He never gave up; he wanted to know if his limits had loosened.
Ren Zhong had no doubt, if his fake injury were real and he died, Zheng Tian and Hanyu would immediately fall into misfortune.
Perhaps if it weren’t for his presence, Bei Lihui might have intended to have one last bout of madness before leaving Starfire Town.
Not long after, the four of them arrived at the abandoned mine pit.
The four jumped off the motorboats, activated the anti-gravity engines on their bodies, floated, and plunged straight to the bottom of the pit, then entered a circular hole about 4 meters in diameter on the east side of the lowest level.
Elemental compatibility, +1.
Seven minutes later, Lin Wang, having delved nearly two kilometers into the winding caves, found the first Ruined Beast.
Lin Wang instructed, "This is a tempered sandworm. Besides the Fourth Level mother body, it will split into two Third Level sub-bodies lurking nearby. In a moment, Bei Lihui will first fire an ultra-low temperature impact bomb to disable its burrowing ability, then I’ll charge in head-on. You two wait outside the cave and watch out for the Third Level sub-bodies. Ren Zhong, you’re especially responsible for protecting Si Mawan."
Si Mawan quickly said, "Don’t do that, Ren Zhong should primarily focus on his own safety. I’ll keep the micro army’s alert mode on, I can handle it myself. I’m really scared; last time the sandworm nearly swallowed Ren Zhong whole, almost costing us a life."
Lin Wang nodded, "That’s true, learn from experience. You must always remain cautious against Ruined Beasts, or else, no matter how many successful hunts you’ve had, fail once, and your life could be over."
Ren Zhong responded, "Alright, I understand."
Three minutes later, Si Mawan stood two-thirds up the massive body of the tempered sandworm, fully concentrated on dismantling the crystal chip.
Lin Wang looked down at the faint metal scratches encircling his waist.
These were left from the moment the tempered sandworm suddenly exploded in speed before its death, swallowing his lower body into its circular mouth filled with serrated sharp teeth unexpectedly.
Without sufficiently strong armor, with an instant hardening protection mode, and rocks-smelting turbofan thrusters installed in his combat boots, Lin Wang might not have been seriously injured, but under the immense power and lethal biting force of the sandworm’s immense serrated mouth, his leg armor and combat boots would have been damaged.
"Captain, are you alright?"
On the other side, after perfectly taking down two Third Level sub-bodies with Bei Lihui, Ren Zhong approached with concern.
Lin Wang shook his head, "No harm. But we need to be more careful from now on. It seems today is a special day; the sandworm Ruined Beast switched to a berserk energy output mode just now. In this mode, its energy distribution focuses on offense, becoming heavily offensive yet lightly defensive, greatly enhancing its mobility but reducing its internal and external defensive capabilities."
Ren Zhong frowned, "There’s something like that? So what should we do next?"
Lin Wang waved nonchalantly, "No worries. This might even be beneficial. Previously, it would take me at least three minutes to handle a single Fourth Level tempered sandworm alone, but this time I only needed a minute and a half, precisely because of its berserk mode. As long as I’m careful, I can kill quickly and easily, and hunting efficiency will be higher."
Ren Zhong asked again, "Why is it ? Could it be that all the Ruined Beasts in the abandoned mine will be ?"
Lin Wang nodded, "You weren’t a Scavenger before, so it’s normal not to know these little details. It’s an unusual phenomenon but not rare; we encounter it roughly once every few years."
"I don’t fully understand the principle. My previous teacher taught me, whenever there are sunspots on the Source Sun, and the twin silver moons are simultaneously at the near Source point in their elliptical orbit, the Ruined Beasts across all metal mines on the Source Star will exhibit some odd behavior. A couple of years ago, I encountered such an event, but back then, my capabilities were insufficient, so I chose to end the hunt early and return after the commotion settled down. By checking the calendar, it seems the twin moons are indeed simultaneously near the Source point for the last couple of days."
Ren Zhong realized, "So that’s it, your teacher is truly knowledgeable."
Over there, Si Mawan had finished dismantling and only took away the crystal chip.
The sandworm’s carcass was too massive. Extracting it from the abandoned mine pit would be time-consuming and laborious, not worthwhile, so they left it.
Continuing to delve deeper, Ren Zhong, walking last, mentally supplemented Lin Wang’s explanation.
Sunspot storms and lunar tides can both trigger changes in planetary magnetic fields. When the effects of both overlap, if the sunspot eruptions are intense enough, the solar wind driven and induced "geo-lunar" magnetic field deflection will surpass a threshold.