"At our current speed... it will probably take more than a month."
Hercules bit into a military ration, took a sip of water, exhaled deeply, and said in a low voice.
In truth, Hercules was being conservative. But he was also afraid that these Hunters would abandon the four of them in the vast forest, as they were indeed slowing down the march.
"Don't worry, we intentionally slowed down. After all, no one knows what's in the Dark Continent, so walking a bit slower also means being more cautious."
Natalie came to Gina's side, handed her a water bottle and a piece of dry ration, and offered comfort.
Excluding the thirty Avenger soldiers, and now adding Illumi's five-person team, the group totaled twenty-four people.
The primeval forest at night was exceptionally quiet. Aside from an occasional strange cry that brought a slight thrill to their hearts, there was nothing else.
"Bang bang bang bang..."
Late at night, the automatic weapons set up around the camp suddenly opened fire, but only for three seconds before ceasing. Nevertheless, they woke everyone up from their sleep.
"Is there anything unusual?"
Illumi stepped out of his tent and looked at Pride beside him. Pride was currently manipulating a small Harrier drone to investigate.
"Nothing, just a snake."
Pride handed the tablet to Illumi. Illumi looked at the screen and indeed saw a snake. It was just a black super giant python, 17.21 meters long.
At this moment, the giant python's body was covered with bowl-sized holes, all shot out by the autocannon. Especially its head; the entire skull was blasted open by the autocannon's bullets, splitting into two halves, left and right.
Other Hunters also came closer and glanced at the giant python on the screen. The Hunters were nonchalant, but Hercules and the other three, being ordinary people, shivered.
Such a large snake could swallow an adult whole.
"Let's go take a look."
Natalie, the biologist Hunter, took out a powerful flashlight from her backpack and walked towards where the giant python had died.
"Swish!"
When she crouched down in front of the giant python, its body suddenly convulsed, and its head, already split into two halves, violently lunged forward.
"Ah~!"
Natalie screamed in fright, crouching on the ground in a panic like an ordinary person. The red lights of the automatic weapons set up around the camp lit up, turning with a "click" and aiming at the giant python making the strange movement.
However, the giant python, which was about to pounce, paused its movement and slumped weakly to the ground.
"Click click."
The automatic weapons returned to their original positions, their red lights turning green, and the weapon system shut down.
"Natalie."
Beyond came to Natalie's side, crouched down, and patted her shoulder.
"Hoo~"
"You startled me. You actually didn't need to act."
Natalie's chest heaved as she exhaled deeply. She stood up, patted her backside, put on disposable gloves, moved aside the giant python's split head, and shone the powerful flashlight into its mouth.
The giant python's mouth was filled with curved sharp teeth, but unlike ordinary pythons, these teeth were blood-red, and not neatly arranged like those of common pythons. Some were particularly huge, and the number of teeth was several times that of ordinary pythons, filling its entire mouth.
"Did you find anything?"
Illumi came behind Natalie and asked in a low voice.
As he spoke, he glanced at Beyond. At that instant, he felt Beyond's aura fluctuate, clearly indicating that Beyond had acted, yet no traces were left at the scene, nor were there any new wounds on the python's body.
Illumi's expression was subtle. He still didn't know what Beyond's ability truly was.
That was the only time Beyond had acted since arriving at the Dark Continent, but whether he intentionally concealed it or if his ability itself was inherently undetectable, Illumi couldn't tell.
Natalie pulled out a dagger from her calf, poked around in the giant python's mouth, pushing aside some minced meat, and observed carefully.
"This giant python is like those flowers. Look at its teeth."
"They are arranged concentrically. Something unknown, or some kind of entity, is severely affecting the gene pool here."
Natalie tapped the sharp teeth in the giant python's mouth with her dagger, then took out an ampoule from her backpack, used the dagger to pick out a tooth and a small clump of flesh and blood, and placed them inside.
"Teeth like a shark's."
Shepherd, the marine Hunter, also crouched down, carefully observed the giant python's mouth, and commented.
"You guys, do you think this could be a hybrid species?"
A group of people gathered around Natalie and Shepherd. A胖子 (fat man) among them suddenly asked, causing Shepherd and Natalie, the two experts, to simultaneously turn and look up at him, wearing expressions as if they were looking at an illiterate person.
"You guys... why are you looking at me like that?"
The fat man swallowed, scratched the back of his head, his expression a little unnatural, seemingly realizing he had said something wrong.
"Different species cannot interbreed and reproduce offspring."
Shepherd said exasperatedly.
"To this day, snakes have maintained their species' complete independence in a relatively primitive way. Even though there are many types of wild snakes, different species of snakes generally do not interbreed, so there are simply no hybrid snake species."
Natalie, however, explained quite seriously, then shook her head, wiped the blood from her dagger, re-sheathed it, stood up, pushed aside the fat man blocking her way, and walked back to the camp.
"I was just asking a probing question, testing them."
The fat man looked at his companions around him who were giving him sympathetic glances, trying to explain his previous statement.
"But you asked the most ignorant question."
Sergio patted his shoulder, sighed, and shook his head as he walked towards the camp. The others also gave the fat man a sympathetic glance and successively turned away.
Seeing that no one believed him and his explanation was ineffective, the fat man could only awkwardly spread his arms.
"Tsk."
Listening to the chatter outside, Greed lay on his back in the open tent, with his hands behind his head, constantly shaking his crossed legs, his face full of disdain.
He was a Nen beast and didn't need to sleep. He was incredibly bored all night, wishing some monster would attack them during the night so he could let loose and vent.
But this was all that happened.
"Time's almost up. Pack up and get ready to leave."
Illumi checked the time. It was 3:10 AM. The sun would rise soon.
On the first night on the Dark Continent, Illumi had already noticed the difference between the Dark Continent and the human world.
On the Dark Continent, the sky was clear before 9 PM.
But after 9 PM, the sky instantly became pitch black, as if covered by a black cloth.
And in the morning, the sunrise could be seen before 4 AM.
The Dark Continent had long days and short nights.
At Illumi's command, the Avenger soldiers quickly packed up the automatic weapons set up around the camp, and simultaneously tidied up the tents of Illumi's five-person team.
"Ha~ Why is it getting light so fast?"
Among Beyond's team, Sergio shielded his forehead with his right hand, looked at the golden dawn rising in the sky, and yawned.
"Are you okay? Do your feet still hurt?"
Tessa helped Gina up and asked gently.
"I'm fine, I can do it."
After Gina nodded and took two steps, Tessa handed her the wooden crutch. Both shouldered their backpacks, ready to depart.
"3:23 AM. Let's go."
Once everyone had packed up, Illumi checked the time again, waved his hand, and had the Avenger soldiers lead the way, announcing their departure.
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