Chapter 18

She didn't dare contact Jiujiu, so she could only scroll through the videos. Oh—Asher had gone back, and Jiujiu, that all-purpose little assistant, was still reporting on the situation at home.

Wu Ying felt a bit better. Jiujiu was a robot, but it was so intelligent that Wu Ying sometimes forgot that, and in her heart, she regarded Jiujiu as a friend.

About half an hour later, Li Ge came over. "We're planning to head out for something to eat. Want to come along? We should grab a bite and then get back—if we're any later, we'll miss curfew."

He meant the curfew for Wu Ying and the others. They really did need to leave soon.

A few unfamiliar faces had appeared beside Li Ge, and when they saw Huo Lin, they gave a curt nod.

Since they weren't familiar with each other, no one really chatted. They walked in silence down the street until they reached a noodle shop. The owner swiftly cooked noodles for them, and before long, several steaming bowls of scallion-oil noodles were set on the table.

"Smells amazing! Wu Ying, eat up—we're living large now."

Compared to the base's eternally bland, watery soup, this bowl of noodles was indeed excellent. Wu Ying ate happily, chatting with Huo Lin now and then. The atmosphere was light and relaxed, and she liked this kind of environment.

Wu Ying had just curved her lips into a smile when a sharp sound suddenly exploded in her ears.

The people around her—Li Ge and the others—suddenly stood up, and Huo Lin grabbed Wu Ying and pulled her down. Before anyone knew what was happening, chaos erupted outside, and people were running past the door in panic.

"What's going on?"

Huo Lin immediately asked Li Ge and the others. If anyone could make sense of this situation, it would be them.

"Seems like they're chasing a fugitive, but something's off."

A normal escape wouldn't cause this much panic, unless the fugitive was carrying heavy weaponry. Li Ge's eyelids twitched, and he immediately exchanged glances with his teammates. The situation was critical, and by rights, they should have rushed out to help, but the problem was—they weren't supposed to be out here at all.

"Let's go check it out."

The pale-skinned young man with the baby face spoke up. No matter what, this was their responsibility.

"You two stay here, safety first. We'll go take a look."

Li Ge gave Huo Lin and the others a few instructions, also saying he'd escort them back afterwards. Huo Lin waved them off, telling them to get going—she could handle herself.

Although Huo Lin's mental power level was low, she'd grown up watching military cadets train, so she didn't want to hold them back.

"Wu Ying, you okay?"

She looked down and asked. Wu Ying shook her head. Nothing had actually hurt her yet, but her heart felt heavy, like something bad was coming. Somehow, the first image that flashed through her mind was Asher's face.

There was no time to overthink it. There was nothing they could do to help the situation, and the best thing now was to get back to the base as fast as possible.

Huo Lin pulled Wu Ying and headed outside. The street had turned into a frenzy of people, all seemingly rushing home in a panic. This was a commercial district, packed with people, and the moment Huo Lin and Wu Ying stepped out, they were swept up in the crowd and carried in some unknown direction.

It was terrible. Wu Ying could no longer remember which way they'd come from. All she could see were heads everywhere. She and Huo Lin exchanged a glance, and both thought the same thing: it was over.

They'd drifted somewhere when suddenly Wu Ying was yanked out of the crowd. "What are you two doing here? Why haven't you gone back yet? The base is north!"

"There were too many people—we got pushed over here!"

Wu Ying shouted back, struggling to pull Huo Lin out of the crowd.

What had happened was this: a shop on the commercial street had suddenly been attacked by an insectoid creature. It seemed injured, but it had a special ability—it could directly turn ordinary humans into insectoids.

The lowest-tier insectoids couldn't suppress their hunger, and humans were at the top of an insectoid's menu. The infected humans first tore off and devoured their own human parts, then set their sights on the civilians.

Who would have thought an insectoid would suddenly appear here? People caught completely off guard saw the creature and fled in sheer panic. The street was a mess, and the ones causing the chaos were the infected. The real insectoid was still hidden somewhere.

Li Ge and his men grabbed passersby and asked around until they reached the spot where the insectoid had first appeared, but a search turned up nothing.

"If we don't find the real culprit quickly, more and more people will get infected."

Li Ge's voice was cold and sharp, his eyes fixed ahead with determination. Military cadets were reserve soldiers, and right now, they radiated battle intent.

To avoid the crowds, they squeezed under the eaves of a two-story building. Wu Ying's hand hurt—she'd gotten scratched earlier, and now her palm was throbbing with a hot, stinging pain.

She kept her head down, lost in thought, vaguely hearing a faint rustling from the second floor. She didn't pay it much attention, thinking someone was hiding up there.

But something seemed off. Wu Ying realized her mental power had been pulled at. That was very strange. No one knew her mental power better than she did—it was the kind you had to beg and plead with before it would even stir.

She shifted her feet uneasily. "Linlin, is your mental power being pulled at too?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

"I feel like something just stimulated my mental power, like it's trying to seep out."

Li Ge and the others all looked at her, their eyes full of confusion. What did she mean by "seep out"? Weren't all of them straining their mental power right now? Did she not feel it?

