61: Chapter 61 Treasure Chest Hunt

The moment they passed through the spatial rift, the world seemed to be muted, followed immediately by the deafening roar of magma and piercing alarms exploding inside the cockpit.

"Warning! External environmental temperature rising sharply! Current temperature: 70°C... 100°C..."

"Detected ultra-high concentration of sulfur toxic gas and fire-attribute spiritual energy radiation!"

Outside the porthole was a desperate world interwoven with red and black.

On the ground flowed viscous rivers of magma over a hundred meters wide, and the air, distorted by heat, formed visible fire tornadoes.

The energy shield on the outer layer of the Cloud Top Fortress rippled violently under the scorching heat, emitting a crackling sound.

"Damn! What kind of hellhole is this? If we fell down there, even our ashes would be baked into glass marbles!"

Luo Ning squinted, dazzled by the blinding red light outside the porthole; even inside the fortress, she instinctively felt a scorching sense of oppression.

"EVA, increase the shield output power and activate the internal circulation constant temperature system."

Hum— With a slight mechanical hum, the temperature inside the fortress, which had been about to rise, was instantly forced back down to a comfortable 22°C.

Those deadly toxic gases and fire-poison radiation were ruthlessly blocked by the Tier 4 shield, unable to penetrate even a tiny bit.

"Long live the constant temperature system."

Luo Ning let out a long sigh of relief and returned to the co-pilot's seat.

Just then, the wide-area life radar suddenly emitted a rapid series of "beep-beep" sounds.

On the screen, within the 3D map that previously only showed topographical outlines, a dense mass of red dots suddenly erupted at a canyon corner ahead!

"Boss, we have a situation!"

Luo Ning sat up straight instantly and pulled up the optical detection feed.

"It's indigenous monsters! A group of... disgusting things that look like stone bats!"

The image zoomed in, revealing hundreds of monsters the size of heavy pickup trucks swarming out of the fire clouds ahead.

Their bodies were composed of dark red volcanic rock, and their wings burned with flames; they were clearly a swarm of Tier 2 peak [Lava Gargoyles].

Watching this group of monsters baring their fangs and claws as they rushed over with scorching heat, Zhou An showed no panic; instead, he stood up from the captain's chair.

He stared fixedly at the big screen, his gaze so intense it was as if a bachelor of thirty years had suddenly seen his long-lost wife!

"Boss... what is that look in your eyes?"

Luo Ning felt creeped out by Zhou An's gaze. "You haven't been cooped up for too long and had your kinks mutate, have you?"

"You don't understand!"

Zhou An licked his lips excitedly, his eyes shining.

His Prism Hextech [War Spoils III], which could be called a god-tier skill, hadn't been triggered to his heart's content in who knows how long!

"EVA! Activate all weapon modules!"

Zhou An pushed aside the safety lock on the control stick, his voice filled with irrepressible excitement: "Charge the high-energy electromagnetic main cannon! Warm up the bombing matrix! Max out the fire rate on the twin rapid-fire cannons! Today, I'm clearing the field!!!"

Boom—!!! The massive [Cloud Top Fortress] instantly transformed into a mobile war fortress spewing deadly firepower.

The thick blue electromagnetic cannon beam pierced through the monster swarm like divine punishment; wherever it passed, a dozen [Lava Gargoyles] evaporated into dark red crystal powder in mid-air without even letting out a scream.

Immediately after, the bombing matrix and rapid-fire cannons wove an impenetrable net of deadly firepower.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat! Boom!

"Ding! Killed Tier 2 Lava Gargoyle, triggered 'War Spoils III'! Obtained: Silver Supply Chest x1!"

"Ding! Killed Tier 2 Lava Gargoyle, no drop triggered."

"Ding! Killed Tier 2 Lava Gargoyle, triggered 'War Spoils III'! Obtained: Silver Supply Chest x1!"

Listening to the system's melodic prompts that sounded like heavenly music and watching the patches of treasure chest light dots dropping on the radar, Zhou An went completely berserk.

"Don't run! Everyone stay put! Leave the treasure chests behind!"

The survival adventure that originally required "surviving for 12 hours" had been forcibly turned into a monster-farming, grass-cutting game by Zhou An.

Under the extreme height restriction of 300 meters, [Cloud Top Fortress], relying on its speed of 200 km/h, raced wildly through the narrow and winding obsidian canyon, chasing that group of poor gargoyles and bombarding them relentlessly.

The entire canyon echoed with the monsters' shrill screams and the roar of artillery.

