Chapter 92
The robot's drill bit was still making a steady "humming" sound in the mine tunnel. There were only 3 minutes left before the meeting time set by Su Jing. 3,250 kilograms of gold crystal ore had been steadily brought into the space, and the reserves of iron ore had also exceeded 25,000 kilograms.
Su Jing was bending down to check the wear on a robot's drill bit when her fingertips just touched the diamond coating. Suddenly, a whooshing sound came from the shadows on both sides of the mine tunnel—three smoke grenades landed precisely in the center of the excavation array with a sharp whistle, exploding with a "bang." Grayish-white smoke instantly spread out, and visibility plummeted to less than two meters.
"Be on guard!" Su Jing's voice was calm and composed as she issued the command in sync with her thoughts.
The 10 robots instantly switched modes, retracted their excavation drills, fully deployed their shoulder-mounted laser cannons, and lit up red warning lights on their bodies, forming a ring of defense to protect Su Jing in the middle.
A series of chaotic footsteps echoed through the smoke, and six figures emerged from behind the rocks on either side. They were dressed in heavy radiation protection suits, wore face shields, and held modified laser guns with blinding red muzzles, firing wildly at the robot.
"Rat-a-tat-tat—" The laser beam struck the robot's metal shell, making a "sizzling" sound and leaving charred marks. The outermost two robots' defense modules were damaged, their displays went black instantly, and they lost their ability to move.
"It's those people who were hiding around the corner!" Su Jing instantly judged, sensing six energy fluctuations, all carrying a strong metallic aura, clearly indicating a well-prepared ambush.
"Hand over the ore! Otherwise, don't blame us for being impolite!" A rough, hoarse male voice came from the smoke. It was Tom, the leader of the American team. He had complained about the poor mining results on the global channel before. He had obviously seen the high output of Su Jing's team and had the idea of robbing them.
The other five people came from the European Union and two small countries. They were all teams that were short of resources in the dungeon and had been unable to complete the task for a long time. At this moment, they banded together and wanted to take advantage of the smoke to launch a sneak attack and steal Su Jing's ore.
Without a word, Su Jing pressed her fingertips, glowing with a bluish-green mineral power, against the iron ore vein on the ground. Three fist-sized pieces of iron ore instantly flew up and coalesced in front of her into a thick mineral shield, blocking the oncoming laser beam with a few crisp clangs.
At the same time, she activated her third-tier lightning ability, and deep purple lightning condensed at her fingertips. She precisely locked onto a figure through the gaps in the smoke and shot it out: "Want to steal something? Ask my ability if it will allow it first!"
The lightning pierced through the smoke and struck the shoulder of a mission worker from a small country. His protective suit was instantly pierced, and black smoke billowed from the charred wound. The man let out a scream, staggered backward, and dropped the laser gun in his hand.
"Damn it! Her lightning-based ability level is very high!" Tom cursed, waving to his teammates, "Use tranquilizer grenades! She's alone, she can't outlast us!"
The four mission takers immediately switched magazines and fired tranquilizer darts containing a pale green liquid. The bullets arced through the air and hurtled towards Su Jing.
Su Jing's eyes narrowed. She manipulated the mineral shield to spin rapidly, forming a protective barrier. The tranquilizer dart struck the shield, shattering instantly. Green liquid splashed onto the mineral, creating tiny bubbles, but it couldn't penetrate the defense. "Tranquilizer darts of this strength are useless against me."
Taking advantage of the enemy's reloading, she consciously controlled the remaining 8 robots to launch a counterattack.
Four robots fired laser beams toward the densely populated area on the left, while another four circled around to the right, forming an encirclement.
The laser beam cut through the smoke and struck an EU mission worker in the leg. The man fell to the ground, his protective suit ripped, and the cold air from the mine tunnel rushed in, causing him to shiver.
"Scatter! Don't huddle together!" Tom shouted, then pulled out a bomb, lit the fuse, and threw it at Su Jing. The bomb flew through the air in an arc, sizzling sparks, its target the mineral shield in front of Su Jing.
Su Jing's pupils contracted slightly. She immediately activated her spatial ability, a pale blue light screen appearing at her fingertips, instantly storing the explosive charge into her spatial storage before it hit the ground. The next second, a muffled explosion echoed within the space, but it was isolated by the spatial barrier and had no impact on the outside.
Tom and the others were dumbfounded, clearly not expecting Su Jing to have such a special ability.
"She has a storage space! Move now, don't give her a chance!" a tall, thin mission member roared, raising a laser gun and shooting it at Su Jing's head.
Su Jing dodged to the side, simultaneously manipulating her mineral shield to smash it towards the tall, thin man. The shield whistled through the air and slammed heavily into his chest. The tall, thin man spat out a mouthful of blood, flew backward, and crashed into a rock, losing consciousness.
As the smoke gradually dissipated, the remaining four mission participants came into view.
Tom's eyes turned sinister. He pulled a short knife from his waist, activated his second-tier enhanced ability, and instantly increased his speed as he pounced on Su Jing: "So what if you have superpowers? We're going to take this ore today!"
