Open a Big One

Chapter 25: Unleash the Big One

"What the hell?!" Zhou Diao shouted at Fang Ye. "How the fuck is your buddy still talking when he's dead?!"

Fang Ye looked like he'd been scared stupid, frozen stiff, staring wide-eyed at the corpse on the ground.

Seeing this only made Zhou Diao more furious. He strode over and kicked Fang Ye to the ground!

Even though he'd held back his strength, Fang Ye still curled up in pain, sobbing, "It's that monster! That monster... it, it can talk in a human voice..."

Feng Ling also asked Huangfu Miaomiao beside her, "Is that even possible?"

Huangfu Miaomiao's face had gone pale from the scene just now. "I don't... don't know either..."

She was a player, sure, but one who hadn't seen much of the world. Her knowledge of Contaminants was pretty limited.

Feng Ling said, "Read your zone quest out loud again."

Huangfu Miaomiao opened her virtual screen and stammered, "In, in the pitch-black depths of the cave, the monster is already starving... You need sharp judgment and astonishing courage... Silence is the Overture to Death, light is the prelude to victory. Overcome your fear and you will be richly rewarded—do you accept the A-Rank Bounty Quest?"

Feng Ling immediately said, "Accept."

Huangfu Miaomiao: "Ah... ah, ah?"

Feng Ling saw her dazed look and almost wanted to kick her like Zhou Diao had. "Accept it now."

Huangfu Miaomiao frantically pressed confirm!

"I, I-I-I accept the A-Rank Bounty Quest!"

A progress bar appeared in the quest zone, showing current progress: 0%

Huangfu Miaomiao's feelings were complicated. An A-Rank Bounty Quest—even for a player team, you'd need at least five or six people. Those corpses in the cave were probably mostly players. Could she and Feng Ling really handle it?

Then she thought about Feng Ling's thrill-seeking personality, and her heart grew even more uneasy.

What if Feng Ling died here? Where would she find a new protector?... Actually, even if Feng Ling lived, following a Boss like this couldn't be stable, could it?

Maybe teaming up with Feng Ling in the first place was a mistake...

No, no, no, no! She couldn't think like that! Without Feng Ling, she'd have been tortured to death by that fat guy! Or caught by the inspectors and sent for experiments! Tubes stuck all over her body!

Huangfu Miaomiao's face went white, then green, terrified by the images flashing through her mind.

Feng Ling had no idea about the mess going on in Huangfu Miaomiao's head. Bone spurs jutted from her shoulders, two transparent Bone Blades raised high, already itching for action.

Those bugs she'd killed earlier hadn't given her any real thrill—like eating a bowl of plain noodles, bland and tasteless.

This big one, though—killing it should be satisfying, right?

"Move!" Zhou Diao swung a claw at her without ceremony, bristling with aggression. "This is my turf. Everyone back off. I'm gonna unleash the big one!"

"Unleash the big one?" Feng Ling's Bone Blades quivered on her shoulders as she eyed Zhou Diao curiously.

How does he do that?

Before her eyes, Zhou Diao's shoulders and back swelled rapidly. His shirt soon tore apart, and long, coarse silver-gray fur burst from his pores. His entire head underwent a violent transformation—

His pupils turned gold, fangs sprouted from his mouth, six beast ears tore through his skin and grew out. Suppressing a roar, he turned into...

A dog?

"See that?" Zhou Diao bared his teeth at Feng Ling smugly. "My card—Hellhound!"

Feng Ling: "..."

Alright.

She had to admit the name was pretty intimidating. But the look... didn't match her idea of a Hellhound.

A bit ugly.

And a bit small.

There were two extra dog heads on his back shoulders, but their eyes were closed, listless. Hard to judge.

Like a malnourished werewolf.

Feng Ling couldn't help glancing at Huangfu Miaomiao.

—If even a demon was that pathetic, a Hellhound looking like this kind of made sense, didn't it?

Huangfu Miaomiao blinked. In a flash of insight, she read Feng Ling's expression in a second and said indignantly, "High-rank cards have huge room for improvement!!!"

"That's right!" Zhou Diao, for once, agreed with a Xenomorph he absolutely despised.

Feng Ling, caught in a pincer attack, muttered, "Then show me some improvement already."

A rustling, crawling sound echoed again. Everyone stopped talking and went into combat mode.

They'd expected the Contaminant above the cave to show up again, but instead, blue-black crawling bugs came from all directions!

Zhou Diao was furious. He'd rather take on the Contaminant one-on-one than clean up these scurrying bugs.

"Everyone, fall back to the passage!"

Zhou Diao barked, shook his silver-gray fur, and then plunged into the swarm, slaughtering left and right!

His strength and speed had both made a qualitative leap. The bugs under his beast claws were as fragile as paper. In just a few breaths, he'd already torn apart three or four Bug Monsters.

Feng Ling held the other side, covering the Special Forces team's retreat.

Her Bone Blade was slender and flexible, with a wider control range, and she effortlessly sliced the charging Bug Monster in two with little exertion.

"Damn! The detector!" Qin Liang suddenly shouted.

A Bug Monster, as if drawn by the light, lunged at the display screen with its gleaming black mandibles.

In a panic, Qin Liang turned back and sprinted over, hugging the precious detector tightly to his chest!

The Bug Monster's mandibles pierced through his backpack and stabbed into his back. The pain made Qin Liang grunt, but his hands clung desperately to the detector, refusing to let go.

"Move it, now!" Zhou Diao rushed up, grabbed the Bug Monster, and tore it apart with his steel-like claws!

The abdomen sprayed foul black-green mucus, drenching Qin Liang. He didn't bother wiping it off, clutching the detector as he fled frantically into the tunnel!

Feng Ling remarked, "You're pretty considerate."

Zhou Diao stared at the remaining Bug Monsters with an unusually cold gaze and said, "On my turf, no one gets hurt on my watch."

Feng Ling wanted to mock him for being "cringey."

But his voice was low when he said it, not like he was speaking to anyone else—more like a self-imposed resolve—so she dropped the urge to tease.

The flare sticks went out one by one, darkness creeping in on them.

Zhou Diao's field of vision shrank, and his anxiety grew.

The underground cavern was far larger than expected; the team urgently needed supplies and had to get back to the surface as soon as possible.

Luckily, the bug swarm was mostly routed, and they retreated smoothly into the tunnel, following the path they'd come from.

The tunnel grew increasingly rugged and hard to traverse.

Feng Ling remembered there should be a protruding rock above this stretch that had bumped a teammate's head, but after walking for a long time, she still hadn't seen it.

Just as she sensed something was off, she heard Fang Ye at the front let out a scream!

"What's going on?!" Zhou Diao, at the rear of the team, couldn't see ahead.

Xiao Li's voice was tense as she said, "This path is wrong! There's a pit ahead—Fang Ye and Old Cao both fell in!"

"Fuck!" Zhou Diao cursed in anger.

"Help me! Help me!!!" Fang Ye shouted in terror!

Feng Ling squeezed forward to look. The path was indeed wrong; it ended in a deep pit, at least seven or eight meters deep. Fang Ye was bleeding from a head wound, and Cao Hongyi's condition was also bad—he lay on the ground clutching his leg bone.

Broken?

Feng Ling was about to ask when Cao Hongyi seemed to notice something and suddenly raised his gun to shoot behind Fang Ye!

Bang!

The bullet hit Brother Chao right in the forehead!