At the same moment the official announcement went live, two Viper transport planes took off from Dawn City’s airstrip. After a short flight, they reached the edge of Clearspring City’s second ring and hovered beside the roof of a derelict skyscraper.

A dozen hunched Crunchers loitered on the rooftop, while a long-limbed Creeper crouched between an abandoned water tank and ventilation pipes, its eyes locked on the twin fiery engines hovering outside the tower.

“Enemy units marked. 19 Crunchers, 1 Creeper. No Evolved Types or high-threat targets detected.”

“Prepare to engage.”

“Copy.”

One of the Vipers turned its nose sideways, positioning its side-mounted machine gun toward the rooftop, ready to provide suppressive fire at any time.

The second Viper advanced, hovering directly above the rooftop, less than five meters high.

Under the shadow of the tower, the Creeper hissed, its powerful limbs bending as it prepared to spring.

But what it didn’t know was that the players in the aircraft had already spotted it long ago.

Before it could even tense its legs to jump, a massive shadow dropped from the sky, dragging a trail of red-hot light straight down on its head.

The Creeper didn’t even have time to react before a blunt axe came crashing into its face. Sparks exploded as the follow-up swing split its body clean in two.

It didn’t even have the chance to scream. Its body hit the floor like liquefied sludge.

Almost simultaneously, the heavy thuds of boots striking concrete echoed across the rooftop.

10 exoskeleton-clad soldiers landed right after and swiftly took up formation. The safeties of their rifles flicked off simultaneously as they raised their guns.

Hearing the commotion, the idle Crunchers all lifted their heads, their murky eyes gleaming faintly red with bloodlust.

They shuffled on stiff legs, opening their decayed maws to let out guttural, belching growls.

“Urahhhggg...”

Shaking off the black slime clinging to his axe, Old White hooked it back onto his exoframe and made a crisp forward gesture. “Fire.”

The word had barely left his lips before tongues of flame roared to life, turning the foggy rooftop into blazing daylight.

Under the storm of gunfire, the 19 Crunchers, along with more charging up from the stairwell, were torn apart in seconds.

Just as planned, the 10-player team quickly split into two squads.

One squad swept the rooftop’s corners to ensure no Slime Mold patches were left behind, while the other moved to the stairwell entrance. They shoved a steel plate, slightly wider than the door, against the opening, pulled the safety pin, and slammed a fist onto the red button.

With a series of sharp thunks, steel bolts fired into the concrete walls, locking the plate tightly into place.

But that wasn’t enough.

Several players took out drills, rebar, and welding torches, reinforcing the steel barrier with an extra crisscrossing layer of beams welded into a grid pattern.

Thudding impacts echoed from behind the sealed door, but the plate didn’t budge.

Forget a few dozen Crunchers, even a Tyrant wouldn’t break through that wall.

With the stairwell secured, Squad 2 lowered their weapons and flipped their safeties on. Squad 1, having finished their sweep, moved to the building’s corners to guard against flying Mutant Slime Mold.

Though they were deep in Mutant Slime Mold territory, neither the players nor the NPCs showed the slightest hint of nervousness.

Thanks to continuous investigations by the New Alliance’s Biological Research Institution, their understanding of the Mutant Slime Mold had grown far beyond guesswork, grounded now in solid, empirical theory.

Each organism in Clearspring City was connected to the central Hive’s consciousness, but that didn’t mean the Hive could constantly monitor all of them, no more than the New Alliance’s administrator could personally watch every player. At most, he could pull up records when necessary.

The Hive worked the same way.

Minor, localized intrusions were handled automatically by incubation nodes, while only large-scale invasions by unidentified organisms would alert the Main Mother Body directly.

From what they were currently doing, at most, the Main Mother Body would sense a few flies had landed on its body. It was nothing worth worrying about. It could never imagine that those flies were carrying something that could threaten its very existence.

In the cabin of one Viper, Jiang Xuezhou sat strapped tightly to her seat, glancing nervously at the sealed equipment cases and the technicians in hazmat suits. She finally couldn’t resist asking, “What exactly are you guys doing?”

Seeing the look on her face, Night Ten smirked. “You wouldn’t get it. We’re planning to give the big guy in the city center a little New Alliance special once the Tide peaks... The surprise is ready. We’re in the preparation stage now.”

Jiang Xuezhou blinked, utterly lost. “What?”

