Iron Bull taucht wieder auf

Kapitel 293

"You need 'Samadhi Fire'?" I cautiously changed the subject, hoping to probe the Martians' likes, dislikes, and weaknesses. For humans, as long as there are likes and dislikes, there will be fatal weaknesses, without exception. I can boldly guess that Martians are no different.

"Of course, we need a temperature, at least twice that of the human body on Earth, ideally close to three times, equivalent to the temperature of boiling water. This is the constant temperature standard of the Martian environment. Only under such conditions can Martians' cognitive processing capabilities reach their limit, making them truly advanced civilizations. On Earth, my own abilities gradually deteriorate. When this deterioration reaches a certain level, not only will all my superpowers disappear, but the activity level of my brain cells will also drop to zero, turning me into what you call a 'vegetable,' like a 'vegetable' without consciousness, living on until the destruction of Earth. In the minds of Earthlings, we've always believed that aliens possess superpowers and can do whatever they want, but if we become 'vegetables,' existing painfully for hundreds or thousands of years, wouldn't that far exceed what Earthlings can endure?"

When he mentioned "temperature" and "vegetables," I seemed to have a thought: "What if the temperature continues to rise? For example, 300 degrees Celsius, or even the extremely high temperatures in a high-temperature steel furnace, would that also harm Martians?"

This time, he shook his head with a cold laugh: "Heh heh, this question is very similar to Alpha's line of thinking! However, my answer will probably disappoint all Earthlings—"

Strange noises came from a cave entrance on the right side of the stone chamber, as if someone was running rapidly with a heavy object, their footsteps and panting filling the air.

He abruptly reached under his gray robe, and with a click, as if flipping a switch, a white light suddenly illuminated the middle of the aircraft's fuselage, revealing a five-meter square screen. A remarkably robust young man appeared in the center of the screen, wearing a yellow military uniform over a black bulletproof vest. Most chillingly, a massive machine gun was slung diagonally across his right shoulder, its dark, high-capacity drum magazine protruding abruptly from the side of the bolt, like the Grim Reaper's scythe.

He was running fast, his face and bald head covered in sweat, but he didn't bother to wipe it away.

"Another victim—Alpha laid nearly 50,000 entrances to this labyrinthine place around the world. Initially, Earthlings lacked search tools, making the discovery of these entrances extremely slow. After World War II, Earthlings' tremendous advancements in weapons manufacturing and war machines made finding these entrances quite easy. Therefore, many idiots with the mindset of 'exploration, treasure hunting, and killing the enemy' would recklessly rush in without regard for their lives. You see, such individuals often have extremely low levels of thinking; otherwise, they wouldn't spontaneously and blindly charge forward. In Earthlings' dictionary, this kind of suicidal attack is called 'freedom warrior,' right?"

He's absolutely right. Suicide attacks are widely used in the Middle East, and there are indeed many willing to sacrifice themselves without knowing why they're fighting. While their bodies soar into the sky amidst flying bombs, perhaps the politicians who encouraged them are celebrating their successes and indulging in revelry.

"Perhaps everyone's value is different, so their thoughts are also different. In their eyes, sacrificing oneself for one's faith is the most glorious and valuable thing." That was the only answer I could give.

It is widely known that many religious scholars assert that the 21st century is an era of faith collapse, and if this continues, the quality of people on Earth will decline significantly, allowing various deadly pathogens to spread rapidly. If someone is willing to "fight for their faith," they are at least a rare wise person in this world where "everyone is drunk but I am sober."

"And you? What brings you here?" he immediately countered.

"I have come to protect Earth and to kill all alien enemies," I answered without hesitation. There is no doubt about that.

"If I am an alien enemy, then what about Alpha? Isn't he also an alien in your eyes? Perhaps you think that Alpha's existence will not pose any threat to Earth, but I am certain that his purpose in coming to Earth is definitely not as simple as sightseeing. When he runs out of energy like me and needs to extract a large amount or even all of his energy from the interests of Earthlings, will you still think he is an ally of Earthlings?"

