"Our great and almighty star god...I am here to pray to you..."
A vague and strange sound came slowly from the other side of the ventilation window.
It's obviously just a voice, but because of the strange accent, it even sounds like there's something substantial and sticky about it.
Alyssa huddled motionless in the ventilation duct.
She felt that her strength was losing along with her body temperature... She hoped that she could contact Bryce, but at this moment, the man was already too close, so close that Alyssa would be discovered by him if she made the slightest move. degree.
So she could only stay where she was, fearfully observing the rustling movements outside.
I'm so fucking stupid—
Alyssa cursed herself secretly in her heart. It was not Alyssa's original intention that things turned out the way they did now, but...
She had indeed gotten herself into an extremely dangerous situation.
Two hours ago—
Alyssa found Robert's office, which is also where the emergency team is located.
Although she already had the answer in her heart, the secret revealed by the deputy was too shocking. No matter what, Alyssa needed to confirm the authenticity of the data in her hand again.
And if she wanted to do this, there would be no way around Robert.
In Alyssa's plan, she could find an excuse to fool around. After all, it was just an assessment record. If Robert and others were not involved in the disappearance of the crew, she could even consider cooperating with these bastards. Respond to the immediate crisis.
And if Robert and others also have problems...
At least Alyssa was able to detect this in advance.
However, Alyssa didn't know at that time that this was the first mistake she made.
When Alyssa walked outside the office door, she heard a hazy sound.
The sound must have been extremely loud to penetrate the metal hatch and reach the outside world.
But standing at the door, Alyssa could only hear some vague words.
"Dedicated to the great God..."
She had to admit that it was the few words she captured that made her lose her cool.
She should have realized at that time that the situation was getting out of control, but she was too keen on exploring the truth.
Alyssa called Robert and asked to come into the office.
She originally thought she would be waiting outside the door for a long time, but the door was opened in a short time.
A strong scent of incense spurted out from the crack of the door. Robert stood by the door wearing an awkward robe and looked at Alyssa.
It was as if he had known Alyssa's arrival early in the morning, so he had been waiting for her by the door.
Alyssa admitted that she was shocked, and the thought gave her goosebumps instantly.
"Alyssa, you're here." Robert grinned at Alyssa under the shadow of the robe and hood, "What's the matter?"
he asked, with a mysterious mocking tone.
Alyssa looked past him towards the door...
For a moment she was almost speechless because of so many questions.
Robert's office had changed dramatically without her knowing it.
The shabby Age of Discovery-style office should have had boring metal walls and cold lighting, a floating metal desk, and some holographic projectors that were added later.
But now all the office furniture has disappeared, replaced by a large number of richly colored Sonu textiles, incense, and huge sculptures standing in every corner.
They were all sculptures of giant insects... mysterious, complex, and lifelike. Alyssa even remembered the crazy resistance and curses of the Sunu people when they moved these sculptures from the abandoned temples and loaded them into the spacecraft.
Those sculptures should have been in the ship's warehouse, not in the officers' offices.
Combined with the dim light and the strong incense of Sonu's specialty, Robert's office now looks vaguely like a Sonu temple.
This made Alyssa feel hairy all over.
She will never forget that when she walked into the temple with others, there were piles of corpses of the Sunu people there. One layer on another, the rotting corpses were intertwined with fresh flesh and blood. The local Sunu people were determined to It is believed that only by sacrificing life in this way can it be possible to stop the madness that pervades the crowd.
But in fact, being able to do something like this is a kind of madness in itself.
After completing that material search plan, Alyssa had nightmares for several days.
But now, her nightmare seems to be following her from the distant planet Sunu, finally taking up residence inside the Helios.
She looked at several other members of the emergency team sitting scattered on the floor. They were disheveled and their eyes were confused. Everyone seemed to be drunk and lying at the feet of the Sonu sculptures.
He kept howling some unfinished prayers in his mouth -
That was exactly what Alyssa heard before.
"How is this going… "
Alyssa, who originally wanted to ask Robert to confirm the record, faced this situation, and the only thing she could ask was this sentence.
The corners of Robert's mouth grinned to both sides again, and his smile seemed to be about to cut the upper half of his face and chin, which looked extremely weird.
"Ah, I have decorated a small prayer room."
"Prayer room?"
