Chapter 56: I’m a Child, I Surrender

“Stop those bugs at full force!”

Wangcai waved his arm, commanding the Artificial Human Soldiers.

“Vooom~~~”

The sound of the Laser Cannon charging up on the armored vehicle was heard. “Boom!” With a loud blast, ten thick Laser Cannon beams shot toward the Hive.

“Chirp! Chirp!”

The Warrior Bugs charged frantically upward from the bottom of the basin. Dozens of blue beams fired from Laser Rifles met them.

The Artificial Human Soldiers carried out Wangcai and Fatty Lei’s orders very well, firmly holding back the bugs’ assault.

Due to a fierce battle with the Xenomorphs, and Fatty Lei causing destruction earlier, the Hive now only had about five or six hundred Warrior Bugs available for attack.

On Fatty Lei’s side, there were five Armored Vehicles and seventy fully equipped Artificial Human Soldiers. Although they were outnumbered by the Zerg, they held a geographic advantage.

Moreover, Fatty Lei’s forces had fairly decent long-range attack capabilities.

Because the bugs were too far away, they couldn’t deal any effective damage to Fatty Lei’s troops at all.

Distance was a fatal weakness for the bugs.

At least, it was a fatal weakness until they could close the distance and reach Fatty Lei’s position.

“Fire! Keep firing! Suppress them hard, don’t let them get up here!” Wangcai even jumped down from the Armored Vehicle. He stood behind the Artificial Human Soldiers who were holding off the Warrior Bugs, pacing back and forth and shouting at them.

“There aren’t many of these bugs. Let’s try to wipe out half of them by the time they’re halfway up the slope.” Wangcai got so worked up, he pulled out his own Laser Pistol from his waist. ‘Bang! Bang!’ He fired twice at the Warrior Bugs.

On the other side, the Laser Cannon fire covered the area around the Hive within the basin.

Ten deep blue laser beams converged into a mass, forming a blue ball of energy that enveloped the Hive.

“Zzzzzzap!”

The Hive, trapped inside the energy ball, was not faring well. The destructive energy was extremely powerful. The Hive’s body began to slowly melt and decompose. Even though it released a special energy from within itself for defense, it couldn’t withstand the damage.

“Aaaaaah, am I going to die! I don’t want to die here, I’m just a child. I’m just a child!”

“Please, don’t kill me! Please don’t kill me!”

A clear, childlike voice suddenly echoed in Fatty Lei’s mind.

A confused expression appeared on Fatty Lei’s face. He didn’t know where this voice was coming from.

“Did I develop a split personality?”

Fatty Lei was shocked.

“Please, don’t kill me! Please, don’t kill me! I’m willing to be your slave, just please don’t kill me!”

The clear childlike voice continued to plead with Fatty Lei, its voice full of trembling and fear.

“What are you?” Fatty Lei suddenly shouted strangely at the empty air.

Fatty Lei’s odd behavior caught Wangcai’s attention. He quickly ran to the Armored Vehicle and leapt onto it in one bound.

“Commander Master, what’s wrong?” Wangcai asked worriedly. Then, as if he sensed something, Wangcai sharply turned his head to look at the Hive in the basin, which was now glowing with a red light as it resisted the destructive Laser Cannon fire.

“Beep… Beep…”

Wangcai immediately activated his Core Program. Strings of green digits flashed intermittently in his eyes.

“Bio-electrical Wave program activated!”

As Wangcai activated his Core Program, he also heard the pleading voice transmitted via the Bio-electrical Wave.

Although Fatty Lei was yelling in surprise at the air, unfortunately, due to the differences between species, the Hive couldn’t understand Fatty Lei’s words.

Furthermore, Fatty Lei didn’t have the function for Bio-electrical Wave communication, so he simply had no way to communicate with the Hive.

Even though Fatty Lei couldn’t, that didn’t mean Wangcai, the Intelligent Life gifted by the Dimensional Trading System, couldn’t.

Wangcai, as a benefit reward from the Dimensional System, existed precisely to assist Merchants. And precisely because of their randomness and scarcity, Intelligent Life like Wangcai possessed many functions.

It was just that Fatty Lei wasn’t very clear about these yet. He needed to discover them little by little.

Wangcai grabbed Fatty Lei by the shoulders, holding him down firmly.

“Commander Master, don’t panic! Calm down!”

With Wangcai’s hands pressing down on his shoulders, the strong grip gradually helped Fatty Lei calm down.

Fatty Lei widened his eyes, looking at Wangcai as if he had seen a ghost. He said to him, “Did you hear a voice! Did you hear a voice! Someone suddenly spoke in my mind, telling me to spare it. What exactly is going on?”

Wangcai kept comforting Fatty Lei. “I heard it, I heard all of it. Commander Master, that voice in your mind is the Hive in the basin speaking to you through a Bio-electrical Wave.”

“What! It’s that Hive!” Fatty Lei exclaimed, startled.

Then Fatty Lei suddenly remembered his experience before Wangcai appeared.

He seemed to remember encountering two Hives fighting each other, and he ambushed and killed one of them. Just before that Hive died, he also heard its cursing words in his mind.

“So, can it understand what I say?”

The now-calm Fatty Lei immediately asked Wangcai in return.

