The jungle rings with the cries of insects. They cannot know if these are bugs or mutants impersonating bugs before encountering them, but that is not really important.

“I feel this every time, but it’s a little off-putting to go into a mission that’s in a forest with bare bodies. Oh right. The environment itself isn’t compatible with people.”

Mud that dirties the battlesuit boots – if they had been shoes, forget socks and shoes, their feet would have been drenched by now.

That’s not all. Branches and grass obstruct their view and graze their battlesuits. These are the perfect conditions to get skin irritation from grass, the worst conditions for people. Insects the size of fingernails also stick to them everywhere. They look extremely odd, too. They would wave their hands around to swat away normal flies. But when those weird bugs stick to the skin, it would be enough to make someone pass out.

“Ugh… I don’t like it.”

“Ack!”

Violet can be girly too, and shivers at the sight of the bugs. Kyoko shrieks even though they are not sticking to her directly, and sprays a disinfectant built into her battlesuit. There is some kind of effect.

“Blade Weasel, Horned Tail Heinkel.”

“It’s a scary one.”

Violet responded. Horned Tail Heinkel is a dangerous mutant. It is specialized in offensive attacks and its defense is not very good.

Heinkel has 2 fortes. One is speed comparable to Red Heart’s, and another is force that could cut through a large building. The adult standard of Heinkel is when the blade tail reaches 15 meters in length. What would happen if an ultra-vibrating weapon is waved around everywhere?

It will become a rare situation where everything including the self is split in half. They would not come out alive. It is in the top 10 of level 7s. Its defense is weak, but its advantages offset the disadvantages. On top of that, average Blade Weasels cannot be underestimated either.

“Do you think a male and female will be together?”’

“No way.”

Cha Jun Sung waves his hand. There are 2 types of points in level B missions.

Equal 30 million, advancement 50 million. It would be advancement if a male and female were together. That is how strong they are. He could take on 2 if he had to, but the burden would become severe for the party members who need to fight the underlings.

Cha Jun Sung puts his hand up. The party members form a circle. They can sense something moving. Is it a Blade Weasel? If it is, it is too fast. The jungle is vast. Would it be a good thing if they encounter one before even a day has passed since they entered? Would it be a bad thing? It is hard to judge.

Wiing!

Radio waves from the battlesuit scan the field. Since he activated the heat detector, living creatures would leave traces telling him where they are.

“Hm… It’s a mutant that can control its body temperature. It’s not a Blade Weasel.”

This kind of ability appears in a lot of plant mutants. It is hard to find them first because distinguishing them is unclear when the heat detector does not work.

“UV-rays don’t pick it up either.”

“What do you think it is?”

“I can’t designate a specific one because there are too many that come to mind right now.”

The party members each take out their weapons. They have a feeling that they have been surrounded.

The mutants came here on purpose after finding out that Cha Jun Sung’s group was here, or Cha Jun Sung’s group has walked into a mutant habitat. Whatever it is, it is too late to avoid battle.

“Huh?”

With the feeling like something is grasping his ankle, Park Jin Hyuk looked down at the pressure on his ankle. A tentacle as thick as his arm is wrapped around his ankle.

Ack!

Park Jin Hyuk is taken aback and stabs at it with his gun. The battlesuit functions activate automatically to press down on the tentacle. Fluids splatter and the tentacle retreats.

They were wondering how it got around his ankle without being detected, and it had dug through the hard ground. Muddy water fills the hole in the ground it came through.

“Tentacle?”

“It’s a root controlled by a main body. It is a plant type. It’ll be disguised among the trees. All of the trees in the area could be mutants too.”

Cha Jun Sung takes out a temperature gas shell. It is a B store item that combines the functions of a high-temperature shell and gas shell, and each costs 10,000 points.

He throws the shell in the direction that the tentacle came from. There was no specific target because of the dense trees, but the gas shell flew far and exploded, lighting a 30 meter radius in flames. Furthermore, the wind going through the forest widened the attack range a little more.

Kyak!

