The smoke-filled tunnel was a scene of devastation. It was a horrifying mess of corpses, both player and Slime Mold, piled into mountains of flesh and bone.

The thick stench of blood mixed with the moldy odor of spores, creating a suffocating atmosphere that assaulted every player who stepped deeper inside.

Yet, rather than fear or dread, most of them felt something closer to exhilaration and adrenaline.

And judging from the casualty ratio, it was clear that the players in exoskeletons had the absolute upper hand.

Though Thea, the Mother Body who had joined the battle herself, flailing her tendrils with terrifying regeneration and damage, had taken down quite a few careless players, the rest of the Evolved Types defending the tunnel were barely capable of giving anyone a real scare.

The Death Corps had already chewed through the toughest obstacle. The only remaining threat was Thea itself.

Even though it inflicted heavy losses on the Skeleton Corps, it couldn’t avoid its fate.

Under the players’ relentless assault, Thea finally collapsed with an anguished scream, sinking into a pool of pitch-black blood.

To be honest, Escaping Mole had considered trying to capture it alive, after all, that bastard Falling Feather made everyone jealous.

Taming the main boss as a pet? Just imagining it was insane.

But Thea hadn’t given them even the slightest chance. Those tendrils moved faster than a chef frying rice. He had no choice but to abandon the idea of capturing it.

The moment Thea fell, all the Slime Mold it controlled froze in place, standing aimlessly like soulless husks.

Without external interference, the Slime Mold would eventually act on instinct for a time, then enter dormancy until a new Mother Body emerged from among them, likely one even more aggressive than Thea.

But with Little Feather devouring the Main Mother Body at the city center, it could slowly assimilate the Slime Mold into its own network.

Of course, the players in the tunnel knew none of it. They were too busy celebrating their hard-fought victory.

The sneak-attack strategy had worked!

They had defeated Thea before she could form a new Hive!

What used to be a siege lasting weeks, even months, had ended in less than 24 hours!

“MVP, MVP, MVP! We are the MVP!”

Staring at the pile of shattered crimson tissue before him, Escaping Mole wiped the black blood from his face. His exhaustion quickly gave way to exhilaration as he muttered under his breath, “This time the MVP’s gotta be ours, right?!”

He wasn’t the only one thinking it. Every player there had the same gleam of excitement in their eyes.

After losing nearly 100 brothers, they had finally slain the Mother Body, Thea!

Setting his rifle aside, Escaping Mole pulled out a burlap sack from who-knows-where, walked up to the three-meter-tall carcass, and began stuffing chunks of crimson fungus into it.

Watching him, Elf Wang couldn’t help but feel his mouth twitch. “Bro, are you collecting ingredients for dinner?”

Escaping Mole instantly gave him a glare, he knew exactly what kind of nonsense was coming. “Dinner my ass, I’m collecting crafting material.”

The New Alliance’s Biological Research Institution and the Academy’s Research Division were always interested in this kind of stuff. Raising their favor might unlock new hidden quests, and maybe even those two mysterious NPCs, Yin Fang and their resident silver haired baddie, would hand him some special missions.

Those two were the top of the food chain when it came to research type NPCs.

While Escaping Mole was busy packing, Irene overheard someone saying they were collecting something and wandered over curiously with a flashlight. “You’re collecting something? Are you collecting mushrooms?”

Elf Wang immediately gagged, clutching his stomach and retching. Escaping Mole’s expression twisted as his stomach lurched.

Mushrooms... and this thing...

Yeah, he wasn’t eating mushrooms for a while.

While Irene stood there, confused at their disgust, everyone’s VM suddenly lit up with a pale-blue pop-up.

[Congratulations to players of the Skeleton Corps: Escaping Mole, Elf Wang, Irene... and others for defeating Thea!]

[This achievement will be recorded in the Hall of Fame!]

[Due to Thea’s death, the Tide will end in 30 minutes. The scoreboard calculation will conclude at the same time.]

A long list of player IDs followed. Dead or alive, it didn’t matter.

But the real surprise wasn’t the names or the Hall of Fame entry, it was the final line.

They had ended the Tide.

The game itself confirmed it, and the players exploded into cheers once again, their voices echoing through the tunnel.

“Escaping Mole, you absolute legend!!”

“Hahaha! MVP’s locked in for sure!”

“Wait, does this count as kill-stealing?”

“Stealing my ass! We dealt all the damage, didn’t we?”

“Yeah! Anyone who says it’s kill-stealing can fight me!”

Escaping Mole grinned so hard his cheeks hurt.

After years of being second or third place, he was finally number one!

But just as he was basking in his triumph, Irene let out a surprised yelp while fiddling with his VM.

“Huh? They’re calculating points already? The expansion just ended!”

Though the operator hadn’t released the official rankings yet, someone had already posted their final scores on the forums.

Irene opened the Skeleton Corps’s page and blinked. The Corps’ score section already showed finalized results.

Escaping Mole immediately asked, “What’s ours?”

“87,000! Damn...” Irene sucked in a sharp breath, eyes wide. “Holy crap, we got 40,000 points just from killing the boss!”

And it wasn’t even that hard. They had only lost 100 or so guys.

That reward was insane.

Escaping Mole’s grin returned in full force. He quickly closed the pop-up and opened the guild interface to see for himself.

When he saw that long string of zeros after their total score, his fists clenched, and he shouted with pure excitement:

“Hell yeah!”

Guild scores and personal points were calculated separately, using a fixed formula.

Normally, a six or seven-digit score was ordinary, but the expansion had been unique.

Objectively speaking, the Tide’s intensity was higher than the previous year. Even Titans had appeared, and the Slime Mold’s tactics were more sophisticated.

But since both players and NPCs had grown far stronger than before, the “beginner village monster invasion” event now seemed almost trivial.

From start to finish, the Tide had lasted less than 24 hours. Getting even a five-digit point was impressive.

At 80,000 points, they were the clear top of the scoreboard!

“What about the Burning Corps? Check Old White’s score now!” Escaping Mole said eagerly, still riding the high.

Already expecting the question, Irene scrolled through the forum posts. “Burning Corps... here we go. Someone posted it already. 71,000, not bad.”

That was actually a solid score, only 10,000 less than theirs.

But Escaping Mole was too full of himself to care. The moment he heard Ample Time’s crew had scored lower, he burst into laughter. “HAHAHA! Ample Time, you little scrub! Just wait till I get on the forums, I’m gonna roast you so bad you’ll uninstall the game!”

Elf Wang laughed too. “Even the Burning Corps only got 70,000 or so. Looks like we’ve got this in the bag.”

Irene scrolled further down the leaderboard and nodded.

“Yeah, pretty much. Spring Water Commander’s team scored around sixty thousand. Death Corps about 50,000, probably got wrecked by losses again. Goblin Corps... Goblin... wait, what the hell?!”

His eyes widened as he rubbed them, thinking he had misread. Then he looked again.

111,000...?

He counted, once, twice, three times. The number was still the same. Three ones, three zeros.

Swallowing hard, he stammered in disbelief. “111,000?!”

The players nearby froze.

“What?!”

“You kidding me?!”

“You sure you didn’t add an extra zero?! How the hell do you score over a hundred thousand in just a few hours?!”

“I swear I counted five times, holy crap, Falling Feather alone earned 80,000 points!” Irene scrolled further down the thread, sucking in another sharp breath.