Chapter 54 (Seeking Follow-up Reads) A Battle of Wits! The Death Trap Laid for Meng Rui!
"The Covenant!? How is that possible!"
"Keep your voice down." Ren Arakawa shot Zhang Jie a look. "I hope that after you survive a few more horror movies, your personality will become calm and steady again."
Zhang Jie was agitated. "How can I be calm? Before you left the Covenant with us, didn't you see Meng Rui trying to repair the android David? She must be using the colonists to incubate Xenomorphs! After all this time, could there still be anyone alive?"
"As expected of Zhang Jie, you've even considered that." Ren Arakawa praised, then continued, "First, I don't believe Meng Rui wouldn't leave herself a way out. She treasures her life immensely."
"Second, even if six thousand colonists stood still for the Facehuggers to incubate them, it would take several days, right? The Main God has already matched us against the Devil Team, which has a Golden Core stage member, to hunt us down. Would it really not leave a single path to survival for us pitiful creatures?"
"Anyway, I don't believe it."
As a transmigrator, Ren Arakawa had his own understanding of the Main God, that ball of light.
Everything it did, to put it bluntly, was to force people to unlock the Gene Lock and advance to the fourth Tier.
"Third... forget it, you wouldn't understand."
"I don't understand! So how are we supposed to get six thousand colonists off this planet?"
As Ren Arakawa spoke, he activated his Gene Lock.
His brain operated at high speed, a glint of wisdom flashing in his eyes as he uttered two words.
"Cooperation!"
"Cooperation?" Zhang Jie looked as if he had just heard the biggest joke in the world. "Who would cooperate with us?"
"Everyone."
Zhang Jie wanted to ask more, but Ren Arakawa waved his hand and walked to the side.
He didn't explain further to Zhang Jie, instead directly pressing the call button on the walkie-talkie Da Qiang had given out earlier.
"Whatever you're doing right now, stop incubating the Xenomorphs first."
The reply from the other end of the walkie-talkie came after a long pause, the voice hurried. "Reason."
"I stole the Devil Team's Ship. I'm currently short thirteen hundred colonists. No matter what your previous escape plan was, I don't think it's as reliable as this one."
Meng Rui took another long pause before replying: "What's your name?"
"Does it matter? My name is Du Ke."
Over on her end, Meng Rui, who was desperately dodging attacks, was overjoyed.
How long had she waited!
She had finally gotten a strategist!
Suspended in mid-air, Fu Ming's eyes were sharp, his heart filled with rage.
*You dare to be distracted while fighting me?*
He swept his hand.
"Pfft!"
A golden light slashed down on Meng Rui's shoulder. Her body sank, and blood suddenly sprayed from the wound.
The column of blood shot up more than half a meter, a shocking amount!
Even Fu Ming found the sight somewhat unsettling.
He could only attribute this strangeness to her Parasitic Beast enhancement.
Meng Rui clutched her shoulder and continued to flee, her voice hurried. "How do I get these colonists to you?"
"No need. We'll leave in two Ships."
"Are you dreaming?"
Ren Arakawa chuckled. "Tell that cultivator he has two paths before him..."
"I will pilot their Ship and escape. Even if he kills every member of Team China on the ground, he won't be able to kill me."
"As long as the team battle doesn't end and the colonization mission isn't completed, he'll be wasting his time here!"
"So what if he's at the Golden Core stage? Can he play hide-and-seek with me in the universe?"
Again, it was a long time before Meng Rui had a moment to reply: "They've already lost two team members."
The implication was that this could only be a fight to the death.
The moment Ren Arakawa heard that Meng Rui had already bought his bluff, he quickly added, "There's a way to compensate!"
He looked at the lit-up screen on the control console. "After the Covenant fills the quota of thirteen hundred colonists, the rest can all be used as Xenomorph hosts, waiting to be incubated!"
"What lies before the Devil Team..."
"Are the reward points from hundreds, even thousands of Xenomorphs!"
A smile instantly appeared on Meng Rui's face as she cursed inwardly, *What a reckless kid who doesn't know what's good for him.*
*Does he have any idea how the Main God would punish such a malicious act of point farming?*
Nevertheless, Meng Rui still voiced her concern. "That guy is extremely arrogant. Even if it causes him trouble, he might not necessarily cooperate with you."
Ren Arakawa glanced at Dan Rusi, then walked into the corridor and said in a low voice, "Don't forget, Dan Rusi is still with me! Worst comes to worst, we'll take them down with us! I've got nothing to lose anyway!"
"But..."
Ren Arakawa's tone shifted.
"You mentioned before that the base reward for completing a horror movie is 1000 points. The bonus reward for this movie is 100 points for every surviving crew member, and a deduction of 100 for every death."
"Negative points result in obliteration."
"Therefore, I also have a condition for you! As the veteran, you must cover the deficit for all of us newcomers!"
"Hahahahaha." Meng Rui swore this was the funniest joke she had ever heard in her life.
Her, give reward points to newcomers?
That's as likely as the sun rising in the west.
"Don't laugh just yet."
Ren Arakawa cut off Meng Rui's laughter. "The barefoot aren't afraid of those with shoes. From the moment I arrived in this world, I've considered myself already dead. At worst, I'll just get on the Ship and enter cryo-stasis. I might even get to sleep for thirty years."
