Chapter 1135: Unstable Factors

"However, before dealing with the Ant King, there are still three unstable factors."

The "good guy" mode of Lao Yan was clearly much more reliable than his "insurgent leader" mode. It was he who gathered Chen and Shui together, so he had relatively more say within the small team. As for whether the others would follow his arrangements, that depended on whether his opinions were reasonable.

"Besides the four of us, there are several small-to-medium adventure groups and many lone wolves here. They are very likely to go after those three unstable factors, but I don't intend to pin my hopes on them."

Lao Yan looked around at the three people present.

"Without me saying it, you all should have guessed who those three unstable factors are. That's right, they are the Ant King's three direct guards: Youpi, Neferpitou, and Shaiapouf."

Lao Yan paused after saying this.

"Youpi is considered the easiest to deal with among them; that guy only has brute force and his intelligence is relatively simple. Next is Pouf; although this guy's ability is very troublesome, his body isn't particularly strong. The hardest to deal with is the cat-girl Neferpitou. The cat-girl's intelligence is very high, her body is strong enough, and her abilities are extremely troublesome."

As he spoke, Lao Yan seemed to be entering his "insurgent leader" mode again.

"Youpi is dead."

Su Xiao suddenly interrupted Lao Yan. Lao Yan's train of thought was abruptly cut off, and his expression twisted for a moment before returning to normal.

"Youpi is dead?"

"Can you explain specifically how he died?"

Shui, Lao Yan, and Chen all looked at Su Xiao.

After hesitating for a moment, Su Xiao decided to reveal Youpi's true cause of death.

"Sniped by me."

"Sniped?"

Shui had an expression that said, "Are you kidding me?"

"You can investigate this on the contact platform. Melee was my former combat method; I am now a sniper + summoner-type class. Claiming to be a melee fighter before was just out of habit."

Su Xiao took out the Duke of Silence. With Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang and Amu standing behind him, his claim became very credible.

"This... doesn't seem to be anything worth doubting."

The moment Shui saw the Duke of Silence, she felt her hair stand on end. Coupled with Amu's sturdy physique and Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang's flickering presence, she judged that neither Amu nor Xiang Ignoring Bubu Wang were simple.

"The 'Night of Decapitation' actually switched to sniper + summoner. It's truly surprising."

Although Shui said this, she was even more suspicious in her heart, wondering what Su Xiao's primary combat method really was.

The reason Su Xiao did this was to confuse these three. Their guesses were not important; what mattered was that he had demonstrated a powerful sniping ability, so he could snipe from long range during the later battle with the Ant King.

There were three benefits to doing this: first, he didn't have to worry about being betrayed by these three—that is, a sneak attack from behind; second, he could observe the three's combat methods; third, he could conserve stamina. Melee combat with the Ant King at the final moment was a necessity because he needed to snatch the Ant King's heart, and the closer the distance, the greater the advantage.

"This..."

Lao Yan looked troubled. Originally, he had also wanted to pretend to be a long-range class, because Chen in the team was definitely a long-range fighter; the other party's identity as a mage was beyond doubt.

But Su Xiao's act of taking out the Duke of Silence ruined Lao Yan's plans. He glanced at the +7 pale-gold long-range sniper pistol in his storage space and decided not to take it out and embarrass himself, because the Duke of Silence looked like a +10 or higher gold-quality heavy sniper rifle no matter how you looked at it.

"Since Youpi is dead, the subsequent matters are simple. Before dealing with the Ant King, we must first solve the other two direct guards: the cat-girl and the fly-man."

The "fly-man" in Lao Yan's mouth was Pouf, one of the three guards. In fact, this guy's characteristics were more like a butterfly.

"I'll take the cat-girl."

Su Xiao didn't want to deal with Pouf; that guy could split, and completely eliminating him was very difficult.

"Chen, you have some friendship with Bai Ye from before. How about you two go deal with the cat-girl together?"

