Hunter of Mysterious Creature-Chapter 616 - 158: What Are You Looking At
"Received!"
The number three helicopter quickly lowered its altitude and dove into the cloud layer.
Before long, a cry of alarm rang out over the communications channel.
"What's happening? Number three?" Liu Li hurriedly asked, "What did you see?!"
"We're sending the images over right now!" someone from the number three helicopter responded.
After a brief loading period, the images captured by the long-range observation equipment on the number three helicopter appeared directly on Liu Li's computer screen—revealing that approximately one-third of Chimera 17's massive body had changed from its originally smooth form to a condition that could make anyone with trypophobia faint at the mere sight of it.
As the camera zoomed in again, Liu Li could see clearly that what looked like flesh-colored bumps resembling pimples were actually twisted human faces crowded on the surface of the giant cocoon!
Liu Li gasped sharply.
However, his hands kept moving, and he immediately sent these images back to the command center while tapping into the database to compare those human faces one by one.
Although most of these faces were in states of distortion, deformation, or mutilation, the powerful AI recognition features could still restore their original appearances... A few seconds later, the comparison results with the database came out: a total of 13,757 faces were scanned, and 8,701 found matches.
These faces belonged to soldiers and hunters who died in meme sample collection operations; residents of Tianfu City and nearby towns who died or went missing during various uncanny invasions and secondary disasters... and several faces belonged to the personnel from the recently missing Bunker One and Bunker Two.
"These... these faces..." someone from the number three helicopter crew murmured. This eerie, terrifying image was clearly having a huge impact on them.
"Chimera 17 has undergone significant mutation, and I suspect the disappearance events of Bunker One and Bunker Two might be related to this mutation..." Liu Li's words suddenly halted because he noticed that the human faces, which had been closing their eyes, were now opening them, staring directly at him through the lens and screen of the observation equipment.
A low murmur also came through the communication channel from the number three crew member.
"These faces seem to be able to sense the observer's gaze... Whether direct observation or not..." Liu Li seemed to be talking to himself, or perhaps to Sun Hang, "Honestly, being stared at like this feels really uncomfortable, just like..."
At the same time, inside the cabins of the two helicopters, in unnoticed areas, features began to slowly emerge on the alloy walls of the cabin interior, as if the alloy material was pressed into thin film and then stretched over someone's face...
"Staring back?" Sun Hang, upon hearing this, crouched right next to Liu Li and glared viciously at those open-eyed faces on the screen.
For some reason, a widely circulated meme suddenly popped into his mind.
"What are you looking at?"
"Looking at you, so what?"
"Why are you staring at me?"
"I just stared at you, what can you do about it?"
Typically, the conversation would escalate into a physical altercation... But now, Sun Hang was staring at the faces through a screen like an argument on the internet, and he didn't believe the faces could come through the network line to cause him trouble.
Unexpectedly, at his glare, those faces quickly closed their eyes again, displaying an expression of extreme terror.
"What's going on?" Liu Li shuddered, "Number three, have you made any discoveries? Why did these faces suddenly close their eyes, and... they seem terrified?"
"No idea... We didn't do anything!"
Sun Hang, standing slightly behind Liu Li, did not show the scene of him staring at those faces on the screen, as Liu Li was fully focused on the computer screen.
On the unnoticed spots of the cabin walls, the faces that had just emerged sunk back down, the deformed metal material smoothing out once more as if nothing ever happened.
While Liu Li was still immersed in the shock those faces brought him, a shrill alarm sounded from the robots deep within the bunker.
"What? Target lost?" Liu Li looked at the glaring red words on the screen in disbelief, and at the cross-sectional analysis of Bunker One on the split screen—the flashing red dot symbolizing the humanoid phenomena had now gone missing, leaving only the yellow and green dots representing the robots and the Crystal Princess.
"Disappeared? Impossible! It must be hiding somewhere on the third level of the bunker!" Liu Li immediately instructed all robots to conduct a carpet search on the bunker's third level, with the Crystal Princess, having just reached the target location, joining the search as well.
However, they searched through the entire third level of the bunker, even dismantling the outer shell of the heavy equipment. Liu Li even had micro reconnaissance robots enter the reactor core but still couldn't find any trace of the humanoid phenomenon.
"No secret passages... the internal bunker structure is intact and undamaged, where could it hide?" Liu Li stopped the operation, staring blankly at the computer screen, deep in thought.
