"Because they can no longer survive in this world alone like humans." The gray-haired old man reached out to pinch an ovarian follicle. He used his tiger's mouth to clamp the back of the neck of the "corpse" inside the follicle: "Look at this."
Later, Bill also looked over and saw that as Hughley clenched his thumb, a translucent, relatively hard object seemed to bulge out.
"Here, there is a tube." Hughley nodded. "It's hard to tell from the outside, but this thing has actually been inserted into their spine. An unknown creature is delivering nutrients and energy to them... Yes, just like hanging water."
"So what you're saying is that they are no longer human from the moment they are devoured by the follicle."
"Definitely not - they can no longer escape from the follicle, and if you cut the thread or rescue them they will die quickly."
"Thank you, Mr. Hughley."
Hitzfeld finally noticed Bill behind them. She thanked the old man first, then turned back with a group of people: "Good evening, Bill, you're late."
"I didn't expect you to recover so quickly!" Bill walked up and shook hands with the girl through his black silk gloves.
He was a bit dull, but his emotions were sincere. Hitzfeld didn't really blame him, and the two of them exchanged a few pleasantries before getting down to business.
"This is an unprecedented discovery." Bill said, "I went back to town and just came here. If nothing unexpected happens, Wayne should have received the news, and they will probably send more people."
"Not necessarily." Sixus snorted coldly beside him.
Her doubts were quite reasonable, because if there were still spare staff, they would not ask a doctor like her to work around the clock.
"Time is flowing~" Bill tucked his cane between his armpits and rubbed his hands. "Just because no one was free a month ago doesn't mean it's the same now. Maybe a bunch of agents above level eight will go back to report on their duties?"
"And then you can go back to live in retirement?"
"Oh...you can't slander my ideals..."
"I can tell you it's difficult." Xia Yibing said coldly, "I just exchanged letters with them a day ago. If you want to find reinforcements, you have to wait at least half a month."
After all, she is the new director and her information channels are stable.
"Why?" Bill was surprised. "Boss...what are you dealing with?"
In his opinion, even if the discovery of Bartlett Beach was thrown into the vast archives of the Security Bureau, it would be enough to be described as "horrible and weird."
Is there anything more important than this right now?
"There have been changes on Dongquan Island in the eastern part of Wayne." Xia Yibing said simply.
Bill immediately shut up.
He had heard of Dongquan Island. It was extremely ancient and was used by the Security Bureau for research and to imprison evil spirits.
Something has changed in that place. No matter what the change is, it will be very troublesome. There may be a conspiracy of Ni Riku behind it. He is not in a position to ask too much about it.
"Then..." He was a little depressed, "How do we deal with this?"
When they first met, he ignored Xia Yibing and only paid attention to Hitzfeld. Later, he found out that this person was actually his ultimate superior.
"How else can we deal with this?" Xia Yibing asked him back, "Investigate those who should be investigated and arrest those who should be arrested."
"But we have no suspects at all."
"Where's the list I asked you to find?"
"You mean the list of patients and missing persons in recent months?" Bill began to rub his hands again. "This... list of patients... because of Miss Hitzfeld's efforts, they all woke up and are basically out of danger. Only a few didn't make it in time and died of exhaustion."
"Wouldn't that be a good opportunity to arrest them and interrogate them?"
"..." Bill looked bitter and was unable to speak.
"I think," Hitzfeld glanced at him, "that the news of the missing persons must have stimulated the families of the patients, causing them to hide their children one by one. So you can't catch them at all?"
Bill nodded vigorously as if he had seen a savior.
"What did Daelin say?" Hitzfeld looked at Sixus.
Given the nature of the security bureau, they usually arrest both of them together. However, the situation at Bartlett Beach is special, and the local security bureau is very weak. Considering public opinion, it is better to cooperate with Dai Lin.
The locals regard Dai Lin as a saint.
It would definitely be different if she came to persuade me.
"What else can we do?" Sixus curled his lips, "She tried, but the effect was limited."
“No family is willing to believe us?”
"Yes, quite a few. But you know this thing, it's meaningless if you can't catch all the people."
To find the possible murderer from a large group of people, of course you have to gather everyone together.
Hitzfeld nodded, probably because that was why Dai Lin was so depressed when he saw her during the day.
Thinking of Dai Lin, she couldn't help but think of her teacher, Desca Knight.
Yes—Dalin Blue’s teacher, the veteran Golden Knight Desca Lavos, was the owner of the voice she heard in the projection, and his name and position matched.
From this perspective, no matter what is brewing in the abyss now, it may be related to Desca-Lavos.
I have to find a free place to ask Dai Lin if he still remembers what his teacher did here.
They walked downstairs while chatting, stepped over the carved stone steps, turned the corner, and saw a woman in a dark dress squatting on the ground.
"Miss!"
Bill walked up quickly, "What are you doing?...Don't touch them!"
He waved his cane to stop Ms. Feti, preventing her from reaching out to touch the follicles, with a look of fear on his face.
