"I've seen some disgusting things in my life, but this…" Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "I don't even want to touch it with my sword."

"Hiss… is that a qiuqi?" Feng Bujue murmured, "What's with the patterns on its body…"

What appeared before them was an insect larva the size of a baby. Its appearance was that of a grub that chewed through the inside of vegetables and fruits. It was short-bodied, with stubby legs, and a cylindrical, segmented body.

The grub's body wasn't the usual milky white or pale yellow. Its surface was covered in patterns of currencies from various countries. Various security threads, designs, specially designed numbers, and even patterns of human faces were fragmented and printed on its body.

At the connection between every two segments of the worm's body, countless thread-like things densely extended. The threads were soaked in black mucus, and it seemed that these threads established some kind of connection between the giant insect egg at the core and the corroded metal objects.

"Before we saw this thing, it was hiding inside, screaming and shouting, bluffing, but as soon as it's cut open, it shuts up…" Feng Bujue said.

"But it's not easy to dig it out after prying open those external things," Kuang Zong Jian Ying added.

"I say, you should give it the final blow." Feng Bujue said while using his weapon to fend off a piece of metal that was smashing over.

"Didn't I just say I didn't want to touch it with my sword?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying replied, cutting off a section of pipe that was attacking from his side.

"Judging by how fat this worm is, stabbing it with a knife… it's definitely going to spray juice like an exploding meatball," Feng Bujue said. "This knife of mine is newly bought."

"After you cut it, just put it back in your inventory and take it out again," Kuang Zong Jian Ying said.

"Then you cut it with your sword!" Feng Bujue said, "Aren't you as fast as the wind with your sword? Hurry up and kill it, I'll stand a little further away and support you spiritually."

Kuang Zong Jian Ying sighed: "Okay… I didn't want to waste it here, but since that's the case…" He took out a grenade from his inventory.

"Hey… you had this thing and didn't take it out earlier? If you had said so earlier, we could have thrown one in as soon as we opened the door, wouldn't that have been the end of it?"

"I told you I didn't want to waste it here… I only have two of these consumable grenades," Kuang Zong Jian Ying replied.

Feng Bujue ignored him, deflected the impact of a piece of metal, and turned to retreat to the corner of the corridor.

Seeing that he was ready, Kuang Zong Jian Ying pulled the pin of the grenade and threw it at the fat worm at the core. As expected, the threads extending from the worm's body stuck to the grenade.

Kuang Zong Jian Ying's speed was obviously faster than Feng Bujue's under normal circumstances, and his movements were even more skillful. He lightly tapped his feet, flashed, and moved quickly to get rid of the giant monster's entanglement, almost reaching a distance where he was shoulder to shoulder with Feng Bujue.

A few seconds later, an explosion sounded behind them. The core giant worm was blown to pieces, and all the rotten metal objects scattered on the ground, while the outermost layer of cell tissue, like skin, began to turn into pus.

…………

"Did you hear that?" Zui Zhong Qiang Xi asked.

"Of course, I heard it." Mo Ri Qiang Xi replied, "It sounded like an explosion. It wasn't a very powerful explosive. The distance… is quite far, and it's hard to say the direction."

"Is that Kuang Zong Jian Ying and the others?" Zui Zhong Qiang Xi said, moving his gaze to the floor in front of him, "Or did these people do it?"

Lying on the ground was a human corpse, a Caucasian man. He was wearing a set of orange protective clothing similar in style to a spacesuit, basically in one piece from neck to toe. However, this suit looked more streamlined and comfortable than a 21st-century spacesuit, and not very bulky. He wore a lightweight helmet. The front of the helmet was a transparent mask, very similar to glass, but not quite. It should be some kind of more advanced material. The helmet was connected to his collar, and it could be roughly judged that the entire suit was sealed, but it was not equipped with oxygen backpacks or other equipment, so there must be some kind of future technology that could provide breathing in this suit.

