Chapter 70: Sea Without Light 70
Kui Xin paid no attention to the Game System’s prompts. She composed herself and walked to the glass cage where Tang Guan was held.
Tang Guan’s eyes were vacant, but if you looked closely, his lips were slightly moving, as if whispering something to himself.
“What is he saying?” she asked.
Dr. Long looked pitifully at the man in the cage. “He is reciting the names of his parents and sister. He continues to do so whenever he’s awake; it seems he is trying to keep his mind sharp by doing this.” He rubbed his eyes with false sympathy. “It is truly touching; that’s all that keeps him going.”
At least he has something to rely on when he is desperate enough to remember his parents and sister, Kui Xin thought. She could not imagine calling out anyone else’s name if she was in such a predicament… no names to call, even if there were, she wouldn’t, relying instead on her own resolve until the very end.
“Will he react to our questions?” asked Kui Xin, crossing her arms, her fingers tapping lightly on her upper arm. “Will he talk to us?”
“We’re sorry,” Dr. Long replied, “Apart from when he first woke up and fell apart, spilling everything to us, he stays cocooned in his own world most of the time.” He explained, “His mental state doesn’t allow him to communicate properly. His episodes of clarity are getting shorter, whereas the intervals that the creature comes out are lengthening. Almost every thirty minutes, it emerges from him.”
“The monster’s transformation might damage his clothes,” Kui Xin observed, examining Tang Guan.
Tang Guan wore a lab coat that barely covered his body. It was full of burn marks and showed no signs of having been burst apart by an external force.
“The creature is intelligent, my friend,” Dr. Long said, “When it realized it couldn’t break free from the cage, it stopped wasting energy changing forms, but it takes control of Tang Guan’s body, even mimicking his voice when it communicates with us.”
“It sounds really terrifying… an intelligent alien, capable of taking over a human’s body, coexisting with them,” Kui Xin responded.
Dr. Long exclaimed excitedly, “This is our first living capture of an alien that has humanoid-level intelligence. It’s a historic breakthrough! I have to thank you; you can’t imagine the new heights we’ve reached in understanding xenomorphs. The Secret Cult isn’t as useless or powerless as we expected. They… they are frightening, very much so. Their power lies in hiding in the shadows.”
“Just like an iceberg,” Night Cicada interjected. “The part people see above water is just a small portion.”
Kui Xin pondered, “Did you perform any interesting experiments on Tang Guan? I noticed his clothing had burn injuries.”
“Of course, my friend,” Dr. Long confirmed. “We discovered that neural stimulants can forcibly awaken the monster inside Tang Guan, putting him into a frenzied state.”
Night Cicada added, “I bet you want to see that, don’t you?”
Politely towards Dr. Long, Kui Xin said, “Do me the honor.”
Dr. Long gestured with a nod, and a slow-moving metallic orb glimmered into sight. A blue projection screen appeared, and he pressed a button. A light pink gas started spraying out from pipes near the glass cage ceiling.
Tang Guan’s body trembled in fear, watching the pink mist fill the glass cage. Frightened, he turned his head and pleaded with Dr. Long, “No… Don’t do this…”
Dr. Long soothingly comforted him, “Just for a moment, just for a little bit.”
The neural stimulant invaded Tang Guan’s body. His expression twisted menacingly, his neck swelled with a new tumor, as the monster was about to break through urgently.
“A forcibly awakened monster will be very aggressive and change forms; it stays in a frenzied state for approximately five minutes. However, our glass cage can handle these attacks, and we have other methods too. If the monster is struck while in its frenzied state, its condition will end early, and Tang Guan’s will can regain dominance.”
Right before the monster’s head could breach Tang Guan’s neck, Dr. Long pressed another button, and lights from the glass cage’s skylight changed to orange-red. An orange-red beam shot through Tang Guan’s body, piercing through instantly. His flesh burned black.
Then, the tumor剛刚开始