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

The air was thick with the stench of burning flesh, the pungent smell unique to the mixture of blood, oil, and intense heat. The mangled remains of flesh and machinery, shattered just moments before, twitched slightly on the ground, as if undergoing some kind of dying reflex.

"Don't let your guard down."

Li Haotian showed no joy at defeating a monster; instead, his brows furrowed. The beam of his tactical flashlight was fixed on the deep darkness ahead. There, a sickening metallic scraping sound was coming from all directions, like countless rusty scalpels scraping against each other, so dense it made one's scalp tingle.

"Thump, thump, thump."

The earth began to tremble rhythmically, each tremor like a heavy hammer blow to everyone's hearts. It wasn't just the sound of footsteps, but more like the roar of some massive heavy machinery crushing through broken concrete.

"Looks like the explosion didn't scare them away; it's more like they've pressed the dinner bell." Liu Hu spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. The barrel of his modified heavy machine gun was already red-hot, but he still pressed it firmly against his shoulder, his eyes flashing with a crazed fighting spirit. "However many come, I'll kill them all!"

"Not just monsters, but big ones too."

Su Wan stared at the tactical radar on her wrist, her face turning deathly pale. On the radar screen, countless red dots representing enemy activity crowded together, surging in from all directions like a tide. And at the very center of that red tide, several enormous heat sources were approaching at an unprecedented speed.

Before the words were finished, the darkness ahead was suddenly torn apart.

Two towering shadows burst forth from the darkness, their heavy tracks crushing the wreckage on the ground. The blinding beams of searchlights instantly illuminated the narrow tunnel in a ghastly white. They were two heavily mutated mechs—their once rugged industrial armor now covered in layers of dark red muscle bundles, their metal skeletons and flesh tissue perfectly fused together. The cockpits were no longer glass domes, but enormous, constantly rotating compound eyes, radiating a bloodthirsty, eerie light.

"It's the 'Flesh and Blood Heavy Armor Mech'... Guardian-level power." Li Haotian's pupils contracted sharply. Monsters of this level couldn't be effectively killed by their light weapons alone.

"Sizzle—!"

One of the mechs raised its mechanical arm, and a bio-thermal cannon in its palm was instantly fully charged. The ear-piercing electric current sound made everyone present feel suffocated.

"court death!"

Li Haotian reacted extremely quickly, lunging to the side while shouting, "Scatter!"

A crimson, high-temperature ray swept across, grazing Liu Hu's side and entering from behind, instantly melting the concrete wall into a pool of boiling molten stone. Splashing gravel hit Liu Hu's face, burning him and causing him to groan, but he didn't even wipe it off, picking up the crane gun and unleashing a burst of fire.

Bullets struck the mechs' flesh and armor, splattering up filthy blood, but this only fueled the monsters' ferocity. Both heavily armored mechs simultaneously unleashed a deafening roar, the engine's rumble mingling with their eerie howls as they strode heavily toward the group.

"We can't just hold out; the terrain here is too disadvantageous for us." Li Haotian's mind raced, his eyes quickly searching through the collapsing underground tunnel, finally settling on a fork in the road they had passed earlier—where the high-energy explosive charge they had set up for self-defense was buried.

Detonating that spot would destroy the load-bearing pillars, triggering a chain reaction of collapses and completely burying the underground cavity.

"Su Wan, detonate the explosives at point C! We're going to blow this place up!" Li Haotian shouted into the communication channel as he threw high-explosive grenades at the mech.

"But Lin Mo is still behind us, and we are also—" Su Wan was interrupted by Li Haotian before she could finish speaking.

"There's no other way. Once those things rush up, everyone on the ground will be doomed! Explode!" Li Haotian didn't hesitate at all, revealing his almost ruthless decisiveness at this moment.

Su Wan gritted her teeth and pressed the detonation button heavily.

"boom--!!!"

A deafening explosion ripped through the tunnel ahead. The pre-installed directional explosives instantly tore apart the tunnel's supporting structure, snapping the massive reinforced concrete pillars like fragile chopsticks. The ground began to shake violently, and countless fragments of rock rained down.

"Take advantage of the chaos and retreat!"

