Vigilant and poised, expecting a bare-handed disarm, Zheng Zha caught Xia Ren's movement almost the moment he made his move.
Yet Xia Ren was too fast. Under deliberate interference, Zheng Zha failed to dodge in time.
Bang—
A bullet struck his lower leg.
"Damn it! Are you out of your mind?!"
Xia Ren raised the pistol, blew gently across the muzzle, and said, "I win."
"Win my ass! It's not over yet!"
Furious and gritting his teeth against the pain, Zheng Zha channeled his internal energy and lunged straight forward.
But Xia Ren gave him no chance whatsoever, leaping backward to evade while shouting at the top of his lungs:
"I surrender! You win! Stop! I can't beat you!"
"Damn it!!"
With nowhere to vent his boiling anger, Zheng Zha's face flushed a mottled shade of red and green.
Their baseline attributes were nearly identical, and with a wounded leg, catching Xia Ren was completely out of the question.
A highly anticipated duel thus ended in a messy anticlimax.
"God, heal me! Deduct the reward points from him!"
Lying on the ground in a fit of rage, Zheng Zha was left speechless by the throbbing pain in his leg.
Two days, and the bastard had played him three times!
"Ten reward points have been deducted."
Standing in place and ignoring the speechless expressions of Zhan Lan and the others, Xia Ren kept a straight face as he announced, "Both of us possess C-rank enhancements, yet Zheng Zha's vampire constitution is far stronger than my Uchiha physique. This just proves that the Lord God's exchanges do not always give you what you pay for."
The others wore thoughtful expressions.
Li Xiaoyi, a seasoned veteran of anime tropes, immediately grasped Xia Ren's underlying motive and gasped, "You're trying to exploit a loophole for the Sharingan?"
"Precisely, though it didn't work out. I've spared all of you the trouble of stepping into that minefield. Damn that Lord God—no seven-day unconditional refunds." Looking thoroughly indignant, he spun one absurd claim after another.
The healing completed, Zheng Zha hauled himself up, having barely managed to rebuild his psychological defenses. "A sparring match, and you use a gun? What kind of game is that?"
"Times have changed. Am I supposed to use fists instead of a gun?"
"......"
Zheng Zha was left completely speechless, desperately wanting to declare that the previous bout didn't count and demand a rematch to settle things properly.
Yet doing so would make him look like a sore loser lacking in grace.
Reading his mind, Xia Ren offered some consolation. "Your raw strength is indeed superior to mine. In a fair fight, I am no match for you."
Only then did the tension ease somewhat from Zheng Zha's face.
Seeing her opening, Zhan Lan quickly chimed in, "You've seen what Zheng Zha is capable of. If we can work together, we'll undoubtedly be much stronger than if you try to go it alone."
Xia Ren chuckled, nodding as he replied, "You make a valid point, and I completely agree. A single person's strength can never rival a team."
A look of joy lit up Zhan Lan's eyes. With another heavy hitter in the group, the safety of noobs like them would have an extra layer of security.
She hurriedly shot a glance at Zheng Zha, signaling him to put aside past grievances and invite the other man to join.
But having been repeatedly played for a fool, Zheng Zha couldn't just brush it off so easily.
Zhan Lan had no choice but to try another angle: "Brother Zheng, when you really think about it, nothing Xia Ren did to you was all that malicious—at worst, it was just a prank. Besides, having two Lolita companions around isn't a bad deal either; it's quite the blessing."
Zheng Zha's expression turned even darker.
Xia Ren spoke up: "Ms. Zhan Lan, you misunderstand my intentions. While I do want a team, I want one that executes my will unconditionally. You all have too many independent thoughts to be my teammates."
"You!"
Anger flared in Zheng Zha once more as he demanded furiously, "What do you mean by executing your will unconditionally?"
"I mean my dogs. Which of you is willing to be my lapdogs?"
"Damn it, get lost! Zhan Lan, Brother Jie, Li Xiaoyi, let's go. Don't waste your breath on a guy like this!"
Xia Ren quickly stepped in to block his path.
"Don't rush off just yet. Even if our philosophies differ, the worlds and missions we face are identical. If we can't be teammates, we can at least be partners."
Pulling back Zheng Zha, Zhan Lan cut straight to the point: "How do you propose we cooperate?"
"I've made myself quite clear. When facing the same main mission, we can coordinate our efforts and act as a collective. But when it comes to exploring side quests, each side plays their own game."
With that, Xia Ren turned his gaze to the side. "What do you think, Zheng Zha?"
"I must have the worst luck in eight lifetimes to keep running into a piece of work like you."
Furious though he was, Xia Ren's proposal was actually quite reasonable, and he had no logical grounds to refuse.
Consequently, after working out a few minor details, an unbreakable alliance was born!
Over the remaining few days, Zheng Zha and the others trained continuously in Zhang Jie's room, with Xia Ren occasionally joining in to get acquainted with his temporary teammates.
Aside from that, he was also making thorough preparations for *Alien*.
First came the carrier system for the Red Queen.
Since he couldn't afford a portable device, he had no choice but to cobble together a downgraded, low-performance version of the Red Queen himself, housed in a casing roughly the size of a suitcase.
The computing power of this budget Red Queen was limited. To ensure she could successfully breach the spaceship's systems, Xia Ren devised a roundabout strategy.
"Lord God, open the living area store. Show me electronic products originating from the *Alien* universe!"
With a rustle, a massive pile of recreational electronic terminals appeared—toys from the *Alien* world, including tablet computers, phones, and even refrigerators and washing machines...
The prices were dirt cheap; a single reward point could buy a mountain of them.
He then handed all these electronic devices over to the Red Queen for analysis.
"Red Queen, analyze the software on these electronic devices and familiarize yourself with their code!"
"Understood."
After a flurry of high-speed processing, the Red Queen successfully deciphered the underlying code logic of the devices from the *Alien* universe.
Familiarizing herself with otherworldly code in advance would drastically reduce the processing power required for the hack, increasing both the success rate and speed with which the budget Red Queen could infiltrate the spaceship.
After all, if even Chu Xuan could pull off such a feat with ease, there was no reason the Red Queen couldn't.
Still, to guarantee success, Xia Ren prepared a backup plan as well.
After another bout of frantic tinkering, he slapped together an oversized budget Red Queen, measuring five meters on each side and one meter in height.
If the standard budget Red Queen proved unable to breach the spaceship, he would simply locate a relatively spacious clearing inside the vessel and haul out the oversized version to do the job.
With the Red Queen sorted out, he purchased a vast assortment of firearms, ammunition, explosives, fuel, and other supplies. Standard ammunition (non-infinite variants) was quite inexpensive, so he bought dozens of rounds of various types, particularly armor-piercing bullets.
Finally came the consumable supplies: corpses, food, and water.
The God's Mighty Space was spacious enough to hold practically anything.
Consequently, Xia Ren purchased a thousand freshly deceased corpses. If the Xenomorphs could consume these bodies to increase their numbers, it would give him a wonderful opportunity to farm points.