Infinite Terror: Infinite Reversal

Chapter 59: Opening and Return
After swallowing the pill, Mu Xiang was no longer aware of pain; his only thought was to finish off the guy in front of him as quickly as possible...

"Zheng Zha, Spiral Spike Bomb!" Mu Xiang shouted, only to realize that his tongue was a bit too big. It seemed to be the effect of the Ghost Ginseng Pill. He felt like he was in a drunken brawl.

Zheng Zha understood and darted past the Queen's claws. He managed to make such a move with that heavy power armor that even Mu Xiang felt a little ashamed of himself.

At that moment, the Queen's right claw missed its target, giving Mu Xiang an opening... Although he hadn't activated his gene lock, his reflexes were still sharp. Seizing the opportunity, he slashed at the Queen's right knee. This strike almost severed the Queen's right leg, but Mu Xiang's horizontal slash had become extremely strange, and the blade slipped from his grasp before he could finish the cut.

[Wow, this medicine has some serious side effects!]

Now, any tools are a burden to Mu Xiang; the fact that he's now discarding the knife he used to never part with is proof of that.

The knife was stuck in the queen's right leg, causing her to roar and forcefully turn around despite her injury, slapping Mu Xiang with her claw.

This time, Mu Xiang did not flinch at all. Although he was slapped, he clasped his hands together and firmly grasped the Empress's right hand.

"Zheng Zha!"

Zheng Zha, who had circled around to the right of the Queen, leaped into the air and activated his jetpack mid-air.

The Empress sensed the danger and was about to abandon Mu Xiang to defend herself, but Mu Xiang exerted all his strength after landing, bending his legs so much that he was almost sitting on the ground, and with a force he hadn't expected, he pulled the Empress towards him.

Zheng Zha, positioned high above, hurled a spiral spike bomb at the large hole in the Empress's crown.

His accuracy and timing were far superior to Mu Xiang's. The Empress, who had intended to shoot his tongue, didn't dare to utter a sound, and she couldn't even turn her head properly, as if the trajectory of her head turn was within Zheng Zha's calculations of his fighting instincts.

We must thank the firepower support from the surrounding crowd, which more than doubled the opening that Mu Xiang had previously created, allowing the Spiral Spike, carrying a high-explosive grenade, to penetrate completely into the Queen's head.

With a loud bang, the queen's head exploded, spewing out a spray of green blood and its contents.

This time, Mu Xiang took the opportunity to let the writhing empress throw him away, just in time to avoid the acid rain-like spray.

Hearing Zhang Jie's cheers through his earpiece, Mu Xiang growled, "It's not over yet! There's no mission notification!"

He's now terrified that Zheng Zha will pop the champagne halfway through the game and quit his genetic lock state, which would be hilarious for him.

The queen twisted and turned wildly, staggered a few steps, and then collapsed to the ground with a thud.

For a moment, half of the battlefield fell silent. Those on the periphery wanted to finish off the attackers, but they couldn't find any exposed wounds.

Only Chu Xuan and Zero were still in a good position. Chu Xuan silently fired a finishing shot at the Queen's head, which had been blown open, while Zero emptied the remaining bullets from his M41A.

Just as the firepower ceased at midnight, the Queen sprang up like a giant beast, resembling a massive black shadow close to the ground. With the force of her forelimbs and limbs, she propelled her body forward.

"Damn, you're really tough!" Mu Xiang couldn't help but curse. Ignoring the dangling section of intestines in his abdomen, he hurriedly started to pounce on the Empress's lower body.

Without Zhan Lan's protection, if Chu Xuan and Ling Dian were caught in this desperate counterattack...

Mu Xiang dared not gamble with other people's luck; he could only do his best to stop the Empress.

While still in mid-air, Zheng Zha plunged headfirst, landing diagonally beside the Queen's broken left leg. The instant he landed, he grabbed her again. Mu Xiang also grabbed the Queen's tail, and together they pulled the Queen down.

