Interstellar Survival: Invasion

Chapter 261: Disastrous Casualties

"Canyue, the enemy is coming. What should we do now?" asked Zhang Bao'er anxiously.

"It doesn't look like we'll even be able to retreat now," I replied. Our good luck seemed to have come to an end.

We retreated instinctively, but there were too many robots. Before long, they reached the narrow alley we were hiding in. They marched rapidly and were soon standing in front of us. Only then did we notice that we couldn't keep retreating.

Behind us, the defeated smart robots were pulling back toward the second robotic army. We were sandwiched between the two. The cruel face of war immediately showed itself before us. Countless arrows and beams rained down on us when the enemy army noticed us.

We turned on our shields in a hurry and barely resisted the attacks. Trapped in the middle of the smart robots, we were surrounded by more and more enemies. We madly fired back at them. In terms of individual firepower, we still held a comparatively large advantage. It did not take us long to kill over a dozen smart robots.

However, these casualties were nothing for the large army of smart robots. Suddenly, an arrow struck the neck of one of the Wargod soldiers, and he instantly died before my eyes. An actual death made me realize that we might really not be able to escape this time.

"Dodo, is the fleet still uncontactable?" I asked, holding on to the last bit of hope I had.

"No reply at all. Temo is right. The commander and the others are probably in a different temporal dimension," said Dodo. He had never stopped trying to contact the fleet.

The attacking robots came closer and closer. I raised my arm and downed a big guy who had appeared less than three meters ahead of me. Seeing the big guy's damaged limbs and trembling body, I realized that there was no repairing our relationship with the robots.

Abruptly, yet another Wargod soldier was struck down. A laser beam had pierced through his body, with his shield being penetrated by concentrated raygun beams. Then, the Wargod soldier defending behind me collapsed onto the ground. The retreating robotic army was going to stampede over us before long.

"Canyue, from the looks of things, we only have a few minutes left. On average, each of us has less than 15 percent of energy left. The Wargod soldiers also don't have much of their long-range ammunition remaining," reported Dodo.

"Temo, any idea how we can escape?" I shouted to Temo.

"It's hard to control the mind of these smart robots. There are too many of them. I doubt even your array-level civilization friend can do anything about them. We're really in trouble this time," replied Temo, causing us to feel even gloomier.

I looked at my weapons and noted that I still had a final nuclear warhead left.

"Everyone, I have a final nuclear warhead on me," I said even as I attacked the approaching robots.

"Great! You managed to keep one of them? Come, we'll die together with them. Just aim to take as many of them down with us," said Zhang Bao'er, showing zero fear of his impending death.

"Yeah! We'll die together! As long as us brothers can fight together until the end, I'm satisfied!" said Old Du, acting no less heroic than Zhang Bao'er.

Seeing how my brothers were embracing death as if it were home, the little bit of fear in my heart evaporated. I raised my gun, aimed at the incoming robots, and attacked madly. Before long, yet another Wargod soldier was felled. Now, we only had five combatants left, and we were protecting Temo and Dodo in the middle of us.

"Sigh. What a pity that you planet-level folks are going to die here. In truth, after observing you during our time together, I found your speed of progress quite respectable," Temo said, not forgetting to speak in his usual arrogant tone.

"What bullshit are you saying again? Do you think you can live after all of us are killed?" scolded Zhang Bao'er.

"I can just stand here, and the robots won't dare to lay a finger on me. Don't worry, I'll give you a proper funeral. As for this robot captive, I'll alter its memories and turn it into my servant. If there is a chance in the future, I'll deliver the scenes preserved in its memories to the people of your Interstellar League," said Temo, saying something that would probably deeply annoy Zhang Bao'er.

"You damned dwarf. What are you being all cocky about?" Zhang Bao'er could still bicker with Temo even during such a tense situation, but in a way, he was rather adorable acting like that.

"Bao'er, enough. If Temo can help preserve all we have learned and pass it to Zhang Xingxing, our trip here still wouldn't be a waste," I said.

By now, the robots were an arm's length away from us. We would all be overwhelmed by a sea of steel in a few minutes. Anxashe unleashed an arrow at an odd-looking robot at the front of the line before reaching back for another arrow. However, his quiver was empty.

