Alien.

Aliens, of course! Now everything makes sense! Still, Ryan wondered if the visitors would look like gray dwarfs or humans with ridged foreheads. If the 8-meter-tall monsters in the snow are anything to say, they are probably cold-blooded.

Wait a minute...... Ryan glanced at the monster's corpse and suddenly realized.

"I knew it!" He shouted, pointing at the giant beast. "I knew it was a reptilian man!"

These scaly bastards are trying to infiltrate human governments to destroy democracy!

"It can't be aliens," Sh

Oud denied. "Maybe the alchemist...... Maybe she's building a spaceship to leave the planet?"

"That junk plane apparently crashed a few years ago," Salyn noted. "If I listen carefully to our stupid commander-in-chief, a full four-fifths of them are buried in the ice. Who would build such a ship?"

"We ...... We know that the elixir comes from alien space," Ryan said, trying to scan the ship with her power armor. "This ...... It's not impossible. ”

The Shroud still shook its head. "It can't be an alien."

Can he accept the presence of time travelers, but not alien visitors?

In any case, Ryan activated his time stop during the panel debate. Although he felt an opposing force rebelling against his power, he was relieved that the icy wasteland had turned purple. Since the strange purple lightning bolts in the alien sky have been moving during the frozen time, Ryan guesses that they are made of purple Flux.

Just like his experience in Monaco, as long as the Resonator keeps the portal open, his time stop will work, allowing him to merge the purple world with this pocket dimension.

But another thing caught the courier's attention. The black flux particles produced by his armor seemed to engulf the space around them, creating tiny, barely visible cracks in the fabric of reality itself.

"Huh?" Time begins again. Although the black particles are gone, the damage they cause remains.

"What's wrong, Reilly?" Lunn asked, noticing his confusion.

"It seems that my power has had an unusual effect on this thin place." Think about it, Rya

Remember that during their battle, the black flux consumed Alpho

se ' Fallout ' Ma

Radioactive red flux of ADA.

So far, all indications are that the Black Ultimates have given the Courier the ability to kill the undead. But how far can you push this definition? Can you wipe out energy? Items? Ideas?

The power of blacks is contradictory and does not follow the rules. Lightning Ass becomes more of an animated statue of himself than a person, however Ryan's powers can hurt him. It can even kill ghosts.

Maybe it kills the elixir, or the alien energy they produce.

"This power gives me a headache," Ryan said, deciding to get his team ready for battle. "Sunlight" and "Perspective" carefully observed the dome, Sarin looked nervous, Lunn and "Panda" did not hide their anxiety, and Mr. Bo barely controlled himself and did not shoot. "Alright, guys, listen up, who among you hasn't explored a terrifying alien spaceship?" Raise your hand if you are a first-time visitor. ”

Everyone except Ryan and Mr. Bo raised their hands. "Mr. Bo has triggered the Fermi paradox," Genome explained. "When alien civilizations see Mr. Bo, they will become extinct."

“Ri

i, why don't you raise your hand?" Le

Asked.

Sarain looked at Ryan suspiciously, which broke the Courier's heart. "You've seen aliens before, oh, great and powerful leader?"

"Yes, but their ship is round and flat." In addition, for some reason, the passengers kept trying to pay him with shells. "In any case, the first and most important rule of the ship: don't touch the eggs. Good eggs are hard-boiled. ”

Panda gasped. "But master, the eggs are cute and round!"

"Eggs are enemies, soldiers!" Ryan roared with the passion of an instructor, and the panda gave a military salute. "Any eggs found on an alien spacecraft could be a weapon of mass destruction!" Cook them all!"

"Master, wait for the left!"

"The second rule, we can't be separated.".

"Not much will change," Bokua said. "Even if Mr. Bo faced an army alone, they would still be outnumbered."

"I agree," Ryan admitted, "but that's the principle." ”

"I usually prefer to spread out my forces to cover a larger area, but in this case, the numbers may be safer," Leo agreed. "We don't know what's going to happen inside."

"Which way are we moving in?" The Shroud asked, glancing at the blast door.

