Chapter 251: Dispute over Route

Five people sat together and talked, and the atmosphere was quite harmonious.

Fu Qinghai was silent for only a second.

Suddenly, he raised his hand and pushed Huxley to the ground. The middle-aged man was caught off guard and fell face down with his whole face buried in the sand on the ground.

The three women were startled by the sudden change.

Fu Qinghai pressed Huxley's neck hard and lifted the clothes on his back. The bulging ball of flesh under the skin seemed to sense the danger and hurriedly squirmed deeper into the body.

Fu Qinghai acted quickly and pressed down the ball of flesh with a "snap". He ignored Huxley's heart-wrenching screams and directly picked up the bulge with skin and flesh.

"squeak--"

Fu Qinghai picked up the little creature with its sharp, hissing sound between his fingers and brought it close to his eyes for a closer look.

This was a larva that had just developed tentacles from an egg. It looked like a small flesh-gray sea anemone. Its tentacles were slender and soft, with sharp hooked spines at the ends, which kept scratching Fu Qinghai's fingernails.

This is the Plaka parasite.

The appearance of the larvae is almost completely borrowed from the old Japanese manga "Parasyte". It looks very similar to Parasyte, and the way it drills out from the headless neck is exactly the same.

The appearance of the adult insect is inspired by the classic science fiction movie "Alien", and is similar to the facehugger, like a large dried spider with fleshy membranes between its limbs.

Perhaps human imagination has its limits.

Fu Qinghai pinched his fingers lightly.

"squeak!"

The parasite exploded into a ball of pulp and died.

Fu Qinghai shook off the mucus on his hands and looked at Huxley.

Huxley was still lying on the ground, gasping in pain, blood flowing from his back, his red muscles rolled up, revealing his white spine, it was a horrible sight.

It seemed that some broken tentacles were hooked in the deep muscles, but before Fu Qinghai could help him, the muscles on Huxley's back squirmed and squeezed out these "foreign objects".

"Explain it to me."

Fu Qinghai said lightly.

Huxley slowly stood up and touched his gradually healing back with his hand. His expression changed. After thinking about it, he finally said helplessly:

"I said I don't know, do you believe me?"

After saying this, Huxley looked dejected, as if Fu Qinghai would draw his sword and kill him in the next second, and he was mentally prepared.

However, it was beyond his expectations.

Fu Qinghai said:

"I believe it."

Huxley was stunned.

The three women were also stunned.

Chen Xinlu had already put on the hanging ring, Jiang Yixia's skin had turned half green, and even Li Xingxian, who had run out of spell materials, was ready to get the sniper blaster.

We are going to kill the "traitor" Huxley to pieces.

Fu Qinghai said calmly:

"People who have been completely combined with the Plaka parasite will have bloodshot eyes. It is very obvious and can be recognized at a glance. Your eyes have not turned red, which means you have not been controlled yet."

Fu Qinghai continued,

"I guess that while the perfect humans used your body to produce antibodies to various viruses, they also tested the abilities of the parasites on you. As a result, your body resisted the parasitism of Plaka, causing the eggs to grow slowly and never mature and replace your spinal nerves."

The Plaka parasite is different from several generations of viruses and fungi. It is no longer a microorganism but has entered the category of animals. This makes the properties of the Plaka parasite different from those of viruses and fungi in all aspects.

First of all, it is less contagious than fungi. At least in the larval and adult stages, the size of the Plaka parasite is visible to the naked eye, unlike viruses and fungi that are invisible and pervasive. Moreover, the larvae that are separated from the host will die on the spot, and the adults can only survive independently for a few days at most.

Secondly, most of the viruses in Resident Evil are deeply integrated with the infected people, and there are no antibodies or vaccines, which means that it is impossible to turn zombies back into humans again.

The Plaka parasite is just a parasite. If you can accept the cost of losing your spine and becoming paralyzed, and if the degree of fusion is not too deep, it is still possible to remove the parasite and turn back into a normal human.

