A Core Ship From The Start Chapter 586

Chapter 586: Chapter 430 Erosion _1 Chapter 586: Chapter 430 Erosion _1 Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Steel Hammer, the atmosphere remained exceedingly tense. The ship's captain sat in his chair, his expression dark. The crew members below dared not speak. They had known that any issues needing the adjudicator would be unusual. Still, they hadn't anticipated it to be this risky…

“Oh, Emperor above, please protect us…”
The captain silently clutched at the ornament on his chest, murmuring his prayers lowly, when suddenly…
“Beep-!”

A sudden, piercing communication tone rang out, startling the captain. Before he could even respond, a frantic voice started speaking.

“Captain, there is an uprising in the lower ship sectors!”

“What? Uprising?!”

Upon hearing this, the captain jolted upright.

“What happened? Why is there an uprising?”

“I don't know, some people just seemed to have gone mad…damn it, subdue them! Tie them up…mother's…grab them, oh…!!!”

However, the other side only reported half of the incident before they seemed to have been interrupted to deal with another issue. The bridge fell silent, only hearing the angry roars, curses, wailing, and screams from the other end of the communication. The atmosphere was chaotic beyond belief, leaving everyone at a loss as to what to do.

After a brief moment, the voice returned.

“Captain, these people have gone completely mad. They're committing suicide!”

“Suicide?”

Upon hearing this, everyone on the bridge was stunned.

“What on earth is going on? Why is this happening?”

“I don't know, ever since the entire ship cabin was sealed, we've just been staying here quietly. We have no clue why this is happening…”

“Beep—-!!”

However, before the report could be completed, the urgent alarm rang again, followed by another voice.

“Reporting, riots have broken out in the engine room!”

“Upper deck…”

“Living quarters…”

“What on earth is going on?”

Listening to the reports streaming in, the captain had a grim expression. The messages from different locations were all the same: individuals have suddenly begun to attack others and would violently resist even when subdued. These people would even mutilate themselves! Even if they were questioned, they wouldn't speak, only stating they wanted to kill or…commit suicide!

“What exactly is going on here?!”

At this point, the captain was growing increasingly uneasy.

He had a feeling that this time…a major issue was brewing!

Meanwhile, within the mining area, Duanmu Huai was holding the War Hammer, pushing forward triumphantly!

“Waaaah——–!!!”

As Duanmu Huai turned the corner, suddenly, a mutation burst out of the air vent next to him. It released a beast-like snarl, raising its paw–sharp and bone-spiked–lunging towards Duanmu Huai. Simultaneously, several other mutations were also rushing towards him!

“Die!”

In the face of these mutations, Duanmu Huai roared, swinging his war hammer down and smashing the mutation directly into pieces. Then, he grabbed the claw of another mutation lunging at his back, thrusting it forward like a sword, impaling another mutation. He nailed it to the wall, and once again swung his war hammer, smashing these two entwined mutations. With a loud 'bang,' the two mutations fused together into a gory pulp, undistinguishable from one another.

“Ugh… this is so disgusting…”
Watching the dead bodies before her, Ann's face paled. Though she had fought with Duanmu Huai numerous times and confronted many grotesque creatures, she had never seen mutations as ugly as these.

“You'll get used to it after seeing it many times.”

Duanmu Huai could tell why Ann found these monsters disgusting. Obviously, these mutations were transformed from humans. Their appearances were monstrous, with sharp bone spikes growing out of the centers of their hands, and their bellies split open, intestines entwined together. The terrifying part was that they had two additional arms sprouting from their abdominal cavity!

Moreover, their mouths opened sideways like bugs, and they had no lower jaws, which was indeed frightening at first glance.

Well…if these things were given to the God Emperor as four-armed puppets, it would definitely be interesting.

However…
Duanmu Huai reached out, grabbing one of the mutations to look at it closely. From its appearance, it seemed to have been a miner, with a fatal wound on his chest, implying it had been murdered before mutating–this was not surprising. What was surprising was…it wasn't alive!

It was dead!

Which meant, these corpses were fundamentally dead! But they were being controlled by something, which is why they were moving.

Essentially, there was no difference between these zombies and the puppets controlled by Ogis. If there were no puppet strings, those puppets would also seem as if they had come alive.

So, whatever was controlling them was probably the blasphemous artifact.

Now, Duanmu Huai understood why the system did not react when his own puppet was attacked.

Because in the system's judgment, these things weren't alive. Just like if you were hit by a chair or bumped into a table, the system could hardly prompt, “A chair attacked you and caused X points of damage”.

It doesn't even have a consciousness of its own, how could that be considered an attack?

Similarly, just like workers in a factory that are accidentally crushed by machinery, having their hands severed, you can't say the machine attacked the workers, can you?

It's just following its programmed functions, what has it done wrong?

