53: Chapter 53 He was arrested

"73. In that underlying logic of yours that claims to be omniscient and omnipotent, can you spare some computing power to directly modify the mutant plant seeds collected from the wild? Even if it's just to make them adapt to the radiation and toxins here, or make them higher-yielding, that would work."

73's optical lens flickered, emitting an extremely stiff electronic snort.

"Creator, please stop your ridiculous fantasies that are full of biological blind spots."

73's mechanical voice contained undisguised disdain:

"In terms of genetics and genetic engineering, the capabilities of the Men of Iron are mostly concentrated in inorganic physics and high-energy weapons. When it comes to meat synthesis, farming, and gene tailoring, those are the strengths of the Stone Men and Golden Men."

"Furthermore, I have lost a large amount of core database data. Unless you can retrieve the relevant complete STC templates for me, I cannot conjure a perfect crop genetic map out of thin air."

"Nonsense. If I had the complete agricultural STC templates in my hands, would I need to beg you here?"

Lin Li rolled his eyes in annoyance,

"Wouldn't it be better if I just created an agricultural world and lay in piles of grain counting stars every day?"

Bickering aside, real-world problems still had to be solved.

Lin Li leaned back in his chair and fell into deep thought.

This is not one of the Empire's agricultural planets dedicated to food production.

Trying to find edible food crops on this wasteland, which is severely contaminated by radiation and heavy metals, is harder than ascending to heaven.

Even taking a step back, if one were to actually find some edible mutant weed, wanting to domesticate it into a high-yield staple crop would require a long cycle of years or even decades.

"I can only think of other ways. If that doesn't work, I'll have to open the exchange permissions for nutrient paste, although those players will definitely curse."

Just when Lin Li was at his wit's end.

"Alert!"

73's optical lens suddenly erupted with blinding red light.

"High-energy reaction detected! An unidentified object is descending at high speed from low earth orbit to the surface!"

Lin Li sat up straight abruptly, his eyes instantly becoming sharp:

"Where is the location? Is there a threat? Is it coming for the Shelter?!"

A topographic map quickly appeared on the screen.

A red dot of light, trailing a long wake, slammed heavily onto the top of the map.

"The forced landing coordinates are directly north of the Shelter, at a straight-line distance of about fifty kilometers."

73 reported quickly,

"Since the crash site is located in the shadow zone north of the mountain range, and there are towering rocky mountains blocking the way, the preliminary assessment of the direct threat level to the Shelter is: Minor."

"North of the mountain range?"

Lin Li keenly captured this place name.

In his mind, he instantly recalled the tourism check-in screenshots posted by those life-skill players on the forum this afternoon.

They had said that the deepest part of the Mountain Tribe mine connects to a massive natural underground rift.

Passing through the rift, one could reach the radiation plains on the north side of the mountains, which are piled high with interstellar junk!

"Interesting."

Lin Li rubbed his chin, a nuclear-friendly smile curling at the corners of his mouth,

"This so-called forced landing must be some kind of spaceship or orbital shuttle. If the crew inside is still alive, then we have a new batch of neighbors; if they were unlucky and died... then wouldn't we just be getting a flight vehicle containing advanced technology for free?"

Thinking of this, Lin Li did not hesitate, his hands tapping rapidly on the keyboard.

[Server-wide Emergency Exploration Quest: Falling Sparks of the North]

[Quest Brief: The Shelter has detected an unidentified aircraft crashing in the north of the mountain range (about 50km from the Mountain Tribe exit).]

[Quest Objective: Traverse the underground rift and investigate the specific situation of the crashed object. Collect all valuable technological artifacts or clues about survivors.]

[Quest Reward: Depending on the value of the intelligence and materials brought back, generous core point rewards will be given!]

Click, send.

Watching the quest successfully pushed to all players' pv terminals, Lin Li stretched satisfactorily.

"Laborers, go explore the wasteland for me."

