TYMIMA Chapter 76.2

…

 

Old Bang glanced back, cursing: “Bloody hell, what bad luck.”

 

The one in purple said helplessly, “Forget it, they’re just students.”

 

“So what if they’re students?” Old Bang retorted, then suddenly called out to Zhan Pingchuan, “Newbie, if you dare act as useless as them, you can get out of Harbor Tan tomorrow!”

 

Zhan Pingchuan, caught in the crossfire, smiled: “Don’t—haven’t had enough gem pears yet.”

 

Old Bang: “Hah, at least you’ve got backbone. Work hard—if you can stay at High Tower after graduation, you’ll be able to buy gem pears once a month, no problem.”

 

“…Huh?”

 

Doesn’t your guild give interns unlimited free gem pears?

 

“What, surprised at how high formal staff salaries are?” Old Bang said proudly.

 

“…” Zhan Pingchuan still felt something was off.

 

How come becoming a full employee meant a pay cut? Was this one of Lan Wendao’s legendary business tricks?

 

He didn’t know how far they’d walked, but they’d fully entered the untouched depths of [Rainforest].

 

The humidity grew thicker, and for a moment, a mist seemed to rise from the ground.

 

The good news was, the detector’s needle finally stopped swinging wildly, trembling as it pointed in a direction, a red light flashing and a piercing buzz sounding.

 

This indicated that large amounts of crystal ore were nearby, but whether it was red parrot crystal ore remained to be confirmed.

 

“Give me the sampling device, I’ll have a look.” Glasses extended his hand to Purple-clothes, who immediately took off his backpack and handed it over.

 

Anpa: “I’ll help you.”

 

He passed his load to a teammate.

 

Old Bang: “Don’t scatter, go together, protect them.”

 

The group continued forward. Glasses observed the terrain and finally found a spot to thrust the sampling device into the soil.

 

Suddenly, someone from the scattered squad shouted: “Look, vampire fish!”

 

Mining lamps swept toward the river, revealing huge splashes through gaps covered by dense foliage.

 

The creature in the water sensed the light, flicked its tail, and suddenly leaped from the water. A pale fish head emerged, baring two rows of sharp fangs.

 

“It really is a C-level mutant beast vampire fish!”

 

“Those two fish eyes are worth fifty thousand! We’re rich—don’t let it escape!”

 

“Quick, give me [weapon]! Keep the light steady—it likes light!”

 

“Wait… High Tower Guild is getting further away. Shouldn’t we follow?”

 

“Right away, right away—it’s swimming this way! Be careful not to let it jump on you. Its bite force is incredible, and it’s poisonous!”

 

“But High Tower Guild is almost out of sight.”

 

“Stop arguing, damn it!”

 

“What are we waiting for? Can’t three C-levels kill one of them? Get in the water and surround it!”

 

In his urgency, the tall captain was first to jump into the water, followed by his two teammates.

 

One used his ability to cool the river water, numbing the vampire fish’s nerves, while another strengthened a randomly grabbed branch and stabbed fiercely at the vampire fish’s belly.

 

Squelch!

 

The fragile branch was now hard as steel, piercing straight through the vampire fish’s belly. Blood immediately poured into the water as the pale head thrashed wildly, venom dripping from its fangs and spreading through the river toward the Awakened ones.

 

The tall captain made a snap decision: “It’s spraying venom—freeze the water!”

 

The elemental system Awakened one spread his palms, dropping the water temperature to minus twenty degrees. Instantly, the river water mixed with blood and toxins froze solid, trapping the vampire fish’s lower half in ice.

 

But it wasn’t giving up, still thrashing its upper body, trying to bite the nearest tall captain.

 

The tall captain smiled coldly, his entire skin covered with a white membrane. He reached out, going straight for the vampire fish’s eyes.

 

The vampire fish bit viciously at his arm, but its sharp teeth couldn’t immediately pierce the white membrane. The next second, the tall captain ruthlessly gouged out the fish eye.

 

Blood splattered everywhere.

 

“Success! Both of them!”

 

“Holy shit, bro, that’s amazing!”

 

“Woohoo! We’re treating everyone to barbecue when we get out!”

 

“Quick, pull us up—we’re freezing to death!”

 

The tall captain looked smug, stuffing both fish eyes into a waterproof bag while cursing and extending his hand to his teammates.

 

“Watch out, what’s that!”

 

The short, stout captain suddenly pointed behind them and shouted.

