No, it should be a head, Captain Olsen's head. His body below the neck was long gone, leaving only a spine still connected to his head. His bloodshot eyes still held the disbelief he felt before death.
"The army's commander is dead. The Kakin Empire's investigation team is finished."
"But it seems something else has emerged."
Pride maneuvered his Nen Beast next to Illumi, looking down at the head with the spine attached on the ground, then turned to look at the massive, bottomless circular cave beside them, which resembled an abyss.
"Cave top diameter 110.05m, depth unknown."
In Illumi's neural interface helmet display, data continuously changed, instantly calculating the size of the cave, but its depth could not be calculated. Based on the damage to the surrounding ground, the unknown monster's length was probably an astonishing thousand meters, no smaller than the Island Turtle they encountered in the Dark Continent's sea.
"The tree-men have disappeared."
Pride stood on the back of the giant fox Nen Beast, looking around. Except for a few tree-men killed by human conventional weapons, the rest of the tree-men had mysteriously vanished.
"Splash splash..."
The gale raged even more fiercely, and the rain grew heavier, slowing the spread of the fire, which was also gradually weakening.
"It's better to confirm it in person. The army might have lured the tree-men and that unknown monster towards the bay during their retreat."
Illumi made a judgment, then controlled the black giant wolf beneath him to step forward, charging at full speed towards the bay.
"I don't believe the army could escape to the bay with those tree-men monsters and that unknown monster pursuing them."
Pride controlled his Nen Beast to follow, voicing his thoughts to Illumi. But Illumi no longer responded, merely controlling his Nen Beast to run forward.
They moved in a straight line towards the bay, encountering some human corpses and the giant caves from before along the way. Illumi kept his emotion sensing active throughout, but he didn't detect any emotional aura.
The giant Nen Beasts advanced very quickly. A distance that would have taken them over six hours to walk was covered in less than five minutes by the giant beasts, which disregarded all obstacles and charged in a straight line.
"Thump... thump..."
The two giant Nen Beasts took heavy steps onto the bay's sandy beach. Illumi looked at the bay before him, his expression grim.
Only, the bay that once moored the Limit Breaker cruise ship was now empty. Except for a profound circular cave with a diameter of over a hundred meters and an unfathomable depth.
The gatekeeper was nowhere to be found. He could have been swallowed along with the cruise ship by the unknown monster, but it was more likely that he had foreseen the danger and escaped beforehand.
"Splash splash..."
Inside the bay, a massive amount of seawater continuously poured into the deep cave on the beach, like a flood discharge tunnel from his previous life. However, even the largest flood discharge tunnel in his previous life would only be one-fifth the size of this "flood discharge tunnel."
"Let's go back." Illumi's expression returned to normal. Although the ship was destroyed, it didn't mean they had no way to return to the human world. It would just be much more difficult.
Illumi and Pride controlled their giant Nen Beasts and set off back into the forest, speeding along, ignoring all obstacles and the fire.
"Wait..."
Suddenly, Illumi spoke. The two giant Nen Beasts abruptly halted, stopping in the forest.
Illumi turned to look at a large rock in the forest. Pride followed his gaze. Both of them could clearly sense the aura behind that large rock.
"Rare. Four people survived."
Illumi and Pride controlled their giant Nen Beasts to slowly approach the large rock.
"Phew... phew... Don't make a sound."
Behind the large rock, Heracles and three experts dressed in jungle explorer attire huddled in the shadows. They looked tense, breathing rapidly, their chests heaving quickly, clearly having just run intensely.
"Thump... thump..."
Feeling the vibrations from the ground and the heavy footsteps from behind the large rock, the four clutched their rifles. Although it was useless, at least it offered some comfort.
"Come out, the monsters are all dead."
Just as their nerves were stretched to the limit, a steady, calm voice rang out, startling the four.
"Ah~!"
Heracles was the first to emerge from behind the large rock. The first thing he saw was the grotesque black giant wolf and the bloodthirsty fox Nen Beast, which scared him so much he slipped and fell to the ground with a cry.
The other three, startled by Heracles' reaction, directly stood out and pulled their triggers.
"Tat tat tat..."
One man and two women, clutching assault rifles, fired at the two giant Nen Beasts, sparks flying from their muzzles. The bullets striking the Nen Beasts produced a "ding-dong" sound of metal clashing, but had no effect other than a few sparks.
"How, how could this be..."
After emptying an entire magazine, the three experts holding rifles looked at the unharmed Nen Beasts, their hearts filled with despair.
"Stop, they're our own people."
Heracles only regained his senses after the three had emptied their magazines. He then saw Illumi and Pride standing on the backs of the giant Nen Beasts.
