under the mask

The School of Biotechnology is located in the south of Skell City, next to the East Campus and the Auditorium Square. From the ground, the School of Biology is not very big, because all its main buildings are underground, mainly with various laboratories. The campus is mainly classrooms, offices, electronic reading rooms and dormitory buildings, etc.

There are no green belts or walls separating the School of Biology, but white marble statues of various animals and plants and stone plaques engraved with brief introductions of animals and plants. Li Wei once spent several days looking at them, and his favorite What stands out is the statue of the Francia Fountain located in the center of all the buildings in this college—it can be called a work of art. Its pearl-like leaves and tassel-like flowers are carved in every detail, and the thin water is like dewdrops. The same drops slipped from the flowers and fell into the giant clams under the roots of the trees.

Li Wei bid farewell to Professor Degas, and then turned to the nearby School of Biology.The staff building is right in front of the Fulanshu fountain, in the same direction as the Duma Auditorium. The security machine at the door scanned his pupils and ID card before moving aside.

The blue hall is completely like an aquarium. When you walk in, there are glass walls on the left, right and front, and all kinds of colorful aquatic creatures swim around in it.Li Wei walked up the steps, and a tiger shark passed by with its eyes upright and flicking its tail, making people feel cold all over.He has always disliked this place, the strict security measures, the cold environment, and these quiet creatures.He remembered that Amelia said that this building is a complete aquarium. You don't know where the people in the School of Biology keep these aquatic organisms. In short, you can see them wherever you go in this building. they.

He lowered his head and glanced at the communicator again, the message said 2B303.

Li Wei clicked on the smart navigation on the electronic screen at the stairs on the second floor, and a silver-blue arrow lit up on the glass under his feet.He followed the arrow, turned, turned left at the fork in the road—turned left again, which was uncomfortable, and stood in front of the only door at the end.

Before he raised his hand, the door suddenly slid open to one side, with a light beep, and a blue light swept across Li Wei from top to bottom.

"Sterilized, no bugging devices."

"Levi Spall?" A gentle male voice sounded, "Please come in."

There is monitoring... Li Wei stepped in calmly, and the huge space of more than 300 square meters was unexpectedly refreshing and bright. The huge space became a maze, and the light screens became the walls of the maze.Maybe because it was lunch break, except for two or three researchers in one-piece lab coats sitting in front of the equipment and chatting leisurely and quietly, the room was quite quiet.

"Here, honey," a man in a suit poked his head out of a small door in the upper left corner of the room, and shouted, "Go to the side, kid, hurry up, everyone is waiting for you."

Li Wei had no choice but to walk along the wall to the other side. He thought this was all the space, but he didn't expect there to be partitions.

"I shouldn't have asked Degas," the man sideways let Levi in, and then closed the inconspicuous door with a fingerprint scan: "I asked him to 'personally' take you here, but he left you alone Here we come."

"It's okay...uh, professor," Li Wei didn't know him, and said vaguely, "I use smart navigation...it's not too difficult to find." He walked into the room and found that it was a small conference room with an oval conference table And a circle of comfortable armchairs, he roughly scanned around, and he knew most of the people sitting in the opposite seat.

Emilia Muka and Seth Laval in the first grade, Kevin Mada and Pompey Potter in the third grade, plus yourself, then who is the strange tall young man in the black second lieutenant uniform, He also guessed it—a fourth grader who has not yet graduated this year, and one of the heirs of the five nobles, Scott Vandergut.He should be doing an internship at a military station.

And Abel, Li Wei and him looked at each other tacitly, and then moved away without a trace.Abel is naturally because of Admiral Lynn Kohler.

"I haven't introduced myself yet. I'm the dean of the Department of Marine Biology in the School of Biology, and I'm also a researcher at the Dead Sea Life Research Institute." The man before opened a chair near the door and motioned for Li Wei to sit down. I'm fine with Joe."

Joe is a medium-sized man, about thirty to forty years old, a little bald, with brown eyes that always show a smile. He is not the same as the scientist in Levi's impression.Li Wei shook hands with him and sat down, a little confused.Didn't it mean that Russell was looking for him?

