The wind was cold and the air was thick with dampness.
"Sixth Brother?"
“You—Ah!!”
Cries of pain and screams came one after another in an instant.
The flashlight rolled out of someone's hand and rolled to the corner of the stone platform. With the help of that momentary light, the seriously injured boss finally saw the situation in the cave clearly.
At that moment just now, he was not the only one attacked.
The mild-mannered Lao Liu stood in the middle of them, with long spider-like limbs extending from his back, the tips of which were as sharp as blades. In an instant, he stabbed all of them through!
After the sharp blade pierced through, it stirred violently inside their bodies.
The severe pain from the dislocation of internal organs made everyone scream miserably, and they were no longer able to resist.
“Tick, tick.”
The bright red, sticky blood flowed down the slender limbs on the young man's back and slowly dripped onto the ground, like a countdown to the passing of life.
No one expected this scene.
They have been working together for many years, and their friendship has been based on bloodshed and life-saving. Even if it all started over again, the eldest brother would never have thought that his business would be ruined by the sixth brother.
They trusted each other too much, and Lao Liu's outburst was so sudden that the others didn't even have the slightest chance to resist!
“…No, you are not Lao Liu!”
Blood splattered on the rocks. The eldest brother struggled, his right hand desperately reaching forward. "You... you... monster! Who are you? Where's the sixth brother?"
The young man stood there, looking at him quietly.
The spider thorns wrapped around him, and a trace of pity flashed in his slightly blue eyes, but was immediately suppressed by the deeper blue color.
"I'm sorry, Boss," the young man lowered his head and spoke softly, "I'm sorry, everyone, I'm Lao Liu."
There was a rustling sound, which was the sound of clothes rubbing against the stone platform. Then a pale, bloody hand grabbed the young man's ankle.
“…No, that’s impossible.”
The third brother gasped for breath and raised his head desperately: "The sixth brother and I have a life-long friendship. He, he will never..."
The young man lowered his eyes.
The dark blue pupils fell into the desperate eyes of the third brother, with a hint of pity.
"I am Lao Liu," he said calmly. "I have all the feelings of the past, and I have beautiful memories of being with you. I remember everything you said, and even that feeling is still lingering in my heart, vividly - how can I not be Lao Liu?"
The fifth sister's shrill voice came from the side, gathering her last bit of strength: "Because the sixth sister never kills anyone, and certainly won't do anything to us!"
The sharp voice echoed in the cave, and the tail end set off a wave of sound, shaking the gravel.
The young man was silent for a moment.
He then laughed and shook his head: "That's just your stereotype. I am no different now than I was before."
"If I had to say there's been a change, it's probably that... life forms have become more advanced."
"It's a pity that due to limited resources, I can't transform everyone into a higher life form like me. I'm truly sorry."
As he spoke, he bent down and carried the seriously injured pirates onto the stone platform one by one.
Blood flowed down their bodies and onto the texture of the stone platform. The spike in the center of the stone platform seemed to sense something and began to vibrate slightly.
It seemed as if there was something hidden deep inside, and at this moment, stimulated by the blood and dying mental power of the pirates, it was awakening and growing rapidly.
Among the crowd, the eldest had the strongest physical fitness and was still struggling desperately: "Monster, are you... Zerg? Are you Zerg?"
There was a glint of fear in his eyes, and the scenery around him began to blur, like large patches of ink spreading on rice paper.
...I've never heard of a Zerg that can parasitize humans.
I've never heard of Zerg in spider form either.
But apart from this explanation, the boss really couldn't think of any other possibility.
He stared at Lao Liu with a look of fear and ferocity. He widened his eyes as if he wanted to kill the man in front of him with his eyes.
The young man sighed again.
"It's not that I became a Zerg, nor that the Zerg replaced me... well, how should I put it?"
He scratched the back of his head and whispered, "The fusion between us is deeper, similar to the fusion of souls. But I don't like the name of Zerg. If possible, please call me Lao Liu... Boss, do you understand what I mean?"
The boss stared with grief and anger.
His blood was almost drained out and he could no longer utter a word.
