30: Chapter 30 Temporary Retreat

Wang Ting's squad was evacuating, but they had just turned around when a dark shadow slammed into the defense line made of old cars and tires like a yak.

The impact was earth-shattering, and the loud roar sounded like a bolt from the blue; the cars were even overturned and landed heavily on the ground.

Wang Ting looked closely at the dark shadow and discovered it was a Thorn Vine Beast the size of a tiger-bear.

The bullets from the rifle in his hand poured toward the Thorn Vine Beast, and clinking sounds rang out continuously; the strength of its hard spikes was actually comparable to metal, blocking a large number of bullets.

Although the Thorn Vine Beast used its spikes to block most of the attacks, a few bullets still poured into its body, and the excruciating pain drove it mad.

It let out a roar, and it looked like it was about to charge and kill its way toward Wang Ting's side.

At this moment, Wang Ting quickly dodged aside, flipped over, and rushed into the stair passage.

The moment the defense line where Wang Ting was located was breached, the same situation occurred on the frontline defense.

Zhao Kun resisted until the last moment; when the Thorn Vine Beast launched its impact, the defense line piled up with cars was crossed by the Parasitic Fungus Vine and completely submerged in the torrent.

Everyone retreated from the stair passage, and some Guard Team members even had fresh blood dripping from their bodies.

Zhao Kun's expression was gloomy, and Wei Dong and Zhao Hu were no better off, their moods extremely poor.

"That spiky vine monster has probably reached the elite individual level."

Among the low-level anomalous entity monsters, the combat power of an elite individual was already no less than that of a human warrior who had broken the second limit. Speaking solely of physical strength, it was even stronger than a twice-limit-broken warrior.

If there was only one, Zhao Kun would still have the ability to slowly maneuver and deal with it. But now that more than two such monsters appeared simultaneously, it had become a major problem.

Zhao Kun's gaze swept across the crowd, and he said in as calm a tone as possible: "Treat the wounded, guard the stair passage well, and explore again when it gets bright."

A temporary blockade did not mean Zhao Kun wanted to give up exploring this Infinite Building.

On the contrary, the appearance of the Thorn Vine Beast indicated that within the Parasitic Fungus Vine population, there were even more powerful individuals capable of dropping more precious anomalous entity materials.

Elite individuals among low-level anomalous entities already had a probability of dropping transcendental cores with high-density transcendental factors.

And the transcendental core was the most crucial material for an ordinary person to transform into a transcendental being, with each one being extremely valuable.

Zhao Kun successively assigned tasks, including the critical task of guarding the passage, which was also executed in rotation by the two brigades of Wei Dong and Zhao Hu.

Since there were too many monsters around the stronghold and the nighttime riots would destroy the foothold, they would use the daytime to slowly clear them out. Once the numbers were suppressed to a certain extent and the stronghold's defense facilities were more complete, they would naturally be able to successfully build a bridgehead to conquer Vine Town.

However, doing so would require a very long construction time.

'It's a pity we failed to kill the Thorn Vine Beast...'

[Thorn Vine Beast cataloging progress: 47%.]

Wang Ting glanced at the current cataloging progress of the Thorn Vine Beast and felt a bit regretful.

After two encounters and a brief exchange, the cataloging progress of the Thorn Vine Beast had already exceeded half. If Boss Zhao could really severely injure or kill the Thorn Vine Beast and he joined in on the action, perhaps there would have been a chance to push this cataloging progress to 100% just now.

His gaze swept across the entire camp; three or five bonfires completely illuminated the temporary camp, and the transported supplies were piled inside the tents.

Faint snoring could still be heard from the remaining dark tents; these were the Guard Team members who had just returned to their tents to rest under Zhao Kun's arrangement.

Aside from this portion of resting personnel, many more team members were currently staring intently at the direction of the Infinite Building, standing by in strict readiness.

By the time Zhao Hu finished arranging things, it was already the latter half of the night.

He slumped down next to Wang Ting, and Wang Ting casually handed him a cup of hot water that had just been boiled not long ago, before looking toward the location of the stairs.

"Will the monsters rush out from the stair passage?"

"Not necessarily, but we have to guard against it."

Zhao Hu's gaze carried a hint of solemnity as he explained: "Although monsters entering the real world mostly cross the barrier between the two realms directly in the form of projections, anomalous entity monsters like the parasitic vines, which are not very strong and have smaller body sizes, have the opportunity to enter the real world directly through the stair passage of the Floor World. Therefore, we must guard against it."

