Connie smiled contemptuously and blew on the muzzle of his gun, clearly betting on the fact that Adonis would not dare to lose his temper in front of millions of viewers. The members of his squad laughed along, hoping to provoke Adonis.
Adonis, however, remained calm.
He slowly raised his rifle and pointed it directly at Connie’s head.
At first, Connie thought he was just joking around. Gradually, however, his expression changed.
Under Adonis’s cold, indifferent gaze, he opened fire, firing in rapid succession. The blue flames of the particle beam rifle ignited, pointing straight at Connie’s chest. Connie instantly threw up a spiritual force protective barrier and scrambled across the ground in a pathetic display.
He breathed heavily, watching Adonis, the female who had not rushed or panicked, walk slowly toward him. The sensation of his recent brush with death was terrifying. If he had not dodged so quickly, his antennae would have been grazed by the particle beam, almost setting them on fire.
The combat suit, which had been wrapped tightly with combat bandages, was now riddled with holes. This meant all of his physical protective shielding had been breached. It was just a joke, was it not? Was all of this really necessary?
“That is attempted murder!”
“Heh, murder?” Adonis’s black eyes were tinged with madness. He leaned down toward Connie, the red medal on his chest catching a blinding ray of sunlight. “Do you know what the medal on my chest signifies?”
He had been pitied and mocked by countless insects because of this medal, but he had never taken it off voluntarily. It was fine to wear; it kept things peaceful, especially at times like this.
He curled his lips and used the steel blade on the back of his particle beam rifle to point at Connie’s exposed chest. Under the crushing pressure of Adonis’s rapidly intensifying spiritual force, Connie could barely breathe.
The comment section went wild.
[Killing an insect! He is really going to kill him!]
[My god, how can there be such a terrifying female! Where is the Judgment Mainframe? Are they just going to let him do this?]
[It is a patient with spiritual force mania! Ahhhhh! The bloody medal! If he kills an insect during a spiritual force disturbance, he might only be sentenced to three years of detention! After a period of labor reform, he will be released!]
[My god! Is this the crushing terror of SSS-level spiritual force? Do you see his rapidly rising points? Except for the teams that managed to hold up spiritual force protective barriers, all other weak exotic beasts have been directly sentenced to death!]
Tracy could not help but feel his heart tighten. Looking at Adonis on the screen, he could not help but feel a sense of unfamiliarity. Is he always this imposing when he fights?
The gaze Adonis directed down from above made Tracy’s heart race. His eyes fell on that medal. Adonis had once asked him about it, and Tracy had boasted that spiritual force mania was not anything to be afraid of and that a few spiritual force combing sessions would be enough to handle it.
But yesterday, he seemed to have performed the combing very earnestly. Today, he could not even judge Adonis’s state.
Just like the insects on the StarNet who were in an uproar, Connie was the one whose thoughts were surging. To him, that medal was a death warrant. If Connie did not know how to act wisely right now, heaven knows what Adonis would do. His gun had misfired earlier, and his sneak attack from behind had not hit, but this guy now had a perfectly legitimate reason to torture him to death.
Connie shivered, remembering the countless times Adonis had been sent to labor reform camps. Back then, Connie was only a colonel, while Adonis was already the youngest major on the first high-level planet. Adonis was always covered in blood, his expression cold and sharp, coming and going from various asteroids with a foul, fishy stench. The contribution points he earned were staggering, but most were used to buy his own freedom. Many insects did not understand why he went through this cycle of earning money, killing beasts, getting regulated for being too ruthless, and paying ransoms, but Connie had a vague suspicion.
It must have been something wrong with his spiritual sea. Whenever his spiritual force disturbance reached a certain level, he could not control his murderous intent.
How could Connie dare to bet on whether his behavior just now had provoked this female? Connie’s nails dug into the grass as he looked at the arrogant Adonis and was forced to lower his head: “I, I was wrong. I was the one who provoked you just now. I beg you to be the bigger insect and not hold this against me.”
The apology sounded like it was squeezed out from between his teeth. Admitting defeat to an insect with a lower rank was clearly a huge blow to his pride.
However, Adonis simply stepped past him nonchalantly, using his bayonet to poke at the ground and flip over a few tiny poison bees that were left with nothing but wings. He extracted their energy cores and threw them into his spoils bag.
When the Judgment Mainframe arrived, Adonis’s squad looked very innocent: “Everyone can testify. I am just killing a few insect beasts. But the poison bees on this asteroid are too small and have high concealment; Connie could not detect them, so what else could we do?”
Lurie quickly added: “Come to think of it, he should be thanking our boss! Otherwise, his ugly face would have been stung and swollen!”
Conrad laughed out loud, and the two teammates behind Connie could not help but chuckle.
