Free Web NovelChapter 41: Chapter 41: Warmth
A fleet of Teleportation Spaceships slowly landed. Hearing the commotion, the Insect Clan poured out in a swarm. As a precaution, the Insect Mother, along with a host of Insect Clan guards, was the first to leave through the wormhole, while the remaining insects rushed toward the Teleportation Spaceships.
The battle between Garbage Star’s Insect Clan and the Beastmen had officially begun.
Bai Feng led Teams A and B off the spaceship, their faces covered by masks. He immediately ordered them to split up: Team A was to draw the Insect Clan’s fire, while Team B’s primary objective was to find their target. Once they found her, they could seize the chance to escape Garbage Star.
The moment Teams A and B separated, a dense horde of Insect Clan troops swarmed toward them.
"Tch, what a disgusting bunch."
Bai Feng nearly gagged. The Insect Clan members who had festered on Garbage Star for years were even more repulsive than the nomadic ones found elsewhere. Fluorescent green pus oozed from their bodies, making them look as if they’d been soaked in sulfuric acid. They left a trail of corroded prints in their wake.
Suppressing his revulsion, he gave the grim command, "Activate Mecha!"
Receiving the order, the members of Team A immediately boarded their Mecha to face the teeming insect horde.
These teams, originally trained by He Hanshi, were battle-hardened veterans when it came to fighting the Insect Clan. On the battlefield, each squad had long since learned to function as a single, coordinated unit.
The members of Team A spontaneously formed a circle. Bai Feng’s command and observation Mecha was positioned at the very center, encircled by attack-type Mecha. These attack Mecha handled the main offensive, while assault-type Mecha were stationed at the four cardinal points—north, south, east, and west. They followed the primary commands from the observation Mecha to counter the Insect Clan’s assaults and maintain defensive positions.
No one had visited Garbage Star for a very long time. The Insect Clan had already devoured nearly everything edible in the trash heaps; just recently, they had fought an internal battle over a scrap of wall plaster. Now, smelling fresh meat, long strands of drool dripped from the corners of their mouths. They dragged their long, thick, black tongues, their eyes glowing green as they stared at the squadron of Mecha, seemingly imagining how they would taste.
One insect, unable to resist the temptation of flesh, was the first to leap. The others, afraid of losing their share of the meal, scrambled to surge forward in a mad rush.
The attack Mecha opened fire, and the war began.
Meanwhile, Team B was on its way to find their target.
Elsewhere, Shi Lan watched the elevator’s indicator light glow red, a sense of unease creeping into her heart. She had no idea what the situation in the underground base was. Sitting in the elevator as it slowly descended, she gripped her gun tightly, on high alert for any sudden movements.
DING~
The elevator reached the first basement level. In the utter silence, where the only sound was her own breathing, a loud chime echoed through the empty car, its muffled reverberations lingering in her ears. fɾēewebnσveℓ.com
Shi Lan’s scalp prickled. ’It feels like I’ve walked into a horror movie.’ She couldn’t help but gently squeeze Xiao Du, who was perched on her shoulder, seeking a bit of reassurance.
The elevator doors slid open slowly. She tightened her grip on her gun and aimed it at the opening.
Thankfully, after a few seconds, there was no sign of movement outside—only the sound of a whimpering wind.
Shi Lan stepped out cautiously. Before her lay a long, empty, one-way corridor.
After more than a decade, the underground base’s power supply was beginning to fail. The lights in the corridor were dim, but they stubbornly refused to flicker. It wasn’t as terrifying as she had imagined.
She could have just waited by the elevator, of course. But human curiosity is a powerful thing, and besides, she figured she might as well look around since she was already here. So, Shi Lan started down the long corridor.
But first, she didn’t forget to message Yan Huoshui back, telling him that she had made it into the underground base.
Yan Huoshui was surprised. He had just been trying to recall the exact location of the base’s entrance, and he hadn’t expected Shi Lan to get inside so quickly. But seeing that she had, he breathed a sigh of relief.
He immediately replied: [This underground base was built two years after the Insect Clan first appeared on Garbage Star, so it’s very secure. But be careful. The main purpose of this place was to research the Insect Clan, and some of them are still locked up in the laboratories.]
Shi Lan stopped in her tracks when she saw the message. [Will they get out?]
[They won’t.]
Yan Huoshui had only meant to warn her so she wouldn’t be frightened if she stumbled upon them. But even with his reassurance, Shi Lan retreated to the area near the elevator.
’He said the insects won’t get out, but it’s been so many years,’ she thought. ’Who knows if they’ve mutated? Better to be safe than sorry and curb my curiosity. Besides, I already know what this base was for, anyway.’
Shi Lan stood guard by the elevator. Looking at her comm chip, she realized she finally had a moment to check her messages.
He Hanshi told her a rescue team was already outside and that she just needed to wait a few more minutes. Jiang Yan, Levito, and Jiang Xia all said help was on the way. Even Grandpa Lu, whom she hadn’t known for long, had sent a concerned message.
After a full day of running and hiding, Shi Lan’s once-clean clothes were so coated in grime that their original color was unrecognizable. The strong scent of her perfume was now mingled with the stench of garbage. Right then, sitting by the filthy elevator like a little dust-covered stray, she stared at the stream of messages on her screen. It felt as if, after a lifetime of wandering and displacement, she had finally found a warm place to belong, a place to call home. ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com
Her eyes quietly welled up with tears. Xiao Du, sensing its master’s emotions, gently drew near and pressed against her faceplate. "Master, don’t cry."
Shi Lan watched it squirming on her visor and couldn’t help but laugh through her tears.
"Xiao Du, if you keep rubbing on my faceplate, you’re going to turn it black."
Although Xiao Du mostly manifested as a spirit body that couldn’t be touched by external objects, whenever Shi Lan held it, the sensation was solid and real. As a result, it too had become a dusty little mushroom.
Xiao Du let out a couple of shy giggles, then settled back onto her shoulder.
Shi Lan composed herself and began to earnestly reply to each person’s concerned message.
In truth, she was a rather solitary person. She had a complete family—both parents and a younger brother were alive—but she had lived like an orphan since childhood. Her parents had always treated her as a burden, a target for their verbal and physical abuse. She ate their leftovers, and when she got a little older, they stopped caring about her altogether. She had to painstakingly save up her own tuition money by collecting trash.
Perhaps because of her upbringing, she didn’t like making friends. Outside of work, she avoided getting close to people, to say nothing of falling in love.
Later, she started frequenting a cat café to pet the cats and made her first friend, who worked there.
’If there was anything left for me in that world,’ she thought, ’it would only be that friend and my cat.’
After transmigrating into this book, she had once again become an orphan. Shi Lan had always believed this was her destiny, and she had calmly accepted it, resolving to simply focus on earning money and living her life. But she never imagined that along the way, she would find so many people who genuinely cared about her.
Her fingertip lingered on the names of her friends in prison. Any hesitation she once felt about her path had now hardened into firm resolve.
’No matter what, I have to save them.’
She didn’t know why she’d been brought into this book, but the appearance of her spirit body had given her hope for healing.
’They’re all such good people,’ she resolved. ’I can’t let them fade into obscurity as background characters, just like they did in the original story.’
