117: Chapter 117 Occupying the Island

The terrifying scene of that LV4 armored ship evaporating in mere seconds was like a drop of ice water hitting a scorching hot wok, instantly igniting the airspace that was already stretched to the breaking point!

When the first ship fell without warning, and without even seeing the attacker's shadow, the fragile nerves of all the factions completely snapped.

"Enemy attack! Someone opened fire! Damn it, who did that?!"

"The radar is full of interference! That Goblin airship on the port side has its cannons lit, it must be them! Fire! Strike first!"

"Despicable Orcs, daring to ambush us! Charge the main cannons, show them what we've got!"

Immediately after, due to the extreme panic of the operator, an Orc warship accidentally fired a heavy artillery shell, which slammed directly into the shield of a nearby Human warship.

This shot became the fuse that completely tore the powder keg apart.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

In an instant, countless deadly beams of light lit up the sky on the outskirts of the resource island.

More than thirty warships that had originally been wary of each other fell into an utterly irrational, chaotic melee.

Venom shells, high-explosive armor-piercing shells, and laser beams intertwined crazily in the clouds, as ship after ship lost power amidst the violent roars and plummeted while trailing thick black smoke.

In the main control room, Luo Ning watched the images being transmitted back.

"Nice shot! That warship's port shield is broken, let me give you a hand!"

Luo Ning's lips curled into a mischievous smile. A micro-pulse cannon on the fortress's flank quickly charged, and under the cover of the melee, a hidden, dark blue beam accurately pierced the Orc warship's power compartment.

"Boom—"

The Orc warship tilted violently. The captain roared hysterically on the public channel: "It's the Elf Race! The Elf Race used magic shells to shoot through our power core! All ships, ram them, let's go down together!"

The innocent Elf Race warship nearby hadn't even reacted before it was tightly entangled by the crazed Orc warship, and both were dragged into a sea of fire and death.

"This 'borrowing a knife to kill' tactic is just too satisfying!"

Luo Ning shouted, clearly enjoying herself while controlling fifty thousand drones on the edge of the battlefield to harass and create fake radar signals. However, when she turned her head, she found that Zhou An, who had been sitting in the captain's chair, was already gone.

"I'm heading out for a bit, the command of the fortress is handed over to Luo Ning!"

Zhou An's voice came through the communication channel, the background noise mixed with the dull sound of the hangar airlock opening.

Inside the outer hangar on the first level of the fortress, Zhou An jumped into the a70 fighter.

"It was hard enough to take down this fat piece of meat, how could I let it all fall into the airspace below?"

Zhou An pulled down the cockpit canopy.

"Bang!"

The stealth field opened a tiny gap, and the tail of the a70 fighter spewed a deep blue flame. Like a bolt of black lightning, it ejected directly from the fortress and plunged into the battlefield that was raining fire!

The airspace outside had now become a veritable meat grinder.

Wreckage and severed limbs flew everywhere, and the blinding light from the explosions made it almost impossible to open one's eyes.

Zhou An gripped the control stick tightly, his Tier 5 Peak terrifying neural reflex speed displayed to the fullest at this moment.

The black A70 performed various unimaginable limit maneuvers within the dense crossfire.

Barrel rolls, cobra maneuvers, instant reversals... those shells capable of tearing through heavy armor couldn't even touch his exhaust.

"System, lock onto high-value falling objects!"

Zhou An piloted the A70, completely ignoring the warships that were desperately fighting each other. His goal was very clear: recover supplies!

Ahead, a Goblin airship had just been shattered, its hull broken in two. A large amount of rare alchemical materials in the warehouse and an extremely bright LV4 power core were falling along with the wreckage.

"It's mine."

Zhou An pushed the throttle hard. The A70 made an extremely wild dive, cutting into the gaps of the wreckage with the precision of an eagle hunting a rabbit.

The micro-tractor beam on the belly of the fighter activated at full power, instantly sucking in that LV4 power core and several storage boxes filled with high-level materials, then immediately stowing them into the warehouse.

"This kind of 'stealing leisure in the middle of chaos' work still needs to be done, who knows what good things might drop."

"Whoosh—"

A stray bullet flew past the A70's cockpit canopy. Zhou An didn't even look, piloting the fighter in a barrel roll, taking the opportunity to sweep past another Orc warship that had just exploded. The tractor beam whipped out again like a long lash, looting several crates of Tier 5 ores that had fallen from the opponent.

In this cruel battlefield where everyone was fighting until they were at each other's throats, only Zhou An, flying a black fighter so fast that even its afterimage couldn't be clearly seen, was like a professional junk collector; wherever there was an explosion, there was his figure.

While letting Luo Ning continue to stir up trouble in the communication channel, he was gathering every single shiny piece of loot in this hail of bullets without missing a drop.

The crazy meat-grinder battle, which lasted for more than half an hour, turned this once-quiet airspace into a steel graveyard.