"That's right, prayer room, don't you think we really need this now? The people on the ship have gone through too much. The jump of the ship failed and it ran aground. Now suddenly there is another Providence. aircraft... Many of them have become abnormal... Only religion can help them release this... pressure in their hearts."
"Yes, but..."
"Oh, sweet Alyssa, I can see that you must think our behavior is extremely strange, but I can assure you that it is just a way to vent your inner emotions, and it is really very good. Useful. If you are willing, you can also join us... You will like it here... Hehehehe... "
And just as Robert said these words to Alyssa with a terrifying smile, Alyssa clearly saw something running quickly through the shadows of the fabric and the ground.
Alyssa's face instantly lost all color—she even bit her tongue until it bled, so she didn't scream the moment she saw those things.
"no no… "
Alyssa said reluctantly, and she took a few steps back calmly.
"I, I just... Oh, by the way... I just want to talk to Taran about something... That's all..."
she stammered in response to Robert.
"Talan, ah, yes, Talan." Robert's face changed after hearing Talan's name, and a ray of light burst out from his sunken eyes, "Talan is still praying. But you can be praying. Wait for him outside, in fact, he has been talking about you this time... and your companions. "
"I can wait until he finishes praying and then go to him."
Alyssa took a few steps back again. She kept staring at Robert's every move nervously. For a moment, she even felt that Robert might be planning to force her into the terrifying and gloomy office (or as Robert said , prayer room).
But thankfully, Robert only took a step or two forward and stopped.
The bright lights of the corridor contrasted sharply with the dark shadows of the office behind him. Under the hood, Robert blinked uncomfortably as if he was not used to the light, and fine red bloodshot eyes gradually filled his eyes.
The moment he stopped, Alyssa turned around and ran away quickly.
Until this moment, Alyssa's mistake could not be said to be fatal.
She was keenly aware that something was wrong with Robert and his colleagues, and she tried her best to escape -
She was supposed to find a way to find Bryce, count some people on the Helios who were still sane, and then conduct follow-up investigations.
However, she suddenly stopped in the corridor not far from her office.
That was the beginning of that fatal mistake.
She saw blood.
Although it was inconspicuous, she saw it. The bloodstains were located in the corners of the wall, stained on the edges of several new scratches. Not far from the bloodstain, Alyssa picked up an identity badge.
It's the young man.
The deputy who came to her with a panicked look on his face.
Alyssa's mind went blank for a moment.
It was like an invisible person raised a stick and hit her between the eyebrows hard.
Oh, next, Robert and Taran will probably be busy revising the employee appraisal form again.
She heard a voice say in the bottom of her heart.
I don’t know why, but at this moment, all the calmness that Alyssa squeezed out turned into nothingness.
It was replaced by a rage that she couldn't control.
And it was this fury that drove Alyssa to follow the intermittent traces of blood—like a stupid rabbit jumping into a trap along the bait.
When she came to her senses, she found that she had unknowingly gotten into the elevator and arrived at the lower storage deck.
The last clue disappeared at the elevator entrance.
But Alyssa still walked out of the elevator resolutely.
As the old elevator door closed behind her, she suddenly felt a little dazed... as if his last link with the normal world had disappeared as the elevator left.
Reason gradually revived in Alyssa's body.
It’s not too late to leave now…
Alyssa could almost hear the small voice whispering in her ear.
But she didn't move.
The entire b-3 floor is very dark, because in order to save energy, only one-third of the lighting facilities are retained.
There were only a few spots of light in the originally bright corridor, extending evenly to the other end of the corridor.
Likewise, the air here smells particularly stale and turbid, because the air replacement system was also replaced on other decks after the spacecraft ran aground.
But it was precisely because of this that the distinct sweet smell remained clearly in the air in the corridor.
It was fresh, the smell of blood.
The smell is like an invisible guide, guiding Alyssa to where the poor young man is...
Alyssa just stood there with her whole body cold, looking at the metal door not far away.
Taran's private warehouse is there.
All kinds of seemingly unrelated information kept popping up in Alyssa's mind.
The disappearance of the crew.
Taran hid the most precious fossil sculpture of Sunu in his private warehouse.
Robert said Taran was still praying.
For such a long time, Taran has been hiding in his cabin and rarely goes out to see people.
…
Taran must be staying there.
Alyssa was extremely convinced of this.
