Make money by hiding in the interstellar battlefield!

Daylight had already broken, but the morning light piercing through the dense forest seemed to be suppressed by a thick layer of despair, its brightness devoid of warmth. In the distance, thunderous explosions echoed continuously, the direction of the fierce battle between the Seven Rings City front and the beast tide. Smoke billowed, and flames illuminated the clouds across the mountains, but they remained completely unaware of the battle raging deep within.

Jian Sheng stared into the depths of the dense forest, his brows furrowed into a deep knot, his face so grave it seemed to be dripping with sweat: "We're now in a dilemma. Once the front lines defeat the beast tide, the routed beast tide will surely collapse and retreat. At that time, we'll be right on their inevitable retreat route—it's like standing at the crossroads of a rushing flood, and we'll only be crushed on the spot."

He paused, then uttered three words, each one heavy: "Choose one of the two."

Lin Zhizhi held her breath and waited.

"One option is to brave the daytime and force our way out of the monster horde's range before it collapses; the other is to wait until nightfall, hide under the cover of darkness, and use the corpse of this giant intelligent beast to mask our scent and sneak away."

As the two were discussing in hushed tones, a snow-white shadow suddenly streaked through the air from the forest.

Little White Fly flapped its wings and flew back, excitedly heading straight for the two of them—

But as soon as she got close, she froze abruptly because of the strong, pungent smell emanating from the two people. Her little nose twitched wildly, as if someone had doused her with a bucket of strong acid.

The next second, Little White flapped its wings and jumped back, circling awkwardly in the air twice before finally perching on a branch with a look of disgust, chattering and cursing at the two of them.

"What is it saying?" Lin Zhizhi frowned instantly.

Jian Sheng's lips twitched, and he relayed the story expressionlessly: "It asked us if we had been covered in poop from that ground spider earlier, since we were covered in poop."

Lin Zhizhi suppressed a laugh.

Jian Sheng looked up and scolded, "Didn't I tell you to evacuate with Dr. Hill? Why did you come back?"

Little Bai Sheng immediately started chattering again, his little paws pointing frantically into the depths of the dense forest.

Jian Sheng understood. "Call them over. It's safe here."

Lin Zhizhi asked with wide curiosity, "Brother, how come you communicate with it like a translator?"

Jian Sheng glanced at her indifferently: "Because I know its language. Remember, learning another foreign language can save your life in a critical moment."

Not long after, Dr. Hill arrived with her nurse sister in a hurry. When she saw the giant ground spider corpse on the ground, she almost stopped breathing.

"My God...this is a Ground Spider?!" Her voice trembled. "The combat manual says that it takes at least a team of thirty people with heavy weapons to take down this kind of general-level intelligent beast, and even then, there will be casualties...and you two just took it down?"

Jian Sheng didn't say much, but directly presented the crisis and two solutions.

Hill steadied himself and quickly analyzed the situation: "The beast tide will last at least three to four days. It's only the second day now. During the day, visibility is excellent, and once we're targeted by intelligent beasts, it's like being exposed to a spotlight. I suggest... we set off at night."

Jian Sheng frowned slightly, but in his heart he had already accepted this choice.

Fifteen minutes later, Hill was filled with remorse.

As the White Meerkat and Libra mechs slowly extended their mechanical arms and gently lifted them up, they were then steadily placed into the Earth Spider's abdominal cavity in the next second.

Thick, foul-smelling, yellow-green and dark red bodily fluids instantly covered the entire body, and the pungent smell that made one's head spin went straight into the nasal cavity.

The Hill sisters vomited on the spot, tears and snot streaming down their faces, and were on the verge of a breakdown.

Jian Sheng and Lin Zhizhi, wielding heated double knives, precisely sliced ​​through the soft tissue beneath the hard shell atop the corpse, carefully peeling away the entire tough outer shell. Its extremely hard texture served as perfect natural cover.

"Since we're going to lie in wait during the day, we'll be too conspicuous, and our scent will attract intelligent beasts." Jian Sheng coldly cleaned the carapace. "The Earth Spider is a general-level intelligent beast with a terrifying sense of territory; other lower-level intelligent beasts dare not set foot in its territory. Let's bury it back in the cave and then dig a shallow pit nearby to hide under its carapace."

Despite their nausea and turmoil, the four men buried the spider back in its burrow, quickly dug a hole, and crawled under its shell.

In the confined space, the stench was compressed to its extreme, like a cloud of poison gas constantly assaulting the nerves.

The Hill sisters retched for half an hour, their faces turning from deathly pale to sallow, and then almost transparent.

