Alien Species Invasion? I Kill Them Back.

Chapter 80: Chapter 78: Triggering the Maze Quest

’You’d be wrong about that,’ Feng Ling thought. ’Su Yuqing has invited me twice, you know.’

But in the past couple of days, Su Yuqing seemed to have given up and hadn’t mentioned it again.

’Has he already seen through me and realized I’m not suited for the Inspection Bureau? ...Come to think of it, what Pei Xianjue said actually has a point. It’s hard to argue against it.’

"It’ll take a few more hours to evacuate all the tourists. Let’s go to the Maze entrance and set up first," Pei Xianjue said.

Feng Ling walked ahead, leading the way. She asked, "Do you guys have any internal intel on how to clear the Maze?"

"Nope," Pei Xianjue said. "The Inspection Bureau doesn’t know much about the Maze. We only discovered the pollution incidents in the last two months. When we first found them, we thought they were just ordinary Pollution Bodies. No one suspected the pollution was caused by the Maze... It wasn’t until recently—uh, about two weeks ago, I think—that the research institute locked down the contaminated area. They concluded it was a pollution leak from the Maze and planned an expedition to investigate."

Pei Xianjue turned to glance at Li Qing. "Before we got the call from Captain Su, we didn’t even know Maze Administrators existed. It’s unbelievable. So, if you die, the Maze will contaminate this whole place?"

Li Qing nodded. "As things stand... yes, that’s what will happen."

"What do you mean, ’as things stand’? You’re the administrator. Don’t you know the consequences of your own death?" Pei Xianjue asked curiously.

"Because this has never happened before," Li Qing explained in a low voice. "According to the game’s normal operating procedures, when an administrator logs off, the system is supposed to take temporary control until a new administrator logs on to take over. But now, an administrator being killed is considered an abnormal departure. It doesn’t trigger the handover mechanism, and a new administrator can’t take charge. The Maze is left in an unstable, unsupervised state, and the internal pollution slowly spreads outward..."

Pei Xianjue nodded thoughtfully. "I think I get it. You Maze Administrators are basically call center agents. In a normal scenario, if one agent suddenly dies at their desk, someone should immediately drag the body away and send a new agent to take over. But in this case, no one’s dealing with the body. It’s just sitting there, occupying the workstation, so the new agent can’t take its place."

Feng Ling frowned at this, turning to look at Li Qing. "Your game has way too many bugs."

Li Qing lowered his head, his voice growing even quieter, seemingly helpless about the situation. "Yes. The game is collapsing. The players... the players are all very unhappy. Force-killing the administrators is probably their way of protesting."

"You’re a surprisingly nice guy," Pei Xianjue said with a laugh. "The players want to kill you, and you’re still thinking about things from their perspective."

Behind her, Liang Zhou spoke in a flat tone, "Players, administrators, what’s the difference? They’re all aberrations invading this world. It’d be best if they all just died."

As soon as he finished speaking, the atmosphere instantly turned strange.

Li Qing and Huangfu Miaomiao silently picked up their pace, putting some distance between themselves and the others.

Feng Ling glanced back at the man. "Are you here as reinforcements, or are you here to pick a fight?"

Pei Xianjue stepped in front of Liang Zhou with a grin. "Reinforcements, of course! Liang Haohan here is just too blunt. Plus, his friend was killed by an Alien Species, so... sigh... he’s in a bad mood, and his tone is a little aggressive. Don’t take it to heart."

Feng Ling said coolly, "Is that so? When did this happen to his friend?"

Pei Xianjue tried to recall. "Hmm... I think it was two or three months ago. That’s also when Liang Haohan got his Card."

Feng Ling said icily, "It’s been two or three months and he still can’t control his emotions. Is his Pollution Value too high?"

Pei Xianjue froze for a second, then turned to Liang Zhou. "Haohan, what’s your Pollution Value at?"

Liang Zhou frowned, glanced at Feng Ling up ahead, and replied irritably, "It’s not high."

Baozi, who had been silent until now, spoke up in Liang Zhou’s defense. "He’s only assimilated one Card. His Pollution Value can’t be that high."

"Hm, that makes sense." Pei Xianjue nodded, then looked at them with a grin. "Our mission today is to eliminate the Maze. I want to see my name on the top of tomorrow’s newsfeeds, so don’t screw this up for me, okay?"

"Got it, Your Highness."

"Call me Deputy Pei."

"Yes, Deputy Pei."

...

The closer they got to their destination, the fewer people there were on the mountain.

Under the constant barrage of drone-mounted loudspeakers, all the tourists were rushing to the nearest cable car station.

Helicopters airdropped food, water, and weapons nearby.

All they had to do now was wait for the sun to set. At the right time, in the right place, the right key would open the door to the Maze.

The "key," of course, referred to Li Daoist.

As the time drew near, everyone’s relaxed expressions grew tense.

Pei Xianjue stood on a raised granite slab, took a silent, deep breath, and then slowly exhaled. Spreading her hands open, she found a thin layer of sweat had unconsciously formed on her palms.

They were not players.

They had no retreat.

Players had quest prompts and safe houses. They had nothing. This journey might very well be a one-way trip to their deaths.

At some point, Feng Ling had come up behind her. "Are you guys really reinforcements?" she asked.

Pei Xianjue jumped, then gave an awkward laugh. "Still don’t believe me? Should I show you my ID?"

"That won’t be necessary." Feng Ling glanced toward Li Qing in the distance. "I just find it strange. Tackling a Maze is a huge deal. If this were the Qingjiang City Inspection Bureau branch, they’d hold meetings for three days and three nights just to discuss it. So why did the Yuquan City branch send people over so quickly? If they sent someone to supervise or assess the situation, I’d find that perfectly normal. But sending reinforcements directly... that doesn’t seem like the Inspection Bureau’s style."

Pei Xianjue’s lips twitched as she tried to force a more natural smile.

Feng Ling continued thoughtfully, "And what’s more, two members of your ’reinforcement team’ are actually your privately hired bodyguards. Don’t they know how dangerous the Maze is? Even if they’re short on cash, they wouldn’t take a risk this huge... They don’t look like the type to sacrifice themselves for humanity, either. It’s just so strange."

Pei Xianjue couldn’t help but retort, "You don’t look like the heroic, selfless type either. Why do you want to go into the Maze?"

"Didn’t Su Yuqing tell you?" Feng Ling raised an eyebrow in surprise. "My Pollution Value is very high, so I’m going into the Maze to find a Divine Statue."

Pei Xianjue was a little taken aback by Feng Ling’s candor.

But since the other party was being so frank, Pei Xianjue felt she shouldn’t be stingy either. After a moment of consideration, she told Feng Ling, "Truthfully, I’m planning to act first and report it later."

"Ooooh," Feng Ling said with dawning understanding, and nodded.

"Captain Shen did tell me to come and check out the situation first," Pei Xianjue said, her eyes curving into a slight smile. "But if I were to, say, ’accidentally’ wander into the Maze during my inspection, that would be a perfectly normal thing to happen, right? Humanity has always kept its distance from Mazes. So far, there are no official records of any human entering one. It’s like the first moon landing. This is a chance to go down in history. A little risk is a small price to pay."

Feng Ling smiled. "Quite the ambition you have there."

As the two were talking, Li Qing waved at them from a short distance away. "It’s time. You can have Miao Miao start the process."

Feng Ling asked, "What process?"

Huangfu Miaomiao rubbed her hands together excitedly. "It’s here, it’s here! The Maze quest has been triggered!"

In her field of vision, a massive golden exclamation mark had appeared above Li Qing’s head.

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