I, Yu Lian, Sensitive Person

The lieutenant was a bit embarrassed, but fortunately, no one had the time to pay attention to him anymore.

Perhaps it was because Yu Lian's steady, practiced movements had put everyone at ease, and the soldiers remained relatively calm. Many were already checking their weapons. Ina, having already loaded and aimed her rifle, looked at Yu Lian, awaiting his orders.

"No fighting. Help me up, and we'll retreat into the cave! Sergeant Youyou, you'll lead the way."

The Big Black Guy, who had just put on his powered armor, held his rifle with the demeanor of someone ready to charge through mountains of blades and seas of fire.

"I'll cover the rear," Ina said, fiddling with her rifle, her face grim.

"No need."

"Then I will..." the bearman Sergeant began, his voice heavy.

"I said no one needs to! Why is everyone acting so tragic! Did I say I wanted anyone to sacrifice themselves?" Yu Lian roared in anger.

Everyone fell silent and hurried along.

The lieutenant, who had been a swordsman just an hour ago, shook his head and carefully followed the group.

The cave was indeed quite deep, becoming more difficult and winding the further they went, but it was still passable. Just as they could finally see light, the screeches of bugs echoed from behind them.

Honestly, the biological structure of the bugs was closer to that of insects, and these creatures didn't make noise when hunting. However, perhaps it was the pet peeve of the Queen that Yu Lian had beaten so many times in his past life, thinking that a horde of bugs roaring would be intimidating, so she had inexplicably endowed her bug offspring with this trait—it was understandable. Look at how zombies in zombie sieges always roared "Awooo!" even though their vocal cords were rotten.

At the rear of the group, Ina and Baka, one holding a rifle and the other an axe, looked back at the carried Yu Lian.

"Hurry up! I'm telling you, if any of you dare to play the hero, I'll dismantle this thing!" Yu Lian brandished the "Cluster" sonic bomb in his hand.

The two reluctantly followed. Although they thought the Second Lieutenant, this student, was being a bit impulsive, they were actually a little touched. Everyone present likely felt the same; the nurse, with her plain appearance, ordinary build, and unremarkable aura, even took out a handkerchief to wipe Yu Lian's sweat.

He was truly starting to hurt again. Before, it felt like he couldn't feel his lower body and every bone in his body ached, but now it felt like a steel bar had been inserted into his waist, freshly pulled from a furnace.

Dragging him, who was already a wreck, they finally saw the cave entrance. At this moment, the roars of the raptors sounded as if they were right by their ears, making their legs tremble.

Yes, the roars were effective, even in the space age. The more classic, the more timeless.

Ina was already firing. However, she hadn't lost her mind or stopped covering the rear; she was shooting while walking.

"Aim between their mandibles! That's the head nexus!" Yu Lian shouted a reminder.

Ina didn't doubt him. With two more bursts of three shots, she was indeed satisfied to see two of the giant bugs at the front fall, blocking their path.

Then, Sergeant Baka grabbed her and quickened their pace. They finally saw the exit, or rather, a hole slanted into the rock face.

"This is the exit you mentioned?" the Sergeant Major wanted to curse. It wasn't that they couldn't climb out, but the unfortunate soul whose spine was broken was being dragged out at an angle, likely to his death.

Yu Lian truly felt like he was dying. If before he only "felt" like his bones were broken, now they probably were, and his internal organs were in turmoil. He felt black, yellow, red, and green substances flooding into his nostrils, almost making him vomit it all out.

Miss Belinda frantically wiped her tears. Although it was a natural physiological reaction, Yu Lian still felt utterly humiliated.

Fortunately, everyone managed to crawl out of the cave. Ina's upper body also appeared at the rear, and the bearman Baka at the very end was pushing her out. He was the only one in the squad capable of pushing someone wearing over a hundred pounds of powered armor out.

Ina stepped out of the cave with a swift stride and reached out for the bearman's hand. Yu Lian, holding his "Cluster" bomb, intently watched their movements at the cave entrance.

Raptors were proper charging units. While they looked large and difficult to pass through narrow caves, they had the earth-digging skill unlocked and could dig faster than groundhogs.

Yu Lian knew clearly that the rock cave wouldn't hold them for long. Once they were out in the open, his remaining troops would be no match for them.

They had to take them out while they were crowded here!

Fortunately, they were bioweapons, and their commanding officer was a simple-minded AI. They found the concept of traps difficult to grasp.

In a few more years, these guys wouldn't be so easy to fool. At least in his era, they were never easy to fool.

Yu Lian watched as Ina pulled the two-meter-tall bearman giant out of the cave.

He had also crawled to the cave entrance by this time, holding a pistol in one hand and the bomb in the other. From within the cave entrance, several raptors, with bared fangs and claws, squeezed their way through. Behind them, more bugs were howling, and a serpentine figure could be seen moving swiftly through the gaps between the bugs.

Yu Lian hesitated no longer, activated the bomb, and threw it into the swarm.

The flashing light of the battery caused the swarm to stiffen for a moment—yes, although they were biological, they also required energy. Genes, more diverse genes, were their evolutionary elements; energy, more energy, was the source of their actions.

A different cry came from within the swarm, seemingly scolding their own kind, but it was too late. Yu Lian fired a shot, hitting the manual trigger of the cluster bomb, and then rolled away, covering his head.

