Chapter 1143: Internal Strife
Translator: Sean88888 Editor: Elkassar1
The place Zill was pointing at was a vast expanse of open space. There was only long grass drifting along with the gentle breeze.
But Zill’s face was filled with joy and eagerness.
“Lord Veron, you’re finally back. I keep having an ominous feeling. All of us feel much more reassured with you back in charge. Is this the head of the prey you killed? I’ll help you process it at once. In less than an hour, it’ll turn into an exquisite work of art to be showcased on your display shelf!”
While Zill spoke, he stepped forward with great courtesy. He then held out his hand towards the empty air and took the “head of the prey” that existed in his imagination.
“Really? You want to promote me to a reserve Elite, Lord Veron?! That’s a real honour!”
The other two Predators gulped restlessly. A silent fear started creeping into their hearts. One of the Predators roared furiously.
“Zill! Zill! You f*cking idiot, you’re talking to empty air!”
Zill turned a deaf ear to his teammate’s cries! His condition not only came as a surprise to the other Predators, even the culprit, Sheyan, did not expect it!
It turned out that the rare condition Zill was experiencing right now was similar to an allergic reaction in humans. After Sheyan’s virus invaded his body, it swiftly attacked Zill’s immune system. The dead A-viruses mixed with the fallen immune cells in his body, creating a new kind of substance inside him.
Zill’s brain happened to be susceptible to this new substance, which gave rise to an allergy-like hallucinatory condition. The scenes that he was “seeing” right now were all projections of things that he most desired. That was why it was difficult for others to wake him up. Zill himself dearly wished for these illusions to happen, so he instinctively resisted those that tried to pull him back to reality. It was virtually impossible to wake him up with a few shouts!
“Damn this magnetic field! The interference is too strong! It blocked the probing of those disgusting humans, but it also makes our communication difficult. Otherwise, we can just ask Lord Veron what happened!”
The two Predators immediately realised that something had gone wrong, so they quickly moved back towards their spaceship.
“This won’t do. Should we activate the high-power communication device on the spaceship to report to the mother ship right away?”
But at that instant, a stone wall suddenly appeared to block their way to the spaceship that was less than twenty meters away!
Following that, the earth burst open one spot after another. Those prey that had previously went away to carry out individual duels with their companions appeared one by one. Although they carried various wounds on their bodies, they still seemed to have retained considerable strength.
Previously, after Sheyan dealt with Elite Predator Veron, he immediately went to support the nearest person after recovering slightly. It turned out that the nearest person to him was Paul. Although the two of them had not fallen out with one another, they were not far from it.
However, they both understood what was important. Paul proceeded to cooperate with Sheyan to take care of his Predator without playing any tricks, mainly because Sheyan was more beneficial to Paul alive rather than dead.
Why was that? Because according to Paul’s plan, if they flew six Wasps into space together, the probability of any one of them being chased would be two out of six or 33%, but if Sheyan died here, the chance of each person being chased would become two out of five or 40%. Of course, Paul also knew very well that this fellow in front of him was probably not someone he could kill in a short time, even if he went all out.
After Sheyan and Paul joined hands to defeat the Predator, they quietly went looking for the others. The next fight was a 3v1, so it was easier. Meanwhile, Aldaris and Ronnie succeeded in dealing with their opponents without any help.
The contestants did not expect things to go so smoothly. After they joined together, they immediately had the thought of targeting the three Predators left guarding the spaceship.
According to the information they have obtained, the weakness of the detection ability on the Predator’s masks was that it seemed to have difficulty penetrating through soil. Back in the plot of the first Predator movie, Arnold Schwarzenegger covered his body with mud to avoid the scan of the Predators.
But there seemed to be two factions among the Predators – the pro-physique faction and the pro-technology faction.
The pro-physique faction advocated training the body as well as using skilled fighting techniques and formidable strength to deal with the enemy, while a small number of others formed the pro-technology faction which was more keen on using advanced technologies and weaponries to deal with the enemy. The rivalry between the radicals of the two factions had even escalated the point of blood feud, as could be seen from the film “Predators”. (TL: The 2010 film.)
The masks of the pro-technology faction could actually see through mud rather easily.
