Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
“It’s too difficult to walk here!” Big Pineapple was grumbling.
The 14-man squad was currently walking through a dense tropical rainforest.
Cha!
Neutron Star, who was walking at the front, used the short alloy sword in his hand to hack off a vine blocking their way. With the other hand holding the small shield dropped by the Sand Scorpion earlier, he pushed away and flattened the shrub on the right.
As the one responsible for opening the path, he was far more tired than Big Pineapple, who was standing guard beside the two NPCs. Not only was his light armor stained all over with leaves and mud, but even his combat boots were also completely covered by mud due to stepping through uneven, muddy surfaces while scouting the path. However, he could blame no one, as he was the newbie in the company still under a trial run. Manual labor was a stage that the low-level people needed to experience.
“Tropical rainforests are like this,” said Feng Luo as he walked in the front of the group with his Mad Dog military knife in his hands instead of the M110, cutting the branches that Neutron Star missed. “Not only do they constantly have sedimentary water all year round, but it’s also very humid, and they have all kinds of annoying bugs. Moreover, due to the humid weather and the unique geographical environment, after the plants and animals in some places rot, they create miasma that not only smells bad but can even cause sickness in people who walk through it.”
He had already experienced trekking and marching in tropical rainforests before. Compared to the hazardous Amazon that did not have any trace of human existence, where one could be stuck for months, the forest on this island was a simple matter.
In a tropical rainforest, the real danger lay not in large beasts; instead, the tiny critters like poisonous spiders, large mosquitoes, and grasshoppers that were at least a dozen centimeters long were the real dangers. Everyone in the group had applied the potion specifically concocted by White Crescent to repel insects. However, it was still not enough to prevent insects and bugs from biting or stinging them.
Feng Luo noticed that the expressions of the female players were especially bad. They kept swatting at the insects on their bodies. It was particularly apparent when White Crescent and Glazed Ice screamed when they noticed a green grasshopper resting on their legs when they took a step. It seemed like their experience of this mission would not be forgotten for a long time.
On the other hand, the 17-year-old NPC assistant called Lin was very calm. She walked slowly with a silver box in her hand and, after putting on a glove, even caught a colorful poisonous frog and put it into the box while on the way. As she noticed Feng Luo looking at her, she smiled gently at him with a very meaningful gaze.
After hearing the high-pitched screams of the two women behind him, the one in the lead, Neutron Star, turned around in resignation. “Based on the distance, we’ll reach our destination in five minutes, at most. I say, aren’t you worried that screaming will attract the attention of some powerful monsters?”
“It’s not that easy!” said White Crescent. “It’s been so long since we entered the forest, and we haven’t even encountered any two monsters!” Her Doctor’s coat was already so dirty that the original color could no longer be determined. However, it would not be difficult to solve. They just needed to wait until they reached a clear area, take it off, and put it in the backpack before taking it out again, and it would be as good as new. The game’s settings were pretty decent; at least it did not force players to continue to wear dirty clothes due to the pursuit of realism.
On their way through the forest, they really did not encounter many monsters. The main reason was that the monsters in the game were also powered by AI. Upon seeing that there were so many players, and if they did not think they could win, they would normally choose to avoid them.
However, just as White Crescent finished her sentence…
“High energy life forms detected from the front!”
The detector of an NPC crew member suddenly let out a low alarm. At the same time, a yellow light constantly flashed.
“A Boss?”
Everyone was shocked.
“No. The detector will go off as long as it’s a monster above the Commander-grade,” reported the NPC crew member from the ship. “However, the color of the alarm is yellow, so it should only be a Commander-rade monster. Its level is unknown.”
The NPCs also had the concept of monster grades within their understanding. In truth, the previous Galaxy Empire had long ago created a lifeform grade system that categorized the threat levels of living objects and non-living mechanical objects into different grades when they entered space. And now, the Federal Government also followed this method to categorize the grades of living beings after the Great Destruction by referring to their original standards. This was the origin of the “Grades” system in the game.
“Commander-grade monster, huh? That’s a relief!”
Upon hearing that it was just a Commander monster, everyone let out a sigh of relief. If they were to really encounter a Boss blocking their path, then it was a given that they would be completely annihilated. Even if they were to encounter a “Quasi-boss” monster, it was also certain that they could not beat it. It wasn’t even a given that they would be able to escape.
