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墨書 Inktalez
Some people emerged from the tent, suddenly letting out sharp cries. It seemed they had encountered danger. According to the marked location on the map, the area they were in was not considered high-risk, but the native creatures nearby could still pose a life-threatening risk to this group of inexperienced recruits.
They rushed toward the scene and soon spotted a giant Scorpion struggling to burrow out from beneath the sand. If these individuals had not been moving so slowly, they would have likely fallen into the Scorpion's jaws. It wasn't until someone with keen eyes pointed this out that several female soldiers, who had never seen such a thing before, gasped and cried out in fear.
Some people began to retreat to the side as the Scorpion's eyes turned a furious blood-red. The pupils of the infected insects were dilated and filled with fungal threads, indicating that the Amoeba protozoan virus had already invaded their brains. As a result, these creatures, resembling Puppets, rarely ate; however, upon encountering new organisms, they would pass on their toxic spores to their offspring.
This was a black Scorpion. Although it had been transformed into a Puppet by the virus, the textbooks did not provide any additional names for them; they were collectively referred to as Parasite Beasts. Regardless of whether they resembled humans or wild animals, once infected by the pathogen and their consciousness completely extinguished, they would become single-celled organisms with only fleeting memories. They were Puppets that continued to exhibit behaviors from their previous life stages, but their minds were utterly dead, merely surviving through instinct under the control of the virus.
"Freyr, I can't see anything; I can't even detect any brainwave signals around me. Is it a lifeless creature? Tell me what you see!" Nosty exclaimed.
Freyr hesitated for a moment before calmly replying, "It's Indigenous Creatures or predators that originally thrived in this desert. Unfortunately, they have been completely transformed into Parasite Beasts by infection. They were once predators; if we can break its limbs to incapacitate it, we might be able to escape safely after some distance. However, dealing with Parasite Beasts is tricky; they are nearly impossible to kill unless we inflict a fatal blow to their brain. No matter how much damage they take, they can still temporarily recover due to their cellular regeneration abilities."
"No wonder," Nosty gasped in shock.
At that moment, another group of people emerged from the tent and witnessed the horrifying scene before them. A young man at the forefront was so startled that he fell to the ground. Some behind him remained inside but looked out with expressions filled with despair and fear; screams erupted from women's mouths.
Meanwhile, the black Scorpion's hooked claws struck like dark spears with thunderous speed toward several fleeing individuals in the sand. One man pushed aside a woman as he ran and shouted, "I'll stop it; you run!" This Afro man bravely shoved her away—not using her as a shield—then reached for a protruding black object from his backpack and pulled out a 4A1 carbine.
Initially, everything seemed fine until he raised the gun to protect his chest when a black stinger lunged at him. The young man let out a wail as he rolled into another sand pit while clutching his weapon. A young girl barely managed to run a few steps before she saw a shadow rush past her; terrified and losing her balance, she fell into a sand pit without caring about her companions' shouts. At that moment, she could hear nothing at all, standing there like a soulless doll.
The remaining few shouted but did not look back as they hurried toward where more people gathered. In their worldview, only crowded places felt safe—even though they knew those there might not have any fighting capability—deep down they believed that being among many could provide courage.
Freyr felt anger rising within him at what he had just witnessed. He didn't despise these people's selfishness; rather, it was their lack of awareness of the bigger picture that frustrated him—they had led that Scorpion toward where many people were gathered. Once targeted by a Parasite Beast, unless one fled to the ends of the earth, it would infect everything it encountered.
People behind him were calling for Freyr to hurry over. He adjusted his revolver; its power was not particularly great. However, when he finally used it, he found its weight was substantial—after all, it was modified weaponry designed for use with mechs; every piece was incredibly destructive.
The revolver's destructive power was evident as flames erupted from its muzzle. A powerful recoil surged through his arm rapidly; his muscles twitched as his body leaned back until he sat down in the sand. Fortunately, his shot did not go astray—it struck true and embedded itself into the Scorpion's back with a sharp bullet hole piercing through its hard shell.
"Mother, that had some serious kick."
Freyr's face turned a deep shade of purple as he stood up from the ground, quickly grabbing his revolver with both hands to steady himself. He aimed once more at the Parasite Beast, ignoring the fallen Target, and fired again, the bullet striking the creature right in its mouth, splattering a purple, acid-like blood everywhere.
The Strong Acid-like blood sprayed onto the sand, causing it to rise in white smoke like the sand in a Hot Pot. Tension filled the air as suddenly an arm emerged from the sand beneath Scorpion; it was the same young man who had just fainted in the pit. The area had been disturbed by the Parasite Beast, and he had clearly passed out there. Now, awakened by the gunfire, he looked up just in time to see the belly of the Parasite Beast confronting him.
As the young man prepared to raise his weapon and fire, Freya shouted angrily, "The blood of the Parasite Beast is corrosive! Look at how the sand has turned black from corrosion; you need to be careful!"
"Why didn't you say that earlier?" he yelled back without turning his head. However, it seemed that the Parasite Beast had also noticed something. At that moment, black-red saliva dripped from its mouth, corroding the sand beneath it. It shifted its belly and locked its crimson eyes onto its target, quickly identifying him.
