145: Chapter 139 Control

Chapter 139 Control

The bizarre seeds startled Lin Ping and Li Tianlong, terror showing on their faces as they instantly became filled with anxiety.

Wang Ting simply watched them without speaking, his expression calm, as if he were watching two ants struggling in the water.

His implication was very clear — Li Tianlong and Lin Ping had only two choices: either die, or eat this thing.

Ever since Feng Bo's report during the day, Wang Ting had been pondering what method to use to take down Bullet Town.

Bullet Town was a full eighty-plus kilometers away from Outpost Camp. At this distance, even if they rushed at full speed in an off-road vehicle across the rugged wilderness roads of Tieling Wasteland, it would probably take two to three hours to arrive.

This speed was not an exaggeration; it was simply that the road was truly too difficult to walk.

There were no highways in the wasteland, and each road was undulating and winding. Not only could they not raise their speed, but they also had to worry about wasteland bandits who might rob them on the way or monsters launching attacks. For a distance of over eighty kilometers, a little over two hours was the limit.

In the absence of long-range communication methods and fast arrival means, distance would greatly hinder governance.

If Wang Ting wanted to bring Bullet Town under his command, he was bound to send someone loyal to him and possessing a certain level of strength to hold the fort, so that he could firmly control Bullet Town in his hands.

Yet the awkward part now was that whether it was Dong Hu, Ren Chuan, or Feng Bo, they only possessed the strength of secondary limit-breaking; they were still somewhat lacking when it came to holding Bullet Town securely in their hands.

A key town controlling the production of bullets and firearms needed at least an extraordinary being to hold the fort in order to cope with the pressure and emergencies it might face.

What Wang Ting lacked right now was not the resources to make his subordinates become extraordinary beings, but time.

He had the confidence to lead all his subordinates into the extraordinary realm, but this required time to temper. Only by tempering the physical bodies of Dong Hu, Ren Chuan, and Feng Bo to the peak of secondary limit-breaking could they withstand the power of transforming into extraordinary beings.

Therefore, during this time gap, Wang Ting had to make another choice, finding other ways to control Bullet Town before waiting for his own people to take over.

Fostering a puppet as an agent was undoubtedly a suitable method.

Wang Ting calmly looked at the two people in front of him, his gaze resembling a sharp blade suspended over their necks.

Time passed bit by bit, and the two Parasitic Seeds were still constantly writhing with tendril-like branches.

Wang Ting actually had a better method. One of the characteristics of the Mother Spider Tyrant — the Tyrant Hive — was the true method to control subordinates. Through spider egg parasitism, it both bestowed power upon subordinates and achieved thorough control.

But unfortunately, the monster points he currently had on hand were not enough to redeem it.

He could only settle for the next best thing and use Parasitic Seeds for control first.

Although Parasitic Seeds could not remotely manipulate life and death, their characteristic of being swallowed into the stomach and difficult to eradicate could likewise restrain subordinates like poison.

Moreover, once eradicated, without vitality feedback, Wang Ting would also detect it at the first moment.

"I will eat it."

Lin Ping directly grabbed the Parasitic Seed on the ground. Without caring about the sand stained on it, he mustered up his courage, shoved it into his mouth, and then forced down his discomfort to swallow it.

Once the Parasitic Seed was swallowed, he let out a burst of retching. However, since the thing had already entered his stomach, it was no longer so easy to come out.

"Ah……"

Painful groans came from his throat. Clutching his stomach, he arched his body, collapsed onto the sandy ground, and trembled uncontrollably.

It felt as though something was draining from his body, and waves of pain washed over him. After a long while, the pain finally lessened slightly.

He was sweating profusely from the pain, and until the pain gradually disappeared, he barely managed to lift his head.

Wang Ting looked at Li Tianlong and asked calmly, "What is your choice?"

"I—I, I will eat it too."

Li Tianlong simply had no choice. If he didn't eat it, he would die. Even after seeing Lin Ping's painful appearance, he had no choice at this moment but to grab the Parasitic Seed and swallow it in one go.

The same intense pain struck. Enduring it like this for several minutes, a cold sweat broke out all over his body, and he barely managed to withstand such pain.

He felt as though a living parasite was now parasitizing inside his stomach. Even though the pain had vanished, he could still feel the occasional writhing, as if it were sucking his blood.

"A very correct choice; the two of you can keep your lives for the time being."

Seeing that both of them had chosen to consume the Parasitic Seed, Wang Ting raised the corners of his mouth slightly and said with a faint smile.

"The Parasitic Seed is under my control, and it will slowly drain the vitality within your bodies. If I release its devouring magnitude, based on your physiques, you shouldn't be able to live past three days."

