73: Chapter 73: The military's lives matter, and parking spaces cost money too!

Three hundred meters underground, in the stomach area of the Crimson Hive.

The calcified rock layer overhead was collapsing with unstoppable force; boulders the size of millstones, laden with highly corrosive acid, slammed into the mud like raindrops.

The entire underground space was teetering on the brink of collapse.

Iron Wall, his face smeared with mud, scrambled and crawled to the edge of the Ghost Fortress's shield.

Of the fifty heavy armored vehicles behind him, fewer than ten could barely start, while the rest had been melted into scrap metal by the acid.

Dozens of wounded soldiers supported each other, their eyes filled with despair.

"Chen Chen! Officer Chen!"

Iron Wall screamed until his voice cracked, pounding desperately against the pale blue energy membrane.

"Take us with you! As long as you let us on board, the military will owe you a massive favor! From now on, the entire District 069..."

"Hiss—"

The armored door closed mercilessly, sealing shut and completely shutting out Iron Wall's roars.

Chen Chen sat in the driver's seat, one hand gripping the control stick, not even raising an eyelid.

His voice, flat and devoid of emotion, emanated from the vehicle's loudspeaker.

"The military's lives are lives, and my parking space is money."

"My vehicle doesn't carry idlers."

Iron Wall froze in place, his face turning deathly pale, as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

He watched helplessly as the chassis of that dark, steel behemoth lit up with blinding purple-blue electric arcs.

The A-grade magnetic levitation engine let out a deafening roar.

Chen Chen pushed the control stick to the limit, and the Ghost Fortress shot straight up.

"However."

The voice from the loudspeaker rang out again, drowning out the thunderous roar of the collapsing rock layer.

"I'm a businessman who values after-sales service. I just bought eight thousand rounds of ammunition from you, so I'll open the path for you."

"This passage will hold for three minutes. If you can keep up, consider yourselves lucky."

As soon as he finished speaking, Chen Chen raised his left hand and swept it upward.

[Absolute Control: Gravity Field]!

Reverse burst!

The terrifying twenty-fold gravity reversed, turning into a violent upward repulsive force.

The boulders and rock layers falling from above were pulverized into dust upon impact with this repulsive force.

Like a meteorite flying in reverse, the Ghost Fortress, with its energy deflection shield raised, smashed open a wide path straight to the surface along the vertical trajectory it had come from.

Iron Wall looked at the path to survival glimmering above and suddenly realized what was happening.

"All troops, board the vehicles! Floor the gas pedals! Charge out!"

...

On the outskirts of the poison gas swamp.

Seven Blades was leading the remnants of the Black Dragon Society, swinging machetes as they struggled to clear out the low-level aberrations overflowing from the edge of the swamp.

The armor of several modified off-road vehicles was covered in shredded flesh.

"Uncle Seven, the boss has been inside for nearly half an hour."

A subordinate wiped the blood from his face, looking at the rolling green toxic fog with lingering fear.

"Even the military's heavy armored convoy got trapped in there, and the boss..."

"Shut your stinky mouth!" Seven Blades backhanded a zombie dog that lunged at him.

"Is the boss's capability something you can fathom? Just do your job honestly and clean up the materials that dropped!"

Though he cursed like that, Seven Blades was actually drumming with anxiety inside.

That was a forbidden zone even the regional announcements marked in red.

Just then, the earth suddenly trembled violently.

A dull, booming sound erupted from the center of the swamp, and immediately after, the green toxic fog was forcibly torn apart by a violent air current.

"Boom!"

A heavy recreational vehicle, covered entirely in a pale blue membrane with purple-blue electric arcs wrapping around its chassis, broke through the surface with unrivaled kinetic energy and hovered steadily in mid-air.

Its body was pitch black like ink, not even a drop of acid staining it.

The machete in Seven Blades' hand clattered to the ground.

The remnants of the Black Dragon Society were all stunned.

They clearly remembered the desperate cry for help the military had sent in the regional channel, and they had also seen the server-wide announcement that the Broodmother Nest had been killed.

