I Am a Salted Fish in the Interstellar Era - Chapter 24

Piloting the “War God” mecha was exhilarating compared to driving an A-grade military mecha. Shi Yu felt no burden on her body or mental energy. The mecha’s surface didn’t dent after a few hits from the insectoids, and its light frame allowed for swift dodging.

 

As long as Shi Yu was in combat mode and online, she could completely avoid being hit by the leeches and worms.

 

However, when Shi Yu approached the octopus spider with her beam sword, she noticed this one was significantly different from the last one she had killed.

 

This spider had stronger defenses and combat abilities, with two red marks on its abdomen and denser sharp teeth on its upper body.

 

Shi Yu started by breaking one of its legs, drawing its full aggro. The octopus spider roared and charged at her.

 

Its massive legs knocked down numerous buildings, creating large holes in the ground, and the leeches and worms crushed by its steps rolled around, unable to escape their fate.

 

Shi Yu steadied her mind and leaped to appear behind the octopus spider, her beam sword not idle, striking fiercely at the spider.

 

The octopus spider, sensing danger, swiftly dodged the lethal strike, but Shi Yu cut off one of its legs, the force sending it flying.

 

The octopus spider roared, its abdomen’s sharp teeth clicking loudly, the pain of losing two legs nearly making it unable to stand.

 

But it was thoroughly enraged.

 

It hadn’t expected this opponent to be different from those it had easily dispatched before, causing it significant damage.

 

Its sharp teeth clicked continuously, seemingly sending a message. Afterward, the round hole, which had calmed due to its emergence, became unstable again, and another octopus spider rushed out.

 

This new spider had three red marks on its abdomen and was even larger.

 

The round hole was too small for it; as it rushed out, its steel hairs were scraped off, falling to the ground. The worms and leeches at the bottom of the food chain suffered another blow, scrambling to escape.

 

Shi Yu’s alarm bells rang. She didn’t hesitate to retreat, and as she did, the massive octopus spider rolled its six legs, reaching her previous spot in a blink, smashing a dark pit into the ground.

 

This octopus spider was faster and stronger, causing Shi Yu’s scalp to tingle. She pursed her lips, focusing even more.

 

At that moment, the smaller octopus spider, dragging its remaining six legs, limped to the larger one’s side. Its sharp teeth clicked together, and Shi Yu inexplicably sensed it was tattling.

 

Shi Yu didn’t care if the insectoids could understand her or not, she just opened her mic to taunt: “So, after the small ones come the big ones? Come at me if you dare, I’ll smash you to pieces!”

 

As she finished speaking, she threw another light beam sword from her other hand, and the virtual particle wings she had used against the old hen unfolded behind her mecha.

 

With a slight vibration of the virtual particle wings, the [War God] disappeared from its spot.

 

The two octopus spiders lost their target, their biting sharp teeth closing as their head-like parts turned left and right.

 

Meanwhile, Shi Yu fell from the sky at a speed almost too fast to react to.

 

The two octopus spiders instinctively sensed danger, with the larger one reacting more swiftly, its eight spider legs rolling to dodge Shi Yu’s lethal strike.

 

Seeing her attack miss, Shi Yu, adhering to the ‘leave no stone unturned’ principle, twisted her mecha’s wrist and sent the light beam sword towards the smaller octopus spider.

 

The smaller one, not as quick as the larger, lost a leg and its reaction slowed, its movement shaky. Sensing danger and trying to flee, it stumbled due to missing two legs, and Shi Yu’s light beam sword sliced across its abdomen.

 

A loud scream ensued as the spider she hit struggled wildly, its remaining six legs flailing, inflicting secondary damage to the already battle-damaged buildings, leaving them beyond repair.

 

No matter how the smaller octopus spider struggled, it was futile against the power of the light beam sword. Avoiding its back shell and cutting in from the side, following the red streak across its abdomen, the spider was bisected.

 

Green fluid gushed out, but Shi Yu was quick to dodge, not wanting the [War God] to get stained with such disgusting stuff. She retracted her light beam sword, letting the green liquid fall to the ground.

