Chapter 499: Chapter 329: Beacon Activation_2
"Certain individuals from the Construct Civilization, including some relics, still exist underground—what you see in front of you is one of them."
"And within this relic, there exists something that will determine the fate of the entire Human Realm."
Yueska impatiently asked, "What is it?"
Su Mo: "You can call it a ’Construct Embryo,’ a construct life form in the ’embryo phase.’"
There was something he hadn’t said—it was also the fourth key item in the game ’Dawn’ for passing levels.
Yueska’s voice was full of shock, mixed with uncontrollable excitement: "Are you saying, a living construct?!"
Su Mo: "Yes, and it’s not an ordinary construct. Its existence is very special. If we liken constructs to swarms of bees, this Construct Embryo is akin to an Empress—an ultimate being."
Yueska practically screamed, nearly losing her voice: "Then let’s quickly bring it up! I’ll help you with the research! Oh my god, I’ve never been this excited before!"
Su Mo smiled helplessly: "I’d love to too, but it’s not that easy. Do you see that black spire ahead? That’s where the Construct Embryo is located."
"That black spire is what I call the ’Beacon.’ It exists to protect the Construct Embryo and, when activated, emits an invisible signal that humans can’t detect."
"This signal has a severe impact on wild beasts, causing them to madly swarm towards the direction of the signal emission."
"And because no beast can penetrate the mantle layer, they can only move on the surface... so the place about to face this disaster is the Border District."
Yueska quickly asked: "Is there any way to prevent the activation of the beacon?"
"Prevent it?" Su Mo’s lips curved into a bleak smile, and he quietly said, "The beacon has been in a dormant state for the past century, accumulating energy, and it automatically activates at a specific point in time."
"And that point in time was right when we started the voyage. In other words—by the time we got down here, the beacon was already activated."
It was only then that Yueska noticed that the surface of the black spire was lit with fluctuating light paths, as if some gigantic creature were breathing.
And that invisible signal was like a torrent penetrating the earth’s strata, spreading towards the distant surface world.
...
...
...
[Hesu Company Celestial Gate Patrol Station]
Late at night, the cold night wind brought its usual chill, making people tremble.
The patrol soldiers quietly stood guard at their posts, the moisture from their breath freezing into frost on their faces.
Don’t let the fact that the Patrol Station is at the edge of the World Government Territory, far from the heart of human civilization and directly adjacent to the Land of No Master fool you; the work is actually quite relaxed for the soldiers here.
While the office staff might have endless nonsensical overtime, the soldiers enjoy leisure because there’s almost no battles to fight.
After all, few foreign armed forces would be foolish enough to attack the patrol station, as their crude weapons have a much shorter range than the station’s cannons; if they got close, they’d be blasted to pieces first.
As for the wild beasts... are you serious?
Could anyone really believe that a few wandering beasts could threaten a high-tech military unit?
So for the patrol soldiers, it’s just clocking in and out, participating in regular training and handling emergencies, and then spending whatever free time is left playing cards and games at the base.
At this moment, the soldiers on duty were walking back and forth aimlessly, chatting softly with their companions.
"Hey, did you hear? The security information department is getting a pay cut."
"Yeah, I heard the boss was holding a meeting with the communications team and got hacked."
"Good, those computer geeks deserve the cut, more pay should go to combat personnel like us."
"Dream on, getting a raise? You’ll be lucky not to be optimized out at 35."
"Ugh, still two hours to go. I really want to get back to the dorm and play Divine Source."
As they talked, a sound suddenly came from deep in the dark wilderness.
Though distant and unclear, it was unmistakably some kind of beastly roar.
The sound, to be heard from such far away, was undoubtedly from a very powerful beast.
The soldier rubbed his arms and muttered, "Haven’t heard a sound like that in ages, and it sounds like a high-tier beast."
His companion calmly smiled and said, "Relax, man, it’s far away. Even if it happened to wander over, with the patrol station’s firepower, dealing with a mindless beast is a breeze."
The two casually chatted, not giving much thought to the distant roar, confident that the Celestial Gate Patrol Station would stand firm, night after night, as always.
More than an hour passed, nearing dawn before the sun had even begun to rise.
Shift change was approaching, and the two stretched and yawned.
Just then, their shoulder communicators sounded: "Attention, all patrol units. Radar has detected a swarm of wild beasts approaching, over three hundred in number. Auto-defense turrets are about to activate, please put on your hearing protection."
"Oh crap, more than three hundred beasts—haven’t seen such a crowd in ages," a soldier grumbled, pulling out noise-canceling headphones from his gear bag.
His companion activated the night vision goggles and grinned before putting on the headphones: "Just think of it as a bedtime movie~"
Through the night vision goggles, a cloud of dust could be seen in the distance, with various beasts rushing forward, ranging from blood wolves and savage lizards to large arthropods.
Soon, the patrol station’s defense systems activated, energy surging along the lines to the turrets on the walls. Engines roared to life as turret after turret automatically aimed at the oncoming beasts.
"Boom boom boom boom boom——" Amidst deafening blasts, countless projectiles and energy rounds whizzed out, the intense sound waves rippling through the air like a giant hand strumming heartstrings, causing adrenaline to spike.
The shells in the night sky looked like mottled meteors, carpeting the beast horde’s location, sparking flames upon impact.
In an instant, the beast swarm was engulfed by flames, and when the fire gradually receded, the ground was littered with charred remains, barely recognizable, some smaller beasts even vaporized by the heat.
"Phew~" A soldier whistled lightheartedly, removing the soundproof headphones and smiling, "Isn’t this way better than those popcorn movies from Yueska?"
He finished speaking and noticed his companion remained silent, looking over.
His companion still held the night vision binoculars, gazing at the scorched beast corpses, lips pursed, seemingly pondering something.
"What’s wrong?" asked the soldier.
His companion muttered, "Something’s not right..."
The soldier picked up the night vision binoculars again, carefully observing the charred remains, shrugged: "Blasted them all to bits, what’s not right?"
His companion frowned and said, "The beasts that charged were not of a single species, but consisted of many different kinds, both gregarious and solitary, even some with natural enmity."
"Under normal circumstances, these beasts would fight upon encountering each other, but they didn’t even acknowledge one another just now, rushing straight at us... I’ve never seen anything like it."
The soldier, prompted by this, also realized something was off, quickly becoming puzzled.
Just then, the communicator buzzed again, its voice sounding more solemn than before: "Attention all patrol units, another swarm of wild beasts detected, numbering over a thousand!"
The soldier hurriedly put his headphones back on, cursing: "What’s going on, the beasts having a team-building exercise?!"
In the distance, a larger beast swarm charged forward, the dust they stirred up nearly obscuring the horizon.
"Boom boom boom boom boom——" The defensive turrets fired in succession, their glow illuminating the surroundings brightly as daylight, the loud booms echoing through the sky.
Many of the patrol soldiers had to shut their eyes against the blinding light, and even the noise-canceling headphones couldn’t completely block the noise, forcing them to press them tight and open their mouths wide to prevent eardrums from rupturing.
The firepower of the patrol station was incredibly powerful, undoubtedly, the firing net created by the defense turrets could be described as impenetrable, obliterating every beast in its path into charred pulp and bloody paste, leaving not a single one to leak through.
The soldiers and his companion hadn’t even had a chance to catch their breath when a scream came through the embedded communicator in their noise-canceling headphones: "All patrol units! More beasts are coming! My god, what kind of numbers are these?! The radar is packed full of them!!!"
