Ye Qi quickly understood and asked, "Do you want to experiment with the effects of various attack cards on Infected?"
Yu Hanjiang nodded: "That's right. If we understand the card effects, we won't be caught off guard when we encounter Infected cards in the future."
Liu Qiao asked earnestly, "Can I try copying an Infected version?"
Everyone: "..."
This girl is incredibly audacious! She cloned a shark at sea back then, and now she wants to clone the Zerg?!
Xiao Lou immediately stopped her: "This is too dangerous, don't try it. Don't forget that your Twin card completely copies the other party. If you copy an Infected now, your brain will also be in a state of being invaded by the Zerg, and you might lose consciousness and attack us."
Ye Qi hurriedly said, "That's right, Liu Qiao, don't scare me. I don't want to think of a bunch of bugs whenever I see you in the future!"
Liu Qiao had no choice but to abandon that thought and said, " Professor Xiao is right. Don't worry, I will inform you before I copy any person or animal, and I won't do anything reckless."
The teammates all breathed a sigh of relief.
Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang: "The Zerg parasites reside in the head, so could their weakness also be the head?"
Yu Hanjiang thought so too, so he simply took out the card [G-Lock Type 17] from the card holder and quickly activated it—
This was a finely crafted pistol with a 17-round capacity. Yu Hanjiang aimed it at the Infected, who was being continuously controlled by Ye Qi and Long Sen, and calmly pulled the trigger.
A gunshot rang out, and the Infected head instantly...
The room was blown up!
Infected, whose head had been blown off, quickly collapsed to the ground.
Xiao Lou had witnessed Yu Hanjiang's marksmanship firsthand. Back in the hospital, from so far away, Yu Hanjiang sniped Xu Rongrong, who was attacking him, from the opposite building. The way the man held the gun was incredibly cool, and his teammates couldn't help but cheer for him.
However, before everyone could even marvel at Captain Yu's marksmanship, countless spider-like insectoids suddenly crawled out of the shattered head of the Infected who was lying on the ground and already "dead." Another Infected took the initiative to come over and help, placing his hand on his companion's head. The insectoids then entered the other Infected's body at an extremely fast speed!
Everyone: "......"
This bizarre scene caused the teammates' expressions to change, and even the usually calm Xiao Lou couldn't help but turn pale.
Ye Qi screamed inwardly, "I want to go back to the main city! Ahhh, this world is too scary!"
Liu Qiao thought to herself, "Thank goodness I didn't copy an Infected to study it. My mind is filled with spider-like things, it's disgusting!"
Fortunately, they conducted an experiment and did not attack these Infected indiscriminately. Now it seems that the most difficult thing about Infected is not only their intelligence and agility, but also that they are difficult to kill completely!
Xiao Lou took a deep breath, her face pale.
Seeing that disgusting scene, the teammates were clearly upset and barely managed to hold back their vomiting.
If anyone in the team had trypophobia, they might have already fainted by now...
I must keep my composure, otherwise everyone's emotions will quickly collapse.
Xiao Lou clenched his fist and said as calmly as possible, "The Zerg cannot be killed in this way. Attacking the Infected's head only kills their temporary shell; their main body is not killed by the bullet."
Yu Hanjiang nodded with a stern face: "The bullet's attack range is limited, and there are so many insects, it's impossible to kill them all."
Xiao Lou, suppressing his nausea, continued his analysis: "Judging from the results just now, after killing an Infected, other Infecteds will come to pick up their companions, and the Zerg inside the deceased will quickly seek out nearby Infecteds to symbioticate with... It feels like 1+1 has been upgraded?"
Ye Qi pointed into the distance, his voice trembling slightly: "It really has been upgraded! Look, the Infected that was symbiotic has become faster!"
Everyone followed Ye Qi's gaze—
This was a middle-aged woman in work clothes. Just now, when everyone passed the vegetable section, she was helping customers weigh fruit and even smiled at them. Now, having been symbiotically linked with her companions, the number of Zerg parasites on her body instantly doubled, significantly boosting her combat power.
Her eyes seemed to be completely stained red with blood as she glared fiercely at Xiao Lou and the others inside the circle. She nimbly scrambled around the circle, attacking the barrier with her claws as she went, seemingly searching for a way to break through the transparent barrier.
While the Infected that were crawling earlier moved quickly, their speed was comparable to that of most humans fleeing for their lives. However, this upgraded Infected moved at a speed comparable to an Olympic sprint champion, circling everyone in just a few seconds—almost too fast for the naked eye to follow, like a fleeting shadow!
The expressions on everyone's faces grew increasingly grim.
Even Yu Hanjiang fell silent.
Xiao Lou said helplessly, "If we continue to attack Infected, causing the Zerg inside them to seek symbiosis with their own kind, then... we will unknowingly breed a Boss Zerg that is fast-moving and extremely powerful."
The captain of Luoying Pavilion is right; the Zerg usually have a boss like a Queen Zergling.
At the time, everyone thought that the mother insect was a character that already existed in that world, just like the Zombie Leader in Spade 2 and the old lady Qin in Spade 4. It was a common trope for the Spade Secret Room to have a hidden boss.
