Absolute Defense

The group headed toward the warehouse. As soon as they reached the entrance, a wave of foul stench hit them.

"What is that smell?" Yang Xuan rubbed his nose in disgust.

Leng Shiyi took a closer look and saw that the warehouse door was covered in bloodstains and claw marks. The lock had also been damaged. He pressed his lips together, his premonition that they would return empty-handed growing stronger.

Seeing them dawdling while the Mutant Rats were nearly upon them, Cui Yang strode forward and kicked the warehouse door open. The sight before them stunned everyone—the warehouse was piled with all kinds of wreckage and mounds of dirt. The original supplies had been gnawed beyond recognition, and scattered white bones littered the floor.

"This was... the work of Mutant Rats," Leng Shiyi said gravely.

Su Ze stepped forward to inspect the bones. "Not just that. Someone has been here before. If I'm not mistaken, there was an earth-element ability user among that group."

Yang Xuan looked at the wreckage, irritation rising in his heart. "Damn it, does that mean we came here for nothing today?"

At that moment, several red-eyed rats suddenly darted out from a corner and pounced at the group.

The rat swarm had caught up again.

"Run!" Shen Mo shouted, grabbing his sister's hand and running outside.

The others could no longer worry about the lack of supplies and hurriedly followed them out.

The Mutant Rats were incredibly fast and quickly caught up.

Lightning continuously rained from Cui Yang's hands onto the rat swarm, working in tandem with Leng Shiyi's ice and water abilities to clear out a large swath in an instant.

Everyone had already used up most of their abilities, so the power of their attacks had noticeably weakened. Still, they barely managed to carve out a path.

Yang Xuan, who had been conserving his ability all along, began clearing the way ahead. His ability ignited sea after sea of flames around them, and the air in the factory grew much thinner.

Amid the smoke and chaos, Shen Mo spotted two large cargo trucks parked near the entrance. They had been hidden by the warehouse shelves, and there were no signs of life inside them.

It seemed these trucks had been used by the people who originally came to collect supplies. The supplies inside had not yet been wrecked by those Ability Rats.

Taking advantage of the chaos while no one was paying attention, Shen Mo transferred one fully loaded truck into his space.

[Cargo truck with an 80-ton load capacity detected. Useful supplies have reached 95m³. Please keep up the good work, Host.]

Speechless, Shen Mo secretly moved 5m³ of supplies from the other truck before finally completing the first mission.

[Ding! First mission detected as complete. Points have been issued. Please collect them, Host.]

[System repairs complete. Level-two system functions have been released.]

[Current environment detected. One-meter Absolute Defense has been activated. Please review other functions after the Host has escaped danger.]

Shen Mo's eyes lit up at that. At last, there was a useful function.

He had been planning to test the Absolute Defense the system mentioned, and there happened to be a stray rat hiding nearby.

Shen Mo deliberately moved closer. Once the lone Ability Rat came within one meter of him, it suddenly froze in place.

His sharp instincts made Shen Mo leap away at once. The next second, the Mutant Rat exploded into a spray of blood.

Shen Mo's face immediately darkened as he looked at the mess of liquid on the ground. He was somewhat glad that he had dodged in time.

This thing did not distinguish friend from foe at all. Who was it trying to disgust?

Still, he now knew how to complete the other two missions.

Shen Mo glanced at the remaining truck. Although it was smaller than the flatbed truck from before and could carry less, it had a cargo compartment, making it better suited for long-distance transport.

He carefully checked it again. Other than supplies, there was truly nothing else in the cargo compartment. Only then did he shout to the group, "Come quickly! There's a cargo truck here. The previous group may have loaded the supplies but didn't have time to transport them away."

Hearing him, Leng Shiyi looked toward the source of the voice. After confirming that Shen Mo was not joking, he breathed a sigh of relief and began assessing their current situation.

The truck looked somewhat small, but at least this operation would not end in vain.

Looking at the endless stream of Mutant Rats around them, Leng Shiyi calmly arranged, "Yang Xuan, go drive our vehicle over to support us. Su Ze, check whether there are supplies in the cargo compartment and whether it's safe. Yueyue, take your brother into the cab first. Cui Yang and I will cover everyone."

Upon hearing the arrangement, everyone began moving. Shen Mo stayed close to Shen Yue, controlling Mo Blade as it swiftly harvested the Mutant Rat swarm.

After all, opportunities to let Mo Blade kill so freely would not come often again.

Yet even after killing for so long, he had not found that Mutant Rat from earlier.

Shen Mo was somewhat regretful that he could not avenge that burst of anger.

After all, his principle was that unless he could not be bothered, he always settled grudges on the spot.

Even if it were not for the mission, he would kill that stinking rat before leaving.

The reason that stinking rat had chosen to attack him first was probably because it had seen through his perfect disguise and realized that he was the strongest person in the group.

But even the strongest was only rank one. To capture bandits, first capture their leader. As long as it killed him, dealing with the others would be much easier.

Unfortunately, it had miscalculated. It could only be said that it had some intelligence, but not much.