His short knife gleamed coldly, pointed directly at Su Jing's throat, clearly indicating his intention to finish the fight quickly.
Instead of retreating, Su Jing advanced, gathering mineral energy in her left hand to form a sharp mineral spike in front of her, while her right hand crackled with lightning, condensing into a half-meter-long lightning blade.
As Tom lunged at her, she dodged the dagger to the side, and her lightning blade slashed down with a "whoosh," tearing through Tom's protective suit and leaving a deep, bone-revealing wound on his arm. Pale red blood instantly flowed out and landed on the rocks in the mine tunnel.
"Ah—" Tom screamed, staggering back a few steps, his eyes filled with terror. Su Jing pressed her advantage, swinging her lightning blade again while simultaneously controlling two robots to fire laser beams, blocking Tom's escape route.
Tom tried to dodge, but tripped over the ore spikes and fell to the ground. The lightning blade struck him precisely in the chest, ending his life.
The remaining three mission takers panicked when they saw their leader killed and turned to run away.
"Now that you're here, don't even think about leaving."
Su Jing's cold voice echoed through the mine tunnel. She consciously controlled the robots to form an encirclement, and at the same time activated her lightning-type ability, sending several bolts of lightning towards the three fleeing people.
The first bolt of lightning struck a mission participant in the leg, causing him to fall to the ground;
The second bolt of lightning pierced through the back of one of the mission participants, killing him instantly.
The third bolt of lightning struck in front of the last person, forming a wall of lightning that blocked his path.
"Spare us! We'll never do it again!" The last mission member knelt on the ground, covered his head with his hands, and cried out.
Su Jing showed no pity. She knew the cruelty of the apocalyptic scenario; to be merciful to the enemy was to be cruel to oneself.
She raised her hand and unleashed a bolt of lightning, ending his life. The mine was completely silent again, leaving only the corpses of six mission takers and two damaged robots.
Su Jing walked over to the damaged robot, inspected its internal structure, and found that only the defense module and power lines were damaged, and the core functions were not affected.
She activated her mineral powers and used the manganese crystal module in her space to quickly repair them. In less than ten minutes, the two robots were back to normal and rejoined the excavation team.
She then began clearing the battlefield, collecting the bodies of the six mission participants into the "waste zone" of her space (from which a small amount of energy could be extracted later), and then picking up their dropped equipment: six modified laser guns, three unused explosive packs, ten tranquilizer darts, and the ore stored in their space—a total of only 50 kilograms of low-purity hematite and 3 kilograms of manganese crystals. Clearly, they had been struggling with mining for a long time, which led them to take the risk of a sneak attack.
"You dare to rob me with such meager resources?" Su Jing sneered, sorting and storing the equipment and ores into her spatial storage. The laser gun and explosive packs could be kept as spares, while the low-purity hematite was placed in the "to be refined" area.
She glanced at the time on the panel; there were 23 hours and 15 minutes left in the instance. The sneak attack had wasted half an hour, so she had to hurry to the ore refinery.
"All personnel assemble, full speed ahead." Su Jing issued the command through her mind, and the 10 robots immediately stopped digging, lined up in a neat queue, and followed behind her.
The bright yellow light in the mine tunnel grew stronger and stronger, and the distribution of the gold crystal veins became denser and denser. Su Jing's intuition detected that the density of the gold crystal ore 30 meters ahead had reached 90%, which was 1.2 times that of the previously excavated area.
"If we encounter high-purity ore along the way, we can collect it without delaying our journey."
As Su Jing walked, she controlled the robot to dig up the gold crystal ore by the roadside. The drill bit spun rapidly, and large chunks of gold crystal ore were dug out and stored in her space. The gold crystal storage on the panel continued to climb, and soon exceeded 3,300 kilograms.
She didn't stop, sensing the energy fluctuations around her to make sure no other mission participants or guards approached.
The air deep inside the mine was becoming increasingly dry, carrying a faint mineral scent. The orange-red glow of the iron ore vein intertwined with the bright yellow glow of the gold crystal ore, illuminating the path ahead.
Su Jing could sense that the energy fluctuations in the ore refinery were becoming increasingly intense, suggesting that it might contain higher-purity core ores, or even hidden rewards from the dungeon.
She glanced back at the robots behind her; their energy bars still had 55% remaining, and the iron ore in their space was enough to support multiple recharges, so there was no need to worry about energy issues.
She carefully stored away the equipment of the six attackers. Although the laser gun was not as powerful as her lightning-based superpower, it could be used to attract the guards' attention at crucial moments.
Su Jing quickened her pace, a faint crackling of lightning gathering at her fingertips, prepared to handle any unforeseen circumstances. Only the clanking of the robot's metal joints and soft footsteps remained in the mine. The earlier ambush hadn't disrupted her plans; instead, it had yielded her extra equipment and ore, further solidifying her determination to gather sufficient resources as quickly as possible.
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