Interstellar Survival: Invasion

The soundproofing sand warehouse was much larger than I had imagined. I couldn't find any trace of the two missing individuals. I didn't even know if they were still in the warehouse.

'That's unlikely. No matter how much Dodo worships Temo, they won't abandon us,' I thought to myself.

I continued searching. After walking 200 more meters, I was forced to rely purely on my flashlight to show the way. Perhaps it was because the sky was getting dark, or perhaps it was due to a lack of windows in the area I was searching.

'They shouldn't have gone this far. There's nothing here,' I thought, deciding that I should turn back.

I turned around, but at that moment, a pop sounded beneath me. I seemed to have stepped on something. I took a step backward and shone my flashlight on the ground. An injured pulp worm was on the ground.

I had stepped on the worm unknowingly, and one of its feelers had been broken. The pulp worm was struggling painfully on the ground. A sense of guilt welled within me, and I hurriedly bent down. I studied the worm and saw that blue blood was gushing out of its broken feeler. It was shivering non-stop, clearly in great pain.

The guilt in my heart intensified at the sight of its struggle. I cupped the worm to pick it up and took out my rapid-heal spray. I then applied it to the worm's wound. The wound started healing with the help of the spray, and the worm slowly regained some of its vitality.

Only after I saw the worm's recovery did the guilt in my heart lessen somewhat. At the same time, I started feeling doubtful. Why was there a single worm here? Instead of staying with the other worms outside, how had it entered this warehouse?

Suddenly, the worm in my palm started flipping its body rapidly for an unknown reason. The pose it assumed while flipping over was rather peculiar, looking clumsy and adorable. Amused, I lifted the worm up to my face to take a closer look at its antics. Suddenly, I felt something strike my face. My vision turned black as I fainted. After an indeterminate amount of time, I started hearing someone speaking.

"Canyue, Canyue, wake up."

"He's still breathing. He merely fainted."

"His pulse is normal. We need to wake him up as quickly as possible."

"Zhang Bao'er, you need to perform CPR on him."

My eyes opened wide the moment I heard that. I immediately saw Dodo, Anxashe, and Zhang Bao'er looming over me.

"Wow, Canyue is awake! You don't need to perform CPR on him anymore," said Dodo in excitement.

"Who was the one who gave the shitty idea of having Zhang Bao'er perform CPR on me?" I grumbled even though my body was aching all over.

"Canyue, why did you come so far alone? If it wasn't for your flashlight, we wouldn't have been able to find you," asked Anxashe.

"I don't know. I just reached this place after walking around. Dodo, where did you go with Temo? Come on, help me up. I caught a pulp worm earlier," I said.

They hurriedly helped me up at the mention of a pulp worm. Oddly, the worm was nowhere to be seen. The broken feeler on the ground was gone as well. Not even the worm's blue blood could be seen on the ground.

"Where's the pulp worm? Is it in your backpack?" asked Zhang Bao'er.

I hurriedly took off my backpack and opened it. But apart from the sleeping Bulu, there was no other life form inside.

"Canyue, you must be seeing things because of your exhaustion. There are a lot of pulp worms, but they're all outside. If you want one, I'll catch a few for you later," said Zhang Bao'er jokingly.

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"Deputy Commander, Temo and I found a way to leave this place. We need to start moving," urged Dodo.

Hearing that we could leave, I struggled back on my feet and followed Anxashe back to the main group. There, everyone was waiting for us near the door. Everyone looked ready to move out, but Temo was still missing from the crowd.

"Dodo, where's Temo? What's the way you found?" I asked.

"Our vehicle is waiting outside. We only need your permission to start moving," said Dodo.

Hearing that, I approached the door and looked outside. A smaller transport vehicle was parked outside. It was covered by a black tarp, and a comparatively smaller single-horned beast was in charge of pulling it.

Beside the smaller transport vehicle was a regularly sized transport vehicle. The big single-horned beast pulling that vehicle was intimately licking the smaller beast beside it. The bigger beast seemed to be the mother of its smaller counterpart. Even more surprisingly, Temo was standing outside the door. He was in the middle of a conversation with a spider beast.

"Dodo, do you see the spider beast outside? It will be troublesome if it sees us. Temo is with it. Will he betray us?" I asked.

"Don't worry. I have reached an agreement with Temo. He will help us until the end," said Dodo confidently before pushing the door open and walking outside.

That action shocked me. I hurriedly raised my laser gun in preparation to kill the spider beast outside. Surprising me, the spider beast did not react upon seeing Dodo. Rather, it helped by stopping some of the scouting beetles from coming near us.

I still couldn't understand what the beast was doing, but I was most certainly looking at a perfect window of escape. Thus, I walked outside after Dodo. With my signal, the other members of the team and the laborers moved as well.

Temo noticed me the moment I stepped outside, but he did not say anything. Instead, he pulled aside part of the black tarp covering the vehicle, revealing an entrance which Dodo gestured for us to slip through. Before long, everyone was inside the vehicle, leaving me and Temo outside.

"Temo, are you not going in?" I asked.

"Go and hide. I need to control the little single-horned beast. It is still not an adult here, so it needs supervision. Otherwise, it will run around madly. We will lose control over the carriage," said Temo.

I did not think much and entered the vehicle. Temo hurriedly pulled the tarp back down. Shortly after, I heard the noise of him sitting down on the coach's seat.

"Dodo, what's going on? Why would that spider beast betray its companions to help us?" I asked.

"Life forms with independent thoughts can be found all over the universe. That spider is Temo's friend. That's why it has agreed to help us," said Dodo.

"How do we know that Temo isn't tricking us? Perhaps he is leading us right into a trap," said Zhang Bao'er.

"I made a trade with Temo. If he helps us, I'll hand a copy of all the information regarding a planet-level civilization in my database to him," said Dodo smugly.

"Hmph. Planet-level civilization? Why are you lowering yourself before him? I don't even know if I can trust you, iron-head. How can I trust that dwarf outside?" said Zhang Bao'er.

While we were speaking, the big single-horned beast roared. Then, the small single-horned beast also roared. With that, the vehicle started moving. We were finally taking off. The ground on this planet of steel was probably incredibly flat. The ride was so extremely smooth that it felt as if we were traveling on the ground.

It was a pity that the enclosed space within the tarp-covered vehicle was too stuffy. For us with morph-capable suits, we could still use the internal cooling system to make us feel better, but the laborers and Wargod soldiers were sweating madly from the heat. Seeing that, I used more of the energy in my suit to release some of the cool air into the vehicle.

Accompanied by the constant roars of the two single-horned beasts, we traveled for roughly 20 minutes before the vehicle suddenly stopped. I could hear the roars of many spider beasts outside. All of us instinctively raised our guns upon hearing their roars.

Temo's voice rang out, "This vehicle is carrying the Sacred Wing race's high-level supplies. Without the written order of an elder, anyone who takes a look at its contents will have their eyes dug out."

Roars and gurgles rang out at Temo's declaration. A few minutes later, the vehicle started moving again. It seemed as if Temo's threat had worked. As the two vehicles moved, the noises of the beasts became softer and softer, as though we had left the city district and arrived at a desolate countryside.

With the cool air I released and the vehicle's smooth traveling, the people in the vehicle actually fell asleep. To be safe, I kept myself awake and gripped my gun tightly. However, the trip was truly too smooth. After about three hours, I too felt my eyelids growing heavy. At that moment, our vehicle came to an abrupt stop.