The group led by Gesai nervously took a few steps back; although the light was bounded by those stone tablets, the light of Noah Ultraman was still too dazzling, even causing several meters of dim areas in the dark zone.

"Look, there's another night demon there!" a female martial artist pointed to the area.

A night demon was shuttling back and forth in that area, seemingly trying to leap from the dark zone to attack the people in the city. However, when its claws touched the light, the intense pain instinctively caused it to retract its claws.

Seeing the night demon with its fierce claws, everyone felt a chill in their hearts. In the darkness, they couldn't see anything, or they would be directly torn apart by the night demons. This was the first time they had seen the true face of this terrifying creature.

The night demon lingered for a long time, seemingly unwilling to give up these hard-won prey, then revealed a ferocious gaze, sweeping everyone before unwillingly disappearing back into the darkness.

"Ah!"

Moments later, screams emerged from the nearby darkness.

"It's them!"

Everyone knew clearly that the voice belonged to the group that had refused to compromise with Zhang Menglong and did not want to believe that Zhang Menglong's survival base could protect them.

With this one thought difference, the group stood outside the boundary of the stone tablets, while Gesai and others stood inside the safe area within the stone tablets. That boundary formed by the stone tablets was like a ghost gate dividing two groups.

In the dark, they instantly lost all senses; they merely needed to take one step forward to enter the zone of light!

"The opportunity was given to you, but you couldn't take it!" Zhang Menglong shook his head. "Money is external; why couldn't you heed the advice?"

Gesai raised his head, looking at the giant of light; its radiance enveloped the entire city, like a natural barrier protecting it. This so-called survival base was like a beacon within the darkness!

"This light is even stronger than daylight!" Saige couldn't help but glance at Zhang Menglong; what else could he not do?

"Mr. Gu, about them..." Gesai looked reluctantly in the direction where the screams came from.

"Do you want to save them?" Zhang Menglong was speechless, "If you think you have the ability, by all means, go ahead, I won't stop you!"

Gesai gritted his teeth but hesitated; knowing there's a night demon in the darkness yet wanting to venture there was simply a suicidal act!

So far, Saige and others had faced attacks from night demons twice, especially the first time, which was a nightmare for them. They couldn't see the enemies in the darkness, relying entirely on instinct for defense and unable to counterattack. And that time, they had only encountered a single night demon!

That period of darkness wasn't exceptionally long, only a dozen minutes, and that night demon's life level wasn't high, roughly equivalent to Divine Breath of six grades. In a face-to-face confrontation, each one of them might not kill the demon, yet at least create a draw.

But in the darkness, they became prey to the night demons. Originally a team of 31 people directly lost over a dozen members; if it weren't for the fact that only the living could be infected into night demons, none of them would have survived!

The second time, with just one night demon, the team was paralyzed. Thankfully, that episode of darkness lasted only five minutes; injured infected members transformed into night demons only during daylight, and were eliminated by the light before full mutation. Otherwise, the outcomes were predictable.

Through these encounters, they somewhat understood the habits of the night demons, avoiding them until arriving here and facing four more episodes of darkness, each spent in worry, including one lasting over 12 hours where they heard the night demons brushing past them several times!

Now everyone was exhausted, the most critical issue being their instinctive fear toward the night demons, further evolving into a fear of darkness.

"Even for me, I don't have many options against them in darkness," Zhang Menglong said, "so I advise you not to act recklessly."

...

The darkness lasted for two hours, but the sounds of slaughter within lasted less than ten minutes before vanishing; everyone had a basic understanding of what happened, settling into a tense atmosphere.

With the arrival of daylight, the light of the survival base gradually dimmed. Zhang Menglong set the program for the Ultraman transformation device to automatically adjust with environmental changes, with negligible delay!

"As expected, not even a bone fragment remains," Zhang Menglong looked at the blood-stained ground. The night demon had devoured the bodies, not even leaving a trace of blood.

"Phew!" Gesai breathed a sigh of relief; had he not chosen to trust Zhang Menglong earlier, his fate wouldn't have been much better than those people's.

Once in darkness, their senses were almost entirely blocked. In previous episodes, they hid in nearby cover when darkness fell, suppressing breath to avoid night demon's hunts.

Apart from Zhang Menglong's survival base, the only adjacent refuge was next door.

Those people could have initially chosen to enter this survival base entirely, but they rejected Zhang Menglong, insisting on saving face, leading to this inevitable outcome.

"It seems, until we find a way to move freely in this Ancient Cave Heaven, we can only hide here temporarily!" Saige chuckled bitterly, shaking his head.

In such perilous times, probably no recruitment of superpower ever encountered this; with three years remaining, they could survive here, given abundant energy they could use to pay rent with divine crystals.

With spreading news, people gradually discover this survival base, making it one of the largest eventually, and exploration begins as people increase.

But now, the first priority is survival!

"Everyone, here are your room cards!" Zhang Menglong handed each a card embedded with Artificial Intelligence and information about the survival base. "Currently, your payment covers only one-day stay in this base, a reminder arrives five minutes beyond the time limit. If unpaid or attempting to stay unlawfully, the consequences are yours to bear!"

"Bearing the consequences" made Saige's heart tremble; he knew clearly what those words meant.

"Of course, long-term leases offer significant discounts," Zhang Menglong resumed his shrewd merchant tone. "Monthly rents come at a 20% discount; annual payments at 30%. A one-time three-year package rewards a 50% discount!"

"Three years, where would I find that much money?" Saige sighed; paying for three years certainly saves, yet producing tens of billions in divine crystals at once disturbs even if it's the cheapest room!

"Worry not, I offer loan services here!" Zhang Menglong eagerly showed another advertisement board overlaying dense loan plan details.

Saige and others were at a standstill; what business is he really in? He truly knows how to do business!