Shipping goods from the game to the World of Warhammer

Chapter 99 How to deal with the cunning infection?

The sound of the wind filled her ears, and Lillie felt that her stomach was no longer in its original position.

The lights of Upper Nest rose wildly in her field of vision, the exquisite spires and covered bridges turning into blurry ribbons of light. The air rustled against her pajamas and disheveled red hair. She wanted to shout again, but the wind rushed into her throat, silencing her.

Then she heard the sound of wings.

The sound of some enormous organism flapping its wings was like the repeated beating of a drum, each strike carrying a dull ripple of air pressure that made her chest resonate. The sound was coming from below and was rapidly approaching.

Before Lillie could even look down, she felt her falling speed suddenly slow down. It wasn't that she'd hit anything hard; rather, she felt herself sinking into a warm, elastic surface, as if landing on a giant, living air cushion. The surface caved in under her weight, then bounced back, absorbing her falling energy little by little.

The enormous creature carried her body downwards, the speed changing from free fall to a slow descent, until finally coming to a complete stop, hovering in mid-air.

Lyriel lay on that warm surface, panting heavily, her fingers unconsciously gripping the thing beneath her.

The texture was strange, like a thin, elastic biological tissue covered with a membrane. The surface was slightly moist, and you could feel something pulsating rhythmically underneath, like large blood vessels.

Then her fingers touched several hard ridges, the edges of some kind of bone or carapace.

Liriel slowly raised her head.

The sound of flapping wings was right above her head, each flap creating a strong downward airflow that made her hair fly wildly.

A massive, carapace-patterned abdomen filled her entire field of vision above her head, above which were broad, membranous wings flapping the air at a steady rhythm. Further ahead, a long neck extended from the front of her body, ending at a skull covered with bony plates, with several orange compound eyes on each side, gazing straight ahead.

This creature is estimated to be seven or eight meters long and has a wingspan of over ten meters. It is covered from head to tail with layers of chitinous carapace, and at the end of its tail is a complex-shaped organ that looks like some kind of jet or ovipositor.

This is a large, live insect.

Lillie's pupils contracted sharply, adrenaline surged in her veins, and her right hand instinctively reached for the pistol at her waist. First those half-human, half-insect monsters, and now this giant flying insect—would this ever end? Her fingertips barely touched the gun handle when a voice cried out, "What are you doing? Don't move!"

Rhodes' voice came from the side, his tone undisguisedly stern, and his commanding manner made Lillie's hand freeze on the gun handle.

She turned her head to look.

About five or six meters away in mid-air, another flying creature of similar size was flying alongside the one beneath her. Rhode sat on the creature's broad belly, one hand gripping the bony edge of its carapace, the other gesturing for her to put her hand down. Her posture was much more composed than Rhode's, and she seemed to show no worry or fear whatsoever.

Two flying creatures, each seven or eight meters long and with a wingspan of over ten meters, carried two people as they glided downwards through the steel canyons of the Upper Nest District. Each flap of their wings created a dull ripple in air pressure, echoing in the narrow spaces between the buildings like distant rumbles of thunder.

Liriel looked at Rhodes, then at the giant creature at her feet that was still rhythmically flapping its wings, and a thought that she herself found absurd popped into her head.

Is your own boss a bug too?

But it wasn't quite like that. Rhodes was clearly controlling these things, not being one with them. She remembered back in Esperan.

She clung to the last glimmer of hope that perhaps this was just some secret little pet of a wandering merchant, some alien biotechnology she didn't understand, rather than her boss really having some inexplicable relationship with the insects.

Lillie removed her hand from the gun handle and gripped the bony ridge of the armor beneath her tightly, trying her best not to look down. The wind rushed in from all directions, making her pajamas flutter loudly, and the only slipper on her foot swayed precariously in the air.

She's afraid of heights. Extremely afraid of heights.

Rewind a few dozen seconds.

The moment Rhodes vaulted over the railing, his foot slipped, and he plummeted into the vertical space of the upper nest area. The wind howled in his ears, but his attention was completely elsewhere than on the fall itself.

He entered the system store in his consciousness.