So, even if these mutants tear my puppets into shreds, the system won't deem this as an attack-related cause.

Of course, it is meaningless to debate this now.

“It's just ahead.”

Duanmu Huai glanced again at the map on the side of the passage. He had already heard from the captain that the mining area does not literally mine here. Instead, they use the Bird Divination Tool to scan and determine the size and scope of ore deposits, then send a mining team to drill holes and finally collect all the ores for processing and refining.

So, the mining team would first drill holes in the asteroid fragments, then mine, transport, and refine it.

The elevator that Duanmu Huai took down earlier is one of these transport tunnels where he could simply walk along the tunnel to this place. According to the map on the wall, the deposit's central area is just a short way ahead. If I am not mistaken, the blasphemous artifact should be within it.

“Get ready.”

Duanmu Huai gripped his War Hammer while staring ahead. He could feel a faint hint of divine power aura coming from it. It was a distorted, cold and strangely intense aura of divine power. Although he didn't know which deity it belonged to, he was sure that this deity must have been unorthodox in its time.

“Okay.”

Ann and Ogis were also taking it seriously at this point. Along the way, they found that these mutants are difficult to deal with. Unless completely destroyed, these creatures could still move even if half of their bodies were severed. Striking vitals didn't help either. They had to be ripped apart…..which was terrifying!

“Alright, let's go!”

Duanmu Huai suddenly reached out and slammed the switch. The gate instantly swung open, and without missing a beat, he dashed in, wielding his War Hammer and let out a loud shout! Then……

“…Meow?”

Duanmu Huai, looking at the huge pit before him, was at a loss for words.

How can it be empty?

“Master?”

“Eh? What's going on? There's nothing here??”

At this moment, Ogis and Ann also rushed in and, looking at the desolate mining pit, wore equally puzzled expressions. On the other hand, Duanmu Huai's face slightly changed, his gaze hardened.

“Damn it, we've been had!”

The reason Duanmu Huai said this was simple – from the moment he boarded the ship, he felt that divine power aura has been outside, so he subconsciously assumed that the blasphemous artifact should be on the fragment excavated by the Steel Hammer. But, he didn't expect it to be a decoy!

Dammit, has this thing gained a semblance of consciousness after thousands of years?

Believing this, Duanmu Huai tried to open a comm link to contact the bridge. But, the communication was entirely disrupted. However, luckily, Duanmu had already foreseen this and promptly contacted Greiya – it's no secret that a Soul Walker can have a mental link with the Soul Cards.

“Greiya, what's happening on your side?”

“Mr Knight!!”

Upon hearing Duanmu Huai's voice, Greiya heaved a sigh of relief.

“You finally responded. Things are bad here! The, the crew members suddenly started…..”

While saying this, Greiya effusively explained the situation to Duanmu Huai.

To put it simply, there was an outbreak of mutiny on the ship at first. Numerous isolated crew members inexplicably started attacking others. After they were restrained, these people either self-mutilated or committed suicide. Many were killed, and the crew questioned the captain on how it should be handled, as they couldn't get through to the Judge. Greiya wanted to inform Duanmu Huai at that point, but then something unexpected occurred!

Soon, reports started pouring in from all over the ship about the previously killed crew members suddenly coming back to life as some sort of monsters. They couldn't win against them! And because they had sealed the cabins, they couldn't run either! Many pleaded with the captain to lift the isolation, or they were sure to die!

However, the captain, faced with this situation, insisted on not lifting the isolation. They watched the grotesque scenes of these monsters killing crew members through internal footage and were terrified!

And naturally, these monsters launched an attack on the bridge!

They were lucky to have Greiya and Lani there to fend off these monsters, but these monsters unnerved Greiya a lot.

“Mr Knight, what's happening here……”

“Heh, this thing has gained consciousness!”

Upon hearing this, Duanmu Huai immediately realized he had been duped! Although it's understandable for him to be outsmarted by another demigod, that doesn't mean Duanmu Huai is any less angry!

But, he also knows the priority at the moment.

“Greiya, ask the captain how many of these material elevators are there! Where are their locations!”

Duanmu Huai could deduce without guessing that the blasphemous artifact must have already been transported away. Since he hadn't seen any trace of the blasphemous artifact where he had been, it indicated that the blasphemous artifact was transported from somewhere else! And the reason for the previous incidents was solely because the blasphemous artifact was remote-controlling from a distance. Its true intention was to mislead them into thinking it was still below when, in reality, it had already surreptitiously sneaked onto the ship unnoticed!

“Ah, okay…the captain says there are two material elevators in total!”

“Guard the bridge well, I'm heading back now!”

Duanmu Huai rapidly issued the order, then looked up to the tunnel in front of him, a flash of murderous intent in his eyes.

You dare to deceive me?

Watch as I bash your brains out!

Chapter end

Report