Chapter 241: Last Man Standing
“No… no… NO!!!” Su Jin started yelling uncontrollably. His companions were dying one by one before his very own eyes. First it was Wu Chen, then Situ Jin, and now, Kano Mai.
All of this was because he was a lousy leader. He was the leader of the team, yet he had failed to protect his teammates.
“I’m… going to kill you!” Su Jin’s eyes were bloodshot. He was like a wild beast that had been provoked and went on a massacre.
Any moving creature that appeared before him would be smashed to pieces in a second, so before long, the aliens started to have difficulty holding him back.
“Did I go a little too far?” Arkas smiled and didn’t seem to be bothered by how Su Jin had gone berserk.
He looked at Su Jin from afar and said, “Do you know why I dare to agitate you? It’s because… the way I stay alive has changed. After evolving, I can even survive in outer space. But as an ordinary human, you can’t!
“Evolution is for the sake of survival and I think you have an even deeper understanding of this phrase. So what if you’re really formidable? I just have to leave this spaceship and you won’t be able to catch me anymore. A great white shark might be the top predator in the sea, but it’ll never be able to hurt even the weakest rabbit because it can’t survive on land.
“These are the rules to survival. You can only continue living if you have the ability to survive.”
Su Jin ignored Arkas’ smug words, since he was focused on getting rid of all the worms in front of him. But even though the worms were formidable, they were killed easily when faced with Su Jin on a rampage.
In fact, Su Jin no longer cared if the worms would hurt him or not. He only wanted to kill them all.
Arkas behaved like he was watching an exciting action film, clapping and cheering from time to time. Su Jin couldn’t wait to tear the old man to pieces, but every time he tried to get closer, his path would be blocked by more worms who didn’t seem to fear death at all.
After some time, the worms were nearly all killed by Su Jin. Arkas slowly got to his feet, straightened his clothes, sneered at Su Jin, then walked out of the fighting zone.
A few minutes later, Su Jin finally finished killing all the worms in his way. He wasn’t sure if there were more hiding in the shadows, but he knew that his priority was now to stop Arkas from leaving.
Just like what Arkas had said earlier, Su Jin was unable to survive in outer space. So, if Arkas managed to leave the ship, then he would fail the Challenge and any hopes he had of surviving would be dashed.
Su Jin gave chase, and thankfully, Arkas hadn’t left for long. Also, because of the large pools of blood all over the floor, he could see a pair of clear footsteps in the blood. He just needed to follow them.
It didn’t take long for him to hear Arkas’ voice.
“Fearless, send out all the small spaceships and leave none of them behind in the main ship.” Arkas was afraid that Su Jin would use one of the smaller spaceships to chase him down.
“Mr. Arkas, I would like to remind you that if all the small spaceships are sent out, the Fearless will have one option less if it runs into danger,” said the ship.
“I know. Enough of this nonsense. Send them all out right now and open the airlock,” snapped Arkas a little impatiently.
Su Jin immediately spoke up, “Fearless, cancel the instructions to send the spaceships out and do not open the airlock.”
“I’m very sorry but Mr. Arkas has a higher level of authority than you do. It is not possible for you to override his instructions,” responded Fearless.
“Damn it,” cursed Su Jin. “What’s the point of having an AI like you?!”
Arkas was less than 300 meters away from Su Jin, but the airlock had already been opened, so he snorted at Su Jin, then leaped out.
Su Jin didn’t have time to think. He was like an arrow as he covered the distance of 300 meters in two seconds and leaped out of the airlock as well.
Arkas was just beginning to enjoy his new body that could survive in outer space when he felt something grab him. Su Jin had run fast enough to launch himself far enough to grab hold of him.
“You’re really crazy! You’re going to die like this!” Arkas burst out laughing. To him, Su Jin was nothing more than a foolish madman. It was impossible for a mere human to fight his evolved body in outer space. Su Jin was definitely going to die.
Su Jin too, knew that it was foolish to fight Arkas in outer space, but he didn’t have much of a choice. Also, he had to get this over and done with as fast as possible. Otherwise, even if Arkas didn’t do anything, Su Jin was going to die from asphyxiation first.
Su Jin grabbed hold of Arkas’ leg, pulled him back and punched him in the stomach. But in outer space, Su Jin’s punch was nowhere as powerful as it usually was. He threw his best punch, but Arkas only moved less than an inch back.
Arkas grinned at Su Jin. He knew he didn’t have to worry about this stupid human.
A thin pair of wings suddenly emerged from his back and several stingers emerged from his underarm, like those found on the crew members who had turned into worms.
Arkas used these stingers to attack Su Jin, and Su Jin had no choice but to defend himself. But Arkas’ stingers were too numerous for him. Furthermore, Su Jin was only left with one arm.
