My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely!

by Stayrr

As disaster was about to strike, a group of survivors transmigrated into a desolated world and were challenged to a game of survival. From terrifying acid rains, to endless natural disasters, the heavens burn while the earth scorches, radiation is rampant, and nobody is spared from the dangers of this hellscape. The only way one survives is by building a shelter and slowly upgradin

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 341 - Basin Area, Wait For Me To Come Back! - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 341 - Basin Area, Wait For Me To Come Back! Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 341: Basin Area, Wait For Me To Come Back!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

It was like New Year's Day, but it was not.

The villagers roared with emotion. Even though he had already descended the mountain, Su Mo's enhanced hearing could discern the sounds.

After giving Chen Shen the last few task assignments and dismissing him, Su Mo very much appreciated this "final" night in the basin area.

Tomorrow morning, all the supplies and equipment that could be taken from the Underground Shelter would be moved onboard Hope One.

When afternoon arrived, after taking the last psychic energy water with him, the Underground Shelter would be neatly covered in steel plates that had a hardness level of 8 and enter a completely sealed state.

At that time, even if Su Mo wanted to enter, it would require a lot of effort, let alone any ill-intentioned enemies.

Once it was sealed, it would kickstart the final countdown to Hope One entering the ocean.

Counting all this, only 12 hours remained of Su Mo's time on land!

Entering the code again, he pulled on the winch to open the alloy gate up, revealing the slightly overcrowded garage interior.

Currently, aside from two rotary tillers on Iron Rock Mountain, Earth Tiger, King Kong, and the harvester had all been stored in the garage.

After going out to sea, these land-bound vehicles would temporarily lose their utility, so Su Mo did not have any worries when it came to leaving them within the shelter under the ocean.

After shutting the alloy gate behind him and putting a few of the tools that had fallen off back onto the shelf, he pushed open the heavy stone door and then walked downstairs.

On the second floor, the lights were still lit.

The 300kW generator ensured a steady supply of power to the shelter. Along with the motorized oil well that was running 24 hours daily, the noise these two devices made was substantial. However, instead of making Su Mo annoyed, it made him feel quite at home instead, basking in the warmth of a familiar environment.

The big one and the four little ones were sitting in the crop culture room as usual, surrounding the large vegetable culture medium that currently did not have anything planted, as they studied seriously.

Seeing Su Mo come in, all of them simply raised their heads and greeted him before once again becoming absorbed in their books.

As their trip out to sea was imminent, even without human intelligence, they were well aware of their responsibilities, so even the playful Moore had sat down to study seriously. One could tell how much pressure they were under.

Choosing not to bother them, Su Mo nodded lightly, and then went down the second floor's steps to his own residence.

"It would have been fine if Zhong Qingshu had not mentioned anything yesterday, but now that she has, this place does indeed feel a little shabby."

"It's as if I bought a rundown house and moved in prematurely. There's nothing here, but I'm still fine with being poor and happy every day."

Touching every part of the partition he could see with his own eyes, Su Mo laughed as he complained.

It was the final night. There was nothing urgent to do, so Su Mo took out a chair and started earnestly tidying up his stuff.

The few hundred good-quality daily household items he had obtained previously definitely had to be brought onboard the ship.

All the ammunition, packs of explosives, shells—none of them would be left behind either.

The workbench would also definitely have to be moved and brought along with him. As for the 300 Disaster Points he needed to spend in order to move the small laser manufacturing machine, Su Mo waved his hand and chose to spend it.

The price to recreate that machine from scratch was far too high. It greatly surpassed the 300-point expenditure.

Moreover, for the subsequent upgrade of the small-medium laser manufacturing machine, after so many days of collecting resources and parts, he had long obtained the required materials to upgrade it. He only had to wait until the shelter's level was high enough, after which he could proceed with the upgrade immediately.

As for the large items that would be left behind, the furnace needed both materials and a power source. Adding in the fact that moving it required too many Disaster Points, he could only abandon it for now.

Once he left, the oil well definitely had to be turned off. Like the psychic energy well, it would wait here until its "master" returned.

Fiddling with these things until early morning arrived, after packing up all the stuff in sacks and placing them in the living room, Su Mo once again inspected everything to make sure there was nothing left behind. He then clapped his hands in satisfaction and went over to the stove to start boiling some water.

With the assistance of the lion clan's wind ability, the speed at which the water heated up was extremely rapid. Seeing the rising steam in the bath barrel, Su Mo slowly dipped his feet inside it.

"Ss… Nice!"

To modern day people, it was very hard to imagine what it felt like not to bathe for ten or twenty days.

However, to a little leader who was busy as a bee on the wasteland, every bath experience was one that made him feel as if he had been given new life; relaxing his mind and spirit from head to toe.

From the storage space, he brought out a cassette player that had long been made obsolete in the civilized era.

Then he took out a Jay Chou tape.

After inserting it inside the cassette player, Su Mo pressed the play button, and the device started working, as Jay Chou's music and vocals started playing throughout the Underground Shelter's three floors.

He listened to the music as he bathed. After that, he quickly changed into a set of clean and comfy pajamas at one o'clock in the morning, and floated lightly to his little bed.

It seemed that even this wooden bed, that had been built on the first day he arrived in the wasteland, was gradually becoming unable to withstand Su Mo's increasingly strong physical body.

As Su Mo flipped himself over, a few wooden joints would make creaking sounds.

However, lying on top, as he heard the familiar creaking sounds, Su Mo's mood quickly calmed down, and he entered a state of slumber.

Hoo…

Hoo…

Deep breathing sounds traveled from his stomach to his nasal cavity, then went from his nasal cavity back to the rest of his body.

Even if nearly 99% of the people in the world outside were putting in overtime, burning the midnight oil in last-ditch efforts before the disaster arrived, the 146 people in the Underground Shelter and Iron Rock Mountain each slept steadily and sweetly.

A quiet, peaceful night…

At 7.30am, his biological clock once again woke Su Mo from his slumber before his alarm clock rang.

Unlike how it usually was, this time, Su Mo did not crawl up out of bed immediately. Instead, he turned over and resumed snoring.

Eight o'clock…

Nine o'clock…

9.30am!

Although his mind no longer had any trace of sleepiness, lying on this shabby bed, the happiness in Su Mo's heart rose rapidly; like a straight line in a linear quadratic equation.

Of course, simply being able to have the freedom to "laze around in bed" was a very luxurious thing in the wasteland.

Su Mo stayed in bed all the way until 10 o'clock in the morning, when he felt his entire mental state fully change, after which he slowly climbed out of bed and gulped down the psychic energy water on the bedside table.

Half of the breakfast that the cooks sent over had already been demolished by the one big and four little ones. The leftovers were still warm from being stored in the insulated container.

A bowl of Qishan Saozi noodles, which was very famous in the Guanzhong area of Shaanxi, could be seen inside the container.

The noodles were thin and long, as well as uniform in their thickness. The meat was fresh and fragrant, and the red oil floated on the surface. The soup was sour, spicy, robust and refreshing.

This was the kind of noodle that would not become limp even if it was left for a very long time. It held a very important position in Guanzhong's cuisine.

No matter whether it was a wedding or a funeral, New Year's or holidays, babies' full moon celebrations, the elderly folks' birthdays, farewells to relatives and friends, as well as other important occasions, this noodle dish would always be present.

Then there was the garlic that the villagers had grown over at the foot of the mountain, which were pickled in sugar.

He took a bite of noodles, then a bite of garlic, and then a mouthful of cucumber.

Even after Su Mo ate until he was 90% full, he still felt unfulfilled.

"Phew. Staying here in the shelter, the food is too good. When I go out to sea alone, I have to start cooking for myself again."

Regrettably, he put the bowl and chopsticks back into the food basket. Looking at the supplies that had been packed, but not yet loaded, Su Mo started the final preparations.

Opening the door, he found that Earth Tiger had already been driven to the entrance.

A distance away, he could see quite a few villagers strolling about in the basin area on their day off, gazing at the surrounding scenery of the wasteland.

However, everyone stuck to a rule, which was to keep a distance of 500 meters away from the Underground Shelter to give Su Mo enough space and privacy.

He loaded up the supplies onto the vehicle and, in two trips, he moved all the packed-up supplies onboard the ship.

On the third trip, he brought along the workbench as well as the small laser manufacturing machine up to the meeting room on the second-floor deck.

On the fourth and fifth trip, the remaining basic materials that were piled beside the Underground Shelter that had not been used up were brought onto the ship by Su Mo and tossed into the damage control storage compartment.

After this trip was completed, it was already 12 o'clock in the afternoon, which was exactly the same as how he had planned things out.

Before he slept last night, he had halted the furnace's production of ammunition, making it produce 200mm-thick steel plates instead.

Now, at last, there were enough steel plates in the garage waiting for Su Mo to use them to seal off the Underground Shelter.

"Everything has been brought up, right? Have you confirmed that nothing has been left inside?"

Seeing the big one and four little ones shaking their heads, Su Mo no longer hesitated and summoned the system directly, close to the roaming villagers, and in plain sight of Connie.

After all this time, Su Mo had already realized that other people could not detect the system's green light at all.

Every property and upgrade panel that appeared before his eyes were completely invisible to others.

Moreover, with the game panel acting as a perfect disguise, others could also easily come to the conclusion that the shelter suddenly being covered in steel plates was something achieved using the power of the game.

The green light waxed and waned, and the shelter properties panel that he had not seen for a long time appeared once again.

[Underground Shelter… – Su Mo]

[Description: This is a stone shelter made from heavy stone. In the face of natural disasters, a shelter like this can provide a safe haven. Please work hard to keep upgrading it. It will be the key to gaining a foothold here in the wasteland!]

[Upgrade option one: Iron shelter…]

[Upgrade option two: Reinforced concrete shelter…]

[Upgrade option three: Structured shelter…]

[Upgrade option…]

[Upgrade option twenty: Psychic energy shelter…]

[Comment: Keep upgrading your shelter. Perhaps you will discover even more secrets!]

"Upgrade? Even more secrets?"

Glancing through the comment provided by the system, Su Mo was a little surprised.

"I will definitely upgrade it, don't worry! Once I come back from this voyage, I'll renew my efforts to make you the strongest shelter in the wasteland!"

Stroking the "stone house" that had blessed and cared for him for nearly two months in the wasteland, and thinking about the dozens of thugs who had met their demise here, Su Mo switched to the panel with the independent upgrade options with a thought.

After paying 350 survival points to cover the manual labor costs of the renovation and installation of the steel plates, the steel plates placed on the ground began to dance about.

Under the binding of the green light, the steel plates began to slowly adhere themselves to the stone walls, merging into them in an instant, as if the two had originally been in such a symbiotic state.

As for the lower floors of the Underground Shelter, a few of the steel plates turned illusory and pierced through the layers of wall and soil straight to the lowest floor to seal it completely.

By the time the green light had disappeared, the Underground Shelter had officially entered its sealed state.

Before Su Mo reactivated it himself, there would not be a second person entering this place as it would have sunken completely under the ocean.

Furthermore, if Su Mo perished on his ocean voyage, when the next generation arrived, perhaps this place?might become a "treasure trove" that would make them jump for joy.

Now, however…

Shaking his head lightly, he got in the car. Taking the big one and four little ones along as he whistled lightheartedly, Su Mo drove to Hope One.

Moving out all the remaining supplies from the car onto the ship, he then handed the car to the militia members standing guard in front of Hope One and got them to drive it back. Su Mo then stepped onto the wooden stairs and had once again returned to Hope One.

At this moment, all of the preparatory work had been completed.

The remaining time left for Su Mo to prepare before it reached 12 midnight was close to 11 hours.

He spent two hours bringing Moore and Connie around to places on Hope One that could possibly be impacted and damaged by the rainstorm and covered them with a layer of absorbent gum. After that, Su Mo took out the safe house he had purchased and started patiently erecting it.

Even though the Genesis ability's progress bar was already full, if he could use such a "cheap and reliable" way to overcome the disaster, then Su Mo would not choose to fight the disaster head-on either.

At 4.50pm, all of the work to shore up Hope One's disaster resistance defenses was completed.

Going down to the engine room, he checked through all of the cabins from the bottom floors to the top. After that was done, it was already six o'clock in the evening.

He followed the stairs all the way back up to the captain's quarters, which currently still had a rigid wooden bed frame inside, and drank a few gulps of psychic energy water to quench his thirst. Su Mo then started busily decorating the captain's quarters.

He took out the brand new bedding the villagers had prepared, placed the old sofa he had taken from the Underground Shelter onto the ground, and then took out a folding table and spread it out.

Seeing that the captain's quarters now had some life and color, Su Mo was about to continue tidying up when he heard a noisy racket outside.

Sticking his head out to take a look, Su Mo could not help but shake his head.

Yesterday, all the villagers, including the leadership team, had been "pretending", trying to create a festive farewell atmosphere.

However, at the last second, just as he was about to leave, these people could not help but break that "pretense"!

Banging on two gongs, all of the villagers lined up. Standing below Hope One, they started shouting along to the rhythm of the gongs.

"Leader… we await your return!"

"Leader… is invincible on the ocean!

"Leader… is invincible on the wasteland!"

As each sentimental sentence rang out, standing on the Hope One that was twenty meters high, Su Mo could faintly see some people start to subtly wipe away tears. Some had their faces raised to the sky as they tried to stop the hot tears from rolling down their faces.

It was different from chasing celebrities in the civilized era. With such a serious atmosphere, Su Mo did not feel a hint of embarrassment. Instead, his heart pumped waves of passion into his body endlessly.

Standing at the front, the cooks took heavy steps up the stairs to hand over the last meal Su Mo would have in the basin area.

"Leader. This is the last meal. It's a little simple. Please don't mind it."

"The dumplings inside were personally m-made by everyone. Leader, when you go out to sea, you m-must take care!"

After she spoke, this cook, who was not yet 30 years old and could still be considered a young maiden, ran down the stairs crying.

Clearly, the villagers had agreed that they could not cry today.

She did not want to break the rules.

She did not want to let Su Mo see her crying even more!

After watching the cook return to the ground, he looked at the uneven dumplings that varied in size in the insulated container, and then looked at the crowd who were still shouting below.

For some reason, the corners of Su Mo's eyes started itching a little as well, as if sand had gotten into them…

Su Mo had been avoiding it the entire day, but could finally not escape this "farewell".

Seeing the crowd below, Su Mo could not control his emotions. He stood by the rails and used the greatest strength he summoned since he had been born to shout, "Go back!"

"You all have to be well! Wait for me to come back!"

"Help me take care of the basin area! Don't let anyone come in!"

"Tell them with your fists that this is Almighty Su's domain, that this is our…"

"Territory!"

The crowd below also started using all their strength at this moment to yell out in unison.

"Leader… we'll wait for you to come back!"

"The basin will wait for you to return!"

Boom!

With the sound of the gong, it was like the beginning or renewal of a new world.

This moment, in the records of the people in the future…

Was the day…

That humans, in the wasteland, for the future…

Had finally firmly moved forward!

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Chapter 342: The Tiger Enters The Mountain, and The Dragon Enters The Sea!

The villagers finally left in the end. Their repeated shouts were as if they were talking to themselves, and were also as if those words had been firmly "affirmed" by Su Mo.

These wasteland humans' desire to survive was rekindled over these two months, so this little disaster would not destroy or hamper these stubborn survivors.

As for the two surviving lion people among the crowd of villagers, Connie also let out a roar full of sadness and relief at them from a distance.

This indescribable roar represented a lot.

It was Connie's way of saying goodbye to her past self, and also her putting the official full stop on her relationship with the lion people who had raised and then abandoned her.

This was the sign of loyalty that Connie gave to Su Mo and to Hope Village.

After the torrential rainstorm ended, the two lion people would be quietly deceived by the villagers into drinking the poison that Su Mo had prepared long ago.

The effects of this poison were extremely strong. Although it could not reach the point of blood gurgling in their throats, it would produce a sleeping pill-like effect in its early stages, allowing the two lions to return to the Lion God's embrace after sleeping without suffering or pain.

After these two lion people died, it would also trigger the genocide rule of the ocean game version, allowing Su Mo receive the one-time right to transfer his shelter and the surrounding terrain within five kilometers of it.

Of course, Su Mo neither agreed nor disagreed with Connie's decision. He gave her this last dignity.

"Let's go. We'll eat first, then after we're done, we can rest in preparation for the advent of the disaster!"

Standing with Connie and Moore alongside Hope One's guardrails, he watched as everyone's figures grew smaller and smaller as the crowd went back to Iron Rock Mountain and split up. Su Mo "pretended to be relaxed".

"Leader, this time… will we succeed?"

Seeing Connie look in the direction of the ruins of the lion clan's base camp with a complicated expression, Su Mo paused and did not answer her immediately.

He knew what Connie meant.

Her question was not asking whether Hope One could hold on or whether the six of them would be able to successfully go out to sea when this disaster arrived at 12 o'clock.

It was also not about whether Hope Village could successfully survive and guard the mountain during this disaster period as they waited for Su Mo to return.

What Connie really wanted to ask was…

About the future!

A question about mortals becoming gods, the God of the Ocean awakening, the war between foreign races, and the endless natural disasters in the future.

After completely breaking off her connection with the lion clan, faced with these huge matters coming one after another, the only ones Connie could rely on were Oreo and…

Su Mo!

"Where there's a will, there's a way, Connie. If humans spent their entire lives chasing results, then such lives would be too tiring and boring. Sometimes, even if we encounter highs and lows along the way, or perhaps even don't succeed in achieving our desired result, we might still obtain something even better and more rewarding than our initial goal!"

"Come. Learn from me—set your goals a little closer to home."

"For example, over the next 15 hours, you can think about just how we will twist up the Five Royal Clans' faces."

"Or how should we spread our Oreo's great doctrine and religion among the plethora of foreign races!"

After saying this, seeing that Connie looked a little stunned but had also recovered a spark in her eyes, Su Mo laughed as he brought the insulated food container into the captain's quarters.

Needless to say, if a leader's scorecard was 100 points, the previous Su Mo would probably only manage to get 30 or 40 points. However, after this long period of learning and practicing, in just two short months, the current Su Mo would easily score enough points to pass!

Hearing Connie chase after him from behind, as well as her footsteps that had become light, the corners of Su Mo's mouth pulled up subtly as he laughed.

Though the insulated container did not look big, there were many things stored inside.

In the five-tiered container, aside from the three dishes in the bottom layer, which were a plate of cold pork ears, a plate of stewed edamame, and half a catty of beef dipped in sauce, Su Mo saw another bottle lying flat…

Maotai baijiu!

It was obvious that the villagers were clued in on Su Mo's habit of having a couple of sips of alcohol when he ate and pitched in to send him this bottle of "precious goods".

The remaining four tiers were full of dumplings.

Judging from the appearance of one of the container's layers, there were at least 300 dumplings piled in a pyramid.

"Come, come. One layer for each of us. Hurry up and eat, or it won't taste good later!"

Seeing Moore's drooling appearance, dividing the meal this way, everyone found their first meal in the captain's quarters to be quite delectable.

A mouthful of dumplings, a bite of beef, and then a sip of alcohol.

Unlike the other people on the World Channel who were, at this moment, so anxious to the point that they could not eat or drink, Su Mo, who had already been through three simulations in the talisman simulation world, had 120% confidence in Hope One.

Sitting on the couch and looking out through the porthole, this meal had quite a different taste and feeling.

Happy moments were fleeting. Once this meal was done, and after he emptied the bottle of Maotai in his hand, it was already 7.20pm.

There were only the final 4 hours and 40 minutes remaining until the disaster arrived.

The silvery-white moon in the sky had already gradually started taking on a bloody red hue. As the sun on the horizon sank, the outside world seemed to reflect a little bit of the murderous atmosphere

As Hope One's chief officer, after Moore finished eating, he consciously went to the cabin beneath the main artillery and started familiarizing himself with it according to the usage methods written in Su Mo's manual.

Second officer Oreo and third officer Connie also did not remain idle. One of them went to the bow and the other to the stern. Like security guards, they started continuously patrolling the route.

Big Spark and Little Spark knew that they would only be causing trouble on the deck and ran over to the crop culture room beneath the main deck with self-awareness. They started carefully preparing to plant the large-scale vegetable culture medium that had been moved over.

As Hope One's captain, witnessing this scene, Su Mo felt gratified.

After tidying up everything in the captain's quarters, closing the door, and arriving at the first floor's bridge, Su Mo debugged the OS and then started dealing with the remaining unfinished tasks one by one.

At the moment, because there was no longer a need for the robot workers in the shelter to continue collecting cotton and creating ammunition, there were seven robot workers on standby onboard the ship.

Making these few robot workers maintain the 80-meter long Hope One was a little too much. Adding in the maintenance and operation of the main cannon into consideration, this number was completely insufficient.

Hence, sitting inside the bridge, as Su Mo waved his hand, six of Ma Fei's robots that had not undergone any upgrades appeared on the floor.

He did not spend much. By spending 610 points for each robot worker, after 2660 survival points vanished, a bright green light shone and the robot workers on the floor started to quickly evolve.

As usual, the outer shell dissolved, and then human-like arms and legs grew out.

This time, given that he already possessed robot workers that were familiar with the operations on Hope One, after the robot workers that had been upgraded twice transferred over the information and data, the six robot workers could all dive straight into work first thing without affecting the operational efficiency of the ship.

If one was going to do something, one had better see it through to the end.

Watching the number of robot workers increase, Su Mo also took out four more robot workers and, spending 480 survival points on each, or a total of 1920 points to upgrade them, four more combat agents were born.

After deducting the 5580 survival points he had just spent, because he had just received an increase in survival points to a little over 25000 points, he was now left with 20200 survival points.

"It's 10 thousand points more than my previous estimate! It seems the ship's other locations can also undergo some minor upgrades too!"

With plenty of survival points, Su Mo had long found some of the "outdated" parts of Hope One unsightly and, now that he had this wealth, he naturally would not be stingy in spending it.

The first things he upgraded were the four old-fashioned cameras on the port and starboard that had been sourced from the trading market.

The image quality was blurry at night and, at a distance further than 25 meters, was equivalent to mosaic censorship. The information that could be transmitted to the OS was pitifully minimal.

Once the wind blew, it was almost as if the cameras had Parkinson's disease, with the images shaking like crazy.

It occasionally disconnected from time to time, before automatically restoring itself even when nobody repaired it.

Regarding these problems, Su Mo naturally would not think to keep using them "until their last breath".

After exiting the bridge, he quickly went over to the first spot.

The last high-precision camera left on the modular shipyard had been removed in the morning and had been placed right here.

As for the remaining three, with a thought from Su Mo, green light flew out quickly and summoned forth the properties upgrade panel.

[360-degree HD camera]

[Description: A semiconductor imaging device. Due to long-term improper use and the harsh surrounding external environment, the internal components have undergone severe wear and tear and need to be repaired or replaced urgently.]

[First upgrade option: Night vision camera (Repair the damaged components of the camera, upgrade the camera's lens module, increase the resolution and signal-to-noise ratio slightly, greatly improves the camera's backlight compensation and enhances its night vision ability). Survival points required (1020)]

[Second upgrade option: Strong surveillance camera (Replace the internal components of the camera, increases the energy consumption of the camera slightly, replace the lens, replace the camera mount, greatly increases the observation range of the camera, greatly increases the signal-to-noise ratio, and slightly improves the performance of the CCD sensor). Survival points required (1880)]

[Third upgrade option: Eye in the Sky (A revolutionary camera. Greatly increases the normal monitoring range to three kilometers, and the night monitoring range to 400 meters. Algorithmic image compensation analysis can be performed. Greatly improves night vision ability, clarity, and image sharpness). Survival points required (2750)]

[Comment: What boy would not want a camera that can scan QR codes from three kilometers away?]

"Oho, the system can even upgrade it to an Eye in the Sky that is used to monitor cities."

"It's true that once you have survival points, you can do whatever you want!"

In the civilized era, on the highest building in every city, there was a government-installed camera called the "Eye in the Sky."

Compared to the cameras sold on the market, the Eye in the Sky's viewing range could reach up to 3 kilometers. Only a few were needed to cover the entire city.

Now, seeing that the system could actually upgrade the camera to an Eye in the Sky, Su Mo did not hesitate and immediately decided on the third upgrade option.

After putting in the maximum materials that could be added, the price for a single camera decreased by 235 points and could not be reduced any further.

A heart-wrenching 7545 points flowed out of his survival points balance. Seeing the remaining 12665 survival points left in it, Su Mo started quietly waiting for the upgrade to finish.

Compared to original cameras, which were about the size of a fist, the Eye in the Sky's size was not small. It was around the size of two basketballs.

The lens on it also transformed into a set of two lenses and could utilize a built-in chip. After the images from the two lenses were integrated and analyzed, it was then transmitted to the OS.

Although the resolution was still a little poorer than that of the modular shipyard's cameras, in terms of visual distance, it completely crushed the former's range of 500m!

After putting the three newly-upgraded cameras onto Hope One's port and starboard, returning to the bridge, Su Mo reviewed and mentally calculated what the ship still lacked.

"There shouldn't be any problems regarding the hull with the protection of the safe house and absorbent gum. This time, my focus only needs to be on protecting the radar, and it should be all good."

"The warehouse below the deck, as well as the supplies in it, have already been fixed, and there have been no problems so far."

"The mechanical parts of the entire ship have already been inspected in the afternoon, and the bionic mechanics are even doing a second detailed inspection. Even if I am really unlucky and encounter some unfortunate mishap, unlike how it was in the talisman simulation world, I can repair things at any time using the system, so I don't have to worry about this either!"

From the bottom of the ship to the deck, from each room inside to the steel plating on the exterior, everything had been inspected.

