"Xavier, hang in there, I'll figure something out... Believe me, I'll definitely find a way..."
Lin Xi lay on the ground and shouted at Xavier on the other side of the isolation door.
More mechanical warriors' metal tentacles kept trying to squeeze in through the gap between the isolation door and the ground. Those tentacles left several deep wounds on Lin Xi's body, revealing the bone. Lin Xi could feel the blood gushing out of his body, but the physical pain seemed to become extremely distant at this moment. What truly made him feel extremely painful was his heart.
"Xavier!"
All his composure crumbled in that instant. Lin Xi didn't know how to describe the fear that gripped his body, a fear that felt like his very bones were about to freeze.
Although he had been trying to appease Xavier, but...
He had a strong premonition that he was going to lose Xavier.
“I want to keep up with you… Lin Xi… I’ve always wanted to keep up with you…”
At the same moment, under the attacks of those mechanical warriors and metal monsters, Xavier kept repeating the same sentence, his tone filled with the panic of being abandoned. He stretched his arms forward in vain, as if in doing so he could break through all obstacles and reach the other side of the door to be with Lin Xi.
"Crunch, crunch..."
Amid its incoherent, fearful whispers, the isolation door moved.
Yes, even with the sudden obstruction of the insect-shaped robot, the isolation door still pressed down heavily.
A robotic warrior attempting to squeeze through a crack in the doorway developed a crack under the weight of the isolation door.
Amidst the flashes of electricity, the metal tentacles, which had been writhing wildly like a swarm of snakes, suddenly retracted.
The gap in the door is getting narrower and narrower.
"Lin Xi...it hurts so much...waaaaah...Lin Xi..."
Meanwhile, Xavier, amidst unrestrained sobbing, forcefully plunged its forelimbs into the metal floor, writhing frantically as it tried to crawl to the other side of the isolation door.
However, the cold tentacles of those metal monsters were still firmly embedded in Xavier's body, and its frantic struggles would only cause it more serious damage—in fact, in the struggle just now, its body was almost split in two.
Worse still, Xavier's frantic struggle seemed to have triggered some mechanism in the insect-mechanical monsters. They withdrew their metal tentacles from under the isolation door, ceasing their struggle against the heavy barrier.
The isolation doors resumed normal operation, and strangely, they pointed something like a detector at Xavier, who was struggling to move on the ground.
Beneath the transparent synthetic material masks, the pupils of these insect-like mechanical monsters gleamed with an eerie red light.
Lin Xi's bloodshot eyes suddenly widened.
He watched as the monsters bowed slightly, then raised their bizarre and terrifying arms toward Xavier—
"No—don't do this—survive!" Lin Xi let out the most heart-wrenching wail of her life. "Xavier, I'll find a way, I'll come back for you, do you hear me? I'll come back...survive..."
In the final seconds before the isolation door closed, Lin Xi saw the robots forcefully plunging their scythe-shaped metal tentacles into Xavier's body.
"Lin Xi..."
Strangely, Xavier remained remarkably calm until the very last moment arrived.
At least, it seemed much more at ease than before. It stared intently at Lin Xi, blood gushing from its mouth and nose. In its extremely weak state, all its disguise and mimicry had vanished.
Instead, it had a somewhat ferocious and ugly face, belonging to a different species.
"...I'll wait for Lin Xi here...I'll be very good."
It spoke in an extremely weak voice.
"I will be very good..."
The luster in those red eyes gradually faded.
In a daze, Lin Xi seemed to see that small, delicate "star butterfly" from before once again.
The next second, the isolation door slammed shut, cutting off Lin Xi's view.
“Xavier…”
Lin Xi clenched her fist and slammed it hard against the metal isolation door.
He tried to get some more noise from the isolation door, even if it was just wailing or screaming, as long as it was Xavier's voice.
He knew Xavier was terrified of being separated from him... yet through the metal partition door, all he could hear was the terrifying sound coming from the other side.
That was the sound of flesh being torn apart, and the cracking sounds from the joints of those disgusting metal monsters as they moved.
The metal monsters did not leave; they were seeking a way to break through the door.
"Xavier...can you still hear me? Xavier..."
Lin Xi shouted in vain toward the other side of the isolation door.
