Rushing into the North Wild Forest Nature Reserve, the Pangolin still hadn’t shaken off its pursuers in Black Body Armor!
But Ren Suo understood why.
After all, the creature running on the screen now was a Humanoid Pangolin.
Its flat, long tail dragged on the ground, its back was hunched, and its body was covered in brown keratin scales. Its head was cone-shaped with small eyes, a pointed snout, and a long tongue, and it was equipped with two rows of white shark-like teeth. Its abdomen was covered in dense, overlapping keratin scales, and the muscles on its thighs and arms were knotted, clearly indicating it was not to be trifled with.
Yet, like a human, it had slender limbs and was sprinting wildly through the streets!
The reason for this transformation dated back to one hour ago—game time, that is.
Just as the Pangolin had ignited the Heritage Volcano and was discovered, Ren Suo immediately activated "Afterimage" to make it flee at top speed.
It was nearly successful. Although the Tactical Bureau personnel almost caught up with the Pangolin, Ren Suo activated "Afterimage" three consecutive times, maintaining high speed. The Tactical Bureau’s ability to keep up must have involved some special Spell.
If that Spell could last, Ren Suo would have admitted defeat, but fortunately, it didn’t. Consequently, after the Pangolin’s third burst of speed, the Tactical Bureau personnel fell behind and couldn’t catch up.
However, continuously activating "Afterimage" naturally came at a cost. Using "Afterimage" would inflict the Pangolin with Exhaustion, requiring 60 minutes to recover.
After activating it once, the Pangolin was already in a state of Exhaustion. Using "Afterimage" again while in this state posed no issue, but it tripled the recovery time from Exhaustion.
After using it twice, the Exhaustion recovery time extended to 180 minutes, or 3 hours.
After using it three times, the Exhaustion recovery time extended to 540 minutes, or 9 hours.
So, could the Pangolin escape to a safe area after activating "Afterimage" multiple times?
Although the Pangolin had managed to create distance during the last burst and hid in a small alley, activating "Filth Concealment" and "Cold Blooded," when Ren Suo tried to fast-forward the game by 9 hours to allow the Pangolin to recover from Exhaustion, it only advanced 36 minutes before halting automatically.
This was because Tactical Bureau members had appeared at both ends of the alley where the Pangolin was hiding! Although they weren’t visible on screen, Ren Suo sensed Tactical Bureau members were also in the buildings on either side!
How had it been discovered?
The Pangolin had blended perfectly into its environment in terms of both thermal and light signatures. With current technology, it was highly unlikely to be discovered so quickly.
Could the Tactical Bureau use Spells like "Spiritual Vision"?
But even if they could, they should be searching methodically, area by area, not encircling it !
This was a capability beyond Ren Suo’s imagination. It likely wasn’t a regular combat power of the Tactical Bureau; otherwise, they wouldn’t have taken 36 minutes to find the Pangolin.
It must be an Awakening Technique that can track a target through residual information, or it’s an Advanced Magic requiring a High-Rank Cultivator to cast, Ren Suo easily guessed. I just don’t know which it is.
Now, the problem was the Pangolin’s predicament.
With "Afterimage" depleted and running as its only option, the Pangolin was in a state of Exhaustion again, its All Attributes reduced by 25%. While it could normally run faster than an average person, Ren Suo had no confidence it could break through the Black Body Armor’s encirclement.
So, Ren Suo initiated 15 rounds of Super-Evolution on the spot to see what could help.
"Consolidation," "Claws and Teeth," "Shadow Tricks" (increased Dodge Chance against any targeted attacks by 3%), "Copper Walls and Iron Barriers" (added 30 layers of Armor), "Armor Cloak," "Forceful Walk" (increased Movement Speed by 30 points), "Rampage" (doubled Movement Ability), "Rampage"...
Evolving 15 times in one go, the intense thrill was incomparable. Ren Suo watched as the Pangolin’s attributes surged dramatically. If an ordinary person’s stats were all 100, then Ren Suo was now creating a monster far superior to humans.
Because escape was the priority, Ren Suo mostly chose Evolutions geared towards survival. After all, from the descriptions of the Evolutions alone, Ren Suo knew that relying solely on its current Evolutions, the Pangolin couldn’t withstand a barrage of bullets—
A monster far superior to humans, but it’s still a living creature, damn it! Forget the monsters in comics or movies that can withstand bullets; in reality, even if bullets couldn’t penetrate a monster’s armor, the mere impact force could knock it off its feet!
Given its current Armor’s resistance, unless it accumulated hundreds of thousands of layers, exposing the Pangolin to gunfire was courting death.
