Chapter 538: Island of Devil’s Maw (43)
Translator: Lonelytree
The ‘loss’ that Feng Bujue meant was naturally not the loss of the battle, but the failure of the side quest…
At the moment the Silkworm Mother gave her last echo attack, there was another sound that rang out. But at the time the players’ ears were under great pressure and it was impossible to go and mind other smaller noises… Only Brother Jue… barely captured something in the background. As a person who was used to juggling many things at the same time, he would not let go of any details. In that dangerous moment, he almost instinctually opened the game menu… and realized the reality that Uncle Worthless was already dead.
Indeed, the sound that was covered by the Silkworm Mother’s roar should be the system announcement, “Team member, Uncle Worthless is dead.”
“What?” When Ambitionist heard Brother Jue, it soon dawned on him and noticed the change in the team tab. “Qie… So we have miscalculated after all…” And for Pegasus and Atobe, after they had their Life Point Recovery Potion, they would habitually open their game menu to check their Life Points status so they too soon discovered the death of Uncle Worthless.
“Actually, it was not really a miscalculation.” Feng Bujue shrugged. “We have already tried our best but we failed to save Uncle Worthless, if anyone is to blame, it is because the intelligence of the monster in this scenario is too high…” he continued in a helpless tone. “I believe… at that final moment, the Silkworm Mother knew that she was not going to survive, so she decided to at least drag one down with her.”
“No, I was too careless…” Ambitionist shook his head. “I should have told you earlier…” He turned to Brother Jue, “You did not fall for the trap so you did not know about it… When you were controlled by the Silkworm Mother’s brain silk, the controlled victim’s five senses will be greatly amplified. During that period… my sense of hearing, sight, touch, smell and taste… were all giving me feedbacks that were so enormous to trigger a fearful bodily response…”
“Em, yes, yes, that was very scary.” Atobe chimed in from a far. “Especially the sounds that came from inside my own body… that was horrifying.”
Ambitionist nodded and then continued, “When we were setting up the plan, I forgot to factor in this element… Since Uncle Worthless was under the Silkworm Mother’s control, then he must have been under the status of amplified senses. He was hit by the soundwave under that status, the damage to his brain would be unimaginable…” He said regretfully. “Aiz… if not for my miscalculation, perhaps we have been able to come up with a better strategy.”
“Pfft…” After holding it in for one second, Feng Bujue burst out laughing. “Ha ha ha ha…”
“What is it?” Ambitionist narrowed his eyes at the man.
…
“I am laughing at you.” Brother Jue replied with a face that was readily punchable. “And you call yourself a ‘Brilliant Strategist’, more like an idiot! Ha ha ha ha…”
“How did you manage to survive until over 20…” Ambitionist said with a long face. “it’s a miracle that someone did not beat you to death…” Suddenly the laughter stopped. Feng Bujue used 0.5 seconds to pull back the laughter and switched on a serious. “Okay, now that you have been condescended and humiliated by me, have you done beating yourself up?”
“Hmm…” Ambitionist replied numbly. “The way you console others sure is unique and one of a kind…” He thought for few seconds. “Even though my self-blame and regret has not decreased by that much, my attention has been distracted… I have to admit you do have a knack for making others hate you…”
“You flatter me.” Feng Bujue answered.
“Alright, there’s no use crying over spilt milk…” Atobe leaned down on the Leaf of Terror. “At this point, we might as well take this time to rest. After all the main quest has no time limit, I suggest we take some reason and recover back to full status before we move on.”
“That is not a bad idea.” Feng Bujue also took a drink of the potion (Brother Jue’s inventory would always have 5 medium sized Life Points Recovery Potions and now he was drinking one of them), as he stood up and said, “but the resting spot is not here, we better find a more suitable place… and we better make it quick.”
“Ah? Why is that?” Pegasus asked.
“Of course, it is for our safety.” Ambitionist also stood up and pushed on his glasses. “Now that the mountain has lost its tigress, the monkeys will soon come out to fight for the throne.”
“Erm…” Pegasus processed it for a few seconds before he understood the analogy, “You mean… this place is the ‘mountain’ and the Silkworm Mother was the ‘tigress’?”
“Indeed.” Ambitionist concurred. “At this crystalline maze, the Silkworm Mother was definitely the queen. Now that she is dead, many creatures below her would lose their natural predator. Once they realize that, they will hurry over here to try to dominate this territory.”
“Beep! Then let us hurry up and leave!” Atobe leaped up like a fish. “I am not going to get involved in another fight.” Pegasus also forced himself to stand as he pressed on his knees. “Hmm, even a hero need to rest, for example… when the light in front of the chest starts blinking, it is time to fly away.”