But no one expected this...
The boss of this escape room might be personally trained by the Challengers.
There are countless Challenger teams in the secret room of Spade 8. Xiao Lou's team is considered to be very calm. Yu Hanjiang just used the invincibility time of Compass and did not attack rashly, but instead probed the unknown Zerg.
The conclusion reached is chilling!
If other Challengers don't probe and instead just blow the heads off these Infected like zombies, the Zerg symbiotes inside the slain Infected will symbiotically inhabit the bodies of other Infected.
The more Infected you kill, the stronger the upgraded Infected you become after symbiosis!
There were 50 Infected in the supermarket. They only killed one, and the upgraded Infected's speed increased so much. If they killed 10, the Zerg inside those 10 Infected would all gather together, forming an upgraded version that would be lightning fast, even Ye Qi's musical instrument couldn't control it, and Yu Hanjiang's bullets wouldn't be able to hit it!
If hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of Infected in this city are killed... the resulting Boss is simply unimaginable!
After a few seconds of silence, Yu Hanjiang calmly said, "Don't be too discouraged. When you kill an Infected, the Zerg inside it will symbiotically inhabit other Infecteds. Knowing this feature sooner will only benefit us."
Everyone nodded, their faces pale.
Knowing the characteristics of the Zerg is definitely beneficial; at least this mistake won't be repeated. Luckily, Yu Hanjiang was calm enough not to use his submachine gun to mow them down, but only killed one to test the waters. If he had used his submachine gun to wipe out a whole group, he would have unwittingly created a formidable boss!
Yu Hanjiang frowned and said, "Smashing their heads off is perfectly feasible."
"That won't work, but the Zerg can't be without weaknesses. If we can't kill them, we can't complete Spade 8. There must be a way to eliminate them." He looked at Xiao Lou and said, "Release the Zombie Leader and see if we can infect these Zerg with the Zombie Virus."
Xiao Lou nodded and summoned the Zombie Leader.
Following Xiao Lou's instructions, Zombie Leader quickly summoned four small zombies to fight Infected on the outer edge!
Everyone looked at the scene with complicated expressions.
Ye Qi muttered to himself, "Zombie vs. Zerg, I think the zombies might lose..."
You can't blame him for jinxing it, after all, the zombies originated in Spade 2, and now it's Spade 8. If the Zombie Leader can easily wipe out the Zerg, then this secret room wouldn't be an A-level difficulty level.
As expected, Zombie Leader's zombie army couldn't even touch Infected's clothes...
Zombies are too clumsy.
Compared to the agile and intelligent Zerg, these zombies are too slow. Not only can they not attack the Zerg, but they are also bitten by Zerg parasites within seconds—and parasitized by the Zerg themselves!
However, the zombies' brains didn't seem to be suitable for the Zerg to survive. The four low-level zombies summoned by the Zombie Leader collapsed instantly after being bitten, dying just like the humans in the Second Hospital who were not suited to the Zerg.
Xiao Lou's expression changed, and he recalled the Zombie Leader without hesitation: "This method won't work either! The Zerg can parasitize. If they parasitize the Zombie Leader and turn it into a parasite as well, then we're doomed. We won't be able to deal with an upgraded version of the Zombie Bug Boss!"
Although the Zombie Leader's attack power is significantly stronger than the summoned novice zombies, facing so many Zerg, Xiao Lou might end up being parasitized himself before he can infect them with the Zombie Virus. He dared not take that risk.
What if the Zombie Leader is also parasitized and turns around to attack them... Zombies + Zerg, they're practically committing suicide!
Seeing this, Yu Hanjiang frowned even more deeply. He said in a deep voice, "It seems that the Spade Secret Room has a strict hierarchy. The Zerg are much more advanced than the zombies. Therefore, the Zerg can parasitize the zombies and eliminate them, but the zombies will not affect the Zerg in return. The Zombie Leader is fine dealing with normal humans, but dealing with the Zerg is too risky."
That makes sense. If the Zombie Leader can deal with the Zerg, and he, the zombie mini-boss, can directly infect the Zerg, wouldn't the secret room in Spade 8 become an enlarged version of Zombie Town?
Everyone has experience fighting zombies. I played Spade 2 solo and wasn't afraid of zombies at all.
Xiao Lou summarized: "The unknown insectoids encountered in this escape room should be based on alien insectoids from science fiction. They have extremely high intelligence and survival ability. They are intelligent, highly flexible, and can even learn to speak like humans to disguise their identities. Moreover, after Infected is killed, it immediately seeks symbiosis to upgrade the insectoids... To pass the escape room, we must find a way to completely eliminate the insectoids."
Ye Qi's face was almost scrunched up like a bun: "Killing the Infected doesn't work, and the virus is ineffective against them. Currently, only control skills are effective, but if there are too many Zerg, our control skills won't be enough!"
Controlling the Zerg and escaping together is indeed an effective strategy. But at this moment, the group doesn't want to run—because this is a rare opportunity to learn about the Zerg's true nature.
