Their location is far away from the frozen warehouse surrounded by high temperatures and vacuum.
Lin Xi listened carefully to the subtle sounds coming from inside the huge steel monster, and could barely tell that he and Xavier had arrived at the lower level of the Providence—and this seemed to be the conscious guidance of a special individual. .
"What do you want? Scripps."
Lin Xi whispered softly.
But this time, the "ghost" who should have died a long time ago never gave him any response.
The light here is extremely dim, and the light green emergency lights are the only light source in the entire space.
As it stands, the place doesn't appear to be fully activated yet.
Compared with the previous work channel, it seems wider here, and there are also some unnecessary decorative lines on the metal walls and floors.
Before it was completely idle, it looked like an entertainment place on the spaceship... at least in terms of the decoration style.
Lin Xi withdrew his alert gaze. After making sure that there were no extra biological individuals here (such as those worms with human faces and those maddening nematodes), he quickly returned to Xavier's side and began to check. The situation of this reckless king insect.
"I'm fine... hiss..."
Xavier met Lin Xi's stern gaze, trembled, and then slowly took a step back.
It made a vague and ingratiating cry.
"Xavier—"
Lin Xi stared at Xavier like this and was speechless for a moment.
All the way out of the high temperature, Lin Xi was wrapped by Xavier's wings. He was well protected, and not even a hair was bent by the high temperature.
But Xavier looked particularly bad.
The pair of thick and gorgeous wings that Xavier was so proud of had turned gray and withered in the high temperature, and were full of wrinkles like burnt plastic film.
A large amount of blackened scale powder fell to the ground in a splash as it moved.
The surface of Xavier's body was covered with a thick layer of dead skin, and cracks appeared on the charred carapace, faintly revealing the flesh underneath.
"Yes, it will grow..."
Xavier raised his insect limbs, and after seeing the particularly ugly carapace and dead skin on his body, his tentacles trembled violently.
It said pitifully towards Lin Xi.
"I know, I just..."
Lin Xi's voice choked up, and then she continued: "I just don't like to see you doing this to yourself."
If he had known that Scripps' method of dealing with those white nematodes would be so brutal, Lin Xi would have been better prepared.
Lin Xi stretched out her hand and subconsciously touched Xavier.
"Will it hurt..."
"Not at all. And I'm about to shed my skin..."
Xavier said hastily.
But before it finished speaking, something unexpected happened.
The moment Lin Xi touched Xavier, those terrifying gray and cracked shells collapsed under his touch...
…
Self-purification procedure completed—Fault report—
In the deepest part of the Providence, Hal examined the data coming from the outer refrigerated warehouse.
But this time, it is impossible for it to continue to ignore those particularly obvious abnormal information.
Hal's consciousness resides in an extremely dilapidated bionic human body, and his electronic eyes flicker due to the strong invasion of data flow.
It suddenly rushed to Scripps' side, and then firmly grasped Scripps' arm.
"I know you're here—I know you're—"
Hal shouted at Scripps' withered body entangled in the life support system.
There was a kind of intense pain originating from the bone marrow in its voice. If the researchers who originally created it could see Hal at this moment, they would be extremely surprised by how human it appeared at this moment.
Over such a long period of time, countless superimposed data errors not only made Hal a rare electronic consciousness that fell into madness, but also made it incomparably similar to real humans...
At least, at this moment, no one could deny the pain that came from Hal's soul.
If Hal really has a soul.
... Of course, at this time, there are no humans left to witness Hal's "humanity".
And similarly, as a "human" who has barely maintained his physical survival by relying on machinery and drugs, Scripps's sunken eyes are still closed, and he still lies motionless on the spot.
Hal's bionic body made an overwhelmed "click" sound.
It slowly knelt beside Scripps.
"... You don't have to hide. Haven't you given up hiding? Those information and those data changes are the clues you left for me, aren't they? Please, respond to me. Apart from death, I can promise you Whatever you ask for, I can do it all for you.”
