The Boyfriends I Picked Up in Horror Games Are Bizarre - Chapter 135

In the vast universe, there existed the Interstellar Alliance that maintained order, and naturally, there were also outlaws who belonged to no nation. These outlaws survived by killing and plundering.

The Conqueror’s navigation route was supposed to be safe. There had always been a patrol fleet along this path, so security had remained excellent. However, the Information Technology Officer brought back some very bad news.

Not long ago, a nearby transfer station had been attacked. The security teams had rushed over to provide support, which was why the pirates had grown so rampant.

This was an ambush aimed directly at Li Shenjue.

Someone must have obtained intelligence that Li Shenjue would be passing through here, and that he was piloting only a regular spacecraft, not a battleship. This was the perfect chance to turn him into cosmic dust.

After all, Li Shenjue held a high position, and there were many who wanted him dead.

Li Shenjue immediately ordered the crew to prepare for combat, but as the alarms continued to report worsening hull damage, the engineer panicked and said, “Commander, we can only abandon ship and escape!”

The artillery fire outside continued, and even to the naked eye, the number of enemy warships was visibly increasing.

Li Shenjue had no choice but to say, “Everyone to the escape pods!”

The number of escape pods had been configured according to the crew count. Bai Yao had been scheduled to be aboard, but Ruan Jiaojiao and her brother were unexpected additions, which meant there were fewer escape pods available.

In theory, each pod could only seat one person. If one more tried to enter, all aboard might perish in the vacuum of space.

When Bai Yao heard that the ship was under attack, she had smartly run to the escape pods first and found a pod to sit in.

So when Li Shenjue entered a step later with Ruan Jiaojiao, he saw Bai Yao sitting there calmly, and his brow twitched.

Although he liked to play with “life-giving” literature, he was not a bad person after all. He couldn’t bring himself to deprive his subordinates of their chance to enter the escape pods, so he could only take Ruan Jiaojiao into his own.

Ruan Jiaojiao, though frightened, still had common sense. She looked at Li Shenjue in fear and asked, “Are we going to die?”

Li Shenjue embraced her. “Jiaojiao, whether we live or die, we’ll be together.”

Ruan Jiaojiao let out a quiet sob. Then, as if remembering something, her eyes widened in shock. “Shi Jiu isn’t here!”

Because Shi Jiu had always refused to eat with them, he did not go to the cafeteria today either and, as usual, stayed alone in his room.

By now, everyone else had already boarded the escape pods.

Ruan Jiaojiao began to cry out loud. “Li Shenjue, what about Shi Jiu?!”

Li Shenjue’s expression darkened, but he said nothing.

The countdown for the escape pods’ launch began to sound one after another, and several pods had already disengaged from the docking bays and shot out through the hatches.

At that moment, the figure of a young man came running toward them in a hurry.

His dark eyes locked onto Ruan Jiaojiao inside the pod as he dodged falling debris in panic, desperately trying to get closer. “Jiejie, help me! Don’t leave me behind!”

Terror and despair overwhelmed him. Tears blurred his vision, and his foot caught on a fallen object, sending him sprawling dangerously to the floor.

Ignoring the pain, he wiped his dusty hands across his face, smearing dirt across his pale skin. Struggling to his feet, he staggered toward Ruan Jiaojiao. “Please, help me. I don’t want to die…”

Among everyone here, Ruan Jiaojiao was the one he was “closest” to, and she was Li Shenjue’s woman. To him, Ruan Jiaojiao was his last hope of survival.

Ruan Jiaojiao couldn’t bear it. “Li Shenjue! Save Shi Jiu!”

Li Shenjue held Ruan Jiaojiao down and said calmly, “Our escape pod can’t take any more people.”

The others, even more so, had no reason to risk their own lives for a stranger.

The countdown reached its final seconds. One by one, the escape pods shot away at incredible speed.

Li Shenjue kept holding Ruan Jiaojiao down, and Ruan Jiaojiao could only watch the boy outside the glass window shed tears as the escape pod heartlessly launched away from the doomed spaceship.

The black-haired boy struggled to stand up, only to be struck on the head by a falling piece of machinery and fall to the ground again. The small flowerpot in his hand rolled away, and he no longer had the strength to pick it up.

The sound of one escape pod after another leaving declared his death.

He had gone through great effort to board this ship, the Conqueror, escaping from that dead planet.

He had truly worked hard, desperately hard, just to stay alive.

But perhaps someone like him was never meant to survive; abandonment was the ending he was destined for.

Shi Jiu lay motionless on the ground. Around him was the sound of everything collapsing, death looming everywhere, yet it could no longer stir even the slightest will to live within him.

When this wreckage turned into cosmic dust, he, too, would be torn apart like a rag doll.

The power system collapsed, plunging the hall into total darkness.

“Escape pod No. 3 launch sequence terminated.”

The sudden mechanical voice rang out, and the hatch opened. From inside came a girl’s voice. “Hey, are you coming or not?”

The boy’s figure twitched slightly. He lifted his face from the ruins, his misty eyes filled with lifelessness.

In the dim light, the sounds of falling metal echoed endlessly. Only one escape pod still had its lights on.

She sat in the light, her beautiful face full of impatience, and asked again irritably, “Are you coming or not?”

The slowly disintegrating hull began to shake violently. In the dark vacuum of space, an unnatural roaring wind seemed to sound, pounding against their eardrums.

Shi Jiu rasped out hoarsely, “Yes!”

Suddenly, he found his strength again, clumsily and desperately dragging himself up from the floor.

Bai Yao called out, “Don’t forget my flower!”

He scooped up the little flowerpot with both hands and staggered toward her. Just as he reached the light and nearly fell again, a pair of hands reached out and pulled him into the tiny pod.

Every student had been trained to operate an escape pod.

Bai Yao swiftly manipulated the control panel, restarting the countdown. With practiced movements, she looped the safety belt once around the boy and then fastened it around herself.

In that cramped space, their bodies were pressed tightly together. His dusty clothes dirtied her once-white dress.

Shi Jiu instinctively tried to retreat, but she pressed a hand to his back and forced him still.

Bai Yao said, “Don’t move!”

The spacecraft had reached its limit; if they didn’t leave now, even an escape pod couldn’t save them.

She shut her eyes and prayed, “Come on, come on, come on!”

At the brink of life and death, her grip on his arm tightened unconsciously. Shi Jiu stared blankly at the top of her head, the small flowerpot between them nearly crushed flat.

“Four, three, two…”

The instant the voice reached “one,” just before the explosion, the escape pod jolted and shot out from the flames into the vast, star-speckled darkness of space.

The blaze outside the glass window grew smaller and smaller until it was no more than a faint glowing dot.

Bai Yao opened her eyes nervously, confirming that she was still alive. Slowly releasing her hold on the boy’s hand, she even found the composure to glance at the tiny dot of light and say, “Looks kind of like a star.”

Shi Jiu pressed one hand over his stomach, trying not to let his body touch hers too much. Lowering his eyes, he whispered softly, “Thank you…”

Bai Yao replied, “If you’re going to thank someone, thank the moonstone.”

Shi Jiu stared down at the flowerpot in his hands.

Even amid that chaos and death, the tiny green plant had only lost one leaf. Soon, it would grow new ones again.

Bai Yao poked the little sprout with her finger. “If it weren’t for you bringing it along, I wouldn’t have bothered saving you.”

Shi Jiu hugged the small plant tightly, carefully protecting it in his arms.