In the nightmare space where profit was paramount, and under the weight of every gain and loss incurred over this long stretch, the choice Fang Senyan faced seemed simple enough:

Save Reef—no benefit, severe penalty. Save Tulip—great benefit, no penalty.

Reef slowly closed his eyes, the scent of blood seeping into his throat. He understood the crucial stakes in an instant, and thus, he held out no hope.

Though there is a saying that the greatest sorrow is a dead heart, in this fleeting moment, the sense of indignant refusal surging within Reef swelled madly, threatening to explode his entire chest!

He forgot the endless sea of bugs surrounding him, forgot the bone-deep agony of being gnawed all over his body, forgot heaven, forgot earth, forgot life, forgot death! His mind was a blank slate, a single voice echoing and screaming within him, seemingly poised to consume everything:

“I was willing to believe every person worthy of trust, so why is the only harvest betrayal?” “I was willing to help every person in need, so why is the only result being used?” “I am not reconciled!” “My blood is not yet cold, why must I meet such an end!?” “My blood is not yet cold!” “Why, why, why!!”

Under these accusations, in this utter bewilderment, amidst this tide of insects, Reef closed his eyes, knelt on one knee, and plunged the lightsaber in his left hand into the ground to support his collapsing body.

His heart was dead. He was utterly desperate!

But just then—just as Reef believed the entire world had abandoned him—the blinding sunlight was suddenly eclipsed.

A massive, powerful pressure plummeted from above, landing with a heavy thump right behind him. That feeling, that sensation of having something solid to lean on, almost caused the iron-tough Reef’s entire frame to tremble involuntarily.

This was immediately followed by an indescribable scorching heat that rushed over his body and face with ferocious intensity. The temperature was so high that Reef’s eyebrows and hair began to smoke and curl, yet Reef perceived that searing heat as an indescribably comforting warmth. In the deepest despair of being utterly forsaken, a companion to fight side-by-side had suddenly appeared. This feeling...

“I must be hallucinating before death,” Reef stood motionless, eyes closed, murmuring to himself. Then, his backside received a solid kick—a kick of considerable force.

Reef spun around in fury, snapping his eyes open. But the sight that greeted him in that instant caused tears to involuntarily stream down the face of a man who hadn't shed a tear even when facing ultimate despair and collapse!

It was a hand reaching out to him! A large hand with thick knuckles and a noticeable callus on the index finger.

It was the hand that gave him hope!

Of course, simultaneously, Mogansha’s desperate shout rang out: “Give me your hand! Stop dicking around, I don't want to be sprayed out of these damn raptors’ buttholes as viscous feces three hours from now. Boss? Can you still hold on?”

Fang Senyan, holding the flamethrower below, didn’t reply. He tilted his head and gave a cool thumbs-up. Although his health was only half when he jumped down, most of these raptors weren't elites; most attacks only forcibly deducted one point of health, and their critical hit rate wasn’t high either, so he could last a few more minutes. Meanwhile, the surviving team in the distance had been completely engulfed and swallowed by the beast tide, silently, just like sugar or salt dissolving in water.

Fang Senyan triggered the flamethrower switch, unleashing a twenty-meter-long dragon of fire. He rotated in place, the maniacal flames sweeping over a large number of raptors in a fan shape, creating a brief, clear space around him once more. Mogansha maneuvered the Host to drop close to the ground again, and Fang Senyan leaped, grasping Mogansha’s outstretched hand to cleanly borrow momentum and ascend back into the Host’s transport cavity.

Fang Senyan wasn't the only one jumping; several raptors fiercely lunged after him, clinging tightly to the Host's dangling, long tentacles, gouging deep wounds into its surface, and attempting to climb, bite, and tear in mid-air. Although the Host’s health wasn’t short, its inability to fight back made the situation rather tricky. Fortunately, a surviving Pterodactyl was escorting them; although battered, firing a few bullets to take out a few raptors with extremely weak health was no problem.

“Damn it, damn it,” Mogansha cursed, because the three remaining survivors simultaneously received a notification from the Nightmare Mark:

Main Quest: Rescue the Hardcore Squad—Failed. Notification: Second Lieutenant Johnny Rico deceased. Sergeant First Class Tizzy Florress deceased. Sergeant Levi deceased. Commander Krait deceased. Notification: Your highest Attribute Point has been deducted by 3 points. Notification: Your Merit Value has been deducted by 5 points; however, your current Merit Value has already been reduced by 6 points due to this Main Quest, so this deduction is waived.

Reef, who had been silent after being pulled up, suddenly lowered his head: “I’m sorry.”

Fang Senyan looked at Reef and smiled sincerely: “Saving you was our choice, so you don’t need to apologize. If you genuinely feel you owe us, then we are taking on two extremely difficult missions. Help us complete them, and we’ll be square.”

Reef sighed and leaned his head against the Host’s fleshy wall, chuckling bitterly: “Can I still help anyone? My previous team was shattered because they trusted me! Look at the raving Hanik—they trusted me, and now not even their corpses remain!”

Fang Senyan replied with absolute certainty: “So this time, it’s your turn to trust me.” He continued: “Your previous failure was simple: you were forcibly placed in a position unsuitable for your team role. It’s like using a diamond to shim a wobbly table, or naturally, using a playboy to wipe an ass—it will certainly lead to hemorrhoids…”

Reef’s vision swam momentarily. He spread his hands and forced a wry smile: “Thanks for the hint, but can you change that last analogy?”

After such an intensely fierce battle, everyone was utterly exhausted. Reef, weary in body and soul, immediately collapsed within the embrace of the tentacles and fell asleep.

At this moment, the Goblin Gold Mine had somehow sneaked over to Fang Senyan’s side. It glanced furtively at the semi-comatose Reef in the distance, then sent a message to Fang Senyan through a form of telepathy, sounding deeply pained: “Master! That foolish and rash decision you made initially has cost us at least 103,219 Universal Points in economic losses alone!”

Fang Senyan, while bandaging his own wounds, smiled and replied via the Nightmare Mark: “My friend, some things cannot be measured by money.”

The Gold Mine’s eyes widened in alarm: “Oh, my Master, you—you are far too naive!”

Fang Senyan shook his head, responding with confidence: “Saving Reef meant a loss of 3 basic Attribute Points and 6 Merit Points, correct? If we had chosen to save Tulip and the story characters, the Main Quest would have succeeded, yielding an additional perfect reward—for a mission of this difficulty, that reward would be at least 6 basic Attribute Points and 10 Merit Points. The difference between going one way or the other is 3 basic Attribute Points and 6 Merit Points. Am I calculating this correctly?”

The Goblin Gold Mine pulled out an old-fashioned calculator, tapped a few times, and then said impatiently: “Time is money, Master. Just say what you mean.”

Fang Senyan’s eyes narrowed slightly, and he said calmly: “Based on my current development path, acquiring 3 Attribute Points and 6 Merit Points would require traversing just two Nightmare Worlds. But! Judging by Mogansha’s reaction, Contract Holders with innate Defensive abilities are exceedingly rare.”

As he spoke, Fang Senyan’s eyes ignited with a fierce, blazing ambition. He looked at the Goblin Gold Mine and spoke word by word: “My dear friend, then please tell me, how many worlds would it take—ten? Twenty?—to encounter a core Defensive talent (T) that is already disheartened, has nowhere to go, and is already partially developed?”

The Goblin Gold Mine scratched its head in confusion, causing a flurry of dandruff to snow down: “Hmm, that actually seems to make sense, yeah.”

Fang Senyan was speechless: “Can you please drop that ‘yeah’ at the end?”