Chapter 442: Monster Controller? Discovering Another Player

Chapter 442: Chapter 442: Monster Controller? Discovering Another Player

"Looks like we have to take a detour."

Seraphina Sullivan lowered her binoculars and made her decision.

A detour would be riskier, but it was far wiser than barging into the lair of a Cataclysm-Class Monster.

She woke up Flora Sullivan and Sharon Lynn. After a quick breakfast, the three of them set off again.

Seraphina Sullivan took the wheel, carefully driving onto an old, potholed highway overgrown with weeds, following the southern detour route she had planned on the map the previous night.

The journey ahead was just as dangerous as Seraphina had expected.

Wrecked vehicles, collapsed bridges, roads swallowed by plants... these obstacles were manageable.

The real trouble was the various monsters that roamed the wilderness and the outskirts of abandoned towns.

As long as they didn’t run into excessively large monsters or herds that were too difficult to handle, with Seraphina’s precise sniping and Flora’s ferocious suppressing fire, combined with the off-road vehicle’s mobility, they could always manage to get out of trouble.

"BANG! BANG! BANG!"

Three crisp gunshots rang out, almost in a single, continuous line.

In the distance, a "giant wolf-type" monster—over four meters tall and covered in rock-like armor plates—leapt from the bushes on their flank. It had barely reached the apex of its jump when three bloody blossoms burst open on its massive head almost simultaneously.

The first two shots precisely struck its relatively vulnerable eyes. The third shot entered through its gaping mouth, directly destroying its central nervous system.

Its massive body crashed to the ground. After a few twitches, it went still.

"Wow! Seraphina, you’re amazing!"

Sharon Lynn sat in the back, leaning against the window, her small face filled with awe and admiration.

In her eyes, Seraphina was like an all-powerful female warrior, always able to calmly deal with those terrifying monsters.

Seraphina put away her sniper rifle, turned around, and smiled as she ruffled Sharon Lynn’s hair. "It’s nothing. With me here, those little monsters can’t hurt us. Don’t worry, Sharon."

Sharon Lynn nodded emphatically. The fear in her eyes receded a little more, and her trust and reliance on Seraphina deepened.

While Sharon wasn’t looking, Flora Sullivan nonchalantly walked over to the giant wolf’s corpse.

A strand of her hair silently transformed into a verdant vine, slithering like a nimble snake into the corpse.

The vine squirmed slightly. Moments later, the entire massive monster corpse shriveled at a visible rate, as if all its essence had been drained away, leaving behind only an empty hide and a skeleton.

The vine retracted, and a satisfied blush flashed across Flora’s face as she secretly winked at Seraphina.

In this instance, Flora was probably the only one who could be described as "happy."

She was a plant-based transcendent being with an ability similar to "devouring" to absorb energy.

To her, these monster corpses were practically a mobile "gourmet feast."

They allowed her to quickly recover her stamina and even grow slightly stronger.

In this world teeming with monsters, she could finally let loose and eat her fill.

Back in the car, Flora pretended to keep watch while communicating with Seraphina.

"Boss, while I’m devouring these monsters, I feel... a strange residual energy in their bodies. It’s not something a naturally evolved creature should have."

"And... their movement patterns... sometimes they feel... a bit stiff. As if they’re being influenced or... controlled by something?"

Flora’s tone was tinged with confusion.

Seraphina’s eyebrows rose slightly at her words.

She had been focused on killing monsters and making headway, so she hadn’t paid much attention to such details.

’Controlled?’ A thought sparked in Seraphina’s mind.

’Could it be that the sudden appearance and frenzied state of these monsters isn’t natural mutation, but... man-made?’

’Or the result of interference from some higher-dimensional being?’

This reminded her of the conflict between the "Divine Kingdom of Sweet Dreams" and the "Nightmare God" that she had experienced before.

’Could this "monster apocalypse" world also have a similar game of chess being played by Divine beings or Rule Level powers hidden behind the scenes?’

"Did you find any specific control nodes or signal sources?" Seraphina asked Flora.

Flora shook her head. "No, the feeling is very faint and intermittent."

"Maybe my current Ability isn’t strong enough to fully analyze it, or... the ’thing’ controlling them is of a very high level and is hidden very deep."

Seraphina fell silent for a moment.

If these monsters were truly being controlled by some entity, it meant the root cause of this instance was likely far more complex and dangerous than the "monster disaster" it appeared to be on the surface.

That "controller" might be the true "source of the apocalypse" in this world.

’Still, this doesn’t have much to do with our main quest.’

Seraphina quickly reined in her thoughts.

Her goal was to escort Sharon Lynn to the Shelter, not to uncover the truth of the world.

She didn’t want to stir up unnecessary trouble before she had the strength and the need to do so.

"We’ll just file this information away for now. We can investigate later if we get the chance."

"For now, let’s focus on traveling and protecting Sharon."

Flora nodded, showing she understood.

Just then, Sharon Lynn, who had been quietly looking out the window trying to get her bearings, suddenly pointed excitedly toward the edge of a sparse forest to their front right. "Sister! Sister! Look! Over there! I think... there are people!"

’People?’

Seraphina and Flora immediately became vigilant, looking in the direction Sharon was pointing.

Sure enough, about two hundred meters from the highway at the bottom of a gentle slope, two figures were moving with difficulty.

It was a boy who looked to be about fifteen or sixteen, wearing a tattered, mud-stained tracksuit. He was carrying a very old man on his back, inching his way toward the highway step by step.

The old man had a full head of silver hair and wore thick, black-rimmed glasses with cracked lenses. His clothes were just as filthy, but one could faintly tell that his coat had once been a white lab coat, giving him the appearance of a scholar.

The boy, on the other hand, appeared lean but strong—he had been carrying the old man all this way, after all.

"They’re survivors!" Sharon Lynn’s voice was full of excitement and hope.

To her, seeing other living people meant they weren’t alone. It also meant there might be more help and information available.

Seraphina’s gaze, however, sharpened instantly.

She almost instinctively activated her [Eye of Resume] and scanned the boy.

[Target information is being interfered with or shielded by an unknown power. Identification failed!]

A line of text appeared in her vision.

Seraphina’s pupils constricted.

’Identification failed?!’

Although her [Eye of Simplification] wasn’t a top-tier identification Skill, it had never failed when used on ordinary Native People or common monsters.

This only happened when facing someone with a special shielding item, a high-level Concealment Ability, or...

’That boy, who looks a few years younger than me... is a Player!’

’In this Level 4 instance, where I thought I was the only one, I’ve run into another Player!’

’And judging by his situation, he also seems to be with a Native Person who "needs protection" or is "valuable."’

’Is that old man his quest objective?’