Chapter 142 - 131: All Members Answering the Call

Chapter 142: Chapter 131: All Members Answering the Call

Shi An had already briefly communicated with Xi Xue and her two companions through the Member Card’s messaging function.

The mining area was by no means small, and considerable danger might still be lurking within. For example, what was the situation with that ’Red Beetle King’? What was its level of strength? Were there any other hidden dangers? He had considered issuing a recruitment order to conquer this place. In fact, Shi An had held these ideas from the very beginning when he first constructed the member and task systems.

However, he thought, "The prerequisite is that this Nightmare can be conquered, so preliminary reconnaissance is necessary to obtain more intelligence. Furthermore, the exploration squad unexpectedly encountered several Lost People? This is quite a surprising harvest."

Meanwhile, Xi Xue was currently exchanging intelligence with Luo Susu.

She used information from the Present Realm to trade for the Elk Camp’s knowledge regarding this Fire Stone Vein.

"It’s so wonderful that you can still return to the real world. Even though reality has also been invaded by Ghosts, at least you still have computers, TV shows, and video games," Luo Susu said with great yearning.

These familiar things were already history to her, and even her memories of them were gradually blurring.

She continued, "A single Crimson Beetle is roughly on par with an Ordinary Ghost, but they can spit fireballs hot enough to melt metal. As for the Red Beetle King, I faced it once from a distance, and its aura was absolutely terrifying. I estimate its combat power is significantly stronger than our human Extraordinary Powerhouses at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm."

After all, while both were Below the Extraordinary, the mortal flesh of humans inherently had its limits. Ghosts, however, did not. These mutated Ghosts, which fed on Fire Radiance Stones, were naturally stronger than Ordinary Ghosts.

"Not only that," Captain Luo Susu said. "These Crimson Beetles are swarming Ghosts with a unique Trait—they call for their kin when attacked. The Red Beetle King can even command the entire colony. This means that if you want to conquer this area, you’ll have to face an entire colony of Beetle Ghosts at the same time. Do you have any idea what kind of concept that is?

"At any given moment, you would have to endure the pressure of dozens of Ghosts, perhaps even more. And our understanding of this mining area still isn’t deep enough." She counted the details off on her fingers as she spoke.

She explained that their Elk Camp had once considered clearing the area to harvest a large amount of Fire Stone Ore. Unfortunately, after a brief attempt, they realized that conquering it was completely unfeasible. They had no choice but to give up.

"Ghosts already possess a formidable Life Force and are incredibly difficult to kill," she added. "A powerhouse at the Peak of Third Refinements Realm could suppress an Ordinary Ghost with one hand. Yet, even so, actually slaying that Ghost would require the peak powerhouse to expend considerable effort and consume a large amount of Curse Power. If a Third Refinements Realm powerhouse drained all their Curse Power, how many Ghosts could they Slash? Three or four? Not many."

Xi Xue, Peaches, and their companion deeply agreed. They currently possessed the combat power to completely crush entities at the Ordinary Ghost Level, but killing a single Ghost often required several minutes of continuous, violent damage output. It was exhausting. Dozens of Ghosts? They definitely couldn’t kill them all on their own.

Luo Susu said, "Unless an Extraordinary Realm expert intervenes to crush the Ghosts with overwhelming Abilities, but even that wouldn’t be easy and would consume a massive amount of energy. Moreover, once an Extraordinary Powerhouse takes action and unleashes an Extraordinary Ability, they would likely alert the Extraordinary Ghosts in the surrounding area. The losses would outweigh the gains!"

"I see!" Xi Xue said, coming to a sudden realization.

However, she thought, "Oh, so an Extraordinary Realm expert taking action would alert Extraordinary Ghosts." She did not think, "So the Fire Stone Vein is this hard to conquer."

Since there were no Ghosts at the Extraordinary Tier inside a mere Fire Stone Vein, Xi Xue never once considered needing an Extraordinary elder to intervene. She wasn’t that cowardly! She also hadn’t considered that the Manager’s task for them was merely to confirm the existence of the Fire Stone Vein, not to conquer it. But for Xi Xue, whose mind was entirely focused on charging in recklessly, the Manager paying attention to this place meant the Manager was ready to conquer it.

"DING DONG!"

Words indicating a task update surfaced on the Member Card. ’Find the Fire Stone Vein’ had been completed. The next step was to ’Investigate the Fire Stone Vein and confirm the status of the Red Beetle King.’ There would be additional rewards.

However, this task was simply too difficult for the trio, who were still in the First Refinement Realm. Shi An’s only requirement for them was Support. He had already dispatched the Safe Zone’s Direct Lineage employee, Zhuo Ling, to head over.

Zhuo Ling was currently on the way.

Thus, Shi An had Xi Xue ask about the current situation at the Elk Camp.

Luo Susu had been waiting for Xi Xue to ask for quite some time. She sighed and said, "Our situation isn’t great. We’ve been targeted by an intelligent Ghost, possibly even more than one. Not only that, but our camp’s Fire Radiance Stone defense line and our meat fields have been destroyed! To this day, we still haven’t figured out how the internal meat fields were ruined."

The former—the destruction of the defense line—meant their camp had begun suffering from the harassment of outside Ghosts. The latter—the damage to the meat fields—caused the camp’s food production to drop sharply. Their remaining food could only last them another half a month at most.

Yet, these were still just secondary factors. As long as they couldn’t shake off the intelligent Ghost spying on them from the shadows, the Elk Camp would perpetually remain in danger!

"The Village Chief says we need to relocate the camp, but establishing a new camp is no easy feat. I would much rather find the intelligent Ghost hiding in the dark. However... since the Village Chief says the camp needs to be relocated, he surely has his reasons.

"It’s just, where can we even relocate to?"

Luo Susu was a powerhouse in the Third Refinements Realm. Her two teammates, Li and Liang, were in the Second Refining Realm and the Senior First Refinement Realm, respectively. However, not everyone in the Elk Camp was an expert in the Refining Stage. Most of the residents were merely in the Fusion Stage—and they were the old, weak, young, and disabled of the Fusion Stage. They possessed absolutely no Ability to make a long and arduous journey.