Su Mo seemed to be sitting in the captain's quarters lazing around, but the Bluetooth earphones he was wearing transmitted the results of the methodical inspections of the bionic mechanics in real-time.

After a round of patrolling, realizing that there were temporarily no places that he had to spend more points on, with a heightened sense of excitement, Su Mo gently keyed in a few instructions into the keyboard.

Currently, the fire-control radar overhead had effectively transmitted information on the ship's surroundings to the OS.

In the OS's modeling, the entire Hope One, along with the surrounding terrain in a one-kilometer radius, was displayed in detail.

Seeing that the time had just only passed 8.30pm, picking up the sailing information that he had summarized from his previous review, Su Mo began to read it carefully.

One learned new things by reviewing the past. Even the most amazing doctor, when the circumstances were right, would pick up books and materials to read before an operation.

Every revision was invisibly progressing the ship sailing experience bar under Su Mo's status column.

Su Mo read it seriously, as time flew by in the outside world.

Seeing that the OS was already issuing the prompt that there were only ten minutes remaining before the disaster arrived, Su Mo worked his slightly stiff shoulders and exited the bridge.

In the distance, the Hope Village's spotlight had been fully lit. Like in the talisman simulation world, a large building now covered the surface of Iron Rock Mountain.

Before this, Su Mo had been uncertain what this was, but it was now evidently clear to him.

This was a safe house!

A safe house that could cover half of the entire mountain!

"OS, turn on a spotlight. Direct it at Iron Rock Mountain and flash it three times consecutively."

After Su Mo spoke into the Bluetooth earphones, the spotlight on the port side slowly began to turn, shining a beam of light that displayed the "Tyndall effect" toward the mountain.

On the opposite side, the villagers who were controlling Hope Village's spotlights also excitedly turned their spotlights over after receiving Su Mo's instructions.

They also gave three salutes!

"Not bad. After preparing for so long, it seems it's finally time for the real test!"

Smiling, it was as if Su Mo's eyes could see the nervousness and excitement on every villager's face in the cave from the two-kilometer distance.

Seeing that only five minutes were left, after bringing the big one and four little ones into the bridge and locking the watertight door, Su Mo's spirits instantly tensed up.

"The sliding fender switch and the sliding track start switch have been successfully overhauled!

"Hope One's electrical power has all been successfully overhauled…"

"Hope One's mechanical switches have all been successfully overhauled."

"Hope One's sea entry mode is already in the warm-up state, awaiting data transmission…"

"…"

Pressing various buttons, Su Mo's movements were very practiced. There was no trace of him being a newbie captain at all.

This confidence and this natural flow of actions dazed the chief officer Moore, who had yet to actually go into action.

Even Connie's gaze was full of worship!

Three minutes…

Two minutes…

Staring at the countdown on the clock, Su Mo's heart was very calm and not at all anxious.

When the sound of rain echoed outside, Su Mo opened his eyes abruptly, and two rays of divine light shone from them.

The eye of the typhoon defense mechanism started up…

The wind wall barriers entered their warm-up state…

Through the terrifying disaster, the one big and four little ones quietly held their breaths. They watched the "scene from hell" transmitted from the image analysis on the screen while admiring Su Mo's confident actions.

Finally, the 15 minutes were up!

However, unlike the talisman simulation world, Su Mo had constructed 21 barriers over the radar.

15.03, there were still 17 wind walls remaining.

15.06, there were still 12 wind walls remaining.

15.09, there were still 6 wind walls remaining!

15.11, the disaster was over, and there were still…

3 wind walls remaining!

"Just this?"

Seeing that the outside world no longer had a trace of rain, even though his waist hurt from the pressure of the safety belt, the corners of Su Mo's mouth curled up involuntarily.

He had overcome this wave!

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Chapter 343: Foreign Race Live Broadcast! Unprecedented!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"In the environmental data feedback display, the current sea level on the port side is 2.28 meters high, and the current sea level on the starboard side is 2.19 meters high. Hope One remains in excellent condition."

"The engine has started the auto-pumping function mode. The current level of supply is normal and there are no problems."

"The sea entry procedure has entered autopilot mode. Respected Captain Su Mo, you may move freely now!"

Seeing the three familiar prompts from the OS, and the safety belt that had been securing him down tightly being automatically released, Su Mo let out a long exhale of breath, but did not immediately stand up.

Seeing the two red dots on his private message interface, Su Mo tentatively tapped into it.

He did not have to worry about Hope Village first. With such a "terrifying" disaster resistance structure, their probability of surviving the disaster was not lower than 99%.

However, with the Tundra Shelter ten thousand miles away, Su Mo had no control over their preparations!

"They have to be safe! They have to be safe!"

Muttering this repeatedly, as Su Mo tapped on the messages anxiously, the interface responded.

The first message was from Chen Shen. It was just an "ok" sign; very simply and effectively sending an update on Hope Village's current situation.

The second message was news from Shen Ke's side, and it also indicated a trace of joy in its simplicity!

With just a glance, Su Mo jumped up from the chair with emotion!

[Shen Ke: All the people are safe. The ship is still in perfect condition, and we have successfully entered the sea!]

Also, as the Tundra Shelter was located in an area that would be submerged under the deep sea, the rate at which the water rose would be much faster than that of the basin area. Despite this, coupled with the fact that Tundra One did not have a low draft, it had still successfully entered the sea ahead of schedule. It broke through the shackles of its limitations!

The two places he cared about had survived this disaster without facing any problems.

Seeing the one big and four little ones similarly moving behind him, when he switched over to the ship's properties panel and saw that Hope One still had 98% durability remaining, Su Mo clenched his fists and swung it violently through the air twice.

Surviving the disaster without damage?

Making a perfect sea entry?

(Lean back!)

These two achievements would put a perfect full stop to all the blood, sweat and tears he had shed previously.

All the suffering and all the exhaustion had resulted in…

Peace of mind!

Still, when he actually thought about it, Hope One had not actually successfully entered the water yet. After responding to the messages and once again confirming that there were no problems, Su Mo continued patiently sitting in his seat and waiting for the OS to complete the automated sea entry operation.

On the other side in Iron Rock Mountain, all the villagers crawled out of the cave excitedly. They used shovels to clean up the remaining water that had not been drained as they passed around the only two binoculars that Hope Village possessed among themselves.

In this first wave of the ocean disaster, everyone—including Hope One—had successfully survived it!

As for whether Hope One could successfully enter the water, although everyone was full of confidence, none of them wanted to miss seeing this scene that could only be witnessed once in a lifetime!

"Hey, hey, stop squishing me! Stop squishing me—you're motherf*cking going to push me off!"

"Quick, quick, give me the binoculars! Let me see what stage it's at now."

"The water level rose too quickly! F*ck me, if this was on Earth, and three meters of water rose in less than half an hour, who could hold on!"

"It's lucky that we have the leader, or we'd now be rowing rafts to the New World!"

"Hey, hey, it's gone, it's gone! The scaffolding has been released! Hope One is starting to enter the water!"

The familiar 3.28-meter track started moving, making Hope One lean back slightly.

The 3.69-meter scaffolding that fixed Hope One in place had been detached by the OS using small explosions, destroying the key points of contact and freeing Hope One from its shackles.

Everyone could see the entire ship starting to slide backward. Finally, with the fenders holding it back, Hope One temporarily stopped.

At this time, Hope One was already tilted up high at at least a 25-degree angle.

The flag hanging at the bow of Hope One also started dancing in the wind. It glowed with a golden-red light and was very eye-catching amidst the dark night.

Because of the environment, there were many people sharing ship knowledge and information in the World Channel. Under this influence, none of the villagers were shocked by the ship's current position.

However, most of the people who did not have a great mental fortitude all silently held their breaths.

"The water level… the water level is still rising. I can see that Hope One is starting to sway—there's buoyancy."

"Quick, give me the binoculars quickly! Let me see. Let me explain!"

"You guys should stop fighting over it. Take turns and don't hog the binoculars!"

Hearing the noises echoing in their ears, and watching each of Hope One's movements under the spotlight, every time the Hope One swayed a little more, each villager's heart would tighten and tense up.

Su Mo, who was sitting inside the Hope One, was also staring firmly at the data being transmitted in real-time on the screen, quickly calculating whether or not he had to intervene.

Of course, this was not because the entry this time was having issues.

It was because, after the details were adjusted, the launching operation of Hope One was going so smoothly that it was almost unbelievable.

Because the surrounding terrain had been excavated and modified, Hope One's current sea level at the port and starboard sides were also basically the same, and the ship position was also picture perfect.

He only had to wait for the water level to rise for another 20 seconds to reach the 4.18-meter mark, and then the fenders could be released!

When the time came, "Hope One", which was like a giant sea monster, would release its own power and free itself of all its shackles in one go!

[Sea level on port side is 4.11 meters, sea level on starboard side is 4.09 meters]

[Slideway setup has been completed, and the data has been matched successfully. Fender is being opened. . .]

[Hope One's sea entry angle and speed have been corrected. Hope One is entering the sea. Please do not activate any operations.]

…

The perfect sea entry angle, the perfect ship position, and the OS's supreme stability of operation!

Blessed by these three forms of insurance, as the first clunk noise sounded, three words arose in Su Mo's heart…

It was stable!

The launch this time was even more stable than the third test in the simulation world. Before the one big and four little ones behind him could react, Hope One shot backward abruptly.

Then, with the stern heavy and the bow light, influencing the buoyancy, the bow was suddenly like a guillotine, smashing violently onto the surface of the ocean and causing water to splash up several meters high.

Su Mo had waited too long for this.

When it actually happened in the wasteland world, even Su Mo felt tears welling up in his eyes!

"It succeeded?"

Seeing Connie behind him look so moved that she seemed out-of-character, Su Mo nodded heavily.

"It succeeded!"

These words were not just said to Connie or the four little ones. It was very much like saying it to himself, this land, and his past efforts.

Moore stood up and danced a funny belly dance, hooting loudly.

Oreo paced around emotionally, going around with Big Spark and Little Spark.

Su Mo no longer hesitated. He reached the watertight door in two steps, turned the switch on the mechanism, and let the outside air flow in.

Mm…

So fragrant!

The breeze was mixed with the salt from the sea. Finally, there was a scent, letting him feel that this was all not a fantasy!

This was not the talisman simulation world that he would exit within a few hours. This timeline would continue moving forward with the general trend.

Seeing Iron Rock Mountain's spotlight flashing over here, Su Mo laughed. He did not ask the OS to flash back but quietly issued a few orders to the OS.

The next second, the engine at the bottom of the ship started supplying power to the huge blades under the ship.

A wave of ripples began to break out at the bottom of the ship, ramping up the speed of Hope One up immediately.

Moreover, Hope One's bow started turning in a direction, which was shockingly…

Iron Rock Mountain!

The villagers on the mountain also noticed that Hope One was moving on the ocean now. They cheered as they ran down the mountain.

They knew that Hope One was coming!

They also knew that after this goodbye, if they wanted to see Su Mo again, it would maybe be tens or hundreds of days in the future!

Two kilometers was not considered far. Even if Hope One's speed was not increased, in the blink of an eye, it was already near the stone mountain.

Because he was afraid he would hit it, Su Mo did not dare to go too close. He kept a safe distance of 60 meters on each side.

However, under the spotlight, Su Mo could also see all the villagers' excited expressions as they stood on the mountain.

"Hi. All of you… go back! Don't worry, after a while, I'll… return… and pick you all up!"

"We're… not worried!"

It looked silly to be yelling at each other when there were loudspeakers available but, at this moment, it made his heart swell excitedly.

Especially when he saw Chen Shen flailing the large flag that had "Hope" printed on the front and "Su" printed on the back. Su Mo laughed and went over to the Hope One's golden-red flag at the bow.

"Everyone, take care! Wait for me to return!"

"Leader, take care! We'll be waiting for you!"

The ceremonial shouting ended. Watching all the villagers wave goodbye together, as he stood on the ship, Su Mo gave them a standard military salute and stepped back into the bridge.

Su Mo had seen many farewells, but now that he was really about to leave, it was not only Su Mo who felt no sadness. Even the villagers expressed their inner happiness!

Everybody knew…

That this was just a temporary farewell!

This confidence was not unfounded. The source of this confidence was the powerful…

Hope One!

"OS, travel at full speed toward the first navigation coordinates. Set the fire-control radar's scanning range to the 50km maximum. Avoid all the creatures that may be encountered along the way and strive to ensure the ship's concealment!"

The first navigation point was around 250 kilometers away from the first unit of the foreign races' army, which was at least 14,000-strong.

However, it was also only about 100 kilometers away from a mixed group of some 5500 troops!

As for why he chose this point, it was not because Su Mo was afraid that he could not defeat an army of more than 10 thousand foreign races, but rather because Su Mo was…

Greedy!

"If I want to devour all of the foreign races in this wave, if I start by showing off the main cannons now, I'm afraid that once I finish fighting these 10 thousand foreign races, the random soldiers and insect clans will have run away to god knows where. Even if I want to use the old phone device to continue to investigate and pursue them, the time and energy it would require will not be cost-effective."

"Thus, for the first wave, what I must do is, naturally…"

"Act weak…"

Seeing the gathering points on the paper that he had deduced from the speed of the foreign races' movements as well as the information on the plan to sweep them all up in one go, as someone who was experienced in "pretending to be a pig to eat a tiger", Su Mo laughed, not conscious at all of his status as the strongest human in the wasteland.

Reputation? Style? What was the use of such things?

Was it more useful than the treasure chests he could obtain from slaughtering 5000 foreign races?

Foreign races would not kneel on the ground and bow down to you just because of your style!

If one wanted to make them feel fear and pain, one could not let a single one of these 23400 foreign races go!

Seeing that the OS had successfully assumed control using the autopilot and sensing that there were no problems with the ship, Su Mo returned to the captain's quarters on the third floor.

Like last time, the game panel did not prompt him to start a live broadcast session this time.

This also meant that this ocean disaster's top ten selection rules had, like the blizzard disaster last time, changed somewhat.

At the very least, when evaluating the top ten, the strength of the ship should be one aspect, but there were perhaps even more factors.

He took out a bottle of coke from the refrigerator in the captain's quarters and sat on the couch. Seeing the scenery passing by outside the porthole, Su Mo comfortably opened up the game panel.

Being unable to get into the ranks at the beginning was not a big problem.

This time's ocean disaster would continue for tens of days. Given that he had such a powerful ship like Hope One, if he wanted to obtain the airdrop reward, it would be a piece of cake.

Speaking of live broadcasts, what attracted Su Mo more was…

The foreign races' live broadcasts!

Yes, with the help of Connie as a "guide", Su Mo found out two days ago that the foreign races could also initiate live broadcasts during disasters.

Su Mo naturally did not want to let go of this good opportunity to observe his enemies' strengths.

With a thought, the jade-green human color disappeared from the panel, and the golden foreign race color lit up in its place.

However, before Su Mo could react and enter the Disaster Resistance channel, a sudden prompt appeared.

[Record: Congratulations to the player "Golden Lion King—Connie". It has been detected that the comfort properties of your ship are currently ranked first among the foreign races. Will you disclose the ranking data and open a disaster resistance live broadcast stream simultaneously?]

[Record: Congratulations to the player "Golden Lion King—Connie". It has been detected that the firepower properties of your ship are currently ranked first among the foreign races. Will you disclose the ranking data and open a disaster resistance live broadcast stream simultaneously?]

[Record: …]

…

[Record: Please note that initiating the live broadcast will not broadcast the interior of the ship. It will broadcast the ship's surroundings, only allowing other players to observe the surrounding five kilometers of the ocean!]

[Record: If you maintain the number one spot for more than one day, and then successfully survive the disaster, you can obtain the upgrade experience package*2.]

[Record: Will you start the live broadcast?]

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Chapter 344: First Place Among the Foreign Clans: The Clipper

About three days ago, Connie had talked about the overview of the foreign races' first two live broadcasts while they were eating.

At that time, Connie had used only three words to describe the rules for the foreign clans who competed to make it to the top of the charts in the disaster resistance live broadcasts.

"Weird as hell!"

During the first acid rain live broadcast, unlike how unequal the humans' strength was, the foreign races competed for the top ten ranks on the basis of whoever had the most space and area for their shelters' territory.

Due to the competition, the foreign races all displayed how powerful they were at that time.

The kobolds used their giant castle and the lion clan used the giant trees in their respective territories because they were all trying to get into the top ten ranks of the live broadcast.

In the end, by the time the second blizzard disaster arrived, the conditions for the foreign clans' live broadcast competition underwent a few more changes. That time, it was not about the area or temperature. Instead, it turned out to be something that no one could have imagined…

It was their number of kills!

As long as they were in the blizzard, it did not matter if they killed a human, another foreign clan member, or even one of their own. All kills counted toward their kill count.

At that time, the white-robed kobold shot into the top ten ranks of the live broadcast by killing his own kind and managed to attract over 95% of the foreign clans to watch the kobolds' live broadcast!

From that battle, the nickname Old Devil Su started spreading throughout the foreign clans.

After watching the game panel's top-ranking notifications for the third disaster, a smile appeared on Su Mo's lips as a response to Connie's look of disbelief.

"Why do I feel like this game is prejudiced against the foreign clans?!"

"While such ranking criteria would be perfectly normal for the humans, competing in shipbuilding would just make things difficult for the foreign clans!"

Humans have hundreds and thousands of years of shipbuilding history handed down to them without any gaps in between. Clearly, it would not be difficult for humans to replicate a decent ship.

However, for the foreign clans who had lived on land for generations, there were barely 0.1% of their memories related to ships, whether it was from their own knowledge or that of their inherited memories.

As a result, the first thing most of them thought of when they learned about the rules of the ocean disaster was not to build a boat, but to learn how to swim instead!

They would be able to use the raft to rest and sleep, but when it came down to moving, they would swim in the sea while dragging the raft along with them.

They even thought about stealing the humans' ships after killing them to sail to the New World.

However, the rules of the game forced all of the foreign race clans to find decent ships quickly.

Otherwise, it would be hard for them to make it into the top 30 and obtain their rewards during this ocean disaster. It seemed like the longer this went on, the more it would feel like a battle against the gods.

"However, if the rules are like that, it'll be super easy for us to lure the foreign races' army that are preparing to ambush the basin area."

"Just turn on the live broadcast and let all the foreign clans know that the Golden Lion King is alone on a big ship. Tell them that just by owning this big ship, they can immediately enter the live broadcast ranks and obtain the reward."

"Holy crap! With Connie's potty mouth on the foreign races' chat channel that's getting worse by the day, coupled with the ranking requirements of this ocean disaster, I'm sure that the foreign clans will take the bait out of hatred!"

Since Connie was inside Hope One, she could get to the top of the ranking list and start a live broadcast.

When Su Mo realized the feasibility of this unexpected plan which he could never have imagined before, he immediately stood up excitedly and started pacing around the captain's quarters.

In his previous plan, there were two aspects that were illogical.

The first point was how did Old Devil Su get from the basin area, which was 500km away, and end up in the same direction they were supposed to head to in the span of a single night?

The second point was that they would suspect that it was Old Devil Su's plan to lure them there and there was no way that they would simply walk right into his trap!

If he did not sort out those two illogical points, and those darned Cursed Tigers told any of the human spies, it would turn out to be a big problem within minutes.

However, if the plan switched to Connie being the main character of the plan, it would be a completely different story!

It would send the message that foreign races could build a ship, and that the Lion people of the Oreo God clan were just this good!

It was like saying, 'Who cares if it doesn't make sense to you? Maybe you'll believe it when I smash this ship into your face!'

"Holy crap! It seems like taking Connie under my wing was the best thing I've ever done in preparation for this ocean disaster!"

"Let's see what kind of lousy ships these other foreign races have built!"

Having figured out the whole plan and realizing that there were no loopholes, Su Mo was in a good mood and tapped into the disaster resistance live broadcast page and chat channel.

Just like the last time, the live broadcast page had ten more spots, bringing the total the live broadcast streams to 30, which made the page look less empty.

At the bottom of each live broadcast stream, the game panel also thoughtfully indicated the number of viewers that stream currently had.

The top-ranked live broadcast was the Thunder Monkey clan, which was one of the Five Royal Clans, which had a total of 137500 viewers.

In second place was the last of the Five Royal Clans, the Shaoxing Dog clan, sitting tight at 84600 viewers.

At first glance, the number of viewers was in complete contrast to the number of people watching on the human disaster resistance page.

However, if one considered that, for every race on the wasteland, only the clan leader had a shelter core, the numbers made much more sense.

Without looking any longer at the other monsters and freaks' live broadcasts at the bottom of the page, Su Mo went straight into the Thunder Monkey clan's live broadcast stream.

As a dim light flashed before his eyes, the game panel began to slowly disappear, and the same viewer interface for the human disaster resistance live broadcast stream revealed itself.

From Su Mo's point of view, all he could currently see was the sky but, after fiddling with the camera perspective, Su Mo finally saw the panorama of the dark body of water.

Since the observation range was 5km, it was ten times shorter than before.

When he switched his viewpoint, he saw a thin black fog wall blocking his view beyond the 5km perimeter.

In addition, that black fog wall moved in tandem with the Thunder Monkeys' ships as they traveled along the water.

It seemed that it was there to make sure that the live broadcast stream would not be exploited!

Rather than immediately switching to the host's view, Su Mo curiously surveyed the surrounding scenery while scanning the current rankings on the leaderboard located on the right side of his peripheral vision.

There were six leaderboards in total for the foreign clans.

Firepower, Defense, Speed, Comfort, Number of People, and Size.

Each of these six leaderboards awarded 100 points and, in the leaderboard prompt, Hope One had gotten first place in all five categories except for Number of People, allowing him to achieve an excellent score of 500 points.

Currency, the Thunder Monkey clan was not far behind. They were first in three of the leaderboards, namely the ones for Firepower, Defense, and Speed, as well as being eighth for Comfort and tenth for Size, giving them a total score of 330 points, undoubtedly placing them at the top among the foreign clans.

After a quick survey and noticing that the Cursed Tiger clan, the Primordial Pig clan, and the Crystal Dragon clan were also watching the live broadcast, Su Mo shook his head gently and continued scrolling down.

As the lowest-profile race among the royal family clans, the ship that was moving swiftly along the sea was also extremely low-profile in nature.

The whole ship was gray and black, like a ghost in the night. It was traveling at a speed of at least 10 knots, if not a little faster!

The boat was thin and long with a bow that was shaped like a rhinoceros horn, which made it for the ship to cut through the waves.

The ship's stern was rounded, its design transitioning and gradually from the graceful bow that was raised up high in front.

With its low freeboard and small superstructure, in addition to the long, sharp, curved scissor-shaped bowsprit, the ship allowed the Thunder Monkeys to cut through the waves in those deep waters.

Su Mo was very much acquainted with this type of ship. Actually, he knew it like the back of his hand.

It was the main transport ship for opium back then.

The clipper!

The design of this ship vastly improved ship stability and also allowed sailors to make full use of the sails, with the ship's deck barely being above the surface of the water. Even the underwater shape of the vessel's hull was designed to have the least amount of water resistance to increase its speed. It was said to be the fastest type of sailing vessel.

Su Mo was amazed that the Thunder Monkeys actually possessed such naval technology and had built such an advanced sailing boat, so he quickly switched to the host view.

The very next second, after looking clearly at the screen in front of him, Su Mo's surprise quickly faded and his face instantly turned gloomy.

The Thunder Monkey king stood in the center of the screen. He was not very tall, standing at about 1.3m in height.

He looked a bit like a chimpanzee on Earth and, apart from a little bit of silvery fur in the center of his head, he looked just like an immature ape.

In his eyes, Su Mo could see a sliver of intelligence that was different from the other foreign races. Although he could not be compared to the elites of the human race, he was probably smarter than the average human!

At that moment, standing on the ship's bow and watching countless members of different foreign races enter the live broadcast stream every second, the Thunder Monkey king had a smile on his face and he could not stop smacking his lips together.

"Hello everyone! Once again, we welcome all our friends from the other foreign clans to the Thunder Monkey clan's live broadcast stream. What you can see right now is our clan's most powerful warship…"

"The Thunderbolt!"

"This ship is the result of the Thunder Monkey clan's efforts and dedication. I'm sure that you guys can see how well the Thunderbolt is sailing on the sea, so I welcome all our friends from the other foreign clans to come over and team up with us. Our coordinates are…"

To be honest, the Thunder Monkey king seemed to be a pretty good businessman, but there was another simple reason behind Su Mo's grim look.

From the bow of the ship, Su Mo saw that there were not only regular Thunder Monkeys at work on the ship, but also many humans among them!

The people there were all skinny and malnourished, and it was obvious that they had not had a full meal in the past two months.

They did not share the same status as the other human collaborators, like the human spies. Perhaps it would be more apt to describe them with a term that was rarely used anymore on Earth…

Slaves!

Yes, every human in sight was working like a slave, threatened with the whip by the Thunder Monkey overseeing them.

Besides that, heavy chains were also wrapped around their hands and feet.

It was as if those shackles had made every human lose their souls as they worked numbly on the ship like walking corpses.

They did not even look up when the Thunder Monkey king's loud voice blared out in front of them.

"Okay, so my Nine-Clawed Thousand-Year-Old Green Chicken friend here has asked why there are humans on our ship. Oh, what a good question!"

"Let me ask you a question instead. How much does it cost to hire a chicken from your clan each day?"

"Okay, so hiring a chicken would mean that we would have to feed them 10 catties of meat per day, provide them three meals a day, and even protect their safety. Otherwise, we'd need to compensate 500 catties of meat when a hired worker dies."

