“…Huh?” Xu Wen froze for a moment and nearly got smacked by the bear’s paw. He quickly dodged to the bear’s rear.
But the Rock-Armored Bear was standing upright at the moment, so even from behind, he still couldn’t see anything.
“Captain Ye, Brother Gu, figure out a way to make it lie down!”
Amid the Rock-Armored Bear’s deafening roars, the two men fell silent for a moment.
Then, with perfect coordination, they leapt into the air at the same time.
In the bear’s eyes, the Lightning Blade and the Flame Spear descended simultaneously from above.
Instead of taking the attack head-on, the Rock-Armored Bear smartly rolled across the ground.
“Holy crap?!”
At that instant, Xu Wen’s sharp eyes caught sight of something.
“It’s a pink butt! There’s no rock armor on it!”
Everyone immediately understood.
Ye Huizhou began issuing commands at once.
“I’ll attack from the front. Xu Wen, take the side. Gu Zhuoye, wait for an opening.”
The two nodded and moved simultaneously.
Ye Huizhou stopped using large-scale lightning attacks and concentrated all his power on the bear’s face.
Compared to the rest of its body, the armor covering its face was noticeably thinner. Electricity coursed through its body, making its facial muscles twitch as its eyes temporarily lost sight.
Activating his ability, Xu Wen transformed his sniper rifle into a massive hammer and, taking advantage of the bear’s blindness, smashed it hard from the side.
Boom!
The hammer connected solidly. The bear lost its balance and crashed to the ground.
Gu Zhuoye seized the opportunity and drove his Flame Spear straight into the Rock-Armored Bear’s weak point.
Although he hit the target successfully, his expression remained completely blank, and the corner of his eye twitched faintly.
Stabbing a bear in the butt.
That was disgusting.
Boom!
The armor covering the bear’s body shattered piece by piece, and flames erupted across its entire form.
Before long, the scent of roasted meat drifted through the air.
Xu Wen’s stomach growled loudly.
Not long afterward, the enormous body was reduced to a lump of charred remains.
Su Nian and Ye Xihe hurried over.
Ye Xihe immediately checked the three men for injuries.
“Hm?” Su Nian crouched beside the burned remains of the bear. After examining it for a moment, she dug a round brown crystal out of the ashes.
“What’s this?”
“Whoa! A relic!” Xu Wen shouted dramatically.
Su Nian: “…”
Ye Xihe took the crystal and examined it carefully.
This thing…
Based on her years of reading novels…
Looked a lot like the legendary crystal core.
But when they had killed Mutated Plants and F-rank and E-rank zombies before, none of them had dropped anything like this.
Ye Xihe tightened her grip around it and was about to channel her ability into it when Ye Huizhou stopped her.
He handed the crystal core to Gu Zhuoye.
“Zhuoye, see if it can be absorbed.”
Gu Zhuoye let out a scoff.
Using him as a test subject, huh?
Still, he already knew the thing wasn’t dangerous. Taking it into his hand, he tried channeling his power into it.
A moment later, he shook his head.
Ye Huizhou, Xu Wen, and Su Nian all tested it as well, but none of them could absorb it.
Strange! Ye Xihe stared at the crystal core in thought.
This was how novels usually worked.
Could it be different here?
The original novel had never mentioned such a thing.
Maybe she had read a fake version of the original story.
“Keep it,” Gu Zhuoye said meaningfully. “It might be useful someday.”
Ye Huizhou gave him a difficult-to-read look.
Ye Xihe thought that made sense and tucked it into her pocket.
Despite fighting a second-stage Mutated Brown Bear, they had suffered almost no injuries, only a few scratches that Ye Xihe healed with a touch.
It seemed their growth during this half month in Qingmang Mountain had been astonishingly fast.
After resting and reorganizing, they continued forward while there was still daylight.
The mountain exit was only a few hundred meters away now, though the dense fog prevented them from seeing it directly, so they could only estimate the distance as they walked.
“We’re running low on supplies. The nearest place after we leave is a village. We can try our luck there.”