At this moment, there was a huge hole in the mask of the corpse, and his face was a bloody mess. Obviously, Shi Dao had given him a blow just now. It was unknown whether the cause of his death was the injury to his face or the air he breathed after the mask was broken…

"This script is more troublesome than it looks. In addition to the players, there are monsters and these people of unknown origin…" Mo Ri Qiang Xi said, "Us, Kuang Zong Jian Ying and the others, the monsters, and these people are already four forces. The more living things there are, the more easily our vision will be disturbed, making us unable to find the two people we really want to kill."

Zui Zhong Qiang Xi observed the menu again: "What we can know now is that both of the other party's people are still alive, and their survival value…" He paused for a moment, "Should be the same as ours. If we don't count combat damage, it has already been lost by 32%. Anyway, we each have fifteen large-capacity survival value supplements. Even if repeated use will have diminishing effects, it should last for quite a long time. There is no need to worry for the time being."

Mo Ri Qiang Xi continued, "Hmph… that's right. Since we can't determine whether the explosion was caused by them, let's act according to the original plan and explore this area of the laboratory first…"

…………

"Brother Feng, come and take a look at this." Kuang Zong Jian Ying held a flashlight and squatted in front of a safe, shouting loudly.

Feng Bujue was checking the cage where the giant monster was held, but he didn't gain much. He walked over when he heard the words, shone his flashlight over there, and said, "This is obviously a treasure chest that the system spawned."

"I know that." Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "This box looks very new, it doesn't look like it's been there for 455 years, and…" He pointed to the lock, "Look at what the system's riddle means? Tic-tac-toe?"

Feng Bujue moved closer to the front of the box, and a system menu popped up in front of him. The window showed nine square grids put together, like one side of a Rubik's Cube, but without colors. The prompt was: 【Please fill in the appropriate content】

"Isn't this the Jiugong Diagram?" Feng Bujue blurted out, "Nine on top, one at the bottom, three on the left, seven on the right, two and four on the shoulders, six and eight on the feet… Eh? Didn't you play this when you were a kid?"

"Of course I know when you say it…" Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "The system should prompt 'fill in the appropriate numbers', then people would understand."

"It's open." As Feng Bujue spoke, he had already unlocked it in the menu. The safe clicked open.

But the treasure chest was actually empty. There were no skill cards or equipment, it was empty.

At this moment, Feng Bujue suddenly suspected that his character was too bad, resulting in an empty box… Fortunately, the system voice dispelled this thought.

【Side quest triggered】

【Catch it, kill it!】

The content of this task was short, strange, and inexplicable…

But Feng Bujue actually realized something immediately.

He pounced on the empty safe a meter away, stretched his hands into it and grabbed around, then rushed to the metal door of the room like crazy and quickly closed the door.

"What's going on?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying asked.

"There's something in the box," Feng Bujue replied.

Kuang Zong Jian Ying had just watched Feng Bujue open the safe, and it was clearly empty… There was no light in this room, and the flashlights in their hands were the only light source. In this atmosphere, Feng Bujue suddenly said something like this, calling a stag a horse, which couldn't help but give Kuang Zong Jian Ying goosebumps all over his body.

"It's already run out!" Feng Bujue added.

Kuang Zong Jian Ying stood up and looked at Feng Bujue warily. He suspected that this teammate had been subjected to some kind of mental pollution or was hallucinating. He tentatively asked, "Brother Feng… what did you see?"

"I didn't see anything," Feng Bujue replied, "That thing is invisible!"

As soon as Kuang Zong Jian Ying heard this, he immediately dismissed his previous thoughts. He suddenly understood, so that's what the task meant, "Where is it?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying shined his flashlight around.

"You're asking me?" Feng Bujue said.

"Doesn't that goggle you're wearing have some special visual enhancement?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying didn't know the equipment attributes of [Eyes of Hatred], he just saw Feng Bujue put it on when encountering monsters and guessed the effect.

