Chapter 19

Chapter 19

Who killed that A-level Star Worm?

Answering that question was not going to be easy.

Baisha remained silent for a second, then decided to feign ignorance. She widened her eyes slightly and spoke with a trembling voice to convey fear, "What? That was an A-level Star Worm?"

The young man: "..."

"We came here after hearing about B-level Star Worm carcasses," Baisha said, still feigning shock. "Thankfully, you arrived just in time. I had just sent out a distress signal and you all arrived so quickly. Your efficiency is remarkable."

"We didn't come here in response to the mercenaries' distress signal," the young man's brows unfurled from their cold furrow, returning to a dispassionate calm. His voice was cold and crisp, like pearls falling on a jade plate, "We're here looking for a missing squad of soldiers. Before us, did you see any Federation soldiers around here?"

Baisha quickly shook her head.

Just then, a soldier approached to report: "Captain, in addition to this nest of A-level Star Worms, we also found several dead B-level Star Worms in the tunnel above the cave, along with scattered remains of mercenaries."

The situation was starting to become clearer.

Initially, the military had detected psychic signals and discovered roaming B-level Star Worms in this cave, sending a squad of soldiers for extermination. After completing their task, they issued an order to dissect the B-level Star Worms, attracting nearby mercenaries for the harvest. However, afterward, that squad of soldiers lost contact with the command center – and now, it seemed the mercenaries who arrived earlier were found, mostly reduced to pulp. The fate of the military squad remained unknown.

Star Worms liked to use human flesh and blood to nourish their young.

The principle behind the Star Worm tide was actually their breeding season, during which they needed to plunder substantial nutrition.

"Conduct another search with the life detectors," the young man ordered.

The soldier, following the order, resumed his duties, while Baisha's cyber-brain suddenly received an anonymous message:

[I've taken off first, I'll wait for you at Hanbo Star's spaceport.]

Baisha: "..."

The message was unmistakably from Homman.

Baisha was now seriously suspecting that Homman's real identity might be a smuggler or some notorious interstellar pirate. Why else would he react like a mouse seeing a cat at the sight of military personnel?

Biting her back teeth, Baisha looked up, coincidentally seeing the young man inspecting the carcass of the adult A-level Star Worm.

The markings on the body couldn't be faked. The Star Worm's psychic barrier had been shattered and it had sustained severe damage from sniper bullets, whereas Baisha was armed with a laser gun. That wasn’t unusual, but the precision with which Baisha later delivered the finishing shots, hitting the Star Worm’s remaining two small hearts with just two blasts, seemed somewhat extraordinary.

"Who took down this Star Worm?" the young man asked.

"The mercenary uncle who was just carried away by your men," Baisha decided to pin everything on Homman, "He didn't tell me it was an A-level Star Worm. He just ran out of bullets after severely wounding it with his sniper rifle, so he asked me to fire the last two laser shots."

The young man looked up, his eyes like calm autumn water under furrowed brows, "Did you fire the shots yourself?"

Since her arrival in this world, Baisha had mostly seen mixed-race faces, rarely encountering someone with such a distinctly Chinese aura and astonishingly handsome features. She was momentarily taken aback, "Ah? Yes, I fired the shots myself."

The young man: "..."

Baisha: "Oh no, actually the uncle pointed out the exact spot and then asked me to fire the shots."

Baisha knew what he really wanted to ask: whether her psychic power was precise enough to identify an A-level Star Worm's weaknesses. But since she had decided to play dumb, she was committed to seeing it through.

"Is your marksmanship really that accurate?" the young man observed her dispassionately.

Baisha chuckled lightly, imitating Yaning's usual manner, and gave a thumbs up, "Hit exactly where it's aimed at."

The young man actually put it to the test. He pointed to a differently colored mineral on the rock wall and asked Baisha to shoot it down. Without hesitation, Baisha complied, and after one laser shot, the mineral fell to the ground, proving her impeccable shooting skills.

However, after proving her ability, the young man seemed to lose interest in her, treating her as if she were invisible.

Baisha breathed a sigh of relief, about to find an excuse to slip away, when she heard a soldier returning to report to the young man.

"The instrument has detected a lifeform response," shouted a soldier. "But according to the coordinates, it's deeper inside the cave."

The map showed that the underground fortress led to several tunnels branching off to mines.

The young man ordered, "Keep moving forward."

Since the young man didn’t specify what to do with Baisha, the soldiers took her along deeper into the fortress. They formed a line, slowly venturing into the abyss-like tunnel, with the young man leading the way and Baisha positioned in the middle of the group.

