127: The Poacher's Fate

"Shut up! Focus on driving!"

One-Eye slapped the back of the driver's head and cursed viciously, "Who cares who it is? They didn't catch up anyway. Once we reach the border and sell this tusk, we'll take the money and hide in Sudan for a few months. Who's going to find us then?"

The two lackeys in the back seat also burst into laughter. Although they only managed to get half, the quality of this ivory tusk was excellent, enough to provide them with years of squandering capital on the underground black market.

They didn't notice.

High up in the sky at several thousand meters, a cluster of tiny black dots, like a dark cloud, had already locked onto the speeding pickup truck.

That was the [Ghost · Micro Nano Swarm].

Each "killer bee" was only the size of a fly, made entirely of light-absorbing material, and relied on electrostatic propulsion to fly without making any sound.

"Target locked."

"Executing Judgment Mode: Class C — Wilderness Exile."

As the cold command was issued by the main brain of Eternal Star City, the cloud of black dots instantly dove down.

The pickup truck was still racing forward.

Suddenly, dozens of nano-bees silently attached themselves to the pickup's hood and chassis.

Zzz—

High-frequency microwave pulses erupted instantly.

Inside the high-speed engine, the Electronic Control Unit (ECU) was fried into a lump of scrap metal in an instant. The fuel injectors melted, and the pistons seized.

"Boom! Clang!"

Accompanied by a piercing screech of metal friction and black smoke, the once powerful pickup truck lunged forward as if it had suffered a sudden heart attack, then stalled completely and came to a dead stop in the middle of the road.

The inertia sent the four people in the car tumbling and dazed.

"What happened?!"

One-Eye clutched his bruised forehead and roared, "Why did the car stop?!"

"I... I don't know, Boss! It just stalled suddenly, and the power went out!" The driver twisted the key desperately, but the car didn't respond at all; even the dashboard lights were dead.

"Useless! Get out and fix it!"

The four men pushed open the doors and got out, cursing.

By now, the surroundings were pitch black.

The wilderness wind howled past, kicking up dust from the ground. This was a true dead zone, far from any village, with the nearest settlement fifty kilometers away.

Just as they turned on their flashlights and prepared to check the engine.

"Buzz..."

A few extremely faint sounds, like the buzzing of mosquitoes, rang in their ears.

Slap!

One-Eye felt a sharp pain in his neck and instinctively reached out to swat at it.

"Damn mosquitoes."

He didn't pay it any mind. In Africa, being bitten by insects was common.

The other three felt slight stings on their arms or necks almost at the same time, all assuming they were just ordinary bites.

What they didn't know was.

In that seemingly ordinary "sting," two things had been injected into their bodies.

The first was a potent neuroblocker (chronic version). It wouldn't kill them immediately, but over the next few hours, it would leave them with weak limbs, slow reactions, and a 50% reduction in running speed.

The second was a gene-locked [Nano-Poison Sac].

It would lie dormant on the walls of the main arteries of the heart for a thirty-day incubation period.

After thirty days, the poison sac would rupture.

The resulting pain would make death seem like a mercy; their blood would boil like lava, and they would finally dissolve into a pool of pus in extreme remorse.

But that was all for later.

The urgent matter now was the completely broken-down car.

"Boss, the engine is dead... the wiring inside seems to have completely melted..." the driver said, his voice trembling as he looked at the smoking engine bay.

"What?!"

An ominous premonition surged in One-Eye's heart.

"Grab the gear! Take the ivory! We're walking back!" he ordered decisively.

As long as they had guns in hand, they didn't fear wild beasts.

However, when he picked up the shotgun he valued more than his life and pulled the bolt to chamber a round.

Click-clack.

The bolt didn't budge.

"What's going on?"

One-Eye exerted all his strength, even using his foot to kick it, but the gun's action was as if it had been welded shut, having become a complete hunk of iron.

That was the masterpiece of the polymer adhesive and localized high-temperature welding released by the nano-swarm.

It wasn't just his gun.

The other three's AK-47s, and even the magazines at their waists, had all turned into piles of scrap metal.

In this moment.

True fear finally descended.

No car, no guns, no communication tools (the phone chips had also been fried).

They were deep in the wilderness where lions and hyenas roamed.

"Awoo—"

Just then, in the nearby bushes, pairs of eerie green eyes lit up.

It was a pack of hyenas attracted by the lingering scent of blood on the ivory.

They loved this kind of isolated, defenseless prey.

"Run... run!!!"

Someone shouted.

The four executioners who had once cruelly slaughtered wild animals finally experienced what it felt like to be hunted. They dropped the heavy ivory tusk and fled frantically into the depths of the dark wilderness.

But their legs had already begun to go soft as the chronic anesthetic started to take effect.

Behind them, the hyenas' excited, strange cackling drew closer... Atop the elephant's back.

Jiang Yuan looked at the final images sent back to the holographic screen on his wrist—it showed four red dots fleeing pathetically on the thermal imaging map, while dense clusters of green dots (wild beasts) were forming a perimeter.

He turned off the screen expressionlessly.

For people like this, killing them directly was too good for them.

Letting them struggle in despair under nature's judgment was better. If they somehow managed to survive this, the poison's onset in a month would be their final ticket to hell.

"Jiang Yuan, what are you thinking about?"

Lin Xia's voice interrupted his thoughts.

"Nothing."

Jiang Yuan snapped back to reality, and the warmth returned to his cold eyes in an instant.

"I was wondering what to eat tonight."

By now, the Mother Elephant had carried them out of the jungle and back to the riverbank where they had parked.

She slowly knelt her front legs to let the two of them down.

The Baby Elephant reluctantly wrapped its trunk around Jiang Yuan's fingers, refusing to let him go.

"Alright, go back now. Find a safe place to sleep."

Jiang Yuan patted the little fellow's head and left a mental imprint on the Mother Elephant to ensure no beasts would dare approach them tonight.

The Mother Elephant gave Jiang Yuan a deep look and let out a low rumble before turning and leading her child into the vast night.

Watching the two disappearing figures, Lin Xia let out a long sigh.

"Even though we saved them, I'm still worried those poachers will come back."

Jiang Yuan opened the car door and made a "please" gesture.

"They won't."

He started the car and said casually.

"The wind of the savanna tells me they've lost their way."

"And they'll never make it out."

The land rover defender's bright headlights cut through the darkness as it drove toward the crystal camp hidden beneath the Acacia Tree.