Alien Species Invasion? I Kill Them Back.

Chapter 53: Chapter 51: Want to Die?

The Fishman’s eyes were shut tight. Its mangled body drifted, slowly floating to the surface like a corpse.

Feng Ling watched it quietly.

’Are all you Alien Species like this?’ she wondered. ’Do you all abandon your comrades so easily? So quick to flee.’

Suddenly, the Fishman’s ashen-gray eyes snapped open!

Its massive tail immediately lashed out like a whip!

A blow with that much force could instantly knock a person unconscious underwater.

But Feng Ling seemed to have anticipated it. Before the tail could even get close, four of her Teeth and Claws lunged forward, biting deep and tearing off four large chunks of flesh.

The Fishman thrashed in the water, letting out a bloodcurdling scream!

The scream was cut short, silenced by a sweeping Bone Blade.

Its head floated on the surface of the River, bobbing with the waves. A look of terror and regret from its final moments was frozen on its face.

If not for that final, desperate attack, it might have actually fooled Feng Ling and floated safely by, just like a real corpse.

Feng Ling surfaced for air.

A pleased smile graced her lips as she watched the head drift farther away.

’I really do prefer prey that struggles.’

But the pleasure of the kill was all too brief, like a small bird perching lightly on her heart only to fly away a moment later.

The smile finally faded from her face. She turned, her expression now blank, and stared toward the darkening west.

Her emotions were like the dark, heavy River before her, sinking down to the deepest, coldest depths...

She was so close...

So very close to solving the entire puzzle.

A quiet rage churned within her, like an invisible undercurrent in the River’s tide.

Feng Ling closed her eyes and began searching for the red mist she had in mind—

The ribbon-like red mist twisted chaotically in the water. It sank, then struggled to rise again, unable to form a smooth, flowing line.

The panicked, fleeing Fishman, now armless, floundered through the water, struggling toward an unremarkable fishing boat by the shore.

It was the closed season for fishing, so boats like this were usually moored for tourists to take pictures with, or rented out to amateur photographers for shoots on the River.

This was just such a boat, complete with a tripod set up for show. A man wearing a long, sun-protective jacket stood on deck.

He noticed the commotion in the water and immediately reached for the Fishman’s shoulder to pull it aboard.

But the feel of it made him realize with a start that the Fishman’s arms were gone.

"What happened?!" the man cried out.

After being hauled onto the boat, the Fishman reverted to its human form. The spaces below its shoulders were empty; the missing arms were gone for good.

It collapsed limply on the deck, gasping for air like a beached fish, unable to get a single word out.

"You’re the only one who made it back?!" the man demanded. "I didn’t get any points. You failed?!"

As long as you were in a team, you would get a share of the points from a teammate’s kill, no matter how far apart you were.

The Fishman took a few seconds to recover enough strength to speak. The first word out of its mouth was, "Run..."

"Run?" The man was incredibly disappointed. "You really failed!"

"The intel was bad..." the Fishman rasped, its mouth working with effort. "The hidden boss has an invisibility Skill. We couldn’t see it!"

But the man just saw it as a pathetic excuse. "Even if you couldn’t see the hidden boss, could it see you? Before we teamed up, weren’t you the one bragging about how Fishmen are as fast as lightning underwater? How your dark gray scales would let you hide so no one could ever find you? What do you have to say now? I spent points to hire three Fishmen, and now you’re the only one left! The boss is still alive, and my points are all down the drain!"

The Fishman sneered. "I lost two teammates, and I haven’t even settled the score with you! They wouldn’t be dead if it weren’t for your faulty intel!"

The man looked at the Fishman with contempt. "Buying intel on the forums is always a risk. No one can predict every ability a Card has. Ultimately, you were all just too incompetent. If I’d known it would turn out like this, I should have just done it myself."

The Fishman laughed mockingly. "Then why don’t you go ahead and try."

The fishing boat suddenly lurched.

The color drained from the man’s face as he scrambled to grip the side of the boat.

"What’s going on?!"

The thick rope mooring the boat had snapped at some point. The boat drifted from its spot, caught by the current and pulled toward the center of the River.

The Fishman’s heart sank. He knew the hidden boss had caught up to them.

An environment surrounded by water should have given him the advantage, but without his arms, he was like a lamb to the slaughter, completely helpless.

"Hey! Do something!" the man yelled.

The Fishman was about to warn the man to be careful, but then figured it was pointless.

He continued to mock him. "Scared already? The boss is here. Isn’t this better? A perfect chance for you to handle it yourself."

The man’s expression was tense, his face a mask of rage as he glared at the Fishman.

Waves slapped against the hull as the drone of a helicopter sounded in the distance. If they delayed any longer, even if the hidden boss didn’t kill them, they would become targets for the Inspection Bureau.

Their bullets weren’t likely to be fatal, but "not likely" didn’t mean impossible.

The Fishman thought for a moment. "We’re not getting away," he said to the man. "You should log out."

"Are you kidding me?!" the man raged. "The points cost doubles every time I log back in! I’m not logging out until the last possible second! Don’t think I’m a coward like you..."

Suddenly, he felt a cold touch on his neck.

The words died in his throat. He froze.

Two Teeth and Claws were pressed against his vulnerable throat. The slightest bit more pressure, and they would pierce it.

Icy dread washed over him, and his mind went blank.

"Log—"

He had barely gotten the syllable out when the sharp Teeth and Claws pierced his skin, hooked into his mandible, and tore his lower jaw clean off.

Blood poured like a waterfall from the part of his face below his nose. His tongue was gone. Great torrents of blood, mixed with desperate, gurgling gasps, spewed from deep within his throat, staining the entire deck red as he collapsed and thrashed.

At the stern, a completely transparent woman pushed herself up, vaulted aboard, and silently watched. She watched the man roll, claw at himself, tremble, and convulse, until he lost all strength and fell still in a twisted heap, his pupils slowly dilating.

A silver Card materialized from the corpse.

Feng Ling paid it no mind. Her Pollution Value was too high for her to absorb any more Cards. Besides, the man had been weak; his Card was probably worthless.

’So as long as you can’t say the word, you can’t log out?’ she mused, her gaze sweeping over to the Fishman at the other end of the boat.

The Fishman stared at her, its eyes wide with horror.

Feng Ling glanced at it, then her eyes fell on a clear, waterproof bag of clothes on the boat.

Inside were three sets of men’s clothes, likely intended for the Fishmen. According to their plan, they would have needed to revert to human form after killing the hidden boss.

Feng Ling took out one set and, right in front of the Fishman, unhurriedly began to dress.

There was no reason to be ashamed. For one, her body was as transparent as water. For another, in her eyes, he was already a dead fish.

’So why would I be ashamed to get dressed in front of a dead fish?’

"What are you waiting for?" Feng Ling asked calmly as she tucked the oversized shirt into her pants and rolled up the baggy sleeves. "Why haven’t you logged out?"

She swept her dripping hair forward over her chest, her gaze lifting to meet the Fishman’s. "Do you want to die?"

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