Blooming Twice

Tap... tap... tap...

Not long after he began his search, green, phlegm-like secretions began to appear along both sides of the corridor.

It felt as though he were walking inside the stomach of some gargantuan beast.

Even the steel plating had been corroded away by a layer!

Fortunately, this acidity was far inferior to the blood of a Xenomorph; once oxidized, it could only destroy the ship's lighting equipment, failing to erode the soles of his boots protected by chakra.

As Uchiha Xiu pushed deeper inside, the light grew increasingly dim.

Under the cover of the darkness, the adult Xenomorphs scattered throughout the ship converged.

In a dark corner.

A large pile of oval, viscous eggs squirmed.

Suddenly, twenty or so Facehuggers—resembling a cross between an octopus and a large sea crab—burst through their shells, leaping toward Uchiha Xiu with astonishing speed.

They locked onto their host based on body heat!

"Bang!"

At the same moment, Uchiha Xiu released the final ninja tool scroll he carried.

Amidst the muffled explosion of smoke, senbon, kunai, and shuriken were accelerated beyond the speed of sound, striking the corner like a torrential rain of pear blossoms.

Green blood bloomed.

Yet Uchiha Xiu paid no mind to the Main God's kill notifications, for a hideous Xenomorph with even thicker exoskeletal armor was charging toward him like a gale-force wind.

The hunting techniques of Xenomorphs had always been this way.

They possessed tactics, and they knew how to execute them!

It's a good thing I have the Sharingan.

"Pfft—"

The Xenomorph Praetorian successfully bit into Uchiha Xiu, but at the very moment of its triumph, the heat-radiating human body burst apart into flying wood chips.

It did not understand.

Why had flesh and blood turned into plant fibers?

On the other side, having executed the Substitution Technique and vaulted over the Praetorian, Uchiha Xiu reached out to touch its head.

Two explosive tags were slapped onto its cranium.

To ensure the defense was breached and the kill confirmed, he could not be stingy with his resources.

The moment he pulled back to a safe distance, the runes on the paper twisted, and firelight illuminated the darkness.

"Boom—!" Flesh and blood exploded.

[Killed Xenomorph Praetorian, obtained 800 reward points.]

Without giving him a moment to breathe, three Drone Xenomorphs flew in from different directions.

Two inner jaws—the pharyngeal teeth—were launched toward Uchiha Xiu at high speed, like hydraulic pistons!

The remaining Xenomorph turned its sharp tail blade into a steel whip and lashed out horizontally.

Body Flicker!

In the nick of time, the expressionless Uchiha Xiu shifted his position, repeating his feat and once again putting a safe distance between them.

The three collided with one another.

Acidic blood splattered.

The Drones, having been severely wounded by their own kind due to a failed tactic, did not wail; they possessed no such meaningless vocal structures.

"Art is an explosion."

Two more kunai, pre-attached with explosive tags, flew out.

BOOM! BOOM!

Two kills for three, and his wristwatch updated his combat record.

His waist, which had been bulging when he arrived, was now empty, and only steel wire remained in his ninja tool pouch.

Uchiha Xiu, who had paved his way with money, lifted his gaze slightly, his tomoe Sharingan fixed upon the gargantuan creature ahead—

The Queen.

The ruling class of the Xenomorph social structure, capable of laying a certain number of eggs to expand the size of their race.

She had not expected the danger to arrive so quickly; her abdomen was still connected to her ovipositor, and breaking free would take time.

Silently, a Praetorian Xenomorph emerged from the darkness, shielding the Queen and ten freshly laid eggs behind it.

A swarm of Facehuggers had finished gathering.

The two sides stood in an eerie standoff.

Perhaps... the Xenomorph Queen was wary of the eggs that had yet to reach the hatching stage; in the original plot, it had displayed similar behavior of fearing to damage its surroundings.

Uchiha Xiu swept his gaze across the area, noticing water leaking from the cooling towers of the ship's engine room, quietly forming a small patch of marshland where the Xenomorph formation was positioned.

They were building a nest in the marsh!