Taking advantage of the smoke and chaos from the explosion, the two heavily armored mechs were briefly blocked by rolling boulders. Li Haotian pulled Liu Hu up, and Su Wan supported the somewhat weak Lin Mo as the group ran towards the exit.

Suddenly, a pitch-black tentacle shot out from the side ventilation shaft and accurately stabbed Liu Hu, who was running at the back.

"Be careful!"

Li Haotian turned around and saw the tentacles coiled around Liu Hu's left leg like venomous snakes. Liu Hu only had time to let out a short scream before he was violently dragged into the darkness.

"Let go of me!" Liu Hu roared, his eyes wide with fury. He swung his machete down hard, severing the tentacle in two. The excruciating pain made him break out in a cold sweat, but he didn't utter a sound. He used the force of the severed limb to shake it off and staggered back to the group. Blood trickled down his trouser leg, leaving a shocking red trail on the puddle.

"Don't stop! Run!" Li Haotian grabbed Liu Hu, a weight of absolute trust between teammates.

The tremors behind them grew stronger, and the entire underground cavern groaned under the weight of the impending destruction. The eerie bronze mirror lay in this abyss of impending doom; the enormous eye on its surface seemed to sense the impending annihilation, spinning wildly and emitting a final, greedy, and venomous red light.

During the evacuation, Lin Mo ran quietly, almost too steadily. As they rounded a corner, they reached the last glimpse of the bronze altar.

Lin Mo suddenly stopped in his tracks.

"Lin Mo? Hurry up!" Su Wan called out anxiously from the front.

Lin Mo did not respond. He slowly turned his head and looked at the abyss that was about to be buried by falling rocks. In that chaotic, noisy, and death-filled collapse site, there was no fear on his face, nor any concern for his companions.

In the dim, flickering light and shadow, Lin Mo's lips slowly curled into an eerie smile. That smile held a deep, twisted pleasure, as if he were attending a grand funeral, or as if he were the true master of this abyss, waving goodbye to an old friend reflected in the mirror.

At that moment, the silvery white in his eyes seemed to turn into a deathly black.

A few seconds later, he turned around, the smile on his face vanished instantly, and he reverted to his aloof and youthful appearance, quickly catching up with the group.

"Let's go! The exit is just ahead!"

Li Haotian kicked open the rusty manhole cover, and a torrential downpour and gale-force winds rushed in, carrying the long-lost scent of the free world, tinged with the earthy stench and coolness. He climbed out first, then pulled Liu Hu, Su Wan, and Lin Mo up one by one.

The group lay on their backs on the flooded streets, letting the torrential rain wash away the blood and exhaustion from their bodies. The neon lights of Donghai City appeared bizarre and surreal in the rain, as if from another world.

"Are they all alive?" Li Haotian asked, panting heavily.

"Alive... Damn, I almost turned into mincemeat." Liu Hu clutched his wound, his voice filled with relief at surviving the ordeal despite the pain.

Just then, the ground beneath their feet suddenly sank.

"Boom!"

A deep, muffled roar came from the depths of the earth. It was not like the crisp sound of an explosion, but more like the dying gasp of a giant beast, or the sound of some huge mechanical heart stopping beating.

The tremor traveled along the earth's crust to every nerve in the city, causing streetlights to sway and glass curtain walls in the distance to hum and resonate.

Su Wan lay prone at the entrance of the drainage well, looking down. It had been completely sealed off; the abyss, altar, and mirror that once existed, along with those indescribable horrors, were all buried hundreds of meters below the bedrock.

"It's over..." Su Wan murmured to herself, unsure whether she was comforting herself or stating a fact.

Li Haotian stood up, wiped the rain from his face, and looked at the now-filled hole. His unease didn't dissipate with the underground collapse. The image of that fleeting glimpse of her in the chaos lingered in his mind.

Lin Mo stood in the shadows, his head down as he straightened his slightly torn cuffs, his expression indifferent as if his life-or-death escape underground was just an insignificant game.

Li Haotian's hand unconsciously reached for the gun handle at his waist. In that cold touch, he realized: although the bronze mirror was buried, what was inside the mirror might have already crawled out.

The rain fell even harder, washing away all the city's secrets, leaving only a trail of unknown mysteries.