radicalducati Page 244
Page 244
As the golden light dissipated, the giant shadowy claw was blasted to pieces, but the remaining parts still stubbornly clawed forward. More importantly, behind the claw, even more hounds surged in like a flood bursting its banks, instantly filling the passage behind!
"No! There are too many! We can't maneuver properly in this place!" Trunks shouted anxiously as he slashed two small hounds that emerged from a gap in the side pipes.
"Damn it! If only we could be in an open area..." Vegeta was forced to retreat repeatedly. He dared not unleash his full power in such a confined space, otherwise they would be the first to collapse.
"We're almost at the intersection! On the right!" Night Owl pointed to a slightly wider intersection ahead.
The five struggled to cross the intersection, with Vegeta bringing up the rear, constantly using instantaneous energy blasts to block the tidal wave of hounds. However, the number of hounds was simply too great; they used the properties of shadows to almost ignore terrain obstacles, infiltrating and pressing in from all directions.
"The emergency door is right ahead! But the hydraulic system needs to be activated manually! It will take time!" Night Owl shouted as he rushed to a heavy metal door with a manual turntable.
"How long will it take?" Lin Ye asked urgently while using his order field to repel several hunting dogs that tried to attack from above.
"At least thirty seconds! This thing is rusted to death!" Night Owl turned the wheel hard, but only heard a harsh metallic scraping sound.
Thirty seconds! Looking at the pack of hunting dogs that surged behind him like a black tide, even ten seconds felt incredibly long, let alone thirty!
"Trunks, hold them off for me!" A resolute glint flashed in Vegeta's eyes, and his golden aura surged once more, as if he were preparing to unleash a wide-range attack regardless of the consequences.
"Vegeta! Don't do anything reckless! If the passage collapses, we'll all be buried here!" Lin Ye immediately stopped him.
Just then, Number 18 suddenly spoke up. Her voice remained calm, but carried an undeniable authority: "You all go, I'll cover your retreat."
"What?" Trunks was taken aback.
"What a joke! How long can you hold out by yourself?" Vegeta frowned.
Number 18 ignored them and quickly walked to the center of the passage, facing the surging horde of hounds. Her arms began to deform, revealing complex internal energy conduits and weapon interfaces. "I don't fight based on air. My energy output is more concentrated, making me more suitable for precise kills and area control in this confined space. Moreover, my mechanical body is more resistant to the corrosive effects of void energy than your life forms."
She paused, then added, "This is the optimal solution. It minimizes sacrifices while preserving core combat capabilities and critical information."
"No way!" Lin Ye refused decisively. "If we're going, we'll go together!"
“There’s no time for argument, Lin Ye.” Number 18 turned around, glanced at Lin Ye, his eyes still devoid of emotion, yet unusually resolute. “Logic shows that this is the most successful plan. Your chances of reaching ‘Eden’ alive are far greater than if I act alone. Remember Gadino’s words, ‘The flame must continue.’”
Before she finished speaking, the energy cannons on her arms lit up with a blinding white light, and a blazing high-energy particle beam shot into the pack of hounds like a sharp sword, instantly vaporizing the first few. The powerful energy even briefly halted the advance of the hound horde.
"Night Owl! Open the door!" Number 18 commanded without turning his head.
Night Owl gritted his teeth, no longer hesitating, and briefly channeled the energy of his life-sustaining force field into the power motor of the manual rotating wheel. With a piercing "creak," the wheel began to slowly turn.
"Number 18!" Trunks wanted to say something more.
"Go!" Number 18's voice carried an undeniable sternness. "Don't let my sacrifice be in vain!"
Lin Ye's heart felt like it was being clenched by an invisible hand. He looked at Number 18's solitary figure standing against the surging black tide, his back appearing both frail and incredibly resolute in the flash of the energy cannon. He knew Number 18 was right; it was a cold, optimal logical judgment. But… it was too cruel!
"Let's go!" Lin Ye spat out the three words through gritted teeth. He turned sharply and helped Night Owl crank the wheel. He knew that any hesitation would be a waste of the time that Number 18 had bought for them with his life.
Vegeta took a deep look at Android 18's back and cursed, "Damn cyborg woman..." But he didn't persist. Instead, he unleashed his anger on several hounds that were trying to bypass Android 18 from the side, killing them with precise ki blasts.
"Click!" The hydraulic door finally opened a crack.
"Hurry!" Lin Ye roared.
Trunks glanced one last time at the white figure flashing through the pack of hounds like a lone boat in a storm, then ducked and slipped through the crack in the door. Vegeta and Lin Ye followed closely behind.
