They Want Revenge

Shute didn't say anything about Xilin's silence. Xilin hadn't spoken much since the operation began. Shute just felt the kid was too quiet; young people should be more lively and cheerful.

"Xilin, don't worry about that for now. After we deal with those black rats and repair the base, specialized personnel will handle it. We should head to the Waste Disposal Plant on the other side; that's their lair," Shute said, checking the time.

"Wait... done!" Xilin turned on the instrument and entered a string of commands.

"What is this?" one of the team members asked. The markings on the instrument had been worn away by the black rats, making them illegible.

"This should be an instrument for analyzing genes or something," another team member said.

"Mhm, this is a relatively High-end analyzer within the Star Alliance," Xilin said, taking out a small syringe from his waist pocket and dripping it onto a groove on the instrument. He then pushed the groove into the slot and entered another string of formulas.

"See, I told you to read more books. That way, you'll know something about instruments when you encounter them, or people will call you illiterate."

"Hmph, I'm a Soldier. Soldiers just need to fight. What do I need culture for?"

The team members chatted and laughed.

However, Shute didn't laugh. Xilin's reaction gave him a bad feeling. He had heard from Huoding long ago that Xilin was a very talented person who did research in the Seven Luminaries Research Department. Now it seemed this kid truly had practical skills. It took him less than five minutes to fix the instrument, and his technique was skilled. But, what Xilin dripped onto the instrument just now was probably the blood of those black rats? When did he get it?

"How is it?" Shute leaned over and asked, as he couldn't understand any of the complex information displayed on the screen.

Indeed, ignorance is terrifying. But, as his subordinate just said, Soldiers just need to fight. Their brains have limited memory; too much information will overload the CPU.

Xilin didn't answer Shute's question directly. Instead, he said, "Captain, could you do me a favor? Go collect some bloodstains from the black rats left in the Laboratory. Try to get fresh ones." Some places had bloodstains from the black rats fighting amongst themselves or being injured by the Laboratory's Defense System. As long as they hadn't been exposed to medication, there wouldn't be significant changes.

"Sure." Shute took a bag of small tubes that Xilin handed him. Each tube contained a sterile cotton swab. He hadn't expected this kid to bring such things when preparing equipment on the warship.

In a short while, the nine of them collected twenty-eight blood samples.

Xilin found a few solutions in the Laboratory, processed them, and then placed all twenty-eight samples into the instrument for simultaneous analysis. Looking at the string of data displayed on the screen, he sighed, "Wait for me a moment. I need to collect another sample. I hope I can find it."

"Sigh, what is that kid doing?" one of the team members complained.

"I have a bad feeling about this," another muttered.

Xilin looked at a hole, took some photos, and then jumped into it.

"Hey, you!" The team member who followed him was almost petrified. That was a rat hole! They couldn't even stretch their limbs inside, let alone raise their guns. If a black rat suddenly sprang out from below, they would surely be doomed. Although the life detector hadn't detected anything, there were too many interfering factors in such an experimental base, and instrument malfunctions were common.

The hole was pitch black, and those above couldn't see what Xilin was doing. Xilin took off his gloves and placed his hand directly on the cave wall. The virus carried by the black rats had no effect on him. As he touched the cave wall, Xilin's mind was already rapidly analyzing the information from his fingertips. The DNA data obtained from the subtle traces of fur, dander, and saliva left on the cave wall was similar to that on the instrument.

His fingers moved along the cave wall, pausing at a certain spot. Xilin put his gloves back on, took out a cotton swab from the small tube, and wiped the spot. He also scraped off a layer from there with his carving knife.

Seeing Xilin emerge from the hole, Shute and the others finally breathed a sigh of relief. This kid was really...

After testing and analyzing the sample collected from the hole on the instrument, and comparing it with the previous twenty-odd samples, another string of data appeared on the screen.

"It's just as I predicted," Xilin said, pointing to the data on the screen. "This is the comparison between the sample I collected from the hole just now and the twenty-odd samples you collected. These are some data inferred from the analysis of genetic material. I won't say more, but in short, we've been tricked."

Shute frowned, "Explain?"

"I'll just say one thing." Xilin pointed to a piece of data, "The red and white muscle strength in these black rats we hunted is more than five times weaker than that burrowing black rat. This means that the burrowing black rat is much stronger than the black rats we encountered, both in speed and endurance. And this is just an incomplete analysis."

"The burrowing one is a different, stronger type of black rat?" Shute asked.

"Yes, because the black rats we shot couldn't even scratch through the reinforced protective layer beneath this area of the base! I checked the holes. The claw marks at the entrance were very clean, capable of scratching through steel plates. If it were the black rats we encountered, they wouldn't be able to drill through even in a month. But how long has it been since the base was breached?"

The team members fell silent.

That's right, how long had it been since the base was overrun? A few hours!

"Where are those stronger black rats? The Waste Disposal Plant?"

"No, if I'm not mistaken, their true 'elites' are beneath the central area of the base!"

Shute was startled, "How is that possible! They can't..."

Shute originally wanted to say that these black rats couldn't drill through the protective layer beneath the central area. But Shute immediately realized they might have been wrong from the start. It wasn't that they couldn't drill through. Since there were such powerful black rats, no matter how sturdy the area beneath the central zone was, it couldn't hold out for long.

"What exactly do they want to do?" a team member couldn't help but ask.

"Revenge. They want revenge." Xilin looked in the direction of the central area, where the base's most core researchers were located.

The ones shot were merely the vanguard of the black rats. The true elites had never shown themselves. Xilin even suspected that the black rat captured by the Research Base was intentionally let go by the black rat leader, because that one wasn't an elite either. Compared to the one that dug the hole, it was on a completely different level.

Beneath the Waste Disposal Plant was their former nest, because there was water and food. But now, it was just a diversion, a pretense to make the action teams continue to waste ammunition and time.

Feinting to the east while attacking in the west. They used this tactic very well. In this world, intelligent races were far, far more numerous than people imagined.

"If you predicted this long ago, why didn't you say anything?!" a team member asked indignantly.

"Say it? Without evidence, would you believe me?" As Xilin's student status, neither these Army personnel nor the base researchers would believe him. Since that was the case, it was better to find evidence himself. Xilin considered himself not a kind person, and he wouldn't go out of his way to please others. What did their lives have to do with him?

If Mo Heng knew Xilin's thoughts, he would probably be so angry he'd beat him soundly.