Interstellar Survival: Invasion

"Canyue, have you gone mad?" I heard Zhang Bao'er shout loudly behind me, but I did not slow down.

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Zhang Bao'er and Domo thought that something had happened to me, so they quickly followed. In a few minutes, I returned to my room. My gaze immediately landed on the familiar backpack in the corner of the room.

I clearly saw the red light return the moment I entered the room. I had zero hesitation as I flipped the backpack's cover open. Inside, Bulu, who was slumbering, seemed to be on the verge of waking up. The liquid in its body was starting to flow faster while its belly was shining with red light. I picked Bulu up and saw the red light on Bulu's belly flowing in some sort of pattern that greatly resembled the alien characters on the ring.

"My god. It's like they are communicating with each other," exclaimed Zhang Bao'er when he saw Bulu.

"This is so obvious. Is there a need for you to remind us?" Domo did not let go of the chance to step on Zhang Bao'er.

The red light on the ring and Bulu's body was shifting rapidly. It was as though both parties were typing to each other as the red light constantly changed forms. It was clear that Bulu and the ring were communicating.

"This is too magical. I wonder what they're talking about. Canyue, can you enter Bulu's mind?" asked Zhang Bao'er. However, I had no answer because the characters were simply unrecognizable to me.

"Is it possible that Bulu and that creature are actually the same species? If that's the case, it would be very surprising since it means that Bulu's race actually has its own set of written characters!" I said.

"But none of us can read these characters. Perhaps one can only communicate with them after entering Bulu's mind," said Domo.

"Canyue, why aren't you in Bulu's mind yet?" Zhang Bao'er even started urging me.

"Bulu is the one with control over whether I can enter its mind. How can I control it? If you're so capable, you can try. Bulu seems to still be sleeping and has not fully awakened yet," I said.

"This damn fellow. What is it waiting for? It should drag Canyue in already. What's the point of chatting with a ring?" complained Domo.

The moment I heard those words, an ominous feeling rose in me. Sure enough, Domo suddenly turned still, and his eyes turned empty, looking like he had been placed under Bulu's mind control.

"I agree with Domo. This little ball spends all the time sleeping. It is in need of some discipline," grumbled Zhang Bao'er, who had yet to notice Domo's changes.

Unsurprisingly, the same thing happened. As soon as he finished talking, he turned still. He had fallen under Bulu's control as well. At that time, I discovered that the liquid in Bulu's body was flowing even faster than before. The red coming from its belly was blinding as the speed at which different characters formed on its belly increased significantly. Even the feelers on its head were starting to move. This little fellow had finally awakened from its sleep.

Worryingly, both Zhang Bao'er and Domo were under Bulu's control, yet the little fellow had left me out. Looking at the growing level of brightness on Bulu and the mindless Zhang Bao'er and Domo while I was still wasting time out here, I grew anxious.

"Hey, Bulu, come on, get your dad inside as well. Can you hear me? Are you deaf? Hey!" No matter how I scolded Bulu, the little fellow did not react. I could clearly feel my clarity of mind. I was still not under Bulu's control.

Suddenly, I noticed that the character formation on Bulu's belly was slowing down and that the red was dimming. It seemed as if Bulu's talk with the ring was coming to an end. I grew even more anxious. But no matter how I scolded Bulu, I was ignored. An idea struck me as I raised my right fist and smashed it into Bulu's head.

Abruptly, I felt a fist smash into my face before my mind went blank. While in a daze, I was awakened by the sounds of metal grinding against the ground. I slowly opened my eyes and finally understood why Bulu had been unwilling to control me. I was lying in a dark tunnel filled with murky water. Bulu was lying silently atop my chest. Zhang Bao'er and Domo were nowhere to be seen.

"Do not make any noise. Remain silent," an unfamiliar voice rang in my ears.

I looked around in astonishment, but I saw no one. At that time, I noticed Bulu's feelers wiggling in the direction of my head. Looking at the feelers, I pointed at my ear, asking Bulu if it was the one who had spoken to me. The feelers then moved up and down, as though they were nodding. It looked like Bulu had spoken to my thoughts after putting me under mind control.

At that time, some noise came from outside the tunnel. I lowered my body by reflex. Only then did I notice that the dark tunnel was connected to a cavern. Inside, a burly individual was walking around slowly with a gigantic blade in his hand. The individual seemed to be looking for something in the cavern. Terrifyingly, behind the individual was an ugly legless creature, crawling on the ground as it followed the blade wielder.

