◎Underground Laboratory◎

"Are we...going to die here?"

Through the firelight burning on the ground, Tang Poxiao vaguely saw at least three black shadows standing up in the woods, and two more crawling on the ground. 3+2=5, which means that he and Xia Li, two unarmed people, have been targeted by five star beasts.

After Tang Poxiao finished speaking, he felt a surge of fear and disgust on his spine. Even if he encountered a monster of this level in the game, he would not be able to defeat it alone, let alone in reality. Facing a star beast that was several times larger than them, it would be considered a great person if he could not be scared to the ground.

Even though he'd forced himself to stay calm and not panic, Tang Poxiao couldn't help but whimper softly as he saw the five strange-looking star beasts approaching them, "Pear God... what should we do?"

Xia Li lowered her brows, quickly surveyed the surroundings, and ordered, "Stay here and don't move. I have my own way."

What could he do? What could he do? Tang Poxiao's solar plexus jumped when he heard that. He glared at her, "Those are star beasts, and there are five of them. Don't mess around!"

Even the military's mecha warriors couldn't beat them, let alone her, a little girl who knew nothing. This wasn't a game, and the star beasts weren't wild monsters; they couldn't be dealt with with just a few casual moves!

Tang Poxiao rushed forward to grab her, but Xia Li was a step faster. She whispered, "Protect them!" and then, as if her feet had thrusters, she swooshed past the star beast's sight and darted into the woods from the other side.

What a fast speed... Tang Poxiao couldn't help but be secretly surprised. He knew that she had killed countless monsters in the game and had extraordinary skills. He thought that this was a unique advantage brought to her by the game mechanism, but he didn't expect that after leaving the virtual world, her skills would not be inferior at all!

On the other side, Xia Li, who had bypassed the star beast's sight and successfully touched the side of the mecha, stopped. She squatted beside the mecha shell that had decomposed on its own due to the extremely high temperature during the fall. Her eyes quickly scanned the parts on the mecha, and then, she found what she wanted, so she pulled out a dagger, gently pressed the tip of the knife into the screw position, and turned it back as quickly as possible.

The deformed screws were pried out, and a robotic arm fell off the mecha.

All military mechas will be equipped with this type of mechanical arm, which is mainly responsible for firepower attacks. The bullets come from the magazine hidden above the upper arm of the mechanical arm. Xia Li didn't know how many bullets were left in this mechanical arm, so she opened the magazine and counted them.

10, only 10... There are 5 star beasts, which means she must ensure that she kills one star beast with every 2 missiles. This is very difficult in the night when visibility is not very clear, Xia Li estimated, but she has to go on no matter how difficult it is, otherwise Tang Poxiao and the 3 mecha warriors lying on the ground will be in danger.

Without giving it any more thought, she installed the robotic arm on her right arm. She pried off the original outer shell of the robotic arm, leaving only the core part that launched the firepower. Although this would put her arm at risk of being burned, it would greatly reduce the weight and volume of the robotic arm, allowing her to become one with the weapon.

At this time, the star beast had already walked out of the woods and was getting closer and closer to Tang Poxiao's location.

Xia Li quickly rushed to a spot with the best view, used a tree trunk as cover, half-crouched, and aimed the crosshairs on the robotic arm at one of the star beasts.

Bang! A bullet as thick as two fingers whizzed out!

The star beast's head exploded instantly.

Good! One killed. Xia Li counted silently in her head, her upper body firmly half-crouched behind the tree, not even a sway from the powerful recoil of the bullet.

Then, bang! A second gunshot rang out in the right arm.

However, this time the bullet missed, and the bullet tip grazed the star beast's ear without causing any harm to the star beast.

Hearing the gunshots and threats from behind, the four star beasts turned their heads. In the dark, they did not need to rely too much on their eyesight. They could lock onto the location of the enemy attacking them just by the sound in the wind and the smell in the air.

The earth rumbled and trembled. It was the vibration caused by the huge body of the star beast stepping on the ground. Xia Li quickly retracted the robotic arm, turned around and climbed to the highest point by clinging to the tree trunk as fast as possible.

Bang! In a flash, Xia Li wrapped one arm around the tree trunk and aimed the other at the star beast beneath her. The second head exploded! The remaining three were furious, as if their absolute power as beasts had been challenged by a human. They roared and stretched out their claws at her!

Xia Li saw the right opportunity and let go of her hands the moment the sharp claws swung. Without support, her body immediately fell down, but fortunately she had gotten a feel for the environment here when she climbed up. There was a branch below her that was as thick as her calf, which was big enough for her to land on without falling.

After gaining a firm footing, Xia Li stepped on the branches and ran to the outside, continuing to shoot at the star beast above as she ran!

Perhaps because running affected her hit rate, the fourth, fifth and sixth bullets were all missed, and the three star beasts were unharmed.

