How to Deal with a Queen?

How to Deal with a Queen?

Boom—

Tanaka shuddered and tightened his grip on the assault rifle. The night wind atop the hospital roof was colder than he had expected. Only the icy frame of this fully equipped HK416 Assault Rifle, obtained from the Main God, gave him a little warmth and courage.

He saw the distant explosion and the flames.

"That was a huge blast. Did they set off a gas station?" He instinctively glanced at the rooftop entrance. Beside the door sealed with chains, the activated Claymore Mine emitted an extremely faint warning light. Several hours had passed since their arrival, and he had remained on the hospital roof where the evacuation helicopter was parked, watching the stopwatch and waiting for the deadline.

It would not be long now.

Less than two hours remained.

The long wait had gradually changed from torment into something sweet, but there was still one last brief stretch before he could swallow that sweetness.

"Tanaka, what are you mumbling about again?"

He was not alone. Fashionable Beauty, another veteran like him, sat comfortably inside the helicopter cabin, leaning against the soft seat as she leisurely touched up her light makeup.

"I'm observing the situation, Miss Yumie," Tanaka explained quietly. "It seems like there's a battle going on over there. I think we should keep an eye on it."

"You really do like wasting your time on pointless things." Yumie added the final stroke to her eyebrow makeup. She tilted her head slightly and admired her reflection in the mirror.

"Hey, Tanaka." Her gaze remained fixed on the mirror. "Do you think I'm beautiful?"

Tanaka gave her a quick look. Her clothes had been altered slightly. Compared to her previous mature and seductive appearance, she now looked far more innocent. The heavier foundation, blush, and eyeliner had been toned down, transforming her from a successful career woman into a fresh-faced, adorable newcomer.

"Very beautiful, Miss Yumie." Tanaka swallowed, not daring to stare at her for long. He took several deep breaths before barely gathering the courage to say, "I... I really like you."

"What good is it if you like me? That person needs to like me." Yumie did not care about his opinion at all. "Sigh, I must have lost my mind. That person is domineering and decisive, so he obviously prefers obedient women. He's nothing like Yamamoto, that sister-obsessed pervert..."

She suddenly stopped, her brows knitting together.

"You didn't hear anything just now, did you, Tanaka?"

"I..." The fingers clutching Tanaka's gun trembled slightly. "I don't know what you were talking about just now, Miss Yumie..."

"Good." Yumie raised her hand and examined her neatly trimmed, smooth nails. "I'm not deliberately targeting you, Tanaka. If you don't get in my way, then once I get close to that person, I'll ask him to look after you. All right, go back to standing guard. That person will definitely return before the countdown ends. I need some beauty sleep."

"...Understood."

Tanaka turned around and continued staring at the increasingly dark streets below. More flames of varying sizes rose from the place where the explosion had occurred. Each occasional flash illuminated his slightly twisted face.

The distant flames were reflected in his eyes.

A nameless fire burned within his lungs and chest.

The gun in his hands no longer seemed so warm. Its cold steel frame stung his palms. The dark night before him gradually blurred in his vision, while countless unforgettable memories flickered through his eyes like slides.

He saw himself being beaten by people his own age, despised by his family, and driven from home by his parents in disgrace.

He saw himself trembling under the gaze of that One Tomoe Sharingan, offering up his created human so that the stronger veteran would let him go as though he were nothing more than a fart.

He saw the created human who looked exactly like his younger sister return to his personal space covered in injuries, yet still smile to comfort him. In her eyes, he saw the savage face reflected back at him.

So she died. He had strangled her with his own hands. Because that woman had actually dared to pity him!

"Why do you get to pity me..." he muttered.

The safety clicked off, and a round chambered. The blaze in his heart gradually spread through his limbs, turning his eyes bloodshot and making his hands and feet burn. He spun around abruptly, the muzzle already aimed at Fashionable Beauty's chest as she prepared to close her eyes and rest.

"Why do you look down on me?"

Yumie looked up at him in annoyance.

"What nonsense are you spouting now, Tanaka?"

"...Get down." The muzzle of the automatic rifle lifted slightly.

"What do you mean?" Yumie's hand instinctively reached for the bag at her side.

Bang—

A gunshot rang out, followed by a scream.

The small bag containing her pistol was blasted away. The bullet had nearly gouged a bloody trench across her arm. She had not reacted to the first shot. But when the second bullet grazed past her head and shattered the medical helicopter's window behind her, she finally let out a terrified scream.

The muzzle flash from the third bullet made her shut up. Tanaka had already walked up to her, pressed the gun to the side of her head, and fired again.

She immediately fell silent like a quail freezing in the cold.

"Y-you... what are you going to do, Tanaka? I... I helped you before. When Yamamoto beat you up, wasn't I the one who told him to take it out on your created human instead..." Tears welled in her eyes, and her exquisite makeup was ruined in an instant. She looked up at him, her voice stammering. She appeared pitiful and weak.

Then Tanaka grabbed her and dragged her out of the cabin, throwing her onto the concrete rooftop.