Thirty-four aggressive warships, fueled by mutual suspicion and the crazy "stirring the fire" by Zhou An and his team, were reduced to only the last five.

These five ships were also at the end of their ropes; their shields were dim, their hulls were covered in shocking, massive gashes, and they were barely surviving in mid-air while trailing thick black smoke.

Until this moment, the various factions, whose minds had been clouded by the slaughter, finally noticed something wrong during a brief lull in the fighting.

"Wait! Cease fire! Everyone cease fire!"

On an Elf Race LV5 warship that had sustained the least damage, an Elf commander with a face covered in blood and grime pushed aside the radar operator.

He gritted his teeth and, with trembling hands, brought out a diamond-shaped crystal as clear as a pupil from a special temperature-controlled case he carried close to his body.

This was a special item produced by their Elf Race—[Eye of Truth].

As an extremely precious strategic-level detector, it could instantly see through all illusions and stealth fields within a hundred miles, even a LV6 would find it hard to hide.

But its conditions for use were outrageously harsh.

Every activation required the complete burning of a priceless, high-purity "Detection Crystal," which was only produced at headquarters. It could be described as "once the cannon fires, ten thousand gold is spent," which made even the wealthy Elf commander reluctant to use it normally.

But at this moment, the inexplicably heavy casualties on his side had made his eyes completely red.

"Don't worry about the money! Let me see clearly who is playing tricks!"

The commander roared, slamming a detection crystal flickering with deep, dark light into the crystal base.

As the expensive, special crystal turned into a pile of ashes in an instant, the massive magic power was drained away in a flash.

Accompanied by ripples of dazzling golden magic spreading through the void, that radiance, capable of piercing through all disguises, instantly swept over the clouds above. Immediately, the Elf commander's pupils shrank to the extreme.

In the high altitude less than three thousand meters above their heads, within the thick clouds that had been empty, the radiance of the "True Vision" had forcibly outlined the phantom of a massive, breathtaking, giant mobile fortress!

"There is a stealth fortress! We've all been played, they were the ones guiding the firepower in the dark!"

The Elf commander roared on the public channel, "Retreat! Leave this airspace!!"

And the other four ships seemed to have realized something as well. The cannons that had been pointed at each other turned in a panic, their engines emitting piercing, overloaded shrieks as they tried their best to escape this death zone.

"Only realized it now? A bit too late."

At this moment, Zhou An, piloting the A70, had already cut into the center of the encirclement of these five remaining warships like a ghost.

"Luo Ning, material harvesting is complete. Warm-up is over, clear the board."

Zhou An slammed the throttle to the bottom, and the black a70 fighter pulled a trajectory with an extremely tricky sharp angle in mid-air, while twelve [Magnetic Storm Pulse Mines] flickering with dark blue electric light instantly popped out from under the fighter's belly.

"Received! Watch me!"

Above the firmament, that incomparably massive [Cloud Top Fortress] suddenly deactivated its stealth field!

"Hum—!"

The heavy armor gleamed in the sunlight. This giant aerial barrier, with a single-level area of ten thousand square meters, descended upon the heads of the remaining fleet with unparalleled oppressive force!

Zhou An piloted the fighter, weaving through the enemy formation, and the Magnetic Storm Pulse Mines attached themselves precisely to the armor surfaces of the five enemy ships.

"Boom, boom, boom—!"

The violent electromagnetic pulses instantly destroyed their already precarious energy shields, and even their backup engines were completely paralyzed under this high-dimensional magnetic field.

The fortress's weapon modules also completed their charging at the same time!

"Full-frequency firepower net, cover without blind spots, fire!"

In an instant, the sky was ignited.

Thousands of deep blue laser beams, high-explosive armor-piercing missiles trailing long tails, and a swarm of drones covering the sky like dark clouds formed an airtight waterfall of death, pouring down from the bottom of the Cloud Top Fortress!

This was a one-sided slaughter without any suspense.

"No—!"

That Elf Race warship tried to use a barrier to block, but the moment it touched the laser beams, the magic barrier melted like ice and snow, and then the entire ship was torn into sky-filling steel fragments by the violent firepower.

Another warship tried to forcibly overload its engines to escape, but it was hit in the engine by a precise laser from the A70 piloted by Zhou An, and then directly hit by the fortress's main cannon, turning into a brilliant supernova explosion and completely evaporating in mid-air.

Under the perfect coordination of Zhou An and Luo Ning, the entire cleaning process took less than three minutes.

The rumbling explosions gradually subsided.

The last piece of burning metal wreckage fell into the cloud sea below with thick black smoke, and the entire airspace returned to deathly silence once again. Thirty-four warships that had come full of greed had none survive.

"Beep—"

The a70 fighter slid smoothly into the re-opened hangar of the [Cloud Top Fortress].

Zhou An jumped down from the fighter, took off his helmet, and casually smoothed his somewhat messy hair.

