Chapter 139: Under Attack [Part One]

Faced with such a swift attack, Zhou Yi was scratched in several places, and blood constantly welled up from his face and neck.

Seeing Zhou Yi get injured, Sophia panicked. She no longer watched from the sidelines and instead hurled a succession of fireballs at the water rats, which temporarily slowed their pace.

However, these creatures seemed unafraid of fire. Spending only a brief moment dodging or extinguishing the fireballs, they continued their assault on everyone, especially targeting the men in black with what looked like deep-seated hatred.

The Panther's two crescent throwing blades danced through the air. Taking advantage of the slowed-down creatures, he slashed down several water rats, while Sophia followed up with timely fireball attacks from behind. In an instant, four of them were cut down and roasted directly to charcoal.

The remaining three or four seemed genuinely terrified. With a sudden turn, they plunged back into the water and vanished without a trace.

Zhou Yi was utterly exhausted; maintaining such rapid reflexes demanded a massive expenditure of energy. Sophia hurriedly rushed to his side, helped him up, and inspected the wound on his neck.

The gash was extremely deep, and blood kept pouring out, though fortunately, it missed the main artery. Cheng Zhi and Fatty started to come over as well, but Zhou Yi stopped them with a glance. He swept his gaze around, and the shrewd Fatty instantly understood his boss's intent.

Dragging Cheng Zhi with him, Fatty checked all the injured men in black. Two were dead, while of the remaining four, one was heavily wounded and the other three had only superficial injuries, much like Zhou Yi.

The Panther looked around and frowned upon seeing such heavy casualties among his own men.

"A bunch of useless trash! Fall back, now!"

Zhou Yi glanced at the carcasses of the water rats. One had been pounded into a pulp of flesh by Fatty, and the other four had been charred black by Sophia. Trying to identify any kind of sigil on their hindquarters now would be nearly impossible.

His lingering anxiety eased slightly. He allowed Sophia to support him while Fatty and Cheng Zhi dragged the four wounded men toward the exit. The corpses were naturally left behind—escaping with their lives took priority.

Rushing out of the mine tunnel in one breath, they finally saw the sunlight outside, everyone panting heavily. They had spent over half an hour climbing down earlier, and the distance was far from short.

Emerging into the light, they squatted on the ground to catch their breath. The Panther's six remaining subordinates crowded around, eyeing Zhou Yi and his group with cautious vigilance.

"Deputy Commander, you've been down there for three days. Are you all right?"

The Panther spat on the ground, pointed at the four injured men, and said, "Quickly treat their wounds. We didn't gain any advantage this time; who would have thought this was a muskrat nest? A horde of them went mad and attacked us, and two men died."

The Panther's explanation made the death of two men sound as trivial as losing a couple of stray cats or dogs, with not an ounce of genuine concern. Fatty had already hurried over to bandage Zhou Yi's wounds. By comparison, his own boss was infinitely better.

When the treatment was finished, Sophia looked at the Panther.

"Do you believe us now? We didn't provoke them the first time we went down, and we weren't lying. We just went down and came right back up—who knew so much time had passed?"

The Panther nodded, his face dark. Naturally, he was unhappy about losing men, but what bothered him more was failing to gain the upper hand or reap any benefits. Suffering such losses for nothing left him extremely resentful.

"I was careless. Had I known they were this formidable, I would have blown this place straight to hell."

Sophia sneered, open disdain written across her face.

"Blow it up? You'd better banish that thought. Even if you really detonated this place, it wouldn't harm those muskrats. You must have tracked them for too long, which is why they harbored hostility toward you and attacked for their lives the moment you went down. Otherwise, my people wouldn't have gotten hurt."

The Panther glanced sideways at Sophia, then shifted his gaze to Zhou Yi.

"This kid's not bad. I can tell he's just awakened his attribute. Given time, he'll surely amount to something formidable. Enough talk, let's pull back immediately. This is no place to linger. I'm afraid our skirmish with the muskrats might draw the attention of the Hunter Tribe; after all, this world has no rightful owner, and their numbers are significant."

Sophia was startled, somewhat perplexed by this information.

"Wait a minute. What do you mean by a world with no owner? When I chose the deployment point, there was no mention of this. I thought this was our Sector Seventy-Two territory."

The Panther's smile deepened, his eyes growing even more inscrutable.

"The moment I saw you, I realized you knew nothing about the situation here. Let's move first—we've already encountered three waves of hunters, and I've lost quite a few people. This is no ordinary mission world.