After some adjustments, the Pangolin’s current stats were: Damage 250, Defense 410, Movement Ability 522, Recovery 480, and 260 layers of Armor. It also had some auxiliary Evolutions like "Meditation" (while resting, recovery time for all negative statuses -10%, max 50% reduction).
Among these, its Movement Ability had already reached its peak value!
However, the game indicated that the second Super-Evolution required two attributes to reach peak values, so for now, the Pangolin could only maintain this state.
Back then, Ren Suo was brimming with confidence. He continued the game, intending for the Pangolin to break out of the shrinking encirclement ahead of its pursuers!
But when the Pangolin leaped onto a rooftop, a Flying Sword came whistling from a rooftop a hundred meters away, embedding itself in the ground right in front of the Pangolin, its hilt still vibrating.
The Black Body Armor agent below, now exposed, immediately picked up a megaphone and announced, "The ’Spirit Protection Law’ has been implemented within our country. Mountain Spirits and Land Fairies can receive Cultivation guidance and job training under the shelter of the Mysterious Country. Join now and enjoy Level 2 membership benefits! Don’t miss out!"
"Otherwise, we will use tranquilizer guns to forcibly protect you under the ’Illegal Spirit Transformation’ law!"
Frightened, Ren Suo had the Pangolin quickly flee. Even though it was still in a state of Exhaustion, with All Attributes reduced by 25%, its Movement Ability of 522, when reduced by 25%, was still nearly four hundred. This was equivalent to four times human speed, allowing it to maintain a high-speed run of 9 meters per second for an extended period!
If it sprinted without regard for its Physical Strength, it could reach speeds of almost 30 meters per second, but this could only last for a maximum of 20 seconds before being forcefully stopped.
Nonetheless, this speed was more than enough to engage the Tactical Bureau in a parkour chase through the urban alleys!
—Then the Pangolin was slowed down.
The entire area was suddenly engulfed by violent winds. Ren Suo opened the Attribute Interface and noticed the Pangolin had a new negative effect: ’Wind Domain’. Hmm, a negative effect, he noted.
’Wind Domain: Creatures marked by the Mark of Wind have their Movement Speed increased by 10%~30%, while creatures without the mark experience a 20% decrease in Movement Speed. You currently cannot be immune to this effect.’
The Pangolin hadn’t gone far when a Black Body Armor agent climbed onto a rooftop.
After three rounds of alley chases, the Pangolin was hindered and tripped by various Spells, and affected by numerous slowing, dazzling, and stunning effects. Perhaps because this was the Capital, its pursuers all used silenced tranquilizer pistols. Although not highly damaging, the accumulating layers of anesthetic would trigger a paralytic state lasting up to 30 minutes!
Not only that, but who knew if the Black Body Armor agents had some kind of aimbot? How else could six out of ten shots hit when both shooter and target were moving at high speed!
Just as the Pangolin, which had barely activated the Spirit Treasury of the Mysterious Country, was about to be done for and taken as state-owned property, Ren Suo immediately quit the game to think about a strategy.
Fortunately, it seemed that in the future, perhaps due to "Over My Dead Body," the ’Spirit Protection Law’ had been introduced. That’s why the Tactical Bureau was trying every means to capture the Pangolin rather than kill it. It appeared that Mountain Spirits and Land Fairies were still quite rare back then.
After going out for dinner, he had figured out a plan.
Entering the game again, he quickly found a spot where the Black Body Armor agents temporarily couldn’t follow and activated ’Human Mimicry’!
Then the Pangolin’s form quickly expanded, transforming into a Humanoid Pangolin!
Second step: he quit the game and opened the ’Equipment Interface’.
He equipped ’Unlimited Energy’ to ’Devouring the Spirit of the World’!
Returning to the game, he found that all effects like ’Exhaustion’ and ’Wind Domain’ had turned grey, and each status now had an additional line of text:
’You can now ignore this effect.’
Consequently, the Pangolin maintained a Movement Ability of 522 and started sprinting without regard to its Physical Strength!
Although this indeed allowed the Pangolin to quickly escape the encirclement, it also drew more attention.
After all, this was a Humanoid Pangolin that ran so fast it nearly left afterimages!
Within 30 minutes, disregarding leaps and bounds, the Pangolin covered a distance of 44 kilometers from movement alone. It reached a speed of 36 meters per second, running from the Heritage Volcano in East Sky Capital, out past the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth ring roads of Sky Capital City. It even dashed through a forest park, but a helicopter soon caught up with it!
Ren Suo looked at the screen displaying the North Wild Forest Nature Reserve and licked his lips slightly.
There’s no use running further. Let’s think of a plan here...