Mother of Insects

Chapter 22

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Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or gave me the nutrient solution~

Thanks to the little angels who threw [Bazooka]: 9 black cats; 1 light and shadow black and white;

Thanks to the little angel who threw the [Grenade]: 1 Peach Demon on Mo Shang;

Thanks to the little angels who threw [Land Mines]: 3 Geng Xin and A Zhuang; 2 Yan Yan; 29986624, 33702535, Bag Rabbit, Chen, Researcher Talloran, Chen Chen, Little Match’s Gold-eliminating Beast, Cici, and Corrupt Vision The world, ah 1;

Thanks to the little angel who irrigates [nutrient solution]:

186 bottles of midnight blue; 88 bottles of light and shadow black and white; 47 bottles of famous unknown; 38 bottles of Sishu; 34 bottles of card bread; 30 bottles of eeics, sleep after reading the update; 25 bottles of Mo Zhongming, Xiaowu zero; wain, shadow, no If you know what to call it, just pick it up, sender, Chi Mo, free and easy*, name incompetence 20 bottles; Tears and Laughter 19 bottles; Tired Saint 15 bottles; Herman 13 bottles; Sala Lala, only know how to cry, pig Jing, magnetic tin xxx, young man draws his sword, yry, from Aman, no problem to say there is a problem, tooth roar hey, green green rush, tiger tooth tip, I am a primary school student 10 bottles; snake contains 9 bottles; Luo Su 7 bottles; Faust De, I want to have a deacon, silently Mo, puff puff puff, I want facial expressions! 5 bottles; Smiling, Juanmai, The Wind Drawn by the Sycamore Tree, Tal 3 bottles; Wandering Soul, Three Inch Nails, Lu Twelve 2 bottles; Mo Shen, Jiao, Triticale, Skin Allergies, Meatballs are Happy, Owl 1 bottle at dusk;

Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!

It’s a “covenant.”

Lin Xi thought.

When the "Covenant" is activated, all living energy on the ship will be directly cut off until this damn energy black hole reaches a stable period, and then secondary energy will be re-supplied -

The life-support device fixed to Lin Xi's bedside was directly connected to the energy system of the living cabin.

Obviously, when he handed over the Star Butterfly egg sheath to Lin Xi for temporary safekeeping, Ando Shizuo thought that he would take it back soon. He did not redesign the energy circuit for the egg sheath's life-support system. To ensure that machines that have a direct impact on their lives can still run smoothly under emergency conditions,

"Damn, damn, damn!"

Lin Xi rushed over, and he restarted the life-support device, but probably because of the different power of the secondary energy, the damn machine was as silent, dim, and indifferent as a corpse.

Through the transparent petri dish, Lin Xi could clearly see that the egg sheath of the star butterfly was in a very bad state. The tentacles that once made him feel calm and interesting have completely turned into an opaque gray-white color. The way they float in the culture fluid is also weird, looking stiff and lifeless, almost like pieces of hard plastic.

The egg sheath itself was not much better. It became wrinkled and the color became very turbid.

"Oh no… "

Lin Xi stared intently at the most fully developed "No. 1" in the egg sheath - it almost looked like it was about to turn into a complete adult insect, but now it was solidified in the turbid film like snot.

The eyes that were originally shining like rubies also dimmed, turning into two small gray black spots.

And its wings…

God, it was the first time Lin Xi saw the appearance of the wings of a young star butterfly. They were thin and transparent, as delicate as the top silk gauze in the region, with some round spots dotted on its wings.

For some reason, Lin Xi always felt that under normal conditions, those spots should glow with a beautiful and soft iridescent light like top-quality pearls.

But now, in this damn life-support machine that has completely stopped functioning, those spots are as frightening as mildew.

Lin Xi felt an indescribable distress.

He had always thought that he would not be too emotionally invested in an insect egg—the kind that had not yet developed successfully.

He thought that he was just looking at this little guy casually every day, and then adding some nutrients to it step by step according to the prompts, and that was it.

But when he saw with his own eyes that the egg sheath he had taken care of was suffocated to death in the broken life support machine, he was hit by an unprecedented feeling of pain.

And just at the moment when Lin Xi thought that the egg sheath had completely lost its activity, "No. 1" trembled very weakly in his sight.

The pair of small black dots turned dim red again in a short period of time.

It turned its head sideways and moved its body slightly in the direction of Lin Xi.

At this moment, Lin Xi actually had a ridiculous feeling, but he actually felt that an insect seemed to understand human emotions, and that it was looking at him.

However, the weak movement of "No. 1" seems to be the last reflection of this star butterfly (and if nothing else, it will be the last star butterfly in the entire universe).

