"What?" Xu Yun Cheng was baffled by this inexplicable command, but he quickly realized that he shouldn't let himself be led by the nose like this.

Stabilizing his mind, Xu Yun Cheng countered, "Why should I follow your command?"

"Do you know the only reason I haven't used Black Threads to digest and absorb you along with seizing your time-space ability?" the black-haired youth asked.

Xu Yun Cheng couldn't quite grasp the youth's motives and bottom line, so he remained silent and fell deep in thought.

The black-haired youth continued, "It's because the moment I begin copying your Ability Core and gain time-space abilities, Xiao Mao will die without its maintenance."

"So, the ability you just used to free me from Huo Li's control… was really a psychic ability!" Xu Yun Cheng blurted out.

"Yes, I used Huo Li's psychic ability." The black-haired youth no longer bothered to hide the truth. "I acquired psychic abilities the first time I copied Huo Li's body, though it even startled me at the time. My replication ability is far superior to that of the Parasites. They take months to fully copy an ability core, whereas I only need to mutate the body structure of an ability user, and their Ability Core's information will automatically encode itself into my DNA."

"So, when I was detained on Earth, you had already planned to kill me and steal my ability." Xu Yun Cheng had completely calmed down by now. The gap in strength left him with no room for resistance. "The entire apocalypse on Earth… was just a trap targeting rebels."

"Copying someone's Ability Core has nothing to do with whether I kill them or not," the black-haired youth corrected. "But at the time, I did plan to kill you. However, Xiao Mao’s state of survival hindered my plan's execution, so now I have no choice but to join forces with you."

Hearing that the youth seemed ready to issue more commands, Xu Yun Cheng, unwilling to become a mere chess piece without understanding the full picture, quickly asked, "Your original plan was to take advantage of the imprisonment of the rebel organization members and target those 600 Ability Users to copy their abilities?"

"What would I want their abilities for?" the black-haired youth asked impatiently. "This power of mine, the ability to seize others' abilities, has already placed me in opposition to humans, Parasites, and Ability Users—essentially, against all intelligent species in the galaxy. I had originally intended to never use any abilities at all. But things didn’t go as planned, did they?"

"So you had warned me a long time ago," Xu Yun Cheng said with a bitter smile. "Back on Earth, you firmly told me that the Parasite race shouldn't be trusted. At that time, you had already started suspecting that the Parasites could harness abilities and that their alliance with us Ability Users was nothing more than a way to overthrow human rule faster while also collecting more samples for their future ability replication."

The black-haired youth replied, "Yes, I warned you long ago."

"But you didn’t say anything! You knew about the existence of Enhanced Parasites, yet you never informed the Main System or Huo Li." Xu Yun Cheng looked at the black-haired youth mockingly. "Aren’t you the one who claims to cherish human life? Back in the Zombie World, you even scolded me. You, an Alien, even believed you understood human emotions better than humans themselves. And yet? You stood by and watched humanity march toward ruin without uttering a single warning."

"I do like human culture and emotions, but that doesn’t mean I like every human," the black-haired youth said. "Those 600 people—you were the one who blew them up. But even if all the blame were mine, so what? People like them die, and that’s that. I like human civilization, so I want to befriend humanity—but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to become a universal enemy just to let humans and their corrupt rule continue."

Xu Yun Cheng sneered, "A universal enemy? Aren’t you already one?"

Black-haired youth: "At least I still have the Main System and Huo Li."

"The Main System can temporarily be considered a person, I suppose," the black-haired youth added before Xu Yun Cheng could fire off his sarcastic remark. "Let me remind you—now is not the time for you to vent your frustrations. The only reason I’m not killing you is because of Xiao Mao, but that’s solely due to the slight guilt I feel toward her. Once that shred of emotion is worn away by your mockery, I won’t mind letting both of you die."

Xu Yun Cheng, who had commanded the tides of fate for 7,000 years, had no choice but to hold his tongue.

