Chapter Twenty-Four: The Strange Bird

He caught sight of an unidentified creature, pitch-black in color, equipped with enormous wings and resembling a grotesque bird. This strange avian creature stood approximately two and a half meters tall, with a wingspan stretching a full four to five meters. It possessed a massive, gaping oral cavity filled with sharp protrusions—whether teeth or some other structure, it was impossible to tell. It appeared suddenly beside one of the clones, lowered its head, and with a single bite, severed the clone, tearing it to pieces before swallowing it whole.

What was this thing!

The thought flashed through Li Qingsong’s tens of thousands of brains simultaneously. This was a vacuum environment! Without the protection of a space suit, a clone would perish in under a minute. Furthermore, the temperature was critically low, plunging to over two hundred degrees Celsius below zero. Not to mention the intense interstellar high-energy radiation, capable of shredding the DNA of any living organism! How could this unknown creature survive in such conditions?

Li Qingsong’s mind raced with lightning speed, a chilling thought surfacing: "How many of these monsters are there? Could they be the reason for the sudden disappearance of my fellow Earthlings?" The technological level of Earth’s humanity far surpassed his own. If even they had been wiped out by these monsters, then he stood no chance of putting up a fight against them!

A profound sense of gravity weighed on Li Qingsong. With a mere flick of his intent, the thousands of clones scattered across more than a hundred sub-bases outside the main base simultaneously ceased their tasks and retreated into the structures. Within the main base, the numerous clones moved in unison, rushing toward the perimeter to guard against any unforeseen threats. Though only this one base had encountered the strange bird, and only a single specimen had been sighted, there was no telling if others were lurking elsewhere on Luo Shen Planet. In any case, caution was paramount.

Base 45 held over a hundred clones. Li Qingsong gritted his teeth and commanded them to arm themselves with whatever was at hand—kitchen knives, steel pipes, wrenches—and charge at the creature that had just finished consuming his clone.

The hideous, misshapen bird let out a silent roar, its monstrous maw agape as it lunged at the clones. The clones, fearless and indifferent to death, struck out with their makeshift weapons. Li Qingsong was effectively using these clones as cannon fodder, and his motive was simple: to test the combat capabilities of this unknown creature. If it proved to be an invincible juggernaut—impervious to blades, capable of flight and subterranean movement, and able to wipe out hundreds of men in a single strike—then he would be better off abandoning the base immediately and fleeing on the Deep Space vessel.

Under these circumstances, the bodies of the clones were strewn about, and the mental connection to them was severed one by one.

The loss of connection meant they were dead. Yet, Li Qingsong felt no despair; instead, he let out a long sigh of relief. He saw that the monster was not invulnerable. A clone swinging a kitchen knife with all his might had managed to carve a gash in the creature's wing. Another, wielding a sharpened steel pipe, had pierced the monster’s body by over ten centimeters, causing a surge of unknown fluid to leak out and rapidly freeze. Eventually, at the cost of twenty clones, the creature collapsed to the ground, never to stir again.

"This is not the monster that caused the disappearance of human civilization!" Li Qingsong concluded instantly. A creature that could be killed by clones armed with kitchen knives and steel pipes would be trivial for humanity, even if there were a billion of them.

Several clones approached cautiously, examining the creature's anatomy under the glare of the floodlights. Li Qingsong observed that the exterior of the bird's body was covered in a layer of frost as hard as steel, yet within, there was residual heat, keeping certain unidentified substances in a liquid, flowing state. Its wings, he noted, were likely not for flight, as he saw no sign of robust muscles or muscle-like structures.

"Such massive wings, and not for flying? Could they be… some kind of material collection net? What does it rely on to survive? What is its food source?"

He dissected the creature’s stomach—it was clearly a stomach, as the remains of the first clone were inside. Besides the corpse, he found traces of melted substances. He recognized them at a glance: methane, ethane, acetonitrile, tholins, formaldehyde. These were all organic compounds! A thought that left Li Qingsong stunned began to take root.

"Is this thing... a space-faring organism? Does it feed on the simple organic matter found on planets, and once it has exhausted the resources of one, does it migrate through space, using its massive wings as a net to gather cosmic dust as sustenance to fuel its journey to the next planet, repeating the cycle indefinitely? Is it possible that such life truly exists in the universe?"

His biological knowledge instinctively rejected the possibility, but the tangible evidence before him forced his admission.

"If this is the case, then we are in deep trouble. Clearly, in the vast sea of stars, planets are the most precious commodity. Every planet contains the vast amounts of organic matter these creatures crave; to them, each world is like a lush pasture to cattle. Furthermore, the activities of my clones on Luo Shen Planet have produced large quantities of more complex organic matter. Even the human body is composed of these complex organics. Perhaps these are even more alluring to the creature than simple compounds. If simple organics are like wild vegetables, then human bodies, livestock, and crops are a grand feast! Perhaps it was my own activity on Luo Shen Planet that lured this monster here!"

Li Qingsong’s brain whirred at top speed. At this moment, his only hope was that the number of these monsters on Luo Shen Planet was small. He had to remember: he had not developed a single shred of weapon technology. Aside from kitchen knives and steel pipes, he had nothing! Who could have imagined that such life existed in the universe, and that it would have the misfortune of stumbling upon his doorstep?

The clones began dragging the creature's carcass back to the main base for further study. But at that moment, the ground began to tremble slightly. As the massive searchlights swept across the terrain, the clones witnessed a horrifying sight. The dark red surface of Luo Shen Planet was now blanketed by a dense, black swarm of the creatures.

At this very moment, at least a thousand of them were charging toward Base 45!