Chapter 344 - 337: Ferocious Striped Beast

Chapter 344: Chapter 337: Ferocious Striped Beast

About ten minutes later, two helicopters appeared overhead. One of them descended to a height of about ten meters, and six elite special agents leaped directly out of it.

THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD, THUD.

Six soft thuds landed on the road as six tall, imposing figures absorbed the impact and straightened up.

Although the few forest police officers knew about the nation’s special departments and Evolvers, this was clearly their first time seeing them in action. They were slightly stunned by the sight of people jumping directly from such a height.

"Who are they?"

The agent in the lead adjusted his glasses and answered the question.

"Reinforcements!"

The lead Evolver stepped forward to report to the agent.

"Sir, Inspection Class 7 reporting for support as ordered!"

Looking at the six of them, the agent with glasses stood up.

"Class 7? No Perception Types?"

Perception Types were still extremely rare among Evolvers. Huang Jiutian was no longer the only one, but of course, Jiutian remained the world’s strongest Perception Type—the kind with all-encompassing, 360-degree awareness.

Other Perception Types might specialize in smell, sight, or even more psychic senses. According to the current classification system used by the World Alliance, most ranked between Level 1 and Level 3 in terms of Ability, while Huang Jiutian’s Perception was rated at Level 5.

It was worth noting that combat effectiveness and Ability ratings were calculated separately. Some individuals with a mere Level 1 Ability rating could possess the combat power of a Level 3 or Level 4.

Not all Evolvers had discovered abilities. For some, their potential was simply untapped. For others—the majority, in fact—they were purely enhanced in body and spirit, with no special powers to speak of.

The six members of Class 7 were essentially this purest type of Evolver, possessing no known or discovered abilities.

Including the man with the glasses and the other two Evolvers from the original team, that made a total of nine.

"Nine people seems like a lot, but for an animal, especially a feline, their combat power and agility are extraordinary. They’re not something a human of the same level can compare to."

"A feline?"

"That’s right. It’s probably an evolved leopard, though we can’t rule out the possibility of a monster from the Otherworld. If it’s the former, the higher-ups will definitely want it captured alive, which means we’re even more short-handed."

He glanced up at the mountain forest. Past the first peak, the trees would become taller and denser. In such conditions, short of bombing or burning the forest, regular Soldiers would be severely hindered. They would have trouble even spotting the target, let alone shooting it.

Evolvers would be similarly affected.

They hadn’t slacked on their jungle training, but no amount of training could make a human a match for an animal in its own element.

"Check the isolation net within a twenty-kilometer radius and set up the perimeter sensors. Then, clear the traffic. Get these backed-up cars moving. Once the entire section of road is temporarily closed, we’ll make our move."

The man with the glasses calmly and coolly issued his orders.

As an Evolver, it was rare to have impaired vision. Even someone who had been severely nearsighted would gain extremely sharp eyesight. Therefore, his glasses either served some other function, or his eyes themselves were different.

An animal is still an animal, even an evolved one. Faced with a large number of humans, it hid itself completely. The Soldiers advanced to the isolation net. The conspicuous markers were completely undamaged. They began setting up the perimeter sensors and other associated equipment.

Meanwhile, after reporting to headquarters, the orders that came back did indeed lean away from a lethal approach. However, they didn’t order anyone into the forest on a suicide mission either. The main objective was to drive the creature away.

After all, it was far from any human settlements. And with the threat from the Otherworld looming, it was better to take a protective stance toward native life. Of course, a rat infestation like the one in Shen City was another matter entirely.

After waiting for about an hour and a half, the road ahead was finally cleared. Under the direction of the traffic police, the backed-up vehicles began to accelerate and move forward one by one.

This wasn’t a major arterial road to begin with, so there weren’t too many vehicles. Before long, the traffic jam had mostly cleared.

Elder Mo sat in his car. As it began to accelerate from a crawl, his border collie, which had been silent the whole time, started to whimper as they passed the accident scene.

...

In the forest, Soldiers positioned by the isolation net were working in squads, setting up equipment in the trees at intervals along the fence.

These were small sensors that, once installed and activated, would trigger based on heat signatures and scent information.