 

The short captain had been dutifully following High Tower Guild, but after killing several E and F-level small monsters along the way, he gradually realized High Tower Guild had another mission—they weren’t here to hunt mutant beasts at all, sometimes even avoiding directions where mutant beasts appeared.

 

So he gradually became distracted, focusing his attention on the group of boisterous young people.

 

Honestly, he quite envied these young people whose minds were full of eating, drinking, and playing—no pressure to support families, willing to trade hard-earned money for games.

 

When they discovered the vampire fish, the short captain was even more envious. Young people had such good eyes, easily spotting big catches.

 

He watched three young people jump into the water and cooperatively take down a vampire fish. Just as he was looking to see if there were more vampire fish to kill nearby, he suddenly noticed ripples spreading across the dark water surface not far away.

 

A massive shadow flashed by and dove underwater.

 

Alarm bells rang in his mind as he quickly shouted out.

 

But when the three young people turned back, they found nothing.

 

“Old man, stop being so jumpy, will you?” The tall captain rolled his eyes.

 

His teammate had already pulled his upper body out of the water. Just as he was about to use the leverage to get ashore, suddenly his legs felt like they were bound tightly by steel bars. His expression changed drastically as he quickly activated his ability to cover himself with the white membrane.

 

But he clearly heard the crackling sound of the white membrane breaking—not just the membrane, but his flesh and bones too…

 

He felt his legs sink into a meat grinder, massive coiling force crushing his calves into pulp. He let out terrifying, heart-rending screams.

 

Unfortunately, before he could finish screaming, enormous force struck from the water, yanking him down. Half his cry was swallowed by water.

 

His teammate still on shore couldn’t react in time and was dragged down with him.

 

“Shit—”

 

Splash!

 

The water surface erupted in huge splashes, followed by spreading blood. Two unrecognizable masses of pulped flesh floated to the surface.

 

“What’s happening!”

 

“Are they dead?”

 

The other two teammates in the water couldn’t care about the vampire fish anymore. They scrambled and splashed toward shore, but it was too late. Where the mining lamps swept, the monster in the bloody water finally revealed its full form.

 

It was a giant creature resembling an anaconda, its black skin marked with eerie patterns. Its head was like an irregular triangle with a row of red eyes along the triangle’s center.

 

It had fine, shark-like teeth with bits of unshaken flesh still hanging in the gaps.

 

On its back crouched a huge bulge like a deformed tumor, complete with fine blood vessels. The bulge had only a thin layer of skin, as if a light knife cut would burst it, but no one knew what was hidden inside.

 

The short captain’s scalp tingled, teeth chattering: “This is… an unrecorded mutant beast!”

 

“Run! Run quickly!”

 

“No, save me, please save me!”

 

“Don’t let it eat me… High Tower Guild, go call High Tower Guild!”

 

“Call High Tower! Call—”

 

Soon, two more masses of pulped flesh appeared on the water surface.

 

In an instant, four living beings perished here. The two scattered squads were terrified out of their wits, no longer interested in hunting mutant beasts. They just wanted to immediately return to High Tower Guild’s side for protection, but… where was High Tower Guild?

 

Lights swept toward the deep forest—High Tower Guild was long gone.

 

Just then, the massive monster sucked all the pulped flesh from the water surface into its mouth. The tumor on its back rapidly turned red, swelling as if about to burst.

 

It suddenly leaped from the water, crashed onto shore, and chased after the crowd like lightning.

 

“Ahhhhhhhhh—”

 

People scattered in panic, fleeing blindly. Its row of eyes locked onto a target and pounced quickly. Its thick, heavy tail swept horizontally, cutting the person in half at the waist.

 

It ground the person into mince and swallowed it down, making the tumor even more swollen.

 

Then it immediately chased after the next person…

 

Glasses pulled out the sampling device, rubbing apart crushed stone and soil to reveal fine crystal powder inside.

 

He held the powder under the light, examining it carefully, seeing a crystalline red gleam in the powder.

 

He released his ability pheromones, and soon the powder glowed red, a beam of red radiation penetrating his skin.

 

Glasses shook off the powder, excited: “That’s it!”

 

Feeling the radiation’s intensity, this should be high-purity red parrot crystal ore that could provide energy to Awakened ones’ glands.

 

The forest suddenly erupted in chaos, accompanied by faint crying and screaming.

 

Glasses frowned, calling loudly to Old Bang: “What’s happening back there?”

 

Old Bang was still looking toward where the crowd was shouting, but Zhan Pingchuan’s gaze had already turned coldly toward the nearby river water.

