Xenomorphs and Yautja

The air fell silent for a moment.

Fashionable Beauty stopped screaming, and Armed Fatty's hand froze in midair against his throat. The Reincarnation Team's new recruits, who had jolted awake in their hospital beds, stared at the young man's visibly broken neck, dumbstruck and trembling.

"Mur... Murder..." A woman who looked like a housewife trembled at the corners of her mouth. "Murder! Someone's been killed!"

She let out a terrified scream, rushed out of the hospital room without hesitation, and shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Help! Murder! There's a killer in here!"

She yelled at the nurse in the hallway.

She reached out, trying to grab the nurse by the collar.

And then—

She froze in midair.

Her hand couldn't touch the nurse.

Her feet couldn't leave the hospital room.

A pliable golden barrier, like glue, materialized for all to see when she tried to escape the room. No matter how she struggled or screamed, she couldn't break through it.

The new recruits fell silent.

They realized something terrifying: what had happened to them had clearly gone beyond the bounds of reality. Yet if some ghost or god had caused this, then the one who might be called a "ghost or god" had become a corpse before their eyes.

Si Ming's gaze shifted.

He glanced at the watch on his wrist. Its black-and-white screen displayed a precise message.

"Main Mission: Survive for 6 hours and board the evacuation helicopter before the countdown ends. Failure penalty: None." He read the message aloud. The six-hour countdown beneath it hadn't started.

It hadn't begun yet. He vaguely remembered one of the Original First Generation's basic rules—

"What is the Main God?" he asked casually, loud enough for everyone to hear.

Armed Fatty, still clutching his throat, brightened and was about to say something. But Si Ming was quicker.

"...I see. As long as I think about the term 'Main God,' I can recall the information?"

That was exactly right.

Once he said the words "Main God," thought about them, and considered the question, "What is the Main God?" the corresponding answer naturally appeared in his mind.

The answer told him that the Main God was a great being that spanned infinite worlds. For some reason, this great being selected people from various worlds. Those it chose, who also answered its call, became Reincarnators. They traveled through numerous reincarnation worlds and completed various missions. Each time they completed a world's main mission, they could return to a resting space with generous rewards. Then they would face another battle.

The causes and consequences were basically the same as he remembered. And once he had completed this verbal prompt, that solemn voice rang in his ears again.

—[Basic information briefing complete. Reincarnator Si Ming has received 200 reward points.]

Just as he'd expected.

He glanced back at Armed Fatty, a faint smile playing on his lips. Then, while the other man stood frozen in terror, he reached out and pulled a handgun from his tactical vest. The weapon's design seemed vaguely familiar to Si Ming.

"The Samurai Edge, Albert Model. Pretty retro." He easily retrieved the memory fragment. His soul had grown and merged, allowing him to clearly recall every moment of his past experiences.

"Th...that's my gun..." Armed Fatty murmured. He even showed the slightest sign of wanting to fight back.

Interesting.

Even in the First Generation Main God's space, a handgun wouldn't cost more than 10 reward points. Compared to the guaranteed minimum of a thousand points for completing a single main mission, that was practically nothing. Unless the gun was special.

Si Ming flicked off the safety and raised the gun. He aimed beside Armed Fatty's ear, toward an empty hospital bed behind him, and squeezed the trigger hard.

Brrap, brrap, brrap, brrap—the gun fired eighteen shots in total. They tore into the blanket and pillow on the bed, even though the Samurai Edge's magazine should only hold fifteen rounds.

The shell casings flew out, but the gun's weight didn't change.

It was a special weapon with unlimited ammunition. Its price would be more than ten times that of an ordinary firearm.

"You just tried to point a gun at me." Si Ming calmly clicked the safety back on and slipped the handgun into his pocket. Then he reached out and patted Armed Fatty on the shoulder. "This is the price. Do you accept it?"

If he didn't, he could deal with the consequences. A dim aura had already been silently tapped into the fatty's shoulder blade.

The aura wouldn't last long.

It was just a simple application of Battle Qi.

Armed Fatty's face was pale, his eyes filled with terror. He stood stock-still, not daring to move.

"Good." Si Ming nodded.

He was, naturally, the leader of this Reincarnation Team now.

His gaze shifted and swept over the new recruits. Counting the dead and living veterans, there were nine people in the hospital room.

"Has anyone seen the movie Alien vs. Predator: Requiem? Tell me what happens in it."

He had seen the movie himself, but he also knew he was probably an intruder from another multiverse, or even a higher dimension. The version he knew might differ from the one these people had watched. He'd better hear what the local Reincarnators had to say.

One second, then two. The new recruits looked at one another, and the veterans didn't speak either.

It was only natural that the veterans didn't know. Their initial shock and confusion were what had let Si Ming realize that there was no one among them with team leader privileges, nor anyone who had unlocked the Gene Lock. Their strongest enhancement couldn't be higher than C-rank, and everything was unfolding just as he'd expected.

