Who said this card is outrageous?

Is it really that simple?

Well, at least until he can use the Meteor Spear, Zhang Che only needs to ensure that his body has a certain degree of coordination and that he doesn't slack off in battle.

Otherwise, if it were a highly technical, all-around or speed-type armor like the Flame Dragon or Wind Eagle, Zhang Che would be lucky to unleash even half of its combat power.

A set of armor that requires skillful maneuvering is simply a waste if it falls into the hands of someone with no skill!

Moreover, the Black Rhino Armor has the highest defensive power among the five elemental armors, making it very suitable for fragile superhumans like Zhang Che.

As long as there is no more suitable replacement, he estimates he can use this card until he advances to the higher level of transcendent.

……

And so, Zhang Che stayed in the basement for nearly two hours.

He first felt the changes in power brought about by the armor while standing still, and then did some basic movement tests, such as walking, running, punching, and headbutting.

Although the basement space is not large, it is enough to do these basic tasks.

He discovered that the Black Rhino Armor put less strain on his body than he had imagined. This was likely due to the mental link between the card and him; wearing the armor felt more like "being strengthened" than "being enveloped by something." The armor's weight was evenly distributed throughout his body, preventing excessive pressure on any one part.

Only when he had almost worn out the armor and his mental energy was starting to spike did Zhang Che finally and reluctantly disengage from the combined state.

A flash of light, and the black armor dissipated into specks of light, revealing Zhang Che inside. Then, a tremendous sense of emptiness instantly surged into his body.

In a daze, Zhang Che felt like a turtle that had been stripped of its shell, feeling empty all over, as if something important was missing.

The strength that had been filling every muscle just moments before vanished, replaced by an indescribable feeling of weakness.

He subconsciously clenched his fist. The hand that could easily lift half a ton of weight just moments before now felt limp even when he clenched it.

However, reason told him that this was all normal, since the power brought by the [Black Rhino Armor] did not strictly belong to him, but was granted by the card.

To put it simply, it's a matter of getting used to it. As long as he pays attention and practices more in the future, he'll get used to this force.

By repeatedly switching between armored and unarmored states, the body gradually gets used to the difference, and the feeling of emptiness gradually lessens.

Zhang Che carefully put away the [Black Rhino Armor] card, dusted himself off, and slowly walked out of the basement.

Chapter 179 Facing a Formidable Enemy

The peaceful days didn't last long.

As the investigation teams sent out by Hezhou City returned to the city one by one, they brought back a lot of useful intelligence.

First is the dead zone rift.

Perhaps the losses from the last battle were too great, including the loss of a fourth-tier armored corpse, so the Dead Zone Rift has been behaving quite well lately.

The dead zone outside the rift has remained within 30 meters in diameter. Based on Hezhou's past experience, this means it has basically reached the level of being "harmless to humans and animals".

Of course, this is relative.

A dead zone with a diameter of thirty meters will still erode the life force of living things, but for superhumans, this range does not pose much of a threat.

However, the leaders of Hezhou City had dealt with the extraordinary creatures in the Dead Zone Rift for so many years and knew each other quite well, so they were well aware that this did not mean that things would really be peaceful afterward.

As long as those old silver coins in the rift seize the opportunity, they will definitely not mind coming out to cause trouble again. After all, undead creatures are inherently incompatible with living things, and there is absolutely no possibility of reconciliation between the two sides; it is only a matter of life and death.

Then there are those harpies.

In contrast to the silence surrounding the Dead Zone Rift, the harpies made no attempt to conceal their presence. Their range of activity was constantly expanding, and they could now be seen less than fifty kilometers from Hezhou City.

Fifty kilometers is a distance that, for flight crews, is less than half an hour's flight distance.

Even Zhang Che frowned when he heard the news.

It can only be said that their advantage in having the ability to fly was too great. If it weren't for the fact that the area around Hezhou City is surrounded by vast forests, providing cover everywhere, it would probably be really difficult to deal with them.