 

Old Bang scratched his popcorn hair, guessing: “Those scattered squads seem to have problems, they—”

 

The next second, the river water beside them suddenly churned, the surface bubbling like it was boiling. From the leaf-covered areas, over ten colourful frogs suddenly leaped out, pouncing straight at Old Bang’s squad.

 

“Holy shit! So many giant poison dart frogs!”

 

Purple-clothes couldn’t help but be shocked.

 

They’d been down to [Rainforest] many times, and after each hunting spree, encountering two giant poison dart frogs was already good. After all, B-level mutant beasts were precious and rare.

 

Anpa quickly stepped back: “Everyone be careful! Don’t get poisoned!”

 

Old Bang’s forehead veins bulged as he cursed: “Damn, we’ve stirred up a toad nest!”

 

Though his squad was very strong, with A-level and B-level Awakened ones, even bringing two recovery types, they couldn’t handle so many giant poison dart frogs swarming them.

 

The control system Awakened one hurriedly retreated: “I don’t need to aggro this time, right…”

 

Old Bang’s ten fingers instantly became ten cannons. Gritting his back teeth, he made the best of a bad situation: “Indeed you don’t need to aggro—if you do, we’ll all die here together!”

 

Countless fireballs shot at the poison dart frogs. A-level abilities could still damage the poison dart frogs, creating burnt bloody holes on their bodies. They hissed as blue blood gurgled from their wounds.

 

“No! There are more and more! Bloody hell!” Anpa’s mining lamp swept the shore, immediately making his stomach turn cold.

 

More poison dart frogs crawled out from shadows and dark places, all hopping toward them in unison.

 

After fighting for a while, Old Bang also sensed something odd. His abilities weren’t deterring the poison dart frogs at all—instead, they made them pounce even more frantically.

 

“What the hell?” Old Bang was caught off guard, nearly getting splashed by venom.

 

Two animal system B-levels and one insect system B-level also charged forward, tangling with the poison dart frogs. For a moment, abilities flew chaotically through the dense forest.

 

The remaining three C-levels stood at the rear, silently watching. They weren’t particularly nervous—with the team’s strength, though there were more poison dart frogs, they weren’t unbeatable. Even if things went badly, they could still retreat safely.

 

However, after observing for a while, Zhan Pingchuan’s pupils contracted tighter and tighter. He keenly realised that Old Bang and the others’ abilities were better suited for long-distance combat. Once large numbers of poison dart frogs got close, these people would all die here!

 

“Shit!”

 

Zhan Pingchuan cursed under his breath, suddenly raising his hand. Several silver threads instantly shot from his fingertips. Silver light cut through the thick black night, piercing through Old Bang’s wild fireballs and incredibly precisely stabbing through the poison dart frogs’ brains.

 

Before the S-level ability [Linear Refraction], these B-level poison dart frogs were utterly helpless.

 

Their limbs convulsed as they quickly fell one by one, lifeless.

 

Those engaged in combat felt a surge of powerful ability pheromones and turned in amazement.

 

The troublesome B-level mutant beasts before them had been easily killed in seconds?

 

With the situation urgent, Zhan Pingchuan no longer cared about hiding his strength. He stepped forward, kicking aside poison dart frog corpses, his gaze still coldly fixed on the boiling water surface.

 

The next second, the water surface suddenly exploded. A black shadow carrying a huge tumour shot like an arrow straight at Old Bang.

 

Old Bang was looking at Zhan Pingchuan with his mouth open: “You—”

 

Before he could finish speaking, he felt wind by his head. Rich bloody scent struck with the wind, and a suffocating sense of death enveloped him.

 

It was too late for Old Bang to counterattack. He turned in terror, seeing massive fangs.

 

Just then, a pale blue transparent barrier instantly appeared before him. The monster’s huge head crashed into the barrier with a bang and bounced heavily away!

 

Though Old Bang couldn’t see Zhan Pingchuan’s ability, he clearly felt gentian ability pheromones sweep past him, blocking his front.

 

“—We’ve never seen this thing before!” Glasses exclaimed, staggering two steps and nearly leaving the team.

 

Zhan Pingchuan directly grabbed his collar and threw him into the barrier’s protection range, then walked toward the monster writhing madly in the grass.

 

He looked down at the monster’s row of crimson eyes, lips curving in a cold smile: “Looks like those toads weren’t seeking death earlier—they were fleeing.”

 

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