“Is that the same high-rank monster from before?” Fang Mingyue couldn’t see the “Big Whale” hidden in the thick fog—only a faint, shadowy outline.
In truth, even Shen Ge’s spectral eye couldn’t precisely track the “Big Whale’s” movements. It was clear that the creature’s stealth capabilities, while perhaps not quite on par with the trait “Vanishing,” were still remarkably close.
“Let’s get the explosives planted before the fog spreads here.” Shen Ge couldn’t fly, and he wasn’t about to recklessly charge into the空中 fog to fight the “Big Whale.”
So he had Fang Mingyue stick to the original plan—blow up the Penguin Building. Whether it was the explosion itself or the ongoing battle between the two high-rank monsters, as long as one of them lured the “Big Whale” down to the ground, Shen Ge would have a chance to engage it.
To take down the “Big Whale,” he naturally needed to first feel out its capabilities.
By now, the fog from the “Big Whale” had already spread across the entire block. The whole Penguin Building was shrouded in dense mist. Shen Ge took some of the high explosives and split up with Fang Mingyue to finish placing the charges as quickly as possible.
Entering the fog-engulfed building, Shen Ge planted high explosives at key locations based on the map Fang Mingyue had provided.
Outside, the sounds of collapsing buildings echoed—likely from the battle between the spectral rat and the spectral bug.
Fang Mingyue had also finished placing her explosives, but the fog was growing thicker by the second, so thick she couldn’t see her own hand in front of her face. She could only rely on memory, feeling her way along the walls as she made her way back.
The building was hiding quite a few low-rank monsters and parasitized hosts. The appearance of these spectral black mists had affected them too, which ironically gave Fang Mingyue the openings she needed to plant the bombs.
Boom!
Boom!
Suddenly, with two loud crashes of collapsing structures, Fang Mingyue noticed something charging at her through the fog. Before she could react, she was sent flying by a hard object, slamming bang into a nearby wall. The impact made her vision go dark from the pain.
Before she could catch her breath, she saw the dark shadow in the fog drawing closer—clearly, whatever it was had no intention of letting her go.
Just when despair began to creep in, Fang Mingyue felt a blur before her eyes. The next second, she was scooped up and carried several meters away.
“Tsk. There are quite a few rank 3 monsters lurking in this fog.” In just over ten minutes, Shen Ge had already taken down over a dozen monsters, including two rank 3s.
Hearing the commotion nearby, he guessed Fang Mingyue had run into trouble, so he extended his immobile domain and used its “bullet time” property to rescue her.
“Shen Ge!” Fang Mingyue’s face lit up when she saw who it was.
In just two days, Shen Ge had saved her three times. Even she felt a bit awkward about it. But then, thinking of the monster in the fog, she quickly warned: “The monsters in this fog are incredibly tough. When I hit one, it felt like slamming into a solid block of iron. And they’re fast, so you—”
Before she could finish, Shen Ge raised his monster-killing revolver and fired several shots into the thick fog. Then he looked down at her and asked: “What were you saying?”
“…Never mind.” Though Fang Mingyue couldn’t see what was happening in the fog, she could tell from the sound of the bullets hitting their targets that not a single shot had missed.
And recalling Shen Ge’s earlier remark, it was clear he didn’t consider the rank 3 monsters in the fog much of a threat, so she wisely chose to shut up.
“Are the explosives all set?” Shen Ge asked.
Fang Mingyue nodded. “All planted. We just need to get out, signal the vice-captain with the flare gun, and then detonate.”
“Then there’s no point wasting time here. Let’s move!” Shen Ge said, and with that, he grabbed Fang Mingyue and dashed out of the building.
Meanwhile, on the other side of the block where the Penguin Building stood, gunfire rang out—it was Deng Yuqi’s squad, trying to approach from the other side.
But after receiving Fang Mingyue’s signal, they slowed their advance, taking cover nearby instead. They were waiting for the signal to detonate the explosives, while also preparing for the next phase—the search and rescue operation.
Just as Deng Yuqi was about to scout the area, a massive meteorite fell from the sky—literally out of nowhere—and smashed straight into the ground, flushing out the spectral rat that had been hiding underground.
A high-rank monster appearing out of nowhere was already bad enough, but then this high-rank monster started frantically gnawing on a collapsed old building like it had gone berserk.
And then something even more shocking happened—no one had expected that the building being devoured by the spectral rat was also a monster!
