Falling into the Abyss

At this time, Chen Zeng’s team was the first to come back. Each of them carried two or three water bottles in their hands, and a few people even had one of the green and blue plants that had nodules throughout their bodies. From time to time, their branches and leaves would secrete a smell from the nodules strong enough to suffocate someone. In mere moments, the entire room was filled with a disgusting smell.

Many of Chen Zeng’s subordinates had a look of reluctance and disgust. They complained about being asked to carry these things back instead of sleeping. Obviously, Chen Zeng had followed Ethan’s advice and didn’t tell anyone else about the video. Tanisiel said to Chen Zeng with a smile, “You’ve worked hard.”

Chen Zeng sighed and replied, “I just hope they’re actually useful. But we also brought back some other plant and animal samples. Would you like to have a look?”

Tanisiel agreed happily and followed Chen Zeng to make their way through the nonhuman Alphas, some of whom Ethan noticed were staring at Tanisiel with greedy eyes. They whispered to each other, and Ethan could tell they were saying dirty things. Ethan could not help but be surprised, but he also had a trace of inexplicable dismay. Although Tanisiel was good-looking, he was still an Alpha. Were these people that hungry and thirsty? Additionally, they knew that this was a very important mission, but they didn’t feel nervous at all. Ethan did not know whether or not they were brainless. He wanted to inform them of the sorts of things they would face, just to see if they would still have the heart to think of such nonsense.

A nonhuman probably saw the disdain in his expression and flew into a rage out of humiliation. He strode over to him and grabbed him by the collar, questioning, “What the hell are you looking at?”

Ethan instinctively shrunk back, trying to get out of the other’s grip. He exclaimed, “I didn’t look at you!”

Another nonhuman came over and said, “Jeff, you’d better take it easy. He’s Samuel’s man.”

“Well, if Samuel really thinks so highly of him, why doesn’t he have teeth marks on his neck? Scott also almost marked him before, yet Samuel still doesn’t treat him like he’s anything special. If it was the previous Samuel, Scott’s teeth would have long since been broken,” the man named Jeff sneered as if he were looking at a worthless pile of shit, “Don’t think that you’re hot shit after climbing into Samuel’s bed. He’s so indifferent to you even though you’re an Omega. You’re probably just a toy that Samuel can easily replace.” Ethan’s self-esteem was once again struck, and he clenched his teeth, his face burning with anger.

But he did not dare to show it, as he knew it would only make things worse. So, he forced himself to shove down his anger, lowering his eyes and whispering, “I shouldn’t have looked at you just now. I’m sorry.”

“Now you know to be afraid?” Jeff said as he shoved him backward. Ethan’s center of gravity was unstable, so he staggered two steps back, accidentally kicking the wine cup holding the bug with a crisp sound. He groaned inwardly that the situation was not good, and he quickly bent over to check on the bug. Fortunately, the wine glass had not overturned, and the bug had slid across the floor along with the wine glass.

The sound drew Jeff’s attention to the glass, and his eyes widened.

Some other nonhumans also gathered around it, and Ethan watched as they picked up the glass.

He knew that he should call Tanisiel, as the priest had a program on his wristband to control all the nonhuman collars and could stop the two men from continuing to mess around with the bug.

However, he didn’t say anything. He just stood by quietly and watched them. Ethan’s gaze held a kind of coldness that he never showed others ordinarily.

Leaving the confinement of the glass, the monster that was originally motionless suddenly moved. Its front end slowly lifted, bending in a flexible arc as if it was looking back at the nonhuman strangers curiously. It seemed that the folds on its eyes wriggled, and a tuft of black hair emerged from its round hole-like mouth and flew out in all directions. Jeff took a cigarette out of his pocket and poked at the creepy body.

In a flash, a stream of beige mucus was suddenly shot from the tail end of the monster. The mucus condensed into a fine net after touching the air, appearing like blood vessels. It sprayed all over Jeff’s face so quickly that he didn’t have time to react or dodge. With a cry, Jeff fell backwards onto the ground with his hands covering his face. However, wiping off the sticky substance caused him to smell a vomit-like scent. He exclaimed in disgust, attracting everyone’s attention.

Tanisiel strode up to them, and after seeing the situation, he glanced at Ethan with some reproach. Ethan just shrugged his shoulders, feeling a little upset and guilty. They did not know if the monster carried any virus or whether it was dangerous to touch. At that moment, he had thought it would be good to let Jeff act as a test subject. Anyway, Jeff did not want to listen to his advice.

His inner conscience woke from its short sleep, and instead of feeling pleased by obtaining revenge, he instead felt as miserable as though he had swallowed a fly.

A few nonhumans hurried to find something to wipe Jeff’s face. Just as Tanisiel had bent down to pick up the glass, Jeff’s suddenly stomped on the monster and cursed, “Damn bug!”

There was no time for the crowd to stop his foolish behavior.

They only heard a plop sound. The strange bug’s thin body ruptured under the sole of his foot, letting out countless globs of beige and black mucus that congealed into thin lines, like a rapidly spreading spider web. Many of them splashed the clothes of the people nearby. The first to get hit was Jeff. His pants, shirt hem, and even the back of his hands were covered with the viscous substance.

