mud falling painting beam empty

Chapter 1092 Amber Prisoner

Kane's mask was filled with mucus. The translucent film reflected an amber luster under the emergency light, like a prehistoric insect frozen in a museum. His eyeballs rolled wildly behind the film, and his nails scraped against the inner wall of the mask, making a teeth-grinding creaking sound.

Zhao Wuji stood in front of the observation window of the medical cabin, his fingers unconsciously tapping Morse code on the data pad - don't save him.

"We have to cut this thing!" Ripley put on rubber gloves and used the tip of the scalpel to press a small indentation into the surface of the film.

The membrane suddenly contracted, and a sound like bubbles bursting came out of Kane's throat.

[System warning: Intervention will cause your survival rate to return to zero]

Zhao Wuji had no choice but to take a half step back and let the shadow swallow him. On his irises floated a line of words that only he could see: [Countdown to chest break: 02:17:33].

While the crew took turns guarding Kane, Zhao Wuji slipped into the monitoring room.

The blue light of the monitor flooded his face like a deep ocean. He called up the backup camera that he had installed in the ventilation duct last night. In the corner of the camera, the neglected slime was slowly crawling towards the drain, like molten mercury.

"An interesting investment." A voice suddenly sounded behind me.

The company representative White leaned against the door frame at some point, the letter W on his tie clip glowing coldly. His eyes were glued to the screen: "The company will pay an extra bonus for this 'biological sample'."

Zhao Wuji's finger hovered above the delete key. The other party popped up a new message:

[Transaction confirmation: Every 10 seconds of video = 200 gold coins (current balance: 0/100000)]

There was a slight sucking sound coming from the drain.

As Kane's chest exploded, blood splattered radially onto the snow-white bulkhead.

The broken chest body screamed and streaked with blood, knocking over the surgical instrument tray. Zhao Wuji moved close to the wall, and the sampling tube hidden in his sleeve caught a drop of splashing acid blood.

The tube wall was immediately corroded into a lace-like hollow pattern.

"Grab it!" As Dallas rushed over, White retreated to the corner, his lips moving silently. Zhao Wuji understood the word: perfect.

[Danger Prediction Skill Activated: Acidic Blood Will Melt Through the Floor in 10 Seconds]

The moment he dragged Ripley back, the metal floor collapsed into a vortex of smoke. The broken chest disappeared deep into the pipe, leaving only Kane's empty chest cavity, like a rotten pomegranate with the core removed.

Late night cafeteria.

Zhao Wuji pushed the data chip across the dining table: "72 hours of monitoring records, including the entire process of incubation of the thorax."

White picked up the chip as if it were some dangerous specimen: "Do you know why the company chose the Nostromo?" His gold-rimmed glasses reflected a cold light.

"Because the crew of this old ship is cheap enough."

When the chip was inserted into the reader, Zhao Wuji saw his face reflected in the other person's lens - blurry like a passing ghost.

[Gold coins +2000, current survival rate: 41%↑]

“Keep recording.”

White left this sentence and a magnetic pistol (with the safety off), "Next time I want to see a video of it growing to adult size."

Zhao Wuji found Parker in the engine room.

The black engineer was using magnetic pliers to repair the pipes corroded by acid blood, humming an off-tune blues song. When he saw Zhao Wuji, he raised the wine jug and said, "A toast to Kane?"

The amber liquid formed a floating sphere in the zero-gravity environment. Zhao Wuji looked at himself twisted in the liquid and asked, "If you knew that half of the people would die if you landed on LV-426, would you stop it?"

Parker's laughter shattered the floating wine ball: "Boy, we are small characters." He pointed to the rusty ship wall, "In fact, we are not even screws."

A drop of wine floated to Zhao Wuji's lips and tasted like liquid rust.

[Tool 3 Obtained: Acid Blood Protection Gloves (Parker modified with insulation materials)]

As they bumped fists, there was a sound of metal tearing somewhere in the ship.