But he never received a response from Xavier; instead, the metal monsters became very interested in his voice.
"Bang—bang—"
With a dull metallic roar, the monsters slammed into the isolation door. Lin Xi could even hear the hinges of the adjacent door creaking under the strain.
He can't stay here any longer.
Lin Xi's rationality was warning him.
He took a few steps back, breathing heavily. A profound sorrow washed over him, almost shattering his heart.
Before this day, Lin Xi had never imagined that she would one day feel such deep affection for an alien monster like Xavier.
He couldn't even breathe, nor could he think. A powerful urge surged through his body. He wanted to stay here no matter what, waiting for those metal monsters to break through the isolation door. That way, he could at least rush out and collect Xavier's body, or... he would die with Xavier under the tentacles of those metal monsters.
But the moment he took a step forward, a heavy feeling in his chest forced him to lower his head.
Lin Xi's body trembled slightly; the ion generator was still tightly strapped to his chest.
The overwhelming mental shock and extreme physical weakness caused Lin Xi's vision to blur in waves, but it also reminded him of why he had been fighting so hard... Elisa and Bryce were still waiting for him.
Lin Xi had no choice but to bite herself hard. The wound on the tip of her tongue felt numb and she couldn't feel anything.
"I will come to find you, hang in there, I will definitely come to find you."
Even though he knew the little bug wouldn't respond to him anymore, Lin Xi still spoke earnestly to the nearly deformed isolation door.
Immediately afterwards, he took a deep breath, then resolutely turned around, seizing the opportunity before the isolation door was breached, and rushed towards the warehouse where the lifeboats were located, stepping over layers of monster corpses.
"My God, Lin Xi? What happened to you...?"
The moment Lin Xi stumbled into the warehouse, she was greeted by the dark muzzle of a gun. Fortunately, before firing, Bryce keenly recognized that the bloodied and almost unrecognizable man in front of him was his brother.
The former medical officer was utterly horrified by Lin Xi's current state of being covered in blood.
Instead, Lin Xi displayed astonishing calmness.
He took a few steps forward and calmly handed the ion generator he was carrying to Sith, who had come running over.
"Oh my god, you look really miserable, but sorry, let me finish setting this up first. We have a big problem now, we need to take off immediately—"
Sith was startled by the blood on the surface of the ion generator, but he quickly dropped the words and then ran towards the lifeboat with the generator in his arms.
"How is the situation?"
Lin Xi blankly shifted her gaze from Sith's back to Bryce.
He was somewhat surprised that he could still speak calmly—even though his vocal cords were as rough as if they had been sanded.
At the same time, he quickly glanced around the warehouse. The metal door to the launch bay was open, and the lifeboat looked somewhat different; it seemed that Bryce and the other two had modified the small lifeboat in the short time they had been there. There were signs of a struggle on the ground, and the corpses of several mechanical warriors lay motionless.
It's clear that the warehouse wasn't entirely safe during his absence.
"That thing caused us a little trouble, but everything else went smoothly... We've finished the modifications."
Bryce examined Lin Xi's body with alarm, then he spoke quickly.
"Siss, how much longer until we can set off?"
He even took the time to turn back and ask Sith a question.
Sith was busy in the lifeboat at the time, and after hearing Bryce's question, it took him a long time to pop his head out of the fuel tank.
“We can leave right away, and we have to leave right away. This damn lifeboat is so fragile—” Sith said, then seemed to realize something and suddenly turned to Lin Xi to explain, “I’ve already explained it to Alyssa and Bryce, but what you need to know is—when setting up the star map, I discovered a huge problem. AS192 is like a demonic planet trying to leave us here forever or leave us to die. Its satellite is at a very bad angle. If we don’t seize the window of opportunity to escape quickly, even if our lifeboat flies along the predetermined route, it will be torn to pieces in space due to the gravitational pull.”
Sith said, his face pale.
Then he glanced at Bryce and Elisa next to Lin Xi and emphasized again, "We have very little time."
"The situation isn't that bad yet; at least Lin Xi made it back on time."
Elisa and Bryce had been forced to listen to nagging for a long time even before Lin Xi returned.
This young man, who was obsessed with returning to Earth, almost went insane from extreme panic after discovering the problem.
