CH 12

Draft

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Alisa's reminder kept Lin Xi in a vigilant mood for the next few days. Considering her amazingly accurate intuition, Lin Xi did feel nervous.

However, this tense state found difficulty continuing, after all, from a practical point of view, life in Helios on this strange asteroid wasn't difficult.

Of course, there are still many things to worry about- one of the ion engines of the Helios has been seriously damaged, and the other one seems to be far from "intact", which means that the spacecraft wouldn't be able to fly again anytime soon; the cargo warehouse suffered varying degrees of damage during the forced landing process. Among them, the warehouse storing food for the crew suffered the most. However, there's also an artificial protein machine on board. In any case, it's viable to live off artificial protein blocks (as long as you ignore the terrible taste, that stuff's actually quite nutritious), Lin Xi didn't have a great sense of crisis about it.

In short, everything was within a controllable range, and once the dangerous moment of life and death is over, people will always involuntarily relax.

And another thing that could be called good news is that the exploration teams sent out to explore the surrounding conditions have returned, and the data they brought were even more detailed than those unmanned robots.

If this all wasn't just a collective dream, then those data showed that this planet really is a perfect paradise tailor-made for humans.

Those suspicious brightly colored creatures that they've seen through the viewfinder have been tested and proved to be nothing more than harmless and cute plant-like life forms, and the small things that live in their gaps were weak and dull, completely harmless to humans.

In addition, there were very abundant water resources on this planet, only some heavy metals needed to be filtered out, and the water can even be used for direct drinking.

The gravity, the atmosphere, even the cool air temperature... everything is so pleasant.

If the planets and the universe really were created by God, then that supreme being must be very uncreative. This planet felt like God duplicated the original Earth, rubbed it a few times, and threw it back into the galaxy to become another planet.

It's really too similar to the earth, if the Helios can return smoothly, just recording the coordinates of this planet was enough to make everyone on the ship rich.

Lin Xi was sure that the improvement of the atmosphere in the Helios was very closely related to this.

"Except for those nasty bugs, this place is really perfect."

Lin Xi heard his colleagues and the crew on the Helios mutter this on more than one occasion.

Ah, maybe it is.

The expedition team couldn't even find an animal bigger than a cat. With their spaceship as the center, the entire forest was as friendly as a children's fairy tale— the colors were rich and vibrant, and the residents were friendly and peaceful.

The creatures most found by humans were bugs—all kinds of bugs —more bugs than in Sunu, that's known as the "Bug Planet".

They had no intention of avoiding human activity at all, often rushing clumsily towards these wonderful two-legged beasts, and then flapping their wings, trying to get in through the gaps of their interstellar exploration suits.

According to Ando, ​​those bugs liked humans— more specifically, human body temperature, the perfect temperature for them to reproduce and incubate eggs.

However, it's also possible that it's not the bugs.

Lin Xi heard that Ando's alien wife Liz was discovered to be pregnant, and Ando was very excited about it.

"...I really can't stand men about to become fathers."

Lin Xi muttered to himself.

However, the boring and monotonous Sunu flora and fauna conservation work with Ando wasn't too unbearable. Working in the cabin was at least much better than going out to explore the planet.

You know, the unlucky boys from the exploration team needed to spend a lot of time every day cleaning up the bugs, mucus, and eggs of different colors and sizes attached to the outside of their protective equipment.

This made them the passionate bug-haters on the Helios.

But from the perspective of a researcher who doesn't have to go out... bugs aren't all that bad, after all, if a planet is comfortable enough for bugs to live on, it's going to make humans feel welcome too.

The above came from Ando Shizou, and Lin Xi didn't have much objection to this.

Don't think too much— this was Lin Xi's anthem, and he intended to continue to practice this even after landing on this mysterious planet.

Just like this, time passed in an orderly and busy manner. The expedition members go out every few days to expand the circle of human influence, while others on the ship were busy repairing ion engines and warehouses, the others were busy calculating orbits in a futile attempt to find out where they were.

Maybe Alisa's intuition finally lost its effectiveness on the alien planet, and her restless foreboding didn't work at all- in fact, for now, the atmosphere on the ship was even more harmonious and relaxed than when it first made the forced landing.

So far, the only thing that pained Lin Xi the most was John's departure.

Yes, Crazy John Bronson is the ship's chef, and ever since he left that previous meeting with a nervous breakdown, the entire ship's catering has been a nightmare. Although those pre-packaged foods and frozen vegetables really weren't delicious, they are much more delicious than those directly heated food bags.

