106: Chapter 106 Reunion

"Boom, boom, boom—!"

High in the sky, as the LV5 Goblin flagship disintegrated amidst the violent thunder, this overwhelming slaughter finally came to an end.

The swarms of green-skinned Goblins and dwarves, along with their fleet, turned into burning scrap metal and charcoal, crashing into the valley floor like a black rainstorm.

System kill notifications began flooding Zhou An's ears.

[Prismatic Talent 'War Treasure III' triggered!]

[System Notification: Successfully destroyed LV4 Goblin airship fleet, obtained Silver Treasure Chest X15!]

[System Notification: Successfully killed LV5 Goblin Warlord, obtained Diamond Treasure Chest X1!]

...

Accompanied by the crisp, satisfying notification sounds, a brilliant stream of light instantly swept across the entire Shattered Star Rift battlefield.

Countless loot chests turned into streams of light, flooding wildly into Zhou An's resource warehouse.

Listening to the pleasant notification of supplies being stored, Zhou An's tense nerves finally relaxed completely.

"Cleanup complete."

Zhou An glanced at the Shattered Star Rift, which had gone completely silent, save for the sound of burning wreckage.

With a thought, the massive [Cloud Top Fortress] slowly dissipated the residual heat from its main cannons and descended steadily toward the extremely concealed underground karst cave below.

Through EVA's holographic terrain scan, Zhou An clearly saw those few life signals deep within the cave.

"Hum—"

Accompanied by the dull, thunderous sound of mechanical operation, the heavy armored hatch at the top of the fortress opened with a boom.

A soft, azure tractor beam projected downward, precisely locking onto the scratch-covered small aircraft outside the cave, pulling it and the people inside steadily into the incredibly spacious armored armory on the third level of the fortress.

The hatch closed, and the air pressure balanced.

Afterward, Zhang Ming carefully supported Lin Qing, who was heavily pregnant, and along with Li Muzi and Shen Xingyue, finally stepped into this LV5 mobile fortress that had changed completely after five months of separation.

"Ding—"

The alloy elevator doors of the main control room slid open to the sides.

The moment they entered the main control room on this level, everyone's gaze instantly locked onto the slender and incredibly familiar figure standing beside the captain's chair.

The eyes of several people turned red in that instant.

"Boss!"

Li Muzi was the first to lose composure, rushing forward crying and wanting to give Zhou An a solid bear hug. But upon reaching him, she braked abruptly, merely clutching tightly to the corner of Zhou An's clothes, her tears falling like beads from a broken string.

"Where on earth have you been for these five months! I thought... I thought I'd never see you again, wuwuwu..."

"I went to a very magical place to take care of some business."

Zhou An's nose tingled, and he smiled, reaching out to pat Muzi on the shoulder before looking up at the couple, Zhang Ming and Lin Qing, who were walking over while supporting each other.

Zhang Ming stared fixedly at Zhou An, his eyes, accustomed to bloodshed, now bloodshot, his lips trembling, but a thousand words were stuck in his throat, unable to be spoken.

"Well done, Old Zhang. You've had a hard time these past days."

Zhou An looked at the hideous scar on Zhang Ming's left cheek and his unconcealable aura of killing intent, feeling a slight ache in his heart.

Without hesitation, he strode forward, pulled this transformed man into his arms, and gave him a heavy embrace.

He patted Zhang Ming's broad back: "You're safe now that you're here. From now on, let me protect you all."

At this moment, Luo Ning pulled over the cold-faced young woman beside her.

"Boss, let me introduce you. This is Shen Xingyue, a treasure I dug out from a pile of dead bodies, a LV4 specialized physician. Thanks to her, Lin Qing was able to safely carry her pregnancy in such harsh conditions over the past few months."

Luo Ning sniffled, trying hard to regain her capable demeanor.

Shen Xingyue looked at the man before her who had destroyed an entire fleet single-handedly and nodded slightly in greeting.

"Captain Zhou An, I've heard much about you. Miss Luo Ning hasn't stopped talking about you in her dreams these past five months."

Zhou An smiled slightly, his eyes gentle: "Dr. Shen, welcome aboard. From now on, the fortress's medical bay is entirely in your hands. If you need any top-tier equipment in the future, just let me know."

After the pleasantries, everyone began to look around at this ridiculously spacious fortress.

Zhang Ming was the first to snap out of the excitement of the reunion. He glanced at Luo Ning standing at the door and, very tactfully, gave a heavy cough.

"Uh, Boss. Lin Qing is heavily pregnant, and with all the explosions and lightning outside during the battle earlier, she's agitated the fetus. I need to take her to a room to rest immediately."

Li Muzi was even sharper; she rolled her eyes, grabbed Shen Xingyue's arm, and winked frantically at Luo Ning.

"Let's go, go, go, Xingyue! There are plenty of rooms in the living quarters on the second floor. Let's go pick a room with a large bed and the best view from the floor-to-ceiling windows! Boss, Sister Luo, you two chat first, we're going to go tidy up!"

Although Shen Xingyue wasn't familiar with Zhou An, she sensed the subtle atmosphere in the air and immediately nodded obediently.

In less than half a minute, these people had slipped away as if they had greased their feet.

Zhang Ming walked last and even very thoughtfully closed the heavy soundproof door of the main control room.

In the vast main control room, only Zhou An and Luo Ning were left.

The atmosphere suddenly quieted down, with only the fortress's power engine emitting a faint, rhythmic low-frequency hum from deep within.

Luo Ning had long since taken off that formidable heavy firepower mecha, washed up, and changed into a set of clean clothes.

With her hands behind her back, like a cat that had finally returned to its absolutely safe territory, she walked in light yet probing steps, circling Zhou An twice. Those eyes, which usually held a coldness, were now filled with cunning, relief, and deep curiosity.