Jian Sheng was already in excruciating pain, but he stubbornly held on like a block of iron. Among the three girls in front of him, he was the only male, and he absolutely could not lose his composure.

Lin Zhizhi was oblivious to everything. Seeing the two sisters vomiting until they were almost exhausted, she not only didn't feel sorry for them, but also secretly laughed.

Little White refused to crawl inside, squatting on top of the shell and occasionally chirping away.

Jian Sheng was so angry at its noise that he snapped, "Shut up!"

Hill looked up, vomiting. "Captain... what is it saying?"

Jian Sheng said expressionlessly, "It says you are red poop, your sister is green, I am colorful, and Lin Zhizhi is the poop itself."

Hill trembled with rage: "Captain! I'm going to capture it and silence it!"

Xiao Baisheng called out even more enthusiastically.

The four of them endured the stench, the torment, and the mutual disgust until nightfall.

"Captain...should we take this piece of carapace with us?" Hill asked, still shaken.

"Don't take it." Jian Sheng said decisively. "It's too heavy and will slow us down. Tonight, we'll race at full speed for 100 kilometers to try and get out of the high-risk area."

Hill pulled out two vials of biological cooling agent: "Take these. If we get separated during the journey, the injections can cool down our internal organs and maintain our physical strength."

"If you encounter intelligent beasts, run. We'll catch up."

So the four of them, under Xiaobai's scouting, stealthily made their way into the night.

D-class mechs are less burdensome, and even those with C-class talents can keep up;

However, the Meerkat and Libra were severely damaged, with alarms sounding incessantly, as if they were about to be completely scrapped at any moment.

They took detours, lay in ambush, evaded, and circled around, but the further they went, the further they strayed from the original direction of the fortress, venturing deeper into the northern region. Although the straight-line distance from the battlefield increased, the safety factor did indeed improve.

A day and a night passed.

After daybreak, everyone rested again.

"Brothers, are you hungry? I'll go get some meat." Lin Zhizhi picked up the hot knife.

Jian Sheng cautioned, "The presence of star beasts here indicates that intelligent beasts are rare or extinct, but you can't use guns. Just hunt small prey."

"Don't worry! We have enough knives!"

Not long after, Lin Zhizhi returned carrying two strange herbivorous star beasts that looked like lizards or reptiles, with mottled scales and dull eyes.

Jian Sheng glanced at it and then pulled up the mammal atlas of Mother Nest Star in the system:

"It is a unique herbivorous quasar, but its flesh is rather tough."

Everyone hadn't eaten properly for two nights and a day, and their stomachs were growling with hunger.

After lighting a fire, preparing the food, and simply roasting it, the four people and one animal gathered around the fire to share the meal.

However, the residual spider fluids on the mechs and clothing, mixed with the smell of sweat, had an extremely pungent odor.

The Helen sisters were used to a respectable life, and although they were not afraid of death, they were afraid of this kind of humiliation.

They would frown after a couple of bites, repeatedly rubbing their palms with their fingers, as if they had eaten something they shouldn't have, looking utterly hopeless.

Fatigue finally took over my whole body.

After two days and one night without going to the toilet, everyone was exhausted.

Men and women were separated and dug holes on the spot—in order not to expose their tracks.

Jian Sheng borrowed Lin Zhizhi's heat-generating sword and started digging in front of a grassy area.

When he was halfway through digging, his fingertips touched a familiar type of soil: light, pink, reddish-brown, with a metallic sheen.

Jian Sheng's pupils constricted slightly.

He was an Ivy League graduate who did not major in geology, but he did in-depth research on commodities during his investment career.

He could recognize the characteristics of bauxite at a glance.

He continued digging deeper, removing more layers of soil, wrapping a small sample in a leaf, and stuffing it into the mech's cabin.

"I must upgrade the storage module and systematically study mineralogy when I get back," he silently noted to himself.

With their physiological needs met, everyone rested.

Jiansheng and Lin Zhizhi took turns keeping watch.

Poisonous creatures roam the forest, so they have no choice but to make do.

As night fell, we set off again.

The journey was surprisingly smooth, with alarms sounding repeatedly, but none of them were actually triggered.

Finally, they were less than three kilometers away from the temporary fortress.

But suddenly, the air was filled with an overwhelming stench of blood and decay.

That wasn't the smell of an ordinary beast tide.

Rather, it was... the atmosphere of the edge of the battlefield.

The air was filled with the acrid smell of molten metal and the charred smell of wood from artillery fire.

Everyone paused, a chill running through them.

The closer they got to the fortress, the heavier their aura became.

It was as if a catastrophe was approaching.