But the new recruits...

He furrowed his brow slightly.

The gesture seemed to have a certain intimidating effect.

"I...I know!" A bespectacled student timidly raised his hand, then spoke under Si Ming's gaze.

"I've seen it, I've seen the movie. It came out in December—it's about the Xenomorph that implanted itself in a Yautja in the post-credits scene of the first movie. It hatches aboard the Yautja ship and causes chaos. Then the ship crashes on Earth. A Predalien and lots of Facehuggers escape from the wreckage..."

He swallowed and tried to recount the details he knew.

"Two hunters get implanted and die. Then there's the homeless man in the sewer... After that, the Yautja mothership sends a cleanup hunter. It inspects the wreckage and then goes after the Xenomorphs. Oh, and it blows up the ship."

"Then...then the Yautja and the Xenomorph fight in the sewers. The Xenomorph escapes during the fight and goes to the surface, where it implants people and kills them... First it goes to a fast-food restaurant, then a school... The male lead and the police call for help, then go to a gun shop. The Yautja damages the power plant, and then the Xenomorphs wipe out the army. A colonel tells all the survivors to head downtown. But there's a female soldier with the male lead who doesn't trust the military, so she takes the remaining people to a hospital... Right, there's a helicopter on the roof."

"Then the female lead gets casually killed by the Yautja inside the hospital. They shoot at the Yautja, and the Yautja and the Predalien have their final fight there too. In the end, the male lead, the female soldier, and a few others get on the helicopter. The Yautja and the Predalien kill each other on the roof. The military comes and drops a nuke, so everyone in the city dies except the male lead and the others... That's about it."

He really had tried his best to recount it.

And that was indeed the general plot of the movie.

For budgetary or other reasons, the movie made every scene so dark that ordinary viewers could usually only remember a few fights, not the human plotline and interpersonal conflicts—which had been unimportant to begin with. At least the audience could still follow the cause and effect.

Si Ming nodded.

"That's about what I remember. In that case, the nuke should hit right on time in six hours." Si Ming looked out at the sky. It was around dusk. Night would fall soon, and the Xenomorphs would emerge from underground.

"This is the hospital. The only way to complete the mission is to board the helicopter. You have two choices. First, go to the roof right now and hide in the helicopter until the time runs out. Second, there's another helicopter at the airport. Find a vehicle and head there now. You can make it within six hours, even on foot."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over everyone. He couldn't smell a trace of courage on them.

"If you stay here, the Xenomorphs probably won't show up for a while. They might take a detour because there are people hiding on the roof, or they might follow the original story and stay inside the hospital to build up their numbers. If you go to the airport, you probably won't run into the Xenomorphs or the Yautja as long as you avoid the road that passes the power plant. But the military, which is trying to keep this under wraps, might find you—or you might run straight into them."

"Choose one. Both options carry risks. You decide your own fate."

Silence fell.

The new recruits looked at one another again.

Fashionable Beauty, who had been at a loss earlier, seized the opportunity to speak.

"Shouldn't you thank him for showing you the way?" She moved closer, almost pressing herself against Si Ming. Her beautiful face was marred by fawning, affected flattery. "We should just do whatever you say, sir."

She tried to take hold of Si Ming's arm.

But in the next instant, Si Ming shoved her away. As she drew near, he had sensed a faint stench coming from her.

"You smell like the sea. Stay away from me." His movement was decisive, his words cold.

Fashionable Beauty's face flushed red, then went pale. Tears welled in her eyes, but in the end, she didn't dare do anything.

The bespectacled university student who had explained the movie earlier gathered his courage and spoke.

"What about you? Are you...are you not going to help us?"

"I have things I want to do." Si Ming nudged the young man's corpse over with his toe. As the head rolled past the others, he saw a hardened One Tomoe Sharingan in the previously obscured right eye. It was obviously a D-rank enhancement, at most DD-rank. Fair enough for a useless veteran who had completed only two or three main missions.

There was no point wasting time on them.

He wasn't particularly good at cooperating with strangers, either.

"Since we've been sent here, we'll run into this world's Xenomorphs sooner or later. Rather than staying here and leaving it to fate, digging in and waiting out the clock, I'd rather take the initiative."

He reached out and removed the One Tomoe Sharingan. He didn't know whether someone who wasn't from Naruto could hot-swap a Sharingan, but keeping it was better than leaving it here.

The countdown on his watch began.

A breeze swept through the hospital room, and the voices in the hallway suddenly came alive.

The next moment, a new recruit who had said nothing until then suddenly shouted and scrambled out into the hallway.

"Murder!" he yelled. "Call the police! Someone's been killed!"

It wasn't much of a surprise.

Si Ming shook his head and ignored the new recruits and veterans. He simply stepped forward, setting off down another road.

No one followed him.