Just as Zhou An chased the last batch of low-health monsters deep into the interior of a massive circular extinct volcano—a sudden change occurred!

Due to the fortress's continuous bombardment, the high-frequency energy vibrations completely shattered the fragile geological balance of this volcanic region.

Rumble—!!! Without warning, the surrounding obsidian mountains that towered into the clouds simultaneously let out earth-shattering groans.

Countless huge cracks split across the mountain surfaces, and thousands of tons of magma poured down from the peaks like fountains, instantly dyeing the entire sky blood-red!

"Boss! Stop shooting! There's a high-energy reaction underground! It's extremely dangerous!"

Luo Ning pointed at the radar; the values on it were skyrocketing exponentially at an unconventional speed.

Zhou An slammed on the hover brakes, his pupils contracting sharply.

The magma lake below began to cave in violently, forming a terrifying vortex over a kilometer in diameter.

Immediately after, a massive claw that blotted out the sky suddenly reached out from the magma, and with a "bang," it gripped the nearby obsidian mountain wall tightly!

That two-thousand-meter-tall mountain peak was actually crushed in half by this single claw!

Roar—!!! Accompanied by a terrifying roar that could pierce the soul, magma exploded in all directions like a waterfall, and a colossal beast slowly rose from the ground.

It was a behemoth over eight hundred meters long!

Its form had completely transcended the scope of conventional living beings.

It had no flesh or blood; its entire body was fused from ink-black, top-grade obsidian and some unknown, ultra-high-density alloy.

In the gaps of its skeleton, what flowed was not blood, but slurry with temperatures reaching thousands of degrees.

What made one's scalp tingle the most was its back, which actually carried an erupting micro-active volcano!

With every breath, the crater would spew out volcanic ash clouds containing highly toxic and highly corrosive substances.

Its pair of vertical pupils, burning with green ghostly fire, locked firmly onto the [Cloud Top Fortress] in mid-air.

"Warning! Encountered Tier 4 Boss creature—Ember Bone Giant Crocodile!"

With a 300-meter height limit and inside the narrow crater sealed off by magma, [Cloud Top Fortress] was like a toy locked in a cage facing a beast.

There was nowhere to hide!

"EVA, take over the fortress's fully automatic combat mode! Set the evasion priority to the highest, and aim the main cannon and secondary cannon matrix at that volcano on its back—fire!"

Zhou An roared and shoved open the heavy airlock door leading from the cockpit to the external combat platform.

A scorching heat wave of over a thousand degrees and a pungent smell of sulfur rushed to meet him.

The battle armor on his body instantly shimmered with a layer of deep blue energy shield, perfectly isolating all the deadly high temperatures and toxic gases.

He stood steadily at the front of the wind-whipped deck, staring fixedly at the behemoth below.

"Understood, Captain. Firepower discharge countdown, three, two, one!"

Boom—! The engines at the bottom of the [Cloud Top Fortress] erupted with blinding azure exhaust flames, and the massive hull, within the extreme 300-meter airspace, forcibly pulled off an extremely thrilling and aerodynamic-defying "Z"-shaped tactical maneuver.

Just as the fortress shifted sideways, the Bone Giant Crocodile's abyss-like maw, capable of swallowing mountains, snapped shut with a "crack" at the position where the fortress had been a second ago; the terrifying bite force even bit out a visible white sonic boom cloud in the air!

At the same time, the fortress's high-energy electromagnetic main cannon let out an earth-shaking roar.

The thick beam of destruction tore through the dark red sky and slammed hard into the micro-volcano spewing thick smoke on the giant crocodile's back, instantly exploding into a sky full of incandescent plasma magma, forcibly blasting open a huge, bone-deep crack.

"Boss, this big guy's bone armor is too thick; leave it to me to loosen its bones!"

Luo Ning's excited voice exploded in the communication channel.

She didn't take the conventional route at all; leaping forward, she flew out from the ejection port on the side of the fortress like a cannonball.

In mid-air, the LV4 exoskeleton armor on her body unfolded against the wind.

Accompanied by a series of extremely fluid mechanical assembly sounds, the heavy armor on her shoulders flipped open to the sides, raising two rows of dense micro-tracking missile launchers; on the heavy gauntlets of her arms, deep blue high-frequency laser cutting blades extended instantly like fangs.

The four thick plasma propulsion tubes on her back erupted with blinding blue light, forcibly stabilizing her figure in mid-air.

In terms of firepower level, this individual combat armor, which she had modified to the extreme, was completely equivalent to a micro-frigate with full firepower!

