Lying on the bed, Shizuo Ando's mouth wss slightly open, his face grayer than before. If Lin Xi hadn't just confirmed his pulse, he would've mistaken him for a corpse- his soul already departed from its shell. Lin Xi couldn't say the reason, but that's how he felt.
Lin Xi looked away from his face. He didn't know why he felt so sad.
With this casual glance, Lin Xi's eyes spotted some scratches on the metal wall near the small bed.
His eyes flashed, he subconsciously stepped forward to observe.
Those scratches seemed like a bunch of meaningless lines with some blackened blood stains on the surface, markings left by mental patients scratching randomly at the wall during an attack- but Lin Xi felt like clues could be gleamed from it.
Lin Xi felt that... those scratches were actually overlapping words.
It looked like Dr Ando was trying to leave a few words, but his wrists were shackled in a too narrow position, so the letters could only overlap.
Lin Xi looked at Dr Ando's fingers. He wondered why he hadn't noticed this before- Dr Ando's fingers were scarred, almost all his nails had fallen off.
Lin Xi narrowed his eyes, he carefully distinguished the shallow scratches.
watch out for taran
These were the first words he recognized, but these words were enough to make his heart accelerate.
something in the food...
What's in the food?
Lin Xi racked his brains and stared at the wall. In the distance, he could hear the rumble or clamour coming from the other end of the corridor. The medical staff were well on their way.
Cold sweat broke out on Lin Xi's back. He knew very well that once the medical technician arrived, he may never have the chance to study these clues again- especially since these clues also involve Captain Taran.
At this moment, Lin Xi realized his stupidity. He cursed himself in his head, and he looked towards the other hand.
Sure enough, he also saw some scratches on the bed, but those scratches were more scattered than those on the other side.
john
immolate
star... God...
...
Although only a few words were distinguished, the meaning of those words combined was enough to frightened someone.
In this short moment, many things that were completely unrelated suddenly became connected.
Lin Xi looked at Shizuo Ando in shock, who had completely lost all movement. He even reached out subconsciously and shook his shoulders.
"Dr. Ando- Dr. Ando-wake up! I need to ask you-"
Right now even Shizuo Ando's absurd statement claiming to be the captain of the famous spaceship three hundred years ago became less important.
"Ahem..."
Lin Xi heard someone coughing behind him.
He turned back and looked at the mercenary at the door. The latter was standing still, looking pale and stiff, but judging from his eyes, he seemed to be gradually regaining his vitality. The mercenary was now staring at Lin Xi intently, with strangely burning eyes. The coughing sound just now seemed to be caused by him accidentally- but soon, the medical technicians who appeared behind the mercenary proved that it wasn't accidental, but a deliberate reminder.
After all, there were several other people tailing after the medical technicians. Lin Xi was disgusted to find that they were the subordinates of Robert and Taran.
"Hey, what just happened? What did you do to Dr Ando?"
As soon as he saw Lin Xi, one of them began to aggressively inquire.
Later, Lin Xi learned that while he was talking to Ando, the surveillance in the room was inexplicably broken, again.
It's precisely because of this that no one heard the last words Ando shouted to him- except for the mercenary.
Lin Xi didn't expect the mercenary to hide anything for him, but he wouldn't just stay in the solitary room and accept such rude interrogation.
"Just some meaningless things. Dr Ando fainted due to physical weakness."
He crossed his arms and talked to those people before turning to the young medical technician.
"If you want to know that much, you should treat Dr Ando now."
Lin Xi continued coldly.
He suppressed his disgust and stayed with the Taran's lackeys in the solitary room for a short while. He hoped that the medical technician could wake Ando up, so that he could at least get some useful information from the man.
Thise men left with the mercenary first (Lin Xi didn't even have to guess, he knew that those people planned to dig something out of the mercenary's mouth), and Shizuo Ando remained in a coma.
Lin Xi finally had to leave the solitary room. He originally planned to meet Shizuo Ando after he regained consciousness, but soon news came that the mad scientist had turned into a vegetable.
As he was pronounced braindead, the few words he left behind became lingering doubts in Lin Xi's mind.
Watch out for Taran, something in the food... and John Bronson, immolate and Star God.
Among them, if there's really something wrong with the food bags, it's causing people to go crazy. Lin Xi has already learned of this from Bryce.
And then he thought of John Bronson, the chief cook on the ship before he went crazy, and at that meeting... John Bronson once pointed directly at Taran's nose and shouted that he was the devil.
At least before John pointed the finger at himself, he seemed to know something and was wary of Taran.
