The Alien Wakes

Judging by their size, these creatures hardly looked like parasitic aliens.

Most of the aliens that had slipped through the Threshold gate in the Federation Center were parasitic ones, having stowed away inside Pioneers' bodies. But these massive specimens on display were probably caught in the giant trap devices in Regaken State. Transporting them here had taken a while, so they hadn't been studied yet. They were locked in glass tanks, waiting for the researchers below to free up time. Eventually, Zero would use its mechanical arms to send them down for examination.

"Ah—!"

A sharp cry cut through Tu Ran's thoughts. She spun toward the sound.

Xie Wenjun and Pang Xi had somehow gotten into a brawl and knocked over the glass enclosure behind them. The enclosure wasn't large—it held a small eagle-type alien.

The glass cracked, the anesthesia system malfunctioned and stopped spraying, and the eagle alien began to wake, its wings trembling slightly.

Worse, the students hadn't yet realized the creature was alive. They were still crowding around Xie Wenjun and Pang Xi, watching the commotion.

"Move! It's waking up!" Tu Ran shouted, sprinting toward the crowd.

Even as she spoke, the alien fully regained consciousness. Its two-meter-long wings spread from its small body, and it was about to dart into the air.

The young ladies and gentlemen stood frozen in shock. Xie Wenjun and Pang Xi, still yanking each other's hair, had gone petrified, forgetting to let go.

The alien was right in front of them. They could clearly see the sparse feathers on its wings, the twisted gray-black muscle fibers, its blood-red pupils, and its wide-open beak. They could even smell the rotting stench wafting from its throat.

Tu Ran arrived in a flash, grabbing both girls by the collars and yanking them back. The alien's dive-bombing peck missed in that instant—its easy meal had slipped away. It let out a roar, soared upward, and began circling anxiously at a height of over thirty meters above the base, eyeing its next target.

It hadn't eaten in a long time. It was starving, desperate to fill its belly.

Having narrowly escaped having their guts pecked open, the two girls' legs had turned to jelly.

Tu Ran pushed them into the safety circle that Xiao Di, Min Tao, Shen Yunhe, and the others had formed. "Get them out of here. I'll handle this creature."

"I'm with you!" Min Tao stepped forward, gun in hand.

"Me too!" Shen Yunhe moved out as well.

The others were itching to join in.

Tu Ran quickly held up a hand. "Three are enough. The rest of you evacuate the students. Keeping them safe is our top priority."

The other Pioneers reluctantly shelved their intentions and organized an orderly exit toward the door.

Tu Ran studied the alien circling freely overhead, raised her machine gun, and pulled the trigger. The bullet hit its wing square on.

Min Tao and Shen Yunhe fired alongside her. The hail of bullets was precise—not a single one missed. Both were considerably better shots than she was.

But the alien's flight remained unaffected. It had the universal alien trait: a shell like iron and steel. Bullets ricocheted off it and fell back to the ground, some even bouncing off the young masters' and misses' heads, making them clutch their scalps and yelp. A few quick-thinking ones shoved their backpacks over their heads.

Shooting like this was just wasting time and ammo. Tu Ran raised a hand to call a halt to Shen Yunhe and Min Tao.

She lifted her wrist and called out, "Zero, why hasn't the base's self-defense mechanism activated yet?"

The Songwu Base was a fully automated experimental facility with comprehensive emergency defense measures. In a situation like this—a creature suddenly breaking loose—it should initiate self-cleaning protocols, with hidden gun turrets automatically locking onto the alien and taking it down.

But the alien had been out for this long, and Zero still hadn't acted.

She got no response.

The communicator went dead silent.

"Can you two reach Zero?" Tu Ran looked at Shen Yunhe and Min Tao.

"No." Both shook their heads, their faces full of confusion. That shouldn't be the case—the signal was strong, not jammed. Zero should have heard their requests.

The circling alien picked out a new target: the plumpest, fairest student in the group. It dove.

Tu Ran didn't have time to think. She scrambled up a three-meter-tall glass tank. Each tank had a simple ladder beside it for researchers to observe the creatures inside, and she climbed up in a few quick steps.

The alien reached a height of seven meters above that student.

Tu Ran watched for the right moment, used the glass tank beneath her feet as leverage, bent her knees, and launched herself into the air.

The alien noticed a human lunging toward it.

It paid her no mind, focused on its prey.

The next second, that ignored human wrapped her arms around its neck. As it tried to shake her off, she swung herself onto its back and yanked its neck backward.

The alien lost all sense of direction, flapping wildly and careening through the vast interior of the base. It rolled up, down, side to side, trying to throw Tu Ran off.

But she held on to its neck without letting go, her legs clamped tightly around its back, locked in place. No matter how it thrashed, she wasn't coming off.

From the ground, people watched as Tu Ran clung to the alien like a stubborn leech, zipping from the southeast corner of the base to the northwest and back again.

Shen Yunhe and Min Tao stopped firing—with that kind of rapid, unpredictable movement, they couldn't guarantee they wouldn't hit her.

Meanwhile, Xiao Di seized the opportunity while Tu Ran had the creature occupied, and hurried the students toward the exit.

He threw open the door, and the young masters and misses shoved each other in their rush to get out.

Several Executive Department patrol cars were already parked outside, with security guards standing watch.

The news of the sudden alien attack at Songwu Base had spread. The visitors were all scions of wealthy conglomerates, and the Executive Department had received its orders and rushed over without delay.

Xiao Di sent all the students out. The teacher in charge did a headcount, confirmed no one was missing, and then Xiao Di turned to head back and help Tu Ran.

But just as he reached the base entrance, two guards stepped in his way.

"Songwu Base is under lockdown. No one enters."

"There are Pioneers still inside! We need to go back and help them!"

"Those are our orders. We're just following instructions." The two guards were unmoved.

"Whose orders? I want to see them!" Xiao Di clenched his teeth.

"Mine."

A familiar voice came from behind. Xiao Di turned to see Diao Hongzhi.

He stood there in his suit, looking the part, but that smug smile on his face made Xiao Di's temper flare.

"Aren't you the head of the Security Department? Since when are you above the Executive Department?"