CH 5

When he returned to the upper floor, Lin Xi was exhausted physically and mentally.

Lin Xi thought that staying in the warehouse area and being scared to death by a Sunu fossil sculpture was bad enough, when he managed to climb back to where the crew lived and worked, he realized that the situation here was no better than the warehouse.

For a moment, Lin Xi couldn't even decide which one was more frightening, the weird fossil sculpture in the warehouse of Area B, or a crazy Bryce.

What Lin Xi saw when he emerged from the gateway was exactly the scene where Bryce was trying to stuff himself into another light mech.

He didn't expect to see Bryce, after all, according to the current situation, Bryce should be dizzily spent in the clinic at this time.

Another familiar man was standing next to Bryce, trying to persuade him.

The man had curly brown hair and thick dark circles under his eyes. Lin Xi only needed to glance at him to recognize his technician, Sith Lime.

By the way, Sith Lime was also a senior member of the "curse and humiliate Talan daily organization" on the Helios, his relationship with the Bryce brothers could be said to be quite good.

It's just that at this time, he should be standing in front of the electronic screen, comparing star map after star map in despair, instead of trying in vain to pull Bryce out of the light mech with a tired face.

The scene of the two men struggling weren't very forgiving on the eyes.

Fortunately, when Lin Xi came up, his movements were loud enough. Hearing the noises from the entrance of the gateway, the two of them immediately noticed him.

Bryce's legs were still stepping inside that ridiculous orange jumpsuit, but his body had already turned around. He looked at Lin Xi, his eyes widened.

Then this big man immediately yelled at Lin Xi.

"God, it's you right? It's you!"

"Damn it, I told you that you shouldn't have gone alone, God, are you hurt? What the hell's down there—"

"Well, the warehouse area wasn't a big problem except it's a bit dark... I... I think..."

Lin Xi was frightened by Bryce's terrifying expression of collapse.

He jumped out of the light mecha in a panic, taking off his helmet and clamping it under his armpit, answering Bryce's questions in a daze.

"Those crying and screaming—"

The next second, Bryce rushed over while yelling words that completely confused Lin Xi.

He almost tripped over the jumpsuit, but he didn't seem to care about this.

Before Lin Xi had time to react, Bryce clasped his shoulder firmly. The man's body trembled slightly, like a nervous only mother, carefully checking every inch of Lin Xi up and down.

"Hey, man, calm down, what's the matter?"

Lin Xi took a step back and asked with a frown.

He was sure that if he was a cat, he would've already started to puff his tail and bare his teeth.

"For God's sake, Bryce, control your emotions, you're scaring him..."

Thankfully, Sith followed Bryce and rushed to Lin Xi's side.

Then it was he who rescued Lin Xi from Bryce's clutches.

Sith pulled Lin Xi and let him stay behind him, using his body to block between Lin Xi and Bryce.

Sith helplessly told Bryce.

"If you were a woman, I swear I'd be proposing to you!"

Hiding behind Sith's thin bean sprout body, Lin Xi gratefully whispered to him.

Sith Lime turned his head slightly, and from Lin Xi's angle, he could just glimpse at the wry smile on his face.

"Oh please, do you think your reputation isn't bad enough? By the way, your good brother's just a little scared, it's understandable that he's nervous because of these damned circumstances..." He paused, and then turned around, stretching out his hand towards Lin Xi, "Can you show me your helmet? I want to check your communicator—"

"Huh? Helmet?"

Lin Xi blinked, and immediately handed the heavy, battered and scratched helmet of the light mecha over to Sith.

"Are your comms off?"

Sith asked.

Lin Xi was momentarily stunned and then nodded: "Ah, yeah, the damn communication stopped working after a while, so I turned it off—oh my God, I'm so stupid, I should've turned it off after the system restarts. It opened again," Lin Xi noticed Sith and Bryce's expressions while speaking, "Wait, what happened?"

"Well..."

Sith rubbed his nose, and drew out his voice.

If it weren't for Sith's explanation, Lin Xi suspected that he might've had to fight Bryce before he could figure out the reason for this trouble.

For Lin Xi, it's very simple. He suddenly lost communication with Bryce and others, but he really didn't care too much about it. Just like what he complained before, these light mechas were old relic left over from the era of great exploration. It's quite normal for such a thing to have disrepairs resulting in communication failures.