Having taken the Ghost Ginseng Pill, Mu Xiang was already pushing his muscles and bones to their limits, and the ripples in his hands were concentrated like vibrations, so he unleashed a much stronger force than usual.

Zheng Zha, on the other hand, felt that his realm had changed.

He didn't want anyone to be hurt by the Queen at the end of the final battle... so he used all his strength in an instant, blood-red flames erupted from his body, and the power armor reached its maximum power.

But the Queen was still struggling to move forward!
Chu Xuan continued firing expressionlessly, preventing the Empress from opening her mouth and clicking her tongue, but he also seemed prepared to unlock her genetic potential at any moment. Zero changed to a new magazine and continued firing at the wound on the Empress's abdomen.

They had nowhere left to retreat, and believed that Zheng Zha and Mu Xiang were their best options.

"Not enough, not enough!" Zheng Zha roared in a low voice. Behind the mask, his blank eyes seemed to be about to bleed... He vaguely felt another change happening in his body, which seemed to be the genetic collapse that Chu Xuan and Mu Xiang had mentioned.

When he concentrated his strength, his body seemed to be slowly collapsing.

But Zheng Zha didn't care about any of that. He felt that this power was not enough, and he wanted even stronger power.

"Ah—" Zheng Zha shouted unconsciously, as if his subconscious had sensed something in that instant...

Unlocking the gene lock doesn't seem to be the end... Above this mysterious state, there is an even higher realm that can bring him even greater power!
In his daze, Zheng Zha felt his muscles swell slightly, but he didn't realize it. He only felt that the Empress's energy seemed to be weakening, and the Empress seemed to be retreating to the left and back.

The queen, of course, refused, and turned back with a roar. But this roar was much weaker than before; it was nearing the end of its life.

But it was still struggling! In that instant, its thick tail lashed out, carrying Mu Xiang with it, and slammed hard into Zheng Zha.

"Zhan Lan!"

These were the last words Mu Xiang could utter. Then he felt a violent impact and was sent flying backward along with Zheng Zha.

The effects of the Ghost Ginseng Pill hadn't worn off yet, so Mu Xiang didn't feel any pain; Zheng Zha was also in a state of pain shielding. But the impact did cause fine cracks to appear on Mu Xiang's exoskeleton, and a long dent appeared on Zheng Zha's power armor.

This is equivalent to two fully armed people colliding at high speed... the impact is naturally considerable.

However, the two did not feel any pain and immediately rolled over and looked in the direction of the Alien Queen.

Just as the Empress was about to drag her injured leg toward Chu Xuan and Zero, another figure wearing exoskeleton armor rushed to her feet. Although Zhan Lan was two meters tall in the exoskeleton, she was still a small fry compared to the Empress.

At that moment, a blazing ring of fire suddenly unfolded around Zhan Lan, sending the Empress's already-moving body flying backward once more, towards Mu Xiang and Zheng Zha!

"Beautiful!" Mu Xiang exclaimed.

Before the empress even landed, Zheng Zha and Mu Xiang flanked her from both sides.

When it crashed to the ground, the high-frequency cutting blade that had been stuck in Mu Xiang's right leg finally came off, but it was still some distance away...

But he had no time to retrieve the knife; the effects of the Onigami Pill were waning, and his body was slowly returning to normal. He couldn't afford to delay any longer!
Zheng Zha also felt he was reaching his limit. He already had another spiral spike bomb in hand, just waiting for the Empress to reveal a weakness.

Mu Xiang leaped up and delivered a flying kick to the Queen's head. The blow caused the Queen, who was about to rise, to pause, clearly hindered, but once the force of the kick subsided, she shook her half-empty head and stood up. [She can still stand up?]

Mu Xiang was startled. He saw the Queen's two claws reach towards Zheng Zha, while her ten-meter-long tail, which had been cut off, was also swung towards Zheng Zha.

"Watch out!" Mu Xiang shouted as he landed, then swung his last spiral spike and leaped into the air.

