This hastily assembled exploration team naturally didn't have any particularly deep camaraderie among its members.
But losing nearly a third of their people at once left all the survivors feeling extremely depressed.
The atmosphere inside the dark cave was quiet and solemn.
A sob escaped through the communication system: "Poor Amber..."
No one agreed with him, and he quickly fell silent.
For the next short period of time, everyone was trying to calm their breathing and regain their strength.
During this process, the sound of the wind coming from the cave entrance where the group had crawled in became increasingly sharp, and many pieces of rock were encased in the airflow and shot in from the cave entrance. Several people had to move their positions because of this. To make matters worse, in a very short time, the light that was previously faintly visible had now completely disappeared.
Inside this cave, only the spotlights inside the exploration team's helmets emit a dim yellow light.
No one dares to imagine what the storm outside will look like now.
Lin Xi glanced at the still-panicked crowd and sighed silently.
The only person who didn't show any unease was probably Francis, who was standing next to him.
After the others entered the cave, Francis became unusually silent. Lin Xi couldn't help but glance at him every now and then; his deathly pale face always gave Lin Xi a bad feeling.
However, Francis's responses to Lin Xi's whispered questions were always slow and stiff.
But as soon as Lin Xi looked away, the latter's intensely focused gaze would fall precisely on him.
Lin Xi became increasingly unsure of this man's true feelings towards her.
He's an utterly enigmatic man...
Lin Xi couldn't help but think that.
His body was still very weak, and the exhaustion from his previous run made him involuntarily relax and lean against the rock wall.
However, Lin Xi quickly sat up straight, turned to the side, and placed his palm on the cold rock wall.
Immediately afterwards, his brows furrowed tightly.
You should know that they are now safely in the underground cave, but even through the thick, cold stone, Lin Xi can still vaguely feel the slight tremors.
What should we do next?
Lin Xi suddenly turned to look at Jerry and asked a question.
"I have no idea."
He received this answer.
Jerry raised the terminal in his hand. He stared at it for a moment, then shook his head: "We can't contact the outside world. This storm has trapped us here. Everyone check your equipment and report back to me. If conditions permit, we'll just have to stay in this godforsaken place until the storm passes."
He said.
"are you sure?"
Lin Xi said.
He pointed to the rock wall beside him: "I think we should go further into the cave. I don't think this place is very secure."
After a pause, Lin Xi added, "There aren't even any bugs here."
"I thought the absence of bugs might be a good thing for us right now?"
Someone muttered beside Lin Xi.
“But we clearly saw those insects swarming towards this place. This cave is their sanctuary, and if it were truly safe here, they should have stayed. But right now, we can't see a single insect here.”
Lin Xi explained with a frown.
"Ha, our insect expert has spoken."
A man with a small mustache muttered something to the side.
Lin Xi frowned and looked at him.
They discovered that the man was the same one who had been constantly provoking him in the patrol car earlier.
Lin Xi glanced at his name tag, which read "Berlus Vanka".
Lin Xi frowned in disgust. Some people are just lucky—they are annoying and reckless, but they are the ones who manage to survive.
"I just don't want more people to die inexplicably in this mission."
Lin Xi didn't offer any further explanation, but instead coldly uttered this sentence.
“Shut up, Beerus. If it weren’t for Dr. Lin Xi’s fog lights, we would be here mourning you right now.”
Jerry said impatiently to Beerus.
However, perhaps it was precisely because of the mental excitement brought about by escaping death that Beerus became even more eager to provoke others than before.
He rolled his eyes at Jerry, seemingly unconcerned about the captain.
However, Beerus apparently did not realize that it wasn't just Lin Xi and Jerry who showed obvious disgust towards his words and actions... but also Francis.
The man, more taciturn than ever, had already raised his eyes and looked at Beerus coldly the moment Beerus uttered his first words in a shrill voice.
When Lin Xi told Beerus to shut up, but the latter didn't care at all, Francis's eyes turned into a cold indifference.
