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

Although the mirror connection was severed, the aftershocks of that massive energy burst were like a flashbang detonating in the dark depths of the sea.

The air in the underground cavity seemed to be sucked out instantly, followed by a suffocating silence. Li Haotian could feel his heart pounding violently against his ribs in his chest, each heartbeat like the beating of a war drum. They had just severed the sensory channel of that strange bronze mirror, but the enormous energy fluctuations, like beacon fires lit in the night, had completely exposed their location.

"Don't stand there! Move!" Li Haotian roared, grabbed Su Wan's wrist with his backhand, and pulled her toward the narrow tunnel connecting to the ground.

However, just as their figures disappeared around the corner of the tunnel, a series of sharp, whistling sounds tore through the darkness.

"Da da da—!"

Bullets rained down like a storm, striking the spot where they had just stood, sending sparks flying and debris scattering. These were not ordinary stray bullets, but a precisely calculated suppressive attack that blocked all possible escape routes.

"It's the 'Scavengers'!" Su Wan cried out in terror, her voice echoing in the enclosed pipes, "The elite execution force of the Divine Grace Trust!"

Li Haotian abruptly pressed Su Wan's head down, and the two crouched down against the slippery, moss-covered wall. Through the dim light of the tunnel, he saw several red laser beams cutting through the dust in the dark space ahead, like the gaze of death weaving a net. A tall figure slowly emerged from the shadows, its physique far beyond that of a human.

It was a cyborg covered in black composite armor. His left side of his face still retained human skin, revealing a cold-blooded brown eye; while his right side was completely replaced by mechanical structures, a prosthetic eye flashing red light spinning rapidly, in this lightless underground world, no heat source could escape his sight. His right arm was not flesh and blood, but a mechanical prosthetic limb with a cold metallic luster, the end of which was not a hand, but a heavy multi-barreled machine gun that was preheating.

"Target locked. Escaped individual detected. Number... Eliminate." The cyborg's voice was completely flat, like an electronically synthesized voice delivering an icy judgment.

The cramped underground space instantly transformed into a battlefield of carnage.

"Why waste words on these lumps of iron!"

A thunderous roar shook the dust from the tunnel ceiling. Liu Hu burst forth from the rear of the column, a rotary machine gun captured in the previous battle wielded in his hand, its heavy barrel feeling as light as a feather. His muscles were bulging, veins bulging, and his eyes gleamed with the ferocity of a mad dog.

"I'll send you all back to the furnace for retraining!"

Liu Hu made no attempt to take cover, simply standing in the middle of the passage, his gun spitting out a meter-long tongue of scorching fire. Large-caliber bullets rained down on the "Scavenger" squad ahead like a storm. This overwhelming firepower instantly forced the soldiers who were preparing to flank them to temporarily retreat and seek cover. Even the cyborg commander was pinned down by the dense hail of bullets, unable to lift his head, and had to raise an energy shield with his mechanical arm to defend himself.

"Now! Yue'er!" Li Haotian's gaze sharpened, and he seized the opportunity to issue the order.

Qin Yue had been lurking in the shadows of the ceiling pipes like a nimble black cat. The moment she heard the command, she swayed, and several unidentified metal pieces the size of coins slid from her fingertips, accurately flicking them towards the enemy's likely flank.

"boom!"

With a muffled thud, the seemingly flat ground suddenly collapsed. It was a makeshift trap that Qin Yue had set up long ago, taking advantage of the disrepaired terrain of the sewers. Two "cleaner" soldiers who were trying to flank the area fell instantly, and before they could even scream, they were pierced by the sharp steel bars at the bottom of the trap. Immediately afterward, Qin Yue flicked her wrist, and a flashbang grenade rolled down through the gap in the collapsed area.

A blinding white light, accompanied by a deafening noise, exploded in the enclosed space. Even the modified prosthetic eyes could not adapt to such an extreme change in light intensity instantly; the soldiers' visual systems overloaded, and they were momentarily blinded.

"Liu Hu, suppress the left flank! Qin Yue, block the rear!" Li Haotian calmly commanded in the communication channel, but he himself made a surprising move.

Instead of retreating, he charged out into the hail of bullets.

In the cyborg commander's view, Li Haotian was like a madman swimming upstream against the current. The red laser sights frantically tracked Li Haotian's figure, and the multi-barreled cannons on the mechanical arm emitted a piercing charging sound, ready to deliver a fatal blow.

