A call for Moon Tickets, Recommendation Tickets, and clicks—Charge, all you foot soldiers, heavy cavalry, and archers! …… After replenishing the Silver Mechanoid’s energy reserves, Ye Chen directed the main force toward Baoshan District. Not long into their journey, they spotted a highway far ahead, beneath which lay a dense, oppressive mass of dormant zombie bugs, occasionally stirring and crawling aimlessly.

Ye Chen frowned upon observation. The number of zombie bugs here approached three hundred thousand, practically a congregation point for all the nearby swarms. Though each possessed only the strength of two or three Ji (), dispatching them would consume a massive amount of time and risk being swamped by endless waves, leading to total exhaustion.

Ye Chen paused, then instantly leaped onto a nearby skyscraper. From above, the entire bug army was laid bare. The center held the densest concentration—a tightly packed mass of perhaps one hundred forty to one hundred fifty thousand, a sight guaranteed to make one’s scalp crawl.

Falling into that mass, even someone of Ye Chen’s physique would find escape nearly impossible unless he activated his Superman State. A flicker in Ye Chen’s eyes. He opened his Rune Space and retrieved a metal plate—the Nuclear Light Thunder he had salvaged from the ruins.

I wonder how many bug monsters this single Nuclear Light Thunder can obliterate, he mused inwardly. He set the detonation time for three seconds and moved to a position close to the highway, clinging to the building's sheer wall like a gecko. With my arm strength, three seconds should be enough to hurl it the 700 meters, Ye Chen calculated, then climbed to a window, smashing the glass out.

“Roar…” A woman, clad in a stained white uniform, suddenly lunged. Her face was contorted in a horrifying grimace, her hair a wild tangle, and both her mouth and hands smeared with fresh blood. Ye Chen was surprised to find a zombie inside, but his composure quickly returned.

He casually plucked a shard of broken glass and hurled it at the zombie woman. Swish. The shard sliced like a blade, penetrating her nasal bridge and splitting her skull.

Her body stiffened, then collapsed heavily to the ground. Ye Chen scanned the room, noting the chaos and residual skeletal remains. He briefly frowned, then settled onto the windowsill, sighting his target.

He channeled all his strength into his arm and pressed the activation button, launching the device with a sudden heave. Whoosh. The Nuclear Light Thunder shot downward with bullet-like velocity, piercing through several stacked zombie bugs before burying itself deeply within the swarm.

Ye Chen’s gaze turned glacial. “Detonate.” BOOM! An earth-shattering explosion erupted.

An intense sphere of white light expanded circularly from the Nuclear Light Thunder’s center, like a monstrous bulldozer. Countless awakened zombie bugs had no time to react; they were enveloped by the light sphere and instantly incinerated to ash. Rumble~~~ The white light expanded like a miniature sun, millions of bugs screaming as they were annihilated.

Even the highway above cracked and buckled under the force. The sphere rapidly swelled to a diameter spanning several kilometers, the ground shaking with deep resonance, akin to a magnitude ten earthquake. Even the wall of the building Ye Chen occupied trembled slightly, and the glass windows shattered outward in the gale.

Ye Chen was stunned by the sheer power of the Nuclear Light Thunder. Beside the light sphere, a fierce vortex of wind whipped up, tossing bug limbs and viscera everywhere. One particularly sharp insect appendage, like a sharpened spike, shot toward him, penetrating the glass and punching a large hole through the concrete wall behind it—a testament to the tempest’s violence.

Whoosh! A sharp bug leg flew at him. Ye Chen quickly reached out and caught it.

The speed of this limb was twice that of a standard handgun bullet; even a Physique Level of 20 carried the risk of instant death. Having caught the leg, Ye Chen focused the Qi in his palm into a vortex, siphoning the vital life essence from the appendage. Stripped of its animating force, the leg’s once smooth carapace quickly dulled and grew rough.

At that moment, countless body fragments rained down like a volley of ten thousand arrows onto the nearest building. Every window on that side of the structure was blown out, and the debris pierced through the walls, demonstrating terrifying lethality; any unfortunate zombies inside those rooms would likely be skewered. A moment later, the light sphere’s energy began to wane.

Ye Chen looked down, his pupils contracting. Where the Nuclear Light Thunder had detonated, a massive crater several kilometers wide had appeared. Every bug within that radius was reduced to dust, and many surrounding swarms suffered heavy losses, scattered by the shockwave.

“Hm?” Ye Chen frowned. He noticed the injured bugs immediately beginning rapid mutation. A bug that had lost a leg instantly sprouted a thicker, monstrous replacement limb.

The nuclear radiation from the device accelerated the viral transformation within them, forcing widespread metamorphosis. A glint appeared in Ye Chen’s eyes. He wasn't overly concerned.