"Of course, I know this doesn't seem like much because, if they're strong fighters or have other special talents, it can even be a bargain, but has anyone thought about how much it would cost to hire a human worker instead?"

"Very smart. I see that some of our friends in the comments section have already guessed the right answer."

"All we need to do is give these humans, who are as numerous as ants, half a catty of food each day. Only half a catty, my friends! Just for that little food, you get a very good laborer, but what's even more important is that we don't have to worry about whether these humans will be dead or alive, healthy or sick, tomorrow."

"All you have to do is throw them some of your leftovers every day and let them work. And if they die, you can just throw them away! Hahaha, they are the perfect tools!"

When the Thunder Monkey king talked about how useful humans were, he became energetic and spoke in a torrent of words about the rapid progress in productivity that the Thunder Monkeys had achieved during this time by using human workers.

From ordinary tools to cultivating land, to growing crops and even using the humans' trading markets to acquire meat.

These methods, that many ordinary foreign clans were unaware of, were successfully discovered and used by the Thunder Monkeys, who had a higher intelligence quotient than most foreign races.

Even the blueprint for the clipper, along with its construction, were thanks to the efforts of those human slaves.

"I'm telling all of you now that after we successfully implement our plan this time, we can kill these humans, but not all of them. We can keep a group of them and let them continue to work for us so that not only will our chances of surviving the disaster become higher, but it'll also free up more time for us to do other things."

After speaking continuously for more than half an hour, the Thunder Monkey king stopped talking after concluding his speech. Since his mouth was dry, he picked up a fruit next to him and started to nibble on it.

At the same time, under his earnest and tireless advice, everyone in the comments section were in agreement because all the foreign clans suddenly realized the benefits of such an arrangement, so they flooded him with words of gratitude.

Many of them even began to raise their opinions, saying that it would be better for them to replace the meat they used for trading currency with humans, with the prices being determined based on the size and health of the humans.

As soon as someone brought that up, dozens of foreign clans immediately echoed their agreement, and when the Thunder Monkey king saw it, he nodded his head approvingly as well.

"They say that there is strength in numbers, right? I'm so glad that you guys brought this up because we didn't think about using humans as trading goods. Thank you guys so much."

When he said that, the Thunder Monkey king's face was very serious, but there was also just the slightest hint of a smirk on his face.

However, no one knew that the foreign clan that had just suggested the idea of treating humans as trading goods was actually just a race affiliated with the Thunder Monkey clan.

Aside from that, no one knew that the other foreign clans that were clamoring to agree to the idea were actually spammers secretly solicited and paid for by the Thunder Monkeys!

However, the Thunder Monkeys seemed to have figured out that the ordinary foreign clans with IQs of less than 80 would perceive the idea to be rather good.

All they needed to do was plant a seed in their heads and slowly brainwash them. Eventually, when they arrived at the New World, the Thunder Monkeys would be able to dominate the slave market and cement their position because of their first-mover advantage.

If there were still human survivors left, the Thunder Monkeys could also secretly contact the survivors and resell the humans back to them, making a huge profit for themselves.

However, the ordinary foreign clan would not have thought that far. To them, the Thunder Monkey king, who was the first one to come up with the idea, and who was ranked first in this third disaster, was a genius beyond comparison.

However, before the Thunder Monkey king could continue and lead the conversation in the direction he wanted, an eye-catching comment popped up in the comments section that was full of positive comments.

It was not a long comment, in fact, it comprised only three words, and was a colloquial saying among the Huaxians.

The comment made the Thunder Monkey king furious.

"Oh? It seems that the Golden Lion King here seems to have a different opinion.. Let's see what he has to say!"

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Chapter 345: Golden Lion King, The Eternal God!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Leader, this d*mned Thunder Monkey King wants us to communicate with him through video call. What should we do? Should we reject the invite and continue typing insults, or do we spit in his face via video instead?"

Connie noticed that the Thunder Monkey King had made this decision on the spur of the moment, which was very unlike his usual self. She sat in the captain's quarters, stuck out her tongue, and licked the hair on her claws. Unlike the average foreign race member, she was not afraid of the royal clans. Instead, she was full of fighting spirit!

Among the Five Royal Clans, Connie had already offended Crystal Dragon, Cursed Tiger, and Primordial Pig just two days ago.

It was especially so for Crystal Dragon whom Connie had verbally abused on the chat channels.

Besides that, she also went overboard and made a vow in the chat channel that, if the foreign races' plan failed, she would behead Clark to appease her foreign race brothers and sisters.

The Snow Soaring Bear had a strength rating of 10.8. If he insulted someone, everyone would assume that it was just an argument between the major clans.

However, Connie only had a strength rating of 3.2, and her efforts sparked a sense of "excitement" among the ordinary foreign race representatives.

Almost 90% of the foreign races would remember the name of this "Golden Lion King" that had been boasting so arrogantly this entire time!

While the Thunder Monkey King would be lying if he said he did not recognize the Golden Lion King, he was also smart enough not to humiliate and humble himself.

He was reluctant to mute Connie in the live broadcast chat channel; he would be making a fool out of himself if he did that.

He knew that if the Golden Lion King was muted, she would go on a verbal rampage in the foreign races' world channel.

That was why his strategy to use the video call function displayed the complexity and depth of the Thunder Monkey King's thoughts compared to the average foreign race member.

If Connie accepted the video call, he would broadcast the call live and use it to his advantage to strike back at the Golden Lion King.

If Connie did not accept the video call, then he could say that he did not have to acknowledge a coward who only knew how to be a keyboard warrior.

He did a really great job in secretly employing this strategy.

However…

"Connie, let the call through. You don't have to say anything right now though. I'll handle it."

"I'll show you how even the simplest insult can create the best results!"

It was a live broadcast stream, but because Connie was not in the top ten, others would only see a black screen if the video call connected.

Because they could not be seen, whatever language they used would be converted into the foreign races' mother tongues. Thus, they would not have to worry about being exposed.

Connie noticed the confident expression on Su Mo's face, so she grinned maliciously and accepted the video call request.

The next second, the view of the captain's quarters around them began to vanish as it was gradually replaced by the live broadcast stream.

Inside the live broadcast stream, Su Mo could see the Thunder Monkey King's cocky smile.

In the past, Su Mo might have felt a wave of panic when he saw a monkey smiling in the middle of the night.

However, now Su Mo could not help but smile himself when he thought about what was going to transpire in the next few moments.

"My goodness, Golden Lion King, my friend, you seem even happier than you did two days ago!"

"Of course, I'm happy, among those animals ranked among the Five Royal Clans, yours is the fourth one I've seen so far. I thought that a b*stard like you would actually do better, but I never thought that you would be worse off than that piece of trash Clark!"

"Seeing that there are four idiots in the Five Royal Clans, it's no surprise that I felt happy and thought that there are more heads for the children in our clan for us to kick around now!"

On one side was a black screen, and on the other was a clear image.

After Su Mo changed his voice and said those words, the Thunder Monkey King's expression visibly darkened.

Even the ones in the chat channel watching the drama could feel him struggling to hold his rage in.

"Golden Lion King, I'm giving you face, but you're insulting me instead. You're just a piece of trash with a strength rating of 3.2 who can't even ascend the rankings. All you have is a sharp tongue that endlessly spouts nonsense. If I ever meet you on the sea, you will suffer the consequences!"

"Whoa! I have to say, you idiots really haven't learned a d*mn thing, eh? Here you go again."

"Listen up, I heard that your monkey wife spent a night in Primordial Pig's room and cheated on you so badly that you became so angry that your organs caught fire and you died on the spot! But it turns out that those were just rumors, what a shame! Because your mom died early, I actually did you a favor by tailor-making a few sets of funeral shrouds for you, but it's fine. After all, you're going to use it very soon when I see you!"

Since Su Mo had the experience of observing arguments like this on Earth, he did not hesitate when it came to engaging in non-vulgar verbal sparring like this.

On the other hand, the Thunder Monkey King had never been insulted like this before so, after he heard those words, he became so furious that the hair on his forehead stood up and emitted a few sparks of electricity.

"Why you…"

"What do you mean "why me"? Do you really think that we're all stupid? Enslave humans? With what? The Five Royal Clans have been worrying about and planning to kill Old Devil Su for so many days now, but what do they have to show for it? How is he still alive and kicking?"

"Whoa! It's easy for you to tell us to capture those humans, but what should we do when Old Devil Su comes around looking for revenge? Thunder Monkey King, you're really monkeying around, aren't you? You're really playing us all for fools, right?"

Old Devil Su was the eternal thorn in the Five Royal Clans' hearts.

Going up against animals like this, you had to call them out when insulting them!

Without underestimating his own ability, Su Mo struck back with a savage response that caused even the Thunder Monkey King to freeze up.

In the chat room, some of the ordinary foreign races suddenly realized something, as if they suddenly regained their "brains" all of a sudden, so they started bickering among themselves in the chat.

"That's right, the Golden Lion King is right, you Thunder Monkeys don't fear Old Devil Su, but we can't handle the backlash if he decides to come after us."

"If he does attack, it's not you, the Five Royal Clans, who will die, it's us. And if we die, you'll be the ones benefiting from it. Only idiots would believe in your words."

"As long as Old Devil Su lives, no one would believe a word the Five Royal Clans say. Don't even think of coaxing us to become your meat shields."

"Golden Lion King, the eternal god, he's the hero among us ordinary foreign races who dares to speak up! The Five Royal Clans can blabber all they want, but we're following the Golden Lion King's lead!"

"You're just bullying the Golden Lion King because of his lack of strength, but our history books recorded that the lion clan was one a Royal Clan generations ago, so don't you dare suppress them using your title!"

The foreign races had low IQ levels, but that did not mean that they could not figure out the truth behind something, especially when there was someone around to enlighten them; they had enough common sense and logic to put the pieces of the puzzle together and come up with a conclusion.

Su Mo noticed that he had so many "loyal brothers" behind his back, so while the Thunder Monkey King's words and actions were still on cooldown, he smiled sinisterly and played the final card in his hand.

A "card" that would allow the Thunder Monkey King to see a ray of hope!

Hey monkey-business, you're bullying me because I'm weak, aren't you? How about this, when I get my ship tomorrow, I'll show you what true power looks like."

"I want to make you the laughingstock of the Five Royal Clans!"

"Oh? A piece of trash with a strength rating of 3.2 is going to do that?"

The Thunder Monkey King suddenly responded the moment he noticed Su Mo announce his "weakness". The tense expression on his face eased up a little as he replied according to the situation at hand.

"Everyone, don't just hang around these noisy monkeys all day, at 4 p.m. tomorrow, remember this everyone…"

"At that time, our clan leader, the Golden Lion King will start the live broadcast and make you Five Royal Clans see with your own eyes what true power really is!"

After that, Su Mo did not even wait for the Thunder Monkey King to react before and used the deadliest killer move in all of trash-talking history; he quit the room immediately!

Just like playing a MOBA game, after satisfactorily trash-talking the other guy, following up by quitting the game and the server after that would certainly deal more damage to your opponent than any of the words you said previously.

At that moment, even someone with a good temper would not be able to resist adding you to their friend list and then trying to continue flaming you until they are satisfied.

In such a case, you did not have to do anything at all except treat the other guy as if he or she did not exist.

It was just that simple. You would make them so angry it would haunt them for the entire day. They might even end up losing ten or more games later on because of this.

The Thunder Monkey King was placed in that exact situation.

When he noticed that the "Golden Lion King has quit the video call" just like that after successfully announcing himself to the world, he suddenly realized something.

The one insulting him was not the Golden Lion King, it was his follower. In addition, this lion follower was quite the cocky one, and was even more arrogant than the Golden Lion King himself!

Now, even if the Thunder Monkey King was an "elegant and easygoing" person, at this very moment…

He was fuming!

The furious expression on his face was just like the three other Royal Clans from before, which was jokingly described as "helplessly furious" by the ordinary foreign races.

After Su Mo got what he came for, he did not even bother to continue watching the Thunder Monkey King stomping around in his live broadcast stream, and instead happily browsed through the live broadcast streams of the other foreign races for a little while, after which, he terminated his connection with the foreign races' game panel.

Other than the fact that the Thunder Monkey King had a clipper, he was not very different from the other foreign races and humans.

The Shaoxing Dog on the second rank had a silver sand ship, and the other foreign races had bronze sand ships.

As for the humans' sailing battleships, the ship of the line, it was not that the foreign races did not want them as well, but the high level of craftsmanship required to build the ship made it difficult, if not impossible, for the foreign races to build.

Not to mention that the higher echelons guarded the blueprint designs to such sailing battleships to the point that each blueprint was only in the possession of one person.

If the spies sold the sand ships' blueprint designs to the foreign races to obtain some resources and other stuff, the higher echelons would still let them off the hook.

However, if any one of them dared to sell off such a strategically important item like the sailing battleship blueprint, then there would be no excuses.

If the offense was not too serious, everyone would just work together to catch the person who leaked the information, and label them as a traitor on the world channel, so that the person would be seen as disgusting vermin that should be smacked by everyone on the street.

A serious offense, however, would warrant all the large shelters to label them as a fugitive to be killed on sight. They would be killed the moment anyone caught sight of them.

Under the threat of such serious consequences, these lurkers hiding beneath the waters would definitely know how to weigh the risks and benefits. Even if the foreign races wanted to buy the blueprint designs from them at a ridiculous price, no one would dare to sell them.

"Leader, that was a genius maneuver. The Thunder Monkey King's trying to add me into his friends list now. Should I accept his request?"

After consciously observing Su Mo's actions and learning from him, Connie suddenly felt like her cognitive abilities had increased a few times over, just like Hope One speeding at top speed across the ocean.

"No, but don't reject it either. As I said, we'll accept the request tomorrow at 4."

"At that time, you'll just have to listen to my commands carefully!"

In terms of cunning mind games like this, even though Connie's IQ had broken the upper limit of what an ordinary foreign race's IQ level should be, it was still a little difficult for her to comprehend something like this. After listening to Su Mo, she quickly left the captain's quarters with some new knowledge in her mind.

The only person left in the spacious cabin was Su Mo.

However, now that he had vented to his heart's content, his anger when he first watched the Thunder Monkey King live broadcast stream just a while ago…

Turned into satisfaction!

"There sure are quite a lot of secrets hidden in the brains of these Five Royal Clans. I'll have to look for an opportunity, whether it's for the humans or for myself, I have to catch all of them to obtain these secrets."

"The other foreign races can still be used after defeating them, but these people from the royal clans are simply animals that cannot be peacefully subdued. They must be killed no matter what!"

Just like that, Su Mo simultaneously interfered with the Thunder Monkey King's plan to enslave the humans, while also managing to lay out the "bait" for tomorrow's plan.

With such a flawless plan, Su Mo had absolute confidence in making the foreign races fall for his plan!

On the outside, after his run-in with the Thunder Monkey King, it was already 2 o'clock in the morning.

After telling the system to set Hope One's traveling speed to cruising speed, Su Mo opened the door, stretched his muscles out and surveyed his surroundings.

After cruising at max speed for two hours, Hope One had traveled more than 180 kilometers north of the basin.

At this moment, the sea level had risen to about 10 meters, and most of the tall trees that grew on the land could barely even be seen now.

After enjoying the sea breeze for a while, and making sure that nothing else was wrong, Su Mo issued instructions regarding the ship's security measures during the night, put on his bluetooth earphones as he walked back over to the captain's quarters and lay down on the bed.

Su Mo opened the game panel once more. However, this time he did not connect to the foreign races' game panel.

Instead, he went straight into the chat channel and browsed through the humans' disaster resistance channel.

It was getting late, and the time was almost three o'clock in the morning.

Unlike the quiet and desolate chat channel of the foreign races, the humans' chat channel was still lively as before; what an encouraging sight it was.

Even a random live broadcast stream had hundreds of millions of viewers, and the top ten streams even recorded billions of views!

"It seems this time the evaluation criteria doesn't benefit the larger shelters, as there are still a few lone wolves on the rankings list!"

After glancing through the number of people in the different live broadcast streams, Su Mo nodded after he noticed that the highest number of people in a shelter was 212. He then began to excitedly browse through the captions of the different live broadcast streams.

[My ship took twenty years of effort to build. Can you handle it?]

[New ways of fighting the disaster, do not blindly chase after the idea of gathering in larger numbers.]

[I am the real owner of the Flying Henan People!]

[Late night chat discussing the improvement and advancement of maritime navigation technology.]

[Pretentious much? Are sailboats even considered ships? Ignore him! Are boatmen even considered professionals?]

[A thirty-year old fisherman will never let you leave empty-handed!]

[In the age of sailing ships, even rowboats can conquer a piece of the world.]

[The only raft on the ranking board… now that's the comeback of the tire gang!]

[I am Nonsense Su, I am Nonsense Su, please come and watch my live broadcast stream. I am Nonsense Su, let's talk some nonsense together!]

[My ship is so big, so just hang in there!]

[This is a ship that only good quality men can ride on. Come in and have a look, you won't regret it!]

[I couldn't buy a house on Earth, but I'm sailing a ship on the wasteland. Guys, will I make it?]

…

Before the large shelters appeared on the rankings, each of these lone wolves' captions were more interesting than the last. Even Su Mo could not help but feel delighted.

After filtering through the live broadcast streams on offer, Su Mo did not choose to tune in to the top-ranked live broadcast streams.

Instead, he scrolled down and tapped into the stream that was ranked 23rd, but somehow had 3.38 billion people inside…

The only "wooden raft" live stream in the channel!

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Chapter 346: King Of The Acid Rain, Emperor Of The Blizzard!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Previously I'd already guessed that because of my influence, 001 channel ought to have people who relied on these earlier advantages to slowly build up and get into the rankings.

"I never expected that this day would come so fast, however…

"Furthermore, the most outrageous thing is that the first person to get on the rankings is actually this clown Sun Xian!"

Right after clicking into the live broadcast stream, Sun Xian's name popped up along with a profile picture of his unruly, unshaven countenance.

With a scrutiny that was completely different from how he watched the foreign race live broadcast streams, Su Mo waited for the image to change, looking as if he did not know whether to laugh or to cry.

At present, everyone in the wasteland was rushing to build large ships to set sail right after they finished.

Before, Sun Xian had urged everyone on the channel not to blindly follow the trend and had made a speech about how using a wooden raft ought to be sufficient.

Initially, practically everyone rebuked him, and even the lurkers secretly felt disdain in their hearts.

It was not until the final three days when Su Mo announced there would be a terrifying, torrential storm, that Sun Xian's speech had garnered a considerable amount of support.

When the storm arrived, to protect their own ships, even someone like Liang Jian had to expend a large number of resources to purchase a safe house and absorbent gum to protect his sand ship, despite previously having an obvious advantage.

At this time, Sun Xian's advantage in choosing a wooden raft had actually already been revealed in advance.

Being able to get into the rankings list based solely on a wooden raft was something that everyone did not even dare to dream about. At the same time, it was the main reason that Sun Xian's live broadcast stream had become the most popular one at the moment.

Between thoughts, the game panel had currently also loaded up, and the perspective returned once again to a high vantage point.

Unlike the expanse of deep sea where the Thunder Monkey King was, Sun Xian's current location was a standard shallow sea. Based on visual inspection, the water level certainly would not exceed 20 meters.

This was also the biggest reason why Sun Xian had dared to choose a wooden raft!

Su Mo did not hurry to check the imposing view below first. Once the view switched over to the explanation of the rankings, he quickly began browsing.

Mankind's first disaster, the acid rain, was to test the durability and sturdiness of everyone's shelters. Furthermore, getting into the rankings was based on the disaster recovery success rate.

When the second disaster—the blizzard—came along, it became a test for the heating in every shelter. Whoever had the warmest shelter would be ahead in the rankings.

This time, omitting the big and small disasters in between, sure enough, the game's evaluation rules had undergone a drastic change.

Spearheading this change was the introduction of two new evaluation criteria…

Potential value.

Degree of completion.

"The game encourages every player to build an escape conveyance of their own volition and leave for the New World, so this time the evaluation criteria will not have any added properties requirements that are related to the shelters.

"Once each player boards their escape conveyance—including their shelters and the subordinate members—the game will automatically calculate the conveyance's highest potential value as well as the current degree of completion.

"The degree of completion will become the main attribute in deciding the value of the conveyance's hull, while the potential value will become a weighting factor that will be multiplied and added to the degree of completion. Taken together, they will constitute the rankings of each player.

"If the degree of completion is below 50%, the hull's value will default to 0. No matter how high the weighting factor is, the player will not be listed in the rankings."

…

"All players are requested to please do their best in the disaster to increase the degree of completion of their escape conveyances???

"Shit, they're actually instituting such ridiculous rules???"

After reading the first few sentences, even without looking at the explanations that followed, a million expletives rapidly went through Su Mo's mind.

The mystery was solved!

No wonder this time was still like the last—many of the ships built by the large shelters were not able to get into the rankings. The reason was very simple!

A raft built by someone had very low potential value, perhaps only 5.

However, looking at the degree of completion—if the raft's degree of completion was 95% and it obtained 95 points, the two numbers multiplied together would become 475 points!

As for the large shelters, they had all chosen to build ships of the line. In appearance, a vessel like this was impressive, and the properties of the entire ship completely outclassed those of a small wooden raft.

However, the key factor was that the game did not acknowledge this!

What was required of a ship of the line?

Apart from a sturdy hull, it also needed to have clearly demarcated watertight compartments, and even the most important weapons and cannons could not be lacking.

If by some ridiculous chance, the game acknowledged one's ship of the line—which was considered to be a product of the late 18th century—one would still have to install a steam engine to power it. Only then could it be guaranteed that one's degree of completion would go up.

Currently, however, if a ship of the line only possessed basic functions, there was no need to talk about a 50% degree of completion—whether it would even be 30% was debatable.

In the same manner, if this rule was used on Hope One, it would only get even more outrageous!

"My Hope One is a Level 3 destroyer. If it were currently rare-quality, then as far as my degree of completion goes, let's not even talk about 50%. Based on the Annihilator I outfitted, the excess radars, and the other miscellaneous items, the degree of completion ought to be at least 120% and above.

"Now though, Hope One is sub-legendary quality, so it's likely that the game will think I'm going in the direction of a legendary-quality ship. I fear even a Level 1 destroyer won't satisfy me.

"Let me see what Hope One's current degree of completion is…"

With a heart full of apprehension, Su Mo clicked on the "I have finished reading all the rules" button, and the rankings' help interface slowly disappeared.

The actual properties panel came up. As he glanced in passing at the very bottom, Su Mo saw Hope One's current score tally.

[Potential Value: XX (activated at 50% degree of completion.)

[Degree of Completion: 33%

"Hey, it's actually at 33%. That's only 17% away from the 50% required by the rankings!"

This was completely different from the 10% and 15% of his imaginings. Hope One had actually achieved a 33% degree of completion, which entirely exceeded Su Mo's expectations before clicking.

Furthermore, when he clicked on the degree of completion and checked on all the reasons that he had been able to obtain such a high score, Su Mo's unhappy expression immediately dissipated. In its place was a trace of excitement.

Since, currently, Hope One was not truly legendary-quality, the game had not been overly severe when it had set the degree of completion.

Just the Annihilator alone had added fully 6%.

Furthermore, at present, the heart of the entire ship was situated in the All Substance Conversion Engine on the lowest deck. What was even more astonishing was that it directly added 15%, which was practically half of the degree of completion.

These two items aside, the components of the entire ship, the armor fittings, the cabin design, the autopilot system… these auxiliary items had contributed 9%!

Of course, these things were not the main reason for Su Mo's surprise and delight.

It was because behind all these additions, he had noticed a particular item that possessed unlimited possibilities, despite having added only 3%!

Connie's wind of blessing!

After joining the Oreo clan, Connie's position had already been elevated to that of a Saintess. When she became an addition to the ship, this had accounted for a full 3% of the degree of completion.

Although he did not know how much more would be added to the percentage after this blessing was upgraded later on, Su Mo had at least discovered a way out. This could save him a great deal of effort in case he was unable to fulfill the 50% degree of completion required, but still wanted to get airdrop rewards.

"Not bad, not bad at all. So blessings can add to the degree of completion. Even if I'm lacking points at the very end, I can already use survival points to try upgrading and forcibly increase my degree of completion!

"Furthermore, the disaster this time still has at least 30 days to go. During this period, I can also continue to use survival points to upgrade the ship's components as well as add on new equipment, so there's no need to be in a hurry to fight for live broadcast stream rankings with these people!"

It went without saying that if Hope One's potential value reached a 50% degree of completion, Su Mo was certain that the ship would immediately be in first place.

Therefore, after adjusting his mindset and looking below at the ocean waves that now rippled over the water's surface, Su Mo turned his gaze to the angle of the live broadcast stream.

Before he could even react to anything in the current scenario, the live broadcast stream immediately started going wild!

[Congratulations to player Sun Xian, your live broadcast stream is being watched by the No. 1 double titleholder!]

[Please welcome the respected "King of the Acid Rain", the "Emperor of the Blizzard" … Su Mo to the live broadcast stream]

[A player with a powerful strength rating has been detected joining the live broadcast stream, this has automatically triggered the entrance special effect (cooldown period: 10 days)]

[Congratulations to all players present at the live broadcast stream, you have automatically gained disaster points 100!]

Four banners that were even more eye-catching than a king entering the live broadcast stream of a certain streaming platform on Earth immediately appeared on the bullet screen the minute the main live broadcast viewpoint switched to Su Mo.

"Shit, the Almighty Su's showed up. It's already 3.30, even the Almighty Su has come to see this old fox Sun Xian paddling his raft!"

"Almighty Su, I'm here in the front row hugging you, I'm a Su Mo fan, look at me, Almighty Su!"

