Chapter 27 Perception Suppression
Since Su Muyu learned that the Gongteng Group had hired superpower assassins, she would wander around the streets surrounding the Gongteng Group headquarters while training her scouting eagles to proficiency, controlling them to observe the company's main office building.
Skill proficiency continuously improved during the observation.
[Continuously controlling the scouting eagles for observation, skill proficiency +1]
[Continuously controlling the scouting eagles for observation, skill proficiency +1]
After several days of training, the scouting eagle's skill proficiency had reached (956/1000), it was not far from being fully trained.
Everything went smoothly for a few consecutive days, until the fourth day at noon.
As usual, she cloaked the scouting eagle with an Invisibility Veil and circled around the outside of the Gongteng Group headquarters, observing through Summoned Creature Vision.
Suddenly, a warning premonition struck her; she felt as if she was being watched.
Su Muyu immediately controlled the scouting eagle to look for the Observer.
At that moment, the scouting eagle was attacked by an unknown energy and exploded with a "bang."
On a pedestrian street a hundred meters away.
Su Muyu's body trembled, she quickly tried to stay calm, wrapped her coat tighter and walked into a milk tea shop to sit down, disguising her inner panic.
The scouting eagle being destroyed in its invisible state indicated that there was a percept power user nearby, and one of no low level.
She was unsure if her opponent had discovered her.
Since the scouting eagle was destroyed while her main body was on a pedestrian street a hundred meters away, and the street was crowded, it was likely she was not exposed.
Even so, she was still a bit scared.
Because Lu Heng was not by her side, and she currently had no attack skills, she felt completely powerless if her opponent found her.
Moreover, she didn't even know who the opponent was.
The fear brought by this unknown was far more unsettling than seeing the opponent.
People were running on the street, she felt like the opponent was searching for her. She forced herself to calm down, ordered a lemon tea, slowly sipped it, and then took out her phone to send a message to Lu Heng.
…
On a bustling weekend, the Champs Elysees pedestrian street was extremely lively, bustling with people coming and going.
Lu Heng received Su Muyu's message and immediately came over, finding her in a milk tea shop and was relieved to see she was okay.
Upon seeing Lu Heng, Su Muyu's lips quivered, and she inexplicably wanted to cry.
She had been genuinely scared when Lu Heng wasn't there earlier.
After all, not long ago she was just a student sheltered in an ivory tower, naive about the world.
"What happened?" Lu Heng sat next to her and asked quietly.
"My scouting eagle was taken down, but this time I don't even know who the opponent is." Su Muyu softly replied, her eyes continuously sweeping the street.
Such a situation, being attacked without knowing the opponent's location, made her very anxious.
Lu Heng understood instantly and reassured her, "Don't worry, this is actually a case of perception suppression; you must have encountered a perceiver of a higher level than you."
Knowing the reason, Su Muyu's mood slowly relaxed. She asked, "Then did the opponent discover me?"
Lu Heng thought for a moment and asked, "How far was the scouting eagle from you at the time?"
"About a hundred meters, I guess." Su Muyu gave an approximate value.
"That distance is quite safe. Don't worry, the opponent found the scouting eagle, but couldn't find you." Lu Heng couldn't help but find her nervousness amusing.
With the crowded pedestrian street and such distance, unless the opponent turned the street upside down, it was impossible to find her.
Su Muyu was then reassured.
Actually, she had always been very cautious during her scouting operations.
This was the first time she encountered an opponent who could suppress her in perception ability, and lacking experience, that's why she was so nervous.
"What should we do now? Could this percept power user have been hired by the Gong Family?" After calming down, Su Muyu started to think about deeper issues.
"You encountered an opponent of a higher level than you. But it's not a big issue, I'll level you up a few more times, then we'll come back and test this perceiver's level," Lu Heng said as he took her back to the hotel to prepare.
…
With more and more Abyss demons appearing on Blue Star, different countries began to fall into various degrees of chaos.
The official superpower user department couldn't cope with the increasing number of demons, and had to seek help from external superpower users.
As September ended, the officials began to issue bounties for clearing Abyss demons.
Since hunting Abyss demons could yield demon energy and there was also a chance to obtain a Crystal Core.
Thus, even if the bounty money wasn't high, many superpower users were still willing to participate.
In the hotel.
Su Muyu had seen the official bounty online and, with agile thoughts, proactively asked, "Lu Heng, should we accept the official bounties? Hunting demons can allow us to level up, and there's also money."
