Chapter 160 - 158: She’s Bored

Chapter 160: Chapter 158: She’s Bored

The forest was silent and still. The sky was a hazy, grayish-white. Above, branches crisscrossed in a tangled web, making it impossible to tell tree from Pollution Body.

The Hunters whispered amongst themselves:

"Is this really going to work?"

"They don’t seem to be moving..."

"Should we back up a bit? Maybe they see us all standing here and sense the danger, so they’re too scared to come down?"

"...I doubt these things even have eyes."

"Pfft!"

"Who’s laughing? Hey, be serious, everyone..."

Xu Yiming whispered to Feng Ling, "How about we move a little further back?"

Feng Ling frowned, looking up at the motionless branches. "With this kind of body structure, even if they had eyes, their vision wouldn’t be very good. What do they rely on to hunt? Scent? Sound? Or can they detect heat signatures, like snakes?"

She thought for a moment, then got a dagger from Huangfu Miaomiao. She strode toward the wolf’s corpse, stabbed the blade into its throat, and then cleanly sliced downwards, splitting open its chest and abdomen—

A large amount of blood gushed out, its lingering warmth staining the snow red.

A rustling sound arose from all around, and fine snow began to drift down.

"Is it snowing?" a Hunter asked softly.

However, they soon realized it wasn’t snowing. It was the Pollution Bodies in the trees, shaking snow from the branches as they moved.

Everyone’s nerves tensed.

The Pollution Bodies above them were moving toward the wolf’s corpse.

Countless slender branches followed one after another, weaving through each other in a dense, tangled mass, as if the entire forest had come alive.

When they were motionless, the Hunters felt lost, unable to find their targets. Now that they were all moving, the Hunters simply felt their scalps prickle with fear...

They dared not imagine what it would be like if such a vast number of Pollution Bodies all attacked them at once.

Feng Ling quickly stepped back, quite satisfied with the effect of the bloody scent. She smiled and said, "How interesting. They seem to be particularly sensitive to smells. Why don’t they attack us? Is it because humans have less of a scent?"

Su Yuqing guessed, "Perhaps their natural predator is humanoid, so after discovering humans, they’re more inclined to hide rather than attack."

Feng Ling laughed. "I don’t care what their natural predators look like, they should be afraid of humans. Alien Species need to kill them to earn points, and the expedition teams kill them too when they come in. They’re all humanoid. If you ask me, their fear of humans should be carved right into their genes!"

With a SHINK, a long, slender "branch" pierced the wolf’s corpse!

A few more sounds followed as more "branches" stabbed into the corpse. The pulling and tugging actually lifted the body slightly off the ground. If Feng Ling hadn’t tied the dead wolf down beforehand, they would have probably dragged it up into the trees long ago.

More and more Pollution Bodies moved down the trees, extending their branch-like forelimbs, wanting to get a piece of the pie. ℴℴ𝘮

Feng Ling couldn’t help but marvel, "I can’t believe there are so many..."

Xu Yiming looked at Feng Ling, his eyes full of expectation.

’Now’s the time to act, right? The number one Hunter on the leaderboard! Please, show us your full strength so we can all witness it!’

Feng Ling noticed Xu Yiming’s gaze and flashed him a smile. "Don’t worry. I’ll wipe them all out~"

’What’s so hard about this?’

Feng Ling took out a grenade, expertly pulled the pin, and threw it—

BOOM!!!!!

The sound of the explosion rocked the forest! In a circle centered on the wolf’s corpse, all the surrounding Pollution Bodies were blown to bits!

The Pollution Bodies closer to the blast in the trees were also caught in the shockwave, falling down with several legs or half their bodies blown off.

Feng Ling walked over to take a look. She picked up a severed limb of a Pollution Body from the ground, which looked almost identical to a wooden stick, and tapped it lightly. Confirming it was dead as a doornail, the corners of her mouth curled up.

She waved over at Xu Yiming. "This method works pretty well. Let’s go find more animal corpses, set traps for them one by one, and blow them all up."

Xu Yiming stood frozen in place, an unnatural expression on his face.

The other Hunters came over to inspect the scene of the explosion and agreed it was a good method, all of them looking eager to try.

The atmosphere started to lighten.

The Hunters spontaneously split into several groups to set traps in other parts of the forest.

Seeing this, Huangfu Miaomiao also grew a little envious.

For ordinary humans, killing a Pollution Body was just that—killing it. But for her, killing a Pollution Body awarded points.

Huangfu Miaomiao’s greatest asset was turning into a Ghost Shadow. The essence of the Ghost Shadow ability was to liquefy her body, making her like a black shadow that could adapt to all sorts of terrain or slip through extremely tiny cracks.

But it was too cold here. The moment she used her ability, she could easily be frozen solid.

That was why she had been sticking close to Feng Ling and hadn’t made a move the entire time.

But if she used grenades...

She was back in the game.

Feng Ling saw Huangfu Miaomiao staring eagerly as the Hunters moved the wolf carcasses and guessed what she was thinking.

"These Pollution Bodies, called Night Spirits, might not dare to attack adults, but they might just attack a child. You should be careful," Feng Ling said.

This was her way of saying she didn’t object.

Huangfu Miaomiao’s eyes lit up, and she immediately replied, "I won’t go far."

Feng Ling summoned her Cat Spider and Cat Owl and said to Huangfu Miaomiao, "Take these two with you."

Huangfu Miaomiao nodded her head like a chick pecking at rice, rubbed her small hands together, and ran off to drag a dead wolf corpse as well.

The bait was clearly insufficient. Xu Yiming didn’t have time to feel sorry for himself and continued to act as the gofer, running off to move the bodies of the wolf pack they had killed earlier.

Everyone got busy with their own tasks.

Feng Ling built a fire where she stood and threw the pieces of the Pollution Bodies that had just been blown up into the flames to burn.

Not only did they look like wood, but they even smelled like it when burned, giving off a pinewood scent with the faint, fragrant aroma of roasted grasshoppers.

Warming herself by the fire, Feng Ling muttered softly, "So weak."

Li Qing silently kept her company.

"I wonder what this Maze’s Boss looked like..." Feng Ling murmured. "Ye Zheng already killed it, so we probably won’t get to see it. Do you think the Boss was a giant tree branch?"

Li Qing: "..."

He could tell. She was bored.

When they had first discovered the Night Spirits, Feng Ling had shown a glimmer of excitement. But now, her face clearly read: utterly bored.

"The System builds Mazes based on the culture of each region. The Maze Boss should be an image close to a local legend or folktale. It might not be a one-hundred-percent match, but there will definitely be shared characteristics," Li Qing answered, reciting it like a textbook.

Feng Ling glanced at him. "I’ve never heard any myths or legends from Daling Forest about a tree branch."

"The Night Spirit comes from Slavic Mythology, which is from a nearby region," Li Qing said. "When the System uses cultural elements, its definitions are blurry. They aren’t as clear-cut as national borders."

He paused, then added, "But I don’t know much about Slavic Mythology. We can look it up online after we get out of the Maze, if... you’re interested."

"Forget it." Feng Ling’s gaze shifted to the bonfire, the flames dancing in her eyes. She murmured, "You’d be better off helping me figure out what’s going on with this Nest Card."

Li Qing was taken aback. "...But... didn’t you already figure it out?"