Chapter 20: Assistance? Not Needed...

"Xu Tiange, keep moving forward, turn right uphill, then take a left..."

"Liu Xu, turn around, take the left fork at the three-way intersection, then go up the slope..."

"Yi Qian, head straight down, turn right, left, then right again..."

While the students were still whispering among themselves, speculating about where the silkworm ambush might be, Ye Chao had already connected the incident site and the nearest teams on the map, quickly plotting the optimal route and reporting instructions in a clear, rapid voice.

The team that ran into trouble only had a walkie-talkie, so they couldn’t see what was happening, but the other teams—especially Xu Tiange’s—were better equipped. Though they’d lost their old phones, they still had a repaired tablet and a network camera, a truly luxurious setup.

On the surveillance feed, Jet Princess could be seen dragging her gas tank hammer, striding forward at breakneck speed and leaving her teammates far behind.

They had barely covered a hundred meters, still a turn away from the trouble spot, when suddenly, two blobs of white liquid burst from the darkness ahead, hurtling straight at Xu Tiange. She nearly took it full in the face.

Fortunately, her reflexes were quick—her slender waist twisted with the agility of a seasoned driver, and she dodged by a hair’s breadth.

It was acid!

Wang Zhi, her inflatable sidekick, was right behind her and felt his scalp tingle—since Xu Tiange had dodged, he was in the line of fire.

Xu Tiange’s martial skills allowed her to evade, but he wasn’t so lucky. His eyes were fixed wide on the liquid, straining so hard they almost crossed, but his head couldn’t quite escape the oncoming splash.

Just as he was about to be hit, a sudden gust swept upward across his face, and the liquid was intercepted by a massive hammerhead. On Wang Zhi’s retina, the words “liquefied petroleum gas” seemed to linger.

It was naturally Xu Tiange. She kept running, never slowing, the gas tank trailing behind her. With a powerful swing and a twist of the valve, the gas tank reversed, roaring wind sweeping away the mysterious liquid.

“Stay sharp!” Xu Tiange shouted.

Smoke hissed from the hammer as the unknown liquid corroded its surface, filling the air with a foul stench.

Yet Xu Tiange seemed oblivious, charging ahead without hesitation.

Her hammer was reinforced and pressurized; a little corrosion posed no threat, and if it lasted longer, she could always repair it with a thought. How else could it withstand the shocks of fierce battle?

The darkness ahead was unbroken, but it was as if Xu Tiange could see through it, swinging her hammer as she advanced. “Thud... hiss!” “Thud... hiss!” In the shadows, the only sound was the muffled blow of the hammer.

This was Xu Tiange’s talent: her natural field of vision far exceeded that of ordinary people.

Not the 360-degree, no-blind-spot vision of a prey animal, but rather the ability to see infrared above, ultraviolet below, and the full range of visible light.

Most new humans had better night vision than the old; night blindness barely existed, and Xu Tiange’s ability was a step above even them.

That’s why her combat squad was configured so differently from the others—

She didn’t need a recon specialist—she was one herself.

Tank? Unnecessary—she fulfilled that role.

Melee damage dealer? She did that, too.

Stealth and purification roles? No need; she simply steamrolled through.

It was just her, Wang Zhi the inflatable sidekick, and three ranged attackers. Their weapons were an electromagnetic coil, an air compressor, and fast-drying adhesive.

The adhesive could quickly immobilize enemies, the electromagnetic coil fired projectiles with lethal force, and the air cannon was equally devastating—especially when paired with Xu Tiange’s gas tank. In countless simulations, her team had swept all before them, undefeated.

Who was on Ye Chao’s team?

He was a support—purely academic, useless in battle, a humanities student without a squad...

Xu Tiange’s team always advanced the fastest, but her sidekicks were still much slower than she was. By the time she had fought her way in, they were rushing to catch up, barely arriving in time to pick up the scraps.

It was only then, with the glowsticks in Wang Zhi’s hands and the camera’s night vision, that Alpha Princess could finally see what lay ahead.

She drew a sharp breath—if she were capable of breathing.

The tunnel ahead was indeed full of silkworms, only they were much larger than normal, averaging about two feet long, looking like plump serpents of various colors, wriggling swiftly along the tunnel walls. Every so often, they’d rear up and spit a stream of silk.

Some, with smooth bodies, sprayed silk like water guns; others, with large heads, spat entire webs that smothered everything; still others, in a riot of colors, unleashed jets of acid.

The silk was tough, but Xu Tiange paid it little mind. Except for the acid, which she dodged, she simply used her gas tank hammer to swat away everything else. The hammer, now resembling a giant ball of cotton candy, swelled visibly as it accumulated layer upon layer.

Before her hammer could truly become cotton candy, she broke through to close quarters and swept her hammer in a broad arc.

With each blow, a fat silkworm swelled up immediately, as if it had watched something unspeakable.

The next instant—“Splurt!”—mysterious fluids, innards, and other unknown things gushed forth, like a sea cucumber expelling its guts, or perhaps something even more suggestive...

The difference was, this happened from both ends at once.

Once spent, the fat silkworms dropped from the tunnel walls or collapsed, spent, on the ground.

One hammer per silkworm, no exceptions. Before her hammer could be overwhelmed, Xu Tiange had cleared a dozen or so silkworms from the path.

But don’t let Xu Tiange’s unstoppable charge make you think the name ‘Heavenly Silkworm’ is an insult to the species.

Just look at her teammates to see these worms are no easy prey.

Electromagnetic projectiles, fired at high speed, didn’t so much ripple as quiver and jiggle like slabs of fat, somehow absorbing the impact.

The fast-drying adhesive was equally useless—even when it stuck tight, the silkworm’s skin would split open and a fresh worm would wriggle free, shedding its skin in the process.

“Ah!” Suddenly, Zhao Sanxiang, the air compressor sidekick, screamed.

A dull, gray-black silkworm had crept onto the tunnel ceiling and dropped down. Its head was enormous, its jaws even more developed—when it opened its mouth, it could swallow a human head whole, though it was only two or three feet long.

There were melee types as well!

Zhao Sanxiang managed to dodge the head, but the creature bit deep into his shoulder. White mucus, streaked with blood, oozed out rapidly and glued the worm in place like a leech with suction cups.

As for what lay beneath those jaws, Zhao Sanxiang’s contorted face, his agonized shouts, and his desperate thrashing hinted at the horror.

But there was no shaking it off.

Pulling with his hands?

The fat silkworm acted like a rubber band—pull, and it slackened; release, and it tightened. Even with two people pulling, stretching it a full ten feet, it wouldn’t come loose, only causing Zhao Sanxiang greater pain.

Cutting with a knife?

The worm’s body was incredibly tough and semi-fluid, like toffee, progress painfully slow.

Hammering it?

The worm kept writhing, sending shocks through Zhao Sanxiang’s body so violently the hammer couldn’t find its target—it was impossible to aim and might hit someone else.

Burning it?

Even worse. The foamy adhesive was highly flammable. Spray it in a circle and ignite it, and the silkworm blazed like a torch, charring Zhao Sanxiang’s hair and burning his skin, but the worm clung stubbornly to his shoulder, coiling and wriggling as it devoured his flesh in great gulps.