Single Player Only Chapter 72-73

Chapter 72: Spiders Leap Into The Flame, And Dig Their Own Grave

A spider was a savage and carnivorous arthropod. It was bloodthirsty, brutal, and very smart as well.

A spider who knew how to make webs would use all sorts of ways to camouflage their predatory actions. They could singlehandedly take out insects that were bigger than them. Some spiders did not make webs, but their size was generally quite big. This type of spiders mainly relied on their large size, sharp mouthparts and deadly toxin to eliminate their prey through brute force.

Yue Qiang wasn't entirely ignorant about these eight-legged arachnids, and in this game these spiders were obviously amalgamations of both stated advantages above. Not only were they huge and capable of spitting threads, there were more than a f.u.c.king hundred of them!

The sound they made alone was enough to make one's scalp feel numb.

After they had set up the fire ring around the cave entrance, they moved the wooden tables away and looked inside.

Yue Qiang could not help but feel gooseb.u.mps on his skin.

The sight was just too scary.

The walls of the vertical hole was filled with densely packed fist-sized spiders. Their long legs, black hair, dark and bright colored stomach were as clear as day underneath the fiery light. It wasn't a question whether their stomach were filled with poisonous liquid.

It was often said that the unseen fear was the scariest, but Yue Qiang would have preferred not to see these monstrous creatures at all. They were both scary and disgusting.

"Quickly!" He urged Ai Qian behind the fire ring.

Ai Qian's expression looked even paler than he was. The trader opened his shut eyes, and in an instant he released his unique Charm ability once more. From Yue Qiang's point of view, Ai Qian's face seemed to be retouched with a softening effect, causing his already somewhat handsome face to become impossibly pretty and flirtatious. A gentle, charming and lovely aura seemed to spread to the surroundings.

If Ai Qian was a girl then Yue Qiang had nothing to say, but he absolutely wasn't. He had no idea how Ai Qian managed to learn such a ridiculous ability after he entered this world.

While holding back the urge to push Ai Qian into the hole and feed the spiders, Yue Qiang stood beside him and be on guard with his iron rod.

The spiders at the vertical hole who were gradually forced back by the heat wave before had begun to grow restless again after Ai Qian had activated his Charm ability.

Then, the first spider ignored the fire ring and climbed out of the hole!

Its incredibly ugly, rubbing front limbs indicated that it really wanted to charge right at Ai Qian. However, it was also afraid of the burning flames.

Seeing that the spider didn't charge immediately at him, Ai Qian activated his Charm ability once more!

This time, the skill was obviously more powerful than before. It also exhausted more energy as a hint of paleness appeared on Ai Qian's pretty and flirtatious face. His eyes watched the big black spider that lead the way firmly.

Spider was a very smart animal, and its genes and instincts granted it powerful survival abilities. However, Ai Qian's skill generated an attraction that could surpa.s.s the difference between species from an inexplicable plane and seduced the spider.

In the end, the big black spider acted. Its eight limbs crawled swiftly as it pressed forwards courageously into the flames!

Then, it was burned into barbeque spider meat amidst crackling sounds.

Several smoke tendrils appeared above the flames. A mix of yellow body liquid and black poisonous liquid spread out on the ground.

As the first spider charged towards the flames and killed itself, the remaining one hundred or so spiders behind it gradually did the same. They began launching wave upon wave of attacks on Ai Qian before they were burned to death in succession. Yue Qiang kept adding wood to the fire ring while he hid behind it. Beside him, Ai Qian's face was completely bloodless and shockingly white. It would seem that this skill could only be activated for an instant, and the price for activating it continuously was extremely huge.

At first, Yin was standing beside them as well. But when she saw the green smoke appearing above the flames, she hurriedly tore a few cloth strips from her clothes and covered everyone's mouths and noses.

"The smoke is poisonous; the cloth would not hold it back for long. We need to leave here as soon as possible." She explained briefly.

After hearing her warning, Yue Qiang realised that his HP was dropping at a gradual rate. It's just that his many enhancing stats and OP recovery attribute 'c.o.c.kroach' ensured it dropped very slowly.

