his head to look at his palm, his stern expression became sad.

If Lin Xi himself was not the person involved, he would feel that Francis looked as if he had been hurt—God knows why such a man with no expression and a cold aura would, at a certain moment, Behaving like a large military dog ​​that was abandoned.

Sad, but restrained and forbearing.

Lin Xi really hoped that the emotions she saw on Francis' face were just her own illusions.

Because he knew very well that he was only embarrassed by the various intimate behaviors shown by Francis, and he felt helpless about it.Francis' attitude towards him was so weird, so weird that he couldn't understand it.It's a bit pretentious to say it, but Lin Xi always feels that Francis may have special thoughts about him.However, considering Francis' other performances, Lin Xi's guess seems to lack evidence.

I didn't intend to have any kind of intimacy at this damn time. ——Information sender: Lin Xi

Lin Xi avoided Francis, and he stroked his wrist through the glove.

After hesitating for a few seconds, he directly sent this message to Francis directly through the private channel.His attitude was clear that there was no way he would have any emotional development with Francis.

It was only a moment later that he received a loud beep.

Your message has been rejected - system information

Lin Xi: "..."

He looked at Francis suspiciously.

The man who was so close to him still had that calm and indifferent appearance, and when he stared straight at people, he even made people feel a little bit nervous.

If it weren't for the refusal message on the personal terminal that was still beating brightly, Lin Xi might feel that it was just an illusion that her message was rejected so directly.

Because from Francis' point of view, he was completely untouched.

"What the hell are you two dawdling about, you better keep up! This isn't a playground on Earth, damn—"

Just when Lin Xi looked at Francis awkwardly, the curse from the captain rang out again.

There was a strange irritation in Jerry's voice.Of course, to Lin Xi, that irritation actually sounded more like fear.

"I'm sorry, sir."

Lin Xi supported the communicator and said quickly.Then he took one last look at the elusive man.

For a moment, Lin Xi even felt that she saw a scarlet light in Francis' eyes.

He was slightly taken aback, but soon realized that it was just the reflection of the gorgeous surrounding plants in Francis' pupils.

"you……"

Lin Xi pondered subconsciously.

Francis turned his head suddenly. He stared at Lin Xi intently, but he didn't say a word.

Lin Xi immediately pursed his lips. He turned his head, ignored Francis, and walked quickly towards the distant exploration team.

He had enough troubles already, and he didn't want to add an emotional trouble to them.

Lin Xi said to herself.

Francis followed him silently, his steps were steady and fast, keeping a close distance, but not too close for Lin Xi to be too wary.

If Lin Xi could pay more attention to Francis, he would probably find that Francis is actually a quick learner—he learned how to grasp the relationship with Lin Xi faster than anyone else, and he also learned faster than anyone else. Anyone knows cleverly how to behave harmlessly and caringly in front of Lin Xi.

They quickly caught up with the others, except for Jerry who looked back at them and uttered a warning sound of cursing, no one paid attention to them, not even the cynicism that Lin Xi had prepared.

Lin Xi shrugged, then remained silent and joined the team.He had no doubt that the current state of cleanliness was purely because the entire exploration team was silently enduring the intense dizziness brought about by the surrounding environment.The team members who already had some exploration experience were fine, but the mercenaries and the new ordinary crew seemed to be on the verge of collapse.

Lin Xi frowned and listened to the noisy mumblings and complaints in the channel, and was a little surprised to find that he was only a little dizzy before, and he had already behaved like a leader in the entire team.

"Why can't we wear sunglasses."

During this period, it was not that no one made such a suggestion, and Lin Xi was not surprised that he was also a complete novice.

But faced with this question, Jerry just smiled coldly and turned on the black and white mode of the novice's helmet.

"vomit--"

The unlucky guy only lasted for about 10 minutes, and then the entire communication channel was filled with the sound of him vomiting.

"God, shut up please."

"To shut up--"

……

Complaints sounded one after another in the communication channel.

And among this disheveled group of people, probably only Francis still seemed to have no change of expression, so he was a little out of place.

He even helped Lin Xi stabilize his center of gravity when he almost fell again.

One thing to be thankful to God is that this time he finally didn't hold Lin Xi's hand as firmly as before.

But even so, Francis' care for Lin Xi was particularly conspicuous in the entire exploration team.

At least for some people.

Not only conspicuous, but extraordinarily strange.

The two prospecting team members standing in the middle and rear of the team exchanged glances with each other.They were also full of doubts about Francis' actions—before this, the promise made to them by "some people" did not include such an affair with Lin Xi.

