Chapter 74
Z Nation Border
“Captain, something doesn’t feel right,” said a member of the Hua nation’s border patrol team, currently on patrol along the border.
Huang Xingtian’s ears were the sharpest in the entire team. The border between the Hua nation and Z nation was mostly primitive forest, a frequent site for poaching and cross-border trafficking. A few years ago, it had been a den for many cross-border criminal gangs. It was only after years of joint efforts between the two nations that the border’s security had been more or less brought under control. Now, their team’s daily task was to patrol these borderlines and occasionally help some wild animals.
The team captain, Xiao Yan, was scouting ahead. His military boots crunched on the dry branches on the ground. He brushed aside the branches in front of him and looked back. “Is there a wild beast approaching?”
Huang Xingtian’s face was grave. He lay on the ground and listened for a moment. “No. It sounds like some large machine is operating underground.”
“Underground?”
Xiao Yan looked around. This was the first time they had patrolled this area. It was a primitive forest with many poisonous insects and wild beasts, and the climate was also quite harsh. It had previously been considered a no-man’s land. They had been slowly exploring it from the edges for the past few days.
Huang Xingtian lay on the ground and listened again, then said with certainty, “Captain, there’s definitely something down there. And it’s not small.”
Xiao Yan’s face also darkened. A large machine operating underground in such a remote primitive forest… it was definitely not going to be easy to deal with. He thought for a moment and said, “Let’s withdraw first. We’ll report back and then follow the superiors’ command.”
A gang of this scale, and in such a complex terrain, was not something their small team of five could handle. The best course of action was to withdraw first and then bring a larger force to investigate.
After some discussion, the group decided to leave first. They followed their original path back. After walking for a few dozen meters, one of the team members suddenly let out a soft cry. “What was that?!”
Xiao Yan drew his gun and scanned the surroundings. “Which direction?”
“Southwest. A white figure just appeared. It looked like a male, about 1.6 meters tall,” the person who had just spotted it recalled. “Bald, with long limbs, and extremely fast. It disappeared in a flash.”
“Captain, it might be the people from underground,” Huang Xingtian said.
Xiao Yan loaded his pistol and said in a deep voice, “We’ve probably been spotted. Don’t make a sound. Pay attention to your surroundings and withdraw slowly.”
They were now more than five hundred meters from the edge of the forest. A few minutes would be enough. As long as they got out of this forest, they could send a signal to the base.
The five of them slowly retreated. Xiao Yan suddenly felt a jolt in his knee, as if he had been electrocuted. His leg went weak, and he fell to one knee.
“Captain, what’s wrong?”
He raised his hand. “I’m fine.” He looked around and, gritting his teeth, tried to stand up, but he found that the numb, painful sensation was slowly spreading from his knee up his entire leg. Soon, his upper body could no longer support itself, and he collapsed to the ground.
The other four were shocked. Just as they were about to help him up, they also felt a sharp pain spreading from their legs. In a matter of seconds, all of them lost consciousness and fell to the ground.
…
When Xiao Yan woke up again, it was to a fishy smell. It was a mix of seafood and the earthy smell after a rain. It made his stomach churn.
He opened his eyes and found himself in a very cold room. The ceiling was made of metal, like a tin hut. The light in the room was dim, and he couldn’t see the other furnishings clearly. He moved and found that his limbs were bound by a soft yet very tough strap. He couldn’t move at all. Underneath him was something as cold as ice.
“Captain… are you here?”
A voice suddenly came from his back left. He recognized it as Huang Xingtian’s and quickly answered. Soon, a series of rustling sounds came from all around. The five of them confirmed with each other that they were all locked in here.
“What the hell is this place? Why is it so cold?”
“The temperature must be minus thirty or forty degrees.”
Fortunately, it was winter. They had dressed warmly before entering the forest. Otherwise, they would have frozen to death just by being locked in here. And with the cold, the fishy, foul smell was getting stronger and stronger.
Huang Xingtian coughed twice. “What is this smell? It’s disgusting.”
Xiao Yan tried everything but couldn’t get the restraints off. He gasped for breath, his mouth filled with the fishy taste. “Our situation is very dangerous right now. No matter who has imprisoned us here, I hope everyone can grit their teeth and not reveal anything about the base.” From the looks of it, they were likely to die.
“Don’t worry, Captain. We’ve been prepared for this since the day we enlisted.”
“Exactly. We will never betray the organization.”
The moment they finished speaking, a “beep” came from outside the door, and then it creaked open, rising upwards. The light in the corridor outside was very bright, making Xiao Yan squint. Before the door closed again, he saw that the corridor outside was also made of a gleaming silver metal and was spotlessly clean.
