Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 44 First Battle with the Alien
"So what do we need to do now?" Zheng Zha, fully armed, caught up with Mu Xiang and asked.

"Intelligence!" Chu Xuan and Mu Xiang said at the same time.

Mu Xiang turned around and exchanged a half-smile with Chu Xuan through his helmet.

Chu Xuan waved his hand: "You understand this reincarnation world better than I do, so you should explain... My strength lies in analysis, but I really don't have much confidence in planning."

【Ha ha. 】

Upon hearing this classic nonsense, Mu Xiang turned to look ahead, otherwise he was afraid he wouldn't be able to hold back.

"First of all, the difficulty of this movie has definitely been changed, and the reason has already been explained... If it were just the alien in the movie, it certainly wouldn't be the main mission of this horror film. So, to what extent has the plot been changed? We need to investigate." Mu Xiang then tried to push up his glasses through his helmet. "Also, I've noticed a contradiction. If this is truly a 15-person difficulty, all-wipe-level modified horror film, why is the reward so low? I think you can probably figure this out... if you're the Chu Xuan I know."

Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses: "If you insist on insisting... have you noticed a problem? That is, the bug in this movie." Then Chu Xuan analyzed the bug in the movie for everyone.

"So you should understand what I mean." Mu Xiang glanced at Chu Xuan.

Chu Xuan smiled and said, "Just as you thought."

Zheng Zha couldn't help but want to ask what kind of riddle the two were playing, but then he heard several screams coming from the other end of the corridor.

“It’s those newcomers!” Zheng Zha looked at Mu Xiang.

Mu Xiang nodded: "Let's go together, they must have found something interesting for us."

So the group ran in that direction, and the three newcomers had amazing stamina, keeping up with the pace of the several enhanced veterans.

The screams came from a lobby where two middle-aged men collapsed to the floor, while the female office worker slumped into one of the men's arms. However, it seemed the man was barely holding on; or rather, without his female companion slumped in front of him, he probably would have collapsed too.

Before them lay three stiff corpses: a blonde woman, a large white man, and a large black man. Although they appeared to be lying comfortably, the expressions on their faces were extremely distorted, as if they had experienced great terror and pain before their deaths.

They both had deep, bloody holes in their chests, as if something had forced its way out of them.

The newcomers, having just encountered a dead body, then ran into a few more troublemakers, and hurriedly stood up and ran away. Overlord and Zero at the back of the line impatiently made way, and Zheng Zha, after thinking for a moment, decided not to chase after the newcomers.

“Very good, investigate further and report back.” Mu Xiang said sarcastically, then squatted down to examine the chests of the three corpses up close, and even reached in to rummage around.

This action made Zheng Zha and the others frown, but Chu Xuan did something similar to Mu Xiang.

The two exchanged a glance: "It seems the change is here."

Zhang Jie asked, "What has changed?"

Mu Xiang smeared the blood on his hands onto the face of a corpse, then turned back and said, "The main god probably changed the number of aliens... I guess all the crew members may have been parasitized, and the aliens have already escaped. We'll have to face at least three aliens."

Zero also came over, touched the bloodstains, and then smelled them, saying, "He's been dead for four or five hours."

Chu Xuan gestured to the bloody hole in the corpse's chest, frowned, and looked at Mu Xiang: "I seem to have a guess?"

"The Empress, is that right? That does explain the size." Mu Xiang nodded in agreement, then looked at Chu Xuan, who was still putting on an act and making exaggerated expressions in the first round, with a playful look.

Chu Xuan sighed, "If that's the case, I'm afraid we..."

Just then, a shrill scream came from the direction they had come from; it was the scream of those three thugs.

Mu Xiang raised an eyebrow. The thug was found earlier than he expected, and correspondingly, the other newcomers would be found later.

[Unless these aliens spread out... then it will be even easier.]

"I've been thinking, if it weren't for the fact that the God would deduct 3,000 points for killing a newbie, the best way would be to leave a thermobaric bomb or something in the room we came from. Once I heard them scream, I could detonate it and kill all the aliens there. But who knows if the God would pin it all on me? That would be a huge loss." Mu Xiang said, then he ran outside. He wanted to kill the aliens before they took the three thugs away.

Zheng Zha stared blankly at Mu Xiang's retreating figure: "You mean, you used them as bait? Mu Xiang!"

Chu Xuan and the other two glanced at him; in fact, they saw nothing wrong with Mu Xiang's actions.

Chu Xuan had long guessed why Mu Xiang harbored such malice towards the three newcomers… First, to establish his authority; second, to leave behind the freshest scent of blood, ensuring the aliens would find them first, since they couldn't escape. Otherwise, why resort to such methods?

The man adjusted his glasses, finding it somewhat interesting. Then he led the way and ran out.

Only Zheng Zha remained standing there, feeling as if the carefree, somewhat eccentric boy had become a stranger. Zhang Jie glanced back at Zheng Zha: "If it were me, I might have done the same... I know it's hard for you to accept, but trust him now; it truly is in the best interests of our team."

[Am I about to meet the mythical creature—the Xenomorph—whose strength rivals Zheng Zha and whose wisdom surpasses Chu Xuan?] Mu Xiang quickly ran back to his original room. Upon entering, he saw two Xenomorphs tearing apart the flesh of a thug. Under Mu Xiang's calm gaze, the thug's abdominal cavity was completely ripped out, its filth scattered all over the floor, indistinguishable from his companion's. Just as he was screaming in despair, a tongue shot out, its speed comparable to a sniper rifle, instantly shattering his head.

