When they reached the campsite, night had already fully descended, and the temperature in the forest was steadily dropping.
Joey shivered as a cold breeze bit through his sweat-soaked clothes, chilling him to the bone.
Since the group knew Chimera Ants lurked nearby, no one suggested making a fire.
Ponzu continued trying to use her bees to contact other possible teams, while Pokkle divided the remaining four into two shifts for the night watch.
Joey was assigned to the second half of the night, probably because Pokkle had noticed his poor condition.
Joey didn't refuse. He truly was exhausted after the long trek.
After nodding in acceptance, he leaned against a large tree and quickly slipped into a shallow, uneasy sleep.
He never fully relaxed. His mind was a taut string ready to snap at the slightest disturbance. He was wary of a Chimera Ant ambush and also worried Pokkle and the others might leave him behind.
Thankfully, neither of those things occurred. Moreover, the strange wallet kept injecting him with aura, significantly improving his mental state by the time it was his turn to watch.
Pokkle and Ponzu appeared not to have rested at all. However, their attempts yielded no results.
The bees didn't return with any useful information, as if every team that had entered NGL had been attacked and wiped out.
Pokkle and Ponzu looked grim, though the sight of them huddled close together left Joey feeling rather full.
Quietly stepping aside, Joey took out his phone, carefully hiding the screen's glow, and checked the time.
It was already 12:30 AM. Judging from the previous sunset, daylight would probably appear around four in the morning, bringing some warmth and visibility to the forest.
Putting away the phone, he pulled out some flatbread. Without any water at hand, Joey forced it down slowly, aided only by his saliva.
He tightened his damp clothes around himself and shivered again.
Recovering stamina was essential under these circumstances, even though Joey didn't actually feel that hungry.
At the same time, he discreetly removed the wallet from his chest, cautiously placing it into his bag instead.
The aura around the wallet had grown quite faint, and he figured that within an hour or so of further absorption, it might vanish completely.
Joey had no interest in finding out what might happen if the aura disappeared completely, so he stored it away instead of keeping it directly against his body.
However, perhaps because the bag still rested against him, he soon sensed a faint connection again, although much weaker.
Thinking for a moment, Joey removed the bag entirely and placed it on the ground beside him, finally breaking that strange connection completely.
Around two in the morning, Pokkle woke the other two hunters. Ponzu's bees had finally returned with useful information: a team several kilometers to the north had replied and sent a distress signal, clearly in danger.
While the news was troubling, Joey saw some relief on Pokkle and Ponzu's faces. Apparently, not hearing from anyone at all was their greatest fear.
After a brief discussion, Pokkle and Ponzu decided to provide support.
Joey couldn't argue, so he picked up his bag, secured it, and joined the group.
The few kilometers were nothing under normal conditions, but navigating the dense forest at night took over half an hour before they finally reached the location indicated by Ponzu's bees.
What they found, however, were only mutilated bodies of humans and ants.
The human corpses bore clear signs of having been torn apart, while the insectoid corpses were all sliced into several pieces, indicating that the leader of the other team had strong combat abilities.
Pokkle, assessing the number of corpses nearby, judged some team members must have survived, though their whereabouts were unknown.
After Pokkle signaled to the two extras, the background characters immediately split up, demonstrating their particular talents—tracking.
The hunter with bushy grey eyebrows proved excellent at reading signs, swiftly distinguishing subtle tracks even under moonlight.
Joey followed closely, overhearing plenty of practical advice from his muttered ramblings.
The hunter with messy ash-grey hair had an extremely sharp sense of smell, quickly detecting abnormalities even amidst the pervasive scent of blood.
As he approached a large tree, he seemed to find something important. Turning back, he began to inform Pokkle—
—but a strange rustling suddenly sounded above his head.
Then he noticed everyone's expressions as they looked at him—eyes wide in horror, mingled with tension and resignation.
Why?
That thought had barely formed when a foul stench filled his nostrils, and his vision was instantly swallowed by darkness filled with razor-sharp teeth.
Thud!
His headless body collapsed to the ground. At the same instant, an orange arrow streaked through the air, piercing the creature with the pink, segmented, worm-like mouth that had just swallowed the ash-haired hunter's head.
Green fluid sprayed out, mixed grotesquely with blood and brain matter. Pokkle shouted urgently, "Run!"
But it was already too late. Harsh clicking sounds filled the darkness as numerous Chimera Ants emerged from the shadows surrounding them.
Joey glanced quickly around, spotting no fewer than five monsters encircling their position.
Clearly, these monsters had been lying in wait for some time.
Killer Queen instantly materialized at Joey's side, and Sheer Heart Attack detached from its left hand, hitting the ground.
Gunfire erupted from Joey and the hunter with grey eyebrows simultaneously, their rifles lighting up the night without hesitation.
The Chimera Ants seemed aware of the threat guns posed, immediately ducking behind nearby trees the moment the rifles opened fire.
Pokkle's fingers flashed repeatedly with orange aura, launching arrows even faster than bullets, swiftly piercing through the ants too slow to take cover.
Within moments, three ants fell dead, barely giving Joey a chance to register their bizarre appearances.
But at that exact moment, a whooshing noise filled the air as several fist-sized stones came flying from the darkness.
Joey, protected by Killer Queen—an incredibly alert, close-range Stand—noticed the incoming stones instantly and punched them away with precision.
The grey-eyebrowed hunter, however, wasn't so lucky. Struck by a rock, his body flew backward, slamming into a nearby tree.
Hidden behind that same tree stood a beetle-like ant with a massive rhinoceros horn. Before the hunter could rise, the horn pierced straight through his chest.
Yet, even as his life rapidly drained away, the hunter managed to jam his rifle into the beetle-ant's head. With a final, vengeful squeeze of the trigger, he emptied the magazine into the ant.
Riddled with bullets, the beetle-ant lost strength, collapsing lifelessly onto the dying hunter. The man's eyes slowly lost focus; he would not rise again.
Elsewhere, Pokkle deftly sidestepped a flying stone, pulling Ponzu along with him. His fingers blazed with orange aura as he swiftly launched an arrow toward the stone-thrower's location.
But in the next moment, a muscular, pale arm covered in dense scales appeared, catching the arrow effortlessly.
Then a towering figure stepped out from behind the tree, revealing an ant with crocodile-like features. Cold eyes examined the arrow curiously.
"What is this thing?" it rumbled in a deep, gravelly voice, sending chills down Pokkle's spine.
But before the creature could react, an even louder, more irritating voice rang out beside it:
"Look over here!"
Confused, the crocodile-ant turned toward the noise, absentmindedly crushing the arrow in its hand—
—only to be engulfed an instant later by a massive explosion, flames roaring into the night.
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