Chapter 2763: Degenerated Players
"They claimed that the Supervision City was short on manpower and needed to hire contract staff to help out for a while." Chai Sheng said.
That's right, one of the two was Chai Sheng, whom Xu Huo had encountered on the aircraft earlier. He pointed at the prop Xu Huo was wearing and said, "I recognize this."
Xu Huo nodded. That wasn't surprising.
"It seems that whether it's recruiting contract staff or hiring people to attack, it's all just a tactic to mess with players from the outer zones."
When Chai Sheng met Xu Huo and the others, he also realized the truth. A Supervision City this big, with barely a few people in sight, had no need to hire outside help.
The group of four picked up the pace, but as soon as the alarm sounded, rows of holes suddenly appeared on the walls of the corridor on both sides. White smoke with a strong odor sprayed out from them, quickly filling every space they could move through.
They quickly put on gas masks and sped up, but at that moment, all the sensor doors refused to open automatically. Not only that, but some doors had fully sealed metal layers stacked in front of and behind them. Cutting open one door only revealed another identical door behind it. It seemed that every corridor wall had pre-prepared metal shields embedded inside, forming a new layer of doors every few dozen meters, as if there was no end.
"This path might be the wrong choice," Chai Sheng said. "Let's change direction!"
So the group turned into another corridor. This time, they seemed to have better luck. After opening a few doors, they came across one that was repeatedly bouncing open due to a malfunction.
Xu Huo and Chai Sheng went through first, but what greeted them was a dense cutting net. The air blades released by the prop flashed quickly, and the cutting net was sliced off the wall. However, because of this delay, Lei Xiaohe and the other person who hadn't entered were locked outside.
The door that had been stuck a second ago was now completely sealed shut, while the corridor where Xu Huo and Chai Sheng were suddenly sank downward. Even though Chai Sheng swung his blade immediately, he only left a few scratches on the ceiling.
He touched the wall and said with a grim expression, "This layer of metal is different from the one above. It looks more like prop material. We might have been trapped inside a location prop."
The underground space wasn't any better. The lingering mist in the air showed that poison had just been sprayed here. Although they had descended with the entire corridor, the walls and floor of the underground space had turned silver-white. The material was harsh on the eyes, and with lights reflecting everywhere, looking at it for too long made one dizzy.
"There's a room ahead. It looks like someone's inside," Chai Sheng pointed to one end.
"Let's go check it out." Xu Huo took the lead.
The sensor door opened automatically as they approached, revealing an old, dilapidated operating room. Surgical instruments were scattered messily on a cart, and on the bed in the center of the room lay a person wrapped entirely in bandages.
Many parts of the bandages were soaked with bloodstains, some of which looked quite old. His hands, feet, and body were still bound with restraints. Although he was still alive, his chest was sunken abnormally, as if he didn't even have a sternum.
"Is the Supervision City using captured players for human experiments?" Chai Sheng asked.
"Not necessarily human experiments," Xu Huo said, stepping closer to look at the bandaged person's slightly twitching nostrils exposed outside. "They might be harvesting some organs."
Chai Sheng found it hard to understand. "What kind of potion can't you find in the game world? Why would you need to use living people?"
"What would you do if you suddenly discovered someone who could live forever?" Xu Huo asked.
"Lock them up and find out the reason," Chai Sheng said. "But I have some bottom line. I definitely wouldn't cut them up for slicing."
"And what if someone told you that this person's flesh and blood could make you immortal too?" Xu Huo asked again.
"How is that possible!" Chai Sheng didn't believe it.
"It's impossible, but some people would still do it," Xu Huo said flatly. "Not just eating meat and drinking blood, but even the bones and nails would be boiled into soup."
"That's disgusting," Chai Sheng said with distaste.
"It is very disgusting." Xu Huo reached out to test under the bandaged person's nose. The person, who had been barely breathing in and out like a lump of rotten meat, suddenly burst into action, his mouth splitting open as he lunged for Xu Huo's throat!
But Xu Huo was already on guard. The moment the other person moved, he grabbed his face and slammed it hard against the bed board. The metal hospital bed was dented into a concave pit, and the bandaged person was stuck inside, his freed hands and feet thrashing wildly!
Chai Sheng quickly used a prop to restrain him again, then stepped back a few paces as the bed kept shifting. "He's got quite a bit of strength!"
Xu Huo cut open the bandages on the person's face and body from a distance, only to find that his eyes and facial skin were gone. Part of his ribs had been removed, which was why his chest was sunken. There were also wounds on his abdomen, and the sutures weren't even very precise—the threads were already loose, revealing a bloody mess through the gaps.
"How is he still alive like this?" Chai Sheng exclaimed in surprise. "I'm starting to doubt if this is even human."
"Even if he's not human now, he once was." Xu Huo's gaze fell on the back of the bandaged person's hand. The original skin had been covered with patches of thick, brown hide, and his nails were showing signs of beast-like transformation.
"A xenomorph," Chai Sheng said, examining him closely. "Most xenomorphs evolve from people who can't adapt to evolution. They can't even be considered human anymore. Once the genes are rewritten, there's absolutely no way to correct them. There's no research value at all."
"Not necessarily," Xu Huo said. "Have you heard of intelligent xenomorphs?"
"Intelligent xenomorphs? Those two words together sound a bit absurd." Chai Sheng laughed.
"They do exist. Whether they have intelligence is another matter, but there are indeed people in the game researching xenomorphs, probably trying to create stronger creatures." Xu Huo finished off the bandaged person, then looked at the door on the other side of the room. "I wonder how many more xenomorphs are here."
Chai Sheng tightened his grip on his long blade. "If we run into them, we kill them. I have no psychological burden when it comes to killing xenomorphs."
Sure enough, there were xenomorphs in the next several rooms. Although they had undergone surgery and weren't very strong in combat, their physical abilities far exceeded the first one's, and they even coordinated their movements, behaving no differently from animals.
However, after removing their bandages, it was discovered that their bodies were closer to normal humans. A few only had animal-like marks on their skin, clearly indicating they were degenerated players.
There are only two outcomes for a player experiencing degeneration: one is gradually developing animal features, with genetic mutations making them more animal-like and progressively losing their sanity; the other is a decline in bodily functions, which could be sudden organ aging or something like a serious illness, gradually weakening until death.
The former type might leave some traces on players with special evolutions, but Xu Huo had never encountered a case caused purely by degeneration. The latter type was more common.
This Supervision City had actually managed to gather so many degenerated players.