Rebirth: The Universe's Hidden Heiress-Chapter 62: Fighting Insectoids (2)

The students quietly discussed among themselves, "We’re really forming teams?" freewebnσvel.cѳm

"Hope no teammate backstabs this time."

"The only criterion for your evaluation is survival," Kenji scanned the faces of the students. "During the battle, various insectoids will appear randomly on the map and attack you."

"Insectoids?!" The students cried out in dismay, "Seriously?"

"So harsh?"

"Yes, insectoids," Kenji confirmed emotionlessly, continuing with the rules. "During the test, attacking your classmates is forbidden. If you do, you’ll get zero points and be eliminated from the map. If any team member is lost during the battle, every member of the team will lose thirty points. For each insectoid eliminated, each team member gets ten points."

"But if you are eliminated before the test ends, and your score is above sixty, you will only get sixty points. If it’s below sixty, you’ll get half of the points you earned."

"I must remind you, each of you starts with zero points," Kenji added with a cold smile. "This means, in this test, if you don’t give it your all, you might end up with a negative score."

The crowd on the lawn gasped at Kenji’s announcement.

The students murmured, "Seriously? That’s too difficult. Typical of the Monstrous Mr. Kuba!"

"The test will last for an hour. Start forming your teams now," Kenji said. "Once you’re in teams, I’ll randomly deploy you into the map."

As soon as Kenji mentioned forming teams, Ayoi and Alex had already positioned themselves beside Yuka. Ayoi quietly asked her, "Yuka, how many points are you aiming for this time?"

"Just enough to pass," Yuka replied. "We just need to eliminate six insectoids without losing any team members."

Two minutes later, Yuka’s surroundings blurred as Kenji deployed her into the map, which turned out to be a city in ruins.

The shaky buildings emitting black smoke, the scorched earth, and the glaring red bloodstains on the ground all indicated a recent fierce battle. However, besides the test participants, there were no other ’people’ – the original inhabitants of this map.

Yuka raised her mechanical arm, noticing it was a basic mecha model with cold weapons on one arm and firepower on the other.

Ayoi and Alex were not far behind her. Alex asked, "Yuka, where should we head now?"

"Check the cockpit screen; it has a map," Yuka directed.

On the pale blue screen floated a city map with numerous red ’X’ marks, indicating areas overrun by the insectoid tide. Yuka quickly pinpointed their location near the center of the city, an area also marked with a red ’X’. They were surrounded by a sea of red, indicating insectoid encirclement.

Even as they stood there, another red ’X’ appeared on the map.

"Everywhere is the same in this city; there’s no safe place," Yuka said. "Let’s find a building to hide in first, then observe for any nearby insectoids."

Ayoi, relying on his sniper instincts, chose a nearby five-story building. The trio quickly moved towards the office building, whose main door was damaged, likely during people’s escape and battles with insectoids.

They entered the lobby without issue. The entire building had lost power, so they opted to ascend slowly using the stairs.

Fortunately, the staircase was spacious enough, and they encountered no insectoids inside the building. The trio quickly reached the rooftop terrace. Ayoi set up his cannon, aiming at the ground below, ready to eliminate any passing insectoids.

Yuka turned to observe the small garden behind the building.

The green leaves swayed in the wind. Suddenly, she tensed and whispered to Alex, "There are one... no, two soldier insectoids over here."

The wind parted the leaves, revealing two soldier insectoids feeding in the flowerbed under the trees. Their black and green bodies were about the size of a pig. They were both fully grown adults.

Alex moved quietly beside her and took aim at one of the soldier insectoids below. He fired, but the insectoid was alerted before the shot reached it. They quickly retreated, then moved to the wall, preparing to climb up the wall and the water pipes to attack.

As one of the soldier insectoids crawled along the pipe, unable to change direction, Ayoi came over to support and fired a shot. He hit the insectoid’s head, which burst open in mid-air, then disappeared as a data stream.

They had now completed one-sixth of their target.

The other soldier insectoid crawled on the uneven wall, constantly changing its path. Yuka said to the others, "Soldier insectoids don’t have wings and can’t fly. When it gets up here, we’ll just knock it down and let it fall to its death."

They focused intently on the climbing soldier insectoid, ready to attack the moment it reached the top. However, a loud rumbling noise suddenly filled their ears.

"What’s that sound?" Ayoi asked without blinking.

"A helicopter, maybe," Yuka answered casually.

But the city was in such a state, and the chances of rescue were slim...

"Wait!" Yuka suddenly looked up. This was supposed to be a no-man’s city!

In the sky, dozens of flying insectoids were rapidly approaching. Their transparent wings vibrated at a high frequency, creating a sound as loud as a helicopter.

"Run!" Yuka turned and ran, with Alex quickly following. Ayoi punched the soldier insectoid, knocking it off the roof. Unfortunately, it didn’t hit its head and was still struggling on the ground.

Ayoi glanced at it one last time before quickly following Yuka and Alex off the terrace.

