Chapter 4#
Coordination#
The forest was dark and silent.
Several people moved in a combat formation, with Blade taking the lead, advancing deeper.
Tangled vines closed in around him, the dark green blurring before his eyes, as if he might dissolve into it. Occasionally, he heard scattered whispers from afar, sounding like wind passing through the trees.
No, it might not be the wind.
He tightened his grip on the machine gun and continued to focus and hold his breath.
After walking a little farther, the radar detected a weak life signal ahead, at a fixed position. It didn’t seem like a timid native creature. But exactly what it was, it was still hard to tell.
They tracked deeper, and the signal gradually strengthened.
Suddenly, faint silver lights flickered in the distance. Adjusting their focus, they saw the lights emitting from a tree.
“Oh my god, it’s a Silver Fruit Tree!” a team member exclaimed.
Amid the thick, dark tree trunks stood a silver fruit tree as tall as a person. The sapling was lush and full, with emerald green leaves. Hanging from the tips of its branches were small silver fruits, glistening and almost dripping.
A single silver fruit was already rare, and now there was a whole tree!
The team members were excited, itching to pick them. But just as they were about to move closer, Ning Feng sensed something wrong.
“Wait.” He frowned, his fingers swiftly swiping across the control panel.
The radar flickered, and in the next moment, the entire interface was covered with dense red dots.
Ning Feng’s heart leaped.
Surrounded?
When did this…
He quickly calmed down, held his breath, and didn’t move. Lowering his head to inspect carefully, he soon spotted, less than half a meter ahead of his foot, a swollen yellowish-brown insect egg, pulsing with breath.
Then they immediately switched on the thermal imaging scanner, and the next moment, a collective gasp escaped them.
Rustling sounds came to their ears. The tree trunks around the silver fruit tree were covered with slime mold, emitting pulsing light that made them nauseous.
Dozens, hundreds, thousands…
Countless low-level larvae crawled back and forth in the forest. The emerald grass was covered with a grayish-black substance that looked more like exposed brain matter than fungus. Maggot-like juvenile forms densely covered the forest, tumbling and writhing on the undulating slime mold, while Hydralisks and other monsters kept watch at a distance.
Seeing this meant that they had finally found a Zerg lair in the satellite.
Staring at the pulsing green light from the eggs, Ning Feng felt an ache in the scar on the back of his neck.
Hiss… What’s going on?
He rubbed the back of his neck vigorously.
“This is a hatchery,” Yin Beichen’s mech said, having crept up beside him at some point.
“And it’s not small,” Ning Feng added.
“Everyone, rally to me, provide cover, watch the crossfire.” Shuguang crouched in concealment, silently gripping a grenade. Though his voice sounded very calm, Ning Feng could sense the excitement hidden beneath the tone.
“Ning Feng.”
“Hmm?”
“Go.”
“Roger that, sir~”
Ning Feng licked the corner of his mouth, steadied his machine gun, and aimed at one of the large Hydralisks.
Bang!!
The moment the laser left the barrel, Yin Beichen lobbed a device toward the swarm. With a loud boom, a powerful shockwave spread through the entire forest. The unprepared swarm shrieked in agony, and Ning Feng took the opportunity to pick off targets with precision.
The enraged Zerg madly charged from all directions, dense as bugs on a windshield. Piercing screams resonated through the space, deafening.
In the chaos, the group formed a circle with Blade at the center, their backs inward, firing plasma flames in all directions to keep the larvae at bay. Whenever someone emptied their magazine, they retreated into the circle, with those on either side filling the gap to provide cover until the reloaded person squeezed back in.
Shuguang provided covering fire while looking for opportunities to toss sonic grenades, creating opportunities for Blade to take down key targets.
The two exchanged no words the whole time, yet their coordination was seamless. The direction of Ning Feng’s bullets always matched the timing of Yin Beichen’s throws, as if they had practiced a thousand times.
The team members marveled at the sight.
“If I didn’t know they weren’t twins, I’d suspect they had telepathy.”
“Telepathy? That’s called heart-to-heart connection.”
“Hey, isn’t ‘heart-to-heart connection’ used for lovers?”
…
As they chatted idly, a few Stingers spotted a gap and lunged at Blade’s back. Blade stayed crouched, unmoving. Just as their gaping mouths were about to pierce Blade’s mech, a black figure flashed past, raising a hand to impale them clean through.
“Had enough talk?” Shuguang turned slightly, flicking the corpse off his blade. His cool voice made the team members shudder, and they immediately shut up.
They tactfully moved away from the silver fruit tree, not letting the battle damage the rare plant.
But fate had other plans.
Boom!!
A massive roar exploded less than three meters from the silver fruit tree as a colossal monster burst out. It dragged a long tail, raised blade-like claws, and bared jagged teeth toward them.
“Ultralisk!” Yin Beichen shouted in warning.
An Ultralisk. There was actually a seventh-tier Zerg here!
Ning Feng’s eyes narrowed, and he fired three shots in rapid succession.