It kept that movement frozen in place, and the redness in its eyes was fading away little by little, as if its life was gradually passing away.

"No-"

Lin Xi breathed out subconsciously, and then, by some strange coincidence, he remembered what Talan had said casually when he was scolding him: "If we hadn't discovered it in time, it would have almost died of suffocation in the sealing fluid."

Thinking of this, he suddenly shuddered and finally came to his senses.

"I'm a fucking idiot!"

Lin Xi cursed himself angrily.

Maybe the star butterfly's egg sheath doesn't need air, but it certainly can't survive in an oxygen-starved liquid.

After the life-support equipment was powered off, all gas delivery stopped, and what Lin Xi saw was the egg sheath—and the gradual suffocation of the star butterfly that was about to hatch.

Lin Xi jumped up, and he started to operate hurriedly, intending to take out the egg sheath directly from the life-sustaining device.

But what made him extremely angry was that the sudden power outage and the re-energization of the secondary energy seemed to have directly burned out the chip of the instrument. The life-support instrument was completely locked, and it was completely unable to remove the contents according to normal operations. take out.

"Hell, I should really curse you, Professor Ando—"

Sweat broke out on Lin Xi's forehead. He tried several other methods, but this instrument had many parts added by Professor Ando himself. These parts may be very high-end and very expensive, but they also make this instrument more advanced and expensive. The instrument turned into a black box that could not be cracked by outsiders.

"Fuck you!"

Seeing the egg sheath becoming more and more lifeless in the process, Lin Xi's veins popped out and she completely lost her patience.

He turned around suddenly, dragged out his tool box, then took out the impact hammer that was only used for alien sampling, and smashed it against the transparent petri dish.

Under the impact of the hammer head, uniform cracks soon appeared on the surface of the petri dish.

Lin Xi threw away the impact hammer, used his own hands to tear open the explosion-proof film on the surface, and then took out the egg sheath from the composite material debris that had been broken into small uniform pieces.

In such an excited mood, Lin Xi didn't notice the stinging pain coming from her knuckles.

Similarly, he did not notice that the tentacles of the egg sheaths, which he thought had completely lost their vitality and became lifeless like hard plastic, returned to their original softness and softness the moment they were touched by him. transparent. They stuck to Lin Xi's wound silently.

Wisps of faint blood were absorbed by the suction cups on their surfaces that were so small that they were invisible to the naked eye, and then all were transported to the inside of the egg sheaths.

Lin Xi focused all her thoughts on "No. 1" inside the egg sheath, and was completely unaware of the small movements of the egg sheath itself.

He used his fingertips to carefully scrape away the nutrient solution that had begun to smell slightly putrid on the surface of the egg sheath.

Let the original epidermis of the egg sheath be exposed.

The first time Lin Xi saw the star butterfly's egg sheath, he couldn't control his emotions and took two steps back. Moreover, at that time, he always thought that the insect's egg sheath just sounded disgusting.

But at this time, he didn't care at all.

"Hey, little thing, you can do it, right? I know... you can..."

Lin Xi whispered to "No. 1".

The star butterfly's egg sheath lay quietly in his hand. Its surface was moist, but it didn't feel as slippery and jellyfish-like as Lin Xi thought.

On the contrary, it feels hard and even a little rough.

And, it's warm.

It doesn't look like a bug, but... like some kind of small animal, warm, and with a very weak pulsation.

It's just that the two tiny eyes of "No. 1" are still black.

It was stuck there, still not moving.

"Hey, little guy, don't be like this, I had a hard time getting you out."

Lin Xi frowned.

There was more frustration in his tone.

He stretched out his hand tentatively, then took a deep breath - he tore open the egg sheath near "No. 1", and then took a look at the motionless body of "No. 1" from inside the egg sheath bit by bit. .

When Lin Xi was a naughty and mischievous child, he did many similar things.

But he never imagined that one day he would do the same thing to another alien creature that was about to become extinct on a spaceship that had been stranded on an alien planet.

A few seconds... or more...

A slight commotion came from Lin Xi's palm.

Lin Xi's eyes suddenly opened wide. He held his breath and carefully observed "No. 1" in his hand.

He was finally pleasantly surprised to see that "No. 1"'s eyes gradually returned to red, and its body, which had just been taken out of the egg sheath by Lin Xi, gradually stretched.

Only then did "Lin Xi" realize that as a newly hatched bug, "No. 1" was quite large. ,

His body was still wrinkled when it first came out of the egg sheath, but once it stretched out, its body became almost as long as Lin Xi's forearm.

Its wings trailed long behind it, and just as Lin Xi imagined, those round spots were filled with beautiful colors that were so magnificent that they seemed like a miniature miniature of the entire rainbow.

