I have an Apocalypse City

Chapter 594: Chapter 594: Golden Backpack

In the dense jungle in the distance, a group of strange monsters were moving ahead, completely blocking the road.

These monsters were of various shapes, there were minotaurs, fishmen, werewolves, and even a few that looked human. Green plants covered their bodies, and a brightly colored red flower bloomed on their heads. Upon closer look, the flower was surprisingly rooted in the skulls of each creature.

Song Jian controlled a blood crow to approach slowly, about seven or eight meters away from the monsters. The monsters appeared to sense its presence and turned to look in its direction.

Song Jian was startled and quickly ordered the blood crow to land on a tree. Seeing the crow not making further movements, the monsters returned to their aimless wandering.

“Are these…Puppet Beasts?” Song Jian closely observed through the eyes of the blood crow.

It turned out that these creatures had been parasitized by plant seeds, not controlling their actions, turning them into puppets. The puppet beasts, completely controlled by the plants, had their potential fully stimulated, greatly enhancing their power. However, in such a state, they could not last long, at most a month, before their potential would be exhausted, their bodies would wither, and the parasitic plants inside them would emerge, taking root in the soil to continue growing.

Song Jian carefully counted, there were in total fourteen puppet beasts here, blocking the small path tightly. Their vitality was about 40% more robust than the Tree Demons, and they even retained some of their original skills from when they were alive.

Even if a five-person squad encountered these monsters, they would find them tough and tricky, let alone only two as they were now. No matter how powerful Song Jian’s attack was, faced with this group of puppet beasts at the elite BOSS level, he would also be besieged to death.

“There are too many monsters ahead, let’s pause first.” Song Jian said to Anna.

Whilst Anna possessed an epic profession, she currently lacked effective attack skills and could not protect herself well. She could revive others, but if she died, she could not be resurrected again.

Anna was pampered from a young age. Even though her family had fallen into hardship, the lord of the City of Sin was her uncle. Usually, she had very few experiences in battles and adventures. The most dangerous time was probably the last time when she was tricked into going to the Dark Castle and encountered Shadow Teeth.

“Are the monsters ahead very powerful?” Anna whispered, “Are they more formidable than the Shadow Teeth?”

The most powerful creature Anna had ever encountered in her life was probably Shadow Teeth; the black panther still haunted her dreams.

“They are not as powerful as Shadow Teeth.” Song Jian shook his head, “But their number is too large. Even Shadow Teeth would have to retreat if all of them charged together.”

“So what should we do? Should we find a way around?” Anna asked with a frown.

“If there’s really no way, we can only detour.” Song Jian shook his head.

In the Mysterious Garden, the monsters often appear alone, whether they were the Devil Vines or the Tree Demons. Another monster wouldn’t appear in one monster’s alert range.

Having so many puppet beasts gathered here, was there something special about this place?

Using the eyes of his blood crow, Song Jian took a closer look. He quickly noticed something unusual;

In the middle of the puppet beasts lay a corpse. The corpse was completely rotten, with only a skeleton remaining. A thick layer of broad-leaf plants covered the remains. Among the pile of plants, a backpack was emitting a dark gold light.

Because the thick plants concealed the backpack, Song Jian hadn’t noticed it initially. This time, a beam of golden light penetrated the gap between the plant leaves and caught Song Jian’s attention.

The backpack was strapped to the skeleton, hidden by the broad-leaf plants. If it weren’t for the golden light it emitted, even if he stood close, Song Jian would have found it challenging to discover it.

“A Dark Gold Quality backpack? Could it be that these Puppet Beasts are guarding it?” Song Jian’s eyes lit up, staring unblinkingly at the concealed backpack.

“What’s up, Song Jian? Did you notice something?” Anna asked, seeing Song Jian standing still, she gave him a gentle push.

“There’s a Gold Quality piece of equipment over there. It seems to have been left behind by a dead adventurer.” Song Jian said excitedly, pointing ahead.

The equipment left by an adventurer after death is usually preserved for a period of time. The higher the quality of the equipment, the longer it’s preserved. Gray and white equipment lasts for a maximum of three days. Green and blue equipment even longer.

As for silver equipment, they are preserved even longer. Gold and above items, if not meeting special geographical conditions, would almost never corrode.

“Gold Quality equipment?” Anna also became excited.

“Let me see if I can lure these monsters one by one.” Song Jian jumped onto a big tree and controlled the five or six blood crows to fly towards the group of monsters from all directions.

During usual control of the blood crows, Song Jian just had to issue them a simple command. No matter how many blood crows there were, Song Jian could control them.

But now, Song Jian needed to use the vision of the blood crows. The difficulty had increased more than tenfold, even hundreds of times. Having six different images appearing in his brain at the same time, and having to divide his attention amongst them for an extended period, made Song Jian feel dizzy and weak.

Faced with such a large group of monsters, the general practice was to use ranged attacks to lure a few, the fewer the better. Luring monsters was the most challenging test for players, even if a little biased, it would touch all the monsters, leading to the total annihilation of the party. Even some well-coordinated teams could not guarantee success every time.

After observing for a while, Song Jian couldn’t find any opportunity and finally determined bitterly.

Song Jian controlled all the blood wolves and blood crows to surround these monsters from all directions.

When the blood wolves and crows entered the alert range of the Puppet Beasts, the Puppet Beasts immediately became violent, their bodies enlarged and a red hue emerged on their surfaces. They roared and pounced on the blood wolves and crows.

The Puppet Beasts were very powerful. Even though the number of blood wolves and crows was several times higher, the Puppet Beasts still had the upper hand. Just at the initial contact, seven or eight blood wolves were torn to shreds by the Puppet Beasts.

“Disappear!” Song Jian gritted his teeth to bear the headache and issued a command. Immediately, the remaining blood wolves and crows ran in all directions. To the Puppet Beasts with no rationality, the smell of blood was the biggest stimulation, and they roared and chased after the blood crows and wolves.

Song Jian’s figure immediately turned into a shadow, and a path of icy air appeared under his feet. He rushed towards the corpse guarded by the Puppet Beasts as fast as lightning.

…