After the discussion about the recipe concluded, the dinner wrapped up in another hour. Since they were in the pioneering phase and constantly facing potential enemies, everyone needed to remain vigilant and clear-headed. After the gathering, Mu Dehao finally had time to chat with Wei Huan and Mu Zhong about family matters.
The three of them prepared tea and sat on the top-floor balcony of Mu Dehao's Vehicle, gazing down at the plaza below, which had gradually emptied.
Compared to Wei Huan's carriage, Mu Dehao's vehicle's interior was exquisite.
Seven and a half years of accumulated resources were enough to transform the carriage's interior into a highly suitable living space, with a significant amount of points spent just on greenery. The balcony where they sat was filled with flowers and plants. In the space filled with only vegetation and no insects, sipping fragrant tea, everything felt exceptionally comfortable.
They spoke about Mu Zhong's mother, Zhou Xian. Mu Dehao was very relieved to hear that Wei Huan had already accumulated a large amount of "Light of Fate" for Zhou Xian, which might be enough to break the seal on her abilities. They also discussed the recent anecdotes of the little girl, Mu Xi, at the kindergarten. In truth, Mu Dehao and Zhou Xian were very busy with their work, and Mu Zhong was already grown. The couple had not initially considered having a second child. However, given the current population crisis on Blue Star, they felt they needed to lead by example while urging citizens to procreate, which is why they had the little girl. Her arrival indeed brought a touch of innocence to their already mature family.
Finally, they inevitably discussed Wei Huan's father, Wei Jinhong. Wei Jinhong had been repatriated to Blue Star and banned from logging into the Challenger World for three months. The charge was subject to a strict investigation, yet the punishment was very light. This was largely due to the many law enforcement officers' estimations of Wei Huan's attitude, primarily focusing on avoiding a "reckoning after the autumn harvest." Wei Huan actually hoped that Wei Jinhong would never enter the Challenger World again. Since he was now at the forefront, with considerable authority and greater fame, he could easily be exploited by a profiteering scoundrel like Wei Jinhong. However, the people handling the case did not dare to inflict severe punishment. By the time Wei Huan learned about it, the verdict was already final, and it was hard to say much more.
The reason Wei Jinhong came up in conversation now was that he was about to return to the Challenger World. Furthermore, Gong Lianying, unwilling to let the excellent connection with Wei Huan go unused, had been involved in many unnecessary activities on Blue Star. Mu Dehao had arranged for people to thoroughly investigate all of this.
"The Gong Group seems to have aligned itself with the Xu family. You're familiar with the Xu family; they're the ones who originally deceived Liu Chengzhi, tried to seize his family's assets, and then fled into the Challenger World after their crimes were exposed and they were placed on the wanted list. According to our investigation, Gong Lianying helped arrange for them to be sent abroad. Their beacon location is currently unknown, but we understand that most of their assets were successfully transferred to Aosam, and they may even be under Aosam's protection."
Wei Huan had already completed his investigation into Xu Man's details. With the government taking action and the War Race Headquarters completely subdued, it was not difficult to find out who the escaped individuals were. Therefore, Wei Huan was very concerned about Xu Man, who had been the War Race Saint Lord in his previous life. When he heard that Gong Lianying had contact with Xu Man's group and even helped cover their transfer, his brow furrowed immediately.
With virtually no hesitation, Wei Huan told Mu Dehao, "If the evidence is solid, investigate what needs investigating, and arrest who needs arresting. They must pay the price for their decision to break the law and commit crimes."
Mu Dehao had actually wanted to use this matter to gauge Wei Huan's attitude. If the Gong Group were to fall, Wei Jinhong would be completely finished. He had thought that Wei Huan had not previously gone for the killing blow to preserve some means of livelihood for Wei Jinhong. He did not expect that this time, Wei Huan was more concerned about Gong Lianying's connection with Xu Man, which was absolutely intolerable. Xu Man's sins in the last life were too great to be cleansed, and Wei Huan intended to continue settling the score in this life.
