After a simple greeting, Sickle did not ask about Qi Yuan's fall. This kind of question could easily cause a misunderstanding.
"What are you going to do next?" Sickle asked.
"I'll go to Zhuo's place and see if there's anything I can help with. I'll kill a few of Venom's bastards while I'm at it!" Qi Yuan said casually.
The Blood Hand Gang dared to kill him, so they were destroyed.
Venom dared to target him, so he naturally deserved to be destroyed!
One must treat everyone equally and not favor one over the other!
"Do you know where they are?"
Sickle's eyes narrowed. In order not to attract Venom's attention, he did not enter with the other hunters. Instead, he entered the old city alone.
In addition to protecting Qi Yuan, another important task was to take revenge on Venom's people.
Because he entered too late, Sickle did not find any traces of Venom's main forces. He only found this stronghold.
Qi Yuan had heard about the grudge between Sickle and Venom. He knew that Sickle must have the idea of revenge. He nodded and said.
"They're in the underground laboratory in the center of the city!"
Sickle frowned. He had been wandering around in the old city for a long time. These ability users who occupied the roof and guarded the Glorious Ball, although there were quite a number of Stage Three ability users, their true strength was not considered strong.
Venom's stronghold was already considered strong, but only Tank Top Man was strong enough. The others were all killed in one hit in front of him.
The five gathering points, the truly powerful ones did not appear.
If they were really fighting in the underground battlefield, then everything would make sense.
However, this old city was too big. It was not easy to find the entrance to the underground battlefield.
Sickle looked at Qi Yuan. From the battle just now, it was obvious that Qi Yuan had not used his full strength. With the strength that Qi Yuan had displayed, he might be slightly weaker than himself, but he was definitely qualified to participate in the underground battle.
Qu Shan Hai must have had something to do with the fact that Wolf's Teeth Hunt didn't take him away and instead left him to guard the Ball of Light.
"Can you find the entrance to the underground battlefield?" Sickle asked.
"Of course." Qi Yuan smiled.
"I'll go with you. I still have a score to settle with Venom's people!" Sickle said.
Qi Yuan decisively agreed to Sickle's request for cooperation. His Tier 2 speed and Steel Defense were not enough to allow him to crush Tier 3 players. Being able to rope in such a powerful teammate was not a bad choice.
Qi Yuan searched through their bodies, but unfortunately, they didn't have many useful items on them. Other than the smoking man's knife and an unactivated Radiant Orb, there wasn't much that could be used.
After agreeing on the rendezvous point and preparing to leave, Sickle suddenly noticed the Barbie doll at Qi Yuan's waist. His pupils shrank.
"Why do you have such a dangerous thing on you?"
"Are you talking about this?"
Qi Yuan held the Barbie doll in his hand and pinched it.
"That's right!"
Sickle's expression was grave, and his eyes were filled with fear.
"This thing is very dangerous. The Polluters call it the Trickster!"
"Trickster?"
Qi Yuan looked at the Barbie doll in his hand and thought to himself, 'Good fellow, so this fellow actually has such a Cthulhu name.'
"It is the symbol of misfortune and curses. It will secretly devour the ability of the carrier. Any target that is entangled by it, be it human, corruptor, or insectoid, will eventually have all their abilities devoured by it and become a puppet of flesh and blood under its control!"
Devouring ability!
Qi Yuan's smile became even brighter. My abilities are all obtained from the Talent Tree. If you can devour even one of them, it'll be my loss!
"You'd better throw it away. This is something that even the Polluters dare not touch!" Sickle reminded him.
"This thing can't be thrown away!
I threw it away once, but it ran back to me on its own. "Qi Yuan shook his head.
"But this Trickster is quite useful. At least the Polluters won't dare to come close to me!"
"Using it to restrain the Polluters is like drinking poison to quench one's thirst. You'd better not rely on it!" Sickle reminded him.
"Ordinary methods can't get rid of the Trickster. If you want to get rid of it, there's only one way, and that is to find a new host for it. Compared to humans, it prefers Polluters. You can try capturing a Stage 3 Polluter alive. Perhaps it will change its target."
"If there's a chance, I'll give it a try."
Qi Yuan nodded and then put the Barbie doll back on his waist.
