Roadside House

Roadside House

When Si Ming stepped out of the shadows once more, the distant military base had already begun bustling with activity. First came the emergency assembly bells and whistles, followed by a chaotic mix of voices and footsteps.

The captain moved quickly.

And perhaps the town would be saved because of it.

Perhaps it would, perhaps it would not. But Si Ming would do no more—this was the limit of what he could reach. If they wanted to go further, they would have to rely on the locals saving themselves.

Heaven helps those who help themselves.

—And I'm no different.

At his feet sat a duffel bag stuffed with supplies. These were the spoils he had acquired from the armory. Aside from a standard Army tactical rig capable of carrying all kinds of equipment, he had also obtained quite a few items suited to his own style of combat.

One AA12 automatic combat shotgun. Twenty rounds loaded, two hundred rounds in reserve. Si Ming had originally intended to use steel-core armor-piercing rounds, or simply carry an Old Godmother around with him. But he soon found something more suitable in the ammunition section.

It was a dark-red cylinder the length of a finger.

FARG-12 High-Explosive Shotgun Shell, equipped with a 19mm high-explosive warhead, folding stabilizer fins, an internal high-spec fuse, an effective range of 200 meters, and formidable power.

It could easily pierce a Xenomorph's polarized silicon shell and detonate inside it. In fact, this thing could even penetrate and blow up an armored vehicle head-on. It was a genuine armored-unit killer.

"Feels like a bargain-bin Bolter Round," he thought, fully donning the Army tactical rig. The shotgun, fitted with several key attachments, was slung across his body on a weapons strap. Besides that, he also had some supplementary consumables.

Explosives. Mines, high-explosive grenades, and flashbangs—because he knew that Xenomorphs observed the outside world through vibrations and Fallout, which was why they often made snake-like hissing sounds. That meant flashbangs were bound to be highly effective against these monsters with their thick polarized silicon shells.

The process took Si Ming five minutes.

It also added roughly thirty kilograms to his load.

Not much, and not enough to hinder his movements. After all, he was an outsider who possessed Night Battle Qi, not a local native with nothing but a mortal body. Once he put on his mask and lowered the goggles on his helmet, he looked little different from an ordinary National Guard soldier.

He could have naturally blended into the National Guard's combat formation like this.

But he chose to continue acting freely.

The countdown on his wristwatch flickered silently as the time gradually approached nine at night. His camouflage-clad figure flashed in and out of the darkness, and before long, a roadside house that appeared perfectly normal from the outside—but seemed exceptionally quiet beneath the streetlights—entered his sight.

There was the scent of blood.

The smell of death.

And on his way here, he had passed this place without noticing anything.

—Facehuggers.

He stopped and held his breath. His form completely merged with the night. Before even entering the house, he had already roughly guessed what had happened inside.

When he had arrived, Facehuggers had parasitized the residents of the house. While he had been busy at the military base, the mature Xenomorph Larvae had successfully burst from their chests.

And their numbers were probably—

Click. The door was pushed open.

His highly focused senses immediately picked up sounds from several different directions.

Two upstairs, one downstairs. Three in total.

But—

—I can smell blood from below too. There's a corpse down there, but the Chestburster moved more cautiously than the other three... so the true total is at least four. Maybe more.

"Heh." Si Ming let his voice echo through the silent house. He did not hesitate or waver, merely reaching out to press the light switch near the entrance.

Click.

Light flooded the room.

Such an abrupt shift between darkness and brightness was obviously the perfect opportunity for an ambush.

Yet the serpentine creature crouched atop the stairs, which leaped down the instant the lights came on, suffered a devastating blow in midair. Si Ming had already raised the AA12 in his hands and pulled the trigger at the pouncing shape!

The sound was exceptionally loud.

A blazing flash ten times brighter than the lightbulb erupted from the muzzle!

Boom—the creature, nearly the size of a wildcat and possessing the speed and strength of a cheetah, exploded in midair above the stairs. The sizzling acidic blood it sprayed instantly dissolved nearly half of the staircase.

—[Killed one Xenomorph Larva. Obtained 100 reward points.]

It was a Chestburster, a Xenomorph larva. It had not yet consumed enough flesh and blood to grow into a two-meter-tall adult. That was why it was worth only slightly more than a Facehugger.

"One." Si Ming glanced at the gun in his hands as the ejected shell casing fell at his feet with a light clink.

The house was terrifyingly quiet.

The remaining three had probably realized the danger. They moved lightly through the rooms, trying their utmost not to make the slightest sound. Yet even so, hiding from Si Ming's senses was difficult for them.

