mother of all races

"Shh-"

The metal door of the greenhouse opened smoothly in front of Lin Xi.

But this time Lin Xi stood at the door for a while before walking in.

There was still a blanket over his shoulders, but he still felt cold—the cold seemed to be coming entirely from within him.

The interior of the greenhouse was still as Lin Xi remembered it, and the deformed chrysalis of "No. [-]" was piled up in the corner of the insect culture tank just like the last time he saw it.

Lin Xi opened the glass tank and walked in. He squatted next to the chrysalis shell and looked at this ugly thing in front of him carefully and carefully like never before.

In the gaps of the cracked chrysalis shell, the film is still there, but "No. [-]" seems to have changed its posture, and Lin Xi didn't see its eyeballs this time.

Under the bright light, the ball of chrysalis rose and fell with a slow rhythm that was hard to detect without looking carefully, a sign that Number One was thriving.

"call……"

After witnessing the normal appearance of the pupal shell of "No. [-]", Lin Xi finally let out a long sigh of relief.

"Really."

He couldn't help talking to himself, and the muscles that were tense unconsciously relaxed.

"...I'm almost like a psychopath, don't you think?"

He said to himself, and then rubbed his slightly swollen forehead.Once he confirmed "No. [-]" with his own eyes, and then recalled his previous guesses that made him extremely nervous, Lin Xi even felt that all his behaviors became ridiculous and neurotic.

God knows why when he fell to the ground, he felt that Sunu Xingdie, whom he had raised with his own hands, would turn into that half-human, half-insect monster in the end, and he had been terrified of it for so long.

"Number One" is probably still dormant at this time, and there is no special movement coming from under the membrane.

This somewhat disappointed Lin Xi.

For a moment, he even wanted to squat down and poke the film of "Number One" lightly like a child raising small animals for the first time, but at this moment, his personal terminal rang inappropriately.

Lin Xi was startled, then clicked on the personal terminal.

Bryce's exasperated voice came from the other end of the terminal immediately.

"Are you okay?! Did something happen—wait, where the hell are you?"

Lin Xi was still a little confused looking at Bryce's face as if he was facing an enemy, but he quickly understood where the problem was.Bryce must have missed his message.

"I, I'm in the greenhouse... I just want to see what's going on here."

Lin Xi quickly explained.

Bryce on the other end of the terminal looked genuinely angry, and Lynch could almost see the raised blood vessels throbbing under the skin of Bryce's forehead.

"Damn it, did you figure out the situation! That lunatic named Sam is probably wandering around in the spaceship, waiting to trouble you! Before this matter is settled, you should pay attention to yourself anyway. Dear Ann—what's in your greenhouse other than that ugly, maddening bug, instead of worrying about that thing, you should focus on yourself!"

Lin Xi shrunk his neck amid Bryce's barrage, and he didn't dare to refute him.

"I'll go right back...I swear I won't run around again."

he whispered.

Then, he wrapped the blanket around his shoulders tightly and left the greenhouse.

And Lin Xi would never know what happened when the metal door of the greenhouse closed behind him.

"Tick tock..."

Dark red blood mixed with mucus trickled out from the place where the chrysalis shell was originally.

Immediately afterwards, the chrysalis, which was normal in Lin Xi's vision, began to gradually fade and distort.

If Lin Xi could see the real appearance of the chrysalis, he would probably be shocked—the chrysalis had been completely broken, and it shriveled up, like a rotten blanket crumpled and piled up on the ground.And the scarred body of "No. [-]" was lying on top of the chrysalis shell that had lost its function.

It maintains a very awkward posture to allow its wings with several holes to spread out.Everything Lin Xi saw before was a mimicry emerging from the surface of the wings.

It's just that under that mimicry, its new body is already scarred and bleeding profusely.

"boom……"

Persisting until Lin Xi was far away, the body of "No. [-]" fell heavily from the top of the chrysalis.

It couldn't get used to its new body at all, although that was the choice it made firmly and unquestionably from the very beginning.