A shredding scream. As soon as that sound shook up the forest, tree roots disguising tentacles in the area flung out and attacked Cha Jun Sung’s group.

Papapapat!

They try to whip at them and skewer them. Hundreds of roots entangle to create a net in order to catch Cha Jun Sung’s group. Roots the thickness of a body appeared as well.

Boom boom!

The ground rings. It is not in one place, and they are appearing from everywhere. Heat detectors still did not pick them up, but they were identifiable because they are so close.

“They’re Eclipse Trees.”

It looks like a normal tree. The leaves, trunk, and roots are the same. But they are foxes that are hiding their true appearances.

Kikiki!

The Eclipse Trees open their center and there are demon’s faces. They do not have teeth, but the open trees are as sharp as teeth.

“There’s no plan. Kill them all.”

About 20 appeared. There are a lot but they are all level 5, so they are not burdensome opponents. There is no need to assign roles for each party member when fighting something like this. All they have to do is kill them as they see them.

Bang bang bang!

Violet’s spear goes through an Eclipse Tree’s body. Koharu goes between roots and makes blows overall. Park Jin Hyuk sniped while in motion. Basil turned on stealth mode and raided like a ghost. Kyoko also took on a few with weapons with high fire power.

Even if they are level 5s, they were attacking too unilaterally. Eclipse Trees are at the same level as the Caicus. They are in no terms a lowly mutant. Over time, each party member’s abilities rode a rising curve.

6 people – that is the number of people in the party including Cha Jun Sung. They are a small number, but they are superior to most parties in all aspects. The only thing they fall behind in is head count.

Park Jin Hyuk and Kyoko have 8 combinations, and the rest have 9 to 10 for their battlesuits. Koharu’s group tried to help them get to 9, but failed in the end.

One needs a lot of luck to succeed in 9 combinations. There is no need to mention luck for 10. Kyoko found her own method of combinations while playing the virtual version, but Park Jin Hyuk quit after less than 1 year. He was able to get to 8 combinations because the party members shared what they know with him.

[Go, Clairvoyance!]

Zing!

Park Jin Hyuk’s 8 combination Shootskill Clairvoyance activated and each of the Eclipse Tree’s movement became minute until he could see gaps that were not visible before.

Clairvoyance uses increased vision and expanded field view to amplify one of the 5 senses, sight, to the limit. It is not grand but it is very useful.

It’s particularly useful to a sniper like him who shoots while in motion.

Tatatatang!

With proper distance support, a small number can take on a large group. Below level mutants become prey even without support.

Boom boom!

The Eclipse Trees collapse one by one. They get 180,000 points for each. The amount that they earn increases proportionally to the rising mission level and difficulty, but it felt like the experience value following the level seems to stay in place.

Cha Jun Sung received 10 billion points in exchange for giving a sample, but other level B Lifers were frantically trying to gather that amount.

Level B gear easily goes over 1 million points. Lifers like rankers save points by succeeding with battlesuit combinations on the first try.

Those who fail in their combinations were busy gathering points. The future is dreary as to whether they will be able to modify their battlesuits and get the gear they need.

Kyah!

The last standing Eclipse Tree falls over. With this, the first battle is over.

“I’m tired!”

“There could be more. Be careful.”

Park Jin Hyuk shook his gun to Cha Jun Sung’s warning and scanned the area with the Clairvoyance. He acts lazy but he also is a skilled hunter. Battlesuit inside cameras identify and search objects. It can tell things like whether that a mutant that looks like a tree, rock, the ground, or weasel.

Click!

The Clairvoyance picks up a mutant sitting on top of a high tree. A weasel as big as a person blinks and looks down. It is small for a mutant. The 7 meter tail on its rear gives the atmosphere that they must not underestimate it.

“Jung Sung, that! Blade Weasel!”

“What?”

Park Jin Hyuk points to Blade Weasel’s position. All of the party members’ attention focused to one place. A brown creature similar in color to bark. It hides half of its body in the large tree and has its tail held stiff to disguise it as a branch. The Blade Weasel bares its knife-sharp teeth.