Its two ears continued to shake. It would yawn occasionally, showing its sharp fangs.
The previous attack was likely a supersonic one with a high-pitched frequency. While the hedgehog was being rescued, Gao Peng sneaked a glance at it and saw that blood oozed from its ears and eyes. Some of the sharp spikes on its back had cracked.
The cracked sharp spikes seemed like they could fall off at any time. The hedgehog looked uncomfortable and arched its back towards the ground, and several of the damaged spikes did come off. With many of the black spikes gone from the back of the hedgehog looked as if it were growing bald. There was exposed the pinkish flesh underneath the spikes.
The hedgehog familiar turned away from the crowd. With the bald patches it could no longer face people.
...
Gao Peng stared at it for a while. The supersonic attack of the Skull-winged Blue Bat was quite something. Although the hedgehog familiar was only level 15, the spikes on its back were one of its most lethal weapons, and definitely tough.
However, even spikes as tough as that were cracked by the supersonic attack. Gao Peng did not think Stripey's current defense was any better than the hedgehog's.
As Gao Peng calmed the restless Stripey, he entered into a spectator mode. He noticed Instructor Zhang's gaze but remained unmoved, as it would be impossible for him to take part in the battle. Stripey was dumb and the monster was too strong. It would be too much of a gamble.
Two familiars suffered consecutive defeats. The people at the scene had more or less grasped the actual strength of the monster.
When Instructor Zhang asked if anyone wanted to continue challenging it, everyone looked at each other. Some even looked to the sky, while others looked down at the ground.
It infuriated Instructor Zhang. It only took one monster to turn you all into cowards, he thought.
"You, you, I remember you wimps. You're always the liveliest during normal training. Aren't you guys the self-proclaimed F4? Why are you chickening out now?"
"Aiyo," a student said, putting his hands on his stomach and laying on the ground. "My stomach is not feeling so well."
As the Three-tailed Teddy beside the boy saw its master lay down, a sparkle flashed through its eyes. All three of its tails began to shake at the same time.
"Forget it, I guess you guys graduated from the drama academy," Chief Instructor Chen said. Upon finding out that he could not motivate the students, he did not force them. "This Skull-winged Blue Bat will be brought over and put in the cage every day. It will only be removed when one of you succeeds in defeating it."
As he said that, Chief Instructor Chen unconsciously snuck a glance at Gao Peng. Their eyes connected and Gao Peng felt a little awkward. What has this got to do with me? he thought.
Gao Peng did not rush home after the afternoon training session. First he brought Stripey to the Monster Hunter Alliance.
In the last month, Gao Peng had been collecting materials for Stripey's evolution. He had finally collected everything that afternoon. He reached the Monster Hunter Alliance, but at that moment it was rather busy.
Gao Peng queued for a while before it was his turn. He put his fingerprints on the biometric scanner as the camera aimed straight at him. He passed the verification procedure.
After receiving his quest items, Gao Peng left riding Stripey. Due to Stripey's size there was no way they would fit on the public bus, so they had to walk.
Luckily Stripey was not much slower than the public bus. The only thing was that the fur on Stripey's back pricked at Gao Peng's butt. He felt scratchy and slightly uncomfortable; next time, he would place a cushion on Stripey.
As he reached the studio, Gao Peng brought down the external lift to bring Stripey upstairs. Stripey rubbed Gao Peng affectionately and Gao Peng went to the laboratory to prepare the experiment materials.
He processed the materials and modulated agents. The total preparation time was three hours and the sky had already begun to turn dark.
After putting all the modulated agents into the experimental cylinder, the boiling hot water began to diffuse the agent.
Gao Peng pushed opened the laboratory door. He did not see Stripey out in the corridor. Where exactly did that guy go?
After looking he found Stripey at a corner of the guest room. All of Stripey's limbs were curled together tightly as it leaned on the wall in a corner, sound asleep.
Its red eyes were a bit dilated, and in the darkness of the night it seemed helpless and weak.
Gao Peng knocked on the glass door of the guest room.
Stripey was startled out of its slumber. Light returned to its eyes as it quickly got up and used its appendages to wipe off its saliva. With a jump and a leap, it ran towards its master.
"Let's go. Let's make you stronger," Gao Peng said as he laughed and patted Stripey's head.
The experimental cylinder in the laboratory was filled with water dark as black ink.
Stripey initially rested two of its shield-like forelimbs on the periphery of the experimental cylinder. With a push, its entire body lifted. The strength of these two limbs was far greater than the other limbs.
Stripey kept pushing and its body kept floating into the air, as if it were doing a handstand.
Due to its large size it seemed to be very shaky. Finally, it fell into the cylinder with a splash. Stripey had the awareness to retract its limbs so that its entire body became submerged in the liquid.
Gao Peng backed off two steps and observed Stirpey's evolution process.
Clouds of dark smoke appeared on top of the cylinder before they were retracted, as if there were a monster huffing and puffing clouds within.
After an hour, seeing that the experiment was pretty much going smoothly, Gao Peng turned around to leave. Working non-stop for three hours, paired with the additional one hour he spent standing there, was just too exhausting.
...
"Are you sure that this studio is empty?"
Two people stood suspiciously outside the studio. Both of them had ski masks on only exposing their eyes. Behind them were two familiars.
"Relax, there is definitely no one! I've been here and collected some stuff these few days. By this time, everyone from the studio will have gone home a long time ago."
"But what's there to steal in a studio? If you ask me, it would've been better if we went to a bank."
"A bank? Now everyone uses credits for transfers, so what's the use of money from the bank!" the person on the left scolded in a low voice. "Relax. Normally, studios have some experiment materials. These materials can easily fetch hundreds of thousands, or even millions of dollars."
The person on the left immediately summoned their familiar over. This monster that looked like plasticine glided on the ground like jelly. Later, the man took out two chunks of "flesh" from his own familiar. The familiar cried out in pain and made bubbling noises.
The man rubbed the "Plasticine" he grabbed and a glove-like thing covered his hands.
After that, he took out another small box from his bag. He opened the box and cold gas emerged. He cautiously placed the monster inside of the bullet-proof glass door.
One could see that it was a monster that looked like a mosquito. It was the size of a palm, and what made the deepest impression was that it had a mouthpart that was ten centimeters long. After this mosquito type monster was placed on the glass, its limbs stuck to the door.
Then the man took another transparent box from the bag and covered the still-frozen mosquito. With a light push, he turned on the switch on the box and a mist sprayed all over the mosquito that stimulated and woke it.
"Peng!"
The mosquito monster woke up suddenly upon being stimulated, and the mouthpart exploded due to a conditional reflex.