GAMMT - Chapter 36
Chapter 36: The Attack
Downstairs, the atmosphere in the dining room was solemn. What Xie Guangyu had revealed was rather frightening.
Was there really such a strong team lurking in the shadows?
"Can we find them?" Chen Xiaoling asked.
It was the simplest method, better than constantly being on guard against an enemy playing tricks from behind.
"No, at least I have no way. If any of you have special methods, feel free to try." Xie Guangyu wasn't lying, and he added meaningfully, "Lin Qing from the Tianniu Arena is no ordinary person. He's smart and skilled at planning. Do you think he wouldn't have set up proper security measures to prevent you from finding him?"
That was certainly true.
As everyone fell silent, they suddenly looked toward the stairs, because someone was coming down.
"What do you want from me? I don't negotiate prices on sales, unless it's to raise them."
Did that even sound like something a human would say?
On the farm, aside from the guards and tenant farmers, not a single Arcanist had a favorable impression of this scumbag owner. Even Ah Qi and Groundhog, who had bought furs from him, felt indifferent at best. Groundhog, in particular, wished he could just roll his eyes at him.
Everyone stared at him coldly, their gazes unfriendly. One person, unable to hold back his anger, reminded him, "Young Master Xie, there are many lives on this farm, including your own. If you don't strive to be strong and rely on your own efforts, it's impossible to expect others to protect you."
The implication was that he was being too lazy, only thinking of taking advantage of them, the Arcanists, as if their protection was his birthright.
Always demanding money.
His words represented the thoughts of the crowd. The target of their scorn paused, then asked with great indignation, "What makes you think that earning money from you isn't an effort?"
The man was speechless. "?? No, what I mean is, you need to take this seriously and cooperate with us to fight the locust swarm."
Fu Chuan retorted, "If I took it any more seriously, the price of your food, drink, and lodging here would double. If you've got the guts, why don't you just leave?"
Everyone: "!!!"
Damn it, he had the face of a profiteer and was utterly shameless about it.
Even the Xie Clan members were speechless. Xie Yong and his son exchanged glances. With such a temperament and reputation, even if this person had some hidden abilities, he had no future.
The Xie Clan was, after all, just a minor Green Blood noble family in Jingyang City. They couldn't act with impunity and even had to consider the local administrative departments, unlike the great nobles who could directly challenge the imperial government. Therefore, someone like Xie Keli could never be brought into the public eye. Even if Xie An had lost his mind, the other elders of the Xie Clan would never agree.
The two from the Xie Yong family wore expressions of disdain, so obvious that many people noticed, including Ah Qi.
When a person was rude, arrogant, cunning, selfish, and shameless to the extreme, they were truly invincible—because they had the confidence to back it up.
This person even muttered, "Am I the one who's never seen the world? I've watched TV, I know that you people from the main stars must have seen the prices in tourist areas. A bottle of water costs two or three times more than outside. They can make money based on location, so why can't I? My farm gets a once-in-a-millennium dungeon event, and with our lives on the line, I'm not even qualified to earn a little extra? Are you looking down on our farm's products, or are you looking down on the people of our farm?"
For every one sentence someone else said, he rattled off several in return. The man was rebuked into silence. This scumbag Xie was skilled at turning people's words against them, leaving them embarrassed and in the wrong, lest they contradict themselves.
"Didn't you say there are many lives on our farm? If you cherish our lives so much, why are you unwilling to let us earn a little money?"
Some tenant farmer muttered, causing many Arcanists to facepalm.
They had been talked in circles.
This Xie Keli was a rogue. Arguing with him was just asking for trouble.
"Enough. Stop this pointless argument. It's a waste of time. Sit down."
Xie Guangyu was cold by nature, and his strength and influence were the greatest here. His words carried weight and authority. Fu Chuan glanced at the expressions of Xie Yong and his son. Huh, the balance of power had shifted. Xie Guangyu was, after all, from a younger generation and still a student; it was impossible for him to hold real power. Previously, Xie Yong had been in charge… For things to change like this after one trip out into the wild, there could only be one explanation.
