STB Chapter 143: Biochemistry

Jian Hua had long known about the movements outside.

Actually, the monster herd began attacking this area two days ago, filling the border mushrooms with flesh and blood. After the monsters stepped on the bodies of their companions, they faced either Geng Tian or Li Fei……

The two people rotated, and there’s still the protagonist, so the monsters are simply incapable of breaking through the second barrier.

Those who knew Li Fei and Jian Hua’s strength and waiting for the monsters to consume their strength should put the idea to rest since it’s useless.

Their bones are too hard, so the monsters turned and went to find other food. The A-class is certainly not afraid, but the ordinary ability holders of the underground city suffered a calamity with many filling the monsters’ belly.

Seeing a decrease in the number of monsters, the A-class ability holders gathered together with confidence and prepared to “deal a blow” to Flame Demon and Devourer.

They had a complete battle plan. First, change the channels with the Earth ability holders while making sure to block the direction of where the mycelium would spread and keeping a safe distance.

The underground city has a unique terrain. From the surface to the underground city, you have to go through four floors. There are massive stone gates in some places, and behind each one is an elaborate spiral staircase. Some channels are even designed to be under the cave walls, under the beds, or on rooftops……like the tunnel warfare in the plains of China decades ago. Not only is the ventilation system perfect, once the enemy enters, they can block the channel, and there are also devices that can block residential areas. Only, most are worn down by years of non-repair so many can no longer be used. But with the Earth ability holders, these are just minor problems.

Once they’d trapped the Flame Demon and the Devourer in an area, the others would stand above and use the different systems of abilities, like water and thunder——to release a joint attack. With the power of more than 20 A-class ability holders and borrowing the terrain, if they can’t even kill a single S-class, then they would admit defeat. They won’t even bother to deal with Black Abyss in the future.

Most are still very optimistic about this plan.

Looking at it in another way, killing one S-class or killing Geng Tian is also fine……Black Abyss’ foundation is too deep, if they let it develop, it’ll be detrimental for everyone, so they should take every chance to weaken it.

As for their trump card, isn’t there Red Scorpion still hiding in the dark?

Based on Red Scorpion’s “destiny” and his preferences, Red Scorpion would undoubtedly go after Li Fei.

As a result, they changed the terrain, and most of the monsters that aren’t driven towards the mushrooms wouldn’t pose a threat to the A-class ability holders. However, they suddenly found out that another A-class from Black Abyss, “Devil Sound”, appeared behind everyone.

They still haven’t worked it out yet when a few cannibal squids squeezed in and destroyed their plans.

If there’s only one, they would be happy. They’d quickly retreat and wait for the cannibal squid to destroy the mushrooms, and consume Flame Demon’s powers in passing. As a result, the roads on all sides were blocked, and everyone retreated to the same place. The earth ability holders rushed to close two channels, but the cannibal squids actually drilled through it.

“Not right, according to the cannibal squids’ habits, won’t they approach those with higher level abilities and never look at those inferior to it? We didn’t even actively attack it, so how come?”

The crowd was horrified. Even those on the minority who can’t understand what the others are talking about are also unclear about the situation. They can clearly feel the terrible breath of the cannibal squid aimed at them.

Money and strength had no language barrier.

Before, they quickly understood what everyone else meant and so, agreed to join forces. It’s precisely because they felt the powerful strength of the mushrooms that they realized that there are more powerful ability holders than them.

“Why didn’t you find the cannibal squid before?”

“Enough, didn’t you hear from those book transmigrators? Cannibal squid can change their body color, so they’re good at hiding. You won’t find it even if you have an energy detector! Do you think I’m the same as Flame Demon who has magic eyes?”

The A-class ability holders became pale.

What is a book transmigrator? How could they not know when they’ve killed so many of them? They only accompany them to keep them as an information library. Some even climbed on their beds. It doesn’t matter even if they locked the door and just wanted to sleep. After all, why would you have scruples in killing people in the Abandoned World?

There is no “information library” around right now, so the matter of why the cannibal squid went against its habits, they actually don’t have the slightest clue.

“It’s clearly written in the book that a cannibal squid once left Red Scorpion to chase after Dr. Mad……did those book transmigrators lie to me?” This A-class had a distorted face because of anger.

Rosemary despised them in her heart for worrying about such stupid things and making a wrong analysis at this time. She can only defend herself and make a bewildered expression, “That’s unlikely since all the book transmigrators we met said the same thing. Could it be that the book transmigrators who appeared in different countries a thousand miles apart have agreed to deceive us?”

