After everyone had eaten, Chu Xuan switched on the monitoring system for all the channels. The giant screen was instantly divided into numerous smaller screens. He held one hand up in the air and kept moving it around, as if he were drawing something in thin air. It was quite some time before he finally spoke, his face pale. "All right, I've memorized the order for closing the isolation doors. The nearest Alien is in room twenty-two, and another is moving from room twenty toward room nineteen. If we start drawing their attention within five minutes, we can seal one of them off while luring the other over here. Then we can put the bait plan into action."
Zheng Zha glanced at Li Shuaixi and sighed. "So what do we do?"
Chu Xuan kept pressing buttons on the control panel. A moment later, he stood and said, "In one minute, the isolation door outside will open. I've already set the order for closing the remaining doors. Let's go outside the corridor. I'll explain the details of the bait plan to him."
At that, everyone headed to the corridor. Overlord had combined the six grenades into two linked charges. The thick isolation door gradually rose, revealing the wall outside, which was riddled with dents and covered in claw marks and scratches. It was made of solid steel, yet the sight left everyone chilled to the bone.
Chu Xuan took the two linked charges and pointed down the corridor. "You'll need to stand at the other end. From there, you can see up to a hundred meters straight ahead. As soon as an Alien charges down the corridor toward you, pull the pins and throw the charges immediately. I asked Overlord to shorten their fuses, so they should explode while they're still in the air. Once you throw them, you must run back at once. Remember, you need to take every left turn along your escape route. At every passage, turn left."
"That way, you'll eventually make a big loop and return here. The Alien following behind you, wounded by the explosion, will be blocked by the isolation doors that come down behind you. So as long as you run fast enough to get through two doors, you'll be completely safe."
Li Shuaixi lowered his head. "What about the isolation door leading to the control room? Will it close after I go out?"
Chu Xuan nodded. "Yes. It'll close after you leave. I'll open it one minute after the explosion. Based on how fast you ran earlier, you should have plenty of time. Also, to attract the Aliens, you'll need to spill some blood. In short, all you have to do is keep turning left!"
Then Overlord tossed Li Shuaixi a dagger, and Chu Xuan handed him the linked charges. As Li Shuaixi took them, tension filled everyone. Zheng Zha even saw Zero Point reach behind himself. In his other hand, he held the Desert Eagle with infinite ammunition. Zheng Zha had no idea when Zhang Jie had given him the pistol.
To everyone's surprise, Li Shuaixi calmly turned around. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief. But then Li Shuaixi abruptly spun around and tossed one of the linked charges behind them. Just as Chu Xuan had said, the shortened-fuse charge exploded while it was still in the air. Fortunately, Li Shuaixi had thrown it far because he was nervous, and the others were only jolted by the blast wave. They weren't seriously hurt.
Zheng Zha was standing at the very back of the group because he didn't dare look Li Shuaixi in the eye. But when the bomb went off, he took the worst of the blast. The shock wave nearly lifted him off his feet. When he hit the ground, blood filled his mouth and nose, and all he could see was a blur of white. Several seconds passed before his vision gradually returned. The first thing he saw was Li Shuaixi gripping the ring of the linked charge, his face twisted into a vicious grin.
Li Shuaixi sneered. "What's wrong, genius? Didn't you want to kill me? Don't all of you hate me? All over a little food and water? Just so you could hide together? Damn it, how can you treat someone like this? Why should I be the only one sent to die? Huh? Why? Tell me! I've got nothing left to lose. If I'm going to die, we'll all die together. That's better than getting eaten by those Aliens!"
When the blast knocked Chu Xuan down, his head struck the wall, and blood streamed from it. He got back to his feet and asked calmly, "I'm curious. Why aren't you afraid of dying? My plan is dangerous, but it doesn't guarantee your death. If you follow my instructions, your chances of surviving are actually very high. Tell me, why would you..."
Li Shuaixi's face twisted with rage, and he cut him off. "Damn it, don't lie to me! Know why I asked you that question just now? I asked what would happen to the isolation door after I went out. And what did you say? That it would open one minute after the explosion? Don't give me that crap! Do you remember what I'm good at? I may be useless, but I've read plenty of books, including books about the military. Isolation doors like these usually can't be opened for half an hour after they close. That's to stop someone from taking control of the entire spacecraft with a computer. For half an hour, not even the computer can open the doors. I even watched how you operated the controls earlier. You only set the doors to close. You never programmed them to open again!"
At that, Li Shuaixi laughed hysterically. "When I asked you that question, it was my last chance to fight back. Damn it, who doesn't want to live? If there were even the slightest chance, I'd want to survive too. But you bastard were going to push me straight into the Aliens' mouths! Damn it, tell me! Why did you have to drive me into a corner?"
Chu Xuan closed his eyes and took a deep breath. "I underestimated you. That was my mistake... I said before that this team had no use for dead weight. You're nothing but a burden. I hadn't planned to abandon you at first, but when I was making the plan, you showed your dissatisfaction. That's how people are: the moment they feel even the slightest resentment, it can easily grow into murderous intent. Rather than let you become an unpredictable factor in a future plan, it was better to kill you now... I hadn't actually planned to sacrifice you. The isolation doors wouldn't reopen for half an hour, but if you kept running forward, I could have trapped you in a passage without any Aliens. I would have let you out after half an hour. But you shouldn't have shown that resentful look."
Li Shuaixi's expression grew more and more crazed. His face contorted as he shouted, "Damn it, why do you get to send me to my death, and I'm not even allowed to look resentful? Are you the leader of this team? Who the hell are you? If I can't survive, none of you will either! You're all coming with me!"
With that, Li Shuaixi yelled and yanked the pin from the charge in his hand!
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