Chapter 20: She Is the Whistleblower

Tang Feng wore a solemn expression, straightened his back, and offered a crisp, standard military salute toward the screen.

His voice was cold and his tone grave. "Liu Han, stop the countdown."

Liu Han remained seated, his brows tightly furrowed, lost in thought. Tang Feng did not urge him, allowing himself to sink into the past.

"I remember it was twenty years ago. I was twenty years old, fresh out of rigorous training, a mere green recruit who had just joined the Federal Legion. It was my first mission."

"The assignment was to explore a prospecting ship that had been discovered drifting near an asteroid belt on the edge of the O9 star system. It had been missing for half a month and had only recently been found abandoned in that sector."

"I boarded the ship with my team, and it was there that I had my first direct confrontation with the Zerg."

"We were ambushed on the prospecting ship. We were terrified, laying down heavy cover fire as we retreated toward the bridge to establish contact with the outside world."

His voice echoed throughout the square via the loudspeakers. A heavy silence fell over the crowd; captivated by the chilling narrative coming from the screen, everyone was drawn into his story.

"Afterward, we received new orders from our superiors: to find the truth, to see what had happened to that ship and why it had been swarmed by the Zerg."

Jiang Chen’s tone grew urgent. "Twenty years ago?"

That year, he was only thirteen, still receiving his education at the Imperial Star Academy.

Tang Feng nodded. "That’s right. Do you all think that the Zerg invasion of the human world started ten years ago?"

"No. They were already active among us twenty years ago. And now, seeing these memories of Xu Rui, I realize they likely arrived many years earlier than we ever imagined."

Tang Feng continued. "Much of the data on the ship had been destroyed. We could only recover some blurry surveillance footage, which showed the Zerg boarding the vessel and slaughtering the entire crew."

"We searched through all the remaining data on the ship and found a message it had intercepted."

"The message was corrupted, and we could only restore a portion of it."

"'T5 star system... Zerg disguised as humans...'"

"'...Perfect mimicry... undetectable by instruments...'"

"'...Coordinates as follows.'"

Tang Feng recited the fragmented words clearly and accurately. Even after twenty years, the message remained etched in his memory. The words made the hair on everyone’s arms stand up.

Combined with the memory Xu Rui had just shown, there was no doubt: this was the very signal Xu Rui had sent out!

Tang Feng’s lips curled into a bitter line. "That’s right. I only now realize the true source of this information. Xu Rui sent it five years ago. Coincidentally, the O9 star system is not far from the T5 system."

"Let me share some good news with you all."

"We brought that information back, and it was treated with the highest priority by the leadership. The Chancellor at the time, Mr. Jin En, issued an order, and we formed a special task force specifically to track down and eliminate those Zerg hiding within human society."

"I joined that task force. My experience in dealing with the Zerg face-to-face was gained right there."

Thinking back on those horrific memories, he still felt a tremor of fear. Many members of that task force lacked the necessary psychological resilience and required lifelong therapy.

"If I’m not mistaken, Xu Rui was likely the first human to discover the Zerg infiltrators."

"The message she sent was vital to this war. She was the whistleblower."

On the screen, the cold wind howled, and all was still. Debris from the ship littered the ground, and the cabin where the two Zerg had been was engulfed in roaring flames, the fire crackling loudly.

The crowd looked up at the screen, a sense of sorrow rising in their hearts. Xu Rui hadn't died; she had lived until the age of thirty-two. But the scene they had just witnessed—Xu Rui choosing to perish along with the two Zerg—was a decision not everyone could make, and it commanded deep respect.

Yet, the message she had sent was not discovered until five years later.

Liu Han frowned. "Commander Tang, could all those Zerg who infiltrated human society twenty years ago disguise themselves as humans?"

Tang Feng shook his head. "I don’t know."

After a moment of thought, he said, "I only know that the Zerg I encountered twenty years ago were completely different from the originals of the Bailey couple."

"Besides, I worked in the special task force for many years, and we only ever acted upon receiving tip-offs. If they could really disguise themselves so perfectly, how could any ordinary person have noticed them?"

"I suspect these two Zerg were an exception."

Liu Han breathed a sigh of relief. He and Xu Rui had met on a ship; they had been docked near a planet while waiting out an interstellar storm. Hearing Tang Feng’s words, he couldn't help but connect them to his own experiences. It must be his imagination; he had spent so much time with his own team members—how could they possibly be Zerg in disguise?

Tang Feng looked at the screen in front of Liu Han.

92%.

"Stop it there. I want to see what she experienced in those five years. We only discovered her signal five years later, and only then did we arrange for a search party."

Liu Han hesitated, his finger hovering over the Enter key.

Bu Xingye suddenly said in a cold voice, "No need to watch. She had already left that planet before you arrived. When she was ten, she moved to the Nevada Star and became my neighbor."

Jiang Chen scoffed. "Commander Tang, do you have a misunderstanding about Xu Rui?"

"Xu Rui sending that message was simply a plea for help. She knew she couldn't die, left all alone on a desolate planet."

"Sending that distress signal was her last chance. She sent information about the Zerg precisely to lure people like you to her, didn't she?"

"Her message was indeed useful, that's true. But that doesn't mean she is a person worth saving. I cannot forgive the things she has done."

This statement drew nods of agreement from Bu Xingye, Shi Qiyuan, and Liu Han.

The progress bar continued.

94%.

Suddenly!

Movement from within the ruins on the screen caught everyone’s attention.

They all looked up.

Xu Rui crawled out of the wreckage, her body a mangled mess of flesh and blood. She dragged her exhausted frame along, lying on the ground and gasping for breath. She looked at the misty sky and a smile of joy broke across her face—the joy of having survived.

But soon, strange noises came from the burning heap of ruins.

Xu Rui rallied her spirit and struggled to sit up. Her wounds were healing at a speed visible to the naked eye; this was the terrifying power of her SSSS-grade genetic constitution.

One of her legs was twisted at an unnatural angle. Every step she took caused pain that nearly broke her.

Xu Rui gritted her teeth, picked up a stone from the ground, and walked toward the figure.

Out of the burning wreckage crawled a person whose body was charred black. He lay flat on the ground, gasping for air. From the half of his face that remained intact, one could tell that it was indeed Selwan.