It didn’t take long for Su Jin to be covered in injuries. But the bigger problem was that he was running out of oxygen.
Arkas stopped attacking Su Jin when he noticed that Su Jin was going to run out of air soon. He wanted to take the time to watch Su Jin die a painful death.
“Doesn’t it feel terrible? I’ve always felt that asphyxiation is the worst way to die. That despair you feel despite being fully conscious, unable to do anything about the situation… HA!” said Arkas with a cackle.
Su Jin was in great pain but he was now too far from Fearless, so it was impossible for him to get back to the spaceship. He was going to lose this last battle after all.
He felt indignation and fury, but none of it was going to help his situation. The Handbook’s universe was a cruel one. Every owner who died in a Challenge felt the same way after all, except that it was now happening to himself. There was nothing for him to be angry about, really. He was considered lucky to have met good people who had joined his team, just that he had let them down.
Just then, a giant shadow covered him. In his delirium, Su Jin realized it was the giant Fearless.
Fearless had moved toward them and adjusted its body such that the airlock faced both of them.
“Damn it, what’s going on?” Arkas began to panic. Why was Fearless suddenly coming toward them?
He struggled and tried to get out of Su Jin’s grasp, but Su Jin managed to find one last burst of energy and held onto Arkas tightly.
Arkas tried to move his wings and fly further away, but Su Jin was holding onto those too.
While Arkas was still struggling, Fearless had come much closer and sucked the two of them back into the ship.
Once they were both inside, Fearless shut the airlock and air flowed into Su Jin’s lungs once more.
“Gasp! HOOO!” Su Jin panted heavily. He had never realized how delicious oxygen was until now.
“Mr. Su, I think you should understand the reason why AI exists now,” Fearless suddenly spoke.
Su Jin blinked a couple of times before bursting out in laughter. “Indeed, I understand now! Thank you so much, Fearless!”
“You don’t have to thank me. It is my job to ensure the safety of all crew onboard in the first place.” Fearless’ voice was still just as robotic and emotionless, but it sounded like the most beautiful voice in the world to Su Jin.
“Fearless, I command you to…” Arkas started shouting a command but Su Jin punched him in the mouth before he could finish his sentence.
“And now, round two has begun! Okay, little bunny! You’re now in great white shark territory!” This time, Su Jin was grinning.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Arkas. Please repeat your instructions. I am unable to carry out your instructions if you do not speak clearly,” said Fearless. It was a standard response, but it sounded sarcastic now.
Arkas didn’t have the time to repeat his commands at all, because Su Jin was tearing him apart.
Su Jin channeled all his anger into his fist, and each punch was so powerful that they felt like bombs exploding on Arkas’ body.
Arkas wasn’t very good at fighting and was on the same level as the female biologist. His strengths were in the rearing of the worms and using them, but he couldn’t make use of these strengths now.
In just a few minutes, Su Jin had torn Arkas apart completely. A dragonfly-like creature quietly crawled out of what used to be his mouth and was hoping that Su Jin wouldn’t notice it as it tried to make its escape.
“You think you could escape me like that?” Su Jin wasn’t going to give Arkas any chances.
Su Jin had noticed it from the moment it started moving, so before the dragonfly could do anything, Su Jin pointed a finger at it. The pressure from Su Jin’s finger was so great, it hit the dragonfly like a bullet and turned it to powder.
Immediately after that, everything went dark. Su Jin knew that meant that he had completed the Challenge, but he didn’t feel any joy in his heart at all.
After some time, Su Jin opened his eyes again. He was back in his Personal Hell Domain.
He stared blankly at his surroundings, then collapsed onto the floor in a daze. He remained completely silent and didn’t even ask for his missing arm to be restored.
He felt lost for a while, then the deep emotional pain hit him. He had completed the Challenge, but the price he had paid was way too high. Everyone in the team except himself had perished.
That was as good as saying that the team was gone. While it was true that he was still alive and could possibly revive them in the future, those were just words to console himself. He hadn’t even gathered all the items needed to revive Chu Yi yet and now he wanted to revive the other three as well? Was that even possible?
He lay on the floor in agony and didn’t care how much time had passed. After a long time, he finally got up.
The road to reviving them was going to be a tough one, but as long as there was hope, he was going to make sure it happened.
With that thought in mind, he felt a little more energized. He placed his Handbook on the usual stand and said, “Blackie, calculate my points.”
Several lines of data quickly appeared on the page. He read the words in his Handbook and was utterly stunned. He could hardly believe what he was seeing.
The source of this c𝐨ntent is freewe(b)nov𝒆l