Then, from the howling wind brought by the storm from the crack in the rocks, something... slowly crawled out of the darkness.
"Oh, really? I think so too—"
Beerus instinctively opened his mouth to continue mocking Lin Xi, but his voice suddenly turned into a scream.
In the darkness, Lin Xi could barely make out something falling suddenly from above the cave.
It landed right on the back of the incessantly talking Beerus.
Beerus jumped straight up from the ground, then immediately lay back down, rolling around on the floor. His initial scream quickly turned into a continuous groan of agony.
"Aaaaaahhhhh—something—ahh ...
In that instant, everyone except Francis was stunned.
"Turn on the searchlights!"
Jerry yelled at the others.
However, due to the unexpected turn of events, it took people quite a while to find the switch for the searchlight.
As the bright light shone, the object on Beerus's back came into view.
"My God, what the hell is this?!"
Several exploration team members were caught off guard and came face to face with the thing’s hideous face. Their searchlights suddenly flashed wildly, and they instinctively took several steps back.
That was an insect.
But no one had ever seen such an insect before.
It looks like an earthworm that has been cut in half—or rather, that terrifying-looking marine creature, the lamprey.
But compared to similar creatures on Earth, it is a million times uglier.
A thick, dark green liquid kept oozing from its broken cross-section. The liquid began to bubble up with tiny foam as soon as it touched Beerus's skin, clearly indicating that it was highly corrosive.
On the other side of that worm-like creature were concentric circles of fine, needle-like thorns.
Now, those fine thorns are firmly stuck on Biros's back.
Lin Xi saw with his own eyes that its tip was spreading outward like a sea anemone, and a dark purple tongue-like thing pierced through Beerus's exploration suit and then burrowed under his skin, constantly churning inside his body.
A series of wet, gurgling sounds mingled with Beerus's screams.
Blood mixed with bits of flesh gushed from the wound the monster had in Beerus's back.
"Someone come here, we need to hold him down!"
Lin Xi had no choice but to rush over and hug Beerus tightly, who was writhing and convulsing in extreme pain.
"Quick, grab something and pull that thing out!"
He shouted at the others who were stunned.
The monster, resembling both a worm and a python, continued to leap and bound across Beerus's body.
Several times, it almost jumped onto Lin Xi.
"careful!"
"Dr. Lin Xi—Attention!"
Some people were so frightened that they screamed repeatedly.
"Damn it, pull that thing out—"
Lin Xi himself was disgusted by that monster, and he roared again.
Jerry was already a seasoned member of the exploration team, and he had seen his fair share of disgusting things on the planets he had visited before.
But even the most disgusting creature in the universe, the slimy, greedy, and bloodthirsty Martian leech, is not as terrifying as this unknown creature before us.
"Mechanical pliers—give me pliers—"
He shouted, and followed Lin Xi's steps, rushing towards Beerus.
Fortunately, during that extremely chaotic escape, several people didn't even have time to drop off the heavy equipment they were carrying.
They found the pliers in their backpack and tossed them to Jerry.
Jerry quickly attached mechanical clamps to his arm and gripped them firmly against the monster's head (if it really was a head), but despite his best efforts, the monster remained greedily attached to Beerus.
Even the others' attempts to rescue Beerus only made his screams a little louder than before.
During this process, Lin Xi himself probably felt the pain most deeply, since he had been holding the man's legs firmly the whole time.
If time could be turned back, Lin Xi can say with certainty that she would never have done the same thing.
The reason isn't just because of Beerus... it's also because of that monster...
Lin Xi had never anticipated that his actions would lead him into this predicament; he had practically come into close contact with the monster.
Besides the monster's "tail" constantly sticking into his face and swinging wildly, the monster's "head" was also trying to push towards Lin Xi.
"Damn it, someone drag him off Beerus!"
Lin Xi watched as Beerus's clothes gradually bulged upwards at his waist, and then, accompanied by a foul-smelling, sticky substance spreading out, the terrifying head of the monster, resembling a sea anemone, emerged directly from Beerus's body.
