Despite the imminent danger, thanks to Fang Senyan’s control, at least several dozen Zerg hosts recklessly surged toward the fissure. Although more than half of these hosts were crushed and brought down by the collapsing rubble from above, the remaining few successfully carried Fang Senyan and the remnants of the Tak Tribe clansmen away.

After they flew roughly a kilometer away, even through the thick flesh of the hosts, the heat from behind was unbearable. The terrifying, fiery red magma, mixed with copious amounts of white smoke and black vapor, erupted madly toward the sky! If one were observing from a ship above Pandora’s atmosphere, it would look as if a massive torch had been lit upon the beautiful world of Pandora!

At this point, Mogansha and the others had stayed for nearly two hours, approaching the absolute limit their current financial status could bear. If they lingered even one second past two hours, the System, detecting insufficient Universal Points, would immediately begin seizing equipment and items from the contractors’ storage spaces to settle the debt. If that proved insufficient, it would forcibly strip the gear the contractors were wearing! Once equipment was gone, it would move to forcibly deduct skill levels, and ultimately, result in termination! Death clears all debts, so the two quickly chose to return.

Fang Senyan, however, still had about twenty minutes remaining. Being a meticulous fellow, he was unwilling to waste any time. He planned to seek out the Black Spines Mother, leveraging his considerable wealth to re-stock on various Zerg troop types, especially the Worker Bee—that ultimate weapon! It was certainly an essential choice for any foray involving arson and mayhem. The relationship between them was already one of unshakeable reverence, amplified by the top-tier charm bonus from the Gold Mine; it was truly a venture of infinite profit.

However, at this critical juncture, the Black Spines Brain Worm delivered a cruel truth to Fang Senyan with a note of apology: while it could sell—no, even gift—these items to him, because the Black Spines Tribe had now separated from the main Zerg swarm to become self-sufficient, the Black Spines Zerg forces could no longer benefit from the Queen of Blades’ psychic domination bonus. To put it plainly, if Fang Senyan obtained those Zerg eggs and hatched the resulting troops, the moment they moved a certain distance away from the Black Spines Brain Worm, they would completely lose psychic control and become entirely unmanageable.

This reality had already manifested during the completion of the previous Gold Branch Mission. For instance, when facing the rock formations protected by the Water Mother’s psychic barrier, the Worker Bees, being far from the Black Spines Brain Worm, experienced a significant drop in their psychic domination rate, leading to drastically reduced harvesting efficiency. It even required the legendary creature Queen Jiani to amplify their capabilities. Later, when confronting the colossal conch shell structure, the Vicious Stalkers went completely berserk upon contact with that potent interference. Yet, Zerg controlled by the Queen of Blades would never encounter such issues.

Under these circumstances, Fang Senyan realized that not only could he not transport those eggs to other Nightmare Worlds for incubation, but even taking them a hundred or two hundred kilometers away to hatch them would likely result in the emerging Zerg creatures becoming entirely uncontrollable beasts, perhaps even turning on each other in mutual slaughter. It would amount to throwing money away for nothing. The only positive news was that eggs purchased within the Starship Troopers world could still be used normally, though Fang Senyan only had two surviving host eggs left that could serve as transportation.

Still, although Fang Senyan felt vexed, he ultimately accepted it as a balance of gains and losses. Necessary sacrifices were expected to complete the Gold Branch Mission. Thus, though he sighed, he wasn't overly despondent. The notification to return to the Nightmare Space arrived. Fang Senyan took a deep breath, gazed once more at the beautiful, dangerous, and fertile world of Pandora, bade farewell to the Black Spines, and walked toward the nearby woods to initiate his return.

Barely ten seconds later, as Fang Senyan walked, an abundance of vines suddenly sprouted beneath his feet. With every step he took, the vines wrapped around him tighter, pulling him down deeper. After taking fewer than ten steps, the vines had completely enveloped Fang Senyan and dragged him beneath the earth, causing him to vanish completely from Pandora’s surface.

Fang Senyan was now quite familiar with the return procedure. He immediately closed his eyes, waiting until the profoundly strange sensation of weightlessness washed over him subsided before opening them again.

He found himself back in an environment resembling deep space, the background dark and profound, studded with twinkling starlight.

Suddenly, an indescribable pain surged through his entire body, as if every single blood vessel was being forcefully scrubbed by a stiff brush! This agony was as swift in its departure as it was in its arrival, lasting only five or six seconds before vanishing. During this brief duration, however, Fang Senyan’s teeth ground together with audible clicks, and sweat poured from him as if he had just taken a shower! Such was the intensity of the pain. Immediately following this, the System’s unhurried notification appeared:

“The Curse of the Poison Water Vein upon you has been purged.” “Your military rank is: Second Lieutenant.” “Due to the immense cost of purging this curse, you are required to pay a certain amount of Universal Points.”