Two people came in from outside. They pressed a button by the door, and the lights in the room turned on.
Only then did the five of them see that they were in a room that looked like a laboratory. They were lying side-by-side on five single beds, their wrists, ankles, and necks tightly bound with red ropes, making them unable to move.
The lab was filled with gleaming silver instruments they didn’t recognize. The strangest thing was that the walls were embedded with transparent, fish-tank-like containers filled with a clear, blue-green liquid. Inside, many strange creatures they had never seen before were swimming around. Some looked like fish but had fat limbs and, most importantly, no head. Others were long and thin like snakes but had a large, round head with countless sharp teeth. These alien-like creatures were not the most terrifying thing.
The most horrifying thing was the two people who had just come in. Their bodies were smooth, as if they were wearing a white bodysuit. They were silver-white from head to toe, without a single wrinkle. Their hands and feet were long and thin, and their facial features were also covered by the white skin.
“The one I saw in the forest was him…” the team member who had seen the person in the forest before stammered in a low voice.
Xiao Yan also sucked in a sharp breath. What on earth are these things? These two… are they human? Was their whole body covered in a layer of white substance?
The two of them entered the room. By the door was a black wardrobe. They opened it, and inside were two familiar white lab coats. They put them on and also put on masks and gloves.
The five of them felt their scalps tingle. They were now almost certain that these two were not wearing a white covering, but that was their skin!
“Who are you?” Xiao Yan shouted, enduring his horror.
The two of them slowly turned around. Their white eyes, like sculptures, blinked. They exchanged a few words in a language they couldn’t understand. One of them took out two chip-like things from a gray box. A sharp, blade-like object suddenly extended from their fingertips. They made a cut on their wrist and inserted the chip. Then, their skin healed at a visible speed. And when they had cut their skin so deeply, no blood had flowed out. From Xiao Yan’s angle, he could just see that inside their cut arm were also white, fiber-like things, like cooked chicken breast. He sucked in a sharp breath. What on earth are these things?
After the two of them had installed the chips, they began to speak in a language they could understand. “Soldiers of the Hua nation?” one of the taller ones asked, his voice a little hoarse.
The few of them gritted their teeth and said nothing.
The person was not annoyed. He walked up to Xiao Yan, and his gloved hand took hold of his neck. Xiao Yan’s body stiffened, but the person’s hand did not tighten. Instead, it went down his collar, searching, until all his clothes had been removed.
He felt like a chicken lying on a cutting board, waiting to be slaughtered, being examined coldly. After a long while, the person said, “No positioning device in the body. Check the others.”
Soon, the two of them had stripped the other four and checked them, confirming that there were no positioning devices on their bodies before walking to the side and picking up a black briefcase.
The shorter white person walked to the computer in the center of the room and operated it for a few moments. Huang Xingtian’s bed suddenly moved, sliding to the center of the room.
The temperature in the room was extremely low. After their clothes were stripped, the few of them soon began to shiver from the cold. When he was pushed to the center of the room, he felt the temperature drop even lower. With a “smack,” a glass panel on the wall opened. The fishy, foul smell rushed out, instantly filling the entire room. The long, snake-like creature with a giant head crawled out of the tank. The white person reached out, grabbed its tail, and lifted it up, placing it on a tray on another table.
“What… what are you going to do?” Huang Xingtian asked, trembling from the cold. “Who on earth are you?”
The taller white person took a syringe and injected it into his arm. He struggled violently. The person only said, “Don’t be nervous. It’s just a muscle relaxant. It will take some time to take effect.”
The other white person fed something to the alien creature. It soon became excited but miraculously did not crawl out of the tray.
The leader of the white people looked at Xiao Yan and the others at his leisure and tilted his head. “I’ve heard that the soldiers of the Hua nation are one of the most mentally resilient humans on Earth. We have never done a related experiment before.”
An experiment…
“Are you… aliens?” Huang Xingtian asked, gritting his teeth. After being injected with the drug, he felt his whole body go weak, and his vision began to blur. He asked the question that all five of them had been wondering. They really looked too much like aliens, not something that could appear on Earth.
“Aliens?” the person tilted his head. “It seems that’s what you Earthlings call us.”
So they really are aliens.
The other alien lifted the creature and walked towards him, then placed it on his bed. Huang Xingtian’s eyes were wide open. He struggled with all his might but was completely powerless. The thing, like a snake, was cold and slimy all over. It quickly wrapped around his leg and crawled up, occupying half his body.
