However, the players' cyber-laughter hadn't lasted long before they discovered a new debuff in their status bar—[ Temporary Imbalance ].
Is it Imbalance?
Upon seeing this text, the players felt the world begin to spin around them.
At this moment, all the players who had activated their perception abilities felt as if they were on a roller coaster, dizzy, and even nauseous.
[ The Retreat Drum Player ] immediately thought of a little-known fact: the cochlea, which is responsible for hearing, and the semicircular canals, which are responsible for balance, are very close together inside the ear.
So why go to such lengths to be so realistic in these details?
He cried out inwardly in despair, then immediately grabbed the rock wall beside him and shouted:
"Retreat first!"
The effect bars for [ Temporary Deafness ] and [ Temporary Imbalance ] have started to decrease. Judging from the rate of decrease, [ Temporary Deafness ] lasts for about ten seconds, while [ Temporary Imbalance ] will last for about one minute.
But faced with this enormous worm, which was already three people tall just above the ground, the players felt that a minute was an incredibly long time...
Players who lost their sense of balance either clung to the surrounding rock walls and pillars to move, or simply crawled on all fours and degenerated into ordinary animals.
The giant worm began to pull its body out of the large hole in the ground like a meat grinder. Soon, it had grown to about ten meters long and showed no signs of stopping.
[ By the Benevolent Father Above ] ran while looking back, and in his dizzying vision, he clearly saw the monster's terrifying full form--
Its massive head is covered with rings of sharp teeth capable of shredding anything in sight, while its rear is a segmented body covered with a thick, black chitinous shell.
It was less like an insect and more like a giant, shelled python!
Upon seeing this somewhat familiar scene, he couldn't help but shout:
"Is this the bug we ate?!"
At this point, almost ten seconds had passed, and at his prompting, the players who were fleeing in panic all turned around.
To everyone's surprise, aside from being slightly larger, the ringed worm segment they had eaten a dozen minutes earlier seemed to be virtually identical to this creature.
[ Easily Soluble in Water ] was the most shocked at this moment, because he clearly remembered that he had personally cut off the head of the insect, which was only the thickness of a little finger and the length of a palm, with sharp teeth.
Is this the legendary case of "beating the child brings the elder"?
This isn't the world of cultivation, nor is it a sect competition, yet they've encountered something like this...
Although this giant insect may not have come for revenge against the smaller insects, its purpose is no different from that of the elders in novels who take ruthless action—they all want to kill them!
After running for a while, players with higher physical and mental attributes had recovered from the debuff and had once again evolved from animals into humans.
Having regained their hearing and sense of balance, they quickly launched a counterattack against the giant worm.
This is actually a gamble, a gamble that the giant worm won't be able to unleash that disruptive skill twice in a short period of time.
This type of betting actually has some basis in fact --
The giant worm is ultimately just an elite monster. Even someone as powerful as Antiya Lisi can't permanently control a player. If it could permanently control a player with a low-cost skill, then the game designers should just be sent to Siberia to dig potatoes.
The twelve people present were either veteran players from the game's launch or professional players who had switched from other games, and all of them had extensive combat experience.
Therefore, when these top-tier players fight together, they can coordinate with each other with almost no communication.
After a few breaths, seven or eight vines wrapped around the front half of the giant worm from four directions.
Players attached plant plugins to their bodies and then used vines to entangle the worms and stone pillars around the surrounding houses, creating a makeshift insect net.
At this point, the insect monster's disadvantage due to its exoskeleton becomes apparent.
The presence of the exoskeleton limits the twisting angle of the giant worm; it cannot escape this trap by flexibly turning and adjusting its thickness like a pure worm.
"Take this!"
Seeing that the worm was being forcibly restrained, [ The Benevolent Father Above ], who was running at the front, threw the wooden javelin in his hand directly in front of the worm's head.
As the team's main damage dealer, he possessed a strength of 20 points, and his all-out throw left a trail of afterimages as the javelin swept across his hand.
However, whether it heard the sound or sensed the killing intent, the worm, whose eyes had never been found by the players, suddenly reacted.
It opened its enormous, round mouth, and its mouthful of sharp teeth began to rotate and vibrate once more.
The javelin, capable of piercing through several Blood Corpse, was easily caught in the center of its mouthparts. Countless teeth made a piercing sound, and then the javelin disappeared.
"Damn it, are you sharpening a pencil here?"
[ Elderly and Children Fly First ] A frustrated voice rang out:
"Why are you throwing javelins when you've got it under control? Come on up and hack at it! Stick your swords into the gaps in its shell, cut it if you can, and if you can't, twist it!"
"They're here!"
"No problem!"
"Take this sword!"
Awakened by these words, the players put down their weapons and immediately launched an attack on the gap in the armor between the two binding positions.
Meanwhile, [ Easily Soluble in Water ], a solo player recruited by [ Howling Pothos ], has his own plans.
Judging from the worm's behavior during [ Benevolent Father Above ]'s attack, this worm seems to possess some kind of sensory ability, easily catching weapons thrown at full power.
Okay, since you like taking these, then take them all!
He took out all the throwing tools from his waist and began to throw them into the air one by one, like a trainer rewarding a cat or dog.
Although worms can sense objects flying towards them, they have difficulty judging whether those objects are good or bad.
Three Paralysis Bomb were thrown, and the insects devoured them all.
[ Easily Soluble in Water ] You can even see pale pink smoke escaping from the worm's mouth, but the paralyzing effect is not obvious.
"Try this one too!"
He tossed out two more "mortgage cocktails," which the worm devoured, the kerosene from the Oil Vine glistening between its lips and teeth.
If this monster didn't lack a tongue, [ Easily Soluble in Water ], one would almost think it would be licking its lips right now...
"Why didn't you light that Molotov cocktail?"
One player saw the [ Easily Soluble in Water ] coin-minting operation and couldn't help but shout it out.
"Don't worry about it, I have my own rhythm!"
[ Easily Soluble in Water ] While refuting this, he pulled out a third projectile from his waist.