That soft, sensitive skin does more trouble than good.

It felt so painful, the location of the wound was almost as if it had been burned by fire, so painful that it almost wanted to howl.This is a feeling that has never been felt before - if it is still the same as before, the gun in Lin Xi's hand can't really hurt it at all.But now, it has fused human genes to grow that delicate, sensitive nerve and extremely fragile shell.Although those wounds were not fatal, the unprecedented pain made "No. [-]" extremely painful.

It propped itself on the ground with its forelimbs, trying to get itself up, but the sticky and warm blood made it slip again and again. "Number One" fell into a pool of his own blood, and the wound was stimulated again. It twitched on the floor for a long time before gathering strength to try again.

But in general, a race like it always has a unique talent in adapting to a new body.After a few tries, "Number One" had successfully mastered the trick and half-sat up—a somewhat comical gesture in its insectoid form, but its joints finally became comfortable in this position Some.

"Ugh..."

From the throat of "Number One" came a sound that even he himself felt strange.

The vocal cords of humans are very strange, and the sounds that can be produced are very limited. At least to "Number One" himself, those whispers are almost harsh.But if it was Lin Xi, the voice coming from his lips was so wonderful.

Thinking of Lin Xi, "Number One" began to feel an unfamiliar dull pain in his chest.

This feeling is more new.

Maybe it's the thing called the "heart" that it imitated the human body layout on the chest. Maybe it's at work... Some vague thoughts slipped through the mind of "Number One".

That is to say, after the two human bodies and a part of the brain are completely combined, these weird and complicated ideas will come out inexplicably. "Number One"'s instinct as an insect was flustered and at a loss for his constantly changing thoughts.

It looked down at its wound.

Those were blasted out by Lin Xi with a pulse gun.

Although the lethality of the pulse gun is far inferior to that of the ion gun, the pulse beam still left several huge holes in its body, but in just a few hours, those holes have been covered by black and red muscle fibers. and connective tissue clogged up.The new flesh and blood are constantly growing under the thick mucus, while the blood gushed out from the injury before is squeezed out of the gap between the flesh and flesh in a fluttering motion.

"Number One" tentatively stretched out his forelimb to touch the wound.

Fresh pain currents usually rush into its cranial nerves.The excruciating pain reminded it again, maybe it did pupate into a failed body this time.

...what's in your greenhouse other than that maddeningly ugly bug...

The words that Bryce roared out in Lin Xi's personal terminal before seemed to ring out again.

This is not the first time those humans have described it in this way in front of it.

So... Even if he tried to make a large-scale modification to his body, is his body still "ugly"?

The moment this idea flashed in "Number One"'s mind, the heaviness that gradually pervaded his chest confused him again.

It also takes a long time to learn the word for that feeling.

"sad".

"Lin Xi... Lin... Xi..."

And for "Number One" at this moment, the only thing it can do is to keep repeating that name.

It is so nostalgic for that fragile and warm human being, from the moment it first gained consciousness in the void.

Then, it tried to imitate the things Lin Xi did in the cabin.

He looked at the light and shadow that suddenly flashed from the corner of the wall, and squeezed water out of his eye sockets—"No. [-]" also imitated Lin Xi.

When hot liquid poured out from its eye sockets, it was almost frightened by that strange feeling.Absorbing the human body and forcibly splicing the complex organs inside his body brought a particularly strange feeling.

"Woooo..."

A strange and hoarse whimper rolled out of the horrible monster's throat.

Obviously it was just an imitation at the beginning, but strange things happened like this.

"Number One" found that he couldn't stop the scorching liquid rolling out of his eye sockets.

"Woooo... woo... Lin... Xi..."

Even if it keeps repeating the name that can make him feel at ease and happy.

The pain of the wound, the word "ugly" being repeated over and over again, and the most important... At this night, when Lin Xi stared at it, the incomparably cold eyes were still the decisive shooting...

Countless chaotic fragments piled up and weighed heavily on the chest of this young "Star Butterfly".

It just sobbed and stroked its painful wound, crying continuously in fear and confusion.