"I clearly remember this food bag tasting pretty good before."

Lin Xi frowned and muttered.

"Hey, Lin!"

Someone called him.

Lin Xi turned his head and saw at the other end of the long and narrow corridor, several people in bright orange explorer uniforms were dragging a box towards him.

He was called by a young man with freckles, rust-red hair, who looked like a kid just out of college.

It took Lin Xi a moment to remember the red-haired boy's name, Mark.

"Oh, hey, are you on another mission?"

He nodded at Mark and greeted casually.

"That's right, our mission this time—"

Before Mark could finish, a thin scream came from the box the men were transporting, the box shook on the ground.

Lin Xi's movements stopped, a feeling similar to a tiny electric current slid across his neck, he felt the hair on the back of his neck stand on end.

"... finally captured a live sample."

Lin Xi was in a daze for a while before realizing what Mark was talking about.

"Wait, this a live sample?"

He asked.

Then his brows furrowed.

"If you came back from catching something in the wild- you should go through the passageway of the laboratory." Lin Xi said, "Not the main corridor."

It seemed to respond to his dissatisfaction.

"Zizi—— Zizi——" The loud, frictional hissing in the sealed box became louder.

Mark's expression tensed.

"There's been a circuit failure in the laboratory passage, Dr. Ando asked us to send the captured samples to his laboratory as soon as possible," he explained, perhaps Lin Xi's face was too constipated, Mark also added: "Don't worry too much, there won't be any problems. We've studied samples of this type outside before, and they're very docile."

"Ha, yeah, very dull guys."

"Yeah."

Mark's team members made a ruckus behind him, making a lot of noise, like a group of failing college students trying to skip lectures.

Immediately afterwards, perhaps due to increase of persuasiveness, someone patted the sealed box, and the originally milky white solid layer became transparent, allowing Lin Xi to clearly see what the inside looked like.

"Didn't you say that there's no creatures bigger than a cat 'round here?"

Lin Xi's eyes stopped on the skin of the creature inside the sealed transport box.

Then he spoke with a hint of imperceptible disgust.

It was a gigantic bug that looked a bit like a cross between a beetle and a spider— except that on Earth, neither a beetle nor a spider was likely to grow to the size of a large dog.

"Oh, we're talking about animals—this thing's a bug."

One member explained nonchalantly.

Lin Xi's heart sank. Looking at the group of people in front of him, he knew in his heart that the bad influence brought about by Talan's weirdness and inaction had gradually spread to the lower-level personnel of Helios. At least when they smuggled over materials on Sunu, no one would've dared to bring these alien creatures into the unsuspecting spaceship so blatantly.

"We've just arrived here not long ago, no one can say what's safe."

Lin Xi said calmly to the clueless scouting team.

And just when he was picking to find a time to talk to Alisa about this, an accident happened.

The bug's humming sound began to increase, like it had been frightened by something.

Immediately afterwards, its carapace opened outwards, revealing wings as thick as steel plates underneath.

When it fluttered its wings, the hard edges of it almost drew sparks against the plexiglass of the airtight box.

The teeth-numbing sound was terribly loud, the high frequency was like a needle piercing someone's eardrum.

At the same time, there was a particularly disturbing heavy hitting sound.

The giant insect might be harmless (at least according to the crew), but its thick, heavy, metallic body felt undeniably dangerously once it started rampaging inside the airtight enclosure.

"Kacha——"

Lin Xi even heard the crisp sound of glass breaking, he looked at the airtight box in horror. Sure enough, several thin cracks had appeared there.

However, this kind of box specially used to store living aliens shouldn't have been so fragile in theory.

"Oh shit, what's going on?"

"Turn on the paralysis switch!"

"How the hell can we still paralyze this thing— where's the kill switch—"

"But Dr. Ando said..."

"——alarm —di di di —damage —di di di— alarm—"

"Oh, damn it, damn it, damn it——"

...

For a moment, the panicked screams of the exploration team, the ear-piercing insect noise, coupled with the alarm sound of the specimen box, rippled through the entire passage.

Seeing that something was wrong, Lin Xi hurried forward to help.

But as soon as he got closer to the container, the gigantic bug acted even crazier.

It began to struggle with a terrifying frequency, in an instant, the inside of the originally transparent box was covered with purple and green mucus.

"Go to hell—"

A team member cursed, he directly pressed all the buttons used to control the sample, from paralysis to death.

Electric current, liquid nitrogen, and a poisonous mist filled the box all at the same time.

But the bug's movements became more and more violent.

Bang—!