He slowly bent down and pulled out the triangular pyramid. In that instant, I had thirteen opportunities to attack, but I did not take any action.

“You’re very calm, completely different from them. I really admire you—” He pointed to the various slides on the right, sneering dismissively, “Look, this is how these so-called ‘heroic warriors’ of Earth generously face their deaths!”

With his laughter, the young soldier on the screen appeared through a hole in the rock wall and fell down the slide.

"Don't kill him!" I shouted in time to stop him.

“Those mindless lives are not worth pitying at all, don’t you understand?” He shook his head and sighed, raising the triangular pyramid above his head as if to throw it like a dart.

“It’s precisely because they’re mindless that they deserve to be pitied, isn’t it? Because they have no idea what they’re doing, they should be given another chance, shouldn’t they?” I didn’t want to watch this young man of American descent die in vain.

The young man had already flipped and jumped off the edge of the slide. After quickly assessing his surroundings, he charged towards the aircraft in a serpentine sprint, his movements fierce and powerful. Judging from his style of action, he was likely an elite member of the U.S. Delta Force, one of the most valiant and skilled soldiers among my kind.

"Give him another chance to show off his stupidity?" he sneered again.

In fact, we were already within the effective range of the heavy machine gun, but the young man kept charging forward, presumably more confident in his close-quarters combat skills. Delta Force excels at training lone warriors and emphasizes that "individual heroism is the key to victory," so it's not surprising that the young man performed like this.

Part 5: The Source of Energy

— Chapter 6 — Suddenly Encountering a Frozen World —

In such an open, unprotected environment, a serpentine route was perhaps the best option for launching an attack. When the young man was forty paces away from us, he had already leveled his machine gun, ready to fire without fear.

His face was painted with three-color camouflage, which further confirmed my judgment.

"Hands up, stand still, don't move—" He meticulously followed the instructions in the combat manual.

"Look, his intelligence is only good enough to function as a machine; he's incapable of any innovation. When I discovered Alpha's vicious trap, I was filled with remorse and wished I could kill every idiot on Earth. Did you hear me? Every idiot! Regardless of age or gender, anyone whose intelligence is below my tolerance level, kill them all immediately, without exception!" the Illusion Demon roared furiously.

The young man was approaching step by step. It was clear that this was his first time accepting such a combat mission, and he did not think much about the two men standing in front of the spacecraft.

I retorted to the illusion demon without backing down: "He has the right to live. In the laws of Earthlings, every life has the right to live, and no force can take that away. If you make a move, I will make a move in return."

"Is that so? Knives and guns are what Earthlings rely on?" His fingers didn't move noticeably, yet the triangular pyramid shot out, but I unleashed a powerful, focused strike, slashing at the pyramid. The blade seemed to pass through the pyramid, but after the blade's strike, it reformed and rolled to the ground.

The young man's machine roared to life, and the Phantom Demon vanished in a flash, hiding in a corner behind the spacecraft. I had kindly helped the young man, but his bullets showed no mercy, sweeping across like a torrent, forcing me to tumble forward and hide alongside the Phantom Demon.

"I'm not afraid of bullets, I just want you to see with your own eyes how stupid some Earthlings are. You help him, but all he can think about is killing; he can't think of anything else."

The illusion demon's mocking laughter came in a low voice, and I saw something about to stretch out from his back beneath the tattered gray robe.

“That’s a soldier’s duty; completing the mission is the top priority. I understand him—” I wanted to fight for this poor young man’s right to live; he shouldn’t have accepted such a dangerous mission.

The sound of gunfire resumed, striking the outer wall of the spacecraft, sparks flying, and a series of strange clanging noises.

"Brother Wind, Brother Wind..." Su Lun's voice suddenly rang out above the slide from which I had fallen, anxious and concerned.

Before I could respond, the young man had already turned his gun towards the source of the sound, paused for only two seconds, and then fired again without any hesitation.

