Chapter 51: The Situation Is Set
Boom!
An explosion rang out. Within the smoke and dust it produced, Su Xiao wiped the blood from his chin. He had been focused on by concentrated fire seven times, killing a total of 23 enemies.
Facing a siege of dozens of contractors, Su Xiao was naturally not relaxed. These were all third-rank contractors, different from when he had single-handedly challenged the Red Spider Lily Adventure Group back then.
Although Su Xiao could kill these contractors with a few slashes each, they could focus fire on him, unleashing a barrage of attacks.
Moreover, these contractors had bizarre abilities. When killing enemies, Su Xiao often encountered rather disgusting powers.
Of course, Su Xiao's combat experience now was completely different from when he fought the Red Spider Lily. Before charging into the crowd, he had been using alchemy bombs to kick up large clouds of dust. The shockwaves from the explosions also helped cover him.
Su Xiao naturally had to endure the impact from the alchemy bombs as well. Fortunately, that female healer was helping him recover from his injuries.
Five meters away from Su Xiao, the bald leader was lying on the ground. This guy wasn't very strong, but he was ruthless enough. Knowing he was no match for Su Xiao, he directly ordered his members to launch indiscriminate attacks.
Pfft.
Su Xiao spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva and kicked aside a corpse in front of him.
"It seems… I made… a wrong… decision."
The bald leader's chest had been slashed, severely damaging many internal organs. Not only that, one of his arms and one leg had been severed by Su Xiao. Such injuries rendered him combat-ineffective.
Zheng.
A blade aura slashed toward the bald leader. From the opponent's fighting style, Su Xiao judged he was a summoning type, but his summoned beasts were already dead.
With a snicker sound, the blade aura cut through the bald leader's throat, severing his head.
Su Xiao used his instinct ability to perceive his surroundings. The surrounding contractors had scattered, most rushing outside the smoke.
The alchemy bombs stopped exploding, and the smoke gradually dissipated. The scene here appeared in the sight of Chen and the others.
The ground was covered with slash marks, severed corpses everywhere. Two tower shields were stuck diagonally into the ground. Flammable materials on the ground were burning, with wisps of black smoke rising into the sky.
The only person still standing on the field was Su Xiao. As for the surviving contractors, they had already fled into the distance.
"The leader… is dead."
"Yeah, the leader is dead. He gave a wrong order, and this is the price he had to pay."
"Looks like we need to find a new adventure group. Being an affiliated group of the Blood Gate Adventurers isn't a bad choice."
"I'm more optimistic about Raging River."
The moment the bald leader died, his subordinates weren't thinking about revenge but immediately looking for a new group.
This was the flaw of the Spark Adventure Group. There was no camaraderie here, only a well-established chain of interests. As long as this interest chain operated stably, the members under him would basically not betray him.
The bald leader was the center of this interest chain, so everyone had to obey his orders. It was that simple.
If the Red Spider Lily Adventure Group had encountered today's situation, they would have tried every means to avenge their leader. As it turned out, once that type of adventure group encountered an enemy with strong individual strength, annihilation was only a matter of time.
The Spark Adventure Group was different. With the bald leader dead, the group immediately disintegrated. The members scattered like birds and beasts when disaster struck. They knew how cruel the Reincarnation Paradise was, so they wouldn't consider avenging the bald leader but immediately think about their own future.
"Going solo is also a decent development path. When that monster charged into our formation, I felt it. Our system is too rigid. Once one link is broken, the whole thing becomes unstable."
The vice leader of the Spark Adventure Group spoke up, seemingly not intending to join another adventure group.
"Continue."
Su Xiao's Dragon-Slaying Flash made a virtual slash forward. A blade flower appeared, and the long sword let out a crisp ring.
As soon as Su Xiao made this slash, the more than forty surviving contractors in the distance all took several steps back.
"Who wants to continue with you? You win. If you can deal with them, then name your price."
The vice leader of the Spark Adventure Group, Shabao, pointed at Chen, Shuixiao, and Laoyan, implying that if Su Xiao could handle these three, they would bleed themselves dry to buy the Ant King's heart from Su Xiao.
Su Xiao's gaze fixed on the vice leader Shabao. He detected not a trace of hatred in the other's eyes. Indeed, the Spark Adventure Group's model was similar to the Blood Gate Adventurers, only the Blood Gate's method was more clever. In that team model, once Stan died, the other members would definitely fight Su Xiao to the death—a forced fight to the death.
Su Xiao shifted his gaze to Chen, Laoyan, and Shuixiao.
Chen hesitated for a moment, then turned and walked out of the palace courtyard, surprising Laoyan and Shuixiao.
"Chen, you're giving up?"
Laoyan seemed somewhat unwilling.
"Yeah."
Chen's reply was very straightforward.
"Why? He's strong, no doubt, but that was before being besieged by dozens of people. His current state isn't good. This is an opportunity."
