Chapter 443 "Infectious Diseases" (14)
Xin moved his limbs carefully to speed up the recovery of his numb body. The noise outside was getting quieter and quieter.
Xin, who had almost recovered, stood up and prepared to open the hatch in front of her. Since she was far away from the only light source in the room, she could only use the light from the cutter in her hand to find the hatch lock. However, after finding it, Xin immediately gave up the idea of opening the hatch because the hatch was not closed normally, but someone used brute force to pull it shut.
The original mechanical structure was completely damaged, and he couldn't open the hatch now, but fortunately, the noise outside seemed to have stopped. Xin didn't hear any extra footsteps, and probably concluded that the thing outside should be dead.
The place where he was now was either a warehouse or a storage room for maintenance tools. The room was not big, which meant there was no second exit. Now that the only entrance was blocked, he was considered safe for the time being.
However, this safety is only temporary. Xin recalled when she was still in the escape pod. At that time, she still had her plasma pistol in her hand. Although that thing could not fire for a long time, its power was not low. Although her shooting skills were very poor due to excessive blood loss at that time, even so, anything hit by the plasma pistol should not survive more than one shot.
But Xin remembered very clearly that those she encountered, whose bodies had undergone serious mutations, should be monsters from the original space station crew. They could easily withstand several shots. Xin was not sure whether these mutated guys had weaknesses, but in this case, she should prepare for the worst.
Xin was in this state now, without armor, weapons, and only a cutter that could barely be used as a dagger. Once the hatch of the entrance was broken open and those mutant monsters rushed in, he would have no chance of survival. As for joining up with the rest of the team, that was certainly important, but the premise of all this was that he had to be able to see them alive. So the most urgent task was to find something to arm himself, so that at least he would be able to fight those mutant monsters next time.
Fortunately, the room where Xin was was not empty. There were quite a few engineering maintenance tools and instruments here. With a little modification, they could be used to make some temporary weapons. As long as he stayed vigilant and avoided being besieged by monsters, these temporary weapons would be enough to support him until he could meet up with other people.
There were quite a few tools scattered on the ground before, and checking them would not make any noise, which gave Xin a good opportunity. By searching among the scattered maintenance tools on the ground, Xin actually found some useful things.
The first is a magnetic track drill. This tool is used to make holes in solid metal plates. Generally, this tool is used to add holes for energy pipelines to unassembled power furnaces. The appearance of this tool is similar to that of a nail gun, except that it cannot fire nails. Instead, it uses magnetic tracks to accelerate the rotation of the drill bit to achieve the effect of breaking through solid metal. The drill bit of this magnetic track drill has a built-in force field receiver and induction device. It can separate the drill bit from the gun body and then work. This tool was developed to work in some small spaces, such as places where the gun body cannot be placed. Through the control panel on the side of the gun body, the separated drill bit can be remotely operated within a distance of five meters.
The drill bit is made of special magnetic metal. After the work is completed, it can be remotely recovered through the recall button on the gun body, and the distance is also five meters. Inside the base at the bottom of the gun body is a repetitive energy core that can be automatically charged, and this kind of tool basically will not overheat.
The second is a power arm armor, which is not for military use, but a civilian version used to help workers carry heavy objects. This arm armor seems to have been illegally modified, and the power it can output is much greater than the normal range, but Xin thinks it is a good thing, because except for the lack of any defensive ability, the power it can actually output is about the same as that of ordinary military armor arm armor. But it is much heavier.
So far, there was nothing useful left on the tools on the ground, so Xin turned her attention to the shelf next to her. There was a light on the shelf, and although it was flickering due to unstable electricity, it was still a light source. With the help of the flickering light, Xin walked to the shelf next to her, and in order to avoid making any noise and attracting monsters, she slowly searched.
The things on the shelves were basically spare parts. Without the right tools, it was difficult to assemble them into useful things. After taking a quick look and confirming that there was nothing usable, Xin decisively gave up searching the shelves and came to the storage cabinet by the wall.
"This thing better be put to some use..."
After putting on the illegally modified power arm armor, Xin placed the magnetic rail drill gun on the locker in front of him and used the cutter he had obtained earlier to try to cut the lock of the locker. The process was relatively smooth. The original electronic lock on the locker lost power, leaving only the mechanical lock. The energy blade of the cutter easily opened the first locker.
"Tsk, useless stuff."
