Infinite Ebullience
Chapter 693 - 37: Love Bug Virus

Chapter 693: Chapter 37: Love Bug Virus

The Agent Smith No. 6 that had arrived following the coordinate beams did not immediately engage in combat. Frowning, it glances at the ceiling before it breaks down into countless small black cubes, melting into the corner’s wall. This was the Mother Empress’ virtual world, and as an antivirus software, it had unlimited access rights.

With the lollipop forgotten in his mouth, Lu Fan summons his spider mount to ensure mobility and, holding his thunderstorm rifle loudly, he pricks his ears to listen.

Everyone was startled and looked around in alarm, their faces filled with surprise.

Soon, a rustling sound, like that of a spring silkworm devouring a mulberry leaf, began to rise. The sound grew more intense, filling the dim underground parking lot.

"What is it?" Bai Guo felt his scalp tingle and saw a little bug fall on his shoulder. He tried to flick it off but the bug stuck to his finger.

The click of a dozen more falling followed. They either struck the floor or they landed on the survivors.

"How disgusting!" Chen Hong looked at the loathsome caterpillar with its alternating red and black spots and coarse hairs. His stomach turned, his skin crawled, and he quickly tried to swipe it off.

The caterpillar, about the length of a middle finger, had large compound eyes, like a fly’s. When it saw a finger waving over it, it raised its front body, opened a huge mouth, disproportionate to its body size. Drool dripped down and it swallowed half of the finger in one bite.

Pain shot through and Chen Hong winced and was startled. He hastily tried to shake it off, but the bug was biting down hard. He was just thinking of asking for help when the cries around him started.

Everyone had been bitten. Especially the newbies with lousy protective clothing, each bite from the caterpillar was excruciatingly painful, as though a rabid dog had ripped a piece of flesh off their bodies.

Tang Zheng and Lu Fan had the strongest defense and did not feel anything. But seeing the pained expressions and people hopping about in agony, they knew they were in deep trouble and immediately started to help pick off the bugs.

"Oh, it hurts, mommy!" The woman was holding the bug on her daughter’s neck, but when she tore it off, she actually tore off the skin from her daughter’s body.

The girl screamed, causing her mother to fade instantly.

The screams were ceaseless. Anyone who tried to rip the bugs off ended up tearing a piece of skin off their bodies. Even Dantai was not spared, the bug even held onto a piece of his scalp and black hair.

"What is this thing?" Chen Hong screamed, the group tried to evade as fast as they could, but in an instant, the sound of dropping bugs magnified, like a hailstorm. Countless caterpillars fell from the ceiling and piled half a meter high off the ground, and the number was still increasing.

"It’s the love bug virus!" A member of an elite squad recognized the bugs and panicked, his face turning pale. He was too preoccupied with getting to the elevator to bother catching the bugs on him. As he ran, he shouted, "Run, we can’t fight it."

"Damn it, it’s a powerful virus from the virtual world, retreat quickly!" A dozen natives of the resistance apparently had previous encounters with the love bugs, they didn’t even consider resisting. They reached out for the three targets, Tang Lu, intending to take them away.

"Let go!" Tang Lu did not move, she looked at Tang Zheng, feeling that staying by his side was the safest. Although the members of the Trojan Squad were dodging, none of them dared to flee because Tang Zheng hadn’t spoken.

"Throw hand grenades!" Tang Zheng yelled, taking out his flamethrower and taking aim at the squirming love bugs in front of him. A seven-meter-long flame dragon spewed out instantly, igniting some of the love bugs, and the sounds of crackling combustion and explosions rang out.

With the explosion of hand grenades, bug corpses were flung around clutching pieces of human flesh, big clouds of black smoke rose and the smell burnt into their nostrils.

Everyone was uneasy, as more and more love bugs were pouring in from the ceiling and the boundaries of the parking lot.

"Leave from the stairs, Xu Liangmao, Chu Baichuan you are in charge of the vanguard, Qin Yan and Bai Guo protect Ai Yixin and Tang Lu. Ruan Feifei, and Bi Yun’s puppet, come and cover our retreat!" Tang Zheng was not prepared for a drawn-out fight, he needed his two strongest men to clear the way.

All the survivors were making an orderly retreat. Xin Lan and Lu Fan didn’t receive orders, but they instinctively guarded Tang Lu and the others.

The sudden action of the Trojan Squad immediately sparked the wrath of the love bugs. As they piled up on the floor, they surged like a tide of red and black, eager to engulf these ’junk programs’.

The first resister that started running was panting heavily, constantly pressing the elevator’s open door button, hurriedly moving his gaze between the floors and the bugs. Ding, the elevator door opened and he bolted inside.

Bang, he had just managed to hit the floor button and before the elevator door could shut halfway, countless love bugs seeped out from the ceiling, falling with a plop. Almost instantly they filled more than half of the elevator, and since there were so many, they started flowing out from the door slits.

The poor guy didn’t even get a chance to cry for help, as soon as he opened his mouth, love bugs crawled in. He tried to run out, but he was smothered by the love bugs, leaving only half his head and one outstretched arm intact. But in a blink of an eye, the love bugs overwhelmed them and crawled all over him, visibly beginning to devour him.

Death came without even a scream!