"Right now, the Space-Time City is in chaos, and all bases have been destroyed due to attacks by the Hunter Tribe. Without the locking and restriction of the bases, every mission world is currently in an open state. What do you suppose they will do?"

Sophia fell silent. To be honest, she really didn't want to operate alongside this Panther; finding a secluded place to hide out would certainly be safer. However, their control pads were functional and their intelligence was more accurate, making this a terribly difficult choice.

Zhou Yi could tell what Sophia was thinking at a glance. With the threat of the water rats out of the way, he wasn't all that afraid of the Panther anymore.

After all, they had just demonstrated their capabilities. Although the Panther hadn't used his full strength and was still testing them, having a larger group wasn't a bad thing—it at least raised the survival rate.

"Deputy Commander, let's stick with Deputy Commander Panther. It'll be safer together. Besides, our control pads were damaged during transmission, so traveling with them will help us gather some information."

Sophia nodded and looked at the Panther.

"Then let's travel together. Do you have vehicles?"

In truth, asking this was pointless; since the other party had firearms, how could they possibly lack vehicles?

"We have vehicles. We'll find a settlement and take it over. I'll use illusion techniques to manipulate the minds of the locals and garrison ourselves here. With so many humanoid data-entities around, even the Hunter Tribe will have to think twice before coming after us. It should at least be a bit safer."

Sophia bit her lip in thought for a moment. Using illusion techniques on humanoid data-entities was a taboo in Space-Time City, but with no other options left right now, she had no choice but to try.

"Alright, let's get moving. These muskrats won't chase after us, will they?"

The Panther chuckled.

"I'd welcome them to chase us out. Nourished by spirit stones, these creatures live even more lavishly than we do, and their abilities are indeed formidable. But once they leave the mine shafts and caves, their advantages vanish."

Zhou Yi didn't waste any breath. At a time like this, he needed to hurry and secure a spot in a vehicle. But the moment he climbed into the SUV they had driven over, the Panther and Sophia followed right behind him.

The Panther arbitrarily waved his hand at Fatty and Cheng Zhi.

"You two, go ride in the other vehicles. We have matters to discuss."

Realizing he couldn't comfortably remain in the front passenger seat either, Zhou Yi unbuckled his seatbelt, but before he could move, Sophia had already slid into the driver's seat.

"Sit still and behave. We'd better forget about your driving skills—I'd still like to make it back to the base alive."

Zhou Yi hurriedly fastened his seatbelt again. He knew Sophia was just giving him a way out, and not driving was indeed better, yet having the Panther sitting directly behind them made them feel somewhat constrained.

The engine roared to life, and Sophia shot out first. Reaching the gap in the valley, she turned directly onto a dirt path. The Panther issued a stream of directions from the backseat. As they drove along a stretch hugging a sheer cliff face, the Panther suddenly straightened up from his seat.

"Step on it! Accelerate and charge through!"

Simultaneously, clutching his control pad, the Panther barked the same urgent warning.

"Hurry, hurry, hurry! Follow right behind us, something's coming from above!"

Sophia slammed her foot all the way down on the accelerator, and the vehicle surged forward like a flying arrow. Just as they were about to clear the cliffside section, a massive boulder came tumbling down from the heights, grazing past the very rear of their car.

Zhou Yi gripped the grab handle above the door, bracing his feet firmly against the floorboards to steady his body as much as possible.

The car lunged to the roadside, fishtailed violently, and came to an abrupt halt.

All three opened their doors and jumped out. The Panther rushed toward the hilltop first, with Sophia close on his heels. Zhou Yi had no leisure for that; his priority was to confirm whether Fatty and Cheng Zhi were safe.

Sure enough, the vehicles behind them had not been so fortunate. A green Pajero took a direct hit, smashed square in the middle by an enormous boulder, and the car tumbled together with the rock as it plunged down the precipice.

The remaining four vehicles were somewhat luckier, speeding forward and coming to a halt. The doors flew open, and Fatty and Cheng Zhi leaped out of the second car. Fatty wiped away continuous streams of sweat, while Cheng Zhi looked nauseous—such breakneck driving speeds were truly agonizing to endure.

Seeing that the two of them were unhurt, Zhou Yi patted them both on the shoulder.

"Wait here for a moment. I'll go take a look; someone seems to be making trouble up top. I wonder if it's the hunters."

Before his voice had even faded, all the men in black were already charging toward the summit, as if afraid they would miss out on a free meal if they arrived late.

Zhou Yi furrowed his brow slightly. Why did all the men the Panther brought along seem so single-minded? It was as if they had been brainwashed—no complaints, just blind obedience. They died without a ripple of emotion. Something about this felt deeply wrong.