"Hmm......" Ryan approached the door to observe them. On closer inspection, while blast doors are mostly made of the same ferrous metal as the rest of the ship, they show signs of being vandalized in the past. Someone plugged the crack with standard alloy steel. After a cursory scan of his armor, the Courier learns that the doors may survive extreme conditions, such as re-entry. "Sunlight, we may need a solar eruption or two."

"I see there's a nice entrance over there," Sarin said, pointing to the hole in the ship's metal dome. "If the lizard blasts its way, it means the road is clear, right?"

"Possibly." "But we may find workers repairing damaged areas."

"What bothers me is that no one came to intercept us." Hargraves said, his light dimmed instantly. "I was expecting more activity at the alchemist's base, but this area looks empty."

"Maybe that thing killed everyone on the way out," Shalin guessed.

So, what killed the creature? The wound that killed it came from a claw. "I'm thrilled," Ryan said. "On the one hand, blowing a hole in yourself is good and justified. But going the other way will attract less attention. ”

Hargraves said, "Let's refrain from hostilities until we get to the truth."

"Say it yourself," Shalin said, clenching his fists. "There's no way I can't beat up that mad scientist. She owes me more than a decade of pain and interest. ”

"As strange as it sounds, I agree with the psychopaths," Sh

OUD declared. "While we may need her information, it is impossible for me to keep the person responsible for last Easter from harassment. No matter who she was, whatever she was, her hands were covered with too much blood. ”

"The alchemist may deserve our ridicule." Sunshine admitted. "But we apparently only know a small part of the whole truth, and an open conflict will not bring us anything. Let's err on the side of caution, figure out what happened, and then decide whether to use force or not. ”

The argument was won and the team decided to explore the dome from an open entrance.

"Okay, it's time to explain the third and final rule. If it looks cute and cute......" Ryan loaded his chest cannon. "Not really."

The messenger grabs the panda and flies into the cave with his bear, followed by the Shroud, Mr. Bo, and the living sun Leo. Sho

Tie uses a high-pressure stream of water to launch herself onto the top of the ship, while Sa

i

A similar shock wave is used.

It turned out that this dome was just the upper part of a huge sphere with a diameter of more than two hundred meters wide. One end of a 5-meter-wide bridge extends to a central platform equipped with a strange biomechanical device, while the other end leads to a shattered blast door. Fragments of the dome's ceiling glittered at the bottom of the sphere, and huge colored holographic projections swirled in the air around the platform.

This place reminds Ryan of McLaren's own holographic orbital monitoring system, although it is much more advanced and much more damaged. The projection flickered, and the devices of all platforms were turned off. No matter how much energy the ship uses, it's running out.

His team landed on the platform, and Lunn, Sarin, and Panda crossed the bridge, securing another entrance to the dome. At the same time, couriers and members of the carnival examined the projections and tried to find meaning in them.

Ryan counted seven holograms, each using a different array of colors; Each one represents a strange and wonderful place.

Puffy clouds: white shapeless clouds that have no substance and persistence It is fragile and pure like a dream, but sometimes splashes of color make it colorful. There's a red star here, there's a green bird there. These apparition images only exist for a moment, then return to white, and the core is an unformed speck.

A crimson, vibrating storm of energy, filled with lightning, flaming stars, and light. At its center burns a shining Heart of Chaos Core, the first and largest sun that illuminates the universe; As Ryan squinted, he realized that the star had the shape of an eye. A man who looked back at him.

A Rubik's cube with countless stickers on it, made of different substances: steel, glass, iron, stone, gold, zinc, water, gas...... All the metals, all the liquids, all the inorganics that Ryan knows are on it. There are also stickers that contain substances he's never seen before, crystals that move like creatures, black metals that are black like night, or pink liquids. Orange lines separate each pit of matter from each other.

A strange golden carnival with cube angels, legged demons, hordes of ghosts, and a 2D pictorial world. This is the strangest of them all, a bunch of disorganized ideas turned into reality. Nothing unifies the creatures and places in this realm, except that they exist only in the dreams and imaginations of man.