The crowd, who can’t find the reason, had no choice but to confront the cannibal squids with varied expressions.

Those dressed in African tribal garb can single-mindedly devote themselves to a common goal since they’re used to the foresight of their “superiors”; hence, they can keep their calm. And because the things they’ve encountered in the past are within the analysis of their leader, they seemed to have avoided danger and life became more relaxed, but in fact, they lost a valuable growth experience which resulted in their inability to respond in such a critical situation.

Otherwise, with so many A-class together, why would they be afraid of encountering cannibal squid? It’s not like they can’t fight it.

Now, they are obsessed with thinking about why it went wrong. Actually, because the overall strength of book transmigrators are low, they can only die when encountering a cannibal squid. So from their mouths, monsters such as cannibal squids and glass snails became exaggerated. That is why when a selfish and timid ability holder saw the cannibal squid appear, they would immediately run away, not even thinking of fighting it.

They’re depressed from the bottom of their heart, thinking so much but got no clear answer. In fact, it’s very simple. For the cannibal squid, it’s just on the way to a big meal, but it encountered a bunch of delicious snacks.

The snacks can’t be called snacks either since they’re just a notch below the big feast. It usually can’t eat this kind of meal on its regular days.

If there’s only one A-class, the cannibal squid will ignore it since the big feast is more important. This is in their nature.

But if there’s a street full of snacks in front of you, won’t you do everything to taste all of them? The cannibal squids didn’t want to walk away either, not even thinking of rejecting this temptation. They’re always greedy, so they’ll be greedy until death.

So what if the original work didn’t mention it? There are no spiders in the original plot, and there aren’t so many ability holders gathered in one place. The global abilities conference held by the US Abilities Bureau in the real world doesn’t count. This kind of event would, of course, calculate the overlapping point, lest the Abandoned World interrupt the meeting process. From a meeting, it’ll instead turn into a monster killing spree.

Not to mention that they left immediately after the meeting, not like them who’d been squatting in this plateau for several days. After all, the cannibal squid climbing up also takes time.

In the words of the Chinese, it’s a good time to go to war, how about you?

“The ability holders out there are chaotic, what happened?” Geng Tian wiped his sweat when he came back.

“There are powerful monsters, probably……” Li Fei hasn’t finished talking yet when his magic eyes saw the soft tentacle that squeezed over to this side.

Geng Tian was shocked, then he felt his clothes being grabbed.

“Hey, don’t pull.” Geng Tian is really unlucky. He encountered several crises in the giant spider world, and his clothes were almost destroyed. He’s now shirtless and shoeless, the rest can only be considered as rags, and such a tug would certainly rip it.

Fortunately, Johnson quickly withdrew his hand. He thought with annoyance, this person is not Mr. Morenza, why would I pull on his clothes as soon as I became nervous?

“There’s more than one.” This is the result of Jian Hua’s power feedback.

Li Fei’s lips evoked a mocking smile. He was pleased at seeing those groups become a joke.

Jian Hua calmly said, “They’re just temporarily confused. They’ll be able to stabilize the situation soon, and they’ll also find a way to lead the cannibal squid to us.”

The mycelium can’t stop the cannibal squid.

Because this guy is too big, it can easily break off the mycelium.

“I have to be close to the cannibal squid to kill it.”

Letting out the mushrooms won’t do anything, so Jian Hua must do it personally. Li Fei certainly didn’t want Jian Hua to take that risk, so he stopped him and said, “Why bother? It’s the same for me.”

“Remember what I said, don’t leave the mycelium’s cover. Red Scorpion is hiding in his own space, but once he came closer, the mycelium would immediately act.”

Geng Tian knew the seriousness of this matter. After he promised, he communicated with Johnson in simple English.

“Red Scorpion, I know this guy. He once broke into Mr. Morenza’s home.” Johnson immediately said, “he hides inside a black thing. When it showed up, the whole villa was covered in his space and all the water pipes in the house burst. The water was all over the place.”

When Geng Tian retold the story to Jian Hua, Jian Hua’s expression changed.

“Aren’t there several wells nearby?”

How could Geng Tian know? In the places where the mushrooms occupy, the houses can’t be seen clearly. What should he do, lift the mushroom caps?

“Make Li Fei come back.” Jian Hua urged.

A cannibal squid rushed into the mushrooms, was burned by flames and rolled. It retreated but was followed by the well-planned encirclement of A-class ability holders.

