Forbidden Nightmare

Chapter 44 Hive Consciousness
Alba glanced at the surveillance footage of each cabin on the display screen. There were many fusion mutants around the emergency evacuation room where the escape pod was placed. Among them was even the nest mother that he had encountered before, and there was more than one...

But facing Li Nanke’s question, does he still have the right to choose?

"Stationmaster, don't worry. Based on the surveillance footage from each cabin, Brigitte will plan the safest route for you to avoid the danger of encountering monsters."

Brigitte waved her hand gently, and a display screen popped up a 3D internal structure diagram of the space station.

Two green dots and a large number of red light spots were marked on the azure 3D map. A winding yellow path had appeared on the route from the main control room to the emergency evacuation room, bypassing all the cabins and corridors where the red light spots were located.

"Since some monsters will pass through the corridors or transfer chambers, the safe path will also change according to the situation. Stationmasters, please keep in touch with Brigitte. Brigitte will update the safe path for you in real time."

Li Nanke nodded, picked up the headset on the main console, put it on, and strode out of the control room.

The hidden node is to prevent the giant deformed 'Death Sign' from forming. The synchronization prompt does not give a specific time limit, but the sense of danger in the heart spreads and grows silently.

He knew he had to act quickly and try to avoid unnecessary fighting to save time.

The two of them moved forward according to Brigitte's guidance in the headset. Although the route was winding, they did not have any direct conflict with any monsters along the way.

There was even one time when a giant nest mother had just stepped into the corner of the corridor, and Li Nanke quietly entered the corridor, turned out from another fork, and successfully avoided the encounter.

With Biji's real-time guidance, Li Nanke did save a lot of trouble...

……

The last metal gate opened, and the extremely spacious emergency evacuation room came into view.

The interior space of the cabin is very large, with a long row of escape pod doors embedded in the wall. Through the observation windows of the closed doors, one can directly see the internal structure of the escape pod.

There are many types of escape pods, ranging from small single-person pods to large pods that can accommodate fifty people, but only medium and large escape pods can reach the escape velocity required to escape from Gliese 798c.

These escape pods are connected to the outer wall of the space station in an external form. After entering the hatch, they can release the connection with the space station's robotic arm, start the escape pod engine and escape.

The isolation door inside the evacuation room will be lowered in advance to block the gap caused by the departure of the escape pod. Otherwise, the indoor and outdoor spaces will be connected, causing a fatal and severe decompression.

Although escape pods do not have the ability to travel between stars, they can still be considered independent small spacecraft, especially those large escape pods, which have sufficient energy reserves and powerful propulsion, and are the best choice for escape.

It is precisely because of this that the control system of each escape pod is independent and not connected to the space station's system, so Alba is still needed to crack it.

The two quickly changed into outer space work suits with small propulsion devices, and Alba asked, "Michael, which escape pod should we choose?"

"Of course it's the biggest one. How long will it take to crack it?"

Alba came to the hatch, connected the portable optical computer and began to operate: "The time required for large and small ones is about the same. Three minutes will be enough."

"Hurry up, I always feel something is wrong." Li Nanke frowned, feeling that the final node of the escape capsule was a bit too easy.

If he had not tried to trigger the hidden node in the Deep Pit Prison and had not wasted time killing a large number of monsters, he should have been able to catch up with the first group of prisoners and successfully reach the space station.

That time point and the current time point of the space station are completely two different difficulties, because even if there are deaths in the former, resulting in the production of a large number of deformed bodies, it is impossible to quickly produce powerful beings like the Nest Mother. At most, it can only produce some low-level fusion bodies like the Berserker.

At that point in time, whether reaching the main control room or boarding the escape capsule would be much easier than it is now.

However, because Li Nanke consumed a lot of time, a large number of fusion deformities were generated in the space station, and the difficulty increased dramatically. While hiding nodes brought high returns, they also brought greater risks.

This means that in order to complete key node three and reach the main control room, one must kill a powerful nest mother... and now, will the difficulty of the final node be lower than key node three?
Under Brigitte's guidance, he successfully avoided many powerful monsters and easily boarded the escape pod. After that, he could even ignore the subsequent hidden nodes and directly accelerate the engine to reach the escape speed. He could easily complete the final node and return to the other side.

This is obviously not in line with the current high difficulty, and it feels like a lot of thunder but little rain.

So Li Nanke felt something was wrong. His sixth sense had never failed before, and this time was no exception...

Just as Alba began to crack, a tingling sensation like static electricity quickly swept through his body, and the powerful electromagnetic signal from the construct burst out again, and it could even be clearly felt in the space station.

At the same time, the illusion of touching the construct reappeared...

In a trance, Li Nanke saw the huge deformed 'Death Omen' on the surface of the planet. It spread out countless flesh and blood tentacles, absorbing many deformed creatures faster and accelerating the process of growing and taking shape.

Li Nanke, who had once touched the construct, had become a deep infected person and had developed a mysterious connection with the construct. This connection even allowed him to clearly feel that the 'Death Omen' was an intelligent life form with a collective consciousness.

However, the deep infection without death or distortion made Li Nanke a discordant existence in the collective consciousness. Most of his thoughts were exposed in the collective neural network, but the collective consciousness could not forcibly control his behavior.

When Li Nanke came to his senses, he felt a chill down his spine.

Brigitte's voice came from the headset, her voice carrying the interference of an electric current: "Stationmaster! An unknown strong electromagnetic signal just erupted. The monitoring screen shows that a large number of monsters are rushing towards the emergency evacuation room!"

As Brigitte finished speaking, the electronic screen in the evacuation room flickered continuously. Li Nanke saw many fusion aberrations running towards the evacuation room like crazy, including some as powerful as the Nest Mother...

Alba also wore a headset and heard Brigitte's warning. His hands were shaking as he operated the system. "Michael, it's too late to crack it. Let's get out of here."

Li Nanke's expression was stern and he said coldly: "No, the monster is coming for us, there is no way to escape."

"This 'construct' created by an advanced civilization is more terrifying than we imagined. The giant aberration already knows our plan. In order to survive, it will stop us at all costs... Heh, it's scared."

"Just keep going, and leave the rest to me!"

Alba felt like he had heard this sentence somewhere before, but facing the large number of monsters that were about to swarm in, he had no choice but to trust Li Nanke again.

(End of this chapter)