The tail that was already swinging towards Zheng Zha suddenly changed direction and pierced through Mu Xiang precisely in mid-air, right through the wound in his abdomen!
Mu Xiang felt as if something had been stabbed out. Although he didn't feel any intense pain, he uncontrollably coughed up a mouthful of blood, and the spiral thorn in his hand fell to the ground.

He was now suspended in mid-air, but the Queen was truly about to die... The mission was only one step away from completion.

Is this a real trap?

Although he no longer felt pain, Mu Xiang instinctively sensed an extremely strong threat. His breathing became somewhat labored, making it difficult to convert the Kryptonian life energy within his body into an enhanced version of the ripples.

All the sounds around me slowed down. In my earpiece came Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan's drawn-out screams, and at my feet came Zheng Zha's drawn-out roar.

Zheng Zha's vampire energy was also running out. Before his final physical struggle, all he could do was throw the spiral spike bomb in his hand into the large hole in the Queen's abdomen.

The Queen seemed to be looking at Mu Xiang... Even though the alien's eyes were hidden under its carapace, Mu Xiang still felt a sense of eye contact.

Then, it opened its mouth, and its tongue, with its fangs bared, shot towards Mu Xiang's face at its fastest speed ever!
Mu Xiang laughed, turning his head to dodge the attack.

Zero-point firepower followed instantly, finally slicing the already severely damaged tongue in two.

The yellowish-green liquid splashed onto Mu Xiang's left shoulder, corroding the exoskeleton armor that was nearing its limit.

But Mu Xiang didn't care; the M41A was already in his left hand. At this moment, his eyes behind the visor were completely blank!
From dodging the tongue to now, it's only been a moment, but for Mu Xiang at this moment, it's enough.

His enhanced perception allowed him to precisely insert the gun into the Queen's mouth and activate the grenade launcher through the perforation in her palate!

"die!"

The high-explosive grenade, pre-loaded into the wound, pierced straight into the Queen's skull and then exploded.

This time, the queen's head exploded completely. Although the crown remained largely intact, the head inside had been scattered everywhere.

Its massive body could no longer hold on, collapsing like a black tower.

Mu Xiang also crashed to the ground. At this moment, the medicinal power of the Ghost Ginseng Pill had been exhausted in the fierce battle, but he did not feel any pain... even though something splashed out of his stomach when his tail was broken.

Because he is still in a state of blocking pain after his genes have been unlocked.

In the previous close-quarters combat, Mu Xiang had constantly put himself on the verge of death. With his physical abilities, he and the Empress could both inflict penetrating wounds, but it was clear that the Empress's physical strength was superior to his.

This was unavoidable. Although the B-level enhancement gave him considerable physical strength, it wasn't enough for him to win a head-on collision with such a giant monster.

In reality, after being pierced through the abdomen and consuming the Ghost Ginseng Pill, his body was already in a state of forced overexertion, stimulating his survival instincts, which were suppressed by sensory numbness. Until finally being brutally pierced and facing the Empress, this survival instinct completely erupted, breaking through the limitations of his genetic lock.

This roughly matched the process Mu Xiang had been working out, and it did indeed work in the end. What he feared most was that excessive physical strength would greatly increase his susceptibility to death threats, making it difficult to unlock his genetic potential and turning it into a loss.

Only when the cold, icy prompt from the Supreme God echoed in his mind did he completely relax his guard and break free from this state.

"The main objective is to kill the Alien Queen, which grants one C-level side quest and 3000 reward points... Killing the Alien grants the entire team one D-level side quest and 1000 reward points..."

Then came the pain he had never experienced before, yet was all too familiar with… a burning sensation of numbness and pain that spread from his internal organs throughout his body. This immediately caused him to convulse, but it seemed to be within his tolerance.

This time, Zheng Zha activated his gene lock voluntarily, and although the duration was longer than all the previous ones combined, he didn't seem to be in as much pain as before. He was just convulsing all over, and after supporting himself to stand for a moment, he collapsed to the ground, unable to get up again.

