Chapter 97

In the depths of the dense forest, Lingzhi, Katniss, and Peeta were advancing with their weapons drawn. The three of them hardly communicated, and there was no need to. In the perilous arena of the Hunger Games, they even tried to minimize their footsteps, and conversation was avoided whenever possible.

Suddenly, a rustling sound came from the bushes on the left. Just as the three of them became aware of it, several dark figures darted out, which were none other than the terrifying mutated creatures!

Caught off guard, all three were knocked down by the monsters. Katniss didn't even have time to draw her bow before her throat was bitten through. Peeta's arm was also bitten off and swallowed by a monster. As for Lingzhi, she was torn apart by two monsters...

However, strangely enough, when the three were bitten to death, they did not even scream, nor did a single drop of blood spill. As the mutated creatures were frenziedly tearing and devouring the flesh, with a "bang," three puffs of smoke rose from the three bodies. After the smoke dissipated, only scattered pieces of paper were left on the ground.

From the depths of the forest, the three from District 11 emerged. Soros, the leader, picked up a piece of paper, examined it for a moment, and then smiled. "We've been tricked. That girl with glasses is actually a shikigami user..." As he spoke, he waved his hand, and the beehive in Lulu's hand began to shake violently. Then, hundreds of killer bees flew into the air, formed a circle, and dispersed in all directions.

After several dozen minutes, the killer bees returned one by one, communicating with Soros through a special buzzing sound. The information they conveyed was that they had found the trio of Lingzhi in four directions. When the bee swarm attacked them, three groups turned into smoke, while the last group made an effective counterattack.

Soros smiled confidently. "For ordinary opponents, this illusion is indeed hard to deal with, but unfortunately, you've met me, the Beast King Soros!" With that, the beast army of District 11 began to move towards the real bodies of Lingzhi and the others.

On the other side, Male, who was hunting alone, was unaware that his teammates were already being targeted. His goal was to hunt as many powerful adventurers and stray mutated creatures as possible. As for the characters from the story, they did not pose a threat to Lingzhi and the others, so there was no need to worry.

So far, including the battle at the Cornucopia, Male had already eliminated 10 adventurers. He had just encountered a pair of unfortunate men and women in the forest. Although both were strong, they couldn't last a minute against Male, who was a level above them in strength. Male always paid attention to the cannon sounds. If his calculations were correct, out of the original 48 tributes, only 23 remained, including 10 adventurers and 13 story characters.

Among the remaining 10 adventurers, Male marked Helias, Ophelia, Moon Lake, and the mysterious Soros as dangerous and needed to be eliminated as soon as possible to prevent future trouble. Although Male was not yet clear about Soros's abilities, his intuition told him that the old man was very dangerous, even more so than Helias and Moon Lake.

As for the story characters, Male needed them to survive to slow down the progress of the Hunger Games.

As he walked, Male felt a bit thirsty. In theory, as a perfect evolution of the Black Light, he no longer needed to eat or drink, but the habits formed over 20 years as a human still made him interested in food and drink. This was more of a psychological satisfaction than a real physiological need.

Male walked out of the forest and came to a stream, the only water source in the arena, which ran through the entire jungle. He squatted by the water, cupped some in his hands, and took a sip. The cool water refreshed his throat and lungs, making him feel comfortable and refreshed.

"Hmm?" Suddenly, Male felt a subtle reaction inside his body. The Miracle Badge also issued a warning. Upon closer inspection, it read: "Warning, a highly toxic substance has entered the adventurer's body. The adventurer has a special resistance to toxins, and the low level of the toxin cannot affect them..."

The water was actually poisonous?! Male was startled. Although the adventurers' bodies had been modified to greatly enhance their resistance to diseases and toxins, it did not mean they were immune. Most toxins would weaken the adventurers' abilities in the form of abnormal states, and some could even cause a loss of life. Male's body, modified by the Black Light virus, had a hidden attribute of resistance to toxins and diseases, which is why he was not affected.

"The organizers can't have poisoned the stream; that would mean taking away the lives of all the tributes. So where did this toxin come from?" Male muttered. Suddenly, he saw a red berry floating down from upstream. Male grabbed the berry, found it familiar, and put it in his mouth. It was sweet, and the juice flowed down his throat into his body. A moment later, the subtle reaction appeared again, and the Miracle Badge issued another warning.