Xiao Lou is right; a way to completely eliminate the Zerg must be found. Under the protection of Xiao Lou's invincible Compass circle, Ye Qi and Long Sen can continuously control these dozens of Infected in the supermarket, putting them to sleep or stunning them, or Xiao Lou can simply unleash Bai Juyi's ultimate ability to create chaos. At least all eight of them will be safe.
They must hurry up and figure out how to deal with the Zerg!
While everyone remained silent and pondered deeply...
A gust of cold air blew in, and Xiao Lou suddenly sneezed several times from the cold.
Everyone turned to look at him. Ye Qi, his face pale, said, " Professor Xiao, you didn't catch a cold, did you? Are people with colds more susceptible to parasites, or is a cold a precursor to parasite infection? Don't scare me..."
Xiao Lou rubbed his nose and said, "It's just too cold, my body is reflexively sneezing."
Yu Hanjiang turned to Ye Qi: "Don't overthink it. I was with Xiao Lou the whole time the hospital discovered the Infected. And during the meeting, the other Infected attacked Xiao Lou, which means that the Infected don't recognize Xiao Lou as one of them. He wasn't infected."
Xiao Lou joked, "That's right, if I get infected, I'll bite you in the square."
Ye Qi immediately breathed a sigh of relief: "That scared me to death... I think we should go and buy some cold medicine as soon as we leave the supermarket. If we catch a cold, we should take the medicine to get better so that we won't be mistaken for parasites."
medicine?
Upon hearing this word, Ye Qi's eyes suddenly lit up: "That's right, medicine! Aren't these Zerg? Should we buy some insecticide? Would that work? Insecticide kills bugs, right?"
Everyone: "..."
Ever since Spade 3 pretended to be a garbage collector, Xiao Lou has found this kid's thought process to be quite novel—using insecticide to eliminate alien insects, how did he even come up with that idea!
Xiao Lou said, "You can try it; insecticides are sold in supermarkets."
Ye Qi said excitedly, "I remember it's in the daily necessities section. I'll open my teleportation card and grab a few bottles to try."
Yu Hanjiang stopped him, saying, "Once you leave this circle, you'll be immediately surrounded by Infected."
He looked at Liu Qiao: " Give me the Lightness Skill Card."
Liu Qiao immediately handed [ Light as a Swallow ] to Yu Hanjiang. The man leaped lightly onto the shelf, then pulled out [ white silk card ]. A white cloth swiftly extended, instantly sweeping up a bottle from a distant shelf.
He pulled the insecticide to his side and held it firmly in his hand.
Ye Qi: "...Amazing!"
He had completely forgotten that Captain Yu had this card. It was much safer to roll the insecticide over from a distance than to run and get it himself.
Yu Hanjiang handed the insecticide to Ye Qi: "Try it."
This method was proposed by Ye Qi, so naturally Ye Qi himself should try it.
The insecticides sold in supermarkets are usually household sprays. Ye Qi excitedly picked up the insecticide, aimed it at an infected person, and started spraying, covering the person's entire body.
Infected: "???"
Infected, who had been sprayed in the face with the spray, looked at Ye Qi with a puzzled expression, and then bared his teeth at Ye Qi.
Ye Qi: "......"
Teammates: "..."
I knew Ye Qi's idea was unreliable.
Xiao Lou asked, both amused and exasperated, "Xiao Ye, have you ever bought insecticide?"
Ye Qi: "...Never bought it."
Xiao Lou explained, "The insecticides sold in supermarkets are generally for killing mosquitoes and flies. And there are many kinds of insecticides, such as those for cockroaches and rats, each with a different formula. The insects of the Spade 8 world are not the common insects on Earth, but rather a strange kind of 'parasite.' When encountering parasites, experts have to spend a long time developing effective drugs. If insecticides were effective against parasites, then patients with lung fluke disease or echinococcosis could simply take insecticides directly, without all that trouble."
Upon hearing this, Ye Qi blushed deeply and lowered his head, saying, "Oh, insecticides are for mosquitoes, flies, and cockroaches... I didn't think of that. Cough, I thought insecticides could be used on insects... I'm sorry."
Everyone was trying not to laugh—this wasn't the first time the little guy had come up with such wild ideas, and everyone was used to his strange suggestions.
Shao Qingge said with a smile, "It's alright, let's brainstorm together and try different methods. Truth always needs to be explored slowly."
At this moment, Xiao Lou had a different idea.
The heating works fine everywhere else, but it's broken in the supermarket, which is completely occupied by Infected. This is clearly no coincidence. These insectoids probably prefer cold environments and deliberately turned off the heating; they like cold... but are they afraid of heat?
Xiao Lou looked at Yu Hanjiang: "Try using fire."
Yu Hanjiang sensed Xiao Lou's idea and his eyes lit up: "That's right, they like cold and are naturally afraid of heat. If you burn these infected creatures, the worms inside them will be burned to death and won't have time to crawl out and coexist."
Everyone: "......"
So, Professor Xiao is still the most reliable!