Chapter 8: The Mysterious Crystal

The blue laser beam hit its target, blasting away one-fifth of the black Hive’s body.

“Holy cow! The Laser Rifle’s maximum power output was this powerful,” Fatty Lei was secretly amazed by the Laser Rifle’s power. “Beep! Beep! Beep!” A sharp sound suddenly came from the Laser Rifle’s handle.

“What was going on?” Fatty Lei curiously turned his head to look. On a small rectangular screen on the handle, which originally showed ten bars of Laser Rifle energy, now only half a bar of energy remained. “Oh crap! That last shot used up almost all the energy!” Fatty Lei wailed.

“Whatever! Half a bar of energy was half a bar! I would just use it all up!” Fatty Lei didn’t think too much. He pulled the trigger and started firing wildly, not stopping until the Laser Rifle’s energy was completely drained.

After dropping the energy-depleted Laser Rifle, Fatty Lei went to the Command Room and activated the control switch to open the Supply Depot door. Then he ran into the Supply Depot, grabbed two more Laser Rifles, and ran back to the Watchtower.

“Kick you when you’re down! I had to finish you off now, otherwise, I would be the one in trouble later.” Fatty Lei fiddled with the Laser Rifle in his hands, then aimed it again at the crippled black Hive.

“Zzzzzzzzzz!!!!!!”

Several sharp screeching sounds came up from below the Watchtower.

Fatty Lei looked down and saw that it was the half-crippled black War Bug, continuously jumping around and launching useless attacks at him.

Fatty Lei sneered, then aimed again at the black Hive.

“Vroom! Vroom, vroom, vroom~~~~”

The thick laser beam shot out again.

“Bang!”

The thick laser beam hit the black Hive’s body again, blasting it apart into pieces.

After the black Hive’s main body exploded, the constantly jumping black War Bug abruptly stopped, then fell to the ground motionless.

“Did killing the main Hive also cause the War Bugs it spawned to die?” Seeing the black War Bug lying on the ground, Fatty Lei thought it was very strange, but he quickly pushed the thought aside. After all, that was a problem to worry about later. There was still one thing he needed to do now: there was still one Hive left to deal with.

Fatty Lei slowly moved the Laser Rifle in his hands, turning it towards the purplish-red Hive that had been chopped up by the black War Bug and was now barely alive. He thought with great malice, “Now that the black Hive was taken care of by me, it was time to deal with you. Once I took care of you, I could consider myself safe for the time being.” Thinking this, Fatty Lei felt a little smug inside.

“I wonder what caused these two, originally the same species, to have such a fierce fight?” Fatty Lei thought to himself as he aimed at the purplish-red Hive.

As if aware of the fate that awaited it, the purplish-red Hive began to contract and tighten its massive body. It squirmed constantly, but the Hive itself had no way to move. Without War Bugs to carry it, the Hive was completely unable to leave this place.

“Squelch!”

Through the scope, Fatty Lei saw the purplish-red Hive’s body suddenly crack open a seam. A piece of crystal, glowing with a blood-red light, dripped out from the crack and fell to the ground.

“What the heck was that?” Fatty Lei was stunned for a moment, then looked again through the scope.

He saw that after the red Crystal landed, it rolled a few times and stopped next to the Hive. Dazzling light continuously radiated from the Crystal.

“Did these two Hives fight because of this thing?” Fatty Lei secretly guessed after seeing the mysterious Crystal.

Actually, Fatty Lei’s guess was very accurate. The reason these two Hives had such a violent fight was precisely because of this mysterious red Crystal.

If not for that, Fatty Lei probably wouldn’t have had the chance to take out one of the Hives.

As if voluntarily giving up the Crystal and begging Fatty Lei to spare it, the Hive, after spitting out this mysterious red Crystal, retracted the thick layer of Zerg ‘ground’ it had spread on the sand.

Then it wrapped itself up.

“I, Eldorilli, Leader of the Korka clan, hope you can spare me. I am willing to give up this mysterious Crystal. Carbon-based lifeform, let us coexist peacefully?”

A clear, sweet, young girl’s voice suddenly transmitted into Fatty Lei’s mind.

“Holy cow! Was there a ghost!”

Fatty Lei was greatly alarmed.

He frantically picked up the Laser Rifle, looking left and right, but he didn’t see any ghostly shadow, except for the large fleshy ball not far outside the gate.

“Was it that Hive!” Fatty Lei immediately thought of that creature.

“Carbon-based lifeform, do not be surprised. The one who just spoke to you was me, Eldorilli, Leader of the Korka clan.”

The clear, sweet, young girl’s voice echoed again in Fatty Lei’s mind.

Fatty Lei forced himself to stay calm, keeping the Laser Rifle’s muzzle aimed at the large fleshy ball.

Simultaneously, in his own consciousness, he began communicating with a creature of this era for the first time.

“I think we should be in a hostile state. If I spare you now and you regain your strength later, then I would be the one in trouble. So I don’t think there should be any connection between us.” Fatty Lei was very clear about his current situation, and he fully understood why the other party was trying to communicate with him.