"Gong Lianying must know Xu Man's beacon location. Continue the investigation; the Xu family cannot be allowed to escape." Wei Huan spoke with such conviction, though no one knew the reason for his persistence. The smart thing about smart people, however, was that they never dug for information they shouldn't know. They only needed to ensure their absolute unity on the matter of principle. Therefore, the pressure on Gong Lianying would continue to be intensified.
---
The conversation lasted until late at night. After returning to their vehicle, Wei Huan and Mu Zhong did not forget to practice in the Professional Temple. The night passed in a flash.
During the day, Wei Huan was instructed not to stray too far from the supply point. With nothing much to do, he went to observe the construction of the supply point. Alloy bricks were being massively exchanged from the Points Mall and were then constructed by the construction team, who were all very strong Farmer Sequence members. The structures had blueprints, with certain hollow areas designed to house weapons, which the Quartermaster Corps personnel were responsible for. The Quartermaster Corps also had some Driver Sequence members acting as "electronic soldiers," linking these weapons to the system for control from different terminals. Mu Dehao held the master switch.
During the day, there were few vehicles in the base because most were out exploring islands, searching for treasure chests and ruins to gather resources. The pioneering teams mainly explored Silver-level ruins and marked any Gold-level ruins they encountered. This was because, at the current stage, developing Gold-level ruins resulted in heavy losses, and since no countries were developing them yet, these resources belonged to whoever got there first.
Additionally, the main job of the Azure Dragon Legion's Pioneer Corps was to search for suitable islands for city building or for establishing the next temporary supply point. Not every island was suitable for construction. Some were too small, had poor climate or terrain, and many were known as Dark Islands, where Dark Energy converged, creating too many problems for humans to solve if they attempted to build a city there.
Pioneering work sounded simple, but it was actually both dangerous and cumbersome. Furthermore, amid the competition from other countries, ensuring that Daxia maintained its advantage without being overly reckless or causing accidents was a difficult challenge. Wei Huan stayed at the supply point for a day and clearly felt the base's tense atmosphere. The phrase heard most often was, "Hurry, hurry! Be thorough. The beast tide is due in the next day or two. Check everything carefully and don't let any accident happen."
Wei Huan asked Zhou Haoming, "Is the Tier 5 world's beast tide terrifying?"
"Of course," Zhou Haoming nodded. "So far, the Vermilion Bird Legion and the White Tiger Legion have each encountered one minor beast tide. Although they successfully defended against them, they both suffered casualties, and the supply points were largely destroyed and needed reconstruction. Black Tortoise City, due to its larger population, encountered a medium beast tide three months ago. At that time, it took a united effort from Daxia and all other Challenger nations to successfully resist the tide, requiring the mobilization of all available forces to achieve victory."
"The assessment of the threat we are about to face is currently categorized as somewhere between minor and medium. Many people have arrived over the past few months, and the Challenger World assesses our strength to issue an appropriate challenge. If a medium beast tide appears, it will be a huge threat to us. So, Commander Mu has also contacted the other Legions, and they will send people to assist us."
Wei Huan listened and nodded, then asked, "What is the difference between a minor and a medium beast tide?"
"A large beast tide will have Beast Generals appear. A medium beast tide can reach a maximum of about 50,000 monsters, while a minor beast tide has around 10,000."
Wei Huan only knew the standard for the Tier 4 world's beast tide and was surprised that the Tier 5 world's standard was the same. The key was that the monsters in the Tier 4 world were numerous but weak in actual combat power. The Sea Beasts of the Tier 5 world, however, were individually formidable. Using the same quantity standard could only mean that the monster spawn rate here was similarly high, but humanity's strength had not yet caught up. This was why they were treating a mere minor beast tide as a dire threat.
Wei Huan's strength was sufficient to fight a medium beast tide alone, but that was at his peak. Now, with a large part of his abilities sealed, he would likely struggle against even a minor beast tide. As Wei Huan mentally calculated his strength in the Tier 5 world, he knew that the idea of opposing a beast tide single-handedly was arrogant. However, if the few people at the absolute peak of human strength could not reverse the situation, it would be even harder to win against the even mightier Dark Beast Lords. The Challenger World was a challenge to humanity, but it was also a gift. It was like a training ground. An unknown entity provided them with space, resources, and a training ground, allowing them to grow stronger and constantly evolve. Therefore, humanity had to completely overcome the current Challenger World to be considered to have fully utilized all the resources and achieved a perfect evolution.