Wangcai shook his head. “Commander Master, you and that Hive are different species. Although it can transmit information to you via Bio-electrical Waves, you have no way to communicate with it.” Wangcai directly told Fatty Lei that he couldn’t communicate with the other party.

“Then you can hear what it says, right?” Fatty Lei immediately asked again.

Wangcai nodded. “Yes, my Core Program can simulate Bio-electrical Waves, so I can communicate effectively with it.”

“Tell it to order those Warrior Bugs to stop attacking!”

“Please! I’m still a child! I’m still a child! Don’t kill me! Don’t kill me! Waaaah ~~~”

The corner of Fatty Lei’s mouth twitched. He thought, “Damn! It actually started crying because I hit it! Does that mean I’m bullying a child…” Thinking this, Fatty Lei looked at the tumor-like mass that was still resisting the laser energy cloud.

“Dammit! Just looking at you, you don’t seem like a child!”

Wangcai, at this point, simulated the Bio-electrical Wave signal and began communicating with this ‘child’.

“Order your minions to stop their attack immediately, otherwise we will continue using heavy firepower against you.” Wangcai threatened the Hive.

“Stop the attack, I can’t hold on anymore, I really can’t.” The Hive replied in a pained and pleading tone.

Sure enough, the attacking Warrior Bugs immediately halted their assault. They remained in place, waving their blade-arms and shrieking continuously toward the Sand Dune.

Although their demeanor was extremely fierce, because they had received the command from the Hive, they did not continue their attack.

Of course, even if they did attack, they couldn’t do much to Fatty Lei. Mainly, after charging for this long, the bugs had only managed to get one-third of the way up the slope.

But the price they paid was incredibly heavy.

After dealing with the Xenomorphs, the bugs themselves originally numbered around five or six hundred. They turned and began their attack on Fatty Lei, only to be blocked by the Artificial Human Soldiers. Up to now, there were less than three hundred Warrior Bugs left.

In other words, these Warrior Bugs probably would have been completely wiped out by the Artificial Human Soldiers before they even reached the top of the Sand Dune.

Fatty Lei also climbed down from the Armored Vehicle at this time. Wangcai followed behind him as they moved to stand behind the Artificial Human Soldiers.

“This thing says that if we spare it, it’s willing to be my slave.” Fatty Lei stood on the Sand Dune, looking at the Hive in the basin, and whispered to Wangcai.

Before Wangcai could even process this, Fatty Lei gave an order to the nearby Artificial Humans.

“Wipe out all the Warrior Bugs! Laser Cannons, fire together! Spare the Hive!”

With Fatty Lei’s command, all firepower focused on covering the remaining Warrior Bugs.

With the Laser Cannons joining in, a single volley wiped the Warrior Bugs out completely.

The reason the Warrior Bugs were eliminated so easily was, of course, because they stood still, making themselves perfect targets.

“Oh~~~ No!!! You don’t keep your word, you said you wouldn’t kill me. You guys are all bad, you don’t keep promises!”

The child’s voice sounded again, but this time the trembling in the voice was even more pronounced.

Because of Fatty Lei’s order, the Hive’s last remaining Warrior Bugs were completely eliminated. This meant the Hive no longer had any ability to resist, which inevitably made it afraid.

The laser energy ball enveloping the Hive slowly dissipated.

The red glow outside the Hive’s body also faded away.

Fatty Lei saw that the tumor-like Hive’s body was pulsating very slowly, as if it had exhausted all its strength earlier to resist the laser energy assault.

“Tell it that we are not breaking our promise. We just think that since it wants to surrender, keeping these Warrior Bugs is useless anyway.” Fatty Lei turned his head and said this to Wangcai, instructing him to relay it to the terrified Hive.

Wangcai relayed Fatty Lei’s words to the Hive. Although the Hive didn’t really believe it, it had no other choice.

“I surrender. As long as you don’t kill me, I’m willing to be your slave. Waaaah ~~~”

The child’s voice once again transmitted into Fatty Lei and Wangcai’s minds. It sounded weak and kept sobbing.

“Tell it not to try any tricks. It must stop producing Warrior Bugs now. Otherwise, we’ll take it as a provocation and open fire with everything we have immediately.” Fatty Lei decided not to destroy the Hive for now.

Because Fatty Lei had many puzzling questions in his mind that he needed this Hive to answer.

Of course, it would be ideal if he could truly make the Hive his slave and ensure its Loyalty Level.

This was a Hive, after all. If he had a Hive as a slave, why would he need to buy any more Artificial Humans? He could just use Warrior Bugs to guard the ‘Farm’.

That way, he could save a lot of Credit Points to use for other things.

But first, how to solve the Loyalty Level problem was also an issue.

So Fatty Lei had Wangcai ask this Hive that was willing to surrender and called itself a ‘child’… “How can you guarantee the Loyalty Level issue? You need to know that if this problem isn’t solved, nothing is possible.”

Wangcai also understood Fatty Lei’s meaning, so he had the Artificial Human Soldiers charge down the Sand Dune and surround the Hive.

The five Armored Vehicles also aimed their cannons at this Hive.

Then, Wangcai, by simulating the Bio-electrical Wave, very sinisterly asked the above question.