"Ah! A phantom weasel..."
Seeing the creature suddenly appear on the high-level bounty list of Twilight Town, everyone was stunned, and Colin's exclamation was quickly muffled by his brother.
About thirty meters in front of the team, a black and white small creature was crouching on two dry branches. It had small limbs, glossy fur, and emitting a faint glow from its eyes. The most eye-catching feature was its chubby little nose, extremely cute.
It is not very harmful, and there are no valuable parts on its body, except that its fur is extremely rare, the highest quality fur material, but this little creature is so rare that even the richest nobles cannot gather enough fur to make a high-end weasel fur coat. Its value lies in its keen sense of smell for precious materials and treasures, a living phantom weasel means endless riches, especially in the underdeveloped land of Twilight Town.
"Worth 1,000 task points! If we catch it, we'll have reached a third of our team's goal!" Davie whispered.
"Charlie, you're the fastest, leave it to you!" Colin said in a low voice.
Charlie nodded silently, signaling to Qingtong to assist with frost magic, then he slowly removed the weight on his body, ready to sprint.
Qingtong's hands began to be enveloped in faint frost energy, true to her water elemental affinity, the water elemental energy was unusually gentle and obedient in her hands, the coalescing process almost imperceptible.
Whoosh!
An ice arrow shot out, creating a slight sound of piercing the air.
In the blink of an eye.
The phantom weasel nimbly twisted and darted away, becoming a gray shadow, the burst of frost energy barely brushing its tail.
Charlie suddenly pushed off the ground with his feet, kicking up two piles of dirt, splattering Eileen.
The others only felt a gust of wind around them, and had just turned their heads when the person had already run off, taking a stride of nearly three meters, the effect of an instant-cast Lightness Spell.
So fast!
Qingtong was a few beats slower, chasing after him.
Colin shouted from behind, "Captain, you have to catch it! That's two months' worth of income!"
Davie warned, "Brother, don't get so excited, okay? Be a bit more low-key, the little thing isn't caught yet!"
Colin rubbed his hands together and chuckled, "After our team's tribulations, good luck will surely follow, this is an interesting life!"
Qingtong smiled cheerfully, "Why is our luck so good today? We can even find a big gift when it's time to wrap up!"
"I find it strange too! Clearing the wilderness task is done by teams almost every day, for us to get such good luck on the first day..."
As he was speaking, Davie's smile gradually froze, he seemed to sense something unusual.
He felt a slight breeze behind him, Davie inexplicably felt a violent heart palpitation, his hair standing on end, the icy blade of the Grim Reaper's scythe about to freeze his neck, it was almost an instinctive action as he dashed forward and pushed Qingtong aside.
The next moment, a dull serrated dagger pierced into Colin's left chest, the bloody tip poking out from the front of his shirt. The blade suddenly split into two halves, the steel tips twisting like snake heads, swallowing that drop of lifeblood essence. Colin's face instantly drained of color, turning deathly pale, his vitality seemingly s*ck*d away, his skin rapidly sagging and aging.
Then, a figure in a gray robe slowly emerged behind Colin.
An assassin! What kind of assassin is this!!
Davie felt terror, but a sense of grief also welled up in his heart, his own heart seemed to feel the coldness and sharpness of the blade, throbbing with excruciating pain, his whole body trembling involuntarily.
"Brother!" Davie let out a heart-wrenching wail.
This seemed to awaken Colin, the gray-robed figure drew out the dagger, about to strike the next immobilized person, but found itself being dragged by a tremendous force, as if hauling a mountain peak.
It was Colin!
At this moment, Colin was like a decaying old man, his sallow face, sagging skin, sparse hair, and skin covered in age spots, his bony hands grasping the robe of the assassin, some miraculous power keeping him from escaping!
"Run!" Colin let out a final hoarse scream, voice strained to the limit.
The gray-robed figure angrily grasped the serrated dagger and swung it forcefully, slicing open Colin's throat, the jagged blade tearing out a string of ragged flesh and blood, splattering all over it, but still unable to shake off this withered body.
Davie's eyes were blurred with tears, but he wavered, the intense emotions of rescue, retaliation, fear, and anger intertwined, making him unable to make the right judgment for the moment.
Eileen and Qingtong timidly but forcefully dragged Davie, running towards the direction Charlie and Qingtong had gone.
The gray-robed figure roared at their retreating figures, "You can't escape! All of Charlie's teammates have to die!"
