“What do you mean you thought I was dead? What kind of talk is that?” Luca said, feeling speechless.
It hadn’t even been that long since they last saw each other, and yet everyone seemed to be assuming he was dead.
Coarmy, on the other end of the line, let out an exasperated sigh. “I’m not kidding. You promised Drumph you’d take on four Transcendent tasks every month. How many days have passed? We’ve tried to contact you twice already, and you still haven’t come out of the game.”
“Isn’t it still early?” Luca replied lazily. “Besides, things in the game change all the time. I can’t just leave before wrapping up everything, can I?”
Coarmy, feeling helpless, knew there was no point in arguing with Luca. He simply said, “Well, we’ve just received a task. There’s a monster sighting near Celephais, and Quagmire and the others are heading there. Do you want to join them?”
“Send someone to pick me up.” Luca didn’t have anything else planned and immediately agreed.
After hanging up, Luca didn’t have to wait long by the roadside before a heavily modified Dodge Hellcat pulled up in front of him.
The windows on both sides rolled down, revealing three people inside wearing sunglasses.
Quagmire, Donlow, Fuzzsir, and a bandaged-up Melania were in the car.
“Yo, bro, long time no see!” Quagmire, sitting in the driver’s seat, had a cigarette dangling from his mouth and raised an eyebrow.
Donlow teasingly added, “You’re such a busy guy. We couldn’t get ahold of you for a whole week.”
Melania wasn’t much of a talker, but Fuzzsir, with his poet-like aura, sniffed the air and said enviously, “It smells like curry fried rice.”
This guy had quite the keen nose.
“Nothing I can do. Got caught up in a mission in the game, took longer than expected,” Luca casually explained as he climbed into the car and closed the door.
He glanced around at the group. They had all clearly gotten stronger. It seemed like they hadn’t been sitting idle during the time he was gone.
“Are we heading straight to the mission?” Luca asked, noticing that everyone was armed and had walkie-talkies, clearly ready to head to the mission location right away.
“Yep, we’re heading straight there. It’s a bit far, and they can’t hold out much longer,” Quagmire replied as he started the car. He picked up his walkie-talkie and shouted, “Hey, hey, hey! This is Quagmire, Luca’s with us!”
“I’m not deaf, keep it down,” came Coarmy’s resigned voice from the walkie-talkie. After a brief pause, he said in a serious tone, “Hurry up and get there. The officers on-site have suffered heavy casualties. These guys are tough.”
“Don’t worry, it’s just over a hundred kilometers. Give me half an hour,” Quagmire said nonchalantly. He threw his cigarette butt out of the window, then flashed a grin at the others in the backseat. “Friendly reminder, everyone, buckle up!”
As soon as the words left his mouth, Luca felt the car’s engine roar to life.
Vroom!! The engine exploded with power!
The immense acceleration made everyone in the car rock slightly in their seats.
Luca couldn’t help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
Couldn’t this guy at least wait until they had their seatbelts on?!
One car after another was overtaken, and the scenery outside the windows blurred into nothing but a streak of colors.
The Hellcat raced toward the outskirts like a streak of black lightning.
Though Quagmire’s driving was a bit reckless, his skills behind the wheel were undeniable. The car was so nimble in his hands that he didn’t even need to slow down to overtake others. He even managed to push the car to 200 kilometers per hour through the city streets.
Once they were out of the city, Quagmire really let loose. The landscape outside turned into nothing more than a colorful blur, and Luca and the others felt like their internal organs and brains were riding a roller coaster.
The site of the Transcendent incident was located in the Black Mountain, which straddled the boundary between Celephais and the nearby Shen City. It was about a hundred kilometers from where Luca and the others were, and the area was sparsely populated, a mountainous region with winding, steep roads that were a challenge for even the most seasoned climbers.
True to his word, Quagmire didn’t take a single minute longer than the promised half-hour.
When they arrived, the mountains were already sealed off, and a group of officers were waiting for them at the mountain pass. When they saw the Hellcat tearing through the winding roads, they initially thought it was a Marauder approaching.
It wasn’t until the car came to a halt that they realized it was the people they were waiting for.
The moment the car door opened, Donlow bolted out as if fleeing for her life.
“Ugh—” She bent over, vomiting uncontrollably at the side of the mountain road. Other than Luca, whose physical strength was up to the task, the others weren’t in any better shape.
Melania leaned against the mountain wall, her face a mask of despair, as though life itself had lost all meaning. Fuzzsir was holding his head, swaying unsteadily as he muttered, “My head… feels a bit dizzy…”
As he spoke, he suddenly collapsed forward, about to tumble down the mountain. Luckily, Luca was quick on his feet and grabbed the back of Fuzzsir’s collar just in time. If he had fallen, even if he didn’t die, it would have taken him forever to climb back up.