Seeing Qi Yuan's perfunctory attitude, Sickle did not say anything more. The Trickster was not common. Only the Polluters would be sensitive to the Trickster as if it was their natural enemy. Most aptitude users had never seen or even heard of the Trickster, so they were not afraid of it.
If he had not seen the Trickster devour all of his abilities and turn him into a puppet of flesh and blood, he would not have believed that there was such a strange existence as the Trickster in this world.
"Be careful!"
After reminding him, Sickle turned into a bloody shadow and disappeared.
Qi Yuan glanced at the Trickster on his waist and stepped into the dark corridor again.
On the rooftop of a few tall buildings nearby, a few aptitude users from the Lion Fort watched the two of them kill four of Venom's members together and then leave calmly. They were so scared that they did not even dare to breathe loudly.
In the Lion King's Fort, the Venom Gang almost covered the sky with one hand. Even the Lion King often turned a blind eye to them.
Other than the Iron Chariots, Venom's forces in several other nearby colonies were not weak.
They could guess which colony's aptitude users were from if they dared to kill Venom's members so blatantly.
Other than the lunatics in the Dark Fairy Tale, only the Iron Chariots' hunting groups dared to face Venom.
'Forget it!
I can't afford to offend any of these people!
I can only pretend that I did not see them and let Venom's men talk to them! '
Qi Yuan shuttled through the dark corridor. The defilers who heard his footsteps quickly surrounded him. When they saw the Trickster, they quickly retreated.
Compared to humans, the defilers were obviously more afraid of being targeted by the Trickster. Therefore, none of them dared to stop Qi Yuan's footsteps.
Not long after Qi Yuan left, a figure dressed in black with a sniper rifle on his back ran along the walls of the building like a gecko. Soon, he arrived at the rooftop of the Venom's base.
Venom's sniper, Fog, had returned.
Looking at the corpses on the ground, Fog's pupils suddenly shrank as if he could not believe his eyes.
Someone dared to attack Venom's men!
All four of them were dead. Even the Asterite embedded in the cracks was taken away!
"Who is it!" Fog growled from the depths of his throat.
After checking the wounds on the bodies, Fog's eyes gradually turned cold. He glanced at the other tall buildings that had light orbs rising from them. He jumped down from the rooftop and quickly ran along the walls to another building.
…
In the underground laboratory in the center of the city.
The laboratory was a mess. Most of the instruments had been turned into a pile of scrap metal with the passage of time. They were completely destroyed in the fierce battle just now. Blazing flames, destructive energy, scarlet blood, and broken corpses completely broke the darkness that had slumbered for hundreds of years.
After a few rounds of clashes, dozens of corpses were left behind at the five gathering points of the battle. They finally realized that no one would easily give up on the star energy stones in this area. If they continued to fight, both sides would suffer heavy losses.
The Iron Chariots and Dark Fairy Tale joined forces to resist the suppression of Lionheart Castle, Songcheng, and Ghost Town. They were not at a disadvantage at all and forced the other side to sit down and negotiate.
The five bases each sent a representative. After several rounds of difficult negotiations, they finally came up with a plan that both sides could accept.
Things that could not be obtained through force could not be obtained through negotiation. Therefore, the final result of the negotiations was still a battle of fists. However, the method of fighting was changed. It was no longer a chaotic battle between hundreds of people.
The Asterite in the laboratory had been shattered into dozens of pieces of varying sizes, giving the two sides the space to fight for it.
Want to seize the Asterite?
Sure!
Go to a duel. As long as you defeated two enemies in a row, you could bring back an Asterite!
If anyone could kill the other party until they did not dare to appear, they could even monopolize all the Asterite!
Of course, the result of doing so might be that both sides would tear up the agreement and trigger another chaotic battle!
Both parties worked together to number the shattered star energy stones and place them in a sealed lead box. Although the lead box couldn't completely isolate the star energy stones from interfering and suppressing them, it could at least minimize the effects of the star energy stones. Furthermore, it could also prevent any ability users from spying on them.
The laboratory, which was thousands of square meters, was not small. It was extremely sturdy. Even though it was in a mess from the battle between both sides, there were still no signs of it collapsing.
This underground laboratory that could resist the attack of the Old World's nuclear weapons had already become a killing ground for both sides.
The lead box filled with Asterite was placed in the central hall of the laboratory. Every Asterite that was divided meant that two ability users would be seriously injured or even killed.
