Cloverfield! Just as Haida and John had said, it was a mockumentary, filmed entirely from the perspective of the protagonist's handheld camcorder to give viewers an immersive feeling.
It was very shaky.
Many of the monsters only flashed by for a moment, so Fang Xiu paused the film several times to examine them frame by frame.
The story followed the protagonist, Rob, who was about to leave on a long trip. With his departure drawing near, his friends threw him a farewell party, and he hoped to use the occasion to win back his ex-girlfriend.
Unfortunately, a sudden disaster disrupted all the plans the male lead had made, stunning everyone at the party.
As the building shook violently, people thought an earthquake had struck New York and rushed into the streets! On television, reporters were covering what they suspected was an earthquake, but what happened next quickly proved that the reports were wrong.
A huge fireball erupted on the distant horizon, unleashing a devastating shock wave. Everyone was stunned by the sight!
The male lead and his friends fled in a panic, struggling toward the safe zone mentioned in the news.
The streets were filled with frightened people screaming, roaring, and weeping. That was when the protagonist and his companions finally realized that the disaster had been caused by an unknown monster!
The truth was, New York had been attacked.
The enormous head of the Statue of Liberty had been flung into the street. The government knew it could no longer keep the situation hidden from the public, so it began an emergency evacuation.
The bridge out of the city was packed with people fleeing for their lives. Then a gigantic monster appeared before them, like the Grim Reaper himself!
For the first time, Fang Xiu saw the Shazhou Team's enemy's strength firsthand! A single slap from one deformed tentacle snapped the bridge across the water in two.
"It really is a giant beast."
"Good thing it only has physical strength..."
Hearing their captain's somewhat optimistic remark, the Arab woman Haida hesitated, as if she wanted to say something.
Nearby, the boxer John wore a conflicted expression, seemingly eager to remind him of something important, but in the end he held it back.
The story that followed was rather clichéd—the male lead and his companions decided the surface was too dangerous and headed underground in search of a safe route. Their friends died one after another along the way, but nothing could dampen his will to survive or his desire to save his ex-girlfriend...
"The little monsters aren't much of a threat."
Once the movie ended, Tang Tian immediately felt like he could stand tall again. He was just as optimistic as he said, "A few ordinary people with tools can hurt them. Someone like me, with a Mutant Spider Lineage and the ability to fight in the winding streets of a city, would have no trouble at all."
Without thinking, he assumed Fang Xiu would handle the most troublesome final boss, just as he had in the previous two trials! "We should prepare some antidotes. Even after our enhancements, our immune systems are strong enough to resist many toxins," the werewolf Emir added. "In the movie, after that woman was bitten, she soon started crying blood, then her whole body exploded."
Caught up in the mood, the Black man Odubiao puffed out his chest and said with an air of authority, "The Holy Light can help with that. It's just a mere biological toxin."
Ye Mei and Yuan Meng, the two newcomers, relaxed as well. After all, the sky would fall on the tall ones first. If the veterans weren't worried, there was no need for them to fret.
"The monster is over a hundred meters tall, with long, sturdy limbs and a huge head resembling a rat. It's a bit like a bat without wing membranes.
"It's no surprise that tanks can't pierce its hide, but even a B-2 bomber dropping a massive payload of bombs—possibly including fuel-air explosives—might not be able to kill it. That's a problem. Its muscle density and vitality are absurd... How are we supposed to break through its defenses?"
Listening to the discussions around him, Fang Xiu pondered. He was indeed only concerned with the enormous monster called Clover.
As for the little monsters? His teammates could handle them—
They were just dog-sized creatures carrying a deadly toxin. Even their raw strength was inferior to that of a few human women.
"Captain, can I be a wet blanket?" John the boxer suddenly spoke up, then added, "We might be celebrating too soon."
Fang Xiu immediately brought his thoughts back to the present. "Of course. The more we know, the more thoroughly we can prepare, and the team's survival rate will rise significantly."
At the same time, he quietly began preparing himself mentally. His new teammate also had another identity as an actor, had connections in Hollywood, and knew insider details about the film's setting. That was perfectly understandable.
Everyone fell silent.
No one dared joke about this. If John had warned them he was about to spoil the mood, then he definitely had a bucket of cold water ready to pour.
"I once wanted to audition for this movie, so I got hold of some of the information. The Clover Beast is eighty meters tall when hunched over, and can reach a hundred and six meters when it stands upright. It weighs fifty-eight thousand tons. If you count the tail, which resembles an octopus tentacle, its total length can even exceed three hundred meters."
The American boxer, known for his acting, paused as if collecting his thoughts, then quickly continued. "J.J. Abrams, the producer of the movie, once confirmed at a press conference that it's a native Earth species, not an alien. And this thing is still just a juvenile."
"He said that because, at the end of the companion film, The Cloverfield Paradox, a monster taller than the clouds appears."
"That's right. This movie is actually part of a trilogy, and the films are connected in certain ways."
Haida nodded. Though she habitually kept her face covered, the grave tone in her voice was unmistakable.
"..." Fang Xiu.
Taller than the clouds?
At that point, calling it a big dumb brute wouldn't begin to describe it!!! Its muscle strength and bone density would have to be absurdly high. It might even be able to swallow a nuclear bomb whole and burp out a mushroom cloud.
They'd have to go to the M79 Nebula and ask Ultraman Tiga for help.
"The Main God's ultimate goal isn't to slaughter every Reincarnator. There's no need to assume the world's power scale will rise without limit."
His heart trembled, but Fang Xiu quickly steadied himself as the team's captain and analyzed the situation in a low voice:
"Suppose the team had reached the middle stage of its development, after going through seven or eight story trials. Then it would make sense to consider that possibility. But Shazhou has only just entered its growth phase. The Great Light Sphere wouldn't arbitrarily raise the power scale and destroy a seed team it had gone to all that trouble to assemble."
"Likewise, once the team is strong enough, even if we get a seemingly harmless beginner scenario like Resident Evil or Xenomorph, we still have to stay on guard, because the Main God will definitely give them all sorts of strange enhancements."
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