Chapter 30: Bad News and Worse News (Seek Follow-Reads! Seek Collection!)

After hearing Chu Xuan’s analysis, Zero hadn’t reacted yet, but Zhan Lan stood frozen beside him, then raised her wrist to stare at the penalty for failing the main quest—her pretty face slowly paled.

So far, Zhan Lan had killed only five aliens and mutants, earning just over 2,000 reward points; adding her previous savings, she had barely over 3,000—nowhere near enough to offset the 7,000-point penalty for mission failure.

And according to the Divine Master’s rules, after the horror movie’s plot ended, all team members with negative points would be erased.

Thinking of this, she turned to Wu Xian, her eyes filled with anxious unease.

“Captain…”

“Don’t panic. I told you—the Divine Master never issues impossible missions.”

Wu Xian patted her shoulder to calm her, then turned back to Chu Xuan. “Since you’ve already analyzed all this, you must have a solution. Speak up.”

“Not yet. I still need to confirm a few things. I’ll explain once everyone’s gathered.”

Chu Xuan’s expression remained calm, his voice still devoid of emotion—but for some reason, Wu Xian had the strange feeling he’d been played.

He rolled his eyes and didn’t press further, instead instructing Friday to guide them to the main control room, then led the group forward at a brisk pace.

A few minutes later, Wu Xian and the others arrived at their destination. Li Xiaoyi, stationed at the door, spotted them from afar and waved vigorously—his mood seemed excellent, still basking in the afterglow of point-grinding.

Unfortunately, this good mood didn’t last long. After Chu Xuan laid out his analysis before Zheng Zha and the others, the atmosphere in the main control room plummeted to freezing.

“Damn it!”

Suddenly, Zheng Zha roared, slamming his fist into the nearby metal wall, denting it instantly—his strikingly eerie face now twisted with bitter frustration.

Li Xiaoyi and Mou Gang reacted much like Zhan Lan.

With their current reward point balances, they too couldn’t offset the negative-point penalty. If Chu Xuan’s analysis was correct, then after this horror movie ended, everyone except Zheng Zha and Wu Xian would be erased by the Divine Master.

Even if they got lucky later and killed another batch of aliens, barely offsetting the negative points, the reward points they earned would first be deducted by 7,000—how much would remain was anyone’s guess.

Thinking of this, the three slumped like wilted eggplants, their earlier spirit and determination gone.

“Chu Xuan, stop playing games. Spill everything. If you really have a way to solve this, I guarantee everyone here will cooperate fully.”

At this moment, Wu Xian stepped forward as the anchor, watching Chu Xuan, who stood with his back to them, adjusting instruments on the workstation—curious what kind of breakthrough the first genius of the Reincarnation world could devise.

“This ship’s technology is highly advanced, but its control system is ordinary—not much better than Earth’s current standards. With Friday’s help, I’ve now fully taken control of the vessel.”

Chu Xuan, eyes fixed on the hundred-plus monitor screens, said: “There’s one bad news and two worse ones. Which do you want to hear first?”

“Go.”

Wu Xian rolled his eyes, too lazy to play the straight man.

“Then let’s start with the bad news.”

Chu Xuan adjusted his glasses: “Due to the Divine Master’s influence, the ship’s return system is completely locked. We cannot extend our time to return to Earth—we have only one hour and five minutes left to complete the main quest.”

“The second worse news: In the past fifteen minutes, the surveillance feeds have shown no trace of any aliens.”

That means the Alien Queen may have temporarily stopped producing new aliens—or ordered them to hide. Either way, she clearly senses the strength of the Middle Kingdom team and, realizing she’s outmatched, has chosen to bunker down.”

“Finally, with Friday’s help, I breached the ship’s firewall and found hidden files—now I know the true reason this movie’s plot has changed.”

No sooner had he spoken than his fingers flicked, and several video clips and documents appeared on the screen—Friday had even added Chinese subtitles, thoughtfully.

Everyone turned to the footage and files—but within moments, their expressions darkened, and they didn’t even bother to acknowledge the notification for completing the side quest.

The reason this ship was so massive was that the plot had changed from the very beginning.

In Alien 1, the Nostromo was merely a cargo ship, tasked with hauling iron ore back to Earth, when it suddenly received a strange signal.

The ship’s AI, “Mother,” judged it a distress signal and ordered the vessel to investigate—thus triggering the subsequent events.

But in this version, the Nostromo, owned by the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, had discovered the aliens far earlier than in the film.

To obtain live specimens of this alien species, the company dispatched numerous scientists to the signal’s origin, retrieved several alien eggs, cultivated them, and conducted preliminary experiments during the return journey to Earth.

Needless to say, they screwed up.

One of the eggs brought aboard gave birth to an Alien Queen, which grew at an astonishing rate and used over a hundred crew members as breeding beds to spawn countless aliens.

Only the heroine Ripley, blessed with incredible luck, escaped alone—perhaps with a cat—boarding the last intact escape pod.

“So it’s all bad news, then… Alright, according to you, there may be over a hundred aliens on this ship now, especially the Alien Queen. If she hides and keeps laying eggs, and we can’t find her, we still can’t complete the mission.”

Wu Xian frowned. According to Friday, the spaceship’s diameter exceeded thirty kilometers, with labyrinthine corridors—even if they blasted straight through with brute force, they couldn’t locate the Alien Queen’s nest within an hour.

“That’s exactly what I’m about to say.”

Chu Xuan looked at Wu Xian: “I can’t control the return system, nor can I pinpoint the Alien Queen’s location in time—but I found the ship’s self-destruct sequence.”

“Self-destruct?!”

Everyone froze, staring at Chu Xuan as if he were insane—even Wu Xian.

What kind of brain comes up with a plan like this? Fail the mission, then blow up the ship and take the aliens down with you?

Genius? More like idiot.

Wu Xian internally ranted, then suddenly realized something and asked cautiously: “Wait—you’re planning to trigger the self-destruct to force the Alien Queen out.”

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(End of Chapter)