He quickly assessed the remaining bug count—roughly 200,000 left. That single Nuclear Light Thunder had obliterated nearly 100,000 zombie bugs! Ye Chen moved, leaping across to another distant building.

After a few swift bounds, he reached the position where Xiao Hei and the Silver Mechanoid were standing guard. He vaulted onto the back of the Blood-Toothed Tiger and commanded swiftly, “Advance!” “Yes!” The Silver Mechanoid took the lead, charging forward. On the wide street flanked by skyscrapers, an immense bug tide surged toward them from the highway exit.

On their path, every car and every dormant zombie nearby was trampled underfoot; cars were crushed flat, and the heads of sleeping bugs exploded under the assault. “Squeak… squeak…” The sound, enough to curdle the blood, swept over them like a tide. Because of the Nuclear Light Thunder, these bugs were in a frenzy, their eyes bloodshot as they instinctively rushed in all directions.

“Kill!” Ye Chen stated coldly. The Silver Mechanoid deployed cannon barrels, each the size of a water barrel, from its wrists. Light gathered, charging in just one second before unleashing a beam of silvery-white energy into the heart of the swarm.

These mutated bugs had elevated their strength from Level Two/Three to Level Seven/Eight, but to the Silver Mechanoid, they were no different—all were single-strike kills! “Activating Tier One Combat Mode!” the Silver Mechanoid roared. The ground beneath its feet cracked.

It raised the massive metal saber strapped to its back—a truly imposing weapon stretching over ten meters long. With a single swing, it generated a fierce gale that sent entire waves of bug monsters rolling backward. The Mechanoid’s chest plating opened, revealing rows of ammunition.

As it charged forward, bullets sprayed out, mowing down countless bugs in instant kills. “You all go too,” Ye Chen ordered. “Eliminate the rest of the monsters.” Hei Youyuan grumbled spitefully, “He’s so formidable, one is enough.

Most of the monsters we control are Level 10 to 20—not much stronger than these bugs.” Ye Chen frowned. Hei Youyuan startled, realizing this was no time for jokes, and lamented, “Got it, you skinflint!” Then, he urged the remaining Black Slime Worms to follow the Silver Mechanoid into the fray. Ye Chen leaped down from the Blood-Toothed Tiger’s back, watching the Silver Mechanoid engage the swarm.

A pang of worry struck him; if they couldn't pass this fight, who knew how much energy would be expended. But for the sake of dealing with these mutated bugs, he had to endure it. With the Mechanoid’s immense power, every movement inflicted devastating damage.

The bugs couldn't even get close before being reduced to slag. Even if its energy depleted and it became trapped, the bug monsters’ physiology couldn't breach the Silver Mechanoid’s defenses to inflict harm. Ye Chen observed quietly, refraining from joining the fight.

In truth, his presence alone wouldn't change the outcome much, unless he activated his Superman Mode. Before long, Xiao Hei led the remaining Black Slime Worms back. The Blood-Toothed Tiger under Xiao Hei’s control was heavily scarred, showing dull, dark patches where blood had seeped and clotted, its hide wrinkled in distress.

The other monsters looked equally miserable. Ye Chen jumped onto the Blood-Toothed Tiger, patting its back without saying much, watching ahead silently. By then, the Silver Mechanoid warrior had plunged deep into the swarm, slaughtering ruthlessly.

Its fifteen-meter-tall frame annihilated hundreds of bugs per casual movement, grinding them into dust. I hope its energy doesn't deplete before it finishes these bugs, Ye Chen thought quietly. Ten minutes later, the Silver Mechanoid retreated.

The street was now piled high with mountains of bug corpses. Black blood flowed everywhere, creating a gruesome tableau of carnage. All one hundred thousand-plus bugs had perished under the Mechanoid’s relentless assault; it had been harvesting them like wheat, killing one or two hundred per second.

“How much energy remains?” Ye Chen asked immediately as the Silver Mechanoid returned. The Silver Mechanoid responded, “32.4 remaining.” Ye Chen managed a wry smile. In just ten minutes, nearly seventy thousand units of energy were consumed.

And this was only with Tier One Combat Mode engaged—this thing was a notorious money pit. Still, this expenditure had proven its worth. He vaulted off the Blood-Toothed Tiger and charged toward the massive pile of bug corpses, his bare feet sinking into the sticky, slick blood on the ground.

Upon reaching the dead masses, Ye Chen swiftly began the process of absorbing their life essence. He felt a surge of excitement; with so many corpses, how much higher could his Qi level ascend? As he extended his hands, Qi formed a spiral in his palm.

The plumes of life essence rising from the corpses were drawn toward his grip, channeling into his body. Ye Chen’s eyes brightened. He felt the Qi inside him swell violently—it was about to break through to the next stage.

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