“Snap!”
"Pyr
“Snap!”
Every time I lifted my foot, it felt like I was kicking on a mousetrap, and every time I put my foot down, it felt like I was stepping into mud and rotten meat.
I originally thought that the ground was covered with some unknown fungus, as soft and wet as thick green moss.
But when Helena decided to take action, she found that the heels of her boots seemed to have stepped on glue, and it took her ten times more effort than usual to get off the ground.
Moreover, when tearing this strange substance, she could hear a sound similar to pulling transparent tape. The harsh noise would undoubtedly bring her psychological pressure.
[Helena] tried to use space to cut the soles of her shoes, but this method was very laborious. In a foreign place with limited supplies, she might encounter an enemy she didn't recognize at any time.
So after briefly weighing the pros and cons, she kept a cold face, feeling glad for her decision to take back the ring, and continued to move forward with the noise.
There is intelligence that in this experimental field, there is a META ship named Hunter.
Although his specific personality and abilities were still unknown, it was still an opportunity. She had to come. Even if not to recruit members, she had to bring the other party from the edge of [disturbance] to a safe place.
After all, no matter how you look at it, this doesn't seem like a livable place.
The air is hot and humid, the light is dim, the environment is weird and lifeless.
Looking into the distance, there was not even a building taller than six meters to be seen. All were ruins, covered with turbid and disgusting substances.
Plants? There is no trace of them, unless those fleshy things with red and white spots that bloom on the soft soil can be called "flowers".
To be honest, after seeing all this, Helena didn't think that the Hunter was qualified to join Embers.
If the other party meets all the conditions, it should have left its dilapidated native world long ago, just like those MRTA ships that have no intention of fighting and instead find a testing ground to recuperate.
Especially in this disgusting and weird environment, if it were her, she would not be willing to stay for even a second.
The only explanation is that the Hunter is not powerful enough to leave on his own and can only linger here, eventually meeting his fate called "death".
"...I hope you're still alive."
Amid the annoying noise, Helena began to talk to herself to relieve her mental stress, "Otherwise, what I am going through now will be meaningless."
"Pyr
“Snap!”
"Pyr
“Snap!”
"Pyr-
“Puff…Puff, Puff.”
A strange sound, like bubbles rising and bursting in a viscous liquid, was heard not far away, forcing Helena to stop moving forward.
She took out the recording device and aimed the scanning port at the mud wall on the left side. On the turbid glue layer, there was a small spotted "flower" that was constantly spitting out black and gray bubbles.
Just like a child with poor skills using homemade bubble water, the fist-sized fleshy flower has bubbles blown out from the hole in the center, which only become hemispherical before bursting.
The fishy-smelling mucus splashed everywhere as the bubbles burst, and fell on the glue layer spread everywhere, and finally merged into one, growing black and red granulations.
"...How disgusting." [Helena] commented softly while holding the recorder.
As if it had caused someone's dissatisfaction, the bubbling flesh flower gradually swelled up, and there seemed to be an inflating ball in the gelatin layer, pushing it higher and higher.
Finally, the limb that had been barely considered a hand, like the sharp beak of a newborn bird, broke through the glue layer mixed with mucus and came into this world.
It vomited out a gray-black, smelly liquid from its mouthparts covered with pus and granulations, letting the liquid flow all over the ground along the gelatinous layer. Only then did it exhale its first breath since its birth.
"hiss-
[Helena] recorded the entire process of the monster's birth with a cold face and gave a brief description.
"Multiple soft structures, suspected to have sound-making organs, smelly body fluids, unknown characteristics, no teeth in the mouthparts, slow movements, and the flowers on the top, whose function is unknown."
After hearing the noise, the mass of flesh that seemed to be made up of pieces of meat of different sizes slowly moved its torso. The limbs that had broken through the glue layer swayed as it moved, as if they had no bones.
For the time being, it is moving at a snail's pace and has achieved nothing other than disgusting people.
[Helena] has no patience for this kind of thing. When she was a child, she was a girl who loved beauty and she always looked forward to Su Xin helping her comb her hair.
Now that she saw such a being, she did not kill it immediately, all thanks to the "mission record".