But Ai Qian wasn't him. This poor handsome b.a.s.t.a.r.d looked like he was suffering from kidney deficiency*, and his pale white face also became dyed with a sheen of green because he sucked in poisonous smoke for a while.

*also a sarcastic way of saying that someone f.u.c.ked/mastrubated too much

Thankfully, the spiders were all dead.

All one hundred or so large spiders had charged to the flames due to Ai Qian's Charm and dug their own graves!

Their corpses formed a small hill.

Right now, the small room was filled with poisonous smoke caused by the burning spiders. Yue Qiang's attributes enabled him to preserve a good amount of mobility despite the poisonous environment, but the other two people did not look too good.

While holding one person on each hand, he circled around the huge pile of spider corpses and arrived at the vertical hole. Then, they entered the cave once more.

The poisonous smoke were drifting upwards and not downwards, so going down was the better choice of the two. This was similar to lying on the ground and crawl away to escape the poisonous smoke caused by a recent fire.

Their path of retreat was cut off anyway. Only by moving forwards would they have a sliver of a chance at survival.

The trio continued forwards while feeling like they were given a new lease of life. Yue Qiang looked at the extremely weakened Ai Qian and typed, "We lured out an unbelievable amount of spiders and killed them all. If they most definitely could kill all of us if they crawled out at once before we set up the trap, and even if we didn't move the table away, we would have been trapped inside the small room to death… You scored a great merit this time."

Ai Qian shook his head and said nothing; he still hadn't recovered from the encounter earlier. The man simply inhaled greedily the air inside the cave in attempt to thin out the poisonous smoke in his lungs as much as possible.

Yue Qiang then glanced again at Yin. The girl hadn't spoken up for the entire time. She only walked forwards silently.

A thought suddenly appeared in Yue Qiang's mind. She can't have predicted this from the beginning, can she?

First, she predicted that there would be a spider pack from the dark and wet underground environment. Then, she beat around a super large bush and came up with a fake theory where magnets could kill people to restore the trader's confidence. After that, she used his Charm skill to take out all of the spiders. When she discovered the spiders, she had come up with the idea to burn them all almost instantly. The flexibility of her mind, and the decisiveness of her decisions… most importantly, everything had turned out exactly she had planned like a written script. The more Yue Qiang thought about it, the more shocked he became.

Seeing that Yin was still silent and seemingly thinking about something, he asked secretly, "Did you predicted this from the very beginning?" then he told her his a.s.sumption.

"No, and that's impossible." Yin answered, "Perhaps the two of you were too anxious just now, which was why you failed to come up with the solution. Setting this aside… right now I'm thinking about another thing."

"Another thing?"

"Mm. Don't you feel that this environment is a little strange? That pa.s.sage outside has a giant rock trap, clues about the mechanisms of this place, and even a device that can completely cut off a path. But why haven't we encountered more man-made obstacles even though we're approaching the heart of this place?"

Ah, so this is what Yin had been thinking this whole time. Yue Qiang continued to listen.

"I am more inclined to believe that the spiders in this cave is a natural breed. It's just that the unusual environment caused it to evolve to that size. They are probably not a defensive measure set up by the School of Mo's Great Camp. After all, if that woman's corpse really is somewhere in this place, then she would have been eaten by the spiders! Therefore, we must be on guard from now on. This is because the real defenses of this camp haven't appeared yet!"

While listening to her words, Yue Qiang continued to raise the torch high and stared towards the distance as best he could. Although he couldn't see too far away, his vision was no longer enshrouded in complete darkness.

A fist had appeared at the end of his vision!

A wooden fist!

Chapter 72: A Fist That Knows Martial Arts

It didn't seem too appropriate to describe the thing at the end of his vision as a fist.

That's because it was too huge.

It was literally as huge as the blacksmith Tan Xiong's steel hammer.

Plus, since the torch wasn't bright enough, he couldn't see what was behind the fist for now. Was it a person? A mechanic beast? Or something even more terrifying?

