Terror Infinity Volume 2 Chapter 1

Vol 2. Alien

Chapter 1
There was only one Alien in this movie. Yet this Alien still killed everyone besides the
main character.
Zero crouched beside the bodies without a word. He dipped his finger into the blood,
then smelled it. “Dead for four to five hours.”
Xuan also crouched next to the bodies then measured the diameter of the holes with
his fingers and compared their sizes. He stood up with a serious expression after
quite some time. “It’s indeed a queen. This is bad news, our mission is to eliminate
all Aliens right? If there’s a queen in this spacecraft, then… I think we are probably
dead.”
The others looked at him. Lan touched her forehead and said. “I remember the
queen is the kind that can lay eggs. It has an immense size compared to regular
Aliens. Is this what you’re referring to?”
Xuan nodded. “Yes. It’s over ten times stronger than a regular Alien. You can’t even
damage it without heavy firearms. The worst thing is we are obvious out here.”
Zheng asked. “Obvious? What do you mean?”
“Food, think about it, to grow an Alien from the size of a serpent to over six feet tall in
a short period of time, do you think they can just grow out of thin air? No, it requires a
huge amount of organic material and energy. In other words, they need to eat during
this period. In fact, I was curious why didn’t they eat the bodies? Does that mean they
had already found enough bodies?” Xuan mumbled these words.
Xuan stood up and continued. “We are very likely to become their food. If it’s only
the eight of us, we could stay together and react when they appear. But what about
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the other seven? They are spread out through the spacecraft. They are the most
delicious food in the eyes of Aliens. In fact, I suspect that all the casts had already
became Alien eggs. There are eight characters, aside from the robot, the worst case
scenario is an Alien queen and five Aliens. This is the most likely situation we will
face.”
Jie asked. “Why not a few more queens? Since we are going to die anyway, a few
more won’t make a difference.”
Xuan shook his head. “That’s not possible. Aliens have their own society, just like
ants and bees. There can only be one queen in a group, otherwise it will cause
internal division and war, or the weaker one will leave the group. But this is inside a
spacecraft, and there are only so many Aliens. There can’t be another queen.”
“As a matter of fact, when I first saw the movie, I had considered this species as
the perfect species in the evolution of the physical body. They will adjust their form
and adapt to the environment based on the genetics of the host. They can keep
on modifying their genes to evolve. This is so similar to humans that unlocked their
genetic constraints.”
Genetic constraints? Humans? Everyone looked at this scientist with a colonel rank
as he indulged in his thoughts. Then at the same time, screams and cries for help
came from far in the hall. These screams sounded more and more miserable and
after ten seconds, they disappeared.
Zero stared at the hall and said emotionlessly. “It’s those hooligans. They got attacked.”
Zheng sighed. “Let’s still go take a look, if we find any Alien, we can kill them. They
are supposed to be rather weak right now?”
Xuan nodded. “Yes. The Aliens are still in their second stage. We can kill them with
enough fire power. Do you really only have a desert eagle and didn’t exchange any
other weapons?”
Zheng and Jie smiled bitterly. “We are different from you after all. I am only a white
collar worker. Aside from Jie being a retired soldier, Lan’s a writer and Xiaoyi’s only
a student. Can you expect us to know a lot or how to fight a battle?”
Xuan smiled. “Let’s go, we will go take a look first. And you are not totally correct.
Remember I mentioned genetic constraint? This is the highest technology in our
world. Our country got ahead of the world, even the US and European countries
might not know more than us about this.”
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“In the ancient ages when our ancestors were still apes, no, it was even before that,
the dryopithecus, there was a missing period of time in our archaeological studies.
Nothing indicated why apes evolved into man. Don’t trust textbooks that said it was
gradual evolution over millions of years. Let me tell you, the latest genetic studies
show that this evolution only took 120 years. Not several million, not even several
thousand, it’s merely 120 years. Humans evolved from dryopithecus to the early man,
australopithecus.”
“From the oldest single cell organism to multi cell organism, to invertebrates, to reptiles,
and gradually evolved to the modern human, our history is indicated in our
genetic code. Do you know what appeared in our genetic code during those 120
years? Let me tell you, it’s a constraint.”
“Yes, a constraint, our evolution exploded only for 120 years, then it was sealed off
due to various unknown reasons. After that, from the early man to modern human,
our evolution was actually minimal. To the point that we didn’t even evolve a bit for
the past tens of thousands of years. You can say that our technology is evolving,
we are more advanced that people tens of thousands of years ago, but this is only
an accumulation of knowledge. It has nothing to do with biological evolution. Our
evolution has come to a stop.”
Xuan said as he ran. He didn’t care for the shocked expressions of everyone and
continued. “This dimension, I am not talking about Alien but the overall dimension
of horror movies, I’ve seen this before. Except that I didn’t understand it’s meaning
at the time. In the ruin where we found a human skull in a cave, our country actually
found a tablet with words carved on it. We translated most of the words, it basically
said, ‘When human evolution comes to a stop, horror will unlock human’s genetic
constraint again, to restart the advancement of evolution.’ The message was left by
people named, ‘The first group of humans to unlock genetic constraints’. Perhaps
this dimension existed since the ancient times.”
Zheng asked. “What happens when we unlock the genetic constraint? Humans become
superman?”
Xuan smiled. “You probably heard this line, all things in their beings are good for
something. According to our genetic code, there are no weaklings in human, every
person is supposed to have a specialty. And his specialty is guaranteed to be among
the most talented. In fact, some can achieve it through training, such as sports, or
memory, or wit. Removing the genetic constraint will allow us to choose our specialty
depending on the situation. You can be a genius when you need to think, have
unparalleled strength when you need power, and during battle… you can become a
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super warrior that can survive no matter what happens, even if everyone else died,
you will live.”
“Being able to solve any difficulties, has the mentality to never give up, and survive
through any situation! This is our evolution after removing the genetic constraints!”
Chapter 9-3
Jie disliked Xuan’s tone. He said in a cold voice. “So what if we are mortals’ wisdom?
So what if I fucking created a woman? I am still living very well and it will just get
better! You…”
Zheng stood in front of Jie and stopped him. “You aren’t ridiculing us out of boredom
right? Perhaps you may be right, God gave that gift for us to make a strong bodyguard,
but that’s only your speculation. What if the bodyguard can’t follow you into
the movies? Even if he can get in, can you guarantee that he can help you survive?
When we enter the movies, we have to stand inside a beam of light about one meter
in diameter, how many people do you think can fit inside it?”
Xuan snapped his fingers, and replied calmly. “Your reasoning ability is getting more
capable, obviously reached Lan’s level. I don’t have any intention of ridiculing you,
but have you thought about why the movies have a limitation of twenty people?
That’s because a team needs different types of talents. If everyone’s direction of
growth is on enhancing their body, they can of course increase their survivability in
the movies but at the same time the team’s abilities will lack diversification. If they
encounter special situations, it will likely cause the whole team to wipe out!”
Then Xuan took out a bag and opened it. The bag was filled with tools and little
gears. He pointed to them and said. “Aside from finished products, you can also
exchange these tools and materials from God. In other words, if you have the relevant
knowledge and ability, you can create those high cost items with minimal cost. You
can even get around the limitation of ranked rewards. But do you have this kind of
knowledge and ability? Definitely no!”
“People with these kind of talents are usually physically weak and has no means for
combat. Then how are they going to survive the beginning? The only answer is
bodyguards. Similarly, that size of the beam that you just mentioned can just about
fit two people in. In other words, why did God only offer one free change to create
a bodyguard? That’s because you can only bring one into the movies. This is God’s
hint! People with special talents also have means to protect their lives, this is probably
what God tried to tell us.”
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(Amazing! He deduced all these with so little information, this kind of ability… you can
only describe him as non-human.)
Zheng and the others’ eyes were filled with astonishment. They continued listening
to Xuan. “So these twenty people should include all kinds of talents. I had been pondering
how God chooses people. Other than being disappointed at the real world,
God can actually also choose people with talents at every field. Yet there are people
from young to old, people with real talents to housewives. God actually doesn’t
know who’s more suitable for movies. That’s why it selected people of all kinds then
let them go through natural selection. Perhaps this is the intention behind having
newbies every time. So in order to let those people survive, the first human creation
must not go to waste. A special agent bodyguard that’s twice as strong as a normal
person, I don’t have to tell you how useful he can be in sci-fi movies right?”
Xuan paused then packed up his bag. “This is the first thing I wanted to say. If I die in
the next movie, then when newbies join in the future, if they are craftsmen or worked
in other non laborious careers, you can tell them the correct usage of the first human
creation. And not creating women for sex.”
Jie was about to lose his temper but Zheng stopped him. “Perhaps you are very right,
but I don’t agree that creating the woman I love will be useless in horror movies. Mental
support tends to be more useful than physical support. And God never stated the
usage of the first human creation. In other words, this choice has infinite possibilities,
no one can say with certainty that their hypothesis is correct, but I will tell these to
newbies in the future… what’s the second thing?”
Xuan actually smiled to everyone’s surprise. He took out five printed documents then
handed them out to the other four people. “These are the things you can exchange
from God that I categorized. There are four categories. I wrote down the descriptions
and functions of some practical items from low levels to high levels. Of course,
some functions are just my guesses. This is the second thing, organize the exchange
system. So we can know what we can exchange and better prepare for upcoming
situations.”
“This is also another speculation that I have, perhaps we don’t need to appear in
horror movies. God’s probably wants us to experience dangerous situations, and
force us to evolve in danger. It’s only because horror movies are the most dangerous,
that’s why we experience a lot of horror movies. Some very dangerous sci-fi movies
will probably appear also…”
Zheng got interested, then asked curiously. “Like what? What kind of sci-fi movies?”
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Xuan adjusted his glasses. “Starship Troopers. If God put us in an Arachnid colony
and we don’t have any heavy firearms on hand, I don’t think we can survive. Of course
God probably won’t put us in a truly hopeless situation. But to prevent this from
happening, I suggest that we equip ourselves with three weapons. Close combat
weapon, rapid fire weapon, and heavy firearm.”
“For close combat weapons, I suggest magical weapons. To be honest I don’t like
to watch supernatural horror movies, because they have no scientific basis. I don’t
waste my brain on things that can’t be explained. But the problem now is we are
very likely going to face such horror movies. And in order to survive through them,
I suggest a magical close combat weapon, that can both deal with normal life forms
and also supernatural beings. Zheng did very well on this point, your Na ring included
a support ability and can attack supernatural beings. Given your physical fitness, this
is almost a perfect choice.”
“Rapid fire weapons are used against enemies in masses, like zombies. For heavy
firearms, I suggest Zero pick the Ionic Gauss sniping rifle. It accelerates bullets with
ions, the enormous kinetic energy it generates can almost destroy anything in front
of you. This weapon is still in testing stage in the real world, but God already has the
finished product… as to everyone else, I don’t suggest you buy any heavy firearms.
Because your ability in handling weapons are horrible. You’re better off spending the
points on special bullets for the rapid fire weapons. Like the new type of depleted
uranium ammunition.”
“Basically that’s it for choosing weapons. I will add one last thing, these weapons can
also damage supernatural beings, you just have to use magical bullets, but those will
cost more than usual.”
Zheng praised him secretly. This was a real professional. He indeed never thought
about any of these last time. Xuan’s words increased their chance of survival by a
lot. Even though he didn’t like some of Xuan’s methods, Xuan was really a genius at
analysis.
Zheng took a look at the document then said. “But unlimited ammunition version
of these guns are all expensive. We don’t have that many points to exchange them.
And the unlimited ammunition version of that Gauss rifle needs a rank D reward and
5000 points…”
Xuan laughed. “When did I say anything about unlimited ammunition weapons? Remember
the first thing I said? Other than bodyguards, you can also exchange tools
and materials from God. Gunpowder is very inexpensive, 1 point can get you one
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ton of high quality gunpowder. and bronze and other metals are also very inexpensive.
I can exchange the materials to assemble a workshop and manufacture bullets
in mass. Even though we won’t have unlimited ammunition, but as long as it isn’t
the worst possible situation, we should have enough bullets to deal with it. Those
magical weapons are expensive, even though we can’t create these items, we can at
least exchange some bullets with magical properties to deal with possible situations.
This is the second thing I want to say, our standard equipment!”
Zheng and the others exchanged a look, they could see the delight in each others’
eyes. As long as they can live, even if it was just hope, that was enough to make
them feel delighted. Zheng said to Xuan with a smile. “Then continue, Xuan, you
are really amazing, if it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be able to come up with these…
continue to give us surprises, what’s the third thing?”
Xuan bit his finger, then said. “I found the option to go back to the real world… even
though it’s only temporary and you have to pay a high price. But this is a way to
confirm whether we entered this world with just our conscious or whole body, and
also confirm whether we can bring these things out to the real world, and bring our
enhanced bodies back… Yes, I found the option to go back to the real world!”
Xuan’s words were shocking to the others. Humans that can alter their specialty at
will and be able to survive through any situation were pushing the limit of the potential
of our species.
“Just think about it. Apes reached this limit and became human, then what will humans
become when we reach it?”
Zheng felt a thought came up, but when he calmed down to think about it, the thought
disappeared.
Zero, who was quiet this whole time, asked. “How do you unlock the genetic constraint?
With drugs or something else?”
Xuan waved his hand. “Needs a substance similar to the epinephrine hormone that
can only be produced by the human body. The crucial point is… it’s a poison. You
probably heard of stories like a mother lifting a car to save her son. This actually
happened but this woman died soon afterward. Scientists found a micro amount of
this substance in her blood.”
“Therefore it’s impossible to unlock the genetic constraint with outside help, at least
we can’t do it with our current technology. You can only work towards it yourself.
Of course we don’t even have a direction right now. Anyway, I suspect that this
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dimension is related to genetic constraints. It might even be the creation of the first
group of humans that unlocked their genetic constraints.”
Jie laughed. “You think ancient apes predicted the horror movies we will watch?
And all those sci-fi weapons that you can exchange, you think they can predict everything?”
Xuan smiled indifferently. “Apes perhaps can’t but what if the thing they created
has created artificial intelligence? Computers won’t die, they can record our horror
movies then make us experience them, until we die or break the limit to unlock the
genetic constraint. Then we will be able to earn enough points to leave. What do
you think of this hypothesis?”
Zero suddenly said in a low voice. “Perhaps you’re right but please be aware of our
situation. There’s a scent of blood from the left turn thirty meters ahead of us. Who
will go take a look?”
Zheng gritted his teeth. “My stats are the highest, so I will go.”
The other people cleared a path without a word. Jie took out his gun then gave
everyone a grenade.
Zheng took a deep breath, suppressing the terror he’s feeling. He walked lightly
toward the turn. Due to the anxiety he’s feeling, for a while he could hear his heartbeats,
then gradually, it seemed like he could felt the little movements in his blood
vessels. This was a wonderful feeling, unexplainable but Zheng was enlightened a
bit, as though he’s one step away from unlocking the genetic constraint.
Unfortunately, this condition didn’t last long. When he looked to the left carefully, he
was appalled and the condition disappeared. All that’s left in his mind was terror.
To the left of the hall was filled with pieces of flesh. Bones, organs, flesh were piled
up, he couldn’t even make out the form of a human. Aside from the ripped clothes
on the ground, no one would had believed.
Zheng held onto the wall and started to vomit. The others saw that there was no
danger and ran over to him. Lan, Xiaoyi, and Shuai started to vomit along. Even Jie’s
lips twitched as he saw it. Zero, Kampa and Xuan crouched beside the flesh and
studied them silently.
Kampa picked up a few pieces of clothes, looked at Zero and said. “It’s those three
hooligans. The flesh of two bodies are gone.”
Zheng just stopped vomiting but when he heard this, he started at it again.
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“No, I don’t think so.” Xuan looked at the flesh carefully. “I have done some dissection
experiments, most of these flesh is crushed bones, and the dirty parts of organs. Look
at this, a fragment of the shoulder blade, I’ve found three different ones already. So
I think the Alien took away all the edible flesh.”
There’s nothing left for Zheng and the others to vomit anymore. They could only feel
their stomach twitching non stop. At last, Zheng had a better physical body, he could
still move afterward, but the other four could barely stand while holding onto the wall.
Xuan, Kampa, and Zero finished their discussion and walked back to the others. He
frowned as he looked at them. “We will leave this place first, the situation is worse
than we expected. There’s already a third stage Alien, and… it may be nearby.”
As he finished talking, Zero and Kampa suddenly got on the ground. There was a hint
of fear in their eyes, especially Zero. He said in a quick and low voice. “Something’s
not right, there’s danger.”
People that lived on the edge of death tend to have a sixth sense for danger. When
Zero and Kampa got on the ground, Zheng felt his heart tightened. He couldn’t explain
this feeling. He looked behind instinctively and there was a huge shadow.
Xiaoyi was standing at the outer most of the group, he could barely stand after the
vomiting. When Zheng looked behind him with a terrified expression, he forced himself
to turn his head around, then he froze.
This was a matured Alien, almost three meters tall, and over three meters in length
with it’s tail. It was covered in shiny black exoskeleton, a huge and long head that
extended to its back, a mouth full of sharp teeth, even the tongue was filled with little
teeth.
Xiaoyi looked at its mouth as saliva dripped off it, before he could do anything, the
Alien’s huge tongue penetrated his shoulder. That tongue moved so fast that even
Zheng could only see a shadow. Then the Alien dragged Xiaoyi to the corner.
“Ah! No! Jie, Zheng, save me! I don’t want to die!”