The choice of Ninjutsu became immediately obvious.

As a candidate for promotion to Chunin, he had mastered two Lightning Style, three Earth Style, and three Fire Style techniques, specifically—

Lightning Style: Earth Flash, Lightning Style: Four Pillar Bind.

Earth Style: Double Suicide Decapitation Technique, Earth Style: Subterranean Voyage, Earth Style: Earth Mausoleum Dumpling.

Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique, Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique, Fire Style: Dragon Fire Technique.

In addition to the Body Replacement, Transformation, and Clone techniques, basic Body Flicker, Ninja Cat Summoning, Uchiha Shurikenjutsu, and the high-difficulty Shadow Clone.

"Lightning Style: Earth Flash." Uchiha Xiu's fingers moved so fast they left afterimages, showing no restraint in his chakra output.

As he pressed his palms to the ground, silvery-white lightning erupted from them, completely covering the area dozens of meters ahead; countless arcs of electricity, like nimble little snakes, surged with ferocious intensity.

Along the way, the eggs carbonized.

The Facehuggers twitched frantically.

A stench of charred flesh filled the air!

The cannon fodder died on the spot.

The Praetorians fell into a state of paralysis, and the Xenomorph Queen was likewise unable to move within the pool of lightning.

The composite control-type Ninjutsu, aided by the environment, had taken effect!

"Fire Style: Great Fireball Technique."

The next moment, Uchiha's signature Ninjutsu appeared; the scorching fireball expanded rapidly, reaching a full six meters in diameter.

It nearly filled the entire chamber.

Meanwhile.

On the lower level of the cargo hold.

The panting Shadow Clone sprinted, having secured his target, Ripley, to his back with steel wire.

His waist pouches were also completely empty.

Combining two explosive kunai with the Great Fireball was the only way to take down a single Xenomorph Praetorian head-on; for any subsequent threats, I'll have to rely on Ninjutsu and Taijutsu.

I wonder how much pressure they're taking upstairs, and if the decapitation strike succeeded...

Suppressing these thoughts, the Shadow Clone activated Body Flicker to dodge an attack from a group of Facehuggers, weaving the hand signs: Rat-Tiger-Dog-Ox-Rabbit-Tiger.

--Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!

Like seeds of a balsam flower flying out upon contact, the massive clusters of flame he spat from his mouth scattered in all directions.

Ripley: "..."

Her eyes could not track what this corporate security guard protecting her was actually doing.

Regardless, everything she had seen along the way had been either explosions or various small cold weapons flying through the air.

In most cases, she didn't even see what the danger was before it was all over.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

As the bulkhead door blocking the path ahead slid open, the roar of gunfire echoed in his ears; the intense sound made the Shadow Clone instinctively alert.

He saw the office worker Kobayashi firing wildly at the ventilation ducts overhead.

Beside him, two women—one plump, one slender—stood back-to-back, spraying gunfire at multiple overhead passages with no semblance of strategy.

The high school girl Aoi Sora lay in the corner, a Facehugger latched onto her face, her throat bulging and her chest heaving abnormally.

Parasitism complete!

A Xenomorph was about to be born.

It wasn't just her; the self-defense official Miyata Kuraki and the thick-lipped black man were in the same state.

So they've all been moved here.

A fifty percent mortality rate; three survivors, one man and two women.

What are these guys so alert about? There's clearly no danger left in the vicinity.

Within the Shadow Clone's eye sockets, the One-Tomoe Sharingan scanned the room, a sense of foreboding rising in his heart.

In the ship's engine room area.

[Killed Xenomorph Queen Praetorian, obtained 800 reward points]

His chest heaving, the lone wolf Uchiha Xiu heard a new announcement.

The Great Fireball, distorting the air like a miniature sun, melted the Praetorian and slammed straight into the Xenomorph Queen.

The stinging pain brought on by the Spinach Pill began to take hold.

It was at this very moment that the Cat-type Messenger Xenomorph, having rushed through the labyrinthine pipes, struck with blinding speed, launching a backstab from behind him...