Chapter 582: Living Brain Cells (Part 4)

With the lighting gone, the vast circular hall was lit only by the faint blue glow of the pool.

"Hey? Hey!"

Midnight Dad frantically tapped his smart wristwatch, but the noisy kid was already offline, leaving only the 3D projection map and the explanatory text floating beside it via guide lines.

"Fuck." He cursed, took a deep breath, and walked to the blast door, continuing to wrestle with the handle.

"You can't open the hatch just by turning the handle—didn't you read the instructions? You need to touch the lock with your wristwatch and swipe a card to open it..."

Hydra, inside her blue spacesuit, couldn't stand it anymore and stepped forward to help, but Midnight Dad spun around sharply, raised his left arm's functional hand, and barked: "Don't come near me!"

According to the instructions, the five functional hands, along with the life sign detector, are bound to the user's personal gene and fingerprint.

The armed hand, for instance, can fire magnetically driven ferromagnetic bullets capable of easily piercing the homogeneous steel plates of main battle tanks, let alone a mere spacesuit.

Hydra dared not gamble whether Midnight Dad's functional hand was the armed type; she immediately raised both arms to show she meant no harm.

"Everyone, calm down."

Out-of-Control stepped forward to mediate, his voice steady: "Did you all hear what the noisy kid said? We're all on the same rope now—suspicion and infighting will let the space aliens pick us off one by one.

Only through honesty and unity is there a sliver of hope."

The Laughing God, leaning against the railing, tilted his head and smirked: "Your so-called hope—the best outcome is finishing all repairs, then having the noisy kid execute your body while uploading your consciousness to a hard drive?"

"Still better than being killed by the space aliens. At least you're still alive, still able to reunite with your family."

Out-of-Control shot back coldly: "The noisy kid went offline too fast—there's still critical information he didn't have time to reveal.

I propose everyone now disclose the type of their functional hand. If two or more of us have armed hands or life-monitoring hands, our side gains a significant advantage."

Earlier, when it was unclear whether the noisy kid was friend or foe, Out-of-Control had taken the risk of pressing his wristwatch button first—technically, his words should carry more weight.

But no one responded to Out-of-Control's proposal.

"Oh? Looks like none of you here are fools."

Li Cheng muttered to himself: Among the five auxiliary hands—recon, armed, life-detection, engineering, and early-warning—only the armed hand had offensive capability to counterattack potential space aliens.

Auxiliary hands cannot be duplicated; if everyone now reveals their type, they'll easily be identified by the space aliens as defenseless targets and become meat on the chopping block.

Better to hide the information and make the space aliens uncertain—hesitant to strike, fearing they might be counter-killed.

Too bad—his own hand was only the engineering hand, capable of using magnetic pulleys to move swiftly through pipes, utterly lacking offensive power...

"The worst-case scenario is that the space alien hiding among us is equipped with an armed hand,"

Out-of-Control remained calm, speaking evenly: "But since no one wants to reveal anything, fine. According to the map, we're near the lower reactor—why not head out first?

I saw on the map's instructions that the circuit breaker in the electrical room can reboot the base's lights."

No one objected to this suggestion. Hydra stepped around Midnight Dad and pressed her wristwatch against the card reader on the door lock.

Light beams shot from the edge of her wristwatch, forming a card-shaped key that swiped across the reader.

Click-click-click—

The rotary door handle turned automatically; the blast door swung open, revealing a dark corridor lit only by green glow patterns of the emergency exit route.

Hydra led the way, followed closely by Midnight Dad.

The corridor was hexagonal, wider than expected—wide enough for four space-suited individuals to walk shoulder to shoulder.

Worried about the space aliens the noisy kid mentioned, everyone kept a distance from each other; the metal floor was smooth and clean, their boots clanking and scuffing as they walked.

Li Cheng, positioned in the middle of the line, turned to look back at the circular hall; as the last one, Su Nisheng, stepped out, the blast door automatically sealed and locked.