Yue Qiang was fully on guard as he stared closely at the direction it came from.

The fist approached very swiftly. Under the torch's illumination, its full appearance was revealed.

It really was just a fist!

There were neither tall mechanic person nor terrifying mechanic beast. There was only a single feast!

The back of the beast was a thick wooden pillar connected to a four wheeled vehicle. The four wheeled vehicle's body and wheels were all made of wood, and it travelled very steadily in this narrow and winding pa.s.sage. It swiftly approached Yue Qiang while fetching the fist.

He did not see anyone who's driving the vehicle, nor did he know why the vehicle could even move, not to mention its speed.

It was obvious that this thing wasn't friendly though.

The super large wooden fist approached them with incredible speed before launching a fist directly at Yue Qiang.

Now that it was closer, naturally they got a better view of it. The wooden pillar connected to the fist was not a whole object, but rather one that had many well made joints. Its joints were performing a complex activity, causing the fist at the front to launch a simple but severe attack.

The four wheeled wooden vehicle moved extremely quickly, and the super large fist moved extremely quickly as well. Together, they drew an oppressive wind and charged right at Yue Qiang.

When Yue Qiang had discovered the fist on this four wheeled wooden vehicle, he had already been fully on guard. Although the fist was coming at him quickly, its direction was fixed, so it wasn't hard to dodge out of the way. Originally, he planned to sidestep the attack calmly, but to his surprise the wooden fist's trajectory changed again in mid-charge!

This change completely exceeded his expectations!

The four wheeled vehicle travelled swiftly along the narrow corridor. The wooden joints of the vehicle creaked constantly, and Yue Qiang could hear its gears turning and its levers changing. As the noise sounded, the fist's trajectory also changed and became elusive.

It was as if it had transformed into an actual human fist!

That wasn't all. Yue Qiang discovered in alarm that he was very familiar with the fist's trajectory.

This trajectory was the beginning motions of the ultimate skill he relied upon, 'Killing Style, One'!

What was different was that Yue Qiang had controlled the skill 'Killing Style, One' through the affection of his muscles. He even took nearly three months to get used to the movement. Meanwhile, the sudden, incoming fist used wooden joints to spur the fist's activity, and wooden gears and levers to adjust its direction.

The principle of action might be different, but the form of the fist style was nearly the same.

His own 'Killing Style, One' had been processed and evolved by his heart skill 'Pure Heart' into 'Break Fist – Killing Style, One'. Although its power was increased tremendously, there were still flaws in his skill. Meanwhile, the wooden fist in front of him might have been driven by inanimate objects, but it was even more powerful than his evolved 'Break Fist – Killing Style, One'!

For an instant, Yue Qiang could only see afterimages of the fist all over his screen!

His skill was to punch out from one of the sixty four directions he was provided with, whereas this wooden fist actually covered every sixty four directions at once!

This was a mechanic fist that knew martial skills!

It was also obviously higher level than the martial skill he learned.

The fist had enveloped his entire body, and it was probably impossible for him to dodge out of the way.

Yue Qiang knew that his life or death would be decided in an instant. He locked onto his chance, took a step forwards and jabbed with his iron rod.

His step and jab were not performed without consideration.

The fist might be coming at him quickly, but it was ultimately just a fist and not a blade. If it was a blade that cut into his vitals, it could probably deal a 'Wound Damage' and instakill him, or cut off his limbs. However, it was ultimately just a fist, and a wooden one no less. At best it would send him flying and cause internal damage. In a game, even internal damage was just the equivalent of losing HP. As long as it didn't kill him instantly, he would be able to recover slowly through 'c.o.c.kroach'. Anything could happen after that!

When he controlled his character to make a step, he wasn't stepping on the fist but the four wheeled vehicle that was driving the fist.

