Chapter 606: Living Brain Cells (8)

Xinxiang Base, Lower Level, Dome Shield Control Room.

Loss of Control, Hydra, Midnight Dad, and the Laughing God stood at the industrial control panel, turning dials according to wristwatch instructions to regulate power supplied to the dome shield.

According to the 3D map’s description, the frequency of meteorite impacts on HD966A is far higher than on Earth.

The dome shield not only concentrates oxygen but also blocks meteorites.

“Deng, deng-deng, deng-deng-deng.”

The Laughing God hummed softly, his neck stretching and retracting in rhythm like a DJ scratching records.

“You’re in a good mood?”

Loss of Control tried to ignore it but failed, unable to resist asking: “Aren’t you afraid you’ll die?”

Base members who lost their memories cannot possibly resist the base’s main AI.

The worst outcome is being forced by the AI to play hide-and-seek with space aliens—and getting killed.

The best outcome is still being purged and executed by the AI, uploaded to a USB drive, turned into an electronic pet.

“Death isn’t scary. Death is a cool summer night—peaceful, restful sleep.”

The Laughing God casually uttered a nonsense phrase whose origin he himself didn’t know, cheerfully adding: “Based on the remnants of common sense left in my mind, any civilization capable of sub-light-speed travel must have highly advanced consciousness-uploading technology.”

If the Noisy Kid didn’t lie to me (assuming robots are either incapable of or disdainful of lying), when I wake up, I’ll already be in a lush new world.

Maybe I’ll even reunite with my comedy troupe members and continue staging light comedies like ‘Camel Fengchuan Xiangzi,’ ‘Liang Shanbo and Zhu Rong,’ and ‘Spring Festival Gala: Dumpling Dumpling Dumpling.’

So why fear death?”

“—.” Loss of Control had no reply, only shook his head: “You really are optimistic.”

The Laughing God shrugged. “The same half-full glass: a pessimist sees only half a glass; an optimist sees water at 26.5°C, pH 6.6, volume 225ml.”

You can even eyeball the pH value? Kid, your attention span is incredible!

Just as Loss of Control was mentally scoffing, a noisy commotion erupted deep above from the ceiling. Mixed sounds: cries for help, impacts, rolling wheels, dragging, and armed hands firing.

The armed hand’s kinetic rounds apparently pierced a wire inside the wall, causing the dome shield control panel to overload and spark.

Midnight Dad froze for a moment, then immediately dropped his control panel and bolted out the door, chasing the receding sounds.

Space aliens can alter their body structures to move through pipes. Since they probably wouldn’t scream for help, this commotion must be two base personnel—one carrying an engineering hand, the other an armed hand.

“You two don’t need to come! Keep repairing!”

Loss of Control shouted without looking back, sprinting after Midnight Dad, leaving Hydra and the Laughing God behind—

The dome shield must be repaired as soon as possible to defend against potential meteorite impacts.

Otherwise, if we all go through hell to kill the space aliens, only for a meteor to smash the base right after the Noisy Kid fulfills his promise, leaving everyone holding hands, calmly meeting the dinosaurs—that’d be too darkly ironic.

Loss of Control and Midnight Dad dashed into the corridor, following the thunderous noise from the pipes, sprinting until they skidded to a halt before a facility.

It was the base’s embryo storage room—a circular, spacious area rivaling the central control hall, lined neatly with liquid nitrogen tanks.

Each tank froze hundreds or thousands of fertilized eggs and undeveloped embryos.

In the center of the room stood about forty horizontal cylindrical machines, each filled with translucent suspension and biological sacs connected by electrode patches and cables.

A strange sense of familiarity surged in Midnight Dad’s mind—he instantly realized those cylindrical machines were highly complex biological reactors, or rather, artificial wombs.

One machine’s glass had shattered, its suspension spilling across the floor; the biological sac suspended in the liquid—

its life-support system—was gone.

As they stared in shock, the ventilation grate above the ceiling fell away, dropping three figures.

Valkyrie in blue space suit, Edith in yellow space suit, and... a humanoid creature roughly 1.4 meters tall.

Enormous head, no hair or skin—pink muscle exposed, grotesquely proportioned limbs, a monkey tail extending from the coccyx, and a massively swollen belly.

It looked like ancient cave paintings of early humans—or an alien who’d never seen a human, reconstructing one from fossilized bones.

Edith’s left and right arms were bound together by the creature’s long tail.

Her left-arm armed hand couldn’t deploy; she had no chance to fire, and the creature dragged her along the ground toward the array of artificial wombs.

Even more grotesque and terrifying: as it dragged Edith, the creature hummed a muffled lullaby.

The bizarre scene froze both Midnight Dad and Loss of Control, their minds in chaos.

Didn’t the Noisy Kid say only we awake humans were left in the base? What the hell is this humanoid thing?

Tap-tap-tap-tap.

Heavy footsteps approached rapidly—Zhongli Mie Ming arrived from the middle level of Xinxiang Base, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Midnight Dad. But the humanoid creature showed no reaction to the commotion, continuing to drag Edith toward the artificial womb units.

Valkyrie signaled Zhongli Mie Ming and the others not to move. Silent, she crouched low, slipped behind, snatched up shards of broken glass, and slashed violently at the tail entwined around Edith.

Ssshh—blood sprayed. The humanoid emitted a shriek; its previously vacant, dull expression twisted into violent rage as it spun and lunged at the two.

Valkyrie grabbed Edith’s space suit life-support backpack and pulled back; Edith, meanwhile, wrenched free the severed tail from her wrists, raised her left-arm armed hand, and fired.

Firing a hypervelocity round indoors, the gunshot echoed violently; even muffled by the space suit helmet, the noise still hammered their eardrums.

The shot struck the humanoid, blasting its upper body and spine into fragments; the bullet’s momentum continued, striking the wall.

The metal wall immediately dented, carving a deep furrow along the bullet’s path, severing buried wiring.

The embryo storage room’s blast door automatically sealed, locking Zhongli Mie Ming and Midnight Dad inside, leaving Loss of Control outside; the lights inside also abruptly died, leaving only a dim, pitch-black red emergency glow.

Fortunately, the humanoid was unquestionably dead.

Adrenaline still surged through Edith’s body; she trembled as she lowered her armed hand, exhaled deeply, and turned toward Valkyrie’s approximate location, sincerely thanking: “Thank you.”

To be fair, if Edith and Valkyrie had swapped roles, she probably wouldn’t have risked her life chasing a suspected space alien just because she’d met the teammate for barely ten minutes.

In the dimness, no reply came—only a shadow flashed past. Then a heavy thud, followed by scraping against pipes.

The memory of Blood Lion’s fate was fresh; Edith reacted instinctively, retreating several steps and raising her armed hand again.

Just as she was about to pull the trigger, the base’s alarm blared. Lights returned to normal brightness. Dir and Su Nisheng had gone to the middle level’s central control hall and pressed the emergency button.

As for Pi Fu, clad in red space suit and tracking here with his engineering hand, he stuck his head through the ventilation grate, looking down at the scene: the humanoid was dead beyond doubt—and so was Valkyrie.

Her chest caved in; she leaned against a liquid nitrogen tank bent nearly in half.

Another one dead.

The three still alive in the embryo storage room gasped. Li Cheng felt neither sorrow nor joy, lost in thought—the fertilized eggs and embryos preserved in the tanks were at least a hundred years old, meaning...

They could start collecting pensions the moment they were born!