Chapter 97: Spiders and Their Silk
Translator: Letty Editor: DarkGem
Sorting his memory while trotting in the jungle, Chang groped around an area along the edge of the jungle.
The dusk had arrived, and the sun was lowering its face behind the horizon. He sped up his pace, hoping that by the time he arrived at the spider zone, the last beam of sunlight would cease.
The last rays of the setting sun granted him the ability to see the transparent spider silk, yet leaving his enemies no chance of noticing it. By his estimations, the night would fall completely in approximately 20 minutes, and the hooknosed woman would catch up with him in half an hour.
He wanted to enter the den when the sunlight was still illuminating the jungle so that he could plan out his path. And hopefully, when the woman and those gene-altered soldiers arrived, they won’t have sight of the thin and s.h.i.+ny spider silk.
As he calculated, the time he spent on his journey to the spider zone was exactly 20 minutes as he had expected. When he began to see the spider silk, the sun was still lingering on the horizon.
Relying on the last bit of light, Chang realized that the spider zone had expanded to be a few times bigger than before.
The light reflected on the spider silk, making them visible to Chang. The spider webs were weaved between tree trunks, one next to the other. The number and density of the spider webs grew, and they were more difficult to evade for invaders the further into the their zone.
The number of spider webs positively correlated with the population of the spiders. It must be unimaginably large now.
As flexible as Chang was, he had to duck between the splits. He was doing it so carefully that none of the spider silks were touched.
The reason behind his cautiousness was because he knew that spiders were a different type of predator from other species. Their predation habits relied on the sense of touch. The hair on their limbs were extremely sensitive to vibration. If there was a prey thras.h.i.+ng about on a web, the spiders would rush to the source in a surge.
Except for the sense of touch, the vision and olfaction of spiders were weak. Therefore, Chang believed that if he was heedful enough, he should be able to stay away from the hunting spiders.
Chang slipped between the slits, aided by his superior vision. He saw spiders lurking on the edges of their own webs, dozing off comfortably in their spots. His figure was s.h.i.+elded by the red fog, so none of the killers, who became active at night, were bothered by his presence.
The darkness was inevitable. It slowly shrouded the jungle. In the last minute before the sun entirely disappeared, Chang backtracked and left the spider territory. He squatted down with eyes closed, silently calculating and a.n.a.lyzing the route. Based on what he had observed, he drew a map with the locations of spider webs in his mind.The map helped him plan out his route of advance.
Upon finis.h.i.+ng his preparations, Chang removed his jacket and threw it into the spider zone. He then vanished in the darkness.
15 minutes later, the hooknosed woman and the gene-altered soldiers surfaced from the red fog. They were lucky enough to stop before the dense spider webs.
“The target is in front of us.” The woman took a deep breath, her nosewing twitched. “He stopped moving, I think he set up a trap again.”
“Ah.” The gene-altered soldiers didn’t understand her a.s.sertion, only responding to the first sentence. Knowing that the target was in front of them, they set foot in the spider zone without giving it a second thought.
The woman followed her subordinates, sighing.
However, they didn’t go too far. Number One became glued to the “invisible” spider silk. He roared, confused by the sudden restraints.
“Ah!” Number One was the one who had walked at the very front. Suddenly though, his body could no longer move as he wished it to, and hence, he kept his walking posture at where he stopped. Apparently, the creature was irritated. He struggled to pull off the tenacious spider silk from his body, but instead, the spider silk swathed his body even tighter when he waved his hands more vigorously.
Number One’s scuffle with the spider web startled the host. As it sensed the damage of its web, a spider as big as half of a human jumped off from the edge to attack its invader.
Chang peaked at the spider, realizing that it had become more perfect than it was a month ago. The perfection was nothing more than the advancement of its weapon without enlarging the body size too much. It had its hair staighten out to better sense the vibrations in the air, and its limbs became much more muscular. The mouthpiece got sharper, so that it was almost as if it had daggers at the front of its head..
The spiders had evolved to be more deadly.
However, even though the spiders had improved, the gene-altered soldiers were much more advance in power. Number One threw his fist at the spider, cracking its torso in half. The spider flipped as it was hurled away. The gene-altered soldier was designed to kill, after all, and the spider, as a product of natural evolution, was less formidable.