Xiaoyi screamed like a mad man, but his strength was so insignificant compared to
the Alien. He struggled like a baby. His hand gripped on the corner of the wall as
the Alien dragged him. He didn’t loosen his grip even as his nails flipped. Finally, the
Alien got him through the corner and left five trails of blood on the wall. Then the hall
was filled with painful and miserable screams, along with the sound of crushing and
ripping of bones and flesh.
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Zheng, Zero, and Kampa were the first ones to woke up from the shock. Zero and
Kampa both did the same thing, they held onto the grenades with a finger through
the ring. As soon as the Alien appears, they would throw the grenades at it. He remembered
that he said never give up on any comrades. He definitely heard Xiaoyi’s
cry for help.
Around the corner, three Aliens were ripping on Xiaoyi. He was still not dead. His
whole body was twitching. The Aliens’ strength was so powerful, their tongues
touched him lightly and his body was ripped apart like paper. Zheng could only take
a last look of those despair eyes before Xiaoyi’s head was crushed.
Another Alien turned around to look at Zheng. It extended its tongue out, saliva
dripping on the ground. Then it screamed at Zheng. The scream woke him up from
the shock. He looked at Xiaoyi again, no, the pieces of his body, before he turned
around and ran back.
“Run! Shit! There are three Aliens!” He yelled as he ran.
Zero and Kampa threw their grenades then ran back. Jie, Xuan, and Shuai followed
behind.
Lan was running on the back near Zheng, but her speed just isn’t fast enough, the
explosion was likely to affect her. Zheng picked her up when he ran by. When the
explosion wave came, they both got knocked to the ground.
Zheng forcibly turned his body around right before he reached the ground, taking the
impact while Lan landed on him. She looked at him in surprise then smiled. “You’re
a nice guy.”
Zheng’s mind went blank for a moment then yelled. “What’re you talking about, hurry
and run!” Then he was going to push Lan off him to get up.
Lan gripped on his shirt’s collars tightly. “My enhancements are low, my running
speed definitely can’t keep up. Carry me.”
By this time, Jie and the other four were out of sight already. Zheng didn’t have time
to say anything else. The explosion could only delay the Aliens for so long. If they
don’t start to run, they will just die here. He gritted his teeth, picked Lan up and
started sprinting.
Zheng’s physical body was strong, he could barely feel the weight of a person. After
running through a few halls, he realized that he got lost. He was just running as fast
as he could without any time to think, but having gone so far without encountering
Jie and the others, Zheng got separated from the group.
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He gritted his teeth and continued on. Another hundred meter went by until he saw
a steel door on the side. He carried Lan inside.
All the doors on this spacecraft had automatic sensors and will open when a person
gets near. They easily got into the room. Then Lan jumped out from his arms. She
pressed some buttons next to the door then it closed. The light on top of the door
turned red.
Lan exhaled, then patted her chest. “That was scary, I couldn’t even move my hands
and feet. The Aliens were more disgusting and scary than in the movie.”
Zheng was staring at her, her breasts were actually big. He couldn’t feel it when
he was running, but now that he thought about carrying her, and her breasts were
pressed onto his chest. He immediately looked away.
Lan sensed what happened then blushed. “I knew it this door could be closed. Otherwise
if anyone can enter your bedroom, then there would be no privacy.”
Zheng coughed to calm himself down. Then he thought about Xiaoyi’s face. Even
though Xiaoyi looked common, and a little weak, he was a kind hearted kid. He
laughed a lot during training, and said his biggest dream was to get enough power
through enhancements, then go back to school and teach those bullies a lesson, but
now he’s…
“Fuck! I said I won’t give up on any comrades! Yet I got scared and ran!”
Zheng got more and more angry. He kept punching on things. Bang! A steel bar the
thickness of an arm got bent. He and Lan looked at it with their eyes wide open.
Lan ran over immediately. This room wasn’t big, other than bed made of steel, there
were some simple furniture and a TV. That steel bar was from the bed.
“Wah. When did you get so strong?”
Lan touched the bar then at his fist. It was even scratched. She said with surprise.
“Is your fist made of steel? That was powerful.”
Zheng was surprised also. He then tried and punched at another steel bar with full
strength this time. The whole bar broke in half and the bed knocked to the ground.
He looked at his fist in disbelieve.
“That’s not possible, I never won against Jie in close combat unless I used Qi. If I
have this kind of strength, I could had knocked him out in one punch.”
Lan touched her forehead. “Perhaps you held back, not consciously, but because
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you obtained such strength you subconsciously held back. And it’s not only strength,
there isn’t even a scratch. Your skin is more tough than steel.”
Zheng tighten his fist, then a thought came to mind. “Say how destructive would it
be if I throw this steel bar with all my strength and while using Qi?”
Lan looked at the bar that was broken in half and smiled. “Why don’t you try it now?
If the results are good… hehe, if you do then I won’t tell Lori you peeked at my chest.”
Zheng kept his mouth shut. He was too familiar with Lan’s expression and tone. During
his past ten years, he saw a few women gave him that expression. He knew the
best choice was to stay silent.
He turned around and grabbed the broken bar. Sure enough, his strength had gotten
to this level. He never had the chance to test it in God’s room. He broke the bar off
the bed with just a hand. That screeching sound of bending the metal was so harsh
yet at the same time gave them a sense of safety.
Zheng took a deep breath, directed his Qi all over the body, then he gave a loud
shout and threw the bar. With a shattering sound, the bar penetrated the steel wall.
This bar was over half a meter long, only a few centimeters of it was left outside the
wall, the rest was inserted into the wall. The power of this throw was enormous.
Zheng and Lan were shocked at the result. They stared at each other for quite a
while, then turned turned around simultaneously… to the rest of the bars on the bed.
“Since we had forgotten to exchange for heavy firearms, then we will use this primitive
weapon to crush them!” Zheng muttered. Lan was laughing by the side, her breasts
jiggled as she laughed. Zheng couldn’t help but peek at it. She seemed to have
noticed and blushed a bit.
Perhaps this is the only thing enjoyable now, Zheng thought as he peeked. Yet when
he remembered those three huge monsters of a nightmare, he felt a sense of despair,
and a bit of stubbornness of refusing to accept fate.
Live, no matter how hopeless the situation is… I must live!
Chapter 2
Aside from the lack of heavy firearms, they also didn’t have any food or water. Without
these two things, if they were locked in anywhere, they were very likely to die from
starvation or dehydration.
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“We’re still newbs. We thought we are veterans from surviving a movie, yet there are
still so many things we didn’t prepare. Then we just came in here as if this is a field
trip.”
Zheng sighed. Lan nodded, she was looking for something on the wall.
Zheng asked in curiosity. “What are you looking for?”
She replied without turning her head. “This is a modernized spacecraft, there’s probably
some high tech communication tools. Otherwise the characters would have to
speak to each other face to face all the time.”
As she spoke, she found device with buttons hanging on the wall. When she pressed
it, a sound came from above, just like when a call was connected but no one was on
the other side.
Lan touched her forehead. “There are over forty buttons, assuming each one connects
to a room, then we are in the center of the spacecraft, and we shouldn’t be far
away from the control room.”
Zheng walked over. The device had 46 buttons. The number 21 was indicated on
the device, and the button 27 was painted red.
He tried to follow Lan’s thoughts. If the spacecraft was divided into 46 areas, 1 and
46 were on the edge of the spacecraft. The room they were in, 21, was close to the
center, then the special red 27 was probably the control room.
Zheng hesitated. “What if the numbers have nothing to do with the position of the
rooms? Like the rooms were numbered randomly. And if that red 27 is not the control
room, but instead it’s the security room or something else? It’s too arbitrary to just
assume our position like this.”
“Humph, it is arbitrary, yet it’s still better than waiting here for the Aliens to find us.
Or do you want to experience the same thing as when the hunter from Resident Evil
was charging at the door? Just stared as the door was broken in and we couldn’t do
anything? Even if room 27 is the security room instead, it will probably have some
weapons.”
Zheng felt a headache, it’s not wise to get in an argument with women. They would
start a lecture when they feel objected. He immediately nodded his head. “Yes.
Good. No problem. I also think we should go out to search. Anything is better than
staying here. I agree with your decision.”
Lan started to smile. “Yes, I knew you are a nice guy. You can accept a lady’s opinion.
Hehe. Then I will count on you, please protect me.”
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Zheng carried tied three steel bars to his back, then held onto the thickest and
longest one. He didn’t say anything and watched as Lan turned the light of the door
from red to green. He took a deep breath and sprint out.
“Yes. My deduction is correct. Every important room has a communication device
and a number. We just passed by room 25. In other words, the control room is near.”
Xuan walked out from a room and said to the other four people. The other four looked
around nervously. Jie suddenly asked. “What can we do if we find the control room?
I say we should go look for Zheng and Lan, he’s the strongest one among us.”
Xuan said without emotions. “Regardless whether they’re alive or dead, in order
to find them we have to first get to the control room. We are not familiar with the
locations of this spacecraft, we don’t even know where the Aliens are, where the
weapons are, where the food and water are, and… do you know where the toilets
are? So we have to find the control room and learn the map and locations of the
spacecraft, then we will have the ability to fight.”
Jie was about to say something, but at last he remained silent. Zero said coldly.
“Hurry up. I keep feeling there’s something following behind us. Even though it’s still
far away, but this sense of danger is very obvious.”
Kampa also nodded and said in choppy Chinese. “Yes. Very dangerous. I am certain
it’s an Alien.”
Xuan frowned. “Ok, we will choose to go through the left hall. Everyone start to run,
we have to find the control room no matter what. If my deduction is correct… finding
the control room will increase our chance of survival.”
At the same time, Zheng was at a place not far from Xuan. The two cautiously advanced
towards room 27. After a while, Lan yelled. “Stop. I’ll go check out that room,
if something happens… judge the situation yourself.” Then she went into the room
alone.
Zheng muttered with a bitter smile. “Easier said than done, judge the situation myself.
No matter how I judge, it’s still death…”
Even though he complained, he concentrated his attention on the surroundings. His
muscles were all tensed up, his hand holding onto the steel bar. Yet without any
reason, he felt very uncomfortable, as if something dangerous was approaching him.
This made his him more nervous.
About a minute later, Lan came out happily. She smiled. “Great, my deduction is
correct. This is room 23, room 22 is definitely in one of the halls we passed by. If
14
we just follow this path, then we will get to the control room. Hmm? Your face looks
pale, are you too scared?”
Zheng forced a smile. “I don’t know why. I am feeling a bit worried. Perhaps we
should find somewhere to hide for a while.”
Lan shook her head, and said in a serious tone. “We can’t. It’s already dangerous
being separated from the group, especially since we are so close to the control room.
We have to get there first… I know maybe you are not feeling well? But can you hold
on for a little longer?”
Zheng smiled bitterly. “Then let’s go. My body is in good condition. It’s just feeling
a little worried… Ayyy. I’ve never seen a woman like you, being so tough. Normal
women would be too scared to move in this situation.”
Lan laughed. “Hehe. I’ve been tough since I was a little girl. My parents died on my
twelfth birthday. They got in a car accident when they went out to buy a birthday
cake. If I’m not tough enough, I won’t live till now. So, for such a good girl like me,
you have to do your best to protect me…”
Pah!
As Lan made a turn on the corner, she was still talking to Zheng with laughter. Suddenly
a tongue full of teeth shot out from the side and penetrated her shoulder. Blood
splattered and painted Zheng’s eyes red. He felt as if he was still hearing that laughter
by his ears, and that line. “You have to do your best to protect me…”
“NO!”
(Trying out present tense, let me know in comments if it’s better)
Zheng’s eyes are bloody red, don’t know if it’s from the anger he’s feeling or Lan’s
blood. When the girl disappears through the corner, he charges forward but he used
too much strength and is running into the wall.
His enhanced reaction speed saves him at this moment. Everything slows down, he
feels every movement takes a great deal of energy even with his physical fitness. His
body feels as if it’s going to tear up. The ground, air, even the wall, there’s seemingly
a force from every object pulling on his body to prevent him from moving too fast.
He had never experienced this phenomenon before.
When he is reaching so close to the wall, the air feels so condensed like it’s liquid. He
can even step on the air and jumped at the wall. Then he kicks on the wall to make
the turn. The first thing he sees is an Alien dragging Lan. This Alien is a size smaller
15
than the one before but it’s still over two meters tall and three meters in length. It’s
dragging Lan towards the deeper end of the hall. The girl’s left shoulder is crushed.
Her body filled with blood. There is only despair and a hint of longing in her eyes.
Zheng suddenly understands that longing, that’s the hope for life and future. Even
though he never saw his own eyes, but he knows when he was in a hopeless situation,
he must have that hint of longing in his eyes. He’s certain of it!
In Zheng’s eyes, Lan’s image has become Xiaoyi, about to get ripped apart and become
a pile of flesh, or it will become himself. When he gets dragged by an Alien, he
would have the same despair and longing, then get ripped apart… He doesn’t want
this! He has to save this girl no matter what!
“Ahh!” Zheng screams like a madman. He can almost see every movement the Alien
makes because everything slowed down. The jump he made off the wall shot him
straight towards the Alien.
This all happened in an instant. In Lan’s perspective, Zheng charged at the wall then
kicked at it in a weird angle. That kick made a muffled sound, and embedded two
footprints on the steel wall. Then he disappeared in her eyes. She couldn’t follow
that kind of speed.
Zheng has reached the Alien. He could see the saliva dripping off its mouth, and that
long tongue. He swings his steel bar at its tongue with pinpoint accuracy. With a dull
sound, Lan falls on the floor. The Alien starts to scream like crazy. Acid sprays from
its broken tongue. The tongue was cut in half.
“Ahhh!” It’s not over yet, Zheng screams along with the Alien. He has lost all senses.
His eyes are bloody red and filled with frenzy. It may have been the blood of Lan, or
they really turned red.
As Zheng lands behind the Alien, he swings at its back. With a sound of metals
colliding, the steel bar got bended. Though the Alien is not looking good either. The
exoskeleton on its back cracked and acid is pouring out from the wound. The ground
is filled with craters from the acid at this point.
The Alien’s speed is just as fast. Even when Zheng could feel the surroundings
slowed down, he is only on par with the Alien’s speed. When the Alien swipes at
him with its claw, he can barely raise his arm to block it in time. With a loud sound,
the impact knocked him to the ground, and the whole hall vibrated. Blood is pouring
down from his head from the impact.
Zheng is fighting with his life at this point. He doesn’t have a shell as tough as the
16
Alien’s exoskeleton. When he blocked the swipe, it left a few holes on his arm. Not
only that, the Alien is so powerful when his head hit the ground, he almost fainted.
He bit his tongue at that moment, the pain from it kept him awake.
He’s not even planning to get up, he pulls another steel bar from his back and swings
it with all he has at the Alien’s feet. His physical strength and the buff from Qi knock
the Alien to the ground. As the Alien falls, it raises its tail and stabs at Zheng’s leg.
The Alien’s combat instincts are so strong, it lives up to being a species that evolve
for killing and survival.
Zheng’s mind goes blank. He feels as if his body is moving on its own. Countless
instincts on combat rise to his mind. He dodges to the side then rolls back, that pulled
his leg out from the tail. Then he kicks at the ground and jumps at the Alien, while
he stabs at its mouth with the steel bar.
He let go of the bar in the Alien’s mouth and pulled another one from his back. He
keeps stabbing at the Alien’s head with it non stop even when the acid from the
Alien’s blood sprayed all over his body. He looks like he has gone insane and wants
to tear the Alien to pieces. Fortunately, Lan reacts in time. She ignores her injuries
and jumps at Zheng. It knocked both of them to the ground a few meters away. That’s
when Zheng slowly woke up.
The front of his body feels painful and a burning sensation. He quickly takes off all
his clothes and attempts to wipe off the acid on his body. The acid causes a sizzling
sound on the ground and corrodes the steel like melting ice. Yet, Zheng’s skin only
turned a bit dark, there is no sign of corrosion, which surprises Lan quite a bit.
As Lan stops his bleeding with the hemostasis spray, she says with a light voice. “It’s
great to be alive. Thank you… But why aren’t there any injuries on your skin? The
Alien’s blood should be highly acidic.”
Zheng wiped off all the acid on his body. His mind is still blank. Everything that
happened felt like a nightmare. He was basically fighting by instinct, especially after
the Alien stabbed his leg, he felt like a chain within his body had broken off.
“Maybe it’s because I have high stats in cell vitality and immunization. At least my
skin is burned dark by the acid.”
As he tries to take out another hemostasis spray from his ring, his whole body goes
into a seizure. A painful and paralyzing sensation starts from his internal organs, like
countless ants crawling on them, then this pain spreads to his bones and marrows,
then it moves along with his blood to the skin. Gradually all he can see is whiteness,
he feels as if he is about to die.
17
“”Just think about it. Apes reached this limit and became human, then what will humans
become when we reach it?”
“Needs a substance similar to the epinephrine hormone that can only be produced
by the human body. The crucial point is… it’s a poison. You probably heard of stories
like a mother lifting a car to save her son. This actually happened but this woman
died soon afterward. Scientists found a micro amount of this substance in her blood.”
“… Genetic constraint…”
Zheng remembers Xuan’s words on genetic constraint. He doesn’t know if he accidentally
unlocked this genetic constraint, but he knows that he is struggling on the
brink of death. The seizure on his internal organs is getting stronger, blood bleeds
through his mouth and nose. Then his lungs also start to have seizures, he can barely
breath in any air. He opens his mouth wide struggling to breath.
Lan reacts instantly. She holds onto Zheng’s body and puts her lips on his, trying to
give him air. After about ten seconds, Zheng’s internal organs slowly calmed down,
then his lungs also start to breath, the pain on his skin is fading. But Lan doesn’t know
and continues giving him air. At the same time, she is also weeping and mumbling.