So Xie Guangyu was the one who controlled the corrosive black mist Arcane.
Fu Chuan was a little surprised, but she quickly understood.
An old stud like Xie An, who fell for every woman he saw, wouldn't dote on just one, nor would he favor her offspring—unless that offspring had something worthy of being doted on, or in other words, value.
Arcane talent.
It was him.
Fu Chuan finally confirmed it was him, but she showed no sign of it. She just grunted softly, hooked a chair with her slippered foot, and sat down with her legs crossed. "Alright, spit it out. What's the matter?"
"We need food to lure the locust swarm and wipe out their main force. Only then will we have the ability to break out and go to their nest together. I suspect they are all in the nest."
Fu Chuan knew, of course, that since the BOSS wasn't dead, it had either devoured that other team, gained a massive amount of resources, and leveled up, making it unbeatable…
…or the BOSS had escaped, in which case that team certainly wouldn't be in the nest either.
"You want me to give you food for free?"
"No, I'll pay for it," Xie Guangyu said calmly, his eyes betraying no emotion.
"You're a decent guy, so let's sign an agreement. I want a cut."
Fu Chuan said with a humorless smile, turning to order someone to fetch a pen and paper. But as she turned, her nerves flared. She had sensed something… She didn't move, suppressing her body's instincts and reflexes in that instant.
So she allowed a hand to suddenly grab her by the neck, lifting her up before slamming her down.
Bang!
Xie Guangyu smashed her head directly onto the table.
The table was laden with plates of bread, salad dressing, and braised beef. The impact shook the dishes, and salad dressing splattered across Fu Chuan's face.
Everyone was shocked. The captain of the guards' face changed. "Seventh Young Master, you…" They were stopped by Xie Guangyu's own guards. The others were even less likely to intervene; the Teng family members just watched the show.
Xie Guangyu, his face expressionless, pressed her head down and sneered, "I wasn't asking for your opinion. I was informing you."
"This food—you'll sell it whether you want to or not."
"Otherwise, I'll cripple your Arcane abilities. As long as you don't die, who can hold me responsible? Father? Or someone else?"
"Do you think those legal statutes still apply here?"
"Don't forget, you're a blacklisted individual with the Justice Department…"
Xie Guangyu clearly knew about Xie Keli's dark history on X5. As long as no one died and it wasn't a murder case, and it was all for the sake of clearing a dungeon and protecting people and property, certain departments were easy to deal with. They would turn a blind eye.
He knew the situation better than anyone and wouldn't be fooled by Xie Keli's glib words.
See? With one move, he had her completely under his thumb.
Fu Chuan's head was red from being pressed down, as if she were bleeding. One hand gripped the tabletop, as if trying to struggle, but she also seemed terrified, her body trembling slightly.
Ah Qi watched with cold eyes, showing no reaction, only reaching out to grab Groundhog's head and ruffle his fluffy cowlick.
Groundhog: Hey, those brothers are fighting, why are you petting me? Let go, let go!
He reached up with both paws, pressing down on his cowlick while glaring angrily at Ah Qi.
Ah Qi was amused by his antics but also glanced at Xie Keli, her gaze sweeping over the chair behind him.
The chair hadn't moved, nor had it fallen over.
The others were frightened by Xie Guangyu's ruthless cruelty.
The atmosphere grew tense.
"Wait, wait, let go! If you keep this up, I'll report you to the police! As long as I'm not dead, I'll blow this whole thing up. I have nothing to lose. You're an illegitimate son too. No matter how powerful you are, the Xie Clan still has to worry about its reputation. You don't want your own interests to suffer, do you? Let go!"
Xie Keli's threats grew weaker and weaker, and soon he didn't dare to move, because Xie Guangyu had pressed his fingers against his back.
That was where the Arcane energy core was located.
"What did you say?"
"The food! I'll sell you the food!"
"Very good. Thank you, brother."
Xie Guangyu instantly revealed a calm yet polite smile. He released his grip, pulled Fu Chuan up, and straightened her collar for her. "If I remember correctly, you're ranked second. I should call you Second Brother."
