Chapter 52: Reforged Warrior

The Xenomorph Queen is tougher than a worker drone, but its massive body also limits its movement speed.

Facing the Xenomorph Queen like a live target, Celt's shoulder cannon has no reason to miss.

One shot to the chest.

One shot to the head.

Two shots blast the Xenomorph Queen into several pieces, and the strong acidic blood sprays over the ice like rain.

"Hoo—~." The cold wind on the ice begins to howl fiercely.

"Cz~ cz~." A faint sound of acidic blood corroding reaches the ears.

At the ruined edge of the whaling station, Chris and Celt keep a three‑meter distance, confronting each other.

The enemy of my enemy is a friend.

But without a common threat, the atmosphere becomes much more complicated.

"Ga… ga…" Celt makes a slight sound and slowly raises his right hand toward the mask.

!

Seeing the other move first, Chris immediately grips the Warrior Blade in his hand, staying alert for any sudden attack.

But Celt has no intention of confronting Chris; he simply pulls out the gas pipe and power cable attached to the mask, then removes the mask with both hands.

"Roar!" The ugly‑faced Celt shouts at Chris.

"…" Chris furrows his brows, not quite understanding Celt's intent.

At this moment, Celt selects a severed left hand of a worker drone Xenomorph from the many trophies hanging at his waist.

Then, Celt points with the tip of his right index finger at the scar on his forehead shaped like a slash, indicating to Chris that he should get one too.

Understanding Celt's intent, Chris hesitates briefly, then decides to sheath the Warrior Blade back into the gun holster on his right leg and walks slowly to a short distance in front of Celt.

Afterwards, Celt uses the still‑wet acidic blood to carve a scar on the back side of Chris's left cheekbone.

At this point, Chris has earned Celt's respect.

After all, Chris is the last surviving human, having killed many worker drone Xenomorphs and saved Celt's life.

Although Chris's first kick nearly crippled Celt, allowing a worker drone Xenomorph to almost kill Celt, it does not change the fact that Chris rescued Celt.

Just after carving the scar, Chris hears a flood of electronic sound effects around him.

He quickly looks around and discovers that the Iron Blood mothership has been hovering low nearby.

Moreover, over a hundred Iron Blood warriors who have deactivated Optical Camouflage stand on one side of the mothership, silently watching Celt scar Chris.

Behind them, an Iron Blood elder draped in a red cloak, clutching a mask in his left hand, stands three meters between Chris and Celt.

Seeing the Iron Blood elder appear, the usually irritable Celt immediately steps away from Chris and respectfully kneels on one knee before the elder.

"Ga…"

The Iron Blood elder lowers his head and emits an unknown sound toward Celt, then squints his eyes at Chris as if pondering something.

After a few seconds of silence, the Iron Blood elder makes a graceful turn toward the mothership, and the other Iron Blood warriors also turn back to the mothership.

Seeing this, Celt stands, glances at Chris, and then follows his comrades onto the ship.

With everyone back aboard, the Iron Blood mothership slowly lifts off, reactivates Optical Camouflage, and disappears from Chris's sight.

———————

…

The war room of the Bo Han Dong.

【Detected Chris Redfield's "Good Luck" activating again.】

Affected by "Good Luck," the Iron Blood elder, due to the project's outstanding combat performance, changes his view of humans.

Having long noticed that Earth is undergoing a mutation, the Iron Blood elder, seeing the threat from hostile clans grow, begins to consider cultivating the human race as a hidden ally.

Therefore, to covertly help humans overcome the current crisis, the Iron Blood elder no longer pursues the Iron Blood technology—wrist computer, shoulder cannon, etc. —that Chris Redfield obtained.

"Oh?" Hearing the system's words in his mind, Sui Bian can't help but voice a question.

He also wonders how Chris could trick the Iron Blood elder so that Umbrella can fully retrieve the shoulder cannon, wrist computer, boomerang and other weapons.

He didn't expect it to be so simple.

But recalling carefully, both "Predator 2010" and "2018" indicated that the Iron Blood species contains different clans that can kill each other endlessly.

Although "2018" is a terrible film, it portrays a friendly Iron Blood clan that directly provides humans with advanced weapon technology.

In "Alien vs. Predator," the Iron Blood elder's attitude toward humans was already friendly; now, with Chris's "Good Luck" effect, Umbrella can obtain weapon and equipment technology without hostility.

"Sir, I've lost the Iron Blood mothership's position, but judging by its speed, it should have already left Earth's atmosphere.

What are your next orders, sir?" Hong Hou says to Sui Bian through the headset.

"Hmm…" Sui Bian, whose thoughts were pulled away by Hong Hou, hums and asks Hong Hou, "How's the weather? Can the CH‑53 fly safely?"

"Based on my assessment, the weather will be good for the next eight hours, and flight is possible," Hong Hou replies.

"Good, have the Caron Task Force protect two teams of technicians boarding the CH‑53 to the whaling station, let the technicians retrieve the Xenomorph Queen's corpse, and clean the site thoroughly; I don't want any other company or faction left with anything.

Also, don't let the Caron Task Force ride the CH‑53 back; have them drive the tracked vehicles back to me—each is valuable, discarding them would be wasteful," Sui Bian continues.

"Yes, sir," Hong Hou replies coldly as usual.

Next.

Under Hong Hou's arrangement, the long‑awaited Caron Task Force escorts twenty technicians in white cold‑weather suits to board a CH‑53.

It takes off, heading to the abandoned whaling station a hundred kilometers away.

After more than forty minutes of flight, the CH‑53 arrives at the whaling station and unloads the Caron Task Force and the technicians.

The twenty technicians begin retrieving the Xenomorph Queen's corpse fragments, and Chris hands his packed backpack to them so that more professional personnel can store the organism samples and weapon equipment.

After more than two hours.

【Detected host has completed the timed challenge issued by this system, rewarding the host with one lottery draw. Use it now?】

Sui Bian, standing on the Wave Cold Winter flight deck and breathing fresh air, heard the system's voice in his mind and knew the technicians had surely finished cleaning up the Alien Queen's corpse remnants.

He relaxed a bit, and Sui Bian thought, 'Draw.'

【Received, currently conducting the draw, please wait…

Congratulations, host, you have obtained the 'Universal Soldier' technology from the movie *Universal Soldier*.

(End of chapter)