As someone in sequence 001, I also want to give up today.

"Li Yu and Chen Zhe are here!"

The crowd cheered.

Zhang Jie breathed a sigh of relief and shouted, "Everyone back off! Let them handle the battlefield!"

Everyone immediately retreated.

Li Xian also moved back a few steps, changing to a more comfortable standing position.

A chilling cutting force, like an invisible blade, descended from the sky!

"laugh!"

One of the lava worm's segments was suddenly severed at the root!

Dark red fluid gushed out, splashing onto the ground with a sizzling sound, corroding out pits.

The lava worm let out a mournful screech and staggered backward.

Li Yu floated in mid-air, surrounded by an invisible cutting force field, her ponytail flying in the heat wave.

She's here.

Immediately afterwards, a golden flame roared in from another direction and struck the lava worm's carapace precisely!

"boom!"

The armor, which was strong enough to withstand metal blades, cracked open with a deep scorch mark under this attack.

Chen Zhe landed on the ground, golden flames flickering in his eyes, and the heat emanating from his body was even hotter than that of the lava mineral worm.

"Sorry I'm late," he said.

Everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Zhang Jie's legs went weak, and he almost sat down on the ground.

"Not too late, not too late..." he said, panting. "Just right."

Li Yu glanced around the scene, her gaze settling on the lava mineral worm.

"S-class," she said. "No wonder there was such a commotion."

Li Yu and Chen Zhe landed in the center of the square, confronting the lava mineral worms.

Chen Zhe glanced at the giant worm that was badly injured by the two attacks, then looked at the charred ground around him, and couldn't help but laugh.

"That's it?" he said. "I thought it would be something bigger."

Li Yu rolled her eyes at him: "Stop joking around, get to work."

Chen Zhe nodded and looked at her.

"How do we fight?"

After thinking for a moment, Li Yu quickly made the allocation.

"This bug shouldn't be too strong. I'll reinforce the spatial seal to prevent energy fluctuations from leaking out and affecting the outside world. You take the lead in the attack and finish this quickly."

Chen Zhe smiled.

There was a hint of eagerness in that smile.

He hasn't gone all out in a long time.

"OK."

Chen Zhe had already assumed his stance, golden flames dancing around him, the temperature rising higher and higher—

The surrounding air began to distort.

"The spatial blockade is in place."

Chen Zhe licked his lips, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"I can finally play freely."

At school, he would at most use a flame to grill steaks or scald the bottoms of disobedient students; that amount of heat was less than one percent of his full potential.

The only time I had to deal with the corpses of a group of gold-eating rats was when it took a little effort, but nothing compares to the exhilaration of a good fight.

it's good now.

With Li Yu maintaining the space's lockdown, those outside would not be affected.

He can finally—

"boom!"

A golden pillar of fire erupted from Chen Zhe's palm, blasting straight towards the lava worm!

The temperature of the flames instantly soared to ten thousand degrees!

On the lava worm's carapace, the dark red patterns flickered wildly, as if sensing a deadly threat.

It tried to dodge, but was too slow.

The golden pillar of fire slammed solidly into its body!

"hiss--!!!"

The lava worms emitted a mournful hiss.

Its prized carapace began to melt at this 10,000-degree Celsius temperature.

The dark red patterns shattered, and large patches of charred blackness appeared on the pitch-black carapace, with scalding liquid even beginning to flow from the edges.

One of its forelimbs was blasted off, and the broken end was still burning.

Chen Zhe stopped, looked at the pitiful giant worm, and frowned.

"That's it?" He was somewhat disappointed. "I thought an S-class car could withstand much more, but it couldn't even withstand 10,000 degrees Celsius?"

Li Yu said casually from the side, "Have you forgotten that Xuanjia beast we encountered in the Li River? That thing was truly tough."

Chen Zhe thought for a moment and nodded.

indeed.

The Xuanjia beast they encountered in Li was the one with truly monstrous defense.

That guy's carapace could withstand his full-force attacks for several minutes without much damage.

This lava worm...

That's far away.

Although he has become much stronger in the past few months, the 10,000 degrees he just used was not his full strength.

The lava worm had completely lost its earlier imposing manner.

It lay on the ground, its severed limbs still burning, large patches of its carapace charred black, and it emitted weak hisses.

In that howl, there were four parts anger, three parts grievance, and three parts pain.

It was sleeping peacefully underground when it was suddenly driven to the surface by a powerful beast.

As soon as the results came out, a swarm of tiny insects chased and attacked them.

Now it's been burned like this by an even more ferocious insect.

What did it do wrong?

It no longer tries to attack, but instead...

They turned and ran!

It now has only six of its eight limbs left, but it can still run very fast.

It rushed towards the big hole it had just crawled out of, trying to crawl back in!

"Trying to run?" Chen Zhe raised an eyebrow and waved his right hand.

A golden wall of fire appeared out of nowhere in front of the large hole, blocking its escape route.

The insect suddenly stopped, almost crashing into the wall of fire.

It turned its head to look at Chen Zhe and let out a hiss filled with anger and fear.

That hissing sound, translated into human language, would roughly mean:

Are you sick in the head?!

I'm about to run away, and you still won't let me go?!

Chen Zhe couldn't understand the insect's language, so he assumed it was trying to fight to the death and became even more serious.

"Be careful, it might fight desperately," he told Li Yu.

Li Yu nodded, unleashing her full mental power to reinforce the spatial seal.

Chen Zhe unleashed both hands, and golden flames transformed into two fire dragons, rushing towards the lava mineral worm!

