Chapter 1 An Hour Later

The raging fire in the Clock Tower District was extinguished after an hour, leaving behind scorched earth. The power plant under construction was completely destroyed, and the collapsed clock tower was reduced to ruins. The area was a mess, making the cleanup task even more difficult.

A cordon was set up nearby, and Huang Yu directed the scene, looking harried. Fortunately, players were doing their best to clear the debris, keeping the situation relatively stable.

Thousands of players gathered in the distance, watching the ravaged scene with shock and uncertainty. The brick ground was cracked by the black shadows, leaving behind a series of three-clawed footprints with slender shapes. It was unknown what kind of creatures they were.

By this time, the black shadows had retreated to the river channel and disappeared. It was clearly their lair, and for the time being, no one dared to provoke these unknown monsters.

"What kind of beasts could cause such a commotion?"

"The monsters we've encountered in the past few days were only level ten or twenty. I thought there weren't any powerful monsters, but it turns out they were hiding here."

"I heard from people who were there that their scans came back as question marks, with the danger level listed as extremely lethal."

"Whoa, so they're at least level forty."

"Let's wait and see. They'll probably give us a quest soon."

Huang Yu finished his arrangements, opened the communication, and reported, "Sir, the situation has been temporarily stabilized."

"What's the damage?" Han Xiao asked calmly.

"Not good. The power plant we were building is completely destroyed, and the building materials and engineering equipment inside are ruined."

Han Xiao clicked his tongue. He had anticipated this. Since the shelter was the main storyline, there would likely be twists and turns. The accident came sooner than expected. He hadn't expected such powerful monsters to be lurking in the Grey Iron Wastes. The loss of building materials and engineering equipment was secondary. If the beasts couldn't be dealt with, it would greatly delay the construction period.

"What kind of beasts are they?"

"Still investigating, but they're hiding in the river drainage, and we're completely in the dark about that place. It's very dangerous."

"Wait for me. I'm coming over."

Ten minutes later, Han Xiao arrived at the scene. The crowd gathered around to report. After listening for a while, he waved his hand to silence them, then went to the footprints and examined them carefully.

"The fact that they can crack the stone brick ground means the beasts have very developed leg strength and are very heavy. They like to live in damp, dark places, are social animals, their food is unknown, and they're highly aggressive..." Han Xiao opened his tablet and searched the Aquamarine Star bestiary, finding many matching examples.

After thinking for a moment, Han Xiao flicked his coat. Seven or eight spider detectors fell to the ground and crawled into the river channel in groups to explore the interior. The tablet connected to the night vision and infrared vision of the detectors.

While waiting, Han Xiao casually asked, "Are there any other powerful beasts in other places?"

Huang Yu immediately replied, "No, only here. The cleanup work in other areas is going smoothly."

The upheaval here did not delay other construction. The huge city walls were under construction, and residential buildings, warehouses, energy plants, internal life support facilities, greenhouse farms, and so on were all progressing simultaneously. Only Han Xiao had enough manpower to fully expand with the help of tens of thousands of players. The Second Shelter was still exploring the city with great difficulty, and their progress was several times slower than his.

The spider detectors transmitted images. The walls deep in the river channel were covered with a viscous, disgusting mucus secreted by some creature, still slowly dripping.

A small spider was enveloped by the dripping mucus. Its slender mechanical limbs twitched a few times and directly crashed, as if encased in amber.

Further inside, Han Xiao saw a shocking scene. At the end of the river channel, the beasts had dug countless forks. He directed the little spiders to split up. As the images continued to transmit, everyone present became more and more surprised.

Beneath the Grey Iron Wastes was a terrifying underground nest! Covering most of the West District!

These beasts had occupied this ruined city for many years!

"Holy moly..." Han Xiao was slightly startled.

The outlines of the hidden beasts were revealed in the infrared vision. Han Xiao quickly opened the bestiary and finally locked onto the target.

"Scientific name: Nigaro Shadow Viper Beast, commonly known as Shadow Predator Viper. Oviparous animal with six legs, three-clawed feet, and a chitinous carapace covering its entire body. Divided into head, torso, limbs, and long tail. Adults can reach four meters in length. Claw strikes, tail whips, and bites are common attack methods. A corrosive mucus can be secreted from the mouth and excretory opening, used to dig nests. They like heat, darkness, and moisture, and usually live near volcanic bottoms..."

Except for the lack of face-huggers, this thing was very similar to an Alien!

Han Xiao compared it to the Viper-Modified chip database and found that the Shadow Predator Viper's life intensity signal was about level forty. For the current players, each one was a mini-boss level elite monster.

Roughly estimating that there were more than a thousand Shadow Predator Vipers in the nest, it was a huge hidden danger for the shelter. If it was not cleared, accidents like today would continue to occur, slowing down the construction of the West District.

Han Xiao suddenly noticed an anomaly.

"Shadow Predator Vipers like hot environments. Strange, this is a plain, and the underground should be cool and humid. How could it attract Shadow Predator Vipers? Could it be... there's an abandoned reactor or high-energy waste underground?"

He pondered secretly, thinking it best to have players test the radiation levels inside.

