Chapter 42
The long night ended in an atmosphere of silence as the sky finally lit up.
Gu Ding woke Liliath up and, after eating some compressed food, the two finally set off.
"How is your physical strength?" Gu Ding did not really check Liliath's condition. She was young and small, so generally speaking, she shouldn't be that strong.
"You don't have to worry about her. She is of the second-order gene. Yesterday, the giant sniper rifle weighed at least 20 kilograms, yet she flung it about like it was a plaything. You just have to worry about yourself." With one glance, Neptune confirmed what Liliath was about to say.
"You don't have to worry about my physical strength. I have been professionally trained since I was a child."
After a moment of recovery, Liliath's mood gradually got better. She summoned the firearms and then changed them into two silver pistols. After equipping the silencer and the bullets, she hung them on her waist.
"You have a limited number of bullets, so try to leave it to me, yeah? " Gu Ding also summoned his armament.
Looking at Gu Ding's armament, Liliath was stunned. She did not expect Gu Ding to have this kind of weapon. Thus, when she heard Gu Ding say this, she quickly nodded. "Okay."
The two of them leaped down from the volcano one after another and rushed straight toward the direction of the s.h.i.+pyard. Gu Ding initially only ran at 50% of his speed, which caused Liliath to pout. "You should run at your full speed. This is too slow."
Hearing the other person say this, Gu Ding had no choice but to increase his speed as Liliath kept up. Seeing Gu Ding Xiao looking over, she explained, "I received all sorts of survivability training since I was a child due to my family background. Physical prowess was one aspect I had to constantly maintain."
Seeing that Liliath was able to speak whilst running, Gu Ding had no choice but to believe what the little girl was saying. He finally felt relieved and focused all his attention on the road ahead. "Follow me, and give me a shout if you can't keep up."
Liliath knew that Gu Ding did not want to risk being distracted in such a dangerous place, which was why he said this. However, it was not too difficult for her to keep up with Gu Ding as, so far, she had only used about 70% of her speed.
The two soon encountered an obstruction of infected animals as three of them appeared at the same time. Liliath pressed her hands against the two guns strapped to her waist. If Gu Ding could not do it one against three, then she would need to resolve the issue herself.
However, she saw that Gu Ding did not slow down in the slightest as he charged straight ahead. His body flickered slightly as two fists and a foot came out in an instant. A second later, the heads of the three monsters exploded
"What a frightening technique!"
Liliath was seeing Gu Ding's strength for the first time, after which, she saw Gu Ding leave without turning back. She had initially slowed down slightly in preparation for the fight, but now had to accelerate to catch up.
For five hours, Gu Ding's speed never dropped once. Even when encountering monsters, the battle was resolved in an instant without even the slightest delay. The tense Liliath never got the opportunity to shoot. Seeing Gu Ding's speed slowing down gradually, she knew that the other party's physical strength had reached its limit and he now needed a rest.
Under a big tree, Gu Ding finally stopped.
Liliath immediately climbed up the tree and shouted at Gu Ding, "Come up, it's safer up in the trees."
"She's right. The leaves of the tree will s.h.i.+eld you from the eyes of those monsters. Moreover, this tree is very tall, so it will keep you out the monsters' sense of smell. There is also the most important point: those mock feline monsters, most of them can't climb trees," Neptune explained.
Gu Ding actually learned these things when he was in the military academy as they were all part and parcel of survival training. However, he only remembered it after hearing Liliath and Neptune mention it.
Very quickly, Gu Ding climbed up the tree and sat on a branch, leaning back against the trunk to recover his strength whilst Liliath took up guard duty. She did not exert a lot of effort along the way and had been a little embarra.s.sed to have just been running behind Gu Ding the whole time.
"We should not be discovered anytime soon since there are many monster corpses along the road. The other monsters should stop to finish them before they try to catch up to us." Gu Ding already had a basic understanding of the infected.
"Your physical technique is good," said Liliath. In truth, this was a form of praise.
"Thank you, your marksmans.h.i.+p yesterday was also very powerful." Gu Ding smiled.
"How much further is the s.h.i.+pyard?"
"Probably about four hundred kilometers." Gu Ding silently calculated for a bit. He had only made it through one-third of the 600-kilometer journey.
"At this rate, we should be able to arrive there in about 22 hours. There is still 34 hours before it gets dark. Unless we encounter any surprises, we should be able to get there before dark."
Liliath had been on this planet for so many days that she already knew the length of day and night on this planet. Her calculations included Gu Ding's resting time, which, up until now, had been fairly accurate. Gu Ding's physical strength gradually returned as half an hour pa.s.sed by. Suddenly, a beastly roar came from not far away.
Liliath's heart tightened. She glanced through the gap between the leaves and saw a behemoth more than ten meters tall coming toward their direction. She turned her head to make a silent gesture to Gu Ding and whispered, "A big one. Get close to the trunk and don't get caught by it."
Gu Ding nodded. He stood up, pressed his body against the tree trunk, then turned his back toward the direction of the monster. The st.u.r.dy tree trunk completely blocked the two of them from sight.
However, the sound of the behemoth's footsteps was getting closer and closer. Both Gu Ding and Liliath could even feel the branches that they were standing on tremble every time the beast took a step forward.
"This one is comparable to a third-order genotype. You two are unlikely to win. Make sure to avoid it!" Neptune advised Gu Ding.
As they stood behind the tree trunk, neither of them even dared to breathe as they waited patiently for the behemoth to leave. After a few minutes, they heard the behemoth's footsteps gradually move away, and the two finally let out a sigh of relief. Yet, at this moment, a monster came striding out from near the behemoth. The beast saw them and immediately came bounding after them. The monster ran towards Gu Ding and Liliath's direction, causing the behemoth to chase after it, itself eager to grab a quick meal.
Liliath looked at the approaching monster as light flashed through her eyes. A split second later, the armament in her hand changed back to the heavy sniper rifle from the previous night. The silencer was quickly installed as well as the magazine before she aimed it at the monster and pulled the trigger.
Gu Ding heard the light sound of the bullet zipping by and then saw the behemoth crash to the ground all of a sudden, the corpse landing less than two hundred meters away from the big tree. Seeing the behemoth fall to the ground suddenly, the other beast was stunned for a while but immediately rushed over to pick at the monster's body and tear it apart, stuffing the pieces into his mouth three or two times.
After burping, it shrugged and seemed to start sniffing at something.
"Have we been discovered?" Gu Ding frowned, diverting his gaze. These hunting monsters were very alert and even a simple glance may attract their attention.
At his side, Liliath's palm was also sweaty as she leaned against the tree trunk, not daring to look in the direction of the beast. Both of them hid there anxiously, hoping to avoid the disaster.