"So this is really that easy..." Yumie heard Tanaka mutter. His twisted face was filled with excitement. Sirens sounded in the distance before quickly fading away, while clusters of blazing fire erupted from the distant explosion zone.

His expression shifted unpredictably. His eyes looked down at her.

At that moment, he finally understood the iron law of survival for East Sea Team Reincarnators: the strong devoured the weak, and the victor was king.

"...I've been... holding it in for too long." He knew what he needed to do.

Beneath the night sky, the wind surged.

The faint alien scent in the air gradually vanished beneath the rising humidity. A downpour would arrive soon. And a cunning, terrifying shadow silently climbed onto the rooftop.

"Two more."

Si Ming lowered his gun. Before him lay two more Xenomorphs successfully killed inside a residential house. One had attempted a close-range ambush, only for him to shatter its organs with an Inch Punch. The other had its head blown apart by a No. 12 High-Explosive Shotgun Shell.

That brought the number of Xenomorphs he had killed to eight—eight adults, coincidentally matching the total number of East Sea Team members excluding himself. As for the juveniles and Facehuggers he had casually taken out along the way, there had been at least twenty of them.

The gains were decent, and the timing was just right.

The sound of a clock chiming reached his ears. When Si Ming stepped out of the survivorless house, he happened to hear the announcement marking ten o'clock at night.

Boom!

Another violent explosion erupted nearby. Mixed into the blast were dense gunfire and bursts from rapid-fire cannons.

It was the National Guard.

They had been mobilized and had successfully located the sewer hub where the Xenomorph Queen was hiding. After suffering some unnecessary probing losses, the captain commanding the scene received authorization to employ heavy firepower. Before the Xenomorph Queen could escape, the entire area's sewer system was directly blown apart with high explosives.

The original plot had surely become a complete mess because of this. With Si Ming's warning and intervention, the city's nuclear power plant—which would originally have been caught up in the conflict between the Xenomorphs and the Yautja—would probably remain intact. And if that massive blackout never occurred and the National Guard had prepared in advance, then the Xenomorph disaster that would originally spread across the entire town in an instant, forcing the United States authorities to finish it with a tactical nuclear weapon, would likely fail to break out.

"The city's been saved." He muttered to himself as he returned to his temporary ride. Tilting one ear slightly, he heard a gap in the distant storm of gunfire.

It was small, not enough to disrupt the firepower net locking down the Xenomorph Queen. Amid the rapid-fire cannons, he heard a snake-like hiss. Clearly, even though the situation appeared under control, the Americans still hoped to capture the Xenomorph Queen alive while suppressing it.

That was unsurprising. This was the United States, after all. But...

Si Ming's nostrils twitched. He smelled moisture gathering in the air. He remembered that a torrential rainstorm did occur near the end of the movie. The heat and dust stirred up by the battle might cause that rainstorm to arrive early.

As expected. Horror movie settings were always like this.

Si Ming thought for a moment. A familiar map of the town's layout formed in his mind. His five senses, enhanced by Night Battle Qi, successfully pinpointed the tiny gap in the firepower net. The extension of that gap was...

"That way."

The car started moving.

Large raindrops began bursting across the windows.

The distant gunfire suddenly became denser. Amid the roar of rapid-fire cannons and machine guns, there was now a trace of urgency.

Rain was an accident, and accidents were never good.

In the downpour, Si Ming stopped the car at an intersection. When the car behind him honked, proving that there were plenty of people here and traffic was backing up, he opened the military bag on the passenger seat.

Equipment was removed, and ammunition was loaded.

Just as the thick 66-millimeter launch tube extended through the lowered car window, some unlucky man trapped in the traffic behind him came trudging through the heavy rain toward Si Ming, cursing under his breath.

"Hey! How the hell are you driving? If your car's broken, pull over to the side of the ro-ro-ro-road..."

His shoulders shook and his legs stiffened. His excellent night vision made him wish he could go blind on the spot.

Crash— Something was smashed apart, and something collapsed. The next moment, from behind the National Guard blockade obscured by the torrential rain, a huge, battered creature charged toward Si Ming!

The timing was perfect.

M72 Light Anti-Tank Weapon, armor-piercing high-explosive round, one shot.

Blazing exhaust erupted violently from the lowered passenger-side window. The next moment, the Xenomorph Queen charging forward tried with all its strength to brake and dodge!

Too late. It could do nothing.

The speeding warhead slammed precisely into the Xenomorph's polarized silicon outer shell, already damaged by gunfire, and successfully detonated before the acid blood could interfere with the warhead's function!

Boom! The Queen's heavily damaged upper body, along with its crown, exploded in the flames. All its struggles became futile at that moment.

The Ford Mustang's window rolled back up, and the muscle car trapped at the intersection drove forward. By the time the outline of the car vanished into the rain curtain and the National Guard armored vehicles arrived late in helpless fury, the unlucky man whose car had been blocked finally snapped out of his half-minute daze. Looking in the direction Si Ming had gone, his jaw nearly hit the ground.

"Whoa." The unlucky man closed his mouth.