Crackle, crackle~
Ricky surrounded that burning mosquito and took pictures of it from different angles before contacting Rovni. The two workers on the farm came to have a look as well.
Zheng Yang was 20 meters away from the two of them and was facing the deeper part of the farm. About 15 kilometers away from the farm, there was a mountain range, which Zheng Yang had seen in the afternoon.
"Did those huge mosquitos fly out from the mountains?" he wondered.
"Why did those huge mosquitos only attack goats for the past several days and not humans? Do they not like the taste of human blood?
"But that doesn't make sense, considering what normal mosquitos are like.
Or, is someone controlling those huge mosquitos and deliberately avoiding attacking humans, then?
But why was the culprit's target only the goats at Anthony's Farm?
The mosquito that released Desmond was controlled by someone too. Are the two incidents really not related?"
Questions popped up in his mind one after another.
Ricky didn't care what time it was at the moment. After calling Rovni, he'd originally planned to ask Zheng Yang how he'd managed to detect the mosquito, but when he saw that Zheng Yang was on the alert, he realized he needed to be on guard as well.
There might be more than one mosquito.
That old cowboy was also on the alert. He carried his hunting rifle as he rushed to the scene, cursing away.
That exploding round back there was very powerful and was packed with spirit power as well, burning the huge mosquito to a crisp before long. From the looks of things, the fire would simply keep burning until the carcass was reduced to ash.
"That blasted monster was the one responsible for killing my goats, right?" the old cowboy yelled.
"Seems like it to me!" Ricky replied loudly.
The old cowboy circled around the flames with an angry look on his face, suggesting that he would have kicked the carcass if it hadn't been for it still burning at the moment.
"If there's one like this around, that means there's two, three, or even more. You people should figure out how to eliminate them all."
That old cowboy's voice echoed far and wide throughout the farm in the middle of the night.
Zheng Yang didn't receive a warning from the spirit vessel even after being on guard for almost 15 minutes, leading him to wonder if there might only be one massive mosquito showing up tonight.
Ricky holstered his gun and came to Zheng Yang's side, saying, "Boss will be here any minute. She drives faster than I do."
Zheng Yang looked in the direction of the harbor, imagining a red sports car speeding along as if its driver was fuming at being woken up at such an hour.
"She doesn't actually need to show up. The mosquito is gonna be reduced to ash in just minutes."
Zheng Yang shook his head for a bit and then pointed at the mountains. "You know anything about the mountains over there? I suspect that the mosquitos come from there."
Ricky peered in the direction Zheng Yang pointed, the dark of night limiting how far he could see.
However, he knew where Zheng Yang was pointing and said, "The outer fringes of that mountain have seen some measure of development. It's actually a famous hiking place for nearby towns. It has a primitive jungle deep inside, sprawling all the way to the beach. Other than a handful of adventurers who refuse to listen to sense, no one actually goes deep into those woods."
Zheng Yang opened a map on his phone and found that the edge of the woods near the sea was actually where he had run into those water ghosts, and that it branched off the main mountain range.
The entire mountain range was tens of kilometers long and had a lot of winding branches, with one of them coincidentally running along the road to the farm.
"Seems like there are some secrets in that mountain," Zheng Yang thought.
Several minutes later, Rovni rushed to the farm in a huge off-road vehicle all on her own.
She apparently had been woken up from sleep. Her wavy hair was messy, and her clothes were in disarray. She was wearing an amber-colored silk top and a pair of jeans. Her shirt was hastily buttoned, and it stretched tight over that puffy chest of hers, making her look rather alluring under the dim moonlight.
Nice rack…
Rovni glowered at Zhegn Yang, who turned his gaze away, acting like nothing had happened. He then suggested that the huge mosquitos came from the faraway mountains, and it was very possible that someone was controlling them.
She checked the remaining ash and bits of exoskeleton left on the grass before checking out the photos on Ricky's phone. Even though it was engulfed in flames, that mosquito's ferocious appearance remained clearly visible.
"The mosquito could turn invisible. I managed to detect its presence, and it didn't reveal itself even after I hit it with two regular rounds. So, I used an enchanted round on it instead."
Zheng Yang moved closer to Rovni's side, smelling the faint rose fragrance wafting from her as he elaborated.
"If the round you gave me had had a freezing effect, we might have gotten a rather decent specimen for research."
Rovni pushed him away, a disgusted look on her face. "Gosh, you smell like goats. Get away from me!"
"Rovni, this is the smell of men."
"Smell of men, right. More like the smell of small men. A kid like you has no business hitting on women."
"…" Zheng Yang was utterly stunned.
"Small man—are you serious?" he thought.
His expression immediately changed, and he drew his gun and siphoned spirit power.
There was another warning from the spirit vessel. According to his past experiences, eldritch entities would show up between 10 to 30 seconds after the warning and attack.
He still couldn't make out any targets, yet the looming danger he sensed was fast approaching, and it was still, without a doubt, another one of those huge mosquitos capable of becoming invisible.
He ran in the direction the danger was coming from, and before he even managed to run 20 meters, he sensed that it was close.
There was a buzzing noise in the air, followed by a gust of wind, causing him to lunge forward almost by instinct.
He could clearly sense that invisible huge mosquito zip right above his head, and he could even hear the high-pitched whoosh as its proboscis sliced through the air, being only 20 centimeters away from his body.
He locked onto the blitzing presence and fired a shot without looking up.
At that moment, his uncannily keen perception made him feel like he was a firearm god incarnate. He sensed the enchanted round explosively leave the muzzle and whiz through the air before piercing the target and bursting inside it. Terrifying spirit power was unleashed as the bullet spun, bursting into flames.
It was truly surreal. It's worth noting that he had only spent a day learning how to use a gun, firing just 30 practice rounds, and only one night practicing how to disassemble and reassemble one.
Obviously, his current something physique wasn't something that a little bit of practice alone could've brought about. It was a result of an all-around boost from transferring spirit power to himself, amplifying his physique to three times that of an average human and giving him a kind of supersensory perception.
His perception was more powerful than before, and it was definitely more than just three times that of an average human. The perception might have been amplified by six or even nine times due to the stacking of boosted attributes, bringing him to a surreal state of being at the moment.
The massive mosquito revealed itself as the gunshot exploded. Covered in flames, it barely passed over Zheng Yang's head. The sight caught the attention of Rovni, Ricky, that old cowboy, and the two workers on the farm.
Due to his past experience with eldrich entities, Zheng Yang was able to confirm that there wouldn't be any eldritch entity around until that warning came again. As such, he got to his feet and started filming the creature with his phone.
At the moment, the flames have yet to cover the mosquito's entire body. As a result, the footage he captured was even sharper, clearer, and more comprehensive.
That mosquito had formidable lifeforce. Even though there was a gaping hole in its body where the enchanted round had hit, it didn't die right away. Instead, it was struggling about on the grass as the flames grew increasingly intense.
Both Rovni and Ricky came up with their guns drawn, keeping their guard up around the mosquito.
Zheng Yang shot an annoyed look at them.
Good job showing up when the job's already done, you two.