"Looks like we're lucky!"
Muzi smiled and took the initiative to pick up the crystal core, and then just when he started.
"Wait a moment!"
Feng Luo suddenly stopped him with a voice, staring in the direction of the crystal core.
"What's wrong, Brother Feng?"
Muzi stopped in confusion.
Before Feng Luo could say anything, he saw that the crystal core that had landed next to the mutant rat leader shook twice on its own accord, then suddenly floated into the air and "escaped" quickly along the corner of the wall.
"What's going on? The crystal core can still run away?"
Mr. Jiao’s eyes were stunned.
"There is a ghost in the game!"
Boss Meng was also a little confused.
"boom!"
While everyone was still a little stunned or even surprised, the m110 in Feng Luo's hand had already fired a gunshot.
"Snapped!"
The crystal core fell to the ground with a crisp sound, and at the same time, system prompts flashed across everyone's vision.
[You (your team member) killed the level 25 gathering beetle (normal), and you gained 16 experience points (xx)... ]
"I see!"
Now everyone understood what happened. Of course it was not a ghost, but a monster.
In Feng Luo's strengthened vision, he could roughly see the appearance of this crystal core-stealing monster.
This is a beetle with a brown body covered with a lumpy dark brown carapace.
But to be precise, calling them beetles is not quite accurate.
Because their bodies are not spherical like the previous self-destructing beetles, but are overall oval, with two scorpion-like claws at the front and six jointed legs below.
The mutant mouse leader's explosive crystal core was held by it with one of its large claws, and it ran quickly on its six jointed legs.
But because of their brown bodies, it was difficult to spot them in such a dim environment, and they were moving against poorly illuminated walls, so no one could see them clearly before.
Then after Feng Luo shot and killed one, everyone realized that it was a monster that was causing trouble.
It's just that the behavior of monsters "stealing crystal cores", similar to the behavior of players grabbing equipment, still feels a bit inconsistent.
Just being robbed of equipment by players, but also weird things like being robbed of loot by monsters
"Ah, look, there's something else over there!"
Chengzi hid behind Boss Meng with some fear because of the strange situation before. When he looked elsewhere, he discovered more "thefts".
Not only the crystal cores, but also some larger crystals exploded by ordinary mice were also secretly grabbed by a few brown collecting beetles and ran quickly.
"Stop them quickly!"
Mr. Jiao shouted, the staff in his hand glowed, and a ground thorn more than fifty centimeters high emerged from the ground, knocking a brown beetle away.
However, even if it was pushed up into the air, the large claws of the brown beetle like a scorpion still clung to the crystal.
"boom!"
It wasn't until Feng Luo, who was feeling very hot in his hand, blasted it in the air with an extremely precise shot that the E-class energy crystal fell.
However, although everyone tried to intercept him, in the end, he was still escaped by a gathering beetle.
It crawled into the dark corner and disappeared behind a pillar that was as big as two people.
However, before that, Feng Luo also got their information.
[Collect beetles, level 25 is normal. Species number: jcg-02364, estimated hp: 2800. xp-s3 chip fit: 35%.]
Compared with the previous self-destructing beetles, the compatibility of this "gathering beetle" has reached 35%, which means there is a one-third chance of success, but Feng Luo is not very interested in them.
Because from the name of this beetle, he knew that it was probably an auxiliary type, and he needed a pet that could help him fight.
However, the appearance of this beetle further proved that there might be something he wanted in this ruins.
"Hey, that's weird. Why does the sculpture on this root look like a statue of a god?"
Mr. Jiao, who failed to chase the last beetle, raised his staff and circled the "pillar" twice, and said with some confusion.
"Idol?"
Feng Luo's face was stunned, and then he walked over quickly.
This is an irregular "pillar" that is enough for two people to report together, about four meters high, and the top is connected to the ceiling of the parking lot.
The color of the pillar is gray with black, and the surface is not flat but undulating. The middle part looks more like a human figure. Mr. Jiao probably thought it was a "god statue" because of this.
The top of the pillar was covered with holes the size of a sea bowl. The crystal-stealing beetle probably ran into the holes and escaped.
"This look..."