In fact, what they should really do is to find a suitable opportunity for Lin Xi to die on this planet.

Both Bryce and Alyssa were puzzled why so many people believed what John Bronson said.

And the answer they wanted was actually in the minds of these two mercenaries.

In fact, almost everyone who was hostile to Lin Xi knew why—John Bronson was the chosen one, and the god from the alien world had warned them of the coming tragedy, and it passed through John Brown Sen's mouth once told them many things, many things that ordinary crew members could not imagine.After seeing the evidence, these team members who are close to John Bronson have confirmed that as long as they follow the orders of the mysterious soul, they will be able to ensure that they survive and live well, but only if, They have to let Lin Xi die.

Otherwise, you will be the ones who die, my poor fellow human beings...

The weird, hoarse, soft tone seemed to still be in the ears of the two mercenaries, and they felt even more anxious and confused because of it.

For the next long distance, the two mercenaries would give Francis signals from time to time that they needed to talk to him, after all they were their leaders before Francis.It's just that since returning from the confinement room that night, Fransey seems to have become another person.

Some people even thought that maybe he had been bewitched by Lin Xi during the short time he was alone with Lin Xi in that dark confinement room.

Otherwise, at least at this time, he should be a little bit expressive of their codes.

But now, look at that man, he almost put his eyeballs on the man named Lin Xi.

Lin Xi didn't realize that her interaction with Francis would unsettle and confuse several others on the team.

After discovering that Francis didn't stick to it inexplicably like before, he relaxed a little, and then, the weird natural environment on this planet attracted all of his attention.

During the nearly four hours of exploring on foot, the environment surrounding the team never seemed to change.

Even if there were, the features of those terrains became blurred and weak under the cover of too bright colors.

They passed a small lake, or rather, a pool, but the constantly changing light on the surface of the pool, like an oil film, made it indistinguishable from the surrounding gentle slopes.

A novice team member almost fell directly into the small pool of water, and no one knew what was under the thing that seemed to be on the surface of the water.Many people screamed, and Jerry rushed over, pulling the novice out of the soft soil by the lake like pulling a carrot.

Then, without waiting for the player to react, he fired a shot at his footsteps.

"Zi-"

The laser beam fired from the gun made a small beep.

At this moment when everyone was stunned, a wisp of white mist emerged from the bottom of the team members' sealed exploration shoes.

A flat thing with a thick jelly-like substance gradually faded and fell from the sole of the team member's shoe.

Its mouth is thick and large, densely covered with thin teeth, and its eyes have degenerated into a bunch of small dots, evenly dotted on its pale body surface.

And it wasn't until this time that the team member let out a terrified cry.

"What the fuck is this?!"

"Things that can eat your feet straight away, damn it! Can't you look at the topographic map while walking?"

Jerry yelled at the team member.

"Don't stray off course! You'll never know what lives on either side of the road..."

Just as Jerry was teaching the newcomer a colleague, Francesy turned his head almost at the same moment, but his eyes did not fall on Jerry and the colleague who was almost bitten by an alien insect. The unlucky one who fell, but directly crossed the colorful lake and looked at the distance of this plain.

For the first time, an expression similar to boredom appeared on his face, which had always been expressionless.

Lin Xi didn't know what was going on with her, but she was so keen to notice the man's movement at the first time.

"what happened?"

He couldn't help asking in a low voice.

Francis blinked behind the mask.

His cheeks were slightly flushed.

Then he opened his lips...

Lin Xi waited with bated breath for his response.

But a few seconds passed, and Francis said nothing.

"Francis?"

Lin Xi couldn't help frowning slightly.

Francis pursed his lips in frustration, and he stretched out his finger to point in the direction he was staring at before.

Lin Xi followed his fingers and looked over.

At the very beginning, Lin Xi didn't notice anything wrong.

The sky here is deep red, and only very occasionally there is a mist resembling a cloud that floats across the sky.

At the junction of the horizon and the sky, there is a faintly shining arc of light, which is the reflection of the sunlight from the distant mountains.

But now, that arc of light is becoming dim——

etc--

dim?

Lin Xi immediately noticed something was wrong.

"...Okay, let's move on. Next time I won't give any help to anyone who strays from the intended route, we—"

At this time, Jerry also stopped his rambling, but before he could finish his words, others interrupted him with uneasily whispering.

"Team, Captain—"

Someone pointed to the lake with Jerry's back turned.

Not far from the entire team, a layer of fish scale-like ripples appeared on the surface of this small pool of water.