The insect hissed desperately, spewing out lava with all its might in an attempt to resist.

But in the face of absolute overwhelming strength, everything is in vain.

The fire dragon pierced through the lava and crashed directly into it!

"hiss--!!!"

A mournful screech echoed throughout the square.

The insect's carapace was charred black, and four of its six limbs were broken off, leaving only two that could barely support its massive body.

It lay on the ground, panting heavily, the dark red markings on its body completely faded.

Chen Zhe extinguished the flames, stepped forward, and looked down at it.

"That's it?" His tone was tinged with disappointment. "I wasn't satisfied yet."

The insect lay motionless on the ground.

It couldn't understand human speech, but it could sense that this human was very strong.

It was so powerful that it couldn't resist at all.

A hint of... grievance actually appeared in its tiny, bean-sized eyes.

Chen Zhe was preparing to deliver the final blow.

"Wait!" Li Yu suddenly spoke up.

Chen Zhe stopped and looked at her with a puzzled expression.

Li Yu stared thoughtfully at the dying lava worm.

"A living S-class alien beast," she said, "is more useful than a dead one."

Chen Zhe was taken aback.

"you mean……"

"Capture it alive," Li Yu said. "Sending it to headquarters for research, or keeping it at the branch office as a specimen, is better than killing it directly. S-class alien beasts aren't something you can encounter all the time."

Chen Zhe thought for a moment and nodded.

"Okay, whatever you say."

He extinguished the flames and turned to look at Zhang Jie.

"Director Zhang, do you have a restraint device capable of trapping an S-class enemy?"

Zhang Jie smiled wryly: "No. There are only a handful of S-class restraint devices in the entire country; they're all with the General Administration."

"What should we do then?"

Li Yu suddenly smiled.

She raised her hand, and an invisible cutting force field unfolded, transforming into countless transparent threads that wrapped around the lava worm's entire body.

"I trapped it with a cutting force field," she said. "Although it can't be trapped permanently, it can keep it trapped for three to five days without any problem."

Chen Zhe nodded: "Okay, then you stay trapped here, I'll go find a cage that can hold it."

Seeing that the other party was going to lock itself up, a hint of... even more aggrieved light flashed in the lava worm's eyes.

It was clearly forced to come up.

The results of it?

First, it was harassed by a bunch of little bugs for half a day, then two big demons came and beat it half to death.

Now they're going to lock it up and keep it as a specimen.

What did it do to deserve this?

Unfortunately, it couldn't speak human language, so it could only lie on the ground, hugging its head with its two remaining limbs, silently enduring everything.

Li Xian watched this scene from the side, and the corner of his mouth twitched slightly.

This bug is quite emotional.

Chen Zhe also noticed Li Xian standing in the distance and waved to him.

"Brother Xian!" he called out, "I'm coming to your house for dinner tonight! I want sweet and sour pork ribs!"

Li Xian: "..."

He nodded silently.

Okay, come on then.

Anyway, Li Yu is coming, so it's just a matter of adding another pair of chopsticks.

Chen Zhe left satisfied.

Li Yu continued to use the cutting force field to trap the lava worm, which had completely given up struggling and lay motionless on the ground.

Looking at this scene, Li Xian suddenly felt like laughing.

This S-class beast was so majestic when it first appeared, but what about now?

They were treated as spoils of war and then sent to be the "treasure of the bureau".

Tragic, absolutely tragic.

As he was thinking, suddenly—

"Drip—drip—drip—"

The piercing alarm sounded again!

Everyone's expression changed, and they looked at the magnetic string.

Magnet String was staring intently at the detector in his hand, his face completely drained of color.

"Underground..." His voice trembled, "Two thousand meters underground... a new energy fluctuation..."

Zhang Jie shouted sternly, "What about the intensity?!"

Magneton raised his head, his lips trembling.

"S-rank...it's also S-rank..."

The crowd erupted in uproar.

Another S-class?!

How is that possible?!

"And..." Magnet's voice trembled more and more, "its ascent speed... is too fast..."

Before he could finish speaking, the ground began to shake violently!

It wasn't the slow tremor we felt before; it was a frantic, violent tremor, as if something was rushing up from the ground at an astonishing speed!

"Two thousand meters... one thousand meters... five hundred meters..." Magnetic String's speech quickened, "One hundred meters... fifty meters..."

"boom!!!"

In the center of the square, the deep pit that the lava worm had just burrowed out suddenly exploded!

Countless stones and dirt shot into the sky, and a black figure shot out from the ground like a cannonball, soaring straight into the clouds!

Then, with a sharp turn in mid-air, it landed heavily at the edge of the square!

Everyone looked up.

What is that...?

It's a bit smaller than a lava worm, but still about the size of a truck.

It was entirely black, covered with eerie scales that seemed to absorb light.

Its limbs are thick and strong, and its sharp claws are deeply embedded in the ground.

The most terrifying thing is its head—it has no eyes, only a huge mouth full of sharp teeth and dense, antenna-like tentacles.

The tentacles were thrashing about wildly, as if probing for something.

S-class.

Another S-class.

Moreover, this one has a stronger aura than the lava mineral worm.

Even more violent.

Even more... it has intelligence.

If the previous one was just the bottom tier of S-class, this one is the elite of S-class.

It's even close to the peak of S-class.

Li Yu's expression changed.

Chen Zhe hadn't gone far when he sensed energy fluctuations and immediately turned back.

He looked at the newly appeared monster with a solemn expression.

"What is this thing?"

Li Yu didn't answer, but her heart sank.