Zhao Hu suddenly lowered his voice and said to Wang Ting: "I'm afraid a solid outpost will definitely be established this time. You have already broken the limit once, so you might not lack an opportunity. Come look for me after we go back, and I'll give you some ideas."

Zhao Hu spoke in a mysterious manner, and when Wang Ting wanted to ask him what method he had, he brushed it off vaguely, only letting it be known that it was related to whether he could secure the task of stationing at the outpost.

The chaotic night quickly passed, and fortunately, no monsters broke through the stair passage.

Early the next morning, Zhao Kun ordered Zhao Tianhao to lead a squad into the temporary stronghold to check the situation again.

After entering the stronghold and conducting some investigations, Zhao Tianhao killed two Parasitic Fungus Vines, then hurriedly retreated and reported the situation to Zhao Kun.

The living habits of monsters like the Parasitic Fungus Vine and Thorn Vine Beast seemed to be active at night and resting during the day. When entering during the day, most of the monsters near the blocks had already dispersed. Although a small portion remained hidden in the corners, it did not affect the main force in building the temporary stronghold.

Upon receiving this news, Zhao Kun finally breathed a sigh of relief, and immediately arranged for the Guard Team members to continue building the temporary stronghold within the Vine Town floor. This construction lasted for three days.

During the three days, Zhao Kun dispatched exploration teams into the Floor World at different time periods to investigate the situation there, while instructing Wei Dong to constantly reinforce the stronghold inside.

That stronghold, which once used dilapidated cars as a temporary fence, now had a shallow-to-moderate trench outside the fence, about one meter deep and two meters wide, extending outward along the three core houses.

There was no way to excavate roads, but there were now quite a few bonfires and barricades. As long as they were lit at night, the Parasitic Fungus Vine would definitely not dare to approach easily.

Zhao Kun was very dissatisfied with the construction speed of the temporary stronghold.

But he himself also understood that going on like this was not a solution.

Just as Wei Dong was also complaining to him: "Boss, our Guard Team members have to fight and build the temporary stronghold at the same time, and now they are operating 24 hours a day. Going on like this is not a solution. But if we want to resist that nighttime Thorn Vine Beast, the current defense facilities alone are not enough; we must at least put up a perimeter wall."

Everyone had witnessed the strength of the Thorn Vine Beast firsthand.

Relying solely on the current simple guardrails and the shallow-to-moderate trench was simply unable to stop such an elite individual.

However, wanting to build a brick-structured wall or a rammed-earth wall was not something people like them could achieve; they simply lacked enough manpower.

"I know."

Zhao Kun waved his hand and immediately made a decision: "Leave a team to guard here, and the others will retreat to Scarecrow Town to rest and regroup. Afterward, we will transfer Shelter townspeople over as laborers to build the temporary stronghold here and the Outpost Camp outside."

When Zhao Kun made this decision, Wei Dong and Zhao Hu on the side also breathed a sigh of relief.

The people under their command had constantly been fighting and building the camp; both jobs were not easy, everyone was exhausted to no small degree, and progress was slow.

If this went on for long, oversights would inevitably occur, leading to them being killed by the attacking monsters.

Being able to temporarily withdraw now and wait until gathering those survivors in the Shelter to build the camp while the Guard Team was solely responsible for combat and command—in this way, the safety coefficient of the Guard Team members could be substantially increased, and the construction efficiency would be even faster.

Wei Dong pondered slightly on the side, then tentatively asked: "Boss, regarding the members of the team to be left behind, do you think we should let that newcomer named Wang Ting, or..."

Wei Dong's probing words had not even finished when they were interrupted by Zhao Kun. He gave Wei Dong a deep look, then said in a calm voice: "We are only guarding for a day or two; strength doesn't matter much, but experience needs to be a bit seasoned. Just let Dong Hu and Li Yunding lead the team to garrison here. The monsters inside Vine Town are still quite stable, and the probability of them coming out is not high. As for Zhao Tianhao and Wang Ting, both of them must be brought back to Scarecrow Town; I have other plans."

"Understood, Boss."

Wei Dong agreed, but his gaze was deep, flickering with a slight light, not knowing what he was thinking in his heart.