It was a feeling as if someone had suddenly pulled your soul out of your body.

The biting cold seeped into Lin Xi's soul in an instant, and he almost screamed because of it, but in that instant, he suddenly saw some images.

Those were images of very poor quality, like those from an ancient video camera, with constant noise and static flashing across the screen.

Then Lin Xi saw a man.

He was a remarkably handsome man with flawless skin and near-perfect features. For a fleeting moment, Lin Xi felt he looked vaguely familiar, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't recall where he had seen this man before. And now, the man sat upright in front of a console-like seat, surrounded by people dressed in the same old-fashioned uniforms.

Everyone looked terrified, huddled together like a flock of sheep at the very back of the metal hall where they were now—the furthest point from the metal door.

"Bang--"

"Bang--"

"Hiss..."

"Bang--"

"Hiss... hiss..."

...

A tremendous roar, accompanied by a familiar hissing sound, emanated from outside the metal door. With each roar, the seemingly solid metal door would vibrate with a chilling force.

The rustling sound of gravel and fragments of fixing bolts fell with a powerful impact, while the surface of the metal door, marked with black and yellow diagonal stripes, showed obvious dents.

Not long after, a crack appeared in the door.

Thick, segmented limbs and some small insects were struggling to squeeze through the narrow crevice. Lin Xi recognized them at a glance; those monsters, like the large insects currently rampaging inside the Apollo ship's cabins, were all alien species.

The crowd was screaming.

In contrast, the calmness displayed by the young and handsome man seemed somewhat unusual.

He stared at the escalating crowd and the crumbling metal doors—the last barrier between humans and monsters. His expressionless face suggested he was deep in thought.

"The hatch is 67% damaged, and the existing anti-intrusion measures are about to become completely ineffective. Darling, you have about 30 seconds to make a decision."

Lin Xi was somewhat surprised to hear "himself" suddenly speak, and the person he was speaking to was clearly that young man.

The young man looked up at the individual who was now providing Lin Xi with a voyeuristic perspective.

Are you sure this is the only solution?

The young man asked in a steady voice.

"According to my calculations, this is the only way."

"She" spoke softly to the man.

"Those ghost mechanical warriors weren't even given a chance to undergo factory testing before being sent here..."

The young man sighed as he watched the monsters gradually breaking through the metal hatches.

"I really don't know if I made the right decision."

He muttered something under his breath, a determined look appearing on his flawless face. Then, he nodded in the direction Lin Xi was currently in.

"I think there might really be no other way... Let's just proceed with the plan you previously proposed..."

"Instruction Number: 75543 Instruction Content: Initial activation of all Type A 'Ghost' model AS automated intelligent mechanical warriors located in Warehouse α-11 area."

"Key: I am a gift from heaven."

After hearing the young man's string of words, Lin Xi felt his vision tremble slightly. A few seconds later, a vast array of dense code, icons, and license files began to flash in his field of vision at an astonishing speed.

Almost simultaneously, his vision underwent a strange change. On one hand, he was still watching the young man in the metal hall, but on the other hand, he saw something else: an exceptionally large warehouse.

The row of mechanical warriors at the very bottom of the warehouse suddenly trembled in the darkness, and blue lights lit up on their dark, curved screens.

"Ghost-type mechanical warrior activated."

Lin Xi heard "herself" speaking to the young man in a gentle tone.

"Please enter the task details."

He saw the young man pause slightly; this was the first time in a long time that Lin Xi had seen such a distinct human emotion in this young man.

"What are you waiting for?! Captain Scripps, those damned monsters are about to break in!"

Lin Xi was somewhat surprised to hear a familiar name.

Scripps?

The young man he's watching now is... Scripps?

Lin Xi stared at the young man's face in disbelief, but he couldn't reconcile the calm and indifferent young man in his sight with the vicious and strange ghost in his memory.

And what he is seeing now... is it the accident that happened on the Providence three hundred years ago?

