Chapter 160 Trap

Just then, everyone felt a sudden jolt beneath their feet! The tremor originated from the very structure of the building!

As if this jolt was a fuse, it immediately triggered a second, even more violent one!

If the first was a light probe, the second was an explosion of crazed tearing!

Fang Senyan's expression changed drastically as the second tremor struck. He slapped his toes, instantly maxing out his Stamina at 31 points!

With a deafening crash, the brick-and-wood building, already weakened, split open from the middle under the force of the terrifying impact. A massive fissure, over ten meters long and three meters wide, appeared. The group was not on the top floor. Furniture and benches tumbled towards the gap amidst the swaying and creaking, and bricks rained down from the ceiling. Though the Contractors were far beyond ordinary humans, they could only cling to whatever they could find in the massive upheaval. Then, a bright light shone in.

Fang Senyan's heart grew cold, and his face darkened. If this was a Contractor's attack, there had been no prior explosion or warning. The power was terrifying, perhaps no less than that of a mountain troll!

But soon, strange creaking sounds came from below, followed by an incredibly eerie, gigantic tree erupting upwards from the lower floors. Its branches, like octopus tentacles, whipped wildly, sending mud, stone, and wood flying from the surrounding floors. The tree's roots, like bulging, shriveled veins, clung tightly to the ground. One could even see the roots wriggling like blood vessels, greedily sucking something up!

Fang Senyan realized that the power of this demonic tree's germination had broken through the building! In the real world, seeds often sprouted with enough force to crack skulls and split rocks. Now, the power of this demonic tree's emergence was extraordinary. However, though its power was great, its fatal weakness seemed to be its speed. It could only be used for defense. The enemy could come and go as they pleased, making it a living target for any Contractor with mid-range attacks.

But at this moment, the Contractors roared in mingled shock and anger:

"Finley! What the hell are you doing summoning a Whomping Willow now?"

"You idiot, the Metal Mentor will be here any minute! See how he deals with you!"

"..."

"Whomping Willow?" The floor beneath Fang Senyan had collapsed, and he dangled in the air, holding onto an air conditioning unit with one hand. He had seen an illustration of the creature yesterday during a mission and instantly recalled its data.

Whomping Willow

Latin name: willow

Species: Dicotyledonous plants, Malpighiales, Salicaceae

Height: 3 meters when young, up to 10 meters when mature

Attack range: Equivalent to height

Plant Special Ability: Rooting, immune to stun, poison, and bleeding effects, no movement.

Plant Special Ability: Fear of fire.

Plant Special Ability: Bark Technique, granting it extra life and physical defense.

Suddenly, four men in black flew in, speaking in a monotonous, cold voice:

"Demon Division on duty!"

At the same time, a message echoed in the Nightmare Imprints of all Symbiosis Society members:

"You have entered the duty range of the Demon Division Inspectors!"

"How did the Demon Division get involved?"

"What's going on?"

"Where's the Metal Mentor?"

For a moment, the members of the Symbiosis Society lost their bearings and fell into chaos. At the same time, the building they were in shook and finally collapsed completely under the Whomping Willow's assault. Bricks and wood rumbled down, and the entire building turned into ruins. The dust rose, spreading over hundreds of square meters.

At that moment, several Contractors with grim faces and weapons in hand leaped down from the surrounding buildings. The leader wielded a two-handed greatsword that blazed with fire. A faint light condensed into a transparent armor on his body, swirling gently. This armor was an intermediate support ability cast by a magic Contractor within the Banks Gang, called a Mind Armor. It could effectively absorb most ranged damage and was quite powerful, but casting it came at a significant cost. Rumor had it that there were even higher-level related abilities.

Fang Senyan had seen the leader before. It was Fant, who boasted a Strength of 28 points! It seemed that the Banks Gang had seized on the Symbiosis Society's weakened melee strength and laid a treacherous trap here to wipe them out!

For Fang Senyan, with the "Tenacity" talent and 15 points of Defense to rely on, he might not even die if he were buried alive on the ground floor. What's more, the building's collapse gave him enough time to react! So he was the first to stabilize himself. His super-sensory perception had noticed the Banks Gang's arrival the instant the building collapsed.

