Chu Zhixiao observed her surroundings warily.
She had never believed that the Puppet King's motive and behavior pattern would be so simple.
Every time, the Puppet King had wrapped his real motive in multiple, bloody mazes.
There were only countless corpses that had been smashed into smithereens by "Titan" Yuan Kou and the still humming reactor.
Thankfully, the reactor of this model had an extremely sturdy shell and a very strict protection device. Not to mention that it was very difficult to destroy it from the outside, even if it was, the energy input tube to the reactor would be cut off instantly, so that the high-energy reaction inside the reactor would slowly decay and stagnate. There would never be a violent explosion that would cause irreparable damage to the entire starship.
Otherwise, the Puppet King only needed to control a group of ghouls to detonate the entire starship.
"Detonate the starship …"
Chu Zhixiao narrowed her eyes. She smelled the scent of a conspiracy.
She checked the bodies of the ghouls back and forth, but unfortunately, all the bodies had been blown into smithereens and were of no value at all.
"Seven Star, send me the 3D images of the corpses outside. I want the bodies of both the ghouls and the victims. Don't miss any detail!"
Chu Zhixiao issued an order to her companions outside through the spider tank.
Very soon, the indicator light on the back of the spider tank flickered quickly, and invisible threads that looked like transparent nerves were connected to her temples. Vivid and shocking pictures appeared on her retina out of nowhere.
Chu Zhixiao scanned the corpses one by one with a fierce gaze.
After scanning dozens of bodies, she found something strange.
"Many of the bodies have lost their eyeballs and fingers."
That was only natural.
Since their bodies had been bitten full of holes, how could their eyeballs and fingers be spared?
Also, for ghouls, eyeballs were the most "delicious" food, and fingers were one of the easiest parts to bite.
Most of the victims of the "ghoul incident" would be the first to lose their eyeballs and fingers.
"Most of the pictures of the ghouls here are also missing their eyeballs and fingers. Although they might have been infected and turned into ghouls after those parts were bitten off, I still feel that something is not right."
Chu Zhixiao pondered for a moment and said, "If we remove the limitations of our thinking from the zombie incident and don't treat this case as a normal outbreak of the Gluttony Virus, how should we view the disappearance of the eyeballs and fingers?"
"Major, what do you mean?"
"If it's not the 'zombie incident', what is it?" Yun Haixin asked.
"What if the bloody 'zombie incident' is just a cover, and the Puppet King's real target is the eyeballs and fingers?"
Staring at the darkness, Chu Zhixiao mumbled to himself, "Stealing the eyeballs and fingers of dozens of critical people at once is bound to attract attention no matter what. Unless the outbreak of the Taotie Virus is used as a disguise and the bodies of all the victims are mutilated, nobody will notice anything wrong with the eyeballs and fingers. But in fact, were the eyeballs and fingers eaten by somebody, or were they used for other purposes?
"Somewhere else?"
"Black Dream" Yun Haixin narrowed his eyes. "Are you talking about the control permissions of the starship?"
"Exactly. For an old-fashioned warship such as' Light Chaser ', other than the bridge, many places can be manually controlled with high-level permissions. However, the fingerprints, iris, blood, and brain of the owner of the permissions are required," Chu Zhixiao said.
"The owners of the permissions are often the priests of the highest position on the old-fashioned warships, as well as the managers of the areas that they need to control. On Light Chaser, it's the great priest who has been gnawed beyond recognition, the manager of the engine compartment, and perhaps the operators of the reactor. I assume that those people are all dead, and their eyeballs and fingers are all gone, right?"
"It's not just the eyeballs and fingers," Yun Haixin said.
'Black Dream' Yun Haixin said, "Many corpses have been sucked dry, so we have blood samples as well as brain scans. Well, simulating brainwaves is the Puppet King's specialty, and the brains of many key authorized persons have gone missing, too. Therefore, fingerprints, irises, blood samples, and brain scans are no longer a problem."
"Seven Star —"
Chu Zhixiao's voice was so cold that it seemed to come from a vacuum. "Tell me, if the Puppet King takes over the highest permissions of the engine compartment through manual control, what can he do?"
"… He can do whatever he wants without any taboos. He can do whatever he wants."
After a long time, Seven Star's slightly trembling voice finally came from the air.
Chu Zhixiao cursed softly.
She jumped up and shot into the darkness like an arrow that had been shot from a bow.
Before "Titan" Yuan Kou and "Black Dream" Yun Haixin caught up with her, she had already disappeared into the deepest part of the engine compartment.
Only "Red Pig", the spider tank, was still following its master's footsteps. Its slightly clumsy body was driven to the bottom of the engine compartment by the high-speed wheels at the end of its six limbs.
"Huchi, huchi, huchi, huchi!"
The bottom of the engine compartment was a space reserved for maintenance and modification. A lot of twisted tubes, forsaken reactors, and all kinds of components used for maintenance were left. It was like a lifeless metal graveyard.