"You're being a bit jumpy, Agent."
Ms. Feti stood up, her expression calm.
"There's no evidence they would hurt me."
"There's no evidence to prove otherwise!" Bill retorted loudly, pointing excitedly at the wall, and turned to look at the guard standing at the entrance of the tunnel, "Did you let the lady in?"
The man stammered and was unable to speak.
"Oh, we requested it together."
Hitzfeld interjected.
"The lady is a semi-expert in marine biology, and can complement Mr. Hughley. We thought maybe she could see something from the changes below, so we decided to let her come."
"Okay!" Bill shook his head and waved his hand to signal the man to get out.
The other party felt relieved and ran away.
He knew that what was going to be discussed here was confidential and not something an outside staff member like him could sit in on.
Standing at the foot of the wall, Hitzfeld looked up at the "Wall of Life" on the lower level.
It is undoubtedly more frightening than the upper level.
Although the follicles in the upper layer contain people, they at least maintain a basic human shape.
This floor?
At first glance, there is no big difference, but in fact, the hands, feet, and even faces of many of the "people" in the follicles have spread out, just like eggs with the yolk missing, with a ball of blood mud bursting out and spreading out in the blisters.
It's not just blood mud. If you look closely, you can see the nerve blood contained in it.
This is terrifying, and makes them look more like monsters, so Bill has always banned anyone from coming here, and today is an exception.
Hitzfeld remained silent.
She and Xia Yibing had previously speculated that the nest containing the follicles might be very large, extending from the deep sea abyss to the upper part, with every section and segment densely packed with follicles.
She also guessed that these follicles would have layers and variations: the follicles located in the upper layers would look more human-like, while the follicles located in the lower layers would look more monster-like.
"The cavity we dived into was about 120 meters deep from here." Xia Yibing leaned close to her and whispered.
"About the middle?"
"Yes."
Hitzfeld nodded.
This once again confirmed her thoughts.
This is the starting point, and 120 meters deep is the middle section, so the follicles they found in the cavity in the middle section have begun to transform into marine species.
Calculated in this way, the road from here to a depth of 120 meters is the process of transforming human corpses.
From here to a depth of 120 meters, human corpses will be decomposed, digested and concentrated into essence in the follicles.
At 120 meters, the concentrated essence - the small black dots they had seen would re-hatch under an unknown mysterious influence and shape into another marine creature that was completely different from humans.
And then...the cavity she found in her ocean dream was about 300 meters deep according to her own feeling.
From 120 meters to 300 meters, if that is the end of the abyss...
Perhaps if she had swam a little further and passed through the holes that emitted the screams, she would have been able to see the truth about the nest.
"Ma'am, do you have any thoughts?"
Hitzfeld looked at the old woman.
Feti shook his head.
"I'm sorry... but as Hughley said, this is a discovery that could turn the existing biological system upside down."
In fact, she put it lightly.
It's more than just subversion.
"Humans can be transformed into organisms of other orders in a natural way" - this discovery alone is no less than dropping a super bomb in the world of biology.
Many people know by chance that agents need to undergo physical therapy, but most of them don’t know that scholars also have psychological models.
People who study are smarter than ordinary people - and usually more persistent. Once these people get stuck in a rut and develop psychological problems, the probability of them hatching nightmares or corruptors is actually higher than that of agents.
"I hope we can hold off on making the findings here public," Feti said. "Many people... I don't think they can handle the shock of this. If we make it public hastily, there will be chaos!"
"Of course, ma'am, you don't have to worry..."
Xia Yibing went up to comfort her.
In fact, it is impossible to make it public even without Feti saying it.
It was indeed too weird. Not to mention scholars or ordinary people, even she felt a little uneasy.
Because this involves what can be said to be the ultimate philosophical question: how did the first human being come into being?
If this nest was naturally created rather than man-made, could she assume that... all species in this world could transform into each other?
So how do we determine who is a human and who is an animal?
Just like the giant eel she and Hitzfeld had killed together, and the killer crabs that swarmed over.
Did they originally look like this, or were they hatched from the abyss...were they originally human?
This question cannot be thought about in detail.
It also involves philosophy, legal principles and even morality. If you think about it carefully, you will even doubt your own species. If it is made public, public opinion will explode.
"How did you notify the families of the victims?"
Hitzfeld spoke reluctantly and looked at Bill.
"Just say we've fished out their remains."
"Didn't they ask you for your remains to bury?"
"Yes...but we can delay it for a while. We can't pull them out now, right?"
Hitzfeld thought so too.
No one spoke after that, and the atmosphere became extremely silent.
Mainly because I didn't expect so many people to die...
The difference between searching for missing persons and finding a pile of strange corpses is huge.
Coupled with the biological fallacy behind the nest, everyone who knew about the situation could be said to have suffered a severe shock, which was no less than a shaken view of life.
"Go find Dai Lin."
Hitzfeld stared at the wall, feeling that he couldn't delay any longer.
"I have something important to ask her."
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Three more chapters are here, happy National Day everyone~
