14: Chapter 14 Deadly Comfort

On the tenth day, the sunlight shone through the bedroom porthole as usual, casting its light onto Zhou An's comfortable down quilt.

He slowly opened his eyes, nourished by the recovery bed, and was just about to head to the spatial cultivation chamber to check on the sprout tips of the three spiritual wheat plants when the system voice, which had been quiet for several days, suddenly exploded in his mind like a piercing air-raid siren!

[Important System Announcement for the Entire Zone (Area 997)!]

[Ten days have passed since the end of the novice period, and the first stage of the Sky World's evolution is complete!]

[1. Resource Upgrade: The second wave of large Floating Island groups has arrived, and the second wave of high-concentration 'Resource Rain' has refreshed across the entire zone.]

[2. Biological Evolution: The spawn rate of flying monsters and meteorological anomalies has increased by 300%, and Tier 2 monsters have begun to appear regularly.]

[3. Deadly Balance: The system has detected that some survivors are severely lagging in progress. To ensure the game's sense of urgency, effective immediately, the airspace within 500 kilometers of the devouring black mist will be converted into an Erosion Environment!]

[Note: In this airspace, monsters are not only more aggressive, but vehicle durability will suffer from continuous, chilling erosion. Please accelerate as soon as possible, survivors, and flee from the Grim Reaper!]

"500 kilometers..."

Zhou An froze on the bed.

Previously, in order to scavenge, he had maintained a laid-back cruising speed of just over forty. While he didn't have to worry about being overtaken by the Black Mist, he knew very well that his straight-line distance from the Black Mist had been hovering around two hundred kilometers!

"Damn it!"

Before he could utter a second curse, the world outside the window changed completely.

The bright morning light was stripped away in a second, and the surrounding sea of clouds instantly transformed from pristine white into a despair-inducing ink purple.

The chilling cold pierced through the Tier 2 energy shield, stabbing straight into Zhou An's bone marrow.

The lights inside the cabin began to flicker, and the dashboard emitted a blinding red light.

[Warning! You have entered an Erosion Environment!]

[Energy shield is suffering from erosion; consumption rate increased by 200%!]

[Radar detection: A large number of Tier 2 biological reactions are waking up nearby...]

Zhou An scrambled toward the main cockpit, his hands trembling slightly from anger and fear.

"I'm such a pig-brained idiot!"

He slapped himself hard across the face.

"These past few days, I've been eating hot pot, taking hot showers, and even farming in my bedroom... Did I really think this was a life simulation game?"

Such a fatal, amateur mistake had actually happened to him.

He shoved the throttle forward, pushing the Cloud Top Fortress to its maximum speed of 70 km/h, while frantically opening the vehicle weapon panel.

"I must install the weapons immediately! Right now! Immediately!"

Looking at the batch of Tier 2 materials he had just exchanged after harvesting his 'leeks', he couldn't afford to wait for the maximum returns from 'Compound Interest' anymore.

"System! Install the storm twin-linked autocannon array! Install the high-frequency tracking cutting ray!"

[Materials deducted successfully!]

[Weapon module loading... Estimated time: 1 hour.]

[Note: During loading, vehicle energy will be prioritized for the weapon installation sequence, and the energy shield power will be reduced to 30%.]

"It's going to take another hour?!"

Zhou An watched the swirling clouds in the darkness outside, cold sweat sliding down his temples.

He had originally thought that being behind with no one bothering him meant he could slowly save money and upgrade, but that thought now seemed ridiculously naive.

The system had no intention of letting anyone slack off; it was either run or die.

From deep within the dark sea of clouds, there came the faint, dull sound of wings flapping, along with the piercing screech of claws dragging across metal, drawing closer.

Zhou An gripped the storm assault rifle tightly, staring fixedly at the radar panel.

"Take it one step at a time, Zhou An. If you kick the bucket here, you'll be the biggest joke among these millions of survivors."

He adjusted the autopilot in the darkness, and the entire Cloud Top Fortress, under the roar of its four ducted fans, attempted to break through this heavy, iron-like cage of darkness, while the weapon installation countdown became his only lifeline at this moment.

"Beep, beep, beep—!"

The red dots on the radar, like a burst dam, surged up densely from beneath the dark clouds.

Accompanied by piercing screeches, several Tier 2 aberrant monsters, covered in pustules and with wings like bats, were the first to slam into the Cloud Top Fortress's energy shield.

The blue light barrier shook violently, and after taking just over a dozen hits, its glow dimmed significantly.

Because the system was powering the weapon module, the shield power had been forced down to 30%, which couldn't withstand a beast tide of this scale!

"Rat-tat-tat—!"

Zhou An controlled the steering with one hand, while his other hand gripped the storm assault rifle, firing wildly through the firing port. The light purple wind-blade bullets shredded the wings of a few monsters, but against such massive numbers, the assault rifle felt as powerless as a squirt gun.

"There's no way back!"

Zhou An's eyes were bloodshot. Looking at the installation progress bar, which still had a full half-hour to go, he gritted his teeth and yanked the ascent lever to the bottom!

"Get the hell away from me! I'll crush you!"

