46: Chapter 46 is progressing well.

"Bring it on!"

Liver Emperor's eyes widened as he let out a roar like a wild beast.

The cooling valves on the back of his Medical Exoskeleton suddenly vented a plume of white mist, and the hydraulic rods began operating at a frantic pace.

He planted his legs firmly in a horse stance and thrust a two-hundred-pound heavy steel shield upward at an angle.

CLANG!!!

A terrifying crash, like two heavy trucks colliding head-on, exploded within the narrow mine tunnel.

Sparks flew in all directions like fireworks.

The Bloodletter's terrifying downward-slashing strength actually tore through the extremely thick steel plate in an instant.

The serrated pickaxe, fused with flesh and bone, pierced through the shield surface as easily as cutting through tofu.

The sharp pick tip, dripping with corrosive fluid, was less than three centimeters away from Liver Emperor's terrified eyes behind his visor.

Liver Emperor could clearly smell the nauseating, bloody stench emanating from the monster's mouth.

The massive impact conducted through the shield, causing the exoskeleton's metal joints to emit a sharp, overburdened groan. Liver Emperor was knocked back half a meter, his feet plowing two deep grooves into the standing water.

"The strength is too damn high! I can't hold it!" Liver Emperor gritted his teeth, bracing the shield firmly with his shoulder.

"I'm on it!"

Standing diagonally behind him, Ming Shen had the calmest gaze.

He gripped the Alloy Boar Spear with both hands and thrust it through the gap where the shield had been pierced, moving as fast as a viper's tongue.

Pfft.

The spear accurately pierced the Bloodletter's dark red chest, its tip even emerging from the creature's back.

But this monster knew nothing of pain.

Instead of retreating, it let out an excited, wild roar.

It grabbed the alloy shaft of the spear and, despite the sharp tip embedded in it, forced its way toward the players' formation.

Ming Shen felt an irresistible, monstrous force travel up the spear shaft; the webbing between his thumb and forefinger split instantly, and blood flowed freely.

"Back off!"

Flash slipped out from the side with extreme agility.

He had already pressed the maximum power switch on the police-issue melta sword he had bought on an installment loan.

The previously dull blade now glowed with a blinding cherry-red light, and the surrounding air was severely distorted by the thousands of degrees of heat.

Without any fancy movements, Flash performed a low slide, gripped the sword with both hands, and slashed down hard at the Bloodletter's thick right leg.

No blood sprayed.

The melta sword sliced through the demon's muscle and bone with extreme smoothness.

The extreme heat completely carbonized and sealed the wound the moment the limb was severed.

Losing the support of one leg, the Bloodletter's massive body lost its balance and crashed heavily into the water in the tunnel, sending up a large splash.

"Hit it while it's down! Take its life!"

Wanna Sleep with Slaanesh saw his chance. He swung the heavy long-handled Monk's Spade with both hands and stabbed down hard at the Bloodletter struggling on the ground.

The two crescent-shaped side blades of the spade accurately pinned the Bloodletter's thick neck, holding it against the rocky ground like a biological specimen.

The demon twisted its body frantically, its remaining left hand waving sharp claws in an attempt to tear the human before it to pieces.

At that moment, an even larger shadow completely loomed over it.

The two-meter-three Minotaur, Makabazi, strode past his companions.

He looked down at the still-snarling monster from above, an excited, cruel grin appearing on his face.

He raised a Double-Barreled Shotgun with a massive 40mm bore in one hand.

The moment the Bloodletter opened its cavernous mouth to bite, Makabazi roughly shoved the two black gun barrels directly into the demon's maw.

"Swallow this, you bastard."

Makabazi pulled the trigger without hesitation.

BOOM—!!!

A terrifying, muffled thunderclap, loud enough to burst eardrums in the enclosed tunnel, rang out.

Two shells packed with steel shot exploded at point-blank range inside the Bloodletter's mouth.

There was no suspense whatsoever.

The Bloodletter's hard head, adorned with demonic horns, exploded under the muzzle like a rotten watermelon hit by a sledgehammer, turning into a brilliant mist of blood and bone fragments.

Dark green brain matter and dark red blood sprayed in a radial pattern across the surrounding stone walls.

The headless massive body convulsed violently twice, and the serrated pickaxe hit the ground with a clang, finally falling into a total silence.

In the tunnel, only the heavy breathing of several people and the sizzling sound of the melta sword slowly cooling remained.

"Whew... it's dead."

Liver Emperor pulled the pickaxe out of his shield with effort, glancing at the terrifying hole in the shield's surface with lingering fear.

He shook his aching arm and looked at the headless corpse on the ground, letting out a long breath.

"So this thing... is just a glass cannon with high attack and low health."

Liver Emperor quickly made a tactical summary.

"Indeed."

Miracle Walker held his Logging Gun, scanning the darkness ahead warily.

