Chapter 2051: Chapter 684: Squeaky, It’s Me Again—Surprised?

“We’ll help out, don’t worry.”

Meow Brother waved his hand, glanced at Old Qu behind him, and then said:

“Of course, Brother Qu from our team will also compete with Lady Shui. When the time comes, let’s set up our formations and have a fair fight. No sneaky tactics, okay?”

“Look at the way you’re talking…”

Lumina snorted and said:

“We don’t resort to shady ways.”

“Boom”

A loud crash erupted outside the cave, making the veteran players rush out in alarm.

They thought they were under attack; the monsters in this chaotic zone of the Dark Mountain Range were pretty tough.

It turned out that the newbies who received “compensation equipment” had somehow provoked a bunch of Sickle Claw Monsters. Those ugly creatures, resembling giant praying mantises, were attacking them, but the newbies were fearless, using firearms and explosives to handle these brainless, frenzied fools.

“Where did these Sickle Claw Monsters come from?”

The professional Druid “Explosive Belly” leaned on a thorny wood wand, summoned vines to trap the monsters, but didn’t engage in battle, instead saying in surprise:

“I recall the forums saying these creatures only live in crevassed valleys or dark natural caves, but this is a plain! This isn’t their habitat.”

“Maybe the system glitched? Spawned them in the wrong place?”

Old Qu grinned, pulled out his precise hunting gun, and joined the battle.

With the help of the veteran players, the group of Sickle Claw Monsters was quickly cleared out. Some eager small players planned to follow the path where the monsters came out, hoping to discover a monster’s nest and find some rare equipment.

This suggestion got a lot of approvals, so under the lead of the brothers Tata Open and one Self-touch Tata Open, a dozen players went looking for the nest.

A few minutes later, an astonishing message was relayed back.

“There’s a hole below! Right next to this cave in the valley, there’s a massive hole! The Sickle Claw Monsters came from there! Wow, brothers, come take a look! This hole is very straight and large! It seems dug out, interconnected front to back, no idea where it leads.”

The news brought by Tata Open instantly drew everyone’s attention, prompting Lady Natalie and Lady Veylanther to go and have a look, but Meow Brother’s face turned grim upon seeing the broken hole.

“It’s the Ratmen!”

Little Wei Ming flapped his wings and quickly descended, after some investigation, he flew back to report:

“It looks exactly like the tunnel we crawled through to rescue the Blood Fear Pirates! And it’s even bigger, like an underground tunnel! But why are Ratmen here? Didn’t we destroy all their nests?”

“How could there be only one nest?”

Lady Shui shook her head and said:

“Ratmen are clearly a species that uses numbers for swarm tactics. With their breeding speed, I would guess the entire Dark Mountain Range is now full of Ratmen traces. But you must admit, this tunnel is impressively straight; clearly, it’s the work of a skilled hand.”

She and Brother Huozi ventured into the passage like explorers, looking at the ring-shaped tunnel about ten meters wide, with darkness both ahead and behind, clueless about its destination.

“Hey, don’t you think these direct tunnels constructed by Ratmen resemble a ‘subway’ system under the Dark Mountain Range?”

Three Five Battles jumped in place, laughing, he said:

“Maybe when the full map of the Dark Mountain Range is opened, we’ll have to use these Ratmen tunnels for quick travel. Look at how wide and tall this place is, you could ride a horse here. But where does this thing lead? Any experts here to give an analysis of the direction?”

“Is that even necessary?”

Little Brother Fu, there just to unwind, casually took out what appeared to be a very expensive Half-body Man compass, and after a few glances in hand, he said:

“Forward is approximately at the Blackflame Mountain Pass direction, backward I’m not quite… Damn! This tunnel goes straight to Blackflame Mountain Pass! Crap! Something’s happened! Do you remember? Back when we were fighting Ratmen, those Blood Covenant knights mentioned Ratmen wouldn’t be detected by the Earth Priest while digging tunnels!

Shit!

This is definitely a collaboration between Wolf People and Ratmen!

Hurry!

Warn Blackflame Mountain Pass, they’re in deep trouble there!”

“Too late.”

Meow Brother crouched to inspect a piece of soil, falling silent, he said:

“This tunnel wasn’t dug recently! The soil is dry; damn it! We’ve been played by the Wolf People and Gnolls! All their recent activities have been to cover up the Ratmen’s digging underground! Whatever those Ratmen plan to dig towards, at their speed, it must be nearly finished.

We…

We’ll charge through this tunnel and strike them from behind!

If it’s a straight line, it’ll only take about two hours from here to rush back to Blackflame Mountain Pass!

Quick!

Brothers, mount up, charge along the tunnel! And send an alert to that area! Blackflame Mountain Pass needs us.”

“Oh no, Meow Brother, the Calculating Pearl doesn’t work now! Sending messages there prompts ‘complex spiritual energy environment,’ communication’s down!”

“Must be the Wolf People’s trickery! Post on the forums! Anyone with contacts should log off and call! Damn it! We just came out for a spin, and suddenly the Blackflame Mountain Pass storyline progressed to this stage!”