Among the 24 games in the Resident Evil series, only "Resident Evil 4", which tells the story of the Plaga parasite, won a minor award. Fu Qinghai went to try it out specifically for this reason and was quite impressed.

After hearing what Fu Qinghai said, the three women gradually relaxed.

Fu Qinghai smiled and said:

"Of course, there is another possibility."

"What is possible?"

Jiang Yixia asked.

"The Perfect Humans discovered us. They knew we were coming, so they arranged for a flying dragon to deliver you here in advance, and deliberately injected insect eggs into your body. It takes a few hours to a few days for the eggs to become adults, depending on the type of parasite they used. You, who are carrying the eggs, look no different from a normal human. When the eggs mature and explode, you, who are completely controlled by the parasites, will turn against us and strike back."

Fu Qinghai said with a smile.

Hearing this, the three women's eyes suddenly became alert again.

Huxley raised his hands in surrender:

"I repeat, I really know nothing."

Chen Xinlu frowned and asked,

"How did the perfect humans know we were coming? Even if Moira notified other secret bases in advance, they didn't know which direction we would choose."

Fu Qinghai pointed to the sky.

Chen Xinlu suddenly realized: "Satellite!"

"But, but..."

Huxley hurriedly explained,

"But they don't even know that I know you. I don't have any friendship with you. How can a perfect human be so sure that you won't kill me as soon as we meet? This doesn't make sense at all."

Fu Qinghai shrugged:

"So I prefer the first possibility."

Huxley just breathed a sigh of relief.

"But the second possibility cannot be ruled out."

Huxley's nerves were raised again.

Fu Qinghai picked up the weapon at hand:

"So, the time has come to test your sincerity. Now, take me to the secret base of the perfect humans."

…

Fu Qinghai was looking down to check his weapon.

Chen Xinlu frowned and asked:

"Are you going there alone?"

"This is just a secret base of perfect humans, not their headquarters. Since it is a 'secret' base, it is impossible for it to deploy too many heavy weapons and high-level players. I know who is inside."

Fu Qinghai did not continue speaking.

But the meaning is already very clear -

I can defeat them.

Fu Qinghai knew the Plaka parasite very well and knew the strengthening limit of this thing.

It wasn't that he couldn't defeat the Fungus Queen Moira before, he just happened to not bring the right weapon.

Fu Qinghai inserted the explosive pistol loaded with mass explosive bombs and the plasma pistol loaded with solid hydrogen fuel rods into the sides of his thighs respectively. He hung the inertia hammer behind his back and the Blue Blade at his waist.

"Don't give them time to prepare."

Holding up the Blue Fang, Fu Qinghai said to Huxley,

"Lead the way."

…

The sky is full of yellow sand.

After climbing over the ruins, the two came to a wide main road. This used to be the main road of the city. Even the wind and sand could not bury it. On both sides of the road were buildings of varying heights, extending along the main road.

Light gray and khaki are the main colors of the entire city ruins.

A tall and burly space marine and an ordinary-looking mutant, the wide road, the desolate scenery, the lonely backs, just like two cowboys walking in a western town.

A sense of déjà vu from Red Dead Redemption.

Fu Qinghai felt countless prying eyes.

From the buildings on both sides of the road.

They hid quietly behind the wall, they looked around cautiously, and they whispered to each other.

When Fu Qinghai and Huxley appeared in the maze city, all the conspiracies and tricks lost their meaning.

Fu Qinghai did not play any messy or roundabout tricks like pretending to be ignorant, blending in, or taking advantage of the situation.

He laid his cards on the table.

You know I'm here, and I know you're here.

An anti-material sniper rifle quietly stretched out from a small hole in the wall, Steyr IWS2000.

"Bang!"

Fu Qinghai raised his arm armor to block his helmet, and the bullet bounced off in a cluster of sparks. The armor shell was intact, and Fu Qinghai's arm did not move at all.

He pulled out the plasma pistol from his waist, raised his hand and fired a shot. The blue beam of light sank into the window of the building. Fu Qinghai didn't even look at it. He hooked his finger on the trigger guard, turned the gun and inserted it into the side of his leg.

