Homo Sapiens

The jungle at night, especially a tropical rainforest, is absolutely forbidden territory for humans.

Towering trees obscured the sky, blocking out the stars and moon.

Tangled vines and branches, venomous snakes and poisonous insects everywhere, coupled with the pitch-black darkness and oppressive heat—an ordinary person thrown in here wouldn’t last more than a few days.

And yet, in this very hostile environment...

...ten figures moved as if on level ground, weaving through the trees and ignoring the venomous snakes and poisonous insects lurking within.

They were the Soldiers of the Blood Blade Special Team. Equipped with Fierce Tiger Combat Suits, the tropical rainforest was their home turf.

According to the Pheromone Tracker, the target was located twenty-four kilometers northwest of the port town. Apparently, Naukam’s son wasn’t in the obvious, public-facing hideout.

This was all within Domino’s expectations, as she knew Naukam wouldn’t be staying at his known hideout.

The Blood Blade Special Team moved swiftly through the mountain forest, advancing at a rapid pace of nearly three to five kilometers per hour.

In a tropical rainforest with no paths, this was an incredible speed.

It took them eleven hours from the port to reach the vicinity of their destination. The aforementioned twenty-four kilometers was the distance as the crow flies; it’s impossible to travel in a straight line through the mountain forest.

By now, day had broken.

A small mountain village lay not far away. It wasn’t populated by ordinary people; aside from the gun-wielding Child Soldiers standing guard, there were numerous farmers forced by the Leech Gang to cultivate poppies.

Pheromone detection indicated a total of 527 individuals in the village.

However, the only person positively identified by the pheromones was Naukam’s son. It was still unconfirmed whether Naukam himself was present.

But once the Soldiers released hundreds of scout flies from the Gu Insect Nest they carried, the entire situation within the village was swiftly laid bare before the Blood Blade Special Team.

”Target One, Naukam, confirmed. Target Two, Kuxina, confirmed...”

”Go.”

From the Gu Insect Nest, a swarm of offensive, paralyzing venom-mosquitoes rapidly spread toward the village.

A dozen or so minutes later...

A Child Soldier on guard duty suddenly felt dizzy. Before he could utter a word, his comrades around him began to collapse one after another.

A few of the Child Soldiers, however, fought through the discomfort and fired warning shots toward the village.

BANG! BANG! BANG...

Naukam, who was in the middle of breakfast, heard the gunshots. His expression changed instantly as he drew his pistol. ”Something’s happened. Get ready to move.”

”How is this possible...?” Nao Nan jumped up, startled and panicked.

The Poppy Empress, Kuxina, her expression turning frigid, gripped a revolver. ”It seems we may have a problem from within!”

Naukam knew this was no time to argue. ”Mao Xin, take some men and see what’s happening. If it’s bad, retreat along Route 3.”

As Naukam’s top henchman, Mao Xin had already grabbed an AK and was rushing outside with several men.

Meanwhile, Naukam led his son Nao Nan, his mistress Kuxina, and the others into a back room. He pried open the floorboards, revealing a man-made tunnel entrance.

The group scrambled down with practiced ease. Below the opening was a chamber of about twenty-odd square meters with three doors.

Nao Nan immediately ran for one of the doors.

”Idiot! Take route one!” Naukam kicked his son, cursing under his breath.

”Huh? Didn’t we say we’d take route three?” Nao Nan was confused.

Kuxina, however, went straight to the wooden door for tunnel three, opened it, and then doubled back to the door for tunnel one. ”Let’s go! Stop wasting time.”

Finally catching on, Nao Nan realized how naive he was and quickly ran for tunnel one.

Meanwhile, back in the village, the Child Soldiers and core members of the Leech Gang were inexplicably collapsing one after another. This included Mao Xin and his men, who had rushed out only to fall flat on their faces before they even laid eyes on the enemy.

At that moment, five Soldiers from the Blood Blade Special Team activated their optical camouflage and slipped silently into the village.

The Blood Blade Special Team paid little mind to the other members of the Leech Gang. The leaders, like Naukam, were the must-capture targets.

The five infiltrating Soldiers quickly moved past the grunts, using the pheromone trail to home in on Nao Nan’s location.

They headed straight for the courtyard where Naukam and his group had been staying. When they reached the entrance, the pheromones indicated that no one was inside, but the trail ended right there.

They kicked the gate open.

The instant they did, several bounding mines sprang up from behind it.

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM...

A violent explosion rocked the entrance, sending shrapnel flying in every direction.

The moment they kicked the gate, the Soldiers had already activated the composite shields on their arms.

The shields were made from a special bio-nanomaterial that could expand and deploy in an instant. Their structural integrity was incredibly high, yet they were extremely light. They were filled with a unique aerosol that, upon high-speed impact, would momentarily behave like a non-Newtonian fluid.

All of the shrapnel from the bounding mines was stopped by the composite shields.

One of the Soldiers charged in without hesitation.

He quickly found the hidden cellar under the floorboards of a back room.

Inside the cellar.

”The pheromone trail is spreading down the left-hand tunnel.”

”Execute Contingency Plan 6.”

A dozen or so specially tagged scout flies were promptly sent into the tunnel Naukam’s group had used to escape. The Soldiers themselves didn’t follow; there was no need.

Based on their intel on the Leech Gang, the enemy lacked the manpower and resources to construct extensive underground tunnels. Any such passage would be short.

This meant the exit had to be somewhere in the surrounding forest. They just needed the scout flies to track it. Once their location was pinpointed, Naukam’s group would be no match for the Blood Blade Special Team in the rainforest.

Entering the tunnel themselves, on the other hand, was far too risky.

If the enemy had planted mines, the Soldiers might survive the blast only to be buried alive.

Fleeing for their lives, Naukam and his group felt a deep rumble and knew the bounding mines they’d set had gone off. ’The enemy must be inside the base!’ They quickly planted a few more mines in the tunnel as they fled.

Six minutes later, Naukam cautiously pushed aside a section of turf above him, creating a narrow slit to peek outside. Seeing no signs of trouble, he carefully climbed out.

They were now on the other side of the slope, west of the village.

”Let’s move!” Naukam gestured, then ran for a hidden path in the dense woods.

Nao Nan, Kuxina, and the others followed without a word.

What they failed to notice were the dozen or so flies that emerged from the tunnel right after them.

The other five Soldiers on the perimeter soon detected their position via the pheromone trail. Fifty venom-mosquitoes swarmed them.

Before they could even catch their breath, Naukam and his group felt a wave of dizziness and collapsed onto the forest path.

The Soldiers arrived moments after the venom-mosquitoes and hauled Naukam’s group up.

With the exception of a few key members managing other strongholds, the rest of the Leech Gang’s leadership and core operatives had been in the village. The Blood Blade Special Team had caught nearly all of them in one fell swoop.

Naukam’s son, Nao Nan, along with several other key members, were immediately injected with bio-chips, followed by a genetic modification agent that destroyed their reproductive capabilities and frontal lobes.

「Five days later.」

Through interrogation, the Soldiers swiftly extracted every bit of intelligence from their minds.

Several Messenger Dragonflies sped off toward Chiang Mai.

Meanwhile, Gao Gang and his team secretly boarded a transport ship, heading up the Mekong River toward the Golden Triangle.