A green sphere that superficially mimics a planet, but where everything is alive. A pulsatile cell with a sea of green slime, a mountain of teeth, and a forest of blood vessels. The atmosphere itself buzzes like trillions of tiny flies, with the poles briefly opening to reveal eyes and jagged tongues.

a strange blue sphere with data, pictures, and numbers on it; A compendium of all knowledge and information from the past, present, and future. The azure light of the Supreme Divinity glows with enlightening light like a beacon at night, while its tendrils of nerves constantly organize galaxies-sized libraries.

A familiar violet compressed space and strange mirrors enclose this strange panorama, all supervised by an eerie inverted pyramid at its center.

"The world of color," Ryan said, recognizing the world of purple from his brief contact. "One less."

"Black?" Leo Hargraves asked, Ryan's head twisting in his direction. "It's a long story."

Sh

Oud decided to float in the hologram, and he quickly pointed his finger at the projection of the orange world. "Here it is. Check this out. ”

Ryan's eyes widened as he followed his friend's fingers. One of the Rubik's Cube stickers was made of a substance that the courier had seen before. It looks a lot like ivory, but has a unique texture.

"Doesn't that remind you of anything?" The Shroud asked solemnly.

And it did. The placement of the ivory stickers is also unusual. The material around it is all metal, from iron to bronze to gold. It's in the very center of it all, the core of a face of the cube.

"The corpse of Augustus." Leo Hargraves whispered in surprise. "Same color, same texture...... I'm willing to bet with my life. ”

A cycle ago, Ryan speculated that Lightning Bart's body was made of an anomalous metal. This is the only explanation as to why the madman Frank's ability to absorb these alloys seems to have affected the invincible warlord. But the question is always there, because how can an invincible metal make people immune to freezing time?

Now, it suddenly makes more sense.

Augustus' power gave his body the properties of a metal from the Orange World, the source of all inorganic matter. A world with only matter, no energy, no life......

"Death does not exist in the Purple World"

A world without time.

"Vajra ......," Ryan whispered.

The Shroud looked down on him from his vantage point. "King Kong?"

"Hello, mythological material in Greek mythology, it is said that it is more difficult than anything else?" Hasn't anyone read the classics?" Ryan shrugged. "It's a great name."

The Messenger stops time by aligning the dimensions of the purple world and the earth, creating an anomaly where he alone can affect cause and effect. But that substance, that rock-solid, neither comes from reality nor from reality.

It is an unnatural metal from a higher realm, where death, time, or the laws of physics are intimate. Judging by its position in the cube, it may even be a metal ore, which is the final substance of all secondary ores.

No wonder it behaves so perversely!

"So...... Augustus may have been a member of the Orange family. Sunshine muttered to herself. I've always wondered why Julie can't ......"

"Brother Julie?" Ryan asked.

"She can change her life with just one touch," Mr. Bo replied, his voice darker than usual. "It's either to create new life or to get people to get cancer. It's a very scary force, but it could have saved a lot of people. ”

"I thought Augustus had killed her before she made contact with him," Su

shi

"But it could be that Julie's power didn't keep him 'alive' in the first place." ”

"So how do you explain his aging and tumors?" Sh

Oud asked, apparently he had done his research. "We know he doesn't eat or breathe. If he's made of metal, how can he get old?"

"Stone will degrade, iron will rust," Su

shi

e noted. "If he had a latent cancer before he gained power, then the tumor could have acquired his invulnerability as well."

"I think his superpowers just give his body the properties of alien metal," Ryan speculated. "Lightning Ass may not eat or breathe, but I know he does sleep, creepy. There are still chemical processes going on in him, but they are no longer biological in nature. ”

It could be that the body of the lightning butt reacts negatively to the laws of physics itself, resulting in a slow, almost imperceptible degeneration. It can resist the explosion, but it cannot resist the reality itself, trying to reject the alien elements.

It's not a perfect defense either. Frank can influence Augustus, and so can Livia's time jump. Other conceptual abilities may circumvent the indestructible nature of this metal.

"If so, then the madman Frank is probably the only one capable of harming Augustus," said the Shroud, "or whatever ability you use to defeat the Ghost—"

"This way," Ryan shouted from the other end of the bridge, interrupting the discussion. "Look."