And in order to record the data, she had to endure the nausea and do something more detrimental to her mood.
Cutting.
This step was a piece of cake for Helena, who was proficient in spatial abilities. The only thing she had to worry about was her limited patience.
“Buzz——
A slight buzzing sound passed through the air, as light as the flapping of a dragonfly's wings and fleeting.
The tumor, which was still trying to move towards Helena, stopped moving, but was not perfectly split into two like ordinary things.
[Helena] frowned and tried again, but still did not get the result she had imagined.
"It is suspected to be a physical characteristic. Ordinary cutting is meaningless to it. Next, we will change the experimental method."
As soon as she finished speaking, dozens of thickened light blades slashed forward from her body. When they touched the tumor, they stirred up bursts of red and black mist and made a "sizzling" sound like frying meat.
The light blade then used its high temperature to evaporate any liquid in its path, successfully splitting the torso into several pieces, which were scattered on the ground covered with mucus and gelatin.
The piece of flesh with the fleshy flower on top, which was probably the head, still had its mouthparts covered with pustules and fleshy whiskers open after it fell to the ground, making a "hiss-hiss" sound.
The next second, it was cut in half by the high-temperature energy blade.
"The mucus is suspected to have a repairing effect. It is speculated that ordinary sharp weapons have no effect on it."
"No skeletal or organ-like structures have been found. The main part of the head is gray-black fluid. No brain structure has been found. The body's support is unknown, and its specific composition is unknown."
"Due to the special circumstances, only the top fleshy part and a small amount of the trunk are selected as samples. We will start collecting now."
[Helena] finished her brief report, stepped on the stench on the ground and moved closer to the pieces of meat. She raised her hand and randomly selected a piece of the torso, cut off part of it with dark blue energy, and sealed it up.
Then she turned and walked towards the head that was split in half. After getting closer, she endured the nausea and looked carefully at the mouthparts. She found no hard object, just a pool of flesh and a bulge.
The fist-sized fleshy flower on the top was drooping on the fleshy ball. The five petals with red background and white spots were soft and limp, and the hole in the center with a diameter of about one centimeter was constantly oozing mucus.
"...I really don't want to stay here any longer. Where is the Hunter? Do I have to use a loudspeaker to find him?"
Helena's brows were furrowed as her irritability grew. She had learned a lot from the person she liked, including a vague obsession with cleanliness.
Ever since she set foot on this piece of colloid-covered land, she became extremely irritable, but she had to force herself to carry out the mission.
The overly chaotic environment and the fact that she was acting alone made her become much more emotional.
This emotional state is obviously of no help to the task, but will increase the possibility of "accidents".
[Helena] obviously hasn't realized this yet, and just wants to collect samples quickly and leave this stinking hellhole.
But just as she was about to repeat the same trick and use energy to cut and seal the sample, the flower that was originally drooping on the piece of meat suddenly "puffed" and sprayed gray-black fluids at her.
[Helena] reacted very quickly, and used a dark blue energy light curtain to block the slime before it reached her face, but the stench still splashed everywhere and stained the corners of her clothes.
The floating energy strips that stretched like a skirt at the waist and hips were stained by mucus, and granulations quickly formed from the droplets, and root-like flesh tendrils extended in all directions.
The deep blue energy used high temperature to resist, locking the granulations extending from the rice-grain-sized droplets into a fist-sized area, and continuously evaporating to produce smoke.
[Helena] had a very unhappy expression on her face. She immediately raised her hand to separate and seal the meat flower along with half of its head. She then burned it with high-intensity energy, and in a series of boiling sounds, she reduced it to ashes.
After eliminating the threat, she lowered her eyes to look at the energy strip tainted by filth, increased the energy delivery, and burned those tiny granulations until they were charred, preventing them from spreading.
"...Anyone who has anything to do with [Disturbance] is a cause for concern."
[Helena] refreshed her status and considered whether to cut a random meat flower as a sample, but she was not sure if there was any difference between the two.
After thinking it over, she finally decided to forget it. Judging from the situation, the items were probably everywhere. It wouldn't be too late to get them before she found the person and left.
At this point, Helena was ready to leave.
