167: Chapter 171 I won't navigate the maze, I'll just burn through the floor.

The heavy landing gear of the battle axe heavy cruiser slammed violently onto the surface of this so-called continent.

No dust was kicked up.

Accompanied by the massive sound of shock-absorbing hydraulics, the anti-slip spikes on the landing gear sank directly into the thick, dark brown muscle tissue beneath, which was still writhing extremely slowly.

Under the physical pressure of tens of millions of tons of iron, the once-calm, giant capillaries instantly ruptured, spraying a highly corrosive light-green acid mist.

There was no normal atmosphere here; the air was filled with toxic spores and high-dimensional radiation sufficient to scrap conventional interstellar exploration suits within dozens of seconds.

The scan echoes on the holographic radar showed.

Inside this mass of flesh, which had been dead for unknown years yet still maintained low-frequency life signs.

There were thousands of intricate, maze-like alienated intestines and neurovascular pathways extending deep underground.

This was originally a high-difficulty choice posed by the great map rules for high-level players entering the ruins. Any exploration team would likely spend months using numerous probes to map this extremely disgusting 3D maze.

Furthermore, the highlighted markers at the bottom of the radar showed.

Approximately 3.5 kilometers vertically below the surface, there was an extremely dazzling dark-golden glimmering light source radiating a strong aura of rules.

That was the most valuable item of the first epidermal layer: the [Sub-Master Brain Neural Core].

Within the panoramic monitor.

The sarcomas on the surface, originally dormant, began to rupture rapidly under the vibration of the ship's landing. Hundreds of mutated Flesh-Guarding Flying Demons, dripping with acid and possessing dense compound eyes, flapped their fleshy wings and took to the sky, directly intercepting the battle axe heavy cruiser.

Li Cang didn't look at the defensive monsters flashing red across the screen.

His gaze was locked solely on that vertical point 3.5 kilometers underground.

"Number One," Li Cang connected to the signal in the landing pod preparation area. "I don't plan on drawing a map, and I certainly don't want to play some disgusting maze exploration game."

In the airlock decompression chamber, over a hundred Astartes Recruits had already formed two rows.

Not a single person wore a gas mask, not even one with minimal filtration. Just moments ago, when the strong acid toxic mist leaking into the airlock touched their skin, the muscle fibers integrated with the Abyssal Star Beast directly mounted a physical defense at the cellular level, leaving only a few faint white marks before being forcefully repelled.

That hidden poison-resistance trait was the ultimate green light here.

"Take ten Heavy Melta Sprayers down."

On the console, Li Cang drew a straight red line without any turns, plunging directly from the ship's belly toward the heart zone three kilometers deep.

"Burn through this meat pad and drop straight down for me."

The hatch door slammed open.

The Flesh-Guarding Flying Demons at the front, who hadn't even reached the ship yet and were trying to contaminate the battle axe heavy cruiser's anti-air deck with self-destructing acid, had no idea what Warhammer fire saturation meant.

Ten Astartes Recruits dove out of the open hatch like ten black cannonballs.

In mid-air, they didn't raise their Bolters for precision pest control; instead, they simultaneously leveled those heavy, thick Double-Barreled Melta Cutters.

These tools were originally used by the Adeptus Mechanicus to cut the main keels of battleships.

They pulled the triggers.

Ten beams of dazzling white light, reaching temperatures of tens of thousands of degrees, wove into a massive net of fire, pressing down with overwhelming force.

Hundreds of acid monsters didn't even have time to transmit the frequency of their screams. The moment they touched the fire net, the liquid water in their cells was physically vaporized, turning into dozens of wisps of charred black smoke. Not a single speck of ash managed to touch the recruits' armor.

Leveraging their gravitational potential energy and without activating any buffer engines, the Astartes Recruits slammed violently onto the dark brown, coarse muscle ground.

The melta beams did not extinguish.

These ten muscular men stood in a perfect circle.

They turned their muzzles downward, pressing them directly against the surface skin that the ancient ruins' remains were desperately trying to hide.

The ten-thousand-degree heat instantly melted muscle, fat, and even bone plates hardened with silicon-based materials.

"Aaaargh—"

A scream of extreme agony, which didn't exist in the physical air but acted directly on the depths of high-dimensional senses, caused the entire massive fleshy continent to shudder from this crude forced demolition.

