It’s a strange invasion, is it okay for me to fight back?

Chapter 640 Try Again

The Abyss Mother Nest is two-thirds underwater and one-third exposed above water.

The underwater part resembles a giant coral reef on the seabed; the above-water part is covered with white feathers, like a huge and magnificent ancient tree.

The feathers are like willow branches, soft and fine in texture, and can capture various tiny biological information in the air, while also providing cover for pollutants.

The tentacles of the mother nest extend in all directions, using the information collected by its feathers to judge the overall environment of the maze, and bearing "fruit" in suitable locations. The "fruit" will gradually grow until it becomes a smaller version of the mother nest, which is what players call the life source pillar.

The above is what the maze looked like before.

After the devastation of a great battle, this place was completely unrecognizable. The pure white pillars of life had been burned into hollow charcoal, collapsing at the slightest touch and no longer able to provide any energy to living beings.

The above-water portion was burned, while the underwater portion was injected with a potent poison and allowed to rot until it lost its vitality.

Near the remains, there are several very obvious cracks, which are the marks left by the black-spotted thunder blade.

The drunkard stood on the Skeleton King's shoulder, surveying the water's surface with great care.

Meteor and Cangwu led the short-legged sheep behind them.

As they walked, the soil under their feet clearly changed from dry to slightly damp. When they arrived at the remains of the mother nest, there were puddles of varying depths—this place used to be a lake.

"There's something at the bottom of the water, but it's too deep to see clearly." The drunkard stared at the surface of the water, frowning. "It looks like a corpse."

Cangwu said, "I'll go down and take a look."

The drunkard asked, "Are you sure you can handle it? The water here may look clear, but there might still be some residual poison."

"I've digested the new card, Immune to Poison."

Cangwu squatted down, put his hand into a puddle, and his body quickly dissolved, sliding into the water like liquid and disappearing without a trace, leaving only a few pieces of clothing on the shore.

The drunkard raised an eyebrow slightly. "I almost forgot, you digested the Corruption Worm and the Poison Master."

The water was so calm that there wasn't a ripple.

The drunkard and the meteor stood on opposite sides, waiting quietly.

While waiting, the two kept looking around, alert to any possible emergencies.

To the deathly silent labyrinth, they were uninvited guests, but also rare living beings.

Various pollutants, drawn by the smell, approached the vicinity. Some resembled lizards, others rats, and still others snakes. These pollutants drooled at the sight of fresh flesh.

The drunkard paid them no heed—they were all too small; the largest pollutant wasn't even as tall as her knee.

Perhaps because they had been hungry for too long, the pollutants could no longer restrain themselves and tentatively approached the drunkard.

Seeing this, Meteor led the short-legged sheep a few steps closer to the drunkard.

The contaminant closest to the drunkard lingered nearby for a moment before rustling away.

"The little thing is quite sensible, knowing it can't beat us," the drunkard sneered.

“It’s not necessarily because they know what’s good for them,” Meteor said. “These contaminants just don’t want to get close to the administrators.”

The drunkard was slightly taken aback. "Really? I'll try."

She jumped off the skeleton, grabbed the dwarf sheep's rope, and headed towards the contaminants. As she approached, the contaminants burrowed into the ground.

The drunkard then deliberately made the dwarf sheep stand for a while near those soft burrows.

The contaminant hid inside, occasionally peeking out to observe, but quickly retreating again. Just as Meteor had said, it didn't show any aggression towards the dwarf sheep. "Windfeather seems to be the same way," Meteor said. "She always tries to keep her distance from the caretaker, as if she's wary of something."

The drunkard thought for a moment, "I guess the system program has added a security lock for the administrator, after all, it's to ensure the safety of the employees."

She couldn't help but laugh as she spoke, "But the system didn't expect that the maze creatures couldn't hurt the administrator, but the players could kill the administrator, haha."

Ripples spread across the water's surface.

Cangwu emerged from underwater, its transparent liquid form solidifying the instant it reached the shore.

“They’re not corpses; they’re all alive in the water,” Cangwu said, bowing his head to put his clothes back on.

The drunkard's eyes widened immediately. "Are you sure?"

Cangwu nodded, wiping the water off his face. "I could feel their heartbeats underwater, but they were beating very slowly, as if they were in a deep sleep."

"How many are there? Did you count them?" the drunkard asked again.

“Not many, probably less than a hundred,” Cangwu shook his head. “Those pollutants are lying overlapping underwater, making them difficult to count. There might be seventy or eighty of them.”

Seventy or eighty may sound like a lot, but for a maze, that number is pitifully small.

The drunkard couldn't help but sigh, "It's been so long, and these contaminants are still alive. Just how much energy has the mother nest stored up...?"

She turned to Meteor and asked, "How long has it been since we conquered this place? Four months? Or five months?"

Meteor didn't answer, but frowned as he looked at the puddles and said in a low voice, "They are hibernating, like hibernating creatures, forced to adopt a special way of survival to cope with food shortages."

"What about the smaller ones?" the drunkard glanced at the pollutants not far away. "Why aren't they dormant?"

"It's possible that because of its small size, it can maintain its vitality with just water and plants, or it's possible that it doesn't store enough energy to survive the long dormancy period," Meteor analyzed.

Cangwu nodded upon hearing this, "The pollutants underwater are all very large; even the smallest pollutant is the size of an adult brown bear."

The drunkard frowned and thought for a moment, "In other words, after the mother nest died, the energy contained in the remains was exhausted by these pollutants. Without a food source, the pollutants must reduce their physical consumption to maintain their life functions, but this can only be done temporarily. If we enter the maze in another six months, this place may only be left with corpses."

Meteor slowly crouched down, staring at the underwater creature, remaining silent for a long time.

Cangwu couldn't help but ask, "What do you plan to do?"

“I want to… kill it,” Meteor whispered. “Try one more time, the last time, to kill the Abyss Mother Nest.”

The drunkard felt a chill run down his spine. "Just the three of us?"

Meteor looked up and said, "Just the three of us, and this maze."

…………

……

Guangnan Quarantine Zone —

"The joint investigation team found that the source of this refugee riot was a mutant with a high capacity for emotional instigation. This mutant spread panic and hostility, which directly led to the outbreak of mass disorder."

Upon receiving the intelligence, General Pei Xianjue immediately went to the scene and commanded the combat units to successfully repel the target and effectively control the situation.

At this stage, the focus has shifted entirely to post-disaster recovery and reconstruction. General Pei is overseeing the implementation of all tasks and has commended all military personnel and civilian hunters who performed outstandingly in the incident…

The assistant read the initial draft of the report aloud and asked Pei Xianjue for her opinion: "Does it need any adjustments?"

Cangwu appeared in Chapter 271. The first time he appeared, he was in a female body, and the second time, he was in a male body. He is intersex, and the leech card also hints at his hermaphroditic nature.