Meeting Wolf

Meeting Wolf

--[Killed Predalien, gained 3,500 reward points and 1 C-rank side quest.]

--[Rescued victims of the Xenomorph disaster, gained 2,000 reward points and 1 C-rank side quest.]

The voice rang out, announcing a total of two. The first was only natural; the second came as a surprise.

Si Ming examined the Predalien head in his hand. Compared to an ordinary Xenomorph, it was larger and sturdier, with four petal-like mandibles similar to those of a Yautja. Corrosive blood kept flowing from its severed neck, and even diluted by the rain, it swiftly ate a string of small holes into the ground.

It had been powerful. Its speed and strength had far surpassed Si Ming's. In the original story, after escaping the sewers, the first place it attacked had been this fast-food restaurant. The manager had been the first to die, while the waitress, Carrie, had been directly implanted by its specialized inner jaws. Unlike a Facehugger, which could only implant one host at a time, this Predalien could plant three or even more Xenomorph larvae into a single host.

And now, despite Si Ming's significant alterations to the plot, it had still attacked this fast-food restaurant. He had severely wounded it with linked grenades disguised beneath Night Battle Qi, and it had died here as a result.

It had been powerful, but humanity had become the king of primates through tools and intelligence. Firearms and explosives were the most effective force multipliers. That was why it had met such an end here.

"I see." Si Ming nodded. With a slight movement of his palm, he forced a large amount of corrosive blood out of the Predalien's head. Soon, no blood remained around the severed opening. "Because I cut off everything that followed at the source, I received extra rewards beyond the basic bounty?"

No, not just that. This should have been the Main God going easy on newcomers. It had created this absurd situation where killing one hen counted as killing dozens of chicks it would have hatched. And that meant that before he finally went to the hospital to end everything, there might still be some additional gains to collect.

He glanced at the watch on his wrist, then turned toward the two drenched survivors staring at him in shock. His voice was clear and penetrating, ensuring his words reached their ears.

"Don't go indoors, and don't leave the main roads. There are still plenty of monsters hiding in this town—head toward the city center along the road. You may encounter the National Guard on the way. As long as they don't mistake you for monsters and kill you, you'll be able to survive under their protection—"

He froze—the confusion in his mind suddenly cleared. So that was it. This was not preferential treatment from the Main God, but a hint from it. Saving the victims meant they would not die later because of this. It meant the tactical nuclear weapon that should have fallen on the city center had already been locked away on its rack at the source!

He silently let out a breath. Compared to inexplicable preferential treatment, a reward with a clear origin was far more reassuring. Even though he knew that the Main God in the original setting was nothing more than an emotionless large-scale dimensional search-and-descent system, he still disliked things too far beyond his grasp.

But then again... saving an entire town only earned a C-rank reward. All he could say was that this level of stinginess was indeed classic first-generation Main God behavior.

Damn it, the Ape Emperor could get a B-rank side quest just for blowing up Cairo. What, are cities better than towns? Do fewer people make them inferior?

He grumbled inwardly, yet a faint smile tugged at his lips. The falling rain silently slid across the invisible veil of Battle Qi covering his body. He nodded to the two survivors.

The Ford Mustang was parked nearby, and it could still run. As Si Ming got in, he heard Carrie cry out.

"You... who are you, really?!"

He smiled.

He shut the door and started the engine. Amid the roar, the car plunged into the curtain of rain.

And an introduction identical to the one before, yet utterly different, lingered in the torrential downpour.

"A tourist," he said.

The rain continued to pour.

"Hah—"

Suzuki sucked in a sharp breath and sat up from the cold floor. His hands and feet felt limp and icy, while his body was frighteningly weak. His head swam, as though he had fired off twenty rounds in one go before passing out.

...Passed out?

His heart suddenly thudded. The end of his memories rapidly became clear in his mind. He remembered that he had merely gone to the restroom, and before leaving, some black shadow had seemed to leap swiftly toward his face.

His face?

His lips and tongue suddenly went dry, and an icy chill surged up from the very base of his spine.

"No, no, that can't be! I just passed out, I just saw wrong... It can't be!"

Fear clenched his heart. He instinctively raised the hand braced against the floor. Yet the cold, rough sensation against his fingertips made his entire body jerk as though struck by electricity.

Something he had never seen with his own eyes, yet knew all too well, lay there. His neck trembled as he laboriously turned toward what his fingers had touched. In the dim light around him, he clearly saw a grayish-white, many-legged creature curled up on the floor. It was almost the size of a small washbasin and looked like a dead scorpion.

"Guh—" He screamed.

The sound echoed through the room.

The air was thick with the stench of blood, and the sound of torrential rain could faintly be heard outside. He instinctively clutched his chest, but in the dark room, perhaps dim due to a power outage, a cold gleam suddenly flashed.

"Crack—!!!"

Lightning.

The entire hall was illuminated by that pale blaze. In that single instant, he saw countless mangled corpses scattered throughout the hall.

Human corpses, Xenomorph corpses. The former had mostly been bitten into unrecognizable fragments by the Xenomorphs. The latter had largely retained their overall forms, merely sliced apart, or pierced through the head and chest as though struck directly by a tank's main gun.

