I, Yuhaka, am hungry!

As she spoke, Ulis looked at the mercenaries who had already ventured deep into the forest and said:

“The forest is our territory, and those outsiders can use it to test the weapons I made.”

Upon hearing Ulis's suggestion, Viya pondered for a moment, then looked up at the sky and said:

"Hmm... it's not impossible, but it's not a good time to launch a sneak attack during the day. We'll have to wait until night."

Ulis nodded in agreement with Viya's suggestion. After all, it was easier for them to deal with the mercenaries at night than during the day. Although there was a lot of bioluminescence in the forest of Pandora, it was not too bright and could affect the night vision function of the mercenaries' helmets, forcing them to turn off the night vision ability that could blind them.

Afterwards, in preparation for the night's operation, Ulis took Via and Yuhaka to a relatively safe place to rest.

.................................................................................

In the world of Pandora, at night, Ehaka, Via, and Uris awoke from the darkness. In his third form, Ehaka did not use dragon energy jets for flight, but instead adopted a flight mode similar to that of a storm dragon, floating slowly in mid-air towards the direction where the mercenaries searching for the transport plane had gone.

Soon, Yuhaka spotted the mercenaries in the distance thanks to his exceptional eyesight.

On the open ground nearby, Yuhaka landed on all fours and then lay down. Via and Ulis, who were on Yuhaka's neck, also jumped down.

"Phew... This flight was much more stable than the previous arrow-like flight. This time it felt much better."

Upon hearing Ulis's words, Viya gave a slightly embarrassed smile and said:

"Is that so?"

Well... Viya personally quite likes the speed of flight, like a fighter jet, it feels much more exciting. After Yuhaka reverted to his first form, the three of them slowly walked towards the mercenaries.

Behind a rock, Yuhaka, Viya, and Ulis peeked out and looked at the makeshift camp set up by the mercenaries not far away. Apart from the sleeping mercenaries, there were eight other mercenaries on night watch.

Two of the mercenaries were on patrol. For Yuhaka, these enemies were no match for him. However, Viya wanted to deal with these mercenaries herself. After all, Viya had heard from the Star God that her divine grace seemed to allow her to gain something called "experience" by hunting prey, which would make her stronger.

Now Viya wants to test if this is really that magical.

Chapter 552 [The All-Purpose Stone-Throwing Tactic]

Not far from the mercenaries, a small figure peeked out from a clump of grass. Viya looked down at the mercenaries with a very cautious expression.

Although it would be easy for him to kill those mercenaries, it would also be very easy for those mercenaries to kill him.

But in reality, it wasn't that simple for those mercenaries to kill Viya. The intelligent beings on Pandora were extremely resilient, and the 9mm caliber weapons used by Ambrose's security forces were basically the kind that couldn't penetrate muscle layers when dealing with intelligent races.

In addition, the hard bone armor worn by intelligent races is generally impenetrable by security forces, which is why the Ambrose Corporation wants to recruit mercenaries.

Viya noticed the inverted triangle icons above the mercenaries' heads. These icons allowed her to pinpoint their locations. Her short stature also made her stealth movements quite effective. Viya wasn't sure whether she should be happy...

But at that moment, a thin mist drifted over from within, and upon seeing this, Viya exclaimed, "By the Star Goddess above."

Well... in fact, these mists were indeed spread by Pandora.

After Viya hid in another bush, she saw the shadows of two mercenaries in the mist not far away. Just as Viya took out her bow and spear to take down the two mercenaries in one go, a system icon popped up in the corner of her vision, which caught her attention.

Viya carefully observed what was written on the system notification panel. Through her observation, she discovered that it read:

[Tip: Throwing a stone will attract the attention of one enemy towards it, and will also draw the attention of nearby enemies to the stone.]

Viya, seeing this, also showed a knowing expression. However, she also had a subtle look on her face. Wouldn't doing this make those outsiders wary?

However, Viya still had great faith in the divine grace bestowed upon her by Pandora, so she picked up a stone from the ground and threw it behind the two mercenaries. As the stone hit the ground with a "thud," the two mercenaries who had been chatting stopped talking and turned to look at the stone with puzzled expressions.

Immediately afterwards, one of the mercenaries went to the direction where the stone had fallen to see what was going on. Viya was a little surprised to see this. Logically speaking, if you notice something wrong, shouldn't you wake up your own people first?

