Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Peng!
In the air, the Desert Fire Ant Commander, cleared of its HP, fell hard into the sand below, sending reddish-yellow sand particles flying several meters high.
After its landing, scattered around its corpse were Energy Crystals of various colors, a pair of Warrior gloves, and seven to eight red-tinged, semi-transparent ant eggs the size of half a fist.
“Desert Fire Ant eggs!”
Standing on the sand dunes and raising the Eye of the Thunder, Feng Luo recognized with a single glance that this was the last of the six rare items to be found on his mission assigned by Lin. Furthermore, the bigger the Desert Ant eggs, the higher their Grade. The Fire Ant eggs obtained from the female ants of this Commander and the items obtained from the Desert Rock Lizard Commander before were both of Perfect Grade.
However, the point where the female Ant Commander had fallen was more than 200 meters away from his location. Also, the army of Desert Fire Ants—comprised of Level-30 Desert Worker Ants and Level-33 Desert Soldier Ants—was already making its way to the Commander’s location at that moment, advancing toward players located all over the battlefield. Therefore, even if the surrounding players had noticed the items from the Commander-grade female ant, they were temporarily unable to go for them.
Presently, despite the ground gleaming with lustrously glowing items and crystals, and even a few pieces of equipment, no player dared to enter the center of the battlefield. This was because of the countless Worker Ants swarming in the air and the similarly countless Soldier Ants clustered on the land, turning the whole place into a death zone. Charging straight in, even for a Heavy Armor Warrior with a shield in hand, would not guarantee finding a way out in one piece!
Nonetheless, it did not mean that the items out of reach for the other players would be similarly out of reach for Feng Luo!
A mysterious smile appeared on Feng Luo’s face. He delivered a command via mental link to 24K lying on its belly on his shoulder. As 24K rolled its little eyes, a spot in the sand about 20 meters away from them suddenly trembled slightly.
******
“Leader, stop slacking off!”
“I told you to change to better equipment, but you refuse. You’re a Fire Manipulator, yet your output can’t even match up to a Light Armor Warrior like me!”
“Tch!”
−2655
The flamboyant young man in a silver armor unleashed a Level-15 Warrior skill, “Heavy Slash.” His silver Level-45 Superior Sword formed an arc of silver light as it sliced a Level-30 Fire Worker Ant that had fallen beside him clean in two.
“No rush. I’ll see once I’ve tried other specializations. I’ve not yet decided which specialization is best!”
Behind him, the young Fire Manipulator girl waved her Level-40 Normal Staff, producing a seemingly harmless elementary Fireball less than the size of a fist.
“So, you’re going to do a mission transfer and change to another specialization every half a month?”
“Please, leader, if you do it like that, all your skill classes would be at the basic level, and you’ll be wasting this role!”
A look of complete defeat appeared on the flamboyant, silver-armored young man’s face.
“Look at Brother Fei. Half his skill competency level has already reached Expert level. This level of skill, I presume, is not inferior to that Crimson Gun Flame. This must be the right gaming attitude!”
Rendered nearly speechless, the flamboyant young man could only point to the young Machine Gunner in front of them, protected on two sides by a Heavy Armor Warrior and a Doctor, firing a machine gun at the horde of Desert Fire Ants charging toward them.
“Qin Fei’s skill level is about 32 percent stronger than yours, but considering the same level of equipment, his skill level is, at most, only 63 percent of Crimson Gun Flame. As I see it, your skill level should only be about 48 percent of Crimson Gun Flame. If we really were to fight him, even three people might not be enough to defeat him.”
“It’s obvious. Skill class is not the main determining factor of combat power!”
The young Fire Manipulator girl shot the small fireball in her hand toward a Desert Fire Ant in the distance, causing less than 500 points of damage.
“Gosh…” The flamboyant, silver-armored young man was speechless.
The six young men and women were about 200 meters from Feng Luo. Since the team had a better spread of specializations, despite being closer to the front, they could still more easily finish off the rapidly advancing Desert Fire Ants.
“What a shame. The items from that Commander Grade female ant can’t be picked up now. Once these Desert Fire Ants are finished, who knows if we’ll still be able to snatch up the items. There are so many people with the right to pick them up who went for them just now!”
The eccentric girl with smoky makeup and large, circular earrings raised an assault rifle, aimed it at a vicious Soldier Ant 50 meters from her and pulled the trigger.
Ping, ping, ping…
Hit by a stream of bullets, the ferocious Level-33 Soldier Ant with its gigantic jaws wide open was reduced to pulp.
“Why not let me Charge straight in? My Charge Skill is already at the Expert level. A round trip would only take 10 seconds.”
The flamboyant, silver-armored young man eyed the female Commander Ant about 500 meters in front of them. Seven to eight Desert Fire Ant eggs surrounded it. He gazed at the pair of gloves that was obviously a Warrior-class piece of equipment. His eyes were yearning for the items.
The short-haired girl shook her head. “Forget it. The density of monsters there is far worse than here. Plus, there is no Doctor here to heal you. Risking losing one whole level for a few items and some equipment of unknown Grade would not be worth it.”
“F*ck!” the flamboyant, silver-armored young man shouted all of a sudden. “Damn it!”
“Zhao Hao, you rascal! Who are you scolding?” Hearing him, the short-haired girl raised an eyebrow, enraged.