Seeing the prey slipping away from his grasp, the gray-robed figure was furious, grabbing the serrated dagger with both hands, raising it high overhead and viciously stabbing down, directly penetrating Colin's skull. The blade violently stabbed up and down, opening a huge bloody hole in Colin's head, the shattered skull fragments and brain matter mixing into a red-and-white paste...
Colin was completely dead, collapsing limply, his shoulders still maintaining the posture of grasping backwards, stiffly propped on the ground, his death throes a gruesome sight.
Drenched in blood, the gray-robed figure seemed to have temporarily lost its ability to turn invisible, and did not dare to rashly give chase, too reliant on invisibility and the dagger, making its other qualities quite weak, otherwise it would not have been unable to break free from a mage.
"D*mn it!" The gray-robed figure angrily kicked Colin's body away.
Davie's face was deathly pale, being dragged forward by the two girls, from unconsciousness to gradually regaining his senses.
Clearly, this was a premeditated assassination plot, using the phantom weasel to lure away the two strongest members of the team, launching a sudden invisible attack, a fatal strike that was impossible to defend against!
Suddenly, in the depths of consciousness, one node of the soul link dimmed, the shared soul force of the team dissipating into the void, gradually fading away, a powerful psychic shock spreading to all nodes of the link network.
Like being struck by lightning!
The three simultaneously stumbled, falling to the ground, their vision turning black.
Davie fell face-first into the mud, heedless, his heart like ashes, he knelt on the spot, letting out a hysterical wail to the sky!
Within just a month, Davie had experienced the two greatest pains of his life.
On the other side, after Charlie chased out, the phantom weasel was exceptionally agile and swift, he exerted all his strength, only barely managing to keep up without being shaken off by the little beast, watching his stamina rapidly depleting, but unable to make further progress.
Charlie vaguely felt a groundless sense of unease, always feeling like he had overlooked something, but in the intense exercise, his brain could not remain calm, unable to grasp that strange feeling.
After circling nearly a kilometer in the dense forest, Charlie felt catching it was hopeless, about to give up, when he suddenly sensed intense emotional waves from the other end of the soul link.
Charlie hesitated and slowed down, about to carefully feel out this emotional wave, when a powerful psychic shock hit his brain, Charlie tumbled to the ground, rolling a few times to dissipate the strong momentum, his brain throbbing with pain, his mind a blank, the chip also entering an inexplicable shutdown state.
Whether it was the aftermath of the intense exercise, or the punishment effect of the Ally Pact, his body felt a strong sense of weakness, like recovering from a serious illness, leaving Charlie panting.
Then he realized the soul node representing Colin had gone out! He was shocked on the spot!!
"Display my personal attributes."
The chip responded as instructed, and Charlie was surprised to find a new "Soul Force" attribute on the personal attribute panel, with a value of 135. The chip indicated that with Colin's death, this value had decreased by 2 points.
Through the soul link, the chip could estimate that the others' soul force was generally around 23, the 2 points lost equating to an 8% data drop, Qingtong's being slightly higher at 39.
If the official members kept dying one after another, the soul force loss for the others besides Charlie would reach 30%, an unignorable number, especially for such innate and constant talent attributes.
After a while, the team gathered back at the site of Colin's death.
The bloody scene made the girls' eyes well up with tears, unable to bear the sight.
Colin had lost half his head, brains and blood splattered on the ground, his arm bent at an odd angle behind his back due to the reverse grip, his life force seemingly extracted, presenting an aged appearance, almost unrecognizable as a teenage boy. He had died in an extremely distorted manner, his expression agonized and enraged, passing away without peace.
Davie knelt on the ground, gently taking a blood-soaked necklace from under Colin's neck, carefully putting it on himself, the dark purple blood stains starkly standing out on his pale shirt. He bit his lip hard, the whole person trembling, his face flushed red, blood seeping out from the corners of his mouth.
Qingtong crouched down, unable to hold back her sobs.
Eileen choked out, "It was Big Brother Colin who saved us, if he hadn't grabbed that person, we'd all be dead! That person appeared too suddenly!!"
Qingtong clasped her hands in front of her, lowering her head in silent prayer, "If there are those in the future world who lack food and clothing, who beg for fulfillment of their wishes, or suffer from many illnesses and calamities, whose homes are unsettled, whose families are scattered, or who encounter various adverse events, often disturbing their bodies, frightening them in their dreams. For such people, upon hearing the name of Dizang, seeing his form, with utmost reverence and reciting his name a million times, may all their unwanted matters gradually disappear, and they attain peace and abundance. Even in their dreams, may they all be at ease..."