Indeed, they hadn't felt any fluctuation from her.

"I'm not sure, but I feel like there's something up there, using mental power to interfere with me. My mental power is low, and I usually don't push it out, but now something's wrong."

Wu Ying tried to explain. Li Ge and the others didn't fully understand, but they followed her train of thought and came to a realization.

If there was anything off about the street right now, it had to be the insectoid.

They all looked up immediately. They hadn't noticed anyone upstairs—to their ears, it was quiet up there, with none of the rustling Wu Ying had mentioned.

"Careful. Let's go."

The group moved with light steps, climbing the stairs with practiced precision. Wu Ying anxiously twisted her fingers. She'd been the one to give them this information—if the insectoid really was up there, then they…

She forced herself not to think about it and crouched in place with Huo Lin.

By now, most of the civilians had fled the street, and those who hadn't had hidden themselves. Gunfire echoed from the street—the guard force must have been fighting the infected.

Even though the street was just littered with scattered debris, Wu Ying couldn't shake the smell of gunpowder. Fear and dread crept through her, and she felt her mental power slipping out of control again.

She fought to suppress it, staring anxiously at the ceiling. Out of the corner of her eye, fragments of glass suddenly fell, some spraying onto her face. Before the sting even reached her scalp, a figure crashed down with a bang.

It was humanoid, but the shape on the ground twisted up in a grotesque motion, its lifeless eyes contracting and dilating like an animal's.

Wu Ying met its gaze, and an indescribable terror shot from her fingertips to her hair. It crawled forward a few steps, but Li Ge and the others jumped down from upstairs and blocked its path. Wu Ying saw the insectoid spit something out of its mouth.

The viscous substance vanished the moment it hit the ground, dissolving into water, but Wu Ying felt a change in the soil there. Her pupils dilated, her gaze fixed on that spot as her mind raced.

What was it? It was life force—sounded abstract, but Wu Ying could sense that the soil that had been touched by that slime had undergone a transformation. It was as if soil that had once been able to grow flowers would now only kill them.

"Danger! That slime is dangerous—don't get any on you!"

"We know."

The moment Wu Ying shouted, the insectoid lying on the ground turned its gaze to her, its eyes filled with a greedy, covetous hunger.

She was frightened and took a few steps back, pressing herself against the wall.

The insectoid gathered the infected around it, and Li Ge and the others were outmatched. More infected kept appearing, and now the guard force was fighting outside too.

"Damien, how many people have been infected?!"

He kicked one of the things—who she supposed could still be called a person—sending it flying. They had no weapons, so they had to rely on sheer physical strength and skill. Some of the infected only had partial insectoid features, making it hard to fight back without hesitation. They were being held back at every turn.

Boska Star was covered in rainforests, so naturally the cities had plenty of trees too.

The insectoid hid behind the infected, then, with a burst of all four limbs, leaped onto a nearby sapling. The branches swayed slightly as it clung to the sparse canopy. It sprayed its slime from its mouth, wrapping itself in a cocoon.

Its cold eyes remained fixed ahead, occasionally sweeping over Wu Ying.

No one knew how tempting Wu Ying was in its perception. It was a newly split form, and its instinct for plunder drove it to seek out a vibrant, life-rich mental body. Plundering life force to reverse its own aging was its special ability.

Wu Ying was a mental body full of life and vitality. Her mental power was wrapped in a fragrance, utterly enticing.

Even through the wall, Wu Ying could feel that gaze clinging to her like a maggot. She didn't understand why she'd caught the insectoid's attention, but the one thing she was sure of was that she was in grave danger.

The ones at the front had sustained a lot of injuries. They weren't just fending off the infected attacks and dodging the slime the insectoid spat—they also had to protect the two of them.

No one knew when reinforcements would arrive. It was too slow. Wu Ying had never felt time move so slowly, as if every movement stretched into a slow-motion frame, making her heart race.

"Don't be scared, help is on the way."

Li Ge wiped the blood from his forehead with his hand and gasped out reassurances. Huo Lin shielded Wu Ying, her face grim. She'd always held herself to the standard of a military cadet, but now all she could do was be protected.

She couldn't act rashly. She was afraid that charging out would just add to the burden.

Wu Ying noticed her mood and gently squeezed her hand.

Most of her attention, though, was on the insectoid nearby. Every instinct told her it was going to come for her.

"We'll cover you two while you get out. Notify the army that the insectoid is here and get them to send reinforcements ASAP."

One of Li Ge's companions said quickly. They didn't have communicators, so they had to rely on the most basic methods. And besides, Wu Ying and the others would be better off leaving.

Behind her, Huo Lin didn't hesitate. She knew this was the best option right now, and she pulled Wu Ying up to leave.

But Wu Ying held her back. She didn't know how to explain it—that insectoid had its eye on her. If she ran, she wasn't sure it wouldn't follow.

And then there'd be no resistance at all.

To put it more harshly, Wu Ying did need Li Ge and the others to protect her.