Chapter 603

The incident happened suddenly; everyone present was stunned. Li Cheng stepped back half a step, while Midnight Dad retreated all the way to the door and bellowed: “Space Yizhong ! These two are Space Yizhong !”

Midnight Dad pointed his finger at Su Nisheng and Zhongli Mie Ming. Earlier, when the power was cut, the ten people had formed a circle, each spaced apart from the others.

Midnight Dad was farthest from Blood Lion Roar, whose position was: Uncontrolled—Dir—Zhongli Mie Ming—Blood Lion Roar—Su Nisheng—Pifou Smile God.

“Don’t shout!”

Uncontrolled growled, waving his hand to signal everyone to stay put, then sprinted to the wall to examine Blood Lion Roar’s corpse.

As everyone had speculated during their earlier idle chatter, Blood Lion Roar wore a tight-fitting undersuit beneath his spacesuit. Uncontrolled reached out and pinched it—he found Blood Lion Roar’s two ribs, spinal bone, sacrum, and femur severely shattered; his internal organs were likely crushed into pulp, held together only by the tight suit.

“A heavy blow to the abdomen—single strike, fatal.”

Uncontrolled retracted his hand, drew a breath of disbelief, and spoke rapidly: “From the moment the lights turned on to when we heard the impact, roughly 0.8 seconds passed.”

“We were in complete darkness before, our retinal rod cells highly active. Suddenly exposed to intense light, the rhodopsin in our rod cells was instantly bleached,” causing glare and rapid pupil constriction.

Vision loss to vision recovery took about two to three seconds.

In other words, the Space Yizhong among us launched an attack on Blood Lion Roar in 0.8 seconds, killed him, returned to his original position, and feigned the same innocent appearance of someone just regaining sight.”

“Therefore, Zhongli Mie Ming and Su Nisheng, who stood closest to Blood Lion Roar, are the prime suspects.”

Smile God nodded, turning to the two: “Do you two have anything to explain?”

Su Nisheng stood motionless. Zhongli Mie Ming tilted his head slightly and said calmly: “Nothing to explain. Framing.”

Dir, standing beside Zhongli Mie Ming, stepped back several paces warily and asked in a childish female voice: “What do you mean—you won’t admit it?”

“A healthy adult’s ribs require about 3,300 newtons of instantaneous impact force to fracture.”

“To smash a human body this badly through the protective layer of a spacesuit, you’d need at least tens of thousands, possibly millions of joules of kinetic energy,”

Zhongli Mie Ming said calmly and firmly: “In other words, the Space Yizhong is equivalent to an engineering machine compressed into a human form.”

Li Cheng touched his helmet’s chin guard: “So, stronger than Tang Long, the underground boxing king, weaker than Wang Chao, who has reached the Realm of Seeing the Divine and Unharmed, and evenly matched with Captain America.”

Valkyrie scratched her head: “I only know Captain America. Who are the other two?”

“I don’t know either—my memories are incomplete,”

Li Cheng shrugged: “Probably ancient martial arts heirs.”

Zhongli Mie Ming continued undisturbed: “Strength is nearly equivalent to speed. We stood in a circle with a diameter of about ten meters. With the Space Yizhong ’s strength, it could easily cross ten meters in 0.8 seconds, kick Blood Lion Roar to death, then leap lightly back to its original spot, using the echoing crash of Blood Lion Roar hitting the wall to mask its own landing sound.”

“The spacesuit would also block any wind noise.”

“Meaning—not just me and Su Nisheng, but everyone here is a potential suspect.”

Midnight Dad laughed bitterly with rage: “Fine, fine! Now you’re blaming me too?”

“Not shifting blame—just logical deduction.”

Zhongli Mie Ming said calmly: “First, Blood Lion Roar never revealed what kind of tool-hand his left hand was—whether it was the weapon most threatening to the Space Yizhong .”

“Second, if it were really me and Su Nisheng, why would we be so stupid as to attack Blood Lion Roar, who stood right beside us? We’d target someone farther away.”

“To minimize our own exposure.”

“Third, one sheep is herded, two sheep are herded too—if I were the Space Yizhong , and determined to kill as many human crew as possible quickly, why not seize this chance to kill two or even three humans at once? The blurred vision lasts two or three seconds, doesn’t it?”

Zhongli Mie Ming’s reasoning was sound; even Midnight Dad tapped his finger thoughtfully.

“Still problematic.”

Uncontrolled paused, then shook his head: “Deliberately making yourself a suspect, then using evidence to clear yourself to boost credibility—that’s the classic trick of a suspect in a detective novel.”

“If you were the Space Yizhong , after killing Blood Lion Roar on your left, you couldn’t kill Dir on your right—that would be too obvious.”

“Your second target would more likely be Su Nisheng, on Blood Lion Roar’s left.”

“But Su Nisheng is alive. So the probability that either you or Su Nisheng is the Space Yizhong remains higher than for anyone else.”

“I can’t refute that.”

Zhongli Mie Ming raised his hands helplessly: “But I must clarify—the Space Yizhong ’s goal is to plant seeds of mutual suspicion among us, so it—or they—can slip through the chaos.”

“From now on, keep a close eye on me and Su Nisheng. If we make any suspicious move, feel free to execute us.”

59

“”

No one answered. The air grew heavy as pooled water; the helmets of the various spacesuits reflected the ceiling-mounted light strips, resembling barcodes.

“Time is running out.”

Valkyrie broke the silence, pointing at her wristwatch: “We still have repair tasks to complete.”

The stellar storm’s electromagnetic interference damaged various zones of the Xinxiang Base to varying degrees; every area needs repair. The group had only two hours—they couldn’t afford delays.

“...Let’s leave it at that.”

Uncontrolled said: “The Space Yizhong can parasitize inside a host. We can’t leave Blood Lion Roar’s corpse here. Let’s carry it to the Central Control Hall.”

According to the 3D map on the wristwatch, the Central Control Hall was the core of the entire Xinxiang Base—it could temporarily activate all base security systems with a button press, halting all violent acts;

it could also launch heavy objects via recyclable orbital cargo bays to other colony bases or eject them into space to drift.

“You two stay back. Smile God, Pifou—help me.”

Uncontrolled ordered Zhongli Mie Ming and Su Nisheng to stand farther away, then gripped Blood Lion Roar’s arms and carefully pulled him outward: “Hmph... so heavy.”

“Fun fact: a human body that’s lost voluntary mobility is far harder to move than you’d imagine,”

Smile God hoisted one of Blood Lion Roar’s arms cheerfully: “Conversely, someone drunk and pretending to be unconscious can still adjust their center of gravity—so next time you carry a drunk girl back to her hotel and find you can lift her effortlessly in a bridal carry, you’ll know she’s faking—you’re not the hunter, you’re the prey.”

“I learned this from my sister.”

Oh, learned... bullshit. Yuan Zhi Kong, German orthopedics, Sweet Home Alabama?

A headache surged in his chest—if he weren’t dragging Blood Lion Roar’s corpse, Uncontrolled would’ve slapped himself.

Why the hell did he ask this unreliable guy to help?

“Hss...”

Pifou, who was pulling Blood Lion Roar’s buttocks out from against the wall, suddenly gasped, as if discovering something. Uncontrolled immediately asked: “What?!”

“Didn’t you notice?”

Pifou folded Blood Lion Roar’s shattered, limp waist backward, draping the legs over his shoulders, and said gravely: “Three-fold—no matter how you fold it, there’s always a surface.”