"King of the Acid Rain, Emperor of the Blizzard, how cool is that—these titles were actually given by the game!"

"I propose we give Almighty Su a sea title in advance, this time I'm betting 500 catties of supplies that Almighty Su's still going to be first!"

"When will Almighty Su's ship get on the rankings, petition（1/100000000）to have a look!"

"Shit, there's 100 points to be had just from watching a live broadcast stream—something good like this has actually happened to me, so this night hasn't been in vain!"

"Say, how come there aren't any young bucks daring to mock Almighty Su this time?"

"Are you touched in your upper story? During the blizzard, those young cubs knew that Almighty Su wasn't going to cause them trouble, but now the ocean disaster has happened—these people are scared to death Almighty Su's going to steer his ship right over and hunt them down!"

"True—steering down the connection cables to beat you up!"

"…"

In an instant, the initially legible bullet screen comments immediately went wild at the prompting of the four rotating banners.

At almost four o'clock, all the lurkers had been lured out.

Currently, at this stage, 100 points could not account for anything important. However, to these refugees fleeing from a disaster, 100 points was something only 4 hundred million people had, so in comparison, this was still very good!

Furthermore, because of this sudden bombshell, Sun Xian—who had watched the number of people in the live broadcast stream skyrocket to 800 million in just a few minutes—could not stop smiling from ear to ear!

"Welcoming Su Mo to this live broadcast stream, everyone please give a barrage of welcomes on the bullet screen!

"The Almighty Su is our Regional Channel's No. 1, if it wasn't for him leaving some good things for us in the Secret Trading Realm, I myself would never have been able to get to where I am now!"

The raft that Sun Xian was on had been directly created by formatting his own shelter's core.

Based on this, very likely because the game was lenient toward wooden rafts, Sun Xian had upgraded the raft again to its current state of 5 meters by 5 meters.

Not only that, he had tied a ring of old car tires around the raft and even erected a fence of about half a meter high.

In appearance, the entire vessel did not seem to be much different from a shabby bamboo hut without a roof.

Furthermore, Sun Xian himself was not a lone wolf; his raft was a family vessel.

As for the lavish flattery that inundated the bullet screen, Su Mo skimmed past it after a brief scrutiny and began to take stock of the members that comprised the vessel's crew.

There were a total of five people onboard—Sun Xian's brother, his brother's wife, as well as himself, his wife, and his daughter.

The five people on scene had clear, delineated responsibilities. Sun Xian was responsible for speaking and explaining. His brother, his sister-in-law, and his own wife were responsible for steering the wooden raft, and his daughter assisted from the sidelines.

After listening for a while to Sun Xian taking advantage of his soaring popularity to explain in detail the system's upgrade of his vessel, Su Mo nodded and left the broadcast stream.

"Not bad; Sun Xian might not have done enough in other areas, but as far as his own affairs are concerned, he's extremely knowledgeable.

"Since he's going the route of a family vessel and he's still in the shallow part of the sea, there's absolutely no need to board a large ship. This wooden raft definitely can last all the way to the New World!"

Before, nobody had been willing to give an ear to Sun Xian's ridiculous ideas. Now, however, thanks to the popularity Su Mo had brought him, and seeing that there were over 12 hundred million people watching the live broadcast now, Su Mo began to chuckle.

Formatting a shelter core to follow the upgrade route that the system had provided for wooden rafts was not a hopeless dead-end road either.

As long as one could pay sufficient disaster points and supplies, after the wooden raft had upgraded to the specified 8 meters by 8 meters, a one-time payment of 200 disaster points as well as some supplies would directly allow the wooden raft to evolve.

It would become a wooden fishing boat!

In comparison with a wooden raft, a wooden fishing boat not only already possessed a ship's hold that could provide shelter from wind and rain, but it was also far better in terms of safety.

Furthermore, a wooden boat was not the end as far as ship upgrades went. If one continued to pay disaster points and materials, the boat could certainly still be upgraded.

Of course, Sun Xian—who had already tied tires to his raft—naturally would not choose this route.

In his explanation, he had decided to stick with the method he had chosen and use the game to upgrade the raft's surface area. He himself would be responsible for the way the hull of the ship would be constructed, and he would carry out upgrades of another kind.

This way of thinking not only opened the eyes of the live broadcast stream audience but also caused Su Mo to come to some different realizations.

With these realizations in mind, in the following half an hour, Su Mo scrutinized the remaining live broadcast streams one by one.

From the first one and counting down to 30, Su Mo did not leave out a single one of the human live broadcast streams.

Wherever he went with his two game-bestowed titles, Su Mo would always rouse an intense wave of enthusiasm on the bullet screen as well as an effusive welcome from the broadcast stream hosts.

Just after four o'clock, he withdrew from the game panel and closed his eyes to restore his spirit.

However, as far as whether or not mankind could weather this ocean disaster, Su Mo already had…

Utter and absolute confidence!

Chapter 347: First Day At Sea, The Timeline Begins!

When considering a problem, one could not always consider every angle from a utilitarian point of view. One would be a machine instead of a human if one did so.

Although he had been lying in bed for almost twenty minutes, Su Mo was still unable to calm down even after a long time.

Unlike the large shelters, of the people that were currently on the rankings, apart from the last name on the list—a bronze sand ship that required forming a human pyramid before it could take more than 200 people on board—all the other ships and refugees outwardly conveyed a unique quality that only humans had…

The ability to think!

The ships of the foreign races were all copied from human ship designs!

They had copied the ships that humans on Earth had invented—ships that were used for survival, for making a living, and for eking out a better existence.

Su Mo could not detect any sparks of creativity in their plagiarism attempts, nor could he sense any originality from the foreign races.

They were like monkeys in the tourist destinations on Earth—they only knew that if they opened a packet of food, they would find delicious food.

They would not bother thinking about where the food had come from, why it would appear in the packet, or what the packet itself was made of.

For monkeys, as long as they could eat their fill, that was enough!

The foreign races were the same way!

As far as they were concerned, as long as a ship could function and sail on the sea, that was sufficient. There was completely no need to consider what the ship's capabilities were, whether it was comfortable or not, or how to modify it to achieve even better properties.

However, humans were different!

Currently, the top 29 names in the rankings were all ordinary refugees who had displayed their own individual ideas on how to weather this disaster.

There was Sun Xian's family vessel made from a wooden raft tied about with tires. There was also the dragon boat competition team, who had displayed their abilities by constructing a human-powered great wing ship—a class of warship from the Wu Navy in the Zhou Dynasty—with a speed as high as 15 knots.

There were modified covered swoopers—leather-covered assault warships from ancient times—and there were also wooden barrel-style boats shaped like submarines.

All these different ships represented the tenacious fight that the human race put up in face of such natural disasters, unwilling to submit to fate.

By looking at the big picture revealed by these small details, Su Mo had full reason to believe that the cause of mankind's destruction would certainly not be these foolish foreign races!

Only natural disasters could destroy the human race!

Only natural disasters and nothing else!

"Ah, it's no use thinking so much. However, going by the current rules, the airdrop rewards that humans will get this time ought to be quite significant.

"As for whether or not those rewards will be unlocked, that will depend on whether these people can be lucky enough to weather this disaster and get to the New World!"

With a touch of frustrated disappointment, Su Mo slowly covered himself with the blanket that still had that "new" feel about it after taking out a bottle of psychic energy water and drinking half of it. He put both hands behind his head and stared at the ceiling of the captain's quarters in the bright, clear moonlight.

The night went on.

Hope One's degree of comfort had already been thoroughly demonstrated by this point in time!

In other live broadcast streams, after two or three hours of rocking to and fro, a considerable number of people who had lived their entire lives on land had already vomited until they were dizzy, almost to the point where they were throwing up bile.

Since both wind and waves were mild, Hope One relied on its special abilities to cut through the water as easily as walking on land, and not a single jolt or tremor could be felt on board.

In such a calm and stable environment, if it were not for the OS occasionally echoing data transmissions in his Bluetooth earphones, as well as the sound of Hope One cutting through the sea that was coming through the slightly-ajar door of the captain's quarters, Su Mo would have thought that he had merely gone to an unfamiliar shelter to sleep for a while.

Su Mo kept staring at the ceiling. At four o'clock, his eyes were still wide open; what was going on in his mind was anyone's guess.

At five o'clock, even though his eyes were closed, his mind was still overwhelmed by all manner of thoughts.

Right before dawn in the wasteland, before the sun rose, even with the calming effect of the psychic energy water, Su Mo still found it hard to avoid…

Insomnia!

From Iron Rock Mountain's future development, his thoughts went to the inhabitants of Hope Village and whether or not they had encountered any unforeseen circumstances now that he had left.

These thoughts of unseen circumstances connected with thoughts of his younger sister, who was currently onboard Tundra One. Was she like the other refugees, vomiting until they could barely function in daily life? Through thinking about his sister, his mind went to Tundra One and whether or not they would encounter crazed foreign races in their journey.

Su Mo's thoughts churned rapidly; even though his physical body was exhausted, his brain did not feel tired in the least.

The birth of mankind was filled with chance encounters as if a formless "god" had left behind traces of their divinity.

However, the scientific viewpoint told mankind that gods did not exist in the world and that humans were not gods either.

It was impossible for such a being to exist, who could control new, intelligent lifeforms that were created out of thin air—lifeforms that also had collective quantum entangled souls.

When experiencing insomnia, even if one's brain issued frantic orders to quickly fall asleep—otherwise one would not have energy the next day, and one's work would be held up as a result—the human brain would not heed these orders and go to sleep.

In fact, it would become even more active and dispel sleepiness even further.

Su Mo was currently in this situation.

Since departure had been so hurried, the captain's quarters had not been fully furnished yet.

Therefore, curtains had not been put up. Lying in bed, even though he had not opened his eyes, Su Mo could still sense that the darkness outside was rapidly fading, and a ray of light was beginning to rise from the end of the horizon.

It was six o'clock already?

When he heard the OS reporting the time in his earphones, Su Mo—whose brain still showed no signs of tiredness—had no choice but to sit up in resignation.

Mankind's greatest suffering was not having no time to sleep.

It was having the time but being unable to sleep!

Even though he had slept very well the first night he arrived in the wasteland, Su Mo had stayed awake till dawn the very first night he had set sail on the sea!

Since he had not moved through the long hours of the night, his body felt a little chilled. Su Mo began moving his limbs and opened the main door of the captain's quarters as he did so.

Sniff…

Since at present there were no microorganisms to cause fermentation, there was only a barely perceptible trace of salt tang in the sea breeze. There was none of the disgusting fishy smell like on Earth.

After taking three deep breaths of moisture-laden sea air, Su Mo slowly climbed up the ladder.

After pushing open the watertight door of the cockpit and seating himself grandly and expansively in the captain's seat, Su Mo began checking Hope One's current position in earnest, as well as the ship's condition at present.

Last night, after two hours of traveling at top speed, Hope One had initially made around 180 kilometers of headway.

Between the hours of three to seven o'clock, Hope One had traveled a distance of 240 kilometers at cruising speed.

However, the ship had made a detour midway to avoid the first group of foreign races that was within 330 kilometers of their location. Therefore, Hope One's current position was roughly around…

390 kilometers northeast of the basin!

There were still around 300 kilometers to go before the ship reached the first navigation point of their intended destination.

Since he had not actually personally massacred these foreign races, the old mobile phone did not have any of their signals downloaded.

In fact, it was the fire-control radar that had picked up traces of this group of foreign races at 5.30.

On Hope One's current map, an accurate target came up!

Taking out the old mobile phone and detecting that there were no humans within 300 kilometers for sure, Su Mo stood up, relieved, and exited the cockpit.

"As expected, these ordinary foreign races are a motley rabble. Before they receive orders from the Five Royal Clans about what the next step is, they're likely to stay where they are and wait for the signal.

"In fact, this just happens to be what I'm looking for!"

The more thoroughly these ordinary foreign races carried out the orders of the Five Royal Clans, the more beneficial it would be to the scheme that would be played out later to lure them forth.

After using his Bluetooth earphones and giving the OS orders to continue using evasive measures while cruising, Su Mo went below from the main deck and came to a washroom on the first lower deck.

There were many supplies on Hope One. From food and drink to utility and entertainment items as well as maintenance supplies, Hong Kangcheng had stocked up an abundance of them.

However, Su Mo had emphasized that freshwater resources were the top priority.

On the ocean, if there were many people, it was imperative to think of a way to come up with a seawater filtration system and keep the previously-stored fresh water for emergency supplies in case of unforeseen events.

However, for Hope One—this strange beast with incredible cargo capacity—Su Mo had had no qualms about directly ordering the villagers to collect almost 500 tons of freshwater!

Even if the two adults and the four small ones on board were to use it indiscriminately, all that water would still be able to last for over a year!

Therefore, when he turned on the showerhead positioned in midair, Su Mo took an "extravagant" cold shower and washed off much of the tiredness from staying up all night.

The villagers' quarters had already been inhabited first by one adult and the four small ones.

Furthermore, because there were enough rooms, apart from Big Spark and Little Spark sharing one room, the others were able to have single-person accommodations.

At present, seeing that only Oreo had woken up and was lazily coming out to shake her head and clear her brain, Su Mo made a shushing expression, signaling her not to wake the others.

Latest by tomorrow and earliest by tonight, once Connie's scheme had been carried out successfully, Hope One would be able to display its combat capacity for carnage!

When that time came, Connie and Su Mo both had specific battle responsibilities.

As the main gunner, Su Mo, in particular, had the most important role!

Therefore, he could use "divine cultivation" to guarantee that his combat capabilities could still remain at peak level. However, as far as he and Connie were concerned, without enough sleep, their combat capabilities would definitely suffer a significant decline.

Seeing that the intelligent Oreo responded very rapidly by nodding her head and cleverly running up the stairs onto the main deck to keep watch, Su Mo did not stop but headed to the second lower deck to retrieve supplies.

After having eaten the meals prepared by the Hope Village cooks for a short month, Su Mo had not lost his touch at cookery when he suddenly had to switch to preparing his own meals again.

Collecting a few small steamed loaves of bread that had been prepared just yesterday by the village cooks, as well as a few vegetables in the cold storage area that were still considered fairly fresh, Su Mo went back to the kitchen and began getting busy.

Now that they were at sea, the psychic energy water would be used as battle supplies. Every liter used would be one liter less, so for this meal, Su Mo only added normal fresh water and seasonings.

However, the surprising thing was that both dishes—celery sauteed with garlic and red-braised eggplant—were quite delicious.

When combined with the soft, fragrant rice congee, even before Su Mo had called everyone to come to breakfast, the delicious aroma of the food wafted out from the kitchen and woke Moore up!

"Wow, Master, Moore enjoys eating Master's meals!"

Seeing that Moore looking as if he could not wait, Connie, off to one side, seemed to have completely revised what she knew of Su Mo as well, her leonine eyes sparkling.

Once everyone sat down for breakfast, the meal was simple. However, since it was the first meal they had eaten after setting out to sea, it was also a very hearty one.

After they had finished eating, seeing that Moore was already earnestly doing his old job and tidying up the stove along with Connie, Su Mo went back up onto the main deck with a smile.

"Everything on Hope One is fine, it just feels slightly unreal!

"The bow is obviously swaying from the waves, but when you stand up here, you can't feel it at all. It's just like I'm standing on flat land."

Hope One's current speed was more or less around 65 kilometers an hour, but there were no landmarks on the sea anywhere. Furthermore, with the ship's extreme length, it could not compare at all with steering 70 yards on land.

After observing for a while and finding that there were no problems at all with the OS-driven autopilot system, Su Mo slowly made his way to the Annihilator's inner room.

Since departure had been so hasty, there had been no chance to add on the talisman's simulation either, and Su Mo had had no time to test out the cannon.

If he really wanted to count, this cannon had never been fired even once.

After taking into consideration that there would be a big battle coming up and the Annihilator would be the most important weapon in combat, Su Mo rubbed his fists together, and his eyes lit up on this clear, sunny day in the wasteland!

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Chapter 348: Cannon Fire! The Path of Humans!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

Hope One had succeeded in breaking through the rare-quality limitations of the blueprint because of the modular shipyard and many supporting items.

However, at its current sub-legendary-quality, Hope One still did not have an advantage when going up against a rare-quality warship.

The disparity might even be big enough that Hope One would be blasted to smithereens without having had the chance to get anywhere near its opponent.

Levels had never been representative of true combat power!

Even though the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God was a nuclear bomb grade deity-level monster, it had still succumbed to the power of a rare-quality Dongfeng missile and perished in regret.

The biggest boon that tech weapons brought to humans was something frequently mentioned in fantasy stories…

Challenging those who were higher level than oneself!

"Throughout the three-dimensional universe, no, throughout the entire wasteland, the rules that one can control and manipulate are limited. It's just like shares; they can only be held under one person's name.

"Just like the immortals in the Huaxian myths—the thirty-six Heavenly Generals of the Heavenly Court and the seventy-two Earth Demons, all of whom banded together to fight evil—these positions are fixed, once someone ascends to them, the rest cannot do anything but watch.

"So, if the human race wants to change its fate in the future and not be controlled by others, as far as ordinary humans are concerned, technology is still the best weapon!"

As Su Mo walked toward the main gun turret housing the Annihilator, despite having stayed up all night, his thoughts had gone to some "off-topic matters" right after he had finished eating when his thoughts were most active.

Fantasy and traditional mythology on Earth often had only one main character who would ascend to immortality and promote his friends and companions as well.

However, very few novels—practically none, even—would write about the ordinary, low-caste nobodies from which the protagonist had started.

Nonetheless, one could not blame authors for not writing about these things. Instead, the problem lay in how the authors brought up this mode of cultivation and its entire logic, including the conception of the character's worldview.

In cultivation stories that easily spanned more than ten thousand years, why would ordinary commoners and cultivators with very low abilities still be condemned to a backward agricultural age after so long—to be born, to cultivate, and to die just like robots?

One could try to imagine—if human civilization developed continuously for ten thousand years uninterrupted, would they still remain on one planet and continue farming?

This sort of confined thinking caused these conceptualized worlds to be extremely unrealistic. It was better not to nitpick. If one really were to go online to do research, they would experience a sense that something was off, a "false reality".

However, there was one point that these stories conveyed with extreme accuracy.

Every clan and individual who wanted to develop would ultimately embark on the path of plunder and robbery.

If mankind truly wanted stability and to be in control of their destiny, rather than randomly transmigrated and destroyed by a game like this, they would still ultimately go the way of "invading to better oneself".

"Someday, if I could lead the entire human race to invade the lands of the foreign races—rush into the home of all these masterminds behind the scene and target a human "gun barrel" right at their doors, that would really be very interesting indeed.

"However, I don't know if I'll actually be able to witness the grand scene on that day with the several decades I have left!"

Su Mo pushed open the armory door and looked at the floor that was piled high with ammunition, apart from what was in the warehouse. The pressure he felt suddenly lifted, and he began laughing heartily.

Ultimately, mankind's fear stemmed from the unknown and insufficient firepower.

If the human race could possess space weapons and planetary skills when going up against the wasteland and the foreign races right now—or perhaps even the mystical dual vector foil from the famous novel, The Three-Body Problem, or other such fourth-dimensional technology—there was no need to even talk about the Five Royal Clans. Even the game itself would be like a nude dancer with entirely no secrets to speak of.

As one of mankind's current leading powerhouses, Su Mo suddenly had a realization about his future path, almost as if he had experienced an epiphany.

He had to come up with a plan to save everyone（）

He had to stimulate human civilization and develop potential（）

Essentially speaking, protecting everyone's lives and safety was merely "saving them" in the narrowest sense of the word.

Although this way of saving them could solve everyone's current predicament, it would not benefit mankind's actual future at all.

The foreign races were a scourge, a malignant tumor that had to be further controlled.

The disasters, on the other hand, were not. For the present moment, at least, they were considered "benign" to some extent.

Through the disasters, humans could rapidly complete the survival of the fittest and force their own potential to burst forth.

In the early stages, these kinds of "wounds" brought immense suffering that was very hard for mankind to bear.

However, once they had weathered through, human civilization would be like a "flame" covered up by ashes; it would certainly burn even more intensely than before!

As the person who would uncover the ashes, Su Mo's task was very simple.

He had to charge forward!

He had to help mankind see the path ahead!

He had to utterly break open the prison that confined all of mankind's thoughts and cognition!

He had to enable people like Sun Xian—ordinary people on Earth who would have initially continued being typical—to grow continuously under pressure and let the sparks of thought and creativity blossom!

Only by doing this would mankind truly be able to make this genuine, smallest of "sacrifices" in exchange for a bright "future".

Su Mo felt a wave of gratitude overcome him as he picked up the ammunition scattered on the floor.

The transformation of human thought was not something that would only manifest at a specific time or date.

It was just like great figures in history—some were "enlightened" when they were fifty or sixty years old, and some already were aware of their "innate nature" when they were only ten years of age.

In just two short months, they could go from knowing absolutely nothing to knowing everything.

This might just have been the main reason why the mysterious system had chosen him!

Su Mo manually inserted ammunition into the loading tray of the Annihilator. When he looked at the operation panel that popped up in front of him, he felt delighted, and his work quickened slightly as well.

He tapped buttons in the proper order and watched as a large lock icon slowly appeared. Once it had unlocked, Su Mo began focusing his attention.

The Annihilator had two firing modes.

The first was controlled by a smart system. However, in this respect, he had obtained the Annihilator too late.

Furthermore, there had not been enough time to create a fire control system for the cannon, so other than being able to transmit target coordinates, the OS was basically unable to affect the Annihilator at all.

The second mode was what Su Mo was doing right now—firing manually.

The OS would first send the location of the target to the cannon's operating system. After obtaining the coordinates, the operator sitting in the gun room would have to manually aim at the targeted coordinates.

In the process, if there were any changes to the coordinates, then the gunner would have to make adjustments as quickly as possible.

Of course, an excellent gunner might be able to assess the situation in advance, but as far as Moore was concerned, Su Mo only required one thing of him.

To be able to shoot wherever he was directed to shoot!

After the coordinates and location had been calibrated, a red button cover would pop open to the right of the operation platform.

A safety button would rise in this area. Once it was pressed, the firing button on the handle would connect in real-time to the firing system.

Just like in a video game, pressing the button once would fire one round.

Pressing and holding onto the button would continuously fire rounds up to 140 rounds per minute from this cannon!

"OS, do a radar sweep within 50 kilometers and search for an obstacle that can be fired at.

"Make sure that there are absolutely no signs of life in its vicinity!"

After giving a string of commands through his Bluetooth earphones, Su Mo waited patiently.

In the meantime, Moore and Connie arrived at the gun room after cleaning up the breakfast utensils. They sat behind Su Mo obediently and stared at the operation panel.

For the lightning bear clan, the logic behind operating this weapon was not hard to understand.

Furthermore, with the psychic energy water's aid in unlocking his intelligence, what Moore lacked was merely actual combat experience,?just like Su Mo.

Five minutes.

Ten minutes.

Seconds and minutes ticked by until the fourteenth minute when the OS dutifully transmitted a set of coordinates.

Meanwhile, the Annihilator's system panel also received a corresponding map, as well as information on the location of the target.

"Moore, watch carefully. Use this to calibrate the horizontal coordinate, and use this to adjust the vertical coordinate. For direction, use this button!"

After learning the entire process in his dreams through memory transmission, Su Mo had already fired more than a hundred rounds on this cannon.

Currently, after obtaining the coordinates, this was a routine he performed with ease; there was nothing unfamiliar about it at all.

However, there were some differences when it came to operating the cannon in the wasteland.

Specifically, it was the effect of the artillery shells!

The main cannon on this Level 1 destroyer used a 32-kilogram shell with a blast radius of approximately 150 meters.

However, Su Mo had used the workstation to manually pack the gunpowder and had manually cast the shell casings with the forge.

Even if the contents of the shell weighed 32 kilograms together with the casing, it was mixed in with TnT that had been infused with psychic energy water, so its explosive power had already been increased by more than 50%!

Using the incremental change of the blast radius for calculation, the maximum range of the shell's explosive power might be around 300 meters. One would know the true meaning of "fear" once the round was fired!

As he watched Moore nodding his head, Su Mo's heart dropped slightly. He pressed the safety button with his left hand while gripping the handle with his right.

In response, a retractable lens dropped down in front of the operation panel. By putting one's eye to it, one would be able to see the view of the outside world that the OS transmitted.

Right now, at around seven-thirty in the wasteland, the sea had already turned a shimmering blue.

Together with clear skies and calm weather, it was a great day to practice shooting!

At the same time, guided by the OS's enlarged screen simulation, Su Mo could vaguely make out today's target—a small hill 3.5 kilometers away from them.

Of course, if one considered that the water had already risen to 14.2 meters above sea level, this small hill was actually quite sizeable on land.

"Moore, pay attention and watch how I operate this!

"Connie, get ready. I'm going to fire!"

Su Mo bellowed his instructions. After hearing the sound of the Annihilator locking onto his target, he swiftly pressed down with his finger, just like how he had fired the Dongfeng Missile back in the day.

The next second, the force of a powerful recoil suddenly sent the entire ship lurching back!

Even the comfort properties of the ship lost some of their functions at this moment. Su Mo could feel a trace of a jolt from the sea as he sat in his seat.

The larger the caliber of a cannon, the more terrifying the recoil would be. The ship would need to have sufficient tonnage to withstand such a kickback and achieve a precise accuracy rate.

Even though on Earth there was no lack of classic works about "small ships with large cannons", a 130mm main cannon like this would usually be installed on a 150-meter destroyer. Only tonnage like this coupled with the corresponding muzzle brake system would be able to suppress the recoil.

