This conclusion sounds a bit shocking, but Su Hao is very clear: the Academy of Sciences is indeed not lying in this regard, and the crux of the problem is indeed not with the Red Dragon Planet itself, but from the outside world.

The meeting did not last long, and half an hour later, Su Hao had already left the conference hall accompanied by personal guards. Although the report of the President of the Imperial Academy of Sciences and others was important, the solution of the problem still required administrative intervention and the use of material force. In this regard, Su Hao gave the highest authority to the civil affairs department and the Academy of Sciences, and he himself was able to turn his attention to other aspects.

The crisis of the Red Dragon Planet is not just a frequent natural disaster. In other respects, there have been surprising changes.

The two Janissary Air Force combat squadrons had been ordered to assemble at the Palace Airport, and they and Su Hao's heavy passenger plane took off at the same time and flew in the direction of Moli Zaka Fortress.

When the group of planes slowly descended over the fortress, Tong Yanfeng and Qin Wuyi had already led a group of officers to wait at the airport. Their expressions were grim, and although they were not rude, they could not see the usual relaxed smiles on their faces.

Su Hao also omitted unnecessary greetings and asked bluntly: "How is the situation?" ”

"It's much stricter than you think."

Tong Yanfeng took two steps forward, leaned close to Su Hao's ear and whispered, "The real room is ready, you can go over and see for yourself." ”

The real yàn room is located on the seventeenth basement floor of the fortress. It is a well-fortified area that is the most important core area of the entire fortress with the exception of weapons and energy systems. When the large elevator began to fall, Su Hao also felt that his heart had an indescribable feeling of falling, heavy and extremely heavy.

A group of heavily armed senior guards and officers surrounded Su Hao and walked into the center. Along the way, everyone who saw Su Hao stood quietly at the scene, their eyes full of respect and worship. Su Hao returned the salute to them one by one, although he only raised his hand slightly, it made everyone feel extremely satisfied, and their faces were full of excitement and excitement.

Soon you will enter the third room, where the central area is completely enclosed by a cage of thick, sturdy high-strength alloys. The alloy is as hard as the thickest combat armor, and even if a first-order evolutionary wants to bend it with strength, it will be difficult.

Inside the cage is a creature of the type of gray wolf on Earth. Its limbs are extremely strong and its body lines are extremely fluid. A huge single lens separates the real yàn room from the compartment, although this partition can allow observers like Su Hao to see the situation in the real yàn room, but the inside cannot see through this side, but for some reason, the gray wolf in the cage has been staring at this "wall", and his eyes reveal doubt and silence from time to time.

The cage is large, covering an area of more than two hundred square meters. After asking Su Hao's opinion, Tong Yanfeng whispered a few words to an officer next to him. A few minutes later, the side door to the interior of the chamber opened, and a giant bear with a body of more than three meters in length was let in.

Giant bears are the most common large animals found in the western primeval forests. Compared to its counterparts elsewhere in the Empire, it is larger, more temperamental, and more aggressive than the sawtooth and steppe lion. Their skin is more than five centimeters thick, and even the hardest connective tissue cannot penetrate even a large-caliber shotgun. In the Western Forest, they come from the very top of the food chain, especially when hungry, and dare to attack any living creatures that move.

This giant bear has been hungry for a long time, but it still maintains enough body. This is due to the special feeding methods of the staff in the real yàn room. They usually only give the bear one meal every two days. Either a chicken, or a rabbit. This little thing is not at all proportional to the huge stomach pouch of the giant bear, it refuses to waste food at all, and even the blood dripping on the ground will be **** clean. However, the more this happens, the more hungry the bear becomes. The gray wolf in the cage seemed to it to be a big meal, no need to urge, no need for laser inducement, the giant bear roared furiously, from the moment he entered the real yàn room, he began to run and accelerate, and at a distance of about ten meters away from the gray wolf, he suddenly stood upright and pounced forward, and his huge claws fell down like a mountain.

