CH 16

Capture the leader first [1]

Shen Qingjia stretched out her hand and touched the transparent protective cover, it felt like some kind of soft jelly, “Zhu Ai, I want to go down.”

She looked at the endless sea of ​​worms on the ground and the people who were shining brightly in the endless worm wave and whispered: “Without real combat, I can’t grow up.”

“Be at ease!” Shen Qingjia smiled and hugged Zhu Ai, “I’m not a fool, if we really can’t win against these worms, we can still let Heise pick us up, no matter how powerful these worms are, can they fly??”

Zhu Ai did not speak, only waved lightly, Shen Qingjia fell from the protective cover to the ground.

As soon as she touch the ground and raised her head, a human-devouring Gu worm had already rushed up, jumping using its spider-like legs and claws, in the next second, it was about to bite Shen Qingjia’s head!

Countless sharp teeth of the human-devouring Gu worm making a hissing sound in Shen Qingjia’s ears, it made one’s heart feel cold. The Gu worm’s body in her sharply narrowing pupil is getting larger…

Puff!

At the critical moment, a water arrow suddenly appeared, the huge and sharp penetrating power directly split the human-devouring Gu worm into two parts and it instantly died!

“As expected.” [2] Zhu Ai above said in a low voice, with a smile.

“As expected.” Shen Qingjia glanced at Zhu Ai and laughed.

“But I hope you watch me!” Shen Qingjia smiled and rushed towards the endless sea of ​​worms. Regardless of the dozen or so human-devouring Gu worms leaping towards her at the same time, she loudly said, “I can also become stronger!”

Yi! Yi! Yi! Yi! Yi! [3]

Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff! Puff!

More than twenty fireballs whirled around her body in a dense defence, burning each and every one of the human-devouring Gu worms that dared to approach into ashes. Hands clutching her knife, her feet stepping in a strange stride, she quickly plunged the knife into the vulnerable part of the mucous membrane between the necks of one of the worms! This step had been taught to her by Zhu Ai and she had been able to do it in a satisfactory form for more than three months.

I can protect you too, Zhu Ai…

She pulled out her knife and stabbed at another human-devouring Gu worm. At the same time, she controlled a fireball toward the several worms behind her!

Bang!

She kept moving forward and the human-devouring Gu worms were pierced to death, splashing green, stinky liquid that was probably worm blood all over Shen Qingjia!

With a knife in her hand, Shen Qingjia madly slaughtered, swimming in a pile of worms that almost drowned her, Stab! Hack! Chop! Sweep! She felt her hands going numb.

There were times when the claws and teeth of the human-devouring Gu worm were only a few centimetres away from Shen Qingjia. If she turned her head accidentally in the wrong direction, half of her head might be going missing. This was extremely thrilling, but every time, when a human-devouring Gu worm wants to bite Shen Qingjia and threatens her safety, a sharp water arrow will appear, slicing the giant worms in half with great precision.

Yes, there has always been this one person who condones all your irrationality and all your shenanigans.

She knows you too well, that is why she says “as expected” when you’re in danger. You relied too much on her, which is why after being rescued by her, you say “as expected”. [4]

She is such a proud and awe-inspiring person but now she has hidden all her light and stands side by side with you.

She knows you so well that she never rejects you.

Her name is Zhu Ai.

The human-devouring Gu worm struggled constantly in the flames, hissing madly as the fast-dancing knives harvested the lives of one worm after another, the pierced body twitched a few times before remaining motionless. The green blood flowed…

“These two… so strong!”

Xu Kai stared at Shen Qingjia’s swift figure. Both of them, in terms of combat knowledge and actual combat skills were excellent and there were not many people in Hope Base that could compare with these two and……

Looking at Zhu Ai in the air, Xu Kai narrowed his eyes.

This person hides so many secrets…

Although he and she are both at the level 3 peak and Xiao Ai is a water ability user who is notoriously low in killing power against human, Xu Kai’s intuition told him that if he and she really fought a life-and-death battle, the one who will be killed without much effort will definitely be himself! Xu Kai even felt that this beautiful girl named Xiao Ai didn’t even show up to 3/10 or 4/10 of her strength in this exploration!

She is not keen on killing monsters and hunting for treasure and rarely shoots. Even if she is able to take out many monsters as easy as chopping melons and vegetables, the monster that even level 2 ability users find very difficult to kill but to her it is probably just a way for her to pass a boring time. Even if Hope base is in danger, even if everyone’s lives are in danger, she still has no intention to make a move.

