Chapter 2

His elderly colleague loved to brag.

At most, a third of what he said could be trusted...

Su Lin knew that perfectly well, but he knew even better that he had no other choice.

The Zerg attack was drawing steadily closer. Even standing in the dim storage room, the young man could feel the tremors from a series of explosions.

The storage vessel could only be opened during an experiment.

For the first time ever, Su Lin found himself grateful to the colleague who had taken the day off, and for the temporary assignment he had received.

His access level was exceptionally high today, so even though he was not an experimental researcher, he could still use it to open the control panel directly. Strings of data and task programs scrolled across the aging panel. Many were gray, indicating that they could not be activated.

Su Lin did not even bother looking at the grayed-out automated experiment programs. When a green entry finally appeared among them, indicating that it could be run directly under these circumstances, he hit the confirm button without a second thought.

"Creak-"

The lid of the storage vessel, which had not been opened for who knew how long, slowly lifted. Su Lin sprinted toward it. Looking down, he immediately saw the deathly pale carcass floating in the viscous liquid. It had been all right looking at it while collecting data, but now, staring at the enormous remains of the Zerg Queen, which were as tall as a person, Su Lin could not help feeling a chill of revulsion.

Airena.

Su Lin silently repeated her name in his mind. Then he took a deep breath, gritted his teeth, and jumped into the storage vessel.

There was not much room inside the vessel.

As he squeezed in, Su Lin could clearly feel the cold, wet corpse of the "Zerg Queen" pressing tightly against him. The lid closed again. Su Lin did not know what the program was doing; he could only sense blue light flooding the vessel's interior. The next second, it was as though a huge, invisible hand reached in.

"Sizzle-"

Su Lin felt as though he had sunk deep into the soft, cold flesh of the Zerg Queen's remains. A strange burning sensation spread from where the two of them were pressed tightly together, followed by pain of the utmost intensity.

Su Lin wanted to scream.

It hurts...

It hurts so much...

What happened?!

The young researcher's mind was filled with confusion and fear. Fortunately, the intense pain and terror did not last long, because the next second, amid a tremendous explosion and blinding light, Su Lin fell into a long darkness.

Chapter 2

Several hours later.

Bright sunlight fell across the northern hemisphere of Planet T-122. Just as Su Lin had thought when he left home that morning, this should have been a peaceful and pleasant workday. Yet where the sunlight now shone, only gray ruins remained.

In the span of a few short hours, Research Institute No. 37 had been completely wiped from the surface of the remote planet. The once-magnificent pyramidal building had been reduced to gravel and rubble. Under the attack of the "Hunters"-whose official full name was the Royal Court Guard Third Operations Squad-the 5A-grade research facility, which humanity had spent enormous manpower and resources building more than seventy years ago, had been reduced to debris no larger than a fist.

The entire planet's defense system was dead, and at this moment, only the Zerg remained in the area. Ferocious-looking Zerg soldiers operated machines, continuously scooping up concrete and metal debris, scanning it, and piling it in another area. Thanks to their efficient work, most of Research Institute No. 37 was soon searched.

"Reporting to the commander, sectors A13 through A29 have been thoroughly checked. The target was not found."

"Reporting to the commander, the second search of all of sector B is complete. No traces of the target were found."

"Reporting to the commander, the search of sector C is complete..."

Similar search results were continuously reported and compiled over the Zerg soldiers' channel. Yet as more and more areas were thoroughly checked, the monsters that had effortlessly invaded human territory, utterly destroyed the planet's defenses, and blasted the human research institute to rubble instead seemed to grow increasingly tense.

That was probably because, surrounded by the swarm, a "man" in a jet-black military uniform was continuously radiating pressure.

Setting aside all practical considerations and judging purely by appearance, the man could even be called exceptionally handsome by human standards.

His features were well-proportioned, and both his eyes and hair were jet black. The only thing that set him apart from a human was probably the pair of slender antennae faintly visible among his hair. Standing among the swarm, the man's lean figure did not actually look particularly tall, but not a single Zerg dared provoke him at a time like this. After all, that man was...

"Oh, Carlos, you look like you're about to go mad with rage?"

Let's take that back. Perhaps not every Zerg feared death.

A Zerg with brilliant markings folded his wings and landed silently. As the final word left his mouth, his massive, three-meter-tall body began to change, transforming into human form.

"Do you still remember how many times you've been played by 'that one' now? But this time seems especially bad, hee-hee. 'That one' only needed a few pieces of false information to get you to march straight into human territory. Guess how many arguments we'll have with those primates this time?"

The newcomer spoke frivolously to the black-haired, black-eyed man, his tone carrying an unmistakable note of mockery.

Carlos raised his eyes and gave the approaching fellow, who was also wearing a military uniform, a cold look.

"Vice Captain Hill, you should focus on your own cleanup work. Matters concerning 'that one' are outside the scope of your assignment."

He spoke to his colleague in a nearly expressionless tone.