Several Hunters didn’t have time to react and were knocked down by the leaping Fungus Puppets, plunging into the "ocean" composed of countless limbs and wriggling tissues.
In an instant, these individuals were swallowed up, never to be heard from again.
The survivors who evaded the first wave of attacks had fallen into the passageway opened for them by the bombardment, but this didn’t mean they were temporarily safe—this passageway’s walls were formed by a layer of carbonized Fungus Puppets. However, the carbonized layer wasn’t thick enough; with countless Fungus Puppets squeezing and tearing, the carbonized wall was beginning to crack. It was clear to everyone that it wouldn’t take long for the precarious passageway wall to completely collapse.
And there was still a short distance for the Hunters to reach the bottom of the pit.
To reduce the impact of free fall, the thruster pack equipped behind the Power Exoskeleton automatically ignited, slowing everyone’s descent speed further.
"What do we do?! Those things are going to crawl out from the walls!!" shouted a Hunter urgently in the channel.
"Shoot them! Aren’t you armed?" Another Hunter raised his gun to fire but found his trigger had been locked.
More accurately, it wasn’t the trigger that was locked; rather, the finger joints on the mechanical arm for pulling the trigger were locked.
"Damn it! Why is this thing malfunctioning now?!" The Hunter cursed furiously.
"It’s not a malfunction; I locked it with Captain’s authority," Cheng Ming said.
"Then there’s something wrong with you!"
"Don’t fire!" Cheng Ming said sternly, "Firing now will only speed up the tunnel wall’s collapse. Those monsters won’t need to crawl out; they’ll bury us alive!"
"What do we do then?" The Hunter asked urgently, "Can’t you just turn off the thruster behind me? I can drop straight down and reach the bottom of the pit in a few seconds!"
"Aren’t you afraid of dying from the fall?"
"Being crushed to death is better than being engulfed by these creatures!" The Hunter said, "Besides, I have my own life-saving methods! Those scared of falling can continue to descend slowly! I’m not dying along with you!"
In previous days, when using the memetic detection device to survey the collapse area, Chen Jing and others discovered a huge hollow chamber at the bottom of the pit. This chamber surrounded the area with the highest memetic density of abyssal creatures (which is the body of the fungus creature), separating the abyssal creature’s body from the Fungus Puppets.
In this hollow chamber area, there were very few memetic reactions, indicating the fungus creature isn’t solidly pressed below by a large group of Fungus Puppets—it has a very spacious "personal space" at the bottom of the pit.
According to the original combat plan, as long as the assault team could enter this hollow chamber area, they would have enough time to deal with the abyssal creature’s body—without this hollow chamber area, this blitz combat plan could never be implemented with just a few minutes of "window time."
The Hunters believed that if they could reach the bottom of the pit, they could avoid being swallowed by the Fungus Puppets.
As for how to eliminate the abyssal creature’s body, that would be a problem to consider after surviving.
"You hear me! Quickly shut off my thruster, or give control of this Power Exoskeleton back to me!!" The Hunter shouted at Cheng Ming.
Cheng Ming thought for half a second, then tapped a few times on the PAD strapped to his arm.
"Control authority of Power Exoskeleton number nine has been fully transferred to the wearer."
As a mechanical prompt sounded, the Hunter turned off the thruster without hesitation, plummeting rapidly towards the bottom of the pit—
"Give me back the control authority for my exoskeleton too! I have my own way to survive!"
"I’d rather die from falling than let those things crawl all over me!"
Several more Hunters asked Cheng Ming to return their exoskeleton’s control and cut off their thrusters.
Meanwhile, on the surface.
Chen Jing, inside the command vehicle, couldn’t help but furrow his brow—at the current trend, the "window time" the passageway could maintain was nearly a third less than previously calculated. Those Hunters unable to safely free fall were likely unable to reach the hollow chamber at the bottom of the pit before the passageway collapsed...
"Is there any way to speed up their descent further?"
"Impossible to descend faster," a technician shook his head at Chen Jing, "With the equipment they carry, plus the weight of the Power Exoskeleton, it’s over two hundred kilograms. Adding the Hunter’s weight, it’s three hundred kilograms. The impact force upon landing is astonishing; this descent speed is already nearing the limit for a safe landing... Honestly, those Hunters without self-protection ability, they probably..."
"Even if they have self-protection abilities, it doesn’t mean they can use them," Bai Lingqiu sighed, "Don’t forget they’re wearing heavy protective gear and Power Exoskeletons. This equipment is a restriction even if it provides protection... If they don’t abandon their equipment, their abilities will be limited. Yet abandoning the equipment exposes them to the risk of being parasitized by spores..."
"I considered this beforehand," Chen Jing said with a frown, "But in my combat plan, this equipment is to safely get them through the spore fog. The hollow chamber meme response is nearly negligible, meaning there’s no spore fog there... As long as they abandon the equipment immediately after leaving the spore fog..."
"No time," Bai Lingqiu shook his head, "The deepest position of the spore fog is less than two hundred meters from the pit bottom. With free fall acceleration, by the time they reach that position, their speed is too fast; there’s simply no time to get rid of the equipment in mid-air..."
At this moment, a technician suddenly shouted, "Detected severe damage to Power Exoskeleton number nine! Wearer’s vital signs signal lost!"
"Number nine? The first Hunter to shut off the thruster?" Chen Jing immediately rushed to the screen, staring at the small square displaying "signal lost," "Did he die from the fall?"
"Before the signal broke, number nine’s vital signs were fine... Apart from a rapid heartbeat and high blood pressure, there were no signs of injury," the technician said, "So it’s unclear whether he..."
"Either he’s dead from the fall, or he shed the equipment the instant before he died," Bai Lingqiu said, "After all, the latter also shows a signal loss."
"But the time interval between the exoskeleton damage and vital signs lost is too short. Even if he shed his equipment the instant before landing, there’s no time to use his ability, right? By the way, what was this number nine’s ability?"
"He chose to keep it confidential when filling out the registration form," Bai Lingqiu extracted a file from the computer, "Though from practical test and training, it’s likely physical enhancement ability, with certain limb mutation capabilities."