Upon hearing Ye Qi's words, Xiao Lou leaned closer to take a closer look into the bottle—and there she saw that Shao Qingge, about the size of a thumb, was indeed lying at the bottom of the bottle with her eyes closed, seemingly too tired to move and asleep.
He was puzzled and asked Yu Hanjiang through the Telepathic Connection: "When Zerg parasitize humans, they should theoretically devour human consciousness, become aggressive, and allow the Zerg to continue to spread and reproduce... I have never seen a Zerg that goes to sleep after mutating."
Yu Hanjiang: "..."
He had never seen a mutated insect that actually slept!
Yu Hanjiang frowned, stared at the bottle for a long time, and found that CEO Shao really showed no signs of waking up. He couldn't help but say, " Didn't CEO Shao just tell us to use him as a sample for observation? Maybe the Zerg infection isn't as simple as it seems."
Although Shao Qingge said "I'm being used as a test subject" in jest, in fact, after he was infected and turned into a Zerg, people could indeed observe some patterns of Zerg parasitism in him.
Xiao Lou stroked his chin thoughtfully.
Long Sen scratched his head and said, "He really slept? No wonder he's our CEO Shao. It seems like after the Zerg entered his body, they were assimilated by his consciousness? He wanted to sleep, so the Zerg couldn't cause any trouble?"
Old Mo offered a different perspective: "After all, he was shrunk, so the Zerg parasites inside him must have shrunk too. To give you an analogy, he was originally a giant crab with pincers that could snap a person's finger, but after being shrunk hundreds of times, he became a tiny mosquito. What kind of attack power could he possibly have? He couldn't even climb out of a Mineral Water bottle, so he had no choice but to sleep, cough cough..."
He chuckled awkwardly at everyone, unsure if anyone agreed with his statement.
Xiao Lou nodded in agreement after hearing this: "Indeed, when CEO Shao was shrunk, the Zerg inside him were also affected. Being shrunk by hundreds of times, he naturally lost his offensive power and simply went to sleep and rest. Perhaps this is one of the reasons."
The group looked at each other in bewilderment.
The sight of everyone crowding around the bottle, watching the young CEO Shao sleeping inside, felt somewhat eerie.
Yu Hanjiang said in a low voice, "We'll discuss this later. The reduction can last for 8 hours. Let's think about the next plan first." He looked around. The fenced-off wasteland was over a hundred acres, probably bought by a real estate developer for building a residential or commercial area.
This land is undeveloped and the surrounding area is deserted.
If the Zerg chased them into the underground passage, all the side paths would be blocked, and their retreat would be sealed off. They wouldn't be able to get through, and it wouldn't be easy for them to find Yu Hanjiang and his group's escape route. Even if they slowly turned over the ground and conducted a thorough search, the exit Yu Hanjiang was looking for was more than five kilometers away. It would take the Zerg time to turn over the entire five-kilometer stretch of land.
Thinking of this, Yu Hanjiang said, "We are safe for now. There are no buildings within a five-kilometer radius for the Zerg to hide in, and the underground passage is blocked by marble. It will take the Zerg a long time to find us from underground. Let's set up our tents here and rest for the night. Tomorrow, before dark, we will see if we need to move again."
Everyone agreed with Captain Yu's suggestion and started setting up the tent.
The ground was covered in snow. The two-person tent was of good quality and had a layer of insulating plastic at the bottom so it wouldn't get wet from the snow. But laying the tent directly on the snow was no different from sleeping in the snow, and we might all catch a cold.
Xiao Lou came up with a plan: he summoned Bai Juyi to use the " The Old Charcoal Seller " skill to generate charcoal, divided it into four portions, and then used Compass to make several small stoves, distributing one to each tent for everyone to keep warm. The charcoal fires didn't last long, so fuel had to be added, and Old Mo's "plank" card came in handy again.
Old Mo laughed heartily, "The biggest use of my [solid wood flooring] card has actually become wood!"
It's supposed to be an A card, but it always gets split up and burned by Captain Yu and Professor Xiao. It's truly the most undignified card ever...
Everyone tried their best to lighten the mood and make Ye Qi less upset, but Ye Qi's face remained pale. She carefully held the Mineral Water bottle, as if afraid of dropping CEO Shao.
Xiao Lou knew he was upset, so after setting up the heater, she went over and gently comforted him, "Xiao Ye, don't worry too much, CEO Shao will be fine. He'll be in his transformed state for the next 8 hours. Take good care of him, and try to communicate with him mentally whenever you have time. The Telepathic Connection channel can last for 24 hours and will only refresh at midnight."
Ye Qi nodded: "Mm."
It's currently 4 AM. He and CEO Shao just connected to the Telepathic Connection at midnight, so they have 20 hours to maintain communication via the Telepathic Connection. Once it reaches midnight the next day, the connection will close.
If CEO Shao is unaware of this at that time, he will be unable to continue using the skill.
Back in the tent, Ye Qi placed the bottle next to his pillow, as if CEO Shao were still sleeping beside him. He turned to look at the little CEO Shao inside the transparent bottle and asked, " CEO Shao, can you hear me?"
Without receiving any response in his mind, Ye Qi continued to repeat the question: "Can you hear me?"
The little CEO Shao in the bottle seemed to be sleeping soundly, eyes closed and motionless. The tiny creature, no bigger than a thumb, made Ye Qi feel a pang of heartache. He whispered, "You sleep well, I'll stay here and watch over you."
The little guy in the bottle rolled over and continued sleeping. Ye Qi stopped talking. Afraid that he would get cold at night, Ye Qi simply put the bottle in his arms so that it would warm up and he wouldn't be too cold.
