Chapter 354 - 329: The Alien Individual’s Food

Chapter 354: Chapter 329: The Alien Individual’s Food

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Guan Tong looked at the message that popped up on the darkened screen and exchanged a glance with Shangyuan Zi.

"The officials cut the feed."

"Mmm."

The feed may have been cut, but hundreds of millions of viewers had already witnessed the horrifying scene.

This intelligent alien entity, sent by the Fire Thief, was terrifying. It had killed two people the moment it emerged from its spacecraft.

The officials had probably cut the feed immediately because they feared more people would die.

"Did you hear that sound just now?" Guan Tong asked.

Before the feed was cut, he had faintly heard a low mumbling sound from the scene, which seemed to come from the alien entity.

But with two members of the Human Federation’s contact delegation dead, the scene was utter chaos, and there was too much background noise to hear it clearly.

"I heard it," Shangyuan Zi said, "but I couldn’t make out what it was saying."

"...This glob of black mud killed two people the moment it appeared. What a dangerous thing."

"How will the Human Federation deal with it?"

"I don’t know." Guan Tong frowned. "Honestly, if I were the family or friend of those two people, I’d definitely want to kill this Black Mud Monster for revenge, regardless of whether it’s an intelligent alien entity. But..."

"But the Human Federation has to consider the bigger picture. They’d never do that," Shangyuan Zi said.

"Exactly. The Fire Thief even stated in the rules that it would retrieve this alien entity when the rule ends in fifteen days. If humanity manages to kill it during that time, no one can predict what will happen when the Fire Thief can’t get it back."

"..."

Humanity’s first contact with an intelligent alien entity had undoubtedly begun in an extremely unpleasant manner.

With the feed now cut, hundreds of millions of viewers were flooding every platform with comments, expressing their outrage.

"What the hell, why’d it suddenly cut out?!"

"What’s happening on-site? Don’t tell me everyone in the contact team got eaten..."

"Fuck, cutting the feed at a time like this!"

"Either way, this alien monster eats people. That’s definitely not good news for humanity."

"Forget the slime monster, isn’t its spaceship more valuable to research?"

"Is anyone there? What the hell is going on? I’m dying to know!"

The comments flew by endlessly, but no one knew what was happening on the ground.

Meanwhile, the people at the scene on the ice field were obviously in no mood to go online and read comments.

All their attention was focused on the "glob of rag-like black mud."

Everyone in the contact team backed several meters away from it, while armed soldiers raised their weapons, aiming and ready to fire at a moment’s notice.

"It’s a man-eating alien monster! It clearly didn’t come in peace."

"I knew it. The Fire Thief was up to no good. As if it would ever send a benevolent, higher intelligent entity to Celestial Water Star!"

"This man-eating monster looks like a pile of sludge. It doesn’t even look as evolved as humanity. It’s probably useless, right?"

"No... While its appearance is... unflattering, to say the least, the technology of its spacecraft—capable of spatial jumps or something similar—is far beyond our own..."

"All of you—didn’t you hear it speak just now?"

As panic and confusion gripped the crowd, a middle-aged, blue-eyed man from the contact delegation spoke up. He wore glasses, and his hair was graying at the temples.

At his words, the crowd fell silent for a moment. Then, a few hesitant, skeptical voices piped up.

"I think I heard a low voice a moment ago."

"Me too! The voice was so strange, I thought I was just hearing things. Was it really coming from that alien monster?"

"There definitely was a sound. I heard it too..."

As they spoke, they suddenly saw the man in glasses walking toward the alien entity.

This made everyone’s faces drain of color, and they immediately shouted for him to stop.

"Hey, what are you doing? Don’t go over there!"

"Does that guy have a death wish?!"

"I’ve seen him on TV. I think he’s that Soroma who specializes in theories about alien civilizations... His name is Louis, right?"

This man, Louis, ignored the shouts of those around him. He walked straight toward the puddle of "black mud," his brilliant eyes filled with a fanatical gleam.

He had loved stories about aliens since he was a child. Even when the stories were so ridiculous they were clearly just fabrications, he collected them tirelessly. After growing up, he joined a Soloma department dedicated to alien exploration, all in the hopes of one day seeing an alien with his own eyes.

When the fifteenth of the Apocalypse Rules was announced, he was ecstatic. He had immediately applied to join the delegation and was accepted, all for the chance to be among the first to make contact with an alien entity.

Now, that chance was right before his eyes. Even though this alien entity wasn’t beautiful—in fact, by human aesthetic standards, it was exceptionally ugly—and even though it had just devoured two human lives... Louis was still filled with a fanatical interest in it.

Although the crowd was shouting for him to stop, no one actually stepped forward to physically restrain him.

Subconsciously, many of them actually wanted Louis to do it. Having a guinea pig go investigate the alien monster was better than everyone just standing around, helpless and confused.

Under the weight of a hundred tense gazes, Louis walked right up to the alien entity.

"Hello," he said. "Excuse me, were you trying to talk to us just now?"

After he asked his question, the entire area fell silent.

In the silence, a dull, muffled voice sounded out.

"Rrr... yesss..."

The voice had, in fact, answered Louis’s question.

Louis was instantly ecstatic, and the others were beside themselves with excitement.

’It really can communicate! And it can even speak human languages!’

’Could it be because...’

Many people’s hearts skipped a beat as a thought occurred to them.

’Is it related to it "eating" those two people?’

"I—my name is Louis!"

Louis pointed a trembling finger at himself, thrilled to have gotten a response.

"And you? What is your name? Where are you from?"

"...Food... answer... question..."

As the voice faded, the "black mud" suddenly shot past Louis, flowing rapidly toward the densest part of the crowd! 𝑓𝑟ℯℴ𝓂

The onlookers, a mix of horrified and terrified, scattered and fled.

"Run! The monster is going to eat someone again!"

"Fire!"

"Use an item to trap it!"

The "black mud" was incredibly fast, enveloping four or five people in an instant. They vanished into the black liquid without even a chance to scream, a fate worse than being thrown into a blender.

An Ascender tried to use an item to control it, but to no effect. Someone else used an item to summon a cage to restrict its movement, but the cage was corroded and destroyed the instant it touched the "black mud."

Unable to hold back any longer, a soldier opened fire, but the bullets had no effect on its body. They didn’t even slow it down.

Just as everyone was on the verge of despair, the puddle of black mud stopped after devouring the tenth person. It collapsed limply onto the ground again, letting out a low, gurgling sound.

Unlike before, the sound it made this time didn’t consist of syllables a human could understand; it was utterly bizarre.

Meanwhile, Louis, still standing in his original spot, muttered, "’Food... question... To ask it a question, you have to give it food. And that food is...’"

He turned his head to look at the crowd, who were still reeling from the shock, as a horrifying thought surfaced in his mind.

"Humans?"