C3 Heavy Losses

*Bang!*

With the veins of his arms popped up, Hu Biao hacked at the pack of ants with all his might. The power of an entry-level warrior exploded in that instant and forced back the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants that were getting closer to the trenches in the frontlines. Such strength comes with its own consequences as the heavy impact caused a backlash to his own body. Collapsing into the trench, he ended up spitting out a mouthful of blood from exerting a force much greater than want his body could handle.

"Damn it! Bastards, if you have the ability, come back at me! I'm not afraid of the likes of you beasts!"

Hu Biao, whose beard was dyed crimson red with blood, laughed out loud in his final moments.

In the trench behind Hu Biao, Yu Zhen was too covered in blood as he barely pushed by the wave of ants.

Yu Zhen currently had more than thirty wounds all over his body — the most severe injury being his broken right knee. If it wasn't for his strong willpower and determination, he wong have long since collapsed from the sheer amount of pain and bloodloss.

"Hu Biao, come back! Don't rush forward! It seems that the two of us will be left here to die this time. I'm not sure how many of those Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants we managed to hold back, but I hope that it'll be enough for most of our comrades to escape in one piece."

Yu Zhen tried his best to stay alert as he gasped heavily for air.

"Captain, stop thinking about those things! You've done more than enough..."

"Damn it! I hope those brats manage to escape this hell. Every single one of them signifies a life that we've saved. Since I have yet to lose my conscience, I will bear my hatred and vent my anger towards these stupid ants until I die. Even so, I, Hu Biao, am only a single man who can only do so much. I believe that I have already done my part."

Stepping down on the head of one of the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants, he had long since put his life on the line to save as many of his comrades as possible.

This single Blood-Thirsty Furious Ant was killed by Hu Biao after putting his life on the line. Even as an entry-level warrior, he was still able to subdue that one ant despite being surrounded by dozens of others. If this was a normal situation, he would surely have bragged about his feats to the world non-stop.

However, Hu Biao made it clear that to himself that this was it.

Even if they had killed half of the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants, there were still eight or nine of them remaining. It was already a miracle for an entry-level warrior and an intermediate warrior like Yu Zhen to resist for such a long time despite getting outnumbered and overwhelmed.

No matter how arrogant Hu Biao was, he understood that this was the end for both of them.

"Damn you, little brat! Why didn't you just listen to me? I told you to run away, yet you stayed back with me in the end. Though we're going to meet our ends in this place, I will smack you on the head when we go on our way! Bah, Forget it! At least I won't be lonely on my way down the Styx River..."

"Hu Biao, help me up. Even if I meet my ends here, I will definitely not let this group of beasts get away with it!"

Yu Zhen cursed and coughed up even moreblood.

As he stated, he was indeed struggling to stand back up on his two feet. In Yu Zhen's current injured state, despite possessing the physique of an intermediate warrior, he could not bear the massive amount of blood loss. Even then, he gritted his teeth and glared menacingly towards the remaining ants. If he were to die, he would go out in a valiant manner, not by laying helplessly on the ground.

"Alright, captain, we brothers will go out with a loud bang!"

Hu Biao laughed loudly.

Supporting Yu Zhen onto his feet, the two of them stood holding onto each other as the scarlet blood dripped down the steel swords in their hands.

One of them was out of strength while the other was no longer capable of moving on his own. So, how could they possibly withstand the incoming barrage of attacks sent by the mutated beasts?

At this moment, a few Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants began crawling their way over.

Just as Yu Zhen and Hu Biao were about to be shredded by the jaws of the ants, an explosive sound reverberated through the ground from behind. In that instant, one of the heads of the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants was decapitated cleanly as it fell back into the trench.

"Has an Awakened Practitioner come to save us?"

Hu Biao and Yu Zhen looked at each other and saw the glimpse of hope in each other's eyes.

However, they began doubting that possibility. At this moment, the frontlines were slowly being pushed back, and the remaining four Awakened Practitioners were facing the Blood Devouring Ant's overwhelming counterattacks. If they had all their attention set in that direction, how could they possibly have the time to pay attention to the lives of the insignificant troops at the frontlines?

Even then...

The only person capable of killing a Blood-Thirsty Furious Ant with such ease would be none other than an Awakened Practitioner.

"Captain...! It's that brat, Chu Lin! That brat is back. What the hell? Didn't we already tell him to run far away? Does he think he could become a hero by coming back? Damn it, where is the Awakened Practitioner?"

With his sharp eyes, Hu Biao could only see Chu Lin standing behind the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ant. When he observed his surroundings, he did not catch any sights of an Awakened Practitioner. Thus, he could not help but mutter.

"...Chu Lin?"

Though Yu Zhen was confused upon seeing Chu Lin, he was in no state to question reality right now.

Hearing how an Awakened Practitioner had come to rescue them, Yu Zhen subconsciously relaxed his tense nerves and fainted immediately.

At this moment, Chu Lin had just arrived back at the trench.

"Damn it, are you tired of living? I told you to run, yet you returned instead. Brat, do you not want to live anymore?" Before Chu Lin had the chance to say anything, however, Hu Biao had already fumed in utmost anger and glared menacingly at him. He then slapped Chu Lin on his head and cursed angrily.

"Where is the Awakened Practitioner? Where is he?"

"Awakened Practitioner...?"

Chu Lin was stunned for a moment before he asked in confusion.

"Of course, I'm looking for an Awakened Practitioner. Otherwise, why would you come back here to seek death? Which Awakened Practitioner came here? Why aren't there any traces of him?" Hu Biao placed the unconscious Yu Zhen gently on the ground and asked in confusion.