The youth issued his orders once more. "First, assist me in spreading the news that all Parasites will die in 40 days and that the 12 virus treatment agents are stored in the experimental base on Planet L, which was established by the Alien. Second, continuously use your Time-Space Ability to block 099—without even a second of lapse."

Xu Yun Cheng nodded expressionlessly.

"Don’t think that leaving the range of my psychic power means you can use your Time-Space Ability to escape," the black-haired youth continued. "And don’t bother searching your clothes for any ‘strands of hair’—it’s inside your body."

A chilling realization struck Xu Yun Cheng—an Alien who had gained Huo Li’s psychic power was truly terrifying. He could remotely control every Black Thread cell inside him!

Black-haired youth: "Now, send me back."

.

Time resumed its flow only when the youth reappeared in his room in the Salvation Alliance Town's makeshift command building. The chaotic and sleepless night of frantic activity had only just begun, yet no one noticed that the true instigator had already returned to his room.

The next day, after an entire night of fruitless searching, the exhausted Ability Users had no choice but to immediately depart for Planet G, where they would stage a false Alien stronghold and set up an ambush. Huo Li and Xiao Yi naturally accompanied them.

Planet G was an uninhabited, primitive world with abundant rainfall and dense vegetation. Its dominant life forms consisted mainly of insects and cold-blooded creatures. Lazily, Xiao Yi scattered Black Threads infused with long-lasting teleportation talismans across various corners of the planet, allowing them to interconnect into a sparse web that would gradually expand.

After a day, the Black Threads had formed a basic structure. Now, all that remained was for Xiao Yi to mutate them into intelligent entities before handing them over to Huo Li for remote control.

"Xiao Yi, you can just mutate the Black Threads into normal versions of the Guardians," Huo Li suggested, noticing the hesitation in the black-haired youth. "Their combat power is already quite impressive."

"The Guardians were designed with human aesthetics in mind," the black-haired youth replied while manipulating the global network of Black Thread vines, slowly gathering and extending them skyward. "But our enemy now is the Parasites—so I don’t have to be so polite!"

As he spoke, clusters of Black Threads split apart, transforming into thousands of sparrow-sized, red-and-black-patterned venomous bloodsucking mosquitoes. Towering vine-covered mountains reshaped themselves into massive, spiked octopus-like creatures, their tentacles capable of slicing through entire forests with a single sweep…

Numerous colossal and minuscule monstrosities materialized simultaneously under the youth’s imagination, sending chills down the spines of the Ability Users who were teleporting across the planet, setting up teleportation array jamming devices.

"Don't panic, everyone.” The black-haired youth spoke leisurely through the smart brain, reassuring saviors worldwide. "Once these creatures take shape, I will lose control over them. They have no independent consciousness—if Huo Li withdraws his psychic power, they will immediately faint."

The black-haired youth then closed the communication channel and turned to Huo Li and the Main System, whispering, "It’s not that I look down on humans, but the average intelligence of the Parasites is indeed several dozen percentage points higher. Their rationality and ability to coordinate are hundreds of times stronger than that of human Ability Users! 260,000 Enhanced Parasites united together are far more formidable than our scattered Salvation Alliance forces. And we only have 1,900 people participating in this operation…"

Even the usually detached and peaceful Main System had to admit that the elite mission personnel it had gathered over the past thousand years were nothing more than a ragtag bunch. The Parasites’ intelligence and coordination made up for their lower Ability levels, and with such an overwhelming numerical advantage, there was simply no chance of victory relying on just these 1,900 mission personnel. There was a real possibility that the Salvation Alliance’s elite forces could be completely wiped out!

The Main System had no choice but to ask, "Huo Li, are you really going to keep this operation a secret? If you still insist on limiting your psychic control to just a hundred people, I’m afraid…"

"You know my abilities," Huo Li replied. "Controlling humans and Parasites is easy, but Ability Users are much more troublesome. If I reveal my full strength and work together with the other saviors and the mutated Black Thread creatures, then yes, we do have a chance to completely exterminate the Enhanced Parasites. But the Interstellar Federation is watching this battlefield closely…"

The Main System fell silent.

