Falling into the Abyss

Along the dilapidated escape stairs to the second floor, the walls on both sides of the dark corridor were knocked out, and replaced by cast iron fences covered with unknown dirt and copper-red rust.There was a layer of greasy black stains on the ground, and it was soft to step on. It reminded Ethan of a nightmare he had a long time ago about his home --- the fifth space station.All the plants in that dream were covered with similar oil stains.

The compartments behind the iron fence are mostly empty, but there are many scorched marks on the floor or walls.The air was filled with the stench of excrement and blood, and Samuel couldn't resist covering his nose with his arms.

"Damn... what the hell..." he cursed.

Ethan was still searching for the smell carefully, apparently Samuel's father had been here, but he didn't stay for too long.

Just as Samuel followed him through the "wards", suddenly something rushed from the darkness, collided with the iron fence and made an astonishingly loud noise, making a terrifying howl of beasts.Unprepared, Samuel was frightened and fell to the ground. In front of him, a huge swollen body was grinning at him through the iron bars. The face that was originally a human was covered with tumors of various sizes. His features were crowded and distorted.There are many tiny earthworm-like tentacles growing from the knuckles of his fingers, the nails are gone, and he is trying to grab Samuel.

Samuel was still in shock, and a long list of swear words came out of his mouth.Ethan turned his head to look at the sick "man", and sniffed in his direction before he felt relieved.

Fortunately, this is not Samuel's father.

But when Ethan approached the iron fence, the violence and hunger emanating from the patient's body suddenly subsided a lot.The swollen body flinched, and the head hung down, watching him carefully from under the swollen eyelids, like a dog who has done something wrong and is waiting for his master to punish him.Ethan stood very close to him, so close that it was a little too dangerous.Samuel quickly got up from the ground and grabbed his shoulders to pull him away, but Ethan waved his hand at him, looking at the infected person with a bit of curiosity.

"Do you have something to say to me?" Ethan actually asked.

Samuel was surprised to see that the infected person actually muttered, but it was hard to tell whether it was human or not.His tone was thin and weird, some places seemed to be coughing, and other places didn't seem like human grunts.However, Ethan listened to those strange sounds seriously, as if he could really understand them.

"Hey! We can't waste any more time, there's probably a camera here!" Samuel urged uneasily.

Ethan asked the infected person seriously, "You said they burned everyone? And those people are actually conscious?"

The infected continued to grunt in an unbearable strange voice, Ethan's brows were furrowed, and there was a flash of anger in his eyes.But immediately, he stretched out his hand, actually reached into the iron cage, and touched the infected person's twisted face dripping with mucus, and there was even a bit of pity in that action.After exploring, he turned and said to Samuel, "He said that yesterday he saw a few guards leading a normal person upstairs, and we will continue to go upstairs."

Samuel stared at Ethan with a strange look, "Can you understand him?"

Ethan shrugged, and said in that indifferent tone again, "Almost."

Why?Is it because you made them?Samuel didn't ask this question.He just felt more and more that the Ethan in front of him was no longer the Ethan before.He still believed that Ethan wouldn't hurt him, but he also instinctively felt a kind of fear and a hint of... disgust when faced with something dangerous that was completely different from his own.

But on the other hand, he yearned for that sense of alienation that was completely different from human beings.Although it looks dirty and evil, it may be more direct and pure than human beings.

He remembered that on Holy Spirit's Day, when Ethan was attracted by the Tianyin Qin and entered the illusion of the sound of the piano, Samuel also entered his own illusion.There, the black man showed him a book, a book that described the end of the universe, the end of man.In that ancient world, those huge and terrifying creatures ruled everything, and human beings were just bugs swimming around in the deep sea.

Yes, didn't human beings change from bugs to what they are now?Why now, do you think these bugs are scary?Maybe these bugs should be what they are, maybe everything returns to the original point, and this dirty and chaotic world can finally become peaceful.

As a worm, can't I live happily ever after?

The black man told him that his hatred would be repaid, and those who owed him would also pay in blood.At the end of order, everything will return to primordial chaos, and those who are dead and those who are not born, those who may exist and those who cannot exist, will all be reunited with those who are still alive.Perhaps, that is a real paradise?Samuel thought dazedly.

