Chapter 178

It's just a bit of a pity......

Ying Duo's gun in his hand vanished silently, and looking toward the direction where Qi Hengyu and Chen Mo Zhi were, he felt regret.

Choosing teammates who are too strong isn't all good; for example, when snatching low-level monsters, he can't quite keep up.

There's no choice; inside the city there are no fixed Grinding Monsters spots, so to fight monsters and Level Up you have to go to the wilderness, and going to the wilderness requires being in a Party.

This ambush came suddenly and ended quickly.

Just these few Aberrant Species, even with the five of them cooperating (?), still weren't enough for them to split.

Qi Hengyu turned around and happened to see Ying Duo crouched beside those Aberrant Species, holding a small knife, extracting the Aberrant Species cores of those bone‑eating hyenas.

His movements weren't exactly skillful, but when Ying Duo acted there was no lightness or heaviness; some Aberrant Species cores were shattered directly by his bullet, leaving only fragments.

"Can you at least give a heads‑up next time you act? And also, don't shoot at me."

Qi Hengyu took the previous lesson to heart and didn't lose his temper at Ying Duo, but instead approached him with a conciliatory attitude.

There's no point; getting angry at Ying Duo would just waste expressions.

Hearing that, Ying Duo stopped the 【Search】 skill he was using, and didn't forget to stash the relatively intact Aberrant Species core into his Game Backpack.

The blood‑stained knife vanished from his hand out of thin air, and the next moment the Energy Pistol they all knew so well reappeared in his hand.

What made everyone's hearts skip a beat was that the next second, Ying Duo lifted his arm, and the black barrel pointed straight at Qi Hengyu, who was trying to reason with him.

"Ying Duo!"

Shen Zexi let out a low shout and stepped forward immediately, and Chen Mo Zhi's fingertips also promptly grasped the specially made high‑efficacy paralyzing needle.

"Bang!"

The gunshot rang again, sounding especially harsh in the open wilderness.

Under everyone's gaze, the bullet, still bearing a Ying Guang Lu energy trail, shot from Ying Duo's barrel straight into...

No, more precisely, it passed through Qi Hengyu's brow and left a shallow dent on a nearby rock.

Qi Hengyu remained where he stood, his body frozen from sheer shock, his intuition sensing a wave of heat on his forehead, and then, there was nothing.

He slowly raised his hand and touched his forehead—intact.

"You......" Qi Hengyu began to curse, his anger mixed with dread rushing to his mind, but he was halted by the incomprehensible scene he just witnessed.

"Party Status: cannot harm teammates."

Ying Duo holstered the gun, his flat, unruffled gaze seeming to mock everyone present, as if saying, "What exactly are you afraid of?"

Qi Hengyu: "......"

He took a deep breath, suppressing the urge to fight Ying Duo, because in this kid's eyes, all of that counts as boosting affection. (gritting teeth. jpg)

"I really f***ing thank you, especially for your hardcore on‑the‑spot explanation!" The words were forced out of Qi Hengyu's teeth.

"No need to thank me."

But Ying Duo just replied casually and gave him a thumbs‑up.

Shen Zexi's mouth twitched, and his peripheral glance caught the pale‑faced Luo Jinyou, prompting him to shift the topic a bit awkwardly.

"Luo Jinyou, are you okay?"

After all, Luo Jinyou is younger than they are, having grown up in Tianmian City, so the harsh wilderness may be hard for him to adapt to.

"I'm fine," Luo Jinyou shook his head, pressed his temple with his hand, "just not used to the outside mutation concentration yet; I'll recover soon."

The entire Tianmian City is enveloped by a barrier, making even the Slum on the ground much safer; the mutation factors inside the city are suppressed to extremely low levels.

But outside the city, the mutation factor concentration spikes, and since Luo Jinyou himself is already sensitive to mutations, he needs some time to adjust.

To prevent this, Teacher Li Ya specifically prescribed medicine for him as a contingency.

Actually, this level of adverse condition is already much better than Luo Jinyou expected, perhaps because he's been spending a lot of time lately with a certain Mutation Source.

His gaze subconsciously drifted toward Ying Duo's direction, but Shen Zexi only gave a slight twitch of his mouth and nodded, telling Luo Jinyou not to worry about himself.

How to put it, with such a Mutation Source constantly by his side, not adapting would be strange, right?

Chen Mo Zhi spent the whole time quietly listening on the side; he had only just met the others, so naturally he wasn't aware of the grudges among them.

He isn't sensitive to changes in mutation factor concentration, perhaps because he frequently interacts with aberrant flora.

Nevertheless, he instinctively grasped an inconspicuous small sachet at his waist.

"If you can hold out, we'd better leave immediately; the blood scent here will attract other Aberrant Species, and the hyenas' summoned reinforcements should be on the way."

In the wilderness, the smell of blood is the most dangerous flare.

"No." Ying Duo's reply was curt; he tilted his head, seeming puzzled by Shen Zexi's words.

"Why run?"

We came out to grind monsters and level up; the next wave is about to arrive, so why run?

Shen Zexi opened his mouth, because that's what he learned in class: in such a situation you should leave at once to prevent being trapped by more Aberrant Species, making escape difficult.

But he quickly recalled the crux of the issue: Ying Duo had been dismissed from class by his beloved Teacher Gu, cutting off the usual way of earning extra credit through regular lessons.

For him, hunting Aberrant Species had become his primary means of earning credits.

Moreover, these Aberrant Species aren't really strong; even if there were more, they should manage. Shen Zexi looked at the other teammates, asking for their opinions.

"What do you think? The previous fight went smoothly, but next we may face a larger, more organized swarm of bone‑eating hyenas, and the risk will multiply."

Luo Jinyou seemed to have adjusted his condition, his tone carrying self‑reproach.

"I'm fine."

"This isn't even a warm‑up; we need more to be strong enough. At worst, if we lose, we run, but the mine is right there, so we can't run."

Qi Hengyu twisted his neck, the fighting spirit in his eyes unchanged.

Chen Mo Zhi simply gave a silent nod, basically admitting he hadn't really felt involved just now.

Shen Zexi quickly weighed the pros and cons; the teammates all had fighting spirit, and they indeed possessed the capability.

"Alright," Shen Zexi nodded, a rare firmness appearing in his gentle eyes, "since we're fighting, we can't act recklessly like before; everyone follows my command."