Ian's consciousness awakened in a swamp mixed with the flesh and blood of humans and Pola Beasts.
He felt no disgust; instead, he analyzed this impure Life Source Essence with great interest.
With a single thought, this high-value flesh, along with the dirt on the ground and the surrounding construction debris, began to converge toward a central point, rapidly reconstructing a perfect body.
As the fragmented memories lingering within these bodies flooded his mind, he grinned.
It seemed this packet of his information had successfully arrived in the Ling Cage world.
To ordinary people, this was a world filled with despair and struggle, but to him, it was the perfect amusement park for a relaxing vacation.
Ian looked around. The ruined battlefield was littered with the corpses of Hunter squad members and Pola Beasts.
With a thought, he packed up all the corpses, discarded heavy equipment, and even the high-value alloys from the building wreckage, selling them all into the Transmutation Tablet.
His EMC value began to increase at a considerable rate.
The massive noise of dismantling the buildings, combined with Ian's undisguised, powerful life aura and emotional fluctuations that shone like a beacon in the dark, instantly attracted all the wandering Pola Beasts in the surrounding area.
The ground began to tremble as roars echoed from all directions.
Sensing their arrival, Ian couldn't help but chuckle, "Looks like payday."
He spent a small amount of EMC to exchange for two weapons.
A Bolter with magma patterns flowing across its barrel, enchanted with [Infinity], [Multishot], and [Power V].
A chainsword enchanted with [Fire Aspect] and [Sharpness V].
To make this "hunt" even more enjoyable, Ian applied a [Blessing of the Blood God] buff from the Warhammer universe to himself.
His entire body was enveloped in a berserk red halo, his muscles bulging slightly as his eyes emitted a bloodthirsty crimson glow.
Facing the first wave of dozens of Snake-Dog Pola Beasts charging at him, Ian didn't retreat. Instead, he advanced, raising his chainsword high and unleashing a sky-shattering roar with all his might.
"Blood for the Blood God! Skulls for the Skull Throne!" he bellowed, subsequently cleaving several Pola Beasts in half with a single strike.
The battle had now begun!
Every shot from the Bolter fired multiple explosive rounds in rapid succession, blowing the pack of Pola Beasts into a spray of flesh and blood.
Swinging the chainsword was like slicing through butter with a hot knife; any Pola Beast that got close was instantly dismembered and ignited.
The scene was bloody and highly efficient.
Amidst the slaughter, Ian freely released his excitement, joy, and berserk emotions.
To the Pola Beasts, who fed on Life Source Essence, this intense emotional fluctuation was a top-tier delicacy, a hundred times more delicious than the humans on the Lighthouse.
...
Far away in a human settlement on the surface.
Bai Yuekui suddenly raised her head as if sensing something, gazing into the distance.
"Boss, what's wrong?" Xia Dou leaned in curiously from the side.
Bai Yuekui didn't answer. She walked over to the main monitoring screen and pulled up the energy spectrum of a specific sector.
A red energy pillar stood out abruptly on the graph, its peak climbing madly at an absurd rate.
That sudden eruption of pure, powerful life energy and emotional fluctuation completely exceeded her understanding.
"What exactly... appeared over there?" she muttered to herself, a hint of interest in her eyes.
...
Meanwhile, on the Lighthouse suspended high in the sky, ear-piercing alarms blared through every corner.
"Warning! High-density Pola Beast gathering detected!"
"Energy index climbing! A beast tide has formed!"
"The numbers are still rising!"
"My God... this is impossible!"
In the Lighthouse's core control room, the old Mayor Morgan wore a grave expression as he urgently summoned all core members.
Hunter Commander Marc and Charles, the head of the Light and Shadow Church, arrived almost simultaneously.
"What's the situation?" Marc rushed to the screen, clenching his fists as he stared at the frantically converging red dots that had nearly merged into a single mass.
"Half a minute ago, an abnormal energy source appeared in Sector 47. Following that, all the Pola Beasts in the vicinity began swarming there like crazy," a technician reported with a tremble. "The scale... is unprecedented."
Marc's eyes were filled with anxiety. "We have to stop them immediately. If a beast tide forms..."
Before he could finish his sentence, the largest red dot on the screen suddenly erupted with an even more blinding light.
The control room fell into a deathly silence.
Surrounded by countless Pola Beasts, a Monarch-class Pola Beast with a body as massive as a mountain range burst forth from the ground, drawn by Ian's ultimate "deliciousness."
Its countless tentacles pointed toward the tiny figure at the center of the battlefield as it let out a soul-shaking roar.
On the large screen inside the Lighthouse, a massive red warning symbol representing "Monarch-class" instantly took over the entire display.
Monarch-class. That was a legend that only existed in documented records, a walking natural disaster capable of single-handedly destroying the entire Lighthouse.
And now, it had appeared.
And it was bringing along an unprecedented beast tide.
"How... how could a Monarch-class suddenly appear..." Old Mayor Morgan's voice carried a hint of hoarseness as he tightly gripped his armrest to maintain his composure.
"Switch to the satellite feed immediately! We need to see what's happening on the ground!" the old Mayor ordered the technician beside him.
"We can't penetrate it! The Monarch-class Pola Beast's biological magnetic field interference is too strong; the satellite feed is just a mess of static!" the technician reported in despair.
The satellite was completely unable to capture footage of the scene. The crowd could only watch a massive red dot constantly moving toward the Lighthouse, surrounded by countless smaller red dots, advancing rapidly in their direction.
Charles stood behind Marc, looking at the glaring red dot on the screen and Marc's tense profile.
From an angle no one could notice, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly.
This seemed to be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
"Lord Mayor," Charles's voice rang out in the silent control room, carrying a hypocritical sense of compassion and solemnity. "Things have come to this; panic is useless. We must face reality."
Everyone's attention was drawn to him.
Charles took a step forward, his gaze sweeping over the crowd before finally landing on Marc.
"Captain Marc, you are the strongest Hunter of our Lighthouse, a hero to everyone," he said, his tone seemingly filled with "encouragement."
"Facing such a desperate situation, the survival of the Lighthouse might... only rely on you and the Hunters under your command."
Marc whipped his head around, detecting a hint of something amiss in Charles's words.
This didn't sound like boosting morale; it sounded more like moral coercion, pushing him into a pit of fire.
"Charles, what is the meaning of this?" Marc's voice suppressed his anger. "Against a Monarch-class, any individual effort is futile. What we need is a meticulous plan!"
"A plan?" Charles chuckled lightly and spread his hands. "Time waits for no one, Captain Marc. Look, it's moving in our direction. Every second delayed puts the Lighthouse in more danger. Are you just going to watch it charge over and drag us all down to the grave with it?"
"No one knows exactly how powerful a Monarch-class Pola Beast is. Sending out the Hunters is tantamount to suicide," Marc said, ignoring Charles's moral coercion.
"The only way is to activate the artillery system and use all our long-range heavy cannons to launch an indiscriminate, saturated bombardment on Sector 47!"