If he guessed correctly, a Shadow Predator Viper tribe would have a wild boss-level Beast King. Only he could deal with that thing.

The complex terrain of the nest was the Shadow Predator Viper's home field. Han Xiao didn't want to fight an entire tribe alone. Even with the mechanical guard regiment, it would suffer heavy losses.

Players should be able to overwhelm ordinary Shadow Predator Vipers with a human wave strategy. Since there were players, they had to be used to their fullest.

"Speaking of which, the corpses and eggs of Shadow Predator Vipers are a medicinal ingredient..." Han Xiao's eyes flashed, and he had a plan.

At this time, Huang Yu was actively giving advice, talking eloquently, "I think we can use a large amount of explosives to destroy the underground cavity, causing a collapse and flattening the Shadow Predator Viper's nest. The consequence would be to cause the ground in the West District to collapse, but this is a ruined city, and it doesn't matter if it collapses. It can be used for remodeling..."

"Good idea." Han Xiao's eyes lit up. He always liked to maximize benefits within his capabilities. Directly bombing would waste this nest of Shadow Predator Vipers, but Huang Yu reminded him that Shadow Predator Vipers would attack violently when disturbed. This was the perfect opportunity to lure them out and set up traps in advance to give them a head-on blow.

He was a man of action. He immediately transferred all the 2.5-generation Rangers patrolling around to the river channel and had the Dark Net people haul the small turrets over with a grunt, arranging them into an array battle line, aimed at the river channel.

"Go in and throw a flashbang." Han Xiao threw a quest to Kuang Dao. Without a word, Kuang Dao charged in, not batting an eye at going through hell or high water.

Time passed by minute by minute. The entire place was silent and focused, occasionally with players watching from afar whispering to each other, staring intently at the scene.

A fierce beast roar broke the long wait. Accompanied by a short scream, the earth trembled slightly. The sound came from the tunnel, getting closer and closer. Something was about to come out.

Rumble—

A large group of Shadow Predator Vipers rushed out, their entire bodies covered in dark carapace, their bone spurs ferocious. The three pairs of crimson small eyes hidden in the bone armor were filled with anger and rage. At least a hundred Shadow Predator Vipers appeared, and they immediately discovered the crowd gathered in the distance. With a roar, they charged over.

Bang bang bang bang—

In the next second, a rain of guns and artillery struck their heads and faces, knocking down and repelling the Shadow Predator Vipers. Dozens of large-caliber machine guns swept, steel-core bullets shattering the chitinous carapace. The carapace cracked, and viscous bodily fluids splattered. The roars turned into wails, struggling to stand up again and again, only to be shot down by the rain of bullets, pressed to the ground by the continuous kinetic energy, and riddled with holes.

The flashing gun flames repeatedly illuminated Han Xiao's profile. He leisurely lit a cigarette, watching hundreds of Shadow Predator Vipers being riddled with holes.

Before long, the machine guns made clicking sounds, emptying their magazines, leaving the ground covered in casings.

The smell of gunpowder filled the air, and the entire place quieted down. The Shadow Predator Viper corpses were scattered everywhere, torn to pieces.

Many of the onlookers turned pale, disgusted by the truly gruesome scene.

"Bring the corpses back and put them in the cold storage."

The crowd quickly cleaned up the battlefield. Han Xiao then had Hao Tian throw another flashbang. This time, the Shadow Predator Vipers were no longer fooled. After biting Hao Tian to death, they remained huddled in their nests, refusing to come out.

In this case, the mechanical guard regiment was temporarily useless. Open terrain was the best place to unleash firepower. Entering the narrow nest would only result in the Shadow Predator Vipers dismantling them into scrap metal one by one. It was enough to trick the enemy once.

The players had been watching for so long. It was time to find something for them to do.

"I need some manpower to clear this nest, preferably within three days," Han Xiao said loudly, quickly setting up a quest and sending it out.

"Reward Pool Quest: Clear the Nest!"

After many days, Han Xiao released another reward pool quest. He found that reward pool quests were extremely easy to ignite player enthusiasm. As expected, the watching players immediately became agitated, flocking over to accept the quest.

The reward pool quickly accumulated to over a million experience points, and was still increasing. The quest required killing Shadow Predator Vipers and bringing back their eggs, gaining contribution points through these two actions. The top ten in contribution ranking would receive a reward (calculated by team ranking).

A large number of players rubbed their fists and rushed into the nest to hunt Shadow Predator Vipers. If they didn't have the strength, they would make up for it with numbers. They would grind to death as long as they didn't die.

Han Xiao turned and said to Kuang Dao and the other three, "Take this instrument and go test the radiation levels in the nest. Also, observe if there are any special Shadow Predator Vipers. That's the Beast King. Notify me immediately if you find it. If you find anything else, remember to tell me too."

The four nodded and entered the nest together.

Looking at the enthusiastic players, Han Xiao pondered secretly.

"Shadow Predator Vipers are too strong for the current players. In order to rush the reward pool quest, the players' demand for weapons will be more urgent. After seeing my mechanical guard regiment, some people will definitely get ideas..."

He happened to have enough parts to sell weapons and make another profit.

This once again implemented the advanced business concept: if customers don't have a demand, then create a demand artificially!