The first locker contained only a set of dirty work clothes and some moldy and spoiled snacks. This should be the locker of a space station worker and there was nothing usable in it.
He opened the second locker, which was not locked, but it was empty. Many of the lockers in this row were not closed, so Xin did not use the cutter many times, but again, there was nothing in these unlocked lockers, just some work clothes or photos.
After getting the magnetic rail drill back, Xin continued to search the room. Most of the things were either useless or too large for Xin to carry. There was nothing left in the room that was useful.
With the power arm armor, Xin can now open the sealed hatch, but there is no suitable point on the hatch for exerting force, Xin needs to use a cutter or a magnetic rail drill to create a position for the power arm armor to exert force. After a brief thought, Xin chose to use the cutter first. After all, compared with the buzzing sound of the drill head when the magnetic rail drill is working, the cutter is much quieter.
After spending three or four minutes, Xin cut a gap in the side of the hatch so that he could put his hand in and grab the hatch. To be on the safe side, Xin did not open the hatch immediately, but first looked outside through the gap.
Through the gap cut out on the hatch, Xin could see that there was a corridor outside. The emergency light strips on the corridor were on, providing some lighting. Through the light of the emergency light strips, Xin could roughly judge where he was in the space station by the shape of the corridor. He should be in a maintenance area. Judging from the size of the corridor, this maintenance area should be related to the energy system. The corridor was very wide and the wall material had been reinforced.
According to the mission intelligence obtained before, the structure of this space station is a common structure. The energy system is located below the main body of the space station, on the upper layer of the main propulsion system. There are many maintenance workers and engineers in the energy system area of this large space station. If the mutation I have seen before occurs throughout the space station, then this place must be a dangerous location because of the dense population. I must be more careful when I act here.
“Squeak…”
To be on the safe side, Xin did not open the hatch completely, but left a gap large enough for him to enter and exit, so that if he was accidentally surrounded by monsters, he would have a safe house to use.
Leaving the room and entering the corridor, Xin now had to make a choice. In addition to the roads at both ends of the corridor, there was also a hatch leading to an open area. Which road to take became Xin's first choice. This place was not safe, and the right choice was crucial. Fortunately, he still had equipment to use.
"No valid permissions recognized, rescanning vitals."
"Error, the correct target was not found, connecting to the command network for comparison..."
"what's the situation?"
The so-called effective authority of the Tige people's equipment is actually based on the comparison of the blood sample registered by the device user. As long as the error does not exceed 3%, the equipment can be used normally. However, some abnormal changes seem to have taken place in Xin's body.
"Error, no similar registration samples found, unable to obtain permission. The device is shutting down."
"???"
The unusable equipment that had been forced to shut down confused Xin and put her in a bad situation. If the equipment could be used, she could also obtain the structural diagram of the space station from the command network to plan the route, but now she could only rely on luck. After all, for such a large space station, without a route map, even if there was no danger here, the probability of being trapped in an area and unable to get out was very high.
Xin took a few deep breaths and calmed herself down. She began to use her experience and the surrounding environment to try to determine a correct and safe path.
Based on his observation, Xin found that the corridor behind him was very clean and empty, but there were some rustling sounds faintly coming from the distance. Although the distance was far, if he walked in this direction, he would most likely encounter a large number of mutant monsters. His current combat power was totally insufficient, and the probability of an accident if he walked in this direction was very high. It was not the right choice.
The door leading to the open area was ajar, and there were traces of energy damage at the door lock, which must have been caused by someone. The method of destruction seemed to be a special energy weapon. There was still some residual heat at the gap, indicating that the destruction should have occurred not long ago. Although the open area has more places to maneuver if you encounter mutant monsters than the corridor, the probability of encountering a large number of mutant monsters will also increase. This road can be taken, but it is risky and not the first choice.
The last remaining way was at the other end of the corridor in front of him. There was a corner about ten meters away. Xin decided to walk over and take a look. If the situation was not good, he would start exploring from the hatch leading to the open area.
After reaching the corner, Xin leaned against the wall and stuck his head out to look outside. From this point on, the corridor was completely dark. Although it was very dim and difficult to see the specific details inside, Xin could still see from the outline that the corridor behind the corner was full of corpses of various mutant monsters.
Judging from the wounds on these corpses, they were completely killed and there was no possibility that they were pretending to be dead, so Xin approached cautiously, ready to confirm what killed these mutant monsters.