Just as Night Owl was about to enter, Number 18's voice came through the encrypted channel, exceptionally clear: "Night Owl, tell Dr. Gro... no, it's nothing."
The next second, the encrypted channel was automatically cut off.
Night Owl froze for a moment, then without hesitation, he slipped into the emergency door and quickly closed and locked it from the inside!
The moment the door closed, they could still hear the intense explosions and roaring energy coming from outside, but just a few seconds later, the sounds became faint and were eventually blocked by the heavy metal door.
The four people behind the door fell into a deathly silence. Only heavy breathing and an extremely oppressive atmosphere could be heard.
They knew that number 18 was probably...
"Go!" Lin Ye's voice was hoarse as he forcefully suppressed the turmoil in his heart. Now was not the time for sorrow. They were still in danger and had to activate the teleportation as soon as possible.
After passing through a short connecting passage, they finally returned to the small teleportation chamber they had come from. Fortunately, it didn't seem to have been invaded by the hounds yet.
"Activate the teleportation immediately! Return to the Seventh Sanctuary!" Lin Ye rushed to the center of the teleportation platform and placed the fragment of the Key of Creation into the base.
The milky white light shone again, and the space began to vibrate.
However, just as the teleportation was about to begin, Lin Ye suddenly felt an unusually rapid, even warning-like, tremor emanating from the fragment in his palm! At the same time, the light of the teleportation array flickered violently and became somewhat unstable!
"What's going on?" Trunks asked alertly.
“Energy interference… very strong spatial interference…” Lin Ye’s expression was grim as he struggled to maintain his connection with the fragments. “Something… is interfering with teleportation! Is it those hounds? Or…”
He suddenly looked up at the cabin's only observation window.
Outside the window, against the pitch-black backdrop of space, a dim light was rapidly expanding. It wasn't a point, but a... enormous, distorted structure, like an eyeball, coldly "watching" over the outpost and the teleportation chamber they were in!
An immense, profound, and soul-chilling pressure, far greater than that of a hunting dog, seeped in like an invisible tide.
The sense of warning from the fragments reached its peak!
"It's too late!" Lin Ye's pupils contracted as he roared, "Hold on tight! The teleportation is unstable, and the destination might be off!"
boom! ! !
A strong sense of spatial pulling came again, but this time, it was filled with chaos and a tearing sensation! The milky white teleportation light was tainted by the power emanating from the dark eyeball outside the window, becoming flickering and uncertain!
Just before his consciousness was completely submerged by the spatial turbulence, Lin Ye only had time to see that the enormous eye of the void seemed to... blink once.
Then, everything went dark.
Chapter 518 Drifting and the Unknown
Chaos, weightlessness, as if the body and soul were torn into countless fragments, and then forcibly reassembled by some force.
Lin Ye had never experienced such a terrible teleportation experience. Even when they escaped from the Ark, the spatial storm, though violent, was always protected by the power of the Key of Creation fragments like a stabilizing force. But this time, the power of the fragments seemed to have been strongly interfered with by some external force, becoming chaotic and disordered.
After an unknown amount of time, the nauseating tearing sensation gradually subsided.
"Ugh..." Lin Ye let out a muffled groan and opened his eyes with difficulty. What came into view was a dark metal ceiling, the style of which was unfamiliar, definitely not the Seventh Shelter.
He sat up abruptly, a wave of intense dizziness washing over him, almost causing him to collapse. He forced himself to endure the discomfort and quickly looked around.
This was a smaller, dilapidated compartment, resembling the interior of some abandoned vehicle. The air was murky, carrying a heavy stench of rust and some kind of decaying organic matter. Trunks, Vegeta, and Night Owl lay collapsed nearby, seemingly still recovering from the aftereffects of the teleportation.
"Cough cough... Where are we?" Trunks covered his forehead, struggling to get up, his face pale.
"The teleportation... went wrong." Lin Ye gasped for breath, feeling the churning blood and qi within his body and the faint, slightly weary fluctuations emanating from the fragment in his palm. "At the last moment, a powerful spatial interference forced the destination to be changed."
"Is it that demon eye?" Vegeta's voice was filled with suppressed anger. He stood up, his aura flickering, clearly indicating he was also in bad shape. He looked around the dilapidated cabin, then kicked the metal wall beside him with a loud clang. "Damn it! What kind of hellhole is this?!"