"Not bad. Thankfully Hope One is a sub-legendary-quality ship with entries and strong foundational properties. Besides, even though my ship is only 80 meters long, its tonnage is not small at all!"

Su Mo stared at the image transmitted back by the OS and saw a sudden flare erupting from the hill in the distance. Even if the gun room was extremely soundproof and basically no explosion could be heard, Su Mo could imagine the immense power of this shell!

"OS, turn and go to this position. I want to see how the firepower is!"

Excited, Su Mo beckoned Connie to follow him—she was still covering her ears, waiting for him to "fire". He then quickly went back up to the main deck.

The sky was azure, and the sea was a deep blue.

The moment he got to the main deck, Su Mo could smell the obvious scent of gun smoke as the sea breeze blew toward him!

As Hope One continued cruising swiftly through the waters, the hill that had been the recipient of the explosion was already very near and within sight!

"Shit, the damage is just utterly outrageous!"

With RDX as the primer, the moment it connected with its target to the second it exploded, the approximately 15 pounds of TnT force contained within the artillery shell detonated completely!

The hill that had been visible on the screen before was now gone!

In its place was nothing but blazing flames that even the ocean could not extinguish.

The explosion radius had more than exceeded expectations. Based on just a rough estimation, Su Mo calculated that the explosion had a terrifying 350-meter radius!

He sucked in his breath sharply.

Seeing the blazing flames that were billowing black smoke, Connie rubbed her eyes and drew a deep breath before Su Mo could make a detailed scrutiny of the actual damage dealt to the hill.

"Lea-Leader…

"That round… the explosive power of the shell is so frightening—its power… its energy power level has already exceeded 15!

"Not only that, I just need to lightly press the button to fire it…

"It's far too enjoyable, shooting this!"

Connie stuttered because she was still in shock, but the energy power level she spoke of piqued Su Mo's interest.

"Energy power level? You lions can also sense how powerful these weapons are?"

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Chapter 349: Starting To Plan, The Terrible Conditions On The Ocean

A long time ago, Su Mo had daringly speculated in the Underground Shelter that the foreign races had a hierarchy in regards to these mystical powers.

Specific to the already-exterminated kobolds was the fact that the power of the fireballs cast by the Kobold Mages was all different.

Some of the Mages had been able to blast a crater the size of a human head, but some could only manage a crater slightly bigger than two fists put together.

Even though the disparity between the two groups had not been very obvious, that little detail had not escaped the attentive Su Mo's observation. Furthermore, he had filed it away in his mind.

However, when he heard Connie's mention of energy power levels, his curiosity was piqued once more.

"Yes, Chief. We foreign races are completely capable of sensing whether our opponent's energy and power levels are high or low. This method of evaluating our opponents is already naturally in our Inherited Memories.

"Not only that, the more powerful the opponent, the higher their status, so we can sense their energy power levels more accurately and detect them sooner.

"In the past, I might have needed to touch the area under attack to sense the actual energy power level of this artillery shell, but now that I have the status of a Saintess, I can just look at the affected area and identify the energy power level."

Connie swallowed quietly and began waxing eloquent.

Although Connie's abilities had not been significantly improved after she obtained her position as the Saintess of the Oreo clan, it was obvious that in other areas she had advanced substantially by leaps and bounds.

"The fireballs cast by the Kobold Mages from before were between 0.1 to 0.3 in terms of power level. They were no match for us lions; even if they held an advantage on the battlefield, they wouldn't have been able to withstand our onslaught.

"Because they were aided by those humans, however, the fireballs that their ordinary Mages cast were able to reach a power level of 0.8. The powerful ones could even get to 1!

"As for the white-robed kobold from before, the large fireball he cast in the end had a power level of approximately 10 or so. Of course, that fireball of his can't compare to that shell you fired just now, Chief. Once energy and power levels reach 10, every time energy goes up 1 level, the power of the damage inflicted always increases by leaps and bounds.

"You could even say that trying to get from 10 to 15 is no less difficult than getting from 1-10 one hundred times."

Su Mo asked, "What about your wind magic then? Can other foreign races sense the energy levels of a power that doesn't directly affect opponents?"

Connie shook her head. "That won't work. We can only assess when there's a weapon or a power that can inflict damage. This ability is intended as a means of survival. Once we sense the energy level of our opponent's attack, we'll fight if we can go up against it—if we can't, we'll flee."

A means of survival?

After hearing what Connie had to say, Su Mo was stunned for a moment as he suddenly remembered the moment he blasted the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God with the Dongfeng Missile.

Back then, when he fired the missile, the Heavenly Dog Pseudo God did not feel threatened at all, nor did it display any signs of fear.

It was only when the missile closed in that it had a reaction and began fleeing.

At the time, there was nothing surprising about this, but in hindsight, there definitely seemed to be something fishy going on.

Was there a hidden secret within that particular interaction?

As soon as Su Mo thought that there might be a loophole or bug to be exploited, the gears in his head began turning.

"In that case, since your ability is for survival, why doesn't it let you sense power levels the moment your opponent makes their move, rather than after the attack?

"What if you really can't withstand the incoming power? Wouldn't you just die, then?"

This question really "hit the spot". Su Mo watched as Connie went into a "that's right, what good would that do" stretch of pondering. He smiled but did not pursue the matter further.

The talents of the foreign races were not hard to understand.

However, just like right now, when part of their abilities was suddenly neutralized and cut off, it became extremely peculiar.

In the hands of ordinary foreign races, an excellent skill like being able to evaluate the power of an opponent's attack had turned into something whereby energy power levels could only be sensed after taking a hit.

A change like this had rendered this ability meaningless in a lot of situations.

"Study the matter well. Once you can discover why all these abilities have become so odd, I believe you won't be that far away from your true god at that point!"

After taking a good look at the "pitiful sight" which was the hill, Su Mo patted Connie's shoulder even as her face took on a conflicted expression. He ordered the OS to proceed along the target's location while making his way back to the captain's quarters.

For now, studying all these confusing and complicated matters could wait until they reached the New World.

However, Su Mo had to plan and prepare well for the foreign race live broadcast stream that Connie planned to start at 4 p.m.

Currently, the disaster announcement stated that on the day after tomorrow, after a second composite small disaster, marine creatures would descend into the world.

Within 108 hours, all 575 trillion tons of marine life would be completely deposited here in the swiftest possible manner.

After that, within the following 10 days, about 50 million marine foreign races would be deposited batch by batch.

This meant that the game was giving the humans and other foreign races on the sea a 3-day "safety" and "adaptation" period.

"In the data given out by Pei Shao previously, the first group's strength-based foreign races should be the fastest of them all. The second group of insect military is not slow either, so both parties can be considered the frontline assault team.

"The third group of mixed foreign races is the only one that is the slowest, so I have to let this third group know my location. I also need to make sure these three groups of foreign races arrive at the same time, while "involuntarily" letting the ship drift along!"

Su Mo fumbled with the hand-drawn map and coordinates on the table, dishing out calculations in his brain while utilizing the computing power of the OS.

During the Age of Sail in the Middle Ages, using this sort of complicated data to calculate a set of coordinates like this was extremely difficult.

However, with the help of modern computing powers, in less than three minutes, Su Mo acquired the "coordinates" of what could possibly be the scene of the final battle!

This location was 145 kilometers southeast of the first navigation point.

As long as Hope One reached the navigation point first, then informed the mixed troops of Hope One's location, the OS could control the speed of the ship so that the third group of foreign races would almost be able to catch up, but never manage it.

As for the other two groups, prior to receiving the order to capture Old Devil Su, they would certainly also have been directed to blockade and intercept Hope One.

At the appointed time, even though there would be some setbacks on the way, with the radar's 50-kilometer search radius, Su Mo was absolutely confident that all three groups would be within firing range.

"The only problem left now is how to inform this motley group of fighters about my—no, Connie's location.

"The solution to this problem isn't too difficult.

"We could try using a round of special effects perhaps?"

Previously, there had only been two thousand kobolds and more than half their treasure chests had been destroyed by the white-robed kobold.

This time, however, there were more than 23 thousand ordinary foreign races and almost 30 of their leaders.

Going by the white-robed kobold's level, the chests dropped by these leaders would be at least silver to start with. If luck was a little better, there was a very good chance that a round of gold chests might be dropped.

At the thought of being able to immediately annihilate this group of foreign races with over 20 thousand individuals and obtain tons of chests Su Mo—who had just lay down on the bed—could not help feeling excited.

If one was putting up a show, one had to go all the way to prevent any unforeseen circumstances from cropping up when the plan was about to be implemented.

Su Mo pulled up the game panel and carefully issued a round of instructions to Chen Shen.

The first thing was to get some villagers who had never bought anything from the trading market before to go buy some fireworks—ones that had a higher degree of visibility in the daytime.

At the same time, Su Mo did not hesitate either in instructing Chen Shen to buy three to five sets of different "animal costumes" that people could wear.

No one would suspect a thing if the villagers purchased these items.

As long as they managed to complete the trade and then set Su Mo as the vendor of those items after they had made private transactions, Su Mo would be able to obtain those supplies without anyone knowing.

After that, when the foreign races realized what was going on and wanted to pursue an investigation, Su Mo would have already rescued his sister so there would be no impediments at all. Connie would also not be exposed among the foreign races as the humans' lackey!

After putting his plan together, realizing that it was watertight in all respects and he only needed to close the net, Su Mo forced himself to close his eyes and put aside all his random, scattered thoughts.

War was in the offing, so his mental state was very important. Even with the psychic energy water to refresh his spirit, he still could not escape the exhaustion from staying up all night.

When Su Mo closed his eyes, ready for another sleepless night, a wave of drowsiness hit him all of a sudden.

With that kind of fatigue, it did not take more than a moment before the sound of Su Mo's snoring slowly began echoing through the captain's quarters.

Su Mo was sound asleep.

On their side, the villagers swiftly went into action after receiving Su Mo's messages.

From yesterday night until today, Su Mo was not the only one who lost sleep. Even the villagers at Iron Rock Mountain were all in an excited state of mind.

To the villagers who were extremely deprived of entertainment in the wasteland, the existence of the live broadcast streams was as if they found treasure. Even elderly men would browse through the streams all night long.

Of course, these various ships of varying odd shapes and sizes not only allowed the villagers to see a diverse spectrum of humans on the wasteland ocean but also made them realize why the game had given them a three-day adaptation period!

Before yesterday, the majority of the villagers actually did not object very much to going to sea. Instead, they were rather excited.

Everyone had had enough of being confined on this stretch of land!

Their Huaxian genes compelled them to be impatient to travel to a new place—to farm on a new patch of land and rebuild their homes.

However, after waking up this morning, even though everyone was busily discussing at breakfast what they had seen and heard yesterday, the topic of going to sea had utterly vanished by tacit agreement!

No one mentioned going to sea!

No one wanted to venture out to sea either!

There was just one reason for this…

Seasickness!

This might have sounded somewhat ridiculous, but if one pulled up the World Channel and looked at the complaints for just ten minutes, they would realize how life-threatening this issue was!

When everyone had set sail yesterday, quite a few people were still excitedly thinking about the arrival of sea creatures three days later and that they would have endless seafood to eat!

However, reality was very cruel. After embarking on their voyage for more than eight hours, all these opinions disappeared entirely.

In their place, instead, were…

Complaints and grievances!

According to data models given by statisticians on Earth, among the freighters that sailed in calmer areas of the Earth's seas, 80% of the crew would experience a certain degree of seasickness. This could happen even to experienced sailors with more than 10 years of experience.

Adapting to this sort of dizzy sensation and getting used to being tossed about on the ocean would take new sailors at least two to three weeks if they adjusted fast—three to five months if they did not.

Everyone had imagined that they would be able to get quickly used to the ocean the moment it arrived.

However, steering a wooden raft while drifting through the ocean and still managing to maintain fighting form was basically completely unrealistic.

Therefore, on the first day of the ocean disaster, more than 90% of the people had some kind of reaction after being at sea for the entire night.

Around 65% of people experienced mild symptoms.

These people collectively experienced a loss of appetite in the morning, soreness all over their bodies, and intense headaches that felt worse than the seasickness itself.

Under circumstances like these, since there was no medicine to take, they could only force themselves to drink water and lie down in an open area on deck. They let the ocean breeze wash over them and emptied their minds.

The remaining 25% experienced far more serious symptoms.

The less serious ones would vomit until their bodies spasmed and shivered. They had to wear quite a few layers of clothing or wrap themselves in blankets to maintain their body temperature.

These people could not even drink a sip of water. Even a small bit of something that entered their stomachs would be violently vomited out in three to five seconds.

The more serious cases would vomit bile after throwing up everything in their system from yesterday.

Their entire bodies would respond as if they had had an allergic reaction and their immune system would experience a sharp decline. Only by locating a flat area and lying down could they barely survive.

Sadly, in times like this where medicine was scarce, there was basically no other way out apart from having to endure when things like that happened,

Therefore, after watching how wretched these people were, the villagers were secretly thankful that they did not have to venture out to sea and experience this sort of suffering.

Besides, they were also worried about Su Mo!

"Shit, that boat with the least number of viewers on the live broadcast stream last night had at least five people in it. Damn it, our Chief only has one."

"Doesn't he have Connie and Moore? Can't they look after the Chief?"

"Are you stupid? Bears and lions experience seasickness too. It'd be considered fairly good already if they don't allow the Chief to take care of them; you're expecting them to take care of him?"

"Gosh, what should we do then? If I'd known, I would have gone with the Chief—at least I would be able to help him out a little!"

"Sigh, we can only hope that Hope One is big enough it won't rock that much at sea."

"Chief is amazing, he's sure to have a way to combat seasickness!"

…

There were many discussions like this during breakfast.

Everyone was extremely anxious, but some could not express their worry. They could only suppress their emotions and quietly pray for a miracle so that Su Mo could get through this.

Therefore, even though Chen Shen did not elaborate on exactly what Su Mo had instructed after receiving his message, the villagers in Iron Rock Mountain could not help but rejoice.

Chen Shen quickly delegated and organized the purchases they made while Iron Rock Mountain was currently loaded with supplies.

Armed with Su Mo's orders, the villagers who bought the resources did not haggle over the price. Instead, they simply acquired the things that Su Mo told them to.

Furthermore, Chen Shen had instructed that every villager should only buy one item so that it would not alert the sellers in the slightest.

After everything was done and Chen Shen had put the purchased wares back onto the private trading platform, everyone temporarily set aside their worries about Su Mo.

Of course, the people in the World Channel and even the villagers had no idea that Su Mo, whom they were so worried about…

Was now sleeping ever so soundly despite experiencing insomnia last night as per their expectations!

In fact, he was even snoring!

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Chapter 350: Another Upgrade, The Perfect Disguise!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

As the saying went—comfort, curiosity, and copulation were the primary production forces of mankind.

If one were to look at things from the perspective of fire usage, fire-making technology was developed for survival by people of those times. That was the most basic human need which had to be solved.

From the perspective of food, the invention of various seasonings had resolved the human demand for delicious flavors.

Since manual work was inefficient and tiring, humans invented machinery as a substitute for using their hands, which not only greatly improved efficiency but also freed humans from a lot of predicaments.

Since human calculating efficiency was too low, mankind also invented computers to substitute for the human brain, which helped them complete many tedious tasks.

Therefore, on this grand occasion of wasteland shipbuilding, now that everyone had abandoned the need for 'comfort', the first wave of responses was hard to believe.

Su Mo slept comfortably until two o'clock in the afternoon. It was only when he was lying in his comfortable, warm bed and browsing routinely through the World Channel that he discovered the terrible situation that the ordinary humans were currently facing.

At seven or eight in the morning, when all the villagers of Hope Village checked the news, they could still find one or two serious threads talking about actual important things amid the overwhelming complaints, albeit with difficulty.

However, at this point in the afternoon, after the sun blazed overhead, Su Mo checked for nearly twenty minutes, but he could not see a single serious piece of news.

"Last night, I thought that Sun Xian's wooden raft with its tires was the most primitive boat, and the ride experience was extremely bad.

"Now, though, it seems that these large sand ships aren't any better. Over a dozen people are crowded into a space of less than ten square meters, and you can't even stretch out to go to sleep. These conditions are really far too awful!"

Like the notorious slave trade of years past, everybody's current situation in the wasteland was no better than it had been in those days!

In other words, it was the previous expectations about going to sea which had caused humans to be optimistic. This had led to the current disparity between their views and what was actually going on, which made it very hard to accept reality.

Setting out to sea and being on a ship was not like playing "survival on a raft". It took much more than just a click of the mouse or typing on the keyboard to travel on the ocean.

Seasickness could really…

Cause death!

The instinctive reaction, when faced with such extremes in terms of space and passengers, was that one's experience of traveling on a ship swiftly went downhill.

Currently, in the World Channel, most of the people complaining were passengers on the sand ships.

In contrast, the raft—a conveyance formatted using a system core—highlighted certain advantages, as well as the reason for the game's selection.

It was open and ventilated on all sides, and the people sailing on it could focus, immersing themselves body and soul into drifting on the sea.

This was the same as car drivers not getting motion sick. With this kind of mental concentration, the symptoms of seasickness would be greatly reduced, and it was possible to resume a normal life.

On the other end, however, the sand ship's tonnage was insufficient, and it was extremely difficult for air circulation to occur in the lower watertight deck.

Under such circumstances, even people who were not seasick would feel dizzy due to the accumulation of carbon dioxide and the reduction of oxygen after staying on board for a while.

In this case, never mind combat—if one could even pick up weapons and rush out, one would be considered in good physical condition.

"This won't do. I need to find a way to ask Shen Ke what the situation is on Tundra One!"

The more one was concerned about something, the more frantic one would feel!

After arriving on deck, Su Mo took delivery of Chen Shen's supplies and sent back a message saying that everything was fine. He then looked at Shen Ke's avatar and began quietly murmuring.

Having taken into consideration that Hope One's position could not be exposed for the time being, Su Mo texted his question after carefully phrasing it.

On the other end, Shen Ke was not surprised by this. About five minutes later, he transmitted over a piece of good news.

Like ordinary ships, Tundra One had also encountered seasickness on a large scale.

However, a ship of the line was over ten times more stable than a sand ship.

Coupled with the 150 seats reserved previously, Tundra One had enough space and places for these 'sick passengers' to rest.

In addition to this, because Tundra One was an official ship, they were notified in time the minute the seasickness flared up.

In the early stages, the medical staff on board gave some degree of treatment to the individuals who were seasick.

At the same time, Tundra One did not raise its sails and head to the battle location at full speed but drifted slowly on the sea instead. This allowed everyone to adapt to the motion of the water first.

Therefore, after about half a day, Tundra One's condition was considerably better than that of the ordinary shelters!

"Gaze into the distance, take a deep breath and relax, and find a position in the middle of the ship…

"But it's still best to try and find some medicine for seasickness?"

When he saw the message that Shen Ke sent over, Su Mo logged into the market curiously and searched for the currently available stock for seasickness pills.

The main reason for seasickness was that on a ship without windows, everyone could feel they were moving, but they were unable to see it.

The inner ear communicated this information to the brain, which sensed the movement, but the eyes were telling the brain that everything was stationary.

This inconsistency led the brain to conclude that:

[I am hallucinating! Toxic substances cause hallucinations! I have ingested toxic substances! I have to spit it out! (Legendary logic)]

It was because of this logic that corresponding seasickness medicines had been developed.

Everyone had different theories—some medicines functioned on the same principle as ginger, some could numb the nerves in the intestines, and some could suppress the alarm signals in the intestines and stomach, but the final effects were still related to the brain.

It was difficult to produce chemicals that affected the brain safely from scratch, so most of the stock on the market had been obtained from treasure chests.

"One unit of seasickness medicine that can be used for half a day costs 200 catties of food. That's not too expensive, and for those who need it, that's definitely not an issue.

"After taking seasickness medicine, however, there's no way to train one's ability to adapt to motion on the sea. If one wishes to slowly accustom one's body to seasickness, one will still have to endure and go through it.

"Therefore, during the adaptation period given to everyone in this game, the medication has become an Achilles' heel instead."

Su Mo nodded slightly as he unpacked the fireworks and animal costumes and laid them out.

This time, even merchants did not dare to re-sell seasickness medication. The profit was low, the risks were high, and if the medicines were used for investment, they might very well depreciate while still in the hands of the sellers.

Of course, if someone could develop a cheap seasickness medicine that could be supplied in large quantities—despite the difficulty of being able to corner a market of billions of people—it was highly likely that they would be able to obtain an astronomical amount of resources, as long as the first wave of the drug could be manufactured in time.

"It's such a pity that there are no such corresponding apparatus and talents in the village. It would be quite difficult to ask them to research this.

"Most of them have free time, though, so it's possible to let them try. On the off-chance that they're actually able to develop something, even if it's only of minimal use, it's more than enough to gather in a lot of money!

"Not only that, it will be of huge help to the human race!"

After taking all the items out and piling them on the ground, Su Mo pulled up the game panel again after a moment of thought and signed permission for Chen Shen to use the materials in the village.

When researching and developing seasickness medicine, Hope Village could use up to 20% of its materials to study this topic.

Of course, it was best if a seasickness medicine could be developed. If that were not possible, these materials could also be used to cultivate a wave of "high-level talents" that might appear in the village.

It could be considered killing two birds with one stone!

After sending out the instructions, the OS reported that Hope One was about to arrive at the first navigation point.

On the radar, Su Mo was already able to 'see' the scouts sent out by the third group of foreign races. He paused for a split second, and his preparations quickened.

If one wanted fireworks to be seen by people dozens of kilometers away, in addition to the sound, one would need to light the entire sky up with a fireworks display.

Therefore, this time, the villagers had purchased mostly single fireworks that could be shot up to 200 meters high. Although the colors and patterns might not be very appealing, they were certainly eye-catching.

Once six o'clock rolled around, the sky would darken, and they could proceed to set off the fireworks.

Since there were no obstacles on the wasteland ocean to block one's view, even if half the foreign races in this third group were blind, they would definitely be able to see the display.

On his end, Chen Shen obviously understood what Su Mo wanted to do with the animal costumes used for disguise, so he had not chosen merely one kind.

There were currently three garments on the ground, comprised of the following.

A pale yellow "Simba" outfit.

A light black "tiger" outfit.

The last was a very Western fantasy-style "mermaid" costume.

These three outfits should all have been cosplay outfits that had been found in treasure chests. Although they looked remarkably realistic, traces of human handiwork were still evident.

From a distance, they looked fine, but if the live broadcast started, there would most certainly be a problem.

"If we're going to put up a show, we need to go all out.

"It's definitely too late for me to make changes on the spot, but…

"I have the system!"

Since yesterday had been a successful launch when heading out to sea, 3100 additional points had been given out today, which restored Su Mo's survival points to 14000 points.

Su Mo was confident, therefore, he did not hesitate. Using his mind, he scanned the entire outfit that was on the ground, the costume for cosplay Simba.

The next second, a green light flickered, and a pleasing properties panel appeared.

[Animal Cosplay Outfit]

[Description: This is a costume used for cosplaying Lion King Simba.

[First upgrade option: Perfect cosplay outfit: Upgrades the material of the costume and improves its appearance. Enhances one's charm slightly when wearing the outfit; survival points required (120).

[Second upgrade option: Specially-designed prop outfit: Improves the material and realism of the costume, improves the experience of wearing it to a slight degree. Enhances the thermal properties slightly. When worn, it will give an extremely realistic effect when seen from a distance or when used with special effects;

Flaws: When facing real lions, there is a high possibility of being regarded as an enemy, survival points required (525).

[Third upgrade option: Male lion costume: Completely realistic, all materials are obtained from an actual 'male lion'. Significantly enhances the outfit's verisimilitude, significantly enhances domination over ordinary lions, and reduces the wearer's range of motion slightly. The outfit has a built-in automatic voice alteration device, which can simulate a corresponding lion's roar as necessity dictates, survival points needed (1060).

Flaws: Upon wearing it, there will be a very high possibility of attracting the enmity of male lions and the favor of lionesses; difficult to preserve.

[Comment: Once it's worn, any place where the sun shines is our kingdom!

"Goodness, it's been a really long time since I've seen an item that can be upgraded with only a few hundred points.

"It's such a pleasure to see that I can upgrade it to whatever I want with only 1000 points!"

After having gotten used to spending more than 5000 or 6000 points, or even 10 thousand points to significantly upgrade items, once he looked at this cosplay outfit, Su Mo was very relieved to see that even the most expensive third option only required 1000 points for an upgrade. He immediately chose that option.

The difficulty of preserving the costume was not a big problem; he just had to put it in the cold storage area after use. Anyway, the outfit would not be worn more than a few times.

The key was the level of verisimilitude. If the costume could truly look as real as an actual lion, then Su Mo's plan this time might be able to wipe out all the foreign races once and for all. Until their dying day, they still might not realize that the person behind all this was actually the one that they had been longing to run into…

Old Devil Su!

The 1000 point upgrade was extremely fast. The system had already completed the overall upgrade in merely 3 to 5 seconds after Su Mo's selection.

The furry outfit lying on the ground was gone, replaced by a sleek fur pelt that reflected the sunlight.

Putting his hand on this evolved Simba costume, Su Mo could even feel a touch of warmth—a trace of body heat that really came from a "lion"!

Moreover, the system was also very knowledgeable with regards to this costume. It had not altered the outfit into one where the lion was on all fours but had instead transformed it into a costume whereby one could walk upright like a lion king.

After putting on the pelt and sensing a barely perceptible stench of lions, Su Mo betrayed no disgust. Instead, he immediately picked up the headpiece on the ground.

