CH 10

Chapter 10: The Two-Headed Wolf Spider

“Boss Wu?”

Wu Yun was shocked for two seconds, then he started to laugh. He almost forgot to steer the car properly.

It was Zhou Yu beside him who reached out to steady the wheel, or else the car would’ve run into a tree.

“Li Qian, the situation is already like this, why not enjoy it?”

Saying that, Wu Yun turned on the music in the car, it was playing ‘It’s a Heartache’.

To Li Qian and Han Li, who were still caught up in being afraid, it was like a demonic tune driving them to near insanity.

Zhou Qing, who had been deeply asleep the whole time, twitched his brows. Dr. Daniel immediately gave him the injection.

“You’re awake.” Zhou Yu looked into the rearview mirror.

“What happened? Are we in Nibelungen?” Zhou Qing rubbed his head.

“Yeah, we’re starting our exploration trip into Nibelungen early,” Wu Yun smiled and made a peace sign.

“Aren’t we supposed to be at the base?” Zhou Qing looked outside the car window.

The sky was starting to turn gloomy, the sun was sinking, and everything was about to descend into darkness.

A different kind of danger loomed in the darkness.

Dr. Daniel patiently explained the current situation to Zhou Qing.

Zhou Qing closed his eyes and gave a deep sigh.

“It’d be nice if I could collect a sample of the plants here. Pity I didn’t bring any sampling tools.”

“That’s it?” Li Qian looked at Zhou Qing in astonishment, “Aren’t you scared at all? We’re in a lot of danger right now! We can die at any time!”

“When I accepted Juli Corp’s invitation, I was already prepared for it. Right now, this isn’t the best outcome, but it’s not the worst either,” Zhou Qing answered.

Li Qian stared at Zhou Qing. This guy sounded like an amazing scholar, but he studied plants, not animals. He was extremely thin, and his body didn’t look very healthy.

“What does ‘not the worst outcome’ mean?” Li Qian asked again.

“First, we’re still alive. Second, no one is alone. Third, we’re protected by two experienced veterans…”

“Wait, I’m the only one with lots of experience, not him,” Wu Yun pointed at Zhou Yu.

Zhou Yu acted like he didn’t hear him, and Zhou Qing continued, “Fourth, we were injected with the suppressants, we can avoid attacks from 70% of organisms within 48 hours.”

Zhou Qing’s voice was thorough and tranquil, Li Qian’s tense mental state started to loosen up.

“It sounds like it really isn’t that bad,” Li Qian let out a breath of air.

“It’s 70%,” Wu Yun reminded him.

At this time, Wu Yun suddenly hit the brakes.

“Our good luck… if only it wasn’t used up already.”

Wu Yun turned off the car lights.

Everyone became nervous, Li Qian tightly gripped onto Han Li’s hand.

In the darkness, they could see a faint and slow-moving silhouette.

When the shadow of its limbs passed by their car, no one dared to breathe loudly.

Two faces grown close together pressed onto the front windshield, there were countless eyes on them.

“Two-headed wolf spider,” Zhou Qing whispered.

This made Li Qian and Han Li hug each other even tighter.

Dr. Daniel stared at the monster with his mouth open wide.

“There shouldn’t be any two-headed wolf spiders moving around here.” Wu Yun clenched the steering wheel, “My luck really did turn sour.”

The two-headed wolf spider was a monstrosity to human eyes. They had two brains but only one body. The two heads could even communicate with each other and work together to control their body.

The two-headed wolf spider had twelve legs, each one was incomparably sharp, they could pierce through common steel. They were different from the spiders in Zhou Yu’s world, this spider was a hermaphrodite, and reproduced through parthenogenesis.

“Does this guy want to eat us?” Dr. Daniel asked.

“Two-headed wolf spiders are B rank organisms possessing sight. The fear that their prey shows lets the organisms here identify them. To draw a comparison, organisms that are bigger and stronger than it wouldn’t be afraid of it. But, if you’re scared of it, and you also send them these signals, they will naturally believe that they’re stronger than you and classify you as their prey. This is the instinct of animals living here. For the organisms in Nibelungen, their hierarchy is much more strict than the one that exists in our world,” Wu Yu replied.

Then, the two-headed wolf spider suddenly raised a leg and ferociously smashed it onto the car window.

The car started shaking violently.

Han Li closed her eyes and buried her head in Li Qian’s embrace. Li Qian also lowered his head and stiffened his back, too afraid to move an inch.

Such a powerful force still didn’t break the car window.

“Don’t underestimate Juli Corp. If a field vehicle could be smashed so easily, we wouldn’t be able to do any research with it,” Wu Yun sighed, he was just about to start up the machine gun, but the two-headed wolf spider suddenly sprayed out a liquid, attaching it to the muzzle of the machine gun.

“Fuck—isn’t this thing a little too smart?!”

The liquid rapidly solidified, sealing the opening of the machine gun and the slot for the adjustable machine gun.

“W-What is it trying to do?” Dr. Daniel asked, “Since we didn’t send it a signal that we’re afraid, it shouldn’t be trying to treat us as prey! If we don’t understand the exact reason why it’s attacking us…”

“It’s in its mating period,” Zhou Qing said from beside Daniel.