All races' Tier 2 shops had already been unlocked, including the Zerg's Tier 2 technology. The Zerg base on Esperan had already hatched several Zerg buildings for mutation, with Spires, Hydralisk Hives, and Infested Abysses on standby. This meant that Rhodes could directly purchase the corresponding units using universal energy within the system.

He needed something to catch him in mid-air, and it had to be fast, very fast, because the ground was approaching at an unpleasant speed.

A Viking warplane? Unrealistic. In free fall, it would most likely become a decorative blob on a building's exterior.

Medical transport plane? Same question. The transport plane's cabin needs to be boarded from the rear. Trying to do a high-difficulty aerial relay in the steel canyon of the hive city would have a success rate about the same as Lillie telling the truth.

The Phoenix fighter's gravity beam could lift him up, but then what? He would be hanging under the Phoenix fighter's shell, which was tens of meters long, becoming an extremely conspicuous live target among the buildings of the hive city.

At this point, the alien dragon became the best choice.

With a body length of seven or eight meters and a wingspan of over ten meters, its spacious belly can support the weight of an adult, allowing it to maneuver flexibly within the atmosphere. Most importantly, its belly also acts as a cushion, and it possesses an autonomous flight instinct and exceptional spatial awareness.

Rhode only needed to issue a "Catch me" command through the psionic link, and the alien dragon could do the rest on its own, including calculating the fall trajectory, adjusting the flight angle, and using the elastic biological tissue on its abdomen to cushion the impact.

[Alien Dragon 2: Exchange Complete]

A white light flashed halfway down the mountain, and two pulsating insect eggs appeared out of thin air, rapidly expanding and deforming in the airflow.

The sound of the shells cracking was masked by the wind. In less than ten seconds, the two alien dragons broke free from their eggshells, spread their broad membranous wings, and steadied themselves in the air currents of the steel canyon of this nest world.

Rhodes landed on the belly of one of the alien dragons. Most of the impact was absorbed by the elastic biological tissue on the dragon's belly. The remaining vibration made his teeth knock, and he tasted a bit of rust in his mouth, but it was still a million times better than turning into mincemeat.

The other dragon caught Liriel precisely as she screamed and fell above him.

Then the scene just now unfolded.

Two strange dragons, each carrying its own passengers, weaved through the buildings of the Upper Nest District. The sound of their wings echoed through the steel canyon, attracting figures to peek out from behind the windows of several buildings. Rhodes steadied himself and took out his communicator to try and contact Aria.

The communicator screen showed only static.

The signal was intercepted.

The entire communications network of Craig was under the control of the Genestealer family; every node, from orbital relay stations to ground signal towers, had been infiltrated. They certainly wouldn't allow a wandering merchant who was about to expose their existence to send any information to the outside world.

Rod put the communicator back in his pocket without panicking.

He also has another information channel.

Rhodes closed his eyes, his consciousness extending along the psionic network, traversing the atmosphere, passing through orbital space, and connecting with the Marines aboard the flagship Christina. It felt like putting his hand into a pool of warm water, his consciousness spreading along the ripples until it touched those familiar nodes in the distance.

Through the Marines' senses and communication equipment, he relayed the information to Aria: the Upper Nest rendezvous point was no longer viable, Craigen had been completely infiltrated by Genestealers, the communication network had been hijacked, and Lillier and I were to move to the Lower Nest to await a new rendezvous plan.

The message has been sent, and Aliya will receive it soon.

But the immediate problem is how he and Lillie will survive in this rotten-to-the-roots world of Nest City until their rescuers arrive.

He and Liriel are now most likely considered the number one targets in the entire Craigern. Among those unaware of the truth...

In the minds of the hybrid offspring infected by the gene-stealers through generations of reproduction, their psionic networks will mark Rhodes and Liriel's information as a "threat".

These mixed-race descendants themselves don't even know why, they just subconsciously feel that these two people are dangerous.

A wanted criminal who needs to be caught.

Law enforcement teams, administrators, and even ordinary citizens—the entire population of hundreds of billions in the city—could become the eyes and hands that hunt them down, and these people themselves believe they are maintaining order and arresting criminals.

But on the other hand, it's actually safer to run down to the nest.

