Chapter 320
Chapter 320 No Sense of Honor
At this moment, in this environment, no one could know just how many hidden dangers lurked.
Moreover, Xia Xinyan was the one with the most experience regarding such matters. She understood all too well the saying of stumbling in a gutter; she wouldn’t underestimate any seemingly simple source of invasion, nor would she rely too much on her abilities and act recklessly.
The Source of Invasion could, in a sense, be considered a type of Demon. Since it held the title of “BOSS,” it naturally possessed the attributes of a BOSS: not only status but also power.
The Source of Invasion was akin to an energy hub, exerting a continuous influence over a large area while also maintaining a degree of control over a smaller surrounding area—this wasn’t passive influence but an active strike, essentially its last line of defense. Such a method was diverse; Xia Xinyan had encountered many rules of invasion before but had never seen two Sources of Invasion with identical abilities.
Including this instance.
However, facing this situation, she had already developed a mature coping strategy. Since she still had her mental charm ability, she couldn’t leave it unused. With a Replicant here, she needed a scout to help mitigate various risks.
What was most urgent now was to quickly locate the others.
Xia Xinyan controlled the Ling Mo Replicant to move ahead, while she followed closely behind, gradually exploring the area.
The fog was thick, but after investigating for a while, she could roughly pinpoint some issues—this space had been tampered with; otherwise, a basement warehouse couldn’t possibly be this large.
Her phone had also lost signal here—in fact, the signal had been poor since entering the affected zone, making phone calls impossible. Ling Mo and the others used specialized walkie-talkies for communication.
Additionally, this fog seemed to have the ability to muffle sounds and movements. After walking for a while, she hadn’t heard a single sound; the surrounding area was eerily quiet, and she could hear her own breathing clearly.
Was that Source of Invasion planning to take them out one by one?
Could it possibly have separated everyone into different regions? Was it something like a ghost bumping against a wall?
Xia Xinyan couldn’t confirm the answers to these questions; she could only continue moving forward.
Not long after, the Ling Mo Replicant suddenly reacted, aiming directly at a side direction and throwing all the bombs it had.
Xia Xinyan didn’t hear any noise.
After thinking for a second, she walked over to the Ling Mo Replicant and at the fog’s visibility limit, she spotted another Ling Mo—the original.
Don’t ask her how she recognized it.
The ground around seemed to show faint traces of an explosion; the bombs thrown by the fake Ling Mo were clearly not duds, confirming Xia Xinyan’s guess that the fog indeed absorbed sound.
Upon seeing her, Ling Mo seemed stunned for a moment, lowering the two rocket launchers on his shoulders: “Xinyan?!”
Xia Xinyan, controlling the Replicant Ling Mo, halted the attack and obediently stood aside. Ling Mo dropped the two launchers and rushed over, kicking the Replicant: “Xinyan, watch out!”
Then he nervously came close to Xia Xinyan, a concerned look on his face: “Are you okay, Xinyan? Did that fake do anything to you?”
Xia Xinyan: “…”
Hadn’t he seen that she was controlling that fake?
Or was this guy just being childish again?
The Replicant Ling Mo was almost freed from her mental control by that kick, but Xia Xinyan slightly strengthened her hold, turning it back into an eager servant.
Ling Mo shot a glance at the Replicant, perhaps realizing that Xia Xinyan had already seen through it, so he simply stopped pretending: “Does Xinyan still need this Replicant? I can do what it can do.”
Xia Xinyan tilted her head to meet his gaze: “You… aren’t feeling jealous, are you?”
Ling Mo: “…No, I’m just not used to having someone who looks exactly like me around.”
“Alright~ I’ll make him disappear.” Xia Xinyan didn’t expose him, merely smiled playfully and controlled the Ling Mo Replicant to walk into the fog, then chose to end it where they couldn’t see.
She felt like she might have a slight problem.
She just found Ling Mo a bit cute.
For this, although Ling Mo didn’t show any reaction, the tension he had clearly dissipated, and even his smile seemed more genuine: “This place is a bit strange… I also encountered a few Replicants just now. Handling them wasn’t an issue, but none of them caused any damage to this place—the ground is still intact.”
Xia Xinyan recalled the bombs that the Replicant Ling Mo had thrown, which only left a dark mark on the ground around Ling Mo.
“Must be the influence of the Source of Invasion,” she looked around and suddenly asked, “Can Mo Mo locate nearby targets?”
Ling Mo thought for a moment and nodded: “Yes.”
Then he materialized two fog-penetrating helmets…
Even though Xia Xinyan had complained more than once about the cheat-like nature of Ling Mo’s abilities, when she actually put on the helmet, she felt once again that his power was absurd in a certain sense.
This fog was indeed powerful, capable of obstructing vision and sound, but it couldn’t stop such cheat equipment.
No need to question why this high-magic fog couldn’t block this thing—likely the Source of Invasion itself never expected anyone could whip out a special fog-piercing gadget in this situation.
Even Ling Mo said he had just thought of it.
Moreover, this thing was quite useful—now, she could clearly see all the situations around… not that everything was visible, but the range of vision had significantly increased, letting her see Fatty and the others cautiously shuffling around like fools, as well as the bizarre tree figure in the center of the area… something like a tree demon straight out of a Cthulhu story.
“That must be the Source of Invasion, right?” Ling Mo pointed at the tree demon.
Xia Xinyan nodded: “The style matches.”
“Should we call them all over?” Ling Mo glanced at Fatty and the others.
Xia Xinyan shook her head: “I think… we two should be able to deal with that thing…”
If that tree demon could still use any other means, it probably wouldn’t resort to such trickery.
However, it had to be said that the overwhelming number of Replicant sneak attacks could indeed cause some trouble for the people present. For example, Fatty was about to have an anxiety reaction while being harassed by three Replicants, crackling electric shocks all over the place—which was why Xia Xinyan didn’t want to call them; there might be friendly fire.
But without the fog cover, that tree demon was really no big deal for them.
Especially under the next second’s manifestation of a portable nuclear missile launcher by Ling Mo—
“Then let me see if I can take it down in one shot.”
