Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 949 - 9 Dead Bug Starship_2

Chapter 949: Chapter 9 Dead Bug Starship_2

The female clerk hadn’t yet recovered from the shock when the university student, holding the box, looked at Zhou Peng without changing her clothes.

"Zhou Peng, get to the back of the line, and you three as well," Tang Zheng snapped. "I’m giving you thirty seconds. If you can’t dress properly in that time, then you won’t need to dress at all." With no time to waste here, the four newbies finally sprang into action.

Turning on his handheld device, Tang Zheng found no hints on its round screen, so he put it away and waited for the newbies to put on their protective clothing before they started moving forward.

The passage was narrow and pitch-black, exuding a dead silence, soon filled with heavy breathing. The three female newbies were clearly frightened and stuck close behind Tang Zheng.

Tang Zheng held a flashlight reversed in his left hand, across his chest, with the heavy magnetostorm rifle resting on his arm. He adopted this posture as he moved forward, ensuring he could fire at the enemy the instant he saw one.

Zhou Peng stayed at the rear, feeling very insecure and continually looking behind him.

Tang Zheng preferred not to be passive, hence taking the lead. Besides, the rear was not necessarily safe. As for the women, he was not scummy enough to let them scout ahead.

After a five-minute walk, they finally exited the passage. The sight of a honeycomb-style large life support cabin allowed the newbies to breathe a sigh of relief.

"What the hell is this place?" the female clerk asked with a sobbing tone. Before them was a spherical space about five stories high with walls adorned with small rooms shaped like equilateral hexagons.

"Shut up. It’s not necessary. No talking," Tang Zheng warned again, but just as he finished speaking, Teng Yuangxiang let out a scream.

"A dried corpse," Teng Yuangxiang grabbed his clothing, pointing at a mangled corpse on the ground.

"Humans?" Tang Zheng approached and saw bite marks on the corpse, but what worried him more at the moment was an issue with gravity. As he stepped into this life support cabin, he felt much lighter.

Had the power system been restored, the environment here would be in microgravity; a slight jump would have carried one up to the higher rooms. Although there were ten doors, Tang Zheng had no choice but to take one of the two closest to the ground.

Tang Zheng did not inspect the ’beehive rooms’; startling any monsters within them could easily result in their entrapment. The urgent priority was to secure a safe passage and a shelter, then figure out a way to regroup with his companions.

To the left of the metal door was a controller, sadly inoperative without power. After banging on it a couple of times, Tang Zheng started to turn the manual locks on the door, which creaked open little by little.

"Do we really need to open it? Might there be monsters inside?" the university student asked, stepping back several paces, afraid of being implicated.

Tang Zheng ignored her, not counting on them for cover. After opening a crack in the door, he stopped moving. Faint light spilled from the gap, and he peered through it. A passage about thirty meters long on the opposite side led to another life support cabin.

As the three thermal nuclear power systems continued to supply energy to the starship, gravity remained normal in areas not destroyed by the Insect Race. The lighting systems were functional, and the life support facilities were still operational, although the native humans were long gone.

"There’s light now, hurry up and go," Zhou Peng, treacherous, eager to leave yet fearful of danger, incited the three women to move. The university student, lacking guile, saw the light in the corridor and rushed in with delight. The female clerk and Teng Yuangxiang glanced at Tang Zheng, not daring to budge—partly out of fear, partly hoping he would lead the way.

"I’ll go first," Zhou Peng stepped ahead, partly to show gallantry, partly because he no longer wanted to be at the end of the line. With the university student leading the way, he could escape quickly if a crisis arose.

Tang Zheng entered third. The female clerk had just stepped forward when Teng Yuangxiang pushed past her, hesitating for a moment and nearly stumbling.

The female clerk sneered, but before she could take another step forward, a black shadow jumped down from the ceiling above, pouncing on her.

"Ah, help me!" The female clerk slammed onto the floor while screaming. The intelligence of the monsters was not low; realizing they could no longer conceal their presence, they roared from their throats, intimidating their prey into action.

They used the walls to leap, thudding as they moved.

Teng Yuangxiang was startled. Reacting instinctively, she turned around and saw a head sheathed in dark green skin extending towards her, its wide-open mouth full of sharp teeth dripping with saliva and a sickly stench flooding her nostrils.

"Move!" Tang Zheng quickly turned around, releasing the flashlight. He grabbed Teng Yuangxiang’s arm, pulling her back while firing his gun with one arm.

The flashlight slipped from his hand, but because it was chained to his wrist, it didn’t fall. Swinging around, the beam raced across the ground. Tang Zheng’s vision darkened, but the burst of a magnetic storm ball illuminated the opposite side; it then penetrated the monster’s head, exploding it into fragments and splattering blood and flesh.

"Save me!" Though the female clerk had lost an arm to the savage biting and was wearing protective clothing, she was not yet dead. However, too many monsters were lunging into the passage, attacking one after another. Even as Tang Zheng fired, he couldn’t advance to rescue her.

Gunshots, a woman’s screams, the growls of monsters, and the dim, rusted corridor formed a painting of death.

The university student and Teng Yuangxiang covered their ears, listening as the screams of the female clerk gradually weakened and then ceased. Pale with fright, they knew that woman was dead. The two women were desperate to run, yet dared not leave Tang Zheng, practically squeezing each other to death.