Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!
Chapter 188 - 69 Poisoning

Chapter 188: Chapter 69 Poisoning

Over ten meters high, clusters of umbrella-shaped entities stood densely on the ground, with the umbrella’s diameter reaching an astonishing five meters or more.

The white ribs were structured in a bundle-like, translucent form, and a glance would reveal a blood-like fluid flowing through them.

Near the ground, the ribs flickered with a faint fluorescence. The stipe was covered with array-structured pores, through which gas was expelled while accompanied by a large number of spores resembling dust.

Upon seeing this scene, Chen Jian realized they could go no further.

The fungal organisms in front of him had exceeded his understanding. Without figuring out their characteristics, any reckless action would be equivalent to seeking death!

"Stop!"

Chen Jian ordered:

"Lei Jie, focus on the environmental detection information."

"He Shuo, operate the drone to continue scouting ahead."

"Shen Yue, wear your respirator and proceed to take samples."

"Everyone else, spread out with me for vigilance. Withdraw quickly after obtaining the samples."

"Understood!"

With the order given, everyone immediately sprang into action.

Chen Jian activated his exoskeleton and scanned the surroundings with his gun.

Somewhat reassuringly, neither the counter-sniper radar nor the drone’s thermal signal monitoring detected anything unusual.

The surroundings were as silent as always, except for the slight pop from the bursting spore sacs storing the spores, no other sound could be heard.

"In the intelligence you’ve gathered, is there any record of the fungal forest ahead with the Mechanical God Sect?"

Chen Jian asked Ji Xing.

The latter shook his head and replied:

"I don’t know."

"But I can be sure; they must have regarded this as something insignificant."

"But is this thing... that dangerous?"

"At least for now, it seems to be just a group of special plants, right?"

"You also know they are special plants?"

Chen Jian clicked his tongue twice and then explained:

"We’ve seen quite a few monsters. Most of them live in environments similar to where humans can normally survive."

"But these things in the Jinling Ruins... they’re so peculiar."

"There are fungi everywhere, so much that they’ve even invaded the living space of the original plants."

"Moreover, the closer you get to the core position of the Jinling Ruins, the higher the density of fungi."

"You say the monster has nothing to do with the fungi; I wouldn’t believe it for a second."

"It might be that the monster and the fungi are in a symbiotic relationship."

"If that’s the case, then our battle plan might need to be entirely overturned."

"Why?"

Ji Xing asked in amazement:

"Does it make any difference?"

"There is a significant impact!"

Chen Jian slightly adjusted the grip on the 191 and then answered:

"With other monsters, no matter how strong, our battle is fair."

"Find a good site, set up the formation, and then fight to the death."

"But if this is really a symbiotic fungus monster, then the situation is completely different."

"We are fighting in its home, and even the environment is our enemy!"

"No wonder this thing is classified as a Second-level Monster... I haven’t even seen it, and I can already feel its threat."

As Chen Jian finished speaking, Lei Jie also reported the latest environmental monitoring data.

"Oxygen 19%, carbon dioxide 7%."

"Hydrogen cyanide 6 ppm, hydrogen sulfide 2 ppm."

"The air here is indeed toxic, but the concentration of toxic gases is still relatively low at the moment."

"Shen Yue, how is it on your end?"

"Hydrogen cyanide 11 ppm."

Shen Yue briefly answered:

"The closer to the base of the entity, the higher the toxic gas concentration. It should be formed by decomposing certain special substances."

"I suspect the toxic gas recorded by the Mechanical God Sect wasn’t produced by the monster, just accumulated in the environment, like the carbon dioxide we blasted out of the Xia Ma Town Lake."

"Understood, collect the samples quickly, then retreat."

Chen Jian ordered again, but just then, a shadow flickered in his vision.

A very small, very fast shadow.

He even thought it was just a flying bug.

But his combat instinct led him to quickly raise his gun, aiming in the direction where the shadow vanished.

At the same time, several Holy Blood members nearby also reacted swiftly.

"Enemy!"

Ji Xing shouted out a warning. Upon hearing, Shen Yue quickly returned, without any hesitation, and Chen Jian fired a burst of shots in the direction Ji Xing indicated.

"Bang bang bang----"

The bullets broke the spore sacs wrapped with mycelium and spores, releasing powdery white mist that was then carried away by the wind, in the opposite direction from the few of them.

After a moment of silence, the sparse trees mingled within the lush fungi suddenly began to move again.

A shadow flashed by, and this time, the team members fired simultaneously.

"Bang bang bang bang----"

A dense rain of bullets rushed into that fungal forest. Without needing excessive commands from Chen Jian, Lei Jie and He Shuo, who operated the crawler, quickly turned the vehicle around, retreating with the team members in the direction they came from.

"Recall the drone! Lower the altitude to monitor the enemy’s movements!"

"Understood!"

With the order given, He Shuo immediately made the corresponding operation on the smart goggles.

But with the umbrella’s cover, no angle allowed the drone to conduct effective reconnaissance.

The Hunter hidden in the forest moved like a ghost, and except for occasionally seeing a swaying tree cluster, they couldn’t capture its location at all.

And at this moment, in Chen Jian’s vision, the environmental monitoring system suddenly started to alarm.

The concentration of toxic gases in the air was rapidly increasing; without hesitation, he put on his respirator, signaling the Holy Blood members to hold their breath.