He looked at Lin Ping, paused his voice, and corrected himself, "No, if you are an extraordinary being, you should be able to last ten-odd days."

Lin Ping and Li Tianlong's faces turned pale. Li Tianlong had fear in the depths of his eyes, while Lin Ping's expression was grave, yet he still wanted to make an effort.

"Milord, Lin Ping is willing to obey; I only beg Milord to give me a chance."

Even if Wang Ting intended to control it, if it still continuously devoured vitality like this, what difference would it make if he could hold on a little longer?

"As long as you are obedient enough, you won't die so easily. If you are worried, you can also disembowel yourself to take it out."

Take it out?

Lin Ping and Li Tianlong's hearts sank, and their eyes dimmed somewhat. In this apocalyptic world, who could undergo surgery by disembowelment and not die? Besides, who knew if Wang Ting had other control methods?

"Feng Bo, take them down."

Night passed quietly. Although a few zombies occasionally broke in, they were all killed with crossbows by the night watchmen, stirring up no storms.

Iron Ash Town, not knowing what it was considering, hadn't even sent people over after such a long time.

Perhaps because leader Pang Ke had misgivings, he was the only one in the entire Shelter who broke through to become an extraordinary being—far inferior to Bullet Town—and they hadn't seized the first-mover advantage. Under such circumstances, not daring to easily organize a counterattack was also understandable.

However, since Iron Ash Town didn't come, it also saved Wang Ting and the others a lot of effort.

The next morning, Wang Ting and Feng Bo made various arrangements first.

First, they sent the prisoners of Bullet Town back in batches to be locked up.

With the experience of locking up Three Wolves Gang members for the first time, prisons and cages were already readily available in Outpost Camp. Once people were locked inside, even with limit-breaking physiques, prison breaks were nearly impossible without tools.

In addition, Wang Ting, Feng Bo, and the others intentionally left Lin Ping and Li Tianlong here, continuing to detain them under guard.

Ever since Wang Ting made them swallow the Parasitic Seeds last night without giving them any other instructions, the two felt the bizarre sensation inside their stomachs like parasites moving around, feeling anxious and sleepless all night. Their appearance showed dark circles even more obvious than a panda's, and they looked quite haggard.

They actually wanted to meet Wang Ting to ask clearly and put their minds at ease, but Wang Ting intentionally ignored them, seemingly wanting them to more personally experience the feeling of the Parasitic Fungus Vine devouring vitality.

Wang Ting was not afraid of them finding a way to take out the Parasitic Seeds. Logically speaking, this characteristic was originally meant to be deployed in combat.

By planting a large number of Parasitic Seeds on the monsters' body surfaces to form entanglement and adsorption, it continuously devoured vitality and fed it back to Wang Ting, weakening the enemy while amplifying Wang Ting's sustained combat capability.

In this combat style, even the most foolish monsters would not easily swallow Parasitic Seeds into their stomachs, because once swallowed, taking them out was not that simple.

Coerced by Wang Ting, Li Tianlong and Lin Ping swallowed them directly into their stomachs, leaving them facing the most difficult predicament.

Either they grew powerful enough that their body's extraordinary factors or other means were sufficient to kill the Parasitic Seed, or they disemboweled themselves to take out the Parasitic Seed.

Lin Ping was an extraordinary being, and Li Tianlong was a secondary limit-breaker; their strength was simply insufficient to resist the parasitism of the Parasitic Seeds.

Lin Ping was not of the Gardener Pathway either, making it impossible for him to interfere with the Parasitic Seeds.

Therefore, the only path left before them was disembowelment, but this path was not so easy.

Setting the two aside, after the prisoners were sent back in batches, Dong Hu immediately assigned tasks to the members of the Guard Team and the militiamen.

He pulled out a ten-man squad, centered around the Infinite Building, to patrol and scout outward for a 3km radius.

Both the patrol and scouting teams were equipped with communication devices, and he also took the crow feather drone into his hands to meticulously investigate the surrounding situation, guarding against people from other Shelters and possible monsters.

Dong Hu also took this as a warning; after all, the reason Bullet Town ended up in this state was because it failed to discover his trace, suffering a huge loss.

A total of 40 people came on this trip; subtracting the casualties, there were still over 30 people left at this time.

Pulling out 10 for patrols, Wang Ting, along with Feng Bo, Xiang Nan, and 20 others, stepped into the Infinite Building once again.

Day and night in the Scarecrow world were synchronized with the outside. Although there was no sun, ever-changing light was still produced within the floors.

The exploration team members approached the Infinite Building once again. Passing through the staircase passage, lush shrubs met them head-on. Walking outward from the bushes, patches of green grassland gradually spread out, with weeds and wild wheat everywhere across this pasture.

