"Damn it, that was intense!"
It took Zhou Yuan a while to fully recover. He patted his skull helmet and felt a lingering fear.
He was certain that it was the brainworm that caused the disturbance just now.
The brainworm had incredibly strong telepathic abilities. Its psychic attacks could instantly knock someone unconscious, and individuals with weaker mental strength might even have their heads explode.
Fortunately, he was prepared; otherwise, he would have lost half of his life this time.
"How much is the brainworm worth?"
Zhou Yuan opened the prompt panel.
[Kill a brainworm and gain soul points.]
[Congratulations to the host for unlocking the 'Blow Your Head Up' achievement and obtaining the title 'Extraordinary Wisdom'.]
[Congratulations to the host for unlocking the 'Penta Kill' achievement and obtaining the title 'Novice Collector'.]
[Congratulations to the host for unlocking the 'High-End Player' achievement...]
Just by killing a brainworm, the panel was flooded with seven or eight messages.
The insect nest was not a good place, so he didn't have time to read them carefully. He only glanced at the price of the brainworm.
One hundred thousand points!
"As expected, the rarer, the more expensive!"
"Too bad the laser bird kills didn't count towards the title bonus; otherwise, it would have been 120,000 points."
Zhou Yuan sighed in relief, gradually smiling.
Before encountering the brainworm, he had only killed four types of insects, priced as follows:
Soldier Insect: 1 point
Sand Armor Insect: 1 point
Locust Insect: 3 points
Tank Armor Insect: 100 points
From this pattern, it could be seen that the price of the insects was not determined by their size; otherwise, the locust insect wouldn't be higher than the soldier insect, and the sand armor insect wouldn't be priced the same as the soldier insect.
He was worried before, fearing that the brainworm would only be worth 10,000 points or even just a few thousand.
But now, one brainworm was worth 100,000 points!
In fact, 100,000 points wasn't too much for him right now, considering that destroying an insect nest would yield tens of thousands of points.
The main goal was to confirm the price of the brainworm, so he could make choices in the future.
If the price was high, he would kill it; if it was low, he would capture it alive and exchange it for military merits.
One hundred thousand points was considered moderate. In the future, he could decide whether to kill or keep based on his soul point balance.
But for this single brainworm alone, he definitely made a big profit.
It was like getting a laser bird for free from the store and also picking up 40,000 soul points. It was a great help for him at the moment.
"Hey, are you guys okay?"
After briefly looking at his gains, Zhou Yuan shifted his attention to his teammates.
There were a total of eleven people, and he was in the best condition. He had already fully recovered.
The others seemed to be in bad shape. Only Buck and Wild Boar were awake, sitting on the ground gently patting their heads, while the rest were lying down.
"I'm fine."
"Check on the others and wake them up!"
Buck waved his hand and immediately shouted through the team channel, "I'm the hunter. Report your current status, everyone."
He didn't know what had happened just now, but judging from the extent of the headaches, it seemed that everyone had been affected.
The teams without any nearby insects were fine; they had time to wait for recovery.
But for the teams currently in battle...
"Hawk, Storm, wake up!"
"Guys, don't sleep, get up quickly!"
While Buck contacted the other teams, Zhou Yuan and Wild Boar started calling out to their teammates.
The situation wasn't as bad as they had imagined.
The teammates lying on the ground were only unconscious, and those in better condition woke up with just a few calls, while those in worse condition needed a bit more force to wake up. However, compared to the three teammates who didn't faint, the ones who did had worse spirits and remained in a dazed state even after waking up, as if they were still hungover.
On the other side, Buck also let out a sigh of relief. Teams Six to Ten had already found the ultrasonic unit, and many other teams had joined in for support. They had managed to repel the insect swarm and were currently sealing off the hive's exit.
Teams Two, Four, and Five were in a slightly worse situation. They had all felt inexplicable headaches earlier, and only four or five members from the three teams remained unaffected. However, the area where the bugs had been killed was now clear of any surprises.
"Let's move out and regroup with the other teams," Buck ordered.
After Zhou Yuan and Wild Boar woke up their teammates, Buck personally led the way forward. To prevent any possible recurrence of the headaches, he planned to consolidate the team's strength, thus avoiding any unexpected incidents.
... ...
Three minutes later, the four teams rendezvoused at a hive point. Although the teams had separated not long ago, the distance between them was not far, so they quickly located each other.
During these few minutes, everyone's condition had improved significantly, and they were no longer affected by the previous headaches. However, the team had completely lost track of the brain parasites.
"Tell me, what's the situation?" Buck asked as he tracked the brain parasite through another wormhole.
"Team Two made no progress. We encountered a collapse inside the wormhole, possibly caused by the giant beetle to cover the Insect General's retreat," one team leader reported.
"Team Four made no progress either. We were blocked by soldier bugs, but fortunately, our cables and rockets didn't fail. Otherwise, we would have been done for," another team leader added.
"Team Five also made no progress. We encountered the headaches shortly after entering the wormhole," the third team leader reported.
Each team leader gave their report one after another.
For them, that wave of headaches was like facing death itself. Fortunately, they encountered few insects afterwards, or else none of them would have survived.
"A collapse?"
"Jet, you lead the way and bypass the collapsed wormhole!" Buck immediately speculated after hearing the team leader's report.
He felt that Jet's suggestion made sense. The collapsed wormhole was most likely created by the insects to cover the mission target. By following that route, there might still be a chance to catch up to them.
Even if they couldn't catch up, it didn't matter. He had already transmitted the mission target's location earlier, and other teams would take care of the rest. Furthermore, the ground wormholes were almost all sealed off, so the mission target couldn't escape.
"Over here," Jet said, glancing at the combat device's records before leading the team forward.
"Well done, leaving no trace of the bodies," Zhou Yuan silently praised Laser Bird as he followed the team.
Host: Zhou Yuan
Identity: Federation Second Lieutenant, 18-year-old male enhanced human
Attributes: Strength 3, Speed 5.5, Jumping 2.5, Agility 2.5, Endurance 3, Defense 3, Self-healing 3, Technique 1.5, Brain Function 5.5
Skills: Rapid Memorization, Fast Learning, Telepathy
Equipment: Mini Plasma Spark Device, Heavy Atomic Flying Wing Suit, Infinite Bullet saw...
Title: Powerful Insecticide - Increases kill rewards by 20%, Speed +3
Soul Points:
Now, Zhou Yuan finally had time to check his personal panel.
"50!" he exclaimed with a smile upon seeing his Soul Points exceed 500,000. However, that was all there was to it. His appetite had grown considerably, and tens or hundreds of thousands of Soul Points only brought him temporary joy; it couldn't satisfy him.
Perhaps when he accumulated 800,000 Soul Points, he would feel satisfied and excited. Because of the "disastrous defeat" just now, he had already made up his mind.
He would choose genetic evolution fluid over mechs.
To strike iron, one must first be strong!