Night Ten didn’t bother explaining further. “By the way, why’d you even come along? Weren’t you supposed to deal with the Na Fruit issue?”

Compared to the Hive that couldn’t move around, the uncontrolled spread of Na Fruit had alarmed the fallen empire in the north far more.

Night Ten remembered clearly, Jiang Xuezhou and her mysterious mentor had come specifically to study the Na Fruit problem.

The Clearspring Hive wasn’t even part of their assignment.

Coughing lightly, Jiang Xuezhou straightened up and replied seriously, “Based on our sample analysis, Na Fruit’s genetic library shares a large amount of DNA overlap with the Mutant Slime Mold in Clearspring City. We can conclude the bioweapon was likely engineered from this strain. My mentor suspects the residents of Shelter 117 once explored the central battlefield of Clearspring City. There may be clues we need there. Don’t worry, I got authorization from your administrator himself to join this operation as an attached researcher.”

From her observations, the New Alliance residents seemed to revere their administrator, even worship him. His name came up constantly, often followed by blessings for his long life.

She didn’t particularly care about the man, but since she was on his territory, she kept her manners.

What she didn’t expect, however, was that Night Ten completely ignored everything she said, focusing instead on one specific detail. “Wait... You said Shelter 117 residents went to the city center?!” Night Ten’s eyes widened in shock.

“I...” Realizing she’d said too much, Jiang Xuezhou froze. She tried to shut her mouth, but seeing Night Ten’s exaggerated expression, she knew she wasn’t getting away with it.

“I-I never said that!” she blurted, then muttered quietly, “Don’t tell anyone, okay?”

Night Ten grinned before shooting her a mischievous grin. “Relax. I got it. You never said anything.”

Perfect. Another free contribution point!

Back when he had first woken up on the Heart of Steel, he’d received a task to act as a bodyguard for a visiting D-class Researcher and report any Academy intelligence she let slip.

Depending on the value of what he reported, the New Alliance awarded contribution points, a fact that still made Ample Time jealous whenever it came up in chat.

Seeing that Night Ten clearly didn’t actually understand, Jiang Xuezhou panicked. “I really didn’t say it! Don’t spread that around! If my mentor hears, I’m dead! He’ll really kill me!”

Night Ten smirked. “Don’t worry. Our administrator keeps secrets very well.”

“???”

While they were chatting, the rooftop battle had already ended.

Standing beside the Creeper’s corpse, Old White tapped the side of his helmet to switch to the command channel. “Landing zone secured. Ready for deployment.”

Static crackled in his earpiece, followed by a crisp reply. “Copy that.”

As soon as the words came through, both Vipers descended one after another, the heat from their plasma thrusters blasting away snow and ash.

Once they stabilized, 12 hazmat-suited staff members with gas masks and oxygen tanks disembarked onto the rooftop.

They deployed a communications relay, an air analysis unit, and several glider packs disassembled into parts.

The New Alliance’s Biological Research Institution would use spore concentration changes and fungal activity patterns during the Tide to triangulate the Main Mother Body’s approximate location in the city center.

Once they obtained a coordinate range, the New Alliance could deploy ground troops directly, launching a surgical strike under the cover of Dragon missiles and 400mm artillery.

Even if the Main Mother Body was hiding in a nuclear crater or bunker, resistant to conventional bombing, it couldn’t possibly withstand the Burning Corps charging right in.

The New Alliance intended to use this Tide to end, once and for all, the two-century-old threat haunting Clearspring City.

Old White was full of confidence. Even if the Tide was unlike the previous ones, it didn’t matter, because the New Alliance was no longer what it once was.

The survivors of Clearspring City no longer fought alone. They no longer faced the Tide by themselves. Sunset Province sent them endless grain shipments, and Daybreak City supplied weapons and steel.

And it wasn’t just the NPCs who had grown united. The players, too, were stronger and more experienced than ever before.

If he remembered correctly, back when it all began, the administrator himself hadn’t even reached LV20.

Now, the Burning Corps’ average level had surpassed that mark, and Old White himself was already LV43.

In raw power, there was probably only one man on the entire server who could arm-wrestle him, that inhuman bastard known as Garbage kun.

As for combat experience?

Every one of them was a seasoned veteran.

“Let’s go.” Staring at the eerie gray-green fog in the distance, Old White felt his fighting spirit flare like fire, a grin spreading across his face. “Let’s see what new trick Brother Light has for us this time.”