After understanding the strength of the opponent they would face, Wei Huan moved on to other topics. Zhou Haoming answered every question, even those involving classified information, sharing whatever he knew.
In the blink of an eye, the promised three days had passed. Wei Huan did not get the beast tide, but he heard that the Vermilion Bird Legion and Aosam were fighting again.
"...It's basically that the Vermilion Bird side mobilized forces, and Captain Wang and Liu Xiaotian are also there, led by Captain Fang William. They are preparing to explore that Gold-level ruin on the island. Aosam got wind of the plan and rushed over. Despite their clearly insufficient strength and minimal preparation, they insisted that they also had to develop the ruin. Both sides have reached a deadlock, and conflicts have broken out."
"How serious is the conflict?"
"Both sides have captured people from the other, and there are injuries," Mu Zhong said, shaking his head and pressing his hand to his forehead. "Pioneer Corps like these always have a lot of friction. One wrong move and people can die. The various countries refuse to submit to one another and cannot be coordinated due to the lack of a regulatory body, or perhaps a higher leader."
Wei Huan nodded. The "Blue Star Joint Legion" was like a mere display piece. The highest governing body was a council, consisting of five permanent members: Daxia, Aosam, Great Bear Nation, The Three Kingdoms, and Kangaroo Nation. All had their own agendas. When their own interests were at stake, they formed cliques, and the final result only represented the "victory of the power game," not the "most correct choice." For instance, this current dispute would likely end with a compromise or an allocation of interests at the negotiating table. Not only would the resources not be put to the best use, but the pioneering progress would also be significantly delayed. Therefore, this Joint Legion was fundamentally meaningless.
Wei Huan frowned, just about to continue the conversation, when a siren suddenly blared in his ear. Immediately, Wei Huan became alert. The beast tide he had been waiting for three days had finally arrived.
---
There were clear signs before a beast tide erupted. The random monster spawns around the supply point would become extremely numerous. The base sent troops out daily to clear them, but it was of little use. This was because many monsters only spawned right before the beast tide erupted. Clearing them ahead of time only reduced the total number of the tide by a tiny amount, which was insignificant compared to the whole. Furthermore, many of the beast tide monsters in the Tier 5 world were Sea Beasts that swam in the deep sea, where human Tier 5 Vehicles were at a great disadvantage in combat, so the clearing effect was also minimal. Fortunately, the Challenger World provided a warning in this way, allowing humanity to prepare.
As the siren sounded, all Challengers outside returned to their vehicles immediately, including Mu Dehao at the Command Headquarters. Then, Mu Dehao's face appeared on the unified network of the vehicles. He was the Supreme Leader of the Pioneer Corps and the General Commander of the battle. On either side of the screen appeared two Chiefs of Staff. One reported intelligence, and the other was responsible for practical, detailed command.
The Chief of Staff responsible for intelligence spoke first. "Attention all departments! The beast tide will arrive at the city walls in five minutes. Frontline combat personnel, move to battle stations. All other personnel, evacuate..."
Mu Dehao was a man of few words. He only spoke when necessary, after the Chief of Staff had finished. "All forces move out."
The hundreds of vehicles parked underground drove out from the basement in an orderly succession. Having clearly practiced a thousand times, the frontline Vehicles all reached their battle stations in under two minutes. Deployments were made along different directions of the city wall, and the battle positions prepared for the Vehicles by the Construction Department were perfectly snug.
Wei Huan had not participated in the training, so he did not rashly join any convoy. He waited until the frontline units had all left, and they departed one step behind. Once they reached the surface, they did not enter any designated battle position. Instead, they raised their vehicle to a height of 30 meters, reaching the top of the city wall. From there, they could observe the situation outside and engage in combat.
