"Come in."
Moments later, Deathstroke returned to the cave mouth on the rock wall once again, his voice still hoarse and low, and his armor still gleamed as new.
But the previous screams, gunshots, all those sounds that shouldn't have appeared underground, had now completely disappeared like a past illusion, leaving only silence.
The Shield duo, trembling together, stood up under Xiaowang's gaze, which watched them like prisoners, and walked through the cave entrance into the vast adjacent space, although unlike what they had expected.
They had anticipated a scene of scattered limbs and blood and viscera splattered everywhere, but when they opened their eyes, they found the visible bodies were quite... peaceful.
Yes, Fitz and Simmons could only think of such words. The soldiers of Leviathan wore yellow uniforms, often with a fatal wound from a blade or sword on their chest or forehead, but almost everyone had a mysterious smile on their faces.
In the darkness, they could only rely on King's Lighting Technique to observe, but these smiles appeared on every visible corpse's face, which was really eerie.
Fitz elbowed Simmons, and she knowingly went to examine the corpses, while Su Ming did not stop her, allowing her to turn the corpses over as she pleased, just quietly waiting with his arms crossed.
A few minutes later, Simmons took off her gloves, her fair little face full of strange expressions, scratching her head, seemingly perplexed.
"How's it? Have you discovered anything?"
Su Ming asked indifferently.
"I don't know, are they really still human?" Simmons returned to Fitz's side. As a biologist, it was her first time seeing humans that didn't seem human: "Although, in various aspects, they meet the standards of human corpses, they're missing a certain sensation, the sensation of being human."
"The sensation of being human?" Fitz raised an eyebrow, not quite understanding what she meant.
Simmons pinched the bridge of her nose, lowering her head, organizing her words for a moment: "Yes, the sensation of being human, you know, although I often perform autopsies, there's always a special feeling with the bodies of our kind after death. You can't help but think about what kind of person they were? What kind of life did they live before? How their family will cope after their death. Even if they are enemies, they are still our kind, and when you kill and dissect one of our kind, as a normal person, you're bound to have some discomforting physiological responses."
"I feel the same, but we are Field Agents, and these emotions and thoughts are something we must overcome." Fitz nodded earnestly, the fuzzy beard on his chin making him look like a big kid trying to appear mature despite his age.
Yet in fact, the most mature person in the Shield Squad has no beard, only a smile.
Jemma took out a wet wipe to disinfect her hands, her big eyes appearing somewhat dazed: "But seeing so many bodies of our kind, I have no feelings, no fear, no regrets, nothing at all, just like seeing a ground covered with leaves or hay stacks just naturally, I feel they aren't our kind at all."
"Exactly."
Su Ming interrupted her speculation, bending down to pick up a smiling corpse, gripping its neck and lifting it up.
The eye sockets of the corpse were surrounded by a ring of black, and numerous fine cracks appeared on the facial skin, especially around the eyes and mouth. His face looked like cracked jam bread, exposing the dark filling inside, strongly contrasting with the pale face.
"This is what happens when humans are invaded by Element Zero, a halfway transformed product, not a human, yet not Dark Matter either. If you must say what it is, it could be seen as Dormammu's cells yet to take shape."
Su Ming shook the corpse like a puppet, and black viscous matter oozed from the chest wound, slowly writhing like asphalt.
The Shield duo both frowned, knowing what this implied, Fitz raised his hand first to ask: "If Element Zero invades human bodies, doesn't that mean we are also at risk of being transformed here without protection?"
"Why do you think they're 'smiling while six feet under'? Dark Matter can make people feel empowered and provide all sorts of illusory pleasure. If you ever start feeling an inexplicable urge to laugh, I'd suggest you kill yourself immediately to save your friends some trouble."
Su Ming tossed the corpse away, and the cool body rolled to their feet like a sack, hitting their toes, then staring lifelessly at the dark cave roof.
Fitz took a deep breath, aware that both were right, as the corpse rolled towards them, he also noticed something unusual.
In the past, if someone rolled a corpse towards them, they would definitely dodge it as fast as possible.
But now, even watching the corpse being tossed over by Deathstroke, seeing it hit their feet, it felt like watching a carpet roll over, the speed and force posed no threat, hence no need to dodge, the brain itself made such a judgment.
Even though this rolled carpet had limbs and facial features, and died quite terribly.
Something was wrong with his brain, it didn't perceive the corpse as a person, but as an object, which conflicted with common sense, and the strange feeling of confusion stemmed from this.