 

Shi Yu swung her light beam sword again, turning it back into a comfortable silver light.

 

At this moment, the larger octopus spider charged at Shi Yu with a roar, its speed so fast Shi Yu couldn’t dodge in time. Its dangerous, furry limbs pierced the waist of the [War God] with a ‘zing’.

 

The [War God]’s exterior remained undamaged, but Shi Yu’s mental strength suffered a huge blow.

 

Pain prickled through her like needles, and Shi Yu, gritting her teeth, quickly swept the spider’s legs away with her light beam sword and kicked off its head to leap far away.

 

In the cockpit, Shi Yu’s mouth bled, her head throbbing with pain, buzzing as if bees were humming.

 

Shi Yu hadn’t expected the larger octopus spider’s attack to be so powerful. Despite the [War God]’s strong defense taking the brunt, it still injured her mental strength.

 

The octopus spider, missing its strike and seeing it couldn’t withstand another attack, quickly retreated to the side of the smaller spider, touching the lifeless, bisected body with its furry limbs.

 

It kicked the smaller spider a couple of times, but there was no response.

 

Realizing something, it let out an extremely angry roar and charged at Shi Yu.

 

The roar tore through the sky, and Shi Yu realized she had enraged the larger octopus spider. If she didn’t deal with it quickly, it would get her.

 

She wiped the blood from her mouth and charged forward with her light beam sword. Just as they were about to clash, the virtual particle wings behind the [War God] vibrated slightly, and the [War God] leaped up, stepping on the spider’s back, causing it to stumble and expose its abdomen’s red streak.

 

At the same time, a bullet shot from afar, hitting the soft abdomen of the octopus spider directly.

 

The bullet entered the spider’s body, releasing a spark and crackling noise as the spider became rigid from the massive electric shock.

 

A smile appeared on Shi Yu’s lips as she wielded both light beam swords, slashing horizontally at the spider’s side waist.

 

She opened her mic again: “Idiot, who said anything about fighting one-on-one? I brought backup!”

 

It was unclear if the octopus spider understood her words, but its frantic leg movements were futile.

 

Its waist was sliced open by the synchronized strike of the light beam swords, its huge body twitching once before green fluid sprayed out, and it collapsed to the ground with a thud.

 

Both octopus spiders were taken down, but the battle wasn’t over yet. Shi Yu launched her beam sword, cutting in half the earthworms and black leeches that swarmed over due to the death of the octopus spiders, sending them fleeing with their repulsive bodies.

 

Shi Yu manipulated her mecha, harvesting the lives of the black leeches and earthworms emerging from the dark holes.

 

Lu Dongyan and Feng Xiao finally arrived, quickly checking the life signs inside the mechas. They picked up any mechas with signs of life and swiftly flew to an area not yet invaded by the insect race.

 

After several back and forth trips, they managed to rescue a dozen survivors. When the two men went out again, Shi Yu retracted her beam sword, grabbed the last mecha, and quickly left.

 

The three of them couldn’t possibly carry so many mechas away, so they were forced to open the cockpits and take out the unconscious people.

 

After storing their mechas, Shi Yu and her companions were about to take out the A-grade mechas they had brought from the shelter when Lin Xie, who had woken up at some unknown time, coughed up blood and looked at them silently, without saying a word.

 

Feeling guilty, the three of them pretended as if nothing had happened.

 

Shi Yu waved her claws at Lin Xie: “Captain, long time no see.”

 

The remark was incredibly perfunctory; they had stood together in the shelter just an hour ago.

 

Lin Xie managed a smile, enduring the taste of blood spreading in his nose, and said hoarsely, “You three little rascals never listen, do you know how dangerous it was just now—”

 

Before Lin Xie could finish, Feng Xiao, who had walked up to him, injected him in the neck with a syringe, causing Lin Xie’s pupils to dilate and him to faint.

 

Shi Yu, who had experienced similar incidents, twitched her eyelids and subtly moved away from Feng Xiao.