"Hey, even right in front of me like this, it nearly fooled me into thinking it was real!"

As soon as he turned the headpiece over, he saw that it was extremely realistic. Not only was the mane several times bigger than that of a male lion, but even the depiction of the face highlighted how awesomely cool this headpiece was.

Although Su Mo was already mentally prepared, he was still startled enough to take a step back.

Displayed on this lion man's countenance was not only the unswerving determination and wisdom that normal lion people could not see, but also a set of claw scars on the side of its face. No matter how one chose to view it, this looked like a veteran warrior.

Not only that, once he put the headpiece on, only two words could describe Su Mo once he had donned the outfit, his muscles very apparent.

Lion King!

Objectively speaking, wearing a cosplay outfit in the 30-degree wasteland weather could be considered a kind of torture.

Yet, standing in front of the bridge and looking at his reflection in the glass…

Su Mo felt instead that his whole body seemed to be blessed by this suit, and he could not wait to rush out and get into actual "hand-to-hand combat"!

"Everything is ready now,?roar, all but one small crucial thing!

"Now we just have to wait until four o'clock and let Connie start the live broadcast. Roar! Maybe I'll be able to appear on camera then!"

Sitting in the captain's seat like a boss and watching the red dots appearing as the radar scanned the area, the lion-garbed Su Mo quietly clenched his fists, and killing intent began to surge up in his heart!

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My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! #Chapter 351 - Premiere! Oscar Night! - Read My Post-Apocalyptic Shelter Levels Up Infinitely! Chapter 351 - Premiere! Oscar Night! Online - All Page - Novel Next

Chapter 351: Premiere! Oscar Night!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

In Hong Kong movies on Earth, it was quite common to see gangsters all wearing masks when they were committing crimes.

Su Mo had once thought that these people put on masks only to cover their faces so it would be easier to carry out their operations.

Now, however, after putting on this Simba the Lion King costume, as more and more "audacious" tactics and schemes surged out of his brain, he finally came to a realization.

One would still be oneself—a human—before putting on things like masks and costumes.

Under the constraints of morality and rules, one had to suppress the animal nature in one's heart.

However, after putting on this costume, everything changed!

The darkness and violence in one's heart would be stirred up by this disguise that appeared to be separated from oneself by merely a layer of "skin"!

The base desires concealed within one's inner "animal" would burst out with unbridled recklessness like Coke with Mentos added to it!

"In Pei Shao's previous explorations…

"The perimeter of each foreign race's activity is within 80 kilometers of the assembly point. Roar, even after the ocean disaster, all the foreign races are still maintaining this good "habit" it seems!"

The voice alteration device built into the cosplay outfit worked in a very peculiar fashion—it would randomly convert a meaningless syllable into a roar to enhance the realistic effect.

After getting used to the roar that emerged from time to time, Su Mo's heart calmed slightly, and he quickly began to plot how the whole scheme would be carried out.

The radar map on the screen showed that the nearest scout from the third group of foreign races was 27 kilometers away from Hope One.

Su Mo was not sure if these foolish foreign races would be able to see the fireworks if they were released from this location, so he had to wait.

Until four o'clock when evening came.

Until the moment when fireworks began bursting into the air over the ocean!

Until this display signaling "death" could be seen even if they were dozens of kilometers away!

Before that, however…

"Chief Mate Moore, Second Officer Oreo, Third Officer Connie, roar, roar, please come to the war room quickly. I have a mission for you three!"

Picking up the small square box on the steering panel which could connect to the loudspeaker, Su Mo pressed the button and gave the order in a low growl.

At the same time, all the combat agents and general mechanics who were charging their power on the lowest deck also received the same orders from the OS. They filed neatly up to the deck through the stairs on the ground floor and lined up to wait for their orders.

There were no humans on Hope One, which was both an advantage and a disadvantage!

The bad thing was that if a battle started before the vertical missile launcher system was utilized, Hope One's face-to-face covering fire would not be as good as a deck full of people with machine guns in their hands.

However, this disadvantage was more than offset by the advantages in comparison.

No humans meant that there would not be a strain on resources to support hundreds of people, and there was no need to worry about any defectors exposing Hope One.

Mechanics and agents would carry out Su Mo's orders unconditionally. Furthermore, because of their machine programming, they would be more reliable and efficient than humans when there was sufficient power.

In terms of firepower, Moore's heavy artillery coverage could also make up for Hope One's lack of lethal damage ability.

On top of that, with Oreo's scouting and Connie's "foreign race' disguise", no matter how one looked at it, Hope One could be considered a "hexagonal ship"!

All they needed was a suitable position to fight. With Hope One's speed, these invading foreign races would fully experience the might of human tactics!

"Chief… Something's not right, the roar just now seemed like…"

Connie arrived the fastest out of the group of three.

Because of her running movements, from Su Mo's viewpoint, Connie looked as if she were almost rolling and crawling as she rushed up—she had obviously been somewhat startled.

However, the next second, when Connie charged around the corner and was about to climb the stairs to the war room, she suddenly saw someone sitting inside…

A male lion?

? ? ?

In an instant, Connie felt herself growing "wet".

This was not an animal estrus response, but the fear reaction that a lower-ranked female lion in a pride would naturally experience when facing a powerful male lion.

"His" eyes were full of aggression and tyranny.

As "he" sat there, even though he did not move, it seemed as if he would pounce on her any time the next moment and "devour" her!

The lion man sitting inside was so powerful that Connie's entire body involuntarily retreated, trying to defend herself against the coercive force of his domineering manner.

This kind of coercion only existed among animals, and it was a "domination" that was simply incomprehensible to humans!

Yet, in the end, as a humanoid creature, Connie still resisted this wave of aggression. After considering that she also had Su Mo as her support, she gave a tentative roar.

"Roar?"

Connie's original intention with this roar was to summon Su Mo, who was in the war room on the second floor, as well as the two who were about to arrive.

However, what she did not expect was that the powerful lion man opposite actually replied in kind.

Roar!

Su Mo's roar was obviously louder than Connie's.

Although he did not know what his involuntary roar meant, Su Mo nodded with satisfaction when he saw Connie's bewildered expression and the trace of diffidence and fear on her face.

If even Connie could not rapidly discover that he was in disguise when in such close proximity, it would be even more impossible for the fools watching the live broadcast to find out just from the host's camera.

After verifying this, Su Mo was in an extremely good mood. He reached up with his furry paw and took off the formidable headpiece he wore, revealing his utterly harmless, grinning face.

"It's me, this is my new equipment. It's not bad at all, right!"

When he donned the headpiece, Su Mo's entire demeanor was that of a predator in the lion clan, fearless in the face of death.

After taking off the headpiece, however, Su Mo's smile was warm like a spring breeze. Even though they were of different races, Connie could sense traces of his "allure".

"My goodness, is this for real?"

Connie looked at Su Mo's face and then at the headpiece in his hand.

She was stunned for a moment!

Following that, upon seeing Oreo hurrying over from behind her and scrutinizing her with amusement, Connie took two steps back on the spot, her face flushed.

Oops.

She had been caught out.

When she recalled how Su Mo had looked at her with such an aggressive stare in his lion disguise, and how she had been "dominated" with his unabashed roar…

Connie felt goosebumps all over her body, followed by an inexplicable trace of secret pleasure.

However, before she could continue to think about it, Su Mo, who had been sitting in the chair, stood immediately and headed up to the second floor, holding the headpiece.

"Of course it's for real! Alright, come to the war room, all of you. I've arranged matters for this afternoon; everyone must make sure that there are absolutely no mistakes!"

Ignoring the peculiar expression on Connie's face and noticing that Moore had also arrived on the scene, Su Mo immediately led all three of them to the open-air conference room.

Unlike the first meeting of Hope One's leadership onboard from before, mechanics and agents were neatly lined up on the main deck.

In the open-air war room, Su Mo settled onto the main seat as a matter of course, took out a map, and began giving instructions.

"Come and take a look. This is our current position, and these are the positions of the three groups of foreign races. What we have to do is very simple—attract the attention of the ones from the nearest point and let them pass the message to the other two points that are further away.

"After that, we continue luring this group and sail all the way to this position. Then, when the three groups of foreign races converge, we'll net them all in one fell swoop!"

Although all the animals present had superior IQs when compared with their peers, they were not humans, so Su Mo still excluded any professional terminology while speaking and did not beat around the bush.

After using the most straightforward language to describe the most straightforward plan, Su Mo felt more confident after seeing the three nodding their heads, and began arranging tasks.

"Oreo, I have a disguise for this operation, but you don't have a suitable outfit to wear.

"Considering that you might have been exposed during our last operation in the kobold castle, this time you'll be responsible for being on guard below the main deck. Remember not to go on the main deck until I notify you."

He took out a walkie talkie and tied it around Oreo's neck, then continued giving instructions after Oreo nodded.

"Moore, once our plan is successful, you will be our most critical point of artillery fire—but before the plan is launched, you cannot open fire recklessly while sitting in the main gun turret. Before I give the order to fire, even if the enemy is on our deck, you cannot open fire, understood?"

"Master, Chief Mate Moore understands and will definitely fulfill his mission!"

"Very well! I'll send enough mechanics to help you complete the auxiliary work. You only need to stay in the main gun turret and fire with complete peace of mind.

"You don't have to worry about the rest of the work, leave it to me and Connie!"

Taking out another walkie talkie and handing it to Moore, Su Mo watched both dog and bear acknowledge their orders and leave the war room. His gaze became solemn when he turned to Connie.

"Connie, whether or not our plan today will succeed hinges entirely on your performance!

"I have only one task for you. You just need to convince these foreign races that this ship is the one that you have gone through so much to get out of the ruins. It's yours—no, it's ours! It signals the imminent resurgence of the Lion Clan to become the most effective weapon of the Five Royal Clans!

"As long as you can do this convincingly, you can play the rest as you like, and I'll work with you the entire way to complete our scheme!

"By the way, if someone asks about the firepower of our ship, you just need to keep quiet and skip this topic!"

After watching Connie nod solemnly, showing that she was fully prepared, Su Mo did not rest but gave all the mechanics and agents orders to conceal themselves. He then headed straight to the bow of the ship and pulled down Hope One's flag.

This golden-red flag with the word Hope on the front and the word Su on the back was too conspicuous and was the most likely thing to be noticed on Hope One.

He hid the flag under the deck and took out a piece of yellow cloth. After directing Connie, a crooked battle flag was hung up again.

On it was written the following.

Lion King One!

The workmanship of the yellow cloth was extremely coarse, and Connie's handwriting was so sloppy it was irritating to read. The flag was attached to a broken wooden pole.

There was a clear contrast between the sloppy flag and Hope One's steel body.

Yet, this kind of contrast was exactly what Su Mo wanted most to see!

It was already 3.30 pm. Taking advantage of the remaining time after donning the lion man headpiece again, Su Mo carefully checked once more for anything that could betray Hope One.

Given that in the plan, this ship was a human relic that Connie had managed to obtain, Su Mo did not cover all the exposed devices that had human words on them.

If one entered this area without knowing the actual circumstances, they might not know it was a mixture of the real and the sham.

After calculating and finding that the probability of being seen through was basically negligible, Su Mo returned to the bridge with confidence and began to prepare.

At 3:55 in the afternoon, the sun in the wasteland had already dipped past the center of the heavens and was slowly starting to descend in the faraway horizon.

The golden light slanted down onto the ocean, not only turning its color a breathtaking, brilliant blue but also giving a solemn 'opening curtain' to the upcoming drama!

At 3.57, Su Mo pulled up his game panel on time. After connecting to Connie's core and looking at the foreign race panel which was the same color as the sunlight outside, Su Mo gently clicked on the World Channel.

After awakening the caste conflict between ordinary foreign races and the five Royal Clans, this grand scene was far more exaggerated than Su Mo could ever have imagined…

Dozens of times more!

[Whistling Wind Heroic Sandalwood Gorilla: The time approaches, dear comrades—it's going to be 4 o'clock in three minutes, do you think the Golden Lion King will appear? Last night, the confrontation between the Lion King and the Thunder Monkey King made my blood boil to watch, and I haven't slept all night. I didn't expect that we ordinary foreign races would have such brave warriors standing up to say something! ]

[Phecda's White Battle Python: Big gorilla, what are you talking about? I bet 500 catties of meat based on the Golden Lion King's character that he won't be a coward. Last night, he vowed to beat up the Thunder Monkey King's face—wait, I mean all the faces of the Five Royal Clans, how could he possibly be cowardly?]

[Cloud Boat Prostrate Butterfly: Hey man, the Thunder Monkey King isn't active in the live broadcast now. Just wait for the Golden Lion King to start the live broadcast, then go watch it. This time, whether he shows up or not, he's really offended all Five Royal Clans. If he meets them at sea, it'll definitely bode ill for him.]

[Benevolent Wind Forgotten Frost Crane: Comrades, spam the comments screen with the word 'Protection' to protect the best Golden Lion King in the world. The Five Royal Clans are nothing. Only the Golden Lion King is our hope and our only chance to suppress Old Devil Su! ]

[Cursed Tiger: All of you want to die, right? You really have a nerve, provoking the Five Royal Clans. Do you also want to follow the Golden Lion King into my stomach to repent? ]

[Snow Soaring Bear: Oh, the Cursed Tiger is anxious, huh? I'm right here waiting for you. I'm definitely on the Golden Lion King's side, what can you do to me? Eat me?]

[…]

Seeing Snow Soaring Bear popping up again and 'fighting' with Cursed Tiger, after glancing at the 3:59 in the upper right corner, Su Mo slowed down. He exhaled a long breath and clicked into the Disaster Resistance Channel.

He then used sanctuary to connect to the core. Except for being unable to use the chat function or send information, Su Mo had the authority to be a "substitute" in terms of using Connie's other functions.

Watching as the familiar prompt for the lists sounded, Su Mo did not choose to reject all of them this time but clicked OK for all items except the firepower list.

Defense first, 100 points!

Speed first, 100 points!

Space first, 100 points!

Also the most hated comfort first, 100 points!

Four firsts, a full score of 400 points that completely beat the Thunder Monkey King's 330 points—Su Mo had successfully obtained the requirements for the grand title of first place in this live broadcast!

"Connie, it's time to start our plan!"

He pressed the headset in his ear. After hearing Connie's obedient grunt of acknowledgment, Su Mo did not directly join the live broadcast stream but quietly waited outside the viewer interface with a trace of amusement.

During the first second of the broadcast, the popularity of the Golden Lion King's stream was 8300.

Five seconds into the broadcast, 95080…

Fifteen seconds… 168500!

Thirty seconds, popularity… 663560!

"In all likelihood, before Connie met me, she would never have dreamed that her live broadcast stream would become the most popular one among the foreign races.

"It only took 30 seconds!

"Such a vast audience—my best actor, your acting skills must be on point, roar!"

Su Mo listened to Connie's voice coming from the headset, watching the fools who had regarded the 'Golden Lion King' as the "new foreign race star" and "the last hope of ordinary foreign races" push the live broadcast stream's popularity to 95 million.

Under his mask, with practically uncontrollable manic laughter, Su Mo gently clicked on the live broadcast screen and joined in immediately!

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Chapter 352: He Seems To Have… Suppressed Too Much Fury!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

This was the first live broadcast that was about to exceed one million hits in the history of the foreign races' live broadcasts.

The foreign race's disaster resistance live broadcast channel also reacted in the same manner as when Su Mo had posted his "announcements" on humankind's World Channel previously, which had caused the channel to lag.

Perhaps the game did not expect a freak like Connie to appear amongst the foreign races; she was capable of attracting 95% of the foreign races to enter her broadcast stream simultaneously.

Therefore, the screen was still dark even after Connie's voice could already be heard.

"Welcome to my live broadcast stream. Welcome to all the brothers and sisters from the ordinary foreign races!"

"Welcome Brother Snow Soaring Bear to my live broadcast stream! Welcome all of you who still have hope for the rise of the ordinary foreign races into the Golden Lion King's live broadcast stream!"

"The screen is currently lagging, but don't worry and just wait patiently! Today's live broadcast will continue into the night to ensure that all the brothers and sisters from the ordinary foreign races can see us."

Connie was completely different from how she was in the World Channel. She was amiable and approachable, just like a humble gentleman. Her voice was soothing and reassuring to those who heard it!

"Great! It's obvious that she has talent for this!"

Listening to Connie's performance, Su Mo nodded his head while also casting his gaze toward the comments section next to him.

"D*mn, I love this! The Golden Lion King's voice actually sounds so good. To think that I used to think that she would sound like an old shrew!"

"Sister Golden, scold me! Come and humiliate me! I can give you materials for a one-on-one session!"

"The person above seems to have some strange kinks!"

"Heh, you're hiding everything like you're playing some sort of cheap trick! I thought you'd show us how powerful your ship would be, but nothing's happened yet!"

"This person who insulted her is a fool, right? Can't you see that the Golden Lion King's ship is in first place? You must've been hit on the head and suffered some form of concussion!"

"She's in first place in four sections, other than personnel and firepower. Oh my God, I can vibe with this! Sister Golden Lion King, is the lion clan still short of people? Count me in!"

"Golden Lion King is the god of the ordinary foreign races. No, she's the god of all the foreign races! The Five Royal Clans are just garbage who are beneath her!"

"…"

Waves upon waves of comments quickly gushed out.

Seeing that Connie's ship had "really" topped the ranking, everyone among the ordinary foreign races was excited!

Before they arrived at the wasteland, the clan elders' sincere teachings or the rules of survival in their Inherited Memories had imprinted a statement in their minds…

"Even if you die, don't provoke the Royal Clans, or you'll invite trouble for the next batch who will enter the wasteland!"

The Five Royal Clans became more and more arrogant exactly because of such teachings.

However, when the "Golden Lion King" had suddenly appeared!

All people among the foreign races found that the times had changed!

Since when would someone from an ordinary foreign race dare to insult the Five Royal Clans and make them angry?

Since when would someone from an ordinary foreign race trample over the Royal Clans and top the rankings directly?

"The humans have Old Devil Su, and we, the foreign races, have the Golden Lion King!"

"We don't need to be afraid of the Five Royal Clans at all!"

Someone started to lead the conversation in this direction. As the comments section gradually got more and more out of control, the Five Royal Clans…

Panicked!

However, at this moment, they could not do anything about it.

There was a vast distance separating them and her. They knew that until they could physically use their claws and teeth to make the Golden Lion King pay, they could only rely on words alone.

Even if all five of them took action at the same time, they would still be unable to win against the Golden Lion King in a verbal contest!

If they wanted to defend their dignity and assert the Five Royal Clans' dominance, the only way was to make this Golden Lion King…

Die!

"Even if her ship is strong, she's not on the firepower and manpower rankings. This means that we still have a chance!"

"Don't be anxious. As long as we are allowed to kill this Golden Lion King and snatch her ship away, we Royal Clans will still be the Royal Clans!"

"It's not befitting of our status to argue with these ordinary foreign race members. We'll wait and see what happens!"

The screen was still black. The Five Royal Clans were chatting with one another, comforting each other.

As a small group, they shared both glory and losses together.

As such, at times like this, they could only swallow their fury down and force themselves to endure the abuse dished out on the comments screen.

Luckily, it only lasted four minutes and twenty seconds. When the screen started to display the live feed, the chatter on the comments screen slowly grinded to a halt.

"Okay, the screen's lit up now."

"Behind me is our lion clan's ship, the Lion King!"

Looking at the live broadcast screen that was finally no longer black, Connie stood on the bow of the ship with a smile on her face while holding a crudely made flag with pride.

Under her deliberate arrangements, the feed displayed on the screen of the live broadcast was shot from a wide angle perspective.

Not only could every viewer see Hope One in its full glory, but they could also see how beautiful the ship was as it sailed across the ocean!

Like a Loch Ness monster emerging from the water, the angular Hope One was perched quietly on the surface of the sea.

Under the sunlight, both the bright yellow deck and the black steel surface seemed to exude a special magic that made people unable to take their eyes off it.

As this was also Su Mo's first time appreciating Hope One from this perspective, even he felt a touch of shock.

In this era of civilization, it was not everyone's first time seeing news of big ships sailing across the seas, and it was also not their first time being on a large cruise ship.

However, when it came to a battleship of such caliber, and when it was filmed from a wide angle perspective from the forefront…

In the open sea, it seemed to manifest a thrilling sort of "special" beauty.

In addition, for those foreign races who had not seen the world back on Earth, such a huge steel ship was totally out of their league, be it in terms of expectations or even comprehension.

They lived on land and had little memory of the sea. They only came into possession of ships after plagiarizing them from humans and also some smaller portions of their Inherited Memories.

Steel could be made into weapons; this they knew…

However, the fact that steel could be made into ships…

That was simply outrageous!

"I know. For a long time, these stupid Five Royal Clans restricted everyone's actions and interactions. They banned us from making contact with humans, and instructed us to antagonize humans. They have been constantly telling us that human weapons and human tools are worthless, and that we would eventually go extinct if we interacted with humans."

"Undeniably, there is some truth in their words. However, at the same time, what have they done?"

"They have quietly prepared their battleships. They said that they were going to kill Old Devil Su, but Old Devil Su is still living comfortably and is having a great time. Even Thunder Monkey King is now sailing an advanced battleship that was invented by the humans. He lured us to to capture and keep human slaves to cover up the fact that he's been working with humans."

"Having said all this, I believe that everyone's hearts are filled with all kinds of doubts and unanswered questions. As such, I think it's time for us to talk to Thunder Monkey King, a member of our Five Royal Clans."

"Let's see if Thunder Monkey King is open to giving us an answer!"

With a snicker at the corner of her mouth, Connie turned the camera around, pointed at the ocean, and called Thunder Monkey King.

D*mn it!

This move forced Thunder Monkey King and the Five Royal Clans into a dead end. Both accepting and not accepting the request was not a good idea.

As someone from an ordinary foreign race that they despised, the Golden Lion King's ship got first place. She had completely suppressed them.

Even if she did not insult them, the Five Royal Clans would be humiliated if they accepted the call.

Not to mention they also found it very difficult to answer the question that Golden Lion King had asked.

They did communicate with the humans, but one could not say that they colluded with humans, as they really did not do anything that crossed over the line.

However, the point was that…

They really could not use words to explain all this. If they wanted to say that they did not collude with the humans, they would need to show proof!

However, if they did not accept the call… Going by Connie's words, doing so meant that they were basically admitting that they were guilty of colluding with humans and betraying the foreign races.

To the current foreign races, this was no longer a trivial matter!

After experiencing the "credibility crisis" that came with their statement of killing Old Devil Su, the Five Royal Clans were now incredibly cautious when it came to safeguarding their credibility, as they were afraid that their plans would not be carried out as planned.

Even though Connie was not being aggressive at this point, the Royal Clans began to discuss and vote on whether they should accept the call or not.

The result was very typical of the "animal world"!

Except for Thunder Monkey King, who voted against it, the other four Royal Clans voted for it!

When it came to benefits, they could stand on the same side; defending one another, and baring their teeth and claws at the enemy.

However, if one of their own wanted to harm their benefits, the others would show no mercy, making their animal-like, barbaric cruelty evident.

Anyway, it was Thunder Monkey King who would be humiliated this time. This had nothing to do with them, so what reason was there for them to be afraid?

Anyway, it was Thunder Monkey King's own ship which had attracted so much attention. Their own sand ships were fine, so they had nothing to be afraid of!

With that thought in mind, the four Royal Clans turned their attention to the live broadcast stream after voting, looking forward to what would happen next.

What they did not know was that an invisible "rift" had appeared between the Royal Clans for the first time from this moment onward!

The call connected quickly. After Thunder Monkey King chose to agree, his face was displayed on the screen before the chat could erupt.

At the same time, behind him, the Thunderbolt, which had made him prideful for an entire night, also appeared in everyone's view.

"Thunder Monkey King, you have quite a nice ship! Weren't you quite proud of it last night? Why do you have such a frown on your face now? You look like your mother died!"

She humiliated him further!

Looking at Thunder Monkey King's frown, Connie laughed lightly and said out loud the genuine thoughts of all the people among the ordinary foreign races.

At this moment, even Su Mo, who was watching them from inside the bridge, could not help but let out a loud laugh.

The previous night, this Thunder Monkey King had laughed so happily that his face had looked like a rotten chrysanthemum as he boasted about making humans his slaves.

If this idiot dared to boast so loudly within the attacking range of Hope One, Su Mo would definitely not be stingy with firing his ammo.

Now, as Connie kept on firing verbal shots, and as Thunder Monkey King was increasingly humiliated, Su Mo slapped his hand on the armrest beside him and quickly looked toward the comments screen to see what the people among the foreign races were talking about.

At present, the emotions of about 80% of the people in the comments screen had been completely stirred up.

They asked the Five Royal Clans to give them an explanation; to tell them where their ships came from and also the extent of their relationship with the humans.

Most of these foreign races had a strength rating that was below 3. Although it was low, the group of them were still a force to be reckoned with.

Of the remaining 20% of people, 10% of them had strength ratings between 3 and 8. They were the backbone of the foreign races.

This group of people did not speak up and support Connie, but they did not support the Five Royal Clans either.

As a neutral faction, they always paid attention to the changing trends. They would support whoever won. On the contrary, they would not mind stepping on whoever lost.

The remaining people who were not part of the 90% were the firm royalists.

No matter what topics Connie brought up, they only had one thing to say.

We believe in the Five Royal Clans!

Su Mo shook his head at those people and did not try to intervene. He continued to let things slide.

They were totally stubborn and could not be persuaded. So what?

It was fine. He would just get rid of them all.

This was not the civilized era. Things were not as simple as during his past life on Earth, where saying things like "I believe in him" and "he is surely innocent" on the Internet would suffice.

