This Counts as a High Education

Chapter 17: I Suppose This Counts as Having a Higher Degree

What happens when a person makes sufficient, or even excessive, preparations for a task? When they approach an action with the focus of a lion hunting a rabbit, while simultaneously harboring the expectation that the rabbit might suddenly transform into a Great Devil King?

The answer is: nothing happens.

There were no inexplicable enemies appearing from all sides, nor any sudden deus ex machina monsters spawning in. This world was just an ordinary AVP world; the Yautja had been using Earth as their hunting ground for an uncountable amount of time. The death of a single elite warrior here would not cause any significant change.

After all, have there been few Yautja who died on Earth?

If there really were some incredible monsters hidden on Earth, how could they possibly not know?

Therefore...

After Si Ming redeemed one hundred days of return-to-reality training time, everything that followed went even more smoothly than his most peaceful projections.

On June 15, 2004, the town of "Conison" in the Colorado mountains was attacked by Xenomorphs. The nearby National Guard acted immediately, bringing the situation under control before dawn—the town was immediately sealed off by U.S. authorities under the pretext of a "leak caused by an unidentified terrorist attack on a nuclear power plant." All survivors were placed under house arrest, and the entire town, along with the surrounding forest area, underwent a thorough and meticulous cleanup.

At the same time, a high-bounty wanted notice for the terrorists was issued. Although there was no information other than the fact that the target was likely of Asian descent, U.S. intelligence agencies still poured a massive amount of resources and power into this matter.

On June 16, a well-known explorer of ancient Oriental ruins appeared in Mexico and hired local guides to conduct research at local Mayan civilization ruins. The pay was generous, and the locals participated enthusiastically. Over the next two months, the seven existing major Mayan ruins were inventoried under the tour of this Professor Si. In addition, four more lost Mayan civilization ruins were unearthed by this famous adventurer, causing quite a stir in the archaeological world.

However, the final conclusion of this journey was not so perfect. On August 18, when Professor Si finished his Mayan exploration tour and intended to start his next ancient ruin exploration, the Mexico City where he was staying saw a fierce firefight between drug cartels and government forces.

It was truly a tragic battle. Perhaps because of the intervention of unknown forces, the Mexican government forces, who should have been at a disadvantage, gained a massive advantage in this fight. When the sun rose the next day, at least one hundred thousand corpses of gang members in gruesome states were left in Mexico City. Most died from gunfire and explosions, but a small portion died from lacerations, impacts, or even being crushed by heavy objects. Several streets were destroyed as if they had been repeatedly rammed and crushed by a hundred building-demolition machines.

Corpses littered the fields, and many surviving government soldiers exhibited varying degrees of mental disorders afterward. They claimed to have seen animated skeletons and the march of the dead. Some even claimed giant worm monsters were rampaging through the streets—these people were eventually classified as victims of post-traumatic stress and mass hysteria. And naturally, no one cared that a famous explorer had gone missing in the chaos of Mexico City, with no one knowing where he had gone.

Time flowed on, and the Earth continued to rotate. On September 9, someone seemed to have seen the missing Professor Si in a port town in Argentina, South America. On that very same day, a research vessel departing from the United States resupplied at this port city, which was very close to Antarctica. Refusing the warm hospitality of the locals, it hurried on toward its original destination without stopping.

They, of course, would not notice that an uninvited guest had silently boarded the ship.

Lex Woods took a light breath, feeling the long-lost chill of the Antarctic land. As she stepped back onto this polar permafrost that had left her with unforgettable memories, the painful experiences of several months ago echoed deep within her mind.

She seemed to see Weyland-Yutani again. That old man who wanted to make one last desperate struggle at the end of his life did not get his wish to be world-famous after death—the secret of the Antarctic underground pyramid was concealed, and the operation that killed the entire expedition team was explained as a sudden polar storm. The impact of Weyland's death on the world ended up being exactly as he had estimated before the expedition began.

"Weyland-Yutani Corporation's stock fell by 12%."

That was all, nothing more. After his death, his company was even immediately swallowed up by U.S. authorities in secret, serving as a prop to deceive other countries. Using the excuse of "we must fulfill the chairman's last wish," they built a larger research base on this polar permafrost, with far more visible investment but less than a tenth of the actual secret research, all under the guise of "scientific exploration."

"The world clearly wasn't ready..."

She recalled the alien spear she had received from the alien, and then thought of the disaster that broke out in Conison town nearly three months ago, as well as the alien biological residue recovered by professionals—the alien she called a "Yautja" had its body burned after death, and its equipment and body tissues were all destroyed. However, in that hospital, many utensils and fragments made of alien metal were still recovered.

If their structure and composition could be analyzed, then the United States... no, human materials science could leap forward by at least fifty years. However, even with fifty years of technological growth, how could humans compete with those powerful alien creatures?

"Not ready for what, Dr. Woods?" A gentle voice asked her from the side.

