"I've seen a lot of 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 this a qiouqi..." Feng Bujue muttered, "What's up with the patterns on its body..."

What appeared before them was an insect larva the size of a baby. It looked like the kind of worm that gnaws inside vegetables and fruits. It had a short body and was cylindrical, divided into segments.

The body of this worm was not the usual milky white or light yellow. Its surface was covered with patterns of currencies from various countries. Various anti-counterfeiting threads, patterns, specially designed numbers, and even some human faces were fragmented and printed on its body.

And at the junction of 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 were what established a certain connection between the giant worm egg at the core and the corroded metal object.

"When we hadn't seen this guy yet, it was hiding inside screaming and bluffing, but as soon as it was cut open, it went silent..." Feng Bujue said.

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

"I say, why don't you give it the final blow?" Feng Bujue said while using his weapon to block 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, and with a casual slash, he cut off a section of water pipe that was attacking from his side.

"Judging from how fat this worm is, a stab with a knife... it's definitely going to squirt juice like an exploding beef ball." Feng Bujue said, "This knife of mine is newly bought."

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

"Then you use your sword to cut it!" 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 hand grenade from his knapsack.

"Hey... you had this thing and didn't take it out earlier? If you had told me earlier, we could have just opened the door and thrown one in, 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 items, hand grenades." Kuang Zong Jian Ying replied.

Feng Bujue ignored him. After blocking a metal impact, he turned around and retreated to the corner of the corridor.

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

Kuang Zong Jian Ying's speed under normal circumstances was obviously faster than Feng Bujue's, and his movement skills were even more superb. With a light tap of his feet, he dodged and moved, quickly getting rid of the giant monster's entanglement, almost coming to a distance shoulder to shoulder with Feng Bujue.

A few seconds later, an explosion sounded behind them. The giant worm in the core 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?" Final Stronghold asked.

"Of course, I heard it." Doomsday Stronghold replied, "It sounds like an explosion, not like a very powerful explosive, and it's quite far away. It's hard to say the direction."

"Is it Kuang Zong Jian Ying and the others?" Final Stronghold said, shifting his gaze to the floor in front of him, "Or did this group of people do it?"

Lying on the ground was a human corpse, a white man. He was wearing a set of orange protective clothing with a style similar to a spacesuit, basically connected from his neck to his feet. However, his suit looked more streamlined and comfortable than a twenty-first century spacesuit, and it didn't look very bulky. He was wearing a lightweight helmet with a transparent mask on the front that looked like glass, but it wasn't. It must be some more advanced material. The helmet was connected to his collar, and it could be roughly determined that the entire suit was sealed, but it was not equipped with oxygen backpacks or other equipment, so there was probably some kind of future technology in this suit that could provide breathing.

At this moment, there was a huge hole in the mask of the corpse, and his face was a bloody mess. Obviously, the two Shi Dao had just given him a hit. 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 this group of people with unknown origins..." Doomsday Stronghold said, "We, Kuang Zong Jian Ying and the others, the monsters, and these people are already four forces. The more living things there are, the easier it is to disturb our vision, making it difficult for us to find the two people we really want to kill."

Final Stronghold observed the menu situation again, "What we know so far is that both of the other party's people are still alive, and their survival value..." He paused, "Should be the same as us, if we don't count combat damage, they have lost 32%. Anyway, we each have fifteen large-capacity survival value supplements. Even if repeated use has a diminishing effect, it should last a considerable amount of time, so we don't need to worry for the time being."

Doomsday Stronghold continued, "Hmph... that's what I'm saying. Since we can't determine whether the explosion was caused by them, we should still act according to the original plan and explore this area of the laboratory first..."

…………

"Crazy Brother, come and take a look at this." Kuang Zong Jian Ying squatted in front of a safe and said loudly, holding a flashlight.

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

"I know that." Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "This box looks very new. It doesn't look like it's been kept 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. A system menu popped up in front of him. The window showed nine square grids pieced together, like one side of a Rubik's Cube, but without colors. The prompt was: [Please fill in the appropriate content]

"Isn't this just a nine-palace 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... Huh? Didn't you play this when you were a kid?"

"Of course, I know it after you said it..." Kuang Zong Jian Ying said, "The system should prompt 'fill in the appropriate numbers', that would make it easier for people to understand."

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

However, the treasure chest was empty, with no skill cards or equipment, completely 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 idea.

[Side quest triggered]

[Catch it, kill it!]

The content of this mission was short, strange, and inexplicable...

But Feng Bujue actually realized something immediately.

He pounced on the empty safe one meter away, reached in with both hands and grabbed around, and then rushed to the metal door of the room like crazy, quickly closing the door.

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

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

Just now, Kuang Zong Jian Ying watched Feng Bujue open the safe. It was clearly empty... There was no light in this room. The flashlights in their hands were the only light source. In this atmosphere, Feng Bujue suddenly went crazy and said something like this, which made Kuang Zong Jian Ying's skin crawl.

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

Kuang Zong Jian Ying stood up and looked at Feng Bujue vigilantly. He suspected that this teammate had been subjected to some kind of mental pollution or was hallucinating. He tentatively asked, "Crazy Brother... 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 dispelled his previous thoughts. He suddenly understood that this was what the mission meant, "Where is it?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying began to shine his flashlight around.

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

"Doesn't that goggles you're wearing have any special visual enhancements?" Kuang Zong Jian Ying didn't know the equipment attributes of the [Eyes of Hatred]. He just saw Feng Bujue put them on when encountering monsters and guessed at the effect.

"This thing is for seeing 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 this, he took off the Eyes of Hatred and put them back in his knapsack. "By the way, the aggro target of the 'meat bun iron clad worm' outside the door can't be detected either. It seems to only attack creatures that get close to it indiscriminately."

Kuang Zong Jian Ying carefully moved around, inspecting 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 wanted to stay quiet, it couldn'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. An invisible creature that's fast and quiet can dance around us now." Feng Bujue said, "Will 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 are at most at the level of a middle school student. As long as it dares to touch us..."

Suddenly, a muffled sound came from behind Feng Bujue. The next second, he immediately felt something jump onto his shoulders. Then, two thin and bony claws pinched his throat. Without a doubt, the monster was trying to strangle him.

Feng Bujue was a man who had lost his fear. This sudden attack not only didn't stun him, but instead made every nerve in his body tense up. Before his brain had time to come up with a countermeasure, his body had already acted instinctively. Feng Bujue raised his arms and grabbed the invisible monster on his shoulders. His ten fingers deeply embedded into the monster's bare shoulders. The monster, in pain, had to release its claws that were stuck on Feng Bujue's throat.

The freedom to breathe allowed Feng Bujue's stamina to pick up. An extremely tense, but quite bizarre, fight began...

In Kuang Zong Jian Ying's view, Feng Bujue spoke halfway and suddenly started playing performance art, performing a zombie dance. The flashlight in his hand flew out directly. Then, he fell to the ground in a very happy posture and twisted around inexplicably.

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

"Crazy Brother... 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..."

One minute, which seemed inexplicable to Kuang Zong Jian Ying, was a silent and exhausting life-and-death 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 in arm length and size allowed him to temporarily suppress this guy. He could clearly feel that in the darkness, there was something breathing like him, and its heart was beating violently, which meant that the monster was as exhausted as him.

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

"Stop talking nonsense, do it quickly." 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 dual suffocation pressure on its throat and chest hadn't weakened its strength, Feng Bujue's strength alone probably wouldn't be able to control it.

"Don't reach out, this monster has sharp teeth in its mouth. Use your sword to chop its head." Feng Bujue reminded again.

"Uh... where is its head?"

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

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

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