 

Why did everyone like using needles? Couldn’t they talk things out?

 

Lu Dongyan noticed her movement, gave her a look, and found her behavior odd.

 

Now was not the time to waste; the three of them took out their mechas and followed the floating vehicle convoy with all the unconscious people.

 

Before the reinforcements arrived, Shi Yu was the first to sneak away, only to be caught by Lu Dongyan, Feng Xiao, and Gu Qianqian. Gu Qianqian, injured, was unanimously sent back to the floating car by the three.

 

Shi Yu’s “War God” had the fastest speed. She left the two behind while on the move, with Lu Dongyan and Feng Xiao panting in pursuit.

 

Feng Xiao’s mecha was a heavy artillery type, not only cumbersome but also slow, leaving him far behind Lu Dongyan. By the time he managed to catch up, Shi Yu had almost finished the battle, with Lu Dongyan having fired a shot, while he ended up just running along.

 

Upon their return to the floating vehicle convoy, they quickly caught the attention of Shen Han, who saw the dozen unconscious people and teared up in front of everyone.

 

After calming down, Shen Han was about to settle scores with them for what happened, but Shi Yu sensed something was off and dragged Lu Dongyan away before he could ask.

 

As for Feng Xiao, busy providing first aid with the emergency kit, Shen Han didn’t dare interrupt, swallowing his doubts while waiting for the check-up.

 

The condition of the dozen people was not good, with the most severe having suffered a mental breakdown, awaiting awakening to determine the specifics.

 

Lin Xie, having overused his mental power, was not in critical condition but needed a long period of rest, and it was uncertain when he would wake up.

 

After checking their injuries, Feng Xiao also slipped to the back of the floating car, not giving Shen Han a chance to react.

 

Gu Qianqian, holding his chin in frustration, looked at his treated wound, which was just a cut and some blood loss, nothing serious. Why did those three jerks confine him in the floating car?

 

As he sat sulking, someone sat next to him. Gu Qianqian turned his head to see Shi Yu focusing on eating her pudding, prompting a huge exclamation mark over his head: “You’re back already?”

 

Shi Yu glanced at him: “How long should I have been gone?”

 

Gu Qianqian felt something was off. It had been only half a month since he last saw Shi Yu, and she seemed to have become mysteriously elusive, almost intangible.

 

“How did it go? Did you bring back the person?” He didn’t mention any names or specifics to avoid unwanted attention and potential chaos.

 

Shi Yu nodded, pausing in her pudding eating to mumble, “Heavy losses…”

 

After she finished speaking, she lowered her eyes to eat the small pudding again. Gu Qianqian had never seen her like this before and guessed what she meant by the “heavy losses” she mentioned.

 

He made an “Oh” sound and extended his palm towards Shi Yu: “Give me a small pudding too.”

 

Shi Yu instantly perked up, glaring at him: “Why are you always picking on my little pudding?”

 

“As if you’ve never picked on me?” Gu Qianqian stretched out his hand.

 

Reluctantly, Shi Yu bared her teeth and handed him a small pudding.

 

This act opened a can of worms. Lu Dongyan, sitting on her other side, also extended his hand, staring at her unblinkingly: “I want one too.”

 

Shi Yu: “…”

 

Fine, here.

 

Luo Xiaci, who had been fiddling with his brain-computer interface across from them, also looked up: “How about giving me one too?”

 

Shi Yu: “…”

 

What kind of madness is this?

 

Shi Yu angrily gave them the puddings.

 

Gu Qianqian couldn’t help but laugh, accidentally aggravating his wound and inhaling sharply from the pain.

 

He hurriedly stopped laughing and touched his arm, but this action caused the crystal-like transparent box from the space bag at his waist, which had been cut by a butterfly, to fall out, clattering to the ground.

 

Luo Xiaci took the pudding and reached out to help Gu Qianqian pick up the fallen item.

 

But when he looked down and saw the gray-black butterfly specimen in the crystal box, his pupils dilated with fear.