The fist was coming at him too quickly, and he couldn't avoid it. He didn't plan to anyway. The huge fist slammed solidly into his chest. At the same time, Yue Qiang's foot also stepped onto the car and bought him a cushion. He was immediately sent flying by the fist and lost more than half of his HP. However, he wasn't killed instantly, so there was no doubt that this one step had dispelled quite a bit of force from the attack.

Before Yue Qiang flew backwards, he had also made another movement. It was a jab!

The jab's angle was extremely tricky.

His aim wasn't the big fist, but the joints controlling its movements behind.

The fist was obviously tough and durable at first glance, and there was no way there would be any effect had he jabbed it with the iron rod. On the other hand, the joints must have been precisely made to be able to control the fist to come up with such a complex movement.

Things that were precise were normally very fragile as well.

This jab was also one of Yue Qiang's gamble. Just like how a human's joints were easily injured, if the fist could be made to move in such a complicated manner, and its gears and levers were completely wooden made, then the complexity of its internal mechanisms must have exceeded one's imagination. He couldn't deal with the fist, but he could at least try to damage the joints at the back, right?

That was what Yue Qiang thought. That was also what Yue Qiang did.

The instant he was sent flying by the fist, he aimed at a crooked area of the wooden joint and jabbed his iron rod at it fiercely.

I jab!

The fist that smashed into his chest took more than half of his HP. However, it also gave him an excessive amount of Rage, and when he jabbed at the joint he also injected all of his Rage into it.

Yue Qiang's current movement could be said to have exceeded the limits of his reaction. In reality, he wasn't able to do anything else before flying backwards in a flashy fashion and slamming into a wall. There was a huge sound of impact, and the second impact damage instantly dropped his HP from full to a sliver!

But it was fine as long as he didn't die!

While his character was sent flying by the wooden fist, it didn't stop him from examining this mechanism.

The jab with the iron rod had obviously caused a huge effect.

After the mechanism had sent Yue Qiang flying, it instantly lost its earlier agility. While it moved as fast as it was before, it now travelled shudderingly and randomly like a headless fly straight into the corridor's walls. After a loud crashing sound, the vehicle utterly broke apart!

The entire battle did not last more than three seconds, but Yue Qiang felt as if he had gone through an entire day.

If any one of his movements were out of position, if he hadn't taken that step, he might've been killed instantly instead of left with a sliver of HP. Supposed that he had jabbed the iron rod into the wrong place and did not hit the joints, then the vehicle driving the fist might continue to charge at him and follow up with a second punch.

This game… It had been several times already that these battles were all or nothing, life or death. This was totally different from throwing fireb.a.l.l.s at each other before chugging pots to recover oneself.

The question came after the thrilling dismantling of the wooden fist.

How on earth was this wooden mechanism controlled?

Also, this thing was just a fist. No matter how elaborate it was, how could it possibly know a fist style?

The key was that this fist style was none other than the 'Killing Style, One' he had learned in the real world. Moreover, he had learned this fist style from that mysterious woman, who was also supposedly at the end of this pa.s.sage.

Yue Qiang did not move while he was pondering these problems. He was severely injured, so it was somewhat difficult to move swiftly.

It was at this moment there was the sharp sound of something breaking through the air!

The sound was incredibly sharp, and it had sounded almost exactly the same time when the wooden four wheeled vehicle had crashed. The sound grew from soft to loud.

Yue Qiang's barely calmed heart rose to his throat again.

He had heard this kind of noise twice in the game.

The first time, it was when when the Zhao Sergeant was killed at Yue Village. The second time happened inside a cutscene.

The source of both these two noises were Gongshu Shaoyang's giant crossbow!

The first two times, the giant crossbow was aimed at his enemies. But this time, it was aimed at no one but himself!

He knew very well how powerful the giant crossbow was. Even if he was in perfect condition, even if he was to use every skill in his a.r.s.enal, he would absolutely not be able to dodge it, not to mention the terrible state he was in now.

He stared closely at the screen. As the air howled, he felt like he could see the tip of the giant crossbow bolt carrying death right towards his body. There was no longer anywhere he could hide from it.

It was at this moment Yin moved beside him.

She had opened her eyes!