The speed of the gray wolf's agility is astonishing. It was very nimble in dodging attacks, and by the time the bear spun awkwardly to re-lock onto its target, the gray wolf had leapt high into the air with extraordinary bounce and jumped over the bear's head. When the gray shadow flew in front of him, the giant bear only felt an unbearable pain suddenly grow on his face. It howled, and its mind went blank for a moment.

The bear's nose was bitten off alive by the gray wolf. Although the blood that was shed was not much, the terrible pain caused fatal injuries to the giant bear. It involuntarily leaned back, and its two front paws subconsciously covered the wound on the tip of its nose. When the entire chest was exposed, the gray wolf lost no time in jumping up again, and its sharp claws lightly cut through the skin of the giant bear, slicing the entire chest open. The division of labor between the two paws can only be described as "ingenious", and while the left claw breaks through the body of the giant bear, the right paw has already pulled out the steaming heart from it.

With a "plop", the giant bear fell like a mountain. With a terrible howl, the gray wolf began to circle around the giant bear. It does not attack the bear directly, but instead surrounds it and uses its claws to deal more damage to it when the time comes. A few minutes passed, and the bear's surface was covered in scars, the ground was covered in blood, and blood-red flesh and yellow fat were splattered everywhere. The painful bear gradually lost its ability to resist, lying on the ground and convulsing, but had no strength to struggle to stand up.

In the final blow, the gray wolf showed terrifying power. It directly slashed the giant bear's eyes with its claws, and the dying giant bear instinctively waved its right paw to resist, but was stepped on by the gray wolf's paws, opened its mouth full of fangs, and bit off the giant bear's throat in one bite.

Looking at the gray wolf in the real room who was biting bear meat, Su Hao suddenly had a strange feeling. He felt that this gray wolf was very much like an agile mutant creature on Earth. Its fighting style and movements are very familiar to itself. The only difference is that this gray wolf is larger and more powerful than the mutated creatures.

In the more than 100 years of ruling the empire, Su Hao has a detailed understanding of all the creatures on the Red Dragon Planet, and the Imperial Academy of Sciences has also established a complete biological research system. This wolf-like creature had never been seen before, and people were very unfamiliar with it, especially in the Central Mountain Range, where a beast similar to it had not been seen since Su Hao walked out of the pyramid passage.

"It's not native to the Central Mountains."

Tong Yanfeng whispered beside him: "Such a wolf-like beast has found hundreds of them in the guard range of the fortress. They have a fierce temperament and great strength, and their fighting skills are even better than those of highly trained soldiers. Six soldiers were wounded and two were killed on the spot in order to capture the head. ”

Su Hao nodded with a gloomy face. He kept an eye on the gray wolf in the cage and found that the wolf was not in a hurry to eat, but gathered around the dead giant bear to observe back and forth. It seems to be thinking, and it seems to be guarding against something.

After a few seconds, the gray wolf stopped on the side of the giant bear. It squatted on the ground with its strong hind limbs as support, its two front paws expanding the wound on the bear's chest. It is incredibly agile in its movements, and its forelimbs with sharp claws resemble human hands. It groped back and forth inside the bear, grabbing out the liver, intestines, and other organs in order and stuffing them into its mouth to chew. Suddenly, the loudspeaker in the observer's room continued to hear a clear chewing sound.

Su Hao slowly frowned. He didn't understand what the hell this gray wolf was trying to do. These actions completely subverted his conventional perception of species other than humans. Generally speaking, bears, wolves and other beasts do not have the concept of storing food, they tend to eat as much as they kill. This habit is of course due to the fact that they are carnivores and cannot preserve their food. Therefore, once you have caught something, you must eat it as much as you can. In this case, wolves can often eat enough to sustain their physiological needs for ten or even dozens of days at a time.

Like this, Su Hao only ate the internal organs and put the whole bear corpse aside, Su Hao saw it for the first time on the gray wolf.

Is it really a wolf?

