Chapter 45: Invasion
“Beep, beep, beep…”
The sound of medical instruments echoed through the medical level of the beastmen’s warship stationed in the Empire.
Ameili, who had just been rescued by the others, slowly opened her eyes. The unfamiliar scene before her made confusion appear on her face.
“You’re awake,” the rabbit beastman standing nearby to observe her condition said happily.
“Where is this?”
“This is the warship of Iskan’s reinforcement army. I’m the doctor here,” the rabbit beastman explained patiently, while sending a message to the beastmen’s command center.
Before long, Edwen and Lin Chuan arrived in the ward one after another.
At last seeing someone familiar, Ameili cut off the rabbit beastman and spoke first. “Please send an aircraft to take me back to the Imperial military headquarters.”
“The Imperial military headquarters? Are you sure, Ms. Ameili?” Edwen, who was still displeased with Ameili because of his previous capture after infiltrating the Empire, said plainly, “Because of your unauthorized action in bringing a zerg back to the rear camp, the Empire has already dismissed you from your military position and listed you as a suspect of colluding with the aliens.”
“You…”
Because her consciousness cloud had been damaged, Ameili’s head throbbed sharply, and the words she wanted to question them with stuck in her throat.
“Just like he said, because of the negligence caused by your actions, the nobles are currently demanding that the Empire give them an explanation. You’d be better off staying here,” Lin Chuan said.
“What happened?” Ameili held her aching temple and asked Lin Chuan.
At that, Lin Chuan sat down in the chair beside the sickbed and leisurely crossed one leg over the other.
“Among the wounded you rescued from the frontline war zone, there was a controlled guide with remnants of a zerg main body inside. Through mental co-connection with its own kind, it drew in zerg reinforcements.”
“The Imperial soldiers detected the residual mental power in the medical area and found that it belonged to the zerg mastermind behind the last palace banquet incident,” Edwen added, his pupils shifting into beast form as he leaned closer to Ameili.
“Because of that, she infiltrated the interior of the camp and obtained all of the Empire’s defense system information, which led to a serious invasion of District One.”
“So, right now, you are the sinner responsible for the severe invasion of District One.”
Edwen laughed softly and transmitted an Imperial notice into Ameili’s optical brain.
On it, the revocation of her military post and a series of charges were listed one by one, pressing Ameili down so heavily that she had no chance to turn things around.
Seeing the devastated expression on Ameili’s face, Lin Chuan sighed and patted Edwen on the shoulder, signaling for him to stop talking.
Then he calmly explained what had happened while Ameili had been unconscious.
“You should just stay here and recover. No matter what, you’re still the teacher of Iskan’s marshal’s wife. As for the assistance to District One, Jin Chi’an and the others have already led troops there.”
After saying that, Lin Chuan dragged Edwen, who was still trying to continue mocking her, out of the ward, leaving Ameili alone in her despair.
…
The southern hemisphere of Imperial District One, the frontline battlefield of the Zerg invasion.
Hundreds of Iskan combat aircraft passed overhead, and countless falling shells razed the areas containing only first-stage aliens to the ground.
But the fighting in the noble district was not so simple or direct.
Countless noble guides and sentinels controlled by second-stage aliens made it impossible for the soldiers present to fight freely.
At the same time, all of the Empire’s guide forces had now been transferred to the District One battlefield.
Seeing the group of controlled guides gradually approaching District One’s central area, the guide general leading the army ordered his troops, “Attack-group guides, deploy a mental-net barrier and block the zerg attacks. Medical-group guides, extract the aliens from the controlled bodies and minimize damage to the controlled people’s consciousness clouds.”
“Understood!”
The guide army that received the order immediately began moving. However, because of the aliens’ powerful mental rejection, the army’s medical guides had yet to get close before they were repelled by that powerful energy.
At the same time, because they were afraid of damaging the nobles’ consciousness clouds, the human guide army gradually fell into a disadvantage, allowing the mentally powerful aliens to generate numerous mental tendrils and nearly tear apart the mental-net barrier formed by the human guides.
“Reporting to the commander, Team One’s mental net has been breached by the aliens. We are temporarily unable to stop the aliens from advancing.”
A soldier from Guide Army Team One helped up a fallen comrade and reported to the other end of the line.
“Useless trash. Don’t you know how to inject mental-power enhancers? What does the Empire feed useless people like you for?”
Impatience flashed through the regiment commander’s eyes. His dissatisfied gaze fell on the aliens fighting the army he commanded.
The mental power of the controlled guides came crashing toward them from all directions. The regiment commander, who was hiding behind his army, broke out in a cold sweat, as if he could no longer suppress the urge to flee.
“Tsk, what a bunch of trash. I can’t die here.”
The regiment commander, trembling in his heart, gradually retreated. The moment the aliens broke through the army in front of him, he turned and ran toward the aircraft behind him.
His drastic movement immediately drew the gazes of the soldiers around him.
For a moment, dissatisfied voices rose from the army like a tide. The guides who had come to support them helplessly began thinking of retreating.
“Damn it, that bastard is trying to run! Don’t let him take the aircraft away!”
“Fuck, shoot her down! I don’t want to die here!”
