The smile on Zhang Jie's face faded slightly, and it was impossible to tell what he was thinking.
Right now, only the final question remained.
Zhan Lan asked, "How can we get the Xenomorph to chase Jie-ge? What if the Xenomorph Queen doesn't fall for it?"
Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses. "I've temporarily thought of five methods."
Five methods, but to put it bluntly, they all boiled down to one: using scents, flesh, blood, sounds, and other means of Xenomorph perception to lure and ambush them...
"Time is running out, Jie-ge, these are the things you need to carry... You'll drop the flesh and corpses according to our prompts..."
Zhang Jie looked utterly disgusted.
"Ugh~~ Such disgusting stuff, I really don't want to touch it."
What kind of nonsense was this? Weren't they teammates just ten minutes ago?
Xia Ren looked back at Zheng Zha, who had fully recovered: "Zheng Zha, you go out too, and help Jie-ge share the firepower so there aren't too many Xenomorphs hunting him down..."
"The plan begins!"
Buzz~~~~~~
The door opened.
A fresh scent of blood drifted out from the room.
The Xenomorphs inside the spaceship immediately caught the scent and swarmed toward the center.
"Zhang Jie! Run to the right! Zheng Zha, run to the left!"
"Got it!"
The footsteps of the Xenomorphs inside the spaceship slowed down, seemingly confused by these human actions.
But soon, they made up their minds.
Splitting into three directions, they gave chase toward the central control room, Zhang Jie, and Zheng Zha respectively.
Xia Ren continued giving orders:
"Control room, prepare to engage! Chu Xuan, you direct Zheng Zha, and I'll direct Zhang Jie. Bawang, set up traps! Zero, provide cover! Everyone else, get familiar with your weapons, especially Li Shuaixi!"
Soon, everyone was busy with their respective duties.
Zhang Jie's diversion was different from Zheng Zha's.
Zheng Zha only needed to take a small number of Xenomorphs for a spin before quickly returning to the control room to join the battle.
Zhang Jie, on the other hand, had to lead a large group of Xenomorphs far away to buy time for the main force.
Xia Ren focused his mind, cleared his head, and directed Zhang Jie as he sprinted all the way to the escape pod.
He had already prepared that area, and the pod would launch the moment someone arrived.
"Now, drop that arm. Then keep running forward."
Hearing the prompt, Zhang Jie immediately dropped the arm he found so utterly repulsive—it was covered in gaudy tattoos and had been partially eaten by a Xenomorph.
As he ran, he thought: Not only do humans dislike pork stamped with quarantine inspection marks, but Xenomorphs seem to dislike it too.
"Speed up, drop the meat at the intersection ahead."
Zhang Jie yelled, "Damn you! If I'd known this job was so disgusting, I'd rather go fight the Xenomorph Queen to the death!"
Unfortunately, Xia Ren was communicating with him via the spaceship's broadcast system, which was one-way only.
Finally.
Ten Xenomorphs reached the control room, and the explosion from the trap echoed throughout the entire spaceship.
"Open fire! Open fire!"
Bang bang bang bang bang~~~~
"We can't hold them off, Xia Ren! Use the machine gun!"
"Useless trash! You can't even hit that!"
Rat-a-tat-tat~~~
"Zhang Jie! I don't have time to deal with you anymore, the escape pod is 40 meters ahead! Speed up and shake off the Xenomorphs! Then get into the escape pod!"
Zhang Jie immediately accelerated, sprinting forward.
The escape pod was right before his eyes, just a single leap away.
Without hesitation, he bounded forward.
As his body flew through the air, an inexplicable feeling welled up from the bottom of his heart, and some strange thoughts suddenly popped into his head.
He thought to himself: Having lured so many away, Zheng Zha and the others will definitely be able to win, right?
Ever since when, he wondered, had he actually started worrying about the safety of his teammates?
Weren't his interests clearly in conflict with theirs?
The stronger his teammates were, the sooner his own death would arrive...
With countless thoughts swirling in his mind, before he knew it, his entire body had entered the pod.
Hiss~~~~~~
The primed escape pod spewed scorching exhaust flames.
Suddenly, Xia Ren's voice came through the comms in the escape pod:
"Jie-ge. You're riding in my escape pod, so you owe me 1,000 reward points when we get back."
"Bah! You bastard, don't even think about it!"
He cursed fiercely, not expecting Xia Ren to hear him.
Because they were no longer inside the spaceship, but in the escape pod, which could connect to the spaceship's network.
Swish~~~~
"You dare not pay? Believe it or not, I'll spend 500 reward points to clone your wife and bring her along on every mission to help new recruits de-stress."
"Fuck!! You wouldn't dare!"
Jie-ge panicked.
If anyone else said that, it might be a joke, but this bastard Xia Ren would actually do it!
Inside the control room, Zhan Lan looked at a green-faced Zheng Zha with a teasing expression.
Having just unleashed devastating power under Chu Xuan's guidance by mastering the spiral stab, Zheng Zha suddenly felt that living like this was meaningless.
The feed from Zhang Jie's escape pod was displayed on the wall of the control room.
He was seen with a flushed face, shouting angrily, "Fine! I fucking yield, I'll give you 500 points when we get back!"
"900!"
"600!"
"Take it or leave it, 700!"
"Fine, fine! I must have had eight lifetimes of bad luck to run into a teammate like you!"
Xia Ren smiled, pulled a pair of sunglasses out of his pocket, and put them on.
Having just wiped out a wave of Xenomorphs, everyone's faces showed the relaxation of the aftermath of battle.