69: Chapter 69 Jiang Chen: This big guy can't fit in my garage!

3:00 AM, Western Suburbs.

A piercing siren tore through the silence of the night, and red strobe lights illuminated the entire "Chenxing Agricultural Base" as if it were a battlefield.

"Quick, quick, quick! Move it!"

Company Commander Zhao Gang was shouting at the top of his lungs, his grip so tight on the megaphone it was about to shatter. "All personnel, evacuate the core area immediately! Retreat beyond the second line of defense! This is a direct order!"

Hundreds of construction workers, who had been working through the night, ran with their hard hats askew, abandoning their gear and scrambling toward the perimeter in a disheveled panic.

Old Wang, the project foreman in his fifties, was being dragged away by two special forces soldiers. His legs were kicking in the air, and he was shedding tears of heartache:

"Oh, my ancestors! That cement over there was just poured! It hasn't even dried yet! Running over it like this will leave footprints everywhere!"

"Forget the cement!"

Zhao Gang roared back, his eyes fierce enough to eat someone. "If you don't run, you're going to turn into a concrete pillar yourself!"

After shooing everyone away, Zhao Gang wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and trotted over to Jiang Chen.

At this moment, Jiang Chen was standing in an open space in the very center of the base.

He held his phone, his brows furrowed, occasionally looking up at the sky and then down at the yellow earth beneath his feet, muttering to himself as if calculating some sort of Feng Shui.

"Chief!"

Zhao Gang leaned in, lowering his voice, his tone filled with tension and awe. "Everyone has been evacuated. Within a two-kilometer radius, besides us, there isn't even a stray dog left."

He swallowed hard, glanced at Jiang Chen's solemn expression, and cautiously probed:

"Could you give me the lowdown... what exactly are we doing tonight?"

"With such a big setup, and the need to clear the area... are we doing that?"

Zhao Gang made a mushroom cloud gesture with his hand, his eyes flashing with a resolute light that said, "I have no regrets even if I die." "If this is a nuclear test, I, Zhao Gang, will guard this gate with my life! I'm not afraid of radiation!"

Jiang Chen glanced at him and rolled his eyes helplessly.

"What are you thinking about? A nuclear test?"

"We're an agricultural technology company, we grow sweet potatoes! Can you have some professional standards?"

"Then..." Zhao Gang scratched his head. "Then why did you make us retreat so far?"

Jiang Chen sighed, pointed to the ground he had just leveled, and then pointed to the half-finished steel warehouse not far away.

"Because a delivery is arriving."

"This delivery is a bit big."

Jiang Chen gestured with a troubled expression. "And the one delivering it... the method is quite rough. No installation included, no after-sales service either, they just throw it down. I was afraid it would crush you all."

Zhao Gang was stunned.

A delivery?

How big of a delivery can crush someone to death? A shipping container?

Jiang Chen ignored Zhao Gang's bewilderment; he was currently facing an extremely serious "parking" problem.

On his phone screen, the system's red grid lines were flashing alarms frantically.

[Warning! Insufficient space in the drop zone!]

[Target object length: 520 meters.]

[Current available leveled area length: 480 meters.]

[Obstacle detection: Warehouse A, Water Tower B, and... that row of newly planted sweet potato seedlings.]

"Well, this is fucking awkward."

Jiang Chen sucked his teeth, feeling a bit of a headache.

It's like buying a stretch Lincoln, only to drive home and find your garage was built for a micro-car—no matter how you try to shove it in, it won't fit.

That Galaxy-class frigate, even though it was only "light," was still light for the interstellar era!

Five hundred and twenty meters long!

If placed horizontally, it would occupy the entire base; if placed vertically, you'd have to dig a pit several hundred meters deep.

"I should have bought the land next door too."

Jiang Chen scratched his hair in annoyance. "Now this is great, I have to demolish it."

He looked up at the newly built Warehouse No. 2, which had cost a few million, hardened his heart, and gritted his teeth.

Out with the old, in with the new!

Since the garage is too small, I'll just smash the garage wall!

Anyway, it was just for storing scrap metal. Now that the real deal is here, if that scrap gets crushed, so be it—it'll actually save some space.

"Old Zhao!"

Jiang Chen suddenly turned his head, his tone serious. "Whatever you see in a moment, don't scream, and hold onto your jaw. Also, tell your men to close their eyes. If they get scared into a heart attack, I'm not covering their medical bills."

Zhao Gang's heart skipped a beat, and he subconsciously straightened his back.

"Yes!"

Jiang Chen took a deep breath and looked back at his phone screen.

His finger hovered over the red [Force Extract] button.

Since I can't avoid it, I'll just have to do a hard landing!

It doesn't matter if some flowers and plants get crushed, I can just replant them later. As for that warehouse... consider it a welcoming gift for this interstellar warship!

"System."

"Coordinates confirmed: Western Suburbs Base No. 3, center point."

"Altitude locked: 50 meters above ground (for cushioning)."

"Give it to me... Drop!"

He pressed his finger down heavily.

"Hum—!!!"

There was no earth-shattering explosion as imagined.

On the contrary.

The entire world, in that instant, seemed to have been pressed on a mute button.

All sounds—the wind, the chirping of insects, even the sound of traffic on the distant highway—vanished completely.

An extremely uncomfortable dead silence shrouded the land.

Zhao Gang felt as if his eardrums were plugged with thick cotton, his chest felt tight, and the rhythm of his heartbeat was being suppressed by some terrifying magnetic field.

Immediately after.

He saw with horror that the starry night sky above him suddenly... cracked open.

It wasn't a figure of speech.

It really cracked open.

It was like a black curtain that had been fiercely slashed down the middle with a pair of scissors.

A huge, pitch-black vortex that could swallow even light appeared without warning directly above the base.

The vortex was slowly rotating, its edges flickering with eerie purple electric arcs.

"This... this is..."

Zhao Gang opened his mouth wide, his legs beginning to shake uncontrollably.

As a staunch materialist soldier, he had seen tanks charge, missiles carpet-bomb, and even comrades blown to pieces beside him in his life.

But he had never seen a scene like this!

What is this?

A wormhole?

A gate of time and space?

Or... the gateway to hell?

Before he could recover from this immense fear, something suddenly poked out from the center of the black vortex.

A sharp, silvery-white, scarred—metal bow of a ship.

It slowly squeezed out of that black hole, carrying a majesty that crushed all living things.

It was like a giant beast from the primordial era, struggling to break free from the shackles of time and descend into the human world.

The moonlight was obscured.

A huge shadow instantly swallowed the entire base, and also swallowed Zhao Gang's tiny figure.

As the hull revealed itself bit by bit, that suffocating sense of oppression increased geometrically.

Ten meters... fifty meters... one hundred meters...

It wasn't over yet!

That big guy was still coming out!

As if it were endless!

At that moment, Zhao Gang felt his soul leave his body.

He looked at the steel behemoth that blotted out the sky, looked at the huge, terrifying cannon barrels that were extinguished but still menacing, and looked at the sparks still flickering on the broken ship wing.

"Thump."

This iron-willed man could finally no longer hold on; his knees went weak, and he knelt to the ground.

He looked up at the sky, his eyes hollow, his lips trembling, and using all his remaining strength, he squeezed out a desperate moan with a sobbing tone from the depths of his throat:

"Ch... Chief..."

"Is this fucking a delivery?!"

"Th... This is an alien invasion, right!!!"