"That idiot!" I couldn't help but curse him. This guy thought he could sweep everything away and do whatever he wanted just because he was holding a heavy machine gun. Little did he know that if I hadn't blocked the illusion demon's attack for him, he would have been flying to heaven long ago.

I poked my head out, glanced at the top of the slide, and immediately yelled, "Hey, don't shoot! We're good guys!"

I haven't uttered the word "good person" in a long time. After all, every time I'm on the front lines, I don't have to reveal my identity or worry about the lives of the enemy. Now, I've encountered a guy who just knows how to fire randomly, so I can only follow his lead.

Bullets rained down on him, and he paid no attention to what I was saying, just kept pulling the trigger, as if his only mission here was to empty that huge drum of ammunition.

"Let him die!" the Illusion Demon sneered, tearing his grey robe at the back to reveal his true form. He charged forward like lightning. The young man turned his gun, adopting a kneeling firing position, creating a whistling net of bullets in front of him, but those bullets...

It was completely useless; although the arrow hit the illusion demon, it did no harm to him.

The young man was hit almost without any reaction. At the same time, he was struck hard on the back by the illusion demon's six hands. He fell backward helplessly, and the heavy machine gun was thrown aside.

"Suren, I'm here, don't come down—" I ran towards the slide, shouting as I ran, but she had already fallen down, adopting the same crouching and head-covering posture as me, sliding all the way to my feet, and then using the momentum to spring up in a "carp leaping" motion.

"Brother Feng, are you alright? I was so worried about you!" She grabbed my hand and shook it vigorously, her joy overflowing.

I could only manage a wry smile: "Fine, but you shouldn't have come down; it's dangerous here."

Suren immediately spotted the imposing illusion demon and reached for his gun, but I stopped him in time: "Don't move. Bullets won't hurt him. Don't waste your time."

Even heavy machine gun bullets couldn't kill him, let alone the thinner pistol bullets.

"I killed him for you, and you're not even thanking me?" He stepped on the young man's back, letting out a strange, grotesque laugh, his six arms swinging slowly like a lonely, eerie Brazilian wood.

I've personally witnessed Tang Qing and the tiger's six-armed forms after their transformations, but compared to the current Illusion Demon, they pale in comparison. He gives me the feeling of a colossal Buddha leaning against a green mountain, his feet firmly planted on the earth, brimming with invincible power. Beneath his gray robe lies a shimmering silver metal bodysuit; when his six arms swing simultaneously, they reflect each other's silver light, creating a terrifying whistling wind.

"Brother Feng, this is the Illusion Demon, we can't let him go!" Suren broke free from my hand, quickly drew his gun, and aimed forward.

In my opinion, the Crystal Sword seems more effective against the Illusion Demon, and combined with my "Overreach Blade," it might be able to carve a bloody path. But then again, what good would killing the Illusion Demon do? Those passages are irreversible; Suren and I would be trapped here, with no way out.

Whether Guan Nan Goro's plan to control the "Asian Gear" succeeds or fails, this mountain will always become a casualty of gunfire, and no one will remember that we were ever here.

“It’s no use, Suren. Even if we kill him, we won’t get out. Those maze paths are just one-way routes; there’s no way to go back. You shouldn’t have come down to find me.” I didn’t want to drag her into this, but in the end, I couldn’t avoid it.

Once you reach the end of those maze-like passageways, you'll inevitably be tricked by attraction and fall down against your will. What truly drags us down is Alpha, not anyone else.

“Your energy is very useful. Now, I should go and rest. I’ll come back when you’re trapped and on the verge of death. I hope your deaths will lead to the spacecraft’s restart, hehehehe…” He walked triumphantly toward the spacecraft’s gangway, completely ignoring what Suren and I were discussing.

This is his world, where all the rules of conduct for Earthlings no longer apply.

Suren's gaze fell on the heavy machine gun the young man had thrown down: "Brother Feng, that's the most powerful shooting weapon. Shall we give it a shot?"

