Chapter 33

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Chapter 33: Star Death Reality Show (XVI)

With He Yi’s intermittent narration, Qi Leren finally connected all the dots.

The amphioctopuses, a cosmic alien that could destroy civilization, would hatch once they had spread to a civilized planet and sensed nearby creatures. Generally speaking, this kind of “hatching” was slow, and it took more than half a month to break free from the outer shell of the glowing stones and begin to parasitize. However, there were also ways to stimulate the amphioctopus to incubate quickly, that is, to make an organism’s body fluid—usually blood—come into contact with the amphioctopus’s shell, and the amphioctopus will complete the incubation within a few minutes and enter the parasitic state.

That smear of blood on the glowing stone in the church: apparently Annie or Mark had consciously awakened the octopus inside and made it parasitize Mark.

Once parasitized, the host would quickly lose self-awareness and become the octopus’s puppet. The amphioctopus could develop into a mature body within 20 hours, enter the breeding period, lay eggs once a day, and parasitize the surrounding creatures in a relatively closed space, where the number of prey available for parasitization was less than the total number of amphioctopuses.

The amphioctopus was an intelligent creature. The smarter its host was, the smarter it was, because it perfectly inherited everything from the host after capturing its self-awareness. It would use its brain to “think” about how to reproduce more. Its ultimate goal was to reproduce and expand by hook or by crook.

In the late night of the first day, Mark, the first infected person, appeared, and in the late night of the next day, the second infected person also appeared—by various indications, it was Xue Jiahui. The “amnesia” after she woke up was not just her forgetting because she had been parasitized, but because the octopus in her body had borrowed her brain. After thinking, it had concluded that she had better pretend to have amnesia and hide what she knew about amphioctopuses.

On the night of the third day, two new infected people appeared again: one is most likely Annie, the other was uncertain at present, and the most likely one was Lara, who was responsible for taking care of Xue Jiahui. However, Qi Leren had doubts about this, because if Lara had been parasitized, she wouldn’t have mentioned the “contagious physiological conditions” key to Qi Leren when listening to the Best of the Day that morning.

Then there was tonight. There would be four new victims tonight, and the total number of amphioctopuses would exceed that of human beings. After these larvae reached the mature stage, the eight mature octopuses wouldn’t be able to get enough prey. They were about to start a massacre in order to get enough energy, and then enter a long dormant period like the original octopus until new prey appeared.

It was preliminarily estimated that this time would be on the night of the fifth day.

“If you want to save them, time is running out.” He Yi’s tone was exhausted as he looked at Qi Leren. “Are you sure you want to try? There are probably eight amphioctopuses outside, at least four!”

“We still have time and methods. I can’t think of a reason not to do it,” Qi Leren said.

“Methods?” He Yi frowned.

“The instrument that can identify whether someone is infected.” Qi Leren remembered that He Yi had used it to confirm that he wasn’t infected.

He Yi’s face changed: “No! Don’t bring them in! You can go out, but don’t come back after you go out. I’ll wait here until the army arrives, but I will not let the infected people enter here!”

Qi Leren frowned and thought: “Well, this research institute is very big. You can find a safe room to go in and lock it. I’ll bring some people who may not be infected to come in for testing. If there is an accident… you can close the door along the way and hide in the power room. In case the situation isn’t good, you can immediately cut off the power supply so that all the doors are difficult to open. Even if there are infected people, they cannot enter your area.”

He Yi still shook his head: “No, I won’t let the monster in!”

“…Well, at least let me out.” Qi Leren sighed, but he understood He Yi’s concerns and his frightened mood at this time. If he wasn’t an outsider at this moment, but an innocent ordinary person who was involved in this dangerous situation, he wouldn’t have been able to behave righteously as he was now.

Deep down, Qi Leren still held a wait-and-see attitude towards He Yi, and there were still many doubts about this person, so to speak. But Qi Leren didn’t even ask, because it was impossible to get any useful response by questioning He Yi face to face here, and it might even startle him.

“How do you want to leave? The entrance where I came in has been completely blown up, and I can’t get out. The door to the outside needs a special ID card, and there is a life detection system and a gait recognition system inside the passage. The AI will automatically analyze your walking posture, which is much stricter than any fingerprint authentication. You can’t cheat at all. Once the system determines that you’re not a person in the database, the laser defense system will start until the life detection system determines that there’s no living thing inside. Are you confident you can pass again?” He Yi asked.

Without confidence, Qi Leren silently thought about how the S/L Data’s cooling time was one hour, and that it hadn’t passed yet.

And the Prophet had said to minimize the use of the S/L… Qi Leren actually had no actual feelings, but he only vaguely felt that this skill was a bit evil, and dying too much would cause him to have frequent nightmares. But at the critical moments, he still instinctively relied on this skill.