Why did they foolishly go closer to look? Wasn't that outsider afraid that a fully armed warrior would suddenly appear from the bushes?

Then, Viya assumed that the way of thinking of outsiders was different from that of the Niwei people, so she didn't think too much about it. She slowly crept up behind the mercenary who was looking at his teammates, and used the bone spike dagger she was carrying to stab the mercenary in the neck. With a "thud", the mercenary, whose spine and throat were pierced, fell to the ground without even making a sound.

Viya, who was standing nearby, quickly pulled the mercenary down to the ground to avoid making a sound. Because of the tent, the mercenaries on night watch did not see one of their comrades being assassinated by Viya.

Then Viya took out her hornbow and aimed it at the mercenary who was looking down at the stone at his feet. When the mercenary turned around, he saw a short Pandora native holding a hornbow and pointing it at him. The mercenary wanted to cry out, but unfortunately, Viya was faster. As soon as Viya released her bow, the arrow flew directly towards the mercenary and pierced his throat.

The mercenary, whose throat had been pierced, made an incomprehensible sound, then collapsed to the ground, twitched a few times, and died without moving.

Seeing that the dead mercenary was motionless, Viya breathed a sigh of relief. Then, she turned her attention to the system notifications that popped up in her field of vision.

You assassinated Mercenary A and gained 100 experience points.

You shot and killed Mercenary B, gaining 80 experience points.

Your level has increased by 1, and you have gained 1 skill point.

After seeing these few lines of prompts, Viya also felt that her strength and physique had improved slightly. Most importantly, the system prompted her that she had gained skill points.

Just as Viya was wondering what skill points were, a system menu popped up explaining what skill points were and how to use them. Viya opened her skill menu and saw a series of strange skill icons.

Although she couldn't understand the strange skill icons, Viya understood their uses after reading the descriptions.

A whole bunch of skills that even Viya would find incredibly enviable appeared before her, but unfortunately, Viya mostly only used the more basic skills for her own purposes.

Soon, Viya discovered a skill that would be very useful to her at that moment.

[Silent Stealth]: Consumes 1 skill point

Description: When in stealth mode, it will not make any sound until its stealth is exposed and an attack is launched.

After seeing the skill description, Viya realized it was the skill she needed, so she activated it. Although she didn't notice any strange changes, she quickly hid the mercenary's corpse on the ground.

Meanwhile, Uhaka and Ulis, who were lying on the rocks in the distance, were also watching Viya's actions. Viya's current method of action was basically a series of actions: stealth, throwing stones, stealth, assassination, stealth, throwing stones, shooting arrows, stealth. This made Ulis, who was next to Uhaka, scratch her head with her tentacles and say:

"Hiss... What kind of tactic is this?? How can it be so outrageous??"

While throwing stones to attract the enemy's attention is a good method, if the enemy immediately knows that an enemy is coming just because it's a stone, a cautious enemy might call for reinforcements.

However, the way the outsiders rushed to check after Viya threw stones made Ulis wonder if they were all idiots. They fell for such an obvious trap, which changed Ulis's perception of the outsiders from "dangerous enemies" to "dangerous stupid enemies."

Chapter 553 [Hellerie, The Hunt Begins]

After spending about half an hour, Viya used stealth and assassination to kill all the mercenaries in the camp, which consisted of about 30 people. After Viya eliminated all the mercenaries in the camp, a special system notification appeared in the center of Viya's vision.

[The mercenary camp has been destroyed. 500 experience points gained. No alarm triggered. 500 experience points.]

Upon seeing this notification, Viya leveled up twice. She had gained a lot of experience from the previous assassinations, which earned her three skill points. The extra skill point came from the experience she gained from assassinating mercenaries.

Viya then allocated the skill points to the skills she wanted.

[Silently]: Consumes 1 skill point

No sound is made when assassinating a target, including the sound of the target falling to the ground and the sound of one's own assassination action.

[Bullet Time]: Consumes 1 skill point

When aiming at a target with a long-range weapon, time can be slowed down, but you will not be affected by the passage of time too much.

[Dimensional Backpack]: Consumes 1 skill point

Grants you a dimensional backpack with 20 inventory slots, with no weight restrictions.

After learning these skills, Viya waved towards Yuhaka and Ulis, and Yuhaka waved back.

After Yuhaka and Ulis came down, Ulis looked slightly surprised as she saw that a small squad of mercenaries had been wiped out by Via alone, and said:

"Wow, that's amazing... Viya, you took care of all these outsiders all by yourself?"

