The Encirclement Ends

Once the reinforcements arrived.

Captain Quake and his men, bolstered by fresh manpower, saw their dire situation improve dramatically at once.

The Antivirus Squad immediately shifted from strategic defense to strategic offense.

They launched a second large-scale encirclement campaign against the elusive Ancient Gods, putting them under enormous pressure.

This time, the Ancient Gods finally began to buckle. Several of their strongholds were destroyed in succession, and within three months, more than forty Ancient Gods had fallen.

Only a little over fifty Ancient Gods remained, most of them wounded. Having also lost several crucial energy supply points, they were suddenly reduced to barely clinging to life.

Meanwhile, the Antivirus Squad suffered only minor losses due to their overwhelming numbers and tendency to operate in groups. Fewer than a thousand personnel were lost.

As one side waned and the other waxed, the sudden reversal of the situation meant the Ancient Gods' doom would soon arrive.

However...

Eradicating the Ancient Gods completely was still no easy task.

Even after the Antivirus Squad continued its encirclement campaign for another three years, replacing its personnel three times, more than a dozen Ancient Gods still remained. They simply could not be wiped out entirely.

The remaining dozen or so Ancient Gods could even still launch attacks, damaging internet nodes and killing isolated patrol personnel.

These surviving Ancient Gods were like athlete's foot and psoriasis—impossible to get rid of!

What should they do?

How could they stamp out these lingering sparks?

Zhou Ming volunteered for the task. He sent Captain Quake back to the material plane, then sacrificed his physical body and sent his soul to the Energy Layer. After becoming an Antivirus Guardian, he led more than ten thousand Antivirus Guardians to personally carry out the final encirclement mission.

Furthermore, Zhou Ming had thought of