Longzang

Chapter 793 Cooperation
Having lost two tentacles, this octopus still has twenty-eight.

It stabbed again, this time with tentacles appearing behind and below the two men, extremely insidious. Wei Yuan, who had just overcome the physical obstacle, moved much faster and barely dodged the stab, but suddenly he was struck hard on the head, his vision went black, and he almost fainted.

The octopus not only had spines, but it also swung its tentacles and lashed out at Wei Yuan. Although Wei Yuan was protected by the Void Undying Law, the force of the blow was enough to shatter a boulder, and it still left him dizzy and disoriented.

Meanwhile, Ji Liuli was also in danger. Her military uniform, made of some unknown material, could withstand the tentacles' stabs. The octopus attacked Ji Liuli with over ten tentacles, stabbing her more than a dozen times, but only managed to tear a few small holes in her uniform. Underneath her shirt was a blouse, and beneath her trousers was her skin.

The alien octopus was quite intelligent and immediately stabbed at the opening, but only left a few red dots on her skin without breaking it.

Wei Yuan saw the battle unfolding here with his divine sense. Although he had expected it, he was still shocked. Ji Liuli's physical body and true essence were ridiculously strong.

Although Ji Liuli was not afraid of being cut or stabbed, she was much less resistant to being whipped. She used her short sword to defend herself and cut off three tentacles, but she also took many heavy blows herself, and blood began to seep from her mouth and nose.

As she tried to dodge, she suddenly stumbled and almost fell. Then she was struck hard on the back, and she could faintly hear the sound of bones cracking! She looked down and realized that a tentacle had wrapped around her leg and bound her to the spot.

As soon as Ji Liuli slowed down, seven or eight tentacles immediately wrapped around her and tightened their grip. Even with her strong body, her face instantly turned red, and blood vessels began to spread in her eyes.

Several thinner tentacles appeared, their tips surprisingly being mouthparts covered with fine, sharp teeth. These tentacles tried to gnaw at the uniform, but couldn't make a bite. They then changed tactics, burrowing into the tears in the clothing and gnawing away, searching for any openings in her body.

Wei Yuan was in a great hurry and used up another bit of his Buddhist luck to fire a shot at the octopus. The octopus blocked the bullet with one of its tentacles, then immediately severed the tentacle and threw the golden-blue-tinged tentacle far away.

Wei Yuan's heart sank; this octopus was proving quite troublesome. But now was not the time to consider attrition. Wei Yuan fired several shots, using up all the green energy he had obtained from the warriors, but he only managed to disable seven of the octopus's tentacles.

On the other side, Ji Liuli was already in dire straits, with a tentacle wrapped around each of her hands, making her movements much slower. The tentacles she severed would regenerate at the tip after a short while. Only by hitting it with a qi-powered bullet, like Wei Yuan had done, could an entire tentacle be destroyed.

In the critical moment, a bright red figure suddenly rushed out of the darkness, raised his hand and shot the octopus, sending it flying several meters away!

The newcomer was a short-haired woman dressed in a red short cheongsam, completely out of place with her surroundings. In her hand was a bright blue shotgun, which she fired with each step, riddling the octopus with holes in the blink of an eye.

The caliber of this gun is comparable to that of a grenade, so you can imagine how strong the recoil would be. However, her slightly slender body still moved forward steadily without swaying at all.

She moved extremely fast, firing more than thirty shots in the blink of an eye, and the magazine of the gun in her hand was incredibly large.

The octopus let out a mournful cry, and the wounds on its body quickly festered. As several wounds spread to the runes, it convulsed and finally stopped moving, retracting its outstretched tentacles.

The short-haired woman approached the octopus corpse and fired two more shots before feeling relieved. She then walked towards Wei Yuan and Ji Liuli.

Ji Liuli picked up the pistol, his face surprisingly wary. The woman in red stopped a dozen meters away and said, "As you can see, the situation down here is completely out of control. None of us are capable of acting alone. Shall we cooperate?" Ji Liuli hesitated for a moment, then finally nodded.

The short-haired woman turned to Wei Yuan and asked, "And you?"

Wei Yuan had always felt that this woman looked somewhat familiar, and now he finally realized, asking, "Kong Que?"

The short-haired woman was taken aback and said, "Who is Peacock? You don't recognize me?"

Ji Liuli then said, "She is the most dangerous person in the entire company, and also the intelligence director, Wang Bing."

Wei Yuan looked at Ji Liuli and asked, "Are you alright?"

"It's just a minor injury, a few small bones are cracked, it won't affect my fighting ability."

Wei Yuan felt a little relieved.

The battle just now, while seemingly a one-sided affair with the short-haired woman, was actually quite different. Ji Liuli had contained 80% of the octopus's attacks, while Wei Yuan had completely destroyed its defenses. When the short-haired woman appeared, the octopus had no means of defense left and was completely overwhelmed by her barrage of attacks. Moreover, she used targeted bio-chemical bombs, which is why the octopus was defeated so quickly.

The short-haired woman said, "There's a data center on the other side of this floor. We might be able to find out what happened there and why these strange creatures appeared. There's also a workstation over there where we can manufacture and replenish biological munitions. Hopefully, there are still enough materials there."

The plan was unanimously approved. The three redistributed the ammunition, with Ji Liuli in front and Wei Yuan and Wang Bing on the left and right behind, respectively. They searched and advanced, clearing out many monsters along the way, and finally entered the data center.

The data center had its own power supply and was still operating. Ji Liuli and Wang Bing checked the data separately, alerting Wei Yuan. Soon, Ji Liuli and Wang Bing made a discovery, saying, "We've found the reason!"

When the accident occurred, the leaked substance was supposed to be a newly developed virus capable of devouring all organic matter and developing intelligence once it accumulated in sufficient numbers. Researchers believe that if this life form were to spread, it would become a biohazard disaster targeting ordinary people. Most would be infected and die, becoming nourishment for the virus; a lucky few would develop immunity, but without superpowers, they would be torn to shreds by the newly born monsters.

The researchers even provided numerous evolutionary templates and accurately predicted the monster's combat power resulting from the aggregation of large numbers of viruses. Looking at this top-secret report, Wei Yuan had a strange feeling, as if this biohazard disaster was entirely under the researchers' control. What exactly were they trying to achieve by studying this virus?
But reality is clearly not the same as the report; the monsters' combat power far exceeds the upper limit predicted in the report.

At this moment, Wang Bing pulled up a data record and said, "The spreading virus was infected by a newly emerging virus. The two eventually merged into a completely new virus, which also has the ability to aggregate and is even stronger. Strangely, this new virus was just developed, yet it can perfectly match our aggregated virus."

Ji Liuli said, "The number of this new virus looks familiar..."

She opened the source file with the virus ID and immediately saw the designer of the new virus: Wei Yuan.

(End of this chapter)