“No!” the flamboyant silver-armored young man yelled, hurriedly explaining himself. “Sister Yo’yo, what are you angry at? I wasn’t scolding you!”
“Rubbish! I heard it!” The short-haired girl with her eyebrows raised was unforgiving.
“No, no, really! Hey, you guys, look over there!” Unable to explain himself at the moment, the flamboyant young man raised a hand and pointed toward the position of the female Commander Ant instead.
“Huh?” The short-haired girl was flabbergasted. There was a look of shock in her eyes. “What’s going on? Are my eyes playing tricks on me? How is the female Commander Ant gone…?”
The area was now completely empty. Where was the female Commander Ant? Or any of those items, crystals, and pieces of equipment?
Both of them were dumbfounded.
Just then, all of a sudden, the young Fire Manipulator girl had a different image reflected in her eyes.
The Fire Ants in the sky were soaring, and the Soldier Ants on the ground marching. However! Out of the blue, the sand beneath the area where the female Commander Ant had fallen and spawned the items sank and formed a large hole. After which, the corpse of the female Commander Ant, the Warrior gloves, all the Fire Ant eggs, and the heap of energy crystals fell straight in!
In the blurry mess, a scorpion-like claw flashed by.
******
In another direction, a whole 500 meters from Feng Luo’s position was an elite team of more than 20 players with a complete spread of specializations and with seemingly fantastic equipment. These players were also facing off against the charging Desert Fire Ant army.
Meteor Rain, Tornado, Landslide, Spiral Wind Blade… With each attack unleashed at full power, the Desert Fire Ants charging toward them had no chance to advance.
Even though it looked as if it was a vicious fight in this direction, at least 10 people were actually slacking off. Most of them were moving as slowly as snails, and there were even two players snuggled up at the back of the team, chatting away.
“Hey, Fatty, where did Crimson Gun Flame go?” asked the slimmer of the two elite players—both of whom were above Level 45.
“Cooling off over there. He was angered by those players who didn’t buy from him yet purposely caused a nuisance!” The other chubby Heavy Armor Warrior laughed.
“Serves him right. He was really thinking he had become a ‘star.’ Always so arrogant.” The Gunner licked his lips, a mocking look on his face.
The Heavy Armor Warrior had a look of doubt. “But I still don’t really understand. Why would the boss make us pretend not to know him? And yet ask the leader to give up command to him?”
“You really don’t understand?” the Gunner said, suddenly lowering his voice. “I tell you, our mission today requires so many players. If this matter were leaked out, if he, as a star character, was really revealed to be in it with us, his popularity would definitely plummet. No need to achieve a ‘Top 10 Master’ position—he might even be forced to strip away his rank.”
“What star player? He’s just better-looking, that’s all. He might not defeat me in a real fight!” The Heavy Armored Warrior roared, raising the alloy shield in his hand and picking up a pile of sand.
“Hey, you rascal. Lost your pride? With what you have, you’d only need 10 seconds at most before you were gone if you really were to fight with Crimson Gun Flame! I’d even believe it if you said that the leader could defeat him.” The Funner looked to his side at a Light Armor Warrior fully clad in Rare equipment, staring intently at the battlefield. “Hey, the leader’s ability is definitely ranked among the real Top 10 Masters.”
The fat one was a little dissatisfied. “But with the leader already, why would the boss still want to let Crimson Gun Flame join this mission and even let the leader give up his command?”
The Gunner rolled his eyes, disdainful. “Hey, how could your dim mind guess what the boss was thinking? Crimson Gun Flame—this rascal made famous by the boss—really thinks he can now call the shots, even becoming disrespectful and disobedient in front of the boss. So the boss let him join this mission, to expose him straight away if he still dares to do anything funny!”
“Oh, so it’s like that. I understand now—”
At that moment, two Light Armor Warriors clad in black Rare equipment beside them suddenly turned, loudly reprimanding the two chattering players. “Are you two done with your discussions? It’s almost time. Better start doing work!”
“Yes, yes.”
“Leader Unparalleled!”
The two players, flustered, hurriedly flashed smiles at the Light Armor Warriors before quickly running off in the direction of the Desert Fire Ant nest.
“Star player!”
Unparalleled Violence’s eyes were locked on Crimson Gun Flame in the distance, who was firing a stream of bullets at the Fire Ant nest with a Destructive Thundersnake six-barreled gun and a grave expression on his face.
The side of his mouth crept into a smile, and a look of pity flashed across his face.
******
“Hurry, hurry! Fire the stuff over!”
With the Heavy Armor Warrior providing cover above them, the two ran to a sand dune near the Desert Fire Ant nest.
“How brilliant! A Boss-grade Crystal Core… What a shame it’s a mission item. If not, it could easily fetch a few million credits, couldn’t it?”
The Heavy Armor Warrior fished out from his bag a flaming Crystal Core the size of a fist.
“Stop talking and hurry up—if we miss it, the leader will go crazy again!” the Gunner said, trying to rush him as he held up a rocket-like device on his shoulder.
Poof!
Seconds after the soft bang, seemingly without anyone noticing, a fist-sized Fire Crystal Core was shot deep into the Desert Fire Ant nest.
Right after that, chaos erupted from within the Desert Ant colony’s nest!