The Judgment Mainframe’s detection beam scanned Adonis. Today, his spiritual force values were stable. The energy cores nearby served as evidence: the dangerous behavior just now had indeed been motivated by good intentions.
The Mainframe awarded Adonis a “Helpful Insect” badge and added twenty points to his score.
Connie was so angry he could have exploded! What kind of artificial idiot was this Judgment Mainframe? They were just a few poison bees; was it worth Adonis going to such great lengths to hunt them down with a gun? This was a blatant death threat!
But since Connie was the one at fault first, he had no choice but to swallow his anger.
In the ensuing competition, the scores between the two sides remained neck-and-neck.
“Boss, Connie is trying to pick up leftovers within the range covered by your spiritual force network!” Lurie was clever; he saw through Connie’s intentions immediately. He wanted to use Adonis’s high-sensitivity, wide-range spiritual force to hunt exotic beasts together. This way, not only could they intercept a portion of Adonis’s squad’s beasts, but they could also add to their meal whenever the members of Adonis’s squad sent back information. In this way, the number of beasts they hunted would exceed theirs.
“No rush.” Adonis checked the time. There were two hours left in the shooting competition. They held the lead, but the scores were close.
The opposing squad was united. They deliberately attributed all the points to Connie. Any beast they could not kill instantly was left for Connie to finish off. With the three of them working together, Connie’s points rose rapidly. Although this competition was a team battle, personal scores were equally important.
“Put on your protective masks.” Adonis smiled. Conrad and Lurie behind him looked at each other and tacitly covered themselves up thoroughly.
They had left the water source and arrived at a dense forest. Unlike the open grassland, the forest was home to more exotic beasts, and the species were more complex. They were higher-order organisms that had evolved intelligence, while the exotic beasts and poison insects on these asteroids mostly had limited brain capacity.
Adonis leaped lightly onto a large tree, finding an excellent aiming point. Lurie and Conrad remained on the high ground below, shooting at a nest of black-haired diamond rats. These rats had evolved skin harder than steel and were currently shrieking and scurrying everywhere.
Connie’s squad, trailing behind, immediately fired to finish them off. Their accuracy was not bad, and their points quickly increased.
[So despicable! Always following behind to pick up leftovers! If you have the ability, detect them yourselves!]
[This is called being smart! What is wrong with being good at using existing resources?]
[What is going on? Why are Lurie and Conrad retreating? Argue with them!]
Seeing the two insects retreating and leaving the encirclement, the insects who had placed bets were so anxious they were slapping their thighs.
But some insects noticed something wrong.
[What are they preparing to do?]
Tracy had been watching from Adonis’s perspective. He crouched on the tree branch, overlooking everything from above. His score had not moved and was quickly being overtaken.
[This Adonis is nothing special. Is this considered passive competition?]
[If I had known, I would not have bet on him. Trash!]
The StarNet was bustling with noise. Tracy watched Adonis’s focused eyes. He was observing. The wind blew his hair, and he remained like a stone statue, silent and motionless.
[Lurie and the others have left the forest.]
[Are they trying to open up a new battlefield? But it is useless; they are like dog-skin plasters; they will wrap around them again soon!]
The StarNet was filled with pessimistic voices.
Tracy already knew what Adonis was planning. He bit his lip, a trace of a smile in his eyes. That is a really vicious trick.
[The streamer is smiling. Isn’t the streamer betting on Adonis? All the money he worked so hard to earn is about to be gone, so why is he in such a good mood?]
[Is there a hidden secret?]
They cast their gaze back to Adonis, but still saw nothing amiss. As for Connie’s squad, they were busy catching rats and exploding energy cores, busy picking them up on the battlefield.
The moment their positions were completely exposed, Adonis raised his gun.
Countless bullets gathered together, forming brilliant sparks. The giant black object was hit, burned, and fell! Countless tiny figures living inside swarmed out, angrily searching for the culprit who had destroyed their home. All the bees hovered in mid-air, their sharp stingers pointing straight at the three insects standing in the open space, looking completely bewildered.
[Ahhhhhhhhh! It is a poison bee nest!]
[How can there be such a big hive here? At least tens of thousands of poison bees, right?]
[They can even send signals to each other! This squad is finished!]
Yes, it was all over.
Adonis, standing on high ground, stood up. He casually plucked a fruit from the tree branch and took a bite. Occasionally, he fired a few shots, making the bees that were heading in the wrong direction turn around and return to where they were supposed to go.
He even had the leisure to taste the fruit of an alien planet. Connie and his team, who were completely exposed, could be said to be finished. The most miserable one was Connie. He did not have a complete combat protective suit; those poison bees, having lost their homes and desperate, would sting him until he looked like a bun.
Seeing their miserable appearance as they called for rescue, unable to bear the burden, Adonis waved his hand, signaling Lurie and Conrad to follow.
“The time remaining is now completely ours.”