Chang had waited for this moment for a time. He hadn’t expected the the first spider to cause any injuries on the gene-altered soldier, but was instead waiting for a perfect moment when the gene-altered soldier would stay still. When the chance arrived, he fired the first shot of his handgun without hesitation
The timing was perfect as the gene-altered soldier was within Chang’s vision, and he was trapped in the spider silk. All these conditions ensured that Chang would get a headshot.
Besides, he also believed that if the shot hit a spot where the bulletproof skin was damaged, it may cause a lethal wound. If the wound was on the heart or the head, even though the genes were altered to be bulletproof, death was the only option for his target.
Bang!
The great kinetic energy not only brought a dazzling lights, but also a bullet of an unusual size hidden within the sparkles. It travelled through the air at its greatest speed, penetrating the brain of the gene-altered soldier. The force of the bullet pulled the soldier’s body for a few meters to the back, and left a fist-sized wound on the skull.
It was a crisp killing shot. As long as Chang had enough time to aim, causing a lethal wound to a gene-altered soldier wasn’t impossible.
Besides, the odds were favoring him in hitting the target as he could make fine calculations over his actions.
However, flighting was the most difficult part in this battle. The first shot brought danger to him.
Number Two and Number Three immediately reacted upon the gunshot; the sparkle from the muzzle, and the sound cued the origin’s source to them. 15 meters were almost just a big leap to them. The beast instinct urged them to detour so that Chang wouldn’t have a second chance to fire.
While Chang was turning away, and the creatures were chasing after him, the thundering gunshot lit up the spider filled jungle. The dozing spiders were brought wide awake in the darkness. Their behaviors were bizarre. Instead of climbing down along their silk, they bounced among the webs, briskly making their way to their prey.
Chang had already known the consequences before ever fired his handgun, and hence, he made a 180 degree turn, digging his way into the center of the spider zone.
Number Two and Number Three weren’t distracted by the spiders that were bouncing around them. They were a few times faster than Chang, but he didn’t look back, sliding within the den and planning out every step he took before hand.
The gene-altered soldiers didn’t sail through the spider webs as smooth as their target. They fumbled and stumbled around the webs. Even though they were capable of getting rid of the sticky webs, their speed was greatly reduced.
What was more, for every spider web they crashed into, the following vibration was sent out to the spiders that hung on the web. As if triggered, the spiders crawled over the broken webs, twitching their mouth pieces as if promising revenge on the gene-altered soldiers.
Of course, not only the gene-altered soldier were targeted. As one of the troublemakers, Chang was attacked by a few of the spiders, too.
The attack from the spiders was well-organized. It seemed like the group living style trained them to be group hunters. Their battled tactics weren’t limited to pouncing and biting. The soft and sticky spider silk was ejected from the end of their abdomen so that the silk would stick on the invaders. As they also realized the lethality of these gene-altered soldiers, the majority of these spiders decided to swathe their prey from far away.
Streams of spider silk poured and rained on Number Two and Number Three.
Yet the gene-altered soldiers seemed not to care about these soft attacks. In their eyes, capturing the target was the priority. Other enemies, as well as their own lives, were placed second.
In this chasing game, Chang realised his calculation ability was a huge advantage in siege attacks.
Threads of spider silk showered him, but Chang was able to calculate where they would land according to their current location. The pouncing spiders were slower as they paused briefly between each bounce, and hence, Chang could find the best path to escape before the spiders encircled him.
Although the den of the spiders had expanded, as Chang ran further, the density of spider webs reduced. He dodged and strolled through the spider webs effortlessly. In comparison to his spry footwork, Number Two and Number Three seemed deeply troubled.
They jostled and elbowed around, though they tried dodging the showering spider silk, their reckless motions actually got more spider silk wrapped around them. For every spider web they crashed into, the broken web cloaked one more layer on them. With the additional spider webs poured over their heads, they soon were forced into a sticky spider silk coat. It was so tenacious that the gene-altered soldiers were prevented from moving forward.
Their struggle became slower over time as the layers grew thicker. Chang turned his head when he felt the time had come. He fired four consecutive shots toward Number Two and Number Three.