And it also has two very long tentacles, just like a butterfly, with a slight curl at the top, which suddenly looks transparent, but under the change of light, the two tentacles also shine like some kind of gems. of light.

"I find you quite beautiful."

Lin Xi stared at "No. 1" who finally came to life, and couldn't help but murmured softly.

He suddenly fell down on his bed and breathed a long sigh of relief.

Star Butterfly seemed to understand what he said. It tilted its head and its wings trembled softly—the spots with bright colors suddenly became more numerous.

"Wow-"

Lin Xi was almost startled, but then he couldn't help laughing.

He had never felt so close to a bug as he did now.

And he didn't hate this feeling.

No matter what, in the only remaining egg sheath of Star Butterfly, at least "No. 1" is still alive. After confirming this, Lin Xi became much calmer than before.

He first placed the star butterfly in a container that he placed in a plant incubator in the cabin.

On the one hand, this semi-open incubator can control the range of activities of the star butterfly, and on the other hand, it can ensure the flow of air. Although Lin Xi himself didn't know why the Sunu people's star butterflies needed oxygen.

As for the remaining egg sheath, Lin Xi originally thought it was completely dead, but what she didn't expect was that Lin Xi made an extra surprising discovery about that egg sheath.

The remaining eggs are still alive.

This was incredible, but Lin Xi was sure that this was not his dream.

After placing "No. 1", Lin Xi returned to the egg sheath. He found that the outer shell of the egg sheath, which had become turbid before, had now returned to translucency. Most of the tentacles that looked like hard plastic had fallen off, but there were still some A small part of the tentacles remained, and they remained as they should be.

Of course Lin Xi wouldn't know at this time that those were the ones that secretly sucked his blood before.

And most importantly, Lin Xi observed the remaining row of elongated oval eggs.

They seemed silent before, but now they are moving. Under the lens of the instrument, they are squirming regularly inside.

The row of red dots for the eyes proves that they are also developing slowly.

"Wow... Looks like today is your lucky day."

This was like some kind of miracle. If it were in the laboratory, Lin Xi was sure that his mentor would think that he was cheating on the experiment - but in any case, after experiencing a serious failure of the life-support equipment, all the eggs were destroyed. Still alive, and "No. 1" has even hatched successfully.

Thinking of this, Lin Xi couldn't help but smile.

For him, this was the only comforting thing in this whole fucking day.

After observing for a long time, Lin Xi placed the egg sheath in another plant petri dish. He found that in a dry environment, the egg sheath did not seem to react badly.

"Before I get Professor Ando back, promise me that you will live—"

Knowing that neither Egg Sheath nor "No. 1" could understand, Lin Xi knocked on the glass and gave instructions to them before leaving the cabin to find Professor Ando.

Of course, the egg sheath showed no reaction, but "No. 1" fluttered its wings in the culture tank.

Then it floated upwards a few centimeters, and its six feet landed lightly on the surface of the glass.

Red eyes stared straight at Lin Xi.

Lin Xi couldn't hold back and knocked on the glass again.

The tentacles of "No. 1" swayed.

… It really seems like it can understand human speech.

Lin Xi thought with admiration.

But after that feeling of affection, Lin Xi felt a layer of sadness in his heart.

After knowing that the star butterflies hatched successfully, Ando Shizuo would take "No. 1" and the remaining developing eggs back anyway - even if he still couldn't take care of these star butterflies, the captain should also assign them A more professional assistant will take care of these new born little lives.

After all, it is one thing to live and die in the egg sheath of a star butterfly, but it is another thing to have a priceless star butterfly that has successfully hatched.

However, reality told Lin Xi that sometimes, things do not always develop as expected.

Based on previous experience, Lin Xi did not go to Ando's laboratory at all but came directly to his cabin, but now there were quite a few people outside the metal door.

And the appearance of two of them surprised Lin Xi even more - after all, judging from the current situation, these two people should be very busy now.

"Alyssa? Bryce? What happened?"

Lin Xi stepped forward, looked at his brother and Alyssa in shock, and then asked.

"Lin Xi?"

"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be lying on the hospital bed and receiving treatment obediently?"

Alyssa and Bryce spoke at the same time.

Lin Xi smiled and quickly avoided Bryce's question and looked directly at Alyssa.

"I really need Dr. Ando's help now... on some academic matters. But what is going on now?"

Lin Xi looked around, feeling a little uneasy.

In addition to Alyssa and Bryce, he actually saw Sorian, a man who was the force representative on the ship, as well as some people from the Department of Order. Lin Xi glanced at their waists and noticed with increasing uneasiness that they were all equipped with weapons.

