Chapter 3: First Contact
Lu Cheng and his three team members arrived at the edge of the ruined town.
“Kite, Poster, Iron Ring, once you enter the town, search for a hiding spot on the left side.”
Just before stepping into the town’s ruins, Lu Cheng gave new orders.
From the observation point on the cliff, the location where the giant wolf had fallen was an open square. If there were other monsters or ambushes in the vicinity, exposing the entire team in the square would endanger everyone.
“Captain, your safety is a priority. I’ll take on the risk for this encounter.”
Iron Ring said softly. Before coming here, he had received a higher-priority task than Lu Cheng’s: to protect Lu Cheng’s safety. It was unwise to use Lu Cheng as ‘bait’ when he was the key to this operation.
“I feel like I’ve become a national treasure at the level of a giant panda. Anyway, change of plans… Also, take this with you. I might understand the native language.”
Lu Cheng pulled out a handheld radio and threw it to Iron Ring.
Though Iron Ring was curious about how Lu Cheng could understand the native language, he did not ask further.
The operation proceeded as planned. Lu Cheng’s three-member team circled around the town’s ruins and found a suitable observation point near the open square where the giant wolf had fallen.
“Position established.” Lu Cheng’s voice came through Iron Ring’s radio. “The three natives we encountered earlier are still lingering at the target location.”
Iron Ring walked towards the square at the town’s entrance, stepping over the debris. Soon, he saw the giant wolf’s carcass.
It could no longer be called a carcass but rather a skeleton. Within less than twenty minutes of walking from the forest, the flesh on the giant wolf had completely decayed, leaving only half of the skeleton exposed to the air.
The rotting flesh, turned into a viscous substance, was rapidly evaporating from the ground.
Ignoring the strange corpse, Iron Ring focused on the three ‘humans’ kneeling beside it. Their posture resembled a prayer to a deity.
“Ahem…”
Iron Ring coughed to interrupt their prayer. The middle-aged man instantly opened his eyes, looking at Iron Ring with panic.
He pointed at Iron Ring and shouted in a language Iron Ring could not understand.
“He’s asking who you are. We’ve lost everything.”
Lu Cheng’s voice came through Iron Ring’s radio, translating the native language.
“Iron Ring, turn up the volume on the radio. I might understand their language because it seems I have some stored knowledge of it.” Lu Cheng gave a new order.
Iron Ring took out the radio and pointed it at the three natives.
The middle-aged man, mistaking the radio for a weapon, fell to the ground in fright, clutching the little girl beside him.
“You don’t need to be afraid. We mean no harm. We killed this monster.”
The voice from the radio, though in a language Iron Ring could not understand, was clearly understood by the middle-aged man.
“You killed that Blood Crystal Beast? Are you… the Thunder God?”
The middle-aged man, excited, asked aloud. To him, Iron Ring hadn’t spoken; the strange box was akin to a divine message.
“Blood Crystal Beast? What god are you talking about? Wait… Iron Ring! Enemies detected at your three o’clock position, and there are more behind you. It’s a wolf pack.”
Lu Cheng’s language instantly switched from the incomprehensible alien tongue to Chinese.
Iron Ring had no time to worry about the three natives. He chambered a round in his rifle as more than ten wolf-like creatures appeared from both sides of the ruins.
These wolves, similar to the fallen giant wolf, were covered in a viscous crimson substance, though they were of normal wolf size.
The middle-aged man, in utter desperation, prayed to the gods, believing only divine intervention could save them.
Iron Ring, however, trusted only his rifle. As he aimed and fired, sparks erupted from the gun, and the leading three wolf-like creatures were torn apart by bullets, falling to the ground.
Within less than three seconds, seven wolves charging from behind were pierced through their abdomens by 5.8mm bullets. The viscous substance that made up their bodies could not withstand the bullets’ destructive force, resulting in them almost being split in two.
They could no longer support themselves and fell dead on the ground.
“Battlefield cleared.”
Lu Cheng’s voice sounded again in Iron Ring’s earpiece. Iron Ring looked in amazement at the seven dead wolves behind him, only hearing seven gunshots, all from Lu Cheng.
“The Thunder God… is indeed the Thunder God!”
The middle-aged man, witnessing the scene, was completely convinced that this was the work of a deity. He had taken the gunshots as thunder and the wounds on the wolves as lightning strikes.
“Stop with the god talk. Do you have a hiding place? Show us.”
Lu Cheng’s voice came through the radio again. This town did not seem safe, and Lu Cheng was quite sure of it.
If these three natives had managed to survive here, they must have a relatively safe refuge.
“Of course! Please follow me…” The middle-aged man had come to see Iron Ring as a divine envoy.
Lu Cheng temporarily abandoned any explanation to the native. After reuniting with Iron Ring during the journey, Lu Cheng and the family led them to a building that resembled a church.
“This is the Temple of the Soul God. Please forgive us, Divine Envoy. We do not have a temple dedicated to you in our town.”
The middle-aged man respectfully addressed Iron Ring, who, along with the other three team members, was treated as divine messengers.
The interior of the refuge was quite spacious but looked like it had not been maintained for a long time. Five or six dirt-covered natives huddled in the corners, watching Lu Cheng with caution.
In total, there were seven people, and they had been trapped here for some time with insufficient food and clothing—essentially, refugees.
“Does the Divine Envoy not know about the Blood Crystal Beast disaster?” the middle-aged man asked cautiously.
“We are not gods… but that’s fine if you want to call us that. I just want to know what happened in the town.”
Lu Cheng found that this reverence might help him extract useful information from them.
“I don’t know when it started, but the moon, tainted by blood, descended upon our country, and the Blood Crystal Beasts began to attack everything around us. They destroyed our homes, families, and friends… We barely survived the first wave of the invasion.”
“It sounds a bit like the Zerg?”
Lu Cheng related it to the creatures he had previously encountered. Their decaying flesh and skin did not seem like natural growth but rather something that was produced in a single instance.
“Zerg?”
“Never mind. I have more questions to ask.” Lu Cheng said.
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