Ah, yes, there's also Star God...
Lin Xi will never forget Taran paying morbid attention to that fossil sculpture in the warehouse, the early days after the first failed jump.
And that same Sunu fossil sculpture scared him a lot at first.
After checking all the information, Lin Xi was particularly concerned about the last word...
"Immolate."
Lin Xi muttered the word softly, and shuddered involuntarily.
Just thinking of this word gave him a very uncomfortable feeling.
Was it Taran who put something in the food bags that would mutate the crew... in order to offer sacrifices to this so-called Star God?
Lin Xi frowned.
If it weren't for the strange and crazy things Shizuo Ando yelled at him before he became unconscious, he probably would've believed the other information left without hesitation and pursue.
But now, Lin Xi felt hesitant about the information he found.
Fortunately or unfortunately, Lin Xi didn't have much free time now to dwell on Shizuo Ando's cryptic puzzle.
Because just after his unresolved meeting with Shizuo Ando, he was about to face his first extravehicular exploration activity.
Bryce was going crazy with worry about this.
Lin Xi knew that he made several applications to be on the same team as him, but his status as a medical officer forced him to stay inside Helios.
Looking at his brother's face extremely livid face from lack of sleep, Lin Xi endured it again and again and decided to wait until they finished the two days and one night of extravehicular exploration before returning to the ship to discuss with him the information he obtained from Shizuo Ando.
...
Forty-eight days after the transition failed.
Lin Xi wore a tattered exploration team uniform, putting the old-style laser gun on his shoulders, sitting precariously in the patrol car, and started the first extraterrestrial exploration of his life.
The people sitting besides him were a mixed bag. One-third of them had tired and gloomy expressions, but were extremely proficient in instruments and processes- these were the original exploration team members.
There's also a third of the people who were skinny and restless, having close communication with the exploration team member- these people were the mercenaries.
The only ones left were in panic, looking around and wearing second-hand exploration uniforms that didn't fit them, holding old firearms that should've been dumped thirty years ago. They were naturally ordinary crew members forcibly assigned to this exploration mission.
Lin Xi quietly observed everyone when he got in the car. He discovered with regret that there were no acquaintances to be found.
Fortunately, Alyssa did allocate the crew as carefully as she did to comfort Bryce and Lin Xi. These people didn't have any obvious hostility towards Lin Xi, and they all still had a look in their eyes. Unlike many of the mutated crew with empty eyes and unusually high spirits.
However, even though there's no hostility, their attitude towards Lin Xi can't be said to be friendly.
"Hey, Doc-I heard you were the one, right-"
Just when Lin Xi lowered his eyes and began thinking about things, he heard the man opposite him speak in a long tone.
Lin Xi silently raised his head and looked at the other person. It was a strange man. Judging from the markings on his body, he should be a mercenary. His facial features were slightly crooked and his appearance was ugly.
Seeing that Lin Xi didn't respond, he made an obscene gesture towards Lin Xi.
"Those people say that you can control insects. If you don't like people, you'll injects insect eggs to their bodies. You then make your doctor brother to burn those people to death directly in treatment, right?"
Lin Xi pursed his lips and said nothing.
Because he knows very well that any response he makes now will trigger am even greater reaction from the other party.
"... I also heard that you're raising a big bug. A guy so ugly that you'll go crazy just by looking at it, but your taste is so strange..." At this point, the mercenary with crooked features deliberately lowered his voice, "I heard that you sleep with bugs... right? The priests on planet crazy apparently had this nasty habit. They'll sleep with the bugs they raised and then give birth to a group of monsters. Did you learn this hobby from them?"
There was a strong malice in the mercenary's voice, although he lowered his tone, in this closed patrol car, every move would be amplified. Everyone in the car could easily hear every word he's saying.
He doing it on purpose.
In an instant, Lin Xi felt countless eyes focused on him.
Well, the mercenary did pick a topic that'd attract people's attention. The insect worship of the Sunu has indeed spawned many secret customs completely unacceptable to Earthlings, but no one will like to associate such disgusting customs with themselves.
In particular, the mercenary also mentioned "No. 1".
Lin Xi's face slowly turned cold.
Before coming to participate in thiz exploration mission, he spent a whole night in the greenhouse with "No. 1"'s cocoon.
The condition of the cocoon looked better than before. It was difficult for Lin Xi to tell specific changes, but he could feel it.
The thick cocoon shell was still cold and rough to the touch, but Lin Xi could somehow detect a faint breath of life flowing inside that cocoon.