Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 48 Division of Troops
Zhang Jie asked, "Are we going to find that alien queen?"

"No, in fact, if the mission hadn't changed, this should have been the last thing to do." Mu Xiang looked at everyone. "Aren't you all surprised? Killing so many aliens, including the alien queen who was many times stronger, only resulted in a D-level side quest and a thousand reward points. Even Zhang Jie shouldn't have seen such a small reward in a horror movie with fifteen people."

Zhan Lan spoke in a muffled voice from inside her armor, which made her voice sound rather amusing: "Didn't you and Zheng Zha get 500 reward points for killing an alien? The Queen might offer an even higher price."

Mu Xiang looked at the two-meter-tall, burly woman and shook his head, saying, "The mission description from the main god this time is very ambiguous. Not only is there only a vague 'kill the alien,' but even the price per monster is not given. I think this is a trap."

“In other words, if no one noticed that the size of the blood hole in a crew member’s chest was unusual, then the members of the Reincarnation Team might not even know that the Alien Queen existed. This is a trap set by the God.” Mu Xiang looked down at the small screen where the map was located. “But Zhang Jie told us that the God would not issue missions that would result in certain death, so if we encountered difficulties that were not right, it must be because we did not find the correct clues… This is the same as playing a game.”

Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses: "It seems you really enjoy playing games... I thought you weren't the type to waste time on something like that."

"So what?" Mu Xiang retorted sarcastically. "Your biography says you like reading JoJo's Bizarre Adventure."

Zheng Zha and the others suddenly felt like laughing... even though they didn't understand what was going on with the two of them.

Chu Xuan waved his hand: "Let's not talk about that. I agree with your point of view... Of course, I'm referring to your speculation about the mission. We agree that there are still some clues that haven't been uncovered, which is why we came to the control room."

"If we're just looking for aliens, why bother coming here? It would be easier for me to just cut my way through and then find the Queen room by room," Mu Xiang added.

Chu Xuan looked at the others: "You should remember our initial prediction, which was one Xenomorph Queen and four to five ordinary Xenomorphs. The reason there was an uncertainty is because..."

"Because this is Alien 1, and the female lead is still alive, right?" Zhan Lan replied.

“That’s right,” Chu Xuan affirmed, “but this is still uncertain and remains at the level of speculation. To confirm it, we need to come to the control room to check the situation. There are only a few hours left since the alien outbreak on this spaceship, and we might still be able to find clues in the surveillance footage to help us confirm the situation of the female protagonist, Ripley.”

“Another easily overlooked character is the android Ash… In the movie, he stopped the crew from letting the baby Xenomorphs go, but he was quickly killed by the crew, right? But now the plot has changed, and the ship is full of Xenomorphs, so maybe he will win big.” Mu Xiang smiled. “This is another plot character we are looking for besides Ripley… oh, plot creature.”

"Are these the only two?" Chu Xuan turned his head and looked at Mu Xiang with a hint of scrutiny, as if to say, "You shouldn't be surprised."

Mu Xiang met his gaze nonchalantly, then smiled and said, "Yes, only."

Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses.

[As expected of Chu Xuan... but it's really frustrating that he saw through my scheme at a glance, even though I didn't intend to hide it much anyway.]

“My suggestion is that you check Ripley’s surveillance footage first. As for Ash… there’s an easier way to confirm.” Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses. “If he’s really still alive, he must have seen a group of us appear on the spaceship, perhaps as a support ship… but in this situation, he would definitely observe the situation secretly first. If I were a cybernetic android, I would definitely monitor this spaceship, at least the control room.”

"Ash, I know you can hear me, we are..."

But the conversation couldn't continue, because a cold voice rang in everyone's ears: "It is forbidden to leak information about the Main God Space to characters in the story. Leaking even one sentence will result in the deduction of one thousand reward points." Everyone's expressions turned strange. When they looked at Mu Xiang, they saw his cold smile, clearly indicating that his scheme had succeeded.