However, Sheyan took into consideration the fact that sending the children of nobles to this trial ground must be an official mission for the Predator clan. The ruling Queen of the Predators was also the most powerful creature among the Predators, so she must be the biggest beneficiary of the pro-physique faction and thus, its biggest supporter. These warriors under her wings could not be from the pro-technology faction.
Sheyan used this as an excuse to convince Pokan and asked him take all of them to the Predator’s spaceship by opening up a tunnel beneath the ground. Under the cover of soil, they quietly approached the three Predators left behind to guard the spaceship and launched this surprise attack!
Sheyan and the contestants had done meticulous planning prior to coming here. Right after the fight started, they first threw several grenades to create a lot of smoke and reduce visibility. Then, they flung several dark objects at the Predators.
The two surprised Predators immediately fired their shoulder cannons in a frenzy. However, those objects actually remained intact after being shot by the high-energy plasma bolts. Therefore, the Predators could only switch to rapid fire mode and bombarded the objects in the air. Only when the objects landed did the Predators realised that they were burnt, smoking corpses!
Sheyan burst into laughter.
“Congratulations on killing your commanding officer and comrades!”
The eyes of the two Predators almost popped out when they heard these words. They carefully looked towards the burnt black corpses which they had torn apart with their own hands. Who else could the corpses be but their former companions? What made them even more nervous was that the split corpse of Elite Predator Veron really was among them. His half blown head was currently rolling towards them. The remaining eye on it was empty and the mouth was wide open. The expression on it was defiant and sinister.
Dardanian sighed and said, “Unlike you, we don’t have the habit of killing our opponent after we win a duel. We even brought them back to you to be healed. But why did you kill them?”
The Predators were not very good with words. They preferred to settle arguments with metal and blood. When they heard the human’s unreasonable logic, fire almost shot out from their eyes, but they did not know how to argue back!
All they felt was their blood pumping into their heads, but their shoulder cannons were still in cooldown, so they could only roar and pull out the katanas at their waists, then charge at the contestants.
There were no surprises as to what happened next. There were 6 humans against 2 Predators, and the humans came prepared. More importantly, the other side had completely gone berserk and lost their reason.
Going berserk meant that the Predators focused more on attacking and less on defending. Sheyan’s diseases also started breaking out in them. So, without much effort, the contestants succeeded in capturing the sub-ship of the Predators and, oh, they also captured a Predator whose mind had gone haywire.
After taking control of the overall situation, Sheyan sat on a chair and started wrapping up the wounds on his body. As he did so, he looked at the team and said, “I’m going to ask one more time. Are you guys still not changing your mind?”
Paul smirked and squinted his eyes as he replied, “You seem to have forgotten something, Seaman. In the third Predator movie, someone did try to do the same thing you suggested. He succeeded, but after flying several hundred meters from the ground, the original owner of the spaceship pressed a button and the spaceship exploded into a grand firework display! The path you’re trying to pursue is a dead end! A. Dead. End!”
Sheyan had apparently already taken this into account. He replied flatly, “I have noticed this little detail, but you should know that that particular Predator spaceship belongs to the radical pro-technology faction, while the ship we’re in now undoubtedly belongs to the conservative pro-physique faction directly under the Queen!”
At this point, Sheyan looked at Paul contemptuously, like he was looking at a kindergartner.
“You didn’t even notice the most important point. Tell me, what’s this spaceship being used for?”
Paul’s face turned ugly. He did not say anything because he did not know how to refute Sheyan’s words, but his silence made it seem like he was quietly enduring Sheyan’s rebuke….
Sheyan continued, “Let me answer for you. This ship is used to carry the Young Blood nobility among the Predators to Uplos for their rite of passage! How could a remote bomb be planted on the spaceship used for carrying such important people? Would the U.S. install a self-detonating device on Air Force One?”
At this point, Pokan stepped forward to rescue Paul from the awkward predicament he was in.
“This is all conjecture. There’s no way we can entrust our lives to something so speculative.”
Sheyan gave Pokan a deep, meaningful look.
“We’re a team that have gone through life and death together! We’ve mutually depended on each other and supported each other in the most difficult times. Since there’s a great chance for all of us to escape together safely in this spaceship, why must we choose a way where someone has to die?”