“Don’t die. Please. Don’t leave me alone. Please stay alive with me…”
Is it because someone close to her left her before, so she’s afraid of losing again?
Zheng feels as if he can understand her. He thinks they are the same kind of people,
after losing something especially important, they made a promise with themselves
never to lose again. That’s why they’re desperately clinging onto their lives. That’s
why they’re supporting each other.
“I’m much better.” Then another girl’s face flashes through Zheng’s mind. He lightly
pushes Lan away. Even though he can barely move, but this push is firm and determined.
Lan is crying, then suddenly she gets pushed away. Her mind goes blank for a moment
then she smiles unnaturally. “Are you alright now? You scared me just then.
You were like you had an epileptic seizure, and blood was coming out of your mouth.
That looked so horrifying…”
Zheng feels totally exhausted, yet compared to the pain a moment again, this is like
heaven to him. He smiles bitterly. “Thank you so much, thanks for helping… helping
me breath. Otherwise I would had fainted from suffocation. If I lost conscious under
that situation… I think I would have been a corpse by now.”
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Lan’s expressions came back to normal. She laughed. “I have to thank you, if you
didn’t save me then I don’t know what would have happened. So what was that? Do
you have a medical history?”
Zheng shakes his head, he doesn’t know how to describe what just happened. When
he was on the border of life and death, he felt something unlocked within him. The
combat was smooth and and the precision of his movements was within a millimeter.
He spent every bit of his energy without waste. The combat instincts had no compassion
or fear. If he really has to describe it with a phenomenon, it would be similar
to SEED mode.
Of course, this is probably the genetic constraint that Xuan talked about, evolved
human beings that can survive through any extremes. This also explains why it was
so painful afterward, that was probably the side effects from the substance generated
from unlocking the constraint.
The pain comes and goes quickly. Zheng feels he is gradually recovering his energy.
Yet the feeling of unlocked genetic constraint also subsides. Perhaps the poisonous
substance is being decomposed by his body. His enhanced cellular vitality and immunization
strength saved him, at the same time prevented the substance from totally
unlocking the constraint. Zheng can almost imagine that if he kept this combat
instinct, the Alien’s won’t be unbeatable.
Lan sees that Zheng haven’t replied, she didn’t continue with the topic, instead she
laughs. “See what rewards you get for killing an Alien. Hehe. There can’t be no
reward for it.”
Zheng has recovered a lot by now. After hearing her words, he immediately looks
at his watch. It says Aliens killed 1, and next to it is 500 points. Perhaps the reward
was announced during his combat, but at the time his mind was filled with killing and
didn’t notice the announcement.
He suppresses his happiness and said. “Awarded 500 points. That’s great, this is
half the reward from surviving a movie.”
Lan is smiling also, as if she earned the reward herself. She says happily. “500 points
for one, maybe you can kill a few more then you will get a few thousand points in just
this movie… hehe, since you said I saved your life, then should you exchange some
gifts for me when we go back?”
Zheng looks at her red lips and replies without thinking. “Then I will give you the
perfect lipstick, that color is so beautiful.”
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Lan immediately blushes. Then Zheng realizes the ambiguity of his tone. He coughs
and continue. “We should leave this place as soon as possible. The smell of the
Alien’s blood is too strong. I don’t know if there’s another one. I’ve also recovered a
lot. So we will continue forward like you said.”
Lan nods but her face is still slightly blushed. She says in a low voice with her head
down. “Are you… alright? You your leg and body bled a lot.”
In fact, Zheng already noticed his wounds. The strange thing is after bleeding for a
while, his muscles and skin quickly closed up. The speed of healing is simply amazing.
It seems like the genetics of vampire are working.
He stretches his arms and legs. “No problem. I have recovered a lot of energy. And
there is a sense of danger approaching. So let’s hurry up and move on.”
Lan takes his warnings seriously this time. They continue on the path in hurry, after a
few intersections, they come to a large door. Lan is about to go, but Zheng pulls her
back. “I’ll walk in the front. Your reaction speed is honestly horrible. It’s better to let
me take the lead.”
By the time Lan nods her head in silence, Zheng is already inside. The room is very
quiet. It’s a kitchen filled with all kinds of packaged food. They look at each other
and can see the delight in their eyes.
Suddenly, the communication device on the wall starts ringing. They almost fell to
the ground from the scare. Zheng reacted immediately, he runs to the device and
presses the button blinking in green light.
Xuan’s voice comes from the other side. “We found an Alien corpse outside room
22, did you kill it? Did you find the arsenal?”
Zheng sighs. “I’ll tell you the details face to face. Where are you guys? And how do
you know we are here?”
“Every important room has a number. We are in room 27, the control room. This
room has access to the security system. If you don’t enter a room, we won’t be able
to reach you. And you are probably in the kitchen right? If you can, take as much
water and food without slowing you down. Then follow the numbers on the doors to
room 27.”
“What I am going to say next is concerns your lives. Long story short, there are three
Aliens following you, about the distance of ten rooms. According to their speed, they
will reach you in two and a half minutes. I don’t know the reason but they have been
following you all along.”
20
Scent, it’s the scent of Alien blood on Zheng’s body. Zheng and Lan immediately
realize it.
Xuan continues. “I will give you two minutes, run straight then on the intersections
go straight, straight, straight, left, straight, left, straight, left! This is the path to reach
the control room. Remember it! You have one minute to collect food, and must reach
the control room in two minutes. At two minutes forty-five seconds I will put down
the walls outside the control room to isolate it. If you can’t reach the wall within the
time frame… then I’m sorry I have to give up on you. We have five people here after
all.”
“The timer… starts!”
Zheng takes a deep breath, he focuses his Qi on his ring and starts to sweep the
food in this room. Especially the cases of water. A 1.5 cubic meter space can fit a lot
of stuff, especially when these food and water are already packaged in boxes. After
thirty seconds, he picks up Lan then sprint out of the room.
Zheng shouts. “I’m going to run as fast as I can, I won’t have time to think. So tell me
when to make the turn! Ok?”
Lan nods, her eyes focus at the front. “Keep going, keep going, the first intersection,
go straight, the second one is the same, the third one same, this time make a left…”
Zheng is running like a madman. His speed has almost reached his limit. That feeling
of the air becoming dense is back again. Even then he can still feel the danger
approaching from behind. And it’s getting closer and closer. Compared to the smaller
size Alien he killed earlier, the fully matured Aliens are faster, even faster than Zheng!
“Left! Left this time.”
Zheng kicks at the wall and shoots into the left hall. As he was making the turn, he
could see the shadow behind him. He can’t even think anymore, all that’s left in his
head is keep running straight as fast as he can! Death! Is following right behind him!
He can see it, a steel wall that is slowly coming down. Zheng can cross several
meters with every step he takes, but after a few steps, he feels a pain in his back.
The nearest Alien is just one meter behind him. It shot its tongue at him and just
barely reached his back. That’s why he felt the pain.
No! I don’t want to die! I have to live no matter what!
Zheng shouted like a mad man. He suddenly turns around and jumps up. The Alien is
really much faster than him, the moment he jumps up, the Alien closes their distance
21
even more, and it retracts its tongue. The next time it shoots its tongue, is when
Zheng’s head gets crushed.
As Zheng jumps up, he kicks at the Alien with both feet. He had spent most of his
Qi during the running. He focuses the remaining Qi on his feet. Then he uses the
speed the Alien is running at and the power of this kick to shoot himself at the half
closed wall. He finally makes it in at the last split second. While the Aliens run into
the door with a bang! That impact causes the whole room to tremble. Zheng lies on
the ground like a dead fish. He really can’t even move a finger this time.
Live… no matter what I must live!
Chapter 3
(Going back to past tense)
Zheng and Lan lay on the floor. They were still holding onto each other. Their minds
were still filled from the overloaded anxiety and fear. It wasn’t until they heard footsteps
from the other side before they regained some consciousness.
Of course Zheng wouldn’t think its cool to lay on the floor like this, but he was totally
exhausted. In fact, he was terrified ever since he came into this room, afraid that
the pain would come again. Fortunately, he was only exhausted this time and didn’t
unlock the genetic constraint. So it seemed like the constraint isn’t something you
can unlock so easily.
Xuan crouched next to Zheng and asked. “How’s it? Any injuries? How long will it
take to recover?”
Zheng replied with a weak voice. “Probably just exhausted, no injuries. If I can rest
well… it should take about half an hour.”
Xuan looked delighted, people as calm as him don’t usually express such emotion
unless it is something really worthwhile. He stood up and said. “Too bad you didn’t
get any food and water, otherwise my plan will work. Now we need to think of another
plan, but it doesn’t matter that much, we have initiative now, we aren’t preys without
any means to protect ourselves, we can at least put up a fight.”
Then Jie carried Zheng on his back. Lan didn’t use much energy during the run, she
was just terrified. She stood up after a bit of resting and followed behind everyone.
22
“This is the control room of the spacecraft. Even though it looks complicated, it’s
actually similar to the control system of rocket launcher stations. So it’s easy to get
a hang of it.”
The seven of them sat in room 27. Xuan explained to them the usage of the controls
and buttons. Though he only gave them a rough explanation, no one else in this room
can understand what he said. Of course they can still follow some simple orders and
press some buttons.
Zheng thought silently, this complicated system is probably easy for you. Though
he wouldn’t really say this out loud. In fact, he was very thankful that there were
geniuses like Xuan in the newbies. This kind of people are the most important for a
team.
After Jie put him down, he suddenly said. “Actually I brought a lot of food and water.
If we limit our portions, it should last us quite a few days.”
Xuan and the others looked in confusion. Though Jie said with excitement. “Is it the
Na ring? There’s a lot of food and water in the ring right?”
Zheng nodded with a smile. Xuan immediately inquired about the Na ring and when
he learned that it’s an item created by Xiuzhen and cost a fortune to exchange it from
God, he got excited. He took Zheng’s hand and studied the ring. “Is it really item from
Xiuzhen? Is it really item from Xiuzhen? God, I have guessed this type of items existed
from historic documents. Haha so they all originate from this dimension! If I can crack
the secret of this technology, I can’t imagine how much humans can advance.”
Xuan ignored the weird looks from everyone, he continued with a zealous expression.
“Do you know? We actually unearthed some items that can’t be explained with our
technology from other countries. They no longer have energy in them, we couldn’t
activate them with electricity or other kinds of energy. From analyzing the materials,
we deduced that there once existed an advanced civilization. But the years that this
civilization appeared are strange. These items range from over ten thousand years
ago to a thousand year ago. There’s such an advanced civilization hidden within our
society and we never realized it, do you think this is possible?”
“So the researchers are separated into two parties. One party believes the items
were created by Aliens that hid in our civilization. I quite dislike this kind of analysis,
attributing every unexplainable phenomenon to Aliens. This attitude towards
research is very unlikable. The other party thinks these items are created by the
mythical Xians or Gods. Even though this is equally hard to believe, at least people
23
from this party still look for clues through ruins. Moreover, they actually found some
indirect evidences.”
Xuan stood up and looked at everyone. “Do you know what this means? It means
the advancement of humans are not limited to technology, even though this kind of
technology is also natural science, but they have broken the limit of external (physical)
science. This is the most advanced internal science!”
Zero suddenly said in a cold tone. “External science and internal science, do these
have anything to do with our current situation? I’d rather have the food and water
from that ring.”
Xuan said in a low voice resignedly. “Forget it, you won’t understand it. Anyway,
cracking the secret of Xiuzhen will be the next biggest step for humans after genetic
constraints!”
Zheng and Jie looked at each other with a bitter smile. Even though Xuan was usually
calm and rational, he was still just a researcher. Once he encounters a field he’s
interested in, he will be more fanatical than anyone. Just like he wouldn’t let go of
Zheng’s hand right now.
Zheng said. “Since we have enough food and water, what’s your plan? Even if you
want to research Xiuzhen, you will need enough points to exchange. That would take
tens of thousands of points and we have to survive to earn those points.”
Xuan finally calms down. He let go of Zheng’s hand and sat down on a chair. “Since
we have enough food and water, then I have two plans. One, we monitor the halls,
record the locations where Aliens appear, then when they are separated we put down
the isolating steel walls to trap them one by one. Then we can find a safe path to the
arsenal in room 17. This path should be safe once all the Aliens are trapped. After
we get our weapons, we can rely on Zheng to eliminate them one by one. This is the
only way we can fight.”
Zheng’s heart skipped a beat. He really didn’t want to get into close combat with
those monsters again. He immediately asked. “What’s the other one? You have two
plans right?”
Xuan sighed. “The other plan… There is a hibernation room, humans can sleep there
with minimal energy expenditure. We can eat enough then go to sleep in there. The
return route has already been set in the spacecraft’s computer. We will return with
the Aliens.”
Jie asked in confusion. “Return? Return to where?”
24
“Earth! Bring the Aliens to the Earth of this dimension! Let the Earth’s governments
fight the Aliens with their army! Then we can survive without risks… of course, there’s
another possibility. The humans in this dimension get wiped out by Aliens then we
will face millions or even countless number of Aliens. This way, we can live for a few
more years then die.”
Zheng looked around at everyone. “I don’t know what you’re all thinking, but to bring
the Aliens to Earth? Even if I don’t belong to this world, even if I can live for a few
more years, I can’t allow myself to do this. I can’t…”
Then he hesitated, he was going to say he will continue fighting even if he is the only
one left, but he couldn’t say that last line. He was still afraid of dying deep within him.
Xuan nodded. “You probably think the second plan is crazy. Though if the conditions
are there, I believe the second plan is more dependable. But there are two flaws in
this plan, if we can’t fix the flaws, then there is a possibility of failure. First, since the
plot has already changed, we can’t guarantee that the government won’t destroy this
spacecraft before we reach Earth. Do you think they don’t have such weapons with
their technology?”
“Second, I worry if the isolating steel walls can actually trap the Aliens. Since their
blood is highly corrosive. In Alien Resurrection, they used their blood to escape from
the cage(?). If they use the same tactics here, then I think the next time we wake up,
we will see them jumping at our faces.”
Zero said coldly. “Then why do you suggest the plan if there are so many flaws?”
Xuan waved his hand. “Even with the flaws, it’s still the safer plan. You should know
that once we choose the first plan, we will have to fight the Aliens head on. The walls
won’t save us if we fail. And failing means everyone will die. Plus, we have to take
such risk multiple times. Do you have to confidence to survive these trials?”
Kampa said. “Isn’t there an old Chinese saying, live as a hero, die as a …ghost hero.
Something like this. I don’t want to give in my fate to uncertainty. What if we can’t
wake up again? In comparison, I’d rather get a hold of my own future. Even if I am to
die, I will die fighting, and not live on a gamble of fate.”
He got more emotional as he spoke. The last line even came out in Russian. Xuan
had to translate it for him.
Jie nodded immediately. “I also think we should choose the one that we have control
of. Even though it’s dangerous, but we will have control over the situation, and not
depend on luck to survive.”
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The others nodded silently. Xuan sighed. “Fine then. We will vote. I think that will be
the fairest.”
The results were unexpected, even though the first choice won, but only four people
voted it, Zero, Kampa, Zheng, and Jie. Aside from Xuan and Shuai choosing the
second plan, even Lan chose it.
Xuan exhaled. “Since we’ve decided to fight, then I will respect your decision. Let’s
face the Aliens together. First of all, please have Zheng take out the food and water.
I think everyone is hungry by now right?”
Zheng laughed then focused his Qi. He had recovered some Qi from the resting,
though it’s not enough for a fight.
A few seconds later, there was a boxes of biscuits, bread, cheese, dried meat and
water. After taking all the food out, Xuan was the first one to crouch beside it. He
opened some boxes then counted the number of bottled water. “There is an adequate
amount of food, if we limit our portions, it can last seven people about a week.
But I suggest we split this into portions for three days. Then we can stay full and have
the energy to fight.”
Lan had been avoiding Zheng since she chose the second plan. At the moment, she
habitually wanted to touch her forehead, yet there was a hole on her shoulder. She
didn’t realize it during the running due to nervousness but it’s painful as she calmed
down. She touched her forehead with the other hand and said. “Why not split the
food to seven days? If we can wait for the Aliens to get trapped and isolated, then
we can clear a safe path to the kitchen. By that time, we might not even have to fight
them and just starve them.”
The others also looked at Xuan with confusion. He smiled bitterly. “I also thought
about this hypothesis, but a few reasons made me abandon a dragged out fight.
First, we don’t know the biological structure of Aliens, what if they are similar to some
desert creatures in Earth and can hibernate days without food and water? Then we
can’t compete with them by lasting longer. It may even be that once we finish all the
food and water, we will be the ones that are trapped.”
“Second, how many people do we have here? Seven, yes, I remembered when we
first woke up, we had fifteen people. Then where did the other eight go? To be more
accurate, where did the flesh of the other eight go? Then add in the bodies of the
movie characters, this is enough for the Aliens to maintain low level activities.”
“Third, this is the most important one, I don’t want to put the Aliens into desperation.
If we actually trapped them, and got to the kitchen. Then when they are extremely
26
hungry, can you be certain that they won’t use their blood to corrode the wall and
come to eat us? Therefore, I’d rather get well rested and fight the Aliens within a
shorter period of time. This is the best strategy I can come up.”
Zheng exhaled. “If we can survive this movie… then you will get the most credits.
What else do you have in mind? Just say it all out. Since we are comrades, we will
trust you with everything.”
Everyone else nodded silently and looked towards Xuan. Even though they didn’t
want to admit it, but his wisdom surpassed everyone. They knew his importance in
a situation like this.
