Chapter 129: Why Are You Taking Off Your Clothes?

"Go for it, husband!" Li Xiaoli cheered excitedly.

"What plan could you possibly have? We've tried every trick in the book, and that thing is just too alert." Qiu Ding looked toward the far side of the lake.

The rotor-dragonfly spread its six legs wide, its pair of terrifying compound eyes scanning everything like searchlights. Qiu Ding was stating a hard truth; the rotor-dragonfly had excellent vision, and its compound eyes had virtually no blind spots or absolute dead zones.

"Don't worry about it. You just wait here for me!"

"Wait here? What exactly are you up to?" Although he was timid, the situation had reached a breaking point. If they couldn't retrieve the aircraft, no one would survive long in the city, so he was relieved to hear Lu Shangbai had a plan. Still, Lu's current behavior puzzled him.

"Why are you taking your clothes off?"

"A clever man has his own secret methods."

Lu Shangbai closed his laptop and pointed to the black oil floating on the surface of the lake. It was fluid that the rotor-dragonfly had leaked while laying its eggs. Unlike ordinary machine oil, it carried a pungent, fishy stench and a viscous texture.

"Actually, that’s the rotor-dragonfly’s bodily fluid. As long as I coat myself in a layer of it, I can mask my own scent."

*Clap, clap, clap.*

Li Xiaoli applauded gently, impressed by her husband's ingenuity. "But I still feel like you’re just bluffing."

"Not this time, I promise."

Qiu Ding hesitated slightly. "Even if you have no scent, it can still see you."

"I’m going to swim underwater."

Lu Shangbai dropped these words, ignored whatever else the two were saying, and slipped quietly into the water, hidden by a pile of jagged rocks.

High above, in the "Hunter" individual aircraft, Ji Cheng still occupied the most spacious seat, though the cabin behind him had become quite crowded.

"Centipede’s mistress, Liu Fangjian’s wife and child, Qiu Ding’s... they’re all here, right?" Ji Cheng’s fingers swiped across a holographic screen as he muttered to himself. The atmosphere behind him was bizarre.

"Sir... I have to explain, I am not his mistress, I am his secretary," a woman in uniform said, her face flushing bright red.

"Oh, my apologies, my eyes must be playing tricks on me." Ji Cheng apologized and quickly swiped away the file on Centipede.

However, An Chan, who was sitting on his lap, had clearly seen the text: *Zhao Tian, female, 25, mistress.*

*That kid Centipede sure plays a wild game,* Ji Cheng thought, closing the screen and taking a sip of water. "Everyone seems to be accounted for. Brother Lu should have picked up his own family long ago." He stroked An Chan’s hair and looked at Xia娜 in the front. "Task accomplished. Let’s head to the Silver Zone."

"Understood... Wait, the biological detection device just identified someone swimming in the lake below. And it’s an acquaintance of yours."

"Oh? Who is it? Let me see."

*Beep—*

With a crisp, long chime, the virtual reality system activated. The cabin walls instantly turned translucent, offering a panoramic view. Through the morning sunlight and the magnification of the virtual reality system, everyone in the cabin saw a man in his thirties, wearing only his underwear and slathered in black oil, swimming desperately through the lake.

What on earth was he doing?

...

"I can't rely on Brother Ji for everything. I have to complete this mission successfully this time!"

Lu Shangbai held his breath, relying on the powerful lungs of an ability user, swimming rapidly like a frog that had been shocked by electricity. Though his form was far from standard, the explosive power in his legs pushed his speed over ten meters per second, creating countless dense bubbles that rose to the surface and popped with soft *bloop* sounds.

"If I can reach the shore, I can use those rocks to hide and then, when the chance arises..."

As he thought this, Lu Shangbai noticed the water, which had been clear enough, suddenly turn turbid. He saw turbulent yellow particles in the water, rapidly connecting into lines and sheets. Amidst a rustling, falling sound, the surroundings were filled with a vortex of these particles. His vision darkened at an alarming rate.

*Woooo—*

Just then, a piercing alarm sounded, like a helicopter’s siren. What was happening?

*Boom!*

The water surface suddenly exploded, and a tri-edged armor-piercing projectile, shimmering with an eerie blue light, shot within three meters of him in the blink of an eye! The projectile’s nose cone was tri-edged, making wind resistance negligible as it spun through the air. It gave him no time to react or dodge. Furthermore, being submerged in water made his movements much slower than they would have been on land.

"It’s over, I’m done for!"

As a Tier 1 ability user, taking a direct hit from an armor-piercing round would at least leave him half-dead, but the most terrifying part was that the rotor-dragonfly must have spotted him. His mind went blank. After what felt like only a fraction of a second, he saw the chilling, cold-glinting projectile whiz past him.

*Bang.*

The tri-edged projectile left a spiraling water vortex in its wake, plunging headlong into the deep lakebed and piercing it with ease.

A cloud of blood mist billowed out as a long strip of flesh was ripped from Lu Shangbai’s arm. Having survived an ambush he didn't expect to walk away from, he was stunned for a moment. Logically, the rotor-dragonfly's accuracy should have been much higher.

*Rumble!*

Even louder explosions erupted on the shore. He had no time to ponder; he immediately reacted by rolling up the sleeve of his underwear to press against the wound, preventing his blood from dispersing in the water and revealing his position. He then dove deeper into the lake.

Like a nimble frog, Lu Shangbai kicked hard and swam behind a car that had overturned in the lake. The car hadn't been there originally; it had been tossed in by the monster above. The proof was a jagged, irregular hole punched through the fuel tank cover on the left side. In the dim, murky water, he could still see oil seeping from the hole.

If the air-dropped canisters floating on the lake, wrapped in protein membranes, were the rotor-dragonfly’s eggs, then this car with its punctured fuel tank was the food it had prepared for its larvae. Of course, those eggs would never hatch; it was all just the wishful thinking of the rotor-dragonfly acting as a mother.

"According to dragonfly instinct, it shouldn't come into the water to catch me, right?" Lu Shangbai trembled slightly.

On the leading edge of every dragonfly wing is a thickened, dark cuticle called the pterostigma. If the pterostigma gets wet, it doesn't necessarily make them lose the ability to fly, but it affects the balance of the wing's vibration, making their flight path erratic and unsteady.

"The data says that once dragonflies reach adulthood, they grow to detest entering the water, and it’s highly likely the rotor-dragonfly has retained this instinct." It was precisely because he knew this that Lu Shangbai dared to swim across.

He held his breath at the bottom of the lake and peered carefully toward the shore, but the water had been stirred up too much; he could only hear the thunderous noise, seeing nothing else.

In the classification of mutated animals, the levels correspond to Tier 3, Tier 2, and Tier 1 ability users respectively. The rotor-dragonfly above was clearly a Tier 2 creature. With his current strength, even knowing how to counter it, he dared not face it head-on and could only resort to these stealthy tactics.

*Boom—Boom!*

Even louder sounds erupted from the shore, faintly accompanied by the buzzing of the rotor-dragonfly.

"Why does it sound like it’s... screaming?" Lu Shangbai’s heart raced, utterly confused.