The sniper hiding in the building, along with his gun, turned into bloody scrap metal, stuck to the wall.

The people hiding in the buildings on both sides retreated quietly.

The two continued to stride forward.

"Buzz, rumble, rumble..."

The roar of the engine could be heard from a distance.

Three huge wheeled armored vehicles kicked up a cloud of dust. With their "＜"-shaped front ends raised high, they charged towards the two men at a speed of a hundred kilometers per hour. The quadruple anti-tank missiles on top of the vehicle were already spewing thick white smoke from behind the cylinders.

"It has been locked by infrared guidance!"

Qing Ming reminded.

"Stay away from me."

Fu Qinghai ordered.

After saying that, Fu Qinghai strode forward.

"call out--"

A TOW anti-tank missile whizzed towards them. Fu Qinghai exerted his force perception to the extreme. He jumped up at the moment the missile hit. With a wave of his hand, the missile was pushed in all directions by an invisible force. Fu Qinghai made a gorgeous turn in mid-air, and the chainsaw sword cut off the thin long wire connecting the back of the missile.

"BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!"

The missiles exploded on the surrounding buildings.

The moment Fu Qinghai landed, he pushed off the ground and catapulted into the huge armored vehicle that was rushing towards him. His muscles exploded and bulged, his electronic muscle fiber bundles were tightly stretched, and he clenched the inertia hammer in his hand. He drew a half circle in the air and struck it hard upwards.

"Boom—"

The two armored vehicles at the back were horrified to find that the vehicle in front was actually lifted up completely. The rear end of the 35-ton 8×8 heavy wheeled armored vehicle flew in the air one meter off the ground, and then crashed into the top of the vehicle behind, with the chassis facing up and the wheels spinning idle. The two tanks were scrapped in an instant.

The last vehicle braked quickly, but the front of the car still crashed heavily into the two cars in front of it. Before they could recover from the shock, a dark figure jumped high above the scrapped car, holding a hammer in both hands above his head...

"Boom—"

There was that familiar loud noise again. The entire turret of the armored vehicle was twisted and dented, and was smashed into the body of the vehicle by a hammer, squeezing all the occupants inside into minced meat.

When Fu Qinghai slowly stood up on the roof of the car with a long-handled square hammer in one hand, the crowd who were hiding in the ruins and watching quietly suddenly dispersed and fled into the underground passages that extended in all directions.

Fu Qinghai turned around and looked.

Huxley hugged himself and hid behind a huge rock, shrinking his neck and shivering.

"Follow me."

Fu Qinghai said.

After saying that, he jumped off the armored vehicle and continued to run forward.

The only thing that feels a bit regrettable is that these three "Eitan" wheeled armored vehicles have turned into piles of scrap metal.

…

Under the leadership of Huxley, Fu Qinghai marched along the main road of the underground maze city and headed towards the laboratory where the perfect human beings' secret base was located.

Huxley led Fu Qinghai to find the manhole cover he had drilled through when escaping. Fu Qinghai used an inertia hammer to smash open the circular sewer entrance, expanding it to a size large enough for the Space Marines to pass through, and then the two jumped down together.

Unexpectedly, it was not dirty inside. These extensive sewer pipes were the main traffic arteries of the underground maze city. People living here relied on the sewers to travel.

Here, some intellectually retarded hosts of subordinate parasites began to try to sneak attack Fu Qinghai.

Some hosts pretend to be pitiful mothers and children, but they have four cracked, sharp bloody mouths; some hosts are five meters tall and are fat giants holding machetes; and some hosts look like ordinary people, but their bodies are covered with spikes.

A major characteristic of these parasitic infected people is that after their limbs, including the head, are broken, they will undergo a secondary mutation and instantly grow countless huge flesh and bone appendages covered with eyes and human faces, as well as bone blades and bone spurs. The shapes are so bizarre that they are beyond imagination.

But it only caused some minor troubles for Fu Qinghai and could not slow down his advancement even for a moment.