Immediately, an air defense beast flew toward Anxashe's head from the sky. Without any arrows, Anxashe immediately spun around and drew his blade before slicing the air defense beast into two.

The alarms of our suits blazed, the red light blinking, indicating that our energy supply had reached a critical level5 percent. In other words, even if we had the strength to keep fighting, our shields would not last more than one more minute.

Thinking at how my life would come to an end just like this on Planet Black King, indignance welled in my heart. We, the final five survivors, continued fighting during the final minute until the familiar sound of our suits shutting off came. Our shields turned off, and without them, we were basically naked.

With my gun, I swept a charging smart robot down. Suddenly, a hammer came crashing into my chest, sending me flying as an intense pain bloomed in my chest. That moment when I was in the air felt like an eternity. I could see countless beautiful twinkling stars in the sky, and the sounds of Zhang Bao'er and Old Du roaring could be heard beside me.

Then, I felt a heavy impact, and the world darkened around me and my consciousness faded. After an indeterminate amount of time, I was in a daze, and the beautiful Blue appeared before my eyes. It was a beautiful blue planet, floating all by itself in the middle of nothingness. Its surface was filled with nature, different climates, and countless lives. The final wish of any interstellar explorer would be to return home.

Alas, the beautiful sight ended quickly, bringing me back to the boundless darkness. After what felt like forever, I slowly opened my eyes. The only thing I could see was darkness, and I didn't even know if I was standing up or sitting down. I tried reaching out with my arm, but it was so dark I couldn't see anything, not even the parts of my body.

"What place is this? Can people really still feel after death?" I wondered even as the same pain in my chest continued torturing me.

A few minutes later, my eyes were finally done adapting to the darkness. During the wait, I had been pinching myself all over, finding that I could clearly feel every single pinch.

"Am I still alive?" Although I couldn't move like usual, my senses had fully returned to my body.

At times, I couldn't help but admire the adaptability of Bluelings. After a short while, my eyes were starting to gain the ability to see my surroundings. I was in a room with sleek steel walls. The ceiling was about 100 meters above me, and a small entrance could be seen on it. A tiny sliver of light was shining through the entrance.

Perhaps due to the distance, the ray of light could not brighten the room much. But for me, that tiny bit of light was precious as it allowed me to see and ensured that my eyes wouldn't be ruined by prolonged absence of light.

After a while, my body slowly started to recover. At that point, I realized that I had been locked in prison. Through my observations, I was probably locked in some well-like prison cell that was less than 10 meters across. The walls were made of steel and were so glossy that climbing up was impossible. The sole exit was on the ceiling 100 meters up, and I couldn't even guess how they had placed me in here in the first place.

My weapons and backpack were not with me, so Bulu was naturally not at my side either. I still had my suit on, but it was completely out of energy. Without energy, the suit had turned into a burden due to its weight. It was fortunate that I had lost my helmet or its weight would cause me even more discomfort. Anything helpful had been removed from me. It was obvious I was truly stuck in the prison cell.

"Hey, anyone around?" I decided to just shout at the exit. But it was so far away that I doubted that my weak voice could even reach itat least, not with the injuries I still suffered from. The only replies I received were the echoes of my shout.

After shouting a few times, I lay down, ending the stupid behavior that was exhausting me for no reason.

'What is this place? And why am I still alive? How are my comrades? How can I escape?' The moment I lay down, numerous thoughts invaded my brain. My injuries and the exhaustion from using my brain caused me to fall asleep without even knowing it.

I slept for a long time, and when I next woke, it was due to hunger. After a long sleep, my body had clearly recovered somewhat even though my bones still ached badly. The intense hunger assaulted me, and for the very first time, I realized how much of a torture hunger was.

"Show yourself, freaks! Kill me if you have the guts! What's the point of starving me here?" I shouted. I knew it was pointless, but I couldn't help venting my anger.

Alas, I only managed to further exhaust myself and increase my hunger. In my despair, I lay down in the middle of the room, staring up at the tiny ray of light coming from the exit. I came to realize how important freedom could be. After staring at the exit for an unknown amount of time, the intense hunger sent me back to sleep. Vaguely, I saw a black figure covering the small exit above me.

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