Chapter 40 – Suspicions
Next to the image, there was a series of data analyses by artificial intelligence, including the time of death and the primary cause of death.
Tu Ran focused on the time of death for two extra seconds.
The death of the Tibetan mastiff indirectly confirmed Tu Ran’s earlier suspicions.
“Sister Ran, our task is basically completed now, right? Can we report back to Captain Li Wenchuan?” Ding Naiqing asked Tu Ran excitedly.
Their team finding the alien species so quickly was incredible.
He could brag about this to many people.
Tu Ran stared thoughtfully at the half-human, half-snake corpse on the ground. “Don’t report yet. I feel something’s not right.”
“What’s not right?” Ding Naiqing asked in confusion.
The guards were all puzzled as well. Hadn’t they already captured the alien species? What could still be wrong?
At this moment, Li Wu, who had been standing at the back of the group, spoke up, “This alien species passed the Executive Division’s interrogation this morning.”
Tu Ran nodded in agreement. “Guard Li is correct. Naya Rivera passing the Executive Division’s interrogation suggests three possibilities. First, she was possessed after the interrogation, but from the data on Guard Wang’s photo, the Tibetan mastiff died before the Executive Division arrived this morning.”
“Second, the primary method used by the Executive Division during the interrogation was to have two familiar people ask each other questions and answer them. Since Naya Rivera passed the interrogation, the person who questioned her is highly suspicious and very likely also possessed by an alien species.”
This statement caused an uproar among the guards.
“Aren’t there supposed to be only seventeen alien species? Could there be more than one at the farm?” Guard Wang questioned.
Tu Ran couldn’t answer his question at the moment. With her limited experience in this world and her own limited mental capacity, she didn’t know what the situation was now.
However, she remembered the phrase Xi Chunzhi left her with: alien infection.
If the alien species had the ability to infect, one alien could infect many people, which could explain the current situation.
“This is just my guess for now. Whether there is a second alien species or not, we need to meet the person who helped Naya Rivera later.”
“What’s the third possibility?” a guard asked eagerly.
“The last possibility is that this parasitic alien species has the ability to acquire human memories, so it could answer the questions correctly,” Tu Ran said.
“That… that’s impossible, right?” Ding Naiqing questioned softly. “So far, none of the parasitic alien species we’ve encountered have the ability to acquire human memories.”
“Just because we haven’t encountered it doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. Previously, we hadn’t encountered a reptilian snake-like alien species, and now we have,” Tu Ran said gravely. “Our understanding of the Threshold is less than one-tenth complete. Anything is possible.”
Ding Naiqing’s brows remained furrowed. Tu Ran knew what he was worried about. If there was an alien species that could inherit human memories, the Federation’s previous system for identifying alien species would collapse, leaving humans with one less advantage against the aliens.
But for Tu Ran, this was still secondary. What was more alarming was the second possibility.
“Naiqing, explain the situation here to the other members in the group and ask if they’ve noticed anything suspicious on their end.”