Baisha, looking back reluctantly at the silver-white mech, asked, "Aren’t you going to retrieve your commander’s mech?"

"Retrieve it? In this narrow underground space, the mech can hardly maneuver," replied a young soldier behind Baisha. "Besides, the mech weighs tons; it can’t just grow wings and fly away. We’ll just leave it there."

Baisha: "Aren’t you afraid someone will drive it away?"

Soldier: "Who here can operate an S-level mech, you or me? And who would dare to steal our captain’s mech and court death?"

Baisha: "..." That made sense.

Surrounded by darkness, even the breathing of those nearby was distinctly audible. Baisha followed them for about three minutes when she suddenly sensed something was off.

There were Star Worms ahead.

Although she had only been on the battlefield for a day, Baisha had already clearly remembered the sensation Star Worms gave her. She could even vaguely judge the characteristics of the Star Worms based on her feelings.

The Star Worms ahead... were extremely dangerous.

The young man at the front gave the order to halt, but they had already exited the long tunnel into a wide-open space. An ominous feeling spread through the deathly still air, causing even the battle-hardened soldiers to tense up.

Baisha couldn’t help but peer ahead.

About a hundred meters away, numerous cocoon-like light orbs stood silently. The edges of these orbs seemed like soft, transparent eggshells, their cores emitting a faint blue glow. The light pulsated intensely at times and dimmed at others, like beating hearts, creating a strange resonance in Baisha’s mind—upon closer inspection, each cocoon appeared to contain a human silhouette.

In some of the cocoons, fish-like shadows had already hatched, wriggling their tails as they tried to gnaw their way out.

"Retreat immediately and report to the military," the young man's voice was edged with frost. "There's an S-level Star Worm here."

At that moment, an unexpected change occurred.

A mysterious and penetrating sound wave hit them, like the sound of flowing springs mixed with whale songs, forcefully penetrating everyone's eardrums.

Baisha felt a strong wave of dizziness, and her vision was suddenly filled with green and black spots. She couldn't help but cover her ears, focusing her attention to counteract the force that threatened to render her unconscious.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

It seemed as if some warm liquid had splashed onto the back of Baisha's neck.

Turning around, she saw a soldier in exoskeleton gear had dropped his weapon. His eyes were tightly shut, arms hanging limply, standing powerlessly like a clothes hanger. His face and neck were covered in blue veins, with blood gushing from his nose and mouth.

Startled, Baisha then heard intense gunfire ahead. Turning her head, she saw a bright blue spark exploding in the dim cave — it was their captain firing. He was using an electromagnetic pulse cannon, a compact but extremely powerful weapon.

The narrow cave echoed with the Star Worm's roar. Simultaneously, it emitted a dazzling bioluminescence, illuminating the surrounding darkness.

It was a gigantic creature hovering in the cave, its segmented body at least several dozen meters long, with a smooth, fish-like body, two pectoral fins, and no tail fin. Its neck had rows of fold-like extendable bones, similar to a fish's gills, and its abdomen was armed with sharp bone spines.

But none of these were the most remarkable aspects.

What made it unique was its entire body, from skin to bones, appeared faintly transparent, with only the visible parts flickering with a ghostly blue luminescence. When the luminescence stopped, that part of its body structure disappeared from human sight.

It had the ability to "become invisible."

"It's an S-level... Phantom Worm," a soldier, regaining consciousness, stared with blood-red eyes into the void. "It shouldn't appear on Hanbo Star... we must report this to the military immediately..."

Besides this adult Phantom Worm, there were also a dozen or so Phantom Worm eggs in front of them.

The consequences would be unimaginable if these eggs hatched successfully.

The soldier struggled to reach for his cyber-brain on his wrist, but it showed no response.

The Phantom Worm's psychic attack had already rendered their cyber-brains inoperative!

His eyes widened in disbelief, and the next second, he fell completely silent.

Suddenly, a humming sound filled the air as Baisha heard the electromagnetic pulse gun being charged to its limit. The young man facing the Star Worm turned up the output of his pulse gun to the maximum, firing a shot that exploded into a circular net of lightning, enveloping the Star Worm's head.

"Retreat, back to the mech!"

Baisha glanced at the surrounding corpses in silence for a second before the young man pushed her, and they both turned and sprinted back through the tunnel, retracing their steps in a frantic dash.

"What just happened?" Baisha gasped for breath.

"An S-level Star Worm's psychic attack, 'Brain Whine'. It's unbearable for anyone below A-level psychic strength," the young man spoke with a hint of sternness, "Phantom Worms are an extremely evolved branch of S-level Star Worms in terms of psychic power. They can use it to become invisible and their 'Brain Whine' is even more lethal."