"No mistake, this is the Death Berry!" Male exclaimed. This red berry was a genetically modified product of the Capitol. Although it looked inviting, it was a potent poison! Once ingested, a human would die within a minute. In the original story, Peeta almost ate this berry, but fortunately, the clever tribute from District 5, "Foxface," thought it was food and stole it from Peeta. However, "Foxface" was outsmarted by her own cleverness and died after eating the Death Berry.

Everyone who has seen the movie knows this plot, but Male didn't expect someone to go to such lengths to gather Death Berries and pollute the river upstream! This way, within a few hours, all the story characters who drank from the stream would die, and the adventurers would fall into abnormal states, greatly reducing their combat effectiveness!

Male didn't care about the others, but if the story characters were all poisoned to death, the Hunger Games would definitely end early, which was something he did not want to see!

He quickly opened the communication function of the Miracle Badge and warned Lingzhi, "The water is poisonous. I'll go upstream to check. Be careful not to drink from the stream!" Lingzhi replied, "Understood... but we're facing other troubles!"

"What's wrong?" Male asked. "I'm not sure, but someone is hunting us!" Lingzhi answered. "I sent out at least three groups of shikigami to disguise ourselves and confuse the enemy, but they were all attacked. I suspect we're being targeted!"

"How many enemies are there, and what abilities do they have?"

"It's not clear yet, but we were attacked by killer bees recently. The attack was unusual and coincided with the destruction of the shikigami. I suspect the enemy has the ability to control animals..."

Male thought for a moment and asked, "Can you hold on for a bit longer? Just an hour!" Lingzhi confidently replied, "An hour? You underestimate me! Not just an hour, I can last a day!"

Although Lingzhi was a bit proud, her words were reliable. Male believed her judgment and reminded her, "The enemy is in the dark, and we are in the light. Be careful and try to delay them. I'll be there soon!" Then, he ran upstream along the river at full speed.

There were no trees to obstruct him, so Male could run at his maximum speed. Although the arena had a complex terrain, it wasn't very large. At this speed, Male estimated it would take him about ten minutes to reach the edge of the map.

On the other side, Soros, who was in the shadows, had already targeted Lingzhi and the others.

The sky was gradually darkening, and under the cover of night, Soros's mutated hunting dogs could get closer to the prey without being detected. In the dark forest, seven pairs of green eyes moved slowly through the trees, gradually approaching the unsuspecting Lingzhi, Katniss, and Peeta.

Although the killer bees were more deadly, based on the information he had, Soros knew that the girl with glasses was a magic user with area-of-effect skills, which were a fatal threat to the fragile bees. Therefore, he decided to use the mutated dogs as the main force for the hunt.

Lingzhi and the others seemed to feel it was too dark and decided to rest and start a fire, spreading out to gather firewood.

Katniss walked to a patch of grass to pick up dry branches when she suddenly caught a whiff of blood. Looking up, she saw a pair of green eyes staring at her! Before she could cry for help, a mutated hunting dog pounced on her, biting her face and tearing off her entire face, leaving only bloody muscle tissue that was still twitching, with her round eyes embedded in the bloody face, unable to move...

At the same time, Peeta encountered a similar situation. Two hunting dogs pounced on him, tearing him open and spilling his intestines on the ground. The dogs were so focused on their frenzied feeding that they ignored the boy's desperate struggles.

Soros emerged from the shadows and looked at Lingzhi standing in the clearing. The twin-tailed girl with glasses seemed shocked by the bloody scene before her, but she just stared at Soros without making any move.

Soros showed a sinister smile and was about to mock the twin-tailed girl, but then he heard two "puffs." The previously killed Peeta and Katniss turned into smoke and disappeared, leaving only a few pieces of paper floating in the wind...

"Damn it!" Soros was furious and casually threw a fireball at the "Lingzhi." The flames instantly engulfed the twin-tailed girl, and with a "puff," she also turned into smoke, leaving only a few ashes.

"Shikigami again?!" Soros shouted, "How many shikigami does this girl have? I was clearly chasing her real body, how could this happen..."

Before he could finish, Soros suddenly heard three "puffs" near his ear. He saw several puffs of smoke rise from behind a nearby tree. He approached and saw three people walk out of the smoke: Lingzhi, Katniss, and Peeta.

"Remote trigger!" Soros angrily killed these three shikigami substitutes and shouted, "How many more of these things are there!"

Soros couldn't see that in the dark forest, more than one-tenth of the trees had small paper figures attached to them, each carrying a shikigami. These were all made and accumulated by Lingzhi during her training...

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