Ulis and Yuhaka were originally prepared to provide support, but they didn't expect Viya to handle it so easily by herself. Viya scratched her cheek with an embarrassed look and said:

"Well... it's all thanks to the divine grace bestowed by the Star God."

Then Ulis looked at Viya with a curious expression and said:

"Is that so? If that's the case, then the Star God's divine grace is indeed quite powerful..."

Viya gestured with her forearm and grinned. Then Ulis suggested that they should go back and dismantle the camp that the outsiders had set up in the Svik tribe. Viya pretended to think about whether she could dismantle the entire camp. But at that moment, Viya received a message about Pandora through the system.

"Hmm? Eh?!"

Seeing Viya's surprised expression, everyone present looked puzzled. Ulis, also somewhat confused, asked, "..."

"What's wrong, Viya?"

Viya focused her attention on Yuhaka and Ulis and said:

"Lord Star God said we don't need to go to the camp because someone has already gone there to resolve the issue."

Upon hearing Viya's words, Ulis looked puzzled, while Yuhaka gave an "OwO?" look. Meanwhile, Zelus, inside the system space, slammed her fist on the table and complained to Yuhaka:

"Has this little idiot completely forgotten about Heller?!"

Sometimes Zelus couldn't help but wonder if Yuhaka's mind was only focused on food.

................................................... .........................................

A few hours earlier, a temporary mercenary camp had been set up in what used to be the tribe of the Svik people. The mercenaries there had returned to investigate the whereabouts of the mercenary team and the transport plane that had previously transported goods. Although they didn't know how the transport plane disappeared, it was definitely not a simple matter to make the transport plane disappear and the mercenary team lose contact.

The mercenary leader, Tuijie, was also quite interested in this, since the creature that dared to attack and shoot down the transport plane must be a big one. Therefore, Tuijie sent his troops to investigate the target and also to search for the missing mercenary squads to see if they could find any information about the target from them.

At the entrance to the mercenary camp, some mercenaries were defending an SCV (like a human worker in StarCraft) that was building a wall. Suddenly, one of the mercenaries heard a noise coming from the bushes behind him and jumped in fright. He quickly pointed his weapon behind him and said:

"Who, who is it?! Come out now! Or we'll shoot!"

Then the mercenary heard familiar English.

"No! Don't shoot! They're on our side!"

As the sound came from the bushes, the mercenary saw another mercenary, leaning on a cane, emerge from the bushes. He could see that the mercenary's EVA suit had been torn in several places by something, and through those tears, he could see terrible wounds, which frightened him a little.

"Hey! Hey! Bro, are you alright?! Medic! Help! Someone's injured!"

The mercenary rushed over to the injured mercenary to check his wounds and called for a medic. Hearing the mercenary's shout, the surrounding mercenaries also quickly called for the medic in charge of the rescue.

Soon, several mercenaries carrying stretchers arrived at the injured mercenary's side. After a quick check, they lifted the injured mercenary onto a stretcher and took him to the medical tent.

But no one knew that in the bushes where the wounded mercenary had left, a creature made of scarlet tentacles was watching the wounded mercenary being taken to the medical tent with a look of pleasure on its face.

.................................. ...............................

As night fell, most of the mercenaries returned to their tents to sleep. Because of the numerous automatic machine gun turrets placed around the camp, there were not many mercenaries left to keep watch.

Just then, a red tentacle monster, namely Heleya, began to move. Heleya controlled several of its clones to burrow underground and run towards the interior of the mercenary camp.

Chapter 554 [The Night of Parasites]

In the control room of the mercenary camp, which controls the automatic machine gun turrets surrounding the camp, a mercenary is sleeping. Although the automatic machine gun turrets can identify, lock onto targets and launch attacks on their own, they still have their own shortcomings.

For example, the cartridge case won't adjust itself when stuck, it can't stand up on its own when it falls to the ground, and it can't change the magazine when it has limited ammunition.

Therefore, each automatic machine gun emplacement needs constant computer monitoring to know what is happening.

"Beep, beep, beep! Beep, beep!"

A loud, jarring sound from the computer in front of the sleeping mercenary jolted him awake. He nearly fell off his chair, but his agility prevented him from hitting the ground. He tried to rub his eyes, but instead touched his own helmet, which made him pause for a moment. However, he quickly recovered and focused his attention on the computer screen.