Shangchao District has a relatively low population density, a well-developed security system, and concentrated law enforcement forces. He and Liriel, two outsiders, were like two black dots on a blank sheet of paper, with nowhere to hide.

The Lower Nest District is completely different. It is home to billions of people at the bottom of society. The environment is chaotic, and it is unlikely that anyone can figure out all the passages and alleys. The surveillance system is incomplete, and the coverage of law enforcement is far less than that of the Upper Nest District.

More importantly, while the gene-stealer's psionic network can influence the subconscious of the infected, it cannot directly transmit specific images and location information like a text message.

It's more like a vague instinctual drive that makes infected people "feel" there's a threat in a certain direction and "feel" they should search a certain area. But to find out exactly who it is, what they look like, and where they are, we still need to rely on conventional means of communication: announcements, broadcasts, or verbal communication.

In the extremely inefficient information transmission environment of the lower nest, it could take several days for a wanted poster to travel from the upper nest to the deepest part of the lower nest, which gave him and Lillie a chance to hide.

The alien dragon carried the two of them downwards, passing through the thick isolation structure between the upper and middle nests. Industrial lights from the middle nest area swept past on both sides, and huge factory chimneys and conveyor pipes flashed by on either side of the alien dragon's wingtips. Several workers who were changing shifts looked up and saw the two huge flying silhouettes in the sky. They were stunned for a few seconds, then rubbed their eyes, probably thinking that they were hallucinating from working overtime.

Continuing downwards, passing through the rusty barrier between the middle and lower nests, the staircase gate had long been broken, stuck in a half-open position for who knows how long, with no one repairing it or caring about it.

The scent of nesters descending to their nests wafted towards us.

The light here suddenly dimmed, and the smell in the air changed. It was no longer the floral fragrance of the upper nest or the industrial fumes of the middle nest, but a complex smell mixed with sweat, the sour smell of inferior synthetic food, the disinfectant residue of recycled water, and some kind of indescribable musty smell.

The building structure also changed from the regular geometric shape of the Upper Nest to a chaotic stacking, with pipes, cables, temporary sheds and rusty metal plates intertwined to form a three-dimensional maze.

There was no blue sky simulated by a holographic dome overhead; only the pipes dripping with condensation at the base of the building above and the occasional flickering of cheap chemical lamps emitting a dim and sickly yellowish-green light.

Two strange dragons landed on an abandoned industrial platform, the platform's metal surface slightly deforming under their weight.

Rhodes slid down from the dragon's belly, bending his knees slightly to cushion the impact as he landed, before turning to look at Liriel.

Liriel's descent from the other dragon was far less graceful; she practically crawled down on all fours, stumbling as she landed. Her only remaining slipper slipped off completely during that step, falling with a thud onto the rusty metal floor.

She is barefoot now.

Rhodes gave the command in his mind, and the two alien dragons folded their wings and silently disappeared into the pipe compartment below the platform. The color of their chitinous carapaces blended into the dim environment with the rusted metal pipes around them. If you didn't look closely, you wouldn't be able to tell that there were two flying creatures that were seven or eight meters long hiding there.

Lillie leaned against a rusty railing, bent over, and gagged twice; the aftereffects of her fear of heights hadn't completely subsided.

She paused for a moment, wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her pajamas, straightened up, walked barefoot to the edge of the platform, and looked down at the figures of people busy in the dim light.

Those people looked no different from ordinary residents of Xiachao, dressed in tattered clothes, carrying tools or pushing carts, moving back and forth in the narrow passages. Some were eating some kind of pale yellow synthetic protein paste by the roadside, some were leaning against the wall smoking cheap cigarettes, and a few children were chasing and playing in the gaps between the pipes.

However, upon closer inspection, one might notice that some individuals have unusual facial features, multiple arms, or alien-shaped heads. But under the psionic cognitive filter of gene-stealers, they would perceive each other as beautiful and handsome.

Liriel withdrew her gaze and turned to look at Rhodes. It seemed that his boss hadn't turned into those monsters.

"Boss, what do we do now?"

Have you ever heard this saying?

"Um?"

"We must use infection to fight infection."