Chapter 692: A Creature With Tentacles!
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Putting Ling Lan’s thoughts aside, all of them managed to arrive at their destination soon.
It was a huge lake. The surface of the lake was s.h.i.+mmering with light. There seemed to be no end to the lake with waters that were deep blue and clear. However, Ling Lan and her team members couldn’t be certain if there were creatures inside the lake. The steam over the lake and the heat emitted from the lake told them that the temperature of the water was high.
Xie Yi started taking a sample of the water and examining it without Ling Lan’s command. He told everyone what he found through the team channel.
“The temperature of the water is at 87 degrees celsius. Can fish survive at this temperature?” One of the mecha operators were stunned. Fish would be cooked at this temperature.
“You are a veteran. Have you forgotten lifeforms here might be different from what we know? I’m pretty sure the fish on this planet are not afraid of high heat,” Someone refuted.
“There is a fish like that in the Federation too. It’s known as Aomu Fish. It can live within 50 degrees celsius to 60 degrees celsius water. If the temperature of the water gets below 45 degrees celsius, it will die.” Someone reminded everyone to not be restricted by their own ignorance.
“No one knows what is in the lake. Let’s be more careful.” As the most experienced mecha operator, Yang Mingzhi felt obligated to remind everyone to be aware of their surroundings when he noticed that they were too focused on talking.
Everyone instantly focused their attention on the lake.
Ling Lan knew that these people still had problems fighting in a high pressured situation. They had relaxed for too long and lost their vigilance on the battlefield. This was not something that could be solved with training. Only real life-or-death situations would allow them to regain their vigilance.
“Regiment commander, why do I feel that the heat in the lake didn’t trigger the thermal signal?” Li Lanfeng looked at his optical supercomputer. He noticed that the thermal signal came from the lake but 87 degrees celsius was too low for the thermal detector to give such a signal.
Ling Lan stared at the surface of the lake for a few seconds. She said slowly, “Seems like we need to go into the lake.” She had this query too. There might be something in the lake which caused it to have such a high temperature. She didn’t know if it was a natural resource vein in it.
However, entering the lake was a dangerous task. Entering the bottom of a lake or a river was usually the most dangerous place to explore. There was water resistance and the water would affect the mecha operator’s vision too. Most importantly, no one knew what was under the water.
Ling Lan pondered about it and chose Qi Long, Zhao Jun, Liu Furong, Gu Zhengyang to enter the lake with her.
Li Lanfeng wanted to say something but he stopped himself. He really wanted to go with Ling Lan but he knew that if anything happened there, with his stamina, he might drag the whole team down. He could not cause trouble for his rabbit.
Ling Lan asked Yang Mingzhi to be in charge of guarding the perimeter and asked Li Lanfeng and Han Jijyun to help him. She glanced at Ling Yu who was standing still like a piece of wood. After some thought, she said, “Ling Yu, you’ll go down with me too.”
Since there is a bodyguard, she should use it.
“Yes, regiment commander!” Ling Yu received the order. Very soon, the six of them jumped into the lake.
The moment they entered the lake, the six of them changed their mecha setting to suit the underwater environment. Their mecha got used to the environment and slowly sunk. It took more than ten seconds for them to sink to the bottom of the lake. It was deeper than expected. There was no light at the bottom of the lake. However, the mechas had searchlights on them so they were able to see within 30 meters around them.
The six people cautiously explored the bottom of the lake. While they were sinking, they didn’t see a single fish at all. This caused them to doubt if there were any creatures in the lake.
“Be careful!” Qi Long felt his boss kicking him. Ling Yu, who was protecting Ling Lan, fired a beam shot at Qi Long’s direction. If his boss didn’t kick him, he would have been hit by the beam. Qi Long was furious. Was there something wrong with Ling Yu? Wasn’t he boss’s bodyguard?”
“Qi Long, inspect your mecha and see if there is a problem.” Ling Lan’s cold voice rang inside Qi Long’s ears. Ling Yu still had his beam gun in his hand. However, it was not aimed at him. It was aimed at his side.
Qi Long got a shock. He knew that things were not what it seemed. He immediately inspected his mecha and noticed that there was a round-shaped burn mark on the mecha’s chest. He didn’t know when he got this scar. It looked like a burn mark was formed by electricity.
Qi Long replayed what happened. After slowing down the video feed ten times, he finally saw a silver whip-like tentacle appearing beside him suddenly and attacking him. If his boss didn’t kick him away, he might have been seriously hurt. At the same time, he also noticed that Ling Yu’s beam sliced the silver whip-like tentacle. That was why the tentacle retreated and stopped attacking him.
With Ling Yu standing by, Ling Lan bent down and picked up the tentacle that was sliced by Ling Yu. After it was sliced, half of it dropped onto the bottom of the lake.
The tentacle kept forming sparks in Ling Lan’s hand. Ling Lan was prepared for its attack so she protected her hand using the s.h.i.+eld. After a few seconds, the sparks disappeared. The silver whip-like tentacle had used up all its energy and stopped moving. It started to turn dark silver.
“This tentacle has powerful electricity in it. Even if it leaves the main body, the electricity will not disappear immediately. Some of it still remained in it.” Ling Lan explained what happened to the other five people. “Based on the way it attacked, it should be a creature with tentacles.”
Everyone gasped when they heard that. The hardest type of creature to deal with under the water were creatures with tentacles. This creature even had electricity in it. They were not afraid but it still made their heads hurt.
