Sky-cracking Rider-Chapter 362: Section 358 - An Unending Stream of Unexpected Visitors

"I’m busy with the command console! No time..."

Class A Psychic Ability User and Puppet Master Joshua transmitted from the depths of the lava cave.

His constructed puppet warriors were all occupied without exception, busily arranging all the necessary equipment to manage the overall situation, to interface with the surveillance equipment and weapon platforms Chen Fei had installed outside.

As a Puppet Master, he was already multitasking like multiple people in one, and right then he was completely at his wit’s end and couldn’t help anyone else.

Team 04 had only 11 people, and even if you included the Mobile Base Vehicle, they were more than sufficient in attack but deficient in defense. Guarding such a vast area like the Dead Volcano’s mouth was bound to face a shortage of hands, and even the addition of a couple of hundred more people wouldn’t be considered excessive.

"I’ll help, and so will Susanna!"

Twins Blades Sister Mouri Misono, a girl with a keen heart, immediately volunteered and inadvertently grabbed Susanna, who was about to dig up some luminescent crystals as souvenirs.

"No, I don’t want to!"

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Seeing such great cables and reels, Class B Ice Ability User didn’t at all want to turn herself from a fragrant little fairy into a dirt-soiled and stinky sweaty workhorse.

"No, you have to!"

Mouri Misono had no intention of letting go at all.

"Aiyah..."

Susanna found that she wasn’t as strong as the other, and got dragged involuntarily toward those thick and long...

Half an hour later, because she wasn’t familiar with the work, she got tied up into a whole new pattern by the cable tentacle monster and sat there with a face that had lost all hope, waiting for rescue.

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"Buzz..."

A giant bee, the size of 40 buses, swept over the Dead Volcano’s mouth with a gust of wind, drew a big circle, and returned to hover over the Lava Cave entrance, looking around in all directions.

"Everyone, pay attention, Bee Mutant BF-1334 has appeared, it is likely a reconnaissance bee!"

As the team leader Adrian, who was inside the Mobile Base Vehicle writing a report, noticed the commotion outside, he immediately alerted everyone through their earpiece.

Bee species are mostly social by nature, and their evolution directions differ according to their roles, becoming more aggressive after mutations, resembling a professional military composed of different troop breeds. The lone appearance of Bee Mutant BF-1334, heading straight for the Dead Volcano and pinpointing the cave entrance, indicated only one possibility.

It wasn’t just passing by; it was here specifically for reconnaissance, and not for the first time.

Most people were inside the Lava Cave, with only Adrian, who was rushing to complete the operation report, and Ruan Tiankai, who was deep asleep and snoring loudly, on the Mobile Base Vehicle.

Once Chen Fei left, this Mobile Base Vehicle became a huge chunk of metal; the real "Adam" who should be working wasn’t on board, and it was equipped with various monitoring devices that were utterly unresponsive to the suddenly appearing giant bee.

The Mobile Base Vehicle’s windows had a certain one-way effect; the suddenly approaching mutant giant bee didn’t notice that two humans were hiding inside this big fellow.

The nearly 80-ton vehicle wasn’t particularly worried about being attacked by this mutant.

"Xiao Jiu, take out that guy outside!"

Chen Fei’s voice came from inside the lava cave, too busy to lend a hand himself; even the others were forcibly recruited for help.

The only one who was free was the constantly flying Pure Light Sparrow.

There was always a belief that mutants would automatically go berserk at the sight of humans, regardless of any fights among themselves. As soon as humans appeared, they would immediately abandon previous disputes and attack humans together.

But on Blue Star, stationed with various aircrew bases and regular patrols, mutants never got the chance to join forces against humans.

Xiao Jiu was most suited for this job.

Moreover, it was just a mutant flying species and merely a bug at that.

Early birds catch the worms!

Early worms get eaten by birds!

"Chirp!"

A stream of light shot out from deep within the cave, crossing over the confused mutant giant bee that was inspecting the cave entrance and Mobile Base Vehicle, with the speed of lightning.

In a race of speed between bees and birds, the former was entirely at the latter’s mercy.

The buzzing sound of the bee’s wings abruptly ceased.

The giant bee’s body was cleanly sliced in half at its most slender part, the neat cut still radiating heat.

The little bird’s control over the laser was increasingly adept, targeting only the weak spots and retracting immediately after contact, without any waste whatsoever.

The two halves of the giant bee’s body heavily crashed onto the platform at the cave entrance, sending up two billows of sand and dust.

The defense capabilities of the Scorpion Mutant SS-0792 were slightly better, which is why these Bee Mutants BF-1334 were ousted from their nests and expelled.

Fortunately, he had the ability to fly, otherwise, being captured all at once was not an impossibility.

"We need to hurry, everyone! There will be more coming!"

Looking out the vehicle window at the giant bees still struggling in their death throes, Adrian sighed, knowing that his combat report was just beginning, with a pile of plans and reports still waiting for him to write.

