Universe Infinite Canteen

The Ouroboros Serpent continued to daydream, completely oblivious to the fact that Ma Lu had already stopped in front, and at this time Yun Que and the others had also come to a halt, leaving only the Ouroboros Serpent still walking forward.

As a result, she bumped headfirst into Ma Lu's armor, producing a clanging crisp sound.

A good sound means a good hit.

The Ouroboros Serpent held her own forehead, where a large lump quickly swelled up on the top of her head.

"Why have we stopped?" she asked through gritted teeth.

"Because we are here."

"Here?"

"Mhm."

The Ouroboros Serpent looked around. They were seemingly outside a residential area, which for some unknown reason was half collapsed, with the ground scattered with the black char of fire damage.

Despite being overgrown with weeds now, upon closer inspection, one could still find many traces of the intense past battle, even finding several shell casings among the bushes that the Hellhound had picked up.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

Out of curiosity, the Ouroboros Serpent asked, "What are we doing here?"

"There's a big guy in this place."

"A big guy? Who?"

"The Bolete Manipulator," Ma Lu recited the name of the red dot on the Chessboard Map that was noticeably larger than the other surrounding dots.

Upon hearing this, the Ouroboros Serpent's face changed slightly, "The Bolete Manipulator? Are you sure?"

Even the Bliss Bird grew serious, "There's a Bolete Manipulator in here?"

"Is the Bolete Manipulator that formidable?" asked Yun Que, who often dozed off in class, in a clueless manner.

"Extremely, extremely formidable," the Bliss Bird emphasized by using three 'extremely's.

"What's there to fear? Just chop it down," said the Hellhound, brimming with confidence from his new gear.

"That's exactly the problem. Your short blade might not even scratch it when facing off against it and might instead harm us," said the Ouroboros Serpent with a wry smile.

"Ha, you're a master liar and you still don't trust me?" The purple-haired girl glanced at the Ouroboros Serpent.

"No, it's not that. This is the ability of the Bolete Manipulator. It can control us without our knowledge, making us slaughter each other," the Bliss Bird explained.

"I won't be controlled that easily!" declared the Hellhound resolutely.

"I only accept being controlled by Sir Knight," Yun Que added thoughtfully.

"Good."

Seeing that Ma Lu still had the mood to praise Yun Que in this situation, the Ouroboros Serpent truly grew anxious.

"If there really is a Bolete Manipulator up ahead, we should stop moving forward. This isn't a joke—we've had many knight squads fall to a Bolete Manipulator, being controlled by it without even realizing it."

"No worries, the Bolete Manipulator controls its targets through spore parasitism, and it can control a maximum of three people at a time. Since we are five, as long as we help each other out, we can quickly free anyone who's been controlled," Ma Lu, who had already read up on the Bolete Manipulator's Skill, explained.

Indeed, its ability to manipulate was infuriatingly effective. In situations with fewer than three people, encountering a Bolete Manipulator meant almost certain death, and even with more than three, if you didn't know how to counter the control, it was still a near-certain death.

This was also why the Ouroboros Serpent and Bliss Bird were terrified at the mention of fungus.

But for Ma Lu, these mechanism-based creatures were his favorite type of opponent.

Because generally, these energized plants had high star ratings, whether they were used as ingredients, or for the rewards from the Church after successful extermination, as well as the substantial knight experience one could gain.

At the same time, because their strength was focused on their mechanics, they usually didn't have as strong attributes as other energized plants of the same level; as long as one understood the mechanism in advance, they were actually easier to deal with.

Ma Lu took out two high-powered flashlights from his travel bag, which the store owner had given him when he bought the tent and the gas cartridge stove.

Ma Lu kept one for himself and handed the other to Yun Que.

"From now on, every minute, let's shine the flashlight on each other's pupils. The fungi parasite there and they're afraid of strong light. If it's shone on them for more than two seconds, they will die."

"That simple?" the Ouroboros Serpent exclaimed in surprise.

Bliss Bird also furrowed her brows, "I haven't seen any similar research literature."

Hellhound, on the other hand, remembered something else and glanced at Ma Lu. "What about you?"

"I've already turned up the screen brightness to the max," Ma Lu said. "So I'll keep this flashlight here. If I notice anything wrong with any of you, I'll shine it on you, and you can use the other one to shine on each other."

Seeing that Sir Knight had made a decision, the four witches followed silently without further comment.

Even though they had heard Ma Lu's explanation, the Ouroboros Serpent still couldn't quite feel at ease, remaining very vigilant and looking around constantly while watching his teammates' reactions.

The hand holding the Meteor Staff started to sweat after a while.

However, they had been in the district for 4 minutes and everyone was still alright; the flashlight had now been passed to Bliss Bird's hands.

The Ouroboros Serpent rubbed her somewhat sore eyes with her other hand, intending to rest for a moment, but then she was startled to find that she had suddenly lost control of her body.

She was still walking, yet she couldn't stop her steps, and her arms didn't respond to her commands.

At that moment, Bliss Bird shone the flashlight into her eyes.

The pupils of the Ouroboros Serpent shuddered violently, and after two seconds, she felt something burning inside her eyes, while also relieved to discover that she could move again.

The Ouroboros Serpent's chest heaved violently as she gasped for air, looking like she had just escaped death.

Seeing her expression, Bliss Bird seemed to realize something and raised her eyebrows, "You were infected?"

The Ouroboros Serpent, still shaken, nodded, "I didn't think the light... would actually work."

At that moment, Ma Lu had just finished checking on Hellhound and turned to say, "Anyone who has been parasitized is safe for the next 3 minutes, so you can use the flashlight on others."

"Hey, are you settling personal grievances here? It was only half a minute ago when you last shone it on me, why did you shine it again just now?" the purple-haired girl complained. "The flashlight is really dazzling. I feel like I'm about to go blind."

"I am indeed paying special attention to you, but it has nothing to do with settling personal grievances," Ma Lu said. "It's purely because you are the only melee profession in the team; it would be more troublesome if you lost control."

While they were talking, Yun Que suddenly leaned towards Hellhound, as if trying to climb on her back.

"Hahaha, stop messing around." The purple-haired girl pushed Yun Que away and then, almost simultaneously, two beams of light shone on Yun Que's face.

Soon after, her expression also showed that she had awakened from a dream.

"I, I was controlled!!!" Yun Que exclaimed, "I didn't cause any trouble for everyone, did I?"

"Don't worry, even if you were controlled, the danger is minimal, you won't be a nuisance to everyone."