Su Hao's gaze kept following the gray wolf, and the gray wolf also turned his head from time to time and looked in the direction where the single lens was. Apparently, it has sensed that someone is spying on itself, but it just doesn't understand why the other person is behind this wall? And not directly in front of yourself?

"It has wisdom that we can't imagine."

Suddenly, Su Hao muttered to himself: "It can think and know how to use the environment and existing resources rationally." ”

Tong Yanfeng frowned, he didn't understand the meaning of Su Hao's words.

"Don't you understand? It has evolved to think like we do. ”

Su Hao raised his hand and pointed to the torn corpse of the giant bear lying on the ground and said, "The internal organs are the first part to rot. The muscles and epidermis decay more slowly, it does not need to be well fed in this situation, and it understands that we will not take back the meal given to it. Instead of gobbling it up and going half to death at a time, it's better to save your energy and appetite and wait until the next meal to eat slowly. The temperature control and ventilation in the room were very good, and in a short period of time, the slain bear did not rot. It can wait, that's what it has in its head. ”

It's like someone buying back a box of apples and first picking out the speckled and accidentally bumped fruits and eating them. Other intact fruits can be preserved for a long time, and there is no need to rush for a while.

The battle is over, and there is no point in a well-fed wolf and a pile of leftover meat. Su Hao left the real room and followed Tong Yanfeng and Qin Wuyi into the fortress commander's office.

"Since a year ago, new species have been emerging in the Central Mountains. All of them were large beasts of prey, and there were no birds. Initially, these new species were not abundant and only infested the depths of the central mountain range. Half a year ago, a large number of wolf-like and tiger-like creatures appeared on the periphery of Outpost 48, and we began to observe them at that time, and also hunted some of them for genetic analysis. The results were surprising, and in the real yàn sample, we found the same genes as the mutants. ”

Tong Yanfeng's introduction was incredible, but Su Hao did not express any opinions. He asked for all the analysis data, looked at it carefully for a long time, pointed to a chart numbered "31" and said, "Look at this, this is a sample analysis table of the kind of gray wolf just now." Notice this place, where two strands of genes appear at the same time. Order 11, 12, 13...... After the change of the six intervals, the accessory gene strand has completely disappeared, while the main gene strand has added an alien link. ”

"It's a sign that they're merging with each other."

Qin Wuyi, who hadn't spoken for a long time, interjected: "The fusion between genes is not strange. Just like when we were on Earth, many people claimed that zombies didn't exist at all. Because it does not conform to the most basic biological laws. Eventually, however, the zombies appeared, and within a few short years, they evolved into a different kind of monster. ”

Su Hao's eyes didn't leave the chart at all: "Gene fusion is not as simple as you think. That requires the right environment and opportunities, and the zombie virus is a special case of this, it is extremely infectious, and the way it binds to other cells is also extremely strange. They feed each other and also form a predatory relationship with each other. In the case of humanoids, do you think they belong to humans? Or is it a new species of non-human? But you can't deny that they do carry genes for both humans and parasites. This is a very obvious symbiotic phenomenon, but the question of which one is dominant in the body is still unclear. ”

"Symbiosis?"

Tong Yanfeng repeated the word and subconsciously asked, "You mean, those large beasts that suddenly appeared in the central mountain range are also mutated forms produced by foreign genes?" ”

Su Hao's voice sounded extremely heavy: "I don't know. The results of the Imperial Academy of Sciences' analysis are the ones I just mentioned. "Symbiosis" is not a simple word, and the conditions under which it appears are extremely harsh. Environment, moisture, air, etc., all have limitations, but the most important thing is the snatching and fusion relationship between two different genes. As you can see in this chart, the main gene strand is exactly the same as the mutants that we're familiar with. They are forcibly embedded with a part of the foreign gene, and the appearance and morphology of the guide zhì are changed. It's like ......"

"It's like a zombie on Earth!"

Qin Wuyi said this sentence first, and his expression and eyes trembled slightly: "They controlled those mutants, just like when they were on the earth, the virus controlled those infected people?" ”

"That's pretty much it."