"There is no Awakened Practitioner, Vice Captain. I came back here by myself," Chu Lin replied.

"Just you alone?"

Hu Biao's eyes widened when he heard his words. Then, he thought of an unbelievable possibility and asked: "Wait, are you saying that you were the one who killed that Blood-Thirsty Furious Ant just now? How was this possible? Could... Could it be that you have awakened?"

Hu Biao said as his hands trembled in disbelief.

The chance to be an Awakened Practitioner was one in a million since it is extremely difficult for one to awaken their gene chain.

Generally, only intermediate or high-ranked warriors could awaken their gene chains. Although there were more than ten thousand people gathered at Weiyang, only a dozen or so of them were intermediate or high-ranked warriors.

Thus, how could he believe that one of the soldiers who had just tranferred over from the logistics team would awaken?

This was undoubtedly a huge joke.

"I'm not too sure either, but I guess I can be counted as one... Get out of the way! Be careful!"

Just as Chu Lin was about to explain himself, he noticed that Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants were about to attack Hu Biao from behind. Reacting in time, he immediately pushed Hu Biao aside and rushed forward to fend off the attack.

Clenching his fist tightly, he swung it with all his might.

*Bang!*

His fist struck out like thunder as the soundwaves reverberated from the point of impact.

Hu Biao fell down into the pit and did not even have the time to curse before witnessing the massacre before him. His eyes gaped wide open as he helplessly watched Chu Lin obliterate the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants that could easily shred an entry-level warrior to pieces. With a single punch from Chu Lin, each of the ants exploded into multiple pieces and died in the worth way possible.

One head... two head... three head...

"Aw-Awakened?"

Hu Biao froze in place as he stared dumbfoundedly at Chu Lin.

No matter what Hu Biao thought he was doing, Chu Lin simply threw the corpses of th e Blood-Thirsty Furious Ant under his feet to extract its power.

[Ding! Extraction failed... Insufficient energy.... Number of uses remaning: none.]

"As expected!"

Chu Lin listened to the system's voice and shook his head helplessly.

Without thinking too much, Chu Lin brought Hu Biao and the unconscious Yu Zhen back to safety.

With Chu Lin's current combat strength, the journey back was rather safe. No matter how many Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants tried to attack them, all of them faltered under Chu Lin's absolute strength. However, he was nonetheless panting from exhaustion before long.

Before long, the three of them arrived back at the garrison's temporary campsite.

Not long after the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants appeared and attacked the teams sent ahead, the superiors at the gathering ground gave them the order to retreat immediately.

Under the brutality of the Blood-Thirsty Furious Ants, however, other than Chu Lin and the other two, the rest of their team members were all overwhelmed, outnumbered, and murdered even though they were the ones who retreated first.

As for the other teams, they suffered even more losses. From the twenty or so members who made up the smaller teams, only a few managed to escape alive.

Thus, the camp was filled with a dejected atmosphere. As the smell of blood assaulted their nostrils, the once lively camp turned as lifeless as an abandoned village. Chu Lin roughly estimated that the exploration team alone lost at least seventy percent of their members.

Even so, that was still an optimistic estimation.

The fainted Yu Zhen was immediately sent to the medical area while Hu Biao could only temporarily make his report on behalf of his captain. Chu Lin, on the other hand, sat alone in the corner as he carefully studied the extraction interface.

[Chu Lin.]

[Energy: 0 points.]

[Stamina: 17 points.]

[Strength: 200 points.]

[Spiritual Force: 6 points.]

[Gene Chain Talent: Ant Strength (Broken Ant Gene Chain, 61% Complete)]

His stamina increased by 10 points while his spiritual force has not changed much. The only thing that had increased by a tremendous amount was his strength, directly multiplying by 20 times. The strength was presumably the characteristics of the mutated ants.

However, what Chu Lin cared more about was that...

The extraction process also had success rates.

Although Chu Lin had set the extraction to 100% when he was cheating in-game, it was clear that the extraction interface was completely different from before, resulting in some unexpected changes.

Aside from his first success, Chu Lin had attempted on extracting three other times. However, he failed in all those three times. It was certainly a pity that the Beast Cores he had were limited and did not have much energy. Thus, he had yet to determine the real success rate of the extraction.

"As expected, the gene chain isn't that easy to obtain. A success rate below 20% would really be a headache for me. But after thinking about it, perhaps a success rate of 100% would be far too broken in this world."

Chu Lin understood that clearly.

The ability to extract genes was already a shocking matter in itself.

Though ant genes were not strong, after he had successfully extracted them, he had nevertheless jumped from being a soldier that could only wait for his death under the jaws of an F-class mutated beast, to have the power to overwhelm it.

No matter how one looked at it, there was simply no need to elaborate further on how powerful the gene chain was.

If the extraction really had a 100% success rate, Chu Lin would have to consider whether there were any other disadvantages or consequences. After all, there was no way a pie would fall from the heavens, let alone landing on the same person continuously.

However...

Chu Lin's eyes glimmered in excitement.

With the extraction interface in his possession, wouldn't he have the ability to establish his own foothold in this world by himself?

Chu Lin thought to himself.

At that moment, the entire camp suddenly quieted down.

The silent veterans around Chu Lin all stood up at the same time, each of them staring at the entrance of the camp. Chu Lin was stunned for a moment before he looked up and saw a dark-faced middle-aged man walk in from the entrance of the camp.