Only then did Fang Senyan realize that he and his companions had indeed fallen prey to the mysterious Water Mother’s machinations. Fortunately, he had returned to the Space shortly after being afflicted. The Space automatically checks the body upon return, restoring contractors to a normal state. This, however, validated Fang Senyan’s series of deductions as correct; at the very least, the Water Mother’s curse proved that she truly existed in this world.

“Then Old Mulbo…” Fang Senyan suddenly recalled this matter. It was highly likely that the old man had also been afflicted, and the Water Mother would certainly show no mercy to anyone who directly damaged her Soul Tree. However, Fang Senyan was powerless to help at this distance, left only to hope that he might have found favor with the Earth Mother, Eywa, who could intervene to save him.

Next, the environment began to render itself in full 3D miniature projection. First, the projection displayed the trio’s actions while guarding the Valkyrie ship. This was followed by their process of collecting various biological materials at the Hell’s Gate base. Finally, the culmination of Fang Senyan completing the Gold Branch Mission, which should have been shown in spectacular detail, was reduced to a single shot: the image of Fang Senyan standing before the altar upon mission completion……. The extremely poor completion rating was clearly well-deserved!

The following information materialized in the air:

”Scene: Avatar World“ ”Difficulty: Hard (B+), became S-Rank (Nearly Impossible) after accepting the Gold Branch Mission“ ”Pain Attenuation: 50%“ ”Personal Ability Extra Enhancement: 0%.“ ”Current Scene Exploration Rate: 46.33%” “New Titles Acquired: Plunderer / Penetrator / Headhunter / Excellent Employee.” “Mission Theoretical Discovery Rate: 21%” “Completed Mission Evaluation: E+, Note: Lowest Rank is E, Highest is Perfect.” “Due to the extremely low mission completion evaluation, you will only receive 1 Free Attribute Point reward.” “Mission Theoretical Discovery Rate/Mission Completion Evaluation Reward: Universal Points 1175 + 214 points (Silver Team Leader Bonus), Did not meet the threshold for Potential Point reward.” “This world is an Ordinary Space Battlefield: You will receive an additional clearance Merit Point reward.” “You have received extra rewards of 3 Merit Points + 2 points (Silver Team Leader Bonus) + 1 point (Legendary Status +1 Bonus).”

At this moment, Fang Senyan was somewhat mentally prepared for the extremely low clearance rating, given the stark, "extremely poor" evaluation for completing the Gold Branch Mission. It was beyond being described as a single rat dropping spoiling a whole pot of soup; it was as if the soup itself had been directly contaminated. It was no surprise that the rating was low. Fortunately, he had already harvested a massive bounty and was quite satisfied, not holding high expectations for the rating anyway. He was, however, pleasantly surprised to have secured the six extra Merit Points.

The vast starry sky before him began to blur and fade back into darkness. When Fang Senyan regained his full vision, he had smoothly returned to his private quarters. He began taking stock and discovered that the Universal Points remaining on Fang Senyan’s person alone approached nearly eighty thousand, along with forty Potential Points—an unprecedented haul. The Space Battlefield truly lived up to its name; the coexistence of crisis and risk was indeed not an empty saying!

For Fang Senyan, his personal pool of unallocated Free Attribute Points had reached a terrifying nineteen! His Merit Points had soared to ninety-three. At this juncture, not only was Lieutenant within reach, but he was only seven points shy of Captain! Upon achieving Captain rank, he could immediately utilize the Cross of Honor Badge that Mogansha had redeemed for him, causing a qualitative leap from quantitative change and advancing toward the Officer ranks!

The reason Fang Senyan had refrained from allocating his Free Attribute Points was due to his own strategic planning, especially solidified by hints subtly dropped by MD regarding certain matters.

However, this approach was highly risky, as the Space calculated personal strength without considering whether basic attribute points were allocated or not; they were included in the difficulty calculation regardless! It was only because Fang Senyan was relying on the strength of his team and his own nimble thinking and skill in leveraging situations that he dared to take this risk.

He deliberated for a moment, then allocated seven Free Attribute Points to Agility, boosting his base unequipped Agility value to twenty points! Immediately, a prompt appeared:

“Your base attribute: Agility, without equipment/beneficial effects, has exceeded 20 points.” “You have gained an additional base attribute bonus. Please select one from the list below within 120 seconds. Exceeding the time limit will result in a random selection.”