At that moment, everything seemed to slow down.
Lin Xi stared at the thing in shock.
It has no eyes and no nose.
It has only a mouth divided into countless petals and thin, sharp spines covering its body.
It's like a cobra on Earth that's been threatened, spreading out all its spikes.
Then, it kept twisting in an S-shape in front of Lin Xi's nose.
Although that state only lasted for a brief moment, Lin Xi always felt that she might see the scene in her nightmares for the rest of her life.
"Ahhh—"
Immediately afterwards, the monster suddenly revealed its terrifying mandibles right in front of Lin Xi.
"Bang--"
It was a gunshot.
Lin Xi, who was already stunned, watched as the monster's head turned into a splattered mass of flesh and blood right before her eyes.
Then, he watched as Francis came up to him, raised his gun, and fired a shot at Beerus.
Lin Xi felt Beerus's body suddenly go limp in his arms and then slowly slide down.
However, the pitiful corpse before them did not fall completely silent because of death.
"Slap... slap..."
Even after losing its head and its prey's death, the monster clinging to Beerus remained remarkably active. Its tail, constantly oozing green slime (or perhaps blood), thumped loudly against the ground. And judging from its movements, it seemed unwillingly attempting to reach Lin Xi.
"Bang bang bang—"
Francis's pupils contracted. He remained in the same position as before, and several more shots rang out. The monster's body was turned into a bloody mess by the bullets.
Some shredded human internal organs, which it had already churned up and swallowed, slid out from the pale blue intestines.
Lin Xi stared in astonishment at the scene before him, and instinctively glanced at Francis.
The latter's lips were taut, his face was cold, and his pupils... under the helmet light, his pupils appeared an almost inorganic, cool yellow.
—Perhaps it was just his imagination, but Lin Xi still felt that Francis seemed to be in a state of near-rage.
"Huff...huff...huff..."
At that moment, right after Francis fired the shot, the cave fell into a brief silence. In the deathly stillness, only the heavy breathing of Lin Xi and Jerry echoed through the communication channel.
Francis, who ended this horrific scene with a shot, remained indifferent, as if he were an outsider.
He didn't pay much attention to Beerus, but stared at the messy monster on the ground for a long time. Just looking at it made one's stomach churn.
Then, he slowly put the gun back on his waist, and then reached out and tightly wrapped his arm around Lin Xi's arm, helping him up from the ground.
For a long time, Lin Xi's mind was blank. He let Francis's focused gaze wander over him. He wanted to say "It's okay" to the man who seemed very worried, but his lips and tongue seemed to be stuck in his mouth, and he couldn't say a word.
Francis, on the other hand, had quickly withdrawn his hand after helping Lin Xi up.
But seeing Lin Xi's dazed look, his eyes flickered, and he slowly put his hand back on Lin Xi's arm, as if he wanted to continue supporting the exhausted Lin Xi.
Even through the gloves of the exploration suit, Lin Xi could feel that Francis's hand was very cold. Feeling the weak force on his arm, Lin Xi pursed her lips and did not ask him to let go.
"Oh my god..."
It wasn't until this moment that someone murmured after Francis.
"You killed...you killed Beerus?"
The man stammered to Francis, looking at his former companion, still reeling from the chaotic and terrifying scene that had unfolded before.
"No……"
Jerry spoke on behalf of Francis.
Just as Francis was indifferent and hesitant, struggling between helping Lin Xi up or pulling his hand away, Jerry also checked Beerus's body immediately.
He used a probe to search through Beerus's limp body, his face gradually turning ashen.
"Berus should have died long ago."
He said it to the others.
Then he used the mechanical pliers to pull the shattered monster out of Beerus's body.
He tentatively touched the monster with the mechanical pliers.
"Ouch—it hurts—ouch—it hurts so much—"
And that's exactly what happened.
The monster, which looked as if it were dead beyond any doubt, opened its ring-shaped mouth and let out a scream exactly like Beerus's.