Xuan smiled. “To be honest, I heard Jie said that there will be new people in every
movie and the qualities of these people are not guaranteed. The power of a single
person is limited in many horror movies. If we can survive through this one, and enter
more dangerous movies, I hope my team can at least have the courage and strength
to live on. Then I will contribute my brain, otherwise everything will be meaningless.
In the seven of us, at least six people are elites. I am very satisfied with this team, I
hope we can all survive… at least the six of us can survive.”
Shuai’s face got red. He was just a normal young man and had no specialty. Of course
he recognized Xuan was talking about him. Then Zheng patted on his shoulder. “Rest
assured, as long as you can survive, you can train yourself to become stronger. Don’t
give up on hope.”
Shuai looked at him thankfully. Then Xuan continued. “So, my isolating plan is… bait!
Open up a section of the walls, then lure the Alien into our plan. This bait will be Li
Shuaixi!”
Everyone looked toward Shuai in shock. This young man had a common face, average
physical abilities, no specialty, simply put a good for nothing normal young man.
If Xuan didn’t mention him, no one would had thought about him deliberately. He
was just like air.
Shuai’s mind went blank for a moment, then he suddenly yelled. “Why me? Why
should it be me? There are so many people here. Everyone wants to survive through
this movie, so why do I have to die? You just want to kill me. If there’s one less person
sharing the food, you can live for a little longer. That’s why you want to kill me right?”
Xuan looked at him in silence. “No, I don’t have the intention to kill you. Even though
the risk for being the bait is high, but you are the most suitable choice. Everyone
else here is stronger than you. Jie, Lan, and Zheng are veterans. I can plan our next
moves. Zero’s close combat and sniping skills are exceptional. Kampa is skilled at
27
various guns, which may include those in the arsenal. Tell me, of what use can you
be to us?”
Shuai lowered his head in silence. His face got redder and redder and veins surfacing
on his hand. Xuan continued in a calm voice. “If it’s under normal circumstance,
everyone has something they’re talent at. I won’t judge anyone with numbers and
abilities. I won’t be a utilitarian person like now. But you have to understand our
current situation. We are fighting against death, any mistake can cause everyone to
die here. You are the unnecessary one here, if you want our group to accept and
treat you equally, you have to show us your worth. Otherwise what difference are
you from the seven that died outside?”
Zheng finally couldn’t stand it and yelled. “No, I don’t agree with your words. I was a
normal person when I first got here. I got my current abilities through enhancements,
so why is he unnecessary? If you give him the chance to live through a few more
movies, he will become a dependable comrade!”
Xuan remained his calmness. “But… does he have that chance? To be accurate, do
we have the chance to survive this movie? Even given the same amount of points to
enhance, the six of us will still be much stronger than him. Also, don’t try to take his
place. Everyone has their own responsibilities. You are our biggest reliance in this
movie. Or you want to save one person and let the rest of us die?”
Zheng felt very angry. He was extremely scared of dying himself. Especially since
he now had someone to take care of, he must live on no matter what. At the same
time, he understood that feeling of going against death face to face. Even with his
physical abilities he was still on the brink of death. Then is there even a slightest bit
of hope for a normal person like Shuai?
Jie gave him a hug as Zheng got more emotional. “Let’s do it the old way. We will
vote, that would be the fairest. Zheng! Don’t be emotional. Even if you don’t consider
about our lives what about Lori? Once we die, our created humans will also
disappear! What do you want to do?”
Zheng’s body trembled. He finally lowered his head and sat down in resignation.
Xuan sighed. “Then we will start the vote. Those that accept my plan raise your
hand.”
The result was five votes for and two against. That decided Shuai’s fate. Either conform
with the plan to be a bait to gain the group’s acceptance, or leave the group
without any food or water, and he also won’t get any protection.
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Shuai looked extremely emotional. Zero and Kampa stood next to Xuan silently.
When everyone was thought he was going to burst, he took a few deep breaths
and calmed down. He looked at Xuan with hatred and said. “Ok, I will be the bait.
Just like you all wish for, I will be the bait!”
They felt a shiver from the hatred in his eyes. Though Zheng didn’t see it. He kept
his head down the whole time. After the voting, Zheng walked over to a corner and
sat there in silence.
Lan walked over to Zheng after a while. She didn’t really know what to say. On the
contrary, he spoke first. “Lan, are you also afraid of dying?”
“Uhm… Yes, I am afraid of dying.”
“I am also afraid of dying, everyone is afraid. No one is really safe in this place, so why
do we have to push the dangers over to someone else? The rest of us will only be
safe for a little longer. Whoever can best accomplish this mission should go instead…”
Lan interrupted him with a serious face. “I think Xuan is right. If this is under normal
circumstances, then you are correct. But we are not facing normal circumstances.
We are going against death… How can we afford to protect a useless person without
anything in return?”
Zheng remained silent again. He muttered after a while. “… I can’t refute. Yes, perhaps
you and Xuan are right. But I still wish everyone can bond together. Everyone
can do our best to survive, and not the strong oppresses the weak. If we encountered
the same situation in our first movie, how will we feel? Won’t we hate everyone
and this world?”
Lan sighed and didn’t speak again. She sat next to Zheng silently. A few minutes
later, they heard a cry. They looked at each other then ran to where the group was
at.
When the two arrived, everyone was focused on the monitor. There were four people
walking as they were shivering. It was the two middle age men and the young
man and woman. After the four walked past, they saw a stage three Alien following
behind.
Zheng asked immediately. “What happened? Why didn’t the Alien attack them?”
Xuan was pondering and didn’t answer. Though Lan touched her forehead and said.
“Is it because of… breeding?”
The only Alien species with reproductive ability was the queen. In order to let the
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larvae, grow, they would need hosts. That’s probably why the Alien didn’t kill these
four people on the monitor.
Xuan nodded. “Yes. It must be for breeding. We have to execute our plan as soon
as possible. Otherwise, in a few days… we will have to face against nine Aliens!”
Chapter 4
The Na ring contained an abundant amount of food and water, bread, cheese, jerky,
and some snacks, rich in both quality and quantity. There was also enough water to
last them several days. But just to be safe, they split the food and water into seven
portions. Everyone received enough to last about three days.
Xuan put Shuai’s portion on the table. “This is your portion. As long as you proved
you are useful to this group and not our burden. Then these food and water belong
to you. Furthermore, you will also become a member of our group.”
Shuai took the food and water silently and with his head down. Then he moved to
the side and started eating by himself.
The others also ignored him and started eating their own food. After half a day of
running and fear, they were hungry and thirsty. Finally, that they obtained some food
and water, which were also in a good amount, they started rushing through the meal.
Since Lan couldn’t move one of her hand, Zheng opened the packages for her and
pour her a cup of water. These little actions kept her smiling non stop. She also sat
next to him as she ate.
Xuan suddenly asked. “Right, since we have time, tell me how did you kill that Alien?
I’m rather curious.”
Even though the others were still eating, but holding a conversation during a meal is
a norm for the Chinese. Zheng took a drink then said. “Don’t make it sound like I’m
strong. It was so dangerous, we almost died back there. If I wasn’t lucky enough to
cut off its tongue in the start, we would have probably died.”
Xuan thought for a moment then asked Zero. “Using a desert eagle, how close do
you need to hit an Alien’s tongue. I mean while they were moving at a very fast
speed.”
Zero replied without raising his head. “30% accuracy within 150 meters, 40% within
100 meters, 50% within 50 meters. This is the limit. I can’t raise my accuracy anymore
30
by going closer.”
Zheng smiled bitterly, 50% was just half and half. The Alien’s tongue was strong
enough to break through metals. It was especially powerful when being shot from
the Alien’s mouth. A human’s head would be as fragile as a watermelon. In other
words, once Zero missed, it’s tongue could kill everyone near it.
Zheng continued. “I was lucky back then and cut it off by surprise. I was only able to
hit it because it’s tongue was left inside Lan’s shoulder. If it’s face to face, we won’t
even be able to react when it shoots it’s tongue out.”
Xuan nodded. “The speed at which Aliens shoot their tongue is frightening, it’s almost
as fast as bullets. You also have to consider their mass and weight. A normal
steel plate might not be able to block it. Anyway we will first continue with our plan.
Then clear a path to the arsenal. Perhaps we can find some suitable weapons there.”
Zheng sighed. “How are you planning to isolate the Aliens? Just send someone out
to bait them?”
Xuan pressed some buttons on the control panel while eating. After a moment, a
map of the spacecraft appeared on the screen.
“We are in room 27. According to my deduction, and the way those four people and
the Alien was going, the Queen should be at… Warehouse 1 or 2. The monitoring
system around that place malfunctioned, probably corroded by the Alien’s secretions.
I remember in Alien Resurrection, the Queen will secrete a substance similar to spider
silk when it’s laying eggs. This substance is also highly acidic, though not as strong
as their blood.”
“That’s why the isolating walls, monitoring system, and even the lights malfunctioned
around that area. We can only control the isolating walls from room 16 and beyond.
I’ve already noted them in the map. The green area is under our control.”
Everyone looked carefully at the screen. The green area occupied most of the spacecraft,
the red area went from room 1 to 15.
Xuan sighed. “Maybe you are feeling lucky that the Aliens’ corrosion only got up to
room 15 whereas the arsenal is room 17. But I have to tell you a bad news. Rooms 16
and 17 are on the left and right sides of room 15 respectively. We can not put down
the walls on the hall connecting room 15 and 17. If we are to get the weapons, the
Aliens from room 15 can hunt us freely.”
“That’s also the reason for the bait plan. We need to lure the other four Aliens, aside
from the Queen, to the halls beyond room 17 then isolate them. Then we can find a
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safe path to the arsenal. I said it before that I won’t treat human lives so lightly. Even
though this plan has a high risk, it directly affects whether we can survive this movie
or not. We can not allow anything to go wrong with this plan.”
Zheng stared at the red and green screen for a while, then he sighed. “What if only
one or two Aliens come to us? Wouldn’t the plan fail?”
Xuan smiled, but it was Lan who answered him. “Actually there’s a way to lure the
aliens over. Remember when we got chased by them? How did they know we were
there? And that they didn’t give up no matter what… it’s smell.”
Zheng clicked. “Right, smell. The Alien’s blood has a very strong scent. Once the
other Aliens smell this scent, they would rush over. You mean we will lure them with
this scent?”
Xuan nodded. “We still have six grenades. If we bind them together three at a time, it
will be powerful enough to damage a stage three Alien. Once one of them is injured,
the others will come. And once they step into the hall beyond room 17, we will put
down the wall. Shuai can also use the blast from the explosion as a cover to run away.
This is the whole plan.”
Even though it’s dangerous, it’s not a hopeless situation. Zheng finally felt relieved.
Yet a hint of hideous emotion filled the eyes of Shuai who had been sitting silently
with his head down the whole time. He gripped his hands so tight that he didn’t even
realize his nails cut into his hands and blood dripped to the ground.
After everyone had eaten, Xuan turned on all the channels of the monitoring system.
The big screen was split into many little sections. Xuan kept waving his hand in the
air as if he was painting something. He stopped after quite a while, and his face
turned pale. “Ok, I’ve memorized the order at which the walls will come down. The
Alien nearest to us is in room 22, there’s also another one going at the direction from
room 20 to 19. If we attract its attention within five minutes, then we can isolate one
of them while baiting the other one over. Then we will execute the plan.”
Zheng looked at Shuai and sighed. “What should we do?”
Xuan pressed some buttons on the control panel, then stood up. “One minute later,
the wall outside this room will open up. I’ve already scheduled the order the rest of
the walls will come down. Let’s go. We will go out now and explain to you guys the
details.”
Kampa banded the six grenades together to two sets of three. The wall slowly lifted.
They could see the dents, craters, claw marks, and scratches on the walls and floor.
32
Those walls were made of steel! The scene terrified them.
Xuan took the grenades, then pointed at the hall. “You will stand on the other side of
this hall. From there you can see up to 100 meters in a straight line. Once the Alien
comes from the other side, you will activate the grenade and throw it. I had Kampa
modified the grenades to reduce their delay before detonating. It should detonate
mid air so you must run immediately after you throw it. Remember you have to turn
left at every intersection.”
Shuai said with his head down. “Then what about this isolating wall leading to the
control room? Will it come down after I go outside?”
Xuan nodded. “Yes, this wall will come down after you go out. I will open it again one
minute after I hear the explosion. According to your running speed, there is enough
time for you. Oh right, in order to attract the Alien, you will need some fresh blood.
In short, your mission is to just run along the left.”
Then Kampa threw a dagger over to Shuai. Xuan also handed him the grenades. As
Shuai took the grenade, everyone’s heart tensed. Zheng even saw Zero move his
hand to his back, he was holding on the desert eagle. Zheng wasn’t aware that Jie
gave Zero the gun.
To everyone’s surprise, Shuai turned around calmly. As they let out a sigh of relief,
he suddenly turned around again and threw a grenade over them. Just like Xuan
said, the grenade detonated mid air. Luckily Shuai threw it too far due to nervousness.
They were only slightly impacted by the shockwave and there were no serious
injuries.”
Zheng stood at the back of the group because he couldn’t look Shuai in the eyes.
But when the grenade exploded, he got affected the most. The shockwave blew him
away. His mouth and nose were filled with blood as he hit the ground. For a while
he couldn’t see anything. A few seconds later, he barely recovered his sight. Then
he saw Shuai holding the other grenade on his hand, his face filled with a hideous
expression.
Shuai laughed. “How’s it, genius, aren’t you wanting to kill me? Aren’t all of you
rejecting me just for that little bit of food and water? Just so you can hide together?
Fuck. Why do I have to be the only one to die? Why? Tell me! I’m going all out, if I
am to die, then we will die together. It’s still better than dying in the mouth of those
Aliens!”
Xuan got knocked to the ground by the shockwave. His head hit the wall and blood
streaming down his head. He stood up and asked calmly. “I’m curious. Aren’t you
33
afraid of dying? You should know that although my plan is dangerous, but you won’t
die 100%. If you followed my plan, you have a high chance of surviving. So tell me,
why would you…”
Shuai interrupted him. “Shit, stop trying to fool me. You know why I asked that last
question? What would have happened to this wall after I left? And how did you
answer me? It would open a minute after you hear the explosion? Don’t fucking
fool me. Do you remember what I am good at? Even though I am not a genius, but I
really did read a lot of books. Including some militaristic themed books. The isolating
walls in spacecrafts like this one usually can’t be activated again within half an hour
of putting them down. This is designed to prevent people from taking control of the
spacecraft through the computer. I specifically looked at your inputs on the control
panel. You only scheduled the commands to close them. There was no command to
open it again!”
He started laughing like a madman. “That last question was my final struggle. Fuck,
who wouldn’t want to live? If there’s even a slightest bit of hope, I would still wish
to live. But you faggot wants to put me in the mouth of those Aliens! Fuck. Say
something! Why do you have to put me in a hopeless situation?”
Xuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I underestimated you. That’s my
mistake. I have said it before. We don’t need anyone unnecessary in this group.
You’re just a burden. I didn’t intent to give you up originally, but you were not satisfied
with my plan. That’s the way humans work, just a little bit of dissatisfaction will easily
grow into hideous intentions. So instead of having an unpredictable factor in our
future plans, it’s better to give you up. I didn’t intent to sacrifice you either. Even
though the wall needs to wait half an hour to open up again, but if you kept running
I will trap you in a hall without any Aliens. Then let you out after half an hour. You
shouldn’t had shown that hideous expression on your face.”
Shuai looked even crazier. He yelled with a twisted face. “Fuck. Why can’t I look
hideous when you force me to die? Are you the leader of this group? Who do you
think you are? If I can’t live, then you shouldn’t live either. Come die with me!”
As he finished, he pulled the ring on the grenade.
When Shuai first walked away with his head down, he was several meters away from
the group. After he threw the grenade he ran another several meters. By this time, he
was over ten meters away. They could only watch as he pulled the ring. Even Zero
couldn’t do anything with his gun as he was knocked to the ground by the shock
wave.
34
“All of you go to hell! I…”
He pulled the ring while laughing crazily. Just as he was going to throw the grenade
at them, it suddenly exploded. It only took a second from the time he pulled the ring
till the grenade exploded. He didn’t even have time to throw it. The fire and shock
wave quickly reached the group.
“No!”
Zheng watched in daze as the fire closed up on him. Thankfully Lan brought him
down to the ground. He just watched as the fire flew past him. For a moment, he
could still smell the scent of burnt flesh.
No! How can life be so fragile? Why is life so fragile!
Zheng suddenly jumped up from the ground and ran toward the smoke. Going inside
the smoke, he found Shuai lying on the ground. His whole body burned black. His
hands and chest were gone. Other than pieces of flesh on the ground, there was
black colored blood that gushed out from his chest. So human blood wasn’t always
red, after going through an explosion, it… can become burned black.
“Why? Why did the grenade explode immediately after pulling the ring?”
Zheng came out from the smoke. He walked over to Xuan silently and asked.
Xuan was the one nearest to the center of explosion this time. Blood gushed out
from his nose and mouth. He wiped the blood and said. “Yes, the grenades I had
Kampa modify, one of them explodes after a few seconds, the other one will explode
immediately. When I handed him the grenades, I put the one that will explode later
on the outside, so he could only use that one first…”
Zheng punched him on the face and knocked him away. Zero immediately pointed
his gun at Zheng and Kampa stood in between Zheng and Xuan.
Xuan slowly sat up from the ground. He spat out a tooth and said calmly. “This is
the true intention of the bait plan. Do you really think just a little blood can lure the
Aliens? No, even though their sense of smell is sensitive, but during the period that
the Queen is laying eggs, they will guard their nest. You saw from the monitor before
that they were moving toward the nest. Therefore, it needs a large amount of fresh
flesh and blood, in addition to the scent of Alien blood on your skin to lure them over.