Lin Li comfortably exited the Shelter management system and, on the computer desktop in Room 1, clicked on an ancient and classic icon—"Heroes of Might and Magic III".

"73, monitor the movements in the north. I'm going to save the world on the continent of Erathia. This damn wasteland is truly exhausting."

...

At the same time.

The ruins of the Gaobo Food Factory, deep underground.

"Hoo... hoo..."

In the dark and damp metal sewer, heavy panting echoed.

[Use Fire Punch] leaned against the rust-covered pipe wall, casually wiping away two trickles of dark red nosebleed from his nostrils.

This was the aftereffect of forcibly overdrawing psionic energy to release flames.

On the floor of the sewer, hundreds of charred corpses of Mutant Rat-men lay scattered about.

The foul smell of roasted meat mixed with the pungent scent of gunpowder, stinging the eyes.

The four-man mage squad had just experienced a tragic and brutal battle.

"Flame Fist, stop acting."

[Nicotine Truth], while reloading the heavy crossbow, poked his head to look into the depths of the dark pipe,

"Is your radar still working? Is this the last batch of monsters?"

"Confirmed."

Flame Fist swung the hem of his black leather coat in an extremely flashy manner,

"In my psionic perception, there are no more of these low-IQ, bloodthirsty malicious entities. We have cleared this section of the sewer."

"Phew... I'm exhausted."

[Player Pi She] sat down on the sewage-filled floor with a thud, throwing the chipped, ragged longsword in his hand to the side,

"Brothers, whether we get rich or lose money depends on this next wave!"

The four rested for a moment, shook off their fatigue, raised their torches and flashlights, and ventured deeper into the end of the sewer again.

They didn't go far.

A huge, bottomless industrial elevator shaft appeared before them.

The elevator car had long since crashed at the bottom, leaving only a rusty metal maintenance ladder on the shaft wall, extending upward into the unknown darkness.

"I'll go up first to confirm the situation."

[Wang Shouyi 13-Spice] bit the torch in his mouth, pulled out his pistol, and climbed up the ladder with agility.

After a few minutes.

Wang Shouyi's lowered voice came from above:

"It's safe up here! No monsters! The space is huge, come up quickly!"

The other three heard this and immediately followed up the ladder one by one.

Flame Fist was the last one to climb out of the elevator shaft.

When he climbed up, supporting himself with his hands on the dusty metal floor, he subconsciously looked back at the pitch-black abyss of the elevator shaft below.

For no reason, a subtle yet needle-like chill shot up Flame Fist's spine.

"Brothers..." Flame Fist shivered, "Why do I always feel... like there's a pair of eyes staring at us from down there?"

"Don't be a coward!"

Pi She patted Flame Fist's shoulder nonchalantly,

"Life is short! And besides, we can't even die! Look at the forty-some brothers who attacked the mine next door; they failed miserably and were wiped out, but aren't they still laughing and joking after respawning? Hurry up and find supplies!"

The four raised their flashlights and began to survey this secret space hidden beneath the Food Factory.

This space was very large, visually estimated to be over five hundred square meters.

Throughout the room, ten rows of huge, all-metal heavy-duty shelves were arranged extremely neatly.

And in the four corners of this large room, there was a circle of sealed instruments, covered with thick dust cloths.

"Holy shit! Brothers, come look!"

Wang Shouyi walked to the corner, ripped off the layer of dusty blue fiber dust cloth from an instrument, and immediately let out an exaggerated exclamation.

"This thing... doesn't it look familiar to you?"

Flame Fist and Nicotine Truth immediately leaned in.

Under the firelight, this was a device composed of a precise metal shell.

"This... isn't this the carbon matter purifier or whatever from the bottom level of the base? A magnified version?"

Wang Shouyi's voice was trembling with excitement,

"It's the black-tech machine that can purify urine into pure water!"

