Apocalypse Gachapon

The Overlapping Water Dead Zone.

White Robe, who had been meditating with his eyes closed, suddenly heard hurried footsteps. He immediately opened his eyes, stood up, and ran outside.

He was currently responsible for the demon cave situation. If someone was looking for him so urgently, it could only mean that something had happened at the caves.

Sure enough, he encountered a warrior at the door who told him to go to the caves at once.

White Robe arrived at the monitoring room set up before the caves. The person in charge immediately said to him, "Order Leader, as you can see, we have been following the plan to install monitoring points in every cave. With the Su Clan's assistance over the past two days, we have completed more than half. However, here…"

The person in charge opened a frontal view of the demon caves. "Here, in Cave No. 5989, our people discovered bloodstains about three hundred meters in. Not very fresh, but definitely within three days. They reported back immediately. But when follow-up teams entered, the warriors who had gone in had already vanished."

The person in charge's face showed a hint of fear. After speaking, he added, "Here is the video footage from that time. Please take a look."

White Robe naturally had questions. He began watching the video, starting from when the exploration members entered, scrutinizing every detail.

When the bloodstains appeared, White Robe watched even more carefully—until the moment they suddenly vanished.

Yes, the monitoring video suddenly went completely dark. The warriors who had entered disappeared without a trace. Subsequent teams went in to investigate but found nothing—as if it had all been an illusion, as if nothing had happened.

It was too strange, too eerie.

"Send the video for technical analysis. See if anything can be found," White Robe ordered. After a moment's thought, he added, "Temporarily seal the cave where the incident occurred. Establish defensive measures at the entrance. Continue exploring the other caves."

For now, White Robe was convinced there was definitely something wrong inside, though he did not yet know what. He wanted to complete a preliminary exploration of all the caves before making a decision together with the Su Clan and the others.

White Robe stared into the dark cave mouth, feeling an impulse to enter himself…

………………

Deep beneath the caves, the voice was howling again!

"Why did you alert the enemy? Why? If you had let them continue downward, they would have come all the way here! Ye Zhongming would have come down for sure! Then I could have killed him!"

"Doing this now will only make them wary. What if they don't come in? I… I can't get out in my current state! I can't!"

"Don't tell me you plan to kill Ye Zhongming yourself. Back then, neither you nor I were a match for him. Even if your strength now far surpasses his, don't forget—they have many people with them. Many! There are top-tier experts among them, more than one!

"Could it be… that you saw someone coming and your heart stirred—you want to leave?"

"Do you want to leave? Or has your man been dead so long that you no longer have feelings for him? Do you no longer want to avenge him!"

The successive questions echoed through the cave, the voice shrill, the emotions raging.

"You'd better shut up!"

The woman's voice was much calmer than before.

"Say anything like that again, and don't blame me for being rude."

"I have my own plans. I don't need you to tell me what to do. Do you hear me? Monster!"

After the woman finished speaking, there was silence in the cave. Then, the other person's nearly insane shrieking began.

"I'm a monster! I'm a monster?! Why am I like this? So that back then, we could survive!"

"I'm a monster. Look at me—I've gained tremendous power. I'm no longer the person who could only be chased around by Cloud Peak. Now, I alone could destroy that shabby manor countless times over!"

"I'm a monster. But what are you? You're a monster, too! Neither of us is better than the other!"

The woman clearly did not want to engage with him. The clanking sound arose again, and amidst the roaring, she slowly walked out.

"You'd better tell your spawn to go out and wander around once in a while. Don't treat people like fools."

"Get out! Get out of here!"

…………………

The hunt for the Bristle Four-Hoofed Beasts was also very smooth.

This type of mutated lifeform was one of the few omnivores in the Blue Demon Desert. They could generally be found in places with abundant water and grass. Their ability to survive in the treacherous desert relied on their speed, strength, bristles that were as hard as alloy and as sharp as knives, and their strong reproductive capacity.

With their numbers, finding them was not difficult.

Though they charged like cavalry—head-on collisions that few lifeforms could withstand—they were up against the First Battalion, First Regiment, which had just been equipped with Little Black Shields. Rows of fully charged shields blocked their path. Unable to break through the Red Condensation-grade defense, the beasts were stopped in their tracks and subjected to a barrage of ranged attacks. A herd of about a thousand was quickly wiped out.

The battle lasted less than half an hour. It would have gone even more smoothly if not for the Red-Boned Leeches attracted by the scent of blood. Even so, the group still managed to collect the materials Ye Zhongming needed from seven to eight hundred Bristle Four-Hoofed Beasts before leaving.

Among the three thousand warriors, again, no one died.

The group ran for over ten kilometers in one direction to shake off the leeches. The leeches, still eager to return to the remaining few hundred carcasses, gave up the chase after a while when they saw no opportunity.

If a fight had broken out, these three thousand warriors would have been no match for those burrowing mutated lifeforms, which lived in colonies numbering at least tens of thousands.

As before, after selecting a location, Ye Zhongming ordered the group to march while he rode inside a mechanical war beast, following along. Everyone knew their boss was crafting something again.

When they were about half a day from returning, they finally reached their destination: Kangzheng Sand Dune.

Standing atop the massive, hill-like dune, gazing at the blue desert stretching in all directions, Ye Zhongming could not help but marvel at the vastness and splendor of the universe. Every planet had its own landscape, just as every person had their own life.

"Beneath this sea of sand, there is a monster—very powerful. This time, it's our target."

Ye Zhongming spoke to the three thousand warriors around him.

Emi, who had studied the information around the Overlapping Water Dead Zone very carefully, thought for a moment and exclaimed, "Boss, your target isn't the Wanpeng Sand Bat, is it?"

He recalled the information stating that a Wanpeng Sand Bat had recently migrated to this area, and at least before the landing operation, it had still been there.

Given this type of mutated lifeform's habits, staying in one place for ten or twenty years was normal. So there was a ninety percent chance that the creature was still beneath this sea of sand.

"Yes, it's that one. I need its… eggs."