Chapter 882 Dormant Volcano (Two Chapters in One)

Qi Lin continued to explore the underground forest. Due to the existence of the frost dragon, there were no large mutated creatures living in this forest, but a brightly colored beetle that was only the size of an egg was almost killed. Qi Lin capsized in the gutter.

It is said that they are brightly colored, but that is not entirely correct. When these beetles fall on black soil, their carapace will turn into a dark color similar to the soil, and only when they are attached to those colorful mutant plant leaves When the time comes, the carapace will turn into color.

This ability is very close to that of a chameleon. Qi Lin was accidentally attacked by a beetle that fell from his head. Although this beetle was small in size, its mouthparts were very sharp and it tore Qi Lin's arm directly. The clothes he wore left a very obvious bite mark on Qi Lin's elbow.

Although the beetle was immediately shot to death by Qi Lin, along with the numb and itchy feeling at the wound, Qi Lin only felt that his consciousness began to become blurred, and his vision seemed to be covered with a cloud. Mist... Immediately afterwards, a large number of beetles emerged from all directions, swarming towards him crazily!

This scene will definitely not be unfamiliar to anyone who has watched the "Mummy" series of movies. These colorful beetles are like the overwhelming scarabs in the movie. Wherever they pass, any living thing will not be able to escape...

Qi Lin had already taken out a plasma grenade from his pocket. Just when he was about to pull the ring and throw it out, the mastermind's voice suddenly rang.

The voice of the mastermind seemed very far away, as if it was hundreds of thousands of miles away, and it seemed as if it was talking to Qi Lin across a dimension. It was vague and hard to hear clearly... but Qi Lin's ears It successfully captured a very key word - "illusion".

"These beetles...are they hallucinations?"

Looking at the beetles that had rushed in front of him, Qi Lin took a deep breath, put the plasma grenade back, picked up the assault rifle, and hit the nearest beetle with the butt of the gun!

"puff--"

The butt of the gun made a small dent in the soft soil, but other than that, it hit nothing.

There are no beetles on the ground at all, and the sea of ​​insects that surged in just now has disappeared at some point - if Qi Lin hadn't withstood the pressure and threw the plasma grenade just now, I'm afraid the only result he could get is Awaken the frost dragon deep in the forest in advance.

"Is it really an illusion?"

Qi Lin immediately thought of the fact that he had just been bitten by a beetle. He looked down and found that the wound on his arm was gone... Not only that, but even the torn sleeve had been restored.

"Boom! Boom! Boom..."

At this moment, the ground shook violently. Qi Lin thought that a giant frost dragon appeared, but when he looked up, he saw a giant one that was more than ten times larger than the giant frost dragon. Beetle, the back of this beetle is almost tightly against the roof of the volcanic cave. Every step it moves will bring a shock that is no less than a magnitude 7 earthquake.

But this time, Qi Lin was no longer panicked. He knew that he was still in a hallucination... He quickly found an antidote serum from his backpack and inserted it into the muscle of his arm, slowly injecting the serum along with it. The body and all the illusions began to fall apart, the ground stopped shaking, the giant beetle disappeared, and the layer of mist that had been covering Qi Lin's eyes gradually dissipated.

Qi Lin took another look at his arm. The damage to the sleeve had not healed, and the wound bitten by the beetle had scabbed over.

"It's a Phantom Beetle."

The mastermind said to Qi Lin, this time, its voice rang directly in Qi Lin's ears, no longer as distant and ethereal as when Qi Lin was in hallucination just now.

"A beetle that can cause hallucinations?"

"The name has two meanings. First, part of the genetic sequence of the phantom beetle is very similar to that of a chameleon, so it can change the color of its carapace at will, thus forming an excellent camouflage. Second, the phantom beetle's genetic sequence is very similar to that of a chameleon. The venom contains a large amount of hallucinogens, which will gradually drag the poisoned prey into the abyss of madness, allowing the prey to fend for itself in hallucinations. Of course, people with strong enough mental consciousness will not be affected by hallucinations. , and you can get rid of the hallucination on your own, but because your energy-gathering vortex is limited, your mental power is at a lower than normal level, so you will be tricked."