“You can stop at the first half of the sentence, I would have understood it then.” Feng Bujue sighed and chided, “There is no need to use the alien from Nebula M78 as an example…”
…
5 minutes later, along the path on the southern east side of the Leaf of Terror. Bing bing bing… The sound of Bill walking on the crystal ground was rather loud. His weight and metallic feet meant that it was impossible for him to sneak around.
“We are almost there.” Billy who rode ahead on his tricycle said without turning around. “In terms of time…” He lowered his head to look at the watch. “We’re about several minutes late…”
“Looks like something is fighting in front.” Bill lifted his head to look down the distance. Even though the upper part of the crystalline path was covered by the white web, Bill appeared to be able to see through them.
“Ah…” Billy answered weakly, “Just two ignorant and greedy beasts fighting…”
“Should we clean them up?” Bill pushed his right hand forward into a palm and gripped his right fist and knocked it against his chest.
“Hah… Sure, if you feel like it.” Seeing how excited his little brother was, Billy was quite amused. “You have been locked up for quite some time already, why not use this opportunity as a warm up?”
“Yay!” Bill responded with a cheer. The next second, his right leg kicked powerfully against the ground…
With a bang… the incredibly sturdy crystalline floor cracked and everything within a hundred metre radius shook. Even Billy who was sitting on the tricycle bounced up several centimetres into the air. After he dropped back to the ground, he shrugged helplessly. He adjusted his little necktie and continued cycling his way merrily forward. On the other hand… Bill’s giant body flew out like a cannon, heading rapidly to the top of the Leaf of Terror.
“This silk web sure is annoying…” Bill in the air mumbled as he tore off the layers of web that caught on his face. After the death of the Silkworm Mother, all the web in the crystalline maze lost their unique power and turned back into normal silk. Even if one accidentally brushed up against it, one could easily pull them off.
“Roar—” A strange growl came from ahead. Bill focused his eyes and a giant beast entered his line of sight. The creature had a boar’s head and dog’s body. It was large, with black fur, sharp spikes, red eyes that look in the dark. It liked to feed on decayed matter and preferred to stay in dark and wet places. Such a creature was recorded in the Classic of Mountains and Seas, this creature was known as Red-Eyed Boar Monster…
And on the other end of the Leaf of Terror stood a slender humanoid creature whose body was made up of wrings of vines. Based on the atmosphere, it appeared to be in a fight with the boar. Between the two creatures were a littering of body pieces and they were currently melting into pools of blood… From the number and size, this was undeniably the carcass of the Silkworm Mother.
“Hah… So they’re here to fight over these decaying matter, is it?” Bill laughed. “ha ha… they have the same purpose as I do! Hey!” He shouted and with the gravity from his fall, landed a fist on the boar monster that was closer to him. Red-Eyed Boar Monster was a rare beast within the crystalline maze and was quite strong. Facing this uninvited guest, Bill, it did not cower in fear. It raised its sharp tusk intending to puncture Bill’s arm.
But…
Crack—
The sound of bone snapping announced the end of this blow. Bill’s iron fist easily snapped through the boar monster’s metal-like tusks and he was only using his single arm… Earlier the moment he was about to approach the enemy, Bill shifted slightly, he moved his fist like lightning and aimed a powerful fist vertically towards the ground. The force behind this punch could only be felt by the victim. The attack that appeared simple and direct contained an incredible strength and speed. There was no distracting special effect or eye-catching skill name, in fact… this punch was not even considered a skill, at most it could be seen as an action. But… it was that powerful.
This was an unbridled pure and flawless portrayal of strength.
Metallic body, strength of ten thousand tons, speed of wind. This was Bill—’puppet of the original war’. In terms of data level, his design was extremely ‘simple’. If an Anomaly was to see Bill and Billy appear at the same time, they could not make the connection that they were ‘brother’. But ‘simple’ did not equate to weakness… In Bill’s simple design, there was something that could be shown off and that was the ‘numbers’ of his various data. Just on this point alone, he was not less powerful than the 4 pillars of divinity…
If one had to find a comparison, Billy was like a new generation iphone, it was well made with all the function… and bill was like an old-fashioned phone made from pure titanium, it could only be used to make calls and send messages but it would not be sold less than the latest iphone.
“Ah—” The Red-eyed boar monster howled in pain. The broken tusks shattered from its lips and tore open its flesh. Before it could even register ‘pain’, the overwhelming fear and its instinct for survival propelled its body to leap upwards and away from the Leaf of Terror, it buried itself among the maze and disappeared…
“He he…” Watching the boar monster flee, the ‘vine monster’ snickered wickedly twice before lifting its head to look at Bill. “Even though I don’t know where you come from, you do look powerful… He he he…” It twisted its vine body and sauntered forward and used a sheath of briar to curl around Bill. “How about this… you’ll be my subordinate and we can rule this crystalli… ke… ka… ah…”
Bill grabbed the Vine Monster’s ‘neck’ with one hand and laughed twistedly. “You are even dumber than the pig, you beansprout…”