Interstellar Survival: Invasion

I shut my eyes and waited for my brainwaves to be controlled. What I waited for did not come, but Lifu did stop knocking his head against the vehicle.

'Success!' I thought in joy.

But when I opened my eyes again, I saw myself in a world of white. I was surrounded by white fog, and the ground I stood on was loose and sandy. A doppelganger that looked exactly like me stood facing me.

'Is this a mirror?' I thought as I stretched out my hand. However, my doppelganger actually stepped away from me.

'I'm not haunted, am I?' I thought, alarmed.

My doppelganger appeared to be in an unstable state as its body kept flickering in and out of view in a semi-translucent state. I suddenly realized that this doppelganger might be a form created by the creature. I might have been brought into the creature's four-dimensional world after my brainwaves fell under its control.

"Hello. We won't harm you. I'm Li Canyue. Can you understand me?" I tried asking.

My doppelganger opened its mouth to talk, but the only sound that came out was an ear-piercing static, resembling the zapping sound of an electrical current.

'Shit, we can't talk to each other. I must think of something,' I thought.

Just as I was about to start gesturing at my doppelganger, I noticed the sandy ground beneath me. I crouched and started drawing on the sand. First, I drew a massive star. Then, I drew a smaller planet beside it. I then pointed at the planet before pointing at myself, pointing out my origin to the creature. Next, I drew Bellatrix, the grayroid, and the creature before gesturing to indicate that the creature I drew represented it.

I pointed at the drawing of the creature and said, "How about I give you a name? How about Bulu?"

Finally, I drew two interlocked hands between us. My doppelganger stood with its head askew while it stared at the sand. It seemed to have understood my meaning. It crouched as its back turned transparent and light green. It extended a transparent finger to the ground and drew over 10 circles before pointing at itself.

"That is you. There are a lot of you. You're Bulu. That is the name I give you," I gestured.

Bulu did not answer me. Rather, it drew a massive circle on the ground.

"What does this mean? What does this circle represent?" I was confused.

I shook my head at Bulu to express my confusion. Bulu seemed to understand what I meant, and it turned around and wiped away half of the smaller circles before drawing the smaller circles within the big circle.

"Oh. This is your lair," I said. "Can you take us there?"

Bulu stood up and reached for my face. It started rubbing my face with its transparent fingers. I shut my eyes, allowing the creature to study me through touch. I felt an icy sensation wash over my face. About a minute later, the icy sensation receded. When I opened my eyes again, Zhang Bao'er's big face entered my eyes.

"He's awake! He's awake!" Zhang Bao'er shouted.

Everyone was huddled around me. Lifu's broken helmet lay on the ground. It seemed like his assistant had given him a new helmet.

"Thank you for saving me," said Lifu.

"You're welcome. Are you fine?" I asked.

"I woke up before it was too late. For now, I'm fine," said Lifu.

"So? Did you manage to communicate with it? Did you learn anything new?" Old Du asked.

I told everyone what I saw, not forgetting to speak through the communication channel for the benefit of those in the spaceship.

"Looks like there are a lot of these creatures on this grayroid," said Master Crystal.

"They likely have a lair here. We don't need to take more risks. We can retreat since we already have one with us," Zhang Xingxing suggested.

I turned my head to look at Bulu. It was still laying motionless with the net tied firmly around it. Suddenly, a sense of sympathy rose in my heart. How was this a beast? I found it unreasonable to send it to a monster factory.

"I intend to release it," I said coldly, almost gnashing my teeth as I spoke.

"Have you gone mad? The emperor will attack Blue if you do so!" Zhang Bao'er reminded me.

"It hasn't been easy to catch one. We can't release it!" Lifu objected.

"Do you wish to resume knocking your head against the door?" I asked.

"This is my mission. If we fail the mission, we will be punished harshly upon our return," said Lifu.

"Think this through," Old Du said.

"My mind is set. I can't sacrifice the life of a planet in exchange for the survival of another planet. Since I am the issue here, I'll personally explain myself to the emperor," I said.

A long silence descended.

"I support you." Old Du was the first to voice his stance.

"I don't care either way. At worst, I'll just fight a war," said Zhang Bao'er.

"The entire crew of Fearless supports your decision," said Zhang Xingxing.

Lifu shook his head in disappointment when he saw that we had made our decision.

"Don't worry. This is not your fault. I'll give the emperor an explanation," I said.

"Sigh. Young man, you don't understand how terrifying and shrewd the emperor is. You overestimate yourself. At the same time, you're underestimating the emperor," said Lifu.

I ignored him and took out the net withdrawal device to release Bulu. Bulu remained motionless on the ground while the flow from its transparent feeler slowed. With a whoosh, I pulled the net off Bulu's body.