If I am not mistaken, the Aliens should be coming this way currently. If you want to
die, you can continue to stay outside the wall.” Then he silently walked back to the
control room.
35
Zheng felt more enraged after hearing his words, but he could only yell under the
threat of Zero’s gun. “Then he was right? You intended to give up on him from the
beginning? Why are you two helping him? You won’t even know when he will give
you up! How can you call this comrades?”
Xuan turned around and said in a cold voice. “I didn’t intend to give him up in the
beginning. I originally planned that everyone can contribute some blood, then he
and you only have to… Whatever, I don’t have to explain these to you. You just have
to understand that everything I do is for the sake of everyone in this group to survive
this movie. I am certainly not wrong!”
Zheng’s voice sounded cold also. “Giving up on comrades, letting him get killed by
explosions, then use his flesh and blood to lure the Aliens. And this is not wrong?
Then what do you think is right! Is this how the two of you think also? Is life really so
worthless?”
Xuan replied as he walked without turning his around. “I gave him a last chance. If
he didn’t try to use the second grenade on us and followed my plan. As long as he
could injure one Alien the others are very likely to come over. He could also hide in
between two walls. Unfortunately, a mortal’s wisdom… only filled with resentment.”
Zero kept silent the whole time, he walked backward while pointing the gun at Zheng.
After ten meters, he turned around and went away. Kampa said to him in a serious
tone. “We value unity in the mercenary’s creed. During battle, you put your back to
your comrades. This is the basic trust and rule. But in order to achieve these two
points, the other party must be someone you acknowledged and not a burden. I think
Zero is thinking the same thing. We live in a different environment than you normal
people. We are more suited to survive in this dimension. To me, these movies are
just mercenary missions. Xuan did the right him. He chose to have the majority of us
live and successfully completed the mission. Shuai didn’t make me feel that I could
trust my back to him. He also failed the last trial and chose self destruction.”
Zheng stood there in a daze until the wall was slowly coming down. Jie and Lan then
pulled him back in. He raised his head and asked. “Does it really have to be this
cruel? To give up on other people so you can live? Or just a little resentment and
you want everyone to die together? Then what are we? Chest pieces that he used
and threw away?”
Jie said. “I don’t give a fuck what they think. I don’t feel safe being with these three.
I thought Xuan was smart and maybe could think of a way to save us. But it seems
smart people are all devious. No, I feel less safe being with them! Zheng, I will go
36
get my gun back, even if I can’t get it back, we will go our own way after they trapped
the Aliens! Otherwise we won’t even know if they used us.”
Lan sighed. “But… do we really have to go by ourselves? It would be better if we just
endure it through this movie and get stay away from them on the next one.”
Zheng looked at Lan silently then said. “No, we will go our own way! I don’t want
to see them again… If you can’t trust your comrades, then how can they trust you! I
won’t give up on anyone on my side. I can save my comrade’s life, in return when I
am in danger he will definitely save me! So I won’t fight along them again!”
Chapter 5
In the monitors, the two Aliens quickly moved toward this side just as Xuan predicted.
The Alien that was following the other four newbies also came. In this moment, everyone’s
attention was focused on the screen.
Even though they had decided to go their own ways, whether or not all the Aliens
getting isolated was related to their rate of survival. So even Zheng was staring at
the monitor intensely.
“Just missing the last one… where is the last one? The last one…”
Xuan muttered to himself, then his face turned paler and paler, sweat coming out of
his forehead. Lan suddenly said. “There are only seven characters in the original
plot. One robot and six humans. When you calculated the Aliens did you include the
main character? This is only the first movie…”
Xuan immediately realized it. He hurriedly pressed some buttons, several walls came
down on the screen blocking the Aliens’ movements. They were forced to run at
another direction. The Aliens were gradually forced to move into a far off corner
then trapped inside the walls. They could see the path to the arsenal was cleared.
The six of them exhaled deeply. Zheng asked Lan. “What did you just say? Isn’t there
another Alien missing? Why did he put down the walls when you mentioned the first
movie?”
Lan laughed. “Because of the main character. Think about it, didn’t the main character
survived the first movie? If she was killed then what would happen to the second,
third, or fourth movie? Will they cease to exist? So It’s possible that we are only facing
against five Aliens. One Queen, one killed by you, and three got trapped. Then
there is no fourth one.”
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Zheng thought for a moment. “But what if the main characters of every movie are
recreated? Then wouldn’t there be another Alien behind room 15?”
Xuan’s voice came from the side. “This is a question of probability. Under any circumstances,
I will always choose the one with the highest possibility. As long as it’s
higher than 50%, it’s worth a try.”
Zheng sneered at him. “Even if it means to risk your life? Are you ok with getting
sneak attacked by a hiding Alien?’
Xuan replied calmly. “Yes, even if it’s my life. I will always choose the choice with the
highest possibility. You mentioned my life just now, so are you planning to split up
with me?”
Zheng nodded. “Right. I can’t stand being with you! Maybe when I get injured you
will give me up like a burden. Instead of this I would rather depend on my own power!
I can’t trust you, just like Kampa said, I can’t trust my back to you!”
“Is that so?” Xuan turned around. “That’s unfortunate. I said I will only give up those
that are useless to the team. Just like a question of probability. He was an individual
of low probability (useless) and he failed my test. I had done all I can do for him. But I
will do my best to save comrades that I acknowledge. Think of ways that the majority
can survive.”
Zheng said. “What if I am trapped in a hopeless situation. The probability of saving
me is low but there is still a chance. What will you do?”
“Depends on the situation. If your life is very important, then I will save you no matter
what the cost is. If saving you puts the whole team in a dangerous position, then I
would rather give you up.”
“Is that so?”
Zheng remained silent for quite a while, then said coldly. “Yes. I Understand your
methods are probably right to you. But these methods give me shivers. We can’t
stay together. And don’t fucking use your own safety as the team’s safety. Don’t
you think it’s dirty to fool us? You kept saying the team, but what if the team needs
to sacrifice you? You will probably think of every possible way to have someone
substitute you.”
Xuan smiled. “If it’s you, what will you do?”
Zheng was gathering all the chairs in this room, he replied without turning around.
“I agree with what you said in the beginning. Every member should be able to contribute
to the team. Just like I won’t go protect those three hooligans. So I will choose
38
my comrades carefully, but once I acknowledged them, I will never give up on them.
This is the only way to keep the trust within the team. People like you who use people
as tools, even if we survive, you are the only one that can feel completely safe.
So I won’t stay with you.”
Neither of them said anything more. Half an hour later, Xuan, Zero, and Kampa left
the room first. Jie and Lan watched as Zheng started destroying those chairs.
Jie held onto him. “Stop being mad, it’s not worth getting mad for those people.”
Zheng laughed bitterly. “I am not mad. I am just preparing weapons. You’re right it’s
not worth it. So I have my method of combat.”
Jie and Lan looked at each other. After destroying the chair, Zheng took the metal
bars out from those chairs. Then he twisted the bars until they became a helix shape.
“Know why I want to stay away from them?” Zheng suddenly said to the two with
a smile. “Because I have a bad feeling. I feel there’s definitely something hiding
beyond room 15, waiting for us to get close. But I won’t tell them. Let them lure that
thing out. If they believe having power makes you stand above the others, then as
the weak side they should be prepared to be the ones that are given up.”
“I was a manager in my company, so I know how important it is for a team to work
together. And no one is absolutely useless. Do you know why I kept comforting
Shuai? Because I want to get him into our group, to acknowledge our group. To the
point that when he really got to a situation where he had to sacrifice himself to save
the group, he will do it for the people he trusts.”
After finishing his words, Zheng threw the helix shaped steel bar. The whole bar
penetrated into the wall and left only a finger length of the tail outside. This power
shocked Jie and Lan.
Zheng pulled the bar out from the wall. Then continued. “I know his methods are
perhaps right… but if you trust me, then let’s face these horrors together. He has his
ways… and I have my way of fighting! No matter what, we will all live!”
With that said he threw the bar again and another hole appeared on the wall.
This was the first time Jie saw Zheng threw the steel bar. His mind went blank for
a moment then he started patting on Zheng’s shoulder and laughed. “Damn dude
when did you get this kind of power? Were you hiding it from me the whole time
during training?”
Zheng smiled bitterly, he pulled out the bar from the wall. “No, I just discovered it not
long ago. And I can’t last long. Every time I throw, it will spend some Qi. According
39
to the amount of Qi I have and its recovery rate, I can only throw five bars at a time
then I have to rest for five minutes.”
“Five bars huh?” Jie scratched his head. “Five is still good. I don’t believe the Aliens’
exoskeleton is tougher than this steel wall. Too bad we only found out about it now
and didn’t have the opportunity to practice your aim. Otherwise, the Aliens probably
wouldn’t be a problem for you.”
Zheng smiled bitterly again. Those Aliens weren’t as easy as Jie thought. Aside from
their strength and speed, the most terrifying thing was that they would hide and wait
for a sneak attack. He encountered them two times in this spacecraft. People only
died from the sneak attack. Even though they could still kill anyone face to face but
it was more terrifying when they were hidden.
“Actually the most terrifying thing about Aliens are their sneak attacks, last time Lan
and me…” As Zheng was talking, he noticed Lan spacing out. He asked. “Lan, what
are you thinking?”
“I am thinking why would Xuan bring them away. With his wisdom he can’t possible
not be wary of the danger beyond room 15, yet why is he willing to take the risk?
Perhaps there is something more dangerous here?”
A thought struck Zheng’s mind. He and Lan said it at the same time. “The Alien’s
blood!”
Jie looked at them in confusion. “What Alien blood? I don’t get what you’re talking
about.”
Zheng looked bitter as he said. “The Aliens that are trapped. I have also seen Alien
Resurrection. The Alien that was isolated injured its own body then used its blood to
help it escape. If we only trapped them, they wouldn’t injure their body at once. But if
we are moving toward room 15. These Aliens may do everything to escape, in order
to protect their nest. At that time, we will be the ones facing these Aliens because
we are behind them! Such a ruthless person, did he planned it all out when he was
setting up Shuai?”
Lan shook her head. “No one can have this kind of ability. He’s also not familiar with
our personality, how can he plan so far ahead. He probably came up with the plan
on the spur of the moment. He saw that we decided to split up then used us as their
shield.”
Zheng calmed down then started searching for something on the screen. After a
while, he said in a cold voice. “I will let him know we are not his pawns. Let’s see
40
who’s the first to die!”
Room 22, bathroom.
Zheng and the other two hurried to this place. After they entered the room, he had
Lan locked the door. Then he rushed to one of the individual shower room and said.
“Hurry up and clean all the scents on your body. Then smear the food that I gave you
on your body. Remember to cover it all up. Understand?”
Lan immediately ran into a shower. Jie also started to clean his body, after a while he
heard Lan shouted. “Zheng… I can’t move my arm to clean the blood. Come… help
me.”
Jie stopped what he was doing and put his ears to the wall. But before Zheng and
Lan could do anything, they heard scratching sounds outside the door. That sound
was so harsh it’s like someone is scratching the floor with metal.
The three of them immediately stopped everything they were doing. They didn’t
even dare to move a bit. Zheng just walked into Lan’s room and looked at her with
embarrassment.
That sound stopped in front of the bathroom. The three of them felt their heart had
stopped beating. The only sound in this room was the sound of running water. Other
than that they didn’t even dare to breath.
The stress coming from outside lasted how long, it felt like several seconds or maybe
several minutes. By the time that sound went away they were almost at the point of
suffocation. They immediately started to breath in air deeply.
The three didn’t say anything. Jie stopped trying to eavesdrop on them and smeared
his body with cheese. Zheng and Lan also smeared liquefied food on their body. The
whole thing only took one minute. You can see the potential of humans here.
Just then that scratching sound came back again. They held their breath. They
weren’t as nervous as the first time. And just like the first time, that sound stopped
in front of the door then went away quickly.
A thought struck Zheng. He suddenly ran out of the shower room and picked out
several steel bars. Jie and Lan put their head out of the shower and looked at him
with confusion.
“The two Aliens reacted in the same way, I hope it will be the same this time…”
As Zheng said it in a low voice, another scratching sound started approaching them.
There was a hint of nervousness from their breathing, especially since Jie and Lan
41
didn’t know what Zheng was planning to do. Though Lan could sort of guess.
The sound moved closer and closer to the bathroom. They were so nervous that they
could almost hear their heartbeats. Zheng’s finger had turned pale from gripping the
bar too tight.
The sound indeed stopped in front of the door. Zheng could even hear scratching
on the door.
He didn’t hesitate and filled the steel bars with Qi. He threw three bars at quick successions.
The bars penetrated the door and followed by screams from the outside.
Along with the scream came a loud bang on the door. It only took one tackle to bend
the whole door. Zheng could see half the Alien’s body stuck on the door. Two of the
steel bars hit the Alien. One pierced its left chest and the other right under its neck.
Both hit the vital spots of the Alien, though not enough to take its life.
This was the second time Zheng fought against an Alien face to face. Even though
the situation was better than last time, it was not to be optimistic. This Alien was fully
matured, about 30% larger than the previous one. Its black exoskeleton was thick
and tough as a piece of metal. In fact, the steel bar only penetrated one third its
length. A large section of them were hanging outside the Alien.
Zheng’s body trembled as he looked at the terrifying appearance of the Alien. Especially
when that tail stabbed at the door and opened up a big hole. If that stab lands
on a human… No matter how much Zheng enhanced, he wouldn’t think his body was
tougher than steel.
(It’s this pressure, as if my whole consciousness is gone. All that’s left is fear and
those instincts…)
Zheng felt something unlocked within his body again. Countless instincts appeared
on his mind. These instincts also included ways to use Qi efficiently.
He guided his Qi to raise up through the spine in a spiral, cross over his head and
into his right arm. This process only took a blink of an eye. Zheng let his instincts
take control over his Qi and the result was notable.
When the Qi crossed over his head, he felt something came from his brain then added
into the Qi. He focused this mixture on his right hand. The moment the Alien knocked
off the door, he threw a steel bar with a shout. At the same time the Alien’s tail hit his
belly.
Jie and Lan gave out a cry. Zheng got knocked off the ground and flew into the wall
with a bang. The spear he threw was even more powerful. It easily penetrated the
42
Alien’s head and went into the wall behind. A third of its head was gone. It wobbled
a bit then fell to the ground. On the wall behind the Alien was a fist wide hole.
Lan took some clothes to cover her chest then ran toward Zheng in a hurry. “How’s
it, how’s it? Zheng! Are you alright?” The anxiety sent her crying as she saw Jie
standing there in a daze. She kneeled beside Zheng. But as she got down, she saw
him stroking his head with an expression of an idiot. She suddenly felt angry and hit
his belly without thinking. “You scared us! You attacked it without saying anything,
what happens if you failed? You will… and also get both of us in trouble! You will get
us killed!”
Zheng groaned with pain as she hit his belly. Lan saw the blood on her hand then
went into a panic again. She said as she cried. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I didn’t know
you’re injured. I’m really sorry…”
Zheng took his hands off his belly and looked at it carefully. There was a hole about
three fingers wide. Luckily it only pierced the skin and didn’t damage the intestines
and organs.
Jie went over to where Zheng was at. He found a deep footprint embedded on the
ground. He stood up and said in amazement. “That was incredible. You jumped
backwards as the Alien’s tail hit you. That’s why it only got through your skin. If it
was me standing there, it would have probably pierce through my intestines.”
Jie got more excited as he spoke. He went over to Zheng and patted his shoulder.
“Dude how did you do it? That was godlike. If I didn’t see it with my eyes I would had
thought some martial artist killed it. God, how did you do it, teach me!”
Zheng smiled bitterly. “You two, help me bandage it up first. If you continue like this,
I will probably die from bleeding. And someone should go fix her clothes…”
Lan then noticed her clothing. She blushed and glared at Zheng. Then ran into a
shower room. Zheng took out the hemostasis spray and bandage from his ring. With
the help of Jie he bandaged the hole on his belly.
By the time Lan came out, he immediately said to them. “There’s no time to explain.
Jie, carry me on your back and move toward Xuan. Don’t stop no matter what happens
to me. Lan, my right arm is broken so carry those steel bars for me. Remember
to keep up with us. Let’s go.”
Zheng now firmly believed in his hypothesis. The genetic constraint unlocks during
danger and terror but a normal body couldn’t bear the power that comes with it. Even
with his enhanced physical abilities, his right arm suffered a comminuted fracture
43
from an all out attack. And following that would be the unbearable pain. What if this
happened to a normal person?
This is like a double edged sword, and it has to be under a life threatening situation
and experiencing terror for the constraint to unlock for just a little while. This is the
human’s final struggle against death.
“… ha, the only fortunate thing is, I discovered a way to possibly use blood energy,
not sure…”
Before he could finish, that feeling of death spread from his internal organs throughout
his body. He started to have a seizure on Jie’s back. The pain rendered him
unable to even open his mouth. His muscles felt like they were ripping apart. The
wound on his belly started bleeding through the bandage. Blood flowed along his
legs and dripped to the ground.
Chapter 6
The pain came and went quickly. It didn’t bring more injuries to Zheng aside from
exhaustion. After the pain had passed away, Jie and Lan immediately laid him on the
ground. They took out the bandage and spray and once again covered up the hole
in his belly.
Zheng let them do the bandage without moving, while he tried to listen carefully.
After they were done, he said to them. “I heard gun shots. Jie, did you hear it?”
Jie immediately listened carefully for a while, then nodded. “Yes, I heard some very
faint gun shots… Does this mean they succeeded? They found guns at the arsenal?”
