Sanctuary Paradise

Chapter 855 The Strugglers (Part 2)

How about a different strategy?
As the weak voice faded, the four people present all turned to look at the blonde little girl who had spoken those words, while the white-haired boy gave a worried reminder:
"Miss Sia, your body..."

"I'm not so weak that I need anyone to worry about me!" The somewhat agitated rebuke fell, and then the blonde little girl, as if provoked by something, abruptly interrupted Bell before he could finish speaking. Gritting her teeth, she stared intently at the four people before her like a wounded kitten, and said:

"I will go and retrieve the Abyss Suppression Device!"

"What we're worried about now is the inability to survive in the high concentration of abyssal energy, right? In that case, as long as we find a way to retrieve the abyssal suppression device and then use the nature of the team's storage space to send it to the others, we won't have to worry about the abyssal energy anymore!"

"The biggest responsibility for the fall of this stronghold lies with my failure to stop that abyssal creature. Therefore, this time it's my turn to go..."

“I refuse, Miss Sia.”

"I told you! Don't—"

Before the blonde little girl could finish speaking, Bell's unusually firm refusal rang out, interrupting her. This caused Sia's fingers to clench unconsciously. She looked sharply at the white-haired boy in front of her, about to retort sharply, when a hand gently stroked her head.

“I’m sorry, Miss Sia, I know you feel guilty right now, but… if this continues, it will only hurt those who are worried about Miss Sia’s safety.”

"I……"

"Therefore, whatever you want to say, at least for now, let's calm down. After everything is over, Miss Xia can say whatever she wants to say, whether she wants to hit me or scold me."

The white-haired boy gently supported the blonde little girl's head, his eyes slightly lowered, and spoke in a gentle tone. Upon hearing this, the blonde little girl felt the warmth emanating from the other's hand, bit her lip slightly, and remained silent for a long time before gently nodding and sitting down again.

"Pfft, it seems Mr. Argo has handled this situation quite well, hasn't he?" After the blonde little girl quieted down, the Holy Princess covered her lips and chuckled, teasing her with a playful tone, trying to ease the somewhat awkward atmosphere.

"Indeed, it seems that younger women like Miss Sia are more attractive to you, Argo, than mature women."

"Child killer".

"Hey, wait, I just..." *Pfft!*

Suddenly becoming the target of everyone's criticism, the white-haired youth looked at the girls in front of him who were teasing or laughing at him, and couldn't help but blush. He stammered and tried to explain himself.

But when he heard the giggle from the blonde little girl beside him and saw her smile, which seemed to be a mixture of tears and laughter, his gaze softened. He smiled helplessly, stroked the blonde little girl's head, and whispered:

"I just don't want to see my comrades die anymore."

“Brother Argo, you…” Noticing the change in the other person’s tone, Sia raised her head and looked at the expression that was inadvertently revealed on the other person’s face, hesitating to speak.

"Ah, sorry, I accidentally said something unnecessary!" Realizing his blunder, Bell quickly looked up, smiled awkwardly, scratched his head, and then casually changed the subject:
"Um... let's continue discussing solutions to this predicament."

"Regarding Miss Sia's suggestion, although I do not agree with letting Miss Sia go on an adventure alone, it has given me some new ideas."

As Bell spoke, he glanced at Stargirl and the others, and the four women seemed to realize something, and fell silent in unison, waiting for him to continue.

"First of all, there's the Abyss Suppression Device. Just like Miss Sia said, given the current situation, if we can't get rescue soon, then the Abyss Suppression Device is our only chance to survive."

"Although the Abyss Suppression Device in the base has been destroyed, there are a total of 7 Abyss Suppression Devices on Reef 127, and the other 6 should still be alive."

Each abyss suppression device on the outpost planet is equipped with a corresponding protection mode. If it encounters an extremely serious emergency and there are no other notary units within its coverage area, it will automatically cut off the supply of elemental barriers and enter a self-protection state.

Once in self-protection mode, given the strength of its protective mechanisms, even if surrounded by abyssal creatures, it is unlikely to suffer any serious damage; at most, it will only reduce the durability of its outer armor.

Therefore, for them, finding a functional abyss suppression device was not the problem; the real problem was...