Hal said slowly.
Scripps was still lying quietly, but a tear slowly leaked out of the corner of his eye.
Hal noticed the tear immediately.
"Scripps!"
It let out a cheer.
However... that tear was Scripps' only and final response to it.
Even the tears might be just the most common physiological reaction.
Hal once again had to face Scripps, who had no response to him.
This made it feel extremely painful.
And...anger.
"You like those two bugs... you even exposed yourself to help those things..."
Hal whispered.
But soon, those whispers turned into electronic messages that humans couldn't understand.
The miserable and ugly humanoid body came to a standstill again.
Because Hal has returned to the data. It did not hesitate to deeply embed its consciousness into the core system of the Providence.
If the danger of Lin Xi and Xavier can make Scripps' residual consciousness hidden in electronic data emerge, Hal will not mind treating them in the most cruel way.
…
"boom-"
In the Outer Passage of Providence.
Lin Xi shook off a mechanical warrior that rushed towards him. The latter's metal body hit the metal wall heavily, knocking the retro-style decoration to pieces.
This is not the first mechanical warrior to attack Lin Xi and Xavier.
In fact, the metal monsters that had caused them so much trouble were everywhere inside the Providence.
They are like white blood cells in the human body, roaming endlessly in the criss-crossing corridors and pipes like blood vessels, ready to remove harmful substances (well, here, the "harmful substances" are probably Lin Xi and Xavier). ) are completely wiped out.
However, it was precisely because of their appearance that Lin Xi could roughly judge that he and Xavier were gradually getting deeper into the Providence.
These mechanical warriors were almost fatal killers to him and Xavier before, but now they are just a annoying nuisance.
Lin Xi's real trouble now is...
"boom-"
There was another shrill sound of metal tearing.
Xavier raised his arms, and dropped the metal fragments in his hands to both sides somewhat unaccustomedly.
These things in front of him are not a big problem for Xavier, but at this time, Xavier has no way to concentrate on dealing with the enemy.
Because the aura exuded by the first generation of offspring born from its union with Lin Xi is becoming more and more intense.
After quickly dealing with the mechanical monsters at hand, Xavier subconsciously wanted to flap his wings and fly back to Lin Xi, but his back was now empty, and the action of flapping his wings only caused it to He stumbled on the spot and almost fell to the ground in front of his beloved.
"Xavier, are you okay?"
Lin Xi grabbed Xavier and asked.
"Something... strange..."
Xavier muttered anxiously, raised his body again and stabilized his center of gravity.
The temperature of Lin Xi's fingertips and palms could clearly be heard from its forelimbs—which should probably be called arms now.
The skin sensitivity that was completely different from the thick carapace before made Xavier panic and confused.
This kind of contradictory mood has been rippling in his heart since it transformed into a brand new body.
"Xavier?"
Lin Xi watched helplessly as Xavier, who was somewhat unfamiliar in front of him, fell into a long daze again, and had no choice but to call out the other person's scattered consciousness.
Of course, he didn't say much else. It was easy for him to understand where Xavier's strange mood came from. After all, even he couldn't adapt to the other person's current body...
Everything still has to start with the incident where Xavier had to shed his burned shell due to the high temperature.
Lin Xi's touch caused Xavier's originally ferocious insect shell to shatter and reveal his new body.
But no matter what, Lin Xi never thought that under those terrifying dry and charred carapace would be a body exactly like a human being...
There are no sharp spines, no sharp forelimbs, no wings, no carapace.
It is a strong, pale male human body.
Even the face became human—
Lin Xi quickly glanced at Xavier now.
The deeply contoured face was a little strange, but no one could deny how handsome it was.
Xavier seemed to have turned into a strange man.
In its own words, it seems that even it itself doesn't know what this is all about.
"After the insect marriage... the king insect will change his body according to the insect mother's preferences... "
Lin Xi seemed to still be able to hear Xavier's panicked explanation.