When Gambler returned to the private house at the gathering place, Xue Xiao and Zuo Dao had already returned. The civilian Jeff was sitting in the corner of the house, smoking a cigarette he got from nowhere. He seemed relatively calm now, all thanks to Fengxuan's "smart" methods.
In fact, Jeff was quite crazy when he first woke up from the coma. The fear and exhaustion accumulated over the past few days all burst out along with the pain of losing a loved one. He is an ordinary middle-aged office worker. After encountering this series of horror movie-like encounters, he naturally collapses easily and then makes reckless and bad decisions... He tried to attack Fengxuan and snatch the gun he brought.
Jeff didn't expect that the man in front of him, who was similar in stature to himself, was so fast and powerful that he looked like the Terminator in the movie. Jeff's shoulder was dislocated with a casual twist by Fengxuan, and then he was dragged all the way to the kitchen sink. He watched helplessly as Fengxuan plugged the drain, filled up the water, and then wiped his head off. Go down.
If you want to "chill" a person out, waterboarding is a great option. This may be one of the oldest and most effective forms of torture in the world, with 80% of people confessing during waterboarding and 20% of people dying.
Feng Yan was not torturing Jeff, so he stopped after dousing him three times and threw him into the corner to let him take a breath and rest. At this point, they could finally say a few words calmly. In fact, for Jeff, it doesn't matter who is in the hands of a resistance organization, guerrillas, or the army. He is just a civilian, and he is lucky to have survived this disaster. Even if they encounter imperial troops, the situation may not be much better than the current situation. Everyone knows that you should never expect someone who can't protect you to protect you.
In Jeff's mind, these "superpower weirdos" encountered in the police station lobby are more reliable. When encountering mutant creatures, there is no safer place than staying with these weirdos.
When the snake gamblers returned, power was restored in most places in the city, and the lights in the house they occupied were turned on, but all the windows were closed and thick curtains were drawn.
Gambler glanced at Jeff. There was no conversation between the two. Through the exchange of eyes, Gambler knew that Jeff had already listened to Fengxuan's description of the subsequent development of his father's death and would not seek revenge on him again. Got an idea.
"I found nothing." Gambler said frankly about tonight's results, "And after the power was restored, it became more difficult to detect humans, so I returned." His eyes swept to the corner of the living room, Saw a stranger.
That person is being "guarded" by Zuo Dao. He is wearing a dark blue evolution uniform and must be a relatively senior member.
"It seems that not only did you restore the power, but you also gained additional benefits." Gambling Snake said.
Before Zuo Dao could say anything, the tailor said: "Let me state in advance that I am cooperating with you to solve the pollution leaked from the research laboratory. This is a major event related to the survival of all mankind. It does not mean that I and you are against each other. The people of the cross are complicit…”
"You can say such shameless words and still maintain your composure." Zuo Dao picked his nose and squinted at the tailor: "It seems that the skin on your face is really sewn up layer by layer. I think at least It has to be ten floors or above, right?”
"Hmph..." The tailor snorted coldly, rolled his eyes upward, and replied to Zuo Dao: "Brother Zuo, why are you making insinuations and criticizing Huaihua? It's as if I cooperate with you because I am afraid of death. Today, although I was careless, I was defeated by you. , but if we fight openly and honestly for a while, I think Brother Zuo may not..."
"Dou nmb." Zuo Dao Zhang ** thick, interrupted the tailor.
"Well... this curse is just..."
"Swear nmb."
"I just… "
"It's nmb."
Fengxuan couldn't stand listening anymore. He took out the cigar from his mouth and said to Zuo Dao: "Don't keep mentioning nmb..."
"I'm going to mention nmb!! nmlgb!!" Zuo Dao roared.
The tailor sitting at the table next to him was so scolded that he lost his temper. He didn't know what to do when he encountered such a scoundrel.
At this time, with the sound of the toilet flushing, Blood Owl kicked the door open and came out. Gambler asked casually: "What's the situation at the power plant?"