"I didn't expect that not only did you not die, but you've also upgraded your gear."

Luo Ning suddenly stood on tiptoe, extended her fair fingers, and poked Zhou An's firm chest muscles quite naturally, raising her eyebrows playfully: "That firepower earlier, even I was stunned. Did you strike it rich behind my back?"

But in the next second, the teasing and smile on her face slightly subsided.

Luo Ning stepped back half a step, raised her head, and stared into Zhou An's eyes, her gaze becoming incredibly serious and grave:

"To be honest, I still feel like I'm in an absurd dream even now."

She reached out, her fingertips trembling slightly as she pointed to her neck, which was as smooth as before, her voice laced with a hint of fear:

"On the connecting bridge, I clearly remember... growing tentacles. I heard the whispers of the Mother of the Black Goat; I even felt my soul being gnawed on by those disgusting eyeballs. I thought I was dead, and I was prepared to die."

Luo Ning bit her lower lip tightly, a stubborn light flickering in her eyes:

"So, what exactly did you do? Why did the fatal mutation on my body... suddenly disappear completely?!"

"And why did it transfer to you? And I remember you wanted to kill me then, but in an instant, it was like you were enveloped by something, and you disappeared."

Zhou An looked at her cheek close at hand. That originally fair and delicate face had a few fine scars, left over from previous battles.

But in Zhou An's eyes, this appearance was more vivid than ever, even making her seem incredibly adorable to him.

He took a deep look at her and ultimately chose to hide the matter of activating the Demonic Contract, suppressing it all deep within his heart.

He didn't want her to bear this heavy karma.

Zhou An reached out, gently wiping a smudge of black ash from her cheek, and smiled nonchalantly: "Because at the last moment, I happened to trigger a rare hidden talent. I used that talent's ultimate judgment to forcibly purify your contamination. It's just that the price was a bit high; it transferred to me temporarily, and then, so as not to hurt you, I teleported away."

"Purify the contamination of the 'Mother of the Black Goat'? Just with one talent?! And when did you learn to teleport?"

Luo Ning widened her eyes, looking Zhou An up and down as if looking at a monster.

She had personally experienced how terrifying and hopeless that power was, and she couldn't help but complain wildly: "Tell me honestly, how many talents have you been hiding from me? Is this crappy survival system run by your relatives?!"

Listening to her unceremonious complaints, he couldn't help but chuckle: "Just good luck. Tell me, how did you all survive these past five months?"

Seeing him change the subject, Luo Ning stopped pressing.

She walked over to the leather sofa on the side, her whole body sinking into it like a puddle of soft mud without any image, her two long legs casually crossed on the coffee table. She sighed, her eyes becoming somewhat distant:

"After you disappeared, I wore my battle armor and drifted alone in that violent high-altitude black fog for a whole day and night, muddled and confused, with your mutated form filling my mind.

Finally, it was Muzi who found me, flying her own plane."

She paused:

"As for what happened later, you can probably guess. City Lord Zhao Tianyu became the only 'savior' of the entire district. Relying on military suppression, he cleaned up the mess of the collapsed connecting bridge, and then logically took advantage of the situation to annex guilds like God's Domain and Hongyan Pavilion, completely unifying the entire 997 district. And I, the person who turned into a 'monster' in front of everyone during the district-wide broadcast, naturally became the number one heretic they were hunting down."

"But City Lord Zhao Tianyu probably had no choice. At that time, everyone thought you were dead, and since I mutated in front of everyone, he had to issue a wanted notice whether he wanted to or not. Fortunately, he never made a move himself; if he had, we would probably be reuniting in heaven."

"Later, we couldn't show our faces in any official stronghold and could only wander on the edge of the Cloud Sea. We just hid and dodged like street rats. It wasn't until the first stage, 'Cloud Sea Survival,' suddenly ended, and one hundred districts were forcibly connected and merged by the system into this 'Cangyun Airspace' where we are now. All kinds of strange, misshapen alien races descended, and the whole world fell into complete chaos. Only then did we get a chance to breathe and made our way to this remote Shattered Star Rift."

Luo Ning used a calm tone to nonchalantly summarize the five months of life-and-death escapes accompanied by blood and fire.

Zhou An felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his heart. He didn't even dare to think closely about how they managed to survive in such circumstances while carrying a pregnant woman.

He walked forward and gently rubbed Luo Ning's somewhat messy short hair, his voice dry: "I'm sorry, I came back late."

"Spare me the sentimentality."

Luo Ning gave a haughty snort and slapped away his large hand that was wreaking havoc on her head, but the trace of relieved smile in her eyes couldn't be hidden no matter what.

Afterward, as if suddenly remembering something, she sat up straight abruptly and spread her hands: "But let's get this straight, Boss, we are truly 'penniless' now. For the past five months, to avoid being hunted, we basically had no time to scavenge for supplies. The meager supplies we occasionally got and the output from Muzi's side were all taken to the black market to exchange for high-nutrient solution to protect Lin Qing's pregnancy, and the rest was all used by me to synthesize weapons. Just now, to bomb that group of Goblins, I used up even the very last unit of materials! The warehouse is so clean right now that even a mouse would leave with tears in its eyes if it went in!"

"Supplies? That's the smallest problem in the world. A lot of treasure chests exploded just now; supplies are definitely enough. Plus, you know my ability..."

"Alright, the mess is all yours. You are the captain of the [Cloud Top Fortress]. The subsequent firepower upgrades for the fortress, as well as the eating, drinking, and daily needs of that big family outside, are all your responsibility from now on. I've endured for five months; today, I can finally sleep soundly..."