If I Can't Beat You, I'll Drag You Down With Me!

Ba Wang fired his shotgun first, considering the distance too close; he wanted to use the weapon's stopping power to push the Xenomorph further away.

However, the Xenomorph was massive, and its exoskeleton was incredibly tough. Even specialized armor-piercing slugs might not have penetrated it, let alone the standard buckshot Ba Wang was using—which contained 8-12 lead pellets intended for close-quarters combat against medium-sized animals. Consequently, six consecutive rounds of buckshot didn't even leave a crack in the creature's armor, let alone force the two-meter-tall Drone Xenomorph to retreat.

The experienced Ba Wang saw the situation was dire and immediately discarded the shotgun. He ducked low, scrambled to the edge of a metal rack, and used it as cover while pulling his assault rifle to his chest and raising it.

"Join in! This thing's hide is too thick! The buckshot didn't even leave a mark!" Ba Wang, who had initiated the fight, called for Chu Xuan and Zero to join him. Having fought for years, he knew immediately that this Xenomorph was not only incredibly defensive but also agile and flexible—the most difficult type of enemy. He had no intention of playing the hero.

"Bang, bang, bang... bang, bang, bang..."

"...Bang, bang, bang... bang, bang, bang."

"Bang, bang, bang... bang, bang, bang..."

Zero fired first, followed by Ba Wang, and then Chu Xuan. Although the three were strangers who had just met and were working together for the first time, their professional discipline allowed them to turn this maiden combat effort into a rhythmic, fluid display of coordination.

The 7.62×51 NATO rounds from their assault rifles, also known as full-power cartridges, could penetrate seven-millimeter armored steel plates within 300 meters. Consequently, the Xenomorph's pride and joy—its exoskeleton—was no longer as effective.

As the three maintained their rhythmic, overlapping fire, cracks began to appear on the exoskeleton of the lead Xenomorph. The creature tried several times to force its way into the room to slaughter them, but Chu Xuan and Zero's accuracy was impeccable. Whenever they saw the Xenomorph preparing to charge, they aimed directly at its unique spindle-shaped head, forcing it back time and again.

Just as the stalemate held, Zero, who was pressed against the wall and firing precise shots, suddenly stiffened. He slid limply to the floor along the wall. On the wall where Zero's head had been, a hole the size of an infant's fist appeared, piercing through to the other side. A patch of bright red blood began to trickle slowly down the wall from the hole, leaving a straight trail, and near the opening, there were even specks of white brain matter.

Clearly, Zero, who had been hiding against the wall to avoid the Xenomorph's attacks, had not expected that the second Xenomorph would not charge the front door with the first. Instead, it had used its infrared vision to locate him and, through the wall, fired its inner jaw—a sharp, peerless weapon capable of piercing Yautja armor. It had struck Zero, who was busy firing at the other Xenomorph, directly through the metal wall and into his brain.

This assassin, who claimed to specialize in long-range sniping, had been taught a lesson by the Xenomorph because he lacked comprehensive information and had failed to fully account for the dangers of Infinite Space, acting instead on his past experience. In the real world, few weapons could silently pierce a wall made of several-centimeter-thick alloy steel and still blow the head off someone behind it. Zero had assumed he was safe based on his experience, never imagining that an alien creature like a Xenomorph possessed an inner jaw capable of piercing most materials.

Seeing Zero die so suddenly, Ba Wang and Chu Xuan's expressions didn't change, but their hearts grew heavy. It wasn't that they were deeply attached—they had only just met, and all three were accustomed to life and death; the loss of a comrade was not something they couldn't accept. What weighed on them was that they were already struggling to fight the Xenomorphs with standard firearms, and now they were down a man. With only Ba Wang and Chu Xuan left, and two Xenomorphs outside—one lightly wounded with a cracked shell and the other completely unscathed—they had already burned through a quarter of their ammunition. Even Chu Xuan, who was like a human computer, couldn't calculate if they had enough bullets left to kill these two monsters.

Ba Wang was getting anxious.

His large foot accidentally kicked something. The Russian giant glanced down, and his eyes widened.

It was an unassuming shotgun, simple in design and not particularly eye-catching, but the barrel was distinct.

"F-U-C-K!"

"It's actually a KS-23! Which idiot dropped such a good piece of gear?" Ba Wang exclaimed excitedly.

The KS-23 was a Russian-made, large-caliber shotgun repurposed from discarded aircraft cannon barrels. Its 23mm caliber could blow up a car engine with a single slug, and almost no bulletproof vest could withstand it.

The very thing causing Ba Wang and Chu Xuan so much grief was the Xenomorph's incredible exoskeleton defense, which only cracked under 7.62 full-power rounds. Now, they would see if the KS-23 could do the job.

They would see if the Xenomorph could withstand a product born from the Russian philosophy that "caliber is justice."

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

After three roars, the Xenomorph in front of the door had three fist-sized holes in its body, and viscous, corrosive fluid poured out. Yet, the Xenomorph didn't die.

Instead, it took advantage of the moment Ba Wang was reloading the KS-23 to charge into the room. Even Chu Xuan's attempts to provide covering fire were useless, as the heavily wounded Xenomorph had fallen into a frenzy, completely ignoring the bullets striking its head.

As the wounded Xenomorph burst into the room, Ba Wang's luck ran out.

Because he was directly in front of the creature, and although the large metal rack provided cover, it also left him with very little room to maneuver. As the creature he had severely wounded charged straight at him, Ba Wang held his assault rifle in despair and squeezed the trigger, no longer bothering with precision shots because... it was already useless.

"Pfft..."

The long tail of the wounded Xenomorph pierced directly through the metal rack and through Ba Wang's bear-like, sturdy body, running him through.

Even with his chest and abdomen impaled and no hope of survival, the Russian-mixed giant displayed the wild, fierce nature of a Siberian bear. Even as death approached, he continued to fire at the Xenomorph. If he was going to die, he would take a piece of the enemy with him—and it had to be the biggest piece possible.

"Bang..." Ba Wang's final bullet hit the Xenomorph's eye, penetrating deep into its brain. As the giant, wild as a Siberian brown bear, closed his eyes with a smile, the Xenomorph he had mortally wounded collapsed to the ground as well.

He had taken his enemy down with him.