While Connie and Thunder Monkey King were still arguing, Su Mo did not stay idle. He pulled out a notebook and started taking down notes.

The Nine Ding Yanxiang Bear firmly supported the pig, and he also insulted Old Devil Su once. Kill!

The Decayed Flesh Ice Tiger, who was the Cursed Tiger's eldest cousin, talked non-stop, did not watch the live broadcast stream properly, and was not capable of anything other than insulting people. Kill!

The Divine Strength Ice Ape was one of Thunder Monkey King's distant relatives. The two families were so close with each other that they practically wore the same pants.

What? He wanted to smash Hope One with his own hands?

'Sure, I'll bring you here myself and let you try to smash it!' Su Mo thought.

Snowy Steelwood Badger was an idiot with a terribly long name and a strength rating of less than 0.1. Yet somehow he had the nerve to act as the Royal Clans' lackey. Up onto the list he goes!

Phantom Light Crocodile, with a strength rating of 8.8, came out to support Connie. 'Good. If I meet you, I'll spare your life and have you pull the ship for me!'

…

One by one, Su Mo wrote down the names of those people who made "prominent" statements in the comments and their corresponding crimes or accolades in the notebook.

As the battle between Connie and Thunder Monkey King reached its climax, and then descended into chaos again, the time outside had also reached about 6:30 pm.

The sun hanging in the sky had gradually set, but the live broadcast was still as hyped up as if the sun had not gone down. Even though the room already had two million and one hundred thousand viewers, the numbers continued growing.

After close to two hours of cursing, Thunder Monkey King had obviously let himself go wild.

At the beginning, the two of them had started by discussing the status quo of the wasteland, before proceeding to argue about the Five Royal Clans and their cooperative efforts with humans. Now they were just cursing at each other like crazy.

At this stage, Thunder Monkey King brought up the previous few excellent achievements of the Thunder Monkey clan from when they first arrived at the wasteland and boasted about them.

Connie did not hold back in her response either. She talked about the records from a hundred thousand years ago, when the lion clan was still a Royal Clan.

Both of them did not surrender.

The endless battle continued. Su Mo was about to remind Connie not to forget the main subject when the Thunder Monkey King on the other side seemed to have received a message, as he suddenly changed his tone, "Golden Lion King…"

"Golden Lion King, didn't you call us the humans' lapdogs, and say that we worked with them to build ships?"

"Then what do you have to say about your ship? Was it built by you, Golden Lion King?"

Before his side could even pull out a knife, the enemy had bared their necks to them first.

When presented with such a wonderful opportunity, Connie continued, despite the hoarseness in her voice, "Hmph, I knew that you'd eventually ask that, silly monkey."

"That's right, this ship was built by the humans, but it was my husband who discovered and unearthed it!"

"As for you cowards? I'm afraid you won't ever have the courage to explore the ruins in your entire lifetime!"

Only humans, who were ignorant and fearless, had the courage to enter the ruins.

Other races, including those that Oreo and Moore belonged to, had a natural fear of the ruins and did not dare step into them.

At this moment, hearing that the Golden Lion King's husband had actually dared to step into the ruins, Thunder Monkey King laughed contemptuously, "You're lying. With your strength rating of 3.8, you're telling me that you entered the ruins?"

"The flagpole beside you isn't your husband, is it? From what I see, I think it won't be able to satisfy you!"

"Stop pretending, Connie, it's you who is the humans' lapdog." The Thunder Monkey King was smug as he spoke mockingly with malice, as if he had stumbled upon Connie's Achilles' heel.

However, the next second, under the gaze of all the people among the ordinary foreign races, the Thunder Monkey King looked as if he had been strangled, even before he could finish his sentence. His face suddenly contorted violently and he stopped speaking.

At the top of the Thunder Monkey King's head, his handful of white hair, symbolizing force and authority, began to crackle with lightning, as the sound of thunder echoed in the sea breeze.

At the same time, his hair also seemed to have been jolted by electricity, standing erect.

His hair was jolted?

The Thunder Monkey King's strength was ranked second among the Five Royal Clans, with a superb rating of 13.6.

What could possibly make him afraid to the point that he had to use force to deter his opponent?

Following the Thunder Monkey King's gaze, everyone's gazes turned curiously to Connie's screen.

Wow….

The comments area was quiet!

At this moment, no one was banned from commenting, and there was no lag…

At this moment, a pair of eyes that glowed scarlet and possessed a hint of murderous energy was deeply imprinted in their minds.

At this moment, everyone saw the reason why the Golden Lion King was so confident!

In the corner of Connie's live broadcast screen, with the sun about to set in the background, everyone saw a scene that they would never forget.

It was a lion.

It was a really strong male lion!

His hand held a spear that reflected the light of the rippling water.

Behind him was a bright red and blood-like sunset.

His eyes were imbued with an aura of tyranny that could not be concealed by the great sun.

The large mane on his neck moved even when no wind was blowing!

He seemed.

He seemed to be suppressing too much fury!

He….

Who was he?

Chapter 353: In the Animal World, Those Who Are Strong Are Respected

Boom!

Wow!

The Five Royal Clans, and some others with strength ratings of 5 or 6, could withstand the aura of tyranny emanating from the majestic lion man in front of them, although it did make them feel somewhat uneasy.

However, for those whose strength ratings were below 3…

They felt like they had been struck by lightning!

This ferocious and wild gaze!

Even though they were only seeing it through a screen, everyone felt like they had been targeted by a strong entity.

It was as if that gaze could penetrate the screen, transcend the game, and meet their own gazes face-to-face.

Why was he so angry? What was the cause of the killing intent in his eyes?

As for his strength?

Not to mention the ordinary foreign races, even the Five Royal Clans did not put forth any provocative remarks at this moment.

Thunder Monkey King's reaction alone provided sufficient evidence of what was happening!

This lion warrior seemed to be engaged in a confrontation against the Thunder Monkey King through the screen.

Everyone could see that the Thunder Monkey King's performance was clearly inferior.

There was no lightning coursing through the lion warrior's body, unlike the Thunder Monkey King, and no divine power gushed out either.

Despite that…

No one doubted his strength.

No one questioned the spear in his hand!

"The lion clan is indeed a mighty Royal Clan that once dominated the wasteland continent 100,000 years ago. Your heritage and strength have won the approval of I, Riley Devait!"

"Your individual strength rating is surely 3 or above. You're very powerful!"

Thunder Monkey King's face no longer wore the shameless expression that he had while arguing with Connie. After the confrontation, in which the Thunder Monkey King had unleashed his abilities and gone all out, his temperament changed significantly in a heartbeat.

His gaze was filled with the brashness of an animal fighting for territory, while also revealing a hint of a burning desire to fight.

He recognized the strength of this lion warrior!

He even treated this lion warrior as a real challenger!

He… Had gotten serious!

However, before the Thunder Monkey King could continue talking, the comments screen exploded first!

"What? His individual strength can be rated at 3 or higher? What the f*ck?"

"The Golden Lion King's strength rating is 3.8. If this mysterious lion man's rating is above 3, doesn't that mean that they're the only two members in the lion clan?"

"Heavens, how long has it been? It's only been such a short time and yet he's already reached a strength rating of 3 or higher? This can't be!"

"According to our race's inherited memories, even the strongest Royal Clans' kings will need at least four months to raise their strength ratings to 3! This is seriously…"

"An individual strength rating 3… do you know what that means? It means that his destructive power is comparable to that of a hundred people. This is terrifying!"

"His eyes, his movements… I have a feeling that this mysterious race is going to become one of the Royal Clans again!"

"Hahaha! The humans have Old Devil Su but, unexpectedly, we foreign races now have this terrifying war god!"

"Heavens bless us, people of the foreign races! Our lion war god will only need a short while before he can definitely take Old Devil Su's head without breaking a sweat!"

"Golden Lion King, the true hope of the foreign races!"

"…"

It might seem that the foreign races were exaggerating but, if one thought about it clearly, they would find that it made perfect sense!

In a situation like this that was full of tension, his strength was recognized by the Five Royal Clans. This was like…

Unlocking your phone after a nap to see the recent situation of the Toothpick Wu[1] fiasco, just to discover that the five biggest scoundrels in the world had announced that…

The sixth biggest scoundrel was established!

Not only that, but also that he was that individual!

"This is my man, and he's also the reason why we of the lion clan and the Oreo Clan are so confident that we'll return to become one of the Royal Clans once again!"

Despite having been well-prepared before, those people among the foreign races could feel Su Mo's terrifying aura radiating from across the screen.

Not to mention Connie, who was less than 20 meters away from him!

The moment Su Mo appeared, she was nearly stunned senseless. Had it not been for the fact that everyone's eyes were on Su Mo, the others would have noticed her situation.

"Roar!"

Su Mo stood at a distance. After a loud and proud roar, Su Mo did not come forward, but raised the spear in his hand and headed toward the setting sun.

Everyone watched his back and watched as he disappeared into the shadows that the ship cast down.

In the Animal World, strength was power.

After watching Su Mo leave the scene and disappear in such a manner, not only did the blood within the ordinary foreign races ignite, but even a hint of solemnity silently appeared in Thunder Monkey King's gaze.

This….

This was the pride of the strong!

There were some limitations regarding the transportation of foreign races into the wasteland. When all the foreign races entered the wasteland, the strength rating of each individual could not exceed 0.3.

This restricted the foreign races who wanted to send in fighters with a strength rating of 20 or 50 so that they could get a head start.

If one was able to raise his strength rating from 0.3 to more than 3 in less than two months, this showed that…

This mysterious lion warrior was much stronger than Royal Clans, both in terms of his current strength and future potential!

His departure, his disdain and his condescension.

No one insulted him in their minds. On the contrary, everyone, including the lower and ordinary foreign clans, and also the Royal Clans, felt a wave of…

Amazement and shock arise in their hearts!

"Connie, we acknowledge your man's strength."

"One day, if the Oreo clan can hold out until that day, if this lion warrior continues to grow in strength…"

"Then when we meet at sea, in the presence of all the Five Royal Clans, there will be a fair fight between us."

"If he can obtain victory, we, the Five Royal Clans, would like to call you…"

"The Sixth Royal Clan!"

After saying that, the Thunder Monkey King shook his head and withdrew from the broadcast stream without any explanation.

At this moment, he did not need to explain whether the Royal Clans had betrayed the foreign races or not.

He also did not need to use Royal Clans' status to suppress the other side.

He knew that the Golden Lion King, the Oreo Clan, and Connie's plot had succeeded, and that they had gotten what they wanted.

They had publicized the Oreo Clan and they had proven their potential.

They had gained the favor and attention of most of the ordinary foreign races, and they had the appropriate level of strength to match their ambition!

In short, the Five Royal Clans had lost completely and had been played like fools by these two lions.

Riley, the Thunder Monkey King, was furious.

Not only was he angry at the other four Royal Clans for being idiots, but he was also angry at himself for lacking foresight and being used as a tool by the Golden Lion King.

After quitting, he closed the live broadcast stream straight away.

With a gloomy face, he started walking around his clipper.

Along the way, he saw a thunder monkey crew member slacking off.

He picked the crew member up directly and released all his pent-up electricity, electrocuting the crew member into crisp charcoal before tossing the person off the ship, staining the previously pristine azure ocean.

The other thunder monkeys also felt Riley's anger at this time but, in the absence of the shelter core to view the game panel, these thunder monkeys did not know what had happened to make their king this angry. They could only timidly work harder.

It was this look that made Riley even more angry.

He hated that he was not a cute lioness who had a delicate body, with the ability to curse the hell out of others and a voice that could charm everyone.

He hated that he could not just speak up and tell people loudly, "This strong man is mine!"

Riley anxiously walked on the ship's deck. He looked at the brand new planks under his feet, smelling the familiar scent of wood.

He recalled his feelings from yesterday, when he was still feeling gleeful. He had even hugged a piece of wood to sleep, feeling at ease thanks to the scent of the wood.

Now, the smell was so unpleasant that it could almost make him throw up.

The Lion King, this battleship that was made of steel, was like a lingering nightmare that was running rampant in his mind.

He wanted the Lion King. If he possessed this battleship, his potential, the speed at which his abilities grew, and his strength…

Everything would be the same as that mysterious lion warrior!

Everyone among the foreign races would respect him, and it would make the other four disgusting Royal Clans shut their dog mouths!

Yes, he now felt a faint sense of contempt for the other four foolish idiots who were still hiding until now…

As he was thinking about that, a noise from the shelter core echoed in his ears.

It was the sound of a private message.

Could it be that those four cowards had finally reacted and tried to contact him?

Riley began to multitask, his heart full of mockery.

With a smile that was twisted by anger, he walked towards a human slave who had fallen and was crying out in pain while activating the core by hand.

Killing people and reading the messages sent by those cowards were two activities that were not in conflict with each other.

The next second, as this human with a frightened look held back his pain and tried to hurry up and get up to work, afraid that he would be electrocuted to death by this terrifying Thunder Monkey King, the Thunder Monkey King stopped in his tracks!

This human slave could clearly see an expression of joy that the Thunder Monkey King was trying to suppress but could not!

Even the anger that had twisted his face into a scary expression had disappeared altogether.

In its place was a gleeful expression that was close to maniacal, as Riley laughed and laughed!

"Good, this is really good! Those who are shameless will be punished by the heavens! I didn't expect this at all!"

"The Oreo Clan, the Golden Lion King, they're all nothing! I'm going to let you all die on your own ship today!"

"If you dare to provoke us, the Five Royal Clans, we'll celebrate the anniversary of your death on this day next year!"

"Kate!"

Fearing that Riley's anger would flare up once again, Kate, who was the supervisor that he had called, immediately greeted him in preparation to face his wrath.

However, the next thing Riley said confused him.

"This king is in a good mood today, so give all the people on board extra meals today!"

"Yes, these human slaves. Give them enough to eat, give them the flour that we stole, and let them eat as much as they want!"

"Today is the Thunder Monkey Clan's big day!"

It was as if Riley suffered from amnesia; like he had completely forgotten that he had just electrocuted a thunder monkey to death 30 seconds ago.

After he hurriedly walked away with his hands behind his back, a cheer belonging to the humans began to grow louder.

Then the calm returned once more.

…

"Leader, today was a success! I observed that the four remaining Royal Clans exited my broadcast almost at the same time not long after our fireworks were released!"

"The Third Unit must've run off to snitch on our location to the Royal Clans after they discovered it!"

"I've ended the stream with the excuse that I had to prepare dinner. This will lead them to believe that there are no ordinary lion clan members on our ship, and that our strength is just like a balloon that can easily be burst."

"After we finish dinner, I'll definitely give them some more material. They'll definitely take the bait!"

Looking at Connie, who was gulping down porridge and munching a bun at the same time while speaking excitedly, Su Mo did not say anything. He continued to stare at Connie meaningfully.

This stare immediately shattered Connie's "disguise"!

"Leader, you said you'd do everything for me!"

"I just said that you're my man so that they would believe me!"

"You… You're generous, so you'll definitely forgive me, won't you?"

As the saying went, a woman who knew how to act cute lived the happiest lives.

This pampered lioness could make goosebumps appear on one's skin just by speaking cutely.

Looking at the shyness on Connie's human face, Su Mo pressed his chopsticks together and gently nodded.

"Don't do that next time!"

Connie immediately nodded, "Of course, of course!"

This look made Su Mo shake his head, and Moore on the other side laughed as well.

In the previous broadcast, it looked like the lion warrior, who was actually Su Mo in disguise, was so dominant that everyone among the foreign races had bowed their heads.

However, only Su Mo knew that…

It was just an act, and he did not have any props to support his act either!

When one participated in the live broadcast stream while controlling their own core simultaneously, he could easily do whatever he did in the real world just now while managing the broadcast.

However, as he had connected to Connie's shelter core and entered the broadcast as a viewer, Su Mo would lose a great deal of control over the outside world when entering the broadcast stream.

He could only sense if there was any danger in the outside world. It was a luxury to even think about standing up, let alone releasing his aura.

So, after Connie suddenly called him, Su Mo could only try his best without any advance preparations. He turned off the live broadcast stream and emitted an aura of rage at the empty air.

For the object of his anger, Su Mo directly chose…

Ying Tianlong.

He mentally simulated a scene in which Ying Tianlong had betrayed the Tundra Shelter at a critical moment, which had placed his sister in danger.

He had achieved a level of self-hypnosis. Even Su Mo did not expect that such a good effect could be achieved after he had hypnotized himself.

All those people among the foreign races would definitely not believe the reason the mysterious lion warrior had disappeared…

It was not because he was condescending and did not want to entertain them, or because he wanted to engage in further training. He had gone below deck to start…

Preparing dinner!

Considering that there would be a big battle in the evening, Su Mo didn't choose to cook something simple. Instead he made a pot of beef brisket with potatoes in a pressure cooker.

After the main course started cooking, Su Mo made another pot of salted meat porridge on the side at the same time, and finally paired them with the shredded radish that the cooks had pickled.

The meal was so refreshing and warm. It was a luxury that ordinary refugees could not even begin to imagine!

"Say, is an individual strength rating of 3 so powerful among the foreign races?"

"I noticed that there are still people discussing it. Isn't the Five Royal Clans' strength rating around 10? Is there a need to make such a fuss about this?"

After finishing the last sip of soup and connecting to Connie's core to inspect the interface, Su Mo could not help but ask curiously.

"It's that awesome!"

"No, it's even more awesome than you think! Leader, let me give you this example. In the lion clan's first thirty entries into the wasteland, yes, including the one where we used more than a hundred slots. In all of these many entries…"

"Leader, guess how many lions had an individual strength rating of 3?"

As she was still eating, Connie's speech was a bit slurred. Noticing the rather complicated look in her eyes, Su Mo thought about it and hazarded a guess.

"Fifteen?"

The cumulative number of people in the lion clan who had entered the wasteland, even if he did not count the time where more than a hundred slots were used, should be around 20,000.

15 was already as low a guess as possible.

However, Connie slowly shook her head after eating the last bite of her bun.

"No, it's none of them!"

"Leader, you still underestimate how difficult it really is for the foreign races to improve their individual strength. I reached a rating of 3.8 by myself entirely by virtue of my status as the Saintess. The lion clan's strength rating back home has long exceeded 10,000, and they simply cannot enter the wasteland."

"Let's not just talk about the lion clan. If you look at the records of those 30 entries, the number of people among the foreign races, including the Royal Clans, who could reach the individual strength rating of 3…"

"Is definitely not more than 10,000!"

"Since the end of that war, individuals no longer had the opportunity to glimpse the ascension!"

[1] A famous Chinese rapper and former K-pop star

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Chapter 354: The Fertile Soil Era That Has Disappeared with Time

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"That great battle back then? An opportunity to glimpse the ascension?"

As there were some new terms that Su Mo had never heard of before coming out of Connie's mouth, he was slightly confused.

The lion clan had thirty chances to enter the wasteland. Once, they had taken the risk and used close to 200 slots. Out of the twenty to thirty thousand people who had entered the wasteland, surprisingly, none of them had an individual strength rating of 3.

Out of all the foreign races on the entire wasteland, among those people who had entered the wasteland during the past thirty chances, less than ten thousand of them had achieved an individual strength rating of 3.

What did that mean?

It meant that the individual path to ascension using mystical abilities was a dead end!

If Su Mo formulated an arithmetic division formula to calculate the ratio, given the total number of people in those thirty entries, and the resulting number of people whose individual strength rating exceeded 3…

The numbers indicated an incredibly pitiful ratio that was chillingly low. Any person with half a brain would not persist on this path.

"Yes. After I gained the role of Saintess, more and more things from the lion clan's inherited memories have started to surface. These secrets were certainly not accessible to me in my previous role, but now they're all unlocked somehow!"

"I could grasp some hints previously, but I couldn't access the specific memories. However, after last night, when I went out to sea, the beginning and end of the great battle was made clear to me."

Connie looked like she was recollecting some memories.

She had examined the memories in her mind, and it was as if she had experienced everything from a first-person perspective. While it was not real, it certainly felt so.

"The memories indicate that this continent wasn't a wasteland in the past, but rather a fertile land blessed by countless gods, where humans, foreign races, fishes and beasts, all had their own territories. Under the condition that they did not infringe upon the gods' authority, while there was still some friction between the different groups, things still stayed under control and they did not go overboard."

"During those days, every living being had the opportunity to witness the ascension, whether it was humans or foreign races."

She had noticed an important detail!

Seeing that Connie was actually able to use her status as Saintess and also utilize a bug to obtain such important information, Su Mo was overjoyed.

It seemed that his decision was not only the right one, but it had also brought about hidden benefits beyond his imagination. Connie would not try to take the credit for this, but even he himself as the decision-maker had not foreseen this.

"All creatures? Are you sure that humans are included?"

"Yes, but that era might be different from what you are imagining, Leader. If humans wanted to ascend, they couldn't do so using martial arts. They could do so by reading, relying on the gods' favor, or by making achievements in certain fields, or sometimes even by doing something that contributes to the continent."

"In that era, there was no such thing as a god-transcending item. As long as you had talent, worked hard, and succeeded, you could ascend to become gods of various things. In the long era of the gods, they became the new generation of guardians of the continent."

Su Mo's expression was one that held a trace of "yearning". "This doesn't sound too bad!"

"It's much better than "not too bad"! In that peaceful era, every god had a lifespan of 1.2 million years, which meant that you'd basically be immortal as long as you ascended. Not to mention that you'd possess great power as well."

"When they had free time, the gods could take on various forms and descend upon the continent. They might look human, or like a foreign race, or even a wisp of wind, fire, or even a cup you drink water with. Their happiness was simply unimaginable."

"But..."

Su Mo smiled faintly. "But after a long time of peace, after everyone lost the will to improve and advance, their land was invaded, right?"

Connie nodded, "Yes. Their methods of ascension were too conservative and too peaceful. Before the arrival of foreign enemies, the whole continent didn't seem to have any problems. Once there was an enemy invasion though… Not to mention ordinary creatures, even the real gods did not have enough time to react. They could only watch as the enemy invaded the land, turning a paradise that could feed countless creatures into the wasteland that it is now."

"After the war, when the path to ascension was completely cut off, individuals could no longer ascend to become gods through their own efforts."

"They could only do so with a god-transcending item. They could only become a new god and regain the authority of a god after obtaining a god-transcending item."

Su Mo said, "What about the great battle? Can you remember anything?"

Connie shook her head. "I can't remember, no, I should say there are no stored memories about this event, only an abbreviated description of the great battle that shook the wasteland."

Looking at Connie's honest expression, Su Mo nodded and asked a few more detailed questions.

Connie, without any deception, answered the questions according to what she knew.

Half a day later, after dispatching Connie, along with Moore, to wash the dishes and pots, Su Mo put on the Simba onesie and returned to the main deck, deep in thought.

At night, on the wasteland's ocean, without the complications of disasters, Su Mo felt comfortable as he enjoyed the sea breeze.

By now, the sun had completely set, and the moon, which replaced it, quietly rose.

The sea was glimmering with light. It was like a scene from a dream, almost as if he had traveled back in time to the period that Connie had described as the "Fertile Soil Era!"

"If what Connie said is true, the arrival of so many generations of humans is more like…"

"An invasion?"

Resting his elbows on the guardrails, Su Mo quietly pondered the extremely shocking information that Connie had provided tonight.

Like Earth, this wasteland had previously been a suitable place to live.

However, for some reason, this place, which had been far more advanced and developed compared to Earth, was "invaded".

Some gods were killed. Others had escaped or fallen into deep slumber. Most of the authority had been taken back by the game, which administered the wasteland.

In this process, humans seemed to have played the role of…

Invaders!

Humans were treated like an endlessly growing crop of weeds. Every time the humans who were transported into the wasteland died out, the game would seize another group from elsewhere, and continue to transport them into the wasteland and force them to survive and endure the disasters.

The humans may have had miserable lives, as even they themselves likely did not know that they were considered as invaders. However, in the game's plotline…

Humans were equivalent to the Fourth Disaster!

Connie had no idea where the game came from, or what it wanted. Su Mo, on the other hand, knew more, as he had become the God of Cooking by accident.

"There are three possibilities."

"First, the game is from a fourth-dimensional world, and is a "program" set up in this three-dimensional world, just like how antivirus software is installed into computers, and is specifically tasked with cleaning up the worlds that can ascend."

"As there used to be gods on this wasteland, and they used to have authority, it is very likely that they were close to succeeding, but ended up being targeted by the game, which was acting as a sweeper, and put down."

"The gods fell, and even this continent suffered an unprecedented blow!"

"The second possibility concerns the?Dark Forest Theory.1?The gods on this Wasteland had exposed their own coordinates and were being watched by enemies who were also three-dimensional, but far stronger than them."

"The enemy arrived and started a chaotic war, looking to profit from it, and as a result the gods on the Wasteland either ended up dead or injured, or had fled from the wasteland. This enemy doesn't possess the absolute strength to suppress everything, so in order to obtain all of the authority, they could only retain this intelligent program we call the game. They constantly captured three-dimensional creatures, and cornered the remaining gods so as to obtain the rest of the authority."

"The third possibility…. They're raising pigs!"

"When the pigs had been fattened up, it was time to slaughter them. It was just that some accident happened in the process of slaughtering those pigs, which resulted in the current situation."

Su Mo had known Zhong Qingshu for so long that he ended up incorporating her "perspectives and conclusions theory" into his own thinking patterns. Now, in the process of analyzing the situation, Su Mo gleaned some insights.

Based on the information known so far, only those three possibilities could be deduced for the time being.

To be further informed of the truth of this wasteland that had disappeared with the passing of time, he had to first obtain the details of the battle from the beginning to the end, or he would have no way or place to start.

