Fatal Shot

Over the past few days, Feng Luo hadn’t revealed 24K in front of other people. For one, it was because the people who participated in the mission this time had also taken part in the city-clearing mission earlier. Naturally, they would recognize the seven types of normal beetles. Even though, due to the unique situation at the end in the temple, they did not know what the 24K looked like, most of the people had already guessed that there was a king beetle with a command ability among the beetles inside the ruins.

If he were to use any other beetles apart from the Scout Beetles in front of these people, it would be easy for them to deduce that Feng Luo had obtained it from the temple. Then they would also probably be able to guess the grade of 24K.

Of course, even if they managed to guess the truth, it would be fine, since it was not something that one needed to be ashamed about.

The only issue was that, at the moment, Feng Luo did not want to reveal the fact that he had pets. Instead, he was preparing to reveal this only after more people had pets. That way, he would avoid being the center of attention. Based on current trends, it was extremely difficult for players to own a pet, and a Boss-grade pet was completely unheard of; Feng Luo did not plan to make himself everyone’s topic of conversation.

Apart from that, after the Elite-grade Scout Beetle died, he would not be temporarily unable to use 24K. So, he had been keeping 24K inside the pet space and only occasionally let it out so that he could feed it some energy crystals to prevent the “Intimacy Level” from dropping.

Truth be told, there was no doubt that the Scout Beetle had huge uses. After all of Roguetown’s communications had been locked down by the Umbrella Corporation, the players were completely out in the dark. All their decisions felt very weak without the Scout Beetle.

As such, Feng Luo always had a plan in mind to re-incubate a Scout Beetle. However, certain conditions needed to be met in order to incubate a beetle. Apart from the fact that the king beetle needed to have eggs in its body, there also needed to be sufficient psionic energy to catalyze the egg and, most importantly, the corpse of a monster at a certain level!

Did Roguetown have any such monsters? Perhaps so. The Zombie Dog he had encountered earlier was considered one, and its level even reached Level 45. However, the corpses of the two Zombie Dogs had been taken away by the people from the Umbrella Corporation. Moreover, the Elite-grade Scout Beetle still had not yet died at that point, so Feng Luo hadn’t thought about incubating it.

A few days later, due to the complete breakout of the Resident Evil/Biohazard storyline, all of Roguetown had turned into a complete and utter mess. After that, almost all living beings had been eaten by the zombies. Right now, even Level 1 Rats were non-existent, let alone monsters that met the level requirement.

What about the huge number of zombie corpses? Well, Feng Luo had also only found out that the King Beetle’s eggs could not be laid inside the corpses of humanoids or humans. That meant that the zombies all across Roguetown could not be used to incubate the Scout Beetle. It was also why Feng Luo never had the chance to replenish one Scout Beetle.

Right now, encountering this Golden Python was undoubtedly luck. It was not only categorized as a monster, but it was also at Level 25, which was the bare minimum requirement for incubating a Scout Beetle.

Monster corpses of certain levels were needed to incubate different types of beetles (different beetles had different requirements) because, during the incubation, the beetle would “devour” the corpse of the monster. Of course, “devour” did not mean that it would really eat the corpse. It was just an expression.

Truth be told, given that the size of the Scout Beetle did not even exceed a human thumbnail, it was not reasonable to think that it would eat the entire body of the Golden Python, which measured up to three meters long. Even if it could eat it, it would need at least ten days to half a month, roughly.

As such, the word “devour” referred more to absorbing the essence from the body of the Golden Python. In other words, it meant “obtaining experience.” After the beetle egg was finished incubating, the newborn beetle would gain a certain ratio of experience from the monster that lay before it.

This setting was undoubtedly one that gave Feng Luo peace of mind. He did not have to spend long periods of time trying to level-up the tiny beetle, and the beetle squad would be combat-ready in no time.

***

An exquisitely carved half-transparent beetle egg that looked like rice was inserted into the body of the Golden Python. After that, the egg started to have a golden glow. It was a type of energy called “psionic energy” by the system. It began to flow into the body of the Golden Python, creating a unique energy pathway structure made up of multiple lines.

The entire corpse of the Golden Python also began to glow. However, it seemed like the nutrition continued to keep flowing out of it. The gold scales on its body began to lose their luster while its rattlesnake-like tail began to cave in.

Although the Level-25 Golden Python just met the incubation requirements for the Scout Beetle, it was still an Elite monster, so its energy and experience supply was greater than normal monsters.

A system notification appeared in Feng Luo’s vision.

The Scout Beetle is in incubation. Estimated Time Required: 180 seconds!

The stronger the monster corpse, the more time it would take the beetle egg to absorb its nutrition. The previous Elite-grade Scout Beetle had been incubated from a Level-45 Elite monster, and it had taken around ten minutes to complete it.

However, 180 seconds was not really all that long, considering the current circumstances—with the people on the frontlines having retreated completely. There was no way Feng Luo would wait there for three minutes. Moreover, he had already fired two shots, so he couldn’t stay in that position for very long. If he did, he would be locked onto by the Umbrella Corporation.

After the incubation information appeared, Feng Luo chose to leave immediately. As for the Scout Beetle, the moment it hatched, a mental link would be created with 24K, and by then, it would innately fly to his side.

However, after he walked a few steps outside the door with his gun, Feng Luo suddenly remembered something.

“Wait a minute…” he muttered to himself. “Damn it. I actually forgot one thing!”

If players were infected by the T-virus, they might become Elite monsters after death!

He wasn’t sure if the enemy Sniper had been infected, but, although he had only glanced at his face for a brief moment, Feng Luo had noticed that his pupils were a dark crimson—unlike normal people.

Perhaps this unique phenomenon is not as simple as it seems!

With a thought, Feng Luo leaped out of the window on the other side and immediately changed his direction. He quickly headed toward a location where there was an angle for him to see the corpse of the player. After a few seconds, he confirmed that no one was there. However, black blood stains and the crushed pieces of a combat uniform were on the ground.

Feng Luo now knew that it was as he had imagined. A loophole had indeed been found.

Light, bloodied footprints that showed sharp claws were left on the street in front of the shop, and the trail extended straight toward the group of people who were currently retreating not far away. Feng Luo could also hear the noises and panicked screams of the breakout group. Not even the reports of many varieties of gunshots could drown out the sounds.