Ryan's team rejoins their allies and enters the next room in tight formation.

The next area has a light source, a red crystal embedded in the ceiling. This lab is much smaller than the metal spheres on the outside, but large enough to accommodate workstations, biomechanics servers, and heart-shaped vats filled with spinning liquids. Alien orange crystals began to take over the ceiling like an infection, while piles of magical boxes lined the south wall. A large hole leads to a dark hallway outside the room, the remains of a broken blue door in the center of the room.

Forgetting all caution, Salin immediately began to investigate the boxes.

"I've never seen so many elixirs at the same time!" The psychopath whistles and opens a marvelous box, revealing seven bottles of wine inside; One color of each potion except black. "This is a complete war fund!"

Ryan paid more attention to the strange vats, finding seven to the north of the lab. Each bottle contained several gallons of elixir, one bottle in each of the seven standard colors. Computers, human computers, are connected to these devices by neurological cables.

It seems that someone has connected Earth technology with extraterrestrial devices with biomechanical techniques. All of them are connected to a central computer with a large control panel and comfortable chairs. While the energy was still flowing into the machine, the screen had gone black.

"Do you have access to the database?" Sunshine asked the Shroud, and they immediately went to secure the vat.

The young game designer approached the computer and restarted it, but he quickly shook his head in denial. Only a white dot with numbers and letters written on the screen appeared. "It's password protected, and this machine is clearly some kind of genius technology. I'll probably have to spend some time trying to figure out the information, with—"

The panda calmly rested one paw on the glass man, gently moved him to the side, and took a seat himself. How the chair did not collapse under the weight of a 700-kilogram bear of mass destruction, Ryan could never understand, but it survived. "Panda" entered three passwords in a row on the computer, and then the screen emitted a melodious "ding" sound, revealing 100 files.

"How did you do that?" Ryan asked in shock as he and Panda checked the computer data together.

"I, well, I studied profiling, psychology, and behavioral science." Panda explained embarrassedly. "Based on the second-hand information I collected, I conducted a psychological analysis of the alchemist in an attempt to find out the possible passwords, and one of them was chosen!"

"What's the password?" Ryan asked lazily, approaching the vat as he watched through the diaphragm the isolation of the blue elixir from the outside world. To his surprise, the slime formed a tentacle and waved at him. “Wo

ldDomi

atio

666 ?”

“HomoNovus6Mag

umOpus !” Panda replied, then explained his guess. "6 is a perfect number, better than 7, the exclamation point strengthens the security, and since the alchemist compares himself to the god who created perfection, I think 'Nova' and 'Mag'

um Opus' should be put somewhere. "Everybody loves Latin!"

"Well guessed, nerd." Shalin replied, unmoved. She keeps searching in a magic box, like a child looking for Christmas presents. "Anything interesting?"

"It's all encrypted, but I can crack it!" Panda said happily.

"Once you turn on the security device, can you transfer the data to my computer?" Lunn asked Bear. "This ...... This one probably contains all the information we need to understand the elixir of life. This room...... This room is most likely their birthplace. ”

Leo Hargraves crossed his shining arms and glanced at Mr. Bo. The laser genome has moved to the front of the destroyed door, which leads to the next part of the complex. "Do you see anything?"

"It's quiet," replied Mr. Bo, peeking through the hole in the wall that had exploded. There was no light in the corridor in the distance, and only a dark abyss remained. "It's so quiet."

"Keep your eyes open." Hargraves said warily. "This place is too precious to be left unfortified, but no one stopped us. What's going on here, it's terrible. ”

"I agree," Ryan said, touching the vat. The elixir of life swirls in the container in response. "I don't think you're going to tell us what's going on, are you?"

In all languages, the answer is French.

"Are you Homo sapiens?"

The voice echoed in Ryan's head, between his ears, in his neurons. The Courier winced, and the elixir grew agitated in the barrel.

"Are you Homo sapiens?" The unfamiliar voice repeated. It is neither male nor female, and more like a robot trying to imitate words that it doesn't fully know how to pronounce.

