[User has equipped ‘Character Card: Ding Xiu.’ Time limit of 300 seconds, starting now.]
No sword in hand, but a sword in the heart…
This was impossible!
Ding Xiu’s martial arts were not at the level where he could start his own sect, and drifting flowers and falling leaves couldn’t hurt anybody. He still needed a sword to slash at people.
Ding Xiu used the Miao saber, so-called because its slender form resembled a sprout, not because it was used by the Miao people.
If one examined the history, one would find that this was still a patriotic saber!
Luo Su didn’t have a Miao saber. All he had in the basement was that sharpened metal pipe. If he had been fighting some formidable martial artist, he would have suffered the disadvantage of using a weapon he wasn’t comfortable with, but if he was fighting a bunch of spiders, that was another matter entirely.
Gripping the metal pipe, Luo Su swung right and left, up and down, attempting to push back the spiders surrounding him. As for those spiders that attacked from the front, he mercilessly stabbed straight through them.
The methods of assassins were useless against spiders, but as long as they were still operating according to laws of science, they would find it hard to get back up after getting a hole pierced through their bodies.
Luo Su had learned about the bodies of spiders from Mike and stabbed them straight between the eyes. This was where their brain was. Even if he couldn’t strike their brain, it was fine. As the spiders grew larger, so would their nerves. It wasn’t hard to heavily injure them.
All he needed was to be fast, accurate, and fierce, and he could send these creatures that only knew how to follow their biological instincts, calling for their daddies.
Of course, this was only when dealing with the immature giant spiders. When dealing with the mature spiders from the movie, which had grown to be larger than a man, using guns would be safer. If he tried to fight them with melee weapons, he would definitely be overwhelmed in strength, and there was no guarantee he could break through their carapaces.
As for those massive wolf spiders which were even larger than buses and covered in sharp bristles, trying to fight them in close combat was just asking for trouble.
Luo Su waved around the metal pipe, delivering the simplest but most effective attacks with almost machine-like precision. The spiders were too dumb to surround him, and they essentially stood in a line to be killed.
Luo Su slowly retreated, leaving a trail of pierced spider corpses in front of him. He tried his best not to touch the green blood, worried that the poison glands might have been damaged and leaked poison into the blood.
The lack of intelligence in the spiders was both a good and bad thing. Their movements were easy to predict, but they didn’t understand fear. Even though so many of their comrades had fallen, they continued to charge into the fray.
Luo Su soon found himself getting tired. He still had half the time left on the Ding Xiu Character Card, but the spiders remained dauntless. It was like they wouldn’t rest until they had torn Luo Su to pieces.
The endless stream of spiders made Luo Su’s blood run cold. Although he still had Character Cards, using them on these spiders was far too wasteful. He was only willing to use the Bolt and Husky Character Cards and was determined to not use the Character Cards Duan Shuiliu, Seven, or Temple Guard.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t working hard, but that the other side had chosen to use wave tactics. In the face of these suicidal spider soldiers, Luo Su chose to yield and readied to flee.
[Ding!]
[User has encountered plot character ‘Giant Orb-weaver Spider,’ triggering the lottery phase. Would you like to pull now?]
He once more heard a system notification, upon which Luo Su immediately threw his escape plan into the trash. In a truly pleasant surprise, he could get additional pulls from these spiders.
Luo Su found himself enormously tempted to charge into the spider nest and farm thirty, maybe even fifty pulls!
Of course, this was just an idea. If he went in there, he would immediately feel uncomfortable. He needed some time to rest.
Farming the spider nest was no good, but farming these underlings was perfectly fine. Luo Su saw a new way to get rich…
[Ding!]
[User has encountered plot character ‘Giant Orb-weaver Spider,’ triggering the lottery phase. Would you like to pull now?]
As the third system notification popped, Luo Su’s eyes grew brighter and brighter, his gaze toward the spiders gentler and gentler. He was very much like a parent disciplining a naughty child, the hand of punishment vicious, cold, and resolved…
Strangely, just when Luo Su was getting excited and about to use his Character Cards to get as many pulls as he could, the spiders suddenly stopped and began to retreat into the hole.
Luo Su was shocked by the orderly retreat. The spiders were so organized that they seemed like parts of a machine. After silently staring at the pitch-black hole for a while, he clenched his teeth and went in.
