8: Chapter 8 Unboxing

The "Cloud Top Fortress" shot out like a bird freed from a cage, breaking through the lead-gray clouds and returning to the sun-drenched 12,000-meter airspace.

Zhou An slumped in the pilot's seat, panting heavily, his forehead covered in cold sweat.

In those brief ten-plus minutes just now, that chilling sensation that struck directly at his soul had nearly caused him to lose control of the vehicle.

He hurriedly summoned the panel, staring fixedly at his SAN value.

[Current SAN value: 90]

He let out a long breath; perhaps it was because it was his first time making contact with that cloud layer, so he was a bit nervous.

Immediately after, a familiar golden halo lit up from the dashboard and flowed over his entire body.

That cold, sticky feeling rapidly dissipated like mist dispelled by the sun.

["Hextech" "Smallest Giant" self-healing effect triggered.]

[SAN value has begun to recover slowly, current rate: +5 points/hour.]

""Little Giant" is god forever!"

Zhou An wiped away the cold sweat and looked down at the churning abyss of the cloud sea beneath his feet with lingering fear.

Although it was extremely dangerous down there, in that fleeting glimpse just now, he had clearly seen that within those lead-gray clouds, there were not only wrecks but also quite a few supply blind boxes floating down along with the debris!

"The millions of people ahead did indeed comb through and strip away the treasure chests along the flight path."

"But what if they were destroyed before they could get the treasure chests? Or what if the treasure chests spawned in positions too tricky, and they gave up on them to keep moving?"

Those treasure chests that were missed or fell along with the deceased would eventually slowly sink into that abyss death line below 10,000 meters!

Zhou An gritted his teeth, his eyes becoming wild.

With the "Little Giant" as a safety net, he planned to try the shallow zone; if that creature wasn't there, his SAN value wouldn't drop that quickly.

Two hours later, Zhou An's SAN value returned to 95. He took a deep breath and pushed the control stick down again.

The "Cloud Top Fortress" dived a second time, slowly crossing the 10,000-meter death red line.

Cold, oppressive, and foul-smelling air once again enveloped the fuselage. That annoying, sticky whispering sound rang in his ears again.

[Warning: Entered the abyss shallow pollution zone (9,800 meters)!]

[Determining SAN value decrease rate... Current rate: -10 points/hour.]

Zhou An stared fixedly at the panel: "The decrease rate is 10 points per hour, and the "Little Giant" can help me recover 5 points per hour. That means my net consumption here is only 5 points per hour!"

"The system warns that if the SAN value drops below 50, severe hallucinations will occur; this is my absolute safety bottom line."

"From 95 down to 50, there is a 45-point buffer space. Divided by the net consumption of 5 points per hour..."

Zhou An's eyes lit up: "I can stay here for a full 9 hours! And, as long as I don't go deep to provoke those giant tentacle monsters and only cruise in this shallow area, I won't suffer physical attacks."

Nine hours, enough for him to conduct a crazy salvage operation!

"Time to work!"

Zhou An no longer hesitated; he turned on all the searchlights at the bottom of the vehicle, shuttling back and forth in the 10,000-meter to 9,500-meter airspace like a ghost.

Sure enough, in this forbidden zone that no one dared to set foot in, the falling objects were densely packed to an outrageous degree!

He first dismantled an extremely rare Tier 2 reconnaissance aircraft wreck, obtaining a large amount of refined-grade materials.

Subsequently, the beam of the searchlight swept over a cluster of twisted, discarded parachutes; hanging beneath the parachute cords was a [bronze treasure chest] emitting a cyan glow.

"Grappling hook, deploy!"

Zhou An controlled the mechanical grappling hook and easily dragged the treasure chest into the cabin.

For the next eight hours, Zhou An was completely immersed in the frenzy of treasure hunting.

Ordinary supply boxes, [black iron treasure chest]s, [bronze treasure chest]s... these lost pearls that fell for various reasons accumulated more and more in this shallow abyss.

Due to the special environment, these boxes fell at an extremely slow speed, almost as if they were suspended in water, making them effortless to salvage. Zhou An didn't even need to search deliberately; just by flying a circle, the radar was densely packed with light spots representing supplies.

In the fifth hour, the SAN value dropped to 70. Zhou An began to hear someone knocking on the cabin door, but he knew it was an auditory hallucination, so he gritted his teeth and ignored it.

In the seventh hour, the SAN value dropped to 60. His vision began to blur, and the numbers on the dashboard began to twist.

In the eighth hour, the SAN value approached the dangerous red line of 55! The whispering in his ears had turned into shrill screams, as if countless dead survivors were tugging at his soul.

"Enough, can't be greedy anymore!"

Zhou An looked at the piles of treasure chests in the cabin, which were stacked like mountains, leaving almost no room to stand, and decisively pressed the emergency ascent button.

"Boom—"

The four ducted fans ran at full load, and the "Cloud Top Fortress", dragging a full cabin of loot, climbed upward while shaking violently.

9,600 meters... 9,800 meters... 10,000 meters!

The moment it broke through the cloud boundary, sunlight once again spilled into the cockpit.

As if a mute button had been pressed, those shrill screams and sticky whispers instantly vanished without a trace.

The feeling of oppression receded like a tide; Zhou An breathed in the fresh air in large gulps, feeling a sense of exhaustion from surviving a disaster.

He took a glance at the statistics in the warehouse, and a nearly manic smile bloomed on his tired face.

For a whole day, he went on a crazy spree in the shallow abyss, salvaging a full 214 treasure chests of various types!

Among them were also two [bronze treasure chest]s!

After rushing out of the abyss pollution zone, Zhou An didn't rush to open the chests. The exhaustion and sticky feeling from the depths of his soul had not yet dissipated, so he first walked into the kitchen, cooked himself a large bowl of steaming mutant pterosaur meat noodles, and then luxuriously used three liters of purified water to simply wash his body in the narrow maintenance room.

The warm water washed away the chill on his skin, and also caused his SAN value to recover faster under the buff of the "Little Giant".

After eating and drinking his fill, he changed into dry, clean clothes and returned to the spacious Tier 2 inner cabin. At this moment, the floor was densely packed with boxes of various colors.

"Phew—time to work!"

Zhou An rubbed his hands and started by processing the two hundred-plus ordinary supply blind boxes.

With bursts of dense system notification sounds, the numbers in the warehouse began to jump frantically like a meter:

[Obtained: Tier 2 steel x 5 units, Tier 2 steel x 8 units...]

[Obtained: Compressed rations x 12, purified water (500ml) x 20...]

[Obtained: Tier 2 composite rubber x 10, reinforced glass fragments x 5...]

In this wave of junk blind boxes, he actually managed to open quite a few Tier 2 metals that he rarely saw outside.

Because these boxes had all fallen from the abundant resource rain, their quality was extremely high.

After finishing with the ordinary goods, only a dozen or so [black iron treasure chest]s shimmering with a dark metallic luster, as well as the grand finale [bronze treasure chest], remained in front of Zhou An.