The ventilation duct was like a piece of peeled mechanical intestine, dark and damp.

Zhao Wuji was at the corner of the pipe, his forehead pressed against the cold alloy wall. His breath formed a rapid white mist in the mask, which was quickly sucked away by the circulatory system. Ten meters away, Lambert's scream was coming through the metal pipe wall, distorted into some inhuman frequency - first high-pitched, then suddenly interrupted, and finally only the echo of dripping liquid remained. Tap. Tap. Tap.

Like a rusty pendulum.

[System prompt: Tachycardia detected, it is recommended to use sedatives (1 dose remaining)]

He bit off the cap of the syringe, and as the needle pierced his neck, the cold liquid briefly cleared his vision. Shadows cast by the ventilation duct grid crawled on the back of his hand like tiny arthropods.

On the monitoring screen in the main control room, the alien was dragging Lambert's body across the corridor.

Zhao Wuji called up the video through the maintenance terminal, his finger hovering over the delete key. The system suddenly flashed:

[Limited time mission: Repair the escape pod circuit (23 minutes remaining)]

[Reward: Survival rate +15%/Interference exemption ticket × 1]

Ripley's figure appeared in the corner of the surveillance camera, and she was closing the fire door of Area A. Zhao Wuji noticed her movements - her left hand was always on her waist, where the igniter of the old-fashioned flamethrower was pinned.

"She was also forced to prepare."

As he quietly crawled toward the circuit compartment, a drop of mucus dripped from the pipe above his head and burned a pinhole-sized hole in his glove.

In the storage room on the B7 floor, White was burning documents.

The firelight danced on his face, illuminating the company emblem like a red-hot iron. Zhao Wuji threw a data chip over: "Adult hunting footage, 27 minutes."

White picked up the chip, and the flame suddenly burst into a blue spark: "The board requires a live sample."

"That'll cost extra." Zhao Wuji heard himself say.

The moment the chip was inserted into the reader, a close-up of the alien tearing Brett's throat appeared on the screen. White's pupils dilated - that was the look in a scientist's eyes when he saw the perfect formula.

"Interestingly," White suddenly lowered his voice, "there is a special passenger on your ship." He pointed to the ceiling, suggesting the existence of a higher level.

A groan of deformed metal came from deep within the pipe.

Zhao Wuji ran into Ripley in the circuit cabin.

She was manually restarting the oxygen circulation system, and sweat stuck her blond hair to her pale forehead. The two looked at each other for 1.7 seconds in the flashing red light.

[Serious warning: The protagonist's attention level has risen to yellow level]

Zhao Wuji immediately lowered his head and pretended to inspect the panel, but Ripley suddenly spoke up: "You are not an ordinary maintenance worker." Her voice was like a scalpel, "You prepared acid blood neutralizer in advance."

The welding machine in the tool box suddenly became extremely heavy.

“Article 304 of the company manual,” he stared at his oily fingernails, “field personnel must carry a corrosive material emergency kit.”

Ripley narrowed her eyes.

There was a rubbing sound of something heavy sliding across the ventilation duct overhead.

The escape pod's circuit boards were like a piece of skin with exposed nerve endings.

Zhao Wuji used magnetic pliers to pick up the burnt resistor, and the welding torch drew a blue-white arc at his fingertips. The system timer was suspended at the edge of his vision: [00:04:59].

When the last chip was in place, the entire spacecraft suddenly tilted violently. The alarm sounded mixed with Dallas' roar: "It's in Zone D! Seal all-"

Communications ceased abruptly.

Zhao Wuji squeezed his body into the gap of the escape pod's distribution box and heard the alien's claws scraping against the metal door. The sound reminded him of scratching a blackboard with his fingernails when he was a kid, but it was amplified a thousand times.

[Mission completed: Survival rate increased to 53%]

Something was breathing in the darkness. Not human, not machine, but something older, hungrier.

Zhao Wuji touched the welding machine in his pocket.