The guide soldiers who had originally been supporting the mental net slowly fell apart. Countless warriors who should have been fighting on the frontline ran toward the aircraft instead, and the mental tendrils they stretched out were blocked outside the aircraft, slapping against the window as they tried to warn the commander.
“You little thief, give Grandpa’s aircraft back!”
“…”
As the mental-net defense peeled away, the aliens that had originally been resisting the mental-net barrier grew even stronger and advanced toward the center of Imperial District One without obstruction.
At that moment, inside the District One command room, Jin Chi’an sat with a cold expression, his gaze fixed on the large screen that had captured the entire scene.
The District One command room had long since descended into chaos. Countless contradictory orders were shouted from different commanders’ mouths.
By contrast, the beastmen’s side seemed extremely relaxed.
Felix easily commanded the beastman army under his lead, clearing the battlefields where first-stage aliens were located.
Just a few newly developed Iskan growth-suppression shells were enough to restrain the most troublesome tendrils of the first-stage aliens.
Along with the alarm sounding downstairs, the rescued District One nobles were lying on medical stretchers and being pushed into the military building’s medical level.
Jin Chi’an’s eyelids moved. The system extracted the thoughts in his mind and immediately displayed the situation in the medical level on the large screen.
At that moment, the medical level was packed with wounded noble guides and sentinels. Even the walkways for pedestrians were blocked so tightly by makeshift hospital beds that not even water could pass through.
But unlike District Three, the wounded here were all either wealthy or noble. The amount of medical equipment and professionals the military had invested in them was countless.
An Imperial top-tier mental-illness physician stood before one sickbed. His mental tendrils extended into the sentinel’s consciousness cloud.
In an instant, the sight of the shattered consciousness cloud made him sigh again and again. Then he informed the nurse beside him, “Check the next one.”
“…”
“Check the next one too.”
After examining several wounded people’s consciousness clouds in a row, the elderly guide physician looked embarrassed. Beads of sweat slid down his forehead.
Just as he was about to head to the next sickbed, an impatient young doctor hurriedly asked, “Professor, what exactly is going on? Please give us a clear answer. The people above are pressing me for the examination report.”
At those words, the old man’s expression darkened. He sighed helplessly.
“The channels connecting their consciousness clouds to their mental seas have been completely destroyed, and their consciousness clouds are continuing to collapse in an unstoppable manner. I’m afraid…”
“What does that mean? Afraid of what?” the young doctor asked anxiously.
“Their current condition is no different from the effect of a guide injecting a third dose of enhancer. I’m afraid that before long, they will completely lose autonomous consciousness.”
The old man’s words came through the command center’s monitor screen and fell into Jin Chi’an’s ears, making his heart jolt. He turned to look at Puff, who was staying in Felix’s arms and acting spoiled.
“What’s wrong?”
Felix placed his hand over the brand on Puff’s back, enjoying the feeling of the other party kneading on him, and looked at Jin Chi’an’s confused expression with a contented face.
“Nothing. I just wanted to know who performed the procedure that sealed my consciousness cloud back then…”
Jin Chi’an sat beside Felix, somewhat displeased as he pulled Puff, who was always circling Felix, back to his own side.
But as soon as he let go, Puff darted back into Felix’s arms, unwilling to separate from him for even a moment.
Facing Jin Chi’an’s displeasure, Felix rubbed the little cat ears against his chest with great pride. “It was the Imperial royal physician, Talier.”
“Talier?”
Jin Chi’an suddenly sat up straight, staring at Felix’s eyes in disbelief.
“Him? Then where is he now…”
“Dead, I suppose.”
Felix said indifferently, “Our detector detected Zerg mental power on him. After he finished treating you, we separated. Afterward, we detected that the Zerg mental power in him had been completely removed.”
“You’re saying Talier was parasitized by a zerg?”
“Judging by the situation at the time, the parasite should already have been separated.”
Felix scratched Puff’s chin and instinctively tested Jin Chi’an’s reaction.
Jin Chi’an, who was discussing the matter with him, was sitting perfectly upright, but his bright red ears exposed the fact that he was currently sharing sensations with his mental body.
“Felix, I’m talking to you about serious business.”
Jin Chi’an angrily stretched out a mental tendril and gave the other party’s consciousness cloud a proper tidying up.
Faced with his scolding, Felix seemed as if he had gotten drunk. His gaze turned hazy as he buried his head into Jin Chi’an’s neck and said in grievance, “Can we not talk about serious business? I don’t feel well.”
The moment that burning-hot head touched his neck, Jin Chi’an looked at the beast ears that had appeared on Felix in shock and instinctively placed a hand on the back of his neck.
As the warm breath brushed over him, Felix’s voice came from right beside his ear.
“Brother, I’ve entered my rut.”
Immediately after, a warm mental power entered Jin Chi’an’s consciousness cloud, repairing and filling in the strain caused by his constant use of mental power over the past few days.
Faced with this mental-power transmission, exactly the same as when they had been on the zerg planet, Jin Chi’an suddenly understood. He pushed Felix away from his arms and immediately connected to Lin Chuan.
“Lin Chuan, I think I found the reason my consciousness cloud recovered.”
“What did you say?”
On the other end of the line, Lin Chuan scratched his ear and greeted the unexpected visitor who had suddenly arrived.
“I have a guest here. I’ll talk to you later.”
