Qin Hao looked back at Palmer again. Palmer was inexpressive, his eyes hollow.
“What’s wrong with you guys?” Qin Hao asked aloud. But neither Palmer nor Lucia answered.
The two of them ignored Qin Hao and turned to walk toward the exit. Palmer then reached to unlock the door.
“Stop it!” Qin Hao rushed up and pushed Palmer away, then locked the door back.
Lucia came beside him, pushing him away without saying a word. She wanted to open the door too.
“What is going on with you two?” Qin Hao shouted. But the two seemed to have not heard him. They ignored him and just wanted to open the door.
“What the hell?” Qin Hao had no idea what was going on. But it surely was not a good idea to let the two go out at this time.
Qin Hao made his move by throwing Palmer to the ground, then tied him up. Palmer tried to resist, but being just a researcher, he was no match for Qin Hao’s insectoid-enhanced physical strength.
After tying up Palmer, he saw that Lucia had unlatched the door and was about to open it.
“Stop!” Qin Hao shouted as he lunged up from behind to pull her back. Closing the door and putting the latch back on, he then tied Lucia up.
Lucia and Palmer were still struggling to get away, but they said nothing. Seeing their hideous expressions gave Qin Hao the heebie-jeebies.
Just then, a loud noise rose on the outside. Qin Hao looked through the window and saw Blackie had come out of the room and was banging against the outer wall of the base with its giant jaw.
“Damn it! What is going on? Even Blackie has been affected?” Qin Hao frowned. His intuition told him not to go out as it was extremely dangerous outside.
Qin Hao sighed. He found a few more wires to bind Palmer and Lucia tighter for good measure.
After this, he came in front of the communication equipment. He had seen how Palmer operated it in the day and roughly remembered how to use it. Using this equipment, he sent out SOS signal to the fleet.
There was only static noise. The darkness outside seemed to have blocked the signal. He lost contact with the fleet again.
Qin Hao sighed again.
Right at that moment, a violent sound rose on the outside. Qin Hao looked out through the window again. Blackie had pierced open a gap in the metal wall with its sharp giant jaw.
“Blackie!” Qin Hao let Blackie loose just now because it was still inside the relatively safe base. Blackie was in a state of frenzy, but all it did was bang against the wall.
Since Blackie had pierced open the outer metal wall of the base and wanted to get out, Qin Hao could no longer sit by and watch. He had been treating Blackie as his partner, and he did not want to see Blackie walk into danger in the darkness.
“At least I would have a clear conscience!” Qin Hao opened the door and walked out. He had locked the door when he left the command center to prevent Palmer and Lucia from coming out.
He quickly came in front of the metal wall where Blackie had hacked. Blackie had already gone.
“Damn it!” Qin Hao ducked and went out through the hole. Blackie was a one-meter-five. If it could squeeze through, so did Qin Hao.
He could already see Blackie from afar, following from behind. Blackie was not running but ambling forward. Qin Hao could imagine Blackie’s hollow-looking eyes without needing to look at them.
Have they been hypnotized? But why doesn’t it affect me? Qin Hao thought to himself while he quietly trailed Blackie.
Qin Hao had finally solved the mystery of the missing troopers. Apparently, they had been hypnotized, just like Blackie. However, there was no one like Qin Hao to stop them. So those troopers must have opened the gate and left.
The base gate would shut automatically after they left, and this was why everyone was missing without the base being attacked.
As much as he had solved the question, Qin Hao still had a big question in his mind. Why Palmer and Lucia were hypnotized but not him? Was it because he had the insectoid gene? But this did not explain why Blackie was hypnotized; it was an insectoid, too.
With this question in mind, Qin Hao had followed Blackie for about dozens of kilometers. The surroundings were unusually quiet save for Blackie’s footsteps.
Another two or three minutes later, Qin Hao suddenly felt a chill run up his spine when a sense of danger rose within him. He quickly hid on one side and looked into the distance.
After re-engineered by the insectoid blood, Qin Hao had gained night vision. With this low-power telescope-equivalent vision, he saw a gigantic beetle five kilometers away.
“Holy moly! I can’t believe that thing is so big!” Qin Hao was in awe. That giant beetle was over five meters tall, looking as tall as a multistory building.
But what stood out most was not its size but the silverish white horn on its head.
“A higher class of giant beetle?” His gut feeling told him that the silver-horn giant beetle would tear him into pieces if he was discovered.
He moved his eyes away and saw a strange-looking bug lying beside the silver-horn giant beetle. This insectoid had no exoskeleton. It looked more like a giant slug, or a brain with legs.
The strange bug’s body was heaving constantly. His gut feeling told him it was this bug that emitted that hypnotizing sound wave.
He looked at the ground around the giant beetle. There were tattered battle suits and blood everywhere. Bones and body parts of some animals lay about. This was the graveyard of the hypnotized living things, including the 20,000 human soldiers, whom the bug had hypnotized, lured to this place, and eaten alive.
“A silver-horn giant beetle could eat 20,000 humans?” Qin Hao frowned. Just then, the silver-horn giant beetle turned around and left after having its fill of two giant deer. Coming up behind was another silver-horn giant beetle. This one also feasted on those living things that were lured to this place.