Fatal Shot
chapter-182

"What a shame. Psionic energy is running low!"

Feng Luo looked impatiently at 24K lying on its belly on his shoulder. 24K, just lacking the last bit of experience before reaching Level 30, stared innocently back at him with its two little eyes.

While hatching Gatherer Beetle before, 24K's psionic energy had already been half-drained. After that, even though it had completed evolution and its overall energy had been raised by 300, that 300 was added to the "maximum limit." Hence, it did not directly restore the psionic energy point.

That was in addition to losing much psionic energy in guiding Unify's long journey from before, so 24K's psionic energy was now not left with much—completely insufficient to "digest" this Female Commander Ant that was one grade higher than the Desert Lizard.

Feng Luo could let 24K absorb the remaining half of the psionic energy crystal instead. It was just that 24K might not be able to absorb it with its satiation level still at 98 percent. Even if it could, Feng Luo would be reluctant.

Rare items that could restore psionic energy like the psionic energy crystal should obviously be used in times of emergency. Though it would be a pity to pass up a Commander monster corpse like this one, one could still be found again in the future. On the other hand, the sources of psionic energy crystals were completely unknown. He could not bring himself to use it now!

Hence, after owner and pet met each other's eyes for a while, Feng Luo finally passed up the opportunity of using the female Commander Ant. He turned and picked up the Eye of the Thunder, changed into a normal shield-breaking bullet, engaged Rapid Shooting, and started to swipe the Journey of Experience chip.

******

Your pet leveled up. Current Level: 30. Your pet's loyalty increased. Currently: 80%.

Over 10 minutes later, 24K's body flashed with a beam of white light—it had finally reached Level 30!

At the same time, its body size was enlarged with its level up, now becoming close to the size of two fists. Even its loyalty had been raised by two points, finally reaching 80 percent with the addition of the 10-point raise from the psionic crystal from before.

Feng Luo was about to open 24K's attribute panel to check out its Level 30 attributes. But at that moment, multiple voices of anxiety and confusion suddenly sounded from the regional public channel.

"Ah!"

"What's this?"

"That's… a Quasi-boss! How's that possible!"

"Quasi-boss? Impossible!"

Hearing this, Feng Luo's heart skipped a beat. He immediately picked up the Eye of the Thunder and quickly scanned the battlefield.

He saw it in an instant. A gigantic red-colored ant over two meters in height, with a similar appearance to the female Commander Ant but without the fiery red semi-transparent wings, had appeared beside the Desert Fire Ant nest out of nowhere.

The Fire Energy surrounding this giant Fire Ant burned furiously, as if scorching the air around. It appeared as a mess of distorted lines through the scope. There was a layer of eerie black gas at its abdomen, constantly diffusing into the air in all directions. The normal Desert Fire Ants affected by the black gas instantly became restless.

Mutant Desert Fire Ant Commander (Level 40, Quasi-boss). Species: ?. Estimated HP: ?

"It really is a Quasi-boss!"

With the simple briefing provided by the Eye of the Thunder, Feng Luo was quite perplexed. Logically, there would be, at most, only seven or eight Commander monsters in such a type of medium-size nest, totaling up to 50,000 in number. Having a Quasi-boss-grade Desert Fire Ant would be impossible!

More importantly, it was a Quasi-boss! Though not as indestructible as a Boss, it had unimaginable destructive power for a Level of only 40.

But even so, if this one Quasi-boss allied with the remaining tens of thousands of Desert Fire Ants, it would raise the probability of wiping out all the 100-plus players on the field!

It was worth noting that even though there had originally been more than 150 players there, dozens of them had been killed in the battle before this, and the remaining players had also been drained. Facing these tens of thousands of Desert Fire Ants had been exhausting. And now, a Quasi-boss like this had appeared?

"What a hack! It must be kidding!"

"Huh? That's not right! Look!"

An anonymous player suddenly spoke through the public channel.

"What's up?"

"Huh? How strange. Why are the Desert Fire Ants suddenly retreating?"

"That Quasi-boss is strange, too. Why is it attacking its own soldiers?"

Discussions broke out among the players in the public channel as a situation unexpected by everyone had arisen. The first move of this ferocious Quasi-boss-grade Desert Fire Ant upon appearing was to smash a large area of Fire Energy Skill onto its own species beside it.

Boom!

Reddish-black flames rose, and all the "soldiers," including a Level-35 Commander-grade Desert Soldier Ant, were instantly burned to ash. Similarly, the Desert Fire Ants initially charging at the players turned abruptly to attack the Quasi-boss Queen Ant ablaze with Fire Energy.

"What on earth is going on…?"

Some of the players were stupefied.

"I know. This is a guild of monsters. A good chance!"

"Don't waste this chance! Everybody, charge together and get this Quasi-boss's rare equipment!"

"F*ck all you slow bugs. Watch me beat all of you! I'll go first!

Just then, there were quite a few anonymous players yelling loudly in excitement through the public channel all of a sudden.

"Right. It must indeed be the case. I have seen this situation once…"

"I encountered this once, too, but it was another type of Level-35 Desert Black Ant…"

Two more anonymous players immediately came to the realization, bringing up their own experiences.

"They are right. I think this situation is correct…"

Other players also reacted, thinking that the possibility was indeed high. Above all, it was a Quasi-boss!

Though unable to match up to a Boss, it was still a monster second only to the Boss. Similarly, it could also produce rare equipment, items, and even set items far better than those of Commander monsters!

Furthermore, it could be said that probably half the players present had either never met a Quasi-boss or had met one but had instantly been wiped out 90 percent of the time. Today, the situation seemed completely different. Monsters were turning against themselves; how could such a good opportunity be missed?

Hence, many players were enticed and had started moving…

"Is this situation because of the mission?"

Standing behind a towering sand dune and looking at all this through the Eye of the Thunder, Feng Luo did not follow the retreating Desert Fire Ants or run toward the nest like the other players. Instead, there was doubt on his face.

He thought of the free post from before that had produced the coordinates of this Desert Fire Ant nest. That player had said that it was publicized for free only because of the mission.

"But why do I just feel like that doesn't make sense?"

Feng Luo's forehead creased. Somehow, he could never pinpoint why anytime he felt that a situation was weird.

On the battlefield, near the "castle-like" Desert Fire Ant nest, it had already completely transformed into a fascinating show! The sizable Quasi-boss Queen Ant constantly twitched its body, attacking with its black, gas-coated Fire Energy one after another, setting the 10-meter area around it ablaze with fiery flames.

The outnumbering Desert Fire Ants, which were still left with more than 10,000 in number even after battling with the players for so long, were suicidally launching themselves from the sky and from the ground at their own Queen Ant as if seeking their own deaths.

Every Desert Fire Soldier Ant looked like a red sniper bullet when it was shot through the air.

These "bullets" diving into the fiery flames headfirst did not make it far before they had lost energy and exploded into flames. Then there seemed to be countless fireworks lighting up the night sky, indicating clusters of deaths. What added glamor to this scene were the countless players, Fireballs, Wind Blades, bullets, Water Dragon's Laments, Spiral Wind Blades...

Ping!

In the end, Feng Luo could not resist. After changing to an energy shield-breaking bullet, he aimed and fired at the Quasi-boss-grade Desert Fire Queen Ant through the scope.

Ignoring everything else, at least a definite amount of damage had been done, reserving the chance to pick up the equipment.

The energy shield-breaking bullet, dimly glowing blue, left behind a track on the retina, then plunged an entire 10 meters into the fiery flames and hit the Quasi-boss on the head.

−10944

Golden numbers—five times damage!