Zhang Jie didn't retreat an inch. Even with the Alien's tongue piercing his shoulder, he still stood firmly in front of Zheng Zha, pushing the Spiral Thorn even harder into the Alien's head. He didn't flinch as the Alien's blood flowed down the Spiral Thorn and onto his hands. Before long, the flesh on his wrists had been eaten away, leaving only bone.
"Ah!!!"
Instead of retreating, Zhang Jie charged forward, driving the Spiral Thorn into the Alien's head like a madman. The corrosion spread farther and farther up his hands. By the time it reached his forearms, all the flesh had turned to bone. Fortunately, Zheng Zha reacted in time and dragged him back. The steel rod of the Spiral Thorn, pulled from the Alien's head, had been eaten away almost entirely. Only a short stub remained, and it looked ready to disappear completely.
Zheng Zha shouted Zhan Lan's name. At the same time, he quickly took some fresh water from his Storage Ring and frantically poured it over Zhang Jie's arms. Zhan Lan snapped back to her senses and sprayed Zhang Jie's arms with a hemostatic spray as well.
As they treated Zhang Jie's injuries, the motionless Alien finally swayed and toppled to the ground. Yellow corrosive liquid poured from its body, and gradually the three of them were enveloped in pungent white smoke.
Zheng Zha dragged Zhang Jie toward the corridor behind them. Once they were out of the smoke, he finally saw that the corrosion on Zhang Jie's arms had stopped. By then, both forearms had been completely eaten away, without even a speck of bone left. Only two starkly truncated stumps remained.
Zhang Jie had already passed out from the pain. It wasn't until Zheng Zha poured cold water over his stumps again that the man jolted awake. He immediately gave a wry laugh. "Well, would you look at that—a single Alien is worth five hundred Reward Points. And you kept it under wraps the whole time, you sly bastard. That's not very nice of you, is it? Heh, what's a little Desert Eagle worth now? I can buy myself an AK with unlimited ammo!"
Zheng Zha stared silently at his two stumps. Zhang Jie chuckled. "It's fine, it's fine. As long as we make it back to the Main God, fixing my body won't cost many Reward Points. I'll just be a burden to you for a while... Heh, now that I think about it, I'm better off following you than Chu Xuan. If I were in this state around him, he'd probably have abandoned me already."
Zheng Zha let out a breath. "Don't worry. I'll never abandon my teammates... Wait here. Unless I call for you, get back to the control room as fast as you can. Do what Zhan Lan suggested. Whether we survive is up to fate!" With that, he picked up a Spiral Thorn bomb and headed for the armory.
The Alien's blood had eaten a large hole through the corridor, and even the floor was riddled with small holes. Zheng Zha could only make his way toward the armory cautiously, keeping close to the wall. Halfway there, someone suddenly emerged from the white smoke at the other end. It was Zero Point, carrying a long rifle upside down. His left chest was hastily bandaged with strips of cloth, but blood kept seeping through. He looked to be in a sorry state.
Zheng Zha and Zero Point exchanged bitter smiles. They both looked badly injured. Zero Point silently studied the Alien's corpse in the distance. "The other one was killed? You're impressive. You managed to kill an Alien without a gun?"
Zheng Zha smiled bitterly. "You guys did pretty well too. You killed one as well, didn't you?"
Zero Point sighed. "Let's get to the armory. The other two are inside."
Zheng Zha immediately called out to Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan. Only when they came around the edge of the wall did Zero Point look shocked. Even seeing Zhang Jie's severed arms left him stunned. After a long while, he finally drew a breath. "We should get to the armory first, no matter what... You still have hemostatic spray and heavy-duty bandages, right? Overlord... he might not make it."
As the three followed Zero Point into the armory, Zheng Zha noticed that its door was much sturdier than the doors to ordinary rooms, almost as thick as the bulkhead. A hole over a meter high had been corroded through the middle of it, clearly by an Alien's bodily fluids. The other Alien lay in pieces just inside the armory on the left. A large hollow had been eaten into the area around it.
"We were just lucky. This Alien kept trying to squeeze inside before the door had been corroded open, and got stuck in the hole. We fired at it for several minutes before we finally killed it. But we couldn't handle the second one. If you'd been half a minute later, all three of us would probably have died here."
Zero Point walked ahead of them, explaining as he went.
When they reached the platform inside the armory, Zheng Zha and the others immediately saw Overlord and Chu Xuan. Overlord had a huge hole in his chest. The sharp-edged wound had clearly been made by an Alien's tail. Fortunately, it hadn't gone all the way through, or he would have died instantly.
Of the three, only Chu Xuan was practically unharmed. Apart from the bloodstains, he looked exactly as he had when they first arrived. But his slightly haggard eyes revealed that the Alien had shaken him far more than he let on. Only he knew what he was really feeling.
"I didn't expect the Aliens to be so powerful."
Before Zheng Zha and the others could speak, Chu Xuan looked at them and said quietly, "My calculations were wrong. In the first four Alien movies, the Aliens hardly ever fought humans and their firearms head-on, so I underestimated their strength... If even an ordinary Alien is this powerful, I can't imagine how strong the Alien Queen is. Perhaps we really have..."
Zheng Zha ignored him and focused on spraying medicine over Overlord's wounds and bandaging them. After a while, Overlord's bleeding finally stopped, but the burly Russian, strong as a bear, was now so weak he looked as if the slightest movement might kill him.
"Then let's form an alliance. You're one team, and we're another. Neither side will betray the other, and neither side can betray the other... Of course, you can say no. But I'll never let myself be controlled and turned into your teammate. Your intelligence and ability to plan are important, and I really do need them. But you need our abilities and our familiarity with this world just as much. We're valuable to each other. It's your choice."
Chu Xuan bit his finger and looked at Zheng Zha. "All right, I accept your proposal. But there's one thing you need to understand... If you can't keep up with me, I'll abandon you for the safety of the majority!"
"But I'll save you!" Zheng Zha gave a cold laugh. "I'll save you for your Intelligence!"
Before you continue