The "Reincarnation Squad" was not mentioned further; Mu Xiang was simply using the God's mechanism to confirm that Ash existed and could hear him.

"Very well, I've found you." Mu Xiang slowly peeled a lemon candy. "You just wait."

"Such rigid judgment rules. It was clearly a clumsy attempt, yet it succeeded." Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses, looked up at the ceiling as if seeing a higher, more distant void. "Could it be that the 'main god' you speak of isn't a deity at all, but a supercomputer without any thought, only capable of following a program?"

[Le...you guessed it already? So you're going to deliberately mess with Zheng Zha later?]

Mu Xiang glanced at him: "You've reached the same conclusion as me with so little information? No wonder you're Chu Xuan, you can be called the pinnacle of human wisdom."

I'm really happy about this.

Chu Xuan glanced at him but said nothing.

Zero asked, "So what does this have to do with our upcoming mission?"

[You're good at responding to the boss, but you need to be careful about your approach.]

“He just verified Ash’s existence and eavesdropping by deliberately breaking the rules. Logically speaking, even without the God’s hint, it doesn’t prove Ash doesn’t exist… it only proves he wasn’t eavesdropping on us.” Chu Xuan glanced at Zero while reviewing the surveillance footage. “But he was lucky; he succeeded on his first try. Now we can confirm there’s another Ash we can eliminate, and this likely hides a side quest. After finding Ripley’s clues, we can completely confirm who else is involved…”

Mu Xiang added, "In fact, if Ripley is still alive and we find her, protecting her during the evacuation might become a new mission... because we have a similar mission in Resident Evil."

“Judging from the condition of those corpses, it only takes five to seven hours for an Xenomorph to grow to adulthood after emerging from its chest… but we don’t know how long it takes from parasitism to chest emergence. In a horror movie with altered plots, worrying about movie settings is pointless, so I’ve tried to compress the time as much as possible. I estimate it will take about an hour for the Xenomorph to emerge from its chest.” Mu Xiang pushed up his glasses. “With surveillance cameras, finding Ripley and dealing with Ash within an hour is more than enough, so we have plenty of time to take care of these side quests before killing the Queen. Even if Ripley triggers a new mission, as long as it’s not some stupid collection mission, it shouldn’t require us to face several more Xenomorphs. So you can rest first, and once Chu Xuan finds a clue, we’ll get right back to work.”

Chu Xuan's efficiency was indeed high; he quickly found the last footage of Ripley and pinpointed his location. Ash hadn't had time to delete the surveillance footage—how could he possibly know a group of people were coming to cause trouble for him—so Chu Xuan also found his possible hiding place.

Mu Xiang tapped the table, signaling everyone to look at the large screen. The screen displayed a map of the spaceship that Chu Xuan had pulled up; most areas were green, while areas one through fifteen were red.

"As we deduced before, the red, out-of-control area is the Xenomorph's lair. Besides acidic blood, Xenomorphs also secrete a lot of acidic substances, and the control circuits there have probably been corroded long ago. According to our speculation, the Xenomorph Queen is in the largest room in the red area, Warehouses One and Two. These two rooms are vertically connected, and both their area and height are the most suitable locations for the Queen," Mu Xiang said, adjusting his glasses.

Chu Xuan continued, "Judging from the surveillance footage, Ripley isn't dead yet; she's probably hiding... We can't say anything since we're being monitored. Ash, on the other hand, is in the red zone. There's a room there where the data lines are still running, so he's obviously establishing contact with the control room from there. Judging from the Xenomorph's hive mentality, when there's a surplus of Xenomorphs, the Queen would order them to hunt. Since there's only one Xenomorph present, it should be ordered to guard the outside of the hive. Therefore, when Ash and Ripley are on their mission, that Xenomorph most likely won't interfere..."

"So, let's split up."

(End of this chapter)