"Awake? You're the worst among this batch of rookies."
"..."
The briefing went smoothly, as always.
No eccentric weirdo had popped up, insisting that everything was an illusion, a movie shoot, or a prank, or declaring that he'd beat someone into a one-punch-two-pancakes situation.
The rookies were so well-behaved because Fang Xiu had once relied solely on those eyes of his. Now... when it came to intimidation, nothing beat Emir, with his Werewolf Lineage and Astartes surgery.
Clad in a full suit of Space Wolves power armor, he'd immediately cowed every kind of monster and demon.
A big guy! In terms of sheer size, he was the biggest in Shazhou.
As for the true strongest fighter in Shazhou, a cold announcement rang in his ears.
—Completed the rookie briefing mission. Received five hundred reward points.
"I've never seen a cultivator with vitality as terrifying as yours. I am..."
After digesting the relevant information, the first man to wake up—who'd pretended to be asleep until Fang Xiu called him out—spoke up.
He had an East Asian face and wore modern clothes, but kept his hair long. Perhaps he belonged to some cultivation sect?
The original Cloverfield series had no shortage of characters like that. Some had internal energy, while others carried Gu insects.
Unfortunately, Fang Xiu still didn't give him a chance to introduce himself. "Save it. You woke up very early—almost as soon as the Main God finished teleporting the mission targets. My consciousness came around before my body did, while I was muttering to myself."
"Stay alive. Only after you return to the space will you have earned the right to give your name and be remembered as an official member."
"Listen up, rookies."
Tang Tian immediately slipped into character. Unable to hide the pride in his voice, he chimed in, "This is the Shazhou Team. This is Cloverfield. And everything will be different from the movie—it'll be far more hopeless."
"So we don't have time to look after the rookies. Do whatever you can to survive. Don't get eliminated by the Main God. Once you return, you'll receive a generous reward, enough to make up for any hardship!"
At that, his stern tone softened. "In fact, following the veterans will be even more dangerous. Given the Main God's twisted sense of fun, It'll crank up the difficulty like crazy."
As he spoke, Yuan Meng tossed various weapons onto the ground.
The civil engineering duo had prepared gift packs for the rookies.
And they didn't need to make an initial purchase! After all, people who'd been caught in the rain themselves, then turned around and poured boiling water on everyone else once things got a little easier, were worse than trash.
"Daralar Technologies DR-12 Quasar, a tech revolver from the Cyberpunk setting. I bought the parts, and Brother Meng assembled it according to the blueprints."
"It's a charge-based weapon, after all. No matter how cheap the materials and technology are, it's definitely more powerful than conventional weapons from the early twenty-first century. Four charging rods inside the barrel form opposing magnetic poles with the bullets, firing the rounds at tremendous speed. It looks like an ordinary shot with almost no recoil, but it can pierce even a light armored vehicle."
"There's also the DB-2 Sadara, an electromagnetic double-barreled shotgun, and the more portable DB-2 Hacksaw."
"These tactical knives are coated with anti-corrosion particles over high-strength alloy."
At that moment, Tang Tian, cold on the outside but warm within, had become the kindly old man of the beginner's village. He asked for nothing in return as he kept handing out all kinds of cheap but useful little gadgets. "Oh, and there's a basic biological antidote, too.
"We discussed this in the pre-battle meeting. Those small fry and elite monsters are essentially bugs that parasitize Clover's body.
"They need more effective means to pierce the giant beast's skin and suck its fresh blood. Judging from what we saw in the movie, tearing it open with their teeth seems unlikely.
"Take salmon lice, which parasitize salmon skin, for example. These creatures inject a kind of trypsin into the fish's skin to soften the tissue, making it easier for the lice to get into the fish's wounds and suck their blood."
"Luckily, this antidote targets trypsin. If you're unlucky enough to get bitten, and want to avoid bleeding from every orifice and exploding to death, you can try injecting it. At the very least, it should ease the pain and let you go with some dignity."
Considering that the Main God had personally intervened in the plot and raised the trial's difficulty, Tang Tian didn't overpromise.
Once everything was done, the guilt in his heart... no, his empathy, gradually faded.
He'd done all he could.
Back during the pyramid trial, if the captain hadn't pulled him out of trouble, he wouldn't be where he was today...
Not far away, Fang Xiu silently watched everything unfold. He neither stopped it nor encouraged it. The next moment, the Main God's protective barrier disappeared.
World Three—Cloverfield: Hard Mode, officially begins!
His senses spread at an unimaginable speed, but Fang Xiu detected no danger at all when the barrier disappeared.
"One last piece of advice: head somewhere with fewer people."
After saying that, Tang Tian began activating his battle suit. The artificial intelligence awakened, and the various tiny, densely packed instruments concealed inside and outside his clothes began to operate.
"Everything's normal in New York. Clover hasn't landed..."
"There are a few soft drink outlets nearby. They contain trace amounts of Seabed Nectar. We could buy a few cans while we're at it and use them as stamina restoratives."
"John was right. Just as everyone deduced, there really is a hidden laboratory nearby. It'll take time to pinpoint its location."
Reports came in one after another.
Clearly, they still had to wait a while before they could identify the exact location.
Fang Xiu closed his eyes and focused, lightly touching the ground with one finger. Every subtle tremor within a radius of twenty kilometers entered his awareness—
Cars speeding along, people walking, the wind passing through buildings and causing faint vibrations, and the gentle trickle of underground water flowing through pipes.
People were living their lives in peace.
The disaster had yet to arrive.
Something was wrong.
The difficulty for twenty people had begun with a scene this peaceful.
As he thought, Fang Xiu decided that the range of his scouting was nowhere near enough. He began forming Hand Seals to summon a far greater amount of Chakra, rather than releasing it instantly without seals.
—New York, America's largest city, lies on the northeastern coast at the mouth of the Hudson River, bordering the Atlantic Ocean. Its total area is 1,214 square kilometers.
There was a vast body of water nearby.
An ideal place to perform large-scale water-based ninjutsu!
His perspective rose higher, as if he were a god looking down on the mortal world. Soon, more than half the city came into view.
"Why is it raining!"
"Damn it, the weather forecast was wrong again. They said it wouldn't rain until the day after tomorrow."
"Stop complaining. It's not a storm, just a few raindrops."
"Ha! Good thing I didn't wash my car."
Some passersby began discussing the strange phenomenon. Others didn't care at all.
In any case, no one connected it to the supernatural.
Rain Tiger at Will Technique.
The Book of People's evaluation: Is the rain that falls upon the village a heavenly net, the sorrowful tears of God?
To be honest, the technique wasn't as mysterious as one might imagine. At least, its underlying principle wasn't hard to understand: the user infused the rain with their own Chakra, linking every falling raindrop to their senses. Even an experienced Kage Level shinobi like Jiraiya had to go to great lengths to infiltrate the village.
And Fang Xiu, standing on the rooftop of a building, could sense all the way to the edge of this enormous city.
There were faint tremors along the coastline, at a very strange frequency, unrelated to the waves.
Considering the plot, some colossal creature was about to appear! "No need to say more. Tang Tian, hurry up and find the supply point. Everyone else, get ready to fight."
"There's no need to overthink or analyze a disaster movie about a monster. Go do what you need to do."
Before you continue