“What? Mating period?”

“Its abdomen should have a striped pattern, but right now it has waves. That’s because there are eggs taking shape in there. It’s searching for nourishment to hatch its eggs in. Humans have a different protein content than the organisms here, and to them, we’re very ‘nutritious’,” Zhou Qing replied.

“How do you know? Aren’t you a botanist?” Wu Yun turned around from the front seat.

“I’ve read over information on all of the organisms studied in Nibelungen.”

“You can remember all of it?” Wu Yun thought that it was unbelievable. The two-headed wolf spider’s foot smashed down on the window again, frightening them out of their wits with each strike. Wu Yun still wore a nonchalant expression.

“My little brother’s memory is very good. As long as he’s seen the information once, he won’t forget it,” Zhou Yu answered.

“Right now is not the time to be praising Professor Zhou, how do we get rid of… get rid of this wolf spider with two heads!” Han Li started shouting.

“Hey, don’t be too loud, my head hurts,” Wu Yun waved his gun again, which immediately shut Han Li up.

“What should we do now?” Zhou Yu asked.

“Wait here. When it tires itself out, we leave.” Wu Yun scratched the back of his head, he seemed to want to light up another cigarette.

“Hah? What?” The people in the back seat spoke in unison.

“It doesn’t need to smash at the car for the whole night, as long as it strikes at the same spot three hundred times, the car window will break,” said Zhou Qing.

“Hah? What?” The people in the back seat spoke in unison.

“Reverse the car,” Zhou Yu said, coldly.

Wu Yun smiled, “Okay, let’s listen to my partner.”

The car suddenly moved, quickly retreating backwards.

The two-headed wolf spider was surprised and fell to the ground, but it quickly gave chase.

Wu Yun’s driving technique wasn’t bad, he reversed in a large arc without hitting any trees, yet the two-headed wolf spider was still unwilling to give up its pursuit.

“Why does it have to chase us? We’re not afraid.”

“Because, if the eggs in its belly can’t find a source of nutrients, they’ll die. Although we didn’t send it a signal of fear, it didn’t show an overwhelming display of power either. To this two-headed wolf spider, although there’s danger, it can still give it a try.” Zhou Qing reached up to seize the grab handles.

“You said 70%! Now we’ve met the other 30%—an organism’s mating period!” Wu Yun didn’t seem to be concerned about impending death.

The enraged two-headed wolf spider almost crashed into them and then knocked into an ancient tree, causing it to sway.

“Protect one’s progeny. It seems like whether it be our world or this one, it’s all the same,” Dr. Daniel sighed.

“So, we need to hold out until all its eggs are dead?” Han Li said through clenched teeth.

Wu Yun didn’t have the time to answer her. Using the time before the two-headed wolf spider turned around, Wu Yun made a U-turn and pressed down hard on the gas pedal, driving off.

The two-headed wolf spider still did not give up, and instead chased after them as if its life was on the line. It was faster than before. Wu Yun turned on the headlights again to avoid any obstacles.

The car jostled forwards at the speed of flight. The headlights passed by something amber colored that was hanging from a nearby, ancient tree. There were many, hollow faces in the amber, they were the corpses of humans encapsulated inside the spider’s fluid, each body had an egg attached to it, they were sucking in the nutrients.

“I don’t want to turn into that! I don’t want to turn into that!” Han Li started screaming.

“Help me get rid of her!” Wu Yun shouted.

“No problem,” Zhou Yu replied.

They could still faintly see the white lab coats or camouflage-patterned clothing on those researchers’ bodies.

They were probably survivors of the explosion who wanted to pass through the forest to reach the next closest base, but they met this two-headed wolf spider and unfortunately became nutrients for reproduction.

The two-headed wolf spider got closer and closer, then it suddenly spat out a liquid onto the back wheel.

The car gave rumbled and was about to come to a stop.

“Fuck!” Wu Yun cursed under his breath.

At that moment, Zhou Yu suddenly opened the car door. Just as the two-headed wolf spider came to rip off the car door with its fangs bared, he pulled out the second gun at his waist and shot out at it continuously.

The spider, having been shot, let out a hissing sound. Zhou Yu immediately got back in the car and closed the door. A thick pus squirted out from it, it could be said that Zhou Yu missed it by a hair.

Everything was quiet again.

Wu Yun looked at Zhou Yu from the corner of his eye. Zhou Yu slipped the gun back into the holster at his waist.

That gun was the one Wu Yun found at the base, he and Zhou Yu each had one. The bullets in the gun were specialized neurotoxins.

The two-headed wolf spider had fallen, coincidentally, on the trunk of their car. There were countless small feelers in its open jaw that just happened to be pasted onto the rear windshield.

Dr. Daniel protected Zhou Qing, “There’s no need to turn around, Professor Zhou.”

Li Qian covered his mouth.

“Hey, hey, I say… If anyone wants to throw up, do it outside.” Wu Yun started waving around his gun again.

Li Qian choked everything that was in his throat back down.

–

The author has something to say:

Wu Yun: Welcome to Nibelungen.

Mo Ye: Why didn’t I appear today? The box didn’t even appear? Bad review!