I hesitated for a few seconds. Judging by the young man's firing rate, there were at least a third of bullets left in the drum magazine, though they might not be effective against the illusion demon. Suren hadn't grasped the current situation; purely in terms of military capability, the Delta Force was no less formidable than us.

“It’s no use, Su—” I had barely opened my mouth when she snatched it away, bent down, grabbed the machine gun, and aimed it at the Phantom Demon. The latter was only halfway up the gangway when Su Lun pulled the trigger hard. Gunfire splattered everywhere, and the “rat-a-tat-tat” of bullets cutting through the air once again shook the vast space.

This time I observed it clearly: after the bullet hit the illusion demon, it passed smoothly through his body and bounced onto the spacecraft, but he had no blood or wounds on his body and continued to climb upwards.

The bullets were all used up, and the gun barrel must have been overheated, but the enemy was unharmed.

Suren stood there blankly for two or three minutes before she came to her senses: "Brother Feng, is the Illusion Demon really not afraid of bullets?"

I nodded. At that moment, the Illusion Demon opened the hatch and went inside, leaving only Suren and me standing in the empty stone chamber. Because we couldn't escape via the slides on all four sides, he could return to the spacecraft without any worries.

The current predicament is entirely Alpha's fault. We are no different from the young people who died; we are all his chosen victims. Knowing that humanity cannot eliminate the Illusion Demon in a short time, he still made this choice, which shows that he has no respect for the lives of Earthlings.

Suren was somewhat frustrated, and kept looking out at the cave entrances in all directions.

"What's the situation outside? Has Guan Nan Wulang already taken control of the global situation?" That was the most troublesome thing. Although Yesak was dead, there were still those seventeen white-robed men who could obediently serve him.

"Several major economic powers accepted his conditions and will withdraw their respective polar expedition teams within 72 hours. However, this is not his true objective. He will propose even more demanding conditions. In short, he wants control of the entire planet, not the support of one or a few small nations. Brother Feng, this incident is bound to escalate into a major conflict, because Yan Xun once told me that the American spy satellite monitoring system can pinpoint the location of radio waves emitted from Earth to within a 50-meter radius. Almost the instant he made the call, he exposed his position, and a large number of troops could enter this area at any moment—"

Suren didn't fully express his meaning, but I understood that if Guan Nan Wulang were attacked, the detonation of the "ultimate weapon" would be inevitable. He could choose to perish with the Earth; after a deafening explosion, our blue planet would be split in two, becoming one of the newest ruins in the universe.

This mutually destructive consequence is something that the Middle Eastern hegemon, who possessed "powerful weapons," once faced, but fate prevented him from succeeding, and he ultimately surrendered to the guns of the Marines.

“Death is the only outcome,” I concluded for her. “Therefore, we must go out, for the sake of others and for our own.” I never wanted to bow down to the pressure of fate, even when things had become unbearably bad.

Suren turned around repeatedly, carefully observing the arrangement of the holes on the stone wall, muttering to himself as if he were calculating something. With so many holes, if he had to explore them one by one, it would take an incredibly long time, making it an impossible task.

I leaned down and gazed at this brave but ignorant young man, wondering where he came from and whether he had any companions. If he did, it was best he never came down, lest he bring about his own destruction.

“Brother Feng, these maze-like passages seem familiar. Trust me, give me enough time, and I’ll definitely be able to find a way out.” She took the military watch off the young man’s left wrist, stared at the compass for a few seconds, and then resolutely walked to the left. There, a dozen or so openings were located at the highest point of the stone wall, arranged in the shape of a five-pointed star.

“It’s right there, the only way out. But out of the dozen or so openings, only one is the right one. Which one is it?” She looked up, lost in silent thought. The closest opening to the ground was at least thirty meters high, requiring at least half an hour of free climbing—no easy task.

"Beep beep—whoosh," hundreds of indicator lights on the spacecraft suddenly lit up, and three beams of white light shone straight upwards, forming three narrow but powerful spots of light on the top of the stone chamber. The colors, brightness, and shapes of those lights were all kinds of strange, and more than half of them were flashing incessantly.

