The consumption of his energy was reaching its limit. It even almost exhausted his strength to lie supine on the pipe.
Willpower was his last support. Thankfully, he managed to win some time to catch his breath for a moment.
He panted heavily after realizing that they were still some distance from the last danger spot, so his breaths could not be sensed just yet.
Quark saw everything with his own eyes. He was so shocked that he was barely able to keep his mouth shut.
Was there a better hunter than this youngster here? The scarier thing was his battle emotional quotient and meticulous planning, which was almost at a revolting level.
‘Although he has the ability to sense danger... If this youngster could grow, would he...?’ Quark denied the possibility. No matter how talented one was, failing to cross the ‘natural chasm’ in the end would still...
Quark inaudibly sighed, all sorts of complicated emotions racing in his mind.
However, Tang Ling would never know Quark’s thoughts. He was concerned about the last danger spot, but his over-exhausted brain forbade him from thinking.
The rest time would not be luxurious because no matter how insensitive the black-horned purple-striped snakes were, they would still discover the dead bodies of their kind.
“Will they be angry?” Such a thought arose in his numb brain, but as a matter of fact, it was hard to believe that a cold-blooded animal like a snake had emotions.
Tang Ling felt his opinion was ridiculous, but after slightly recovering his stamina, he still carefully backed away to where his grandmother and the others were.
“We’ve got one last gamble left.” Tang Ling spilled the outcome to the excited Quark.
“Are you saying that after you killed that many snakes, you still haven’t cleaned them up?” Quark was not overly concerned. If there was one last blind obstacle in the advancing path, it did not seem like a problem to him either.
“Six, I just killed six of them.” Tang Ling signed the number with his fingers, then he continued, “I said before that there are seven troublesome spots. The most dangerous one is very near to that exit you pointed at, less than 30 meters away.
“How dangerous is it? Is it the big guy?” Quark still sounded casual. He even had the thought of jumping off the metal pipe and dashing towards the exit.
In that particular moment, a dozen thoughts flashed through Tang Ling’s mind, but in the end, he still pulled Quark back.
“I think you misunderstood me. That spot is where I felt the extremely pressuring danger that I can’t defeat.”
Quark got up right away with a stunned expression as some terrifying memories started to come afloat in his mind.
‘Is it that bastard? That huge black-horned snake. No, I shouldn’t call it a black-horned snake. It should be...’
For a moment there, Quark had the wild thought of leaping down from the metal pipe and running, not forward to the exit but back to the entrance. He would rather face the zombies than that thing!
Tang Ling noticed the change of expression on Quark, but he kept quiet for a second before he said, “We are around 120 meters away from the exit here. My senses tell me that the snake has a 40-meter sensing range, nothing more than that.”
When he said those words, Tang Ling looked calm and his tone was absent of agitation.
It undoubtedly calmed Quark a little since Tang Ling’s previous performances had left a strong impression. Even though deep in his heart, he felt the youngster could never cross the last obstacle, he still intuitively believed that he should trust this youngster.
Therefore, Quark licked his dry lips and asked, “What does it mean then?”
“40 meters of sensing range doesn’t completely cover the exit. I’ve calculated its location and it’ll only sense our presence when we are 17 meters near the exit. Based on the reaction time and speed of the black-horned snake, it’ll take roughly 2 seconds for it to approach us and attack us...”
As Tang Ling rambled on, Quark vehemently waved his hand, interrupting Tang Ling, “You shouldn’t calculate that bastard’s performance based on a common black-horned snake’s. If you know...”
With that being said, Quark shut his mouth in silence. So what if he revealed some facts that the people of the settlement would never know? It would only send everyone deeper into despair.
However, Tang Ling’s expression didn’t change as he said almost inaudibly, “I based it off the danger level that I sensed to calculate that snake’s rough capabilities. As a matter of fact, if you have this kind of intuitive senses, you’d be used to calculating this way. Although it’s not precise, the differences shouldn’t result in a fatal outcome.”
Quark was mindblown. Were this youngster’s sensing capabilities this terrifying? Did he underestimate the youngster?
He indeed underestimated the youngster, but compared to those who crossed the ‘natural chasm’, Tang Ling’s abilities seemed a bit lackluster.
Quark thought of sighing, but his eyes revealed a tad of gratitude toward Tang Ling instead.
Struggling in this era, Quark had become a calculative man a long time ago, but he knew Tang Ling was pulling his favor. Under such a situation where information could not match up to the facts, Tang Ling did not use him as bait to lure away the danger.
Tang Ling did not care about the gratitude from Quark. He simply continued, “This is the outcome. You should know that we have 2 seconds to run 17 meters.
“This isn’t the hardest. The more difficult thing is that we still have to pause, grab the ladder and climb up. The climbing process isn’t going to be safe either because there’re a total of 7 steps and 11 meters away from the exit on the surface.
“No matter how powerful the snake is, I am certain that it can’t climb a ladder, but I am certain that when it attacks, its jumping height is surely going to surpass 11 meters.” Tang Ling even had the mood to share the information with a dash of humor.
“It’s f*cking impossible to speed out then!.” Quark fell into despair again. Normal human beings would take around 7 to 8 seconds to cover a hundred meters.
17 meters within two seconds was not the most difficult mission, but no matter how fast they climbed up the ladder, it would still at least take 5 to 6 seconds, would it not?
Quark had no Precise Instinct, but he knew the time left for them to dash out was in the negative.
“So, I’ll go buy some time. In exchange, you have to be responsible for my grandmother and sister’s safety. I want them to go out before you,” Tang Ling negotiated calmly without any sense of threat.
To be honest, no threats were needed. Quark also knew if he did not comply, the youngster might have other ways to prevent him from escaping.
Teeth clenched, he nodded in agreement.
“And I need that thing you called explosives.” In such a life and death situation, Tang Ling thought Quark would not be stingy.
Out of his expectations, Quark denied Tang Ling. “No, these things aren’t that easy to control! Even if you have your instinct of some kind, you aren’t familiar with it, hence it’s impossible for you to perfectly use it. Moreover, given the current circumstances, you can only ignite it to use it effectively and these snakes are sensitive towards light. Are you trying to attract more problems?”
“You have a way.” Tang Ling’s eyes stared straight at Quark.
Quark caught Tang Ling’s gaze and went silent for a second. He then put the weird-looking item into his clothes, and carefully performed an action.
After Tang Ling heard a crash, Quark then put the item into his hands.