They were all dead.

There was no one left alive here.

And amid the blood-soaked fragments near those shattered bodies, a tall figure stood before Suzuki—unfamiliar, yet carrying a vague sense of familiarity.

He seemed to have seen him before. He seemed to have spoken to him. A broken desk lamp in the distance suddenly flickered, outlining the tall figure in light.

It was him, that man. The man who claimed to be from China and looked down on everything with arrogant eyes.

And his name was...

"What a pity." The man in the darkness spoke lightly. "You had good aptitude and considerable potential. That was why, even after everyone else had died, you had only just awakened. But the implantation is complete, and at present, there is no effective response other than destruction."

Once implanted by a Xenomorph, there was only death. Even if technological means were used to remove the underdeveloped Xenomorph embryo, the corroded flesh would spontaneously take on the form of a juvenile extraterrestrial creature.

What was he saying? What was he trying to say? Did he mean... he was going to die?

"I should thank you," the man in the shadows continued. "You helped me verify a conjecture. The world we arrived in is not a completely free world. Not every cause and effect is intertwined; they follow certain rules. As long as no targeted intervention occurs, key events and nodes will not naturally change. Beyond that, every one of us must undergo trials."

"What... are you talking about?" Suzuki's mind was a complete mess. He could not properly understand what the man was saying. He only knew that his heart was racing, and his entire body was filled with an indescribable tension.

It was coming. Something terrifying, something horrible, was about to happen.

"What I mean is, once we outsiders appear in this world, we are destined to become involved in its central theme. Hiding is useless. So long as the possibility is not zero, the attack is destined to arrive."

"Crack—" Another bolt of lightning flashed.

Pale light spread across the ground. The black-haired, black-eyed young man, who even looked somewhat gentle and scholarly, stood atop the corpse of an especially huge Xenomorph. He looked down at Suzuki, and pity seemed to flicker in his vanishing gaze.

"In other words, it was you who brought the attack upon this police station. Because you hid here, Xenomorphs and Facehuggers came to attack this place. Those who flee will always face trials that come knocking. And you, who were struck down without making any preparations, brought destruction upon yourselves."

A sharp pain suddenly came from deep within his chest. Not because of the man's words, but because something was wriggling, biting.

"Save... save me." Suzuki pleaded, reaching out his hand. He still remembered the power that man had displayed.

"I can't save you. No one can save you." Yet the man's voice fell coldly like a verdict. "You brought this upon yourself. Wait quietly for the end."

"It was you! You said we wouldn't encounter Xenomorphs if we went to the airport... You said it! You lied to me, to us! Take responsibility! Are all Chinese people as irresponsible as you?!"

"This isn't the airport." The man merely looked at him calmly. "And I also said that even if you avoided the Xenomorphs, you might still run into the US Army. You must be prepared to bear the risks of anything you do, but you clearly are not—"

"Shut up, you worthless mongrel—"

Suzuki roared, cutting him off. The man paused, and in the next moment, just as he seemed about to turn and leave, he bent down. His faintly glowing fingers reached toward Suzuki's chest.

Just as he thought, he knew it! Chinese people really were, just as his great-grandfather had said before his death, lowly bones who feared strength but despised weakness! At worst, he could bow and apologize afterward... No! If he stayed tough to the end, maybe they would even admire him!

The pain in his chest faded.

But the next moment, an even worse agony erupted from his internal organs. Unable to drill through his ribs and burst out, the Chestburster naturally sought another path it could take!

He let out a shrill, agonized, prolonged scream. In mere seconds, the Chestburster had bored his chest cavity full of holes.

"You fear power but do not cherish virtue. That is the nature of your people. Though I personally dislike judging an entire group by its worst examples, considering that island's geography, constantly battered by storms and earthquakes, it truly could only raise natives like this."

The man straightened and examined his miserable state. No matter how Suzuki wailed, twisted, or struggled, he simply watched in silence.

"This is becoming a headache... In the reincarnation world, going solo always carries the risk of failure. I need to find cooperative partners who can at least share some of the pressure. But I remember people from the Heisei era weren't like this... Ah, I forgot. You haven't been taught a lesson by nuclear power plants yet, so you haven't recognized reality. You're still just a bunch of vermin who can't understand human speech."

He nodded at the gradually dying Suzuki.

"My apologies. Having expectations for you was indeed my mistake. Though I will try once more, before and after that, I will properly reflect on myself."

Suzuki died.

His jaw was torn open from within, and the Xenomorph larva that had finally found an exit let out a piercing cry. But in the next instant, Night Battle Qi wrapped around it and twisted it into a pale, acid-splattering knot.

Si Ming lowered his hand.

With that, the four adult Xenomorphs and two larvae inside the police station had all been dealt with. Corpses cold from the very beginning were transformed into steaming-hot reward points credited to his account.

He checked the watch on his wrist. More than half an hour remained on the countdown until the mission was completed.

It was time.

Time to head to the hospital and meet that Wolf who had perhaps been waiting for a long time.