Perhaps, at this time, he was tearing open the young man's body, burying his face in the human internal organs that were still hot and even faintly beating, and feasting on them.
When this idea appeared in her mind, Alyssa suddenly shivered, and she felt as if her body had been divided into two halves.
Half of it was reason, and it was telling Alyssa to leave quickly, not to linger here, not to attract anyone's attention.
The other half is her self.
The young crew member seemed to be in a trance, trying to overcome his fear and come to her just seconds ago.
Then, the pale face gradually shattered into pieces, turning into the breastplate in Alyssa's hand and the blood stains that made her eyes sting.
Alyssa couldn't control her impulse.
She stared at Taran's private warehouse for a long time—the place was as tightly guarded as a mobile vault.
But, that was before.
Alyssa closed her eyes and took several deep breaths.
She very much doubted whether the supreme God in the dark was guiding her to continue the next thing. Everything had been laid out long before today...
Oh yes.
This is the foreshadowing—
Since Robert took over most of the work, many of Alyssa's jobs on the Helios were trivial and boring chores. Not long ago, maintenance crews had to replace some relatively unimportant pipelines on the storage deck to the upper deck due to frequent pipeline failures.
It wasn't a wise decision, but it was necessary to keep their living and working areas functioning. In order to avoid possible problems, Alyssa had to dig out the original design drawings of the Helios from three hundred years ago and look at them carefully for a long time.
Perhaps it was her "little inspirations" that played a role. She studied Taran's private warehouse for a long time - and then she discovered that it turned out that Taran's impregnable private warehouse did not exist three hundred years ago. It was refitted by the third owner of the Helios seventy-eight years later.
The owner re-reinforced the floor and installed thick metal walls...but he forgot to fill and seal the original ventilation ducts.
…
Alyssa took off her shoes while thinking about those drawings.
She walked gently with bare feet to the public warehouse farthest from Taran's warehouse, then she opened the door of the warehouse with her deputy captain's authority and slipped in.
All original pipes are interconnected.
At least, that's the case from the drawings Alyssa saw before.
She found an inconspicuous ventilation duct in the corner of the public warehouse. Thanks to the previous owners who had never fully repaired the ship in the past three hundred years, the railings at the entrance of the ventilation duct had long been rusted to the point of disgrace. Alyssa took down the railings without much effort.
Then she walked along the dusty ventilation ducts, and finally arrived at the interior of Tallan's airtight private warehouse.
The smell of human blood instantly became extremely vivid.
At the same time, Alyssa's senses were filled with Taran's extremely weird prayer voice.
"The great god who came to the world in the void... I beg you to come, your favor, your favor... I have prepared fresh blood food for you, based on warm blood and beating heart. Supplementary, with my love and respect for you as the main food..."
The ominous prayer made Alyssa look down at the gap in the ventilation window involuntarily.
Taran's warehouse was almost dimmer than Robert's weird office. Looking over suddenly, it was almost completely dark.
However, after adapting to the environment, Alyssa was still able to barely see something - thanks to the incense placed in various corners of the room.
The most primitive and faint firelight provides a hint of light.
And among those lights, the fossil sculpture of Sonu emits a white light like a luminous stone on the earth.
The shadow standing in front of the statue was as dark as an abyss against the backdrop of this light.
Alyssa didn't realize that the shadow was Taran himself at first, and felt as if she had seen some monster. After all, humans can never have such a terrifying appearance.
And Alyssa still remembers the last time she saw Taran. Even though something was very wrong with Taran at that time, at that time he at least still had a human shape...
But now, look at that person.
Alyssa almost couldn't believe her eyes.
Taran's upper body barely maintained his human form, but his lower body expanded in an incredible way.
Like a termite queen that has been magnified countless times, the worm is pale and the insect body in its belly is directly connected to the lower half of Taran's body.
His legs had degenerated into two thin branches, the muscles had atrophied, and they were attached to the leg bones together with the wrinkled skin, hanging on both sides of his waist.
In front of Taran, the body of a young man lay silently in front of the sculpture of the Star God.
All his internal organs had been taken out, his chest was wide open, and dripping blood was still flowing down.
Taran's deformed hands were covered with the young man's hot blood.
Looking down from Alyssa's perspective, the young man's eyes were like two small holes, bottomless black.
The corpse had its head tilted to one side of its shoulder, and its face was green.