His vision grew increasingly blurry and dim. In his final sight, the eldest saw the stone thorn crack, and several tiny insects, only the size of a thumb, emerged from it.
It was a small spider-like insect, crystal clear and emitting a faint blue fluorescence.
The young man held them in his palms with joy and smiled gently: "Come on, suck them."
"This is the insect mother's spawning ground. All the eggs here are the breeding ground for you. There's no need to worry about anything. Just absorb all the energy here."
…
Another place underground.
Gu Qiongsheng, who was desperately absorbing energy and fighting against the Zerg, suddenly discovered that the struggling power of the Zerg larvae in the rock suddenly weakened a lot.
The stone wall stopped shaking, and the cracks in the rocks stopped cracking. It seemed as if something was doing the same thing as her from another direction - absorbing life energy in large quantities, trying to prevent the larvae from hatching and turning into more complete stone.
Gu Qiongsheng's eyes lit up.
No matter how the other party did it, since the goal of both sides is to kill the Zerg, they are friendly forces!
She felt much more at ease and continued to absorb madly without any worries.
Experience points poured in, even if it was only a little bit each time. In this short period of time, she had accumulated a lot of experience points. Combined with the experience she had accumulated before, she was gradually approaching the level 16 mark.
It won’t be long before she can unlock the next skill.
As the energy continued to be absorbed, Gu Qiongsheng faintly sensed that the system seemed to be undergoing a qualitative change. Although she didn't know the specific changes, a strong premonition told her that it should be a good change.
As the two of them absorbed energy frantically, the Zerg deep underground on Yalan Star suffered.
The minerals that originally protected them have now become ropes that bind them, firmly locking them in the rock strata. They can only struggle in vain and watch their energy dissipate bit by bit.
In Lao Liu's palm, the blue spiders gradually expanded to the size of a palm after absorbing a large amount of energy.
After a while, their bodies began to turn into a bright white, and the faint blue light gathered on the insects' backs, which bulged slightly. At first glance, it looked like the outline of a face.
The young man looked at the group of insects with joy and murmured, "Sure enough, the energy of the insect mother is the purest."
"The insect egg mining area on Yalan Star is so huge, it should be enough to hatch dozens of soul insects..."
Before he could finish his words, the situation suddenly changed!
The fifth spider that hatched suddenly "popped" and collapsed weakly to the ground.
Its body was still a mixture of blue and white, and the face on its back had not yet fully condensed. However, the energy continuously transmitted from the cracks in the ground seemed to be rapidly weakening, so weak that it was no longer enough to support it in completing the transformation!
young people:"???"
He was stunned for a moment, with surprise and panic flashing in his eyes. He hurried forward and picked up the remaining spider worms with both hands.
But no matter how he caressed and nurtured them, the spiders that followed would collapse one after another, their thin limbs crushed beneath their massive bodies, flailing violently and fearfully.
The young man was dumbfounded.
What's going on?
Although the hatching of soul worms requires dozens or even hundreds of times the energy of normal Zerg, there are so many insect eggs on Yalan Star that it is no problem to supply dozens of soul worms.
His requirements are not high!
Young people have never considered the problem of energy shortage.
He just thought that the passage was blocked, so he hurriedly stepped onto the stone platform and carefully observed the "stone thorn" that served as the energy fulcrum.
But after repeated checks, the young man couldn't find any problems with the "stone thorns." He watched helplessly as one soul worm after another failed to hatch, his heart aching to the point of bleeding.
Soul worm eggs are extremely rare, and their bodies are extremely weak. If they fail to hatch, there is no way to remedy the situation.
Just at this moment, he heard a whistling sound of wind.
The wind came from afar, piercing through the gloomy and humid air underground, carrying the force of breaking through the air, and smashing hard on his head!
The young man's pupils suddenly contracted.
The next second, his body suddenly bent backward in a way that was impossible for a human being, and his eight limbs plunged fiercely into the cracks in the rocks, prying open a piece of rubble that rolled down with a loud noise.
"call out--!"
A flash of silver light came, brushed past the young man's nose, and pierced the rock behind him.