The Ultralisk was pushed back repeatedly by the laser fire, stepping right next to the silver fruit tree, which snapped under its weight. But the powerful bullets barely left a mark on its hard carapace. Within a second, it charged again.
The formation was broken. The team members fought back against the swarm while dodging the Ultralisk’s heavy blows, quickly losing the upper hand.
“Can’t penetrate!” Ning Feng reloaded swiftly. “Its weak spot is the back of the head!”
“Wait.” Holding the front line, Yin Beichen remained unflustered. He quickly drew an energy shield, forcibly withstanding the violent impact.
Clang!!
The brutal collision sent ripples across the azure shield. The team members behind took the chance to unleash heavy fire, forcing the Ultralisk back a distance.
“Ning Feng!”
Suddenly, Yin Beichen shouted, leaping slightly backward as his thrusters roared to full power. Behind him, Blade charged forward, crossed his hands, lifted the front mech, and heaved upward with all his strength.
The massive black mech soared into the air like a spreading roc, blocking the light above. As he passed over the Ultralisk, Shuguang whipped out his machine gun and opened fire.
Startled by the sudden assault, the Ultralisk turned to shield its weak point.
But behind it, Blade had been waiting.
He aimed carefully, breathed in slowly, then breathed out slowly. The three points aligned—
Bang!
The bullet pierced the weak spot, igniting fire. The intense energy even blasted a hole.
Boom!!
The Ultralisk reared its head and roared, thrashing in its death throes. Its claws lashed out indiscriminately, cutting nearby Zerg in half. Chaos reigned. Gradually, raging flames soared to the sky, consuming its massive body. The Ultralisk slowly fell, its scream fading, crushing the larvae that couldn’t escape beneath it and sending broken branches and leaves flying.
“Threat neutralized.” Blade mockingly blew on his gun barrel, which had no smoke.
The Queens were picked off one by one, and the remaining low-level larvae fled, but couldn’t escape the flamethrowers’ reach. In moments, they were burned to ashes.
After the fierce battle, everything was a mess.
Once certain the danger was gone, Yin Beichen turned to the team members.
“The ones who were chatting just now. Step forward.”
His voice wasn’t loud, but it chilled them to the bone. Their faces turned pale, but they reluctantly stepped forward two paces.
Yin Beichen was notoriously iron-fisted, treating every battle with solemn seriousness. They had been fooling around during the fight, almost causing Ning Feng to get hurt. Filled with guilt, they couldn’t help but tremble.
It’s over. At the very least, they’d be flayed alive.
“You little brats!”
Suddenly, Blade ran over and kicked each one hard.
“You bastards trying to get me killed!? Of all times, you have the nerve to shoot the breeze? You want to die?”
They were kicked sprawling, lying on the ground without daring to make a sound, like overturned tortoises. But thanks to the sturdy cockpit, they weren’t seriously hurt.
Shuguang stood behind, silent the whole time.
Only after Ning Feng had vented, he added a few more bitter kicks. “What are you lying around for? Get the hell out and clean up the battlefield!”
Hearing that, the team members felt as if pardoned, scrambling away as fast as they could.
Satisfied with his outburst, Ning Feng let out a breath and walked over to Shuguang with a grin. “Reporting, sir. Punishment complete.”
The black mech didn’t move. Ning Feng could feel the gaze scanning him, thick with displeasure. He chuckled twice and draped an arm over Shuguang’s shoulder. “Little Chenchen, I know you care about me. But we’re still on a mission. If I mess up morale, it’ll be trouble.”
Seeing that the other still didn’t respond, he added, “When we get back, you can punish me however you want. I won’t make a peep!”
After a long moment, Shuguang finally moved, shoving the hand off his shoulder and turning away. “I don’t care about you. Don’t flatter yourself.”
Watching the straight-backed black figure, Ning Feng rubbed his cheek and smiled.
“Ah, little Chenchen is shy again.”
The place was littered with charred monster corpses, emitting a foul stench. The team carefully inspected the battlefield, picking off any stragglers.
Ning Feng walked through the wreckage, the discomfort in his body growing stronger, but he forced himself to stay alert. Beside the massive Ultralisk corpse, he found the scorched silver fruit tree.
Because it had been too close to the Ultralisk, the already slender trunk had snapped into several pieces. The fruits were scattered all over, roasted beyond recognition.
Another bastard that couldn’t pick a place to die.
Ning Feng sighed silently, crouching down to rummage through the debris. Among the weeds, he found an intact silver fruit. He quickly grabbed it and sent it into his cockpit via the hidden transport compartment.
Gazing at the undamaged silvery-white fruit, Ning Feng beamed.
“To survive that big fire, you’re really lucky.” He toyed with the fruit, wiped the mud off its skin, and stored it carefully.
Whenever he found novel items like this, the man habitually kept them—sometimes to eat himself, but more often to give away. Ning Feng glanced at Shuguang, who was facing him, but quickly turned away.
Ning Feng: ?
“Feng-ge, I found something!”
At that moment, an urgent call from a team member came through the channel. Ning Feng withdrew his gaze.
“On my way.”