"Get lost!" Flame Fist kicked him with a look of disgust, "When the hell did you ever pour urine into it? Don't be disgusting!"

Everyone was disgusted by these off-putting words.

"Ahem, those details aren't important!"

Wang Shouyi waved his hand dismissively, his eyes gleaming. "The important thing is, we're going to make a fortune! The Shelter only has one of those precious devices, but we have dozens here! And they look a size bigger than the one at the Shelter!"

"Even with a 70/30 reclamation split, transporting these dozens of machines back will definitely earn us a massive amount of Core Points!"

Nicotine Truth was even more excited, rubbing his hands together. "If the dusty equipment in the corner is this valuable, then the stuff lined up on these ten shelves must be top-tier equipment that will let us take off instantly?!"

After saying this, Nicotine Truth impatiently carried his torch and rushed toward the nearest row of metal shelves.

However, the moment the torchlight swept across the shelves, the smiles on all four of their faces froze.

On the shelves, there were no advanced laser weapons, high-level industrial blueprints, or Golden Age micro-facilities as they had imagined.

Instead... there were sealed cylindrical canisters about fifty centimeters tall, with a dark silver metallic luster!

These canisters were lined up like soldiers, arranged extremely neatly row by row across the ten shelves.

There were hundreds, if not thousands of them!

"What the hell is this?"

Flame Fist frowned as he walked forward, leaning in to examine one of the canisters.

There were no labels on the surface of the canister, only some subtle, recessed patterns that looked like some kind of biological veins.

Suddenly, Flame Fist's gaze sharpened. He saw some marks on the metal shelf divider.

"Huh? Something's not right." Flame Fist pointed at the divider at the bottom of the canister. "Look at this dust... the canisters on these shelves have been frequently moved, and very recently too!"

Pi She leaned over to take a look, unimpressed. "What's the big deal? This place must have been full of those Mutant Rat-men. Isn't it normal for monsters running around to bump into shelves and shift their positions?"

"No, you don't understand." Flame Fist's expression was grave as he drew a sharp tactical dagger from his coat.

"If it were the Mutant Rat-men, they would only leave claw marks." Flame Fist forcefully dragged the dagger across the thick metal plate on the edge of the shelf.

Accompanied by a harsh screech of metal, only a shallow white mark was left on the shelf.

Then, he shone the torchlight on the metal shelf divider where the canister had originally been placed. There, shockingly, were several brutal, tearing scratches several millimeters deep!

Comparing them, the difference was extremely obvious.

"What does this mean?" Nicotine Truth swallowed hard.

"It means the character that caused these terrifying scratches has strength beyond imagination." Flame Fist's voice was low. "He was violently slamming these heavy canisters onto the shelves."

"Or it could be... that thing simply cannot control its own immense power." Wang Shouyi added, feeling a chill run down his back.

Just as the four players were gathered around the shelves, engaged in tense detective-like reasoning, an oppressive silence quietly enveloped the entire room.

A tall, terrifying figure, like a tower of iron, appeared like a ghost, without making any footsteps, slowly emerging in the darkness less than ten meters behind them.

Even Flame Fist, who claimed to have extremely high perception, only felt a sudden, hair-raising sensation of being watched by an apex predator when the opponent got within ten meters!

Flame Fist's scalp tingled instantly, and he whipped his head around. His peripheral vision swept over it. It was a humanoid creature nearly three meters tall with a massive physique!

He was shirtless, and on his arms and chest, which were thicker than an ordinary person's thighs, grew several foul-smelling, purplish-red pustules.

One of his eyes seemed to have severely degenerated and gone blind, appearing as a cloudy grayish-white. The other, intact eye was looking down at the four of them coldly, emotionlessly, and expressionlessly.

"Monster!!" Flame Fist let out a shrill roar!

This was definitely not some trash like a Mutant Rat-man! This terrifying size and pressure were absolutely that of a monstrous creature comparable to a Space Marine!

