Chapter 113: Returning to the Underground World

“But first, I need to boost Iron Bull’s strength. Should I go outside to collect warship fragments? Or rob the Mutant tribes?” Yang Bo glanced at Iron Bull. Iron Bull was currently a solid B-level, but that meant little in the vast Underground World—especially with the Mutants’ overwhelming numbers.

Just like today, when that guy completely countered Iron Bull. His Mech didn’t even use metal, so Iron Bull’s metal dulling ability was basically useless.

“The surface is dangerous too. The Alliance’s fighters seem focused on rescue operations, not eliminating Mutants. Otherwise, they wouldn’t be ignoring the many Mutant warcraft around.” Yang Bo thought about the surface’s lack of safe zones. The Alliance’s outposts were either abandoned or destroyed. The facilities in space were also damaged and unlikely to be repaired anytime soon.

“Let’s go, Iron Bull. Shall we check out a Mutant tribe down below?” Yang Bo decided to head back to the Underground World to train his abilities.

Iron Bull gave Yang Bo a doubtful look. When Yang Bo waved at him, Iron Bull looked puzzled, as if he didn’t understand.

“So frustrating!” Yang Bo couldn’t help but feel frustrated upon seeing Iron Bull’s confusion. After all, animals just can’t grasp human thoughts.

Deciding it was better to move alone, Yang Bo left Iron Bull behind. He used Invisibility to sneak out of the cave and noticed a Drone Fighter loitering overhead.

What Yang Bo didn’t know was that the Female Officer, seeing a Mech in the area, had dispatched the jet to investigate. But by the time it arrived, Yang Bo had already hidden his Mech in the cave.

Later, Yang Bo snuck out again while invisible and avoided detection by the fighter. The Female Officer assumed he’d fled into the Underground World, pursued by Mutants.

On the first layer of the Underground World, there were many small animals. With a snap of his fingers, Yang Bo could immediately sense where they were. A half-meter lizard was hiding in a crevice some distance away.

Yang Bo snapped his fingers again, and the lizard suddenly felt a sharp pain in its head, making it leap out.

Yang Bo felt a little awkward. His first attempt had failed. Another snap, and this time the lizard went limp, collapsing to the ground.

“Disrupting the central nervous system works faster than targeting the brain,” Yang Bo concluded. The first snap had damaged the lizard’s brain, but it didn’t die immediately. The second had targeted its nervous system instead.

Before long, Yang Bo locked onto a second target. Another snap—this time, the lizard’s eyes burst out of its head.

“I used too much energy,” Yang Bo felt embarrassed again.

Camouflage +1!

“This lizard even had Camouflage? I’m already a Grandmaster at that. What comes after?” Yang Bo shook his head, dismissing the information as irrelevant.

Next came the third and fourth lizards, at distances ranging from 50 to 150 meters.

He started by focusing on lizards out in the open, then those hiding in crevices, and finally, those concealed behind rocks.

The sound of snapping fingers echoed inside the cave, creating an eerie atmosphere. Each snap was followed by the death of a lizard. In the Underground World, lizards were second only to rats in number—and they often ate each other.

Soon, Yang Bo discovered a different kind of lizard. This one emitted a faint energy wave. It might be a mutated lizard. Yang Bo became more interested and snapped his fingers.

This snap contained ten times the energy of the previous ones.

The lizard was nearly two meters long, looking almost like a small crocodile. A snap of Yang Bo’s fingers caused its head to explode in an instant.

Camouflage +2!

“An E-rank Mutant beast? How weak.” Yang Bo walked up to the lizard, observing its pitiful state.

“Just training Sonic Attack seems pointless. Should I work on Electric Power Control for a bit?” Yang Bo felt that his Sonic Attack had reached a decent level, while Electric Power Control still needed practice.

With that thought, a white bolt of lightning appeared in Yang Bo’s hand. It danced across his palm, growing larger and darker as it moved.

Yang Bo looked towards a rock 100 meters away. With a wave of his hand, he flung the lightning at it.

The bolt flashed and struck the rock.

Boom! The rock shattered with a loud crack.

Yang Bo’s mouth dropped open in shock. He hadn’t expected his Electric Power Control to produce such strong attacks.

In the next moment, Yang Bo extended his hand again. Another bolt of lightning formed in his palm, smaller this time. He threw it again, but this time he mentally willed it to curve. To his surprise, the lightning actually changed direction, hitting a nearby rock.

This time, the sound was much softer, and a small piece of the rock broke off.

“But charging up takes a while, doesn’t it?” After this initial success, Yang Bo began to get a sense of things.

In the next moment, Yang Bo stretched out his hand, attempting to manipulate the shape of the lightning in his palm. But he found it difficult to control completely with his thoughts. At first, he’d aimed to turn it into a sword or something similar.

After struggling for a while, Yang Bo realized the lightning wasn’t responding well. Finally, he gave up and threw the bolt away.

Yang Bo found that he could mentally control the lightning’s distance up to about 1,000 meters, but the further it traveled, the harder it became to maintain control. The strain at 1,000 meters was twenty times what it was at 100 meters.

The slow charge rate of Electric Power Control was a clear drawback that required more training to speed up.

Also, lightning attacks were easy for others to detect. They were far less stealthy than Sonic Attacks.

The farther a Sonic Attack reached, the more energy it required. Striking a lizard at 1,000 meters consumed twenty times the energy of a strike at 100 meters.

After a full day of training, Yang Bo felt exhausted. He returned to Iron Bull’s cave, where he found Iron Bull licking a stone with a shiny surface.

When Iron Bull saw Yang Bo, it wagged its head in greeting. Yang Bo peered closely at the stone Iron Bull was licking—was that an Energy Stone? Yang Bo slowly approached.

Iron Bull noticed Yang Bo’s interest in the stone and nudged it toward him with its head.

The stone rolled to Yang Bo’s feet. Upon closer inspection, he confirmed it was indeed an Energy Stone, embedded in a chunk of black rock. Yang Bo touched the stone, then handed it back to Iron Bull, while mentally considering his next move.