"The key is how to take the Abyss Suppression Device away after we find it."

Unlike small and medium-sized Abyss Suppression Devices, large Abyss Suppression Devices, due to their internal warp engines and elemental cores, cannot be stored in storage space once activated.

In other words, once they find the Abyss Suppression Device, they will only have two options: either take the unactivated Abyss Suppression Device and gamble on whether they can escape to a safe area in time, or take the activated Abyss Suppression Device and hold their ground or engage in continuous guerrilla warfare.

The former would render them unable to fight against those overlord-level abyssal units, while the latter would be a huge test of their endurance.

"Can't we just put it in the storage space first and take it out when we need it?"

"I'm afraid that won't work. Once the large-scale abyss suppression device is activated, even if it is quickly shut down, it will still have a 'cooling-off period' of half an hour to an hour. During this period, it will not only attract abyss creatures as it does when it is activated, but it also cannot be stored in the storage space. The risk is too great."

The core idea of ​​"use as needed" is to take out the Abyss Suppression Device when encountering troublesome enemies that cannot be dealt with. However, the existence of a cooling-off period means that if they adopt this approach, they will only attract more troublesome enemies. In that case, it would be more reliable to keep the Abyss Suppression Device running at minimum output power from the beginning and gamble on whether they can quickly shake off the pursuit of the abyssal creatures.

"Actually... I do have an idea."

After discussing for a while, the Star Maiden suddenly spoke up:

"The real key issue now is whether we can safely obtain the Abyss Suppression Device without alerting too many Abyss creatures, right?"

"If that's the case, why not just manipulate an abyssal creature and have it help us steal the abyssal suppression device?"

"Saintess and I have prepared a lot of items to seal souls. With the Silver Moon Power of Soul Moon, we can completely stuff the soul of the alchemical creature into the body of the abyss creature, so that it can steal the abyss suppression device in our place before it is corrupted by the abyss energy and goes out of control."

Send the abyssal creatures to steal the abyssal suppression device in their place.
Yes, there is such a solution!

As soon as he finished speaking, Bell, Soul Moon, and the others' eyes lit up.

"Miss Star Girl, well done! That solves the biggest problem directly!"

"I'm going to create artificial souls that can survive long enough in the abyss environment."

"Then Star Maiden and I will be responsible for capturing usable abyssal creatures, and Mr. Argo will be responsible for protecting Sister Sia?"

"Tsk, I already told you they're not that weak..."

"No problem! Then I'll leave it to you, Miss Saintess!"

The slightly hurried words interrupted the blonde little girl's volunteering, causing her to purse her lips slightly, but she didn't say anything more. The Star Girl and the others nodded slightly, sat down cross-legged, adjusted themselves to their optimal state, and then calmly began to act according to their assigned tasks.

"Found it. There, about five kilometers away, is a lord-level worm-like abyssal creature, perfect for transporting the abyssal suppression device."

A few minutes later, the Holy Maiden, whose senses were the sharpest in the field, suddenly opened her eyes and pointed in a direction diagonally upward. Upon hearing this, the Star Maiden did not hesitate at all. With a thought, the star map array behind her overlapped, and her long hair, dyed in starlight, fluttered. Amidst the dazzling starlight erupting from the star cores, she pointed in the direction indicated by the Holy Maiden.

Extreme Starfall Technique!

Boom—!

The next instant, the condensed starlight burst forth, and the star core suspended in front of the Star Maiden transformed into a stream of starlight, easily slicing through the rock layers like tofu, before disappearing from everyone's sight with a fleeting whooshing sound. And then...

[Note: The Abyssal Spawning Serpent has been defeated. The team's expedition contribution has increased by 0.01.]

It worked!
As the cold notification tone faded, Bell and the others' eyes lit up.

"I'll go and bring its body over; the rest are yours."

After saying that, Xingnu took a step forward and her figure disappeared into the tunnel that had been blasted open by the previous attack. A moment later, she returned to her original spot with a whooshing sound. She raised her hand and threw the corpse of the abyss creature in her storage space onto the opposite bank of the underground river.

"I've finished processing the artificial soul here," Soul Moon's voice came, and she was seen holding a soul crystal that shimmered with a silvery-white luster in one hand, speaking to the Holy Princess beside her.

