Maggots and Rotten Flesh

"Don't overthink it. The more you think, the more scared you get, and the more scared you get, the easier it is to die." Another hunter besides Cheng Ming, who had remained silent ever since being suspended from the drone, suddenly spoke up. "Trust me, that's the voice of experience."

"I don't want to... but those images just keep popping up in my head. I can't control them at all." The hunter whose family owned a meat processing plant spoke with a miserable expression.

"I'll teach you a trick."

"What trick?"

"After we're dropped, charge straight toward wherever the anomalies are most densely packed... When your mind is filled with nothing but fighting spirit and rage, fear will be squeezed right out."

Hearing this, Cheng Ming could not help thinking of the nightmare he had had in the car. He looked at the hunter in puzzlement, but the latter seemed completely unaware of his gaze.

Was it a coincidence?

A ten-second artillery countdown sounded in his earpiece, and Cheng Ming stopped dwelling on it.

Once the countdown reached zero, a barrage of artillery fire erupted. Countless shells fell into the sinkhole in an unbroken stream, bombarding the designated point.

Although the hunters hanging beneath the drones had put on protective earmuffs before the shelling began, the deafening explosions still made their eardrums ache in waves... The updraft rolling out of the sinkhole also caused the six Giant Harrier drones to sway incessantly.

The dense spore fog was torn apart by the explosions, allowing the hunters to finally see the bottom of the pit with their own eyes—

Tens of thousands of mycelial puppets were piled atop one another in layer after layer, writhing constantly like a piece of rotten flesh crawling with maggots.

Less than one-fifth of those mycelial puppets