"Clean incisions, terrifying penetration ability, and traces of ablation on the edges of the wounds. Even the walls next to them have similar cut marks. Although the shapes, sizes, and heights of these mutant monsters are different, these cuts basically appear at the same height. It should be some kind of energy weapon with strong penetration and great power."
After walking forward for a while, Xin discovered something else: the bodies of these mutant monsters all fell in the same direction. Based on the clues currently obtained, Xin pieced together a possibility in his mind.
"The bodies of these mutant monsters fell with their backs to me, which means that the attack that killed these monsters came from the front of the corridor. There were quite a few of these monsters, and they must have discovered the source of the attack at the same time, and then tried to rush over to attack, but were killed all at once. Which side of the corridor did the attacker move towards my current position?"
Xin thought of the hatch leading to the open area that was also destroyed by some kind of energy weapon. If his assumption was correct, the person who attacked these mutant monsters appeared from the front of the corridor, killed these mutant monsters, and left through the hatch leading to the open area. There was still some residual heat on the hatch just now, which meant that the person should have left not long ago.
"But the time doesn't match. These monsters are already dead. Why did the person who killed these monsters just leave? Could it be related to my appearance in this location?"
According to the temperature of the monsters' bodies, they died about forty minutes to an hour ago. Judging from the wounds, it took no more than three minutes for these monsters to be killed. Adding the residual heat on the hatch, it means that the hatch was destroyed only a few minutes ago. Adding all the time together, it was less than ten minutes.
"In this case, if we calculate based on 40 minutes, minus the time it takes to kill the monster and the time it takes to destroy the hatch, there is nearly half an hour left. What was the person who killed the monster doing during this time?"
Putting the clues together, Xin came up with the only possible explanation, which was that the person who attacked these mutant monsters was the one who saved him. He had to leave for some reason, and taking him with him when he was unconscious would slow down his movement, but he did not leave himself in a dangerous place, but spent some time to build a safe house where he could be properly accommodated. If this was the case, the time would be right.
"Could it be him? He survived?!"
Given the current situation of the space station, it is estimated that there will be no survivors. Even if there are, they probably won't easily try to save someone they don't know and who is close to death. So the person who saves them must know them. Xin has no social connections in the fourth star area, so there are only two possibilities for the person who saved them. One is his other team members, and the other is Han Zu.
Xin clearly remembered how serious his injuries were. In the entire team, only Xinle had sufficient medical resources. But according to the current clues, the person who saved him should not be Xinle. There are several reasons.
First, when he woke up halfway, he felt something piercing his body. It was something like a living thing. Although there were similar devices on Sinler's medical module, those things had a pungent smell of medicine, and it was impossible for him to not have any reaction.
Second, although Sinler's medical equipment was reliable, given his own injuries, it would be no problem for him to control his blood loss and repair his wounds. However, he would definitely be very weak, and would definitely not be as unscathed as he is now. Not only would his injuries be completely healed, but his body functions would also return to their peak state.
The third and most obvious point is that Sinler's armor has a high defense, but he does not have such a powerful weapon in his weaponry. If his weapon has enough energy, it is not impossible to kill those mutant monsters, but it is impossible to destroy the surrounding walls. Sinler's main weapon is a semi-automatic weapon that fires a special plasma stream. The wound it causes on the mutant's flesh should leave a large hole with ablation marks, rather than a flat cut wound or a strong penetrating wound.
"Hae's beam hand cannon can do that, but his shooting skills are not that accurate..."
However, if the person who saved him was Han Zu, then everything would make sense. First of all, the wounds on the mutant bodies and the traces of damage on the surrounding walls. Xin had witnessed Han Zu using energy rays more than once, and the traces they left were extremely similar to what Xin saw now.
Then there was the strange feeling when I woke up halfway. Now that I think about it, those things felt similar to the tentacles Han Zu had used.
"But how did he survive the explosion of the spacecraft and make it to such a distant space station?"
Although it made sense, Xin couldn't understand how Han Zu survived, reached the space station, and successfully found her. However, since this was possible, then following him to confirm whether her idea was correct was what Xin had to do next. With her current armor and proper weapons, if she could get Han Zu's help, her chances of survival would definitely be much greater than if she acted independently. She immediately returned the same way, passed through the destroyed hatch, entered the open area, and searched for possible traces while searching.