In the time they were delayed, the beast tide had already landed, and some aerial units had reached the airspace above the supply point. Although most of the time, a vehicle's protective shield could be enlarged to serve as a city's protective shield, in reality, a city had its own protective shield and they could not be used interchangeably. Official city construction would not consider such methods for conservation. Rather, they preferred to directly purchase a city protective shield so that it could continue to shelter the supply point once the Pioneer Corps departed.
However, a supply point also had its own standard protective shield. The shield currently rising was a Tier 5 protective shield. A protective shield purchased according to the world tier had to be capable of defending against at least the common monsters of that world. The flying units in the beast tide emitted shrieking calls and were the first to collide with the supply point's protective shield.
They were a group of fierce-looking birds, resembling pterosaurs. Their talons were like deadly weapons, a pair of claws grew on their large wings, and their beaks were long and sharp, with interlocking teeth protruding from the corners of their mouths. They differed from ordinary birds in their larger size, with a wingspan of seven to eight meters. They were entirely black, and they had ten eyes, growing from the sides of their cheeks all the way to their necks. Before they even flew over the supply point, the nearly thousand large birds violently flapped their wings, sending invisible wind blades cleaving down onto the protective shield.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The Tier 5 protective shield withstood the attack, but because the enemy used a ranged attack, the shield's counter-attack feature was not activated.
"Bang! Bang! Bang!"
The protective shield flickered under the continuous assault. Normally, at this point, Wei Huan's Undead army would have already been deployed. Even if the Burrow Beast unit was unusable, a mere thousand enemies could be suppressed by sheer numbers using a combination of the Demon Eye Lord and the Vulture-Ghoul. Of course, his carriage had a Tier 6 protective shield that could rebound ranged attacks, meaning he could likely eliminate these flying units using only the shield's rebound and ranged attacks, without deploying a single soldier. What they were seeing now was the passive defense of the Tier 5 protective shield, with the Vehicles and the fixed weapons on the city wall firing simultaneously. In this mutual energy consumption, the final winner would be determined.
The victory would naturally go to humanity. After all, there were over 200 main battle vehicles and more than 20,000 Challengers from Daxia fighting here. Any main battle vehicles that had not been upgraded to Tier 5 would not have been assigned frontline combat missions.
In what seemed like a mutual exchange of energy, the fight lasted for two minutes, ending with the loss of half of the beast tide's flying units and the human Tier 5 protective shield nearing collapse. This was because the ground forces had also arrived. This time, what appeared at the front were not deep-sea Shark Monsters, but crabs that lived in the shallow seas. They looked somewhat like Facehuggers, but were black and red, and their pincers were much sturdier and larger than a Facehugger's. Their bodies were also much bigger, suggesting a stronger individual combat power than the Facehuggers.
Their numbers were similarly vast, surging in from outside the valley like a dense carpet. Mu Dehao spoke over the command channel. "Ranged units, prepare! Fire in relays!"
The firing was not simultaneous because the beast tide's numbers were huge, and a concurrent attack would inevitably result in damage overflow. Firing in relays was a tactic, a part of their regular training. Some crabs died instantly, while others luckily dodged the direct impact of the shells, drawing closer to the city wall.
Gradually, larger black crabs, resembling hermit crabs with shells on their backs, appeared among the ordinary crabs. Their defense was clearly much higher; the attacks that could kill the ordinary crabs were unable to break their outer shells. The defensive line was being steadily pushed back. Furthermore, the remaining flying birds circled in the sky and then descended again, coordinating with the ground forces. The protective shield, which had only just recovered some energy, once again suffered attacks that threatened to shatter it at any moment.
The battle looked tense and fierce, with both sides trading blows, but the people on Wei Huan's vehicle wore constipated expressions, struggling to hold back their comments. Was this all there was? Back in the Challenger World, hadn't they frequently drawn and annihilated huge groups of Sea Beasts? The numbers were not much smaller than this, and they had even encountered Royals. Was it really that difficult to kill them?
Liu Chengzhi, the most bewildered, couldn't help but quietly ask Brother Hammer, who was often helping in the kitchen recently. "Brother Hammer, even if we hold back to avoid being too ostentatious, Commander Mu's carriage also has a Tier 6 protective shield, right? Why isn't he using it? Isn't this a waste of resources? What if the protective shield really breaks?"