“It’s called a Silver Sly. It’s a common animal on our Yaxun star,” the leading Yaxun person even explained with great interest. “We brought it to Earth to see how it would evolve in this environment. It has already tried many of your Earth’s creatures. Hmm, it has also tasted humans, but the effect was not great.”
“I wonder if it will like a mentally resilient soldier of the Hua nation.”
The Silver Sly crawled up his trembling body. After coiling around his waist, its large, flat head rose high and opened its mouth towards him. A foul smell sprayed on his face. His breathing almost stopped, thinking this thing was going to bite him. But it just stared at him. He breathed a sigh of relief, comforting himself that this thing was not interested in him.
“Ah—!!!”
A sharp pain suddenly came from his waist. The Silver Sly’s tail had actually pierced through his skin and flesh and was burrowing in.
“Old Huang!”
“Bastards! Let us go!”
Xiao Yan and the others’ eyes were about to split. The Silver Sly was actually piercing through his flesh with its tail and then stuffing its entire body in from there.
Huang Xingtian screamed in pain, his body trembling violently. Although the Silver Sly was thin, its diameter was still over twenty centimeters. It soon stretched out a bloody hole in his waist.
“It seems it likes you very much,” the two Yaxun people clapped and licked their pale lips. “You are very delicious.”
The few of them struggled violently, trying to break free of their restraints to save their teammate, but it was in vain. The ropes still held them firmly.
“Let him go! Bastards!”
He could clearly feel the Silver Sly burrowing into his body. His waist and abdomen were almost half-occupied by it. He could even feel his internal organs being churned. Blood flowed all over the floor, but he still hadn’t fainted.
“The muscle relaxant I just injected you with had some other substances added to it to keep you conscious,” the leading Yaxun person said, standing in front of him and recording his various signs. “The Silver Sly likes its food lively.”
“Beep—beep—beep!”
A sharp alarm suddenly echoed throughout the laboratory. The other Yaxun person, who was in charge of the computer, rushed over and said, “Someone is invading our experimental base.”
Just as the two of them were about to go out and check, a blue ripple suddenly appeared in the lab. Ren Yi and Chu Yan jumped out of it.
After receiving the message from the Qilin in Country A, the top leader had decisively decided to immediately destroy the Yaxun people’s stronghold on Earth. According to the information they had intercepted, the Yaxun people had been lurking on Earth for about three years. At that time, they were not very interested in occupying Earth. Only a few researchers were interested in its environment and had infiltrated to conduct experiments. The system had helped them intercept some of the experiment reports. When the leaders saw the various human experiments involved, their faces were so dark they were about to drip water. They had immediately made the decision to dispatch Ren Yi to lead several awakened psychic soldiers to destroy their stronghold and bring these Yaxun people back to the capital.
With a “bang,” the lab door was also knocked open. The Qilin, glowing red, burst in from outside. The moment it entered, it wrinkled its nose in disgust. “What’s that smell? It stinks!”
Ren Yi and Chu Yan saw Huang Xingtian lying in pain on the experimental bed and the unknown creature coiled on him. Their expressions turned grim, and anger immediately surged. Ren Yi flipped over to his side, grabbed the Silver Sly, and pulled it out. Huang Xingtian coughed up a mouthful of blood and trembled twice.
The two Yaxun people’s eyes narrowed, and they raised their hands towards them. Their fingertips instantly shot out several beams of light. Chu Yan quickly flashed forward and, with a grasp, the air distorted slightly, breaking the unknown rays.
The Yaxun people sensed that something was wrong and prepared to retreat. The Qilin, at the door, kicked them to the ground one by one. After they fell, they did not struggle. Their entire bodies melted into a puddle, like a liquid.
“What the hell is this thing?” the Qilin’s eyes widened.
Ren Yi went forward to take a look and activated his psychic power to collect them. The two Yaxun people let out a sharp cry and then turned into steam and disappeared.
He frowned. Did they escape, or did they die?
These two were researchers, and their combat power was not high. This base was also built in cooperation with Z nation. It had many high-precision instruments, but its protective effects were relatively average. The Qilin had also destroyed a lot on its way in, so these two didn’t have any countermeasures. They seemed to have been subdued very easily.
Chu Yan untied Xiao Yan and the others. They immediately went to check on Huang Xingtian’s condition. His bleeding still hadn’t stopped, and his face was pale. Ren Yi picked him up and said, “Take him back to the capital immediately. Use the body repair instrument.”
Chu Yan nodded. Ren Yi carried him and left, leaving her to clean up the mess.
Xiao Yan and the others, after this thrilling day, only now realized: what was that blue door? And what was that red-glowing Qilin? They had just been on a routine mission. How had their worldview been so shattered?