A Soldier raised a special launcher, aiming a circular device tipped with a metal spike at a nearby tree.

THWACK.

The device shot into the tree trunk. On a tablet held by a nearby Soldier, another dot lit up on the grid display.

Suddenly, a Soldier holding his rifle frowned.

"What’s that smell?"

The old squad leader suddenly pulled them down, one by one, and made a warning gesture to the other two squads in the distance.

The Soldiers in the other two nearby squads quickly crouched, each finding cover and a good firing position.

Many of them had already realized.

’There’s a wild animal nearby!’

The pungent odor they smelled was very similar to the scent near the animal enclosures at a zoo, only much stronger.

It made them realize a predator was close, and their bodies tensed up in response.

In a way, this was even worse than facing a monster from the Otherworld. Being this close to a dangerous beast—a tiger or a leopard, one far stronger than its normal kin—felt no different from being dropped into a tiger enclosure.

CLICK-CLACK. CLICK-CLACK.

The fighters chambered their rounds.

The old squad leader tapped the tablet twice, sending a message that was both a warning and a call for help.

He then pointed to something on the waists of two Soldiers and made a gesture of a fist opening up.

Concussion Bomb!

Wild animals are terrified of bright lights and loud noises. At such a close distance, the beast must be hiding somewhere, watching them.

He was getting the Soldiers ready. If things went south, they would try using the Concussion Bombs to see if they could scare it off.

But before that, they needed to pull back a bit. While the trees here weren’t as thick as those deeper inside the cordon, they were still dense enough to severely hamper rifle fire.

In that moment, the veteran Soldier acted as the temporary Commander for all three squads, using hand signals to direct a slow withdrawal.

There were twenty-four Soldiers in total, but the two closest squads were at least thirty meters apart. On flat ground, that was only about twenty paces, but in the forest, the vegetation often blocked their line of sight to each other.

...

Cui Jian was calculating the setup time for the perimeter sensors, wondering where the suspected leopard might be and whether they could lure it into a trap for capture or kill.

There’s an old saying: a commander in the field has to make their own calls. Besides, the higher-ups hadn’t given an ironclad order.

This animal had already tasted human blood. Cui Jian didn’t want to leave it here. It was best to deal with it now. Otherwise, if it moved to another area, the Taihang mountains were so vast that containing it would be impossible.

Felines weren’t stupid to begin with, and an evolved one would possess considerable intelligence. If it learned that ordinary humans were just free food, the consequences would be unimaginable.

It would be best to capture it. Then, his own Ability might finally be of some use.

"Sigh... If only Ivan from Russia were here. Captain Huang would be good, too..."

Ivan’s Ability to pacify, influence, and control animals made the Russians incredibly effective at handling wildlife, and he would have been a huge help.

Just then, the communications officer in the command vehicle received the distress signal from the isolation net.

When the alert sounded, everyone in the vehicle naturally turned their attention to it.

Cui Jian’s fist tightened.

"With all this commotion, that beast still hasn’t left?"

...

BOOM! BOOM!

Two massive explosions from the Concussion Bombs went off one after another. Of course, the ordinary people in the cars moving along the distant main road couldn’t hear them.

But Elder Mo, who had been resting his eyes, snapped them open.

He looked out the car window in a specific direction. A flock of birds had taken flight in alarm and were now circling continuously above a single spot.

"Stop the car!"

The elder’s shout was like a crack of thunder, startling everyone in the car.

Uncle Zhou instinctively pulled over. No one knew what had gotten into the old man.

To their surprise, Elder Mo slid open the car door and got out.

"You all go on ahead to Yuan City. I’ll catch up with you later."

With that one casual sentence, the elder leaped onto the mountainside slope.

"Elder Mo, you can’t just..."

"Go!"

The driver didn’t even finish his sentence before Elder Mo’s glare and sharp command completely overwhelmed him.

You Ye and You Yifeng wanted to speak, but the elder shot them a glance.

"Xiaoyou, this old man is just going to stretch his legs. There are very few things in this world that can hurt me now! Listen to me. Go!"

His tone was light, but it was powerfully domineering and left no room for argument.

The entire car, intimidated by his sheer presence, drove a long way off before they dazedly came back to their senses.