"This thing is for looking at the monster's aggro target," Feng Bujue replied, "But first I have to 'see' the monster, if I can't see the monster, it won't work." As he said that, he took off the Eyes of Hatred and put it back in his inventory. "By the way, the aggro target of that 'meat-filled bug' outside the door can't be detected either. It seems to only attack creatures that approach it indiscriminately."

Kuang Zong Jian Ying moved carefully, checking the surroundings: "There's no sound at all… are you sure that thing didn't escape before you closed the door?"

"If it rushed to the door faster than me, it would definitely make a sound. If it wants to stay quiet, it can't be faster than me," Feng Bujue replied.

"How do you know? What if it's fast and quiet?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying asked.

"Nonsense… then there's no need to catch it. If it's a fast and quiet invisible creature, it can circle around us and dance right now." Feng Bujue said, "Would the system let you catch something that's impossible to catch?"

"What do we do now?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "It's in this room, can it understand our conversation?" He became nervous, "If it attacks us…"

Feng Bujue interrupted, "An invisible creature locked in a safe, its height and weight is at most a middle school student level. As long as it dares to touch us…"

Suddenly, a muffled sound came from behind Feng Bujue. In the next second, he immediately felt something jump onto his shoulder. Then, two skinny claws pinched his throat. There was no doubt that the monster was trying to strangle him.

Feng Bujue was a man who had lost his fear. This sudden attack not only didn't scare him, but also made every nerve in his body highly tense. Before his brain could come up with a countermeasure for this situation, his body had already acted instinctively. Feng Bujue raised his arms and grabbed the invisible monster on his shoulders. His ten fingers were deeply embedded in the monster's bare shoulders. The monster, in pain, had to let go of the claws that were stuck on Feng Bujue's throat.

The free breathing boosted Feng Bujue's stamina. An extremely tense, but rather strange, fight began…

In Kuang Zong Jian Ying's view, Feng Bujue said half a sentence, and suddenly started playing performance art, performing a zombie dance-like performance. The flashlight in his hand flew out, and then he fell to the ground in a very comical posture, wriggling inexplicably.

The situation was complicated at this time. Feng Bujue had no energy to speak. He had to be careful of a pair of strong and agile claws attacking his throat at all times. Almost every second, he was in a state of wrestling with the other party. The invisible monster's body was a little slippery, but it wasn't the kind of wet and disgusting feeling. It was just because it was naked. Its body shape was as Feng Bujue predicted, like a miniature version of a human. Its strength was very abnormal, almost equal to Feng Bujue.

"Brother Feng… what are you…" Kuang Zong Jian Ying walked over with a flashlight, shining it on Feng Bujue who was rolling on the ground.

"I… caught…" Feng Bujue's face was flushed red, and he squeezed out a sentence from between his teeth, "It… is…"

In what Kuang Zong Jian Ying considered an inexplicable minute, it was a silent, exhausting, and desperate struggle for Feng Bujue. Fortunately, he finally gained the upper hand.

Feng Bujue used his knee to hold down the monster's chest, and pinched its throat with his hand. The advantage of arm length and body shape allowed him to temporarily suppress this guy. He could clearly feel that in the darkness, there was something breathing like himself, and its heart was beating violently, which meant that the monster was as exhausted as himself.

"This is…" Kuang Zong Jian Ying tried to touch it with his hand and touched the monster, "It's really invisible…"

"Don't talk nonsense, hurry up and do it," Feng Bujue said. He knew best that after a few seconds of pause, the monster began to struggle violently again. Its claws were grabbing Feng Bujue's arm. If the double suffocation pressure on his throat and chest hadn't weakened its strength, Feng Bujue's strength alone probably wouldn't be able to control it.

"Don't reach over, this monster has sharp teeth in its mouth, cut off its head with your sword," Feng Bujue reminded again.

"Uh… where is its head?"

"My right hand is pinching its neck, the head is above it."

"Understood." Kuang Zong Jian Ying responded, aimed at the position, and swung his sword.

With a *poof* sound, something was split open. Feng Bujue only felt the two claws grabbing his arm suddenly tighten, then loosen. He understood that the monster was finished.