It was a long stick, the body of which was emitting purple plasma like thunder, and in the dim underground it made a sharp "sizzling" sound, like thunderbolt in the dark clouds.
"Pah, pah."
Low footsteps.
Zhou Feng's figure appeared at the end of the tunnel. Her face was serious. She stretched out her hand and the silver stick, as if it had consciousness, quickly pulled out from the rock and flew back into her palm.
"What are you?"
She whispered, "A new type of Zerg?"
…
The cold wind blew gently, bringing a chill that penetrated the bone marrow.
Lieutenant Colonel Zhou's eyes were full of vigilance, and he released his mental aura without any concealment. The powerful aura was like a biting cold wind, giving people a strong pressure.
When she rushed out of the base before, she wanted to follow Gu Qiongsheng and Zhou Qing from a distance to ensure the safety of the two girls.
But this tracking is difficult.
Gu Qiongsheng's detection ability is very sensitive, so Zhou Feng cannot get too close, otherwise he will be easily discovered.
However, the wind and snow were so strong along the way that all traces were quickly covered up. He Kun and others did not stay at the pre-arranged rest stop, so when Zhou Feng, who was unaware of the details, approached the cave at the estimated time, he only saw the frozen corpse of the snow beast.
Gu Qiongsheng and his group had long since disappeared.
Zhou Feng looked at the empty cave: "..."
She realized belatedly that with Gu Qiongsheng's healing skills, He Kun and his group didn't need to rest at all.
Just act recklessly!
Zhou Feng was at a loss for words, but he had no other choice but to try a shortcut to chase him.
The path passes through a large gathering area of snow beasts. The black forest there is relatively low, and it is easy to be attacked by snow beasts when passing through. Therefore, it has not been designated as a regular route by patrolling soldiers.
But while taking a shortcut, Zhou Feng discovered traces of another group of people.
——The ambitious six-member group of pirates.
Zhou Feng was not sure about their purpose, but she was sure that these guys were not good people, so she temporarily changed her target and followed them from a distance, trying to find out the pirates' goal.
She followed them to a cave, burrowed into a crevice, and was horrified to see vast expanses of dark blue ore beneath the gloomy ground. The pirates, not knowing what they were, excitedly touched and chatted about them, but Zhou Feng felt as if she were being roasted on a fire, every hair standing on end in terror.
Then, she saw an even more horrifying scene.
Backstab, sacrifice, limbs extending from the young man's back, spiders with a strange blue light... When human faces appeared on the backs of spiders one after another, Zhou Feng finally couldn't hide any longer - just seeing the terrifying human face, a great terror gripped her heart like a giant claw, making her breathe rapidly and her heartbeat quicken!
Instinct was screaming wildly, yelling at her to stay away.
But her sense of responsibility as a soldier and a lieutenant colonel was boiling in her heart, supporting her to rush out quickly. The silver stick in her hand took shape, and she attacked with thunder and lightning!
The young man's spine suddenly bent, and he dodged the attack in an extremely strange posture.
This further confirmed Zhou Feng's guess.
The person in front of him could no longer be considered human. He might still be wearing human skin, but his insides had long been replaced by Zerg, and even his physiological structure had changed.
Resisting the intense palpitations, Zhou Feng grabbed the silver stick, turned his five fingers around, and swept it!
The long stick swung out a swift afterimage, and lavender lightning spread in the air, slashing towards the limbs behind the young man with unmatched force.
Underground combat is not as casual as ground combat. Zhou Feng was concerned about the force fulcrums of the rock formation and did not dare to use the moves of the Lei Chi formation.
But she had been fighting on the front line for many years and had rich experience in fighting against the Zerg. Even though she was facing a new type of Zerg at this moment, her keen intuition made her take the lead in attacking the long limbs behind the young man, sweeping her stick like a gust of wind and smashing it down heavily!
The young man frowned.
The long limbs behind him quickly retracted and disappeared into his back. The wounds caused by the spider thorns healed quickly, and in a flash, only smooth skin was left on his back.
At the same time, he looked at Zhou Feng carefully and suddenly said, "Lieutenant Colonel Zhou from the Silver Glory Legion?"