It then adjusted its grip on its weapon and lunged forward through a gap. The Parasite Beast's neck was not very flexible, and it moved awkwardly as it struggled to regain its balance. Its spiked tail seemed to lock onto its prey as a sudden black arc flashed through the air.
The attack from the Parasite Beast's tail contained Deadly Poison. Freyr could clearly see that the shadow with black energy was aimed at the young man who had turned away. The young man wore a smile at the corner of his mouth, seemingly still celebrating his narrow escape from death moments ago.
After all, he was unaware of how fast the Human-faced Black Scorpion's stinger could strike—less than a second—and in that brief moment, it was enough to inject potent toxins into a creature’s body or even pierce through an opponent's Heart if it decided to do so.
"Damn it! If only someone could help him, he might be saved. I can't believe I encountered something like this right after joining up; this is a bad omen—he's going to die."
Freyr closed his eyes, unable to bear watching any longer. When he finally opened them again after what felt like an eternity, he saw a figure being flung away by the tail. However, the Parasite Beast was still too far from him to be within his gun's effective range; even if he shot now, he wasn't sure if it would inflict damage comparable to what he had seen before.
Meanwhile, on another side, through the scope of a sniper rifle, a figure focused intently on the image reflected in the lens. He spat out bitter saliva and then grinned widely as he forcefully pulled the trigger; the Sniper Rifle roared to life.
In an instant, a bullet struck directly at the rushing shadow. Moments later, a chunk of severed limbs fell from above; the stinger had been shot in half. The remaining piece landed right at the young man's feet. As he processed what had just happened behind him, his gaze fell upon a still-twitching tail. Terrified half to death, he steadied his weapon but fired wildly at the severed tail without thinking twice.
"Where is that gunfire coming from?"
"I notified another good buddy of mine; he's a hunter."
But the good times didn't last long!
The Parasite Beast struggled, and at that moment, Freyr opened his eyes. He felt nothing amiss, just like the young man Nosty had earlier. It seemed that the young man had been saved, thanks to the new recruit hunter. The deadly tail had been broken, which was equivalent to disarming the opponent.
"Shaka, come let your buddy assist in the attack. Let's try to kill this Parasite Beast. Don't worry; the bullets in your weapons are special sacrificial ammunition, which has a strong lethality against pathogens. The Self-Healing Ability is no longer valid. Those guys knew we would encounter this kind of situation and prepared this sacrificial ammunition in advance."
Nosty's voice continued to echo in their minds. At that moment, another voice suddenly broke through with a slightly hoarse tone: "That last shot drained my focus too much. I need to rest for a bit, but I'll have my buddy take over as the new fire support."
"Aeros, calling, calling!"
At this moment, another person sighed lightly and said, "Buddy, I can hear you. No need to shout all the time; my head hurts. It's really a headache. If I miss and you get killed instead, so be it."
"Uh, hello there," Freyr greeted tentatively.
"Hehe, hello! That performance was awesome! I'm glad to meet a skilled person like you. I'm just a professional hunter; Frothleaf Abraham is my name."
Another voice chimed in with friendly sarcasm: "Don't listen to this jerk; he's just a shepherd who occasionally uses a slingshot to shoot birds for fun. I'm Aeros, his big brother."
"Hey, don't undermine my reputation; give me some credit here, my big brother Aeros."
"Not happening! Who told you to always brag about being a hunter? This is karma for killing my pet timekeeper bird; it's your punishment."
Suddenly, the serious voice of another host rang out. Freyr clearly recognized it as Nosty's voice. "Ahem, if you’re going to argue, at least choose a better time. Our main objective right now is that Parasite Beast over there. It's still a threat, and its ability to spread disease is extremely strong. We are just a few people here, and everyone else is too scared to act. We need to strike directly at the Parasite Beast's weak point—its brain. Destroying the brain is all that matters."
As soon as this voice was heard, the arguing ceased immediately. Aeros said, "Alright, it's just a matter of firing a few shots; that's not a problem for me."
Froth's voice chimed in again, "That's a different story. I only need one shot; that's the difference."
"Enough! Once you kill the Parasite Beast, I’ll be interested in arguing with you. For now, let’s focus on the task at hand, shall we?"
Suddenly, Nosty's voice became anxious. Although he couldn’t see them, he managed to connect their minds in a peculiar way.
"Alright, leave it to me!"
At that moment, silence fell on the other side before someone responded. The muzzle of a gun flashed with fire as bullets riddled the body of the Parasite Beast with holes. In the next instant, as the explosive sounds subsided in just a few seconds, the back half of the Parasite Beast’s body was blown apart. Within mere moments, another gunshot rang out, piercing through the back of its head and splattering corrosive blood onto the sandy ground.
"Done."
As the voice echoed in his mind and he opened his eyes again, he saw that the Parasite Beast lay motionless in a pool of blood, no longer able to move. However, the noise resumed once more.
"I could have handled it! Why did you take such a cold shot?"
"If I hadn't fired first, you would have wasted all your bullets, idiot! What would we do then?"
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