"But the illusion of this insect is a bit clumsy. How could such a huge beetle make such a huge noise until it appears in front of me? Anyone with a little bit of brain would know that this is fake, right?" Qi Lin said with some disdain.

"The illusion created by the venom of the fantasy beetle is not fixed, but will be randomly generated based on the memory fragments in your brain. Didn't the sea of ​​insects all over the mountains and plains seem very real at the beginning? If I hadn't reminded you, I'm afraid your The plasma grenades have been launched."

"Uh... Speaking of which... that scene feels very similar to some clips from the movie "The Mummy" that I watched before. That scene once left a big psychological shadow on me when I was a child. Is this illusion possible? It was transformed from these clips, right? If I hadn't seen that movie, I shouldn't have such an illusion, right?"

"Not necessarily. After all, this kind of lens is not limited to "The Mummy". In various science fiction movies and even games, there are scenes where monsters are everywhere. How can you be sure where the hallucinations come from? The Phantom Beetle The venom will discover the things you fear most in your heart, and gradually escalate this fear, causing the prey to spontaneously perform some destructive actions. When the prey is exhausted or commits suicide, that is when the Phantom Beetle enjoys a feast. It’s time,” the mastermind said.

"But when I woke you up later, you already realized that you were in a hallucination, so the second hallucination that appeared seemed so unreal... because you had already subconsciously considered that one The 'giant beetle' is an illusion."

"In other words, if you didn't call me, I might have fallen into madness now, right?" Qi Lin said with some fear.

"Yes, humans never know how terrifying it will be when the fear in their hearts is completely unearthed. In that case, even the most determined person will do some extremely crazy things."

"Then I feel that the venom of this phantom beetle is very useful." Qi Lin nodded thoughtfully, "By the way, this kind of insect is not only found in this underground forest, right?"

"Not only that, in China alone, I have found this kind of phantom beetle in four areas with high radiation concentrations. Of course, compared to the rare phantom beetle, you should be very familiar with its subspecies - Nightmare Sky ox."

"Huh? Is the Nightmare Beetle a subspecies of the Phantom Beetle? But speaking of it, there seems to be nothing wrong with it..."

Of course, Qi Lin has heard of the famous name of the Nightmare Longhorn. Not only has he heard of it, but all the more experienced players in the "Wasteland Survival Code" know that this palm-sized, dark-looking creature has two white tentacles. mutated insects.

As we all know, one of the raw materials for the famous drug "Jet" in the wasteland world is the hallucinogenic mushrooms that can be found everywhere in the radiation zone. The hallucinogenic mushrooms are chopped into pieces, and the squeezed juice is mixed with double-headed cow dung ground into powder. After being steamed at high temperature, the finished product is made. Jet only needs a small sip to put people into a state of ecstasy.

However, this was only the Jett formula used in the early days of "Wasteland Survival Code". Later, after a pharmacist discovered the mutant insect Nightmare Beetle, he tried to replace the hallucinogenic mushroom juice with the body fluid secreted by Nightmare Beetle. As a result, the new type of Jet drug formulated is more powerful, lasts longer, produces extremely realistic hallucinations, and is terrifyingly addictive.

However, there is one most obvious difference between the new Jet and the original Jet, which is that the original Jet only produces hazy illusions after taking it, but the new Jet can make people fall into a nightmare that is difficult to extricate themselves from. Middle - Among the first batch of people to try out the new Jet, two of the five committed suicide, one went completely crazy, and it took a long time for the remaining two to get rid of the horrific dream - despite this, in For a long period of time, both of them were in a state of mental lethargy, and their personalities became very strange.

