"Eric, how's it going, have you gotten into the cockpit?"
Within a pitch-black corridor, Cao Ge and his companions were running swiftly.
He was talking with Eric via communicator while hurrying along.
"Bang! Bang!"
Before Eric could reply, several monsters emerged from the path ahead, but with the previous experience, no one present took them seriously anymore. Without needing Cao Ge to make a move, Guy beside him fired first.
"Boom! Boom!"
The monsters fell dead.
With expressionless faces, the five of them stepped over the bodies of the two monsters and moved forward.
"I'm trying to get in," came Eric's reply through the communicator.
"Mhm."
"Hurry up and open the hatch, then restart the system and get Murphy online," Cao Ge instructed.
"Minister, there's something up ahead," Guy said, stopping.
Cao Ge focused his gaze in the direction Guy pointed and indeed saw a silhouette in the dark corridor.
Although the spaceship's engines had started and the power had been restored, due to age and the monsters' havoc, many of the ship's systems were damaged, including the lights in this corridor.
"Go take a look, and be careful," Cao Ge told Guy.
"Mhm." Guy nodded and then walked over with his gun raised.
Although they did not yet know what lay ahead, Cao Ge subconsciously believed it should be a human, because those monsters emitted a blue light - probably a characteristic evolved from living in the dark environment for a long time, while the silhouette before them did not have any blue light.
"Minister, it's a person!" Guy's voice called out.
Cao Ge immediately approached and saw a crew member, suspended by a metal rope, apparently caught in a trap.
"Get him down."
"Ahhhh!!!"
Just as Guy was about to cut the rope with his dagger, the person woke up, and upon awakening, began to struggle violently.
"Don't eat me, don't eat me!!!" he screamed out in intense fear.
"Quiet, quiet," Guy soothed, holding his hands.
The man's face and head were covered in black engine oil, making him look like a ghost; with eyes closed, he cried out for help, tears of despair already streaming from his eyes.
After Guy's calming efforts, the man slowly opened his eyes and glanced at Cao Ge and the others.
"I knew it, I knew it, someone would definitely come to rescue us, definitely!" The man, like a drowning person clutching at a straw, held onto Guy's hand tightly and wouldn't let go.
"Get him down," Cao Ge said.
"I'm going to put you down now, stay calm, don't move," Guy nodded and then turned back to tell the man.
The man nodded excitedly in response.
"Bang!"
Guy pulled the dagger from between his legs and sliced through the dangling steel cable, which snapped instantly.
The man's body consequently fell into Guy's arms.
"Whoo-whoo-whoo~" Once put down, the man embraced Guy and started sobbing.
One grown man, holding onto another grown man and crying - it was evident what kind of nightmare this man had lived through.
"What's your name?" Cao Ge asked.
"Claude," Claude Slate sobbed in reply.
"OK, Claude, I need you to pull yourself together now and help us restore order to the ship."
"Where is your spaceship?" Instead of answering their question, Claude asked another one.
"Wait, you just said that you were going to rebuild the spaceship's order, so, you don't actually have a spaceship." Claude suddenly stood up from Guy's arms and said.
"Are you people from Elysium Space?"
"Correct," Guy answered.
"How long have you been awake?"
Glancing at Cao Ge, although Guy didn't know what this person in front of him meant, he still answered, "About a day."
"Fuck! It looks like you have no idea what's happened." The joy on Claude's face suddenly disappeared, replaced by disappointment, with a touch of anger.
Without paying any more attention to Cao Ge and the others, he went over to a nearby conduit and began twisting one of the pipes filled with machine oil.
Soon, black oil began to flow out, and Claude caught it with his hands before vigorously smearing it all over himself until he was covered in oil, and only then did he stop.
Cao Ge knew that he was trying to mask his scent with the oil to avoid those monsters.
"Hey, since you saved me once, I'll give you one piece of advice, hide quickly, they're absolute nightmares."
"Sergeant, that's an order from your superiors; you're a soldier and should know that a soldier's duty is to obey orders."
"Orders? Fuck, this damned ship hasn't had superiors in a long time." Claude cursed indiscriminately, his attitude extremely defiant, completely unlike his earlier cowardice.
"Awoo, awoo, awoo!"
Just then, a dim blue light suddenly appeared down the dark corridor ahead.
"They're here." Fear once again spread across Claude's face.
Uncontrollably and instinctively, he staggered backward a few steps and collapsed to the ground, then desperately crawled and rolled away, but before he could get far, blue light also began to emanate from the corridor behind him.
"Awoo, awoo, awoo!"
"It's over, we're done for!!" Claude mumbled in a daze as he ran back, then collapsed at the feet of Cao Ge and the others.
Cao Ge looked down at the crumpled Claude with a frown, then turned to Guy and said, "You take this side, I'll take that side."
The mutated monsters quickly emerged from the corner of the passageway, and there were many of them.
"Follow my command!" Cao Ge raised his gun.
"Fire."
"Bang! Bang! Bang!!!"
A burst of gunfire, and the monsters charging toward them fell one by one, blown to bits in a matter of seconds.
"Alright, let's keep moving," Cao Ge said.
"Minister, what about him..." Guy looked at Claude and said.
Following Guy's gaze, Cao Ge looked at Claude, who was avoiding eye contact, thought for a moment, and then said, "Give him a gun, and bring him along."
"Yes, minister."
With that, they resumed their journey to the cockpit. Cao Ge didn't judge Claude too harshly; after all, the monsters had left a deep scar in his mind, and his fear was understandable.
About fifteen minutes later, Cao Ge and the others arrived at the cockpit door.
There lay the bodies of a dozen dead creatures; the cabin door was tightly shut, indicating that Eric and the others had already gone inside.
"Eric, we're here, open the cabin door," Cao Ge said, pressing the communicator.
Inside the cabin, Eric and the others stood at the control panel, working on restarting the ship's systems.
"The minister's here; open the cabin door," Eric suddenly said.
With that, he turned and walked toward the cabin door.
"Click~" The circular cabin door slowly opened, and Cao Ge and the others walked in from outside.
"How's it going, have the systems been restarted?" Cao Ge asked as soon as he saw them.
"Not yet, it's still being adjusted; it'll take a little more time," Eric replied.
Cao Ge glanced at the computer screen on the control panel, then nodded and said, "Hurry up!"