……

"Well?"

Lin Xi made a confused sound, he raised his head in front of Bryce's desk, and then looked in the direction of the door thoughtfully.

"Lin Xi?"

Bryce looked up from the gigantic polythene box on the table, and asked a little nervously, "Is there something wrong?"

That box was full of sundries of one kind or another, all from Lin Xi's previous living cabin.The ship's mercenaries and security personnel inspected the ruined house, and then sealed it off.The reason why Bryce left the medical room before was to go there to help Lin Xi clean up the daily debris that did not need to be investigated.

The cabin that Lin Xi was allocated next was smaller and more dilapidated than the previous one (probably because there was no mission supervisor from the Earth-Moon Joint University beside him when the cabin was allocated this time), and now Bryce and Lin All Xi is busy with is picking up the maddening bits and pieces of life.

"Did you hear any sound? Someone seems to be crying?" Lin Xi turned her head to listen carefully to the surrounding voices and said, "It was very small, but I think I heard—

"When did you become such a person who cares so much about external affairs?" Bryce turned his head in the direction Lin Xi was looking at, he listened carefully for a while and then shook his head, "No, I don't care about anything. did not hear it."

After hearing Bryce's answer, Lin Xi could only frown and put the matter behind him - after all, when he noticed it, the ethereal crying seemed to disappear.Even if he listened carefully, all he could hear was the noise of the spaceship itself.

"Well, maybe it's my illusion..."

Lin Xi said a word tiredly.

Although the tiny crying sound was like a very small hook, which made his heart tremble involuntarily, Lin Xi didn't have the mood to continue exploring at this time.

"I can give you another check if you need it."

Bryce said.

"...No other meaning, just in case. After all, even Alisa mentioned this before, and she thinks you have such and such small problems since the accident."

"You mean fantasies and nightmares, don't you?"

Lin Xi sighed and replied.He glanced up at Bryce, and the man standing next to him looked tired and nervous and irritable.After Lin Xi came back from the greenhouse, it took a lot of time to calm down his emotions.

Lin Xi was unwilling to let his previous efforts go to waste.

He paused for a moment, and then added an additional explanation for himself: "Too many things have happened in this period, maybe it's just my old habit that makes me so suspicious—"

For example, before, he even had that kind of whimsical idea, thinking that "Number One" might be that terrifying half-human, half-worm monster.

"Of course, it would be nice if you would give me some more calming gel sticks."

Lynch added.

"You never want to."

Bryce rolled his eyes at him.

His tone sounded serious, but Lin Xi knew that his last words had worked, and Bryce looked a little more relaxed than before.

They then began the difficult cleanup.

Bryce helped Lin Xi sort those trivial supplies like a qualified housewife.up

"...books, books, antique record players, game consoles... Hey man, can't you pack something useful in your luggage?" he whined as he packed.

And Lin Xi could only listen to the nagging from Bryce with a terrible headache.

However, when Bryce took out a small but old metal cube from the box, he stopped talking all of a sudden.

Lin Xi sensed something was wrong, and looked towards the thing in his hand, and then Lin Xi's face changed suddenly.

"Oh no--"

He directly snatched the infographic recorder that recorded Savile's image from Bryce's hands.

The small instrument is now covered with traces of acid corrosion, and even the projection lens has become extremely cloudy.Knowing that it was impossible, Lin Xi still involuntarily pressed the switch together, and as a matter of course, the instrument in his hand was as cold and rough as a stone on Mars, without any movement.

Although this thing has often malfunctioned since a long time ago, Lin Xi never thought that one day, it would be damaged to such an extent.

Lin Xi looked at the instrument in his hand in shock, and for a while his mind went blank.

"Maybe, when we get back to Earth, we can find someone to fix it." Of course, Bryce also knew the importance of this recorder to Lin Xi, he said dryly beside Lin Xi, and then paused briefly. After downloading, he quickly changed his words, "Or, we can find a time to talk to the people from the engineering department another day, maybe they can fix this..."