*
In the tent next door, Xiao Lou took out the "Advanced Contract Book ".
He hadn't dared to bring it out in front of his teammates, for fear of the worst possible outcome.
Yu Hanjiang knew what he was thinking. He looked into Xiao Lou's eyes and whispered encouragingly, "Turn the page and see if he's still there."
Xiao Lou nodded, took a deep breath, and turned directly to the third page.
When the contract book was signed, both Shao Qingge and Ye Qi signed on the third page.
At this moment, next to the name Ye Qi...
The three bold and elegant characters " Shao Qingge " were prominently displayed.
Xiao Lou breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile finally appeared on his face: " CEO Shao is still here, he's not dead!"
Based on the experience of the Distant Place Association student team, deceased teammates disappear from the contract book. Xue Qing and Cheng Ziyang, who rushed into the fire, must have been burned to ashes, so the locked-room mystery determined that they were both dead. After the team leader's death, the contract book was transferred to Gao Xiaoyi, and the names of Cheng and Xue also disappeared.
The fact that Shao Qingge's name is still around proves that Shao Qingge is not dead.
Xiao Lou didn't dare check in front of his teammates. After all, Yu Hanjiang's speculation was that infected teammates could clear the game. What if they were considered dead if they got infected? How could he clear the game if his teammates' names weren't even on the contract book?
Neither of them were really sure, but neither of them told their teammates, for fear that if CEO Shao's name was no longer on the list, Ye Qi would collapse and the others would be greatly affected.
Fortunately, this worst-case scenario did not occur. CEO Shao was lucky and recovered from the infection.
Seeing Xiao Lou's relaxed smile, Yu Hanjiang couldn't help but raise the corners of his lips as he said seriously, "Perhaps our speculation is wrong. What CEO Shao said is the key—he told us to treat him as a test subject, to observe the Zerg through him, so that we can truly understand the principle of Zerg parasitism."
Xiao Lou said, "In other words, this insectoid invasion of the human brain does not actually lead to brain death. After all, in our medical sense, brain death can directly determine clinical death and issue a 'death notice,' and CEO Shao's name will no longer remain on the contract book. People in a vegetative state are not considered brain dead; their brain cells have low activity and are more like in a deep sleep."
Yu Hanjiang stroked his chin thoughtfully: "You mean, the Zerg didn't eat human brain cells, but instead put human consciousness into a deep sleep so they could control the human body?"
Xiao Lou nodded: "It feels like the Zerg consciousness and the human consciousness are fighting for control of the body. Those with weak resistance are controlled by the Zerg, while those with strong resistance may suffer a brain hemorrhage and perish together with the Zerg, or they may assimilate into the Zerg like CEO Shao?"
Yu Hanjiang: "......"
So, after the Zerg entered CEO Shao's body, they were assimilated into lazy bugs?
Yu Hanjiang's lips twitched slightly; he didn't know how to comment.
However, Xiao Lou's deduction does make some sense. After all, so many of the people who were initially infected by the Zerg in the Second Academy died, and we still don't know how to explain it. If it was because the human consciousness resisted too strongly and they perished together, it would make sense.
Xiao Lou added, "My initial conclusion that the human brain cells were eaten by the Zerg was based on a CT scan from the hospital. The scan showed many white spots on the infected head. Since the spots covered almost all the brain tissue, I subconsciously thought that the brain cells had been eaten. But now it seems that it was because the Zerg's body is sensitive to CT scans. They parasitize the human head, and when the CT scan is taken, they block out the normal brain cells, which makes the image show white spots."
Logically, with so many insectoids in a human's head, the person shouldn't be able to survive. But the setting of the Spade 8 world is inherently strange; these unknown insectoids resemble an army of insectoids from a science fiction world. From Shao Qingge's case, it's at least proven that the parasitized humans didn't die directly; Shao Qingge's consciousness remained, just temporarily dormant.
Thinking of this, Xiao Lou and Yu Hanjiang both breathed a sigh of relief.
Yu Hanjiang said gently, "You must be tired after dealing with the Zerg for so long. Go to sleep first, we'll talk again when it's light."
Xiao Lou was indeed exhausted; looking back on the night's events, it was truly thrilling and exciting. So many Zerg were burned to ashes by the exploding gasoline, and a large number of Zerg evolved and dug through the ground to crawl out from underground...
If everyone hadn't been cautious enough and prepared countermeasures in advance, they might have become food for the Zerg just now.
Xiao Lou let out a soft breath and said, " Ye Qi also gave me an eavesdropping device. I'll put it outside the fence just in case." Before he could do anything, Yu Hanjiang took the eavesdropping device and said, "It's too cold outside. I'll put it there. You rest."
After saying that, Yu Hanjiang quickly turned around and left. He used his Lightness Skill Card to make several jumps in a row, and placed the eavesdropping device on the outer edge of the wasteland. When he returned to the tent, Xiao Lou had already taken off his coat, put on his sweater, and crawled into bed.
The makeshift heater was placed at his feet.
Yu Hanjiang lifted the covers and lay down, turning to look at Xiao Lou, only to find that he was already asleep.
He fell asleep instantly; he must have been really tired.
Yu Hanjiang smiled slightly, reached out his arm, and gently pulled Xiao Lou into his embrace.
Instead of letting Xiao Lou feel cold in the middle of the night and actively seek out a heat source, it's better to take the initiative and hold him while sleeping. With the two of you cuddling together and a heater on the ground, even if the tent is laid out on the snow, it won't be so cold.
***
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