Liaison Officer Rossi wouldn’t let him off, this poor captain got no taste of the action, missing the mutants and only hitting the keyboard.

As the sun rose in the east and set in the west, a whole day passed, and the mutant nest inside the dead volcano was finally transformed into a base suitable for human habitation. The internal lighting no longer relied on Pure Light Sparrow Xiao Jiu’s Illumination Technique or those glowing crystals, but used real lights instead.

The base housed a high-grade Crystalline Block, providing a continuous supply of abundant electricity for all the electrical devices. It also harvested light and wind power from the outside to supplement the consumed power.

Unfortunately, this was a proprietary energy core and couldn’t be used as the power source for the Mobile Base Vehicle.

The dozen weapon platforms installed near the volcano’s mouth entered standby mode, ready to fire the moment the monitoring system detected mutants approaching.

Since they came with cables and backup crystal energy, there was no need to worry about signal interference from sandstorms.

The Scorpion Mutant SS-0792 colony was clearly the ruler of this area. A conspicuous location like the mouth of a dead volcano, without being fierce, simply didn’t qualify to occupy it as a breeding nest.

But the next morning, the sand dunes near the dead volcano’s mouth began to stir. The sand surged like waves, and the images transmitted back from the dispatched reconnaissance drones showed something massive slowly moving beneath the sand, not wriggling, and the speed was not slow, comparable to a human’s full speed run.

Subterranean, aerial, swamp, and underground mutants were all incredibly troublesome species.

Airborne flying-type mutants, although highly maneuverable, could be completely handled with anti-air weapons and combat aircraft.

Waterborne aquatic mutants usually could infiltrate places that were difficult for humans to reach, but with the introduction of Cangqiong Star’s aquatic beasts combined with human technological equipment, this insufficient situation quickly improved.

Moreover, the residual nuclear radiation in freshwater river systems and oceans had been naturally diluted below safe thresholds, making it the least mutant-infested area, often inhabited by amphibious mutants.

Among the land-based mutants, those living above ground were the easiest to deal with, but those protected by complex geological environments underground were difficult to detect and effectively strike.

It was very hard to discern with the naked eye what species the massive creature moving under the sand was, and without determining the biological characteristics and depth of activity, let alone using firearms, it was doubtful even spells and special abilities would be effective.

Team 04’s members gathered in the command center deep inside the Lava Cave, guessing the identity of the unexpected visitor roaming near the dead volcano from the images displaying undulating contours in the sand.

From the undulation in the sand in the images, the creature’s estimated length was nearly a hundred meters.

This was an astonishing length; Cheng Fei’s Mobile Base Vehicle was only 20 meters long, which meant the giant creature under the sand could swallow the vehicle whole.

Luckily, the Earth Mage who cleaned up the Lava Cave did a thorough job, enabling the Mobile Base Vehicle to go up the mountain, or else, the vehicle would have been gone!

Adrian said gravely, "We need to install geological sonar, at least twelve of them!"

The necessary desert detection equipment was available, but they had been busy setting up equipment inside the Lava Cave yesterday and hadn’t had the chance to bury detectors in the nearby sand.

If this giant creature had appeared just two hours later, the long cylindrical geological sonar might already have been planted in the sand, capable of detecting various crucial information like the biological activity and exact location beneath the sand.

"I’m going!"

The Neanderthal Chief, Bassan, who had hardly any presence until now, suddenly spoke up.

During the previous confrontation with the scorpion mutants, he had been valiantly at the forefront, not retreating a single step, and right now, he cared little about the mysterious giant creature moving beneath the sand.

"Mini and I are fast, count us in!"

The Holy Knight patted his own breastplate, while his constant companion, the Second Rank Wind Beast Blue Scaled Colt, was in the corner munching on its beef-flavored compressed biscuits. It was an omnivorous beast that ate both grass and meat, easy to feed without dietary restrictions.

Upon hearing his partner mention him, the Blue Scaled Colt immediately stomped the ground in response.

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Like Xiao Jiu, it couldn’t speak, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t understand human language. Being a beast, it was naturally intelligent, even able to understand three or four different languages.

"I’m strong, I’ll go too!"

The big black man, Apu, pounded his chest, eager to test himself against the desert mutant he had never seen before.

"I also..."

Chen Fei too raised his hand among the crowd.

"You’re not allowed to go. What are you going to do there, chop at the sand?"

A-Rank Metal Ability User Kiterley pulled Chen Fei behind him.

Since even Pure Light Sparrow’s lasers couldn’t penetrate the thick sand, a desert environment like this was not well suited for Metal Ability Users to perform, not even Kiterley had volunteered, let alone a B-Rank junior brother like Chen Fei.

It wasn’t just Chen Fei and Kiterley; many people’s abilities were restricted by the desert’s geographical conditions.

The only one who could fully utilize his strength was the Ninth Rank Earth Mage, Ruan Tiankai.

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