292: Chapter 292 Non-human...Intelligent Civilization

"Can you use your brain that got caught in a door before you speak?"

"What did I just say? Localized, random. Which of your ears didn't pick that up?"

Yang Ningcong held up a finger and tapped it in the air.

"Not everything has that factor."

"Out of a hundred trees on the island, maybe only three carry it inside them. The remaining ninety-seven are exactly the same as the ones planted outside your door."

"Out of a hundred snakes, maybe only one turned into a giant python. The remaining ninety-nine are still of normal size."

"Understood?"

"How can there be so many mutations? The vast majority are normal."

Zhou Kai's neck grew a size thicker, and he still wanted to speak.

Yang Ningcong cut straight over him: "And..."

"The report states very clearly that the way that factor affects different species is not the same."

"It's one set of rules for plants, and another set for animals."

"As for humans..."

Yang Ningcong paused for a beat.

"A large section of that report was crossed out with a black marker, specifically the part about the human body. I only saw a few scattered words."

"What words?" Lin Fan spoke up.

"Human individual something hybrid something... changes are uncontrollable and unmeasurable..."

"The rest was smeared over, so the specific content can't be seen."

Inside the Karst Cave, it was quiet for a few seconds.

Lin Fan lowered his eyes. The weight of this sentence was heavier than everything Yang Ningcong had said before combined.

"Also."

Yang Ningcong took another gulp of water, and his Adam's apple rolled twice.

"Most of the content in the report was blacked out. But there were a few photos that weren't processed."

"What photos?" Xu Zhixia's eyebrows arched upward by a fraction.

"Some towering trees on the island, and some... equipment wreckage."

"What equipment?"

"I can't tell, it's not something made by humans." Yang Ningcong shook his head, "There are text annotations next to the wreckage, neither in English nor in Chinese."

"What kind of text?"

"I don't recognize it." Yang Ningcong's fingers traced unconsciously on his knees, "The strokes are very few, but the structure is extremely complex. The construction of every single word... doesn't belong to the writing logic of any human language."

The air inside the Karst Cave tightened another layer.

"The last few pages of that report are heavily blacked out. But there is a section of notes written in red ink that wasn't covered."

"What was written?" Lin Fan's follow-up question came without any pause.

Yang Ningcong raised his head and looked at him.

"Experimental site."

The four words slammed into the Karst Cave.

Zhou Kai was stunned for two seconds, all the color draining from his face inch by inch.

"What do you mean?"

"Literal meaning." Yang Ningcong didn't mock this time.

"That red-ink note is a speculation, and I remember the original text very clearly..."

"This area has an extremely high probability of being a closed experimental environment established by a non-human intelligent civilization."

The words fell.

Zhou Kai's mouth opened, half a breath stuck in his throat, unable to spit out a complete word for a long time.

"Non-human... intelligent civilization..." His throat tightened, "You mean... aliens?"

Yang Ningcong didn't answer directly.

"The report didn't use the word 'aliens'."

"But those non-human characters, those equipment wrecks that don't belong to Earth's technology, an island that can drift across the ocean, unknown factors implanted in the bodies of animals and plants..."

Yang Ningcong spread his hands.

"Savor it yourself."

"The reason why this island is special, why it can float, and why there is that factor that changes the nature of creatures..."

"Might not be natural."

"It was manufactured."

There was a dead silence inside the Karst Cave.

Lin Fan's back pressed against the stone wall, his entire body unmoving.

All the scenes in his head popped up at the same time.

The floating island, the chaotic magnetic field, the mutated creatures, the gray monsters, Su Qingxue refreshing supplies, and the impossible Triple Enhancement on his own body.

If these were all products of experiments.

Then what did people like them, who were washed ashore, count as?

Intruders who strayed into a restricted zone?

Or new experimental subjects?

"Wait a minute."

Xu Zhixia suddenly spoke up, took a step forward, and stood directly in front of Yang Ningcong.

"You said the factor can change the nature of plants and animals."

"And you also said the direction of its impact on humans is unpredictable."

"Then that thing that chased us last night..."

Her words broke off here.

But everyone understood the second half of the sentence.

That thing had human facial features. A human bridge of the nose, human eyelids, human eyelashes.

But it had non-human proportions, non-human speed, and non-human joint bending angles.

If the impact direction of the island's factor on humans is unpredictable...

Then that gray monster.

Could it have once... also been a person?

"I don't know... It's not written in the report... Those places that were smeared out... maybe..."

Lin Fan didn't listen to his words.

The second batch of military personnel on the island, the few who returned alive, had "varying degrees of physical mutation."

What is the end point of mutation?

Gray skin clinging to the bones. An extra bend in the joints. Long arms hanging down to the knees.

A human face, a beast's shell.

A sober intellect, an alienated flesh.

Su Qingxue could refresh supplies after getting pregnant, and his own body was enhanced three times.

Then what would the subsequent changes be? Since they had Superpower, would these two people turn into monsters later on?

If they followed Yang Ningcong's statement, weren't he and Su Qingxue already poisoned?

Xu Zhixia turned around and met Lin Fan's gaze.

Her lips pressed into a line, not spitting out a single word. But her slightly closed shoulder blades and tightly crossed arms betrayed her conclusion.

She had thought of it too.

Everyone in the Karst Cave remained silent...