mother of all races

Their location has moved away from the confines of refrigerated warehouses surrounded by heat and vacuum.

Lin Xi listened intently to the subtle voices that sounded from inside the gigantic steel monster, and could barely tell that he and Xavier seemed to have arrived at the next level of the Providence—and this seemed to be the conscious guidance of a special individual. of.

"What do you want? Scripps."

Lin Xi whispered softly.

But this time, the "ghost" who should have died a long time ago never gave him any response.

The light here is extremely dim, and the light green emergency light is the only light source in the entire space.

As things stand, the place doesn't appear to be fully activated yet.

Compared with the previous working passage, it looks wider here, and there are some seemingly unnecessary decorative lines on the metal walls and floors.

It looked like an entertainment venue on a spaceship before it was completely idle...at least from the decoration style.

Lin Xi withdrew his guarded gaze, and after confirming that there were no redundant biological individuals (such as those worms with human faces and those maddening nematodes), he quickly returned to Xavier's side and began to check Think about the condition of this reckless king worm.

"I'm fine... hiss..."

Xavier met Lin Xi's stern gaze, trembled, and then slowly took a step back.

It uttered a vague but ingratiating chirp.

"Xavier—"

Lin Xi stared at Xavier like this, and was speechless for a while.

All the way to escape from the high temperature, Lin Xi was always wrapped by Xavier's wings, he was well protected, not even a strand of hair was bent due to the high temperature

But Xavier looked extraordinarily bad.

The pair of thick and gorgeous wings that Xavier was proud of had become gray and haggard in the high temperature, wrinkled like a scorched plastic film.

A large amount of burnt-black scale powder fell to the ground rustlingly during its movements.

And the surface of Xavier's body was covered with a thick layer of dead skin, and cracks appeared in the scorched carapace, revealing the flesh underneath.

"Yes, it will grow..."

Xavier raised his insect limbs, and after seeing the particularly ugly carapaces and dead skin on his body, the tentacles trembled violently.

It said to Lin Xi pitifully.

"I know, I just..."

Lin Xi's voice choked for a moment before continuing: "I just don't like seeing you treat yourself like this."

Lin Xi would have been better prepared if she had known that Scripps' method of dealing with those white nematodes would be so brutal.

Lin Xi stretched out her hand and subconsciously caressed Xavier.

"Will it hurt..."

"Not at all. And I was about to shed my skin..."

Xavier said hurriedly.

But before it finished speaking, something unexpected happened just like that.

The moment Lin Xi touched Xavier, those terribly gray and cracked shells collapsed under his touch...

……

[Self-purification procedure completed—fault report——]

In the deepest part of the Providence, Hal looked at various data from the outer freezer.

It's just that this time, no matter what, it can't continue to ignore those particularly obvious abnormal information.

Hal's consciousness resides in the extremely dilapidated bionic human body, and the electronic eyes flicker non-stop due to the strong invasion of the data stream.

It suddenly rushed to Scripps' side, and then grabbed Scripps' arm forcefully.

"I know you're here—I know you're—"

Hal yelled at Scripps' withered body tangled in life support.

There is a kind of severe pain in its voice that originated from the bone marrow. If the researchers who made it could see Hal at this moment, they would be extremely surprised by the humanity it displayed at this moment.

Over such a long period of time, countless superimposed data errors not only made Hal a rare electronic consciousness that fell into madness, but also made him extremely similar to real humans...

At least, at this moment, no one can deny Hal's pain from the soul.

If Hal really has a soul.

...Of course, at this time, there are no human beings who can witness Hal's "humanity".

And similarly, as a "human" who has been relying on machinery and drugs to barely maintain his physical survival, Scripps' sunken eyes are still closed, and he is still lying motionless on the spot.

Hal's bionic body made an overwhelmed "click".

It knelt slowly beside Scripps.

"...You don't need to hide, haven't you already given up hiding? Those information and those data changes are the clues you left for me, aren't they? Please, respond to me. Except for death, I can promise you I can do it all for you.”