"There are appropriate ones we can try, but these publicly posted bounties will be contested by other superpower users." Lu Heng wasn't greatly interested in these bounties.
When the officials first started issuing rewards, most superpower users were still acting alone.
As time progressed, these superpower users began to group together to compete for the rewards, forming teams.
At this point in time, it was manageable, but a few months later, multiple superpower user teams would be competing for a single reward, and conflicts among them were likely to arise easily.
"What should we do then?" Su Muyu was still worried about conflicts with other superpower users.
"Don't worry, I have a plan."
Lu Heng found a map of an area on the electronic map, took a screenshot, and sent it to her: "Get familiar with the terrain of this beach. We'll go take a look tomorrow."
"Will there be any demons appearing on this beach?" Su Muyu stared at the map, carefully memorizing every detail.
"There should be Abyss Tide Worms appearing."
Lu Heng remembered that in this area called Gardenia Beach, at the end of September, there would appear a very spectacular swarm of Abyss Tide Worms.
It was due to an Abyss Queen Worm laying eggs near the reefs close to Gardenia Beach.
These eggs hatched into a large number of Abyss Tide Worms.
After devouring all the seabed life in the nearby waters, they would come ashore from Gardenia Beach, forming a spectacular tide of worms.
Once the worm tide formed, it was not something one or two superpower users could resist.
However, before the tide formed, they could go and hunt a batch of Abyss Tide Worms.
Before departing, they would need to prepare more by purchasing weapons and equipment.
…
The next day.
In front of Gardenia Beach.
Lu Heng and Su Muyu walked side by side on the beach; the sea breeze was gentle, blowing on their faces, very refreshing and comfortable.
However, the fishy smell in the sea breeze was stronger than usual.
Su Muyu released a reconnaissance eagle, which scouted the surroundings for a while to ensure there were no Abyss Demons around before they proceeded with the next plan.
Lu Heng caught a rat, killed it, and threw it on the sand.
The seawater washed up onto the beach, carrying the blood into the sea.
Abyss Tide Worms were very bloodthirsty, and as soon as they smelled the scent of blood, they would definitely follow it ashore.
However, it was hard to say when the Abyss Tide Worms would come ashore; they might have to wait a while.
Lu Heng found a shady spot to sit down, took out his laptop, and logged into the Crystal Core Dark Network with the account bound to this computer.
He began to browse the Demon Crystal Cores for sale.
Su Muyu sat next to him and leaned over to look: "Would you be cheated when buying crystal cores here?"
Others might worry about being cheated, but Lu Heng was not.
Because the trade of Demon Crystal Cores would become normalized in the future.
This Crystal Core Dark Network would develop at an astonishing pace to a terrifying scale, covering the globe.
However, three years after the Abyss Descent, no one knew who had founded the Crystal Core Dark Network.
There were even rumors that the founder of the Crystal Core Dark Network...was not human.
However, the number of Demon Crystal Cores currently for sale on the Crystal Core Dark Network was not very large.
Also, most of the Skill Crystal Cores for sale did not enhance combat ability.
This was because any Skill Crystal Cores that enhanced combat power would be bought as soon as they appeared.
For example, the "Thunder Weapon" Skill Crystal Core, which could make weapons emit thunder and inflict thunder damage when attacking.
These types of skills were highly sought after in the early stages of Abyss Descent.
As soon as they appeared on the Crystal Core Dark Network, they were immediately purchased, even without looking at the price.
After all, for some who stood at the pinnacle of the pyramid, money was just a number, but superpowers were something money couldn't buy before.
The remaining unsold Demon Crystal Cores generally did not enhance combat abilities, some even weakened them.
Since the number of Skill Slots for superpower users was limited, they were very cautious in choosing skills to learn.
Skills that did not enhance combat ability, to many superpower users, had no other effect besides taking up a Skill Slot -1.
Just then.
A strong wind blew from the sea.
Su Muyu quickly grabbed her sun hat and then turned to look at the sea, where a large black object appeared in the surging waves.
She immediately pointed and exclaimed, "Look quickly!"
Lu Heng had already seen it, but he didn't move and continued to sit calmly under the shade, waiting.
Su Muyu, meanwhile, controlled the reconnaissance eagle to fly over and observe: "It's not a fish. It looks very much like a worm, and it's quite large, probably about two meters long."
…