Tomb raider: You're going to extract my alien bloodline?

Chapter 50 Articles of Association

The Wang family was thrown into chaos, with terrified screams and bursts of gunfire erupting. However, bullets had limited effect on the high-speed, hard-shelled aliens, and were more likely to injure their own people.

The situation spiraled out of control, turning into a one-sided massacre. The aliens roamed the shadows, each appearance taking a life with it.

The middle-aged man leading the group was furious and tried to organize a resistance, but he was quickly targeted by the two aliens. Although he was skilled, he was no match for the two aliens, especially since they were killing machines covered in weapons. He was soon injured and looked disheveled.

Qin Yuan leaned against the rock wall, watching this sudden reversal, and breathed a sigh of relief. Before, in the Ultimate Realm, he had been bleeding out and being attacked by the defense system. He had finally managed to put that giant computer into hibernation, only to be shot twice by arrows when it came out. The reversal was so fast that he had temporarily forgotten about the existence of these aliens.

Fortunately, they sensed the Empress's injury and came out to protect her, which relieved Qin Yuan's nerves considerably, but the pain from his wounds made him grimace. Zhang Qiling also took the opportunity to deal with the few people harassing him, retreated to Qin Yuan's side, held his knife on guard, his gaze sweeping over the black monsters that were rapidly slaughtering the Wang family members, his eyes deep, finally settling on Qin Yuan's pale face.

The battle... or rather the massacre, ended quickly. The elite squad of over thirty members of the Wang family couldn't even last five minutes against the seven enraged aliens. The ground was littered with mutilated corpses, and the heavy stench of blood overpowered the previous smoke and dust.

After dealing with their enemies, the aliens did not leave. Instead, they remained quietly in the surrounding shadows, facing Qin Yuan with their heads slightly bowed, like soldiers awaiting inspection. However, the slime and blood dripping from their bodies made the scene appear particularly eerie.

Despite the pain, Qin Yuan gave them the command to guard the surrounding area. The aliens silently dispersed, disappearing into the shadows to continue fulfilling their duties as sentinels.

Zhang Qiling sheathed his knife and walked to Qin Yuan's side to check his injuries. The arrowhead in his shoulder had been dissolved by the corrosive effect of his blood, leaving only a bloody hole that was healing at a visible speed, with granulation tissue growing rapidly. The same was true for his leg. The blow to his back hadn't drawn blood, but it had left a long, red welt.

"It's alright, I won't die." Qin Yuan grinned. His regenerative ability kicked in, and the tingling sensation from his wounds made him feel a little uncomfortable. "It's just a bit of a loss. One drop of blood is worth ten drops of essence. I've lost so much blood, I'll probably be weak for a while."

Zhang Qiling ignored his nonsense, took out some simple bandages and disinfectant powder from her bag, and prepared to treat Qin Yuan's back and shoulder wounds.

"No need to wait. This little injury of mine will heal itself in a few hours. You know my blood. This bandage will dissolve as soon as it's applied. It's not much stronger than toilet paper." Qin Yuan said as Zhang Qiling came over to stop him.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Qiling put away his things, picked up his knife, and found a clean place with Qin Yuan to sit down and rest.

Qin Yuan grimaced in pain while talking to the system in his mind.

"System, I just remembered the Wang family. They're so obsessed with the ultimate, even going so far as to worship a supercomputer like a god... Did they also manage to salvage some scraps from these alien ruins?"

He recalled the description of the mysterious computer at the Wang family headquarters in the original novel.

[Analysis of residual energy from equipment carried in the Wang family wreckage... Comparison with the spectrum of the 'Ultimate' main unit... Detection of trace amounts of homogeneous energy signals and rudimentary subsystem coding fragments.]

[Host, Wang Zanghai, the founder of the Wang family, acquired a small amount of discarded energy crystals and damaged data storage fragments that had detached from the 'Ultimate' host in its early days.]