"Mr. Illumi!"
Heracles looked as if he had seen a savior, hope blossoming in his eyes, and he asked urgently.
"Did you kill all those monsters? What about Mr. Beyond and the others? Did you encounter any other experts? And Captain Olsen, we got separated during the retreat."
Illumi remained expressionless. Faced with Heracles' barrage of questions, he gave no response and showed no displeasure at the trio's attack.
"You have too many questions. Go confirm it yourself."
Illumi didn't want to say more, nor did he want to answer them one by one. Countless black threads shot out from his Nen Beast with a "whoosh whoosh," wrapping around the four's waists, and securing them onto the Nen Beast's back.
"The only thing I'm certain of is that out of the thousand-man investigation team, only the four of you are left."
Illumi finished speaking. Before the four could respond, the black giant wolf "boom" transformed into a streak of black light and darted through the forest. Pride and his Nen Beast followed closely.
Six minutes later, Illumi and Pride caught up with Jin Bradley and Beyond and their group, who were already on their way.
"Are these the only four survivors?"
Beyond looked at the two men and two women Illumi had released from the back of the giant Nen Beast, his brows slightly furrowed. This had just begun, and the Kakin Empire's thousand-man investigation team was already completely wiped out.
Dark Continent...
"Mr. Beyond."
At this moment, Heracles was covered in blood and dirt, looking utterly disheveled, completely lacking his former confident demeanor.
"What happened to them?"
Heracles pointed to the three hunters who were being carried by their own men behind Beyond, asking with a worried expression.
"Them? They're just unconscious because of the pollen. They'll wake up after a while."
Beyond casually glanced at them. The three unconscious individuals were the weaker ones among the fifteen-person hunter team. Their strengths weren't in combat or physical prowess, but in other areas.
"How is it? Are all those monsters dead?" Beyond looked at Illumi and Pride, who were standing on the back of the giant wolf, and asked with a frown.
"They're all dead, but it wasn't us who killed them. It was some kind of unknown, giant monster."
Illumi leaped off the Nen Beast's back. The black giant wolf transformed into countless black threads and dissipated into the air. Pride and his Nen Beast did the same.
Based on their一路来的推测, that gigantic unknown monster likely specialized in targeting large creatures, regardless of whether they were living beings.
"A gigantic unknown monster? How big?"
"Conservatively estimated, over a thousand meters in length."
Beyond frowned again. He had initially thought the swarms of tree-men were already troublesome enough, but he never expected to hear about an even more absurdly sized creature from Illumi, just like the Island Turtle they encountered in the Dark Continent's sea.
"Um, the unknown monster you mentioned, is it the one that burrowed out of the ground...?"
"You saw it?"
Illumi and Beyond's group's gazes immediately focused on the speaker. The person was a thirty-year-old man wearing glasses, belonging to the youngest batch among the fifty-person expert team.
"Who are you?" Beyond asked. The man with glasses breathed a sigh of relief. Everyone's gaze on him had just now drastically increased his pressure.
"I am Isaac Rodriguez, a geomorphologist. My mission here is primarily to survey the magnetic field strength and topographical features of the Dark Continent."
"The gigantic unknown monster you mentioned earlier should be the same one I saw."
"At that time, all five of the air brigade's helicopters crashed one by one, and the army was also being slaughtered by the tree-men monsters. That monster suddenly appeared from underground and swallowed the tree-men monsters, who were rampaging and slaughtering the army soldiers, one by one."
"My hypothesis is that this monster is an invertebrate from the phylum Annelida capable of subterranean movement within rock strata, only its size is simply too immense."
As Isaac spoke, his arm trembled as he pushed up his glasses, clearly indicating that he had been greatly frightened by that monster.
"However, it's also thanks to it that we managed to survive."
Another expert spoke up. At that time, they were already being slaughtered by the tree-men monsters. If that unknown monster hadn't suddenly appeared, perhaps all four of them would have died.
"But it's also thanks to it that our ship is gone."
But at this moment, Illumi suddenly spoke a sentence that made everyone's faces change drastically.
"The ship is gone? What do you mean!?"
Sergio's face was grim. Illumi glanced at him, his voice cold.
"You only need to know that the means of transportation back to the human world are gone. For the rest of the exploration, you all should decide whether to continue or retreat."
Illumi finished speaking. Without waiting for their response, he directly ordered the Avengers unit to continue deeper into the Dark Continent, leaving Beyond's group and the four Heracles standing there, looking at each other in dismay.
Illumi didn't care what decision they made. He was going to the Hell's Swamp to find long-life food to bring back to the company for research, hoping to uncover its secrets.
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