Behind them, the Star Worm let out a long, irate roar.

"There’s only room for one in my mech's cockpit," the young man said with an unexpected calm, "I'll handle it with the mech; you take the flyer and escape. Once you're out of the Phantom Worm's psychic influence, report immediately to the military—I assume you can pilot a flyer."

"What about you? How sure are you that you can take down that Star Worm?" Baisha asked, turning to him.

The young man didn't answer her, instead climbing into the mech's cockpit.

Baisha gritted her teeth and climbed up a crane’s cable, moving agilely through the rock walls to take a shortcut to the military flyers they had arrived in.

Reason told her she should leave immediately. The young man knew she had notable psychic strength, and the appearance of the Phantom Worm was highly unusual. The military would definitely investigate this incident thoroughly, and she was using a false identity on Hanbo Star; Homman had looked for a way to escape as soon as they encountered the military...

She shouldn’t even use a military flyer. The Phantom Worm was an S-level, and the young man's mech was also S-level; he could likely hold off the Star Worm for a long time. She should seize the opportunity to escape as far as possible—the military had already lost two teams here, anyone would realize there was something wrong with this underground fortress, and they would surely find a solution...

The mech's long sword was unsheathed behind her.

Baisha looked back, the silver-white mech was already clashing with the Phantom Worm. The Phantom Worm, agilely floating in the air, always had parts of its huge body completely invisible, out of human sight. Yet the mech's blade seemed to have eyes, each strike hitting true, never missing its target.

However, due to the massive size of the Phantom Worm, each of its tail whips and bites carried immense force. Moreover, it repeated its trick, occasionally sending powerful sound waves at the mech, causing it to momentarily pause like hitting a forced stop button, before continuing its attack.

The young man in the mech was at a slight disadvantage.

Baisha watched the battle for a few seconds, frowning, before finally deciding to jump into a military flyer.

Inside the mech's cockpit, the young man swallowed the metallic taste in his throat, relieved to see Baisha finally enter the flyer. He then intensified his psychic power output. The silver-white mech's arms sank, its dodging and slashing movements became much faster, though small golden sparks began to erupt from its arms and joints.

The young man's mech drew another blade, combining both swords, gripping only the center hilt and adding stabbing movements to its slashing attacks.

He never placed his hopes on others.

Even if no rescue arrived, he was determined to kill the Star Worm with his own strength, to control his own fate!

Just when the young man thought he could unleash his full firepower without reservation, Baisha emerged again from the military flyer.

The young man: "..."

Baisha then picked another flyer, darting into it. This time, she emerged more quickly, seemingly carrying a pile of random parts.

The young man: "..."

Taking a deep breath, fully engaged in the fight with the Phantom Worm, he shouted to Baisha, "Why haven't you left yet?"

From a distance, he couldn't tell what Baisha had taken from the flyer.

Baisha was seen furiously tinkering and violently dismantling another flyer, eventually assembling something resembling a cannon. Upon closer inspection, the young man realized the cannon’s muzzle was the flyer's propulsion fire system!

"Star Worms should be afraid of fire!" Baisha wiped sweat from her neck. "Blast it with the fire gun!"

The young man didn't respond, silently driving the mech over and hoisting Baisha's makeshift cannon onto his shoulder. Rolling to dodge the Star Worm's tail sweep, he aimed at the Star Worm and pressed the trigger.

A fierce torrent of flame burst from the cannon, the recoil causing the mech to shift slightly backward. The Phantom Worm screamed as its body was scorched with large wounds. It turned to bite towards the mech, but as the mech leaped away with the fire gun, it was violently swept aside by the Phantom Worm’s suddenly visible tail.

The silver-white mech crashed against the rock wall, sending a shower of stones and dust flying. It attempted to rise, but the previously intermittent golden sparks on its body suddenly burst into a sizzling eruption.

From a distance, Baisha saw that the mech's energy source wasn't damaged, nor had it lost any limbs. Theoretically, it should have been able to continue fighting, but it was behaving erratically, as if losing control.

She had a suspicion and shouted to the mech, "The thing I built is also a bomb! Wait for the right moment to throw it, and I'll detonate it." Saying this, she turned her laser gun’s output to maximum.

The next two shots would deplete all her energy.

The mech paused for two seconds, then picked up the longsword from the ground and charged forward. It plunged the sword into the body of the phantom bug, letting itself be thrown into a weightless state as the creature struggled, before activating its flight mode to ascend into the sky. With one hand, it threw away the fire gun made of white sand.

