The whole nation: You're put to survive on a desolate planet, you'll be running an alien b

A crisp snapping sound echoed through the hall. The priceless bidding paddle broke cleanly in the middle, the two plastic pieces hitting the polished marble floor with a soft thud, yet it felt like a heavy hammer blow to the hearts of everyone present.

The air in the once luxurious and tranquil auction hall seemed to freeze for a moment.

The host's smile froze on his face, and cracks began to appear in his once perfect professional mask. A fine layer of cold sweat beaded on his forehead. His hand holding the auction gavel trembled slightly, and his eyes looked with fear at the proud figure standing below the stage and the seemingly inconspicuous black briefcase beside him.

"Sir... are you provoking me?" The host's voice was hoarse as he tried to maintain a semblance of decorum, but his trembling voice betrayed his inner fear. "If you're joking, this joke isn't funny. This is the Poseidon, not your place to run wild in the streets."

Li Haotian ignored the host's questions. He simply stood there quietly, his gaze fixed on the huge vacuum chamber in the center of the auction stage, beyond the layers of lights. The nutrient solution inside was boiling slightly, not because of a machine malfunction, but because some kind of suppressed energy was awakening.

"Provocation?" Li Haotian's lips curled into a cold smile, his eyes radiating a chilling aura. "I only believe in equal exchange. Since you've set a price, I'll take the goods. As for this fifty billion, it's more than enough to buy a few lives."

Just then, something unexpected happened.

The black briefcase placed at Li Haotian's feet suddenly began to vibrate violently. It wasn't the roar of a mechanical motor, but a rhythmic throbbing like a heart pounding wildly. The surface of the briefcase even began to deform slightly, as if something was trying to forcibly tear open its confinement from the inside.

"Little Black." Li Haotian called out in a low voice, his hand instinctively reaching for his waist.

"Snap—!"

A piercing, metallic clang echoed throughout the arena. The top-tier black box, touted as being able to withstand the high pressure of the deep sea, was torn open right before everyone's eyes. The black seal scattered like scraps of paper, and a pitch-black shadow, like a ghost emerging from hell, accompanied by a chilling gust of wind, instantly soared into the air.

The guests who had been whispering and watching the commotion suddenly screamed in terror. Several socialites in evening gowns covered their mouths in fright, wine glasses fell to the ground, and red wine was spilled on the carpet, resembling horrifying pools of blood.

The dark figure did not attack anyone, but instead drew a strange arc in the air and landed steadily on the auction stage.

It was a creature even more robust than an ordinary leopard, its entire body covered in obsidian-like scales, with a row of sharp bone spikes standing upright on its back. Silver patterns peeked through its fur, shimmering with an eerie light. It lowered its body, letting out a low growl like muffled thunder in its throat, its eerie green beastly eyes fixed on the vacuum cabinet before it, baring its gleaming white fangs at the sleeping girl inside.

The sedative has lost its effectiveness.

Qin Yue had noticed the data anomaly a second ago. She urgently said in the communication channel, "Boss, the concentration of void energy on this ship is too high! The previous dosage couldn't suppress it. Little Black is... stimulated!"

On the stage, the ferocity emanating from the alien beast and the call from some kind of bloodline seemed to penetrate the thick bulletproof glass and be transmitted into the nutrient solution.

The girl, who had been floating peacefully in the liquid, trembled slightly.

Immediately afterward, her body tensed abruptly in the liquid, her once smooth long hair spreading out in the water, dancing like black seaweed. She slowly opened her eyes, looking through the murky culture medium and the glass partition at the group of well-dressed humans outside the platform, and the beast roaring at her on the lock.

In that instant, the temperature in the entire hall seemed to plummet to freezing point.

Everyone who met the girl's gaze felt a chill run down their spine. Those were not human eyes.

There were no whites in their eyes, no pupils, only a deep, pure, endless blackness. It was the color of the abyss, a black hole that devoured all light. There was no fear, no confusion, not even emotion in those eyes, only an ancient and indifferent hunger.

On the stage, Xiao Hei's low growl abruptly ceased. It seemed stunned by the scene before it, even instinctively taking a half-step back. Its previously erect fur smoothed out slightly, but the vigilance in its eyes reached its peak. This was a biological instinctive awe of the strong, or perhaps... a dangerous test among its own kind.

"Do it! Kill him! Do it now!"

The host finally lost all pretense, throwing down the gavel and screaming hysterically backstage. His once elegant suit now looked like it was hanging on a scarecrow, his face contorted with desperate madness.

