441 Chapter 441: Killer Bees (2/2)
As Shen Cha said, the giant bees that were hovering above the plains were the size of an adult male's hand, their stings gleaming in deadly fashion despite being such a distance away. There was a whole swarm of them, their relatively tiny bodies forming a black blur as they drifted almost lazily across the flowers. They settled down onto the petals and began collecting whatever nectar they could.
”Hmm…” Feng Hai watched the Killer Bees for a moment, thinking hard. He then smiled. ”We'll just wait for them to be done. If they're just collecting nectar, then they shouldn't take too long. Don't provoke them, and stay out of sight.”
He then relayed the orders to the Guild, who acknowledged it. The mercenaries hunkered down and used the opportunity to take a break, while the sentries kept an eye on the Killer Bees. As for me, I continued to monitor the valleys through the eyes of my Corvus, while Adrian and Melina lingered nearby. They watched the Killer Bees, fascinated and partially horrified but weren't stupid enough to get any closer.
Even the kids knew that it would be a disaster if they got caught by the Killer Bees…and worse, the casualties that would result if they inadvertently lured the Killer Bees back to the mercenaries' position. I was glad that they were sensible and not reckless.
”Hey!” A reader shouted mockingly as he tore his way through the fourth wall and pointed an accusing finger at me. ”You have those nuke spells, right? Why are you so pathetic? Just nuke the entire plains and exterminate those Killer Bees!”
Feng Hai casually tossed a wind blade and decapitated the stupid reader, and I watched as his head rolled on the forest floor, his headless body toppling over ignominiously.
”What an idiot,” Adrian remarked with a shake of his head. ”The whole point of getting to the plains is to search for clues as to the whereabouts of this Ling Dan receptarier. How are you going to do that if you nuke the entire plains, along with whatever traces or trails that might be left in them? Sometimes I doubt if these edgelords ever use their brains before commenting.”
”Just ignore them,” I told him with a sigh. It was another case of the readers thinking they knew better than the characters in the story when they actually didn't, and just wanted everything to be an easy breeze for the main character. Again, they were reading the wrong story. I honestly didn't understand the obsession with ”evil” ruthless overpowered protagonists. Besides, there were othe stories that featured such characters, so they could read those instead. There was no reason to come to my life and start demanding that I be ruthless and evil.
Fortunately, the Killer Bees didn't take very long to hover away from the flowers, having collected enough nectar to bring back to their hive or something. We watched them leave, but stayed put even though they vanished out of sight. Monsters had very sharp senses, after all, and the Killer Bees might still be able to spot us even though we could no longer see them. Better to be cautious than to underestimate the enemy.
Once Feng Hai was sure that the Killer Bees were gone, he gave the order to move out. The mercenaries responded professionally, their weapons out just in case. I kept an eye on Adrian and Melina, ensuring that they stayed close to me as we moved out into the open. I wasn't going to let either of them fall to harm, not under my watch.
The mercenaries formed a perimeter, posting sentries outward in a circle to keep an eye out for monsters. As the sentries took up position, the majority of the mercenaries gathered around Feng Hai. He raised a fist in the air to signal that they should listen.
”All right, people, you know the drill. Sweep out and look for clues. Signs that someone has been here, collecting the Belfrost Flowers…a dirt trail, litter…anything!”
”Yes, sir!”
The mercenaries spread out and began ruffling through the flowers for any clues. I wasn't trained in scouting and tracking, not like Troy, so I didn't bother to join them and instead maintained my spot as a sentry. Adrian and Melina lingered nearby, not sure what to do. Like me, they didn't have the skills for scouting or tracking, so they could only stay out of the way. Yet they couldn't stray too far from my position, because I needed to ensure their safety.
”Let me know if you see anything,” I instructed them. Giving them a task and getting them on alert would alleviate their boredom, or so I hoped. If they had something to do, they wouldn't get bored, and if they weren't bored, they wouldn't run off somewhere and get into trouble. Even though they didn't appreciate the task I assigned them, they obliged because they wanted to make themselves useful, to compensate for their stowing away.
”Anything?” Feng Hai called out after a while. I started, and then glanced at my cellphone, which still had no signal. Before I knew it, over thirty minutes had passed. Yet it seemed that the Silver Wolves had dug up nothing useful.
Our chances of locating Ling Dan were getting less and less likely.
”No, sir,” one of the mercenaries said, confirming my sense of foreboding. I stifled a sigh, and closed my eyes. Unlike me, however, Feng Hai refused to be bowed.
”Continue searching,” he ordered without any hesitation.
”Yes, sir!”
The mercenaries complied without complaint. I felt a little ashamed of myself for giving up too easily. However, I knew from experience that holding onto any kind of hope would only lead to disappointment. That said, I couldn't give into despair and adopt some edgy, nihilistic attitude because it was downright toxic and poisoned the atmosphere, damaging other people's morale.
So I should watch my words and attitude instead of following the example of some edgelords, who had forsaken the world or human race or whatever. I chuckled when I recalled an image where you had edgelords making statements such as ”I wish I was dead”, ”there are too many people”, and ”we need a new plague”, only for the coronavirus to arrive and ask them ”why are you running away?” Seriously, these edgelords were hypocritical incels who couldn't back up their nihilistic viewpoint.
My humor was short-lived when one of the sentries jolted up and spun around to shout a word of warning.
”Killer Bees! They are returning!”