"Without a doubt, this is a pre-planned trap!"

"The key figure in this trap is Finley."

"His status is high enough to know the whereabouts of the team's top two leaders: the Metal Mentor and Nu!"

"His abilities are strong enough to destroy buildings, creating this bizarre situation that completely eliminates the Symbiosis Society's ranged firepower advantage!"

"His mind is meticulous enough to hide until now without being noticed!"

"Of course, there's an even bigger problem. Only about thirty people entered this world. The Symbiosis Society entered with all of their members... Where did these extra Banks Gang members come from?"

These thoughts flashed through Fang Senyan's mind. He immediately thought of another point: if he were a member of the Banks Gang, what would he do? He would definitely take out the melee group members with close combat capabilities first!

With that thought, he, who was buried in the ruins, had already seen the sunlight streaming in. He was about to blast through the rubble and rush out but steadied himself again. His breathing slowed, becoming almost imperceptible. In such a chaotic scene, almost no one could detect him.

Screams had already begun to ring out. Although the building's collapse was extremely chaotic, it was not a problem for Contractors with high Agility. So now, all the members of the Symbiosis Society were in an extremely unfavorable situation:

First, those who could move freely were some high-Agility Contractors. They could rely on speed and dodging to avoid most of the dangers during the collapse, so they were mostly ranged physical attackers, with only one or two being melee physical attackers.

Second were the members of the melee group. Their Strength was relatively high, so even if they were buried, they could protect themselves and were probably trying to climb out of the ruins. It was estimated that they could rejoin the battle in two minutes.

The most unlucky were the mage-type members. They had low Strength, Agility, and Stamina, and some of those buried below would have difficulty climbing out on their own!

Therefore, when Fant, wielding his two-handed sword, charged into the lingering dust, he faced a group of agile Contractors who were without cover and panicking! Under the suppression of his full-force 28 points of Strength, anyone whose Strength was below 14 points would even suffer additional crushing damage!

From a gap in the rubble, Fang Senyan saw an Agility Contractor named O'Connell being cut down by Fant. Although he had raised his dagger to parry, the flaming greatsword still pierced straight through, cleaving into O'Connell's shoulder. Then, with a twist and a lift, it swept across in a whirlwind! The Contractor let out a miserable scream and was sent flying. He landed in a heavily injured state, and those behind him rushed forward. A few quick strokes of their blades left behind a charred corpse! Leaving behind a key that shone with a bloody light.

Despite the 40% rule constraints, this Contractor hadn't even lasted three seconds!

As O'Connell was killed, gunshots rang out! It was a rhythmic burst fire, and the bullets even had a faint spiral trajectory after tearing through the air. Obviously, the surviving gunmen of the Symbiosis Society knew that their lives were on the line and used their abilities for sniping at this moment.

The bullets accurately struck Fant, but only caused a few ripples on the transparent armor on his body. Fant's eyes were bloodshot. He stomped the ground violently, and the bricks and dirt beneath his feet shattered. Fant raised the burning greatsword high above his head and instantly flew seven or eight meters high before heavily slashing down at the gunman!

However, this gunman was also quite strong. Fang Senyan remembered that his name was Chia Stanoff. Faced with Fant's sure-hit strike, he fired off one more burst and then performed an exceptionally skilled roll to move at least five or six meters away! Fang Senyan was very familiar with this move because Quest had repeatedly used this method to escape Fang Senyan's attacks when he first entered the world. However, the difference was that Quest would often throw a grenade to block the enemy from pursuing after rolling away, while Chia Stanoff had a significant advantage in rolling distance.

The fiery greatsword crashed down, and a horrific, wide, charred scar appeared on the rubble-strewn ground, sending dirt and stones flying! Even more terrifying, the flames attached to the sword surged upwards with a "whoosh," burning fiercely and forming a river of fire on the ground that directly engulfed Chia Stanoff! Immediately afterward, two Contractors behind Fant charged up and, with a pincer attack, easily killed Chia Stanoff! Once again, a key shining with a bloody light dropped!