"Hey, let's get started." Joe clasped his hands on the table and tapped it lightly. A light screen spread on the white wall on one side of the conference room, and a short video began to play, which looked like he was flying in a helicopter. Shooting on the ground, from the desert to the ocean, and then zooming in and out, crashing into the water.Every time a creature is scanned, it will be magnified, and then a soft female voice will introduce it.This video is not like live action shooting, it has a stiff feeling of animation.

The video is only about 5 minutes long. It introduces more than a dozen kinds of underwater creatures, one of which is beautiful and suffocating... At this time, it is obvious that the creatures introduced here are all creatures in the sea of ​​death. To be precise, they are only ten known to mankind. Several dead sea creatures.

"Everyone knows, uh, you may not know..." Joe said: "The Sea of ​​​​Death also has winter, that's right, although the flame desert only occasionally snows at night at the end of the year, the Sea of ​​​​Death begins in November. , There will be a freezing period of nearly three months...From the past until now, research on the Sea of ​​Death is generally carried out during these three months, because large areas of the sea are frozen, and those sensitive and gifted life forms will be slower than other times, It's not easy to detect abnormalities on the sea surface... Seth, what's the problem?" He stopped and said with a smile: "Everyone is free to ask questions, Seth, tell me."

The blue-haired boy smiled at him gently and politely, and then asked, "Professor, although winter is relatively safe, the Sea of ​​Death has always been a high-risk place. May I ask how the students will participate?"

Joe nodded happily and explained: "It is indeed dangerous, quite dangerous-you may have heard in the military academy that there were casualties again this year. But I must say, that does not represent the behavior of all our researchers, it is not scientific Adventurous spirit, but death. Our winter research project will be safer this year-the latest underwater detection boat was shipped three days ago, and it will be ready to enter service. You will find that it is a very, very great project. breakthrough."

After finishing speaking, he tapped on the desktop again, and a strange submarine appeared on the light screen...or call it a creature to make it more vivid.

That is bionic detection equipment. Judging from the perspective view of the structure, it is a giant squid long conical detection ship. The two protruding compound eyes are windows, each facing an inner cabin, and the ten thick arms and legs are densely packed. The outer layer of the sensor can be deployed to withstand a 5000-equivalent nuclear explosion, and the trunk can be used as an escape capsule to break away from the arms and legs.

Li Wei frowned, Jialai Vance did not have this kind of cephalopod mollusk at all... It is said that the giant octopus was only discovered more than a week ago, it is obviously a squid, squid and octopus look completely different , So where did the imitation come from?Abel said that they wanted to catch octopuses. Could it be that they also wanted to make this bionic device?

"What's the name of this kind of creature? Is it a creature in the sea of ​​death?" He asked slowly: "As far as I know, there doesn't seem to be such a creature in Jialai Vance, and neither does Seablue Planet."

Qiao glanced at Li Wei appreciatively, and said with a smile: "There is no such biological goddess galaxy, yes, it comes from a planet outside the system, which is quite close to Drake's star... You know, we jokingly call the galaxy where Drake's star is located. In the animal galaxy, although a considerable number of intelligent creatures there have human forms, there is no doubt that their bodies are indeed animals." He continued: "Our goal this time is a strange discovery discovered during a mission by the military some time ago. Life - it is very similar to this creature called squid, with arms and legs similar to our hands and feet, and huge compound eyes..."

Li Wei began to feel a little uneasy, it's over, this person won't have the video of that day, right?According to Jacob's description, the octopus appeared very suddenly, it should be impossible...

The communicator vibrated slightly, and he looked down to see that it was Abel.

"Honey, the data from that day is encrypted and they don't have permission to use it. But Lynn may have told them."

Li Wei has a bad feeling. With the identity of Abel and Jacob's twins revealed, can they still spend their time here peacefully like before?The reason why Abel and the others want to hide the existence of the two people is probably because others can recognize them... But twins are not uncommon. Under Lynn's intentional cover-up, no one will know that they are from the north, right?Or is there another reason?

