Chapter 5: The Mysterious Signal
In the darkness, the aura of danger surged like a tide. Yang Hao and his two companions stood back to back, their eyes fixed intently on their surroundings. Li Qiang muttered a curse under his breath. "What a cursed place. How much more trouble is there going to be?" Though his voice was strong, the slight tremble in his tone betrayed his inner tension.
"Don't panic. Judging by the sound, this thing is moving fast. Everyone be careful!" Yang Hao gripped the temporarily modified energy gun in his hand tightly. Although the effectiveness of this weapon against unknown creatures was still uncertain, it gave Yang Hao a bit of confidence. Lin Xiao quickly activated the scanning function on her device, trying to capture the trail of the mysterious creature.
As the sound grew closer, a dark shadow shot out from the darkness. Yang Hao reacted swiftly, pulling the trigger in the direction of the shadow. A blue energy beam shot out instantly, illuminating a small area around them. In that brief flash of light, they saw a creature with a leopard-like agility, its entire body covered in a layer of silver scales, each one glinting with a cold sheen. Its tail was long and flexible, ending in sharp barbs.
"What kind of monster is this?" Li Qiang exclaimed, swinging his iron rod in a whooshing motion, trying to intimidate the unknown creature.
The creature seemed to be enraged by Yang Hao's attack and let out a piercing screech before lunging at them again. This time, it was even faster, leaving them almost no time to react. Lin Xiao screamed in terror, "Watch out!" Just as the creature was about to pounce on Yang Hao, Li Qiang rushed forward and slammed the iron rod hard onto the creature's back. The creature winced in pain and turned towards Li Qiang, opening its gaping jaws to bite.
Yang Hao took advantage of this momentary pause and fired again, the energy beam hitting the creature's leg. The creature's movements slowed down noticeably, but it still struggled顽强ly (can also be translated as "fiercely" or "stubbornly" depending on context, here "顽antly" is used to emphasize its tenacity), its eyes glowing with even more ferocity. Lin Xiao, while dodging the creature's attacks, quickly analyzed its weaknesses. Suddenly, she shouted, "Its eyes! Try attacking its eyes!"
Yang Hao took a deep breath, adjusted his aim, and locked onto the creature's eyes. Just as the creature leaped up again towards Li Qiang, Yang Hao fired decisively. This time, the energy beam hit the creature's left eye accurately, and it let out a painful wail, rolling wildly on the ground. Li Qiang seized the opportunity and swung the iron rod with all his might at the creature's head. With a dull thud, the creature finally stopped struggling and lay motionless on the ground.
The three of them let out a sigh of relief and collapsed onto the ground. After a while, Yang Hao stood up and walked over to the creature, observing it closely. "Its body structure is very peculiar. It doesn't seem to be from Earth," he said, frowning.
Lin Xiao also came over and scanned the creature with her device. "According to the scan results, its cell structure and energy reactions are completely different from any known creatures. It's likely an alien creature."
"An alien creature? How could it be here?" Li Qiang looked puzzled.
Before they could come up with an answer, the device in Lin Xiao's hand suddenly emitted a series of urgent alarms. "Not good. There's a powerful energy fluctuation approaching, and its frequency is very similar to the mysterious signal we received earlier!" Lin Xiao said anxiously.
Yang Hao's face grew solemn. "It seems we're in for more trouble. Whatever it is that's coming, we must leave here as soon as possible. Finding the backup base is our top priority." The three quickly packed up their things and continued heading towards the backup base, with the mysterious energy fluctuation following closely behind them like a death warrant.