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Lixiang commanded an army of insect drones from the safety of the sidelines, constantly ferrying those lightning talismans to the battlefield. At ten points a talisman, a single talisman was able to easily finish off one of those skeletal monsters, efficiently turning a quick profit for Lixiang.

Even so, the seemingly endless stream of monsters slowly but surely cornered us into an ever-shrinking space. No matter how many we destroyed, their numbers just kept growing.

“We can’t keep this up forever… there’s too many of them…” Qiaoqiao barely managed to catch her breath as she dumped her third laser gun on the floor, completely spent on ammo. She grabbed another gun off the rack they had prepared beforehand and immediately began firing at the monsters.

Back at the frontlines, I swung Icy Inferno in a wide arc, carving a glaring crescent of light through the sea of bones before me, destroying five of those monsters in the process…

“Bitong, how is the report coming along?”

“There’s too much data, I need another ten minutes minimum… That bio-exosuit hasn’t been fully grown and tuned as well. The data won’t be accurate…”

Bitong had already given up on defending and was focused entirely on collating the data, but even that wasn’t enough to speed the process along.

“Should we wait till the bio-exosuit is done?” I gulped down another SP recovery potion; the all-too-familiar sensation of emptiness quickly abated. However, my face was still a sickly white. Even with the potions, my hands were beginning to feel increasingly more like lead with every swing of Icy Inferno. Without time to rest, these symptoms of fatigue would only get worse…

“One more hour, minimum. This one would have to closely monitor the bio-exosuit throughout that process as well.” Lixiang was the one who answered me in an anxious tone, rather than Bitong, owing to the fact that she was more familiar with the process. “Your Highness, this one doesn’t think we can hold this position any longer. We need to evacuate quickly. Our enemies seemed to have brought an endless horde to bear against us…”

“Alright.”

An hour was clearly too much right now. We would probably be the ones who needed regrowing by the end of one hour, not just that exosuit.

I guess we are evacuating then…

I swung Icy Inferno once more, clearing out a large swathe of the monsters before turning around to face the girls. “Let’s give up on this factory. Sis, I need you to lead Lixiang and Qiaoqiao to the elevator and wait for us there. Floater, you’re with me in covering their rear.”

“Got it.” Upon hearing my orders, Floater did not hesitate in redirecting her detachable bits to focus entirely on clearing a path.

“Qiaoqiao, let’s go. Both of us will escort Lixiang out.” Bitong was equally as decisive, leading the little girl to the elevator right as she finished saying that.

At this point, we were all in full evacuation mode. Compared to some fancy data on bio-exosuits, the safety and well-being of the girls was infinitely more important.

A moment later, the girls were safely out of the way, leaving just me and Floater. A thought occurred to me then. I instantly bought 500 Inferno Talismans off the marketplace, then tossed them all over the floor. Because they were all self-activating, the talismans immediately self-immolated, forming a roaring wall of flames, separating us from the monsters.

A number of the skeletal monsters tried to ram their way through the wall, but that clearly wasn’t going to work, seeing as fire was the bane of all undead…

With some of their comrades acting as the proverbial canary in the mines, the remaining skeletal monsters knew not to try their luck any further. They merely waited before the wall, as if they already knew that this wall would run out eventually. A pity… really. If they had all rushed into the wall, I would have easily doubled, maybe even tripled my investment into those talismans. After all, a single monster was more than enough to cover the cost of a talisman. But there was no way such a cheat-like farming method would exist in real life…

“Let’s get out of here, those talismans won’t last for long.” I turned around and ran towards the elevator after saying that, not at all caring if my points were increasing or not.

Floater followed close behind me, her detachable bits circling around us as a protective barrier. In case of an emergency, they could at least act as a last-ditch shield.

“Big brother, over here! Over here!” Qiaoqiao waved at us on the tips of her toes. The girls had already gathered within the elevator, waiting for us to board it.

Hearing her familiar and pleasant childlike voice through that clobbered-together exosuit, I couldn’t help but feel a little comforted. The unimpressive nature of that exosuit only made her hand waving that much more amusing to watch.

“Everyone, get in, it’s time to say goodbye to this factory.”

A while later, we safely arrived back on the surface. The ride upwards was admittedly not a very relaxing one. My greatest fear was that those monsters would suddenly attack our carriage as it ascended the elevator shaft. Given how small the carriage was, fighting would have been a nightmare.

Thankfully, those fears never came to pass.

“So, where are we off to next? The inn?” Qiaoqiao did not waste any time in asking.

“We will head to the inn first to rescue those survivors. Once that’s done, we can use that area as a gathering point for the nearby policemen and soldiers.” I laid out the plan I had thought of previously. It was a rough plan, but it provided definite direction. “We will also need to find a safe haven for the survivors. Lastly, our end goal is to uncover the mastermind behind this tragedy.”

“Kay~. But Qiaoqiao has to report in with Aunty Xinqing first. And hand in the combat footage at the same time.” Without waiting for me to even say a word, Qiaoqiao had already opened up a comms channel with Aunty Xinqing.

“Qiao? That was quick – there’s something you need your Aunty Xinqing for already?”

On the other end of the holographic feed, Aunty Xinqing was lazily sipping a cup of coffee.

“Ehh? Aunty Xinqing is so lucky. Qiaoqiao wants to have a coffee break too!”

“Hah, jealous?” Aunty Xinqing lowered her cup of coffee then pointed at her prominent eye bags. “I haven’t slept since last night. If it wasn’t for this cup of coffee, I wouldn’t be able to function at all. How about Qiaoqiao try to stay up for a night as well? It won’t be pleasant, I assure you. Late nights are a girl’s worst enemy, after all!”

Shameless Self-promotion

Announcement: I’ve re-opened my Patreon in case anyone wants to sponsor more chapters. Every end of the month, those chapters in early access will be released for free for all to read. If you sponsored a chapter, you will gain permanent early access to these chapters. Essentially, everyone gets more chapters to read, but those who donated get to read earlier. More chapters will then be translated at the start of the month. Explanation on the Patreon itself.

LINK HERE