"...Of course, due to the participation of students, our main task is to observe, so the danger will be much reduced. If we can save the first-hand video data of the seabed, it will be worth the price of admission!"

Joe pointed to the light screen, which listed a series of characters from top to bottom: "These are the people who will participate in this mission, most of them are people from the research institute, and there are also researchers from the Military Science Institute led by Researcher Russell. He looked at Seth seriously and they emphasized: "As a research institute, the reason why we cooperate with Imperial University is that in addition to using the scientific research resources of Imperial University, Imperial University also hopes to take this opportunity to let you get training in advance. This opportunity is very rare. The military academy is mainly composed of you guys, and we also have five top-notch students joining us. That’s it.”

As for what these students can do in this operation, Joe did not elaborate.

"After the competition, there will be a week-long vacation. You should relax and gather on the third day after returning to school." He opened the door and signaled that everyone can leave: "Before that, you can collect some information through the Internet and do some research. Make some preparations, then...see you all at that time."

Li Wei stood up, exchanged glances with Emilia, and then came out from the chair when Abel, who was walking at the end, came over, and the two secretly hooked their fingers.

"Ah, Levi, wait a minute." Joe stopped Levi: "The others go first, you stay. Researcher Russell wants to talk to you."

Amelia and Seth turned their heads at the same time, but under Joe's gaze, they had to leave the conference room.

'I'm waiting for you outside, I'll send you a message if something happens. Abel quickly whispered in Levi's ear, and then left with the others.

After the door closed again, Li Wei turned to look at Joe.The other party turned his back to him, took a laser pointer and pointed at the light screen, the light screen flickered for a while and then disappeared, and then the snow-white wall slowly turned into a glass-like transparent partition like a blind , a slender, handsome man in a white lab coat, with honey-colored skin and short lavender hair stood on the other side of the partition, looking at him with gray pupils through the silver frame.

He's been peeping at himself from behind? !

A surge of anger surged in Li Wei's heart.

The transparent partition slowly slid open, Russell Hells walked over here, held up the mirror frame, and looked at Levi with a calm expression: "Long time no see, Levi...Spar."

Joe quietly backed out, leaving only the two of them in the conference room.

"I don't understand." Li Wei stared at him and said bluntly.

"Heh..." Russell, as always, didn't care about his attitude: "Me too, I just realized it not long ago, the heir of the Spal family."

Li Wei's eyes turned cold: "What do you mean?"

Russell walked towards him, his low voice echoed in the room: "Originally I was only interested in you...you know, your memory and logic ability...but after investigation, I found out that you are actually a Spar. "

"Spar still has a lot in Central City." Li Wei was indifferent, walked past him and walked towards the door: "If there is nothing else, I will go first, Mr. Russell."

"There are indeed many spars," Russell chuckled, "but as a nobleman, there is only one spar. I didn't know that before..."

Li Wei stopped and turned to look at him.

Russell leaned against the conference table and said casually: "You know, many years ago, at that time, through my hands, I created a humanoid intelligence brain that was comparable to the intelligence brains of the central and military departments... He was the same as that of Si Those in power in the Parr family have the same appearance."

Li Wei opened his eyes wide in shock.

"You—impossible! Your age doesn't match at all!"

Russell: "How old do you think I am? I am old enough to be your father." He knocked on the table and said, "I am equivalent to your butler's father... It is my idea to let students participate in research projects, but not only Just because I found out who you are."

He tilted his head and looked at Li Wei with great interest, and said softly, "I don't know how Andrew would react if he was still there and knew that his heir was in contact with the Derek Stars, and that he was a rebel from the north?"

Li Wei was shocked, his blue pupils suddenly shrank like pinholes, and he thought for a moment...to kill the person in front of him!

However, after a few seconds, he slowly relaxed his shoulders, and the murderous aura that filled the room slowly subsided.

"What do you want?" He narrowed his eyes and asked lightly.