"But you? How long can you last against the expert from the Devil Team?"
"Fine, fine, fine."
Meng Rui said "fine" three times. Surprisingly, she wasn't angry. Instead, she spoke in a soft, gentle voice, "Your proposal is quite good. We'll do it your way!"
She activated her Gene Lock, forcibly blocking Fu Ming's flying sword, and shouted to the sky, "Wait!"
Then, in one breath, she explained the stakes that Ren Arakawa had laid out for him.
In the sky, Fu Ming stared coldly at Meng Rui. "Woman from the Farming Team, do you think this is enough to force me to let you go?"
Meng Rui's presence didn't diminish. "You can't kill me in a short amount of time either, and I have ways to make you pay a heavy price before you do!"
Fu Ming hadn't expected to run into such a tough nut to crack and hesitated for a moment.
Over on the other side, Dio hurriedly tried to persuade Fu Ming, "Captain! What she's saying isn't without reason!"
As he spoke, he winked and gestured at Fu Ming, clearly harboring some plan of his own.
"Hmph."
Fu Ming snorted coldly and flew in Dio's direction.
Day turned to night.
The survivors on the Engineer Planet were each busy with their tasks.
Clearing the Xenomorphs from the Covenant was a difficult task.
Fortunately, there was a powerhouse like Da Qiang. He lured away a large wave of Xenomorphs, riding his Green Goblin glider, and drew away ninety percent of them.
The few remaining ones were also turned into reward points under Meng Rui's brutal slaughter.
Moving around on the Ship was quite difficult.
Many areas were flooded with blood, and the stench of rot filled the air.
That was the blood of over a thousand colonists.
Fortunately, Meng Rui had closed all the necessary hatches and had also revoked the android David's authorization to open doors.
There were still forty-five hundred colonists left in the cryo-pods.
Under the supervision of Dio, the surviving newcomers of Team China had the Xenomorph eggs inside their bodies removed.
When the X-rays revealed that they still had bomb capsules inside their bodies that couldn't be removed by normal surgery—stuck to their respiratory tracts and set to detonate on contact—Dio narrowed his eyes, thinking to himself.
*When dealing with the Farming Team, you can't use common sense to judge them.*
The newcomers who had narrowly escaped death had now truly come face to face with the terror of the Main God Space. The eyes of everyone present were dead gray, without a trace of life, already in despair about the future.
They had struggled through an entire horror movie, only to rely on the reward points from a "kind" veteran to save their lives in the end.
Penniless as they were, what was the use of even returning to the Main God's plaza?
Without reward points to enhance themselves, weren't they still just ordinary people?
Dio contacted Fu Ming: "Captain, I'm done on my end."
On the other end, Fu Ming and Meng Rui were in a standoff, neither fully trusting the other.
Forced by the circumstances, they could only proceed this way for the time being.
Meng Rui looked up. "Tell your man to get off the Covenant! Then we can just wait for the return countdown for this horror movie to begin!"
The sword beneath Fu Ming's feet buzzed and trembled. "Oh? And what if you run?"
"Hehehe!" Meng Rui laughed out loud. "Don't you understand that I am the captain of the Farming Team? Would I possibly sacrifice my own people for nothing? Don't worry, I've made arrangements. They have bombs inside them and will act according to my orders. They will definitely end this reincarnation cycle as soon as possible."
"Additionally, my strategist and I will also remain here and wait for the return."
"If I fail to do so, then we fight!"
Fu Ming didn't speak again, but Meng Rui also knew this meant he agreed.
Dio arrived quickly on his Green Goblin glider.
After a short wait, a transport vehicle drove toward them from the distance.
Zhang Jie was driving.
Ren Arakawa was in the passenger seat.
After seeing the two of them, Fu Ming nodded.
Zhang Jie honked the horn twice, dropped off Ren Arakawa, and waved goodbye.
Time passed, minute by minute. In the distance, the Covenant, carrying the defeated remnants of Team China, ascended into the sky, slowly disappearing into the clouds until even Fu Ming on his sword couldn't catch up. The deal was now half complete.
Just then, the walkie-talkies in Dio's and Meng Rui's possession suddenly crackled to life.
"Hey, Devil Team. The terms of the deal have now changed. But don't get anxious just yet, listen to me."
"As long as you kill our captain, I will complete the mission on schedule and return to the Main God Space as soon as possible."
Hearing this voice, Meng Rui's expression changed drastically!
She looked at the Ren Arakawa who had been brought over by Zhang Jie—he didn't have a walkie-talkie in his hand at all.
Where did that voice come from?!
A pre-recording?
Is he insane?
Right before Meng Rui's bewildered eyes, Ren Arakawa's body went "poof," turning into a puff of white smoke and vanishing!
"This!"
Meng Rui was stunned on the spot! It was as if she had seen a ghost!
Meanwhile, Fu Ming, standing to the side, had a strange look on his face, as if to say:
*'Don't you, the captain of the Farming Team, know that your own team member's enhancement is the ninja path?'*
(Third update of the day complete. Thank you all for the Monthly Tickets! Please send some more! For the sake of these explosive updates during the new book period, please send some more!)
(end of chapter)