Survival of the Nation: My luck was a tiny bit worse.

"How about we ask Brother Chen again?"

Ou Yun did want to open a gold supply crate, but then he changed his mind – their current equipment was pretty good, right? And gold supply crates only give out, not give in, so he figured he should save money where he could!

As Leng Ruolan was speaking, she suddenly seemed to remember something, asked Ou Yun for a communication stone, and pressed it.

"Brother Chen, are you there?"

Chen Hao's voice quickly came through the communication stone, as if he had been waiting there specifically for a call: "Yes, yes, yes! What's up? How's the situation over there?"

Leng Ruolan briefly recounted what had just happened—the black mist, the tentacles, the defense mechanism, and how Lü Yun was almost knocked down by a mental attack.

Chen Hao was terrified. He asked about Ou Yun's condition several times before he was finally relieved to be completely sure that Ou Yun was alright.

Have you ever seen anything like this before? Have countries like Russia and Pakistan had similar experiences?

Leng Ruolan spoke slowly.

"It looks like a psychological attack to me..."

Magical attacks have started appearing in the forbidden area now.

"Mental attack... This Abyss Bone Demon has never shown a similar ability before."

Chen Hao's voice was also very serious:

"I suspect this black mist is either another type of monster, or an upgraded version of the Abyss Bone Demon."

Leng Ruolan thought to herself, "That's right, just tell me how we should fight."

Ou Yun chimed in, "This thing can't be hit by physical attacks, and it can't be defended against by mental attacks. We can't exactly throw crystals at it, can we?"

"Um……"

Chen Hao seemed to be flipping through his notebook:

"You just said that Abyss Crystals do have a significant repulsive effect on it? If there were enough crystals, it should be able to suppress it directly, but unfortunately there's a risk of being attacked mentally..."

"so what?"

"So, we need to change our approach?"

Ou Yun and Leng Ruolan could tell from the voice that this person had definitely pushed up their glasses:

"Do you remember the equipment we forged using the skeletons of Abyssal Bone Demons? Maybe it'll give you a head start?"

"Wow, will this even work?"

"Why don't you try a ranged attack first? Make sure you find a safe place."

After extinguishing the communication stone, the two began to set up the battlefield.

Ou Yun pulled out everything he had related to the Abyss Bone Demon—

A breastplate, an abyssal alloy dagger, and several fragments of bone armor that haven't been recycled yet.

There was even a small bag of ashes left behind by the Abyss Bone Demon after its death.

Leng Ruolan looked at the bag of ashes and sighed, "Wait, why did you bring this along too?"

"Brother Chen said this stuff works really well as fertilizer, so I just filled a bag with it."

Ou Yun tossed the ashes into the air; the fine, grayish-white powder drifted with the wind from the canyon towards the direction of the black mist.

"Who knew it would come in such a useful way?"

Give it a try, it might work.

Sure enough, the tentacle that was tightly wrapped in the black mist paused for a moment, like a computer crashing during a game.

Immediately afterwards, the tentacles began to vibrate, and red light began to emanate from them. As if enraged, the tentacles suddenly expanded outward by a large circle.

"It's responding!"

Leng Ruolan immediately poured out all the abyss crystal fragments and threw them one by one towards the tentacles.

The fragments were scattered all over the ground, glittering, and when they came together, they even formed a barrier.

The tentacles' breakthrough was actually blocked by the barrier, and a sharp explosion erupted from within.

The tentacles that were wrapped around the outside began to twitch violently.

Several of the thinner tentacles seemed unable to withstand the pressure, and numerous cracks appeared on their surfaces.

Then, with a bang, it exploded into a ball of black pus.

"Did it work?"

Holding the crystal-forged dagger, Ou Yun stood outside the light barrier with a look of delight, ready to deliver the finishing blow at any moment.

Leng Ruolan held her gun, her eyes fixed on the cluster of tentacles—

The outer tentacles disintegrated, gradually revealing the black mist inside.

The shadowy outline of the baby that she could vaguely see also trembled violently, and the outline became clearer and clearer.

"Big brother, it's coming out!"

The voice just fell.

A crack suddenly appeared in the center of the black mist.

A crimson beam of light shot out from the crack, crashing into the barrier with a deafening explosion.

"boom!!"

Several crystal fragments shattered on the spot, the barrier shook violently, and the darkness deepened.

Immediately, something squeezed out from the beam of light.

It's not a colossal creature like the Abyss Bone Demon.

Instead, it was a sticky, black, gelatinous substance.

Its surface is covered with dense, dark red blood vessels, and a fist-sized scarlet core floats in the center—the only difference being that it is identical to the energy core of the Abyss Bone Demon, only with a more intense color.

This thing completely shocked Europe for a year: "Holy crap! The real thing has appeared!"

When Leng Ruolan saw this, she was furious and pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"boom--"

The bullets whistled as they hurtled toward the crimson core.

It then passed straight through the gelatinous substance and hit the rock wall behind it.

"I knew it."

The bullets for this gun were also forged in a furnace—Chen Hao said, "Let's give it a try."

Unfortunately, the bullets seemed to repel the crystals and had no effect whatsoever.

She fired a shot without believing in the power of magic—well, this thing doesn't have a physical form right now, so it probably had no effect.

Leng Ruolan comforted herself with this thought as she drew her sword.

Brother Chen, it seems we don't know enough about the forbidden area.

But Leng Ruolan's shot undoubtedly enraged the monster.

The monster let out another sharp screech, and the blood vessels on its surface suddenly bulged, forcibly squeezing out from the skin and lashing towards Leng Ruolan like countless whips!

Leng Ruolan dodged with a side somersault.

"Snapped!"

When the blood vessel was pulled out onto the ground, the ground not only shattered into pieces, but the dripping viscous fluid also corroded the cracks, leaving them pitted and uneven.

Ou Yun exclaimed from the side, "To be honest, this thing is much more corrosive than the Abyss Bone Demon."

Because Leng Ruolan fired the first shot, the monster charged at her again, its blood vessels forming whips that lashed out at her fiercely.

"Snapped!"

"Slap! Slap!"

However, this level of attack wasn't too much for Leng Ruolan. She dodged with ease, but didn't have time to retaliate.

"Brother! Stop fucking talking nonsense!"

"Oh! Here it comes!"

Ou Yun was startled and immediately gripped the Abyss Alloy Short Sword. Taking advantage of the monster's attack on Leng Ruolan, he stabbed the monster in the side.

"Sizzle!"

The electric current crackled and popped on the blade.

The monster froze abruptly, its surface veins convulsing wildly, and its hiss became even sharper.

Ou Yun drew his short knife and examined the black slime clinging to the blade.

The viscous liquid hissed a few times in the flash of electricity and quickly evaporated into a wisp of black smoke.

"Oh dear, is this thing afraid of electricity?"

Seeing this, Leng Ruolan took advantage of the monster's inability to recover from the electric shock and immediately moved out of its attack range. Her hands flew, and she pulled out several more bullets from somewhere and loaded them into her gun.

—Ever since she used Storm Black Hawk feathers to make an egg, she felt that every single thing on a beast of this level must be a high-grade material.

She immediately and secretly plucked several feathers from its body, and also had the monkeys collect feathers shed by these kinds of wild animals.

Then, iron ore and other high-grade ores carefully selected by Chen Hao are used to forge it in a certain proportion.

With all the materials combined, she only made 15 rounds, and she couldn't bear to use them.

But now...

Leng Ruolan narrowed her eyes.

"Let me test the power of this thing."

She held her breath, aiming at the crimson core—

"Bang!"