From my position, I saw a yellow triangular eye on the side of the creature's face, the same eye that Herbert had talked about. The creature's tongue drooped out of its mouth, and its right limb had six fingers. The creature was constantly sniffing around in the cave, looking like it was searching for something.

"Canyue, do not make any noise. That nose is actually its ear. It can detect sound waves. Zhang Bao'er and Domo are hiding in a different tunnel. I have given them the same instruction," said Bulu.

'What place is this? What are those two freaks doing?' I wondered inwardly.

"The blade wielder is probably Dirk. The creature behind him is the original soul of the sludge beast," answered Bulu, who was surprisingly able to hear my thoughts.

'What? That's Dirk? What is going on? I thought he was captured by the creature?' I asked in my mind.

"The soul beast had merely captured Dirk to transplant its soul into Dirk's healthy body, freeing itself from its damaged body," explained Bulu.

'Original sludge beast? What is the origin of this beast? It can actually control minds like you? That's too powerful. How did you know about Dirk and the sludge beast?' I asked. Fear was starting to rise within me.

"It came from the same grayroid I came from. It must have been captured at an earlier time. The empire hadn't returned empty handed from their previous explorations despite what they had said. As for the things I know, I learned them while communicating with your ring when our minds were connected," said Bulu.

'Good heavens. I did not expect the emperor to hide even more things from us. He had not spoken the truth to us even after we had successfully completed our mission.' I started to curse the emperor inwardly.

Dirk and the creature were walking all over the cavern, attempting to locate us as we hid in the tunnels. As Dirk walked, he dragged his blade on the ground, making the grinding sound that I had heard earlier. He made quite a terrifying sight, especially with the empty and dark cavern as the backdrop.

'Bulu, how are Zhang Bao'er and Domo? Will they expose themselves?' I asked, worried about the two.

"Their position is relatively safe. They are hiding within one of the tunnels," said Bulu.

'Since we're already aware of the story behind those two, just pull us out of this illusion. Why are we wasting time hiding from these two? We can just retreat, right? This is a fake world, after all,' I said, requesting that Bulu move us out of the illusion.

"Sorry, Master, but this monster's mind control ability is even stronger than mine. A large part of this illusionary world was made by it. Without defeating them, we won't be able to escape," said Bulu helplessly.

'What? Why did you pull us in if it's so dangerous?' I asked reproachfully.

"Please recall what happened. Earlier, Zhang Bao'er and Domo were able to enter normally. At that time, there was only Dirk in here. The sludge beast had yet to appear. I was busy trying to communicate with him. Subsequently, you insisted on coming. If that punch of yours had really hit me, all three of us would have bid you farewell forever," said Bulu.

When I recalled the things I did to enter the illusion, I regretted my rash behavior. I felt my body and found that I did not have any heavy weaponry on me. The only weapons I had were my pistol and a dagger.

'Bulu, can you get the cluster laser gun from my room over here?' I asked.

"No. I can only affect organic life forms and what they have on them. Non-sentient weapons are out of my reach," said Bulu.

'That is troublesome. I only have a single pistol with me here. I doubt I can defeat the two freaks with only a pistol. Bulu, if this monster's mind control is stronger than yours, why hadn't it controlled all of us earlier?' I asked.

"I rely on light to detect and control organic life forms. This monster, on the other hand, relies on sound waves. That big nose is a powerful sound detector. I believe the sludge beast's original form was preserved because of that powerful nose. After all, Eternals don't exactly have powerful senses," said Bulu.

'We need to do something. If we keep waiting, things will eventually end badly for us,' I decided.

At that time, I noticed the sludge beast slowly move toward the middle of the cavern. There, it lay down, seemingly trying to build up something. Meanwhile, Dirk started walking in circles in the cavern while dragging his giant blade. I took the chance to move closer to the cavern. Bulu stayed on my shoulder and remained completely still.

Near the entrance to the cavern, I finally had the chance to get a good look at the cavern. I couldn't see the ceiling due to the limitations of my position, but I could see that the cavern was circular. There were 30 dark holes lining the walls of the cavern. The large number of exits was how we had been able to hide from them until now.

'Bulu, you must be the one who made these tunnels, right?' I asked.

"Of course. I tried my best here," replied Bulu in a somewhat smug manner, reminding me of Zhang Bao'er. It would seem like Bulu had been learning from the behavior of those around it.

Suddenly, I saw the sludge beast tremble. Its body shook violently, and its belly enlarged, as though it was about to explode.

"Shit! Something big is happening," said Bulu nervously.