But for Bryce and the others in Area f, the situation wasn't that simple.

"...Our comms was always online, but suddenly, your voice disappeared, and then another voice appeared." Sith explained calmly, "And that voice sounded a bit strange."

He paused, observing Lin Xi's expression and then continuing: "... It's as if someone was hiding inside your helmet, whimpering, screaming, and panting."

Lin Xi made an exaggerated grimace.

"Well, this sounds really scary," But you couldn't see an ounce of seriousness on his face, "It's probably a problem with that damn communicator, the message was sent out but was blocked by the barrier facility, and finally converged into an electronic pulse— What you heard was probably the noise caused by those pulses."

Sith shrugged with the same sleepy expression: "That's right, I thought so too."

After the words fell, Sith looked at Bryce, who was standing besides with a livid face.

"I already told you, those strange noises are just noises."

He yawned.

Of course, Sith didn't describe the sounds they heard too much— even from the perspective of a technician, Sith had to admit that the sounds sounded too weird and disgusting.

It was also for this reason that when Bryce lost his mind and dragged him here from the map room to check the data of Lin Xi's mecha, he refrained from losing his temper with his long-time friend.

"No—"

Bryce muttered, he was still looking at Lin Xi.

"... I can swear to you, except for the communication problem, everything was going well with my work down there. I haven't been infected by a strange alien virus, nor have I been bitten by a monster crawling out of the dark. I'm intact, I'm alive and kicking. I'm sure of that."

Lin Xi rubbed the base of his nose after listening to Sith's statement, and then said to Bryce with a headache.

Under his repeated emphasis, Bryce finally calmed down.

"Sorry, I was just a little scared, after all, that voice didn't sound... normal."

Bryce wiped his face with some embarrassment, and then he forced a smile to Lin Xi and Sith, explaining.

"In all the years I've flown on so many ships, I've never heard such an eerie noise,"

He said.

Lin Xi shrugged.

"This accident has caused you too big of a psychological pressure." Lin Xi excused his brother, he then smiled wryly and raised his hand to Bryce, "If you don't mind, I think I need a change clothes, you see— damn it, these light mechas are anti-human... Then I have to report to Talan, and that guy surely won't like what I saw below..."

The more he talked, the more serious his headache became.

"If you could squeeze me a painkiller before I go to Talan, my dear Bryce,"

He said casually.

But before Bryce could answer him, Sith spoke first.

"If I were you, I wouldn't go to that bastard at this time, especially with the situation so bad..."

He gave Lin Xi a look.

"You can rest for a while, I think you're also very tired."

Bryce said immediately.

"Wow... it sounds like our captain's looking for trouble again."

Lin Xi immediately understood what the two meant.

His guess wasn't wrong.

While he was alone checking the goods in the warehouse, a temporary emergency meeting formed in response to the jump accident also started.

It's just that the central control room was in total chaos.

Talan's situation was so bad because he couldn't control the situation at all. The threats, quarrels, and mutual accusations turned the meeting a complete disaster.

I think Talan's completely lost his mind, God-damned it, everything's so bad, I want to blow up the God-damned conference room. ——The sender of the message: Alisa

She had to participate in the meeting as the deputy captain, even starting to complain in private communication.

As a reserved person, she rarely showed such strong emotions, it was enough to show that Taran and everything in that room were in a frightening boiling point.

my deepest sympathies to you ——The sender of the message: Lin Xi

Lin Xi returned to his room according to Bryce and Sith's proposal, watching Alisa's complaints on the communicator, and then thought about his inevitable meeting with Talan. He felt particularly bad.

"Poor Alisa... poor me..."

Lin Xi muttered in pain, he then opened the bathroom door and moved in with difficulty.

The most urgent thing was to change the clothes on him.

His body felt heavy and his head hurt. The jumpsuit, soaked in his sweat from hours in the light mecha, was already beginning to stink.

However, when taking off the jumpsuit, Lin Xi's movements paused.

He took his hand out of the glove, putting it in front of his eyes and observing it seriously.

... Some wet and viscous milky white liquid that shouldn't have appeared was sticking to his fingers.1

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