Zheng smiled bitterly. “They probably found the guns, but I think they’re fighting
against those two Aliens. Otherwise the gun shots wouldn’t sound so intense. How
many grenades do you still have? Give me all of them. Lan, give me the steel bars
also.”
Jie put out his palms with a bitter smile. “None, I gave the grenades to them back
then. These bastards…”
Though Lan took out two grenades from her pocket. She smiled. “Thankfully I kept
an eye on this… What are you planning to do? These are the last two.”
Zheng also took out two grenades from his ring. He bit onto the ring with his teeth
then threw one of them far off with his left hand. The explosion sent Jie and Lan to
44
the ground.
“I have the timer for the detonation delay now…”
Zheng kept staring at the site of explosion, then said to Jie without turning his head.
“Hurry, tear some cloth off from your shirt and tie the grenades on the steel bars.
Make sure they’re tight!”
Jie took off his shirt without a word. He tore it up and started tying the bombs. Lan
sighed as she saw this. “You’re planning to risk your life again? Your injuries…”
Zheng turned around and smiled at her. “No problem. That explosion was loud. They
probably all heard it. I don’t know about the other two but with Xuan’s wisdom, he will
definitely keep the Aliens’ attention. I only have to sneak in from behind and attack
them. And as long as I can pierce the steel bar into their body before the grenade
detonates, the explosion will deal major damage to them. So rest assured.”
Lan sighed and didn’t say anything more. Jie said as he was tying the grenades. “I
was mistaken about you. Zheng, you are talented in combat. Using the words of
my instructor is, you’re born to be a fighter. The more desperate the situation is, the
more potential you unravel. Whether it’s the physical combat or planning.”
Zheng took the steel bars from Jie. He tried to aim it with his left hand, then smiled
bitterly. “I’m no fighter. I just want to do everything to live. Anyone in my situation will
probably come up with something. If even people like me are considered fighters,
then what are Xuan and them? Super fighters? Or super geniuses?”
“You can’t say that.” Jie laughed then handed him the last steel bar. “They were
already doing this kind of jobs in the real world. And they were also at the top of their
field. What about you? You were only a normal white collar. Even though there’s luck
in your enhancements, but you kept putting your life on the line and staying alive,
while gradually adapt to these battles… This is your hidden talent. You’re a fighter
that never gives up!”
“Fighter, huh?”
“I just want to stay alive…”
In order to recover as soon as possible, Jie continued carrying Zheng on his back
while Lan carried the steel bars. As they were running, Lan muttered. “Why do we
have to save them? Wouldn’t’ that put us in danger?”
Zheng was circulating his Qi. He exhaled and said. “We are actually in danger all
along. If we can’t eliminate the Aliens, we will die sooner or later. So Xuan’s abil-
45
ity to analyze and plan, Zero and Kampa’s skills in using modernized weapons are
important factors.”
Jie asked suddenly. “Then why did you split up with them? If we stayed together then
we would have gotten weapons by now instead of having you do all the fighting. Also
I don’t think Xuan would give us up.”
Zheng sighed. “Yes, if we stayed with them, we won’t be given up. And we will be
safe before Zero and Kampa die… At least Jie and I will be safe. But! This is also one
of the reasons.”
“One reason is I can’t stand his methods. Using comrades like a disposable piece.
The other reason is I won’t put my fate onto the hand of another person. Perhaps
we will be safe in the beginning, but what will happen after some time? I don’t want
to think about how I will die, I will only think about how I can live! As comrades I will
do my best to support and protect them. In return my comrades will not give me up
when I need the help. Xuan can’t accomplish this, so I chose to leave. This way I can
stand on the same level as him.”
“Yes, if he can discard his comrades, then we will be someone that can make use
of his wisdom while not being his comrades… allies! We’re both independent, yet
supporting each other. This is the only method to cooperate with him that I can think
of.”
Lan thought for a moment and said. “Why can’t he give up on allies? What’s the
difference?”
Zheng smiled. “The biggest difference is allies are independent. We will support
each other but we can also fight independently. We won’t become a burden to the
other party, and don’t have to be responsible for the other party’s mistakes. Comrades
are formed by a group of people each with different talents. They have to
protect each other. I can’t trust Xuan on protecting his comrades. So in order to
obtain their power, I can only choose to become their ally.”
“We can only get them to understand the importance of our group after leaving them.
This way they will accept us as allies and not disposable pieces… That explosion
before was to measure the detonation delay and also to let them know… their allies
are here!”
Zheng didn’t have Jie carry him for the last part of the way. It was not too far off so
he wanted to use this opportunity to warm up and stretch his arms and legs. Though
any movement on his right arm caused him severe pain. He had to tie his arm to
his body. It was painful when he tied it, sweat streamed down like rain. Anyone can
46
easily tell the pain he was experiencing. Lan’s heart clenched as she watched. She
could only hold onto his left hand, and that’s when she noticed Zheng couldn’t even
move his left hand a bit due to the pain.
Zheng was soaking wet from sweat after tying his right arm. He tried to move his
body and forced a smile. “That’s good enough, my right arm won’t be troublesome
now. Let’s go, we have to speed up.”
Lan was still holding onto his hand. She hesitated and said. “Can we… can we not
go and go back to the control room? I know how to put down the walls. We can stay
there until this spacecraft reaches Earth, then let the armies handle them. We don’t
have to take this risk, especially since you…”
Zheng was surprised for a bit, then he pulled back his hand without her noticing and
pointed to the ground. “Take a look at the ground, aren’t there a lot of holes from
corrosion? Those are from the Aliens’ blood. They are an intelligent species. When
they feel endangered they will injure themselves to break through the wall. That’s
how these three Aliens escaped.”
“If we are to block them off and go back to Earth, they will certainly break through the
wall again when they’re hungry. By that time there will be more Aliens. Remember
those four people they brought beyond room 15? So we have to kill the Queen
before there are four more Aliens. This is our only chance of survival. Otherwise,
Xuan wouldn’t take the risk and go to the arsenal. Because he knows this is the only
chance.”
Zheng laughed and stroke her hair. “Just follow behind us. Rest assured we won’t
give up any comrades. We also won’t put our hope to fate. I will live no matter what!”
Due to Zheng’s determination, the other two had to follow him toward the arsenal.
The gun shots were getting clearer and more intense. Zheng tensed his body. His
running looked wobbling due to having one arm tied up. But even so he adapted to
this style of running after a while.
“Jie, take this longest steel bar. I don’t know if I can kill them instantly with the grenade
and steel bar. If I can’t kill them, then stand behind my back and hold them away with
the bar. I will block them, whether it’s their tongues or tails, I will block their attacks.
But you will have to hold their body away, don’t let them get near. With my current
condition, I can only throw the steel bars and block their attacks, I can’t get into close
combat. Jie, no matter what happens, you can’t take a step backward.”
Then Zheng took the steel bars from Lan and handed the one without a grenade on
it to Jie. They were now only one corner away from the arsenal. After this turn, they
47
would either see two Aliens or pieces of human flesh.
(The gun shots are intense. Xuan probably heard the explosion from before. In other
words, they kept the Aliens’ attention right now. Two stage three Aliens… The first
throw has to hit no matter what! Otherwise we will be dead. Can’t die no matter what!
I will live!)
Zheng took a deep breath, then sprint forward. That speed left the two in shock. He
didn’t slow down when he approached the corner and ran straight into the wall.
The air became thick and dense again. Zheng was getting used to this condition
as his body reached a limit and but before unlock the genetic constraint. He could
push his physical abilities, vision, and reaction speed to the limit, but those combat
instincts, and unlocking the constraint would only appear when he was on the brink
of death. He still couldn’t control them.
Zheng made use of his speed and ran up the wall. The moment he stepped on the
wall, he could see the back of an Alien on the door of the arsenal. The front half of its
body was already inside the room. The other Alien was not in sight. In other words,
the other one was probably already inside the room.
As he was still in mid air, he pulled the ring of the grenade with his mouth. Then he
threw the steel bar. Though he was not left handed after all, so this throw wasn’t
comparable to when he did it with his right hand, in both power and accuracy. He
aimed at the Alien’s belly but it hit just below its waist. The Alien backed out from
the arsenal, when it turned around and looked at Zheng, the grenade on his waist
exploded!
That grenade was inserted into the Alien’s body. The explosion blew up its waist.
Internal organs and yellow blood splashed everywhere. The hall was like splashed
with acid and steel started to corrode. Then the hall was filled with white smoke.
Zheng could see a faint shadow lying on the ground.
“Is it dead?”
Zheng rolled on the ground as he landed. He couldn’t pay attention to the pain from
hitting his right arm. He focused his attention on the shadow on the ground. As he
was ready to throw another bar, that shadow jumped from the ground and charged
toward him. Its speed was too fast. The couldn’t throw another bar in time. An Alien
with a hole on its waist ran out from the smoke then jumped at Zheng.
As he was going to stab the Alien’s head, a hand from behind pushed him away. Jie
ran out from behind. He stabbed into the Alien’s mouth as it shot its tongue out. That
48
tongue pierced Jie’s shoulder.
For a moment, blood splashed everywhere, it painted Zheng’s world red.
Jie didn’t back off even when the Alien’s tongue pierced his shoulder. He stood in
front of Zheng and pushed the steel bar further into the Alien’s head. He didn’t back
off when its blood dripped onto his hands. It wasn’t long before all that was left of
his hands were bones.
“Ah!!!”
Jie moved forward. He kept pushing the bar into the Alien’s head. The blood corroded
more and more of his arm. Until his forearms had became bones. Fortunately,
Zheng reacted immediately. He pulled Jie backward. When the steel bar was pulled
out from the Alien, most of it had already been corroded. Only a short portion of it
was left.
Zheng shouted Lan’s name, at the same time he took fresh water out of his ring and
poured it on Jie’s arms. Lan woke up from the shock, she used the hemostasis spray
on Jie’s arms.
When they were healing Jie’s injuries, that Alien finally wobbled then fell to the
ground. Yellow blood flowed out of the body. Pungent white fog started filling up.
Zheng dragged Jie out of the fog to the back of the hall. He finally saw that the
corrosion of Jie’s arms had stopped. At this time, both his forearms were gone, not
even the bones were left.
Jie had already fainted from the pain. He didn’t wake up until Zheng poured water
on his arm again. Then he laughed. “Good god, an Alien is worth 500 points. You’ve
been keep this from us, huh? Hehe. A little desert eagle means nothing. I can go
straight for an unlimited ammo AK.”
Zheng looked at his arms in silence. Jie continued. “That’s no problem. As long as
I can go back to God’s dimension alive, it won’t take many points to repair a body.
Just that for the rest of this, I will become your burden… Hoho, when I think about it,
it’s better staying with you than Xuan. He would probably discard me by this point.”
Zheng exhaled. “Rest assured, I won’t give up on any comrades… You guys wait here.
Don’t come over until I call you. Otherwise… go back to the control room immediately.
Then follow Lan’s plan and let fate decide your future!” He picked up a steel bar and
went toward the arsenal.
Since the Alien’s blood corroded a big hole in the center, Zheng had to walk along the
wall carefully. Halfway through, someone walked out of the other white fog. It was
49
Zero holding a rifle. His left chest was roughly bandaged with cloth. Blood flowing
through the cloth made him look horrible.
Zheng and Zero smiled at each other bitterly. They both seemed critically injured.
Zero looked at the Alien’s corpse and said. “The other one’s dead? You’re strong.
You can kill them even without any guns?”
“You guys aren’t bad either. Didn’t you kill the other one?”
Zero sighed. “Come inside the arsenal, they are both there.”
Zheng shouted at Jie and Lan. Zero looked shocked as they came over. He took a
deep breath. “Let’s go inside first… It seems your hemostasis spray and bandage are
still effective? Kampa… may not make it.”
The three of them followed Zero into the arsenal. Zheng noticed that this door was
thicker than the other doors, it was almost as thick as the wall. In the middle of this
door was a hole about one meter tall. Obviously corroded using the Alien’s blood.
The other Alien was lying on the left side in pieces.
“It was luck. This Alien tried to get in before the hole was big enough. Then it got
stuck on the door. We shot it for several minutes before it died. But we couldn’t deal
with the second one. If you were just half a minute late, then the three of us would
had died here.”
Zero explained as he walked in front.
Zheng immediately saw Kampa and Xuan inside the arsenal. There was a big hole
in Kampa’s chest. Going by the sharp shape of it, it was obviously stabbed by the
Alien’s tail, but because it didn’t pierce through his body he didn’t die immediately.
Among the three of them, Xuan looked almost unharmed. Aside from some blood,
his outfit looked just like when he first arrived to this world. But one could see the
exhaustion in his eyes.
“I didn’t expect the Aliens to be this powerful.”
Xuan spoke before the three of them got a chance. He looked at them silently. “It’s
my miscalculation. The Aliens never actually fought humans with guns face to face
in the first four movies. So I underestimated their strength. If even the normal Aliens
are this powerful, then I don’t know how strong the Queen is. Perhaps we’re really…”
Zheng ignored him and went to bandage Kampa. After a while, Kampa finally stopped
bleeding. But he looked so feeble as if he could die from any movement.
50
“Then let’s ally up. You’re a team, and we’re a team. Neither of us can betray the other,
nor is there any way to betray. Of course, you can refuse, but I won’t be controlled
by you and become your comrade. Your wisdom and planning are important and
I indeed need them. But similarly you also need our ability and knowledge of this
world. We hold some value to each other. So you can choose.”
Xuan bit his finger, he looked at Zheng and said. “Ok, I agree with your proposal. But
there’s one point you must know… if you can’t keep up with my pace, then I will give
you up for the majority!”
“But I will save you!” Zheng smiled coldly. “I will save you for your wisdom!”
Chapter 7
“Although I don’t want to admit it, our fighting capacity is at the lowest point.” Xuan
muttered with his head down.
Out of the six of them here, Kampa was critically injured. He could die any time without
proper treatments. Jie had lost both his arms. He couldn’t operate any firearms
even though they obtained them. Zheng’s the strongest one, but his right arm suffered
a comminuted fracture and he spent the majority of his Qi already.
Zero had strong sniping skills, but the gun he had was a sub machine gun. Neither
its accuracy nor power were strong enough to kill Aliens. Xuan excelled in analysis
and planning, but he was inferior to Kampa and Zero in using firearms. And not to
mention Lan, even though she trained for a few days, she was even worse than Xuan
in handling firearms.
Zheng nodded. “Yes, we are basically all injured. Luckily… we killed all the Aliens.
Since no Alien came out from room 15 after all this time, there should only be the
Queen inside.”
Xuan said. “Just that one Queen… can kill all of us. We basically don’t have any
means to deal with her. The Queen is approximately three times the size of an Alien.
I will assume her exoskeleton is twice the thickness of an Alien. Even then, normal
bullets can’t penetrate it. Perhaps heavy firearms, sniper rifles, or AP shells damage
it. But we can only find smaller firearms in this room. This is a normal commercial
spacecraft after all.”
Zheng thought for a moment. “What if we can break its exoskeleton? Then all of us
focus shooting the part of it without a shell. Will we be able to kill it?”
51
Xuan looked at Zheng and said. “I won’t do any illogical analysis. If you can break its
shell, then please show me evidence.”
Zheng couldn’t help but picked up a steel bar without grenade. Aside from two bars
tied with grenades, this was the only bar left intact. He stood up, took a deep breath,
focused his Qi then threw the bar. Just like it was before, the bar pierced deeply into
the wall.
Xuan stared at the steel bar, then sighed. “You’re not left handed. Your right hand is
already… It’s my fault. If I knew you have this kind of strength, I wouldn’t let you get
injured no matter what. Yes, like you said if you can break the Queen’s shell, then
we have a high probability of killing it. If your throw can be more accurate and hit her
head, you may even be able to kill it instantly.”
Zheng laughed bitterly. “I can’t get that accurate, I’m using my left hand after all. I
only have the stamina to throw one or two more. Instead of taking this risk to aim for
her head, it’s more practical to just aim for her body.”
“True.” Xuan nodded. “We have a higher chance of success aiming for her body. The
probability of killing the Queen is… about 30%. It’s good enough for us to take this
risk. Then let’s arrange our responsibilities. Zheng…”
Zheng interrupted him. “Wait. You only have to be responsible for your comrades.
Each party will take a separate role. Our responsibilities are to break open the
Queen’s shell and offer fire support. Your responsibilities are to protect us and also
offer fire support. How’s it?”
Xuan bit his finger and said. “Is this what you mean by ally? Ok, we will each be
responsible for our roles. I agree with your suggestion but this way I won’t have to
make my plan with extra attention for your safety. We will share our risks equally.”
Zheng sneered at him. “This is the equality we need. Why do we need your special
protection? So you can discard us in the future? Don’t joke wit me. I need your
wisdom and you need our power. Our relationship is this simple.”
Xuan didn’t say anything more. He took out the weapons in this room then handed
them to Zheng and the other two and also explained to them the advantage of each
gun and how to use them. Lan chose the desert eagle that Zero wasn’t using. Zheng
took a short range semi automatic rifle.
Xuan said after they picked up the guns. “We are actually quite lucky. If we delay just
one or two more days. Then we wouldn’t be facing three but seven Aliens! Those four
people probably became hosts already. So we have to kill the Queen in the shortest
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amount of time. Otherwise when those four Aliens come out, we will certainly be
dead.”
“Aside from that, there’s one more thing you should be aware of. Once the Queen
is injured and start to bleed, we have to kill her as fast as possible. Alien blood is
highly corrosive and the Queen’s location is on the edge of this spacecraft. If her
blood corrodes a large hole, then we will all be sucked into space.”