In Feng Luo's mind, the building he thought was a human sculpture that he had seen through the m110's sniper scope came to mind, and he found that the materials of the two were very similar, both were like stone but not quite like stone.
However, the holes distributed on the two are exactly the same, except that the holes in the former are smaller and are only suitable for self-destructing beetles to enter and exit, while the holes in front of them are larger and enough for collecting beetles to enter and exit.
"I see!"
Feng Luo now figured out why a large number of self-destructing beetles suddenly appeared behind them. These guys actually ran out from between the pillars, or "god statues"!
To be precise, he should have escaped from the underground, because if you shine a strong flashlight on the "god statue" in front of you, you can see that the hole actually leads to the underground.
Underneath the entire ruins, there are likely to be passages dug by insects, or directly borrowed from the urban drainage system.
In other words, these beetles are probably at the feet of the players at this time.
"However, how do they avoid detection? Is it because the passage and the 'god statue' itself have the function of isolating detection? Or..."
Feng Luo thought of another possibility, but couldn't prove it yet.
And at this time, a prompt came from his communicator that someone was requesting a call.
"Lao Feng, where are you and how is the situation?"
Mu Wu's voice came through the communicator.
"We hid in the underground parking lot of a building and escaped the pursuit of those self-destructing beetles. We have not reduced our numbers for the time being. How are your losses?"
Feng Luo expected that the damage caused by this sudden self-destructing beetle attack would definitely not be small.
Although they sent warning messages to Muwu and the command vehicle the moment they discovered the situation, time was no longer enough for everyone to successfully retreat.
"The losses were huge. In this wave of beetles, three teams were directly wiped out. Even one mecha was surrounded by hundreds of beetles and was destroyed. The total number of people was reduced by 93. If it weren't for the transfer of some self-destructing beetles, We missed the target and went to the positions of the Longyin Mercenary Group and the Veteran Tribe, and the losses were probably even more serious!”
Mu Wu's voice was a little heavy. After all, it was a bit unexpected to encounter such a situation just at the beginning of the mission.
"The situation is a bit beyond expectations. This is only in the 20th level area. The 30th level area and the 40th level area are likely to have similar troubles. So the boss has decided to hire another 500 players from the Veteran Tribe and the Dragon Song Mercenary Group. Otherwise, The mission cannot be completed!" Mu Wu said.
"Yeah. I've already invested so much money anyway, it doesn't matter if I spend a little more!"
Feng Luo didn't care about this matter. Anyway, it wasn't his own money he spent.
The reduction of nearly a hundred people has indeed had a great impact on the plan, because the penalty for death in "Legacy" is relatively serious. In addition to losing one level of experience, you also need to wait twelve hours before you can log in to the game again.
In other words, even if these people rush back to join the war, they will have to wait until tomorrow.
Therefore, it is necessary to increase the number of hired players.
"In addition, because the North District Headquarters has not been attacked by self-destructing beetles on a large scale, the number of people left is relatively large. So we decided to separate five teams to help us catch up on the progress first, so as to avoid causing monsters due to too fast progress on one side. Gather in a certain area.”
In the communicator, Mu Wu said again.
Feng Luo felt that there were a little less than fifty people, but it was not up to him to decide what the "eldest young master" An Ye Xingchen, who was in charge, thought, so he didn't say anything on the matter.
"By the way, after research, we found that these beetles may..."
Feng Luo told Mu Wu what he had just thought about the "god statue".
"You mean, these beetles come out of the holes of the 'god statue', and their passage or gathering place is underground?"
On the other end of the communicator, Mu Wu pondered for a moment.
"To be precise, I don't think that thing is actually a statue of a god. It is made from the accumulation of soil dug out by beetles when they dig tunnels. You must know that many bugs can use special secretions to make the nests they build harder than those of mud. No matter the soil."
Feng Luo said.
"It's a bit unreasonable to have a pattern like a god's statue on it. There seems to be a 'temple' in the center." Mu Wu said.
"Each species has its own architectural style. Maybe these beetles like to do that. Or, it's actually the game company trying to make things more mysterious to increase the atmosphere!" Feng Luo said.
"If this is possible, then so be it. I will immediately ask people to investigate those "god statues"."