Complications of Being Invaded by an Alien Race You Never Knew Existed

Chapter 0.1

It was a day like any other. The sun that occupied most of the sky had finally left, relieving the world of its sweltering heat. The three moons were just making their presences known, all in different shapes and sizes.

Doctor Yang pushed open the door to the last medical ward on his list. He strode in, a clipboard in hand. Behind him were a few nurses rolling in a tray filled with top-grade nutrient supplements for the one hundred and twenty odd comatose soldiers. As per usual, they went from soldier to soldier, injecting them with the supplement while Doctor Yang took notes on what was happening to the soldiers for the day.

There was a touch of normality to this routine despite the chaos that had ensued only eighty days ago when the soldiers had first fallen into a deep, deep sleep. The doctors had tried everything they could, even yanking out the cords of one soldier's capsule in their desperation.

The soldier died.

The image of his shaking body as the line on his heart rate monitor went flat was seared into the backs of everybody's eyelids, nobody present able to forget the horrid scene. Or so Doctor Yang had heard.

So far, he hadn't seen any gory, bloody scenes while monitoring these patients. Suffice to say, there was nothing out of the ordinary with how today was going either.

Doctor Yang jotted down his last notes for the 124th soldier, the same thing he had written for the past eighty days. Vaguely, he heard a whirring sound in the normally silent ward. He dismissed it as just the wheels of another cart rolling against the squeaky clean floor.

But he did not keep that impression for long. Another similar sound echoed throughout the room. Doctor Yang looked up this time, scanning the room before his gaze froze in a specific spot.

A capsule's lid was open. The soldier inside was sitting up, looking around the room in obvious confusion.

Before Doctor Yang could exclaim in surprise, another whirring sound came from next to him. Doctor Yang whipped his head towards the soldier he was currently next to. That soldier was also sitting up in his capsule. Then another whirring sound rang through the ward. And another one. And even more.

A few seconds later, the noises came to a stop, and Doctor Yang surveyed the room with astonishment. Twelve capsules were open...

Twelve capsules were open!

The soldiers were all looking around, some even got out of their capsules. Meanwhile, Doctor Yang stared. He couldn't believe it. The soldiers that had been trapped in the simulation for over two months had woken up!

...

Ling Xia(1) walked out the door after finishing his physical examination to see eleven other soldiers sitting on the ground in a circle sharing their experiences in the system. His eyes went around the circle. There was only one empty spot, probably reserved for him. He plopped down in it and listened intently to the stories of his friends.

The person next to him, Ji Kongying, was exclaiming something with great passion at the moment.

"I mean, who could have guessed that the system that was supposed to be training us for becoming a soldier of fleet zero would be hacked! They were meant to protect us from things like that! We trusted them, and look what happened! We were trapped in there for so long!

"Maybe for them, it was eighty days, but for us, it was eighty lifetimes! Eighty lifetimes of being forced to follow a script, and any action that didn't follow the character traits of the host meant being punished or even killed! I never want to go back there again, and if the higher-ups want me to, I think I'll just resign from the military altogether."