At the end of the main corridor was a cockpit. Aside from a metal sliding door on the floor, it was filled with screen displays that left David dazzled.
However, David still recognized the one in the center: it was a cogitator.
This thing was equivalent to a navigator, capable of automatically planning flight routes while also possessing functions like recording information.
David looked at the darkened screen and pounded it twice with his fist.
Brute force works wonders; the cogitator sparked and miraculously lit up.
David leaned in front of the computer and browsed until he found a file named 'Navigation Log'.
'Record 1: After finishing this big job, I won't have to worry about food or drink for the rest of my life. That Hive noble actually offered such a high price. I really don't understand what's so special about a beast cat; perhaps this is just the leisure pursuit of a big shot.'
No wonder the 'cat' he killed earlier had a pet name tag on its neck. David continued reading downward.
Record 2: Things are always going missing from the dining area. Recently, crew members have been reporting hearing strange noises from there at night... Never mind, I'll deal with it after this job is done.
Record 3: There's definitely a thief on the ship. Did they sneak in when we docked last time? Such a huge appetite, they've cleared out the dining area!
Reinforce the pantry cabinets for me. Wait, just reinforce my cabinet; let the crew figure out their own solutions for the others.
Record 4: Finally caught you, you damn thieves. No wonder you eat so much—there are two of you! Dispose of the male for me. As for the female... lock her in the lowest cage for now.
Record 5: It's over, it's all over. We just had to finish this one job, just this one job... why did it turn out like this... This was all the information recorded on the computer.
The matter wasn't complicated: a merchant ship smuggling animals encountered a plague, eventually crashed with all hands lost, and landed on Cadia.
David thought of the bones in his backpack and the corpses in the hallway; the fate of these people was easy to imagine.
After carefully checking the Cogitator to ensure he hadn't missed anything, David arrived before the metal sliding door on the floor.
He pulled it open with force, revealing a vertical downward passage; the ladder was missing.
He casually picked up a fragment and dropped it, waiting a moment before the sound of it hitting the bottom reached him.
David placed a bucket at the edge. The water flowed just like in Minecraft, forming a downward column of water.
Leaping into the flow, David followed it down to the lower level.
The space on the lower level was far more open than the upper level, and unlike the upper level, it hadn't suffered impact damage; there were almost no signs of destruction.
Giant glass display cases were arranged neatly. The first case had a large hole broken in it, and the label attached to it read:
"Sabre, feed three times a day."
The second display case was also empty, its label warning: "Favius Viper, secretes lethal venom; keep your distance when feeding."
When the torch moved toward the third display case, David stopped.
There was a living creature inside. Thanks to the intact protection system of the lower level, this creature had no plague mark on its status bar.
But one of its legs was bent, clearly lame, and its health bar had only a pitiful two points left.
The label noted: "Steig Beast, secretes a milky-white liquid to feed its young when giving birth. The liquid tastes excellent; some people pay a high price to acquire it."
Secretes a milky-white liquid? David pressed his entire face against the glass, peering inside.
Four hooves, with an udder like a cow's on its belly—isn't this just a cow?!
The Steig Beast inside was startled by the flattened human face on the glass and let out a neigh.
Dragging its useless leg, it stubbornly moved forward and then thudded its head against the glass.
Such a fierce temperament? David used his stone pickaxe to dig through the glass, placed a wooden boat, and trapped the mobility-impaired Steig Beast inside.
He couldn't let this 'Cow' he had worked so hard to get die.
Once the Steig Beast settled down, David pulled the promethium bucket from his backpack and right-clicked on it.
According to the sign, the Steig Beast should only produce milk during childbirth.
But in Minecraft, even bulls can be milked; this wasn't an issue at all.
The [promethium bucket] turned into [beast milk].
David only stopped after filling three buckets, not because it was enough, but because he had run out of buckets.
The Steig Beast collapsed limply onto the wooden boat as if drained, its eyes looking at David with a mix of terror.
This is an inexhaustible supply of milk; even if it can't detoxify, it can still be used for drinking.
The good days are yet to come. David weighed the beast milk in his hand. The name 'Steig Beast' was too fancy.
"Perhaps I shall call you Otis.
David walked toward the last glass display case at the end of the corridor.
The firelight dispelled the shadows, revealing two figures huddled closely together inside the case, one large and one small.
There are two? Didn't the navigation log say there was only one?
David leaned closer; the larger one was vaguely recognizable as a female.
She was curled on the ground, long since devoid of life, her arms tightly clutching the little thing in her bosom.
David raised his stone pickaxe, smashed the glass, and stepped into the case, his feet landing beside a pool of congealed blood.
On the floor, there were a few crooked words written in blood that had already turned black: Save my child.
As if hearing the intruder's footsteps, the mass in the woman's arms twitched, followed by a burst of piercing cries.
The sound was exactly like the screeching of a crow, scraping against the nerves and making one's skin crawl.
David used his stone sword to pry away the woman's cold arms.
The firelight completely illuminated the "child" she had protected to the death.
It was a monster with gray skin and several twisted appendages protruding from the sides of its torso, unconsciously scratching at the air.
Its head was disproportionately massive, with no eyes to be seen—only two deep-set black holes.
Its snout protruded forward, filled with dense, pale teeth.
What a sacrilege!
A series of extremely unsettling images made David feel a wave of nausea.
The name on the health bar showed that the deceased woman was a 4th gen genestealer.
She looked almost no different from a human and could hide perfectly among a crowd.
Her cursed bloodline had undergone a terrible reversal in her offspring, giving birth to a fifth generation: a pure-blooded abomination.
Even more tragic was that Psionics had warped her perception.
Until the very last moment of her life, she likely believed that what she held in her arms was a normal human.
David looked at the line of blood on the floor, then at the genestealer still making that piercing noise.
Holding onto a sliver of unrealistic hope, David took a bucket of beast milk from his backpack and placed it beside it.
Even though its status bar clearly and unmistakably showed that it had no abnormal status that could be removed.
The genestealer stopped tearing at its mother and, after a brief pause, buried its entire face in the bucket, feeding frantically.
Nothing happened. It was born this way; this was simply what it was.
David's heart sank into a cold void.
As expected, it didn't work. Perhaps those genestealers infected later in life could be cured by milk, but for a natural-born monster like this, it was impossible after all.
David sighed silently, quietly waiting for the genestealer to drink all the milk in front of it.
A slight smile hung on the deceased mother's lips, as if thanking David for feeding her child.
In the underground space, the torch suddenly went out, and darkness swallowed everything, along with that piercing cry.
A moment, or perhaps longer.
The darkness was dispelled by a newly struck match, the firelight dancing once more to reveal David's expressionless face.
A genestealers' combat power is not weak, even as a juvenile.
Feeding it milk was partly to see if it could cure the infection, but also to lower its guard for a successful sneak attack.
[String x4], [Spider Eye x1], [Genestealer Claw x1]
Part of the drops belonged to spiders; genestealers are like spiders—both are arthropods, so it makes sense.
As for the Genestealer Claw, the JEI description was quite interesting.
[The claws of a pureblood genestealer are covered in a Bio-field, allowing it to easily destroy hard metals. After death, the Bio-field disappears; perhaps you have a way to restore it and craft it into a weapon]