Chapter 94: The Beetle's First Appearance

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Bang!

A gunshot blasted out of the M110 in Feng Luo's hand. A normal armor-piercing bullet shot out, blasting the Level-25 brown mantis-like monster over 20 feet away into pieces. Body parts and greenish-black body fluid were splattered onto the grass.

Ratta-tat!

Beside him, Mu Zi held an assault rifle and fired consistently to the other side. A Mutant Mantis similar in appearance was hit until its head detached from the body and the abdomen burst into experience points.

The place where they were at was originally was a square, but their surroundings had now turned into a jungle. Beneath this patch of grass and trees that covered most of the area, there were a large number of mutant insect monsters above Level 20. A Level-25 Mutant Mantis would hide in the ruins and stay still. When a player passed, it would then pounce on them and launch a sneak attack, waving its two one-foot-long greenish-brown scythes to at vital organs such as the chest or neck.

If a player of Level 20 encountered such monster, there would be a good chance that the player would be insta-killed. But when facing a team of players all above Level 40, these Mantises could only be slaughtered one-sidedly.

The mission had been going on for an hour already, and Feng Luo and his team had advanced nearly 500 meters into the ruins, killing over 1,000 monsters over Level 20.

The efficiency of killing monsters in a team versus that of killing as individuals was quite different. If Feng Luo had to do it alone, it would have been difficult to reach 1,000 kills even if he had a week's time because the attack power of these Level-20 Mutant Mantises was not considered low. If he were besieged by seven or eight simultaneously, his HP and defense wouldn't be able to hold up. Hence, he would need to alternate his position while running.

Now that he had Heavy Armor Warriors to help defend and Earth Manipulators to create obstacles to divide the group of monsters, he could easily cause damage and farm XP, reaping monsters one shot at a time. In an hour, the monsters that died in Feng Luo's hands were close to 100. This was because the team spent most of the time figuring out the monsters' locations.

Of course, he was not the player who caused the most damage; in the whole process, more than 300 monsters died at the hands of Little Witch. The effective placement of the Fire Manipulator's Level-45 ranged skill "Sea of Fire" would cause continuous spreading damage as long as there was an adequate supply of MP and energy crystals. Sea of Fire could have been called one of the most useful skills for killing low-level monsters among all the professions.

As for "Sister Rui," who also belonged to a violent damage output profession—the Machine Gunner—she had killed fewer than 50 monsters. This was because the monsters were not concentrated enough. Hence, she didn't use the machine gun on her side. Instead, she just shot precisely with the golden Desert Eagle, blasting the Mutant Mantises into smithereens one by one.

"Hey, there's a big guy over here!" came an excited voice from the side of the two of them, accompanied by a low, muffled roar.

A giant mantis three times the size of a common Mutant Mantis appeared. Its two sharp sickles had been transformed from brownish-green in color to brownish-black. Its pair of dark red eyes reflected the happy, chubby face of Mr. Meng—who was about the same height—in front of it.

Mutant Mantis (Level 29, Elite). Estimated HP: 12500.

"You guys stay back," said Mr. Meng. "I'll take this one on myself!"

As an experienced, older player who had grown up playing games, Mr. Meng was skillful indeed. He brandished a 1.5-meter alloy longsword magnificently, steadily striking the over-two-meter Elite Mantis. The most damage the Mantis could do to him with a cut from the sickles would be less than 500 points, whereas if he slashed with his sword, the damage would exceed 1,000 points. Hence, no one was interested in watching this one-sided fight.

Feng Luo lifted his M110 as he stood on higher ground, observing the surroundings with the scope. It had been a long time since they'd entered the ruins. They had killed more than 1,000 monsters, yet strangely, they hadn't encountered a single beetle. As a result, his idea of testing the chip could not be implemented.

It was worth mentioning that when Mu Wu had sent someone out to scout, plenty of beetles had been seen in the Level-20 region. However, it was as if they had all vanished without a trace today, as not even a single one had been seen. This was really odd...

Feng Luo lifted the M110 and turned half around, setting the Eye of the Thunder scope to the maximum magnification of 15 times. He scanned the hidden locations, such as windows of the surrounding buildings and the trees, but nothing was found.

The only thing that was special was the upper portion of a five-meter statue, which was estimated to be a person of importance in the city. Fist-like holes were hewn out on the statue. The black recesses made it somewhat aesthetically displeasing; in fact, even though there were some strange features on these statues, they could have been interpreted as artistic. Ordinary people would not have understood the truth.

Feng Luo observed carefully and did not find anything strange on the sculpture, so he quickly shifted his gaze away. He lowered the M110 and requested of Mu Zi, who was following him closely, "Mu Zi, do a reconnaissance of the situation!"

"Got it, brother Feng!"

Mu Zi nodded and fiddled with his recon meter. He then turned on his cooled-down Detection skill to provide a buff. The result of the Detection showed that, aside from the Level-29 Elite Mantis, which was being beaten to a pulp by Mr. Meng, all the monsters in the surrounding had been cleared.

Mu Zi's talent was the strengthening of his Detection effect. Although it was only a B-grade talent, it was undoubtedly one of the best talents of a Scout. Therefore, everyone was confident in the results of Mu Zi's reconnaissance.

"Now that the area is cleared, let's move. Keep going!" Chairman Qian said in a low tone.

Since his equipment was average and he was a Heavy Armored Warrior, he did not kill any monsters on the front line. Instead, he held a shield to protect the only Doctor on the team. However, everyone had agreed to make him the captain due to his status. His decision would overrule the others in some cases.

Even though there might have been undetected monsters still hiding in this region, it wouldn't matter much anymore. For one thing, the mission did not ask for complete clearance of the area. For another, they were tasked only to conduct a rough initial clearing of the area, and a different squad would come after them to clean up the rest. Any leftover monsters won't be much of a problem.

The team was just about to move forward when over ten yellow dots suddenly appeared on the recon meter.

"Wait! A dozen of monsters suddenly appeared behind us!" Mu Zi hastily shouted to stop them.

They turned around after they heard what he said, discovering that the position of the monsters that appeared this time was in the air.

It was a type of gray beetle with a diameter of three centimeters. Its appearance was similar to that of a scarab. Its gray, metallic-looking body was round, and its translucent hindwings flapped rapidly underneath the unfolded wing cases. This created a multitude of afterimages produced loud noises.

Speed of flight is 11 to 12 meters per second. Distance is approximately 24 meters...

Without needing the help of the M110 scope, Feng Luo's brain, which had a significant improvement in senses, immediately projected the estimated data.

Suicide Bombeetle (Level 20, Normal). Species Code: JCG-02347. HP: 500. XP-S3 chip compatibility: 29%. Speed of flight: 11.53 m/s, Distance: 22.7 m. Height: 7.43 m.

Aside from the normal data that could be seen in the past recon in his sniper scope, Feng Luo's rifle also had the ability to identify the types of monsters because it was loaded with the chip Master Roland had given him.

The "chip compatibility" information was included at the end. This showed him the chances of successfully controlling this type of beetle if he were to use the control chip in his hand. The probability of 29 percent was so low! But none of the other species of monsters that Feng Luo had experimented with had a compatibility of over 10 percent.

The Suicide Bombeetle's 29 percent was relatively high. And judging from the data, the previous Level-45 Beetle Boss might have indeed been connected somehow to these ruins.