After advancing one hundred meters and not encountering a single spider, Luo Su fell back. The tunnel split off up ahead, and the terrain grew complicated. If he was ambushed there, he would find it difficult to escape.
He returned to a basement littered with spider corpses. Some of the spiders were still moving, but they were essentially half-dead.
Luo Su smiled. The evidence was all here. These giant spider corpses were certain to attract an enormous crowd. He immediately called the three research teams, and it was only five minutes later that he called Sheriff Samantha. A short while later, all kinds of cars had parked in front of the house.
Luo Su had earlier served as a guide and gotten to know the three research teams, and when they heard about the giant spider corpses, they immediately rushed over. This wasn’t because they believed Luo Su. It was because they were competing with each other and could not allow any other group to get ahead of them. Even if it seemed absolutely impossible, they still had to take it seriously.
When they saw the spider corpses strewn across the floor, the researchers were struck dumb. All of these possibilities left them ecstatic. They could put their name on a species, be known as the discoverer of a prehistoric species, or even get the Nobel Prize for their discovery.
People lived in this world for fame and fortune! It didn’t matter what race you were! It was the same all across the world!
“God, look at how many there are!? For these giant spiders to be social creatures is simply unthinkable!”
Spiders killed each other, and it was impossible for giant spiders to share the same territory. As predators at the top of the food chain, this was a law of nature they had to follow.
“Look at their bodies! They’re so much larger than ordinary spiders, and there might be even larger ones. I’d dare to venture that they’re a prehistoric species. The current ecosphere can’t sustain them.”
“It seems very like the common orb-weaver spider…strange, is it a mutation?”
“Not all giant spiders come from the prehistoric era. There are still giant spiders nowadays, so there’s no logical reason they can’t exist. See that hole? Another world must exist underground. My theory has finally been proved.”
“Ridiculous! Do you say that there’s another ecosystem underground? Then why can’t the underground be the prehistoric world?”
“Gentlemen, we’re about to be famous!”
“…”
“Look at their fangs! They’re like metal hooks. I’d say that they have enough poison to kill an elephant.”
“And the poison bristles on their back! Sharp as needles! These are born killers!”
The researchers were suddenly brimming with energy and chattered on endlessly. Their conversations quickly devolved into arguments about whose theory was right, so impassioned that all of them went red in the face.
A few people took out their cell phones and tried to make calls, but the signal was so awful that they were forced to give up.
Samantha and Chris arrived at the same time. There was nothing strange about them being together, as the sour odor coming from their bodies said it all. With all the researchers present, the two could hardly get a word in. Even when Samantha took out her gun, they were still squeezed into a corner.
“Dear God! There’s still one alive here!!”
“Where?! Let me see…”
“The hell! Stop pushing! I’m your mentor!”
“…”
Seeing the crowded basement, Luo Su kicked over a cupboard and stood on top of it. As everyone stared at him, he began to unhurriedly speak. “Good sirs and madams, the basement isn’t a suitable place to conduct your research, and without evidence, you won’t be able to persuade the others. Rather than doing meaningless things, it would be better if we discussed the main topic…”
“What do you want to say?”
Luo Su cleared his throat. “As the discoverer of the new species, I have the right to name them. What do you guys think of ‘Luo Su Giant Spider’?”
“Shit!”
“It’s a terrible name. You can’t get any worse.”
“It’s still not certain if it’s a new species. It might be a mutant. You don’t have the right to do this.”
The researchers were simultaneously offended, all of them staring at Luo Su with hostile eyes. None of them was willing to step away from a chance at getting their name in the textbooks.
Luo Su patiently nodded. “You’re right. I’m really no good at naming, but…”
“But what?”
“But as the person to discover and capture them, I have the right to dispose of them as I please, just like the hunter and his prey. Thus, I am ready to sell them.”
The basement instantly fell silent, the researchers staring at Luo Su like he was the biggest fool in the world.
Luo Su ignored them and loudly called out, “Listen up! Zhejiang…tsk, I mean, the spiders that are still alive are 5000 dollars apiece. The dead ones that are still in good shape are 3000 dollars. The ones missing legs are 1000 dollars. Each leg is 500 dollars…if you buy enough at one time, you can enjoy a 9.99% discount.
“Please order now! No IOUs accepted!!”