In fact, it was precisely to escape the Sith's constant grumbling and hysteria that they completed the conversion of such a lifeboat so quickly.
Elisa could understand Sith's anxiety, but undeniably, there was a hint of coldness in her voice when she spoke to him.
"We will take off safely and return to Earth."
Elisa said to Sith with unwavering certainty.
While Alyssa and Sith were talking, Bryce couldn't wait to check on Lin Xi's physical condition.
Although, after he forced Lin Xi to remove his hand from his abdomen, he gasped as he looked at the wound in front of him. His body swayed slightly, as if he was about to faint.
"My God... what have you been through?"
Bryce gritted his teeth and then asked, trying to remain calm.
When the word "you" reached Lin Xi's ears, her body trembled violently.
Similarly, it was because of this sentence that Elisa couldn't help but tilt her head, looking over Lin Xi's shoulder in the direction he had come from.
"Where's Xavier? I thought he was covering for you and would be here soon..."
Elisa asked somewhat uneasily.
Upon hearing her words, Bryce paused slightly in his hand as he sprayed the hemostatic spray on Lin Xi's wound.
Lin Xi looked at the two of them silently without replying.
But sometimes silence itself is the best answer.
Elisa immediately realized the answer. Her face turned pale, and then she showed a somewhat sad expression.
"I'm so sorry..."
She whispered it to Lin Xi.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but—"
Just then, Sith jumped out of the fuel tank and stood beside the ship, shouting to the three, "Bryce, Elisa—I have to say, we really have to go. According to my calculations, every minute we delay increases our chances of death..."
"Shut up."
Bryce yelled at him impatiently, but after yelling, he turned to the side and began to help Lin Xi walk toward the spaceship.
"I will give you some basic treatment as soon as possible, and then you will stay in the hibernation pod. We will find a way to treat your wounds when we return to Earth."
As they walked, Bryce spoke to Lin Xi.
He paused, then added, "Given your injuries, it's already a miracle you were able to get back here. I'm very grateful for that, truly. As for the others... you know, sometimes fate is just cruel."
Lin Xi could hear a faint sense of comfort in Bryce's awkward voice.
He pursed his lips, trying to force a smile to reassure Bryce, but even he knew that his expression must be terrible.
Upon reaching the lifeboat, Alyssa jumped on first. She and Bryce had a tacit understanding that required no verbal communication. She was already kneeling next to the cryo-chamber, adjusting the data so that Lin Xi could enter the hibernation pod as quickly as possible before the jump.
After all, although she wasn't as professional as Bryce, she could tell that Lin Xi's injury was really serious.
While the hibernation pod won't help Lin Xi repair her wounds like a treatment pod, it can at least stabilize her current condition and prevent it from worsening.
Bryce followed Elisa, jumped onto the lifeboat, and then turned around, stretching out his arms to help Lin Xi onto the lifeboat.
However, Lin Xi did not move as he expected.
Lin Xi stared blankly at everything inside the lifeboat. In a short time, Bryce and his crew had filled it with all sorts of life-sustaining supplies. Three hibernation pods were also ready. Once he stepped onto the lifeboat, everything that had happened on AS192 would be a thing of the past. All the terrible events that had occurred here would be isolated far away in another world by the boundless universe. He would return to his normal life, even though his body had indeed mutated... But even death, dying on his familiar and beloved home planet, would be a million times happier than dying on a dark, ghostly alien planet filled with monsters and killing machines. And all he needed to do was take one step forward.
Sith had been nervously sitting in the operator's seat long before they boarded the ship. His face was illuminated by the blue fluorescent light of the control panel, making him look exceptionally pale.
“We have to go!” Sith turned to look at Bryce and Lin Xi, his voice almost a roar. A small screen in front of him displayed constantly changing data.
In the upper right corner of the screen, a red countdown is ticking continuously. That's the final timeline calculated by the Sith. Once this timeline is exceeded, they will be torn to pieces by the gravity between the satellite and the planet, and their dream of returning to Earth will forever remain just a dream.
Bryce leaned forward again, trying to pull Lin Xi onto the spaceship, but Lin Xi suddenly reached out and pushed him forcefully into the cabin.
"sorry."
Lin Xi's lips parted, and he spoke to Bryce in a hoarse voice.
“I promised Xavier I would go find him.”
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