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Chapter 36: Creep Tumor
The treads of the vehicles crushed over the gravel-strewn ground, kicking up a cloud of dust into the air. What Chilar Von didn’t know was that not far behind the convoy, hidden in a cluster of craters, a grotesque alien creature was watching their every move. Similar scenes were unfolding around the second and third companies as well.
Zerglings, the combat units spawned by the Zerg with their vast DNA database, had scales on their bodies that could mask thermal radiation and evade infrared detection. Moreover, they could scatter radar waves to some extent. Unless detected by high-precision large phased-array radars or base-station and shipborne early warning systems, it was nearly impossible to spot them.
Chilar assumed that Tang Fang and his two companions were under constant surveillance by reconnaissance satellites. Little did he know, their every movement was also being watched by Tang Fang himself.
Tang Fang had already released twenty-one zerglings, scattering them as ambush units across the rocky crevices and narrow passages surrounding the ridge. The Marauders were positioned near the trio, while the two Reapers were ready for mobile harassment.
Tang Fang wasn’t aware that Chilar intended to carpet-bomb the entire area. He still believed that the enemy’s goal was to capture them alive.
Time ticked by, minute by minute. The distance between the two sides grew shorter. Chilar’s company was now less than five kilometers away from the ravine. In the distance, the twin beams of light from the Skyfire shuttle could be seen sweeping back and forth across the horizon.
Arroz swapped out his magazine, pulled the bolt, and leaned back against a rock. "Housen," he said, "you’ve always wanted to know where I came from. If we end up on the road to hell, I’ll tell you then."
Housen sat down beside him, his voice eerily calm. "I don’t have time for your nonsense right now. Since death is inevitable, the only thing I need to think about is how many of them I can take down with me."
"Or you two could leave," Tang Fang interjected. "While the enemy is still far away, there’s a chance you could escape. After all, they’re after me."
Arroz didn’t budge, his butt firmly planted on the ground. Housen, however, let out a low grunt. "I owe you my life. Leaving would make me a coward, staying makes me an idiot—but I’d rather be the latter."
Tang Fang fell silent. Having these two companions on the road to hell wouldn’t be so lonely after all. Whether it was Kim Youngho, Powell Taylor, or someone else pulling the strings, this time, they had truly backed him into a corner.
Staring at the pitiful numbers—80 and 340—in his system interface, Tang Fang couldn’t help but sigh. If only he had thousands of crystals and gas, he wouldn’t fear three measly companies.
The crimson flames from the four thrusters of the Skyfire shuttle were now faintly visible in the distance. Tang Fang took a deep breath and summoned his only anti-air unit—the Queen.
This massive creature, comparable to a main battle tank, was incredibly powerful, but it had one fatal flaw: its ground movement speed was painfully slow. In a one-on-one fight with an armed shuttle, it would undoubtedly emerge victorious. But against a dozen shuttles and scattered unmanned drones, its sluggish mobility would turn it into a sitting duck.
"If only this were on creep," Tang Fang muttered, issuing a command for the Queen to spawn a creep tumor. As expected, just like in the game, the Queen returned a message stating that it couldn’t spawn a creep tumor without existing creep.
"Damn," Tang Fang sighed, issuing a flurry of commands to the Queen in frustration, as if randomly mashing keys before typing GG in defeat.
After receiving several rejections, something strange caught his eye. To his left, the Queen elegantly moved her six slender legs, sliding down the slope step by step. She entered the acidic vapor zone, where countless holes dotted the ground. Her abdomen contracted, and her sphincter pulsed rhythmically. Then, astonishingly, she excreted a slimy mass—a creep tumor—onto the acid-soaked ground.
As soon as the creep tumor touched the ground, it was as if a magic seed had been watered with the elixir of life. Purple veins spread outward in an instant, rapidly consuming the acidic solution and forming a dark brown organic tissue.
In just two or three minutes, the creep tumor devoured all the acidic solution within ten meters above the surface, creating a safe zone nearly fifty meters wide.
Tang Fang froze. Arroz and Housen’s jaws dropped so wide they could fit a 200-watt bulb.
"OH MY GOD! That thing just shat out so much!" Housen’s voice crackled through the comms, sounding as if someone had yanked out his pubic hair.
"If you keep running your mouth, I’ll make you lick it clean," Tang Fang shot back, clearly in a better mood now.
The fact that a creep tumor could be spawned in the acidic vapor zone and expand by absorbing the acid was nothing short of miraculous. It was a glimmer of hope in an otherwise hopeless situation.
In the game, creep provided speed and regeneration bonuses to the Zerg, functioning almost like their home base. But in this scenario, the most critical advantage was that the creep neutralized the acid fog, turning what was once a dead end into a viable path.