Ling Lan signaled at Ling Yu to put down his gun. The creature that attacked them had moved away or was hiding. Ling Lan swallowed the questions she had and turned to face everyone. “Be careful. It is injured so it will definitely attack us again.”
“Yes, regiment commander!” Everyone was on their guard. With such a scary opponent being near them, all of them moved with vigilance. They even activated their s.h.i.+elds. At the bottom of the lake, each mecha was s.h.i.+ning with light from their beam s.h.i.+eld. Ling Lan knew this would make them easier targets but it was better than dying unknowingly in the tentacles of a tentacle monster.
“Regiment commander, we are unable to contact the people above.” Liu Furong frowned as he told Ling Lan the bad news. Just now, Ling Lan ordered him to contact Yang Mingzhi to inform them about the situation under the water so that they could be on their guard.
“Seems like the water is able to interrupt signals,” Gu Zhengyang guessed.
“Maybe this is the ability of the tentacle creature,” Zhao Jun had another guess.
“No matter what, we are rich.” Qi Long smiled brightly as he stared in front of him intently. All he could think of were credits. He didn’t look as though he just met a life-or-death situation. He was as lively as usual.
“I didn’t expect our luck to be so good.” Their current situation was quite bad but everyone’s mindset was good. They started making the best out of the situation.
They knew that if they wanted to explore this lake, they needed to get rid of the tentacle creature first. They didn’t know how many creatures there were. Furthermore, if they killed all the tentacle creatures only to realize that this was just an ordinary lake with no ability to block signals, their efforts would be in vain.
Yet, everyone looked at the situation positively and accepted the challenge happily. Ling Yu nodded his head. He was satisfied with the performance of these team leaders.
At the side of the lake, the 20 people who stayed back split into two teams. One of the team rested while the other guarded the area. A portion of them guarded the lake while another portion guarded their surroundings.
The person in charge of the group that was guarding the lake was Li Lanfeng. Luo Lang and Xie Yi helped him. Li Lanfeng trusted Ling Lan and the others but he still couldn’t help feeling worried. He kept looking at the lake and hoped that his friends would return soon.
Suddenly, he narrowed his eyes. “Luo Lang, Xie Yi, look. Did you see something below the surface of the lake just now?” He saw a flash of silver just now. This caused him to be on his guard.
Luo Lang and Xie Yi immediately looked at the lake. But, they didn’t see anything.
“There seemed to be nothing,” Luo Lang said with uncertainty.
Xie Yi smiled. “You must have mistaken. How can there be any creatures in a lake with such a high temperature?” He moved his mecha after he finished speaking and looked in another direction.
Luo Lang seemed to agree with what he said. He turned his mecha around indifferently too and placed his focus on the other side.
Li Lanfeng muttered, “Maybe I’m wrong.” He spun his mecha around too.
When the three of them turned around, six long tentacles shot out of the lake and slashed towards the six mechas that were near the lake. Three of the mecha belonged to Li Lanfeng, Xie Yi, and Luo Lang.
“Boom! Boom! Boom!” The moment the tentacles appeared, Li Lanfeng, Luo Lang, and Xie Yi shot their beam guns at the six tentacles as though they were prepared for its attack.
This creature which snuck up of them was caught off its guard. All the six tentacles got sliced off. The other three mechas at the side of the lake had received an order from their leader and quickly dodged.
After seeing the attacker, Yang Mingzhi, Han Jijyun, and Li Yingjie quickly came over too.
Two of the tentacles dropped on the yellowish-brown plants at the bank of the lake. They kept twisting as though they still had life in them. The plants that got in contact with the tentacles were burnt immediately. The electricity in the tentacles was strong.
The mecha operators who noticed this felt a chill down their spines. If these tentacles landed on their bodies, they might turn into ash instantly. There was no chance of survival. This was just a portion of the electricity left in a broken tentacle. If they were hit by the main body, their mechas might not be able to withstand the electricity too.
Yang Mingzhi and his group met up with Li Lanfeng’s group. They saw waves forming on the surface of the river. Suddenly, numerous tentacles shot out of the river and rushed towards the people at the bank. It must be furious that Li Lanfeng and his friends hurt it so it wanted to kill them.
“F**k, that is a tentacle creature. Everyone focus! Don’t get dragged into the water by it.” Yang Mingzhi quickly reminded everyone. He immediately raised his beam gun and shot at the tentacles.
He was worried about the group that went down. He wondered if they were safe. This kind of creature was harder to deal with in the water.
After a round of shooting, they managed to destroy close to 200 tentacles. This only happened because none of them missed a shot. However, there were still 800 more tentacles rus.h.i.+ng towards them.
“We have too little people. We can’t fight with it.” Yang Mingzhi immediately gave an order. “Everyone, retreat till the tentacles can’t reach you.”
Many mecha operators didn’t agree with this order, especially the people from Lingtian Battle Team. Under Ling Lan’s guidance, they didn’t like to retreat. However, they remembered what Ling Lan told them. The person-in-charge was Yang Mingzhi. Even if they wanted to continue fighting, they still had to listen to him. Hence, they retracted their weapons and started retreating.
In a battlefield, everyone must be able to obey commands immediately. If not, they might put everyone in danger. The members of Lingtian got brainwashed by Ling Lan successfully so they didn’t create trouble for Yang Mingzhi.
Although everyone moved quickly, the monster in the lake was much faster. Before the mecha operators could move to a safe distance, the tentacles had already reached them.