Finally, with a dull, sickening sound, the bug exploded inside the box.

Lin Xi stood stiffly besides it, looking at the dead bug through the thick protective layer. Sizzle—

Sizzle — the bug's wings fluttered over the debris, making a small noise. ... like some kind of message for the humans.

***

Sunu Cultural Exchange Exhibition.

The weather was fine and the crowd packed. Lin Xi stood blankly among the blurred faces, not knowing why he was dreaming of this again.

However, compared with the previous dream, something felt different.

Maybe it's because the background looks more eccentric? Or maybe it's because the pavilion in front of him, originally decorated to look like a termite's nest, now looked like something else?

"Lin Xi, look— I'll tell Teacher Anna about this after summer vacation's over— it's so interesting—"

He heard Bryce's voice, the crisp voice of a young boy.

Then he lowered his head and looked at the boy besides him.

His elder brother who was still a child had a blurry face that seemed to be melting, the only defined feature were a pair of scarlet compound eyes. Whenever he spoke the compound eyes vibrated regularly.

Is this a nightmare?

Lin Xi asked himself in his dream.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong, but he couldn't remember what it was that made him so uneasy.

His mind seemed to be floating in a dark sea of ​​nothingness, with nowhere to focus.

Then Bryce started pulling him toward the exhibit.

Some memories began to float from the dark sea. When awake, human consciousness will forcefully supress these memories in the deepest part of the mind, because humans are such fragile things. Things that are too terrifying, such as this incident, the reality under the dream will completely break down those delicate nerves.

But in the dream, occasionally, those things will come out with the shock of emotions, just like now.

Lin Xi's body kept trembling because of unreasonable fear.

No— no— I'm not going— I'm not going—

He murmured softly in his dream as he struggled to free himself from Bryce's fingers.

However, although Bryce in the dream was still a child and he was an adult, when he moved to break free from Bryce's fingers, he found that he had no strength at all.

Lin Xi felt more and more afraid.

"Let me go..."

He yelled tremblingly.

Then, for a moment, he realized something.

Oh... that's not Bryce.

He lowered his head to look at the boy beside him.

Why did he discover it just now? Even he was confused.

After all, as a human, Bryce would never have such a pair of red compound eyes, and the fingers of young human children wouldn't be tentacles covered with fine and hard scales.

"Who are you?"

Lin Xu asked out of breath.

A few seconds later, the person who caught Lin Xi turned into the smiling Sunu guide in his memory.

The clear sky and the turbulent crowd instantly turned into a dark and damp cave interior.

Unknown chrysalis wriggled in densely packed nests.

Some things hidden in the darkness clustered together and stared at Lin Xi. Their small eyes reflected the faint light inside the cave, like small light bulbs shining one by one.

"Yes, that's right. What you are seeing now is the most precious and sacred star butterfly on our Sunu planet. It's also our totem and spiritual symbol. And this star butterfly was cultivated through many years. It's a rare individual that's still active..."

The commentary kept muttering against Lin Xi's ear.

But while it was saying those words, its gradually deformed face always aimed directly at Lin Xi.

And the slightly tingling restraint never left Lin Xi's wrist.

"... Wow, this is very rare, little friend from Earth. Star butterflies will only show their wings completely in front of someone they like very much. Hahaha, I never thought that it'd show its 'wings' in front of Earthlings ...."

"Huh..."

Lin Xi's breathing became extremely tense.

Something was approaching him.

With the whispers of the "narrator", the thing was getting closer.

It's right behind Lin Xi, but Lin Xi could only tremble and stand there stiffly.

The voice of the "narrator" gradually changed from substandard English to the strange Sunu language.

But Lin Xi could clearly understand what the monster was repeating over and over again.

"...we love you, Your Majesty... don't resist... don't be afraid... we will be your descendants, your people, your subjects... too long... we've waited for you too long... Your Majesty...... we love you so much..."

Accompanied by its whispers, the thing that was definitely not a Star Butterfly slowly emerged from the darkness.

Under the action of an inexplicable force, Lin Xi slowly turned his head.

It's not a Star Butterfly. Because that thing didn't have ethereal and wonderful cloud-like wings, and that well-structured hard arthropod insect body.

It's another kind of creature.

Bug, or something that's a mix between a worm and an insect.

There's been no such thing in the cognition of Earthlings.

Every piece of carapace and scale fitted on its body inspired a sense of terror. Its body was so huge, its outstretched limbs seemed to be able to fill the whole planet, Lin Xi could hardly see its face. The only thing he could see clearly was a small eyeball in the red compound eyes.

