Chapter 10 – Sending Meat to a Tiger’s Mouth
Her mind went blank in an instant. She felt like she had turned into a feather, floating up and down in the liquid, both light and comfortable. The pain and fatigue in her body seemed to be smoothed away by an invisible hand.
Before she lost consciousness, Tu Ran vaguely heard a conversation.
“Are these all pioneers?” A curious tone.
“Yes, they just came back from the Frontier.”
‘Frontier?’ Tu Ran tried hard to engage her brain.
She was a pioneer, so the Frontier must have been that world full of monsters from earlier.
“I heard many died this time, and even a Herog snuck in.”
“Not surprising. Every time the pioneering team returns, a bunch of alien species get mixed in. This time it’s still few. Before, without the true-false identification process, these alien species could even infiltrate various states.”
“Really? I used to live over in Red State and never heard of alien species appearing anywhere.”
“You were just an ordinary citizen before, so it’s no wonder you hadn’t heard. These things only cause public panic. The Federation keeps it tight-lipped. As soon as alien species show up, they get handled by the patrolling pioneering team.”
“The pioneering team also does patrols?”
Tu Ran felt this person was just like her, knowing nothing yet curious about everything.
“Yes! Anything related to alien species, they handle it.”
The other person’s tone was clearly a bit impatient.
“I’ll leave this to you. Don’t get careless. If anything seems wrong, hit the alarm. There are enforcement guards patrolling outside.”
“Got it.”
As the footsteps gradually faded away, the world quieted down, and Tu Ran’s consciousness completely drifted into sleep.
She had a dream.
She returned to her rented apartment. When she opened her eyes, there was a snow-white ceiling. The morning sunlight shone softly on her face. Beneath her was a soft mattress, and she could hear the crisp chirping of birds.
She was back.
She was back!
Tu Ran woke up with joy.
In the instant she opened her eyes, she found herself staring into a pair of eyes the size of fists, separated by red nutrient fluid.
What the hell!!
Protruding eyes, pin-sized black pupils, an ugly, oversized catfish mouth, and whiskers as thick as fingers and as long as an arm.
What kind of monster is this?!
A fish? A fish this big?!
Tu Ran’s eyes widened in horror as she looked around.
She never imagined she would wake up to such a scene.
Where was the person on duty? The one who could sound the alarm? Did he not see this huge monster?!
Tu Ran screamed internally.
It would have been better not to look around. As she raised her head, a fat tentacle entered her view, wriggling like a maggot in the nutrient fluid above her. Looking further back, there were two, three, four… countless tentacles tightly wrapped around the nutrient tank.
The entire nutrient tank had almost become its feast.
This was an octopus monster… no, a Herog!
Aside from the Herog that Xie Xu had initially killed, other Herogs had infiltrated!
The tentacles in the nutrient fluid were still approaching her, and because they were so close, Tu Ran could clearly see the sharp spikes at the ends.
Suddenly, the image of the person with a severed leg flashed through her mind.
Herogs could possess humans.
If it touched her, she might end up like that person, her internal organs hollowed out, her body taken over.
Tu Ran got goosebumps all over.
She couldn’t just sit and wait to die.
The nutrient tank was two meters deep and completely wrapped by the Herog. Going out through the top would be like sending meat to a tiger’s mouth.
She had to find another way out.
