Free Web NovelChapter 774: Chapter 684: Death Spiral
Chichu Chun walked through the abandoned city district.
From the broken walls on the right came a rustling sound; she raised her hand and fired a shot. Behind the blazing red hole, a ’Textile Lady’ trying to launch an attack fell to the ground.
It was an insect-like race, resembling a spider, entirely pitch black, with bright red patterns on its back.
Chichu Chun had seen these Insect Races often; they frequently appeared in dark, damp underground areas, luring prey by mimicking the cries of young girls.
"Squeak—" Chichu Chun stepped forward and crushed the Textile Lady, which emitted a sharp shriek.
She looked toward the nearby ruins, her right eye automatically focusing and scanning. After confirming the number of Insect Races inside, she marked points on a screen with her fingertips.
She was puzzled; this was the third Textile Lady she had seen above ground today.
According to common sense, these Insect Races wouldn’t actively hunt on the surface. They didn’t need to; once prey stepped into their lair, they’d be hallucinated by airborne toxins, fall into silk webs, and eventually die in an illusionary haven of softness.
One must know, the Textile Lady’s hunting list even included its own kind.
In times of food scarcity, they could secrete pheromones to attract other Insect Races. Affected by the pheromones, these Insect Races would lose control over themselves and be at their mercy.
It seemed that something had happened in a nearby underground lair, causing these Textile Ladies to flee in panic.
Chichu Chun bent down, pinching up the Textile Lady’s secretion gland and pulling out a long thread of mucus. She put it into her mouth as if she hadn’t noticed.
"Disgusting, like aloe juice."
A moment later, Chichu Chun wiped her mouth, her right eye glowing red, and her vision ascended through the clouds.
Tracing the distribution route of the pheromones, she quickly pinpointed a subway station, and her gaze plunged towards its location.
It wasn’t far from her position, less than two kilometers.
"Next target confirmed, let’s go."
With her interest piqued, Chichu Chun hummed a song and skipped toward the designated location.
Moments later, a slender insect shadow materialized at the spot where the girl had been, blending seamlessly into the surroundings.
...
Meanwhile, somewhere in Lantern Harbor.
A mercenary team named Crane made a new discovery.
"Come look at this," one person in the team said.
The group approached, witnessing through the broken walls a scene that would be unforgettable for their lifetimes.
They found themselves inside a stadium, and in the center of the circular plaza, countless Insect Races gathered, appearing like an undulating black tide from afar. These Insect Races were of various kinds, yet eerily performed the same actions.
They were circling continuously! One Insect Race followed directly behind another, moving around the central area of the plaza in an endless loop. Without fatigue, ignoring their companions’ fates, every minute and second, some Insect Races were crushed, trampled, shredded into pulp, emitting sharp cries.
More Insect Races continually crawled in from the stadium’s perimeter, joining this seemingly suicidal activity.
Even though they were battle-hardened, they were awestruck by this grand scene.
They had heard of something called a death spiral.
In nature, there are creatures called army ants, which identify direction through the pheromones of the leading ant, and once the lead ant loses its way, causing pheromone confusion, the entire ant colony enters an endless loop until they exhaust themselves to death.
However, what made their scalps tingle was that.
Due to the existence of the group network, as long as a higher entity’s will was present, it could actively intervene and prevent this from happening.
Yet these Insect Races, whose groups weren’t even of the same kind, how could they not exhibit any repulsive reaction to other species’ pheromones?
Not to mention the intervention from a higher entity; could it be that all the leaders behind these groups were completely wiped out?
This completely overturned their worldview.
"This... this is simply unbelievable!"
"What happened to them?"
The vice-captain of Crane Squad slightly frowned,
"Could it be a malfunction in the simulation zone?"
"Ca-captain?" freewebnoveℓ.com
At that time, a terrified scream came from the back.
The vice-captain turned his head, only to see the team captain, usually calm and collected, suddenly snapped, grabbed a team member by the collar, and shot off the member’s lower jaw.
Everyone was shocked, took a few steps back, and all turned their gun muzzles towards the captain.
The man’s low chuckle echoed in the empty stadium, sounding hoarse and parched.
Then the captain raised his head abruptly, a face full of madness, with transparent liquid seeping continuously from the corners of his eyes, nostrils, and mouth, his eyeballs spinning incessantly, laughing, and gasping in a state of extreme excitement.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Flickering flashes of fire ignited the stadium.
The vice-captain, bewildered, watched his teammates aiming and firing at each other, all of them suddenly turning into lunatics, pouncing on each other, tearing, and biting.
"Dammit."
All of this was too bizarre; instinctively he wanted to log out but received no response.
In an instant, he seemed to fall into an incessantly descending space, with scenes of teammates viciously tearing at each other playing out on either side.
Finally, his body touched the cold ground, and someone slowly walked toward him.
He instinctively grasped for the fallen gun beside him, trying to aim at the man, but his hand was trodden underfoot, his body losing control as well.
"Lady Witch of the Plague, it seems your will was right, my eternal love."
"Who are you?"
With difficulty, the vice-captain raised his head, facing a man he couldn’t clearly see, as if the other man were cloaked in light, dressed in pure white evening attire, with a silk top hat under which was a neatly trimmed mustache.
Not far behind the man, there seemed to be another slightly hunched figure.
"It seems our cooperation will be extraordinarily pleasant."
"Lord Heidelberg."
Upon hearing this name, the vice-captain’s gaze trembled suddenly, immediately realizing the man’s identity.
Syndicate!
"Doing this won’t alert her?" Heidelberg’s hoarse voice rose. "That observer is quite troublesome."
"No, this squad was hired by the Yunhe family, allowing them to bypass the Oasis’ login portal."
"She’ll still notice this place."
"You’re correct, but..."
As if envisioning an amusing scene, the man lowered his voice, chuckling softly.
"I don’t consider myself frivolous, but I assure you, that will be much more entertaining."
The two cast pitying glances at the vice-captain on the ground, slowly turning and leaving.
"Don’t go, you..."
"Don’t go!"
The vice-captain’s shout was swallowed by the boundless darkness.
As the scene gradually returned to the stadium, the vice-captain, eyes dim, followed behind an Insect Race, his expression numb and vacant, seemingly oblivious to everything around him, aimlessly trudging forward.
The Crane squad members had already become part of the death spiral.