Brother Hammer had a plain, honest, and simple face. He thought for a moment and said, "Because both we and Commander Mu will eventually have to leave, right? This city needs to be able to deal with the beast tides on its own." He paused and added, "Our Boss probably isn't worried about being ostentatious; he just doesn't need to act."
Liu Chengzhi was confused. "What? It's like this, they're nearly at the city walls, and there's still no need to act?"
Just as he asked, he saw countless gun barrels suddenly protrude from the city wall.
"Tut-tut-tut!"
A burst of fire erupted. Sea Beast flesh and blood flew everywhere, and shells cracked and shattered. In just a few seconds, the ground was covered in a muddy residue of remains. Liu Chengzhi was momentarily speechless. These weapons, which looked just like the most ordinary submachine guns on Blue Star, possessed such immense lethality. Under their spewing fire, not a single monster could cross the final meter of the defense line.
As for the flying birds in the sky, they were sniped by ranged units as soon as they approached. Although the wind blades could hit the protective shield, a large number of corpses were left behind each time until they climbed to a higher altitude again. Thus, the Tier 5 protective shield, which had seemed on the verge of collapsing, had not shattered even now and had even recovered a significant amount of energy after continuous charging.
Liu Chengzhi's mouth opened and closed. He probably understood the Boss's intention. The Legion had made it this far without the Boss's intervention, adopting a steady, step-by-step approach with its own set of standard tactics. The Boss was not here to be a savior. Even if he was more powerful, he should not recklessly interfere in every battle to show off his abilities. Good steel must be used on the cutting edge. Ordinary beast tides should be handled by the disciplined army, and the Boss naturally had his own battleground. Most people on the carriage understood this, and the few who didn't would eventually figure it out with more thought.
Wei Huan had not made a move because this beast tide was indeed just a minor beast tide. By now, the final waves of the beast tide had already landed, with a total number of only about 20,000 to 30,000, and a large portion of those were Sea Crab cannon fodder units. Even the large sharks and water-cannon-firing Sea Fish that followed only met the fate of being torn apart by bullets under the overwhelming defensive strength of the garrison. These Sea Beasts did not even get a chance to touch the city walls under the concentrated firepower before being completely eliminated.
The entire battle lasted less than half an hour. The ease of the operation left the Legion members, who had been tense for days over the beast tide eruption, feeling as if they had swung a punch and hit a cotton ball. The minor beast tide might have been extremely difficult when they first arrived in the Tier 5 world, but now that humanity had essentially established a foothold in this world, dealing with it had become very simple.
However, in the post-combat meeting, the Chief of Staff for Intelligence reported, "The intelligence does not quite match the reality. The reconnaissance vehicles we sent out found a considerable number of wandering monsters still in the ocean. This is inconsistent with previous beast tide outbreaks. Theoretically, after this battle, we shouldn't see any Sea Beasts within a hundred-li radius of our supply point for a while."
Mu Dehao nodded. "It was indeed a bit too easy. So, you mean there might be a second beast tide outbreak in the near future?"
"Yes, this situation also occurred in the Tier 4 world at Vermilion Bird City. It was also shortly after the city was built, and two beast tides occurred in quick succession. The situation was unclear at the time, but based on this instance, we suspect it has to do with the arrival of a disruptive force at our base during the period of combat readiness."
Mu Dehao raised an eyebrow. The Chief of Staff for Intelligence looked directly at Wei Huan and said, "At the time, the Vermilion Bird Legion also saw a large number of Legion members, led by Captain Fang William, move in during a period of combat readiness. This likely stimulated the Challenger World to reassess the base's combat power, so the second beast tide that appeared was twice the intensity of the first. If a second beast tide truly erupts, I can only say that Major Wei and your crew's combat power are not to be underestimated. Even if you don't exceed the total combat power of our garrison, you are close enough to have stimulated the Challenger World to introduce a new test."
The Chief of Staff's final sentence caused everyone's strained expressions to instantly relax. That's right. Viewed from another perspective, this was a good thing.