"By the way, don't you all find our spacesuits a bit strange?"

Li Cheng didn't turn back; instead, he used the dance technique called "Space Walk" to backpedal slowly, speaking casually: "My common sense tells me the average height of adult human males is 1.72 meters, and adult females is 1.59 meters.

But now, every single one of us is wearing a spacesuit that's exactly 1.9 meters tall.

Males might be explained by adjustable joint sizing.

Edith, Dir, Valkyrie, Su Nisheng—you four—do you all perfectly fit a 1.9-meter height? Don't you feel like you're wearing shoe lifts?"

Around the corner, Valkyrie muttered: "If you're hinting at something, sorry—I don't feel like I'm wearing stilts,

high heels, or insoles."

"I don't either."

Su Nisheng paused, then said calmly: "Two possibilities: one, the tens of thousands of adult colonists at Xinxiang Base were all carefully selected so their age, height, and other traits match the equipment's universality.

Two, this spacesuit is more advanced than my memory suggests—its internal movable joints perfectly adapt to wearers of any height, leaving them with zero sensation of wearing it."

"I lean toward the second."

Zhongli Mieming, walking behind Su Nisheng, paused and said: "Didn't you notice? When I move my arms or thighs, my skin feels no friction against the fabric, no impact against the exoskeleton's inner walls.

It's like... the whole suit grew on me."

Blood Lion nodded. "Same here."

Dir pondered. "Same for me."

"Maybe it's some ultra-advanced super-fabric bodysuit."

Li Cheng said: "Like how Confucian scholars in history emphasized self-cultivation, family harmony, state governance, and world peace—world peace begins with self-cultivation, so scholars always wore yoga pants and sports tanks to show off their figures when going out."

"??? Which dimension's scholars are you talking about?"

Zhongli Mieming instinctively retorted: "You're not even trying to be serious, are you?"

The Laughing God clapped his hands and laughed: "Actually, there are sellers—didn't they say 'Mastering arts of literature and martial prowess, sell them to the imperial house'? And 'Warm silk curtains, spring nights—I, the emperor, unfasten the general's battle robe'; 'Servants lift the frail beauty—I, the emperor, unfasten the general's battle robe'; 'On my deathbed, I jolt upright—I, the emperor, unfasten the general's battle robe'."

"Fucking emperor, doing nothing but unfastening generals' battle robes all day—purely a dynasty-destroying monarch."

Zhongli Mieming sighed, his suspicion growing even stronger.

The noisy kid had said space aliens could shapeshift, perfectly mimic voices, and steal hosts' memories.

A casual personality, flippant speech, and off-the-cuff remarks don't prove he isn't a space alien—in fact, they might be a disguise to win over normal humans.

"We're here."

As they spoke, they reached the electrical room, filled with rows of metal cabinets connected to the ceiling, used to regulate voltage, distribute power, and transmit electricity.

The noisy kid had mentioned that the Xinxiang base had a reactor, so the voltage in the electrical room was naturally terrifyingly high.

Fortunately, the wristwatch had detailed guidance; once everyone approached, the wristwatch automatically generated light arrows, indicating which circuit breaker they should flip.

Bang!

The dazzling lights suddenly came on, and the group, already accustomed to the dim corridors, instinctively squinted, raising their hands in front of their helmets, and couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

The fear of darkness is an instinct etched into humanity's ancient genes.

Although this spacesuit's protective capability seemed to be a bit stronger than ordinary blast armor, having light was still better than not...

Bang!

The tremendous roar echoed through the electrical room. Li Cheng, his vision blurred by the intense light, strained to open his eyes wide, only to see the Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao that had been six meters away from him vanish from where it stood, with more than half its body embedded into the tiled wall of the electrical room, its upper and lower halves folded together at a grotesque angle, already dead.

Blood Xue Shi Paoxiao.