"Ah."

Lin Xi couldn't say a word, he had to bite his lips tightly so as not to make any strange noises because of extreme frustration and pain.

His face was the worst, and although he tried to control it, the way he looked scared Bryce.

"Ah, by the way, I remember that I have a maintenance robot here, which is used to debug the therapeutic device, maybe it can repair this recorder—"

Bryce frantically rummaged through the tiny maintenance robot, but one of them was not small enough to overturn a large stack of documents on the table.

The scene was suddenly a little chaotic.

Lin Xi hurriedly sorted out her mood and began to pack up those materials with Bryce.

Jerry Edwin Intracranial A-V117 Neural Accessory Component Malfunction

Lin Xi accidentally saw the handwriting displayed on a certain piece of electronic paper.

He paused, and involuntarily reached out to pick up the electronic paper.

This turned out to be Jerry's physical report.

Since that accident, this former good man has been in a state of severe coma, so that no one can understand why he deliberately led the wrong way, and why he led the survivors of the exploration team directly to the hidden machine. Hundreds of years of flying machines underground.

Although he didn't show it, Lin Xi still pays special attention to Jerry's weirdness that morning.

At this time, he got his physical report. He knew it shouldn't be, but he couldn't help but read it carefully. The neural auxiliary component was directly overloaded inside his brain, and the heat that it emitted almost killed Jerry's brain. It was cooked, and it could even be said that it was a miracle that Jerry was still alive.

"It's scary, isn't it?" Bryce pulled the report from Lin Xi's hand, and he gave Lin Xi a wry smile.

"Jerry has always been worried about his age, so he applied for a neural auxiliary component very early on. This thing is said to be able to help humans improve all aspects of cognitive ability and calculation ability. Who would have known that it is also very likely, a How about burning a person's brain into a pot of porridge?"

"Your analogy is disgusting."

Lin Xi glanced at Bryce, and he couldn't help but say.

At this moment, a thought flashed through his mind like lightning.

Etc...helping improve human cognition...

He seems to have heard similar words...

Ah, by the way, it's Ernie, Ernie once complained, if only he had installed that expensive chip in his brain like Dr. Ando.

Shizuo Ando also installed that kind of component in his brain.

Lin Xi suddenly took Bryce's hand to pack up the documents.

He stared straight at him and said hastily: "Shizuo Ando—has Professor Ando installed similar things before? Senior researchers like them must have installed things in their minds in order to conduct better research. !"

"Ah, yes, I remember that Professor Ando did install some chips, but it was just a very basic auxiliary chip, purely used to store information—"

"And what about John Bronson?"

Lin Xi suddenly interrupted Bryce.

If it was or before Bryce was still at a loss for Lin Xi's thoughtless inquiry, he seemed to have noticed something as soon as the name John Bronson was uttered.

Blaise remained silent, tapping his fingertips on the personal terminal quickly.

Soon, all of John Bronson's personal information that had been stored on Bryce's computer when he was still alive appeared—from how he fixed his teeth to his own death investigation report.

After quickly reading John Bronson's information, Bryce looked towards Lin Xi in shock.

"I really don't understand why I missed this...John doesn't have a secondary chip in his brain, but because he has a tiny therapeutic device that periodically emits microcurrents to stimulate the brain to slow or stop AZ. The primary symptoms of Haimer's disease. John relied on this therapeutic device to pass the screening and board the Helios at that age to participate in this exploration mission."

After speaking, Bryce's whole face was tense.

"Do you think... there is something wrong with the auxiliary components of the three of them?"

he asks.

"I have no proof."

Lin Xi said dryly.

"But I think there must be something wrong with them. John is dead, Ando is crazy, and Jerry has been in a coma for a long time." He paused and said, "Lena once mentioned something when Jerry was ill. At that time, I She didn't pay much attention to it: she mentioned that her grandma had symptoms similar to Jerry's, and it was the large military communication station near the hotel that caused the problem of those electronic components. Those electronic components received too much information garbage, and then the chip in the brain has a problem..."