Fu Qinghai rushed into a passage, and right in front of him was the laboratory. There were grid-shaped red cutting lasers in the passage, moving quickly towards him. These were the classic weapons of the Resident Evil. Fu Qinghai continued to run forward, letting the thin laser lines sweep across his power armor, leaving no trace of burnt black, and smashed the devices with one punch.

Then, a huge turret slowly rose at the end of the passage, equipped with a thick 6-barrel 20mm M61A1 Gatling gun.

Phalanx close-in weapon system!

Fu Qinghai was shocked.

Who brought the ship-borne weapons to land?

The close-in guns emitted dense and violent screams, and 4,500 rounds of bullets were sprayed at Fu Qinghai in one minute. Fu Qinghai simply lay down, holding Huxley down with one hand, and pulling out a plasma pistol with the other hand to shoot forward.

The dense ammunition chains and blue light beams intersected each other, the close-in defense gun exploded and stopped firing, and after a series of clanging sounds, only a few small pits appeared on Fu Qinghai's body.

…

Finally, Fu Qinghai and Huxley saw the giant fleshy "plant" that was against the ceiling in the deepest part of the maze city. It had waving tough tentacles and petal-shaped thorny mouthparts, like a giant carnivorous plant growing on the wall.

In the "society" of the Plaka parasites, there are three classes: subordinate parasites that look like normal humans but have lower IQs; dominant parasites that have normal intelligence and can command subordinate parasites; and the one in front of them, the source of the parasite eggs - the queen parasite.

In the game, just like E mold is called the "Black God" by the believers in the village, the Plaka parasite is also worshipped by the believers of the Church of Light. This queen-type parasite requires regular human sacrifices as food.

The giant "plant" has no eyes or ears, but it seems to be aware of the coming danger. Its offspring have passed on Fu Qinghai's ferocity and brutality to the mother, and are now shrinking and trembling timidly.

Fu Qinghai moved his gaze away from the queen parasite and looked at the man standing below.

It was a young man wrapped in an iron-black streamlined shell, with a long scorpion-like tail standing upright behind his butt, swinging flexibly from side to side.

I have to say that the leaders of Perfect Humanity are not as ugly as the zombies under their command.

Moira's black-feathered six-winged form has a unique beauty of decay and withering, like a rotten fungus spreading morbidly. Combined with her feminine face, it has a dark Gothic style.

The man in front of him had muscles covered in black carapace, a golden-proportion figure, a handsome fair face, and a biological carapace with excellent texture and patterns. The long scorpion tail behind him was slowly rotating, and six pairs of spider limbs were spread out on his shoulder blades. He looked evil and handsome.

"I was surprised that you didn't run away."

Fu Qinghai spoke.

"Do you know me?"

The man asked, tilting his head.

"Kathy Wheeler, a student under Moira when she was a professor and doctoral supervisor at Empire State University. She is also the human who combines best with the Plaka parasite. I have seen your information in Shelter 79."

Fu Qinghai read aloud.

After saying this, he shook his head:

"You are not a reincarnation. You are just a native of the main Marvel universe. Moira used assimilation points to bring you here... You can't beat me. You should run away."

Not being a reincarnation means that the other person does not have three lives, and if he dies, he is really dead.

Unexpectedly, the young man said calmly:

"I'm not afraid of death. I stay here just to get an answer."

Fu Qinghai asked:

"What's the answer?"

The young man looked calm, and Fu Qinghai was a little surprised to find that he did not see any anger or fighting spirit in his expression or eyes.

Kaixi lowered his head, looked at his body and hands, and said slowly:

"Monroe once told me that genetic ascension is the only way out for mankind and the only way to upgrade mankind. I thought that the combination of me and the Plaka parasite was close to perfect. I have a bulletproof shell, I have fast reactions, I have a strong physique, and I have more limbs... But I saw you fighting outside, and I don't think I can reach your level at all."

He looked at Fu Qinghai with a calm expression,

"Your weapons and armor are far more powerful than fungi and parasites. You saw through my plan and wiped out my subordinates. I saw how vulnerable carbon-based organisms are to weapons, even though we have mastered very advanced biochemical technology."