"Second Brother, it hasn't been easy for your little brother these past few years. I hope you'll support me… Let's clear this dungeon together, so I can take you home to see Father."
"We're family, of the same blood. There's no reason for us to fight amongst ourselves. I was just joking with you earlier."
"You were scared, weren't you?"
He was gloomy and twisted. Fu Chuan disliked being so close to men and rejected his attempt to touch her collar and neck. She took a step back, touched her swollen face, and said with an ugly expression, "It's good that you know your limits! Who doesn't want to clear this dungeon? Can't we talk things out? Why resort to violence… Take the food, but I want fifty times the market price. After all, everyone knows food prices will skyrocket after this disaster. Pay me now. It's not like you're short on money, right? But I can only give you one-tenth of my stock."
Even after being beaten, he didn't forget to extort money.
His greedy nature was on full display. But Xie Guangyu no longer cared about such minor gains and losses. He looked down on him and simply paid, then pointed a finger.
"Alright, you can go back to your room and hide now."
Then Fu Chuan was "escorted" upstairs by the guards.
The door closed. Fu Chuan stared at the heavy door panel, touching the swelling on her cheek, her eyes lowered.
Like father, like son. Even during that sudden attack, he didn't forget to activate a device to scan my data. Good thing I recognized the model of his watch…
During the surprise attack, Fu Chuan could have instantly counter-attacked based on instinct, but she made a split-second judgment and allowed him to humiliate her.
But inwardly… Fu Chuan didn't seem particularly angry. She just rubbed her face and turned around.
"He really didn't cripple my Arcane abilities… It seems Xie Keli is valuable to him, and also valuable to Xie An. Strange. What kind of mess in the Xie Clan would create a shared interest between father and son? Could it be they plan to use me as a substitute for Xie Guangyu?"
Fu Chuan's mind flashed with various "substitute bride" and "body double" tropes, and she vaguely grasped the root cause of her recent troubles in this identity.
The lights were off in the room, and the dimness made it impossible to read her expression. She simply opened her hand and released a strand of spider silk.
To cooperate with this "good little brother," she probably wouldn't be getting any sleep tonight.
The spider silk spread out. About ten minutes later, Fu Chuan suddenly froze. What was going on? So many of the corpses outside were gone.
She was talking about the locust corpses.
But the human Arcanists had no use for locust corpses, nor did they have the vehicles to transport them.
How had they disappeared?
Unless…
Their own kind had eaten or carried them away.
"To counter-attack and surround this place so quickly… Don't tell me the Queen BOSS is also scheming."
Fu Chuan's heart pounded, and she became even more cautious. She estimated that the Queen must be very weak right now and wouldn't dare approach the farm for fear of being detected. The one commanding the locusts nearby was likely another mini-BOSS.
She had to find them and confirm their ambush location.
After obtaining the food through forceful means, Xie Guangyu immediately formulated a battle plan: use the food as bait and set traps in the surrounding area.
The man was highly efficient, and the plan was quickly put into action.
Those with earth-burrowing abilities transported the food into underground pits. When the time came, the covers would be removed, releasing the scent of food. Of course, this was all predicated on the pit traps being fully prepared.
This required everyone to work together, but the main force was clearly Groundhog.
At dawn, the locust swarm reawakened. They gathered in vast numbers and began to approach the farm again… This time, they all smelled the fresh scent of food.
So much food, so, so, so much!
Already in a state of hunger after a night of dormancy, they were all lured. They abandoned their previous formation surrounding the farm and instead followed their instincts to hunt for food, swarming toward the farm's main gate.
A black mass descended upon the small mountains of food.
More and more came, and the food rapidly dwindled.
The less food, the more locusts.
By the time at least two hundred thousand of the giant locusts had gathered, the swarm itself had become like another, even larger mountain, standing right in front of the farm.
Then, among the hundred or so Arcanists, there were at least a dozen who specialized in trap Arcane. At the very least, Ah Qi and Groundhog were both skilled in it. The composite trap they had set up together was activated directly.
