Chapter 178: Desert Fire Ant Commander

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

Bang!

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A normal armor-piercing bullet shot out of the Eye of the Thunder muzzle and flew across approximately 700 meters before hitting the Desert Fire Ants that were also “flying” in the air.

The reason the ants were said to be “flying in the air” was that in the Eye of the Thunder’s sights, in the entire night sky, countless red, bullet-like things looked like they were flying.

Desert Fire Ants—also called Desert Bullet Ants! The bullet ant nickname was not like the insect on Earth with the same name where its name came from the fact that after being bitten by the creature, the pain was like being hit with a bullet. Plus, the body of the fire ant was long and slender like the bullet of a sniper rifle, and when it jumped, it moved extremely quickly, just like a bullet. The great force generated by its impact was just like a bullet!

At that time, within Feng Luo’s sights, half the zoomed-in sniping scope was occupied by red “bullets” that kept jumping around while the other half was occupied by the Desert Fire Ant’s nest.

Within the 20-meter-tall, mid-sized nest that looked like a hollow castle in the desert, countless Desert Fire Ants kept “firing” in the direction of the sand and the players surrounding the nest. Beneath the night sky, the scene resembled laser particle beams being fired from a combat fortress in science fiction movies. It was exceedingly beautiful.

However, as beautiful as it was, none of the players were in the mood to admire the beauty.

The Desert Fire Ants were only Level-30 monsters, with Worker Ants making up over 90 percent of the entire ant population and extremely low attacks. They could only rely on the impact accumulated through charging, which dealt less than 400 damage against the players. Although the damage was low, their quantity could make up for that. The entire nest was comprised of more than 50,000 Desert Fire Ants. To distribute their numbers to the 150 players at the scene, one person would have to deal with 300 ants on average.

Moreover, apart from the Level-30 Worker Ants in the Desert Fire Ant group, there were also Level-33 Soldier Ants, Level-35 Male Ants, and Level-37 Female Ants that had much higher combat strength!

And also, the Desert Fire Ant Commander was over Level 38!

Any monster that reached the Commander grade would have a fundamentally different power. There was no need to even mention that in a Desert Fire Ant nest of this level, there would normally be more than just one or two Commander-grade monsters!

Bang!

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The Eye of the Thunder in Feng Luo’s hands rang out again. This time, it triggered the normal armor-piercing bullet that triggered the rare characteristic of the Eye of the Thunder flew less than 200 meters before hitting the body of a large fire ant of around one meter with a football-sized head, creating a surge of bluish-white electricity.

Killed Desert Fire Ant Soldier Ant (Level 33, Normal). Obtained Experience: 66.

The Desert Soldier Ants that were around half the size of a person were only Level 33, but they had incredibly high HP. Without the “electricity” effect being triggered, the Eye of the Thunder loaded with normal armor-piercing bullets would not have been able to kill them in one shot. Moreover, their eye-catching mandibles also had strong attacks—even a Heavy Armor Warrior would lose close to 1,000 HP when clipped by them!

However, after killing this Soldier Ant, Feng Luo stopped firing randomly. Instead, he switched to the double armor-piercing round magazine before aiming through the Eye of the Thunder scope to search for his true target amid the sky filled with energy attacks, skills, and bullets.

His target was not the normal Worker Ants and Soldier Ants but the Female Ant that dropped the rare material: Desert Fire Ant Egg!

The number of Female Ants in a Desert Fire Ant nest of this scale was not high. Normally, there would be around 50 to 100 of them. Moreover, not every Female Ant would drop the Fire Ant Egg. This was also why the Desert Fire Ant Egg was considered a rare material. Which was why Feng Luo was prepared to complete the mission before doing anything else.

Feng Luo raised the Eye of the Thunder rifle and painstakingly tried to identify and differentiate it in the sky filled with bright and colorful skills, energy, and bullet attacks.

After a dozen or so seconds, he found a Female Fire Ant that was not that much smaller than the Soldier Ant flying in the air with light red wings.

“Ah, found one!”

Bang!