The blood owl moved his neck a few times and replied: "The generator set there can only have a maximum load of about 300,000 degrees a day. Judging from the situation, it was damaged by the guy named Lei Huo from the Freedom Front. Maybe he was damaged a few days ago. Fight near the power plant.
In fact, there was no major fault. The power plant did a good job in troubleshooting equipment hazards. The load switch and isolation switch in the power distribution room automatically took protective action, that is, they tripped. He turned to look at the tailor and said, "If your colleague hadn't been so stupid and timid, and even if he knew a little bit about physics, the power supply in the city might have been restored long ago." "
Gambling snake asked again: "Then, will it be attacked by a monster and cause a second malfunction?"
"I can't guarantee this, but according to my observation, those mutated creatures don't like to be near places with high temperatures." The blood owl replied.
Gambler nodded and stopped asking. He just turned his attention to the tailor again. The meaning was obvious that it was time to ask him.
The blood owl intertwined his fingers and turned his palms, as if he was ready to tear someone apart: "Okay, the one who calls himself a tailor, you can now start telling us some information that is of interest to us. Let me remind you, if your intelligence If there are lies, I will know immediately, and at that time, the questioning will be upgraded to torture at any time."
The tailor swallowed involuntarily, collected his thoughts, and then said: "The source of this pollution is probably a senior laboratory technician named Edmund Lee."
"Is he a butcher?" Blood Owl asked.
The tailor raised his head and glanced at the blood owl with a rather strange look: "Yes, he is the man you killed on Hell Island."
"So, how did a guy who I killed four months ago create the situation in Atlantic City today?" Blood Owl asked.
"It's 'e cells'." The tailor replied: "Every evolution senior experimenter or higher-level personnel, including me, has 'e cells' in our body, which are evolved by the E Bureau gene. Core Technology.
When we fight, the brain is responsible for receiving information, memory, reaction, issuing orders, etc. The e-cells are activated when stimulated to assist the brain and strengthen the human body's abilities in all aspects. In theory, the e-cells can realize unlimited self-control Evolution allows us to continuously enhance our combat capabilities.
Moreover, e-cells also have a very superior feature - transplantation and inheritance. 'Butcher' is not just Edmund Lee, this title can also refer to another person, as does 'tailor'. Whenever an agent with e-cells dies, the organization will extract the e-cells from his body, or even directly use his body to transform the next successor.
In the world of genes, 'e' represents the principle of natural selection. The strong will replace the weak, and there are no variables. "
The blood owl smiled and said: "But that guy named Edmund Lee, or in other words, the e-cells on that guy's corpse, there have been some changes?"
The tailor's expression became even weirder, and his face, which seemed to have been mended countless times, actually had some expression changes: "We spent a lot of money to pull Edmund Lee's body out of the sea. And his body A very strange change has occurred in the e-cells on the body, resulting in a characteristic that it should not have - the ability to 'phagocytosis'.
While at the bottom of the sea, Edmund Lee's body 'ate' several marine creatures. Technically, we cannot restore this process. We can only make some speculations. I personally think it is possible that it was first eaten by the sea. The large fish swallowed it into its belly, and then multiplied and devoured it in reverse.
In short, when we brought this corpse...if we could still call it a corpse, in short, when we brought it back to the research institute, this thing already looked like a deformed monster. "
"Is it similar to the ones in the city now?" Fengxuan asked.
"It's similar..." the tailor replied. He wasn't lying, because he couldn't tell the difference in nature between the monster he brought back to the institute and the mutated creatures in the city now. Maybe they were very different, but at least they were from the same sect. Same origin.
"We didn't pay much attention to this monster at the time. Everyone who conducted the research believed that the birth of this monster was just a special situation that occurred after the e-cells mistakenly thought they were grafted on non-human creatures. According to the law of 'survival of the fittest', this monster survived In a few days, human genes will gain the upper hand, and they will eventually die from a deformed body.