Lin Xi, on the other hand, stared at the gradually thicker black shadow in the distance, and raised his voice.

"Look over there—"

he shouted.

Jerry turned his head, and suddenly his panic scream came from the communication channel.

"Oh, no, no, run, it's a storm—"

In the next second, everyone ran, even if they didn't know what was going on with the storm on this planet.

Because apart from this group of humans, countless small or huge creatures swished out of their shelters, and then quickly fled in the opposite direction to them.

It can be said that if it were not for this accident, the human beings in the exploration team would never have imagined that there would be so many biological individuals walking with them in the alien plain that they thought was silent and desolate for such a long time .

Most of those biological individuals are similar to insects on the earth, spiders, ants, cockroaches... but they have completely different characteristics upon closer inspection.

Lin Xi could clearly see the golden-red "ant" carrying three shells on its back, swaying forward like a hermit crab, and also saw two spiders with red blood and pupils on its eye stalks, like human eyeballs. There is even a group of humming and flying huge brown insects, Lin Xi can tell at a glance that they are cockroaches - even on an alien planet that is incredibly far away from the earth, they still have not changed their appearance, probably because this appearance is very important to the human body. For this species, it is close to evolutionary perfection, so much so that it also shows convergence on two different planets.Oh, of course, their compatriots on the earth probably don't have this kind of superb flying ability close to bees, let alone their huge and fat body.

When the group of cockroaches directly passed the running survey team and flew in a certain direction, the communication lines of the survey team were filled with screams of extreme fear.

"Shut up, keep your strength—"

Jerry had to let out a desperate cry at the end to stop some of the humans from committing suicide.

But to be honest, his reminder doesn't make much sense.

In such an unfamiliar environment, human beings have no advantage at all relying on their own physical strength.

Even the disgusting insects on the ground are much faster and sharper than humans.

The high temperature and completely sealed exploration suits easily consumed most of the physical strength of the exploration team members, not to mention that this small group of humans had already deviated from the planned route as they fled in a panic.

By the time they realized this, they had already followed the fleeing insects for a distance of nearly three kilometers.

As for the "storm" that Jerry had no time to explain before, it is now approaching to such a degree that you can feel its horror without saying much.

While running wildly, Lin Xi glanced back subconsciously from the corner of his eye, and he soon began to regret his actions - what he saw could easily affect a person's desire to survive.

It was indeed a storm, and it was a huge storm of catastrophe.

If you have to describe it, that thing looks like a super tsunami that happened on land.It's just that what the tsunami set off was a wall of water formed by huge waves, but what is in the wall of wind that almost engulfed the entire world in this storm is unknown to human beings.

Lin Xi also didn't want to know what was in there.

The wet, undeveloped land became wet and soft after the sharp limbs of countless insects ran past. Many individuals were brutally trampled into balls of insect mud in the process of fleeing. The insides of their bodies are wet and slippery from the squeezed mucus, and many people fall over, then get up and move on.This piece of land that was still in front of them with colorful colors has now been stained with worm corpses and juices into a dirty and chaotic mud. It never ends.

"Damn, we went wrong!"

Soon, someone shouted on the communication channel.

They did go wrong. When Lin Xi raised his head and looked at the scene in front of him, his heart sank.

Perhaps in this world, disasters do continue to call disasters.

The exploration team instinctively followed the panicked insects all the way to escape, but they didn't expect that they had left the flat plain without knowing it, but came to a rugged hill.

This can explain very well why their physical strength will be lost so quickly.

And the road they will take next will only become more and more difficult, but everyone knows that they have no choice.

"Didi-didi-oxygen cycle error-didi-oxygen cycle error--"

To make matters worse, after a long period of strenuous exercise, both the human lungs and the oxygen supply system equipped with the exploration suit have reached their limits.

Lin Xi stepped on the ground when trying to cross a rock, and his feet fell into the mud. Those too bright colors made his eyes misperceive the terrain in front of him.

He tried to get up, but his breathing was out of control, and he soon found himself unable to exert himself.

"Huh...huh..."

Lin Xi panted heavily, sweat dripping down the brow bone drop by drop.

His mind went blank for a moment, and at the other end of the mask, he saw several wriggling figures.

The orange exploration team uniform had been stained with green and yellow bug juice, and it was only after Lin Xi stopped that he realized that his companions were so slow in redoing.

And the storm was getting closer.

Lin Xi was sure that he was not the only one who was unable to move due to excessive fatigue.

"We're doomed, God, we're doomed—"

Someone uttered a cry of collapse in the communication channel.