Feng Luo immediately fired. However, coincidentally, just as Feng Luo’s finger pressed on the Eye of the Thunder trigger, the Female Ant was hit by stray bullets from a series of assault rifle shots that flew across it. It then fell straight down through the air while scattering a series of battle trophies bathed in a light glow.

The double armor-piercing round was several seconds slower as it flew through the air.

“F*ck!”

Feng Luo was depressed.

It was important to note that items dropped from monsters killed by players had a period of protection. If Feng Luo wanted to steal the loot, he would have to deal proportionate damage to the monster before the player killed it. Clearly, even if Feng Luo had Gatherer Beetles, the items dropped by the Desert Female Fire Ant were inaccessible to him.

I can only switch to another one!

Feng Luo gathered his thoughts and immediately switched his sights. However, at that time, he noticed that several players’ attacks suddenly focused on one direction.

Hmm? Did a Commander-grade monster appear?

Feng Luo moved the sniping scope curiously. As predicted, in the sky around 300 meters away from his position, a giant red ant was encapsulated in a transparent Fire Energy Shield. It had a pair of translucent wings like flowing flames.

A Female Ant?

It was certainly a Female Ant. The only thing was that it was not just any Female Ant!

Desert Fire Ant, Female Ant (Level 39, Commander). Species Code: **H-00251. Estimated HP: 35,000!

A Commander-grade Fire Ant!

At that moment, many skills and attacks flew toward the Female Ant Commander. After all, it was a Commander-grade monster. Killing it would ensure some decent items; even if one did not deal too much damage, as long as one reached a ratio where one was eligible to pick up items, it would be enough. So, the players had to create the conditions where they could pick up items after the battle.

Bang!

Feng Luo also followed the trend and shot through his Eye of the Thunder rifle. Luckily, he triggered the rare effect once again.

However, when the double armor-piercing round covered in crackling electricity hit the energy shield of the Desert Fire Ant Commander, it only became bluish-white electricity that spread chaotically around the energy shield. There was no effect.

For a Level-39 Commander monster, 35,000 HP was not that high. But if one were to take into account the energy shield that surrounded its body, then the total HP would have been over 80,000. After all, Manipulator professions and monsters were always shameless enough to block everything with their energy shields. Apart from that, monsters that possessed this type of fire energy shield usually had powerful attack skills!

Zhi!

Powerful flame energy condensed in front of the mandibles of the Female Desert Fire Ant Commander flying in the air. After a good five to six seconds, the ball of flame started to whiten, which meant that it was a giant, super high-temperature fireball. It shot it in a certain direction.

Boom!

The white fireball flew across over 200 meters like a cannonball shot from a chamber and hit a sand dune. As it landed, it exploded before dispersing into a sea of fire. The surrounding sand on the ground was blown seven or eight meters into the air before falling heavily back to the ground!

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******

Five white flashes came from the sea of fire. By the time the sand returned to the ground, only one Heavy Armor Warrior was left in that place. He grabbed his shield that was roasted black and used the skill, Charge, to escape in a fluster.

However, as the Female Ant Commander spat out this Fireball, which was clearly a skill, the energy shield covering its body almost disappeared. After all, Feng Luo was not the only person doing the attacking.

In those few seconds, the Female Ant flew in the air and cast its skill. This time, over a dozen players focused their attacks and continuously attacked it.

Even if it dodged many attacks as was constantly flying around—with many Worker Ants helping to block a lot of the damage in the air—around half of the attacks still hit it. Defense was not its strength, and naturally, the Fire Energy shield could not withstand too much damage. By then, its color was already very dim. It looked as if it would disappear at any moment.

Bang!

The moment the energy shield was about to disappear, Feng Luo fired a double armor-piercing round just a bit early!

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The first explosion of the double armor-piercing round, rotating at high speed, pierced straight through the extremely thin and weak energy shield, and the second damage struck the abdomen of the Female Ant Commander.

First damage that grants contribution! Got it!

But what Feng Luo did hadn’t thought about was that the moment his attack landed, the Female Ant Commander’s head immediately turned toward him.

It expanded its mandibles. Fire energy flowed out as another white fireball was prepared.