With his short blade tucked at his waist and the Twin-Eye Bow in hand, Luo Fan headed up to the factory building's second floor with Niu Dagang, while An Xiaoran followed close behind him.
Although Luo Fan preferred not to use the Twin-Eye Bow, an Uncanny Artifact, whenever possible, no one knew what they would encounter upstairs. In any case, having a means of attacking from a distance was naturally safer by comparison.
"Right, what about Rose? Luo Fan, have you seen her?" Niu Dagang suddenly asked as they went upstairs.
"Well, I think I only saw her once, when we found the stored gasoline."
Luo Fan thought about it. Right, Rose had shouted that there was a lot more fuel inside, which was how they had learned that the factory was an illegal oil refinery. After that, he did not seem to have seen her again.
Logically, his purpose in entering the town was to hunt for treasure, so she should have been following their group of Sequence Users.
She had been missing for so long. Could she have died too?
Some doubts stirred in his mind, but Luo Fan soon shook his head and stopped thinking about anything else.
Although Rose was dead, he had never had much of a bond with her.
Besides, he did not even know whether they could escape this factory now, let alone go treasure hunting with her.
After all, it would probably be dark in just over an hour.
Downstairs, the twenty-odd remaining survivors huddled together, trembling like sheep surrounded by wolves. At the same time, everyone stared around in terror, as though terrifying monsters might spring out of the darkness at any moment.
All their hopes of survival rested on those few Sequence Users.
If they could deal with those monsters, all would be well. If even they could not, then the odds were against any of them surviving today.
Luo Fan and the others soon reached the second floor and saw the scene there.
A dense layer of vines covered the floor of the second story. The dark red vines looked bloody and terrifying.
At the center of those vines stood a small tree.
The little tree was only about two meters tall, with luxuriant branches and leaves. That vast spread of vines absorbed countless nutrients, all to supply this one little tree of around two meters in height.
At the top of the little tree, a huge flower bloomed.
Beneath the tree was a slug as thick as a bucket, its body almost coiled around the trunk.
This slug was precisely the one that had barred everyone from leaving earlier.
A slug, taking the form of a snail, dragged a head to the foot of the little tree.
Once it reached the base of the tree, the slug inside the mouth crawled out and merged straight into the giant slug's body.
This made Luo Fan realize that there were not many slugs in the factory. From beginning to end, there had only ever been one.
The others had merely split off from this largest one.
After the slug left the mouth, several vines seemed to come alive, plunging straight into the head through its mouth, eyes, and nostrils.
The head immediately shriveled like a deflated ball.
The bewitching flower on the tree shone with pulses of light. Then one of its petals detached and drifted down.
As the petal fell, the slug immediately extended a tentacle, curled it around the petal, and swallowed it.
"W-what the hell is this thing?" Niu Dagang said, his expression grim as he looked at the scene on the second floor.
"Perhaps it's a symbiotic relationship, or perhaps one is raising the other. In any case, we need to find a way to destroy this giant slug," Luo Fan said, his expression equally grim as he stared at the enormous slug before them.
The tree was eerie, but the slug was the greatest threat.
"But when you cut this slug, it immediately turns into two, and two turn into four," Niu Dagang added.
Indeed, in terms of its ability's characteristics, this slug's power countered Niu Dagang's strength.
More precisely, it was practically immune to all physical damage.
Hearing Niu Dagang's words, Luo Fan sighed inwardly.
In truth, his Assassination Sequence was much like Niu Dagang's Melee Sequence. Both dealt close-range physical damage. If Niu Dagang's ability was countered, his own was much the same.
"Let's give it a try first..."
The Paper-Sheet Anomaly they had encountered earlier had likewise countered all physical attacks, yet his Twin-Eye Bow had dealt with it. Now, Luo Fan drew the bowstring again.
The two eyes on the bow opened, exuding an eerie aura as their gaze locked onto the giant slug.
Then Luo Fan released the bowstring, and an arrow instantly shot toward the enormous slug.
With a wet thud, the arrow struck the giant slug, which moved too slowly to dodge at all.
Yet not only was there no blood where it had been struck, not even a drop of bodily fluid leaked out.
After its body twisted and squirmed a few times, the arrow embedded in the slug was expelled and fell straight to the floor.
When slashed with a blade, the slug would split along the cut. Although the arrow could hit it successfully, it was not enough to cause damage.
Although he had already suspected as much, Luo Fan still sighed silently when he witnessed it firsthand.
This slug really is hard to deal with.
"What do we do next? We both deal physical damage, and our attacks don't work," Niu Dagang said helplessly, seeing that even Luo Fan's Uncanny Artifact had no effect.
"Since physical damage won't work, let's try another kind of attack," Luo Fan said.
Most importantly, after being shot, the slug showed no reaction at all, as though it also knew Luo Fan's attacks could not harm it. It seemed too lazy to pay attention, no matter what they tried.
Its attitude left both Luo Fan and Niu Dagang inwardly seething.
Another kind of attack? Both our Sequences deal physical damage. How are we supposed to use any other kind?
Luo Fan raised his hand and took out a purified-water bottle.
Immediately afterward, he threw the bottle toward the slug.
He nocked an arrow and drew the bow. When the bottle flew above the slug, Luo Fan shot it open.
The liquid inside the shattered bottle naturally splashed straight down.
"Luo Fan, that's..." Niu Dagang sniffed, catching a familiar, pungent smell.
"That's right, gasoline. Fire should work!" Luo Fan nodded, confirming Niu Dagang's guess.
When the slugs had blocked the main entrance and prevented them from leaving, Luo Fan had thought of trying fire after retreating. As luck would have it, the factory had plenty of gasoline! So he had taken out several purified-water bottles, filled them with some gasoline, and placed them in his Storage Space!
Sure enough, as that bottleful of gasoline splashed down, the giant slug moved. Its body, which had been curled around the little tree, stretched out, and its upper half rose upright, facing Luo Fan and the others directly.
Then its body split apart into hundreds of small slugs, which rapidly spread toward Luo Fan and Niu Dagang.
It had shown no reaction at all to being shot with an arrow, but when gasoline splashed onto its body, the slug finally reacted!
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