The sudden emergence of two high-rank monsters left Deng Yuqi completely stunned. This obviously threw a major wrench in their plans. Even if the Penguin Building was successfully demolished, carrying out a search-and-rescue operation in the middle of a battlefield between two high-rank monsters would be no easier than killing one outright.
Just as Deng Yuqi was about to order a retreat, two scouts who had been reconnoitering nearby returned with a report: they’d spotted a small group of survivors on the opposite side of the block, preparing to evacuate.
“Survivors?” Deng Yuqi found this news somewhat suspicious. Though this area was a few kilometers from the shelter, it was still within the boundaries of Defense Line 3.
In other words, if survivors had been hiding here, the patrols should have found them long ago. Why would they only show up now, right when high-rank monsters appeared?
“Where are they?” Deng Yuqi asked.
One of the scouts replied: “On 3-22nd Street.”
“Let’s go check it out.”
Defense Line 3 had already been completely destroyed after being hit by two high-rank monsters, and the entrance connecting it to the shelter had collapsed.
Now, as the two high-rank monsters fought fiercely, the ominous dark clouds and black fog reappeared in the sky. Walking through the streets, Deng Yuqi and her team couldn’t shake the feeling that something in the fog was watching them.
Deng Yuqi was worried that some monster might drop out of the “overhead” fog and attack them—but instead, the fog “ran away,” drifting toward the distant Penguin Building. In the blink of an eye, it had swallowed the entire structure whole, then began spreading rapidly outward from the building as its center.
As Deng Yuqi’s team crept toward the survivors’ evacuation point, the survivors were locked in battle with a rank 3 sludge-type monster that looked like a spider.
The group wasn’t poorly armed—each member had a gun. Even if firearms were ineffective against monsters, they were still the survivors’ only means of resistance.
After a couple of members got eaten, the main group managed to escape the rank 3 monster’s pursuit. But the gunfire had attracted nearby parasitized hosts, and they soon found themselves surrounded.
Yet they couldn’t exactly stop using their guns. These were ordinary people—without weapons, they’d be helpless against the parasitized hosts.
“Damn it! Calm down, calm down! Stop shooting, stop your fucking shooting! Do you want to lure that big thing back here?!” the survivor team’s leader yelled angrily.
The survivors all wore bitter expressions, wishing they could shove their leader into the monsters’ mouths so he could see for himself. These were parasitic monsters—who knew if they’d get infected if they got too close? Were they supposed to fight them barehanded if they couldn’t use guns?
The leader glanced at the large box his men were carrying. The priest had tasked him with ensuring the box reached its designated location. Who could have guessed they’d run into monsters fighting halfway?
And not just any monsters—two high-rank ones!
Gritting his teeth, the leader pulled two black curved blades, each a meter long, from his back. If guns were out of the question, he was the only one here who could stand against these monsters!
“Fall back to the street across. Find a shop and protect this box with your lives. If anything happens to it, I’ll rip your heads off!” the leader snarled.
Then he charged forward, swinging his two massive black curved blades with a whoosh, slicing through several parasitized hosts and carving a bloody path for his men.
Taking the chance, the team members hauled the large box into a shop on the opposite street. The leader, realizing he couldn’t hold off the swarm of parasitized hosts for much longer, hurled two grenades into the distance. The explosions momentarily diverted the creatures’ attention, and he bolted toward the shop where his men had entered.
But just as he ran inside, he felt a sharp pain in his lower back. Then a hand grabbed his arm, and with a crack, his shoulder was dislocated.
By the time the leader came to his senses, he was pinned against the counter.
Seconds later, a group of fully armed soldiers surged out from the shop and surrounded him. Only then did the leader notice that his men, who had entered earlier, were all already subdued.
The one who had pinned him down was Deng Yuqi. She had recognized his skill from the way he fought the parasitized hosts, so she’d dislocated one of his arms right off the bat to prevent any trouble.
Given that they had a more important mission at hand, and this group was highly suspicious, she needed to act swiftly and decisively to figure out their intentions.
Deng Yuqi didn’t waste words. She cut straight to the point: “Who are you, and why are you here?”
“I… we…” The leader hadn’t recognized Deng Yuqi in her combat gear and mask, but he did recognize the Exploration Corps’ uniforms—and that made him panic.
“Talk!” Deng Yuqi applied more pressure, and his other arm let out a faint crack. One more push and that arm would be dislocated too.