Although the new Jet cannot be sold as a consumable product like cigarettes, players soon discovered another use for this potion... intimidation, torture, torture, etc...

"If I have a chance next time, I have to find a way to get some phantom beetles... The nightmare beetle is already so abnormal. The toxin of this phantom beetle is much stronger than the nightmare beetle. Maybe we can send it out sometime. Very useful..." Qi Lin said with lingering fear - even though his energy-gathering vortex is in a suppressed state, his mental power is still much stronger than ordinary people, and even he has been tricked, so If an ordinary person were bitten by a fantasy beetle, they would probably not be able to wake up.

"If you need the phantom beetle's toxin, I still have a few bottles in my inventory." The mastermind said, "But what are you going to do with this?"

"Poison, do you even need to ask?"

"This toxin is too useless. It cannot kill immediately, nor can it make the enemy lose resistance instantly. What is its use?" the mastermind asked.

"Just imagine, if among a group of soldiers, one person was suddenly poisoned and started attacking everything around him, wouldn't the formation of this unit be disrupted in an instant? And as the number of people in chaos increases, , the effect will be greatly increased, isn't this much more powerful than directly poisoning people to death?"

"That can only work on humans or native mutated organisms. It has no effect on robots and brain-controlled biochemical modifications. And most of the enemies you need to face in the next mission are The latter two.”

"Okay, but..."

Qi Lin wanted to say something, but at this moment a violent noise came from the depths of the forest. Qi Lin quickly dodged and hid behind a thick tree trunk.

This time it was not an illusion, and the only one who could make such a noise was the giant frost dragon.

The frost dragon's body covered with pale scales soon appeared in Qi Lin's field of vision, which made Qi Lin's heart almost reach his throat - at first, he thought he had been discovered by the frost dragon. , but soon he discovered that the frost dragon didn't even notice him lying in the bushes less than twenty meters away.

Dragging the injured leg, the giant frost dragon limped to the entrance of the vertical passage. During this movement, its body broke countless trees, and its claws and abdomen were also crushed. It crushed a large number of mutated plants - it did not follow the original "forest path", but directly chose the shortest straight line.

This giant frost dragon... looks very panicked?

With a vigorous flutter of its wings, the frost dragon rushed out of the vertical tunnel, but Qi Lin was surprised to notice that as the frost dragon left, the vibrations on the ground became more and more obvious!

This is not an illusion... This is definitely not an illusion... This kind of vibration...

"Grass!"

Qi Lin couldn't help but cursed a curse word, jumped up from the ground, and started running towards the vertical tunnel - he finally realized the source of the vibration... This volcano is not an extinct volcano at all, but A dormant volcano!

And now, this volcano is about to erupt!

The frost dragon had a premonition of this, so he dragged his injured body and ran away desperately.

"Damn, this is so damn lucky!"

Judging from the lushness of the underground forest, this dormant volcano has probably not erupted for hundreds of years. However, it erupted sooner or later, and it happened to wait until Qi Lin got in. This made Qi Lin feel... I was tricked by the mastermind again...

"You can't blame me. The time of the volcano's eruption has been fixed since the training program was written. You just have bad luck. And according to the original plan, you shouldn't have entered the heart of this volcano. , this eruption of the dormant volcano has nothing to do with you." The mastermind seemed to know what was thinking in Qi Lin's head, and explained in a very innocent tone.

"Forget it, I don't have time to talk to you about this - how long is the time until the final eruption?" Qi Lin asked loudly while running.

"16 seconds - this number is the time it takes for magma to rush out of the crater, and the time it takes for you to be submerged by magma will be about 5-6 seconds earlier than this."

"That is to say, I still have ten seconds, right?" Qi Lin didn't care that he would be discovered by the frost dragon at this time. The power of the energy-gathering vortex was fully activated, and his running speed was already reaching the extreme. !

"Normally, eight seconds."

Merry Christmas everyone