Hal said slowly.

Scripps was still lying quietly, but a tear slowly seeped from the corner of his eye.

Hal noticed the tear right away.

"Scripps!"

It gave a whoop.

However... that tear was already Scripps' only and final response to it.

Even, the tears might just be the most common physiological reaction.

Once again Hal had to face Scripps who didn't respond to it.

This made it extremely painful.

And... anger.

"You like those two bugs...you even exposed yourself to help that kind of thing..."

Hal murmured.

But soon, those whispers were transformed into electronic messages beyond human comprehension.

The pathetic and ugly simulacrum froze again.

Because Hal has returned to the data.It did not hesitate to deeply embed its own consciousness into the core system of Providence.

If the danger of Lynch and Xavier brought out Scripps' residual consciousness lurking in the electronic data, Hal didn't mind treating them in the most brutal way.

……

"boom--"

In the Outer Passage of Providence.

Lin Xi threw away a mechanical warrior that was rushing directly towards him. The metal body of the latter slammed into the metal wall heavily, smashing the retro-style decoration into pieces.

This is not the first mechanical warrior to attack Lin Xi and Xavier.

In fact, the metal monstrosities that had given them such a hard time were all over the interior of the Providence.

They are like white blood cells in the human body, roaming endlessly in the corridors and pipes that criss-cross like blood vessels, ready to release harmful substances (well, here, the "harmful substances" are probably Lin Xi and Xavier) ) are wiped out.

However, it was precisely because of their appearance that Lin Xi could roughly judge that he and Xavier were gradually entering the interior of the Providence.

These mechanical warriors were almost deadly killers to him and Xavier before, but now they are just annoying troubles.

Lin Xi's real trouble now lies in...

"boom--"

There was another shrill sound of metal tearing.

Xavier raised his arm, and threw the metal fragments in his hands to the sides in a somewhat unaccustomed manner.

These things in front of him are not a big problem for Xavier, but Xavier at this time has no way to concentrate on dealing with the enemy at all.

Because the aura emanating from the first-generation offspring born from its combination with Lin Xi is becoming stronger and stronger.

After quickly finishing the few mechanical monsters at hand, Xavier subconsciously wanted to flap his wings and fly back to Lin Xi, but its back is now empty, and its flapping movements just let it Staggered on the spot, almost fell directly in front of his beloved.

"Xavier, are you okay?"

Lin Xi grabbed Xavier and asked.

"Some...strange..."

Xavier muttered anxiously, raised his body again and stabilized his center of gravity.

From its forelimbs—perhaps it should be called arms now—the warmth of Lin Xi's fingertips and palms could be clearly heard.

The completely different skin sensitivity from the previous thick carapace made Xavier flustered and flustered.

This kind of contradictory mood has been rippling in his heart since it transformed into a brand new body.

"Xavier?"

Lin Xi watched Xavier, who was somewhat unfamiliar in front of him, fall into a long daze again, and had no choice but to call out the other party's lax mind.

Of course, he didn't say anything else. He could easily understand where Xavier's strange mood came from. After all, even he couldn't adapt to the other party's current body...

Everything still has to start with the incident that Xavier had to shed his burnt shell due to the high temperature.

Lin Xi's touch shattered Xavier's hideous worm shell and revealed a new body.

But no matter what, Lin Xi never imagined that under those terrifying dry and charred carapaces, there would be a body exactly like a human being...

No sharp spines, no sharp forelimbs, no wings, no carapace.

It is a strong, pale male human body.

Even that face turned human—

Lin Xi quickly glanced at the current Xavier.

The deep-lined face is slightly weird, but no one can deny the handsomeness of this face.

Xavier seemed to have turned into a strange man.

In its own words, it seems that even itself does not know what is going on.

【"After the worm marriage... the king worm will change his body according to the worm mother's preferences..."】

Lin Xi seemed to be able to hear Xavier's panicked explanation.