Ruan Feifei’s fingertips unleashed a burst of electricity, instantly blasting away a large swath of them, making it seem like a chunk of a black cloud had been bitten off by a Tian Gou, but it quickly regrouped. Each swing of the puppet could send many love bugs flying, but against hundreds of thousands of them, this damage was like a drop in the ocean.

"Lu Fan, Xin Lan, raise a wall!" Seeing that it was impossible to suppress the love bugs, Tang Zheng immediately changed his strategy to delay the opponent’s attack.

Lu Fan whipped out Alice’s apron, and the sand stored in it immediately formed a basin-thick sand pillar under his ability’s pull. It howled and shot out, passing over everyone’s heads to collide head-on with the love bugs.

Tang Zheng pulled the pin out of a cluster hand grenade and threw it down. As soon as he did, he felt a sharp pain on his scalp. It had finally been visited by a love bug. He instinctively caught it and pulled it off. It hurt quite a bit, and blood started to flow down his forehead, moistening his eye corner.

The sand, much like the mixed soil spat out by a mixer, rammed the entire staircase passage while continuously filling in. It even buried some of the love bugs, but as viruses, their permeability was top-notch, even surpassing the speed of building sand walls, as they chased after them.

Several love bugs climbed onto Ruan Feifei’s hair, the biting pain distracting her. She missed a step and fell onto the stairs. Some love bugs immediately seized the opportunity and started climbing her calf.

With a crackling sound, Ruan Feifei discharged electricity to send them flying. She felt an arm grab her, as her body was jerked back. The arm then wrapped around her, pulling her along to escape.

Ruan Feifei saw a thin layer of white ice spreading on the stairs. Immediately, a sturdy ice wall rose from the ground, thoroughly blocking the stairs behind them without leaving any gaps. As it was semi-transparent, Ruan Feifei could see the love bugs struggling to climb the ice wall, chasing after the Trojan Squad.

"Let me go!" After being pulled by Tang Zheng, Ruan Feifei felt a bit grateful and finally breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad she wasn’t totally disposable cannon fodder, but her brows soon furrowed. Because he was in a rush, his hand was a bit high, pressing against half of her breast~. The constant jostling caused by running made her feel a bit of pain and a strange sensation.

As soon as she finished speaking, Ruan Feifei almost fell on the floor. She was about to blow up at Tang Zheng when she realized that he hadn’t even noticed what had just happened and was fully focused on resisting the enemy and directing the team’s escape.

"Don’t panic!" Tang Zheng wiped the blood from the corner of his eye and casually pulled up his hood. The others weren’t so lucky, as no one was exempt. Even the little Lolita was bitten by love bugs till her scalp was torn, and she was covered in blood.

The quantity of love bug viruses was simply too large. Even the ceiling of the stairwell held traces of them as they fell down. Luckily, they weren’t densely packed.

Chu Baichuan’s explosive ability was indeed most suitable for an assault. He blew open a path all the way, not wasting a single moment. Xu Liangmao couldn’t be much help, facing these tiny bugs, regular guns were nothing more than for show unless they could blast out a gravity gun or a Thunderstorm or Magnetic Storm Rifle that dealt area damage.

The little girl cried from the pain, while the young woman was exhaustive; she fell on the stairs, accidentally hitting the child’s forehead. This made the little girl cry even louder.

"Lu Fan, catch!" Seeing the mother and daughter getting left behind, Yu Manli grabbed the little girl with one hand and threw her toward Lu Fan, who sat atop the Spider Mount.

Lu Fan extended his right hand, a sand net appeared and enveloped the girl. Then, he pinched it, grabbing the girl’s collar, easily hoisting her up. After all this enhancement, the Little Lolita’s physical toughness was the strongest next to Tang Zheng’s. She earned good points, unlike Qin Yan and Tang Zheng, who had to use points to resurrect people. As for the wasteland potions for body enhancement such as the eyeball that Tang Zheng got, she was always given a share.

"Uncle is so good to me!" Looking at the little girl in his hand, who was waiting for death and didn’t even have the strength to resist, Lu Fan’s heart was filled with gratitude and affection toward Tang Zheng. If not for uncle, she would have had the same fate!

In just two minutes, everyone had charged into the parking lot and was sprinting toward the parked RV. Everyone was bloody-faced and panting heavily.

"Has anyone felt fatigued?" Li Xinlan suddenly yelled out. The young woman was fine-tuned and felt their energy was draining faster than usual.

"Isn’t it because you used some ability?" Yu Manli sensed nothing unusual, the newbies were frantic and didn’t have the time to answer any questions.

"It’s not! Love bugs eat flesh, devouring energy. If we continue to be bitten by them, we’ll probably only last ten more minutes before becoming weak and powerless, and suffocate to death after another ten minutes!" After shouting, the Captain hadn’t even boarded the RV when half of the underground parking lot’s ceiling collapsed with a loud bang.

Bugs the size of rhinos dropped down, their large mouths filled with sharp teeth split wide open as they roared and charged at the Trojan Squad.

In the entire field of vision, there were at least three hundred of them, and the number was still increasing.

Agent Smith No.6, being an anti-virus software, saw not only the love bug virus but also Tang Zheng’s group as his enemies. So, he waited for them to hurt each other before finishing them off!

Chu Baichuan threw out a hand grenade augmented with abilities, blasting open a space. However, the space was quickly filled by rhino-like love bugs the moment he blinked. The attacking monsters were not afraid of death, refusing to stop until they had killed their target!