"If my true strength is exposed, I will immediately become a public enemy," Huo Li stated calmly. "At that point, the Salvation Alliance would be greatly weakened due to the war with the Parasites, while the Interstellar Federation forces would remain virtually untouched. And then… what do you think the human race would do?"

"Make the Interstellar Federation’s fleet join the battle as well!" the black-haired youth suggested without hesitation. "They’re always so eager for war—if the Parasites are attacking for real, they should be the ones fighting! Otherwise, what’s the point of maintaining such a massive military?"

"But they’re just ordinary people," Huo Li said, chuckling as he reached out to ruffle the youth’s hair. "Sending them in would just be sending them to their deaths. They wouldn’t even be able to kill a single Parasite."

"So what?! Ordinary humans have always feared the rise of Ability Users, shouting about equality for all? Let them fight too—then it’ll be true equality!" The black-haired youth expressed without the slightest hint of a joke. "Humanity has been too obsessed with militarization. This is the perfect chance to help the Interstellar Federation’s army trim its numbers."

The Main System spoke softly, "Xiao Yi, I know you're angry about the unfair treatment of Ability Users among humanity, but sending an ordinary human army to fight against the Enhanced Parasites would result in a casualty rate of ten thousand to one. We cannot orchestrate such a massacre."

"Do whatever you want!" The youth yawned and conveyed lazily, "Now that the Black Thread has finished mutating, I’m heading back to the Salvation Alliance. You two can take your time discussing. But don’t you think Ability Users have been enslaved for far too long?"

Huo Li chuckled before responding, "The Salvation Alliance doesn’t have the power to enslave us Ability Users!"

"Not by the Interstellar Federation, but by morality." The black-haired youth pointed at Huo Li before vanishing. "By yours and by the Main System’s morality."

.

After Xiao Yi disappeared, Huo Li silently mulled over the youth’s words, hesitating as he wondered whether he had been too lenient toward ordinary humans over the past thousand years.

And just as he was considering whether to drag the Interstellar Federation into this one-way war, the Interstellar Federation delivered itself right to their doorstep.

Fearing that the entire situation was slipping out of their control, the Interstellar Federation dispatched an army of 2 million people to join the battle—though their true purpose was to monitor this planet where Ability Users and the Alien coexisted. They suspected that the Salvation Alliance’s so-called plan to eliminate the 260,000 never-before-seen EnhancedParasites was merely a smokescreen and that their real goal was to overthrow the Federation and usurp the power.

Thus, the already overwhelmed Main System and the Ability Users found themselves even more frustrated as the newly arrived Interstellar Federation troops interfered, scrutinized, and second-guessed everything. The entire extermination setup on Planet G slowed down, descending into chaos under the weight of conflicting opinions.

"Those idiots actually want to set up missile launch sites all over the planet! Do they think the Parasites are brainless? Who would walk into such an obvious trap?!" One Ability User couldn't help but complain through the smart brain.

"And it gets even worse!" Another chimed in, "I’ve been working non-stop since last night, setting up teleportation arrays all over this place. The moment those officers arrived, they demanded I dig them all up for ‘inspection’! Who the hell do they think they are?!"

"Seriously, if we really wanted to kill them, why would we even bother setting up an ambush?" A female Ability User joked through the network. "We could just wipe them out directly. In less than a day, this arrogant 2-million-strong Interstellar Federation army would turn into 2 million martyrs!"

Laughter erupted among the Ability Users, their pent-up frustrations dissipating for a brief moment.

But as the laughter died down, the voice of an elderly Ability User came through the neural network:

"Did you know? I was temporarily assigned by the Main System to negotiate with the Interstellar Federation. Since this morning, various Federation soldiers have been sneaking around those Aberrant creatures created by the Alien, trying to steal tissue samples from them! Some have even attempted to secretly capture the Aberrant insects!"

“Holy shit, do these Interstellar Federation people have a death wish?!”

