Chapter 1517: Xenomorph Attacks the City

It was still uncertain whether this was an instance or not. Xu Huo soon encountered a young couple in the ruins. They were desperately trying to dig through a collapsed reinforced concrete wall, muttering as they worked, "Don't be scared, baby," "We'll get you out soon," "Just hold on a little longer."

Xu Huo glanced into the rubble. A child, about three or four years old, was indeed trapped inside. The fallen beams had formed a small, cramped space, and a pipe miraculously extended from that tiny area, which only a child could move in, up to the top of the rubble, providing him with air.

Opening a door within the space, Xu Huo brought the child out and handed him to his parents.

The couple hugged their child and burst into tears. The child cried for a moment before calming down. "Maomao was brave. I didn't cry once in the room. But I didn't listen to you, Mom and Dad. I ate a lot of snacks..."

"It's okay, it's okay!" The woman repeatedly kissed his cheeks and forehead. "You can eat as much as you want from now on. Mom won't stop you. As long as you're alive, that's all that matters..."

The man comforted his wife for a moment, then kowtowed to Xu Huo. "Thank you for saving my child..."

The child's mother knelt down as well.

Xu Huo pulled them both up. "No need for that. It was your child's good luck that he happened to be trapped in the small shop."

The couple was filled with both regret and relief at the mention of it. The shop was theirs. Before the disaster, they had heard a commotion outside and planned to check it out. Their child was sleeping in the room, so they didn't think twice. But shortly after they stepped out, several flashes of electric light streaked across the sky, followed by the collapse of the building. The couple was knocked unconscious on the spot. When they woke up, everything was already over.

"Electric light?" Xu Huo picked up on that word.

"It really looked like electric light to me. Anyway, there was a flash of light." The man said, "I have a video someone sent me..."

He took out his phone, but it was dead. He quickly searched nearby, found a temporary charger, plugged it in, turned on the phone, and handed it to Xu Huo.

In the video, someone had captured the moment a building disappeared. It was like a video frame skip. One second the building was perfectly intact, and the next, it was completely gone, leaving only a flat patch of ground.

There were many such videos. Most were accidentally recorded and then went viral. Later, there were clips of inexplicable bright flashes in the sky, followed by large sections of buildings collapsing.

Panicked screams rose and fell. Some videos were cut off as the darkness closed in, while others, by sheer luck, narrowly avoided the collapsing buildings and recorded the surrounding chaos with shaky footage.

Xu Huo didn't watch any more. Instead, he singled out two videos. In both, a woman in a black trench coat appeared in the corner. Although she was only there for a flash, she was standing on top of a building, and it seemed to be within the range where the light had appeared. This suggested she was no ordinary player.

As for Xue Lang, he didn't appear in any of the videos.

Despite this, Xu Huo intuitively felt that this incident was related to Xue Lang.

But the method was too crude.

Judging by Doctor Zhang's past modus operandi, he preferred places like welfare homes or psychiatric hospitals—locations that lacked public attention—to find and cultivate his targets. Such places were suitable for long-term stays, and he would patiently invest a great deal of time in his chosen targets.

To put it inappropriately, Doctor Zhang's work was meticulous and very low-key. Every time he left a place, he would erase all traces. He wouldn't resort to such crude methods. But everything that had happened in Dingtan City clearly contradicted this.

When they last met, Xue Lang had explicitly told Xu Huo that he was still following Doctor Zhang, his words tinged with a desire for approval. Moreover, he had stolen a large-scale space teleportation device from the Card City. Xu Huo didn't know if it had been used here. If it had, then Xue Lang had randomly selected his targets—whether it was Doctor Zhang who had gone wrong, or Xue Lang himself.

Men, women, old, young... Thinking of those who had disappeared along with the buildings, Xu Huo's expression darkened.

The couple beside him looked at him nervously. "Is there anything else we can help you with, sir?"

Xu Huo returned the phone to them. "Take your child and leave."

After expressing their gratitude once more, the couple quickly carried their child away.

Xu Huo continued to inspect the cut surfaces of the collapsed buildings, but the ground beneath his feet began to tremble. It went from a barely perceptible vibration to a tingling sensation in the soles of his feet in just a few seconds. Moments later, a massive explosion echoed from the other end of the city, followed by an alarm that blared throughout the entire city:

"Xenomorph alert! Xenomorph alert! All citizens, take shelter immediately!"

...

The alarm echoed continuously. The people scattered among the ruins also panicked. Unable to see where the xenomorphs were coming from, they looked around in vain before sprinting in the direction the military had previously evacuated towards!

Xu Huo crossed the ruins and arrived at the eastern side of the city. This was the half of Dingtan City that had been preserved. The subsequent evacuees were also being settled here. The military, armed police, and government personnel were already organizing people in the designated areas. The sudden xenomorph alarm threw the barely stabilized situation into complete chaos.

The xenomorph swarm was still some distance from the city, but the security personnel only needed to stand on high ground to see the dark, overwhelming tide of xenomorphs charging at breakneck speed from the foot of the distant mountains. They were incredibly fast, and in the blink of an eye, they had closed a significant gap with Dingtan City.

The military had already sent out advance teams to intercept them, hoping to buy time for the city. But they were equipped with standard weapons, far below the nuclear level, and incapable of causing mass destruction. So, they could only send out enough people and vehicles, using large quantities of conventional shells and bullets at relatively close range to increase their lethality.

But the effect was far from ideal. For one, the xenomorphs were agile and could dodge the artillery shells. For another, even if hit by shells or sprayed with bullets, the xenomorphs wouldn't necessarily die. This was especially true for those with hardened skin or specially mutated bones; even a round of bullets might only cause superficial wounds.

Consequently, the military suffered heavy losses while killing very few xenomorphs.

This scene was not uncommon in Zone 017. Against xenomorphs, conventional weapons had little advantage. The reason military personnel were willing to sacrifice themselves and charge forward was simply to buy the ordinary citizens a chance to hide—escaping the city was impossible. Their only hope now was that the buildings were sturdy enough.

Soon, the xenomorph swarm engulfed the convoy. The sounds of gunfire, screams, and the grating noise of metal being torn apart merged into a brief, mournful symphony, then vanished in an instant.

(Chapter End)