Chapter 238: Two Ways Out
Su Jin, Kano Mai, and Situ Jin made their way toward the fighting area with the two children in tow as quickly as they could. Thankfully, Su Jin had already cleared the way when he went to the shelter earlier on, so they didn’t run into any obstacles along the way. The mutated crew behind them couldn’t catch up with them after a while. It seemed like they couldn’t run very fast for too long, and were only slightly faster than an ordinary human. It was definitely impossible for them to catch up with owners like Su Jin.
This was probably one way in which the Handbook allowed for owners to survive. If the enemies could attack so aggressively, could restore their bodies, AND run incredibly quickly, an ordinary owner was dead meat.
At the same time, Arkas was busy transforming all the crew left in the shelter. He wasn’t too bothered by the few who got away. Or perhaps he wasn’t bothered because everyone was stuck on a spaceship that was still floating in outer space, so even if Su Jin and his friends could run, they couldn’t hide forever. He could still capture them eventually.
The children in Kano Mai and Situ Jin’s arms were terribly frightened and were trembling nonstop. They were children born on the Fearless, so they were even more innocent and sheltered compared to their peers on Earth. They had been born into a world with no worries and were surrounded by adults who cared dearly for them. That resulted in them being even more helpless than usual in the face of danger.
Su Jin suddenly stopped running. His mind was still thinking about what just happened. Kano Mai and Situ Jin also stopped when they saw him stop.
“Jin, what’s wrong?” asked Kano Mai.
Su Jin was silent for a while. He kept running through everything that had happened again and again, putting them together and hoping to find useful information he could work with.
“Something’s not right. If this is really the case, then this can’t be only a Level B Challenge. Unless you change the conditions for passing the Challenge to how much time we can stay alive, everyone’s definitely going to die at this rate. This doesn’t sound right,” murmured Su Jin.
“It is very strange, alright. That scene earlier looked like buddha shining his light down on everyone to turn them into buddhas. Everyone transformed in an instant. There’s no way you can fight that,” said Situ Jin angrily as he punched the wall.
But these words made Su Jin’s eyes light up. He stared at Situ Jin and murmured, “You’re right. The light of buddha shining down on humans to save them: those people didn’t transform into some new species. The worms already hiding in their bodies were activated and Arkas merely started the process!”
“Wait, what?!” Kano Mai and Situ Jin were both astounded by this idea.
Su Jin only became more certain that his conjecture was correct. “That’s definitely it. We got the premise wrong right from the start. We thought that Reginald and Arkas, as well as that biologist, were the source of the worms and were spreading it to the others. But… they were all crew onboard the Fearless. Why were they the only ones infected?”
“Why? You mean… it isn’t just the way the Challenge was designed?” Situ Jin was a little confused.
Su Jin shook his head. “After going through so many Challenges, I’ve confirmed that all these Challenges are happening within the multiple universes we live in, so this is a real thing that’s actually happening. The Handbook is just making use of its tremendous power to intervene a little, then place us here. The Handbook might interfere with some of the details in the setting, but… it’s not going to interfere with the general situation.
“Right from the start, there was no hint to tell us that Reginald and Arkas were carriers of these aliens. They were merely the first batch of mutants.”
Situ Jin furrowed his brows and asked, “But… why was it just the two of them of all people?”
“Think about it carefully!” said Su Jin with a smile.
Kano Mai’s eyes widened as she exclaimed, “It’s because the two of them… were the two who woke up the last time. The Fearless will wake some of the crew up at fixed intervals to check on the ship, and it woke just two people up the last time. The second captain Reginald, as well as Arkas!”
Su Jin nodded slightly and said, “That’s right. That’s the only thing they have in common. In other words, the worms had already started to take over their bodies from the last time they awoke. But they just felt that there was something odd about their bodies, so they went back into hibernation. The low temperature is probably a way to stop the mutations from happening. But this time round, Captain Jefferson turned off everybody’s hibernation pods, so their mutation was able to continue and they eventually became what they look like right now.”
The other two finally realized what was happening and their expressions quickly turned to one of horror. Su Jin smiled sadly and nodded to confirm their fears. “Yup. If things are exactly as I guessed, then even if the crew aren’t infected, they’ll still mutate.”
“If that’s the case, then there’s no way we can get through this Challenge,” said Situ Jin with a frown.
Su Jin sighed. “We realized this too late. If we got the crew to return to their hibernation pods when the mutations first started, we would be able to control this situation. But now… it’s going to be hard.”