Even though they had been extremely frugal and had supplemented their food by hunting game, the food in their packs was nearly gone.
After days of traveling, even Ye Xihe felt exhausted.
“I hope we can find supplies in the village.”
“My friends.”
Xu Wen suddenly stood at attention with a solemn expression.
Ye Huizhou: ?
Su Nian: ?
Gu Zhuoye: ?
Ye Xihe: ?
In an impassioned voice, he declared, “Are you ready to end our caveman lifestyle and return to modern civilization?!”
A vein twitched at Gu Zhuoye’s temple.
Su Nian’s eyelid twitched.
Ye Huizhou kicked him in the left butt cheek.
Ye Xihe raised her voice enthusiastically.
“I’m ready!”
Xu Wen looked deeply moved.
“Little Sister Xihe! You’re my real little sister now!”
His reward was another kick, this time to the right butt cheek.
The group successfully reached the mountain exit, but after only a few steps, all of them stopped simultaneously.
Something was wrong.
Ahead lay a vast black mass, writhing and shifting in the hazy fog, accompanied by a chilling buzzing sound.
“Are those… mosquitoes?”
The buzzing was all too familiar.
Before the Apocalypse, every summer night had featured that exact sound waking people from their sleep.
“With a swarm this large, and the sound carrying this far, they’ve definitely mutated.”
Gulp! Ye Xihe swallowed nervously.
They could already see them from this distance…
“If one of those bites you, you’d probably end up anemic.”
“You won’t become anemic,” Gu Zhuoye said.
Everyone turned to look at him.
A flame flickered at his fingertips as he curled his lips into a faint smile.
“You’ll become a dried corpse.”
Everyone: “…”
Heh. Somehow it suddenly felt colder.
Looking at the flames dancing on Gu Zhuoye’s fingertips, Ye Xihe thought for a moment.
“Brother Zhuoye’s fire should be especially effective against mosquitoes.”
As she spoke, she removed her backpack and began taking out spare clothing.
“We should be careful. The mosquitoes might carry the zombie virus. Everyone should cover any exposed skin.”
The group quickly changed into long sleeves and used extra shirts to wrap their heads, tightly securing their cuffs and pant legs.
Twenty meters from the exit.
The mosquitoes picked up the scent of humans and surged toward them like dark storm clouds blotting out the sky.
Each mosquito was as large as an adult man’s hand.
With a wave of his hand, Ye Huizhou gathered lightning into an enormous electric mosquito swatter and smashed it into the swarm.
For a moment, crackling explosions echoed nonstop like firecrackers.
Mosquitoes rained from the sky.
Soon, a thick layer of bodies covered the ground.
But there were simply too many.
The giant electric swatter swung left and right through the air, yet countless mosquitoes still slipped through the gaps and rushed toward them.
Gu Zhuoye raised his hand.
Countless small fireballs appeared out of nowhere and struck with perfect accuracy.
Every mosquito they hit turned into charred remains and fell to the ground.
Xu Wen used his metal ability to create long needles. With every wave of his hand, mosquitoes were skewered together like candied hawthorn sticks.
Meanwhile, Su Nian stood ready with her dagger, taking care of the occasional mosquito that slipped through the defenses.
Once again, Ye Xihe floated healing orbs above everyone’s heads.
Ye Huizhou also pressed a dagger into her hand, though for now she still had no need to join the fight directly.
But the mosquitoes were endless.
No one knew where they were coming from. They poured in wave after wave, an inexhaustible tide.
Before long, the ground was piled high with mountains of mosquito corpses.
“This can’t continue,” Ye Xihe said anxiously.
“They just keep coming. We’ll be exhausted to death at this rate.”
“We have to break through,” Ye Huizhou said in a low voice. “Zhuoye, flame barrier.”
Gu Zhuoye nodded.
Flame walls over two meters high rose on both sides of the group.
“Xu Wen, watch the sky.”
“Yes, sir!”
Ye Huizhou clenched his fist.
The electric net ahead contracted, forming an intricate mesh of densely packed openings.
“Move!”
The group immediately sprinted forward at full speed.