Hearing the prompt from 1068, the three-headed winged locust, currently vomiting rats, swiftly turned around, its 18 eyestalks pointed towards Charles in the corner.
"You son of a—!!"
Charles leaped forward, charging straight for the door, and as he was about to exit, he drew a revolver with his left hand.
"Bang!" Half of 1068's bloodied, mangled head was blown off, amidst its screams and curses, as Charles burst out of the room and sprinted for his life.
This time, the locusts didn't engage Charles in close combat. The three-heads grouped at a distance, continuously spitting corrosive liquid as Charles twisted his body to speedily retreat through a "barrage of bullets."
This was just a beginning. More locusts followed behind Charles, the Third Laboratory stirred into activity for the first time after years of silence.
Chased by the winged locusts, Charles found the way he had come.
When he finally burst out of the lab, exhausted, a bright red light shined behind him. He spun around in horror to see an entire massive wall light up in red. They screeched as they burrowed out from the wall, their eyestalks burning with rage, staring intensely at Charles.
Hundreds of winged locusts twisted their bodies, then vanished from sight.
Charles instantly felt a chill run up his spine to his brain. He turned and dashed toward the coast at top speed.
"Did I steal your wife or something, for you to chase me like this?!"
"Thump thump thump," Charles leapt onto a three-meter high rock in a few strides, making agile jumps between the boulders.
With his enhanced night vision, Charles was fast, but he felt no sense of safety, his expression tense as he looked around vigilantly, wary of any invisible locusts emerging.
From afar, he saw the bright searchlights of the Unicorne on the distant sea.
"The lights are on, which means the crew must be aboard. I just need to make it back to the shore to win!" Thinking this, Charles quickened his pace even more.
"Hum hum hum," the winged locusts emerged in the air, a vast expanse of red light blocking Charles's path. They formed a pocket formation and swooped down toward him.
"You really hold me in high regard, using tactics against just me," Charles said, gasping for air on top of a rock.
Looking at the sky filled with red light, Charles felt a touch of sentimentality, "It's really beautiful. Compared to this, drone shows are pretty lame."
"But still, compared to you glowing bugs, I'd rather be watching drones right now." Clutching the few relics he had, Charles fiercely kicked off the ground, heading straight toward the distant red wall without looking back.
"Plop plop plop," all the winged locusts began spitting saliva, and the sky, illuminated by the red light, started to rain down acid.
Charles dived back under the stone forest, using the rocks as cover to continue forward.
The sound of stone corroding under the acid overhead crackled continuously, Charles stepped on the few remaining spots as he rushed forward. The coast was getting closer.
The locusts seemed to have anticipated Charles's moves. Multiple maws with sharp teeth burst through the ground, viciously snapping at his feet.
Unable to find a foothold, Charles pushed off the wall, landing back on top of the rocks, only to face another wave of acid rain.
No matter how agile his body was, twisting and turning in mid-air, it was all in vain.
His collar was corroded with holes of varying sizes, and the dense acid dripped onto him, emitting puffs of white smoke.
"Sss~" Charles felt the burning pain on his body intensifying, and, trapped in a desperate situation, he knew he couldn't hold on much longer.
"Am I going to die?"
"Boom!" Suddenly, a loud explosion came from afar, and a large space cleared amidst the red sky.
Standing on one of the few empty patches of ground, Charles, with the face behind his mask showing wild joy, exclaimed, "That's the deck gun from the Unicorne, my crew is helping me!"
No matter how numerous the flying locusts were, they were nothing but flesh and blood, no different than paper in front of a shell.
"Boom!" Another large section of the red sky was torn away, and at that moment, the locusts seemed panicked, unsure whether to flee or continue to intercept Charles.
With the pressure drastically reduced, Charles sprinted with all his might and finally reached the seaside.
As he leaped, the cold seawater alleviated the burning sensation all over his body, and he frantically swam towards the Unicorne.
The first words he said as he climbed up the ladder onto the deck were to set sail quickly.
The Unicorne, already primed, powered up and swiftly left the island.
Lying on the deck, utterly exhausted, when Charles saw the damp relics next to him, he burst into excited laughter. "Hahaha, you sniveling bugs, see that! I've stolen your stuff! And I made it out too! This time, I win!"
Deep, nervously, ran over and helped Charles up. "Captain, you'd better take that mask off now."
Charles was taken aback, "How long have I been wearing this mask?"
Just as this thought crossed his mind, suddenly, an unfamiliar voice exploded in his mind.
"I don't know, but I guess it's been an hour or two?"
Charles quickly removed the mask from his face. The moment he took off the mask, everything around him darkened several shades, and the pain in his body intensified manifold.
However, at that moment, Charles focused all his attention on the voice in his mind, continually questioning who it was.
Seeing their captain standing there dazed, Deep waved his hand in front of him, "Captain, what's wrong? Are you okay?"
Charles didn't answer him and sat on the ground as if waiting for something. When he realized that after taking off the mask, the voice in his mind did not resound again, he finally breathed a deep sigh of relief.
Then Charles felt a wave of relief in his heart. "Good thing, a few more minutes with the mask on, and I might have ended up fighting for control of my body with my other personality."
"This mask needs to be worn with caution in the future; the benefits are indeed great, but the drawbacks are equally shocking. While wearing the mask, I become incredibly impulsive."
Seeing the captain restored to normal, the other crew members also breathed sighs of relief and hurriedly carried Charles towards the Captain's Room.
After a chaotic flurry, the acid-etched wounds on Charles's body were dressed, and at that moment, he looked more like a mummy than the bandages themselves.
Weak, he sat up from the bed and looked around at the circle of crew members. "Who fired the gun just now?"
Had it not been for the deck gun, Charles would certainly not have made it back.
"It was me! It was me!" Lily, the white mouse, climbed up to Charles's face along the bedsheet.