Before she raised her feet to continue being disturbed by the noise, she subconsciously glanced at the contaminated strip. She didn't pay much attention to it at first, but unexpectedly discovered the charred meat roots still remaining on the surface.
She was stunned for a moment, then she refreshed her status again, but the fist-sized dirty area still did not disappear.
"what happened?"
[Helena] seemed to be unconvinced and brushed the brush several times in annoyance, but the granulations extending from the droplets still took root there like camel thorns in the desert even after the liquid was burned out.
[Helena], who always felt uncomfortable, sighed lightly, cut off that part with the energy blade, and threw it away, letting it turn into a ball of energy and burn until the strip burned out and the residue fell to the ground.
"...No, we have to finish the mission quickly."
She raised her eyes and pretended to leave, but when she turned around, she found that the independent pieces of flesh had all disappeared, as if they had been devoured by something.
Small bulges appeared on the rubber surface where the gray-black liquid flowed.
Like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, the fishy-smelling meat flowers push open the "soil" and bloom one by one and in clusters, showing their vigorous "vitality".
"What... is this...?"
Chapter 930: Rupture
Although the newly grown flesh flower has not started to spit out mucus, no one can guarantee that it is safe.
And judging by the form of "seeding" just now, it has some similarities with earthworms and leeches, but its ability far exceeds that of the two. Even if it is divided into several pieces, it can continue to survive and become an independent individual.
If you want to solve it completely, of course you can.
By wrapping its entire body in high temperature, burning it until there is no drop of body fluid left, and turning the sarcoma completely into charcoal, its regeneration can be prevented.
But Helena knew that this was unrealistic because her energy reserves simply did not support her doing so.
On this Earth-like planet with a surface area of about 500 million square kilometers, there are countless such flesh flowers, and there is no telling how many monsters like the one just now will appear.
It would be best if the problem could be solved by setting it on fire, but the gelatinous and fluid-filled sarcoma structure under the foot obviously blocked this pathway. If it was not completely burned out, it would cause more serious spread.
This trait is similar to the protagonist in a certain series of horror comics, where as long as one cell survives, it can eventually reproduce into a new independent individual. (Note 1)
[Helena] is not going to waste time on such things. She is not here to save the world. She only needs to take a survivor away and her mission will be accomplished.
As for how to find the other person quickly, she also figured it out.
It is simply unrealistic to travel around the world silently, looking for something that may move at any time like looking for a needle in a haystack.
After seeing the disgusting side of this experimental field, Helena lost her patience.
She did not choose to wrap her feet with energy. That would not only be a waste, but would also only have a blocking effect. She would still sink. Instead, walking in the air would save time and effort.
Finally, she used a thin layer of energy to cover the rubber layer as a foothold, and rushed forward at a high speed.
Judging from the results given by the device, all the communication equipment here is paralyzed and no signals can be detected.
The glue layer may have some kind of corrosiveness, causing landmark buildings to collapse completely. Looking along the way, the highest ruins are only about four or five meters high, and the ground is even raised a lot by the ruins and glue.
Before coming, she had not expected the situation to be so serious. Apart from the detection and recording equipment, wedding ring and daily necessities, the only things she had on her were the means to save her life.
"It would be nice if I brought a loudspeaker." Helena thought as she walked, with a cold expression, "It would be better than me shouting by myself."
To be honest, she didn't really want to speak.
If it were a better experimental field, she could probably tolerate it by just shouting, but here, as soon as she opened her mouth while moving, the stench would rush in, which she could not tolerate.
So Helena began to look for a large piece of cloth to make a flag that would make a loud noise when she ran at high speed to alert the hunter who was nowhere to be found.
Unfortunately, fabric seemed to be extinct in the experimental field. Not even a small piece of it could be found. It was as if the whole world was filled with nothing but glue and mucus.
[Helena] became increasingly annoyed, and in desperation she dug out her spare clothing, which she had brought from the port area.
She picked out a coat, tied the left sleeve around the barrel, and tried running two sections.
The sound was not loud, but it was enough in the dead silence.
"Tsk... I bought this based on my sister's style, but I ended up using it here."
"elder sister…
"When can I go back..."
"I…"
"I want to go back to the harbor..."
"Pa pa pa pa
"Pa pa pa pa