At this point, his tone suddenly became a little excited:

"Can you tell me whether the so-called 'genetic ascension' is a mistake?"

"Should we be like those people, using hard and durable mechanical creations to replace our weak flesh and perform the so-called 'mechanical ascension'?"

"Is replacing humans with machines the only correct path?"

Cathy Wheeler looked at Fu Qinghai with burning eyes and full of expectation, and her tone was filled with a deep desire for knowledge.

"Um..."

Faced with this question, Fu Qinghai pondered for a moment.

The Necrons have something to say about whether or not Mechanical Ascension is worth it.

Before the transformation of all people's bodies, there were two different opinions within the King-Fearing Empire, one in favor and one against. After the transformation of all people's bodies, there were still many high-ranking Necrons who were tirelessly looking for ways to reverse the situation, even if it meant falling into the scam of the C'tan fraudsters again.

Mechanical ascension is strong. It is really strong.

However, what a race or a civilization pursues in this world is not just "strength".

It is undoubtedly one-sided and stupid to define a civilization simply by using "strong" or "weak".

It is undoubtedly sad when a civilization leaves only "strong" and "weak" to the world and to itself.

Silent King Szalak, Endless One Tarasim, Prophet Orikan... When these people standing at the top of the Necrons realized this, it was already too late.

The young man in front of him, Moira's student, still had low-level and superficial ideas about the future development and choices of mankind, such as "what is stronger" and "what is the strongest". Fu Qinghai didn't know how to explain it to him for a moment.

Fu Qinghai thought for a moment and said,

"There is no mechanical replacement in my body. All of it comes from the transformation of biochemical technology."

Hearing this, Kaixi's eyes lit up and he said:

"So, there is still a way out for genetic ascension, right? Even someone as powerful as you didn't choose the path of mechanical prosthetic transformation, which shows that genetic ascension is the right way."

Fu Qinghai shook his head.

"No, I think the significance of preserving the flesh is not to let us use the flesh and machinery to compare which is stronger or more durable. Just like you said, the inherent limits of carbon-based organisms are there."

"Life is the most sophisticated and complex 'machine' in the world, far superior to any mechanical creation. Even gods may not understand the essence of life. The body is fragile, but it gives us the possibility to perceive those wonderful existences, such as psychic energy, magic, the Force, and true energy... The way out for mankind is not to be extremely biased towards a single method. I personally believe that retaining the body, delving into machinery, and developing the above-mentioned abilities are the development direction that mankind should pursue, which is what you call the 'way out'."

In addition to genetic ascension and mechanical ascension, there is another route called "psychic ascension".

The Necron who invented the bio-transformation technology and realized the Deceiver's conspiracy - the Enlightened Sarlas, is an arrogant guy. He still does not think there is anything wrong with the mechanical ascension of all the Necrontyr members. Not only that, he is also tirelessly seeking a further way - to completely transform himself into a being composed of thoughts and consciousness, not only abandoning the flesh and blood body, but also the mechanical body. He believes that only in this way can he be promoted to a god.

Fu Qinghai did not comment on whether this idea was right or wrong, because Sallas has not been successful so far, and there are no successful or failed cases to refer to.

After listening to Fu Qinghai's story, the young man seemed to be thinking about something. He nodded, opened his arms towards Fu Qinghai, and said:

"I understand. Just kill me."

If I hear the truth in the morning, can I die in the evening?

Are you so strong-willed?

Fu Qinghai shook his head and laughed, then pulled out his plasma pistol.

A blue beam flashed, and Casey Wheeler's head disappeared in an instant. The ferocious Plaka parasites drilled out of his body. In the thermal imaging view, there were a total of seven parasites combined in Casey's body, and each parasite strengthened a part of his body.

However, everything is empty in front of plasma.

Fu Qinghai fired a few more shots, and the broken body was pierced with large holes by the plasma beam. Soon all seven parasites died.

......

(End of this chapter)