Ryan glanced at his team, but no one seemed to hear the elixir. As he guessed, the creature used telepathy. "Yes, I'm honored to be one of them." The courier replied in French, while focusing on the blue elixir.

The answer came quickly, and in a completely different tone.

"I'm so happy!" The elixir emits a psychic voice that can be used as a scream of joy, and the voice becomes cheerful. "Do you want to connect with me?"

Even though the voice didn't sound human-like at all, the tone reminded Ryan of an overactive child. "Well, maybe later," the courier replied in surprise. He felt the gaze of his comrades fall on his back. "What's wrong with the door?"

"It fell." The blue elixir replied, and immediately returned to the really important topic. "Can we connect now?" Did it become what it is now? This concept of time is so strange!"

"No, not yet," Ryan replied. "Can you tell me what's going on—"

"Listen, I really, really, really want to connect with you. Can we connect now?"

"I ...... Nope!" Ryan said he found the guy's persistence unbearable. "No!"

"Why don't you want to be close to me?!" The elixir whimpered, annoyed and disappointed. "Don't you want to be happy?"

"Ruili, what's wrong?" The elf asked. "Who are you talking to?"

"Why in French?" Somehow, this is the part that bothers the Shroud the most.

"Ignore him," Shalin said, unoblivious to the scene. "It's good for everybody."

"I just want to have a passionate exchange with you," Blue Elixir continues to pursue Ryan, not accepting his rejection. The courier would love to call it "the good guy". "I want to be with you. I want to get into your body and know everything about you. I'm going to fill all your cells and molecules until we're one! That would be great! I will know everything about you, know you, and love you! I will always be with you, for you!"

This sentence sent chills down Ryan's spine. "You can't force someone to build a relationship!" The messenger protested, and this time half of his team looked at him as if he was crazy. Or at least even more so. "You need to agree!"

"But you just let me out, and I can slip into you!"

"I'm sorry, but...... I'm already with my violet elixir. ”

The blue elixir didn't answer immediately, and when it did, its tone suddenly became less friendly. "It just needs your cells," it says.

Ryan sighed, and it dawned on him that the elixir's inability to speak might be an intentional feature of the alchemist, not a loophole.

"It just needs your body. It's not as grateful to you as I am! It doesn't know what you like! It can't make you happy, but I'll make you better! I'll make you super smart, or warn you of all the dangers, any joy you need!"

"Sorry, good man, but I'm the elixir" and so on, is Ryan counted as a black power because he secretly drank the violet elixir with Duckling? The messenger had never thought of it that way, but now he felt a little guilty.

"We can share!" The blue elixir tried to bargain. "If there is no more than one, I believe we can share it. Even if your elixir doesn't know what you need, I'm sure I can teach it! I can cure you!"

Well, this has been going on long enough. "Listen, I'm not interested, but I know someone might be," Ryan said, trying to distract the creature. "There's a girl named Sarah, and I'm sure you'll get along well with her. Or Simon. ”

"Oh?" The blue elixir calmed down. "Are they also Homo sapiens?"

"Yes."

The blue elixir screamed with joy. "When can I connect with any of them?" It asked. "Can I connect with them now?"

Ryan glanced at his comrades, their awkward silence echoing in his ears. His gaze turned to the psychopath in the room.

"What? Lovely Shalin asked.

"Don't look at me like that, you bastard." Ryan replied in his native language, then glanced at the other captured elixirs. Since one of them can speak, but cannot distinguish between Homo sapiens, the Courier wonders if they are in a conditioned reflex process.

"On second thought, I don't even want to know," the psychopath replied, grabbing a magic box for himself. "Are we done?"

"Almost," Ryan said, trying to find a place to connect the computer to her suit.

"Shhh "Mr. Bo knows he can't be ignored."

In fact, Ryan's spacesuit picked up the voices coming from the hallway. There was a bang, and then another bang.

of footsteps.

The elixir suddenly became restless, and Ryan sensed something familiar through their psychic connection. An emotion as old as life and time.

Fear.

"It's ......"

A green visor appears in the dark hallway, followed by an alien mouthwash.