“Captain, from now on, maybe you should stop driving,” Luca said, looking at Quagmire, who acted as if nothing was wrong. He was speechless. They hadn’t even seen the monster yet, and they had already lost half of their team to Quagmire’s driving…
“Cough! We were in a hurry,” Quagmire shrugged it off, then turned to the officers who had come to meet them. Changing the subject, he said, “We’re special personnel here to handle the situation. Do you know what’s going on?”
With that, he pulled out his Morning Star credentials and handed them over.
The officer in charge took the credentials, glanced at them, and immediately wore a serious expression.
He respectfully returned the credentials to Quagmire, gave a slight bow, and said in a deep voice, “We can only confirm a general location at the moment. The enemy is very cunning, and every time our people enter the mountains, they’re ambushed and killed. So far, we’ve lost over a dozen officers.”
His fist clenched, and he continued with a solemn expression, “Please, you must avenge them!”
Over a dozen officers were dead? Those words made everyone’s hearts skip a beat.
Even Luca was a little surprised. After all, the officers searching the mountains were all armed to the teeth. If they were dealing with an ordinary low-level monster, there would be no way it could overpower them.
It seemed they were indeed dealing with a troublesome opponent.
“Do you know what it is?” Quagmire asked, but the officer could only shake his head in helplessness. “We can’t see it clearly. It’s too fast. Even with high-speed cameras, all we can capture is a blur of black. The forensic experts estimate it’s probably some kind of large wild beast based on the wounds.”
The group exchanged glances, frowning. They didn’t know the monster’s exact power, and they didn’t even know what it was. Even if they encountered it alone, it could still pose a serious threat.
But with such a large mountain range, they couldn’t possibly cover it all together. Luca observed the terrain of the forest, thought for a moment, and suggested, “Let’s each take a team of officers, no more than a hundred meters apart, and search horizontally. We should be able to cover the entire area in a few hours.”
The others looked around at the terrain and nodded in agreement. This was the only viable plan they had.
After the earlier incident, all the officers had pulled back from the forest. There were now only about thirty remaining here. Luca and the others each led a group of five or six officers, armed and equipped with radios and ammunition, and began their search of the mountainous area.
Several helicopters hovered above, their rotors thrumming loudly in the sky. Although the sun was shining, the dense forest below felt damp and shadowy. Only when the leaves rustled did some scattered sunlight filter through. The ground was covered in thick vegetation, which obstructed visibility. It was easy to imagine how the monster could easily hide in such a place.
This was likely why they hadn’t been able to locate the creature. Infrared and similar detection devices were useless against monsters. They could only rely on their eyes, so the group moved with extreme caution.
Luca held a standard-issue Morning Star long blade, scanning the area around him. It wasn’t that he couldn’t use a handgun; it was just that cold weapons were more effective against monsters. Those creatures were incredibly agile, and hitting them with a gun would be much harder.
They hadn’t walked for long when Luca suddenly furrowed his brow. Without being able to use his mental abilities to scan a wide area, the search was proving to be even more difficult than he’d anticipated. If they kept searching slowly for that one monster, they could end up wasting an entire day in these mountains.
There simply wasn’t time to waste.
Luca narrowed his eyes, and a flicker of eerie blue light flashed across them.
Eye of Insight, activate!
In an instant, countless elemental particles appeared in his vision. They floated gently in the air, like colorful gemstones scattered across the landscape.
Since the area had a strong wood element, the most prominent color in the surrounding magic was green. This made it much easier to track down the monster. All Luca needed to do was follow the trail of the densest magical aura.
He glanced at the surroundings, then turned to the officers behind him. “Everyone, stay close and pick up the pace!”
“Yes, sir!” The officers were a little surprised. They had only just started, yet it seemed Luca had already picked up on the monster’s trail?
Though they were confused, they didn’t hesitate and immediately followed his lead.
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Luca’s speed was impressive; his movements were as agile as a monkey’s, darting through the forest with ease.
The officers behind him were left in awe—so there was such a thing as a real-life Spider-Man.
A few minutes later, a wisp of black magic appeared in the distance. Luca paused on a tree, carefully inspecting it. He noticed that the magic was slowly dissipating, meaning the monster had likely passed through here about half an hour ago.
Without any hesitation, he followed the lingering magical aura, determined to catch up.
With his current abilities, he wasn’t afraid of an ambush.
As he got closer, the magical energy became denser. But then, something felt off.
The magic around him started to feel chaotic, with some areas thick with energy, while others were much weaker. And the direction… why did it seem like he was getting closer to Donlow’s team?
Just as he was thinking this.
A loud bang—the sharp crack of a gunshot—suddenly shattered the silence of the forest.
Immediately after, there was a barrage of gunfire, followed by screams and the continuous roar of beasts!
Luca’s pupils contracted sharply. fɾeeweɓnѳveɭ.com
Shit, the intel was wrong!
There wasn’t just one monster here—there was a whole pack!