“Stop—stop! I’ll talk, I’ll talk! We’re subordinates of Priest Lu. We were ordered to deliver this box to the Penguin Building, but we ran into a battle between monsters and got delayed.” The leader was sweating profusely from the pain. He knew how the Exploration Corps operated. With monsters and parasitized hosts lurking outside, and their own urgent mission, if he didn’t speak up, he’d lose not just his arms—but his head.
“Priest Lu?” Deng Yuqi narrowed her eyes. Priest Lu was one of the high-ranking priests of the New God Church, with a status even higher than the captains of the Exploration Corps or the Monster-Hunting Corps.
She couldn’t figure out why Priest Lu’s subordinates were here, or why they were transporting this strange box to the Penguin Building.
“What’s inside the box?” Deng Yuqi asked.
The leader shook his head. “I don’t know. I really don’t know. Priest Lu told us to protect the box at all costs and not to open it. He said it was blessed by the New God, and that opening it without permission would bring a curse. So we didn’t dare open it.”
“Hmph.” Deng Yuqi snorted, clearly unimpressed by Priest Lu’s explanation. Then she shoved the leader toward her team: “Keep an eye on him.”
Two soldiers immediately stepped forward and restrained the leader, while Deng Yuqi walked over to the strange iron box and pulled out a spectral energy scanner.
Outside, the parasitized hosts lured by the leader were still pouring into the shop. Deng Yuqi had already assigned people to deal with them. These were all elite members of the Exploration Corps. Even without guns, armed only with monster-killing blades, they were still stronger than the leader with his twin black blades.
However, even though they could hold off the parasitized hosts, there were still plenty of monsters lurking around. Deng Yuqi had to move fast—figure out what these people were up to, and then get back to the Exploration Corps’ mission.
After a few minutes of confirming that the iron box showed no spectral energy reactions, Deng Yuqi and two of her soldiers pried it open.
She’d expected to find equipment, supplies, or some important object inside. Instead, what lay inside was a person.
The person was wearing an Exploration Corps uniform, and judging by the build, it was a woman. Deng Yuqi yanked off the combat helmet: “Fang Mingyue?”
Lying in the box was an unconscious Fang Mingyue—shoulder-length hair covering the left side of her face, breathing steadily, as if fast asleep.
Deng Yuqi narrowed her eyes. Something felt off. Fang Mingyue had fired a signal flare from the Penguin Building not long ago. How could she be here?
Could it be that Priest Lu had set up an ambush at the Penguin Building?
But what would be the point?
No!
Deng Yuqi suddenly realized a crucial problem. According to the leader, they had been transporting this box to the Penguin Building, but had been delayed by the battle between the two high-rank monsters.
“What’s wrong with her?” Deng Yuqi turned back to the leader and asked.
Seeing the shift in Deng Yuqi’s expression, the leader knew he was in deep trouble. He said with a grimace: “Miss, I really don’t know why it’s like this. Priest Lu only told us to deliver the box to the Penguin Building. He didn’t say anything else. We had no idea one of your people would be inside.”
Judging by the leader’s expression and tone, Deng Yuqi didn’t think he was lying. She reached out to check Fang Mingyue’s breathing and pulse, then noticed a tube with a needle inserted into the back of Fang Mingyue’s neck, delivering some kind of unknown fluid into her body.
Just as Deng Yuqi was about to pull her hand back and take a closer look at the container, the “sleeping” Fang Mingyue suddenly opened her eyes and grabbed for Deng Yuqi’s wrist.
“Who’s there?” Fang Mingyue barked.
Fang Mingyue was the squad leader of Deng Yuqi’s direct unit. Deng Yuqi heard that voice every day—she was certain it was Fang Mingyue’s.
Even so, Deng Yuqi quickly stepped back, putting distance between them, and Fang Mingyue’s grab missed.
Only then did Fang Mingyue notice that the person before her was wearing the same combat uniform, though the gas mask hid her face.
“Ah, my head.” Fang Mingyue rubbed her forehead, muttering to herself: “How did I end up here… my—my head hurts so much.”
Deng Yuqi didn’t respond, just watched silently. Fang Mingyue’s pained expression made the scars on her face look even more terrifying.
Suddenly, a series of booming sounds echoed from afar, along with a thunderous, earth-shaking gulping noise—as if some colossal creature was roaring in the sky.