Su Hao nodded slowly and agreed: "Of course, it is possible for beasts to evolve thinking and intelligence abilities. But many habits have become part of their nature and can never be changed. For example, if you have an understanding of the environment and temperature in the real room, the gray wolf will not do this at all. Don't forget, mutants have always had a habit of hunting natives and bringing them back to their nests to eat slowly. The symbiosis of two different genes does allow the brain to retain some kind of fixed memory. Just like infected zombies, as well as humanoids, they all have extremely small fragments of pre-life thoughts. ”

Although Su Hao's voice was not heavy, Tong Yanfeng's heart still involuntarily twitched a few times, and he lost his voice: "You mean, those big beasts, including the gray wolf in the real room, are all mutants?" ”

"I don't know."

Su Hao shook his head: "More evidence and further analysis are needed to draw conclusions." I am no less appalled by this than you. We have controlled this planet, and there has been no change for more than a hundred years, why are there anomalous species now? There are a lot of things that start quietly, and no one can predict the outcome. The virus outbreak on Earth was like this at the beginning, and the current Red Dragon Planet may be the same fate. ”

Virus outbreak?

These four words hit Tong Yanfeng and Qin Wuyi's hearts like a heavy hammer. They subconsciously looked at each other, and from each other's eyes, they saw horror and shock.

Earth, that is a place full of countless good memories, but also countless painful and tragic pictures.

Tong Yanfeng and Qin Wuyi are both survivors of the disaster. They no longer want to think about the horrific scenes of hell. Although zombies are no match for the enhancers, they are truly terrifying, their rotting bodies and filthy blood, and the stench of their bodies, they are always screaming and hungry, and they will rush over to fight for food regardless of any living creature they find. They should not have been present in the human world, and there is a great deal of scientific evidence that they violate the basic laws of biology. However, it was so unexpected that they appeared, and human civilization almost perished because of it.

People who are in a desperate situation often don't think about the problems behind the disaster. All they have on their minds is food, warmth, and a way out. Atlanteans are far from reality, and that's just an empty and meaningless word. In front of a piece of bread and aliens, of course, it is not hesitate to choose the former.

"Your Majesty, do you think that the Red Dragon Planet will also be like the Earth, with a sudden outbreak of large-scale virus infection?"

After a long time, Tong Yanfeng opened his mouth and asked, "Do you think this is possible?" ”

Tong Yanfeng is already married. He has sons and daughters, and his bloodline extends to grandchildren. As long as you are a person with a normal brain, you will not give up your relatives like this.

"I don't know."

Su Hao still frowned and shook his head repeatedly. The problem of the appearance of large beasts in the Central Mountains was reported to the Imperial Academy of Sciences a long time ago. But even Su Hao himself has never paid attention to it. It wasn't until this time that Tong Yanfeng captured a live gray wolf and noticed something unusual, so he was able to put the problem in front of Su Hao.

Maybe it's a little late, but it should be in time.

"Slaughter that gray wolf."

After a moment, Su Hao said, "I need its meat." Even though it can't speak, it is extremely hostile to us. But don't forget that cells can never lie. In front of us, they are transparent. ”

Married. He has sons and daughters, and his bloodline extends to grandchildren. As long as you are a person with a normal brain, you will not give up your relatives like this.

"I don't know."

Su Hao still frowned and shook his head repeatedly. The problem of the appearance of large beasts in the Central Mountains was reported to the Imperial Academy of Sciences a long time ago. But even Su Hao himself has never paid attention to it. It wasn't until this time that Tong Yanfeng captured a live gray wolf and noticed something unusual, so he was able to put the problem in front of Su Hao.

Maybe it's a little late, but it should be in time.

"Slaughter that gray wolf."

After a moment, Su Hao said, "I need its meat." Even though it can't speak, it is extremely hostile to us. But don't forget that cells can never lie. In front of us, they are transparent. ”