There was not a single ghoul here, nor was there the slightest light or the scent of living people. There was nothing but dead silence. It was even more frightening than the area where the ghouls had been patrolling just now.
Chu Zhixiao, however, did not feel the slightest fear. She continued to issue orders in an orderly manner. "Chu Zhixiao, send me the original structure of the bottom level of the engine compartment. Yes, I want it to look like before the last modification. I suspect that there are a lot of secret areas that are not shown on the latest version of the map.
"Also, if you want to cut off the command of the bridge and control it manually, the operation room should be here, right? Pay attention to the surveillance and tracking at all times.
"Also, ask 'Titan' to stay up there obediently. The same goes for 'Black Dream'. None of you are to come down. This place is too —"
Chu Zhixiao's voice came to an abrupt halt.
She suddenly realized that it was too quiet. Seven Star, the crystal processor and the tracking expert, did not respond.
It was not normal. At such a short distance, there shouldn't be any barriers or blockages between her and Seven Star.
The only answer was that she had been caught in an illusion again. The King of Puppets had invaded her brain and hijacked her visual and auditory nerves.
The guy, just as Seven Star said, had been training his soul with the outbursts of evil feelings and desires time and time again, allowing him to soar to an unimaginably terrifying level in only a year and a half!
However … it was too hilarious to trap her just like that.
Chu Zhixiao's mind was clear and transparent. Her soul was condensed into an incomparably glamorous saber. Thousands of silver streaks were raised on the saber, cutting the black space around her into pieces and collapsing abruptly.
In front of her eyes, a dark red glimmer appeared again. It was the brilliance emitted by Red Pig, the spider tank.
At the end of the brilliance, a slim and tall man was looking at her with a smile with his hands in his pockets casually.
It was a young man with a mediocre appearance. He had been expressionless for years, making his face as smooth as an egg. But right now, there were deep smile lines on the egg.
He was wearing a raincoat that the maintainers of the engine compartment usually wore. It was full of pockets, all of which were bulging and stained with blood.
An indescribable sense of danger penetrated Chu Zhixiao's brain, making her realize instantly. "The King of Puppets?"
"Hello, Major Chu."
The young maintainer smiled. "This seems to be the closest we've ever been to each other, isn't it?"
"It seems so. Don't move, and don't trigger even the slightest brainwave, or I'll directly cut you into a bloody mist and burn it into ashes."
Chu Zhixiao pressed the electric longsword on her waist and approached the King of Puppets. "Who are you exactly? What's your purpose?"
"Hasn't my purpose been stated in the purpose of the Divine Heart Society? I pursue the liberation of humanity and want everybody to remember what a real human is like. Even living as a human being for one second is better than living as a slave and a tool for a hundred years."
The King of Puppets smiled.
"Are those ghouls the 'real human beings' that you mentioned?"
Chu Zhixiao sneered.
"The people of the Holy League have been mired in deceit and ignorance for too long. Without such intense stimulation, how can they really be awakened? You?"
The King of Puppets blinked. "As for my name, I usually don't tell other people. But if it's you, Major Chu, it's a different story. As long as you promise me one thing, you will never tell a third person my name. It's a secret between you and me."
"A secret?"
Chu Zhixiao found it even more absurd. "You believe my promise?"
"Not really, but it doesn't hurt to give it a try," the King of Puppets said. "In order to 'awaken' you, it is worth paying a minor price.
"Did you know that 'secrets' are a very important part of a person's life? If a person does not have any secrets and everything is exposed to other people, they will not be a real human being.
"Therefore, start from the little secret and establish your real personality, Major Chu."
Chu Zhixiao sniffed. "Why don't you tell me your name first?"
"My name is Li Yao. 'Vulture Li Yao'."
The King of Puppets smiled delightedly. "I'm from a place far, far away from the other side of the sea of stars. Nice to meet you. But now, goodbye!"
Chu Zhixiao heard the sounds of 'Titan' Yuan Kou and 'Black Dream' Yun Haixin lunging at her from behind.
The smile on the King of Puppets' face was dimmer and dimmer until it was gone, just like the priest who turned into a ghoul.
Her pupils constricted violently, and she lunged at the King of Puppets without bothering about anything.
However, before she lunged at the King of Puppets, a dazzling ball of light burst out of the darkness behind the King of Puppets and swept across the stern of the starship, swallowing everything.
The only thing that Chu Zhixiao could do was to raise the spiritual shield in time and set the Crystal Suit to the 'anti-explosion mode', which had the highest defense ability.
In the meantime, her spider tank, 'Red Pig', lunged at its master without caring about its own safety, waving its hilariously clumsy short legs, trying to protect its master. In the end, it was shattered and almost melted under the blast of the intense light and heat.
It was the last scene that Chu Zhixiao saw before she fell into darkness.
"Li Yao …"
Chu Zhixiao chewed on the name in the darkness.
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