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The duration of [Violence] is ten minutes.
Even though there is no skill cooldown, anyone with a brain can figure out that repeatedly using [Violence], such a high-intensity skill, must be over-exerting the body's potential, and the aftereffects won't be pleasant.
So, he had to seize every second.
Dressed in an orange-and-white Cold-Resistant Suit, Qin Siyang moved like a grim reaper, wielding two short blades, turning into an afterimage as he darted through the Iron Helmet Fleas.
Before the sticky blood of the Iron Helmet Fleas could even splash onto him, he had already flitted away.
Wherever he passed, only the corpses of Iron Helmet Fleas were left behind.
Each Iron Helmet Flea's head and rear had been separated. The cuts on their armored scales were so neat that they looked polished.
Enjoyment never lasts long.
The ten minutes quickly passed.
Qin Siyang immediately felt like his entire body was filled with cement, his movements slowed significantly, and both his perception and strength dropped simultaneously.
And the Iron Helmet Fleas, which had just been caught off guard by Qin Siyang's slaughter, seemed to realize that his peak state had passed. They instantly regrouped and launched an organized counterattack.
As he fended off the Iron Helmet Fleas' renewed assault, he scanned his surroundings.
In just ten minutes, he had killed over a thousand Iron Helmet Fleas.
But.
That was only a little over a third of them.
There were still two-thirds left.
At his initial pace, he would need another hour and a half to finish them all off.
But in his current condition, he was no longer as composed as he was at the start.
Sweat from his forehead trickled down his cheeks, dripping onto the visor of his Cold-Resistant Suit.
The condensation from his breath made his visor alternately blur and clear up.
He would need to activate [Violence] at least two more times to clear the field.
But given his current level of fatigue, after the next use of [Violence], he might not even have the energy to continue cutting down the Iron Helmet Fleas.
As for activating [Violence] three times in a row, he'd probably collapse from exhaustion and end up face-first in this cold, desolate wasteland.
He tried.
And yeah, he couldn't win.
Qin Siyang had no choice but to accept this disappointing reality.
If he couldn't win, then running wasn't shameful.
But the Iron Helmet Fleas he had just killed, if calculated according to the large solo team format, were worth at least one or two hundred points.
Throwing that away just like that? A huge waste.
He couldn't just leave the corpses here and come back later to collect the round plate armor.
Because of some unknown force, as long as the round plate armor wasn't extracted by a Sequence Hunter's ability, it would disappear just like a god's corpse.
Qin Siyang wasn't the type to risk his life for mere points.
While he still had some strength left, he planned to carve a path through the Iron Helmet Fleas and escape to the exit of Safe Zone 38324.
However.
It was as if the Iron Helmet Fleas had seen through his intentions, thousands of them immediately surged toward the direction he wanted to flee, blocking the path completely.
Qin Siyang swung his Blind Judge and God Hunting Dagger, taking two steps back, his brows furrowing tightly.
'Goddamn it, these iron fleas have gained intelligence?'
'When I was reading the forum posts, no one said these things could coordinate their attacks.'
'Could it be just like last time when Old Li said they were hiding key information again?'
But after thinking about it, he felt that wasn't the case.
Since the Iron Helmet Fleas' description was officially released by the Bureau, and even if the Bureau had internal conflicts, like setting up Qian Wenzhao, there shouldn't be any open obstruction of Sequence Hunters in their hunts.
'Unlessā¦ I'm just the unlucky one who ran into a bunch of Iron Helmet Fleas with a brain?'
At that moment, Qin Siyang's eyes suddenly lit up.
'Could it beā¦ that among this swarm of Iron Helmet Fleas, there is a commander?'
There was no information indicating that Iron Helmet Fleas obeyed a single leader, but their kind, being sandworm servants, did follow the orders of sandworms.
Ordinary sandworm servants didn't have much offensive power, and their attacks were purely driven by instinct.
But when they served under a powerful sandworm, they would follow its commands, leverage their advantages, and work together seamlessly, becoming terrifyingly strong.
The sandworm was the brain of the sandworm servants.
If the Iron Helmet Fleas were acting in an organized manner, then there had to be a brain among them.
The more he thought about it, the more convinced he became that this was the only possible explanation for his current predicament.
Qin Siyang suddenly had a goal. He stretched his neck, letting out a crisp "crack" as his joints popped. The sticky blood on him had been frozen by the cold wind, and the chilling sensation seeped through his Cold-Resistant Suit to his arms and legs, making him shiver and become more alert.
Qin Siyang continued analyzing.
If there was a brain, it had to be protected.
Which meant its location would be easy to pinpoint.
He tried breaking through in different directions.
After some careful testing, he noticed something strange.
When he charged toward the safe zone's exit, the Iron Helmet Fleas swarmed to block his way, expected, since they didn't want him to escape.
But when he charged in the opposite direction, away from the safe zone, they still swarmed to block him. That was unusual.
And only when he attempted to break through in those two directions did a large number of Iron Helmet Fleas move.
That all but confirmed it, the brain was behind him.
Moreover, their movements had almost no delay. They adjusted precisely according to his slightest actions, further proving that their brain was mixed in among them.
He scanned the swarm carefully.
Over two thousand Iron Helmet Fleas, all looking identical, like poplar leaves, with no visible distinctions.
'If I can't tell which one it isā¦ I'll just have to brute force it.'
He first launched a fierce attack toward the rear, shaking off some of the Iron Helmet Fleas.
Then, while the ones outside were still gathering in front of him, he activated [Violence] again.
'If I kill everything in front of me, I'll definitely get the commander.'
Once again, Qin Siyang turned into a reaper, cutting down every Iron Helmet Flea in sight.
Just as he was slicing through the swarm like cutting grassā
A metallic clang suddenly rang out.
Dingā
At the same time, he felt his left-hand Blind Judge lightly bounce off something.
'Huh?'
'That hard?'
Qin Siyang instantly grinned, his blood-stained teeth flashing behind his visor.
He quickly turned around, spotting an unremarkable Iron Helmet Flea. His eyes gleamed with excitement.
"Gotcha, you little bastard!"
The Iron Helmet Flea seemed to realize it had been exposed. It no longer hid and instantly displayed agility far beyond its kind, trying to leap away.
But Qin Siyang stomped on it, sending it crashing into the ground.
Then, he stepped on its body, gathered his strength, and drove the Blind Judge straight into its head, stabbing all the way through its rear.
The exposed blade even had a chunk of purple intestine hanging from it.
Qin Siyang lifted it up, staring at the round plate armor on its abdomen. His eyes widened like saucers.
'Thisā¦ how many goddamn layers of rings are stacked on this flea's armor?'
āāāāāāāāāāāāā
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