Night Owl had already activated the instruments on his wrist, his brow furrowed: "Environmental scan... The atmospheric composition is complex, with low oxygen levels and trace amounts of toxic gases. Gravity is approximately 0.8 times the standard value. External environment... Undetectable; the bulkhead has extremely strong energy shielding."
He tried to connect to local networks or databases, but to no avail. "No known public signals or network nodes were detected. We may... have drifted into an unknown, unrecorded area."
Unknown area!
Everyone's hearts sank. Losing their intended destination, being in an unknown environment, and the heavy blow of the sacrifice of Number 18 (which they had almost accepted), the atmosphere instantly plummeted to freezing point.
"Check this vehicle for clues." Lin Ye forced himself to calm down; frustration and anger were pointless now.
The four began to search the cramped space separately. The cabin was small, and apart from where they had teleported, there were only a few fixed lockers (which were empty) and a control panel that looked like a console, but the screen was completely shattered.
"Look here." Trunks found a heavily rusted plaque next to the hatch with faded writing on it.
Night Owl leaned closer and examined it carefully: "...'Pioneer'...resource...exploration ship...number...I can't see the rest."
"An exploration ship?" Lin Ye said thoughtfully. "It seems we've landed on a wrecked spaceship."
Vegeta walked impatiently to the airtight door and tried to forcefully turn the valve: "The door is locked from the outside, or the structure is deformed." He exerted force, and a faint golden aura flashed.
"Don't force it!" Lin Ye stopped him. "The situation outside is unknown. What if this is a vacuum or a toxic environment?"
"What are we going to do? Are we just going to be trapped here and die?" Vegeta said irritably.
Lin Ye walked to the door, placed his palm against the door frame, and focused his mind to communicate with the fragment. The fragment's light flickered faintly a few times, and the information it sent back was intermittent.
“Structure… stable… outside the door… there is a life reaction… very faint… but… it exists…” he sensed intermittently.
"Life signs?" Trunks's spirits lifted. "Is he a survivor?"
“I don’t know… It feels very… strange.” Lin Ye withdrew his hand, his expression solemn. “It’s not like any kind of life force we know; it’s very… weak and mixed.”
Just then, a faint sound, like something rubbing against metal, came from outside the door.
Hiss... hiss...
The sound was very soft, but it was exceptionally clear in the deathly silent cabin.
The four of them immediately held their breath and became fully alert.
"What is that?" Trunks gripped the hilt of his sword.
Vegeta's eyes flashed with golden light as he extended his senses outward, but he immediately frowned: "The energy reaction is very weak, almost imperceptible, like... an insect?"
The scraping sound grew closer, seemingly coming from more than one source. Then, they heard a faint, chilling gnawing sound, as if something outside the door... was chewing on metal!
"They're eating the hull?" Night Owl's expression changed slightly.
Lin Ye made a decisive decision: "We can't sit here and wait to die! No matter what's outside, we have to get out! Vegeta, prepare to force open the door, but control your strength and only break the lock! Trunks, be ready to respond to any attacks! Night Owl, pay attention to changes in the environmental data!"
"It should have been done long ago!" Vegeta shouted, his right hand forming a knife-like shape, covered with a layer of highly compressed golden flame, and he precisely stabbed at the door lock.
With a soft "hiss," the heavy door lock mechanism melted through like a hot knife through butter.
Vegeta kicked the door!
"boom!"
The heavy, airtight door sprang open, hitting something with a dull thud.
The scene outside the door surprised even the four well-traveled individuals.
This wasn't the expected vacuum of space, nor was it a typical spaceship corridor. Outside the door was a dim, damp passageway, the walls covered with a thick, dark green biofilm resembling moss or some kind of fungus. This biofilm was still slightly wriggling, emitting a faint phosphorescence that provided the only illumination. The stench of decay in the air was even stronger.
The creatures gnawing outside the door were several woodlice that looked like magnified versions of a thousand times larger, their shells covered in disgusting slime! Startled by the sudden opening of the door, they quickly curled up or slid away with their numerous segmented limbs, disappearing into the shadows deep within the passage.
"What...what the hell is this?" Trunks felt nauseous.
“Biomass cover…this ship appears to have been used as a nest by some kind of organism.” Night Owl quickly scanned the biofilm. “Complex composition, containing strong acidic enzymes and unknown organic signals…be careful, they might be aggressive!”
As if to confirm his words, more specks of malevolent red light lit up in the depths of the passage, in the writhing dark green biological matrix.
Those are the eyes of many more unknown creatures.
They not only drifted to an unknown star system, but also fell into a... living, hostile nest.