Apart from Shen Qingjia’s safety, probably everything in this world is worthless in her eyes…

Looking at Shen Qingjia’s Zhu Ai, [5] the faint strange feeling from before flooded Xu Xin’s heart again.

“How can it be? I’m probably out of my mind…”

Xu Kai threw out the wind blade and cut a human-devouring Gu worm that jumped in front of him into two pieces.

“Both are beautiful and excellent girls… I must be thinking too much!”

Shen Qingjia moved to one side and managed to avoid the bite of a human-devouring Gu worm. Her body flashed, twisted into a magnificent arc and she stabbed backhand! The thick green stink worm blood splattered on her face but she didn’t even have time to wipe it, Shen Qingjia killed the next human-devouring Gu worm.

“Damn! These worms are not afraid to die!” Shen Qingjia gritted her teeth.

The hundreds of human-devouring Gu worms killed by Shen Qingjia seemed to have no effect on this huge sea of ​​worms and the giant worms’ attacks were still fast and sharp.

“Ah!! Help…”

“Help me!!! I don’t want to die!!”

“Ahhhh-!!!”

Several screams for help came, at this moment alone, I am afraid that 5 or 6 level 2 ability users were eaten by the worm. Shen Qingjia tightened her fingers on the knife and her attack became more violent.

She quickly runs out of stamina and her whole body is sore and soft. The powers accumulated in the past few days have almost been used up and she doesn’t know how long the fireball rotation protection can last. If there is no fireball protection, her fate would be no different from those who are torn to pieces.

Shen Qingjia admitted that she didn’t have the slightest idea of living and dying with this group of people. As soon as things go south, she and Zhu Ai would immediately ride Heise and leave without any hesitation! This is an employment relationship and there is no need for anyone to die for anyone. In the apocalypse, human life is as thin as paper. If she wants to save everyone, she is afraid that she will not be able to live until the Greatest Villain destroys the world like in her previous life. But just leaving like this made her feel that she was weak and powerless, so she couldn’t leave for now.

What if one day, Zhu Ai encounters a dangerous situation, what should I do…

“Yi Yi Yi Yi Yi…”

Suddenly, a strange hissing sound came from the battlefield. Even though the surrounding is full with screams and hissing sounds, Shen Qingjia could still hear the sound that was completely different from other human-devouring Gu worm.

Looking up, she saw the giant worm in the centre of the sea of ​​​worms slowly retreating, revealing a human-devouring Gu worm that they had previously surrounded in the middle like a myriad of stars surrounding the moon.

It is a human-devouring Gu worm that you can tell is different from the others. Its body is about twice the size of other giant worms. It has strange golden patterns all over its body. Its claws were thick and sharp and its head also had a sharp horn similar to a unicorn. The aura of this giant worm is far stronger than that of ordinary human-devouring Gu worms. It was a mutant giant worm that was as powerful as the level 3 peak mutant animals that had been killed before and all the human-devouring Gu worms seemed to be led by it.

This giant worm seemed to be very dissatisfied with the casualties of the swarm. Its ugly mouthparts [6] let out a series of hissing noises with a strange rhythm. The human-devouring worms in the audience fell silent and then ran frantically to kill several people who killed the most insects, such as Shen Qingjia.

“The leader of the human-devouring Gu worm?”

Shen Qingjia and Xu Kai were not afraid of facing the increasingly ferocious human-devouring Gu worm, instead their eyes lit up and there was only one sentence in their minds at the moment.

Capture the leader first!!! [7]

Translator’s notes :

[1] 擒贼先擒王; before you can get rid of the petty criminals you must catch their boss

[2] 果然如此; I saw many novel use ‘sure enough’ but apparently this is an idiom and I think ‘as expected’ sounds better? Anyway that is my interpretation.

[3] This is the worm/insect/beetle sounds

[4] This is so sweet… One knows the other is likely to rush headlong to danger and one knows the other will always have her back.

[5] 沈清嘉的祝哀; alright so my basic Mandarin know that 的 means possessive particle and since Zhu Ai is behind so I translate it to Zhu Ai belongs to Shen Qingjia so Shen Qingjia’s Zhu Ai

[6] 口器 ; yeah this is not mouth, this is mouthpart. I am no insect expert but dictionary said this is mouthpart (of an insect) so that is why I use mouthpart

[7] Yes this is this chapter’s title, so maybe the author likes to do this? Make the title a spoiler for the next chapter?