There are only 4 bullets left. Xia Li gritted her teeth. She must seize the last chance!

It is said that miracles can happen in adversity. This time, Xia Li did not choose to dodge. Instead, she took advantage of the elasticity of the end of the tree branch and flew into the air. While flipping in mid-air, she aimed the crosshairs of the robotic arm at the three heads.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The three bullets hit the star beasts' heads accurately. The three star beasts howled almost at the same time, and then fell to the ground with a thud, leaving only their limbs twitching in death.

"Fuck!"

Seeing the last three star beasts fall to the ground by her bullets, Tang Poxiao couldn't help but exclaim in amazement. Horrible, truly horrible! Even a regular mecha warrior might not be able to achieve such a high hit rate, let alone a person from the slums who had never been trained before. Not only could she skillfully disassemble the mecha parts and install the mechanical arm on her own arm, but also shoot with such a high hit rate. This is simply not something that ordinary people can do!

Xia Li didn't know how shocked Tang Poxiao was. She only knew that the number of black spots on the sky was still increasing, and more and more star beasts fell to the ground. The battle situation was almost out of control. No matter how powerful she was, she could not resist so many invaders. The most urgent task was to rescue the remaining soldiers in the mecha first, and then transfer everyone to a safer place.

Basement No. 36 is a large underground safe haven built by people to avoid the star beast tide. Unfortunately, as the threat of the star beast tide has gradually decreased in recent years, the basement has been unused and has slowly fallen into disrepair. When Xia Li and Tang Poxiao moved people in there, the damp walls continued to emit a smell of decay.

"The conditions here are limited, so you can only make do for the time being." Xia Li carried the three seriously injured soldiers to a slightly cleaner ground, then turned to the soldier who was only slightly injured and said.

"It's okay. We are very grateful that you can rescue us." The lightly injured man looked at her gratefully. There was a light source in the basement. With the help of this not-so-strong light, he finally saw who rescued him from the darkness.

It was just a little girl? The slightly injured man was very surprised. He looked Xia Li up and down, hesitated for a while, and then asked softly, "Which department are you from?"

Xia Li was using the alcohol stored in the basement to disinfect the wounds of the seriously injured. She didn't even look up when she heard this: "No department."

"Then... are you military academy students who haven't graduated yet?" the other party asked tentatively.

Tang Poxiao coughed, looking somewhat unhappy: "What? The one who can save you has to be someone famous? Ordinary people can't save you?"

"No, no, that's not what I meant," the slightly injured man hurriedly shook his head. His gaze fixed on Xia Li's thin but powerful back. He paused, then sighed in disbelief, "I didn't expect there were talents like you outside of the military academy. You really amaze me."

Xia Li said nothing and continued to wipe the seriously injured with alcohol.

"By the way, can you disassemble mechas?" They found that there was a mechanical arm on her right arm. Although the shell and some parts were missing, the slightly injured person recognized at a glance that this arm was disassembled from their military mecha, so they couldn't help asking.

"Yeah, a little bit." Xia Li answered with her head down.

The slightly injured man was stunned. "Mecha lessons can only be learned in military academies. How did you know this?"

This question also came to Tang Poxiao's mind. He also wanted to know where a person who came from Slum No. 36 like him learned such amazing skills.

Wrapping the last bandage around the seriously injured soldier's body, Xia Li tied a knot. Then she looked up at him and Tang Poxiao, her face calm. "Every month, your military academy has scrapped mechas hauled to the garbage station. I go there every month to pick some up and dismantle them to sell for money."

Tang Poxiao: ...Is this even possible?!

The lightly injured man showed an expression even more shocked than before. Besides being shocked, Xia Li saw something different in his expression, but she couldn't tell what it was for the time being. It was just an intuition, a natural intuition about people and things in an unfamiliar environment.

"Those structures are quite complex, and difficult for people without professional training to understand! You really don't have anyone behind you, and you really learned everything on your own?"

Xia Li glanced at him vaguely, her tone a little colder than before: "Who do you think is behind me?"

As if sensing the change in her tone, the slightly injured man quickly laughed. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I just think you're really amazing, so amazing that it's a bit beyond my expectations... I didn't expect there were people in this world who could really learn without a teacher. Even though I graduated from a military academy, I actually spent a full two and a half years there before I figured out the structure of mechas. Well, besides the difficulty of mecha knowledge itself, my lack of study is another factor. But no matter what, you mastered the knowledge so easily that even us military academy students struggled to learn. It's embarrassing."

Xia Li thought to herself that if she couldn't learn it, she would have to starve. Scrapped mecha parts were very valuable on the black market, and many people secretly modified them, turning the parts into light weapons. Before Miracle came out, she often went to others to learn secretly, otherwise she wouldn't be so familiar with the robotic arm.

