"Is he... trying to catch me off guard?" Wang Zhen brushed off his shoulder where Zhang Jie had just patted him. He focused and used his psychic powers to examine himself. Although he didn't detect anything unusual, with a crafty old fox like Zhang Jie, that friendly gesture was the most suspicious thing of all!
Although Wang Zhen hadn't detected anything unusual, he still used a Transmutation Circle to break down and reassemble every piece of clothing he was wearing.
"Whatever you're planning, forget it. You think you can get away with sneaky little tricks like saying there's no door or window? I'll tear down the whole damn house and rebuild it!"
Wang Zhen curled his lip. He'd had crafty people who loved ambushing others among his peers before, but perhaps they'd been too young and inexperienced. Those guys had been the first to die.
He waited in place for a while. Only after Zhang Jie had left the range of his senses did Wang Zhen turn and continue toward the Xenomorph nest.
As he walked, he analyzed and worked out how to kill the Xenomorph Queen and the five Royal Guards. From what he knew, a Xenomorph Queen was at least five meters tall, with no upper limit. In theory, the longer a Queen lived, the larger she grew. Royal Guards, meanwhile, were generally around five meters tall. Unlike Worker Xenomorphs and Drone Xenomorphs, they were dedicated guards, with the sole task of protecting the Queen so she could lay eggs and propagate the species in peace.
From that, he could make a rough guess: the Royal Guards were probably rather slow. They wouldn't just be slower than that freakish Cat Xenomorph; they were likely slower even than Worker Xenomorphs and Drone Xenomorphs. In exchange, these five-meter brutes probably had several times the defensive strength of Drone Xenomorphs. The Queen was easy enough to judge, too: the larger she was, the longer she'd lived, the more intelligent she was, and the stronger she'd be. Regardless, her defenses should at least be on par with a Royal Guard's—and at most, several times stronger!
Wang Zhen felt the pressure, too. The final six might not be fast, but their defenses were probably several times stronger!
Still, though these enemies were imposing, they didn't worry him that much. As a self-proclaimed squishy mage, Wang Zhen found that even six Xenomorphs with exceptionally strong defenses posed less of a threat than the elusive, incredibly fast Cat Xenomorph.
After fighting them repeatedly, Wang Zhen had grown familiar with Xenomorphs. Although the Royal Guards and the Queen had astonishing defenses, they were slow, and their bodily tissues were similar to those of Worker Xenomorphs and Drone Xenomorphs. They were all born from humans after using them as hosts and absorbing and integrating human genes, so their bodies, tissues, and organs had no fundamental differences.
That meant Wang Zhen knew how to deal with the remaining Xenomorphs. He also couldn't help thinking that the Main God had lowered the difficulty. If these remarkably tough Xenomorphs—along with the Worker Xenomorphs, Drone Xenomorphs, and Cat Xenomorphs from before—had defended together instead of attacking in waves, the scenario would be far beyond a D-rank side quest. It would have to be at least one C-rank or two C-rank side quests, plus reward points.
Still, this was for the best. It was only their second scenario. If the difficulty had been raised that high, even someone like Zheng Zha, the protagonist, would have had no chance of clearing it. As things stood, although only three of them were left alive, they had a good chance of making it through.
By then, Wang Zhen had reached the end of the passage. The scenery here had shifted from Cybertek to biotechnology. Beyond this point, the passage continued, but its metallic base was no longer visible. Every floor, wall, and ceiling was completely covered by a thick, sticky, carpet-like substance that resembled fungus, like the inside of a white intestine...
"Damn, this place is disgusting." Wang Zhen didn't go in. This place looked every bit like the Xenomorph Queen's home turf. It was just like the Zerg Creep in StarCraft II: wherever the Zerg expanded their base, the Creep spread with it. And the Zerg could only build their base on ground covered by Creep!
Standing at the passage entrance, Wang Zhen unclipped the ridiculous palm-sized lighter and put it in his coat pocket. Then he pulled on white gloves, each marked on the back with a crimson hexagram Transmutation Circle. He brought his hands together lightly, and blue fireballs the size of fists appeared in the air. They were a beautiful shade of blue, and each burned at a temperature exceeding 3,000 degrees!
Now that Zhang Jie and Zheng Zha weren't around, Wang Zhen could finally unleash his full firepower!
Wang Zhen swept his hands outward, and the blue fireballs shot into the passage, which was covered in white Creep. Under their 3,000-degree heat, the Creep instantly turned to black ash. Once the layer of Creep had burned away completely, the metal passage beneath it had been corroded until it was full of holes and badly damaged, no longer sturdy enough to bear a person's weight.
Wang Zhen wasn't surprised. After all, the Xenomorph Queen was intelligent. If she'd chosen to build her nest here, how could she have failed to turn it into a home ground that favored her?
Wang Zhen pressed both hands to the ground. The hole-riddled, battered floor visibly transformed back into a fresh metal passage paved with alloy plates. Only then did he walk in, stepping along the passage he had made himself as he headed toward the six increasingly distinct auras of savage, bloodthirsty killing intent.
When he reached the middle of the passage, Wang Zhen stopped and went no farther. He sensed that the Royal Guards and the Xenomorph Queen weren't at the very end of the passage, but below it. In other words, he was standing above the Xenomorph nest. If he continued forward, he would end up right over the Royal Guards and the Queen, putting him at a disadvantage against the brutes.
Once he'd stopped, Wang Zhen placed both hands on the ground again. In front of him, a hole appeared in the alloy floor, as if an enormous invisible drill were boring through it. At first it was small, but it rapidly widened before his eyes. Soon, it had become a circular opening two meters in diameter.
Through the opening, Wang Zhen saw a vast space below, shrouded in complete darkness. It was probably the spaceship's cargo hold, or a room for storing large machinery. The total darkness left him at a loss for words. The Xenomorph Queen had really planned things well. A huge, pitch-black space like this posed no obstacle to Xenomorphs, which relied on infrared vision and a keen sense of smell. But darkness was a far greater hindrance to humans. Without suitable equipment, such as night-vision goggles, or some kind of superpower, humans were blind with their eyes open in the dark.
"Too bad for you, I'm a cheater!"
Before he'd even finished speaking, Wang Zhen jumped down!
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