"Foolish creature." The commander coldly commented, the data stream from the mechanical eye rapidly scrolling across the screen, calculating Li Haotian's ballistic trajectory.

However, just a fraction of a second before the gun fired, Li Haotian suddenly pushed off the wall to his right, defying the laws of physics and tumbling to a stop in mid-air. At the same time, the bronze fragment in his hand slashed across the rusty gas pipe on the wall.

"laugh--!"

The high-pressure pipeline was instantly severed, and underground marsh gas mixed with steam erupted like a fountain, instantly enveloping the area between Li Haotian and the commander in a thick white gas curtain.

Infrared vision became a fatal hindrance in the face of high-temperature steam. All the cyborg's prosthetic eyes could capture were large patches of intense red heat, and that chaotic heat source completely obscured Li Haotian's true form.

"What?!" The commander showed a look of astonishment for the first time. The mechanical arm subconsciously swept wildly at the cloud of steam, but only shattered countless water vapors and empty pipe walls.

It was this one moment of weakness that caused the opening.

Li Haotian emerged from the flank of the steam like a ghost. He didn't fire, because at this distance, bullets would likely be deflected by the opponent's mechanical exoskeleton. His weapon was a high-frequency vibrating dagger he had received from Qin Yue, a sharp blade specifically designed to deal with light armor.

The distance between the two closed to zero in an instant.

Li Haotian could clearly smell the pungent odor of engine oil mixed with blood emanating from the other man. The commander reacted extremely quickly, his massive mechanical fist sweeping towards him with wind pressure; if hit, it would likely shatter every bone in his body. Li Haotian didn't take the hit head-on; instead, he slid downwards, his body pressed tightly against the slippery ground, avoiding the fatal blow.

As he slid past his opponent, Li Haotian narrowed his eyes and precisely stabbed the vibrating dagger in his hand into the opponent's left leg—the only part of the knee joint where flesh and tissue remained intact.

"ah--!!!"

Even for the modified warrior, the nerve pain from that spot remained. The commander let out a piercing scream, his massive body instantly losing its balance and falling heavily to the side.

"die!"

Li Haotian stood up swiftly and decisively, his combat pistol pressed against the opponent's mechanical eye, which was attempting to restart.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

Three bullets, arranged in a triangular pattern, precisely struck the gap in the prosthetic eye and penetrated the brain, which had little protection.

The hum of the machine stopped abruptly. The arrogant "scavenger" commander's red eyes flashed twice before going out completely, and his heavy body collapsed with a thud, kicking up a cloud of dust.

With their leader falling, the once formidable encirclement instantly showed signs of collapse. Liu Hu let out a wild laugh, his rotary machine gun reaping the remaining enemies like a scythe of death, while Qin Yue precisely fired from the outer perimeter, eliminating every target attempting a counterattack.

In less than two minutes, this fearsome "cleaner" squad was completely wiped out in the narrow underground space.

Smoke filled the air, along with the stench of blood and burning.

Li Haotian, panting heavily, stood up from the corpse and wiped the blood from his face. He glanced at the cyborg commander lying on the ground, his eyes showing no joy of victory, only a deeper solemnity.

"Quickly, check the equipment and replenish the ammunition." Li Haotian kicked aside the mechanical wreckage blocking the way, his voice hoarse but urgent. "This is just the advance team. The gunshots and explosions just now will attract the monsters deeper down and more pursuers from above."

Liu Hu dropped the empty ammunition box, picked up a standard-issue rifle left behind by the enemy from the ground, and skillfully pulled back the bolt to check it: "Boss, these guys are really well-equipped. It seems that the Divine Grace Trust is determined to kill us here this time."

"They want us dead? They'll have to see if they have the teeth to bite us." Li Haotian glanced back at the darkness behind him, where something seemed to be slowly wriggling, making a chilling rubbing sound.

The terror beyond the bronze mirror has clearly been alerted.

"Let's go!" Li Haotian said without hesitation. "No matter what lies ahead, we'll fight our way out!"

The group plunged into the darkness once more, but this time, their silhouettes carried a more resolute and bloodthirsty air. In the underground void behind them, the enormous eyeball seemed to sense the departure of its prey; its mirror surface trembled, emitting a low, malicious groan that echoed for a long time in the confined space.