Illumi and his party quickly rushed to Zone D, heading towards where the sentinel weapon had fired.
"Something passed through the protective net."
Illumi arrived in front of the protective net and looked down at the ground. There was a small crater, precisely the one just made by the sentinel weapon.
After the previous incident, Illumi had ordered Pride to modify the sentinel weapon system's attack program. Anything that could move would be fired upon, regardless of whether it was a living being.
Even a rolling stone would be a target.
Just now, something must have entered the sentinel weapon system's attack range and was fired upon, but the opponent's reaction speed was also very fast, leaving nothing behind at the scene.
"Drip."
Suddenly, the neural mechanical helmet locked onto a spot one meter away from the crater. The image magnified, and a piece of rough rope, the thickness of a finger, was slightly moving on the ground.
The rope was very short, visually about five centimeters long. And unlike ordinary ropes, this broken piece of rope contained numerous black runes, like some kind of symbol.
The black runes were very small and thin, but extremely numerous, densely covering the entire broken rope.
"This should be the tail of Hell's Bell."
Illumi came to this segment of snake tail. He saw that this segment of snake tail was still subtly moving, just like a real snake tail.
Illumi knew what these creatures looked like. Lyra Gates, through her dissociated consciousness, entered the network world and stole a large amount of confidential information from V5's Special Dangerous Creatures Management Agency, which included a hand-drawn illustration of Hell's Bell.
These hand-drawn illustrations were created by the most professional artists, based solely on the memories of survivors from the Dark Continent after they returned to the human world.
"Take out the containment box and put it inside."
Illumi stood up and instructed an Avenger to take out a containment box made of mana alloy. He then squatted down and reached out to grab the segment of snake tail on the ground.
The moment the Avenger soldier grabbed the snake tail, the mere five-centimeter-long segment of snake tail furiously thrashed, but it was useless under the Avenger soldier's thick fingers.
"Wait."
Just as the Avenger soldier was about to put it into the containment box, Illumi reached out and touched Hell's Bell's snake tail.
"Whoosh!"
The moment Illumi's index finger touched the snake tail, some strange black runes flashed before his eyes.
Immediately after, he felt an unconscious surge of killing intent within him, a pure killing intent.
Most people experience killing intent either for desire, sadness, or anger.
But what arose in Illumi's heart was a completely different kind of killing intent, unadulterated by any emotion, absolutely pure. Because in his heart, there was no desire, no sadness, no anger, only the simple thought of killing.
Even though his heart was filled with killing intent at this moment, he still maintained absolute rationality. This feeling was very strange.
Like the rational villain bosses in various anime, novels, and films in his previous life.
"Put it away."
Illumi retracted his index finger, letting the Avenger put the snake tail into the containment box and then into the supply backpack.
"Hell's Bell, this type of monster, can transmit the source of killing intent. It's probably not from the monster itself, but from the complex runes on its body."
"It must be taken back to the company for thorough and in-depth research."
Illumi closed his eyes, forcefully suppressing the killing intent in his heart, and activated the Ranger neural mechanical helmet's built-in tracking system.
"Drip."
On the ground before him, a winding snake-like path immediately appeared, which was the trace left by Hell's Bell after it passed.
Although various detectors couldn't detect it, it was ultimately just a snake and couldn't violate the laws of physics by flying out of thin air. Otherwise, it would truly be impossible to find it.
"Illumi, I've found a creature suspected to be Hell's Bell."
A rough, deep male voice sounded in Illumi's ear. Beyond seemed to have found Hell's Bell and specifically notified him.
"I'll be right there. Don't act rashly, and don't approach it carelessly. Otherwise, you'll instantly be engulfed by killing intent."
Illumi said in a deep voice, his words conveying a sense of gravity, letting Beyond know that Hell's Bell was probably more than just transmitting killing intent.
"I understand."
Beyond replied with a grave tone.
"Greed, you stay here with twenty Avengers to search for Hell's Bell. The rest of you follow me to support Beyond."
Illumi gave the order and immediately took action. The neural mechanical helmet's screen displayed a 3D model of the entire land and temporary camp.
The map showed that Beyond was currently one hundred meters outside Zone B of the camp, slowly moving into the camp.
Hell's Bell must have been moving into the camp, causing Beyond to continuously retreat.
Illumi and his party moved quickly, reaching the target location in less than a minute.
"You're too slow."
Beyond's voice was low. He slowly turned to look at Illumi and his group, his face subtly off. His eyes gradually became bloodshot, and his eyelids drooped. His gaze towards Illumi and his group was like looking at enemies.
"The killing intent is stronger..."
Illumi's face darkened. He found that Beyond's killing intent was even more intense than before, likely due to his overly close proximity to Hell's Bell. And at this moment, Illumi's heart also quietly released a trace of killing intent.
But unlike Beyond, his killing intent carried no hostility and was not directed at anyone.
"Boss, there are about nineteen Hell's Bell here."
Pride also leaped from Sloth's shoulder. He stood opposite Beyond, beside Illumi, a cold curve on his lips.
"I see. The more the quantity, the stronger the killing intent."
Illumi, hearing this, also scanned the area with his neural mechanical helmet. He found that there were indeed nineteen rope-like Hell's Bells surrounding them, flicking their tongues.
"Hiss hiss..."
These Hell's Bells seemed to have locked onto them, twisting their rune-covered bodies and completely surrounding Illumi and his group, as well as Beyond. Some coiled around branches, some hid in bushes, and some hung on the barbed wire fence.
"Boss, can I fight him?"
Pride looked at the killing-intent-radiating Beyond with cold eyes, then licked the corner of his mouth. Since his birth, he had never used his full power.
He could feel that Beyond was different from the Hunters he had encountered before.
Beyond was strong, strong enough to ignite his fighting spirit.
And at the same time, he himself also very much wanted to fight with all his strength to test how strong he truly was.
"Beyond, do you really want to fight us? Don't blame me for killing all your subordinates."
Illumi said in a deep voice. Although he knew Beyond was affected by Hell's Bell, no one liked having someone constantly looking at them with killing intent.
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