White Sand stood on the stone platform of the underground fortress, raising her gun, focusing intently, pouring all her attention into that single target. Her vision became unnaturally clear, and she felt a power about to burst forth from her bones and blood—

Bang!

The laser bullet struck, and a dazzling burst of light and scorching wind rushed towards White Sand's face. Yet, she remained unharmed, as if isolated from the outside world.

Just for a moment, she thought she heard the clear, piercing call of a bird.

Slowly regaining her senses, she wondered—had she just imagined it?

A massive explosion shook the entire underground fortress. The cavern collapsed downwards, and the rock walls cracked. As the sand and stones were about to tumble down, White Sand saw the silver-white mech being pushed out by the blast.

The star bug struggled violently in the flames, no longer able to maintain its invisibility. In its final moments, it displayed extraordinary ferocity, stretching its neck to bite fiercely at the mech.

The mech was instantly destroyed, revealing the figure inside the cockpit.

As the phantom bug reared to swallow the boy along with the mech, White Sand raised her gun again. This time, she aimed not at the bug's head, but at the "metal moon" floating in the underground fortress.

The bullet hit the dim moon, merging with it like a meteor. The long-balanced magnetic field of the metallic sphere collapsed, causing it to fall straight down.

Landing precisely on the spine of the phantom bug.

……

After a tremor that shook the ground.

A soft cough echoed in the now silent underground fortress.

White Sand pushed aside the pile of rocks in front of her, climbing out unsteadily.

She caught sight of the wreckage of the silver-white mech amidst the rubble.

Taking a deep breath, White Sand dug out half of the mech's wreckage from the debris, pried open the cockpit, and dragged out the blood-stained boy.

White Sand gently laid the person on the ground and leaned in to listen to his heartbeat against his chest.

Fortunately, he was still alive, just unconscious.

White Sand lifted his shirt to find a deep, bone-visible wound on his slender waist, likely inflicted by the phantom bug's sharp fangs. Wounds from star bugs required immediate disinfection. Surveying the chaotic surroundings, she uncapped her flask, using the strong liquor inside to cleanse his wound. White Sand also had several rolls of bandages, which she promptly used to wrap his injuries.

After finishing all this, her gaze shifted to the boy's face, only to find his eyes faintly open, quietly observing her.

Startled, White Sand exclaimed, "…Could you make a sound when you wake up?"

The boy slowly closed his eyes, his thick lashes casting faint shadows on his cheeks, remaining silent.

"When exactly is the military arriving?" White Sand asked. "Although the tunnel to the surface might have collapsed due to our earlier actions, it shouldn’t be hard for the military to dig another one, right?"

"…The frontline is strained," the boy replied hoarsely. "Unless an S-level alert is sent, they won’t come immediately."

"Phantom bugs have a special power to hide their psychic energy. They silently bypass the military’s sensor network to come to Hanbo Star for hunting and laying eggs, leading to a comprehensive lockdown and search on the planet," he explained. "If you want to leave Hanbo Star, now is the time."

He had seen right through White Sand.

He knew her identity was a facade, probably her appearance too. But what did it matter?

They had fought side by side and killed a star bug, proving White Sand was more reliable than most people he had met. So, he didn't mind letting her go.

White Sand sighed softly, standing up and dusting herself off, "If I leave, what will you do? You are seriously injured."

Without rescue, he could very well die here.

White Sand gently tapped the boy's face, brushing off the blood, "You can barely move, stop being so stubborn."

After cleaning all the blood and dust from his face, White Sand nodded in satisfaction, preferring this cleaner look.

No matter his personality, his face was indeed to White Sand's liking.

"Damn, I forgot about those eggs," White Sand said without observing the boy's expression, rubbing her hair in annoyance. "Wait here for me."

With that, she took her dagger and ventured into the deep tunnel beneath the ground. Fortunately, the nest chosen by the phantom bug was deep enough, and the surrounding soil structure was stable, allowing her to successfully locate the batch of star bug eggs she had seen earlier.

She sliced open the jelly-like egg sac, and the viscous fluid mixed with human flesh and blood remnants spilled all over. The underdeveloped star bug larvae left the sac, emitting weak cries before White Sand swiftly ended their lives with her knife.

By the time she had finished off all the eggs, her body inevitably became tainted with a foul, sticky scent. White Sand sniffed her knife-wielding hand and almost threw up.

With a sickened expression, she left the tunnel and returned to where they had been, only to find the boy had passed out again. His dark, short hair was soaked with sweat, and though his face was devoid of pain, even peaceful, his pale lower lip trembled uncontrollably.

