Hao Ren's muttering gave Nangong May, who was just getting up from the ground after treating Roll's scraped arm, a nasty shock. "Besides us? In this godforsaken place ruled by monsters?"
"That brain monster tried to send out an alarm just now, but a sudden force blocked it," Hao Ren said with a nod. "Our senses might be malfunctioning, but the Data Terminal's sensors and memory can't both be wrong. They confirmed that the force that appeared back then was different from the aura of the Corruptors."
"Wait. Quiet—" Nangong Sanba suddenly raised a hand, signaling everyone to be silent. He warily listened to the sounds around them. "I feel it again... the same feeling I had when we first entered this underground area... There's something nearby!"
This time, the strange sensation was so obvious that even Roll quickly noticed something was wrong. Cat Girl crouched on all fours, her back arched high, her tail standing straight up like a stick, every hair bristling. "Mraowwwww—"
They had just dealt with a brain monster and escaped the danger of exposing their movements, only to encounter an unknown presence spying on them. Everyone's nerves instantly tensed to the limit. Vivian, however, quickly calmed down. She summoned a ball of lightning to hold the field and lowered her voice. "Come out. I've already sensed you. If you continue acting in this ambiguous, unclear manner, we'll have no choice but to treat you as hostile."
Several seconds passed after Vivian spoke, but the passage remained silent. Just as Lily was about to lose patience and say something, a small ball of flickering electricity suddenly popped into existence in midair near them.
The little ball of electricity was blue-white, with a faint streak of black-red mixed into it. After appearing, it bounced twice in midair