At his command, the ornate hidden doors that had been adorning the auction hall instantly opened.

A large number of fully armed security personnel surged in like a black tide. Dressed in black tactical riot gear and carrying automatic rifles, their movements were perfectly synchronized, clearly those of highly trained mercenaries. Without a word, the dark muzzles of their guns instantly locked onto Li Haotian's location.

"Ah—! Don't move! Don't move at all!"

Panic spread like a plague through the hall. The guests, who had previously considered themselves part of high society, now scattered like headless flies, screams, the sound of tables and chairs overturning, and the sound of glass shattering all mixed together.

"Bang!"

The first gunshot rang out abruptly, shattering an expensive crystal chandelier, with shards falling like raindrops.

The gunshot acted as a signal, completely igniting the situation.

"Liu Hu!" Li Haotian shouted sharply, his body reacting instantly as he rolled towards a load-bearing pillar to the side.

"I couldn't hold back any longer!"

Liu Hu, who had been patiently waiting on the sidelines, let out a roar and abruptly overturned the heavy mahogany round table in front of him. The table, which weighed several hundred pounds, felt as light as a feather in his hands. With a whistling sound, he pushed it forward like a giant shield, slamming it heavily into the security personnel at the forefront.

"Thump! Thump!"

A dull thud rang out—the sound of human bones violently colliding with solid wood. Two mercenaries, rushing too far, were sent flying by the table, their rifles flying from their hands, and they curled up in pain on the ground.

The table rolled and landed due to inertia, blocking Li Haotian's path and forming a temporary cover.

"Qin Yue, fire freely and clear out the blind spots!" Li Haotian crouched behind the table, pulled out the specially made alloy tactical pistol from his chest, his eyes as cold as iron.

"receive."

Qin Yue didn't possess Liu Hu's brute strength, but she was faster and more precise. The instant the first shot rang out, she had already slid behind another cover, raising her dual pistols without needing to aim at all.

"Pfft! Pfft! Pfft!"

The silenced gun spat out extremely faint flames, each flash accompanied by the fall of a mercenary in the distance. Her marksmanship was astonishingly fast; each bullet precisely pierced the gaps in the enemy's tactical mask, or the weak points of their body armor under their armpits or neck.

It was a surgical precision killing, calm, efficient, and devoid of any superfluous emotion.

"Da da da da da!"

The security forces finally reacted, unleashing a dense hail of bullets like a torrential downpour. Bullets struck the mahogany table, sending wood chips flying and producing a sickeningly sharp sound. In the blink of an eye, the sturdy table was riddled with holes and teetering on the verge of collapse.

Li Haotian remained unusually calm amidst the hail of bullets. He observed the situation outside through a bullet hole in the corner of the table, his gaze not fixed on the security guards, but rather back on the auction stage.

The black beast named Xiao Hei was growling uneasily at the gunfire below the stage, while the girl in the vacuum chamber had her hands pressed against the glass wall.

Those dark eyes, through the bulletproof glass and amidst the smoke and chaos, were fixedly staring at Li Haotian.

That look in his eyes made Li Haotian's heart skip a beat. It wasn't just fear, but also a strange, chilling sense of familiarity.

"That's not a sacrifice..." Li Haotian muttered to himself, his finger suddenly pulling the trigger, accurately shooting down a mercenary who was trying to flank him. "That's a bomb."

"Whatever it is, we have to get out of here! The enemy reinforcements have arrived, and there's a sniper on the second floor!" Qin Yue's voice came through the earpiece, tinged with urgency. "The structure here is disadvantageous for us; we need to find a new battlefield!"

Liu Hu smashed the mask of a bodyguard who tried to approach with a single punch, his face splattered with the bodyguard's blood. He grinned maliciously, "A different battlefield is good, this place is too small, I can't fight back properly!"

Li Haotian took a deep breath, suppressing the strange unease in his heart. He spoke in a deep voice into his earpiece, "Liu Hu, clear the way! Blow that gate open! Qin Yue, provide cover! Since they don't want to do business, let's turn this auction into a funeral!"

Before he finished speaking, Liu Hu had already pulled a stun grenade from his waistband, pulled the pin, and thrown it towards the area with the densest security.

"Close your eyes!"

"boom!"

A blinding white light instantly engulfed the entire hall, accompanied by a deafening roar, temporarily severing everyone's visual senses.

The battle has only just begun.