However, Xia Li only thought about these in her heart and did not say them out loud.

Yu Xianguang became more and more ashamed as he spoke, and finally licked his lips sheepishly, and asked her tentatively: "You are so outstanding, have you ever considered joining the military department?"

After saying that, he extended his hand: "Oh, by the way, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Yu Xianguang, a mecha warrior."

"Hello, Xia Li." Xia Li did not answer his question directly, but just stretched out her hand and shook hands with him.

Half an hour later, all the seriously injured people were treated one by one by her and Tang Poxiao. Although their injuries were serious, they were out of danger.

The basement is 3 meters below the ground, which is not a long distance. People below can feel any big movement on the ground.

Xia Li and the other two only heard a few loud rumbling noises above their heads, and the dust above the basement immediately fell down.

"Oh no! The star beasts have reached the ground!" Yu Xianguang's face changed drastically, and his lips began to tremble as he spoke. "What should I do... The admiral and the adjutant are still in the sky. There are so many star beasts, they definitely can't stop them!"

Before, I didn’t know that the admiral and the adjutant were Baili Xi and Qingzhengyu. After hearing this, I had almost no thoughts in my heart. But now that I know it is them, Tang Poxiao feels very uneasy. He wants to help, but he can’t help at all. He can only walk back and forth in the basement to express his anxiety.

Xia Li was quite calm. She walked over to an abandoned signal machine, fiddled with it for a few times, and found that it was still working. Then she turned to Yu Xianguang and asked, "Do you remember your contact signal?"

Military signals and ordinary communication signals are not on the same frequency. If you want to contact Baili Xi and the others, this signal machine needs to be adjusted.

Yu Xianguang nodded without thinking: "Remember!"

"Mr. Long, are you going to start the experimental plan now?" The male secretary bowed slightly and buried his face in the shadow.

Long Lie stared at the countless star beasts on the screen, shaking with anger. "Nonsense! How many times do you need me to tell you before you understand? The star beast tide is out of control! Those useless military idiots actually let so many star beasts onto the planet. It's chaos out there! We have to start the experiment, otherwise Area A will be doomed!"

"Just Area A..." The male secretary sneered.

"What did you say?" Long Lie glared at him angrily. No matter how high his usual airs were, or how many people called him "Dear Mr. Long," he couldn't withstand the panic brought about by the swarm of star beasts pouring in from outer space. "What are you still standing there for? Hurry up!"

"Yes, I'll do it right away." The male secretary did not retort. The previous sneer disappeared, replaced by the same humble and respectful look as usual, as if nothing had happened just now.

He walked out of Long Lie's private office and headed to the right side of the passage.

There are elevators on both sides of the passage, but the two elevators lead to different places. The one on the left leads to the lobby on the first floor of the Long Building. Just now, Long Lie asked him to bring the experimental subject back, so this is the one he should take and go out to catch the person.

But the direction he chose this time was not the left, but the right.

The elevator on the right required a password, and he knew what it was. After entering the password, the elevator beeped, the metal door closed, and began to sink at a speed that his body could perceive.

After an unknown amount of time, the elevator finally sank to the bottom, the elevator door opened, and a huge laboratory appeared before him.

The gloomy laboratory was filled with glassware, each of which was connected to a metal hose. The hose shook slightly, and a dark yellow viscous liquid continued to flow out of the tube, constantly merging with the liquid in the vessel. At the same time, a tube was inserted under the vessel, leading to a deeper part, transporting out the excrement and other dirt on the bottom of the vessel.

Where does this excrement come from? Just look towards the center of the vessels and you'll find a tiny star beast juvenile in the center of each one. Immature star beasts have greater experimental potential than adults, and Long Lie is very keen on using them to create biological weapons, aiming to dominate Tost and even other planets in the galaxy.

However, there was one thing that gave him a headache. There was a special sensory channel between the star beasts. Even if the cubs were dead, their skin surface could still emit a scent that only their own kind could smell. This scent was not affected by anything and could drift out of the experimental vessel all the way into outer space.

The reason why Tost Star has been frequently attacked by adult star beasts in recent years is largely due to Long Lie’s experiments. If it weren’t for the military’s resistance outside in recent years, Tost Star would have been razed to the ground by the star beasts long ago.

While thinking about it, the male secretary turned on the recording function of the light brain ring and pointed the camera at these shameful things in the laboratory.

After taking pictures of the glassware and the experimental records on the table, the male secretary retracted the light brain ring, returned to the elevator, pressed the button, and the elevator began to rise steadily.

Ding, the elevator door opened.

The male secretary raised his eyes as the door opened, only to find Long Lie's cold eyes, which were about to bleed, staring at him viciously: "You betrayed me."

-over-