“Even at a time like this, they’re still obsessed with Alien DNA. Since they can’t steal our abilities, they’re trying to get their hands on the Alien’s power instead.”

“Are these guys insane?”

“What happened to them afterward? Did the Black Threads drain them dry?”

The Ability Users bombarded the network with questions, their voices overlapping in heated discussion.

Once their shock had somewhat subsided, the elderly Ability User who had first revealed the news continued his account in a dramatic tone:

“They were lucky—really lucky—that 2d14 wasn’t around today. All the Aberrant creatures and insects were in a dormant state. Otherwise… hah! Do they really think the Alien is as easygoing as we are?”

Then, his voice turned to tease. “Take a guess. How many reports of soldiers sneaking near the Aberrants did I receive just today?”

The entire channel went silent, everyone holding their breath.

“One hundred and forty-seven.” The old man finally revealed. “And I’m still negotiating with their officers as we speak.”

.

Meanwhile, on the Parasite Experimental Planet—

Ever since the Parasites' collective 'father,' the great blond-haired Parasite who had escaped from the Weyland Laboratory and led the Parasite race to prominence, was killed by the Alien on Happy Planet, the leadership of the Parasite species had fallen into new hands.

Now, Wright—the head of the Experiment Planet—had become the new ruler of the Parasite race.

Although there had never been an election, Wright was undeniably the best leader in the minds of the Parasites, who had no desire for power since they only had a rational instinct for propagation. As the one who had established the Experiment Planet and uncovered the secrets of human Ability Users, he was the natural choice for their ruler.

“My Lord, it appears that the Salvation Alliance and the Interstellar Federation have discovered that the Alien has betrayed humanity. They believe it is gathering an army on a desolate planet, preparing to take advantage if the situation arises. We should prepare in advance.”

A young officer in a military uniform strode into the laboratory and addressed Wright, who was still clad in his white coat and absorbed in his experiments.

“Is that so?” Wright didn’t even look up, and his focus remained on his research. “Don’t be deceived by surface appearances, Matthew. Fernández, you explain.”

“Yes, Lord Wright.” One of the three officers standing at Wright’s right immediately straightened and spoke. “According to our intelligence, the so-called Alien army on Planet G is nothing more than a trap set by the humans. What they are truly trying to hide is that twelve types of viruses, developed through research on Alien and Ability Users, have a 100% fatality rate against our Parasites. Only Enhanced Parasites experience delayed symptoms. The humans fear that if we learn of this, we will retaliate by slaughtering civilian populations. That’s why they designed this elaborate ploy to divert our attention.”

Matthew inhaled sharply upon hearing the revelation. “Lord Wright, does this mean we’re really all going to die?”

“The virus has a 100% fatality rate. That matches my own experimental findings.” Wright continued adjusting his microscope as he spoke, his tone calm. “Based on my research, Enhanced Parasites will succumb in approximately forty days. And in such a short period, we absolutely do not have enough time to develop a cure for all twelve viruses.”

Matthew, momentarily overcome by human-like emotions, felt cold sweat forming on his forehead. Realizing this, he quickly shut down his empathy system. Within seconds, he regained his composure.

“Lord Wright, what should we do now?”

“Investigate! Mobilize all available resources and obtain information.” Wright commanded. “Since we can’t develop a cure ourselves, we must locate the Alien’s research base. Additionally, this entire operation must remain secret. If Planet G is truly the Alien’s kingdom, our Parasite race must avoid it at all costs. But since it’s merely a human trap, we’ll need to send in some Enhanced Parasites to play along and make it look convincing.”

“Understood, Lord Wright!” The four Parasite officers saluted in unison before turning and swiftly left the laboratory.

Wright set down the test tube in his hand and gazed at the now-empty laboratory as he muttered to himself,

“They know they have at most thirty-five days to live, yet they still operate so methodically. Tsk, tsk, tsk… What a shame! But, well—having no emotions and being my blood relatives, what else could I expect?”