Although Fatty Lei was a homebody, that didn’t mean he was stupid.

So after communicating with his consciousness, Fatty Lei withdrew from the mental link.

“Click!”

The Laser Rifle’s energy was at full load. Fatty Lei pulled the trigger.

“Carbon-based lifeform! You will regret this!”

The Hive’s voice echoed in Fatty Lei’s mind one last time before disappearing completely.

Along with the disappearance of her voice, her life also ended.

The purplish-red Hive’s body was completely shattered by Fatty Lei’s attack. Green liquid splashed into the air before falling onto the sand.

“Different races must have different hearts,” as the ancestors said, and Fatty Lei had read those words.

Even though he had traveled through time, Fatty Lei deeply believed this.

Different life forms were bound to lead to conflict.

Even though the other party had just shown friendly goodwill towards him, that was only because they were in a very disadvantaged state.

If that Hive was at its peak, with hundreds of War Bugs, Fatty Lei didn’t believe the other party would still be so friendly. That would be a joke.

“You really think I’m a fool!!!!”

Only after completely depleting the Laser Rifle’s energy did Fatty Lei throw down the Laser Rifle in his hands.

Fatty Lei then went to the Supply Depot again, took another Laser Rifle, ran back to the Watchtower, and observed for a while before confirming that those two Hives and that War Bug were indeed dead.

However, adhering to the principle of “better safe than sorry,” Fatty Lei raised the Laser Rifle again and fired at the already dead War Bug and the remains of the two Hives for a while longer before finally stopping.

He was completely certain that the area around the Military Outpost was now safe.

“Whew~~”

Fatty Lei let out a long breath, and his tense nerves finally relaxed completely.

But Fatty Lei couldn’t rest yet; he still had things to do.

Not far from the gate, the mysterious red Crystal discarded by the purplish-red Hive was still there, flashing a dazzling red light.

Fatty Lei picked up the Laser Rifle, opened the Military Outpost’s gate, quickly ran out, picked up the fist-sized red Crystal, ran back just as quickly, and then closed the gate.

Without time to rest, Fatty Lei grabbed the rope and struggled to drag the Sand Beast into the Command Room.

After Fatty Lei finished all this and closed the Command Room door, the outside sky suddenly turned dark.

“Great timing! The storm was coming!”

Fatty Lei collapsed onto the floor, lifting a hand to wipe his face as he spoke.

As soon as Fatty Lei finished speaking, the howling sound of the storm immediately came from outside.

But being inside the Command Room, Fatty Lei didn’t need to worry about the storm at all now.

In this one day, Fatty Lei had experienced quite a lot: first the Sand Beast, then the Zerg Hives. This gave him a deep understanding of the dangers of this World.

“And this was just on one small Planet, yet it was so dangerous. Who knows what other dangers existed out there in the vast Universe.” Fatty Lei remembered that Kalong’s audio diary had many records: in this vast Universe, there were countless space pirates.

If you were targeted by these pirates in space, your fate wouldn’t be much better.

“Some things are bound to happen, just like rain must fall. If these things were really going to happen, no one could stop them. My most urgent task now was to quickly process this Sand Beast!” Fatty Lei put the Laser Rifle from his back aside, walked to the corner, picked up a metal cleaver he had prepared earlier, and walked back.

After returning with the metal cleaver, Fatty Lei squatted next to the sleeping Sand Beast and untied the rope binding its tail.

After the rope was undone, the Sand Beast’s tail hung limply to the ground.

Fatty Lei laid the Sand Beast’s tail flat and straight, then swung the cleaver down.

“Thump!”

With a flash of the blade, the Sand Beast’s tail was completely severed from its body.

Seeing that the Sand Beast’s tail had been cut off, Fatty Lei finally felt truly relieved.

“Aha, now this Sand Beast really had no power to fight back. Without its tail, it couldn’t cause any big trouble.” Kalong’s audio diary had recorded that if you caught a Sand Beast, as long as you cut off its tail, the Sand Beast wouldn’t have any attacking power left.

Fatty Lei put away the metal cleaver but accidentally cut his finger on the sharp blade, making a gash.

Luckily, the cut wasn’t deep and it wasn’t a big deal.

“Sigh~ why was I so careless.” Fatty Lei put his finger in his mouth to suck on it, then set the metal cleaver aside.

Then Fatty Lei sat down next to the Sand Beast, took the mysterious red Crystal out of his pocket, and began to examine it carefully.

“Was it just this thing that made those two Hives fight so fiercely? I don’t see anything strange about it?” Fatty Lei turned the Crystal over and over in his hands.

But Fatty Lei didn’t notice that the blood from the cut on his right hand was slowly seeping into the mysterious red Crystal.

“Beep! Beep! Beep! Beep!”

“Confirmation! Program starting! Number h90883288, life form is carbon-based life…”

A strange voice echoed in the Command Room.

Accompanied by Fatty Lei’s stunned expression, the red-glowing Crystal slowly transformed into a sky full of starlight. Then, this starlight spun continuously and merged into Fatty Lei’s forehead.

“This… this… what was going on?”

Fatty Lei clearly hadn’t grasped the situation yet.