Lin Xi immediately recalled the scene he had witnessed on the Providence spacecraft: the layers upon layers of decaying corpses of the aliens struggling to resist, and the killing machines that had suddenly stopped functioning and frozen in time.

He had initially thought that the accident in the aircraft was an exception, but judging from what he was seeing now... had the same accident occurred on the main ship of the Providence?

However, no matter how surprised or confused Lin Xi is now, the past he has witnessed continues to unfold step by step.

Behind the young people… or rather, behind Scripps, the incredibly tense crowd erupted in panicked screams.

Lin Xi could sense that these people, who were completely terrified, had no way of understanding Scripps' hesitation at this moment.

"Hal! Activate the mechanical warriors! Kill those monsters! Hurry!"

A middle-aged man in uniform, who looked quite authoritative, raised his head and roared hysterically in Lin Xi's direction.

"I'm sorry, First Mate Dax, your authorization is insufficient."

Lin Xi heard "her own" voice once again.

What's strange is that, while the middle-aged man and the group of humans behind him were chattering and shouting incessantly, Lin Xi actually felt a surge of emotion similar to dissatisfaction welling up in "his" heart—and the red alert that appeared in his field of vision afterward proved this.

[Warning: Information flow error]

But the warning only remained in sight for a brief moment before vanishing.

Next, Lin Xi heard Scripps's somewhat low-pitched command:

"Mission objective: Eliminate all non-natural biological individuals classified as 'alien' on the Providence starship."

"For a description of the task, please refer to Dr. Lena's experimental record report."

"Task permissions: Advanced".

Accompanied by Captain Scripps' fluent commands.

Everything seemed to start all over again. Lin Xi once again saw those constantly scrolling instructions, letters, numbers, and icons within his field of vision.

His vision, as before, was fragmented into countless pieces, as if countless versions of himself were watching different scenes. At the same time, he was carefully observing Scripps in the very center of the hall, while at the same time, he seemed to be everywhere, witnessing firsthand how those blue-glowing metal robots moved, systematically sweeping away those enormous, terrifying, bizarre, and abnormally deformed giant insects inside the huge spaceship.

It must be said that these killing machines produced by the already "legendary" Del Corporation truly lived up to their reputation. Not long after, the ear-piercing scratching and crashing sounds coming from outside the metal door of the hall disappeared.

The alien species that were trying to squeeze into the hall were quickly turned into splattered slime and blood clots in the spreading eerie blue light.

Lin Xi heard the cheers of the remaining humans inside the hall.

But then, the metal hatch, which had already been almost completely destroyed by the monsters, was quickly cut apart and twisted off by several flexible metal tentacles, and finally collapsed into several huge metal fragments.

Then, those mechanical warriors called "Ghosts," which were actually like metallic jellyfish, leisurely poured into the hall through the doorways they had created.

A blue beam of light emanated from their dark, curved masks, and before the crowd could even react, the beam had already swept over their bodies.

But even at this point, no one realized what this really meant—except for the young man at the control panel.

Just as the blue light disappeared, his body suddenly shuddered violently, and at the same time, a huge warning sign suddenly appeared in Lin Xi's vision.

[Number of infections: 87]

The infection rate ranged from a high of 41% to a low of 3%.

Immediately afterward, one face after another flashed through Lin Xi's field of vision. They were all crew members of the Providence, or rather, survivors, only now they were considered survivors. Each of them had a bright red number on their head, and Lin Xi knew that number was the so-called... infection rate.

"Oh, no..."

Meanwhile, Scripps, standing in the center of the hall, had his pupils turn into empty gray-white—as if he suddenly understood something, he let out a low murmur, and then abruptly raised his head to face the direction where "Hal" was.

"Terminate all commands!"

However, as he uttered those words, a line of bright red warning appeared in Lin Xi's field of vision.

[Priority target for elimination: Scripps Fanas (infection rate: 41%)]