Chu's Compromise (3)

Zhang Jie didn't retreat an inch. Even though his shoulder had already been pierced by the alien's tongue, he still firmly blocked Zheng Zha's path. His hands tightened their grip, pushing the Spiral Thorn deeper into the alien's head. The alien's blood flowed along the Spiral Thorn and onto his hands, yet he didn't falter. Swiftly, the flesh on his wrist was corroded down to the bone.

"Ah!!!"

Instead of retreating, Zhang Jie lunged forward, pushing the Spiral Thorn into the alien's head like a madman. The corroded areas on his hands spread, reaching his forearms, where all the flesh had turned to bone. Fortunately, Zheng Zha reacted in time, dragging Zhang Jie violently backward. The steel rod of the Spiral Thorn, pulled from the alien's head, was more than half corroded, leaving only a short stub that was rapidly disappearing.

Zheng Zha shouted Zhan Lan's name and quickly retrieved fresh water from his storage ring, pouring it onto Zhang Jie's arm like a madman. Zhan Lan snapped back to reality and also took out a hemostatic spray, applying it to Zhang Jie's arm.

While they were tending to Zhang Jie's wounds, the motionless alien finally swayed and collapsed to the ground. Yellow corrosive liquid continuously flowed from its body, gradually enveloping all three of them in a pungent white mist.

Zheng Zha dragged Zhang Jie towards the corridor behind them. After exiting the white mist, he finally saw the corrosion on Zhang Jie's arms stop. By this point, both of Zhang Jie's forearms had been completely corroded, leaving not even a sliver of bone. Only two abrupt remnants of severed arms remained.

Zhang Jie had already fainted from the pain once. It wasn't until Zheng Zha poured cold water onto his severed arms again that the man was jolted awake. He immediately chuckled, "Good fellow, one alien is worth five hundred Reward Points. You've been keeping quiet, that's not very nice of you! Heh heh, a mere Desert Eagle is nothing. Now I can directly buy an AK with infinite ammo."

Zheng Zha silently looked at his severed arms. Zhang Jie chuckled, "It's fine, it's fine. As long as we get back to the Main God alive, repairing my body won't cost too many Reward Points. It's just that I'll be a burden to you all later... Heh, thinking about it, following you is always better than following Chu Xuan. If I were like this around him, I'd probably have been abandoned completely."

Zheng Zha sighed, "Don't worry, I will never abandon my companions... You two wait here for me. Unless I call you over, hurry back to the control room. Do as Zhan Lan suggested. Whether we survive depends on fate!" With that, he picked up a Spiral Thorn bomb and headed for the armory.

Because the corridor had a large hole corroded by the alien's blood, and the ground also had several small pockmarks, Zheng Zha had to carefully walk along the wall towards the armory. Halfway there, someone suddenly emerged from the white mist at the other end. It was Zero Point, holding a spear upside down. His left chest was haphazardly bandaged with strips of cloth, and blood continuously seeped through, making him look quite disheveled.

Zheng Zha and Zero Point exchanged wry smiles. They both appeared to be severely wounded. Zero Point silently looked at the alien corpse in the distance, "The other one was killed? You're quite capable, killing an alien even without firearms?"

Zheng Zha gave a wry smile, "You guys aren't bad either, didn't you kill an alien too?"

Zero Point sighed, "Let's go into the armory. The two of them are inside."

Zheng Zha immediately called out loudly for Zhang Jie and the other person. When they walked over from the edge of the wall, Zero Point's expression turned to shock. Even with Zhang Jie's severed arms, he remained stunned. After a long moment, he took a breath and said, "Regardless, let's get into the armory first... Do you still have your hemostatic spray and strong bandages? Overlord... he might not make it."

As the three followed Zero Point into the armory, Zheng Zha noticed that the armory door was much thicker than a normal room door, almost as thick as a containment wall. A hole about a meter high had been corroded open in the middle of this door, clearly by the alien's bodily fluids. The other alien lay shattered to the left of the entrance, where a large area had been corroded away.

"Just luck. This alien tried desperately to get inside before the door could be corroded open, but it got stuck in the large hole at the entrance. We shot at it for several minutes before killing it. But the second alien was unavoidable. If you had arrived half a minute later, the three of us would probably have died here."

Zero Point walked ahead of everyone, explaining as he went.

Upon reaching the armory platform, Zheng Zha and the other two immediately saw Overlord and Chu Xuan. Overlord had a gaping hole in his chest. The sharp, bloody shape of the wound clearly indicated it was from an alien's tail stab, but fortunately, it hadn't penetrated, preventing his instant death.

Among the three, only Chu Xuan was almost completely unharmed. Apart from some bloodstains, his attire was exactly the same as when he first arrived. However, his slightly haggard eyes revealed that the alien had shaken him far more than his composed demeanor suggested. Only he knew the true extent of his distress.

"I didn't expect the alien to be so powerful."

Before Zheng Zha and the other two could speak, Chu Xuan looked at them and said quietly, "It was my miscalculation. In the first four Alien horror movies, the aliens rarely engaged in direct combat with human firearms, so I underestimated its strength... If ordinary aliens are this strong, I don't know how powerful the Queen will be. Perhaps we have already..."

Zheng Zha ignored him, lowering his head to spray medicine and bandage Overlord's wound. After a while, Overlord's bleeding finally stopped. However, this Russian man, as strong as a bear, was now so weak that he looked like he would die if he moved.

"Then let's form an alliance. You are one team, we are one team. No one will betray anyone, and no one can betray anyone... Of course, you can refuse, but I will absolutely not become your subordinate under your control. Your intelligence and strategic planning are very important, and I do need them. But similarly, you also need our abilities and familiarity with this world, right? We are valuable to each other. You choose."

Chu Xuan bit his finger and looked at Zheng Zha, "Okay, I accept your proposal, but there's one thing you must know... Once you can't keep up with my pace, for the safety of the majority, I will absolutely abandon you!"

"But I will save you!" Zheng Zha said with a cold laugh. "For your intelligence, I will save you!"