Yu Chuan patted its icy metal surface and continued patrolling the perimeter of the station.

The next few detection spheres operated normally.

In the snowstorm, these silent metal spheres were lined up along the station's curved outline, with one every 50 meters.

They recorded every subtle space tremor on this icy plain, day after day, year after year.

Arriving at the last detection sphere, Yu Chuan habitually looked up at the sky.

Other than the ethereal aurora, only the wind and snow swirled endlessly.

He crouched down and repeated the inspection process he had done countless times before, checking readings, clearing snow, testing signal strength.

[Sphere 12 status: Good]

"Keep it up."

Saying this, he stood up and brushed the snow off his knees, walking back to the station through the snow.

Along the way, he looked up at the station's silver-gray dome, where dozens of small maintenance robots scurried like worker ants among the intersecting alloy frameworks.

Actually, the everyday operation of the Arctic Station could entirely be managed by robots.

The Moon Eclipse Clan's automation technology was advanced enough for this research station to operate for decades without humans.

Detection spheres are maintained by the maintenance robots, supply drones can deliver precisely, and collected space fluctuation information can be sent to Earth Alliance Center within a second.

The core reason humans and the Moon Eclipse Clan must take turns overseeing the Arctic Station is hidden within Article 17 of the Descent Monitoring Agreement.

[All space monitoring nodes must retain an intelligent life operator as a biological key for encryption protocol.]

Each time he logged into the main control system, the scanner flashed a special blue light, collecting his biological information for unlocking.

The security system designed by the Moon Eclipse Clan turned many unreplicable aspects of life itself into the final firewall.

The tragic scenes brought by the mechanical war are still vivid.

In many areas guarded only by machines, lots of information was altered or directly controlled.

Nobody knows what technology the descending forces possess.

To ensure flawless security, identity information is always verified first during login, then transmitted to Earth Alliance Center, and finally unlocked for access.

Though seemingly meaningless, it is actually the most crucial part of the Arctic safety monitoring point.

Returning to the station, the triple airtight doors closed sequentially behind him, sealing out the polar cold.

Yu Chuan shook off the ice crystal on his thermal suit, and the cabin's circulation system immediately activated, dispelling the cold enveloping him.

"Biological key verified, welcome back from hunting." On the main control desk, Intelligent Brain Xiao A waved vigorously at him.

Nearby, a holographic screen unfolded today's monitoring summary in front of him.

The data stream was stable, almost identical to every past day.

At this point, Xiao A jumped around excitedly:

"There's still 16 hours left in today's gaming quota, would you like to go online now?"

The gaming quota represents the time he can spend on gaming entertainment each day.

The rest of the time, he needs to handle various instruments and even communicate with the Earth Alliance Safety Center.

Thus, he can't game for 24 hours straight.

But now, at 30 years old, he can retire in about two more years under the special occupation treaty and move to Data City.

Then, he will begin a lengthy retirement journey.

At that time, he can freely enjoy playing Monster World, even staying online 24 hours a day.

Additionally, he'll receive various annual benefits, including priority access to Moon Eclipse Clan medical spots for the Human Clan Federation.

"I'll play now, gaming is what I look forward to most."

"What about me? You used to love chatting with me." Intelligent Brain Xiao A's face showed a heartbroken expression.

"You've been relegated, accept it."

Saying this, Yu Chuan removed his outer protective suit, revealing the temperature-regulating suit beneath.

He then moved towards the silver cabin corner of the living area, where the game pod awaited in standby mode, its edges glowing with a faint blue breathing light.

Beside the game pod hung an old electronic clock displaying Earth standard time.

Yu Chuan glanced at the date and approached the wardrobe to change into his game suit.

"Remember to drink the regulation liquid." Xiao A instructed a service robot to bring over a cup of transparent liquid used for bodily regulation.

This is one of the Moon Eclipse Clan's provisions for the Arctic Station, free for daily consumption during their duties.

Yu Chuan took the cup and drank it down in one gulp, the liquid's metallic taste sliding down his throat, then entered the game pod.

As the pod cover pressed down, neural hoses automatically connected to his body, their icy touch creeping along his spine.

...

Inside the game, Yu Chuan's figure appeared at the resurrection teleport point in the Illusion Spirit Wilderness space.

In front of him was a dense crowd of players.

In terms of space nodes' bustle, the newly opened Illusion Spirit Wilderness was second only to Imperial Tomb Village.

A large number of newbie players were huddling together for warmth here, immediately fighting face-to-face with the Jile Army upon exiting, with high energy throughout.

However, he didn't rush into action, finding an empty spot to sit down.

He opened the forum and began browsing strategies.

His time at Ah Le Training Camp was running out, approaching mandatory graduation.

Missing the camp and returning meant facing Gatekeeper Uncle's inevitable iron fist.

So he had to consider his future path next.

The forum contained many newbie graduation strategies, with detailed interpretations of all current popular plays.

First was the Adventurer World, or dungeon gameplay.

This gameplay had stable profit yields, sometimes even surprises; if rule fragments were produced, one could make a fortune swiftly.

This was the hottest gameplay recently.