Zheng praised him silently. If Xuan wasn’t so cold blooded, he was definitely a genius
in analysis. He could consider every detail including everyone’s personality and
reactions. Even though Zheng didn’t agree with some of Xuan’s methods, having
such a person as an ally would be a big help in survival.
Xuan continued. “Everyone tuck the bottom of your trousers into your shoes, just
like what I am doing. We will be going into their nest. Even though their secretions
aren’t highly acidic, they still have some corrosive property. So keeping your shoes
and trousers closed can keep those secretions away in a short period of time. Also,
don’t touch the wall. If you see any cocoons, shoot them immediately. Don’t get
close. That’s basically it. Everything else will rely on you to act accordingly.”
They checked their weapons one last time. Jie and Kampa couldn’t really fight anymore.
Xuan originally planned to have them stay here but Zheng worried that an
Alien may run past them and come to the arsenal. So he insisted on bringing Jie
along. Though Kampa belonged to Xuan’s team. Xuan’s decision was to have him
lie here and let fate decide his life.
As Zheng stepped out of the arsenal, he turned around to look at Kampa. This man
could barely keep his conscious. Zheng felt a sense of melancholy then turned his
eyes away. Looking straight ahead, the area was dim past room 15. That was the
Alien’s nest… it seemed like an entrance to hell. Will it be death… or the end of this
movie?
The five of them went toward room 15. The hall leading up was covered with a mucus
like substance. A layer of the steel underneath was corroded. Fortunately, it seemed
that their acidity lessens over time.
Xuan touched the secretion the wall with a finger cautiously. “The acidity has been
oxidized a lot. This is good, even if our bodies get covered in this secretion during
combat, we won’t have to worry about it being lethal.”
Zheng stepped on it then frowned. “But it’s too slippery. If the floor is covered with
this when we fight the Queen, I’m afraid it’s difficulty to keep our balance.”
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Xuan thought for a moment. “No, even if the battleground is covered with secretion, it
is to our advantage. Then we won’t have to worry about the Queen’s blood corroding
the spacecraft. Compared to movement obstacle, I would rather the battleground
covered with this.”
Zheng smiled bitterly. He looked at Xuan. “To be honest, what are the chances of us
surviving this movie?”
Xuan looked at him calmly. “I told you, 30%. This is considering that you will hit with
the throw. If you miss your first throw, then two or three people will die within thirty
seconds. Within this time frame you have another chance. If you miss again, then we
will all die. Similarly, this is also our last chance. If we can’t get a hold of it, we will all
die after three days. Out of all the decisions I have made in my life, this one has the
lowest probability. It feels rather depressing to think of it.”
Zheng was silent for a while. He patted Xuan’s shoulders and said. “Even though I
don’t know how to comfort you. And that you probably don’t need any one to comfort
you. But… live on, we can all live. No matter what, I won’t die here!”
“Though our chance of survival is really only 30%…”
Xuan replied emotionlessly without taking a look at Zheng. Suddenly, Zero’s voice
came from afar. “There’s something!”
The two looked at each other, then Zheng said to Jie and Lan. “Follow close to me.
Don’t fall behind or do anything else. Let’s go!” He took the lead and headed toward
Zero.
Zero was standing by a corner ahead of them. He waited for the four to come over
silently then pointed to the front. “Can’t get pass, it’s full of this secretion.”
Zheng looked forward and saw the hall behind Zero was blocked with a very thick
layer of secretion. It looked like the inside of an organism.
He carefully sliced the secretion. By sense of touch, this layer isn’t tough. In contrary
he can easily slice through it and it’s only a few centimeters thick.
So Zheng easily cut through the layer but the area behind it gave him a fright. A
thick layer of secretion covered everywhere, the wall, the ground, and the ceiling. If
where they just came from still belonged to the spacecraft, then from this point on,
it was the real Alien’s nest. It felt like walking on flesh, and the walls felt like a living
organism.
Xuan suddenly said. “Zero, the lights are dim here. You have the best vision, take a
look at the things on that side, are those Alien eggs?”
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Zero focused his eyes and looked at it carefully. After quite a while he shook his
head. “I can’t see clearly. The lights are covered with this disgusting secretion. It’s
too dim here.”
Xuan nodded then turned to Zheng. “These Alien eggs won’t attack anything outside
twenty meters. So we can safely approach it. Estimating by the distance we had
passed, this should be around room 3. Moving onward is warehouse 1 and 2. The
Queen is probably there.”
Zheng nodded then said to the people behind him. “You guys stay here. I will go
take a look at whether or not those are eggs… Zero, if something appears behind
me, please take care of it. I trust your aim.”
Zero nodded silently. Zheng walked inside the nest with a laugh. Stepping in, it felt
soft, just like stepping on flesh. This feeling gave him goose bumps. Due to the lack
of adequate lighting, he could only see things up to ten meters. It took him almost a
minute to cautiously approach the eggs like things. When he reached ten meters of
them, he finally recognized these oval shaped eggs.
“Yes, these are the Alien eggs!”
Zheng shouted without turning his head. He suddenly saw the eggs were slowly
opening up. In this movies, this signified that the larvae were coming out. There
were several dozens of eggs here, if all of them releases a larva, they would likely
hide inside the layer of secretion and attack the people. Once someone became a
host, he would become an Alien within several hours.
Without thinking, Zheng raised his semi automatic rifle and started shooting at the
eggs. They were easily shot into pieces. Their shells weren’t too tough, but even so,
a few larvae came out. These larvae jumped at an incredible speed. They closed up
on Zheng within a few jumps.
At the same time, gun shots came from behind. The larvae were shot into pieces in
midair. Zheng turned around and saw Zero holding a submachine gun.
Zheng smiled at him and Zero who had been acting cold this whole time smiled back.
Xuan ran over calmly. He crouched beside the egg shells and studied carefully. He
stood up after a while. “The Queen will enter a feeble state after laying eggs. The
shells of these eggs are soft. They’re different from the toughness that I remember…
I think the Queen laid her eggs not long ago.”
Zheng took a deep breath. “Since we are at this point already, we will have to do
everything to kill that big thing… let’s go! Kill that last Alien and go back to God’s
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place alive!”
The five of them continued onward. Gradually, they couldn’t make out that this hall
once belonged to a spacecraft. All the sides were filled with secretion, there were
even big holes on the walls. These holes turned the path from room 3 to warehouse
3 into a maze.
Zheng suddenly said as he was walking. “I am totally lost. I’ve lost my sense of
direction since the last turn.”
Jie laughed. “Yeah right? This place looks the same no matter where you go. This
disgusting stuff is everywhere. You want to find the direction here, that would be…”
“I can.” Xuan said. “If it’s only reconstructing the map, leave that to me. We will reach
warehouse 2 by going straight down this way. But I am thinking if it’s suitable to just
walk straight in…”
Zheng interrupted him. “Suitable! We have five people here and that’s all we have.
Don’t try to trick the majority into agreeing with you then force someone to be a
bait or something. You know what they call it when the majority bullies the minority
legally? That’s fascism! Shit, if you want to be the bait I will instantly agree with it, but
don’t use other people’s lives as disposable!”
Xuan replied calmly. “I can be the bait, but can you guarantee that you can kill the
Queen immediately when she appears? If you don’t want anyone to be the scout,
then come up with another plan.”
As the tension became these two grew, Lan interjected with a smile. “Don’t be so
serious. Actually I don’t think it’s effective to have someone scout. The Aliens are intelligent
life forms. They are skilled in sneak attacks. If only two people were walking
together, then they will attack the one nearest to them. But if they see one person
walking in front while four people are on the back with firearms, they won’t come out
like idiots. They will probably sneak attack the four on the back first. What do you
think of this deduction?”
Xuan bit his finger and said. “Your deduction is correct… Is my mind starting to become
disordered due to fear and nervousness? Then… I won’t say anymore opinions.
I will continue leading the way.”
Zheng looked at Xuan’s back, then turned to Zero. “Zero, the previous few times I
felt a sense of danger when I encountered Aliens. I remember you and Kampa also
have this ability to sense danger. Whoever senses danger first later, open fire at that
direction, ok?”
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“I am feeling in danger now… as if something is staring at us. It’s feels cold, like it is
regarding us as food. This feeling is terrible. Know why Xuan is getting so anxious?
He’s probably feeling the same thing. To be honest, I feel so agitated that I want to
start shooting at all directions.”
Zheng looked at Xuan again. This man was still looking so emotionless and calm, but
when Zheng carefully looked at his eyes, he could see agitation and fear, emotions
that wouldn’t appear on an intelligent person like him.
The five of them had reached the end of the hall. In front of them was a wide open
area. The floor was covered in Alien secretions. Other than that, there were several
dozens of big cases. It seemed like this was warehouse 2.
Zheng was still pondering Zero’s words. Suddenly his heart tensed, and he raised
his head. There were four unconscious people hanging upside down on the ceiling.
The two middle aged men and that young man and woman. Their whole body was
covered in white secretions aside from their head.
Xuan looked up following Zheng, then immediately said. “Zero! Shoot them down!
Doesn’t matter if you kill them!”
Then he immediately turned to Zheng. “What’s our mission? Kill all the Aliens! There
are definitely Aliens inside them, so we must kill them before the Queen appears!
Otherwise even if we manage to kill the Queen, her blood can corrode the spacecraft.
So we have to be out of this place as soon as the Queen dies. But what if the Aliens
within them suddenly hatch? Do we still have to chase those four little Aliens?”
Zheng watched as Zero raised his gun and shot at them. He nodded silently. “You’re
right. I don’t have anything to say… We are all just struggling. I will only save my
mercy for my comrades, don’t think of me as so stubborn.”
Xuan smiled, he raised his head to look at those four. Zero had already gunned
down two people, the other two were about to get shot down. Then he suddenly
remembered something and his face changed. “Wait. Wait. Zero, everyone, hurry
and get away from this place! It’s a trap!”
As he finished, they felt their feet sunk. As if the whole floor was collapsing.
Xuan shouted immediately. “Stay where you are, listen to me! Warehouse 1 is right
below warehouse 2. These four people are probably a trap set by the Queen. She
wants us to stay in this place without moving! Zero, hurry up and kill them. The Queen
must be below us. The floor has already corroded. Everyone…”
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Just as Zero finished shooting the other two people, the floor under them let out a
grating sound. Before they can react, the whole floor collapsed.
Fortunately, that thick layer of secretion saved them. Even though they fell from ten
meters high, the secretion kept them from any injuries. Especially Zero and Zheng
could sit right up.
As Zheng sat up, he immediately started shooting above him. He could feel that
danger is approaching, and the source was right on top of him! Since the start of this
movie, he had sensed danger a few times, but never once was as strong as this time.
Sure enough, a large shadow dropped down from the ceiling. With a loud boom, it
landed in front of the five people. As Zheng looked at it carefully, it’s an especially
huge Alien!
It’s three times as big as a normal Alien, seven to eight meters tall, and over ten
meters long including its tail. This monster was just like Death in nightmares! Zheng
couldn’t even see its movements before its tail lashed at his belly. With enormous
pain, he was sent flying over ten meters away.
Chapter 8
This Alien was the Queen! And it was much bigger than the one in the movie.
The Queen’s speed was so fast that in the blink of an eye, her tail sent Zheng flying.
With a loud bang, Zheng landed over ten meters away. The rest of them recovered
from the initial shock, but they were already standing right under the Queen’s mouth.
There was no place to hide.
Zero’s reaction was the fastest. The moment Zheng was hit, he rolled to the side and
at the same time started shooting at the Queen’s head. The bullets hit the Queen’s
shell but all of them were repelled. Their contact ignited sparks, you could see how
hard the shell was.
Zero’s aim was good enough that some of the bullets hit her tongue. Yellow blood
splashed from her tongue. She started to scream like crazy and turned around as
she swiped at Zero. Luckily Zero rolled forward with a close call. This swipe only
scratched his back and blood started flowing out.
Xuan was the second one to recover. His eyes became sharp. He ran toward the
Queen. When he was several meters away from her, he accurately hit the Queen’s
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tongue with dual pistols. Consecutive shots crushed the front of the tongue into
pieces.
The Queen’s scream got even louder. She lashed her tail at Xuan. Before he could
even react, the tail hit his left shoulder and knocked him over to one of the cases ten
meters away. His whole body got embedded into the steel case.
Zero never stopped shooting with his submachine gun. He kept circling on the side
of the Queen, avoiding her tongue and tail. But no matter fast he ran, the Queen was
faster than him. She suddenly turned around, and as Zero tried to roll away, her claw
had already got a hold of his left arm. At the same time that tongue shot into his right
arm, no, it crushed his right arm. Zero’s right arm had totally disappeared.
“Ah!”
Zero let out a cry of pain. Blood flowing out of his mouth. A piece of his lungs also
disappeared from the attack, resulting in blood from his breathing. Fortunately, the
Queen didn’t immediately kill him, she started devouring the flesh of his right arm.
Lan only recovered from Zero’s cry. She raised the desert eagle with trembling hands
and started pulling the trigger, it was an unlimited ammo weapon after all. The power
of this gun actually shot through the Queen’s shell. Even though it didn’t seem to
damage her all that much. It created over ten little holes on the Queen.
The Queen threw Zero away and turned to Lan and Jie. Then she started screaming.
Zheng didn’t die from the attack. Even though he was hit by the tail unprepared, his
body was much stronger than a normal person. The attack only cut through the skin
of his belly and the intestines, but didn’t cut him in half.
When Zheng landed after the attack, his body went into a frozen state. Aside from
feeling pain, he couldn’t move his body. So he could only watch the battleground,
from when Zero started attacking, to Xuan got knocked away, to the Queen crushed
Zero’s right arm, and now the Queen is facing Lan and Jie. Zheng was getting more
and more anxious. And as he was losing more and more blood through the broken
intestines, he was starting to get unconscious.
(I will die, will die… I am going to die right now! No, I can’t die here, I want to live on,
go back to the real world alive, go back with Lori, no matter what, no matter what I
have to live… I don’t want to die!)
Zheng felt that sensation of something within him unlocked again. Loads of information
streamed into his brain, including how long he can last in this state, how to
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recover his strength as soon as possible, how to use the blood energy that he had,
and much more information… on how he can survive!
“Ah!!!”
Zheng stood up. His instinct took control of the blood energy and circulated it
through his whole body. This increased his vitality temporarily. Then he tied a
knot with his intestines, so that they wouldn’t hinder his movements. That pain was
originally unimaginable, but at this moment, it felt more like a stimulant. The pain
constantly stimulating him, keeping his mind conscious.
The Queen was now running toward Lan and Jie, her claw swiped at the two. Jie
knocked Lan away as he tried to roll away. But the Queen was faster. Lan barely got
away but the Queen caught Jie during his roll. She held him up with the claw pierced
into his left chest. Jie cough out a lot of blood. Not sure if his heart was injured or
even if he was still alive.
Zheng’s eyes were bloody red. He pulled out the steel bar from behind and charged
at the Queen at incredible speed, every step he took crossed several meters. As
he approached the Queen, he jumped up over three meters high. He pulled the
grenade’s ring with his teeth then stabbed the bar into the Queen’s waist. At the
same time, a claw knocked him away.
With an explosion came the Queen’s cry. The grenade blasted a large hole in the
monster’s waist!
Zheng was knocked several meters away, but he didn’t fall to the ground. Instead
he kicked at the ground and jumped right back to the Queen’s direction. He didn’t
pause a bit despite his whole right arm was dripping in blood.
That swipe from the Queen caught onto his right arm and the claw took over half his
right arm when it pulled away. Immense pain struck him, a normal person would had
fainted from the pain, but the moment Zheng felt pain, he instinctively blocked off
the pain signals. Yet, he knew he didn’t have much time left.
Blood! Yes, blood!
A human will go into a coma after losing twenty percent of his blood. And losing a
third will be fatal.
Zheng didn’t know how much blood he had lost already. He started bleeding since
the first encounter with the Aliens. Then when his belly and intestines were cut off, he
suffered a massive hemorrhage. Losing his right arm just then only bled a little. The
amount of blood in his body was probably reaching its limit. But the lack of blood
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was only one of the danger he was in. The other danger was genetic breakdown
from unlocking his constraint.
Every time after unlocking the genetic constraint, aside from the pain he could feel
that his whole body was breaking down. It was almost impossible for a normal organism
to unlock the genetic constraint because big alterations in genetics were in
themselves fatal to the organism. And this time that he was facing the Queen, he
unlocked the constraint by a deeper state than the previous two times.
He knew he didn’t have much time left. Critical injuries, loss of blood, genetic breakdown,
any of those could erase him from this world. If he failed, it didn’t even need
the Queen to kill him. He was already half way toward death.
Must finish the battle within three minutes!
Zheng was rushing to where he dropped his rifle. The other steel bar was in Lan’s
hands, so in comparison the rifle’s location was closer and a better choice. The
Queen had lost her shell on the waist, even a semi automatic rifle could damage
her. The only thing he had to be aware of was the Queen’s attacks. That speed and
power wasn’t something he could stand even a hit.
The Queen screamed, that grenade wasn’t too powerful. If it exploded on the shell
instead of inside the Queen’s body, then it couldn’t even break open the shell. As
she saw Zheng running at her direction, she growled then raised her tail and lashed
at Zheng.
As Zheng picked up the rifle, he could hear the sound of the lash approaching his
head. He immediately stood up without thinking. It was impossible to dodge it, so
instead taking the hit with his head, he’d rather make use of his remaining right arm…
wasn’t there still a fraction of his right arm left?
With a thump, he felt like his right chest had been hit by a truck. Blood gushed out
from his mouth and new information appeared in his head, right ribs suffered a comminuted
fracture, bones pierced into his right lung, internal bleeding and insufficient
oxygen. He would die in two to three minutes!