"Monsters," Si Ming said.

He knew they would not run, because the Xenomorphs had not yet multiplied to a number sufficient to crush everything in an instant. And since their numbers were still inadequate, they would make sure to eliminate every informed witness as thoroughly as possible.

Then... forward.

The door remained half-open behind him. He did not close it because he did not want to frighten the monsters into fleeing. Under normal circumstances, after killing a monster that had come down from upstairs, a visitor would naturally clear the upper floor first.

But he did the opposite—he walked straight ahead. Crossing the house's main hall, Si Ming quickly reached the kitchen. His Battle Qi-enhanced ears caught faint movements from above. If Xenomorphs possessed emotions, they would probably have been troubled by his unreasonable behavior.

They did not.

And Si Ming saw the scene in the kitchen—the housewife, her chest torn open, lay on the floor. Half her flesh had already vanished, while the Facehugger covering her head had long since completely calcified.

An ordinary person might have been shocked and shaken by this. Si Ming was not incapable of playing along a little.

He took half a step back.

He sensed a faint rush of wind.

His footsteps abruptly halted as power burst from his muscles. His backward motion instantly shifted into a spin, and the muzzle turning with his body locked precisely onto the direction of the second Xenomorph Larva attempting an ambush!

Bang—another direct hit.

Another scoring notification.

The third Xenomorph Larva, which had come down from the second floor and abandoned its prepared ambush position, let out a sharp hiss before darting toward the side.

It was fast, but its trajectory was somewhat unnatural. Looking at it from the perspective of first impressions, one could tell that the direction in which this Xenomorph Larva fled would place someone's back directly toward the basement door.

Pretty smart—but not smart enough. Si Ming stepped toward the fleeing Xenomorph Larva. Yet the instant he passed the corner of the corridor, he rapidly spun back, withdrew, and raised the AA12 Shotgun—which had fired only two rounds—toward the silently opening basement entrance!

A tall black figure appeared directly in the basement doorway!

An adult. Very good.

For it, this was perhaps a rather unpleasant surprise.

Its body twisted sharply as it tried to dodge.

But Si Ming fired again without hesitation!

Bang—the first round struck its torso. The Xenomorph's outer chest armor exploded apart, but it still had enough strength to dart toward the side.

Boom! The second round struck the rapidly fleeing Xenomorph in the head. Its long, banana-shaped cranial shell immediately shattered, spraying acidic blood plasma everywhere.

Si Ming stepped forward.

And at the instant he pulled the trigger for the third time, his body abruptly shifted sideways, perfectly dodging the Xenomorph Larva that had leaped from behind to ambush him. His free left hand then precisely and swiftly seized the Xenomorph Larva, which had nearly brushed past him, within his five fingers.

He looked at it, and it screamed.

His Battle Qi-infused fingers tightened, crushing most of the larva's bones into pulp.

Its outer skin remained intact.

The dead Xenomorph Larva fell to the floor.

The adult Xenomorph that had taken two shots was still twitching and struggling. It raised its tail blade, only to receive the third shot Si Ming fired into its head as desired.

Boom!!

It fell completely silent.

The scoring notification sounded in Si Ming's ears as well—the power of the No. 12 High-Explosive Shotgun Shell had been conclusively verified. Clearing this house had also made up for the friendly-fire penalty Si Ming had received for killing Katana Man, a veteran. And there was still quite a bit of time left before the critical point of ten at night.

Good.

Si Ming went upstairs, his gaze sweeping over the family portrait in the master bedroom. He easily found the remains of the house's male owner and discovered a mechanical car key amid that blurred mass of flesh and blood.

A vehicle acquired, and quite a good haul. Then, what he needed to do next was—

He halted, drew his blade, and turned for a slash. The fifth silent attacker was cleaved in two by the Energy-Infused Blade.

These Xenomorphs truly were skilled at hiding. Even his earlier audiovisual senses had contained slight errors.

But fortunately, Si Ming was someone skilled at noticing details. This trait, combined with his caution and courage, had allowed him to survive that initial perilous period in another world.

He glanced at the final adult Xenomorph he had cut down. Listening to the Main God's proclamation echo in his mind once more, Night Battle Qi swirled around him, concealing every trace of sound and light from his body. Several dozen seconds later, the gas in the kitchen was turned on, and Si Ming casually tossed a High-Explosive Grenade into the basement.

Rumble—an explosion.

Rising flames violently surged from the bottom of the house toward its upper floors.

Amid the blazing fire, an old-school Ford Mustang muscle car roared to life and charged toward the town, accompanied by the steadily spreading darkness and death.