There was a large living area on both sides of the laboratory. Iron Chariots and Dark Fairy Tale's ability users gathered in the living area. The atmosphere was somewhat solemn.
Seventeen Asterite had already been divided, but they had only obtained seven. The other ten had all fallen into the hands of Songcheng, Ghost Town, and Lionheart Castle.
In order to obtain these seventeen star energy stones, Steel Chariot and Dark Fairytale had sacrificed a total of eleven lives, and six of them had been heavily injured. The other side had also sacrificed nine lives, and four were heavily injured.
Luan glanced at the remaining ability users with a solemn expression.
"We have to think of a way. We have fewer people than the three of them. If we continue fighting, we will be at a disadvantage!"
"I know!"
Luan glanced at the lead box that was shrouded in the center of the beam with a heavy expression.
"Our main targets are No. 1 and No. 2. The other party's Venom, Arc Light, Luan, Haematosuchus, and Ghostface won't make a move. Thunder Scorpion, Magic Puppet, and Black Sand won't make a move easily!
Otherwise, No. 1 and No. 2 will be gone! "
Most of the Asterite fragments in the lead box were only the size of a fist, but two of them were clearly larger than the other Asterites. They were No. 1 and No. 2!
No. 1 was the largest one, the size of a basketball. No. 2 was half the size of a basketball.
The value of an Asterite was proportional to its size. The half-basketball-sized Asterite could at least be exchanged for a spot to enter the Black Steel Shelter.
As for the largest Asterite, it could be exchanged for at least four spots to enter the Black Steel Shelter.
This was the difference between them!
Although the fist-sized Asterite was heavier in total, even if they were all added together, their value was only about the same as the two largest ones!
The two largest Asterite were the highlight of the competition between the two sides. Whoever dared to touch the two largest Asterite first would inevitably provoke the strongest counterattack from the other side.
Both sides were afraid of each other, so they only divided the fist-sized Asterite. No one dared to have any ideas about the two largest Asterites.
The ability users on both sides who were qualified to fight for No. 1 and No. 2 had already dealt with each other. They had even fought against each other before, so they were very clear about each other's strength. They didn't have absolute confidence in defeating each other, so they could only intimidate each other.
If they wanted to take an Asterite from the lead box, they had to win two matches in a row. Whoever went up first could be traded by the other side. If they were injured or exhausted too much of their strength, they would definitely be at a disadvantage when fighting for No. 1 and No. 2!
"It's a pity that we weren't able to persuade Sickle. Otherwise, we wouldn't be so passive in a five against five situation!" Luo sighed.
Although Sickle had already stepped into the old city, he appeared and disappeared like a ghost. They couldn't contact him at all, let alone persuade him to join this battle for the Asterite.
Bang!
A muffled gunshot rang out. A rank 3 Elemental Domain user of Ghost Town was shot in the head. A Mechanic from the Iron Chariots side became the victor of this duel and successfully brought back an Asterite.
However, Luan's expression was still very serious. This was because the Mechanic from her side had gone through two consecutive battles. Although he obtained the final victory, he was also heavily injured by the opponent's dying blow. He basically withdrew from the battle for the Asterite that followed.
In this kind of one-for-one exchange, the side with fewer people would always be at a disadvantage.
Black Sand, who had been silent all this time, suddenly leaned over. His hands were hidden behind his back. Strands of black sand swam around his fingertips as if they had a life of their own.
"Luo, the other side is boiling a frog in warm water. If we don't change, our situation will become more and more dangerous."
The Magic Puppet nodded and said, "We have fewer people than them.
"We have fewer people, and we won't be able to outlast them. If we continue to waste time on these small pieces of star energy stones, then we'll be forced into a duel sooner or later. When that happens, we won't even be able to obtain these star energy stone fragments, let alone Number 1 and Number 2!"
Luo glanced at the two of them and asked, "Don't you have any good ideas?"
Black Sand and the Magic Puppet looked at each other and said slowly, "I suggest that we send someone to pick out Asterite No. 2 first and see how they deal with it!"
Cheng's brows furrowed. He had considered Black Sand's suggestion, but it was a difficult problem to decide who to send.
If they sent someone else, it would be suicide. The strongest people on the other side would definitely stop them.
Not to mention that no one was willing to die, even if someone was willing to die, they might not be able to bring back Asterite No. 2. It would only trigger the final duel in advance.