To be safe, Tang Fang walked to the boundary between the creep and the acidic vapor zone. He tossed a bullet into each area. The one on the creep remained intact, while the one in the acid dissolved into slag within half a minute.
"Goodbye, gentlemen!" Tang Fang turned back, waving mockingly at the approaching enemy company. He signaled Arroz and Housen, then stepped onto the creep.
The soft, slippery organic tissue beneath their feet gave a sensation akin to floating on a gentle boat. As Housen put it, it felt like squeezing the orbs of Omega Space Station’s finest, soft and squishy, leaving one dizzy with delight.
The creep tumor could replicate itself once. When Tang Fang and his companions reached the first tumor, he issued a command. A ripple surged through the creep, and a new tumor emerged twenty meters away at the edge of the existing creep.
The new creep tumor continued to spread, extending another twenty meters almost instantly.
When the trio stepped onto the newly formed creep, Tang Fang gave another command. The Queen obliterated the first creep tumor into a bloody pulp.
"What are you doing?" Housen asked, confused.
Tang Fang didn’t respond. His eyes were fixed on what happened next. Sure enough, as the first creep tumor disappeared, the organic tissue it had sustained lost vitality, shriveling into dried chunks of meat. These were quickly swept away and dissolved by the acidic solution erupting from the ground.
Housen looked down at his feet, then at the dissolving organic matter around them, still puzzled.
Neither Tang Fang nor Arroz paid him any mind. They simply turned and continued forward. Housen muttered under his breath, glaring ahead through the gap between the two men. Suddenly, he shivered. "Didn’t it just finish shitting? Why’s it doing it again?"
While Tang Fang commanded the two Queens to alternate between spawning and cloning creep tumors, carving out safe zones within the vast acidic vapor region, Chilar and his men finally arrived at the spot where Tang Fang’s group had been.
"What’s going on here? What the hell is this? Can someone tell me where those three bastards went? How could they just vanish into thin air? How is that possible!"
No one could answer him. The jagged rocks loomed like demons of the night, mocking his incompetence.
Where had those three enemy soldiers gone? Not even headquarters could provide a definitive answer. Satellite data showed that they hadn’t fled north or south, a fact confirmed by the second and third companies tasked with flanking them.
If they hadn’t gone north or south, could they have gone west into the acidic vapor zone, a place capable of swallowing even starships? Such a theory was laughable.
The acid fog rendered even the most advanced reconnaissance satellites blind to the interior of the zone, which explained why the three had vanished from satellite view. The only plausible explanation was that they had entered the acidic vapor zone to the west.
But no rational person would believe that. Unless they had a death wish, entering such a region filled with corrosive vapor meant certain death.
The Scorpio heavy tanks were already in position at the entrance of the ravine, and the Skyfire shuttles and unmanned drones were ready to strike. All Chilar needed to do was give the order, and those three would taste the wrath of the heavens. But at the last moment, headquarters reported that the trio had disappeared.
When he and his men finally reached the mountaintop, sure enough, the enemy were already gone.
Three companies, nearly 400 men, split into three groups, had cast a net wide enough to catch even a fly. Yet their targets—just three people—had slipped through their fingers. Not only had they failed to find them, but they hadn’t even caught a glimpse. It was utterly humiliating.
Chilar paced back and forth like an ant on a hot skillet.
"Captain, nothing in the northern pass."
"Captain, nothing in the meteorite craters on the mountainside."
"Captain, nothing in the southern valley."
"Search! Keep searching! Dig up the earth if you have to—I want those three bastards found!" Chilar roared. "First Platoon Leader, you go too. Take your men and sweep along the base of the mountain, north and south. We’re not leaving until we find them."
"But Captain, what about your safety…?" The First Platoon Leader hesitated.
"What, are you afraid those bastards will crawl out of the acid fog and eat me?"
"N-no, sir…" The First Platoon Leader dared not argue further and hurried off with his men.
When only Chilar and three guards remained on the ridge, something unexpected happened. Five zerglings appeared out of nowhere and launched a sudden attack.
The three guards were knocked to the ground almost simultaneously. The zerglings’ claws pierced through their steel armor, tearing open bloody holes in their bodies.
Chilar was stunned. He had calculated everything, yet he hadn’t anticipated this. A powerful force slammed into his back, knocking him to the ground. He felt a cold sting in his lower back, followed by searing pain and dizziness. Blood spurted from his wound, splattering onto the ground illuminated by the shoulder lights, bright and vivid.
"Damn it! Damn it all! Those three abandoned dogs, those wretches—they should be the ones dying, not me!"
He was filled with regret, anger, and frustration. But none of that mattered. Death spared no one.
Tang Fang wasn’t a villain, nor was he a saint. One thing was certain: whoever tried to devour him whole had better be prepared to lose a few teeth in the process.
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