The four ducted fans of the Cloud Top Fortress emitted a limit-overload roar, and the massive metal fuselage abandoned level flight, climbing frantically into the high altitude at a nearly vertical angle!

16,000 meters... 17,000 meters... 18,000 meters!

Zhou An pushed the altitude straight to 19,000 meters, getting extremely close to the 20,000-meter death red line warned by the system.

He wasn't just trying to avoid the densest part of the beast tide below; he was gambling with his life. At this altitude, even if the Fortress's engines were completely destroyed by the monsters, the fall without power would take a very long time.

And this duration would be the buffer period for the Smallest Giant, Hextech, to pull him back from the gates of hell!

"Bang! Boom!"

The heavy fuselage, during its rapid ascent, was like a giant metal beast, slamming directly into the swarm of monsters.

Flesh and blood flew everywhere, and the sound of breaking bones mixed with the wailing of twisting metal, playing out in the dark high altitude.

Outside the cabin, the automatic stealth grappling hook that had been installed earlier was still doing its job diligently; every time it smashed a few monsters, it would conveniently snatch a few dropped blind box treasure chests from the rain of blood.

But Zhou An had no mood to even glance at the loot right now; he stared fixedly at the Fortress's durability panel.

[Warning: External armor damaged, current durability 82%!]

[Warning: Right ducted air intake has sucked in foreign objects, durability 68%!]

[Warning: Durability dropped to 58%!]

"It's too fast!" Zhou An's back was completely soaked in cold sweat.

In just half an hour of crazy collisions, the Fortress's durability had dropped by over forty points!

The Little Giant's 5% recovery rate per hour was simply a drop in the bucket when facing this kind of high-frequency, explosive physical damage!

Just as Zhou An was preparing to tough out the remaining countdown, the horizon above his head suddenly erupted with an extremely blinding flash of fire.

...

At the same time, at the extreme altitude of 19,500 meters.

In the violent, freezing air currents, a petite figure was hovering above the clouds.

She was wearing a seemingly thin, tight-fitting combat suit, with shoulder-length short hair and an extremely quiet, almost well-behaved face.

However, in stark contrast to this innocent appearance were her eyes, which were filled with madness and excitement, and the corners of her mouth were even curled into a chilling arc.

What was even more shocking was that behind her, there were no gliders or helicopters, but a heavy jetpack spewing a ghostly blue plasma exhaust!

"Hahaha! Come on! Come again!"

Luo Ning let out an almost neurotic laugh. As her mind stirred, the sides of that sci-fi-looking jetpack actually transformed, like a Transformer.

"Click, click."

With a few sounds, a row of dense micro-rocket launch nests folded out.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!"

Firelight tore through the darkness. Dozens of micro-rockets, trailing long exhaust plumes, precisely drilled into the beast tide below, exploding into clusters of gorgeous, blood-colored fireworks.

Those ferocious Tier 2 flying monsters were like paper under her barrage of firepower.

However, after firing wildly for a moment, the excitement in Luo Ning's eyes faded slightly, and she frowned.

"This won't do, the fuel is running low, and this damn jetpack's ammo conversion can't keep up with the consumption."

She knew her weaknesses very well.

The jetpack gave her unparalleled mobility and short-term heavy firepower, but it was not a shelter that could keep out the wind and rain.

Solo-grinding in an extremely dark environment meant that running out of stamina was a dead end.

Just then, she glanced down a few hundred meters below and saw a massive, square metal fortress ramming through the beast tide like a bumper car.

"A Level 2 mobile base? In this godforsaken, bottom-tier zone, someone actually managed to build such a big toy?"

Luo Ning's eyes lit up as if she had seen a lifebuoy. Without the slightest hesitation, she adjusted the jetpack's nozzles and dove down like a meteor.

...

Inside the cockpit, Zhou An was frantically monitoring the engine temperature when he suddenly heard a rhythmic tapping sound coming from the thick, bulletproof windshield on the left.

"Knock, knock, knock."

At this altitude of 19,000 meters, with bloodthirsty monsters everywhere outside, how could there be a knocking sound?!

Zhou An's hair stood on end, and he turned his head sharply to look.

He saw that outside the pitch-black clouds, a quiet-looking, short-haired girl was pressed against his windshield.

She was wearing a jetpack that was spewing fire, and she flashed Zhou An a slightly manic, bright smile, then pointed to the cabin door.

"Let me in."

She exaggeratedly mouthed the words through the glass, "I, will, help, you, kill, them, all."

Zhou An was stunned. Not just because he saw a living person at this altitude of ten thousand meters, but also because of the remnants of rocket launchers still smoking on the girl's backpack.

He quickly glanced at the countdown on the main control panel.

[Weapon module loading progress: 30 minutes remaining.]

"Opening the door is impossible; if I let a nest of monsters in, it's all over!"

Zhou An rushed to the glass, pointed at the beast tide outside, then pointed at the panel, and responded with equally exaggerated mouthing and gestures:

"Help me! Hold them off! Thirty minutes!"

"Thirty! Minutes later! I'll handle it!"

Luo Ning, outside the glass, tilted her head and watched for a moment, appearing to understand Zhou An's meaning.

She gave Zhou An an "OK" sign, then turned around, facing away from the glass.