Zhang Jie did not retreat an inch, even though his shoulder had been pierced by the alien's tongue. He still blocked Zheng Zha firmly, his hands pushing the spiral spike even harder into the creature's head, paying no mind as the alien's ichor streamed down the spike onto his hands. With frightening speed, the corrosion ate away at his wrists until only bone remained.

"Ah!!!" Zhang Jie advanced instead of retreating, driving the spiral spike into the alien’s skull like a madman. The corrosion spread over his hands, reaching his forearms until all flesh had turned to bone. Fortunately, Zheng Zha reacted in time, dragging Zhang Jie violently backward. The spiral spike rod pulled from the alien's head was already half-eaten by the acid, only a short stub remaining, which was clearly about to dissolve entirely.

Zheng Zha screamed Zhan Lan’s name while frantically pulling fresh water from his storage ring, pouring it over Zhang Jie's arms as if possessed. Zhan Lan snapped back to reality and immediately sprayed the wounds with hemostatic aerosol.

As they tended to Zhang Jie’s wounds, the motionless alien finally shuddered and crashed to the ground. The viscous, yellow corrosive fluid oozed from its body, slowly enveloping all three of them in a pungent, white mist.

Zheng Zha dragged Zhang Jie toward the corridor behind them. Once they cleared the white fog, he saw that the corrosion on Zhang Jie’s arms had stopped spreading. By then, both of Zhang Jie's forearms had been completely dissolved, not even a sliver of bone left, leaving only two jarringly abrupt stumps.

Zhang Jie had already passed out from the pain once. It took Zheng Zha dousing the stumps with cold water again to jolt the man awake. He immediately chuckled weakly, "Well now, one alien is worth five hundred reward points, and you kept it a secret from me, didn't you? Not very friendly of you! Heh heh, a little Desert Eagle is nothing now; I can afford an AK with infinite bullets right away."

Zheng Zha looked silently at the stumps of his arms. Zhang Jie laughed it off. "It's nothing, nothing. As long as we get back to the 'Main God' alive, repairing the body won't cost much in points. It’s just that for a while, I’ll be a burden to you... Heh, thinking about it, being with you is better than being with Chu Xuan. If I looked like this around him, I’d probably have been abandoned completely."

Zheng Zha breathed out, "Don't worry. I absolutely will not abandon my comrades... You two wait here for me. Unless I call for you, you need to hurry back to the control room right away, do exactly what Zhan Lan suggested. Whether we live or die will be up to fate!" With that, he picked up a spiral spike bomb and headed toward the armory.

Because the corrosive alien blood had eaten a large hole in the corridor, creating several smaller pits in the floor as well, Zheng Zha had to hug the wall as he carefully made his way to the armory. Halfway there, a figure suddenly emerged from the white mist at the far end—it was Zero Point, carrying a long rifle reversed over his shoulder. The left side of his chest was haphazardly wrapped in strips of cloth, with blood steadily seeping through, making his appearance quite ragged.

Zheng Zha and Zero Point exchanged wry smiles. Both looked severely injured. Zero Point silently gazed at the distant alien corpse. "The other one is killed? You're impressive; you managed to kill an alien without firearms?" Zheng Zha replied with a grim smile, "You guys did well too; didn't you take down one alien?" Zero Point sighed. "Let's go into the armory. Both of them are in there."

Zheng Zha loudly called out for Zhang Jie and Zhan Lan. When the pair edged out from the wall, Zero Point's expression turned to shock. Even seeing Zhang Jie's severed arms, he remained stunned for a long moment before taking a breath. "In any case, let’s get into the armory first... You still have your hemostatic spray and powerful bandages, right? Ba Wang... he might not make it."

As the three followed Zero Point into the armory, Zheng Zha noticed the door was much thicker than that of a regular room, nearly as solid as a containment wall. A meter-high hole had been corroded through the center of the door, clearly etched out by the alien's bodily fluids. The other alien, blasted into pieces, lay near the entrance on the left side of the armory, an area already eaten out into a large cavity.

"Just luck. That alien tried desperately to drill inside before it could fully corrode the door, and ended up getting stuck in the opening. We sprayed it with bullets for several minutes before we killed it. But for the second alien, there was no such luck. If you had arrived half a minute later, the three of us would likely have died right here."

Zero Point walked ahead, explaining as they went.

Reaching the platform inside the armory, Zheng Zha and the other two immediately spotted Ba Wang and Chu Xuan. Ba Wang had a massive hole punched almost entirely through his chest; the shape of the gaping wound clearly showed it was inflicted by the alien's tail spike. Fortunately, it hadn't pierced all the way through, saving him from instant death.

Among the four, only Chu Xuan was virtually untouched, aside from some bloodstains. His attire looked identical to when they first arrived. However, the slight weariness in his eyes suggested that the terror of the Xenomorphs had shaken him far more than his composed demeanor let on. What he truly felt, only he knew.

"I didn't anticipate the aliens would be this powerful."

Before Zheng Zha and the others could speak, Chu Xuan looked at the three newcomers and said quietly, "My calculations were flawed. In the first to fourth Alien horror movies, the Xenomorphs rarely engaged human firearms head-on, so I underestimated their strength... If ordinary aliens are this formidable, I don't know how powerful the Queen would be. Perhaps we really are..." Zheng Zha ignored him, focusing instead on spraying medicine and bandaging Ba Wang's wound. After a moment, the bleeding finally stopped, but the giant Russian, strong as a bear, now looked so weak he seemed on the verge of death with the slightest movement.

"Then let us form an alliance. You are one team, we are another. Neither side will betray the other, nor can they betray the other... Of course, you can refuse, but I will absolutely not become your partner under your control. Your intelligence and planning ability are crucial, and I do need them, but equally, you need our capabilities and familiarity with this world, right? We are valuable to each other. You choose."

Chu Xuan bit his finger, looking at Zheng Zha. "Fine, I accept your proposal, but there's one thing you must understand... If you can't keep up with my pace, I will absolutely abandon you for the safety of the majority!" "But I will save you!" Zheng Zha laughed coldly. "For your intellect, I will save you!" Leaping to...