The rock walls collapsed, making the channels in other directions unstable and also collapse. This sealed up the area, leaving only one exit.

The trapped monsters happened to be behind this wall, so they crazily entered one after the other.

At the same time, there are those who managed to survive the cannibal squid attack and the group of A-class ability holders who escaped.

The otherwise closed pattern was broken and was now in chaos.

Jian Hua waved, and the mycelium pulled Johnson and Geng Tian to a stone table. At the same time, the surrounding scenery obviously swayed. The dark behemoth, the flame beast, and the fat raccoon alertly looked up at the same time.

This is a sign of a change in space.

Li Fei reacted quickly. The mushrooms were flattened by the cannibal squid, but he directly jumped to the cannibal squid’s head.

The surroundings began to darken, and along with the suffocating smell of blood, many ability holders heard the sound of water. Their brains were flexible and immediately thought of Red Scorpion.

“Is he crazy? Building his space and taking in so many people, including three cannibal squids, to his space in one breath?” Rosemary gave out a disbelieving shout.

An A-class ability holder can’t break Red Scorpion’s space, even two or three won’t make a difference, but there’s a group of them here!

“Boom!” The anxious people in the group already started.

Jian Hua wrapped up Geng Tian in mycelium, aware that Geng Tian also has this intention, so he immediately raised his hand to paste on more mycelium.

“Don’t be impulsive, Red Scorpion won’t do such a stupid thing.”

Then a voice screamed, jabbering about something, seeming to be very agitated.

Li Fei saw the speaker was a black man wearing African tribal garb, a totem painted on the forehead, a metal ring on the lips, and a lot of tattoos with bone needles on the skin. Even with his magic eyes, he can’t see the man’s expression.

The ground is full of water with the water level continually rising. The cannibal squids completely ignored the spatial changes as they firmly continued to reach the “big feast”.

Li Fei flexibly avoided the attacks in the dark while stepping on the mushroom caps to go all the way to Jian Hua. There were a few times where he can’t balance and had to be “supported” by the mycelium.

“What’s that smell……” Jian Hua couldn’t help but cover his nose.

It stinks, like something rotten.

Why is Red Scorpion’s space so stinky? Is it……

“Not good!”

Space ability holders can hide in their own space, but they can also create a “portable space” that is long lasting and convenient. If Red Scorpion is outside, he didn’t need to come in at all. Right now, this big space is specially prepared for them.

“There’s something in the water, decomposing bodies.”

Li Fei’s expression is indescribable.

Although he’s not afraid of death and confident in facing the unexpected, when so many faceless, swelling and deformed corpses suddenly appeared in front of them that his magic eyes can clearly see, the impact is so significant that he blanked out.

Some bodies have clear holes, some with broken limbs, and these rotting, miserable forms made him unable to eat for three days.

Li Fei closed his eyes, thinking that he wasn’t the Flame Demon in the “book”. Abandoned World killed tens of millions of people worldwide, but he had no experience of seeing corpses everywhere in the street, so how can keep his calm?

“The water level is rising very quickly, move up.” Li Fei endured his nausea and reminded Jian Hua.

“Work together to break open the space. You incinerate the air around us and handle the large number of rotting corpses; otherwise, it’ll cause a blight!” Jian Hua was shocked and angry.

The ability holders aren’t affected by the time stagnation. They’ll still grow old in the Abandoned World, and their bodies will still rot. Red Scorpion has the backing of the Holy Gate Organization, so he can steal some dangerous virus from a laboratory institute, and it’s not difficult for him to throw it in his space and not enter.

Once Li Fei used his flames, other people can see their location. Who knew if there’d be someone stupid enough to come this way instead of escaping?

“Don’t touch the walls of the space, avoid the water droplets from the cannibal squid and don’t let it stick to your skin. Let’s get out from here first.”

The scary thing is, even after breaking the space, these virus-laden water would rapidly spread throughout the underground city. Red Scorpion would still be hiding in another space, not affected at all. His space is different from others since he can decide the size, and can also build several spaces at the same time.

Red Scorpion’s ability is unique since water will automatically be produced in his space. He is a hidden double system ability holder, but strictly speaking, the water system cannot be regarded as his second ability because these waters can only appear in his space. It can’t be formed, nor can it be used to attack, it’s merely “water”.

Who would’ve thought that he’d combine “water” and “space” to such an extreme degree?

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Footnotes:

it’s a good time to go to war: idiom, time is right, geographical and social conditions are favorable

blight: epidemic, plague