Chapter 21: Harvest

"Wino, this guy..."

Joseph saw Wino split Vor into two with an axe and felt a heaviness in his heart.

He knew that his adversary had used a special drug, relying on a mutated body to endure, drawing out greater potential.

Strength, speed, defense, as well as healing and vitality would greatly increase, the effects far surpassing adrenaline's impact on a common person, but the consequence was a decline in rational thinking.

Not only might one be unable to distinguish friend from foe in battle, but it could even increase the likelihood of madness!

Still, things had reached this point, and coupled with the acidic blood's effectiveness against Wino, his actions were probably born out of desperation...

Boom~

Another Guile Thunder was triggered, and an Alien that had drawn near was blown to pieces, its blood and guts scattered, with several droplets of acidic blood landing on Joseph.

Joseph's expression darkened as he looked at the mere three Guile Thunders remaining before him.

This damned creatures weren't limited to the dozen or so that had shown themselves earlier!

They had intentionally given us false hope and illusions!

Glancing back at Wino, who had begun a fierce rampage after taking the drug, but whose body was increasingly stained with acidic blood, Joseph sighed.

"Buddy, let's split up and run!"

Having said that, he retreated to the edge of the cliff, click-click~ a pebble was dislodged by his footsteps, rolling down into the valley below, where he could see the clearly defined three waves of fugitives.

Damn it!

They hadn't even formally entered the cannon fodder ranks, and it was already this troublesome; otherwise, why would they dare to run?!

Standing on the edge of the cliff, digits once again appeared above Joseph's irises, and his legs underwent visible changes soon after.

Looking across the valley at the opposite side that was lower but spanned nearly a hundred meters in width, he took in a deep breath.

If this thing really caught up, it would be too troublesome; his ammunition was definitely not enough, he had to risk it!

He powered up from his feet, and as he leaped, the bottom of what seemed to be an ammo box on his back, ejected a jet of flame to assist him in the jump!

As he began to fall in a parabolic arc, Joseph readjusted his direction mid-air and initiated another jet.

After adjusting four times in the air like this, he crashed heavily onto the lower ground of the opposite side of the valley, slamming into the branches of a tree.

Using the continual breaking of branches to slow his descent, Joseph finally fell onto the leaf-strewn ground.

He then struggled to his feet and hastily ran into the rainforest.

Meanwhile, Wino appeared unconcerned with his comrade's departure, still furiously clashing with the Aliens, raging like a madman.

Against Aliens who surpassed human dexterity, speed, and strength, the enhanced Wino gave off the impression that they could not get close to him.

He rampaged here, causing acidic blood to splash and scatter.

The Double-bladed Axe, collisions, headbutts—each strike landed heavily.

He could even directly catch an Alien's tail mid-strike, hurling the creature to the ground and then stomping on it to burst it open!

And yet, he showed no intention whatsoever of using this power to escape.

He allowed the acidic blood to corrode his weapons and armor; even the originally complete full-body armor had fallen off in many places due to corrosion.

Plenty of the acidic blood landed on his callous-like skin, yet it seemed as if he felt no pain.

But it was at this moment that a tail whip, far exceeding those of the ordinary Aliens, lashed out from the depths of the rainforest and pierced Wino's body brutally.

Whereas the ordinary Alien tails that Wino could grab with one hand, or even fling back, this sudden strike left him with no recourse except to firmly grab hold of the tail.

Wino stood on his legs, his abdomen pierced through, his arms tightly clutched the long tail that far surpassed that of an ordinary alien, pulling it as if he was trying to drag the owner of the long tail out of the rainforest in a frenzied manner.

However, as the long tail exerted force and lifted him off the ground, his movements became somewhat comical.

Accompanied by the rustling friction on the ground, a massive alien, completely different from the ordinary ones and with a hint of a python's outline, slithered out from the shadow of the rainforest, looking utterly terrifying under the moonlight.

Its body was covered in black exoskeleton, lacking limbs, but its head resembled that of a giant trilobite, and its length was comparable to a python's, but even thicker!

In fact, it would be more accurate to say it was a super-sized trilobite with a long tail rather than a python!

The alien python slowly lifted Wino's writhing body to its eyes, seemed to sniff at him, and, without ejecting its more disgusting oral appendage to kill him, flicked its tail and hurled Wino into the rainforest.

A number of regular aliens quickly pounced toward the area where Wino was thrown, and then the alien python locked its gaze on the opposite side of the valley, let out a hiss, and charged towards the other side of the valley with a reckless abandon.

With no bit of concern for the few small Karamis that had escaped, the few remaining ordinary aliens that hadn't been tasked with transporting Wino also followed hot on its trail towards the opposite side of the valley.

While they couldn't leap such a great distance, the cliff along the mountain was nothing more than flat ground to the aliens, who were unaffected!

They easily crossed the valley, then climbed up and entered the woodland.

The once fiercely contested battlefield suddenly returned to calm, leaving behind a field of alien corpses and a pile of python bodies below.

The night wind blew, bringing a whiff of sour blood and the stench of decay.

Then, after a moment, as the shadows twisted, it seemed a figure formed from the black smoke within the shadows.

Continuing to chew on the Blood Orchid, Tao Yu looked at the scene before him, his eyes carrying some solemnity.

"As expected of someone from the Inner City, his pockets are indeed deep, and he's got quite a few tricks up his sleeve."

Seeing the aliens blasted into pieces, thinking of Joseph's earlier autonomously ejecting seeker Guile Thunders, and Wino's suddenly unleashed trump card, Tao Yu also mused to himself.

To judge their limits based on their initial dealings with those giant snakes would be folly.

If one were to base their attack on that earlier performance, they'd really die without knowing how.

But the aliens were truly strong.

Now it seemed that the people from the primitive tribe had likely not run away due to the pythons; it was highly probable that they were abducted by the aliens to be used as breeding machines.

The aliens being here, aside from being attracted by my own gunfire, might even have come specifically to hunt these pythons!

Thinking of that last terrifying alien python, Tao Yu felt a chill in his heart.

If these twenty or thirty pythons were to be captured by the aliens, for newcomers like them who had just awakened, it would truly be a hellish difficulty!

But Tao Yu didn't have time to think further; he immediately started searching for the Yuan Force items condensed from the dead aliens, enduring the disgust.

Most of the Yuan Force was concentrated in the tails of the aliens, with a smaller amount in the oral appendages. Tao Yu didn't care about the strong acidic blood that accidentally stained his hands during collection; he forcefully sped up the harvest using the exaggeratedly potent action capability from [One Proof Forever Proof], even surpassing that of combat movement.

Initially, Tao Yu was worried that the aliens might have the ability to sense his presence. However, after trying to approach a couple of solitary aliens and confirming they really couldn't detect him using [Bullet Time], his courage grew.

He waited for an opportunity from the shadows in the distance all along.

The continuous consumption of mental energy to hide in the shadows was significant, and under normal conditions, he wouldn't have been able to stay for so long.

But by continuously consuming Blood Orchid to enhance himself, the side effect also rapidly replenished his mental energy.

The Blood Orchid not only strengthened his body when ingested but also contained energy far surpassing ordinary meat, allowing Tao Yu's consumption while hiding to be even slower than his replenishment rate.

For ordinary people, the Blood Orchid might only provide fullness and energy, having no healing properties.

But for Tao Yu, the injuries he sustained while searching for loot, acid burns included, were also healed on the go!

Now was the time for harvest, and his wait had not been in vain…