Building upon this foundation, their family, through extremely low-level reverse engineering, constructed an unstable simulation computation and divination system. This system is incomplete, relying on residual energy radiation from the mainframe to sustain some of its operations.

Just as I thought! Qin Yuan understood. The root of the Wang family's so-called "god" and "precognition" was right here! They were just tinkering with the junk of the "Ultimate" supercomputer. No wonder their actions sometimes seemed to be prophetic, but in the end they still failed.

"So, as long as we shut down the 'Ultimate' device and cut off its energy source, the Wang family's knock-off computer will naturally stop working?" Qin Yuan wondered to himself.

Yes, once the mainframe is shut down, its dissipated energy field will completely disappear. The Wang family's replica system, which relies on this energy field, will fail due to energy depletion and the breakage of its core logic chain. Its predictive and computational functions will be permanently paralyzed.

"Tsk," Qin Yuan clicked his tongue inwardly, almost laughing. So, after all that, the Wang family's supposedly powerful trump card was just a secondary machine and some malware that would crumble when the main machine was shut down? This was truly... both laughable and pathetic.

"What are you thinking about?" Zhang Qiling, holding the knife, leaned against the rock wall, tilting his head to watch the changing expressions on his face.

Qin Yuan snapped out of his daze and looked at Zhang Qiling's calm expression. He suddenly felt that it wouldn't hurt to tell him some things.

"Thinking about the Wang family." Qin Yuan gestured to the corpses of the Wang family members scattered on the ground in the distance. "It seems they picked up some ultimate trash and treated it like a treasure, thinking they could control their destiny with that little bit of stuff." He smirked, a hint of sarcasm in his eyes. "Little did they know, once the real owner shuts down, all that stuff of theirs is just scrap metal."

Zhang Qiling listened quietly, neither pressing for details about what "garbage" specifically meant nor questioning how Qin Yuan knew. He simply nodded, as if Qin Yuan were discussing something perfectly ordinary.

Seeing that the wound on Qin Yuan's leg had almost healed, he stood up and looked around at the bloody battlefield and the aliens hidden in the shadows, then looked at Qin Yuan, whose face was still pale but whose eyes had regained their clarity.

"Can you walk?" he asked.

Qin Yuan tried to move around. His wound was still painful, but his super-fast regeneration ability was working continuously. He would recover in about two more hours, and his strength had also returned somewhat: "Walking slowly is fine."

Zhang Qiling nodded, bent down and picked up a backpack that had fallen next to the corpse of a Wang family leader. He took out some compressed food and water from it and handed it to Qin Yuan.

"Replenish your energy," he said, "and then leave."

Qin Yuan accepted the food and water, feeling a warmth in his heart. The delivery guy was reliable after all, but...

He silently took out a box of pan-fried chicken rice from a restaurant and handed it to the silent man in front of him... Had he forgotten that he had a space...?

The two ate their boxed lunches, Qin Yuan glancing towards the bronze door as he ate. The "Ultimate" behind the door was temporarily dormant, the Wang family's ambush outside had been cleared, and clues about the lost module had been found.

It's time to go back and meet up with Wuxie, Fatty, and the others, and then go see the Queen Mother of the West who took the original hard drive and has been running around for three thousand years. However, I need to heal my injuries before setting off, otherwise they'll nag me again, and Qin Jiu might turn into a crybaby.

"Let's go, bro." Qin Yuan swallowed the last bite of food and stood up with Zhang Qiling's help. "Let's find a place with a signal first and let Fatty know we're safe, otherwise that guy might howl this Changbai Mountain down."

The two walked slowly away from the open space in front of the bronze gate, which was filled with the aura of death, through the snow and bloodstains. In the shadows, several pairs of cold, inhuman eyes watched them leave, then slowly closed again, falling into slumber.

Their lives are still counting down, but until then, they will faithfully carry out the "Queen's" final instructions, guarding this area until their demise.