Zheng had gone all out. The moment the Queen’s tail hit him, he clamped onto the
tail with his right arm desperately. Even though it wasn’t too tight, he avoided getting
knocked away again. He swung for almost a circle on the Queen’s tail then landed
on the other side of the Queen, the side where her shell broke!
He immediately aimed the rifle at her waist. With a few shots, yellow blood gushed
out from the waist. The blood might be terrifying to normal people, but Zheng could
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resist the corrosion a bit. Blood got onto his body and burned his skin black. It didn’t
corrode his body like it did to Jie’s arms.
The real danger was the Queen’s follow up attacks. Zheng gritted his teeth then
jumped at the Queen. Since he was risking his life anyway, he might as well give the
Queen a little surprise.
“Die!”
Zheng jumped at the injured part of the Queen’s waist. He stepped his feet into her
flesh, stabbed the rifle into her waist and started firing. The Queen’s growls gradually
weakened.
After about ten shots, the Queen got him off her waist. And before he fell to the
ground, her claw got a hold of him. The claw pierced through his left chest, and he
gushed out more blood.
“Lan… Lan! Give me the steel bar!”
Zheng was exhausted at this point. All those actions had squeezed the last bit of his
potential. His Qi was almost gone, the blood energy was being used to keep his body
alive, his consciousness was fading. It was the will of living on that was supporting
him, but this was also coming to an end.
Lan suffered the least injury among them. Even though the injury on her shoulder
looked scary, it was nothing compared to the others. She immediately got herself up
upon hearing Zheng, then ran at the Queen’s direction without even looking at her.
At the same time, gun shots came from the side of the Queen. Zero was lying on his
stomach and throwing up blood, but he kept shooting at the Queen’s waist with the
submachine gun. Before he got a few shots off, the Queen’s tail knocked him away.
He was on the brink of death.
Lan kept running toward the Queen, but the Queen might had felt that Lan wasn’t
a threat. She banged Zheng against the corner of one of the steel cases. Zheng
could hear the sound of his spine breaking in half. Aside from the immense pain, he
realized he had lost sensation of his body below the belly. His whole body was bent
at a sharp angle.
(Don’t want to die, I don’t want to die!)
Zheng started roaring. His final struggle before death allowed him to gather a small
amount of Qi on his left hand. He also forced all the blood energy into his hand. Then
he clawed at the Queen’s shell. Inch by inch, the corrosive property of blood energy
appeared for the first time. His fingers clawed five holes on the Queen’s shell.
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“Zheng! Catch!”
Lan’s speed was rather limited. When she saw Zheng’s body snapped, she rushed
over and at the same time threw the steel bar toward him. Right after she threw the
bar, the Queen’s tail stabbed into her chest and opened up a large hole in the middle
of her chest. It seemed like she wasn’t going to live much longer also.
Zheng forced the claw off him before the steel bar arrived. Then he bit at the Queen’s
shell, while his remaining left hand caught the steel bar. Yet at the same time, the
Queen’s other claw slapped at him and totally crushed his lower body. That slap split
his body in halves.
Zheng couldn’t feel pain anymore. He bit on the Queen’s claw and wouldn’t let go
of it, afraid that he would fall to the ground. He didn’t have legs anymore, if he falls
off, then he wouldn’t be able to do anything even with the steel bar. This was his last
chance!
His conscious was fading, Zheng could feel his body was turning cold. He knew this
was the prelude to dying. It was said that someone struggled for several minutes
after being cut in half from the waist. If it was in a freezing place, some people could
even struggler for over half an hour. But he had already suffered critical injuries, after
cutting him in the waist, he was about to die any second now.
Since he couldn’t move his mouth, he tried to place the grenade’s ring over the
Queen’s claw. Then he pulled it, but before he had time to do anything else, he
heard an attack coming toward his head. It was either the other claw or the tongue.
Pah! Pah! A few gun shots came from not far away. Xuan stood trembling next to a
steel case. One of his arms had broken in half. His waist was bent at a weird angle.
These gun shots came from Xuan’s remaining hand. He accurately hit the Queen’s
tongue again. His short distance aiming was proven to be excellent again and the
pistol he chose was exceptionally powerful. These shots broke off the front part of
the tongue and changed the tongue’s direction. The tongue barely scratched the
side of Zheng’s head.
“Hurry up and do what you need! My vision is going blind!” Xuan shouted while
shooting non stop.
Zheng put his left hand on the claw. Then he let go of his mouth and concentrated
all his strength to push himself up. He jumped over two meters from the claw and
toward the Queen’s head.
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With a sizz, he pierced the steel bar into the side of the Queen’s head and through
her mouth. The Queen had raised her other claw halfway by this time, but before
she could swipe Zheng, the grenade exploded with a bang. The explosion blasted
Zheng’s left arm into pieces and along with it, the Queen’s head. Shrapnel, and
pieces of the steel bar hit his body. Yet these shrapnel were so minor compared to
the injuries he already had. He closed his eyes and let himself fell to the ground.
His Qi was all used up, his blood energy was almost empty, his body was reaching
the limit from unlocking the genetic constraint, he had lost over half his blood. All
these injuries could kill any strong man instantly… Zheng didn’t have energy to move
a muscle. Even just closing his eyes made him feel exhausted. He felt tired, he just
wanted to find a place and sleep. Yet, he felt that there was still something he had to
do…
“Fuck you God, hurry up and repair our bodies… The points, deduct them however
you want…”
Zheng vaguely heard Jie’s almost intangible shouting, and along with it, a very familiar
weeping from a girl. This made him try to open his eyes, yet he was too tired to do it.
If it wasn’t for this weeping, he already would had fallen into a deep sleep.
Suddenly a warm sensation enclosed him. He felt as if he was in a hot spring. His
whole body felt cozy and comfortable, yet it didn’t last long. After the comfort was
extreme pain. This pain stimulated him to wake up.
Once Zheng woke up, he felt startled. He recalled that last encounter with the Queen
and it made his whole body cold. That was a monster over seven meters tall and
almost twenty meters in length. Even an elephant would only take a few lashes from
its tail yet he still fought it in close combat. The whole thought of it scared him.
It wasn’t until now that he had a look of the surrounding. This was God’s dimension,
a large platform and a floating sphere of light, and the darkness to the sides. This
was the only safe place in the world of horror movies.
He was floating in a beam of light shot from the sphere. There were four other dimmer
beams. Xuan was floating in the dimmest one because his injuries weren’t as critical.
Then it was Zero and Jie. The luminance of Lan’s beam was just below his.
Four? Zheng counted again, yes, only four. Kampa wasn’t in this platform. That
Russian mercenary didn’t make it. This made him a bit down. Only those that survived
could come back to this dimension.
Then he looked at his own body. The pain was subsiding yet it was still unbearable.
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His lower body was gone, both his arms were gone, his torso was filled with shrapnel.
Luckily there were only scratches on his face, it didn’t get hit by the shrapnel.
His muscles were wriggling like they were alive. Under this beam, his muscles and
bones were growing back in visible speed.
Zheng didn’t want to look at his body anymore, the visible grow of muscles, bones,
organs disgusted him. He looked down beyond his body and saw two girls with
teary eyes looking at them. One was the woman Jie created, the other was Lori. This
fifteen-year-old girl looked so heart broken.
Zheng still couldn’t talk. His throat was cut by a shrapnel. He opened his mouth at
Lori and tried to send his message with his lips. Even though he didn’t know if she
could understand it.
“I came back alive… Lori, I kept our promise, and came back alive!”
Chapter 9
The repairing process took two hours. Zheng’s repairing took the longest, everyone
else’s finished after an hour. As his repairing finished, the beam suddenly changed
from sunlight color to a green light. Zheng kind of understood that this was God
repairing his genetics.
He still couldn’t explain what condition he was in after unlocking the genetic constraint.
In that state, a lot of information rushed into his brain. Even though he could
only reach this state during combat, it was still terrific. At least he survived after
unlocking it. If he could reach this state under any circumstance, like when he was
thinking, deducing, and coming up with plans… anyhow, when he can reach the state
anytime he wanted, then he could become an almighty human.
Zheng looked below from mid air. Jie was laughing the loudest. He held his wife in
his arms and laughed. “Shit, that was a close call but we also made a huge profit.
1000 points from the basic reward, 500 points from each Alien, 1000 points and a
rank D reward from completing the mission. You have to take risks for profits but with
so many points I am OK with it. Haha!”
Xuan also checked his rewards from God then said. “Body repair cost 107 points.
Does it cost so much normally?”
Jie shook his head. “Repairing a part of your body doesn’t cost much, like if you lost
an arm or a leg and need to repair them, that is cheap. But if your life is in danger and
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you don’t know where to repair, you will need to use the whole body repair function.
It will repair every little problem that you have and adds up to a lot of points. You have
it easy with just over a hundred points. I used over two hundred points this time.”
Lan looked bitter. “My repair cost over four hundred points. I only have about 1600
points left. And this also included that 100 points from giving explanation to newbies.
It takes too many points for repair. The only good thing is that rank D reward.”
Jie laughed and said. “Be content with it. Movies like this where God changed the
plot usually end in a wipe. But we have five people survived. Do you really think it’s
that easy to get the rewards? Thanks to Zheng, otherwise we would be inside the
Queen’s stomach now.”
The mention of the word Queen turned their face pale. But they survived after all, this
was the most important thing. Zheng then closed his eyes and connected to God. A
big list of rewards was listed in his brain. 1000 basic points, 1000 points from killing
two Aliens, 3000 points from killing the Queen, 1000 points and a rank D reward for
the mission. Other than these, there was also the line ‘Breaking the genetic limit’…”
Though aside from those words, there was no explanation.
That was 6000 bucks, no, 6000 points, and the reward was also good stuff. Zheng
got excited from it. But when he looked at the amount of points he had, he was dazed.
Only 4170 points left. He remembered having 276 points left from the last time. That
meant his body repair cost over two thousand points. This made him laugh bitterly.
You can imagine how critical his injuries were. He felt lucky that God could still save
him from that.
Anyway, being alive and having four thousand points made him feel fulfilled. He
disconnected from God and enjoyed the healing process inside the green light. It
took over an hour before he was lowered to the ground.
Once on the ground, Jie gave him a big hug, then Lori jumped onto him crying. She
immediately bit on his shoulder, tears were dripping onto his body.
She cared too much for her love and went through both extreme sadness and happiness
in this time. Plus, she was only a fifteen-year-old girl. You can’t expect a high
school girl to get over issues concerning death so easily.
Lan originally held out her arms as if she was going to run into him, but when she
saw Zheng and Lori’s faces, she put down her hands and stood aside with a smile.
Jie laughed. “Ok, ok. At least pay attention to where you are if you want to make
out. Haha. Everyone, I will take my leave now. If you have anything to say, wait till
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tomorrow morning. The trial this time was too dangerous. I will have my wife make
you guys a big meal tomorrow…” Then he picked up his woman and ran to his room.
Zheng shook his head and said. “You know how to activate your room right? Use your
imagination to design the room. Other people can’t get in it without your permission.
Oh right, about the points… wait till tomorrow, we will discuss how to use those points.
If we had heavy firearms in this movie, then we wouldn’t have so many casualties.
Xuan is definitely better than me in this field. We will discuss how to deal with future
movies tomorrow.”
Then he picked up Lori just like Jie did and ran toward his room laughing. Xuan’s
voice suddenly came from behind.
“Thank you… for this time.”
“You don’t have to thank me, if you didn’t save me with your gun at the last moment,
we would have all been dead… So are we still allies? Haha…”
Zheng replied without turning his head around. Then he walked into his room laughing.
Only three people were left in the platform, Xuan, Zero, and Lan who had been
staring at his back…
Once inside the room, Zheng put Lori on the sofa. Her face had turned red since
outside the platform. She closed her eyes as soon as she got into the room. As
someone that just lost her virginity to Zheng, she immediately associated his actions
with something, especially when Zheng put her on the sofa.
“Don’t, not here… inside the bedroom.” Lori said in a very light voice.
Unexpectedly, Zheng didn’t do anything weird. Instead he placed his head on her
laps and just lay there without moving. Lori was surprised at first then after a while,
she put her hands on his head silently.
Lori said in a low voice. “… I was worried about you, especially how you appeared in
front of me… I was so scared.”
“Hm…”
“Zheng, I am scared. Nana said you will come back after a day. And maybe one of
us will suddenly disappear, just like the other woman she knew. Or perhaps we will
both disappear… I am scared that I might not ever see you again. Even if I am going
to die, I want to see you one last time…”
She paused, then continued in a light voice. “I’ve been thinking the whole day today,
Zheng. If I didn’t die back then, then you wouldn’t be disappointed with reality, and
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wouldn’t have been given the YES and NO choice… you also wouldn’t have gotten
injured like this. I was scared when I saw you came back soaked in blood, and every
part of your body was injured. Zheng, I am really scared of losing you…” Lori couldn’t
continue anymore. She held onto his head and started crying quietly.
Zheng felt tired. Aside from physical exhaustion, his heart was really tired. Struggling
in that hopeless place, every step had to be carefully considered, every crisis he had
to put his life on the line, up until that last fight of desperation. He had exhausted
every little bit of his energy mentally. Once it was safe, he didn’t even want to move
a bit. He just wanted to lie on Lori’s laps and rest.
“Won’t die… Lori, won’t die! All of us won’t die! I promised you, I will bring you back
to the real world, to watch that aurora, then cross the Pacific Ocean on a cruise, lie
on the deck during midnight and count the stars, to see the statues in Easter Island,
ponder all the secrets of mankind, then go listen to the pipe music of Scotland, and
also pay tribute for the ancient civilizations under the Greek Pantheons, then we will
go back to the Great Wall of China. We will walk up to Bada Ling holding hands… I
will live no matter what! I haven’t done any of these I promised you… We will live no
matter what!”
A whole night without words. Zheng was too tired. He slept peacefully holding onto
Lori. The next morning at 10am, he slowly opened his eyes and saw Lori’s face right
in front of him. She was still sleeping with her eyes closed, but it was like their hearts
were linked, shortly after he opened his eyes, she woke up.
“Morning.” Lori yawned.
Zheng loved how she acted. In his memories, they sometime slept together when
they were about eleven. When she just woke up, she would look so moe just like a
cat. Before he realized it, he had already kissed her.
“That’s dirty! Doing this so early in the morning you pervert! You haven’t even rinsed
your mouth! Get away, you lay on me for a whole night already…”
“Then… it wouldn’t matter if I lie a little longer…”
“No, pervert…”
By the time the two of them came out from their room, it was already 12pm. Zheng
saw there were already a few people standing on the platform. Xuan, Zero and Jie
stood in a circle, it seemed like they were discussing something. Considering Xuan’s
ability, he realized something might have happened. He immediately grabbed Lori
and ran over to them.
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Xuan had changed to a new pair of glasses, dressed in black casual clothes. It looked
normal but the cold and expressionless face gave Zheng a different feel.
Zero and Jie didn’t change much, they both changed to new clothes. When they saw
Zheng came over, they nodded. Xuan was the first to speak. “Once Lan comes, I will
let you know my analysis.”
Before Zheng could speak, Lori said with a blush. “Jie, where is Nana? Is she in the
room?”
Jie laughed. “She’s making a fruit and cream platter with Lan. She had been talking
about you since this morning.”
Lori pinched Zheng then hopped toward Jie’s room. Shortly after, Lan came out
laughing.
Xuan saw that the five of them were all there then said. “I found three problems,
first is human creation… according to the conditions, it seems like you can even create
a God. Because it’s not limited to race, age, gender, ability, as long as you can
imagine it, you can create anything. I tried it yesterday but there are actually hidden
limitations… Arnold!”
Ten seconds later, a huge man of about 2.5 meters tall came out from Xuan’s room.
He stood besides Xuan without moving. His face was emotionless and cold like
Xuan’s.
“Originally I chose Alien and Hunter, but God didn’t give me any response. It seems
like living beings non native to Earth are not available. So I chose human. Height
max out at 2.5 meters, I didn’t test gender, it’s not relevant to combat ability. Age
is set at 22 when a person’s physical ability is at their highest. Ability wise, I originally
imagined an all powerful god, but God didn’t create any life. So I gradually
decreased his ability, I also tested the genetic mutations and bloodlines you can exchange
from God, none of those can be created. So I assume it can only use humans
as a blueprint.”
“Then I imagined the limit of a human, and gradually reduced his ability. When he was
about twice the physical fitness of a normal person, God created him. At the same
time, I also gave him the experience and personality of a special agent. Basically
that’s it. Because he looked strong, I gave him the name Arnold…”
Zheng and Jie laughed secretly. Little did they think that Xuan would choose such a
name.
“This is not the key point!”
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Xuan continued calmly. “He can also get enhanced! I tried to let God give him a point
of intelligence, and God actually did enhance him. Do you know what this means?
It means that the being you created can definitely go into the horror movies! It only
takes 500 points to create a fighter twice as strong as a normal person. Then the
rewards from one movie can give you two such bodyguards. You were all wrong!
The free human creation God gives you isn’t to create women for sex, it’s so you can
protect your life, to give you a chance to create a bodyguard!”
“Why do so many people die in this world? Especially the physically weaker people
are more likely to die. I think it’s because a lot of people use the first 1000 points to
enhance themselves, then use the free human creation for a woman. But what can
you accomplish with 1000 points? Can it double your attributes? Why not make two
loyal bodyguards instead! God actually gave you hints early on, how to survive when
you are still weak. That’s bodyguards! Such is a mortal’s wisdom… the inferiority of
human nature…”
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