"Two heads? One is missing. Did it go to hunt down the other newcomers, or did it ambush them?" Mu Xiang sneered, connected to the headset he had put on beforehand, and said to Zhang Jie and the other two, "Be careful, I've already seen the Xenomorph. It's possible that there's one on your side as well."

As he spoke, he reached across his left wrist with his right hand and pulled out a katana out of thin air. With a push of his foot, he launched himself toward the alien.

The high-frequency cutting blade hummed, even splitting the air itself. Mu Xiang struck the blade the instant he approached his target, a strike powerful enough to cleave the alien in two.

The other alien didn't stop Mu Xiang; instead, it slammed its tongue into its companion's chest, pushing it back a few steps, causing Mu Xiang's attack to miss.

While he was still in mid-air, the alien that had been pushed aside behind him pounced on him.

Mu Xiang remained unfazed and kicked backward. Immediately, he felt as if he had been shot in the tailbone; clearly, the alien's tongue had struck his back.

But with the protection of the exoskeleton armor and the enhancement of his B-grade bloodline, how could Mu Xiang be injured? This only caused a slight impact. On the contrary, the alien behind him provided a boost in the air, and he smoothly raised his sword overhead with both hands.

【It's now! 】

He took in the alien's mouth-opening movement and, with the last bit of his remaining strength in mid-air, twisted his body slightly to dodge the attack of the tongue.

Then, with a diagonal downward slash, the alien in front of him was cleaved in two from its right shoulder to its left abdomen.

After the first strike, Mu Xiang didn't stop. The splash of acidic blood wasn't enough to corrode his exoskeleton armor. After landing, he rolled over and faced another alien.

But this guy actually ran out of the door with a large chunk of flesh in his arms and disappeared around a corner outside the door.

A gasp and the sound of footsteps braking came from outside; it seemed the others had arrived. Fortunately, they didn't run into the alien head-on, and the alien seemed to have a mission to return to its nest, so no conflict occurred.

Mu Xiang had already heard the notification that 500 reward points had been credited to his account, but he wasn't particularly surprised. Judging from his attire and physical attributes, he already surpassed the average melee-wielding Predator in terms of attack and defense, making killing an alien quite easy.

He shook the knife, dislodging the remaining acidic blood. Then he looked at the group of people who had entered: "See? This is the kind of alien we're going to face."

Chu Xuan walked over to examine the corpses on the ground—first the Xenomorph that had been cleaved in two: "Incredible... You actually have such combat power. Xenomorphs with sturdy exoskeletons are no weaker than the Lickers you encountered before, yet you dealt with them with melee weapons?"

Zero and Overlord stared in astonishment at the alien on the ground, then went to examine the two dead thugs. To be precise, it was what the two thugs had left behind.

Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan, and Li Xiaoyi couldn't hold on any longer and started vomiting when they saw the scattered human remains on the ground.

Mu Xiang casually shoved the knife back into his left wrist and looked at Chu Xuan's back, saying, "The amount of meat here doesn't match up. Did you notice? The alien you almost bumped into just now swallowed half of the flesh and carried the other half away."

Upon hearing his words, the three people who were already vomiting retched again, this time vomiting up everything.

Chu Xuan analyzed the shape of the wreckage, then turned to speak to Mu Xiang, only to see three people behind him trembling. He frowned imperceptibly and looked at Mu Xiang, asking, "How did you feel when you fought the alien just now?"

"The movie didn't exaggerate, but the alien's tongue is really powerful... its muzzle velocity is comparable to a sniper rifle," Mu Xiang commented. "Besides me, I don't think anyone here could physically block it. As for speed and strength, it's more than enough to deal with you guys."

These words were meant for Chu Xuan and the other two, and of course, there was an element of boasting involved.

Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses: "Is that so?"

He then analyzed, "I suspect that all the characters in the story—except for that android—have become a breeding ground for the Xenomorphs. In other words, we may be facing a queen and five Xenomorphs."

Mu Xiang added, "There are at most four ordinary aliens left now... but it could also be three."

“That’s right, if that’s the case, it also confirms our conjecture,” Chu Xuan said, standing up. “But are we capable of accomplishing anything additional?”

Mu Xiang sneered: "With me here, we can at least reach the Empress without paying too high a price... Of course, that is, if you don't think too highly of yourselves."

[Those three are probably trying to recruit me... To them, the others aren't good teammates until Zheng Zha demonstrates his fighting prowess.]

Chu Xuan did not respond to Mu Xiang's implied meaning. He looked at the others and said, "We are still unsure how many survivors are on the spaceship, as well as the situation of the other newcomers... If we want to grasp the overall situation, the best way is to go to the spaceship's main control room."

“I agree with Chu Xuan…” Mu Xiang nodded and said, “Those who vomited should drink an energy supplement and go out together to find the control room, otherwise we’ll be completely lost. If we don’t act quickly, the other new recruits might also be captured and used as breeding grounds for aliens, and then there will be even more aliens on the ship.”

He walked toward the door: "Remember the mission on the watch? Kill the aliens, huh? So it was to kill all the aliens."

(End of this chapter)