He looked up, through the huge panoramic porthole of the hangar, and looked at the [Gengzi-7792] core resource island ahead that no longer had any obstacles.

"Trash cleaning complete."

Zhou An pressed the communicator.

"Prepare to land."

"From now on, this island belongs to us."

EVA's voice sounded.

"Engine output power reduced to 30%, attitude adjustment complete. Entering landing procedure."

A few minutes later, four sturdy super-alloy landing gears slammed out from the bottom of the fortress, and with a "Boom," the fortress smashed steadily onto a relatively flat crystal land in the center of the island.

The violent air waves swept in all directions, blowing the glowing purple vegetation until it rustled.

"EVA, conduct a full-area environmental assessment."

Zhou An stood in front of the main console and ordered in a deep voice.

"Command received. Air sampling complete: oxygen content 24%, rich in high-concentration free spiritual energy, non-toxic."

"Radiation level detection: safe."

"No large high-level lifeform reactions detected within ten kilometers. Environmental assessment: absolutely safe, can proceed with non-protective landing."

"Click—"

The heavy pressure cabin door on the side of the fortress slowly rose, and the wide metal bridge landed on the purple crystal ground with a "bang."

Zhou An stepped onto the bridge.

Luo Ning followed closely behind, holding a tactical data board, her bright eyes scanning the surroundings quickly.

When their feet truly stepped onto this land, the strong visual impact was a hundred times more shocking than what was seen on the radar.

The entire island was like a jewelry box overturned by God.

Between those cracked rock walls and ridges, large areas of deep blue high-level source ore crystals were just exposed naked to the air.

A breeze blew, and the leaves of the crystal trees collided, making a crisp and pleasant sound like wind chimes.

"It's simply a waste of heaven's gifts..."

Luo Ning looked at a piece of pure Tier 5 source ore half the height of a person under her feet.

She immediately took out several silver metal balls from her waist and threw them violently into the air.

"Mapping swarm, go!"

The metal balls quickly unfolded their folding rotors in mid-air, turning into dozens of micro-reconnaissance drones, dragging blue tail flames as they flew into the high altitude in all directions. Ten minutes later, the data board in Luo Ning's hand had constructed a preliminary holographic model of the island.

"Preliminary island data has been calculated."

Luo Ning looked at the data on the screen, her tone filled with undisguisable excitement.

"The area of this island is ridiculously large, about 7,300 square kilometers! The terrain is complex; not only are there open-pit ore veins, but system scanning shows that there are multiple ore veins underground!"

"Let the robots work. The system rule is that the wider the occupation range, the more output."

Zhou An looked around, very satisfied with the environment here.

"Understood!"

The engineering hatch at the bottom of the fortress opened fully.

"Engineering robots, activate! Carrying standard modular refining furnaces, target the large ore vein directly ahead, and build a fully automatic mining assembly line immediately!"

Accompanied by Luo Ning's crisp and orderly instructions, hundreds of various robots poured out like a tide.

Heavy mechanical arms flew, and the light of laser cutters shone everywhere.

In less than an hour, a modern micro-industrial assembly line, from excavation and transportation to preliminary refining, rose from the ground on this primitive and magnificent land, and began to make a rumbling roar.

Zhou An stood on the side, watching Luo Ning's focused and capable profile, slightly lost in thought.

He even found that he couldn't intervene here at all.

The months of struggling on the edge of life and death had indeed made her go through too much and transform too much. Zhou An's lips curled into a smile.

Just then, footsteps sounded from the fortress hatch again.

Li Muzi was wearing a light exploration suit and jumped down from the bridge.

"Wow—!!"

As soon as she landed, Muzi was mesmerized by the scene in front of her.

She took a deep breath of the air rich in spiritual energy, her eyes shining: "Boss! This place is amazing! There are materials everywhere! Look at this tree, this tree... if the juice in the tree is extracted, it's definitely a top-tier material for making high-level nutrient solution!"

Zhou An smiled and waved.

"Muzi, it's a good thing you came down, I have a task for you."

Zhou An pointed to the various mutated plants in the distance.

"Luo Ning scanned them just now, ask her to send you a map. Take a few collection robots and walk around the surroundings to figure out the characteristics of the plants on the island. See which ones can be dug up by the roots and transplanted into the cultivation tanks."

"Got it! Leave it to me!"

Muzi patted her backpack excitedly.

"Wait, don't rush too far."

Zhou An grabbed her.

"Although this island is large, there's no guarantee what high-level symbiotic poisonous creatures are hiding in the corners. You first operate within one kilometer of the fortress. Wait until we finish occupying the island before exploring deeper."

"Understood!"

After arranging things for Muzi, Zhou An pressed the communicator.

"Lao Zhang, the area around the fortress is safe now. Bring Sister Lin Qing and the children down. The concentration of spiritual energy in the air on this island is extremely high, much more comfortable than what the air purifier makes. After being cooped up on the ship for so long, come down for a walk and get some fresh air."