Imagine a vast, open plain; the range a harpy could monitor is terrifying. Hundreds of meters in the air, nothing within a radius of tens of kilometers escapes their eyes.

At that point, no matter how the humans mobilize, they will be detected in advance, and then the war will be impossible to fight.

Now that spring has returned to the earth, the gradually lush forests, while not completely limiting their field of vision, can at least provide some cover for the ground troops.

There's also bad news: as the undead creatures in the Dead Zone Rift begin to stay indoors, the harpies, being living beings, dare not venture into the rift, leaving the humans as their only remaining target.

In other words, the previous situation where the harpies and undead creatures restrained each other no longer exists, and now all the pressure is on Hezhou City.

With a formidable enemy at hand, and the need to guard against undead creatures that could launch a sneak attack at any moment, the atmosphere at the meeting in the city hall was inevitably somewhat heavy.

Pan Yue sat in the main seat, with several cigarette butts already piled up in the ashtray in front of him; the other representatives were lined up on both sides, while Zhang Che, relying on his title as a fourth-level card maker, sat in the first seat to An Qi.

“As far as I know, the harpies are a race without males.” Zhang Che picked up his cup and took a sip of tea. “So if they want to reproduce, they can only plunder males from other races.”

Furthermore, due to factors such as reproductive isolation and aesthetics, harpies primarily prey on humans and various demi-humans. Humans, in particular, appear to be a kind of "high-quality resource" in their eyes.

The atmosphere in the meeting room changed noticeably after those words were spoken.

Zhang Che selectively revealed the information he knew about the harpies, of course, all of which was filtered out, without revealing too many details he himself knew.

Zhang Che attributed the source to a book he stumbled upon by chance: "I found a book about otherworldly creatures in the Binhai University library before, which mentioned this kind of creature. I just flipped through it casually at the time, and I never thought it would actually come in handy."

Pan Yue nodded and did not ask any further questions.

Now is not the time to investigate the source of information; as long as it is useful, that's enough.

However, since these harpies were appearing on Earth for the first time, and the book Zhang Che had read back then was from some unknown rift-linked alternate dimension, no one could be sure whether the harpies described in the book and the creatures they encountered this time were from the same system.

In this respect, humanity on Earth has actually suffered many losses.

For example, among otherworldly creatures also called "goblins," some are so weak that an adult can take on several of them single-handedly with a weapon; while others are born with strong bodies and extraordinary strength, and they even know how to cooperate with each other. This caused humans to suffer heavy losses when they first tried to deal with them using the same methods they used to deal with weak goblins.

Same name, different combat power – this kind of thing is already commonplace on Earth today.

So later on, humans learned their lesson and began to treat anything that emerged from the rift as a new species, regardless of what it was.

……

With some clues provided by Zhang Che, Pan Yue didn't care whether they were true or not, and treated them as true anyway.

He immediately ordered all patrol teams to be extremely careful, otherwise, if they were captured by harpies and used as breeding tools, no one could save them.

The reason is simple: to this day, the harpy's lair has still not been found in Hezhou City.

The closer you get to where they came from, the more harpies patrolling the sky become. Before people on the ground even get close, they are spotted from the sky, and then a group of harpies swoops down and drives them away.

Based on reconnaissance over this period, a rough estimate suggests that at least a hundred harpies have been discovered, including at least four fourth-order harpies that closely resemble humans.

With a population size of this scale, it's safe to assume that there are likely fifth-tier beings within their group.

The reproduction of a species requires a lot of resources and space, and it would be impossible to keep so many fourth-tier harpies from coming out to patrol obediently without a fifth-tier "harpy queen" in charge.

As for whether a sixth order exists, there is not enough evidence yet, but no matter what the outcome, it is not a good thing for Hezhou City.

Due to insufficient resources, the only person in the entire city whose leader is a fifth-tier transcendent being is the Adventurers' Guild.

Pan Yue took a deep drag on his cigarette, the smoke filling the conference room and making his face appear even more gloomy.