White Sand: "…"

Indeed, they couldn’t just sit here waiting for death.

Neither he nor she.

White Sand searched again for a flying vehicle and found several military supply boxes. She picked out a military exoskeleton suit and put it on. Although she had never used one, she had analyzed its design, so it felt natural to use. The primary function of the exoskeleton was strength amplification, which was incredibly practical for White Sand at the moment.

With the help of the exoskeleton, she easily hoisted the unconscious boy onto her shoulder and, with the other hand, took some materials left from dismantling the flying vehicle to make a small bomb.

……

Hanbo Star, 1 AM.

It had been only one day since Holman and White Sand arrived on Hanbo Star, but in these nearly thirty hours, neither had hardly slept.

Holman sat at a street corner near Hanbo Star's spaceport, pouring drink after drink into his mouth.

He regretted his actions. He shouldn't have run so fast to avoid contact with the military. Hours had passed, and White Sand hadn't shown up at the meeting point, clearly indicating something was wrong. But his further messages to White Sand's cyber-brain were like stones dropped into the ocean, receiving no response.

The temperature continued to drop, and light snow began to fall from the grey, overcast sky.

Holman decided to stop his futile worrying and return to the frontline to search for people.

Just then, a slender figure staggered towards him—it was White Sand, stripped of her disguise. She had discarded her coat, old cyber-brain, and weapons. Her silver-grey hair hung in disarray, the only thing she kept was the unfamiliar boy she supported on her shoulder.

"Tea... Teacher..." White Sand looked like she was on her last breath, "Help..."

Holman hurriedly took over, noticing the boy was covered in blood, and asked, "What happened? Who is this person?"

"I found him on the battlefield," gasped White Sand, waving her hand dismissively. "That's not important right now. What's urgent is that we need to leave Hanbo Star immediately. Phantom bugs have appeared here, and a lockdown is imminent."

"S-class star bugs?" Holman's expression changed as he quickly grasped White Sand's meaning. "That's strange. If the military had detected the phantom bugs, Hanbo Star's spaceport should already be closed."

White Sand replied, "Because I haven't informed them yet."

Holman: "?"

"Let's hurry home," White Sand said wearily. "I left a message on their military communicator; it will send in about two hours. We need to catch a starship back fast, or it'll be too late—but what about this guy? Can he travel by starship?"

Holman: "Why didn't you take him to a hospital?"

White Sand: "He's a captain in the Federal Military. With injuries like these, wouldn't they detain me once they identify him?"

Holman: "???"

While the master and apprentice were exchanging confused looks, Holman's cyber-brain on his wrist suddenly rang. When he answered, it was surprisingly from Old Liao.

Old Liao's voice was angry and deep, like a brewing thunderstorm: "Holman Grice, you bastard, did you take my student to the battlefield? I've said it before, White Sand is a genius as a mechanic; she doesn't need your harsh training and twisted psychic testing methods. How dare you bring her to the frontline? You—"

"Cough, teacher," White Sand interrupted, smiling at the cyber-brain, "I'm still here, and I'm fine!"

Upon seeing White Sand, Old Liao's expression and tone did a complete one-eighty: "Really? Where are you guys now?"

White Sand: "Hanbo Star."

Old Liao's breath hitched, his neck stiffened in preparation to continue scolding, but White Sand quickly changed the subject: "We'll be back soon, but there's a problem with the spaceport. I've lost my disguise and fake identity, so I can't board a starship."

Old Liao, on the other end of the communication, took a deep breath and said sternly: "I have a friend on Hanbo Star, you can use his private starship to come back. I'll contact him right away."

After some turmoil, they finally found a way back.

Holman and White Sand exchanged glances, both breathing a sigh of relief.

……

Back on Lanslo Star, Holman took the boy to treat his wounds, while White Sand headed back to the orphanage on her own.

White Sand staggered towards her room. All she wanted now was a good sleep, nothing else.

It was the afternoon on Lanslo Star, the sun shining brightly. A group of six or seven-year-old children formed a circle, playing and laughing in the yard.

They noticed White Sand passing by and, as usual, ran over cheerfully, intending to hug her legs and act spoiled. However, they stopped a few steps away from her, pinching their noses and making odd faces.

"Sister White Sand, where have you been?" a child asked in a childish voice. "Sister, you smell bad."

White Sand paused, lifted her arm to sniff it, and then showed a numb expression.

"That's because I went to the seafood market to gut fish," she explained. "It's all for a living. You'll understand when you grow up."