Panic

September 13, morning, clear.

After a night of intense struggle, the results from the previous evening were finally organized.

In this battle, Xingyan Group lost a total of 16 employees. The death of these combat-capable personnel inevitably dealt a blow to the group's original preparations.

In addition, over 20 employees were seriously injured, and more than 50 suffered minor injuries.

For the time being, the group could only rely on a few directors capable of leading teams for exploration and clearing operations.

However, after this battle, the prestige of the directors among the staff became even more firmly established.

Following the battle, an inventory of the monster carcasses found on-site revealed 13 Porcine monsters, 21 Bovine monsters, 32 Canine monsters, 27 Feline monsters, and even 18 Avian monsters. Among the Avian monsters, the majority were similar to chickens and ducks, only slightly larger in size, and most had perished under the explosives.

At this moment, the base's perimeter wall had been rebuilt and reinforced with materials newly developed by the group. This allowed the wall to withstand greater impact forces; furthermore, if it were to crack under pressure, it would expand like a fishing net rather than collapsing directly, which would significantly prevent monsters from easily entering.

All available staff members were still working overtime to collect every piece of data from the internet. The biggest obstacle now was that the storage capacity within the base was nearing zero, leaving manual transcription as the only way to save the remaining information.

However, things often happen with such suddenness.

September 26, communications were finally severed.

At this moment, everyone across the globe could see a massive, long, dark shadow slowly emerging from the depths of the Pacific Ocean before soaring into the sky.

Following that came flashes of lightning.

In the sky, stars appeared in broad daylight.

This moment would be etched into the memories of all humanity for the rest of their lives.

This dark shadow was the first appearance of the monster that would later be known as the Thunder Dragon Emperor.

Its debut was a disaster for humanity across the Earth, one even more desperate than the monster assaults on human settlements.

All satellites previously launched globally, except for a few located far from the surface, were destroyed. The appearance of stars in broad daylight was the sight of satellites exploding.

Connections between nations across the globe were temporarily cut off.

After destroying all the satellites, the Thunder Dragon Emperor seemed unsatisfied, emitting a sound like a bull's roar, declaring the birth of an Emperor.

This roar echoed across the globe, and all existing monsters responded in kind.

The beast swarms' attacks on human settlements became even more violent at this moment.

Fortunately, Xingyan Group had survived the beast tide the previous night, causing the swarm to retreat and turn its attention to attacking other human settlements. This time, they had passed through the danger unscathed.

Upon realizing the threat the Thunder Dragon Emperor posed to humanity, the major powers reached a unanimous decision: at any cost, this monster must be killed.

Immediately, missiles rained down from all directions, detonating in bursts of fire upon the Thunder Dragon Emperor's body.

After a violent bull-like roar, the smoke cleared to reveal that the Thunder Dragon Emperor's body was merely covered in some abrasions and slight discoloration, with no signs of blood seeping out.

Not long after, another round of missiles arrived, but this time, several nuclear warheads were hidden among them.

After the nuclear warheads struck the Thunder Dragon Emperor squarely, blood-colored mist began to diffuse through the explosion smoke; the Thunder Dragon Emperor was finally seriously injured.

In a missile base on the other side of the ocean, everyone cheered. Under the orders of the highest commander, a third round of missiles was launched, again mixed with even more nuclear warheads.

Regrettably, upon sensing the threat, the Thunder Dragon Emperor immediately dove back into the water and vanished.

This round of bombs ultimately only stirred up waves.

If everything had ended there, it would have been fine, but fate had other plans. On the coast of America, a tentacle nearly a thousand meters long emerged from the sea, piercing straight toward a base that had previously launched missiles.

In an instant, the base was impaled.

America immediately concentrated its fire on this tentacle, but the missiles could only stir up ripples on its surface, failing to even inflict minor injuries.

Moreover, because it was within American territory, the launch of nuclear weapons was restricted, and everyone could only watch helplessly as the tentacle slowly retracted into the sea.

Through analysis of the captured images, the owner of this tentacle was highly likely to be an octopus, and very likely a mutated species of the Pacific Giant Octopus.

This was an act of retaliation, a naked act of retaliation.

This retaliation also revealed some crucial information for humanity: it was highly probable that a large number of giant monsters existed in the deep sea, and these monsters had already developed intelligence, with connections existing between them.

Anyone who deduced this information couldn't help but break into a cold sweat; despair began to spread.

Of course, the greatest impact of all this was on coastal cities worldwide. For Gao Zheng, Lin Chenxing, and the others at the Xingyan Group headquarters in the heart of the continent, it only instilled a stronger sense of crisis in their hearts. Incidentally, the collection of data was also interrupted.

"Ah!!! My data, I was only halfway through downloading it. Why did the internet suddenly cut out?"

Similar shouts and complaints were everywhere.

According to the summaries made by everyone, the data collected was actually sufficient for the base's use. Papers from major academic websites, information from various encyclopedias, and videos from various video platforms had all been downloaded or copied.

Everything involving scientific research, medicine, common knowledge, industry, manual skills, survival, and entertainment—whatever could be saved was saved. What remained unfinished was not of high importance to the base.

Suddenly, in the Taihang Mountains, a bear's roar rang out, followed immediately by the shrieks of avian creatures and the flapping of wings. Figures with wingspans of over ten meters darted from the depths into the sky, charging directly toward the communication and power towers.

One could see those avian creatures gripping the towers firmly with their talons, wings flapping incessantly, while violent crashing sounds erupted from the ground where the towers stood.

It didn't take long for the nearby communication and power towers to collapse one after another, with power lines being snapped one by one.

Fortunately, after destroying all the facilities, these monsters immediately returned to the core of the Taihang Mountains and did not venture outside the mountains.

But the figures of these monsters were deeply etched into the eyes of everyone nearby, and the fear was even greater than when the Thunder Dragon Emperor first appeared.

The people of Xingyan Group were no exception; they could only stand there blankly, watching these monsters wreak havoc, praying desperately in their hearts that these monsters would not notice them and would not launch an attack on their base.

At this moment, no one had the heart to think about anything else.