Upon hearing Zheng Zha fall to the ground, Mu Xiang finally couldn't hold back any longer and opened his mask, screaming loudly... Fortunately, although he felt obvious spasms in his lungs, he was still able to breathe on his own.

A jumble of thoughts still swirled in Mu Xiang's mind. He vaguely remembered that the adverse reactions after unlocking the gene lock were also linked to an individual's physical attributes, such as cell vitality, immune system strength, and muscle strength. Although his immune system strength was still a thousand times weaker than Chu Hao's when he first entered the God's Space, his cell vitality and muscle strength were six or seven times greater. Therefore, it seemed that his adverse reactions should be weaker than Chu Hao's, and even without intervention, they should only last for a minute or two.

Everyone rushed over to help. Chu Xuan and Zero had already run to Mu Xiang's side, but seeing Mu Xiang's condition, Chu Xuan told Zero to go back and bring Ripley out first.

Judging from the look in the glasses, it seems the man is going to keep him under observation.

Mu Xiang writhed and rolled on the ground for about two minutes before finally regaining consciousness from the agony of unlocking his genetic potential. The moment he regained consciousness, the pain from the penetrating wound in his abdomen caused his vision to go black.

Chu Xuan took out the hemostatic spray that Mu Xiang had given him earlier and sprayed it on Mu Xiang's abdomen: "I feel that it's actually the same if I don't spray it, because we're about to return to the God Space you mentioned?"

"It feels better to take medicine." Mu Xiang rolled his eyes at him, then stuffed another ginseng pill into his mouth as a painkiller. Fortunately, it didn't fall out after he swallowed it, which made Mu Xiang somewhat relieved. He took a couple of steps and put the knife back into his bracelet.

Zheng Zha has basically recovered. Seeing his worried look, Mu Xiang waved his hand and laughed, "No need to bandage me up. That was just for show... I won't die anytime soon. I'll just go back to the Main God Space."

Only then did he realize that one of his arms seemed to have broken due to excessive force, leaving him speechless.

The group helped the two wounded men upstairs. When they came out of Warehouse No. 2, they saw Zero standing at the door with a disgruntled Ripley.

He was about to leave, and there wasn't much to explain, so Mu Xiang simply walked past her. Only Zheng Zha sincerely apologized to her, saying things like they couldn't let the rescue target get hurt.

They traveled in silence. Chu Xuan went to the main control room and started the countdown to the spaceship's self-destruction, ignoring Ripley's shocked expression... as if the self-destruct command was something he should be in charge of.

Once aboard the space shuttle, Ripley initiated the disengagement procedure, and then everyone squeezed into the small space shuttle as it flew towards the boundless deep space.

After flying quite a distance, a blinding explosion lit up behind them, but the sound, loud enough to shatter eardrums, could not reach them.

"The escort mission is complete. The entire team has received one C-level side quest and 2500 reward points..."

Ripley breathed a sigh of relief, and was about to ask everyone why they weren't wearing spacesuits, when she realized that she was the only one left in the space shuttle.

Since Chapter 15 doesn't count towards the narrative word count, I should theoretically post an extra chapter; however, since I have one chapter left, I'm posting them all together, making it 10,000 words a day (laughs). After revising the rewards from the old version, killing the Alien Queen will distribute the highest C-level side quest reward based on each person's contribution. In the original work, Zheng Zha, who was the main attacker, received 3000 reward points, but it would be unreasonable not to have a side quest, so I added it. Therefore, this modified version of *Alien* has a total story difficulty of B-BB, which is more in line with the 15-player difficulty, so it won't be too stingy for early-game teams. Yesterday, someone messaged me to tell me that this book has entered another round of recommendations, so I'm posting four chapters today as a celebration. Thank you all for your support. However, I have an exam today, so in the worst-case scenario, I might have to update a little later tomorrow.

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(End of this chapter)