The moment Bulu was freed from restriction, its body swelled like a balloon. In the blink of an eye, it grew to the size of an elephant. White electrical currents continued flickering from its feeler. It moved its massive body toward me. I could see that its body was rippling like waves as its body flickered continuously. It seemed to be sizing me up.

"Canyue, careful!" Zhang Bao'er called out.

I waved my hand to silence Zhang Bao'er and signaled everyone to stay silent. Although I was very nervous, I knew that I had to remain calm and not anger the creature before me. I still had my shield off, leaving my brain unprotected. In fact, I was looking forward to connecting with Bulu once again.

Alas, the connection did not come. After looking at me for a few minutes, Bulu shrunk into the size of a beach ball, which was most likely its regular form. While facing Bulu, I pointed at my head, hoping to once again connect our minds. While hovering in the air, Bulu circled me and then suddenly turned to leave.

Everyone heaved a sigh of relief. I turned back and saw them lower their weapons. It turned out that we had been close to crossing the point of no return. My safety might be guaranteed, but I still felt somewhat disappointed. The second mind connection I wanted did not happen. Also, I had a vague sensation that there was an indescribable connection between me and Bulu.

"Canyue, is everything fine there?" Zhang Xingxing's concerned voice came from the communicator.

"Everything is fine. The creature has been released," said Old Du.

"Well, now we're in trouble. You're quite a stubborn child, you know that? Then again, this might be the best course of action for you," said Master Crystal.

Lifu and company appeared dispirited. They were so close to making a massive contribution to the empire. But now, they had to return empty-handed and face the empire's harsh punishment. I understood their feelings.

"That creature can change its size at any time. It can even control one's brainwaves. Furthermore, it does not exist in a fixed form. This is probably the biggest discovery ever when it comes to alien life forms," said Dodo.

"It doesn't matter how big of a discovery it is. Time for us to embrace war. Bring it on, I say. I won't mind facing the incoming storm. In fact, I would welcome a stronger storm!" declared Zhang Bao'er madly.

"We need to try to avoid war. There must be a way," said Old Du.

"Dondon, we're ready to return. Take Fearless to the pickup point. We will be there in about an hour," Dodo said.

We hopped on our off-road vehicles and headed toward the pickup point. The vehicles advanced smoothly while the passengers wallowed in silence. The group morale was still low. After about 40 minutes, the system indicated that we had arrived.

"Canyue, something feels wrong," Old Du suddenly said.

"What is it this time?" Zhang Bao'er asked.

"When we came, we had to go through the steep cliff. However, the cliff was gone on our way back," said Old Du doubtfully.

That reminded everyone. I recalled that we had to make a pulley to get us past the cliff.

"What in the world happened? What kind of a place is this? Don't tell me that this planet can also change its landscape at any moment." Zhang Bao'er complained.

"That might be true. However, is there a second possibility?" Old Du said.

"What second possibility? Come on, stop keeping us in suspense," said Zhang Bao'er.

"Are we perhaps in an illusion? Are our brainwaves still under our control even?" asked Old Du.

A chill crept up my spine. That was rather unbelievable. Was it possible that we were still in the creature's illusion?

"I can't take this anymore. What is real and what is fake? Damn this mission. Damn the emperor for forcing us to this shitty place," cursed Zhang Bao'er.

Zhang Bao'er's odd condition made me suspect that we were really all trapped in an illusion.

'I must calm down. Calm. Calm,' I chanted inwardly as I slowly shut my eyes.

A minute later, I opened my eyes. Nothing changed. Zhang Bao'er was still cursing endlessly beside me.

"Dodo, we have reached the pickup location," Dondon's voice came from the communicator.

"We'll be there soon," said Dodo.

Five minutes later, we arrived at the destination as guided by the system. However, the landscape around us was still an endless expanse of flat land. The massive crack that we had seen when we had arrived was nowhere to be found.

"Dodo, where are you? According to the system, you're already here, but we can't see you," Dondon asked.

"We're here, but the terrain and surroundings are completely different from before. We can't see Fearless either," said Dodo.

"What the heck? Did the terrain change for real? But how do we explain the fact that the system is showing that we're all at the same place? Are we really trapped in an illusion?" Zhang Bao'er muttered as he started beating his own head.

I stood up and performed a full scan of my surroundings with the laser probe. I found with astonishment that apart from the distant volcanic crater that had stayed the same, the entire border between the inner and outer layers of the planet had vanished. An ominous feeling rose in my heart.

"Dondon, take Fearless away from the planet immediately!" I roared to the communicator.