Every subsequent floor is almost a similar scene, but there are more and more monsters behind the iron fence.Samuel could no longer use "them" to describe these monsters in his heart, and he could no longer regard them as his companions.Those swollen and squishy monsters wriggled in the darkness, making strange sounds like coughing or grunting.These things are usually very aggressive after seeing Samuel, but once they notice Ethan, they will immediately calm down and even kneel down, as if they are meeting their own king.But Ethan was in the dark, dirty and twisted corridor, but he didn't feel any disobedience at all. His black clothes seemed to be extremely harmonious with him at this moment, as if he should belong to such black.

They met patrolling people on the fourth and fifth floors.Those people didn't seem to believe their eyes when they first saw them, but immediately pulled out their laser guns and ordered them not to move.But obviously, none of these people were Ethan's opponents.When scary tentacles appeared behind him, and when his body burned through by the laser recovered in an instant, the patrolling guards were already too frightened to move.Apparently, some still remembered to press the alarm for help, but before they could move, they were choked by Ethan's tentacles and thrown to the side of the iron fence.

Then Samuel saw the bloated monsters smash the warden's head to pieces alive on the ground, devouring the flesh from his face.The guard's screams caused the monsters in the surrounding cages to cheer excitedly, and slammed against the iron fence hard, causing mucus to splash.It's as if a big revenge has been avenged.

Ethan watched the scene of the guard being eaten indifferently, and turned to look at Samuel, "You never think that the number of guards is a bit too small?"

Samuel was so disgusted that he couldn't speak at this time, and didn't want to answer Ethan's question at all.But Ethan really felt something was wrong.He was almost certain that this building belonged to the bait in the center of the trap.I'm afraid that by the time they find Samuel's father, he will already be in prison.

He didn't believe that there wasn't a single surveillance camera in these corridors. Some people were probably watching him right now, trying to figure out what his abilities were and how lethal they were.This is a testing ground, a prison to imprison him.If he was a little more suspicious, he might feel that Samuel was also part of the plan, the messenger who brought him here.After all, Samuel was the only one he would never hurt now.

But Ethan didn't care about that.

He took steady steps, going up layer by layer.Darkness congealed around him, becoming his outstretched arms.A strange sense of power filled his body, and the howling of the surrounding monsters stopped in his ears, but they were all cheers.

Finally, they came to a floor without any iron fences or any prisons.It is empty here, with no windows, only clean concrete walls and some concrete columns.The tea-white fluorescent lamps illuminate the surroundings brightly, and there is only one chair in the middle of the open space. An elderly Omega is sitting on the chair, with gray hair and a thin figure, and his eyebrows and eyes are vaguely similar to Samuel's.He closed his eyes and tilted his head, unable to distinguish between life and death.

"Dad!" Samuel yelled, and was about to rush over, but Ethan grabbed his arm.

"Wait." Ethan looked around cautiously.

It was still an empty and silent space, without a single sound.

Samuel couldn't wait any longer and rushed over.Ethan had no choice but to walk forward slowly.Those tentacles with powerful olfactory organs protruded from the back of the neck again, fluttering up and down, sniffing the air.

"Dad! Wake up!" Samuel shook his father on the chair, not noticing the change in Ethan's face, and looked up.

At this moment, an extremely wide net descended from the sky, and there was a faint blue light in the fine mesh.Instinctively, Ethan stretched out his tentacles with sharp teeth or thorns at the tip to chop the net, but the moment he touched it, he shrank suddenly as if being scalded, and at the same time let out a painful cry from his mouth.When the net fell on his body, the burning pain intensified several times, and bursts of smoke rose from his body immediately, and the skin that came into contact with the net was quickly blackened and carbonized.

He recognized the radiation that was contaminated on the Internet, it was the radiation from the egg of the preface god!

He never imagined that the Earth Alliance would have such a thing.Could it be that Evestar leaked some news to them?

The egg of the prologue, the thing that once helped him suppress the mutation, has now become his poison...

