Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 826 Stronghold
"Good grief, that's it?"

Inside the command center, Randy, who had just grabbed a bottle of chilled beer and hadn't even opened it yet, blinked at the scene before him, his face full of astonishment. He clearly hadn't expected the first battle of this expedition to end so quickly.

Although he kept saying he was exhausted, in fact, for him, the only one in the extra-elite group who was perfectly adapted to the space environment, the three days of battle were just a warm-up. He didn't even use the Wanderer's Divine Sense state. He was able to handle everything with his normal spatial locking and cross-space sniping abilities.

"That's normal. No matter how difficult it is, this is just the beginning of the expedition. If we can't even take this step easily, then this expedition is far too frivolous."

Xin Lailai, standing to the side, spoke calmly, showing little surprise in his eyes. Although he didn't know exactly what the major had experienced after Hellsing, he knew enough about the expedition.

Since the other party was able to go from a reserve guardian who had just entered the Watchers' Paradise to the point of being able to command an expedition route on his own in just half a year, it means that his ability in this area must have been outstanding to a certain extent. Otherwise, the Watchers' Paradise would never have entrusted such an important task as an expedition to a new commander who had been a guardian for less than a year.

"Well, I understand the logic, but it's so easy right from the start, it makes me a little uneasy. Could it be that they're actually planning something big and just waiting for us to take the bait?"

"Yes, indeed. Based on my experience teaming up with Captain Hei, every time we encounter a situation that seems easy at the beginning, something big is bound to happen later, without exception."

"I won't refute that point, since in terms of luck, my luck with accidents and crises is indeed negative."

"?"

In the rest area, Randy casually made a comment, while Yamu and Xin Lailai, standing beside him, each wore a thoughtful expression and spoke seriously in a seemingly earnest tone. This caused a question mark to appear on Randy's forehead, who had only made the comment jokingly. He stared at the two people in front of him, completely bewildered, and said:

"No, you two, don't scare me! I was just saying that, don't tell me there's something really big coming up?"

"Well, to be honest, I actually wanted to get through this expedition peacefully, but to be honest..."

Yamu stroked his chin, pondering as he spoke, but then looked up at Xin Lailai halfway through his sentence and stopped talking.

The Death Keeper, who was leaning against the wall resting with his eyes closed, also silently looked in the direction of Xin Lailai. His silent posture made Randy, already uneasy, feel another jolt. Looking at the three people before him, his eyelids twitched violently, and he spoke:

"I'm saying... you three aren't serious, are you?"

"Uh, I understand how you feel, Randy, but if you knew what kind of messed up things we encountered when we teamed up with Captain Black, you'd probably understand our reaction."

Yamu said with a complicated expression, glancing at Xin Lailai and sighing helplessly. The Death Bearer beside him remained silent, as if he had tacitly agreed with what Yamu said.

"No, is it really that exaggerated...?"

"You can ask him yourself."

"Then I'll really ask you, Brother Black Sword, what exactly did you encounter back then? How did they manage to ruin you like this?"

"Randy, are you sure you want to hear this?"

"Nonsense, you've all gone this far, what else can I do?"

"Then I'll get straight to the point. Let me think... The first time I teamed up with Brother Yamu was shortly after we entered the park, back then..."

Inside the command center, after Randy's questioning and receiving confirmation, Xin Lailai organized her thoughts and began to speak slowly. As her narration progressed, the expression on Randy's face gradually changed, from a shocked reaction similar to "Are you fucking kidding me?" to numbness and blankness, until finally, he was in a state of vacant stare, as if his entire life had suddenly turned gray.

"As for the most recent one, I think there's no need to go into too much detail. After all, you, Brother Randy, experienced what happened on Dark Glow Star with Brother White Demon. But to be honest, thanks to Brother Randy and Brother White Demon, I personally think that time on Dark Glow Star went quite smoothly."

"..."

An hour later, after finishing her story, Xin Lailai leisurely sipped the tea offered by the blindfolded nun beside her and addressed Randy. Randy, sitting in front of her, recalled his near-explosion on Dark Glow Star when he was almost stabbed to death by the old garrison commander. His eyelids twitched slightly, and he was momentarily at a loss for words.

To be fair, if we look at what Xin Lailai just described, then their experience on Dark Glow Star really wasn't anything special.

After all, even though he was in the same tier as the other person, he had never experienced anything as outrageous as the other person's experience before reaching the third tier, which made him even start to doubt common sense.

Remnants of the Abyss, Dark Light Alien, Shadow of the Extreme Blade Abyss, Remains of the Filthy God Realm...

To be honest, any one of these enemies is ridiculously overpowered, an unbeatable monster. You could say that even encountering just one and surviving it would be something to brag about for a while before reaching level five. But this guy has managed to survive all the way from level one, enduring these ridiculous enemies and difficulties until now...

No! It should be said that the opposing side has been encountering monsters like these throughout their journey, and this time they happen to be on an expedition aimed at the Abyss, with a remarkably similar, extremely favorable start to their adventures, which means—

"...I have a question. Do you know of any methods to safely withdraw a ranger from an expedition?"

"Sadly, no."

"Well... although the regulations don't explicitly state a way for you to safely withdraw, Randy, based on my personal experience, theoretically, as long as you can make a significant contribution in the upcoming battles... such as capturing and defending a stronghold, or playing a crucial role in turning the tide of the expedition, then even if you take a back seat for the entire expedition, Paradise shouldn't say anything."

"..." God the hell, all he has to do is turn the tide in the expedition, or is he being treated like a creature from the abyss?

Without monstrous strength like Yan Yi, who in the normal top tier could possibly turn the tide in a large-scale operation like the expedition? Even if such an opportunity did arise, he wouldn't need to deliberately step down afterward, because he would most likely spend the entire expedition in the ICU!

