"If only I could inherit the Mind Control Tower!" Shen Fei muttered to himself as he placed the newly dropped Divine Artifact fragment into his inventory.

These four Ninjas, carrying Japanese Divine Artifacts, had suddenly appeared in Qing City and launched a sudden assault on the Qing City Tourism Management Office. Shen Fei was very curious about their reasons.

Unfortunately, he had already killed them.

He had yet to inherit the Zhongkui Tower, which could consume ghosts and souls to obtain their memories. He also hadn’t inherited the Mind Control Tower, which could directly control the minds of sentient beings. He had no way of finding out the four Japanese Ninjas’ objectives, origins, or any other information.

"Well..."

He had scored a treasure so easily. Although he was still puzzled, the outcome was a good one. After daydreaming for a moment about how to use the three Long-range Teleportation charges, Shen Fei’s attention returned to the Detection Tower.

Time to continue clearing out monsters! First, I’ll completely clear the 5-kilometer radius around my home. Secure the perimeter first!

Time flew by.

A few hours later, all monsters, all players who had inherited evil classes, and everything else detrimental to truth, goodness, beauty, and positive energy within a 5-kilometer radius of Shen Fei’s villa had been completely swept clean by him. Under the combined effects of powerful Defense Towers like the Detection Tower, scan towers, and the Anti-Invisibility Tower, not a single monster could escape Shen Fei’s purge unless they fled beyond the 5-kilometer range.

The only thing he regretted was that despite completely clearing the 5-kilometer radius, he hadn’t gotten any more drops. Although he had just received a Divine Artifact fragment, he still hadn’t figured out the principles behind monster drops.

Shen Yue and Yu left the Polytechnic University so soon? But they didn’t come home? They went to find Mom instead?

After clearing the entire 5-kilometer area, he used a support-enhancement Defense Tower, extending the Detection Tower’s effective range tenfold to 50 kilometers. After scanning the entire Qing City Institute of Technology, Shen Fei didn’t find Shen Yue or Sun Yu. It wasn’t until he scanned the villa community a few hundred meters away that he found the two of them with Mrs. Shen.

What’s going on?

He saw that in the small courtyard of the community a few hundred meters away, everyone was standing together, pointing and seemingly arguing. His sister, Shen Yue, was holding his mother’s arm and angrily gesticulating at a group of people. Shen Fei was bewildered by the situation.

"Hm?"

Just as he was about to focus his vision there, Shen Fei was surprised to see his mother suddenly turn around and pull his sister and Yu away from the community courtyard, fuming.

"Hmph!"

"If the Shen Family is so great, they shouldn’t be living here!"

"We worked our butts off to keep the neighborhood safe, and they think they can just freeload off our security without contributing anything? No way!"

"It was so dangerous last night, and not a single person from the Shen Family came out. And just now, they even had the nerve to make excuses!"

"How despicable!" 𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

"Exactly!"

"Right! There’s no such thing as a free lunch!"

"Yeah, they have to contribute what we ask for!"

As his mother left, Shen Fei used the Detection Tower to listen in on the group of middle-aged women who had just been trading insults with her. It seemed these people were complaining about the Shen Family freeloading off the security.

My family is freeloading?

Just a moment ago, by controlling his Defense Towers, he had not only cleared out the Demon Fiends and monsters within a 5-kilometer radius, but he had, of course, also cleared out the villa community closest to him. Moreover, he had even made a point of cleaning out quite a few security guards who were up to no good, hiding in the basements of the villas. Shen Fei hadn’t expected that after his mother went to the community area, she would be slandered and accused of having their Shen Family freeload.

You people had better...

Sensing his mother, still fuming, had returned to their front door with his sister and Yu, Shen Fei had the Mist Tower disperse the fog and simultaneously deactivated the Detection Tower’s effect. The villa community was his family’s temporary residence; he would only leave after the Neutral Cities descended. The safe zone he had created—if these people benefited from it, so be it. But if they were going to kick up a fuss and look for trouble, then they couldn’t blame him for what happened next.

"What’s wrong?" Welcoming his mother inside, Shen Fei asked her as she fumed.

"Don’t ask!" she huffed, flopping onto the sofa. "I’m so mad! Get me something to eat! I’m going to eat everything!"

"Alright, Mom, just get some rest. No need to get so worked up."

Seeing his mother’s state, Shen Fei shot a look at his sister, telling her to take care of their mom, then quickly returned to his bedroom. His family was staying safe and sound in the villa, waiting to continue inheriting his abilities. This was a sight he was very happy to see. In his past life, after the game invaded, he had been like a stray dog, struggling and running for his life. Now, protected by his Defense Towers and accompanied by his family, this was what Shen Fei strived for. This scene put him at ease.

Back in his bedroom, Shen Fei split his attention. He used the Detection Tower to keep an eye on his father and Uncle Sun at the Tourism Management Office 5 kilometers away, while also logging onto the internet again.

Online, all sorts of information was swirling around.

"It’s over! We’re doomed!"

"I heard from a classmate abroad that the entire city of Kanlapai on Australian Island was devoured by a giant monster!"

"Who gives a crap about other countries? Look at the Northeast! Countless black sludge monsters suddenly appeared in Northeast Chun City! They’re everywhere, rampaging and devouring everything!"

"Black sludge monsters? What, am I supposed to be in the Northeast to play in the mud?"

On the web, many people were discussing the disasters in various places. Shen Fei saw that in a certain city in the northeast of Xia Country, a monster tide had already formed. He understood this was the effect of Version 4.1. When a monster with abilities like splitting, breeding, or Summoning arrived in a specific environment, it would rapidly form a monster tide. This was a feature of Version 4.1.

"This is a monster tide, isn’t it? Why is a monster tide appearing now?! We’ve only inherited one game ability, and only 5% of it at that!" someone on the Forum sharp enough to recognize it exclaimed.

"Why couldn’t a monster tide form? In some monster-killing games, even an invasion of just 5% of the monsters is enough to overwhelm a city!"

"I’m in Luoyang! All sorts of ghostly figures are appearing on Mang Mountain, north of Luoyang! Is a ghost tide going to form?!"

"Ghost tide? Can ghosts climax? Bro, are you livestreaming? I wanna see!"

"A ghost tide? Then you need an Undead Knight!"

"Halt! This humble Daoist has inherited the Taiqing Talisman to suppress ghosts and demons! What foul fiend dares to act so audaciously!"

Besides the sludge monster tide forming in Chun City in the Northeast, Shen Fei also saw that in the ancient capital of Luoyang in the Central Plains, in the world-renowned Beimang Mountain range, a ghostly domain seemed to be forming.

He slowly scrolled through the news on the Forum. In North America, two cities had been overrun by zombies, and a zombie boss named "Tyrant" had even appeared. In South America, a city had been destroyed by a giant python that emerged from the rainforest. In Xia Country, monster tides had also formed in several specific locations.

Shen Fei even saw that the United States was already using Mushroom Bombs to eliminate the zombies. Unfortunately, although over ten Mushroom Bombs had razed the city and its civilians to the ground, they had only wiped out a little over half of the zombie horde. They hadn’t been completely eliminated.