It was difficult for Lin Xi to tell who that person was, because as the storm approached, their communications were disrupted, and everyone's conversations were mixed with rustling noises.The heavy equipment behind them had already begun to sway from side to side under the strong wind force, and slapped people's backs heavily one after another.

For a while, Lin Xi almost agreed with the crying person in the communicator.

Yep, they're screwed.

The roar of the wind has turned into a huge roar, even through the exploration suit, Lin Xi's ears are still ringing, his hands and knees are on the ground, and then he realizes in horror that the ground is trembling slightly .

Rocks, dirt, some unidentifiable alien root system, and the remains of some unlucky little bug from before, floated up from his palm and were sucked straight into the air.

Even Lin Xi himself felt that his body was shaking.

Maybe in the next second, he will be the one caught in the storm.

And this level of storm can easily tear their group of inexperienced exploration team members into pieces.

(If this is not the case, there is no need for those insects hidden deep in the soil to flee like this at all).

He may die.

Lin Xi thought.

It's just that from Bryce, the information they got was probably "missing members", right?

Lin Xi vaguely remembered that there seemed to be one or two three-person teams who reported missing before—did they also encounter such a storm when they were exploring outside the cabin?

Lin Xi really hoped that her death would not make Bryce too sad.

Maybe Alisa can comfort Bliss...

Just as Lin Xi was breathing wildly, an arthropod almost the size of a basketball flew past him.

This kind of insect has a somewhat funny shape, with a swollen abdomen combined with stubby limbs, and with huge round compound eyes, it even looks a little cute.

Lin Xi didn't know why she noticed it at such a critical moment, obviously there were more strange-shaped insects busy running for their lives around it.

His eyes were fixed on the panicking insect. The latter's body was bright yellow, and it was still quite conspicuous even in such a chaotic environment.

Immediately afterwards, Lin Xi's pupils suddenly tightened.

"do not give up!"

Without hesitation, he shouted to those who were still online on the communication channel.

"Follow the bugs, they know where the shelter is! Look, it's up there!"

Lin Xi wasn't talking nonsense (well, although he also suspected that he was just imagining something in a state of extreme tension) - just now, he saw with his own eyes the funny bright yellow body The worms got into this hill together with their own kind.

It was an unobtrusive cave entrance, especially in this overly colorful world.

Several colorful rocks overlap each other, and at the bottom of them, there is a gap.

The bugs got in through that gap.

In fact, during that moment of observation, Lin Xi had already discovered the whereabouts of the huge insect swarm. On the hill in front of them, there were many similar cracks in the rock, and the insect swarm split into countless streams. , Under the pressure of the storm, they filed in without hesitation.

"What are you looking at...I can't...see nothing..."

It seems that someone responded to Lin Xi like this.

Lin Xi knew that it was because some people had completely lost their will to survive under extreme exhaustion.

He gasped, gritted his teeth and forced himself to stand up again.

But the foot stuck in the mud was firmly stuck in place. Lin Xi's sweat seemed to have pooled into water at the joint between the helmet and his neck. He knew very well that it wasn't because the mud was too sticky, it was just Because he has no strength.

"No... what a joke... I clearly saw it."

Regardless of the fact that the public communication channel was still on, Lin Xi muttered to himself with a pale face.

Then, suddenly, his body lightened.

Someone grabbed his hand and pulled him directly from the ground.

"..."

Lin Xi panted and looked at that person—it was Francis.

Compared with his companions, Francis is completely different.His orange survey suit was impossibly clean save for a few inevitable spots of sludge.

And both his voice and his face revealed that he had no physical problems at all.

In fact, it was as if he had just jumped out of a patrol car and was at his peak internally.

At this moment, he was staring at Lin Xi with lowered eyes.

"Lin Xi..."

He called softly, with a touch of intimacy in his tone.

Then he carried Lin Xi and walked forward.

Lynch had to put most of his weight on Fransey, which made him very uncomfortable, but the latter didn't seem to be affected by Lynch's weight.

Francis's steps were unusually smooth and fast, and it seemed that in just a few breaths he had brought Lin Xi to the front of everyone.

The wind was already strong at this time, and the small stones covered with mucus and mud kept knocking on the exploration suits of the two of them, and the visibility around them also dropped sharply.

Lin Xi had to cling tightly to Francis Xi's body, and the latter's steady pace made Lin Xi feel a burst of indescribable comfort—of course, the premise of this sense of peace of mind was that he didn't notice the weakness of Francis' lower body at all. Strange: Numerous fleshy tentacles are creeping out from the gaps in the exploration suit, and then deeply penetrated into the soil under his feet.

