A Meal
Her mind went blank in an instant, and she felt like a feather, bobbing up and down in the liquid—weightless and comfortable, as if an invisible hand were smoothing away the pain and fatigue from her body.
Just before consciousness slipped away, Tu Ran vaguely overheard a conversation.
“Are these all Pioneers?” The tone was full of curiosity.
“Mm, just back from the Threshold.”
The Threshold? Tu Ran strained her brain to think.
She was a Pioneer, so the Threshold must be that world full of monsters she'd just been in.
“I heard a lot of people died this time, and a He Luo monster snuck in.”
“Not surprising. Every time the Pioneer Team comes back, a bunch of alien creatures tag along. This time it's actually fewer than usual. Before they added the identity check, those creatures could even slip into the various states.”
“Really? I used to live in Chi State, and I never heard of any alien creatures showing up there.”
“You were just an ordinary citizen back then—how would you have heard anything? These things only cause public panic. The Federation keeps it under wraps. The moment an alien creature shows its face, patrolling Pioneers take care of it.”
“The Pioneers handle patrols too?”
Tu Ran felt that this person, like her, knew nothing and was curious about everything.
“Yes! Anything related to alien creatures, they handle it.”
The other person's tone was clearly impatient now.
“I'll leave this to you. Don't be careless. If anything seems off, hit the alarm. The Executive Department's guards are patrolling outside.”
“Got it.”
With the sound of footsteps fading into the distance, the world fell quiet, and Tu Ran's consciousness fully sank into sleep.
She had a dream.
She was back in her rental apartment. She opened her eyes to a snow-white ceiling, gentle morning sunlight falling on her face, a soft mattress beneath her, and the crisp chirping of birds outside.
She was back.
She was back.
Tu Ran woke up happy.
The moment she opened her eyes, she found herself staring at a pair of eyes the size of fists through the red nutrient liquid.
What the hell?!
Protruding eyeballs, pinprick black pupils, an ugly, fat catfish mouth, and whiskers as thick as a finger and as long as an arm.
What kind of monster was this?!
A fish?! A fish this big?!
Tu Ran's eyes widened in terror as she looked around.
She never expected to wake up to a scene like this.
Where was the person on duty? The one who could sound the alarm? How could he not see such a huge monster?!
Tu Ran screamed internally.
But looking around was a mistake. The moment she lifted her head, a fat tentacle came into view. A wormlike tentacle was stirring the nutrient liquid above her. Looking further back, there were two, three, four... countless tentacles tightly wrapped around the nutrient pod.
The entire pod had almost become its meal.
This was an octopus monster... oh no... a He Luo monster!
Besides the one Xie Xu had shot dead earlier, another He Luo monster had snuck in!
The tentacles in the nutrient liquid were still closing in on her. They were so close that Tu Ran could clearly see the layer of spikes at the tips.
Her mind suddenly flashed to the man with the severed leg.
He Luo monsters could possess human bodies.
If it touched her, she might end up like that man—internal organs hollowed out, body taken over.
Tu Ran's skin crawled.
She couldn't just sit there waiting for death.
The nutrient pod was two meters deep and completely wrapped in the He Luo monster. Going out through the top would be like throwing herself into the tiger's mouth.
She had to find another way out.