Zheng Zha had plenty of food and fresh water in his Storage Ring: bread, cheese, lean meat, and a few snacks. There was more than enough in both quantity and quality, and enough fresh water for everyone to last several days. Still, to be safe, they divided the food and water into seven portions, each enough to last about three days.
Chu Xuan placed Li Shuaixi's portion of food and water on the table. "This is your share. If you prove that you're useful to the team and not a burden, then it's yours. And once you've proven yourself, you'll become one of us."
Li Shuaixi silently lowered his head and took the food and water, then slipped off to one side and began eating and drinking ravenously by himself.
The others paid him no mind. They each grabbed their own food and water and devoured them. After running and living in fear for most of the day, everyone was famished and parched. Now that they had finally gotten food and water—and enough to go around—their eating and drinking looked rather ravenous.
As Zhan Lan ate, Zheng Zha silently tore open her food packaging for her, since one of her hands was difficult to move. He also took out a small plastic cup and poured her some fresh water. His considerate gestures had the young woman giggling nonstop, and she ended up sitting beside him as she ate.
Chu Xuan suddenly spoke up. "By the way, since we have some time now, tell us how you killed that Alien. I've been very curious about that."
Although everyone around them was eating and drinking, talking about things over a meal seemed to be a habit at Chinese dinner tables. Zheng Zha took a drink of water and said with a bitter smile, "Don't make me sound like some kind of badass. It was a close call. We nearly both died there. If I hadn't been lucky enough to cut off the Alien's tongue first, we could easily have been the ones to die."
Chu Xuan thought for a moment, then suddenly asked Zero Point, "If you used a Desert Eagle, from what distance could you hit an Alien's tongue? I mean an Alien that was moving, and moving very fast."
Without even looking up, Zero Point replied coldly, "A thirty percent chance within 150 meters, forty percent within 100 meters, fifty percent within 50 meters. That's the limit. I can't improve my odds any further at closer range."
Zheng Zha smiled bitterly. A fifty percent chance meant a coin toss. The Alien's tongue was hard enough to cleave metal, and it struck with tremendous force when it shot out. A human head was nothing more than a fragile watermelon in front of an Alien. In other words, if Zero Point missed, regardless of whether the bullet hit someone, the Alien's tongue alone could instantly kill anyone who got close.
Zheng Zha continued with a bitter smile, "I was lucky. I caught it off guard and cut off that long tongue. It had been embedded in Zhan Lan's shoulder, which was why I could hit it so easily. If we'd been facing it head-on, its tongue would have shot out too fast for us to react."
Chu Xuan nodded. "The Alien's tongue shoots out at an incredible speed, almost like a handgun bullet leaving the barrel. And we also have to consider its weight and size. Even ordinary steel plates might not be able to withstand the impact. Anyway... let's stick to the plan and isolate the Aliens first, then clear a path from here to the armory. We might find suitable weapons there."
Zheng Zha sighed. "So how do you plan to isolate them? Just send someone in as bait?"
While eating, Chu Xuan casually pressed a few buttons on the control panel. A moment later, a map of the entire cargo ship's corridors appeared on the main screen, with the important rooms and connecting passageways marked with numbers.
"We're at location twenty-seven. Based on my calculations, and on the direction the Alien took the four people earlier, the Alien Queen should be in... Warehouse No. 2. The surveillance systems in the surrounding area have failed, possibly because they were corroded by the Alien's secretions. I remember that in Alien 4, the Alien Queen secreted something like spider silk when she laid eggs. That substance was acidic too, just not as strong as Alien blood."
"So the isolation walls, surveillance systems, and even the lighting around there can't be used anymore. The isolation walls we can still use are in the rooms beyond number sixteen... I've marked them on the map. Green indicates the areas where the isolation walls are operational."
As Chu Xuan spoke, he kept pressing buttons on the control panel. Before long, areas of green and red gradually appeared across the map.
Everyone studied the main screen. Green covered almost the entire cargo ship, while red was confined to rooms one through fifteen.
Chu Xuan sighed. "You might think the Aliens have only corroded things as far as room fifteen, and that the armory in room seventeen is still a good distance away, so we're in luck. But I have some bad news. Rooms sixteen and seventeen are on opposite sides of room fifteen. In other words, we can't lower the isolation wall between room seventeen and room fifteen. The wiring there has probably been corroded. If we go for the weapons, the Aliens in room fifteen will be free to hunt us, because we won't be able to isolate them."
"That's exactly why we need the bait plan. We have to lure all four Aliens, except the Queen, into the passage beyond room seventeen and isolate them one by one. Only then can we find a safe route to the armory in room seventeen. I told you, I won't throw away lives carelessly. This plan is extremely dangerous, but it's the key to whether we can survive this Horror Movie. We absolutely can't afford any mishaps."
Zheng Zha looked at the patches of red and green on the screen. After a long while, he sighed and asked, "What if only one or two Aliens come over? Wouldn't that make the plan dangerous and impossible to complete?"
Chu Xuan smiled but said nothing. Instead, Zhan Lan, sitting beside Zheng Zha, said, "Actually, there's a way to lure them all over... Remember when the Aliens chased us? How did they know where we were? And why did they chase us so relentlessly? It was the smell."
Zheng Zha suddenly understood. "Right, the smell. Alien blood has a very strong odor. Once the other Aliens catch the scent, they'll rush over. You mean we should use that smell to attract them?"
Chu Xuan nodded. "We still have six grenades. If we bundle them in pairs of three, they'll be powerful enough to injure a mature Alien. We just need to wound one of them and make it bleed. Then the others will come rushing over. Once they enter the passage beyond room seventeen, we can quickly isolate them. Li Shuaixi can use the explosion as cover to escape into the safe zone. That's the entire bait plan."
It was dangerous, but it wasn't a guaranteed suicide mission. Only now did Zheng Zha finally relax a little. But Li Shuaixi, who had been sitting some distance away with his head bowed in silence, had a vicious look flickering in his eyes. He lowered his head and clenched his fingers so tightly that he didn't even notice his nails digging into his flesh. Drops of blood fell to the floor, vivid and savage.
Before you continue