"Ethan!" Samuel rushed forward to help him, but in an instant a laser light brushed past his cheek, leaving a burning wound, which was deterrent.Many heavily armed soldiers surrounded him like a tide from all directions, aiming their guns at Samuel and Ethan, who was curled up in the net and emitting smoke all over his body.

Ethan didn't seem to be able to see that, he just felt very painful and wanted to struggle, but the more he struggled, the more painful it was, as if many red-hot soldering irons were wrapped around his body.The muscles of his whole body were tense, so tight that he was twitching, but he finally held back and did not continue to scream.

In pain, he raised a pair of green eyes burning with anger, and saw the man who seemed to be the leader of these soldiers standing in a neat suit standing in the distance.

That person was a tall, middle-aged Alpha, slightly bald, with gloomy eyes staring at him from afar.Seeing that he finally gave up struggling, he walked in some.He glanced at Samuel and said to him, "You've done well, now you can take your father and leave."

Samuel gritted his teeth and stared at him, "You promised not to hurt him!"

"This little injury is nothing to him at all." The man said in a toneless voice, "You didn't take the initiative to notify the government after you brought him back. I can throw you back to the Forbidden City just because of this. If you haven't changed your mind yet, get out of here."

"You bastard!" Samuel was about to rush up and beat him up, but Ethan yelled in pain, "Samuel! Don't be stupid! Take your dad away first!"

At this moment, Samuel remembered that there were dozens of guns aimed at him and his father.He gritted his teeth and stared at the man, and at the same time looked in Ethan's direction with eyes that were not only guilty but worried.Ethan also stared at him, shaking his head slowly.

Samuel clenched his fists tightly, gritted his teeth, and finally turned around and carried his unconscious father on his back.Seeing this, the official ordered a small group of soldiers to "send" Samuel out.

Seeing Samuel walking away, Ethan finally relaxed a little.That terrible pain has become a little numb now. It seems that this net is only contaminated with the radiation of the egg of the preface, and it is not as powerful as the real egg of the preface.Otherwise he would have been badly burned by now.

"Ethan Eldridge." The Alpha walked slowly in front of him, looking down at him condescendingly, "A monster covered in tentacles, the source of infection of this great plague, I didn't expect it to be a seemingly unfettered monster." A scholar with the power of a chicken."

Ethan remained silent, and Sen stared at him coldly.

"I am Colonel Sasha of the Earth Alliance's Special Intelligence Department. From now on, you are no longer a non-human, but you are not a citizen of the Earth Alliance. You will be treated as an alien species and sent to the Special Intelligence Department's scientific research institute. Serum for our experts to study the plague." Alpha stared at him with eyes full of disgust and hatred, and pronounced the sentence coldly, "Although I want to burn you, a disgusting monster in human skin, to ashes immediately. eliminate harm to the people."

Ethan suddenly laughed lowly, and the scars on his face were also distorted, looking very scary.

"Call me a disgusting monster. I think you people who burned those infected people alive regardless of whether they were conscious or not are the real monsters?" Ethan's green eyes swept over every soldier around him, " In fact, they still remember who they are, and they still have memories of the past. Although they do perceive many things that they could not perceive before, the desire to eat raw meat at the initial stage of infection will force them to lose control and become aggressive. After that stage, it calms down a lot. They are still human at heart. Just because they look ugly, because they can no longer make a human voice, you don't try to communicate with them, just think they have become monsters .”

Along the way, he heard the accusations of those monsters full of fear and hatred in the dark.They watched as their friends or relatives who were sent along with them were burned into charcoal, and they watched the guards use thick and long iron forks to pick up the charred corpses.The guards sometimes didn't even wait until they were completely worms before setting them ablaze with horrible flamethrowers.

In such torture, even if there are still human memories, all they have left is hatred, endless hatred.They gave up their identity as human beings and completely regarded human beings as their natural enemies.

Ethan looked at some soldiers who seemed to be stung by his words, and some soldiers who simply couldn't listen to what he said or refused to believe, and finally his eyes fixed on Colonel Sasha.He suddenly shouted, "Why do you say that we are monsters, but you are not?!"

In the echo, suddenly a terrible, deafening roar came from under the floor, like thunder rolling.