—Yes, just as Jerry discovered.
Beerus actually died a long time ago.
Perhaps he died when the monster ripped his internal organs apart with its tongue, or perhaps even earlier.
But what's terrifying is that this monster's dinner target wasn't just the mustachioed man. It trapped itself inside Beerus's corpse, rolling around and mimicking the man's voice, waiting for someone else to rescue him, and then…
Then it will receive more fresh and kind flesh and blood.
"Hmm..."
After figuring this out, Lin Xi let out a muffled groan.
He instinctively tried to cover his mouth to prevent himself from vomiting.
Whatever this monster is, it is the most disgusting thing Lin Xi has ever seen, bar none.
"What the hell is this?"
One of the exploration team members spoke in a trembling voice.
"Who knows?"
Jerry remained silent for a long time before answering.
Then he turned and looked at Lin Xi.
To be honest, he found it a bit strange. According to his deduction, when the monster was pressing down on Beerus's corpse at such close range, it should have attacked Lin Xi directly.
And the monster could have done it—but it just stayed there, swaying back and forth, which was less a prelude to an attack and more... a way to attract attention?
Oh my God, what is he thinking?
Jerry suddenly came to his senses, and then he couldn't help but smile bitterly at the things he had been thinking about.
He must have really gone mad to think that the monster's dying actions were more like a tantrum—perhaps he was indeed influenced by the rumors that had been circulating widely on the Sun God.
Just as Jerry was looking at Lin Xi with a puzzled expression, Francis suddenly stepped forward and blocked Lin Xi's path.
He glared at Jerry with icy eyes.
Jerry shivered.
He quickly averted his gaze.
The man's expressionless face would normally give people a feeling of being unapproachable, but now—now he actually looked somewhat frightening.
It's not nice to say this about Francis, but with the crisis of this exploration mission, Jerry felt that this man, who seemed completely unaffected, was becoming more and more terrifying...
"Thank you, Francis, you fired just in time."
Jerry composed himself, forcing himself to calm his chaotic thoughts, and then he spoke to Francis.
"You're welcome."
Francis paused subtly for a moment before speaking to Jerry.
...
The exploration team placed Beerus's body and the monster's body at opposite ends of the cave.
There was no funeral, not even a moment of silence.
After such a terrifying incident, even without Lin Xi's persuasion, no one wanted to stay there any longer.
After all, if such a monster has already descended from the sky without warning, then there is a high possibility that there will be a second, a third—after witnessing Beerus's gruesome death, no one would want to challenge that possibility.
Everyone agreed that they should venture deeper into the crevice and find a safer place, at least one without too many strange monsters, to rest for the night.
Out of a subtle tacit understanding, this time, Lin Xi and Francis walked at the front of the group.
From a physical perspective, the rocky peak seemed to meander downwards. As they progressed, the temperature dropped and the air became increasingly murky.
But as they walked, they gradually saw traces of insects on the rock face—just as Lin Xi had said before.
Finally, after struggling through a winding passage, a spacious, spherical underground space suddenly appeared before them. However, almost as soon as they saw it, Lin Xi's air circulation system started beeping again. Lin Xi silently pressed the alarm button. He glanced at his personal terminal; the button representing the air filter had turned a glaring red. At the same time, the smell of lingering outside air began to seep into Lin Xi's mouth and nose.
There is a kind of...
The taste of insects.
Lin Xi didn't know how to describe the smell, but as soon as he smelled that scent, which was hard to describe as pleasant, he knew that they might have arrived at the right destination.
He made a gesture, and the people behind him slowed down in unison.
Francis, however, seemed completely oblivious to Lin Xi's gesture and stepped forward first.
“Francis? Wait—”
Lin Xi shouted instinctively.
Francis immediately stopped and obediently stood not far from Lin Xi before turning around.
"It's an insect."
He said softly.
As soon as he finished speaking, a rustling sound rang out.