“I’ve told an old friend about what’s going on here, and he’s promised to bring people over to take a look and offer some support,” Pan Yue said in a low, slightly hoarse voice.

Anyone would be upset if they encountered something like this while in office.

However, crisis is a crisis, and danger always brings opportunity.

Pan Yue is seizing this opportunity. If it succeeds, it could fill the gap in Hezhou's high-end combat capabilities.

Pan Yue didn't specify what level of superhuman his old friend was, but since he brought it up at this time to inspire people, he must at least be a fifth-order superhuman.

Zhang Che silently kept this information in mind and didn't ask any further questions.

Chapter 180 The Card Maker's Duties

Through his personal experience over this period, Zhang Che could clearly sense that although Mayor Pan Yue was not particularly powerful, he was quite prestigious in the city and wielded far more power than Fu Xing's father.

These days, almost all the orders have been issued from the city hall. Zhang Che can understand why the city guards obey orders, but he doesn't understand why the adventurers' guild is so obedient.

It should be noted that in Binhai City, Mayor Yu Xingye was generally only responsible for the city's people's livelihood affairs, while matters related to combat were basically handled by the other three fifth-tier superhumans.

Yu Xingye could only manage logistics, and even then, he didn't have much say.

Pan Yue seemed to notice Zhang Che's doubts, smiled, and exhaled a puff of smoke.

"It's all thanks to Brother Zhu's trust," Pan Yue said calmly. "Plus, I also have some ability, which is why I was able to gain everyone's support."

The "Brother Zhu" he mentioned was the president of the Adventurers' Guild, a fifth-tier transcendent being.

Zhang Che understood what was going on and stopped dwelling on the topic. Instead, he got back to business and started discussing with Pan Yue the cards they needed to customize.

The first cards decided upon were [Nine-Tailed] and [Six-Tailed].

The slowing and freezing effects of ice magic are extremely effective against highly mobile enemies like harpies.

Their most powerful weapon is speed; once they are slowed down or even frozen, their advantage is greatly diminished.

In addition, the Nine-Tails and the Six-Tails are not weak in combat, making them very suitable for large-scale equipment.

The only difficulty is that Hezhou City itself does not produce the various ice-type extraordinary materials needed to make these two cards. We can only mobilize our inventory and send people to other cities to purchase or exchange them, which takes a lot of time.

Next up is the light-type [Gatomon].

Zhang Che had anticipated that Pan Yue would buy this card, which was specifically designed to counter undead supernatural creatures. However, he was puzzled as to why the other side only bought two of them.

As a major threat to Hezhou City, the Dead Zone Rift should be maxed out. Cards like Gatomon, which specialize in attacking Undead types, should even be more important than the Nine-Tailed Fox family.

Each additional light-type summon increases the chances of success in dealing with the Dead Zone Rift.

However, Pan Yue also gave his own answer: the light element does indeed counter the undead element, but as a price, while purifying the latter, the light element will also erase the extraordinary power in the remaining extraordinary materials, causing their value to plummet.

“We’ve tried using the power of light to deal with those undead creatures before,” Pan Yue sighed, a hint of helplessness in his voice. “Although we won relatively easily, the result was thankless.”

He stubbed out his cigarette and looked at Zhang Che earnestly, saying, "People in the city still rely on these local specialties for their livelihood."

Although the Dead Zone Rift is dangerous, it is also an important source of income for Hezhou City. The various rare materials produced by those undead creatures are quite valuable on the outside market, and many extraordinary individuals in Hezhou City rely on these materials to make a living.

Therefore, Light-type cards should only be used as trump cards to deal with unexpected situations, not as regular weapons; two are enough.

After listening, Zhang Che remained silent for a moment, then nodded: "I understand."

Then there's the [Harpie Girl].

To deal with those flying creatures, air combat units are definitely indispensable. Harpies move like the wind in the air, and no matter how strong the ground troops are, they can't do anything about them. Only units with the same flying ability can confront them head-on.

However, this time Zhang Che will definitely not provide the dual-talent version, but the ordinary version fused with three cards, which basically only has one talent.