This action was agonizing for the half-crippled man with a broken spine. It felt like the red-hot steel bar in his waist had also snapped.

A muffled "Rumble" erupted at the cave entrance. Imagine a pressure cooker lid being blown off, amplified a hundred times, that was probably the sound.

Everyone felt like they were at the epicenter of an earthquake, struggling to maintain balance. Yu Lian, being the closest, no longer had to exert all his strength against his weak, crippled body; the rolling ground moved him.

Just as the red, black, green, and purple substances flooded his nostrils again, threatening to erupt, and just as he suspected he would be shaken to death, a giant metal hand grabbed him and pulled him up, leaning him against it.

It was Ina.

The stabilization system of the exoskeleton allowed the Sergeant Major to immediately balance her center of gravity. Her metal suit now served as a chair.

"You're pushing yourself too hard, Officer!"

"I had no choice. Besides you, I don't trust anyone else's marksmanship." Throwing a bomb into the swarm and then firing a follow-up shot was incredibly difficult. And the reason Guard Team Minions occupied the lowest rung of the hierarchy was certainly not without cause.

"I could have..."

"And then gone up in smoke together... ah, no, buried together?"

Ina gritted her teeth and said nothing, thinking she must find a way to repay this life-saving favor.

However, Yu Lian felt a bit awkward. Although she was wearing a cold metal suit, he was currently leaning against her.

"Would you like to relax a little?" Ina asked.

"Miss, do you know how easily what you just said can be misinterpreted?" Yu Lian clicked his tongue, but the Sergeant Major had already opened the storage compartment on the outer thigh armor of her exoskeleton, revealing a rack for energy bars, cigarette packs, cigar tubes, and a hip flask, gesturing for Yu Lian to take his pick.

I can't believe this girl, with her earnest eyes and brows, isn't as proper as she looks!

"I don't have anything more exciting, if that's not your thing," the girl said.

"Who would want that? And judging by your tone, that 'more exciting' thing seems pretty common?"

The Sergeant Major, realizing she'd misspoke, turned her head away. Catching Yu Lian staring intently at the silver metal tube on the rack out of the corner of her eye, her cheek twitched—she had gone to great lengths to get this item and hadn't even had a chance to enjoy it yet. But if her savior wanted it, she couldn't very well refuse!

"It's a Green Bay Torpedo! They stopped production 30 years ago!"

"Stopped production? Weren't they just named the galaxy's top ten cigars last year?"

"No, forget I said anything."

Yu Lian held the metal tube, which resembled a miniature torpedo, with trembling hands, his heart filled with emotion. Finally, his sudden jump fifty years into the past wasn't entirely a bad thing. He knew that ever since the Fertile Star's Green Bay tobacco fields were vaporized by orbital bombardment, these galaxy-renowned cigars had become coveted collector's items, impossible to obtain.

The big shots of the Commonwealth believed that luxury goods like high-end cigars created more value and boosted their prestige among galactic civilizations, so they shut down Earth's metallurgy, chemical, energy, and arms manufacturing industries. But the reality was that a single, small destroyer's intimidation bombing had utterly destroyed a luxury brand that had been famous for over a century.

It was truly ironic.

Yu Lian pulled the cigar from the "torpedo tube" and decided to savor it properly. He looked up, intending to ask Miss Ina for a light again, but his eyes immediately widened. It wasn't that he was captivated by her pretty, albeit dirty, face, but rather he saw a black shadow leap up behind her.

It was the Thorned Serpent King, which should have died in the explosion!

It was indeed heavily wounded, with half its body mangled, its carapace split open, and constantly oozing a yellowish-brown fluid. However, thin membranes had appeared on the sides of its insectoid abdomen, glowing with a cold, eerie blue light.

It was about to evolve, already possessing a rudimentary energy shield capability! This was why it had managed to escape the explosion alive.

Even though it was severely injured, the Thorned Serpent King's movements showed no sign of slowing down; they were too fast for a normal person's vision to track. This elite Xenomorph troop, besides serving as wartime squad leaders, often acted as assassins.

Yet, Yu Lian could clearly track its every move, as if watching a slow-motion replay. He could even make out the natural patterns of every segment of its scaled head, every blade-like tooth in its gaping maw, and the six insectoid blades that sprang from its coiled abdomen.

But seeing clearly didn't mean he could do anything. Yu Lian felt as if his veins and nerves were filled with liquid lead; he couldn't even move a finger.

However, the Thorned Serpent King was already raising its blades towards Ina's unsuspecting back of the head. Even at this point, the Sergeant Major only showed a look of surprise, completely unresponsive.

Ina Nishika, the "Witch of the Scorching Eye," would she die here? Would the greatest sniper in galactic history, whose legendary prey ranged from imperial princes and alliance tycoons to colossal titans, perish before even leaving her tutorial zone?

What about the Earth youths who would later embark on the path of resistance because of her existence? What about her hundred-plus short videos teaching people how to craft light-spear cannons and militia training using rudimentary methods?

So, was it because of my existence as a reborn person? The butterfly effect?

In an instant, the reds, greens, blacks, purples, and yellows surged to Yu Lian's throat again, but this time, they didn't stop.

However, what erupted wasn't anything indescribable, but a shockwave that rippled through the air, sliding past the Sergeant Major's shoulder and smashing directly into the Thorned Serpent King's face.

"So, I'm a sensitive too, damn it!"