I was taken aback: "Is the spacecraft about to start and move away?"

Suren was engrossed in his own thoughts, completely ignoring everything around him.

The lights were on for about five minutes, but the spacecraft did not make any further violent movements. Instead, it suddenly fell silent, with no more lights or alarms.

I immediately stood up and hurried towards the spacecraft, only briefly greeting Suren: "Be careful, I'm going to check on it."

What just happened seemed to indicate that the illusion demon had activated the spacecraft, but failed for some reason. As I approached the gangway, I suddenly had a strange feeling; it was as if everything around me had abruptly become deathly silent, devoid of life and warmth.

"What's wrong? Why do I feel so cold?" I hugged my arms tightly, still feeling the chill rolling in from all directions, as if I were standing in a giant ice cave.

I climbed the gangway and practically hopped along, reaching the cabin door in less than a minute. I listened intently, but there was no sound from inside.

The gaps in the silver metal hatch were covered with milky white frost, a discovery that only deepened my confusion: "The Illusion Demon said that Martians prefer ever-increasing heat, but how could the spacecraft possibly be covered in frost?"

My hand landed on the silver handle, first silently rotating it, then suddenly pulling it open. A person stumbled out, crashing into me, then tumbling down the gangway with a bang, sliding a long distance on the ground, as if a large bag of ice had been dropped.

That was the shrunken phantom demon, now hunched over, motionless, completely encased in ice. Inside the hatch, everything was filled with transparent ice and frost, making it impossible to step. Through the translucent ice, I could vaguely make out the control panel, indicator lights, and a dozen or so swivel chairs at the back. Undoubtedly, that was the spacecraft's control center, but now it was completely surrounded by the sudden influx of ice and rendered unusable.

Left with no other choice, I first removed the gangway and gently helped him up.

His body was already stiff, and he couldn't even take off his helmet because it was so cold. He could only maintain a half-sitting position.

“My energy… all my energy has disappeared. What happened? Have Earthlings discovered… the survival secrets of Martians? Why is there no energy? Who extracted all my energy and took it all away, leaving nothing… Who, who, who…” He tried to stand up, but all his joints were encased in solid ice, making it even worse than when he was imprisoned in the crystal.

"Is it Alpha?" I immediately asked back.

Since Alpha has the ability to turn inert gases into crystals, it can naturally create an ice-bound world to completely trap the illusion demon.

"No...it's not him...he doesn't have a way to absorb Martian energy...I'm going to disappear, I'm really going to disappear, save me...save me, give me energy...give me back my energy..." He had six arms, but now he couldn't move any of them, they were all embedded in ice.

Even more bizarrely, the thickness of those ice layers is increasing, so they don't need to absorb moisture from the air at all. Instead, they are extracting the liquid inside the Martian's body layer by layer and then freezing it into ice.

Just minutes ago, he was a powerful and all-powerful ruler in control, but now he's a weakling begging me for help—this change is truly bizarre. I glanced back at the open door on the spacecraft; the ice was expanding rapidly, overflowing from the doorway and spreading down the gangway. Perhaps in the coming days, the ground would be covered in ice, turning this place into a cold, lifeless world.

"What exactly happened? The loss of energy will cause a sharp drop in space temperature. Do you have any other solutions? We can cooperate—" Just then, a layer of white frost quickly appeared on the outer wall of the spacecraft. Then, the white frost upgraded into thin ice, forming a spectacular giant ice pillar.

“Energy is the life source of Martians. Without... without energy, any planet will be covered in ice and snow. I’m finished, and you will be finished too... This will be a world of ice... Another great ice age will begin here... But I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…” He shook his head vigorously, trying to break the ice on his neck and to turn his arms to break free from the ice.

In the current situation, I could help him break through the ice and free him, but I must consider the consequences. I would rather choose the harshness of the ice than the horrific carnage he would cause.