Their existence easily stabilized the body of "Francis".

It's just that "Francis"'s face gradually turned pale because of this.

"We've got to get into the rock crevices the bugs go in, or we're really going to die here—follow me—"

Of course, under the current situation, it was difficult for Lin Xi to notice the strangeness of the man around him. In fact, he was screaming at the communicator desperately, trying to save those people.

However, the quality of sound transmission in the communication channel has reached a worst level.

Lin Xi knew that some people responded to him, but the sound was just a chaotic rustle.

"damn it--"

In desperation, Lin Xi could only force himself to ignore the power alarm, but directly turned on the searchlight on the helmet.

Maybe that way, in worsening circumstances, others could see him.

Soon, the edge of the storm had reached their area.

The location that was barely recognizable before is now only a dim expanse of flying sand and rocks.

Lin Xi thought he would panic because of this incident, but surprisingly, he didn't.

Even, he had a strong intuition in his heart that even without vision, he could still find the correct location without any mistakes—the shelter of Ann that could accommodate everyone.

"We gotta go there—"

Lin Xi gave Francis a sudden tug, and they adjusted their direction together.Lin Xi held him tightly. In this doomsday-like world, the man beside him seemed so solid and reliable.

I don't know how long it took, maybe a few minutes, or maybe a few hours?

In short, the short distance that was not far away by visual inspection almost exhausted the last bit of strength that Lin Xi had accumulated. Fortunately, he finally touched the rough and solid rock a second before losing his strength.

The surface of those rocks is quite smooth, and it may have experienced countless such storms in the past hundreds of millions of years.

Lin Xi bent down and found the gap between the rocks in his memory. He tremblingly took off the fog lamp from his waist and tied it to the entrance of the cave as a guide for others. After doing all this, his body was completely limp Going down, he rolled directly towards the crevice of the rock.

"boom--"

After a short tumbling, Lin Xi fell directly onto a cool flat stone slab.

He lay on the ground staring blankly at himself.

The light inside the helmet provided some faint light, and Lin Xi couldn't see the environment clearly at all, but what was certain was that this was a huge underground cave—as Lin Xi's intuition had predicted.

And after breaking away from the roaring and screaming doomsday storm outside, the inside of this cave is as calm as the deep sea.

Lin Xi gasped for a long time in a dark cave before recovering. Before that, he heard Francis lightly jumping down from the cave entrance.

He walked towards Lin Xi, and carefully helped Lin Xi up from the ground.

"Lin Xi..."

he called softly.

The spotlight inside the helmet had been turned on long before, and under the slightly bluish light, Francis' face was as handsome and calm as a sculpture made of high-quality marble.

"I...I'm fine." Lin Xi forced a smile, "Although I don't know why, but thank you, Francis."

"Ah."

Francis stared blankly at Lin Xi's smile for a long time, then nodded silently.

Lin Xi couldn't help feeling a little annoyed when he heard his brief response.

He thought he could at least get a "You're welcome."

"boom--"

However, soon, the sound of human body crashing from the other end of the entrance attracted his attention.

"Oh, God."

He heard a hoarse murmur, followed by a stream of expletives and curses.

But at this moment, nothing makes Lin Xi happier than hearing the voice of a human being.

"Jerry?! It's you!"

he shouted.

"It's me, it's you, right? Dr. Lin Xi!"

Then Jerry's voice rang out.

"Yeah, that's great...you're following..."

"Oh, yes, yes, thanks for leaving the sign, Doctor."

Jerry moved slowly towards Lin Xi's position.

His thank you was very brief, but Lin Xi could tell that his voice was full of gratitude. =

After him, there were several voices tuned in from the entrance of the cave, one after another, and occasionally someone would be hit by someone coming from behind before he could move his position in time.But no one was angry because of this, even if they kept swearing, they could hear the joy in their tone.

It's just that as the outside storm intensified, after the first few people came in, after a long time, there was no sound from the direction of the cave entrance.

The joy and noise of the rest of the catastrophe faded away in a short period of time, leaving only silence.

No one said anything, but everyone knew that they were probably the only survivors of the exploration team who were squeezed into this dark cave.

"Amber, Corliss, Leon... It's a pity they didn't make it."

In a group of people, Jerry showed amazing calmness. He counted the number of people, and then spoke calmly.

When I jumped off the patrol car, there were fifteen people in this team, but now, there are only nine people here.