The recruits completely ignored the boiling plasma melting and splashing beneath their feet.

The fleshy shell beneath them couldn't withstand the melta at all. The high heat burned a perfect vertical hole, over ten meters in diameter and seemingly bottomless, directly through the area under their feet.

And they fell straight down along with the massive hole they had burned through.

No need to crawl through intestines, no need to search for some damn system mechanisms hidden in the shadows.

These were a bunch of armored thugs who wouldn't even bother taking a detour.

The 3.5-kilometer fall took less than twenty seconds under the acceleration of gravity.

Boom!

Accompanied by the dull thud of several thick, charred, carbonized bone plates being smashed.

The ten recruits, like solid iron anvils, slammed into the bottom of the massive hollow brain chamber inside the ruins without decelerating.

The recoil from the impact even fractured the bones of several Semi-Parasites hiding in the shadows, waiting to ambush.

Recruit Number One pulled his boot out of the pit of flesh mush that reached his knees.

Without a pause, he turned and kicked open the half-broken biological door in front of him, which was still sparking with electricity and dripping mucus.

On the altar behind the door.

The [Core Master Brain Neural Crystal], radiating an incredibly alluring aura sufficient to force genetic evolution in ordinary civilizations, floated calmly there.

Right beside it was a Forsaken Guardian, three stories tall, clad in high-level Psionic Hard Armor of a long-lost type, holding a Bone Sacrificial Staff. Only now did it open its multiple compound eyes, which were bloodshot.

Complex spell frequencies representing high-dimensional curses began to surge in its throat. This was the most severe first-boss test the system had designed for any adventurer.

It was even making gestures to charge up energy.

But Recruit Number One had no intention of waiting for it to finish its casting bar.

This recruit, with a scar running across his left cheek, was completely unfazed by the rising psionic pressure.

He tossed the melta to the ground with his left hand and pulled the high-frequency Chainsword, which was idling wildly, from his back with his right.

His massive frame left an afterimage trailing a wave of foul air as he crossed the thirty-meter distance in a single step.

"Shut up."

A voice through the modulator, devoid of any personal grudge.

He used brutal, raw strength to swing the Chainsword upward from below.

The Guardian's large mouth, which had just uttered half a syllable, was forced open and sliced over half a meter deep along the jawline by the Adamantine Greatsword.

Psionic Hard Armor could stop guns and cannons.

But it could do absolutely nothing to stop the internal drilling and cutting of a solid-toothed giant saw with a conversion rate in the tens of thousands.

Bone shards and various mangled high-level brain matter exploded across the face that hadn't even had a chance to show its divine power.

Its entire lower face, along with the vocal organ that was charging energy, was cleanly removed at the root. Its massive body swayed twice before toppling into the bloody water like a piece of rotten wood.

With the obstruction gone.

Recruit Number One stepped onto the altar.

He didn't even look for a cushion, reaching out directly with his armored gauntlet covered in brain matter.

With a forceful yank.

He crudely tore out that precious first-clear major core, along with a large section of tangled blood vessels, and stuffed it carelessly into the tactical box at his waist.

Under this barbaric action, the system's high-level first-kill judgment and server-wide announcement flickered helplessly and extremely rapidly across Li Cang's control screen.

"Return to the ship. Tally the cargo."

Li Cang's voice was extremely calm.

But before the joy of the first wave of sudden wealth could fully spread.

At the top of the panoramic monitor.

That blue barrier sky, which was supposed to protect the ruins and keep the main forces outside.

Amidst the continent-level wails and spasms of this giant beast caused by its core being stolen, it suddenly emitted a piercing cracking sound like shattering glass.

At the top of Li Cang's radar, tens of thousands of crimson light points instantly lit up like a bloodthirsty swarm of bees.

The Four Top Veteran Fleets outside, seeing that someone had beaten them to it, finally abandoned their hypocritical blockade negotiations. They linked their main cannons and used the most physical means to shatter the peripheral barriers that had become weakened due to Li Cang's forced demolition.

"Since a thief has entered the vault."

Within the system's public channel.

A joint broadcast representing their extreme anger and arrogance rolled over the top of the battle axe frigate like thunder.

They have warped in.