Trickster Hunter.

Chapter 584 Free Fall
Before several hunters could react, they were pounced on by these leaping mycelial golems and thrown into the "ocean" of countless limbs and wriggling tissues.

In the blink of an eye, these people were swallowed up and never heard a sound again.

The survivors who had escaped the first wave of attacks had now fallen into the tunnel that the artillery bombardment had cleared for them, but this did not mean that they were safe for the time being. The tunnel walls were formed by a layer of carbonized mycelial golems, but the carbonized layer was not thick enough. With the compression and tearing of countless mycelial golems, cracks began to appear on the carbonized tunnel walls. It was obvious to anyone with eyes that it would not be long before these precarious tunnel walls would completely collapse.

There was still a short distance before the hunters reached the bottom of the pit.

To mitigate the impact of freefall, the jetpacks mounted on the back of the powered exoskeleton automatically ignited, reducing the group's descent speed once again.

"What do we do?! Those things are about to crawl out of the wall!!" a hunter shouted in the team chat.

“Shoot them! Don’t you have a gun?” Another hunter had just raised his gun to fire when he found that the trigger was locked.

To be precise, it's not the trigger that's locked, but rather the finger joints of the robotic arm used to pull the trigger that are locked.

"Damn it! Why is this thing breaking down now?!" the hunter cursed.

"There's nothing wrong with it. I locked it using my captain privileges," Cheng Ming said.

"That means you're the one with a problem!"

"Don't fire!" Cheng Ming said in a deep voice. "Firing now will only accelerate the collapse of the tunnel walls. In that case, these monsters won't even need to come out; they'll be buried alive!"

"What do we do then?" the hunter exclaimed anxiously. "Can't we just turn off the thrusters on my back? I'll just fall straight down; it'll probably only take a few seconds to reach the bottom of the pit!"

"Aren't you afraid of falling to your death?"

"Falling to my death is better than being overwhelmed by these monsters!" the hunter said. "Besides, I have my own ways of surviving! If you're afraid of falling to your deaths, then keep descending slowly like this! I don't want to die with you!"

A few days ago, when Chen Jing and others used a meme detection device to explore the collapsed area, they discovered a huge cavity at the bottom of the pit. This cavity surrounded the area with the highest density of the monster memes in the pit (that is, the main body of the insect and grass monster), separating the monster body from the mycelium puppets.

In this hollow area, there were only a few memetic reactions, which means that the Cordyceps Monster was not firmly pressed down by this large group of mycelial puppets—it had an extremely spacious "private space" at the bottom of the pit.

According to the original battle plan, as long as the assault team could enter this cavity area, they would have enough time to deal with the monster itself. Without this cavity area, the assault operation plan would not be able to be implemented at all, given only this short "window of opportunity".

These hunters believed that as long as they could reach the bottom of the pit, they could avoid being swallowed up by the mycelium golems.

As for how to deal with the monster itself, that's a problem to consider after you've survived.

"Did you hear me! Turn off my thrusters right now! Or give me back control of this exoskeleton!!" the hunter yelled at Cheng Ming.

Cheng Ming pondered for half a second, then tapped a few times on the PAD strapped to his arm. "Control of the Nine-Powered Exoskeleton has been completely transferred to the wearer."

With a mechanical beep, the hunter unhesitatingly shut off the thrusters behind him, and plummeted to the bottom of the pit.

"Give me back my exoskeleton privileges! I have ways to save my life too!"

"I'd rather fall to my death than have those things crawling all over my body!"

Several more hunters demanded control of the exoskeleton from Cheng Ming and turned off the thrusters.

Meanwhile, on the ground...

Chen Jing, inside the command vehicle, frowned – at the current rate, the "window of opportunity" the passage could maintain was nearly a third less than initially calculated. Those hunters who couldn't safely freefall were unlikely to reach the cavity at the bottom of the pit before the passage collapsed…

"Is there any way to speed up their descent?"

“They can’t descend any further.” A technician shook his head at Chen Jing. “The weight of their equipment and powered exoskeletons already exceeds two hundred kilograms. Add the hunters’ own weight, and it’s three hundred kilograms. The impact upon landing will be tremendous. The current descent speed is already nearing the limit for a safe landing… To be honest, those hunters who can’t protect themselves, they probably…”

“Even if they have the ability to protect themselves, they might not be able to use it.” Bai Lingqiu sighed. “Don’t forget they’re still wearing heavy protective suits and powered exoskeletons. These things, while protective, are also a kind of constraint… If they don’t abandon their equipment, their abilities will be limited, but if they abandon their equipment, they will face the risk of being parasitized by spores…”

“I had considered this issue beforehand,” Chen Jing said, frowning. “But in my battle plan, this equipment is intended to allow them to safely pass through the spore fog, and the memetic reaction in the cavity area is almost negligible, meaning there is no spore fog there… As long as they can discard the equipment the moment they leave the spore fog…”

“It’s too late.” Bai Lingqiu shook his head. “The deepest part of the spore mist is less than two hundred meters from the bottom of the pit. With the acceleration of free fall, they would be descending very fast when they reach that point. There simply wouldn’t be enough time to take off their equipment in mid-air…”

Just then, the technicians suddenly shouted, "Severe damage detected to the No. 9 powered exoskeleton! The wearer's vital signs have disappeared!"

"Number Nine? The first hunter to turn off his thrusters?" Chen Jing immediately rushed to the screen, staring at the small square that displayed "Signal Lost." "Did he fall to his death?"

"Before the signal was lost, Number Nine's vital signs were all normal... Apart from a rapid heartbeat and high blood pressure, there were no signs of injury," the technician said. "So we can't confirm anything about him..."

“Either he died from the fall, or he removed his equipment in the last moment before he died,” Bai Lingqiu said. “After all, the latter would also show a signal loss.”

"But the time interval between the exoskeleton damage and the loss of vital signs is too short. Even if he took off his equipment the instant before landing, he wouldn't have had time to use his ability, right? By the way, what is this Number Nine's ability again?"

“He chose to keep it confidential when filling out the application form.” Bai Lingqiu pulled out a file from the computer. “However, based on the actual combat tests and training, he should have the ability to enhance his physique and also have a certain ability to mutate limbs.”

(End of this chapter)