Centered on him, the ground that everyone thought was pure black suddenly began to move... Lin Xi stared at the ground with a pale face. In his vision, the light gray rock surface was gradually exposed, and at first glance, it looked as if a thick, dark brown carpet was retreating on its own.
Countless tiny, unidentified insects were wriggling, and those hundreds of millions of tiny insects receded like a tide from the place where humans had stepped.
This scene is hardly friendly to the fragile human psyche.
Those who came after Lin Xi gasped in unison upon seeing the scene before them.
"We...we've fallen into an insect's nest..."
Someone muttered stiffly to themselves.
Before he could stop them, someone had already raised a searchlight and shone it above the spherical hole.
In that instant, countless tiny lights suddenly lit up in the darkness deep within the cave.
That's the reflection of light from the eyes of countless insects.
Immediately afterwards, the flapping sound of wings spread through the cave like a tide, and black "mist" began to slowly diffuse from the top of the cave.
But everyone knew that it wasn't "black mist" at all, but... insects.
No one could tell how many insects there were, just as no one could know how wide the cave was—or how many kinds of insects made up the dark brown ones they could see.
If that wasn't bad enough, the exploration team soon learned that things could always get even more difficult.
For example, when they shone those searchlights at the insects, they successfully attracted the insects to fly towards them.
The scene before my eyes was absolutely horrifying.
"Oops!"
"Oh, no—"
The other members of the exploration team were severely frightened and immediately picked up their weapons.
Lin Xi felt as if her internal organs had tightened in an instant—
"Turn off the lights! Turn off all the lights! Don't shoot! Don't turn on the lights!"
Lin Xi sternly stopped those people from doing their thing.
He even reached out and knocked the searchlights out of the hands of the people behind him.
Perhaps because they had suffered such terrible things before, God finally showed them mercy this time.
Everyone turned off the lights, at least until the swarm of insects reached them.
The sound of flapping wings didn't disappear immediately with the light. The insects were closing in on them... and in the complete darkness, with all sight lost, the feeling was absolutely terrifying.
Lin Xi, however, stared wide-eyed in confusion amidst the darkness.
He was quite certain that everything in front of him was pitch black, and theoretically he shouldn't have seen anything—in fact, he didn't see anything at all.
But how do you explain his "feeling"?
That feeling... as if I knew every single insect in this cave...
Lin Xi closed her eyes.
But in his mind, the existence of those insects was so vivid.
Even their vague and chaotic emotions became incredibly clear.
"These insects won't harm us."
After a long while, Lin Xi spoke softly in a hoarse voice.
"But they don't look very friendly."
Someone muttered.
He still remembers the black "smoke" that suddenly flew towards them.
"That's because we disturbed them; there shouldn't be any light in a place like this."
Lin Xi whispered.
He seemed to be explaining to the shaken exploration team members, or perhaps he was simply talking to himself.
“Here, all the insects will live in peace and there will never be any killing—only when there is light will their biological instincts be awakened.”
At this moment, Lin Xi's eyes appeared as a hollow black in the darkness, with her pupils dilated to their limit, leaving only a thin ring of brown irises.
Unfortunately, all the lights... including the yellow spotlights inside the helmet, have been turned off.
In the absolute darkness, only one person could see what Lin Xi looked like now.
However, all he felt in his heart was a surging infatuation and attachment to Lin Xi's current appearance.
"Lin Xi..."
He tapped his teeth lightly, repeatedly licking the name on the tip of his tongue.
The human body is heavy, clumsy, and fragile; it is almost useless.
It was only their soft skin and nimble tongue that it greatly envied.
"Dr. Lin Xi, are we really going to stay here? Surrounded by so many insects?"
Lin Xi was brought back to her senses by the somewhat flustered questions from the other members of the exploration team.
He paused for a moment, then responded absentmindedly.
"Of course. I can assure you they won't hurt you—"
After saying this, even Lin Xi herself was taken aback.
"After all, there are still a lot of strange rumors circulating on the ship, and many of them seem to emphasize that I can control insects..."