I can’t. There are too many gravestones on Undead Island.

“Where is the general control room for the laser corridor?” Qi Leren asked.

“It’s useless, I’ve looked for it. I suspect that the door to the defense system’s general control room can’t be opened without a password, and the monitoring can’t be seen. Even if we find the password and go in, this system isn’t like the equipment that checks for the octopuses. It can’t be operated at all without knowing the language here.” He Yi shook his head.

Qi Leren pondered over it. To go out, you had to pass through the laser corridor. At the end of the corridor, next to the door that led outside, an ID card had to be used. However, Qi Leren had experienced the danger of the laser corridor once. Unfortunately, S/L solution was still needed to pass smoothly. Was there any other way…

“I have an idea!” Qi Leren shouted and scared He Yi, who looked at him suddenly. “He Yi, I need your cooperation!”

“…Go on.”

“It’s like this: I will go to the laser corridor. You will go to the power room to turn off the power, so that the laser corridor won’t start, and the gait recognition system will be the same. I will go through the laser corridor to the front door and wait for you to turn on the power again, so that the ID reader on the door will start. I can open the door and go out once it starts ago!” Qi Leren said.

“Are you sure? What if the gait recognition system or life detection system starts first?” He Yi disagreed.

“It’s more likely for the door to start first once it’s powered on, rather than the laser corridor,” Qi Leren said, “And isn’t there you? It took me about one minute to pass through the laser corridor last time. Please calculate the time for turning the power on. Turn off the power again after about forty seconds. Forty seconds is enough for me to open the iron door and go out. If there’s an accident, I won’t be able to open the door as I’ll be blocked by the lasers. As long as you turn off the power, the lasers will be turned off again with it.”

He Yi thought for a while and nodded: “This method is good, double insurance.”

For Qi Leren with S/L Data, this was three insurances. What he relied on was not luck, nor He Yi’s cooperation, but his own strength. Otherwise, he would rather study how to get out of the collapsed passage that He Yi had come in through, and would not consider such a dangerous laser corridor.

The two discussed the details again. Qi Leren also took off the watch he found when collecting materials and gave it to He Yi: “You can watch the time.”

He Yi took the watch, nodded solemnly, and said, “Oh, I also found the arsenal here. Heavy weapons can’t be used, but you should be able to get started with weapons like a handgun and hand grenade, you’d better take some with you.”

No wonder this boy has a gun in his hand. Qi Leren glanced at He Yi: “Okay, thanks a lot.”

The two men went to get the weapons, which were well preserved. Qi Leren picked a few easy-to-use ones and took them apart for maintenance. He could give them to Dr. Lu for use, while he took his usual ones and tested them on the spot. He Yi, who was on the side, said faintly because of his skillful technique: “You are indeed a military person. Or did you know there would be octopuses here? Did you secretly hide the octopus in that cave?”

Qi Leren said helplessly: “Oh, I’m really not, why do you think so?”

But he really had known there would be octopuses.

“Then who are you? Is it really possible that you’re an ordinary band lead singer?” He Yi was adamant.

Of course not. My singing is terrible, Qi Leren thought.

But… Should he pave the way for his skill card? So as not to expose the skills at the critical moment, be questioned by the audience, and lead to the failure of the task? With this in mind, Qi Leren decided to add some personal settings for himself.

“Actually, I do have a special identity,” Qi Leren said with a dignified face. “I tell you, but don’t tell anyone else.”

He Yi waited for a while, looking at him carefully: “Then wait, should I turn off the tracking camera?”

Qi Leren couldn’t help laughing, which exposed the fact that he was joking. Seeing He Yi looking at him with bitterness, Qi Leren corrected his expression and asked seriously, “Do you have a faith?”

He Yi was confused by his question and shook his head blankly: “I’m an atheist.”

I used to be an atheist, until I got involved in the Nightmare Game, Qi Leren thought. In fact, he couldn’t be regarded as religious even now. He just thought that there must be some great and incredible powers in the world beyond their knowledge. These were what were regarded as “gods”.

—You can admire and question, but don’t worship blindly and slander maliciously, otherwise you’ll be doomed to be unable to surpass yourself and enter a higher level. That’s what Chen Baiqi had told Qi Leren, who thought what she said was very reasonable.

Seeing Qi Leren’s delay in answering, He Yi asked again, “What about you? Are you a Christian? ”

Qi Leren smiled: “I am an apostle of God.”

“……”

“If I’m killed, I will be resurrected immediately.”

“…………”

“When danger comes, God will give me strength to become an angel and fight against evil forces to the end.”

“………………”

Qi Leren showed a sage’s smile full of divinity and gently stared at He Yi, who was eager to speak.

Before the show begins, give the audience a little psychological preparation.

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Editor’s Notes: [Player Qi Leren has leveled up an ability: Bullshitting.]

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