The Hive Returns
In response to their words, Chen Fan shrugged.
"Didn't I already say? I am Chen Feng, a member of our team!"
The three gradually came to their senses.
Chen Fan said with a smile, "Captain, we've gained quite a few Merit Points this time, shouldn't we exchange them for some resources?"
Chen Fan's words instantly diverted the attention of the three of them.
"Let's go! Let's go now!"
Lei Kun waved his hand decisively, without the slightest hesitation.
Half an hour later, at the logistics exchange office of War Zone 450.
When Lei Kun pressed the Pioneer Team Seven badge onto the exchange Light Screen and exchanged all of his astronomical 300,000 merit Merit Points for a mountain of top-tier Life Crystal Core, the entire hall fell into a deathly silence.
Everyone was looking at them like they were crazy.
But Lei Kun and his two companions stood tall, and amidst the envious and jealous gazes of countless people, they carefully packed up all the resources and escorted Chen Fan back to the barracks.
At the same time.
In another, more luxurious barracks in War Zone 450, the atmosphere was oppressive and icy.
This is the base of the Frenzied Flame Squad, ranked third in the War Zone.
Ma Long, crippled and ashen-faced, lay on the medical bed, his eyes filled with endless resentment.
Meanwhile, Li Minglei, the captain of the Frenzied Flame Squad, was facing away from him, wiping a ferocious Battle Axe, exuding a terrifying aura of Sixth Grade Undying Peak.
"Captain! You're just going to let it go like this? I... I'm not satisfied!" A team member roared, his face flushed red. "Let's go kill that little bastard!"
"Shut up!"
Li Minglei didn't turn his head, his voice icy and chilling.
"The Commander personally protected this person, what are you going to use to kill him? Your own life?"
The team member fell silent instantly, his face filled with humiliation and resentment.
Li Minglei slowly turned around, walked to Ma Long's bedside, and looked at his completely destroyed Dantian and Dao Foundation with a cold and sinister gaze, like a venomous snake from the Abyss.
"A head-on confrontation is suicidal."
He paused, a cruel smile curving his lips.
"But this is the front line. Countless geniuses die on missions every year."
"Insects don't recognize connections."
A calculating glint flashed in his eyes as he slowly said, "Bad luck. A brilliant genius died in a trivial Insect Tide... Isn't that normal?"
Time flies, and a month has passed.
The Pioneer Team Seven's private Quiet Chamber.
The mountain of Life Crystal Core had long since turned to dust.
Chen Fan, who was sitting cross-legged, slowly opened his eyes.
Within his body, the surging Life-and-Death Dao Blood had surged to an unbelievable 620 drops!
It's showing signs of moving towards the later stages.
When the light of the last Life Crystal Core completely dimmed, it silently turned into a handful of fine ashes.
Chen Fan, who was sitting cross-legged, slowly opened his eyes.
In that instant, the terrifying aura emanating from the 620 drops of Life-and-Death Dao Blood surging within his body, like a galaxy of stars, did not leak out in the slightest. Instead, it was like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, all of it receding into his thin body.
He got up, pushed open the door, and went out.
Inside the barracks, Lei Kun, Leng Yan, and Monkey were already fully armed, their figures ramrod straight as spears.
Their eyes had long since lost the despondency and numbness of their first meeting, replaced by a sharpness and composure Bone Refinement in blood and fire.
"Waaaaah--!"
The deafening, highest-level alarm, like a red-hot iron needle, pierced the eardrums of everyone in the base, and the Alloy structure of the dome hummed under the intense sound waves.
A cold, electronic voice rang out simultaneously in everyone's communicators:
"Warning! Massive Insect Tide detected! Repeat, massive Insect Tide! Number... incalculable!"
"All combat units, immediately enter maximum combat readiness!"
Almost simultaneously, the Pioneer Team Seven's mission Light Screen lit up, projecting a line of scarlet instructions in front of the four players:
[Pioneer Team Seven, ranked 7th in the War Zone. You are now assigned to A-3 Gate defense zone.]
[Note: More than thirty Rank Sixth Grade Undying Realm Hive Executioners have been confirmed in the enemy vanguard formation.]
Thirty heads!
This number is enough to instantly crush the hopes of any elite squad.
That would mean a complete massacre, with the defenders being the victims.
However, instead of showing any fear, Lei Kun and his two companions had a near-manic flame burning in their eyes.
This flame originated from the excessively calm boy behind them.
Lei Kun abruptly turned his head, veins bulging on his thick neck. He looked at Chen Fan, his voice terrifyingly steady. "Chen Feng, how do we fight?"
Chen Fan's gaze didn't linger on the mission instructions for more than a second; his tone was as calm as if he were discussing what to have for lunch.
"The usual."
He stretched out his finger and casually traced a line.
"You're all these ragtag soldiers."
"Those Executioners," he paused, as if searching for the right word, "I'll handle them."
A-3 Gate.
As the heavy Alloy Gate, several meters thick, slowly rose amidst a piercing screeching sound, even Lei Kun, who had long since disregarded life and death, couldn't help but gasp.
The scene before me is beyond words.
Black.
Endless blackness.
A black tide composed of billions of Void Insect Race filled every inch of space in sight. They wriggled and roared, and the violent aura they emitted gathered into a solid dark cloud, making it hard to breathe.
At the forefront of that endless Insect Tide, more than thirty colossal creatures, each tens of meters tall, stood silently like moving mountains of bones.
The Hive Executioner!
The terrifying pressure emanating from them even caused the thick Alloy ground beneath their feet to groan slightly, as if it were about to collapse.
This is their battlefield.
Meanwhile, inside a stealth reconnaissance ship far from the main battlefield, the bridge was dimly lit.
Li Minglei, the captain of the Frenzied Flame Squad, was holding a glass of blood-red liquor, a sickly smile on his lips, watching with great interest the real-time footage of the A-3 defense zone projected by the tactical Light Screen.
"Thirty-three 'Executioners,' tsk tsk, the War Zone command really thinks highly of him." Li Minglei swirled his wine glass, the scarlet liquid tracing eerie arcs on the glass. "Looks like I won't even need to lift a finger!"
"Roar!!"
The moment the gate opened, Lei Kun let out a beast-like roar.
Without the slightest hesitation, he formed a solid triangular Battle Formation with Leng Yan and Monkey, like a red-hot dagger, resolutely plunging into that black sea of death.
The Monkey's hands danced across the Light Screen, leaving afterimages as interference fields and energy shields precisely covered the three of them, blocking the first wave of impact.
With each blast of Leng Yan's Sniper Rifle, an elite Insect Race was headshot, clearing a path for Lei Kun to advance.