Of course, they didn't wait too long and directly disposed of the monster. They just left the original data in the computer and took out two pieces of meat. One piece was put into the warehouse as a special experiment, and the other was kept. Transformation for the next 'butcher'. The monster evolved from the corpse was destroyed by the high temperature, leaving no trace behind. "
"Hmph... It seems that you are all a bunch of mediocre people. It turns out that the so-called evolution is just this level. No wonder the Marshal has become as bad as he is now." The blood owl laughed.
The tailor also knew that the man in front of him was a professor who specialized in life sciences at Yale University before he was twenty-three years old. In recent years, he had done in-depth research through a combination of theory and practice, so he had nothing to defend. He continued: "At that time, researchers focused on the rapid growth of 'Butcher' e cells. Before being killed by you, Edmund Lee's physical abilities actually improved horribly in a short period of time. Improvement. This part of the data convinced the organization that Edmund Lee's e-cells had indeed mutated. However, they did not expect that the danger of mutation did not lie in the speed of growth, but in the expansion of 'phagocytosis' ability. .
Normal e-cells are not like this. They are like genetic modifications parasitic in the human body, with no side effects... "
"It might be more convincing if you say this after you have a facelift." Zuo Dao added next to him.
The tailor said: "My appearance is that of trauma after a battle. This image has nothing to do with e-cells. On the contrary, e-cells can protect our brains. Senior members of evolution, even if they are beheaded, as long as their brains are still intact." , there is a possibility of survival. That’s why we went to salvage Edmund Lee’s body.
I have also experienced many fierce battles, and it was the e-cells that saved me time and time again. It prevented my brain from dying permanently and enabled my body to survive the constant transformation and side effects of chemical enhancers. Every time I experienced a fierce battle, , my combat power will be enhanced, and the e-cells in my body will evolve. "
"Sounds like the unique bloodline of some kind of alien with a monkey tail." Zuo Dao said again jokingly.
"It's not as superior as the thing you mentioned. After all, it's a thing in comics." The tailor said: "The e-cells are not so bad that they can evolve even if the parasites continue to harm themselves. They can reach their limit in battle. , in order to unleash its potential.”
Gambler used his cold tone to bring the topic back to the key point: "Going back to the part about 'phagocytosis', what is the difference between Edmund Lee's 'abnormal' cells and normal ones? ?”
The tailor thought for a while: "For example... when I fight with a master who is much stronger than me, the e-cells in my body may be activated at a very critical moment, thereby improving my combat-related abilities. Ability. For example, if my opponent is very fast, then my dynamic vision will be strengthened, the nerve response interval will be shortened, and the instant prediction instinct will also be improved. But there is a limit to these, and the effect of improvement is generally Slowly. The most important thing is... there is no way a third eye will grow from my forehead, or a new pair of ears grow from the sides of my neck...
But the cells on Edmund Lee's body had a very fast evolution speed, and they could also 'engulf', and then evolved from phagocytosis to proliferation. For example, if you use a very hard cold weapon to chop it, its instinctive reaction may be to grow a turtle-like shell in a short time. Don't think that it will choose to swallow dozens of turtles at this time. There just happen to be turtles nearby. It is basically impossible for it to devour, so it will use local materials, eat a few living people, use their bones as raw materials, and emit hydroxyapatite crystals in the pores around its body, and a layer of bones will grow quickly. Come out and become the outer armor of its skin. "
"Doesn't this kind of creature have no weaknesses? Even if it does, it can make up for it through genetic changes and continuous modification of its body." Zuo Dao asked.
"Isn't the weakness already shown in front of us?" Blood Owl replied directly: "Heat." He looked at the tailor: "We will discuss this later. You can continue to talk about pollution."
The tailor replied: "Actually, you should also know that this can only be said to be an accident caused by various coincidences. A few days ago, our director and Chief Hess went to Tiandu to attend a secret meeting, and the result was that On that day, our research institute was attacked by a group of local Atlantic City guerrillas.
At that time, in addition to Edmund Lee's e-cells, there was also a dangerous product in the warehouse - proliferation liquid. This kind of drug should not have finished products stored, but because more of it was produced in the last operation The dosage was not consumed, so about 500 milligrams of the finished product was left undisturbed. "