"The beasts are not yet ready to become hunters." Lex shook her head. Looking at her black-haired, black-eyed companion, she always felt as if a layer of mist was covering her brain, but this matter didn't seem very important. "The Yautja are too powerful. The reason humans have been able to survive under their gaze is that they have not yet regarded humans as a valuable hunting target. If two civilizations were to go to war, the consequences would likely be quite terrifying."

"Perhaps." Her companion shrugged, looking indifferent. "But that is not something we should consider. What we need to do is assist in excavating this collapsed ruin. As for other matters, there are naturally professional leaders to make those judgments."

Lex sighed.

She had to admit that she didn't have much power in this "expedition team." She was not even as good as this "Professor Si," who was also invited to excavate the ancient ruins; at least he was younger and physically stronger.

But come to think of it, when exactly did this Professor Si join this "expedition team," and why did her mind seem to have no impression of it...?

"Welcome to the forward base, Dr. Woods, Professor Si. The General has been waiting for you for a long time. We have just encountered a small problem and need the two of you to provide professional opinions for reference."

Her train of thought was interrupted.

Lex looked at the officer who had met the ship and nodded politely. As she followed the officer toward the base, she subconsciously glanced at the research ship behind her—she didn't know if it was an illusion, but she seemed to see a huge, blurry outline, like an octopus or a worm, quietly crawling on the command tower of the research ship.

The feeling was fleeting.

She turned her head and followed the officer through one guard post after another—in less than three months, the U.S. government, having mobilized a large amount of manpower and resources, had built an extremely large military base on this abandoned whaling station. At least one division of polar-specialized combat troops was stationed in the base. And in the bay outside the base, six fully armed destroyers were ready to provide fire support at any time.

"The difficulty of attacking is very high." That Professor Si commented as they walked. "Whether it is infiltration or a frontal assault, the probability of success is very small. Unless some more aggressive, destructive means are used, but that might hinder subsequent development."

"You're quite humorous, Professor Si." Lex smiled. She had heard of this Professor Si; although she had never met him before today, he was indeed an explorer characterized by being bold and aggressive. It was said that during an exploration of Mayan ruins two months ago, he had strangled an eight-meter-long anaconda with his bare hands. She didn't know if he was just that strong or if the python was in poor condition.

"Strictly speaking, that snake was only six meters long, and I didn't use my bare hands." Professor Si replied, then he nodded slightly with an apologetic look. "Sorry, such large-scale mental suggestion is very draining for me. But don't worry, this situation won't last long."

What was he saying?

What kind of strange, nonsensical things was he talking about?

Lex frowned, complex logic colliding in her brain—yes, Professor Si was indeed a world-famous ancient ruin explorer, and yes, she had indeed been invited to explore a sufficiently ancient ruin. So, in this case, wasn't it very normal for him to be here?

The haziness in her mind emerged once again—she turned her head again, and in a trance, she seemed to see a huge transparent outline following them as they headed deep into the base. Her reason told her that something completely wrong was happening, but her intuition kept emphasizing to her that no unexpected situation had occurred here.

"It's better not to have one." Professor Si said again: "If things are made too clear, it will probably be difficult to end things peacefully later."

What he said seemed to make a lot of sense, so Lex stopped thinking about it. The officer leading the way in front of them and the soldiers they encountered along the way all acted as if they had heard nothing.

Thus, soon, the two met the commander in the base. And the "small problem" the officer had mentioned earlier was clearly revealed to them.

"There were some problems with the drilling." The commander showed her some photos of the tunnels and the ancient ruins. "Dr. Woods, you said that before the Yautja took you out of the ruins, it detonated a powerful bomb. And now, the drill has reached the depth of the collapsed area, but some broken ruin fragments are blocking our path forward."

"I need your professional knowledge to tell me which of these fragments have value. Because you are the only survivor of the incident, your judgment is crucial."

The commander explained, while Professor Si walked over naturally to examine the photos.

"Are there any complete excavation blueprints and scans of the ruin structure?"

The commander hesitated, seeming a bit shaken. But in the end, he took a stack of top-secret documents from a secure file cabinet and handed them to Professor Si.

"Thank you for your cooperation." The man with black hair and black eyes nodded, smiling as he accepted the document. He turned and left with such crisp, clean efficiency that no one moved to stop him.

And just like that, he was gone.

Lex stared in the direction of his departure, dumbfounded. Even though a murky fog still clouded her mind, her logical faculties were stinging with sharp, piercing intuition.

"He... he just left like that. Is that really okay?" she asked the base commander, unable to believe what she was seeing.

"What are you talking about, Dr. Wood?" The commander, however, only looked at her with surprise. "We brought you all the way from the mainland specifically because we hoped you would provide some constructive input. As for other matters, we have our own considerations."

"Wait, do you mean to say that you only invited me?"

"Of course. Is there anyone else?"

"But just now, that Professor Si..."

"What Professor Si? From the very beginning, there have only been the two of us here."