After he finished thinking, the "thing's" body melted again, when it reappeared in front of Lin Xi, it looked much smaller.

When before Lin Xi could easily climb to its mouth, it could now easily swallow Lin Xi whole.

Lin Xi stared at it blankly.

"Your Majesty..."

It opened its mouth, revealing its thorny tongue.

"King... Our King..."

It whispered.

"My King."

It seemed like it was just repeating sounds meaninglessly, but Lin Xi could sense that behind those repeated calls, were deeper and more terrifying meanings.

"My lover..."

"No..."

Lin Xi's trembled even more.

"Don't come near me—"

Lin Xi growled weakly.

However, "He" still approached. Lin Xi wanted to escape, but he had nowhere to go.

An ocean of mucus stuck to the surface of his body, effectively paralyzing him, like a prey captured by a carnivorous plant.

A long hollow spike protruded from behind the monster's terrifying curled tongue, directly piercing Lin Xi's body.

Then, something squeezed out from inside the spike.

"Ahhhhhhh— ahhh——"

Someone was shaking him vigorously. "Lin Xi—"

Consciousness slowly returned. Lin Xi's body felt unusually heavy, and something was binding him.

"Lin Xi!"

"No..." Lin Xi groaned in extreme pain, even though his brain was still muddled, his body instinctively struggled.

"Let me go, let me go —" he started screaming.

It wasn't until he finally realized that the voice calling him sounded very familiar that he slowed down.

Lin Xi finally opened his eyes.

Bryce's livid face appeared in his field of vision, and for a moment, he almost thought he was dreaming of being forcibly dragged from his sleeping cabin.

"I really hope this isn't some kind of time loop."

After panting heavily for a while, Lin Xi calmed his breathing.

Then he murmured to Bryce.

Well, it's certainly not a time loop, because this time Bryce's attitude wasn't as amiable as before.

If anything, Bryce looked like he was about to punch him.

"What happened?"

Lin Xi's eyes were a little dark, tinnitus accompanied by headaches came to him one after another.

Although his body was generally awake, his consciousness still seemed to be floating in clouds, and cumulonimbus clouds at that.

Of course, he was still confused, otherwise he wouldn't have asked such a stupid question.

Bryce's fist became itchier after his inquiry.

"Your life monitoring system alarmed."

A gentle voice sounded from behind Bryce, answering Lin Xi's question.

"Heart rate, blood pressure, and oxygen levels were all in red. We had to take you from your cabin to the clinic."

The kind-hearted man who spoke came into view.

It was Shizuo Ando.

Under Ando's reminder, Lin Xi finally noticed his surroundings. This wasn't his cabin but Bryce's working place, Helios' clinic.

And he was lying on the treatment apparatus, with several medical probes hanging off his body, it was obvious that the treatment for him had just ended.

"Alright... so what's wrong..."

Lin Xi frowned and asked in pain.

"You still have the face to ask what's wrong?"

Bryce was furious.

"Guess how many calming sticks I found in your room?! You know that this thing should only be used in emergencies!"

"Uh..."

Lin Xi got dumbstuck in an instant.

Calming sticks?

Oh yeah.

Earlier today, he had a small accident in the passage.

A bug the size of a dog exploded into a puddle of ooze right under his nose. The scene was so mentally damaging that Lin Xi needed to eat two more calming sticks to fall asleep. Until the "sizzling" auditory hallucination no longer lingered in his ears.

"As for why it should only be used in emergencies, it's because if it's ingested in excess, it may cause sleep arrhythmia- guess why you're lying in a medical cabin now?"

Lin Xi tried hard to recall the events before he fell into a coma. Bryce's voice grew louder during the scene.

"Because my dear brother's heart stopped for thirty seconds just now! In other words, someone was dead for thirty seconds just now! If I hadn't been on duty tonight and arrived in time, you would've been dead——"

Bryce choked.

Shizuo Ando looked at his watch and added softly, "Forty-eight minutes."

"You've been dead for forty-eight minutes now!"

Bryce growled at Lin Xi.

"..."

Lin Xi almost wanted to lie back again on the treatment device so as to avoid Bryce's raging anger.

"I didn't expect this thing to have such a serious sequelae..."

He defended weakly, but even he could hear how guilty he was.

The calming sticks taste like light orange soda, cooling, delicious, and refreshing. Plus the accompanying pain relief effect was sometimes more useful than its sedative effect.

And in Lin Xi's memory, he might've taken a bit more than the prescribed dose— but still not enough to cause such strong negative consequences.