“Does that mean there’s no way out for us now? I mean, if all the crew onboard will eventually mutate, then the mission to keep at least one human onboard alive will be impossible! The other condition of the same mission is to kill all of the aliens. That’s a contradiction in itself.” Kano Mai was at a loss.
But Su Jin’s thoughts were becoming clearer and clearer. He looked at the two children they had brought along and suddenly asked, “Why do you guys think all the crew got infected with those worms? What’s the thing they have in common?”
The other two began pondering his question and Situ Jin was the faster one this time. “I get it now! The Challenge seems to have cornered us into a dead end, but… it’s actually left two possibilities for us.”
“I know the first one. If we realized that everyone was already infected and low temperatures could stop the worms from becoming active early on, we just needed to find a way to get everyone back into their hibernation pods and we’d be able to survive this. Two of them had already mutated, but no matter how dangerous they were, we would still be able to defeat just two and we’d have plenty of humans left alive. But accomplishing this was almost impossible in the first place because we had too little information on hand. Not even our team leader managed to understand this so early in the Challenge. So… what’s the second one?” Kano Mai ran through her thoughts but couldn’t think of what the second possibility was.
“The second one is in our arms right now!” Situ Jin patted the head of the little boy he was carrying with a smile. “Didn’t you hear what our team leader said? The thing in common that all the crew have is that they once traveled to the Hiding Place of God. They were infected during the exploration process. So, who else hasn’t gone to the Hiding Place of God and is onboard this ship besides us owners?”
Situ Jin had a faint smile as he spoke. This was the first time he was actually referring to Su Jin properly as his team leader. He normally just used Su Jin’s name or called him “that fellow,” but it was clear that Situ Jin now truly trusted Su Jin.
It finally dawned on Kano Mai. It was these two children. The Hiding Place of God was extremely dangerous, so there was no way these two young ones would have been allowed to go there. They were the key to the owners’ survival.
The two children shrank back fearfully. They knew that these three adults were talking about them, but they didn’t know exactly what else they were referring to. They just knew that they were extremely important to the adults.
“I see. What do we do now?” asked Kano Mai.
Su Jin paused to think, then said, “To play safe, let’s get them back into their hibernation pods. We’ve got an ugly battle ahead and it would be too dangerous to bring them along.”
The other two nodded in agreement. They couldn’t change the situation now and they would have to fight to the end. Carrying two children to a fight was equivalent to bringing two burdens along. It was not a wise choice that would benefit either party.
The three of them changed course and headed for the hibernation pods. The hibernation pods were scattered across various areas, so they followed the directions given by Fearless to the ones closest to them.
“Okay both of you, have a good rest here and wait for us to come back, alright?” said Kano Mai gently. They nodded obediently in response to the words of this pretty lady speaking so sweetly to them.
“Fearless, activate the hibernation pods,” Su Jin said to Fearless.
“Understood. Please enter the hibernation pods and they will activate immediately.”
The two children walked into the pods. They didn’t reject the idea of hibernation at all. After traveling through outer space for so long, going into hibernation was as natural to them as any human on Earth going to bed.
After the pods were activated, the two children’s vital signs slowed down and they seemed like they were about to die. But that was the only way humans could possibly travel in outer space.
Even after all that was done, Su Jin was still unsettled because he was afraid that the big fight would eventually reach this place. He thought about it for a moment, then began to pull a lot of things apart. A large number of hibernation pods were quickly dismantled with his bare hands.
“Are you… trying to take the spaceship apart with your bare hands?” asked Situ Jin in shock.
“I want to block off this entire area. So, even if the worms discover this place and get to the children, they’re going to have a hard time!” Su Jin quickly took a large number of hibernation pods apart, but he was still not satisfied and continued dismantling some of the other equipment around them. As long as they didn’t affect their hibernation, he was going to take it apart.
A few minutes later, it was impossible to see the hibernation pods of the two children. They were like the snake spirit and scorpion spirit trapped inside Calabash Mountain in the animation series, the Calabash Brothers[^note1].
[^note1]: Chinese animation from the 80s that was extremely well loved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calabash_Brothers.
They left the area once they were done fortifying the place. Their target destination was still the fighting area. The crew there might not have mutated yet, so if they could team up and form a proper defense system, they could wear out the worms on Arkas’ side.
When they got close, Su Jin stopped again. He pricked his ears up and a smile spread across his face. He could hear the sound of people fighting, so the crew in the fighting area probably hadn’t mutated yet, and they were fighting Arkas and his little army.
“Do we join the fight?” asked Situ Jin.
Su Jin shook his head and said quietly, “Let’s wait for a while. Let’s wait until both sides have been worn down a bit more. They’re both our opponents after all!”
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