The journey could only be described as a large-scale brawl scene.

Cursing, fighting, rolling, roaring... among the areas players have explored, such spectacular brawls could only be found at the Ah Le Training Camp.

There were no tactics here, only the purest slaughter.

Yu Chuan quickly threw himself into battle, charging forward passionately with his newfound teammates.

At that moment, Yu Chuan even felt like he had the flair of a Competition Faction player, his skills genuinely strong.

In this novice battlefield, he already had the prowess to "overpower all rivals."

As his teammates put it: No wonder you're a senior about to graduate; you're really something.

Time passed amidst the slaughter, and Yu Chuan held on for three hours without falling, thanks to gulping down Recovery Potions.

But finally, he was struck down by a fierce offensive launched by the Jile Army, eventually drowned in the onslaught of Joyful Soldier Species.

Returning to the little black room, Yu Chuan pulled up the forum interface, looking for a live stream by a Competition Faction player to learn some techniques.

After some searching, he found a live stream replaying the last round of the Ancient God Arena and began to listen.

Occasionally, he joined in the barrage of comments, criticizing the streamer's pretentious antics.

This happened when the resurrection cooldown was halfway through.

Yu Chuan suddenly heard a Challenger Tip echoing in his mind:

[Challenger Tip: Warning, signal anomaly detected at monitoring station!]

The sudden tip instantly made Yu Chuan's nerves tense up.

The game pod was connected to the station's network, and a tip at this time likely meant something was wrong outside.

The next second, the game's forced exit mechanism initiated.

Yu Chuan's consciousness was abruptly pulled back to reality from the game world.

The dizziness from the severed neural link left him seeing black, his eardrums ringing.

The game's emergency lighting activated, with blinding red light flashing madly in the station space, indicating an unusual situation.

He pushed open the game pod door, cold air flooding into his lungs, carrying a strange smell.

Like rotting metal, or the scent of scorched flesh.

"Little A, report the situation."

He shouted hoarsely, but there was no response.

Quickly getting up and leaving the game pod, he found all the screens on the main console turned into distorted snowflake noise, with only the backup terminal in the corner still flashing a line of text:

[External invasion confirmed, Protocol 17 effective, biological key locking, need reactivation for use.]

Yu Chuan's temples throbbed.

He stumbled towards the observation window, yanking open the radiation-proof curtains.

To his surprise, the blizzard outside had stopped.

He picked up the night-vision binoculars by the window, zooming in on the distant scene.

Outside, the snowflakes were suspended in mid-air, as if frozen by some invisible force.

Further away, where there should have been darkness on the ice field, a viscous, tar-like black substance was surging towards the station.

"What the hell is this thing."

The monitoring balls went out one by one where the black substance passed.

As if swallowed by darkness, the metal shells collapsed like rotting fruit, merging into that darkness.

Yu Chuan staggered backward, knocking over the tools behind him.

Metal parts clattered to the ground, echoing piercingly in the deathly silent pod.

"Little A, initiate emergency protocol, seal all entrances!"

This time, Little A still gave no response.

He turned to look at the console, his pupils narrowing sharply, seeing Little A's projection flickering, seemingly disconnected.

Yu Chuan's breathing nearly stopped.

He quickly approached the main console, attempting to activate the biological key.

The station's permissions could only be used again after reactivation; he had to convey the situation here.

But after scanning, the information he got was: Biological key, verification failed.

Bang!

He punched the main console.

The Moon Eclipse Clan's technology had never failed, yet there was a malfunction at this critical stage.

Biological key activation should not be susceptible to external interference; it was the Moon Eclipse Clan's most advanced technology, ensuring that station signal transmission could be maintained despite external disruptive forces.

Yet it had now failed.

At this moment, a strange sound came from the direction of the triple-sealed door.

It sounded like nails scraping across the alloy door panels, slightly piercing.

He stared intently at the door seam, seeing a wisp of black mist seeping in, crawling on the floor like it was alive.

Soon, the metal near the airtight door rapidly dissolved, vanishing in the blink of an eye, leaving only pure darkness surging forward.

It was like a passage to an endless abyss, unfolding and expanding before his eyes.

In the face of this dark force, even the cold was swallowed; though the station gate had been destroyed, the outside chill hadn't invaded.

Yu Chuan's breath stuck in his chest.

The moment the black mist touched the ground, the titanium alloy floor seemed to be chewed by an invisible giant mouth, disappearing swiftly.

Darkness spread like tides, deconstructing metal, plastic, glass... everything it touched in an instant.

Including walls, pipes, instruments, all silently obliterated by the Black Tide.

Yu Chuan decisively moved to the weapon pod, trying to retrieve a weapon for counterattack.

But found that without unlocking the biological key, the weapon pod doors wouldn't open.

He pounded the pod doors twice, feeling extreme despair.

At that moment, the roiling black mist began to contract and collapse, gradually outlining a sinister silhouette within.

Even before it fully took shape, Yu Chuan felt a burning pain in his retinas as he locked eyes with it.