The other three reacted extremely quickly, almost reflexively raising their Logging Guns, ready to fire!

However, the humanoid monster's speed was unbelievably fast, even severely violating the players' common sense regarding physics and body size!

Even for Pi She, who had the highest agility attribute among the four, the action of raising his gun muzzle seemed like slow motion in the monster's eyes!

"Swish!" A dull sound of breaking air was all that remained. The three-meter-tall monster instantly crossed the ten-meter distance, appearing directly in front of Pi She.

The monster did not immediately deal a lethal blow. Across his ugly, somewhat deformed face, a trace of extremely human-like confusion flashed.

"...Cyborg?" The monster muttered in an extremely ancient, hoarse Gothic language.

Naturally, the players couldn't understand this gibberish. Seeing the monster pause, a hint of ruthlessness flashed in Pi She's eyes, and he pulled the trigger without hesitation.

"Snap! Snap!" A few crisp sounds of metal breaking rang out.

Pi She only felt a blur before his eyes, and an irresistible, terrifying force swept past. The sturdy steel Logging Gun in his hand, along with Nicotine Truth's gun barrel, were instantly crushed into two pieces of scrap metal by the monster's bare hands!

"Holy shit!" Flame Fist was horrified. He thrust his hands forward, determined to unleash his psionic flames at all costs!

However, the moment he channeled his psionic power, the air in front of him rippled slightly. The three-meter-tall terrifying giant had vanished into thin air!

"Where is he?! Did he run away?!" Flame Fist held up his hands, which were burning with white fire, looking around in complete bewilderment.

"I don't know! What the hell kind of monster is this? Is that a Flash skill?!" Nicotine Truth retreated in fear, only a broken half-barrel remaining in his hand.

"Oh no!!" Wang Shouyi suddenly screamed, "Pi She is gone!!"

Flame Fist and Nicotine Truth whipped their heads around. Pi She, who had just been standing beside them, was now nowhere to be seen.

On the ground, only the crushed parts of the firearm remained, along with a short, startled cry that was receding deep into the underground.

"Holy shit! Pi She isn't going to be grabbed and eaten alive, is he?!" Nicotine Truth's scalp went numb.

"What do we do?! Do we chase him?!" Wang Shouyi was drenched in cold sweat.

Flame Fist glanced at the bottomless elevator shaft, gritted his teeth, and made a decisive judgment.

"Chase my ass! With that kind of speed and power, he's not someone at our current level can mess with!" Flame Fist shouted realistically. "Pi She can respawn anyway if he dies! We can't throw away all the equipment we farmed today just to save him!"

"Pi She sacrificed himself to bait the nest! We have to bring something back!"

"Makes sense!" Nicotine Truth and Wang Shouyi agreed deeply.

The three of them displayed their formidable bandit nature. Flame Fist and Nicotine Truth worked together to roughly hoist a heavy, tens-of-pounds purifier device from the corner.

Wang Shouyi, holding it like a bomb, quickly swiped three dark silver metal canisters from the shelf.

"The wind is picking up! Let's bail!" The three of them, carrying their loot, scrambled down the elevator shaft's ladder like they were being chased by dogs, fleeing the underground of the Food Factory without looking back.

The players ran all the way back to the Fire Seed Shelter with their loot. When they slammed the heavy, large purifier and the three dark silver metal canisters down at the material reclamation point on the second underground floor, all three of them were so exhausted they looked like they had been fished out of water.

The 'OH' notification sound chimed pleasantly. This highly industrial-value purifier still earned their team an extremely generous amount of Core Points!

"We're rich, we're rich... This haul is definitely a huge profit!" Nicotine Truth trembled with excitement as he watched his account balance skyrocket. "Let's go! Log off quickly! Let's go to the forum to expose the coordinates of this heaven-defying Boss, and while we're at it, hold a memorial service for that kid Pi She!"

The three of them didn't hesitate to find a sleep pod and force a logout.