Laoyan wasn't trying to bewitch Chen. The fact was indeed so. Su Xiao had just fought a fierce battle with dozens of contractors. Even with his strong survival ability and the assistance of that "busty" female healer, he had still expended a lot.
His mana points were only 657 left, Wood Spirit was in cooldown, and the Duke of Annihilation's bullets were completely spent.
"No particular reason. I just don't want to fight him. He seems to be my natural enemy. A small amount of elemental energy seeps into everyone's body, but there's not a trace of elemental energy in his body. This means he can reduce high amounts of elemental damage."
As Chen spoke, he was already walking away. He was the one with the second highest gains besides Su Xiao. This guy had snatched the Ant King's treasure chest during the chaos, but the quality of that chest was very unsatisfactory—so unsatisfactory that Chen wanted to throw it on the ground and stomp on it. He even suspected the chest had been swapped, that this was Laoyan's doing, which was why Laoyan and Shuixiao hadn't bothered to grab that chest.
"Good luck to you two."
Chen, already far away, waved his hand back at Laoyan and Shuixiao.
"Good luck my ass. Shuixiao, we might have been schemed against by those two."
Laoyan's expression was gloomy, his mind pondering suspicious points.
"The situation is set. I don't want to fight that guy in melee. I'd die."
Shuixiao sheathed his two curved blades at his waist. His gains were also decent.
"Did you conspire with those two to scheme against me? I smell the scent of 'pubic hair.'"
Laoyan stuffed that sniper rifle back into his crotch. It seemed this habit of hiding guns in his pants was incurable.
"How is that possible? That's your own hair that got pinched off. Let's go."
Shuixiao and Laoyan walked away. Su Xiao didn't stop them.
Just as Su Xiao was considering how much to fleece those contractors, a cute girl ran toward him, waving her hand enthusiastically.
Su Xiao's first reaction was to slash her. The cute girl suddenly stopped in her tracks.
"Don't slash me～ I've been healing you all this time."
The cute girl pouted as she spoke. Compared to her healing output, her actual bust size was somewhat disappointing. She was the female healer who had been healing Su Xiao earlier. She looked very cute but was very flat.
"Yeah."
The Ant King's heart appeared in Su Xiao's hand. He cut off about 50 grams, roughly 3 centimeters in diameter.
"Payment."
Su Xiao tossed that small piece of heart to the soft girl healer. She caught it immediately, turned around, and ran, but her "short little legs" weren't very fast. Fortunately, her teammates were nearby to support her. "A cute thing with astonishing healing output"—that was the soft girl healer's assessment of her. And today, this cute thing had saved all of them, sparing them from having to fight Su Xiao to the death.
"Name your price. You need at most 50 grams of the Ant King's heart. Selling the rest is only natural."
A contractor in the distance spoke up.
"I will only sell the Ant King's heart through the derivative world contact platform."
Su Xiao snapped his fingers. Boom! The ten alchemy bombs he had buried around him earlier exploded simultaneously. Flames surged outward.
When the flames dissipated, Su Xiao had already disappeared. This made those contractors gnash their teeth in hatred, but they were helpless. Chase after him? That would be suicide.
Outside the palace courtyard, Su Xiao walked slowly. After deducting the payment to the cute girl healer and the portion he needed for his own main mission, the Ant King's heart still had 180 grams left.
For individuals, each person needed at least 10 grams of the Ant King's heart. That meant only 18 contractors could complete their main mission through Su Xiao.
Of course, Laoyan and the other two also had the Ant King's heart. If they used 30 grams to complete their main mission and got a relatively average evaluation, they would also sell the remaining portion. That would be a very considerable income.
Even so, without the adventure group mission reduction mechanism, besides Su Xiao, Chen, Laoyan, Shuixiao, and the adventure group of the soft girl healer, only about twenty contractors could survive.
The contractors who hadn't obtained the Ant King's heart knew this. But getting them to unite and fight Su Xiao to the death was no longer possible. They had already tried once and been beaten back.
When there was hope, no one would fight to the death. Only those contractors who absolutely couldn't get the Ant King's heart would come to fight Su Xiao to the death. For this reason, Su Xiao didn't sell the Ant King's heart immediately but planned to find buyers through the derivative world contact platform. There was plenty of time left for the mission, enough for him to maneuver. This way, those contractors who wanted to fight Su Xiao to the death would have no chance.
Not everyone had the immunity to main mission failure. Once a main mission failed, death awaited them. That was the Reincarnation Paradise.
In the eyes of Reincarnation Paradise contractors, Apocalypse Paradise contractors were all sissies, flowers in a greenhouse. In the eyes of Apocalypse Paradise contractors, the contractors in Reincarnation Paradise were all madmen, psychopaths.
"An auction model seems good."
Su Xiao wouldn't set a price for the Ant King's heart. In the eyes of those contractors who hadn't completed their main mission, this heart equaled their lives, and life was priceless.
As he walked, Su Xiao held seven scarlet cards. This time in the Hunter World, the drop rate for scarlet cards wasn't high. Or rather, Su Xiao had started having intermittent bad luck again.