"This monster seems even squishier than those heavy-armored Orks. As long as we withstand its first charge and don't get insta-killed in close quarters, it's actually very easy to kill using a melee formation followed by point-blank firearms."

Flash turned off his melta sword, wiped a splash of demon blood from his face, and chuckled.

"Looks like our heavy infantry bleeding tactic is spot on. Brothers, these are all walking contribution points."

The group shared a smile, the tension from their first encounter with a demon instantly replaced by an extreme fervor for experience points.

Just then.

Further down the winding mine tunnel, angry and crazed roars began to erupt one after another.

Clearly, the deafening shotgun blast just now had completely awakened all the Chaos monsters lurking deep underground.

Similar situations were playing out at various intersections throughout the mine tunnels.

After overcoming the initial panic of encountering Chaos Daemons, the players quickly adapted to the combat rhythm of these monsters.

They found that while these Bloodletters mutated from miners looked hideous and terrifying, they weren't difficult to deal with as long as they followed the pattern of heavy shields tanking, long-reach weapons dealing damage, and firearms finishing them off.

Moreover, during this process, something occurred that defied the common logic of the Warhammer universe.

Chaos Daemons are, in essence, projections of Warp energy into the physical universe.

Their source of power, aside from the blessings of the dark gods, relies heavily on the fear, despair, and pain emitted by mortals.

The more afraid mortals are, the more powerful they become.

But this group of players had no idea how to even spell the word 'fear'.

A player in the front row taking damage had his belly torn open, with intestines spilling out; instead of being afraid, he turned back and shouted at his teammates:

"Quick, quick, quick! I'm almost out of HP! Hurry up and pull me back for first aid! I don't want to lose 20 revival points!"

The players in the back were stabbing monsters with spears while exchanging crude jokes in the channel.

They treated this blood-soaked battlefield as a playground for grinding mobs and leveling up.

This pure gamer mindset was like a layer of insulating bulletproof armor.

The demons couldn't absorb even a shred of negative emotion from these clones.

Without fear to fuel them, these mutated demons grew weaker as the fight went on.

Their originally violent movements became sluggish, and the dark red color on their bodies gradually faded.

As one side waxed and the other waned, the players moved through them like a knife through butter, pushing deep into the core area of the mine within a single day.

...

At dusk.

Fire Seed Shelter, underground main control room.

Lin Li sat in a wide swivel chair, looking at the battle reports constantly refreshing on the holographic screen, feeling thoroughly comfortable.

"In one day, they dealt with 6 deeply corrupted human-mutated Bloodletters and over twenty primary mutated miners."

Lin Li took a satisfied sip from his water cup.

"And the combat losses are extremely low. Only four players were carried back with heavy injuries, and a dozen or so suffered minor wounds. This efficiency is just incredible."

Of course, there is never a shortage of trolls in The Fourth Calamity.

Lin Li saw a record at the end of the battle report and almost laughed out loud.

Some unlucky guy, while chasing a low-health monster, ran too fast and got separated from the main group.

As a result, he got lost at a junction and was cornered in a dead end by several mutated miners, who beat him to death with pickaxes.

This guy was now frantically sending out red packets in the QQ group, begging the brothers ahead to pick up his dropped pv terminal and equipment on their way.

Because Lin Li had set a rule: aside from the first pv terminal which was issued for free by the Shelter, if one was lost, getting a replacement would cost a full 500 core points.

This was called using economic levers to manage the players.

"At this rate, it should only take a few days for the Mountain Tribe's mine to be completely cleared out."

Lin Li set down his water cup and moved his gaze away from the map of the Mountain Tribe.

While the mining area was important, it only solved the Shelter's ammunition and material crisis.

What he was more concerned about now was another place.

To some extent, the basement of Gaobo Food Factory was even more important than this mine.

Not only might there be a large amount of old-era food supplies and Golden Age mechanical creations left there, but more importantly—Nano-Repair Fluid!

That was currently the only way to completely repair the Matter Constructor.

Only by repairing that core machine tool could the Shelter's lower-level permissions be further unlocked, thereby completely opening the third underground floor and welcoming a larger scale of clone production.

The reason Lin Li hadn't issued a server-wide mission to clear the Food Factory, but instead allowed the four-man team of Pi She and Flame Fist to maintain a monopoly, was largely because a lethal threat likely lurked down there.

So he could only let a small team cautiously test the waters.

"73."

Lin Li leaned back in his chair, his fingers lightly tapping the table.

"Is there any progress today from the team exploring the Food Factory's basement?"

In mid-air, STC-73's optical lens flickered with cold red light, and accompanied by a faint sound of data flow processing, it emitted a low mechanical voice.

"Creator. Those four clones are currently clearing the underground area of the Food Factory."

73's optical lens contracted strangely, and for the first time, its tone carried a hint of fluctuation that even its powerful calculating capacity found inconceivable:

"However... compared to those primitive but relatively normal cold weapon shield formations in the mine. Their fighting style in the Food Factory's basement..."

"Is somewhat... unusual."