And now, the man who had charged into the forbidden zone alone and secured the first kill had emerged completely unscathed.

Seven Blades' knees went weak, and he knelt directly on the sandy ground.

The remaining people reacted quickly, kneeling down in a rush, heads pressed to the ground, not even daring to breathe loudly.

The Ghost Fortress slowly descended in front of them.

Chen Chen's voice came from inside the vehicle:

"After you finish cleaning up the loot, get on your vehicles and follow behind. We're moving to a new place to set up camp."

"Yes! Boss!" Seven Blades' voice roared, thunderous, the fanaticism in his tone impossible to conceal.

Inside the vehicle.

The temperature was a constant twenty-four degrees, and the air was filled with the aroma of black tea Shen Wanxing had just brewed.

Su Xiaoqi lay sprawled on the sofa, her little belly round and full, burping with satisfaction.

Having just devoured the crystal of the god's projection, the energy within her was filled to the brim, and her skin was even emitting a faint purple glow.

Chen Chen walked to the long metal table in the living quarters and waved his hand.

"Clatter!"

Fifty mid-tier vehicle cores, emitting a dark blue, eerie light, piled up into a small mountain on the tabletop.

This was the basic system reward for killing the Crimson Hive.

"Shen Wanxing, come over and get to work." Chen Chen pulled out a chair and sat down.

Shen Wanxing immediately put down her teacup, lifted the hem of her silver evening gown, and trotted over.

Her moist, amber eyes sparkled with excitement, and she rubbed her small, fair hands together.

"Chen Chen, how should I shoot this time?"

"Cover them all directly."

Shen Wanxing nodded obediently and placed both hands directly on the pile of mid-tier vehicle cores.

God-level talent [Lucky Critical] activated!

A blinding golden-purple light instantly exploded inside the cabin; the light was so intense that even Jiang Yanxue, standing by to keep watch, couldn't help but squint her eyes.

[Ding! Lucky Critical triggered!]

[Critical multiplier determination in progress... Determination successful! 2x critical hit triggered!]

[Congratulations, obtained: Mid-tier vehicle core * 100!]

The dark blue crystals on the table instantly doubled, piling up so high the table could barely hold them.

A full one hundred mid-tier cores!

Enough for the Ghost Fortress to recklessly squander the extreme power of its magnetic levitation engine for a long time to come.

Chen Chen nodded with satisfaction and swept all the cores into his silver-grade storage ring.

Next was the real main event.

Chen Chen flipped his wrist, and a blind box, emitting dazzling golden light and covered in complex runes, appeared in his palm.

The exclusive reward for first place in the regional survival challenge task—a golden blueprint blind box.

The breathing in the cabin instantly grew heavy.

Even Qin Hongye on the second floor held her Gauss sniper rifle, leaning out half her body, staring fixedly at that blind box.

Golden-quality items—currently, only Chen Chen in the entire District 069 had ever obtained one.

"Come." Chen Chen pushed the blind box in front of Shen Wanxing.

Shen Wanxing's expression was uncharacteristically nervous.

She knew the weight of this box; this was something Chen Chen had retrieved while risking his life against a god's projection.

She placed both hands on the lid of the blind box and closed her eyes.

"Give me something good!"

"Snap."

The moment the blind box opened.

A golden beam of light, thick to the extreme, pierced straight through the roof of the Ghost Fortress and shot into the sky.

This beam of light even punched a huge hole through the gloom that hung over the Flesh Wasteland all year round.

Sunlight streamed down through the hole, illuminating the RV.

The system notification rang frantically in Chen Chen's mind.

[Ding! Golden blueprint blind box opened successfully!]

[Blessed by the god-level talent 'Lucky Critical', the blueprint quality has been forcibly upgraded!]

[Congratulations, obtained: Unique S-grade vehicle weapon blueprint—Void Annihilation Matrix (Simplified Version)》!]

Chen Chen stood up abruptly, his eyes locked onto that golden blueprint floating in mid-air.

Unique S-grade!