"Taste the art of explosion! Firepower full throttle!"

Luo Ning traced a brilliant blue trail in mid-air, transforming into a crazed humanoid bomber.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh, whoosh—!!!" Over a hundred micro-missiles with armor-piercing and high-explosive effects, trailing long exhaust flames, poured down like a swarm of angry killer bees.

Under Luo Ning's freakishly precise ballistic calculations, not a single one of these missiles missed; they all drilled accurately into the crater on the giant crocodile's back, following the armor crack blasted open by the fortress's main cannon!

Boom, boom, boom, boom—!!! Violent chain detonations exploded crazily inside the giant crocodile, completely dismantling its defenses from the inside.

The pain caused this Tier 4 overlord to let out a shrill roar that tore through the sky.

Its massive body rolled violently in the magma river, and its bone tail, hundreds of meters long, swept across the air like a black pillar, kicking up a deadly magma storm in an attempt to swat all the flies in mid-air.

"Now is the time!"

Standing on the fortress's external deck, Zhou An's eyes narrowed; the dual micro-fusion reactors in his chest emitted a deafening roar, and the crazily operating nuclear kinetic energy pushed his physical strength and sensory amplification to the limit.

He ignored the flying debris and magma rain rushing toward him, and steadily raised the Pulse Ripper with both hands.

Inside the chamber, energy was compressed to the extreme, emitting a teeth-aching "humming" sound.

"Die!"

Just as the giant crocodile raised its head again and opened its massive mouth, preparing to spew a destructive dragon's breath, Zhou An pulled the trigger without hesitation.

The deep purple beam, carrying "Absolute Penetration" and "Cell Necrosis" effects, instantly crossed the distance of space.

This beam accurately bypassed the giant crocodile's indestructible outer bone armor, shot directly into its soft upper jaw, pierced through its brain with unstoppable force, and nailed itself firmly into the core crystal hidden in the deepest part of its skull!

Crack—!!! An extremely crisp shattering sound rang out in the howling wind, and time seemed to stand still at this moment.

The green ghost fire burning in the giant crocodile's eye sockets shrank suddenly, and its mountain-like body instantly stiffened in mid-air.

Immediately after, the violent magma energy that had lost its core suppression exploded completely from within its body; this arrogant Tier 4 Calamity-level boss turned into a magnificent rain of obsidian and magma, collapsing with a roar and crashing heavily back into the magma river below, kicking up monstrous waves.

The moment the giant crocodile disintegrated, the system's notification sounds exploded in Zhou An's ears like a rainstorm.

"System Announcement: Successfully killed Tier 4 Boss—Ember Bone Giant Crocodile!"

Clouds of light rose from the sea of fire, automatically flying into Zhou An's system space.

"[Tier 4 Flame Core]: Contains pure Tier 4 fire-attribute spiritual energy, can be used for vehicle energy core upgrades or forging top-tier fire-attribute equipment."

"[Tier 4 Material Units] 30,000."

"[Curio: Heart of Flame]: After equipping, gain high fire resistance, and attacks carry a 15% 'True Burn' effect."

"[Blueprint: Lava Burst Trap Mine (Purple Epic)]: Stealthy fire-attribute landmine that can be deployed in the air."

"[Equipment: Ember Boots (Blue Rare)]"

...

Looking at these generous drops, Zhou An's lips hadn't even fully curled up yet!

"Ding! Your Prism Hextech 'War Spoils III' has triggered!"

"Detected that the kill target is a Tier 4 boss-level creature, drop quality has received a massive bonus..."

"Congratulations on obtaining: Platinum Supply Chest!"

A gorgeous treasure chest emitting a platinum glow appeared out of thin air, floating quietly on the fortress's deck.

"Platinum Chest?!"

Zhou An walked up quickly; in the current survival world, being able to drop a Golden Chest would already be like his ancestors' graves smoking with good fortune, and he himself didn't know how long it had been since he touched something of this level.

He turned to look at Luo Ning, who had just disengaged her mecha armor and landed back on the deck, panting heavily; his eyes flashed with undisguised fanaticism and greed.

"Boss... don't look at me like that, I'm scared."

Luo Ning took a half-step back, stared down by his wolf-like gaze, and swallowed a mouthful of saliva.

"Luo Ning, this damn adventure came at the perfect time!"

"What 'survive for 12 hours'? Down here are all walking treasure chests! Notify Muzi and the others to stay on top with peace of mind; for these 12 hours, we will be hunting in reverse right here under this volcano and completely farm this dungeon until it's cleared!"