What was a coincidence was that the corpse's eyes, which had lost any energy, seemed to be looking directly at Alyssa who was hiding in the vent.
Alyssa felt her throat tighten the moment she laid eyes on the corpse.
She almost threw up.
But she forced herself to hold back.
However, just such an almost completely silent movement actually caused Taran's figure to pause slightly.
"who is it?"
Alyssa watched in horror as Taran turned his upper body directly, and his swollen and heavy lower body was still stuck to the floor as if it was dead.
And Taran's face has also undergone distinct changes.
The thin, pale, nervous man was long gone, and the face now hanging on his head looked closer to an insect than a human.
His two eyeballs were completely squeezed out of their sockets, and their surfaces were as uneven as mulberries.
Because they noticed the faint movement, the clustered brown eyeballs turned in different directions.
"It's you, right? You're here?"
Then, Taran said with a smile again.
Just a few dozen minutes ago, Alyssa thought Robert's weird smile was terrifying, but at this moment Alyssa realized that she might have wrongly blamed Robert. Compared with Taran, Luo Guote's smile was sweet and gentle.
Yes, it's me.
After hearing Taran's inquiry, he faced that terrifying smile again.
Alyssa even wanted to give up for a moment.
She was just a little bit away from saying this to Taran in such a self-defeating manner.
Maybe for the sake of being a colleague for several years, Taran could make her death less horrific
However, Alyssa was too frightened, so even if she had planned to simply admit her arrival, the tightness of her muscles still firmly restrained her.
She couldn't relax at all, and naturally couldn't make any moves.
But while waiting, Taran turned around in confusion, and then returned to the bottom of the fossil sculpture.
Damn—
Only then did Alyssa realize that Taran might have noticed something, but he had not found himself now.
And Alyssa didn't even know whether this was lucky or not.
Unfortunately, she escaped the current Talan who has extremely sharp senses.
But if I'm lucky...
Her hiding allowed her to witness what happened next.
Taran is dancing.
Countless fine, maggot-like things were squirming under the translucent skin of his swollen insect body.
"... I pray to you, great star god... May your favor be given to me... I voluntarily dedicate my body to you. I am willing to be the gestator of thousands of your children... I am willing to be the container of hundreds of millions of people. …”
A song that could almost be described as harsh sounded.
Alyssa listened to the distorted prayer with fear, and soon, Talan's crying made the singing become intermittent.
"I do not understand."
Taran suddenly rushed to the feet of the sculpture.
His body was twitching continuously, and the cry sounded more like some kind of cry that was on the verge of losing control.
"I have done so much, I have sacrificed everything I have, my life, my spaceship, my crew, all to you... Why, you have to treat me so cruelly... Why... I still can't Feeling your inspiration, I gave birth to my king insect... Wuwuwuwu... "
The author has something to say: I need to revise this chapter after this... There is a foreshadowing that I forgot to write before...
ps I'm really afraid of writing plot...
It’s too difficult to write and readers don’t like to read orz
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Thanks to the little angels who voted for me or gave me the nutrient solution~
Thanks to the little angel who threw [Bazooka]: 1 light and shadow black and white;
Thanks to the little angels who threw [Grenade]: 2 Black Cats;
Thanks to the little angels who threw [landmines]: 8 Azhuang; the fish tank in the Atlantic Ocean. 3 pieces; small shrimps, one Yidu. , Minyang, Gengxin, Diver Passerby, Weier Shengsheng, Haidao, Yue Ruhui, Xu Tingfei, daic 1;
Thanks to the little angel who irrigates [nutrient solution]:
111 bottles of live monkey-faced bird; 38 bottles of Mo Zhongming; 30 bottles of Moon Ruhui; 29 bottles of Sleeping Dragon, 27 bottles of lanterns; 25 bottles of Aman Island; black and white light and shadow, white night, la la la, 25587063 20 bottles; 14 bottles of Yue and Ming; 10 bottles of Sanshenglian, Luoluo Hongjin, and Ye Bu Sour; why do you need to check the water meter again? 9 bottles; Pululu, Yiyidu. 5 bottles; 3 bottles of Fengtang qw; 2 bottles of Zhan Xuyang, Disastrous Bullying Shuanghua, Liushuang, and Sheep Meie; 1 bottle of Qiye, Snow Silence, Mud Howl, and Shanyou Fusu;
Thank you very much for your support, I will continue to work hard!