Fu Chuan saw the composite trap in front of the farm and rubbed her temples. She thought to herself that such a powerful trap could kill three of her if she walked into it. Of course, she would have detected it beforehand, but these locusts couldn't. The nearby mini-BOSS had been killed by her, and the main BOSS had been attacked and had fled. So, for the time being, they were leaderless, foolishly obeying their instincts.
A dozen thick fire serpents, four to five meters long, shot out from the pit traps. They coiled, strangled, burned, and dragged. More than half of the locust swarm was entangled and pulled into a sea of fire, burning to ash with a sizzling sound.
This time, Fu Chuan didn't gain any experience. Most of it went to the other Arcanists, with the largest shares going to people like Xie Guangyu and Ah Qi.
The level didn't really matter… She hadn't finished digesting her resources yet, so leveling up temporarily wouldn't provide much of a boost. After all, at these early low levels, the effect of leveling wasn't that significant.
In other words, they wouldn't get much stronger for the time being.
"So powerful."
"Awesome!"
"Seventh Young Master Xie is too strong, a stark contrast to certain other members of the Xie Clan."
"That person is probably either stomping his feet in anger or sleeping soundly right now."
The person suspected of sleeping all night was indeed exhausted at this moment. Her face was pale as she rubbed her brow and drank a potion. Suddenly, she looked ahead.
The reinforced window was closed, sturdy and secure.
But she had a faint sense of… a scent? She seemed to smell something strange.
At this moment, the slaughter outside had reached its peak. The vast number of locusts provided immense experience for Ah Qi and the others, who naturally leveled up. But after the massacre, many locusts broke away and attacked in a rage, while plenty of others that hadn't fallen into the trap buzzed about in an agitated state.
Everyone had already received huge rewards, and the spoils of war outside were countless. Having wiped out half of the enemy swarm in one go, the pressure was significantly reduced. The Arcanists no longer had to worry about their rear and, according to the original plan, surged out of the building to face the locusts in a group assault.
The great battle had begun.
The area in front of the farm was a blaze of Arcane brilliance. But in the chaos of battle, a few sensitive individuals like Ah Qi noticed that some locusts were particularly frenzied. They weren't attacking the Arcanists, but were instead madly attacking the building…
When ten thousand locusts inexplicably swarmed toward one building and collectively blasted its wall with fireballs—BOOM!!
As it happened, it was a certain person's room.
Inside, Fu Chuan's brow twitched. Before a second could pass, a second wave of bombardment arrived. This time, the protective iron window was blasted by a massive, concentrated fireball, warping it and forcing it open from the intense heat… Flames shot through the cracks, nearly igniting the table and chairs.
The temperature in the room instantly soared.
Something was wrong!
Fu Chuan hadn't expected this turn of events at all. Shocked, she immediately connected it with the earlier clues and understood. Someone had taken the opportunity while she was downstairs negotiating to place something in or around her room to attract the locusts, intending to use this morning's gathered swarm to kill her in the chaos.
That person must have been present during the discussion, known about this morning's trap plan, and, more importantly, known that she had been forced by Xie Guangyu to stay locked in her room.
Who was it?
Fu Chuan actually already knew the answer.
Before she could react, a sound suddenly came from outside… Her brow twitched.
It's here.
The crowd wasn't fighting mindlessly. The trap was sustainable, continuously burning the organic material from the hundreds of thousands of locust corpses it had killed. The resulting gas was guided by wind-element Arcanists and Xie Guangyu's corrosive mist Arcane, quickly forming a giant dome.
This was a chain plan. Thirty wind-element Arcanists combined their power to create a small-scale Arcane tornado!
A vast swath of level seven and eight small-scale Arcane tornadoes erupted, like a medium-sized cyclone, sweeping up most of the locusts. Then, Xie Guangyu cleverly used the vortex's suction to draw in the corrosive mist he released, rapidly diluting it within the tornadoes. This meant the locusts were being constantly and repeatedly corroded as they spun.
A massacre!
Even Ah Qi's expression turned grave as she watched.
Groundhog was stunned. "So strong. His talent is incredible. He must be at least level 18, and he's so young…"
Ah Qi nodded slightly, her thoughts turning to her own team leader. She mused, Is Xie An's genetic makeup that good? Is this the benefit of having many children? Quantity produces quality.
