Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The deeper they went, the worse the air smelled.
Apart from the light from the torchlight, everything around them was dark. The underground tunnels were spacious, much bigger than Gao Peng had imagined. The walls were covered with brick, although the bricks had fallen off in some areas, exposing the mottled rock wall beneath it.
Da Zi and Stripey’s hard claws impacted the ground sharply as they walked, making crisp and clear footstep sounds that reverberated in the air, echoing very far away. Of course, amidst that steady rhythm of footsteps were the sounds created as Flamy leaped along and chirped occasionally.
After ten minutes or so, they reached a tightly shut giant alloy door. When the light from the flashlight moved over the surface of the large door, the copper alloy emanated a hazy color.
Da Zi suddenly straightened its head and almost at the same time, Stripey also raised its head in alarm and began making threatening noises from its mouth.
Gao Peng immediately shone his flashlight above him. Two gigantic cockroaches with black and crimson colored shells crawled sneakily along the top of the large alloy door. As a beam of light suddenly fell on their bodies, they froze.
They stood there dumbly without moving a muscle. Moving forward was not good, and retreating wasn’t an option either. After a moment of hesitation, they released their grips and spread the wings on their backs, producing a high-frequency flapping sound as they lunged towards Gao Peng.
Stripey’s reacted extremely quickly. It raised its head and opened its mouth. A bunch of sticky, white-colored spider web shot out of its mouth.
There was a frenzy of spider web spitting. The gigantic flying cockroaches did not manage to dodge in time and were caught head on, getting hit directly in the face. After that, with a huge bang, they slammed into the wall of the underground sewer violently and found themselves firmly stuck there.
The impact of the spider web was ridiculously powerful, and the web itself was also extremely sticky. No matter how the gigantic cockroaches struggled, it was all for naught.
Da Zi shrieked and raised its two antennas high into the air. They became two straight lines, and a purple electric arc appeared between its antennas.
The electric arc became denser and grew louder by the second, producing crackling explosive noises.
Finally, when the building power reached its peak, and the electric arc between its antennas shot out a stream of lightning. The purple electric arc hit one of the gigantic cockroaches. Upon hitting the target, the electricity spread outwards along the cockroach’s body before sinking down into its flesh.
The gigantic cockroach spasmed and vomited out white bubbles, shrieking crazily.
Only after a while did the gigantic cockroach stop struggling. Its body had already turned to ash, and the light smell of fried food came from the body. Perhaps because they usually stayed in the sewer, all the gigantic cockroaches were filled with oil. Even their wings were oily, and they shone vaguely under the light.
Stripey looked at the cockroach, which had been burned to a crisp by the electric current, and swallowed its saliva. It stood up like a human and moved towards the top of the wall, where the cockroaches were hanging. Its sharp spider claws carved deeply into the stone wall as if they were metal hooks. Stripey’s claws had the unique ability to cut through spider webs gracefully without being stuck to them.
With a light cut, the pitch-black spider claw easily freed the stuck cockroach from the webs.
The instant the gigantic cockroach was freed, despite the fact that it had been burned as black as coal by the electric, it suddenly spread its wings violently before making a high-pitched shriek. It then immediately flew away.
Stripey, who was prepared to put the cockroaches in its mouth, froze with fright. Two of its front limbs hung in the air, and it remained in that pose while all eight of its eyes stared, amazed, at the back of the escaping cockroach.
Flamy’s eyes shone. A flying disc! A giant flying disc!
It opened its sharp beak, and two streams of flame shot forward consecutively, accurately hitting the cockroach!
Boom!!
The gigantic cockroach was squarely hit. Flames struck its body, and it ignited. The wings on its back caught fire, then burned all the way back to their roots. The only things left were its two big skeletal frames where its wings had once been.
The cockroach fell on the floor limply. The flames still burned fiercely on its body, and in the end, it was reduced to a black lump of coal.
Hmpf, tiny bug. Flamy raised its head high in the air pridefully, then wrapped its wings around its waist triumphantly.
Wasn’t it already burned to a crisp by the electricity…? Why was it alive again?
Stripey’s tiny brain capacity was simply not sufficient for it to comprehend this sort of fantastical reality. And then, Stripey slowly turned its head around and suspiciously stared at the other gigantic cockroach trapped in the spider web.
This one can’t also be alive, can it?
Stripey moved its head forward to inspect the cockroach in detail. Eight eyes turned slowly, inspecting every inch of the insect.
The gigantic cockroach felt utter despair in its heart. Its partner had already escaped, but it was still stuck in the spider web. Now, it did not even dare to move; it could only play dead.
Pa.
Stripey used its left claw to poke the head of the gigantic cockroach. The eyes of the gigantic cockroach were without color, and no matter how Stripey teased or poked at it, nothing happened.
Stripey was delighted. It was good that it was dead since Stripey liked eating dead ones, not live ones.
Puchk! With one bite, the head of the gigantic cockroach disappeared.
The two cockroaches were probably the monsters that had sneaked into the factory previously.
Gao Peng now understood what had happened. The large alloy door would probably only open when the factory discharged dirty water; normally, the alloy door would be tightly shut. The two monsters had slipped through the alloy door when it was opened and the water was discharged, coming in by going against the current.
Gao Peng was a little puzzled. The two cockroaches were actually able to withstand so much water, and even move against the current to go through the door? What exactly had made the two cockroaches so determined?
Gao Peng moved forward and unlocked the metal lock on the alloy door. He flipped the cover open and exposed the digital lock before entering the password. The alloy door made a crisp beeping sound and slowly opened.
Under the sound of the mechanical door opening was a loud noise, as if many things were rubbing against each other. When Gao Peng turned his head sideways to listen to the sound, the rubbing sounds disappeared.
The gap in the center of the door slowly widened. Through the gap of the door, Gao Peng saw many red dots from within the darkness.
An ominous feeling rose in Gao Peng’s heart.
He shone his torchlight towards the opening. Pitch black. It looked as if cockroach larvae were crawling all over the floor and walls of the sewer, and even on the ceiling, pushing against each other.
The door opened, but none of the monsters rushed towards it. It was as if the aura of Da Zi and gang increased the vigilance of the insects.
A short cry suddenly came from behind the monsters.
The group of cockroaches hesitated for a short moment, and then they stopped hesitating. They rushed forward in a ferocious swarm.
“Flamy,” Gao Peng said, then he, Da Zi, and the rest retreated two steps backward.
Flamy stepped forward and took a deep breath. Its chest puffed up as if preparing to roar. The next moment, its beak opened quickly.
Boom!
Fierce flame shot out of its mouth like a flamethrower shooting uncontrollably.
The sewer wasn’t very spacious. Moreover, it was a straight track, so the cockroaches in front of them had no way of avoiding the flames.
The flames covered the group of cockroaches. Normally, these gigantic cockroaches lived in an underground environment, which had two things in abundance: dirty water and underground oil. These cockroaches loved leftover food, so they had naturally got a lot of oil stuck on their bodies.
Typically the oil helped defend them against the attacks of other monsters, but now, it had become the thing that destroyed them.
The flames instantly swallowed the entire underground sewer.
The gigantic cockroaches wailed in pain and flew all over the place. They only wanted to run for their lives.
