An insane pursuit was in progress within the wet, muddy rainforest. It had been over six minutes since the pursuit had begun between the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group and Feng Luo's team, and the distance between both teams had been shortened to less than 100 meters.
The main reason for the slowdown was because the two NPCs lacked combat capabilities. Therefore, they couldn't manage to break away from the pursuing troops behind them. Fortunately, they had chosen to retreat the same way they'd entered, which meant they didn't have to expend more energy to clear the path. Moreover, D-rank smoke bombs self-made by Feng Luo had assisted the entire team during their retreat. He dropped one every time they reached specific intervals.
The dense smoke generated by his smoke bombs blocked the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group's way and even managed to delay their pursuit due to the possibility of an ambush waiting for them behind the smoke. They were considering making a detour across the area affected by the smoke bombs, but then they would have to clear their path all over again, which could cost them as much time as waiting for the smoke to clear.
Although there were only 20 in the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group, in terms of overall strength, Feng Luo's team had better odds of winning a fight. The problem was that it would take time to get rid of the pursuing troops. If they were to start a fight near the military base, the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group would be able to call in backup in the blink of an eye if anything happened. Therefore, Feng Luo and his team had decided to flee from the beginning, without any thought given to starting a fight. Instead, they were trying to draw the enemies away from the base.
Plans, however, were always subject to change.
Suddenly, two of the scouting NPC sailors detected something with their recon meter at the same time.
"There are massive signs of biological activities 20 meters away!" said one of the two NPCs.
Yes, two. Only two NPC sailors remained. One was the NPC who had been left to guard the base entrance. Upon detecting the arrival of the Roaring Dragon Mercenary Group, he had immediately communicated with Red Queen through his communicator (NPCs were equipped with communicators to communicate with players via a specific channel). However, due to the signal interference inside the base, he had failed to make contact. But this NPC was clever. He had chosen to head over to the wall that connected to the rainforest and had rejoined the team when he saw Feng Luo and the team coming out.
A monster?
After receiving the message from the two NPC sailors, everyone stopped walking. In War, the sensor that was known as the "recon meter" functioned differently when it was used on players as opposed to monsters. Normally, within a specific area, the recon meter could discover any monster as long as it did not have specific hidden abilities. In addition, if they could scan the monster directly, they could obtain the monster's information.
However, while using the meter against players and humanoid NPCs, the effective reconnaissance range would be much smaller. Moreover, it could only detect signs of life—not the complete set of information.
Plus, Scout players not only had reconnaissance abilities but also anti-reconnaissance abilities. The disruptive function of a recon meter could greatly affect the Detection function of an enemy's recon meter within a certain range. This was the reason most of the squads in War had a Scout with them. Of course, such disruptive functions did not guarantee a 100 percent success rate, but they definitely affected the reconnaissance abilities of both sides, which could define a victory.
The level of a Scout's reconnaissance ability would be affected by two factors: the level of the recon meter and the mastery level of the Scout's reconnaissance skills. Among the factors, the quality of the recon meter was key. Compared to the Detection skill needed to trigger its effect, the recon meter was still a better option for maintaining reconnaissance in the long term. Therefore, the price of a good recon meter could be even more expensive than an energy converter (magic staff) used by a Manipulator.
The recon meters owned by two the NPCs were average. However, the target they had detected was not a player. Instead, it was a group of monsters gathering and radiating strong signs of life.
According to the information shown in the recon meters, there were over 100 monsters converging in the area in front of them. Most of them were only a foot tall—not very big. However, a few were over a meter in length. They looked like snakes, but their bodies were much wider. Furthermore, they did not move toward Feng Luo and his team, implying that their sense of awareness was weak.
"That location is where we slaughtered the Anaconda!"
With his professionally trained memory power, Black Panther could recall anything that had happened in a specific area by observing his surroundings.
"Detour!" Red Queen said, making up her mind after hesitating for only a second.
Given the circumstances, they did not have time to mess around with monsters.
Although it was a detour, they could not afford to stray far. The team started to clear a path about 10 meters away from the monsters.
As they took the detour, Feng Luo dropped a smoke bomb at their location to confuse the enemies as to their true path if they caught up to them. And just in case something unexpected happened, Feng Luo activated his "Quick Sneak" skill. He carefully stepped forward while pushing back the broad leaves of the plants that blocked his view of the monsters that had converged on their path.
What he eventually saw made him shiver.
The over-10-meter-long Mutated Anaconda they had killed before had turned into a shriveled snake's body that had lost all its blood. The entire body, as well as the ground where the blood had touched, was jam-packed with squirming mollusk-like creatures. Blood-sucking leeches!
This type of pest was normally seen in the rainforest. However, it was terrifying in this setting. Usually, a leech was the size of a finger. These, however, after sucking in the blood from the Anaconda's corpse, had grown to incredible sizes. By Feng Luo's observation, the smallest was over a foot long, while the largest there was over a meter long. Over 100 leeches were densely crowded together, entwining each other.
On the body of the meter-long leech, there were a series of brown patterns similar to those on the Anaconda. And as it opened its round mouth, there was a blue, forked tongue exposed between hundreds of sharp teeth.
Feng Luo wisely stepped back and walked away. He then immediately caught up with his team, who had already changed the path.
"Feng! What's the situation?" Big Pineapple had been curious therefore and could not help but to ask Feng Luo about it as they hurried along.
Feng Luo shook his head. "You're better off not knowing. You guys don't want to see it. It is disgusting."
"Pfft! I bet I've seen worse!" said Big Pineapple with disapproval. "I wouldn't feel nauseated!"
However, his expression soon changed. The newly cleared path was not far from the original path, and it turned out that the vegetation in a specific area was low. Therefore, the team could see the state of the Anaconda's corpse through a gap between the trees.
"Ugh!"
A few of the players gasped cold air. Although it was only a game, the sight still made them feel nauseated and shocked. Even Big Pineapple got goosebumps all over his body, although he did not say anything.
Lin's expression, however, did not change. She lifted her black-framed glasses and came to a scientific conclusion.
"Viral infection!" she said. "Those leeches are infected with the mutated evolving virus inside the Anaconda's body. By absorbing its genes, the leeches have acquired some of the Anaconda's attributes."
"But that's too fast!" said Feng Luo. "I thought it took six hours for a virus to complete the infection."
Feng Luo remembered the last time he had been infected by the evolving virus. The system prompt had told him that it would take six hours for it to complete the infection. After seeing that the leeches had acquired some of the features of the Anaconda, he sincerely prayed and hoped that the syringe Lin had injected him with would be effective—and that the system would not trick him.
"This is a different species," said Lin. "The leech is one of the lower forms of life and wholly depends on sucking blood to stay alive. Their cells can easily fuse with the evolving virus after sucking in such massive amounts of blood from the Anaconda."
Lin was still very calm. She even clicked the button on her glasses to snap a picture of the scene before their eyes.
"Let's leave. These leeches are too disgusting!" said White Crescent.
Her face was as pale as a paper. Feng Luo believed that if she were witnessing such a sight in real life, she would have already vomited. In fact, Glazed Ice, who had trypophobia, covered her mouth and turned away when she saw the situation. She did not dare to continue watching. Even Red Queen—who was always cold and detached and managed not to show a reaction on her face at first—twitched at the corners of her mouth. Therefore, as soon as White Crescent finished speaking, everyone decided to continue moving. After all, there was still a group of pursuing troops behind them.
"Wait!" Feng Luo said, suddenly coming up with an idea. "Perhaps we can utilize the conditions of this place to fight back!"
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