"What Lieutenant Colonel Zhou?" Zhou Feng snorted coldly, "It's your Grandpa Zhou!"
The long stick attack missed, but she was not panicked at all and stimulated her mental power again.
But what he was aiming at was no longer the sharp limbs, but the dust that was instantly raised in the air when the long stick swept past.
The attack range of the long staff was limited by its own form, but the power of thunder was not. In an instant, the lightning spark ignited the dust in the air, using it as a force to trigger a series of rapid bombardments around the young man!
"boom!"
Small-scale, extremely precise bombing minimizes the impact range while maximizing the instantaneous explosive power.
The cave was instantly filled with dust and gravel, flying everywhere. In the darkness, Zhou Feng vigilantly grasped the long stick, his eyes fixed on the direction of the explosion.
The dust slowly dispersed.
In the center of the explosion, the young man coughed violently several times and spat out a mouthful of blood.
After retracting his limbs, he seemed to have turned back into an ordinary human being, bearing Zhou Feng's thunderstorm attack head-on, and at this moment he was covered with bruises.
Especially the back, where the skin was torn and blood was dripping.
"hiss……"
He straightened up in pain, touched his back with his backhand, looked at his hands covered in blood, and gasped.
"Why are you so fierce?" the young man muttered. "Can't you just sit down and have a good chat?"
"Lieutenant Colonel Zhou of Yinhui, in that person's plan, you are a talent worth winning over and worth our resources."
Zhou Feng frowned in annoyance.
"Forget about trying to win me over," she said. "Turning into Spider-Man like you? That's too ugly. I don't want that."
The young man shook his head slightly.
He uncrossed his arms.
Beneath him were several spiders that had hatched successfully earlier. Protected by the young man's body, they had escaped the lightning blast and remained intact.
Zhou Feng stared at the outline of the human face on the back of the spider and suddenly felt a sharp pain in his eyebrows.
It's hard to describe the feeling clearly. If I have to say, it's probably like someone who hates insects suddenly seeing a dense swarm of brightly colored and poisonous caterpillars, or someone who is afraid of snakes suddenly falling into a den of hissing snakes.
Such disgust and fear that comes from the instinct of life are enough to make anyone feel creepy, with hair standing on end and trembling all over.
It's not about courage, it's just pure instinct.
Zhou Feng clearly realized that the spiders that the young man was guarding must be very difficult to deal with.
But the more difficult it is, the more threat it means, which means it will bring terrible disasters to the Federation, Yalan Star, Yinhui's warriors and Gu Qiongsheng.
In the darkness, Zhou Feng clenched his teeth.
She was the only one who had seen this scene, so she couldn't just sit back and watch.
Zhou Feng turned his five fingers, clenched the long stick, and thunder gathered in his palm again.
"Zizila, zila", the strong sound of electric arc jumping and colliding spread in the narrow underground, but facing Zhou Feng who was accumulating power, the young man only made an extremely simple movement.
He raised his head.
There was a faint blue light flickering in his eyes, like a sky full of stars.
The moment she met his gaze, Zhou Feng felt her mind suddenly dizzy. A moment later, she realized with horror that the young man in front of her was actually a rare possessor of hypnotic mental power!
After being parasitized by the Zerg, he still retained his human abilities!
Although the opponent's ability was not that strong, he could only freeze Zhou Feng for a very short period of time.
But for the young man, this short moment was enough for him to pick up a spider and lightly throw it towards Zhou Feng's forehead.
The dark blue spider, like a leaf blowing in the wind, quietly landed on Zhou Feng's brow.
——The outline of the human face on the back just happened to touch Zhou Feng’s skin.
The author has something to say:
I won!!! Ahhhh I won!!!
I got third place in the written test, turned the tables thanks to the interview, and got first place in the overall score. Wow, my kid finally got in!
I'm going to hold a lucky draw to share some joy with everyone and wish everyone all the best! Here's the extra chapter, and then I'm off to code tomorrow's update~ (The era of saving drafts is over, and the era of raw updates is coming><)
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