Lao Yan also knew he couldn't order the others, so he could only use a probing tone.

Chen glanced at Su Xiao and shook his head.

"This is a bit difficult. Although Bai Ye's reputation isn't very good, under these circumstances, he shouldn't stab us in the back. From the initial contact, one can feel that Brother Bai Ye is different from those lunatics in the Ming Sect Adventure Group."

Lao Yan suddenly mentioned Ming Sect. It seemed Ming Sect's fame was already quite large; after all, it was an adventure group composed of a large group of lunatics.

"He wants to deal with the cat-girl alone."

Chen had indeed grown a lot, actually guessing the reason Su Xiao took the initiative to propose dealing with the cat-girl.

"This... Brother Bai Ye, is there no problem?"

"No problem. Either I die, or she dies."

"Then how about this: Shui, Chen, the three of us will go deal with Pouf. Pouf's intelligence and survival ability are both very strong, so a three-person encirclement has a better chance of success."

Lao Yan didn't refute Su Xiao's decision to deal with the cat-girl alone at all. The reason was simple: Lao Yan didn't actually worry about Su Xiao's life or death, or rather, he didn't care. Su Xiao proposing to deal with the cat-girl alone likely meant he had a certain degree of confidence; no one would go to their death.

"Have the four of you finished discussing?"

Netero suddenly spoke; he had been silent all along.

"No problem, Chairman. If everything goes smoothly, in about an hour, we can gather again to deal with the Ant King. Of course, while we are dealing with the three guards, the Ant King might appear. At that time, we will have to trouble the Chairman to hold off the Ant King."

By now, there was no need to be secretive. As long as they didn't say anything too sensitive, the Chairman wouldn't say anything.

Now, the Hunter Association members had already fought their way into the courtyard next to the palace. This was no longer a case of an arrow on the string, but the arrow already being shot. Even if Netero felt the four of them were suspicious, he wouldn't expose them now. At least until the Ant King was killed, Netero wouldn't say anything, no matter how suspicious the four's actions were.

"OK, then, let's begin."

Lao Yan clasped his hands together and closed his eyes. A ripple spread out with him as the center point.

"Pouf is on the first floor of the palace; he needs to be lured out to be dealt with. As for the cat-girl, she is not in the palace, nor is she in the courtyard. I am currently searching."

About ten seconds later, Lao Yan opened his eyes.

"The cat-girl is actually four kilometers to the east of the palace. She seems to be chasing a few people. In this situation, it seems those people took something important, forcing the cat-girl to chase them."

Lao Yan looked at Su Xiao. The situation had changed; the cat-girl was not in the palace.

"Maintaining a distance is more suitable for me. I haven't invested resources in melee combat for a long time."

Su Xiao hurried toward the east side. His speed was fast, but it was only the speed possessed by a Tier 3 early-stage melee contractor. Acting required a full performance.

As for how to deal with the cat-girl, Su Xiao would of course engage her in melee. The Duke of Silence didn't have many bullets left, and they still needed to be used against the Ant King.

Lao Yan's perception range was extremely large, conservatively estimated at four kilometers, but Su Xiao didn't believe Lao Yan had the leisure to keep his wide-range perception active while dealing with Pouf. Pouf was not easy to deal with.

"Dangerous guy. Do you believe he is a sniper + summoner class?"

Lao Yan watched Su Xiao's back.

"If I don't believe it, what can I do? If you can take out a +13 gold-quality heavy sniper rifle, you can also snipe the Ant King from long range. It cannot be denied that we indeed need that gun to heavily damage the Ant King, so we have no choice but to accept it."

Shui spread her hands, indicating she had no way to deal with this.

Chen remained silent throughout. He clearly remembered that when he first met Su Xiao in the Titan World, the other party had claimed to be a gunman using a green-quality pistol.

"A guy with a nasty personality."

After Chen muttered this, ===== CHAPTER 1136 =====