This is not a small formation inside the Helios.

"Well, something happened..."

Just as Bryce was about to answer Lin Xi's question, Sorian looked over coldly. This man with a beard had extremely sharp eyes, and with just one glance, Bryce suddenly stopped talking.

Lin Xi also felt that his whole body was carefully looked at by Sorian.

"Is it something I shouldn't know?"

Lin Xi paused, and her mind instantly flashed to Liz, who had become extremely weird, Shizuo Andeng, who was incredibly haggard, and... and the statue that was privately appropriated by the Andos and placed inside their cabin. .

He felt like things were getting really bad.

"Yes."

Sorian said coldly.

"It doesn't matter." At this moment, Alyssa said, "Dr. Lin Xi is also a support staff sent by the Earth-Moon United University. I want to say that maybe he can give us some help."

"If you put it like that, I think I'm still—"

I still don’t need to know.

Before Lin Xi finished speaking, Alyssa looked directly at him and said cleanly: "Liz is dead."

"What?!"

Lin Xi never expected this answer anyway.

He looked at Alyssa in shock, almost thinking it was some kind of joke.

But Alyssa never jokes in official business.

And soon, Lin Xi also figured out why there were heavily armed mercenaries and people from the Department of Order outside the Ando couple's cabin.

Liz's death was really too... terrifying.

Lin Xi took a look inside the cabin under Sorian's guidance, and then he was stunned by what he saw.

The room of Mr. and Mrs. Ando changed from the previous darkness, and all the lights were turned on. It is precisely because of this that everything was illuminated in detail.

Liz was still stuck to the ceiling with her own mucus just like the last time Lin Xi saw her.

However, her belly, which was so swollen that it seemed like it was about to explode, was now shriveled up.

A huge bloody hole appeared in her abdomen, and the babies that should have grown up in their mother's arms had all fallen out of the hole and were lying motionless on the ground.

"vomit-"

An investigator who was taking notes suddenly made a violent retching sound. She suddenly dropped the recorder in her hand, then rushed past Lin Xi to the door.

Lin Xi looked in the direction of her escape.

His face instantly turned pale.

His ears seemed to hear the unusually joyful voice of Shizuo Ando when they were parting not long ago.

"It's octuplets... I will have eight lively and lovely children... You will like them, Dr. Lin Xi."

Shizuo Iteng was right, those were indeed octuplets.

However, did Shizuo Ando know that his wife's belly was not filled with eight babies, but... eight monsters

Lin Xi thought.

It was a creature that only appeared in the most terrifying dreams.

In most areas of their bodies, they look just like human babies, red, wrinkled, and even growing fetal hair. However, in other areas, they look like... bugs. There are faintly reflective chitinous carapace, clearly visible links, and the joints and limbs growing out of the links, as well as the long eye stalks protruding from the eye sockets, with cloudy eyeballs hanging at the top.

They are like plasticine that has been hastily kneaded together by God. Human parts are mixed with insect bodies. It is so terrifying that one cannot find any words to describe it.

I'm afraid the only good thing is that, at least at the moment Lin Xi saw them, they were all dead.

It's just that the posture with their backs on the ground and their limbs stretched toward the sky looks really disgusting.

Lin Xi covered her mouth and used all her willpower not to spit it out.

Thorian reached out and patted his shoulder gently.

"ah-"

Lin Xi screamed in fright.

"Actually, you came just in time. I looked at the visitor records. I'm afraid you were the last person to see the couple."

It was as if Sorian didn't notice Lin Xi's gaffe at all. He stared at Lin Xi coldly, and then said lazily.

Lin Xi trembled.

"I... when I saw them before... they were still alive..."

The monster in Liz’s belly is still alive too!

While you are talking, they may be huddled together, listening to your conversation through their thin skin.

Lin Xi really wished he could control his brain, but that maddening voice kept nagging in his mind.

Probably because his face was too ugly, after noticing that something was wrong with him, Bryce was very dissatisfied and directly dragged Lin Xi out of the room at the murder scene, and then stopped him behind him.

"The computer records also show that the Ando couple were still alive after Lin Xi left the cabin. Lin Xi just fainted not long ago and his physical condition is not good. Before investigating him, shouldn't you go find him first? Shizuo Ando? He was in the same room with Liz when she died. He must know more than my brother."

"Professor Ando is still alive?!"

"That guy is crazy."

The voices of Lin Xi and Sorian overlapped.

After seeing Liz's miserable condition, Lin Xi never expected that Professor Ando was still alive. However, Sorian's reply made his heart tense instantly.

"Professor Ando... is crazy? What is going on?"

Lin Xi asked in a murmur.

"It just so happens that this is what I want to know too."