"We are very sorry, Dr. Lin Xi."
"Those are all just rumors..."
Soon, Lin Xi's words were drowned out by the somewhat ashamed apologies from the others.
Although there were some people like Beerus who had absolutely no sense of gratitude, the majority of the exploration team were normal people.
They kept in mind everything Lin Xi had done during the storm.
"Alright... At times like these, just assume those rumors are true. It's safe here, and we really need to make time to rest."
"That's right, what we need most right now is rest, and figuring out how to survive."
Jerry picked up where he left off.
According to the records on the personal terminal.
In fact, their group had already exceeded the planned activity level by several times... not to mention, the storms and monsters along the way had pushed everyone's mental and physical limits.
Under Jerry's arrangement, the survivors settled down in a small, flat area in a corner of the cave.
The spherical, self-inflating tent was carefully secured to the rock face.
However, due to the loss of equipment, the survivors had to share the few remaining tents with their companions.
Whether intentionally or unintentionally, Lin Xi and Francis were assigned to be together.
Lin Xi: "..."
The spherical tent's built-in sealing and filtration system allowed Lin Xi to take off his already battered exploration suit inside.
In Lin Xi's plan, he should settle himself down and then find a way to repair that damn exploration suit. After that, he should brace himself to face that strange and unpredictable man who was completely baffling.
But a plan is always just a plan.
Lin Xi didn't even have time to pull her feet out of her exploration suit before she fell into a deep, dark sleep.
The moment Francis stepped into the tent, he saw Lin Xi's tired and pale sleeping face.
His eyes flashed instantly.
"Lin...Xi..."
Francis slowly walked towards Lin Xi.
After confirming that he was asleep, he almost couldn't wait to reach out and touch Lin Xi's cheek.
However, he soon discovered that he was still wearing that extremely cumbersome exploration suit.
Without any hesitation, Francessy peeled off the tattered and ugly outer layer from his body.
Much later, he would realize how reckless his actions in the tent had been—Lin Xi was merely asleep, not unconscious. With the slightest mishap, he could wake at any moment, and then he would see Francis's strange behavior.
What a terrifying face it was.
When Lin Xi was awake, he would always unconsciously notice how pale Francis's face looked behind the mask. His worries and concerns were justified, because under the exploration suit, only his face looked human—although that face was now firmly stuck inside the helmet of the exploration suit, and through the mimicry of the scales, it looked like a real human.
And now, how terrifying is that monster nestled beside Lin Xi?
The enormous compound eyes contained countless tiny, round pupils similar to human pupils. The huge triangular face was flat, covered with a thin layer of flesh-colored human skin, through which you could even see the clear veins of blood vessels.
However, this skin was actually wrapped around the skull of a huge carnivorous insect.
It has a human nose—unfortunately, it lacks a bridge and nostrils, consisting only of two flesh-colored cavities embedded in the center of its head. Below that is a massive mouth, its ferocious and crooked jaws filled with fine teeth, some resembling thin white bone needles, but most being sharp human canines.
As for its tongue, it is purple... long and soft, which is arguably the part he put the most effort into during the pupalization process, and also the part he is most satisfied with.
After all, it was only with the help of his nimble tongue and newly formed vocal cords that he was able to barely learn human words and sentences in previous interactions.
Beneath that horrific head lay Francis's body. Well, similarly, his body suffered from a similar problem as his head.
One could even say... his body was a bigger problem than his head. Because, in appearance, he possessed the complete, grotesque body of an arthropod, yet this very body was covered with pale, smooth skin characteristic of humans. This bizarre combination made him look even more repulsive than a mere insect.
Not to mention, he also had a pair of enormous wings tucked into his thin, bony back.
Those brightly colored circular spots were flashing rapidly along the edges of the translucent wings.
Yes, this is an extremely ugly... hybrid of human and insect.
Francis...
No, the more accurate title should be "Number One," completely unaware of the impropriety of his current appearance.
He was immersed in joy, and he spread his wings and gently covered Lin Xi.
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