"I'm suddenly a little curious, how did you two dare to let him be the team leader?"

"Well, maybe it's because I've experienced so much shit that I'm used to it. Besides, just from the perspective of team formation, you should have experienced how powerful Captain Black's team support ability is."

Now that you mention it, it does seem to make sense...

Randy's expression twitched slightly as he realized he couldn't really refute anything. His gaze towards the three people in front of him became noticeably more subtle than before, especially when he looked at Xin Lailai. His expression was so complicated that it was as if he had seen some kind of chocolate-flavored poop.

Although a little calm reflection would reveal that, apart from the incident with the creature called Extreme Blade Shadow, the other events Xin Lailai recounted had no direct connection to him, Randy's feelings became extremely complicated when he thought about how she always seemed to stumble upon these events with perfect precision, and how he himself had just gotten involved this time.

"Actually, Randy, you don't need to be so pessimistic. In my personal experience, in the situations mentioned above, the first one to suffer is often the Black Captain himself. On the contrary, those of us who just happen to be nearby are usually fine. If we're lucky, we might even find some opportunities."

"Indeed, his presence is very suitable for warding off calamities."

"Black Sword, what a teammate you have..."

"It's alright, Randy, you'll get used to it."

Xin Lailai sat on the sofa, answering with a completely natural expression, as if she were already used to this scene. Just then, the major's light, airy voice suddenly rang out from the side:
"Ladies and gentlemen, although I have no intention of disturbing your enjoyment, according to the rules of the Paradise, without your entourage, the Sister and I alone may not be able to meet the standards for escorting the Abyss Suppression Device!"

"Holy crap, are legions this fast at construction these days? It's only been an hour, and they've already built the basic structure of their stronghold?!"

As soon as the major finished speaking, Randy, who was in the rest area, looked up at the scene on the main screen and blinked twice in disbelief, as if he had seen something incredible. Xin Lailai and the others next to him also looked at the scene on the screen and their eyes flickered slightly, revealing different colors.

On the screen, it can be seen that as an hour passed, the army of abyssal creatures that had originally covered the perimeter of the fortress had completely disappeared. In their place, there was only a sky full of cotton-like white ash left after the abyssal creatures had been scorched by the elemental light.

Massive amounts of grayish-white dust drifted haphazardly through the starry sky, like a blizzard, while the white dust near Reef 16, not far away, was captured by the planet's gravity and formed a grayish-white ring stretching for tens of thousands of miles from its surface.

Under the starry sky, a huge star ring constructed from the remains of abyssal creatures slowly rotated along with the rotation of Reef 16. From a distance, it looked as if a veil had been draped over this desolate planet, adding a touch of hazy beauty to it.

Through the close-up view displayed on the screen, one can see that in the northern hemisphere region of Reef 16, a large number of silver-white transport ships, like worker ants carrying goods, are moving back and forth between Reef 16 and World Fortress in an orderly manner, forming a silver-white 'bridge' between the two.

Moreover, upon closer inspection, one can discover that a large industrial base covering an area of ​​several kilometers in width has been erected in the area where the transport ship landed. The most eye-catching feature is the tower-shaped building located in the center of the entire industrial base, which is surrounded by a large number of armored walls hundreds of meters thick.

Expeditionary outpost.

If the defense of the Abyss Purification Device was merely the clarion call to begin the entire expedition, then the establishment of the expedition base was proof that the expedition had officially taken its first step.

Of course, as things stand, there's only one crucial final step remaining before the completion of this expeditionary outpost, and the major has already explained the details of that step to them—

Abyss Suppression Device.

Unlike the Abyss Purification Device, which can convert Abyss energy into pure elemental energy, the Abyss Suppression Device, while lacking the conversion ability, can significantly increase the strength of the elemental barrier in the surrounding area, ensuring that the elemental barrier will not be breached a second time by Abyss energy after they leave.

Otherwise, given the corrosive power of the abyss energy, the world fortress would likely have barely left with the abyss purification device before the abyss energy could invade and reclaim the area they had so painstakingly reclaimed.

As for why only Abyss Suppression Devices were used to set up bases, instead of using Abyss Purification Devices like those inside World Fortresses for better protection.
The answer is that the cost is too high.

It's important to understand that the value of a single super-large abyss suppression device is so high that even just transporting it from the world fortress to an expeditionary outpost only a few astronomical units away requires the full escort of these pioneers from the extra-level echelon. The value of a super-large abyss purification device is more than ten thousand times that of an abyss suppression device of the same size.

It's safe to say that simply carrying an Abyss Purification Device into a World Fortress is already an extremely extravagant act. As for replacing it with an Abyss Purification Device in every outpost? Let's just say that if we really did that, given the number of Abyss Suppression Devices currently existing at the Astral Frontier, even if we moved all the supply depots of the six Paradise factions plus the Void Tree, it probably still wouldn't be enough.

Moreover, even if we take a step back and consider the principle of its effectiveness, the Abyss Purification Device itself is not suitable for areas like outposts that require long-term protection.

To put it more simply, the difference between the two is like that between a flame and a light bulb. Both produce light, but while a flame also relies on burning to continuously dispel darkness, if it continues to 'burn' indefinitely, the ones who will truly suffer are those of themselves, who are enveloped by the light of the elements.

Extremes beget their opposites. A certain intensity of elemental light can make those who are elemental beings feel comfortable, while causing those who are abyssal beings to experience the pain of being scorched.

However, if the intensity of the elemental light is increased indefinitely, it will be a nightmare disaster for astral beings that are only relatively inclined to the elemental side.

……

(End of this chapter)