Researcher Huoling reminded from the side, "The newly descended Infinite Building is filled with dense extraordinary factors. Even on habitable floors, a considerable number of monsters have probably accumulated inside, so we must be careful."

Wang Ting nodded. Yesterday's situation had also allowed him to discover this problem.

If it were within the floors of the Scarecrow Farm, they would only attract attacks from Scarecrows when harvesting or going to harvest wild wheat in the outskirts; under ordinary circumstances, the probability of Scarecrows appearing was extremely small.

But yesterday, they merely stayed a little longer and broke out into just a single battle, which managed to attract Rot Soil Hounds and Scarecrows.

It could be seen from this that the extraordinary factors on the floors at this time were indeed overly dense, leading to a greater number of monsters and making attacks much easier to provoke. If they didn't prepare to clear out the monsters, venturing deep into exploration might easily trigger a monster tide, which would be even worse if they were surrounded and attacked by monsters.

With a thought from Wang Ting, the Giant Claw Night Demon and Vine Spider Nurse were summoned out by him.

At this moment, the Giant Claw Night Demon had already been re-equipped with the crawler machine gun made of bones. The machine gun's tentacles writhered, connecting to its arm as if they were one.

He directly issued the command to search forward. The Vine Spider Nurse took the lead, rushing straight toward the grass; even when encountering wheat clusters, it did not dodge, instead crashing right through them.

"Feng Bo, pay attention to clearing out the monsters that run out."

"Yes."

With the Vine Spider Nurse acting this way, it quickly played the role of beating the grass to startle the snake.

The wild grass and wheat clusters made a rustling sound, and immediately one mound of earth after another rose from the ground, with Scarecrows and Rot Soil Hounds appearing one after another.

They let out hisses, instantly discovered the team's location, and pounced toward the crowd.

The first thing the Scarecrows charged at was the Vine Spider Nurse scouting ahead in front.

There were a total of four Scarecrows pouncing toward the Vine Spider Nurse, with ferocious faces and terrifying sharp claws. They leaped over, wanting to tear the Vine Spider Nurse into pieces.

Accompanying them were four or five Rot Soil Hounds with bare sharp teeth and fierce gazes, lunging straight to bite the tail of the Vine Spider Nurse.

Facing such an encirclement, the Vine Spider Nurse seemed provoked. The vine tentacles behind it swept horizontally, a whistling sound of tearing through the air suddenly ringing out. With a snap, one Scarecrow was directly swept by it with its spine broken.

The Vine Spider Nurse was inherently an anomalous monster, with an extremely ferocious monster nature in its bones. Seeing lower-level monsters provoking it right before its eyes, it instantly grew furious, sweeping its tentacles horizontally and knocking the Scarecrows away one by one.

It raised its high spider legs, piercing through the Scarecrows' chests like a spear. At the same time, its massive body rampaged around, its huge mouthparts resembling a guillotine. Its tentacles coiled up a Rot Soil Hound, shoved it into its mouth, and snapped off a large half of the opponent's body with a crunch.

This was not an encirclement by monsters, but a massacre of lower-tier monsters by a higher-tier monster.

In two shakes of a lamb's tail, the Scarecrows and Rot Soil Hounds were killed off completely.

At this time, the sounds emitted by the battle startled even more monsters, and a large number of Scarecrows and Rot Soil Hounds emerged from the earth.

They pounced from all directions, their fast-moving figures crossing the messy bushes and making rustling sounds, with the bushes undulating like a green wave.

Feng Bo waved his big hand on this side, and the members of the Guard Team began firing to snipe, with bang-bang gunfire ringing out across this desolate wasteland.

Every single bullet would take away the life of a Scarecrow. Although the Rot Soil Hounds were faster, they were even harder to lock onto under the cover of the bushes.

But the Giant Claw Night Demon had already reached the front of the team, and the crawler machine gun in its hand bombarded directly. Grass chips flew everywhere, and the Rot Soil Hounds and Scarecrows were blasted into fragments together.

After about seven or eight minutes of this, twenty or thirty Scarecrows and a dozen or so Rot Soil Hounds had been killed on this wasteland.

The sound gradually faded, and monsters no longer spawned. Feng Bo led people to quickly dismantle the monster remains in search of extraordinary materials.

"Use this to devour the remaining remains; as for those of the Rot Soil Hounds, don't worry about them."

Wang Ting tossed the corpse crow pot to Feng Bo, and Feng Bo was stunned: "What is this?"

"It can devour monster flesh and blood, condense blood essence, and once enough is accumulated, it can attract monsters later."

"Another good thing."

Hearing this, Feng Bo's eyes lit up, and he immediately went to process the corpses of the Scarecrows.

After processing was completed, Wang Ting then signaled Feng Bo and the others to continue exploring: "Continue exploring forward."