Ayoi slammed the terrace door shut with a bang, hearing the flying insectoids continuously hitting it. Turning back, she saw the door denting under the impacts, realizing it wouldn’t hold long. They immediately started descending the stairs with Yuka.

However, just as they reached the third floor, the door gave way under the relentless assault, crashing down with a loud noise.

Trapped in the stairwell with their mechas and facing a swarm of over a dozen flying insectoids, Yuka and her team knew they couldn’t move freely enough to fight. Yuka made a quick decision, "Into the office area!"

Five seconds later, the flying insectoids entered the third-floor office area.

The leader, with its compound eyes moving, had seen the humans enter but now couldn’t find them. It lowered its flight altitude, leading the others in a search through the office space. However, before they could spread out, a cannon shot hurtled towards the ceiling and exploded violently!

The ceiling was breached, sending sparks and debris flying. The insectoids in mid-air couldn’t retract their wings in time; they were either ignited by sparks or hit by falling debris, crashing heavily to the ground.

As the ceiling continued to collapse, bringing down the floors above, Yuka lifted her long sword and struck down a fallen insectoid, piercing its head and watching it dissolve into a data stream.

Ayoi and Alex also took down several insectoids, but the collapsing building caused debris to hit their mechas, reducing their health slightly.

A few untouched insectoids in the air, dodging falling debris, landed on office desks and started attacking the team’s mechas with their sharp mouthparts. Yuka quickly grabbed a nearby computer and hurled it at an insectoid.

The building couldn’t withstand another cannon shot. Ayoi and Alex followed Yuka’s lead, picking up heavy objects to attack the remaining insectoids.

Without their wings, the insectoids’ movements became sluggish, even their evasion slowed down. Realizing their predicament, they tried to reopen their wings but were bombarded by a barrage of flying objects and then impaled by the team.

"How many points now?" Yuka asked.

"Definitely full marks," Ayoi confidently replied.

"Then I’ll get out of the test first," Yuka said. "After I get about sixty or seventy points, I’ll cheer for you two from outside. Try to get full marks."

"Huh?" Alex was puzzled. "How are you going to get out? We’re not allowed to attack teammates."

"But he didn’t say we couldn’t commit suicide," Yuka replied.

Ayoi and Alex: "...Fair enough.’

Yuka, satisfied, crossed her arms and then crashed through the third-floor window, falling backward, ready to be elegantly eliminated.

After a loud crash, Yuka found herself back in the third-floor office area, with her health unchanged.

She was confused.

[System: Unauthorized Access Rejected.]

In the monitoring room, Kenji smirked, releasing his hand from the controller. He had anticipated Yuka’s attempt.

Back in the test area, Yuka stood dazed for a moment, then regained her resolve. "Let’s go find some insectoids to attack me and deplete my health bar. That shouldn’t count as breaking the rules, right?"

So, Yuka and her team left the building, walking along the streets in search of more insectoids.

"Didn’t Professor Pickle say in theory class that insectoids like to hide in dark places?" Alex suggested. "Shall we check out that shadowy area over there?"

Yuka nodded, and the trio headed in that direction, unaware of the barely visible, slender creature that had silently crawled onto the street from the sewer grate at their feet.

Boom—

An explosion sounded behind them. Yuka, startled by the drop in her health bar, wondered who was attacking her since attacking fellow students was prohibited.

Propelled forward by the blast, Yuka turned to see another mecha, silver in color. The male pilot retracted his mechanical arm and said to Yuka, "No worries, I just took out a parasitic insectoid for you. Look, it was right by your feet."

The boy wasn’t eliminated for attacking her, making Yuka a bit confused. "Thanks," she said.

"You’re welcome," he replied, about to turn away when the sewer grates all along the street began to tremble. Numerous transparent, oddly-colored parasitic insectoids emerged from the sewers, swarming towards them.

Yuka knew she could stand still and be eliminated from the test, but Ayoi and Alex wouldn’t last long under such an onslaught. She didn’t mind failing herself, but she couldn’t drag her teammates into this.

The weakness of insectoids was in their heads, but the adult form of these parasites had trickier shells than regular insectoids. Their nearly transparent bodies made it hard to distinguish their heads from their tails.

Yuka had no choice but to run again with the others, the parasites swiftly crawling after them. These creatures didn’t have legs like soldier insectoids; they moved using smooth, slime-covered suction pads on their undersides.

These suction pads contained numerous small spikes, similar to the mouthparts of soldier insectoids but smaller. When parasitic insectoids infest a human, they use these spikes to feed on the person’s organs. Once they mature, they leave the host body.

Even though the parasitic insectoids couldn’t penetrate their mechas to infest their bodies, Yuka and her team couldn’t afford to be careless.

Once these creatures adhered to a mecha, they clung tightly and were difficult to remove. If a significant number of parasites latched onto a mecha, the pilot wouldn’t be able to exit without risking fatal consequences.

"I’ll cover our retreat," Yuka decisively announced. "You go ahead."

Ayoi and Alex hesitated for a moment, then accelerated forward.

"Dude... Sister, you rock!" the boy shouted back at Yuka in appreciation, continuing his own escape.