"At this rate, today's plan will probably…" She wanted to say that if that person didn't interfere, Xie Guangyu would likely be the biggest winner in this battle to defend the farm.
But… there was always a "but."
A piercing shriek echoed from the distance. Then, the chaotic locusts suddenly seemed to receive a command. Even the ones attacking the building immediately stopped and swarmed together, rushing madly toward Xie Guangyu.
Xie Guangyu was stunned. His skill casting had always been stealthy. Aside from a few high-level and perceptive Arcanists, no one could tell he was the caster, let alone these low-level locusts. How could they have locked onto him?
Seeing that he was about to be surrounded and slaughtered, Xie Guangyu could no longer maintain his Arcane casting. He immediately fled toward the building, trying to get inside, shouting, "The BOSS is here! Quick…"
Before he could finish, a massive, bloated black shadow shot up from the dense forest on the other side. Its wingspan was four to five meters, and behind it came a buzzing, dark cloud of locusts.
Their numbers were no less than another two hundred thousand.
Everyone: "!!!"
They had spent half the day killing them, and now their numbers were replenished in the blink of an eye?
"It's the Queen BOSS! My god, a green-tier BOSS, at least level ten!"
"Quick…"
The moment the Queen BOSS appeared, the locust swarm grew agitated, and so did the human Arcanists.
"King meets king! The final battle has begun! Let's go, everyone!"
Everyone was fired up, determined to fight. Xie Guangyu's expression was dark as he scanned the surroundings, thinking, The BOSS is here? Then what about Lin Qing and his people?
They'd better not wait too long. I'm waiting for them.
Xie Guangyu sneered inwardly.
At that moment, two hundred meters from the farm, Lin Qing and his team were lying in wait inside an invisible underground cave beneath a small hill.
"Should we go out?"
"No." Lin Qing watched the situation at the farm through a monitoring device on the surface. "That kid from the Xie Clan is quite capable. He might have some trump cards. Let's wait until they've exhausted all their tricks. No rush."
He was patient, so the others naturally remained patient as well.
However, as they waited patiently as old dogs, attempting to play the professional oriole as they had before… about a hundred meters to their south, near a ditch, five black shadows were silently stalking a strange spider silk crawling along the ground.
They didn't understand what it was, but they vaguely sensed it was related to some humans, and the Queen's order was to follow it… Soon, their biological sense of smell picked up certain scents.
The scent of certain humans.
They transmitted the information to the nearby Queen via some kind of racial frequency.
The Queen was in the middle of a fierce battle at the farm. Upon receiving the information, she immediately confirmed it: It's those damn humans. The bastard humans who ambushed me and nearly killed me.
"Attack them!"
Foolish humans. Did you think we wouldn't notice your tricks? You even sent out this little thread to scout the area. See? Now we've found your nest.
The five black shadows moved silently.
They approached and summoned.
Below, in the cave, Lin Qing was confident of victory. But he had always been cautious, continuously releasing Arcane probes to check the surrounding air composition. Suddenly, he noticed that a certain elemental index in the air was off…
Not good!
"Locusts!"
He shouted, but it was too late. The entire pit was hit by a combined assault from three hundred thousand locusts that had closed to within fifty meters, along with five black shadows that leaped out.
Those were five elite mini-BOSSes, cultivated with the Queen's birthing fluid, similar to the one Fu Chuan had killed the other night.
Their group attack directly blew up the pit, and everyone inside suffered the backlash from the explosion…
If they had health bars, this wave of attacks probably wiped out half their health collectively.
Only the strongest, Lin Qing, managed to withstand it. It was unclear what device he used—perhaps something that transferred damage or an absorption-type Arcane. He held on for a moment and flashed out of the pit, enveloped in the glow of the explosion, and instantly deployed a protective shield.
"Wind formation, activate! To the farm!"
"Hurry!"
At this moment, Lin Qing was furious. He knew he had been set up!
That damned Xie kid! It must have been that brat with the black mist who plotted against me.
So clever!
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