However, if it were only a Commander monster, then there wasn’t much to worry about. Although under normal circumstances a Commander-grade monster of the same level had the combat strength of over a dozen players, the players here were elites among the elites. If all seven of them cooperated and worked together to fight a Commander monster, although the fight would not be easy, it would not be too difficult, either. Moreover, Commander monsters in unexplored maps like this were certain to drop good items. Just like the Sand Scorpion before.
Everyone stopped moving forward and focused their gazes on Red Queen. After all, she was the principal of the mission, so everything they did had to be based on her decision.
Red Queen frowned and said, “It’s better if we don’t create problems. We’ll head toward the military base; first, we’ll see after we achieve our mission objective!”
In her mind, it was clear that completing the mission first was more important. After all, in light of her financial well-being, she would not care about the items dropped by the Commander-grade monster.
The others felt a little bit of regret; it was quite rare to encounter a Commander-grade monster in the game. They felt wronged for not being allowed to fight it. Although Red Queen said that they would fight it when they returned, monsters were not stationary creatures, so when they returned, there was no guarantee that it would still be around. But the boss had already made a decision, and they could only obey.
However, what happened next was out of everyone’s hands.
As the group cautiously followed the guidelines of the Scout and prepared to pass the Commander Grade monster by going around it from the side…
Zhi!
A “black vine” hacked by Neutron Star suddenly let out a high-pitched shriek, and the hacked area actually started to bleed. After that, the two “vines” that had been cut dropped to the ground and began to leap continuously. One of them even leaped onto White Crescent’s body.
“Aaaah!” White Crescent let out her loudest scream since entering the forest.
“Stop screaming! The vine is clearly the disguise of an insect!” Neutron Star saw the notification on his window informing him of experience points and realized that it was only a Level-10 monster.
However, White Crescent’s scream attracted the attention of something more troublesome than a Level-10 monster.
“This is bad!” the NPC Scout exclaimed. “The Commander-grade monster is headed toward us. It’s fast! Around 35 meters, 30 meters…”
On his detector, the yellow light alarm kept flashing nonstop. There was no need for him to continue to report the distance, since everyone could already hear it directly. From around 20 meters away, on their left, the trees continued to shake. Rustling sounds could also be heard as if a beast was closing in on them at high speed.
“Hurry up, prepare for battle!” Neutron Star reacted and quickly threw away his shield. He then took out his other one-handed sword.
Feng Luo also quickly sheathed the Mad Dog military knife to his tactical belt and at the same time quickly took out the not yet disassembled M110.
In War, the usage of the backpack was not unlimited. Apart from heavy weapons, items that were too big (excluding the shield of the Heavy Armor Warrior) and other unique mission items could not be placed inside the backpack. Using the backpack in combat mode would also increase the time required to put in or take something out of the backpack.
This was also why Feng Luo sometimes would throw his sniper rifle on the ground and switch weapons in combat; it was because the time spent putting the sniper rifle into the backpack was enough for others to take one or two slashes.
Apart from that, other than the weight limit of the backpack, there was also a space limit. Moreover, the space of the item was determined by the rectangular shape formed by the edge of the item. Since the sniper rifle took up a larger space inside the backpack when not disassembled, most players would disassemble it into five parts before putting it back into the backpack.
Plus, since the sniper rifle in War could be assembled, some experts had the habit of creating specialized sniper rifle boxes with all kinds of rifle parts inside that could be selected prior to battle depending on the situation.
Assembling guns! It was actually an interesting way to play!
Of course, in a situation where battle could occur at any time, the sniper rifle would not normally be disassembled and returned to the box. Instead, it would be put directly into the backpack so that it could be available for immediate use when needed.
By the time Feng Luo got the M110 out of his backpack, the Commander monster that was detected had already entered the players’ line of sight.
It was a giant snake. No—to be precise, it was a giant python!
It was over ten meters long, thicker than a bucket, with brown patterns on its body that were covered with palm-sized scales buried in mud—a super-gigantic python whose hyacinth-like tongue continued to come in and go out of its mouth.