To his surprise, Ethan saw the mucus that came into contact with his skin contract rapidly, as if it was absorbed. The mucus that had been sprayed all over his face just now had disappeared under his skin, and only the mucus that had landed on his clothes and hair were still there. However, he was the only one who noticed the abnormality, and Jeff himself did not seem to feel anything off.

Tanisiel stared at Jeff, his gray eyes containing an astonishing fury. He pursed his lips angrily, making him appear imposing. The Alpha, who was originally around his height, suddenly appeared shorter. When Jeff saw that Tanisiel was angry, he restrained his arrogance and said, “It’s just a bug, anyway.”

“Just a bug?” there was a certain implication in Tanisiel’s words that made the people listening feel uncomfortable, “Maybe you’re just a bug, too.”

After he finished speaking, he neither wanted to pay these nonhumans any more heed nor electrify them as punishment. He simply squatted down and carefully sucked up the remaining mucus with a pipette and transferred it into an empty test tube that he had found in the laboratory. He was careful not to let his skin touch it. Ethan called Gina, the base’s AI, to find a cleaning robot to clean the mess on the floor. Although nothing seemed to have happened to Jeff, he had a hunch that he should try not to let this thing come into contact with many people.

After a while, Samuel also came back, and the rest of the team gradually arrived. The rotten stench from the black sap quickly filled the main base’s building, and Ethan only managed to resist feeling nauseous by stuffing two tissues into his nose. After carrying out their plan all night, it was almost daybreak. They found several empty dormitory rooms, and all went to sleep in the sleeping capsules individually.

Ethan did not want to sleep. He was afraid that the terrifying God of Disorder would descend while he was asleep and stayed in the bleak hall. His hands slid on the transparent table, and he quickly scanned all the information on Developers’ Base No.18.

He remembered that when the Red Earth development plan was first proposed, many people had opposed it. They were led by a renowned female Alpha professor, Bai LuoShan. She had at least two doctorates, one research title, and had even been personally interviewed by President Appiah. She strongly opposed the development of the Red Earth and even wrote several letters to the president, attempting to persuade her to stop the development of the Hera system.

According to Bai LuoShan, the galactic region the Red Earth was in was too barren. Some nearby planets that theoretically should have long since developed their own civilization were all desolate and withered, which was why the Red Earth was considered to be trapped in the center of what they refer to as the ‘Galactic Region of Death’. Why there was such a vast sea of death in that corner of the Milky Way had always been a mystery. In the lonely sea of dead stars, why was there only evidence of life on Red Earth? Bai LuoShan thought it was not an accident, and much like a mirage in a desert, it may even be a trap.

In recent years, Bai LuoShan had been obsessed with the study of primitive intelligent civilizations in remote galactic regions, to the point that people had thought she was somewhat crazy. She was always talking about the collective memory of the universe, five-dimensional space creatures, some kind of super-intelligent species, and so on. She constantly warned the Energy Bureau along with her followers online, saying that this planet was regarded by numerous civilizations as a hell-like place and that the country’s rash involvement would only bring unprecedented disaster to Earth’s civilization. However, she never explained what specific disaster would occur and also did not provide any substantial evidence. She just cited murals, poems, and myths of minor ancient civilizations to confuse the public.

At that time, the Energy Bureau had been extremely disgusted with Bai LuoShan because the Red Earth presented a rare opportunity for the Energy Bureau, who had not found a new resource station for many years. The Earth Union’s precious metals and water reserves were in short supply, and the cost of purchasing them from other countries was too high, so the president had given them a year to look for new resources. In that year, the Energy Bureau had descended into a deep purgatory, with everyone's heads pinned to their waistbands. They desperately searched for habitable planets in remote areas and finally found one at the end of the year, but a professor who criticized them from the sidelines without contributing anything told them not to go?

Just because of some ballads and legends from barbarians, she wanted the Energy Bureau’s director to lose his head?

Because of her significant influence, Ethan had run around with Director Abel to persuade the three major members of parliament and even met the president.

That was the only time Ethan had met the most honorable person in the Earth Union, President Appiah. At that time, he waited for them in a clear and wide Victorian corridor. He watched them through the tall French windows. He could see President Appiah chatting and laughing with her second wife, Bo Huang, among the mottled shadows of the huge trees. She was well proportioned and could be considered tall among women. Her short hair was neat yet feminine, and she wore simple, dark clothes. Although she appeared to be reclining on a chair beside the artificial lake, she was listening to what the director was urgently saying.

If one did not know of her noble status, one would think that she was just an ordinary beautiful female Alpha. She was completely different from her image in the songs playing in the streets, praised as a God that could emit thousands of beams of colorful lights.

Later, the president seemed to tire of listening. She had waved her hand casually and stood up, taking her wife with her and leaving. The director returned to Ethan quickly, but his tight face seemed to have relaxed at last.

It was only then that Ethan could heave a sigh of relief.

With the special permission of the president, the spaceship for the first batch of developers was launched. Although a mess happened later when the Eves also sent people, it was successfully resolved in the end, without causing any unnecessary disputes.

But now, Ethan was beginning to suspect that Bai LuoShan may have been right.

He did not understand her complicated theories. He simply remembered her saying, We thought that we had the ability to conquer the universe, but in the face of real chaos, mankind’s, as well as other interstellar civilizations’, millennia-long struggle for survival was meaningless.

T/N: Hmmmmmmmm… what do y’all think will happen to Jeff?