"Well then, I'll leave the rest to you."

Upon hearing this, Saintess nodded slightly, accepted the silver-white crystal handed to her by Soul Moon, and stepped from mid-air to above the abyss creature corpse brought back by Star Maiden. With a thought, she used her knowledge of alchemical biology and healing spells to quickly modify the abyss creature corpse below.

"That's fine. Now we just need to select the manipulator. Which of you..."

"I'll do it! I'm a master assassin, stealing is my specialty!"

Before the Holy Princess could finish speaking, Sia, who had been waiting anxiously, immediately spoke up excitedly, looking eager to try. Upon hearing this, the others exchanged glances and nodded.

"Okay, then I'll leave it to you, little sister Xia."

“Miss Sia, these are the locations of the other Abyss Suppression Devices.”

"Hmm, just leave it to them. I promise I'll steal it back for you right away."

Having taken control of the artificial soul, Sia slightly raised her head, then closed her eyes. After separating a wisp of her soul and placing it inside the artificial soul, she immediately manipulated the giant abyssal creature in front of her to dig a tunnel. Amidst the buzzing sound of chiseling rocks, she disappeared from everyone's sight.

"It's done!"

Time passed second by second. Two hours later, the blonde little girl opened her eyes and excitedly spoke to the group. The next second, a series of rumbling sounds rang out, and the corpse of the python, which had grown several times larger, burst out of the rock where it had left. Like a giant python, it opened its mouth 200 degrees and, with the sound of its abdomen writhing, spat out the huge, stinking, crushed device.

Boom!

With a heavy thud, Bell and the others gasped for breath upon seeing the impact, then their eyes lit up with joy.

“Mr. Argo”.

"Ok, I know!"

The next second, Bell leaped and landed steadily in front of the Abyss Suppression Device, placing his hand on a certain spot on it.

[Confirmation complete. Arbitrator No. 103892 has passed authentication and will soon have their automatic protection status lifted...]

[Deactivation complete. Automatically switched to suppression mode. Current remaining energy reserve of the Abyss Suppression Device: 86.3%. Activate now/not now?]

[Command confirmed, activating the Abyss Suppression Barrier...]

Om-! !

A series of notification sounds followed, and soon after, accompanied by a series of mechanical roars, an exceptionally soft, pure white light spread out from the abyss suppression device, enveloping an area of ​​several tens of meters around it.

[Hint: You have entered the Abyss Suppression Barrier. Current suppression intensity: Tier 3]

[Alert: Abyss energy is continuously decreasing; the current danger level of the area has been reduced to high risk.]

finally…!
As the cold notification tone faded, Bell, who was standing in front of the Abyss Suppression Device, breathed a sigh of relief.

With the abyss suppression device in place, as long as they don't intentionally kill themselves, they have almost no need to worry about encountering any abyssal creatures attracted by the elemental barrier that is only a dozen meters wide in this underground space more than 30 kilometers below the surface.

"I wonder how the people at the other strongholds are doing, and what about Brother Black Sword and the others..."

Relieved, Bell stared at the gray mass of names on the communication channel, his gaze shifting slightly as he began to consider the situations of the others.

Unlike them, who happened to be alone on the front line due to a patrol mission, the contractors on other planets should have been stationed in the base with 3 super-elite teams and 30 elite teams, due to the instructions of Commander Jia 3756.

In this way, unless they are as unlucky as them, and encounter an extreme event where multiple abyssal units of the secondary overlord or even the overlord level spawn inside the stronghold right from the start, as long as the abyssal suppression device with the minimum output power is held in place inside the stronghold, it should be fine to hold out for three to five days.

As for the extra-elite group, given the strength of the black-haired youth and his companions, it's more likely that worrying about whether they might encounter some unexpected situation and get stuck on the way is more relevant than worrying about their potential mortal danger...

Pfft!
Before Bell could finish his thought, a dull thud suddenly rang out, making him turn around curiously, and then...

—Just then, I witnessed the sight of the blonde little girl, whose face had turned deathly pale, collapsing to the ground, and the black blood suddenly gushing from her seven orifices.

"Miss Sia!!!"

……

(End of this chapter)