All three theories, no matter which one, posed a serious test and problem to the human beings now living on the wasteland, and even to Su Mo himself!

The enemy was hiding in the darkness, and the game was just a program that they had left behind.

Out of the trillions of human beings spanning various generations, none had succeeded in overthrowing it.

It was even allowed to continue capturing new humans and resetting the wasteland scenario so that its set objectives could be completed.

Even if the game was defeated, it did not necessarily mean that the enemy had been thwarted.

However, if he did not find a way to clamp down on the game, there would be even more disasters in the future, and humans would have absolutely no chance of survival!

"I must find a way to get more than 51% of the authority equity as soon as possible, so that I can go head-to-head with the game. Otherwise, when the real enemy behind the game appears, someone as glaringly extraordinary as me would be quickly extinguished!"

"At that time, even if the mysterious system can save me, all these ordinary human beings from Earth, my sister, my parents… I'm afraid they'll all be destroyed!"

Su Mo rapped on the steel guardrails and listened to the thumping sounds. When thinking about the future, Su Mo's heart was filled with anxiety.

Ordinary humans were still thinking about how to overcome seasickness, how to survive, and how to safely reach the New World.

High-level humans were secretly plotting methods to take on the foreign races and how to restore their once dominant position on Earth.

If Su Mo went on to tell those people rashly that their enemy was the game and the people behind the game…

For humans, whose technology was still stuck in the Middle Ages, this would achieve nothing except exposing Su Mo to his hidden enemies.

With great power came great responsibility!

Su Mo would have to shoulder everything himself!

"Tonight, all the foreign races must be killed! None of these treasure chests can escape!"

Having found another new enemy, Su Mo did not panic, but instead felt a surge of motivation!

Su Mo put his scattered thoughts to the side. As he listened to the radar scan results reported by the OS every two minutes, Su Mo steeled his gaze and strode back into the bridge.

Connie's performance during the day was very good. In fact, it was so good that even Su Mo did not expect that these "enemies" would perform so well.

The Third squad hanging behind Hope One comprised about 5500 troops.

Under the control of the Five Royal Clans, they did not rush over rashly, but rather just followed behind, like an experienced hunter, to make sure they would not lose track of Hope One.

They were waiting for support from the other two teams. A total of twenty thousand troops planned to swarm over and take over Hope One in one fell swoop, taking down the Golden Lion King as well!

What they did not know was that Su Mo was also waiting for them!

According to the distance between them and the First squad, as well as the unit's travel speed, they would only arrive here at 4am at the earliest.

Considering that they still have to recover and regain their strength, it was likely that the attack would be launched at 6am tomorrow, which was at dawn.

It was also…

The moment Su Mo would reap his harvest!

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Chapter 355: An Under the Sea Epiphany, the Beginning of a Chaotic War!

It was 1.38 am on Day 55 of the wasteland calendar.

Hope One looked like a graceful "dancer" as it slowly sailed across the quiet seas.

The ship's current traveling speed was deliberately set to six knots. Even untrained soldiers on rafts could easily catch up to it.

Besides Moore, who was resting alone in the main gun turret, everyone else, including Big Spark and Little Spark, was inside the bridge.

Su Mo still had the Simba onesie on, and he pretended to be asleep in his seat. However, the OS constantly sent him messages through his Bluetooth earphones from time to time, ensuring he would never miss any important information.

[New life form has been spotted 49 kilometers southwest of Hope One. Based on its movement trajectory, it is highly suspected that it is an enemy. Captain Su Mo, please be on standby!]

[…]

[Large numbers of biological reactions have been detected 45 kilometers southwest of Hope One. These reactions are converging with the biological reactions south of Hope One. They have been officially designated as enemy targets. Warning level has been raised to level one.]

"They're coming!"

"The insect military is the foreign races' second squad. They travel at a speed much faster than the strength squad, and are about 40 minutes faster than I estimated!"

The fastest speed that the insect military troop could travel at was higher than the data Pei Shao had collected in the talisman simulation world.

After doing some calculations based on the second squad's previous position and their expected arrival time, Su Mo managed to correct the data again easily.

The foreign races' second and third squads had begun converging, which was displayed on the radar.

Their combined forces brought their total troop number to over 8000, making them fully capable of assaulting Hope One.

However, just as predicted, they still maintained a careful distance of 40 kilometers from the ship.

The only change was that they sent out more scouts to patrol the waters about five kilometers away from where Hope One was. These scouts would transmit Hope One's latest movements back to them.

If they were dealing with Old Devil Su, it would not be surprising for them to be so careful with their actions. However, it was surprising that they would still do all this when they were faced with the "Golden Lion King".

Under his mask, Su Mo smiled before standing up slowly.

Once they noticed Su Mo standing up, Connie, Oreo, as well as Big Spark and Little Spark, jerked to attention at the same time and immediately stood up.

"It's alright. You guys can continue napping. I'll wake you up when the enemy arrives and it's time for us to fight!"

After ensuring all four were settled down, Su Mo walked out of the bridge and gazed at the moon. Before walking out, Su Mo was still a little unsteady on his legs.

However, Su Mo's body and aura went through an immediate change once he was fully outside!

His quiet countenance quickly vanished and was replaced with the murderous aura that had shocked the foreign races several hours ago.

However, this time, as Connie gazed at Su Mo's back from her position, she knew that…

These foreign races were going to…

Suffer a calamity!

Su Mo had a clear goal in mind as he strode out of the bridge.

He opened the passage to the lower deck and arrived where the weapons and other supplies were stored. After he retrieved a lifeboat, Su Mo walked past Hope One's emergency escape route and arrived at the end of the passage.

This place was at Hope One's stern.

From the outside, it looked like a neatly finished steel plate. Su Mo was the only one who knew that, by rotating the winch next to it, not only could you open a small door located two meters above the sea's surface, you could also let down a small ladder.

By using this ladder, people onboard Hope One could quickly descend to the sea and initiate operations away from the boat.

"Waiting for me…"

"What a pity. I wasn't planning to wait for you!"

Su Mo touched the hairy mane around his neck before taking two steps forward to grab the winch and began rotating it.

They were on the sea now, and Su Mo did not want to become an "ordinary person" who would lose all combat capabilities upon leaving Hope One.

Thus, if he wanted to train his combat abilities on a normal boat, this period before six o'clock was the best opportunity there was!

Su Mo could fight the scouts lurking nearby Hope One without worry since he was disguised as a "lion person".

These naive foreign races would not retreat just because they lost a few scouts.

Conversely, they were more than happy to make some small sacrifices to get a clearer picture of Hope One's abilities and gain a clearer understanding of this mysterious lion person.

"OS, send me the locations of all foreign races within a five-kilometer radius."

"Enable ultra-long distance calling mode, and use the walkie-talkie to send me their locations in real-time!"

"Adjust Hope One's sailing speed to its lowest, and put down the anchor. Wait for me here!"

Su Mo had the fire-control radar functioning as his eyes, and he was not the least bit worried that the foreign races would surround him on the water.

After opening the door and letting the ladder down, Su Mo quickly climbed down the passage that would bring him off Hope One.

Su Mo had rarely come into contact with the sea both here and back on Earth.

However, this did nothing to dampen the passion roaring from within him now.

Hope One began slowing down after the OS finished making its adjustments. Su Mo swayed slightly as he stood on the ladder. He slowly took out a half-inflated lifeboat from the storage space.

Su Mo grabbed the rope on the lifeboat before throwing it into the water. Upon seeing that the lifeboat did not malfunction in the waters, Su Mo tightened his hold on the rope, and then jumped into the lifeboat.

Whoosh!

There was a difference in the speeds of the lifeboat and Hope One, which meant that Su Mo would cause a huge impact when he landed.

This impact was not something a five-square-meter lifeboat could withstand.

When Su Mo realized that the lifeboat was about to capsize, he immediately curled his lower torso inward and used the resulting recoil of the impact to stop the lifeboat from overturning. The lifeboat swayed from side to side in the water for a while before it came to a stop and floated motionlessly.

"Not bad. Not only has my flexibility improved after taking up martial arts, but I've also become much better at directing my strength!"

Hope One had a comfort attribute added to it, and you would not feel like you were traveling at sea when you stood on the ship. Instead, it felt just like standing on solid ground.

However, the lifeboat was different. Besides having properties that made it hard to damage and that allowed it to speed up when sailing through smooth waters, this excellent-quality lifeboat was virtually the same as normal lifeboats back on Earth.

Su Mo felt curious and excited when he felt the lifeboat swaying up and down in tandem with the waves on the sea.

Hope One's anchor had been let down. Although it would not travel far, it would still allow the waves to carry it forward for a limited distance.

Su Mo did not panic when he saw Hope One floating away. Instead, he sat down in the middle of the lifeboat and continued inflating it.

He continued doing so until it was 80 percent inflated. After ensuring it had sufficient buoyancy, Su Mo took out a wooden paddle that he had prepared in advance, and used both hands to row as he began sailing through the waters.

It felt different from rafting through scenic spots on Earth.

If humans could overcome their natural fear of the sea and possessed adequate swimming skills, the experience of sailing through the seas on a lifeboat was an unbeatable one.

Su Mo was not in a hurry to get to those foreign scouts. He familiarized himself with using the paddle while sailing in circles around Hope One.

During that process, Su Mo tried standing up abruptly, sitting back down abruptly, and various other aggressive movements.

In the end, Su Mo even tried taking off his Simba onesie and jumping into the sea, where he held his breath and tried various tactical maneuvers underwater.

That experiment proved that not everyone could become a warrior, and not everyone could master hand-to-hand combat under the sea.

Su Mo was soon faced with his first challenge after he dove into the sea.

How to overcome his fear of opening his eyes!

The water in the sea was not like the water one would find in swimming pools, nor was it like the waters of the Yangtze River and Yellow River back in Huaxia.

Although there weren't any lifeforms in the sea currently, it still contained plenty of salt!

He did not feel any discomfort when he opened his eyes in the sea, but when he left the waters and exposed his eyes to the air once again, he experienced a temporary stinging pain.

This was because seawater would drain the moisture from the eyes and cause them to become dry.

If you failed to adapt yourself to the feeling, you would soon find yourself stuck in a vicious cycle.

Luckily, Su Mo had swimming experience back on Earth. After about five minutes of continuous practice, he could hold his breath and swim around in the water even if he fell in abruptly.

After getting over his first hurdle, Su Mo was quickly able to adjust to the fact that his movements would become slower because of the water resistance that existed due to the water's buoyancy.

The Su family spear technique was derived from the Yue family spear technique, and it placed more emphasis on movements and positioning. Speed was not something that the technique concerned itself with.

Thus, he could easily fight back as long as he made the appropriate calculations in advance and anticipated the enemy's movements.

The water resistance meant that the advantages from his physical enhancements would disappear, and that enabled Su Mo to use the Su family spear technique with even fewer distractions.

"This move is called Spear of the Heavens. I need to use my core strength to propel my arm upward before bringing the spear upwards. I usually use too much strength here, and never realized that I could exert even more force by bringing it upwards!"

"This move is called Young Phoenix's Return, and it is a forward jab. I usually use my body's momentum to stop myself from falling backward before I burst forward forcefully. However, I never thought that this move would require one to lean back as much as possible before using the force of the rotation to produce an even faster and more destructive jab!"

"For Golden Goose Flight, I have to use my dexterity to…"

"Dense Clouds With No Rain does not call for speed. Instead, I should make adjustments based on the enemy's movements. That way…"

Su Mo went into the waters at one fifty, and he trained until it was ten minutes past three in the afternoon.

Despite training for an hour and twenty minutes, Su Mo did not feel tired at all. Instead, he gained a whole new understanding of the Su family spear technique.

After he got out of the waters and climbed back into the lifeboat, Su Mo was confident that he could take down his previous self using less than thirty moves!

"No wonder these killing techniques are going extinct on Earth."

"Unless you're a prodigy, it'll be as difficult as ascending into the heavens if you want to forge a path for yourself without the help of a master!"

Su Mo rowed the lifeboat back toward Hope One and extended an arm to summon the wind ability of the lion clan.

Although the materials used to craft his Simba onesie had come from actual lions, water could not penetrate its oily and shiny surface.

However, it wasn't completely sealed, which caused a little seawater to seep into it.

It took less than three minutes for the material to once again become dry in the breeze.

"Thankfully, I am much less susceptible to becoming seasick than the average person because I have physical enhancements."

"Even sailors who have spent decades sailing would be slightly weaker compared to me in this aspect."

"I've familiarized myself with the techniques and gotten a new understanding of what it means to battle on and under the sea. All there's left is…"

Su Mo rubbed his hands together. After listening to the OS's newest report on locations, Su Mo rowed his lifeboat as quickly as possible toward a foreign race scout. It was not the one closest to Hope One, but it was alone.

This foreign race scout was about 3.8 kilometers away from Hope One.

The foreign race scout closest to him was still another 800 meters away. No matter how loudly he screamed, he would not be heard over the waves crashing loudly in the night.

One row after the other.

Su Mo put all his strength into rowing, and the lifeboat was propelled forward at maximum speed.

When he was only a kilometer away from the foreign race scout, Su Mo made some preparations to ensure his safety.

Not only did he drink half a bottle of psychic energy water and stick the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card on his body, but he also loaded a handgun with bullets and disengaged the safety mechanism.

Su Mo placed the handgun in an eye-catching spot in his storage space and took out the three-pointed two-edged sword before focusing his gaze and quickening his movements.

The distance between the two parties grew smaller and smaller. When Su Mo was only fifty meters away, the foreign race scout detected the presence of an unwelcome guest.

"Is that… a leopard man?"

The foreign race scout flew into a panic as he stared at the lion warrior in front of him. He looked like he had seen a monster.

He roared and frantically rowed his boat, trying to get away from the lion warrior.

Su Mo shook his head and began rowing hard with all his might to catch up to him.

Such was the way battles at sea worked. You could only engage in combat if you caught up to your target.

There would only be one outcome for the escaping party if they did not get away quickly enough…

Bang!

Splash!

There was virtually no resistance to speak of. When there were only two meters left between them, Su Mo stood up and leaped forward. He looked like a god descending from the heavens as he jumped onto the leopard man's wooden raft.

This huge impact was not something that the tiny wooden raft could withstand.

The leopard man stared at him like he was a god when he saw the raft breaking apart. Su Mo took advantage of his stunned state to stab him in the chest.

"Is that all? Their combat abilities are so weak!"

As Su Mo shook the leopard man on his three-pointed two-edged sword and stared at the spot where he died, a shiny wooden chest appeared.

Su Mo might be complaining, but inwardly he was delighted!

Last time, the white-robed kobold had caused hundreds of boxes to vanish into thin air after he bombarded all the kobolds to death.

However, as Su Mo stroked the wooden chest in front of him…

He knew.

The time to soar was finally…

Approaching!

Chapter 356: Sorry, I've Got You All Surrounded!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After the gods fell and forced the foreign races to enter the wasteland in search of God-transcending items, it was obvious that not only had their ability to develop and strengthen themselves suffered a serious blow, but their combat awareness and capabilities had also declined to an absolutely deplorable state.

Su Mo hopped into the sea at four fifty-five in the morning after the OS informed him that the last major squad had taken up its position. The sea washed off the blood of the foreign races left behind on his Simba onesie.

The foreign races were too weak, or perhaps it was the case that not even Su Mo realized how powerful he was.

He had started by taking on one at a time, then two at a time, and then three at a time.

When Su Mo realized the foreign races could not fight back against him despite spotting him, he started being more bold and unrestrained in his fighting style.

Just five minutes before, he had taken on a foreign races' scouting squad consisting of sixteen members on his own. He faced virtually zero resistance as he ran his weapon through them all!

The foreign races' usual dexterity and agility became a hindrance as they clumsily fumbled around while trying to avoid friendly-fire.

The foreign races were landlubbers and, while on the sea, had no means of utilizing any of their physical advantages except for some of their odd powers.

However, the large squad of foreign races situated in the rear did not retreat after losing their scouts. Instead…

They became even braver!

The unknown was always the most terrifying. The squads had already gotten the information they were most eager to discover after Su Mo deliberately let off two of the foreign races' scouts who were observing from a distance.

After the mysterious lion warrior shed the mysterious veil that shrouded him, they now believed that the "King of Lions" was now something they could take possession of easily!

"OS, prepare to pull the anchor up. Activate first-level combat readiness state!"

"Copy that!"

Su Mo quickly rowed the lifeboat forward and climbed back up the ladder onto Hope One. After closing the door to the escape passage, the foreign races' squads also hastened their steps to arrive at a spot thirty kilometers away from Hope One.

Moreover, these greedy foreign races would not come at him from only one direction. Instead, they had adopted a pincer attack method that would strike at him from the front and rear at the same time.

Eight thousand and five hundred troops assembled due south of the ship's rear.

Whereas as many as thirteen thousand troops of the foreign races that relied on their strength had gone around Hope One and placed themselves due north of where Hope One was headed. They had formed a pocket that stopped Hope One from traveling any further.

"Chief, they've taken up their positions. Shall we begin the live broadcast stream?"

"Yes, of course. We'll wait until everyone arrives before we turn it off and beat them to a pulp!"

As Connie walked up to Su Mo nervously, he waved dismissively before striding into the bridge.

Numerous red dots were scattered across the fire-control radar's display panel.

At a glance, the green dot that represented Hope One looked like Little Red Riding Hood surrounded by a bunch of hungry wolves.

However, only Su Mo knew…

"Sorry guys, you're not the ones who have me surrounded. Instead, I'm the one who has you all surrounded!"

Su Mo used his authority as ship captain to activate the special-level combat readiness state coded into the OS.

The OS would function at full capacity and supply all the data for the upcoming battle.

After the first second of activation, the air cooling and water cooling systems on the computer, which was equipped with arguably the highest specifications a personal computer could have, began operating in sync with a thrumming rumble.

"Based on the trajectory calculations done by the OS, if I attack the strength-based foreign races, I have a 67% chance of killing everyone."

"However, if I turn the ship around and attack the ragtag group behind me first, I have a 95% chance of annihilating everyone!"

The OS instantly listed out the several possibilities available and ranked them from highest to lowest in terms of probability of success.

Su Mo had created the OS, so he immediately understood what it had planned without the OS elaborating further.

The insect clan behind them moved extremely quickly. If he did not get rid of them immediately, there was an extremely high chance that they would escape successfully after witnessing Hope One's terrifying firepower.

Moreover, these troops were not loyal soldiers. There was no way they would stay behind if they faced defeat, and would most likely abandon the strength-based foreign races to escape.

"Connie, head to the stern and begin the live broadcast stream. We won't use any weapons when the first squad of foreign races begins attacking."

"I want them to see…"

"Hope!"

Su Mo picked up his three-pointed two-edged sword and looked at the small whirlwind that appeared on his hand. A cold smile spread across his face beneath the lion mask as he closed the bridge door and strode toward the stern.

When he obtained the lion clan's wind ability, Su Mo had imagined various scenarios in which he would use this wind ability to defend himself if enemies ever broke into the shelter.

However, Su Mo had never expected that the lion clan's wind ability would get its chance to shine while he was at sea, and not when he was back at the shelter!

"From today onward, the Oreo clan is going to be famous!"

A storm seemed to brew in Su Mo's eyes as he gazed at the calm sea waters.

At the same time, he focused mentally and summoned an ancient and peculiarly-shaped horn. As Su Mo was wearing the Simba onesie, the horn appeared in Su Mo's furry hands.

Since he was in the form of a lion warrior, Su Mo did not plan to expose any of his human technology capabilities.

However, this did not mean that Su Mo was devoid of any methods. He had picked up a magic trick or two after all this time.

This rare Sea Wave Horn was a reward he obtained from the gold airdrop, and Su Mo had brought it out here to give the foreign races a…

Gift!

Su Mo took his mask off and hung the horn around his neck before he put it back on.

Su Mo noticed Connie had begun her performance from her spot on the ship's stern, and a thought occurred to him. He hid in a corner and connected to Connie's shelter core and tuned into the live broadcast stream.

It was only five in the morning, and it would be a long time until sunrise. The moon still hung high in the sky and shone her light upon the wasteland.

Although plenty of them were still asleep, it only took three minutes before the number of people watching Connie's live broadcast stream reached the scary number of…

680 thousand viewers!

Even if you assumed that every clan had only 100 members, it still meant that over 6.8 million members from the foreign clans were represented within Connie's live broadcast stream!

When Su Mo joined the stream, he was surprised to see that, not only had the Five Royal Clans instantly begun watching the live broadcast stream, but the foreign races that had strength ratings higher than 8 were all present as well.

They all seemed to have received some mass message, but had also made it seem merely like a coincidence.

No one had chosen to tell the Golden Lion King that the Five Royal Clans were going to hunt her.

Even her partner-in-crime, Snow Soaring Bear, had maintained his silence.

Before being accepted into the Five Royal Clans as the sixth clan, the Golden Lion King was a ticking time bomb for the foreign races.

However, after gaining the Thunder Monkey King's approval, even if Connie had not changed and the Oreo clan had not become royalty yet, to these people…

Their status had already changed!

They would not stop a sixth royal clan from forming but, at the same time, they would not provide any assistance!

The Golden Lion King and Oreo clan would need to get through this hurdle before gaining their approval.

If they did not succeed?

Then they would pretend nothing had happened!

The cruel animal kingdom was a much simpler place than the human world with its varied plots, as well as twists and turns.

"After last night's live broadcast stream, I thought the brothers and sisters from the ordinary foreign races could join forces to form a resistance against the Five Royal Clans and stand our ground on this wasteland. However, my heart aches tonight."

"Even before we've gotten rid of this evil human, Old Devil Su, many of our brothers among the foreign races have already decided that we'll be their next targets."

"It has only been one night. The sun has not even risen, but the lion clan's strongest warrior, Simba, has already taken down no less than eighty of our people who harbored ill intentions."

"Is that a good thing? No, it is not!"

"The foreign races should emphasize harmony, fairness and unity. We should not be fighting amongst ourselves!"

Connie's "heartbreaking" performance was very convincing. Despite the distance between them, Su Mo could sense her grievances through the live feed!

Su Mo knew that there was a possibility that Connie was taking things seriously this time!

Some of the things she said might be fake, but there were also some statements that… came from her heart.

Compared to the united humans, the foreign races were announcing their defeat in advance by getting into an internal conflict even before they had obtained a clear advantage.

Perhaps they had never thought that they would succeed in the first place.

After all, everyone's task and objective had never been to annihilate humankind. Instead, it was the…

God-transcending item!

Everyone could be an ally, but they could also be an enemy. This meant that even foreign races who were on friendly terms would not collaborate without an ulterior motive.

The comments on the screen reflected this sort of thinking to its very core!

"Holy sh*t, how dare someone even think of attacking the King of Lions? Are they crazy??"

"That mysterious lion warrior is named Simba. I can sense a majestic aura from his name alone. Do those people not fear anything in life?"

"Did anyone realize that the Five Royal Clans are all watching this stream at this time of night? It feels a little fishy."

"I've got a massive scoop! The King of Lions has been attacked! The Oreo clan is going to cease to exist soon!"

"Really? That's amazing. Oh, wait, no, all the best to Golden Lion King!"

"…"

Although the change in hierarchy was only reflected in conversation, the comments screen was unforgiving as it fully displayed the foreign races' low intelligence quotient.

Connie shook her head slowly as she read through the comments.

"I know that the foreign races' squads have their eyes on us."

"I don't know why they're here, nor do I know why they're coming for us. But do you really think…"

"They can defeat us?"

After Hope One turned around, the strength-based squads at the back would be in trouble if they could not chase after the ship, and the ragtag squad in front would be in trouble if they were caught.

Although they maintained their traveling speed at five knots, it only took around ten minutes before there were less than ten kilometers between them.

On the other hand, they ensured that they were always 25 kilometers ahead of the strength-based squad behind them.

Based on their current speed, even if the strength-based squad experienced a sudden burst of power and rowed even quicker than dragon boat racers, it would still take them around half an hour before they could arrive onto the battlefield.

During these thirty minutes, Su Mo could stay on the battlefield and do whatever he wanted!

The Five Royal Clans and powerful foreign races remained silent even as they read the comments flying past on the screen, acting as if they had nothing to do with this.

Su Mo immediately stepped out of his hiding place after leaving the stream.

Compared to that afternoon, when he was intentionally showcasing his aura to scare off any potential enemies, he seemed much more docile.

However, none of the foreign races watching the stream dared to look down on this lion warrior who was almost as tall as they were.

"Get ready, Connie. We need to teach these enemies a lesson that they'll never forget!"

Most of the foreign races' leaders had a basic grasp of human languages, which meant that they no longer needed to rely on the game's lousy translation function.

Thus, they would usually opt to use human languages instead of their native languages during most public conversations.

As such, they did not question why mysterious lion warrior Simba would be speaking in a human language. Instead, they assumed that he was being considerate of the audience and quietly gave their approval.

"Alright, I'll help you!"

Connie placed the broadcasting device on Hope One's highest point before she bounded forward and stood next to Su Mo.

The next second, as nearly one million of the wasteland foreign races' leaders watched…

A slight breeze began to blow.

Then, in the time it took to take a breath, it turned into…

A tornado!

Chapter 357: White Waves as Tall as Mountains, Winds That Sailors Worry Might Kill Them!

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

"Oh my goodness, the mysterious Oreo clan members have special powers too. They can control the wind!"

"Duh. They used to be among the Royal Clans previously, around a hundred thousand years ago, so of course their powers would be pretty strong!"

"Holy sh*t, that special power is so cool. Quick, take a look, a whirlpool has already formed in the sea!"

"This power must be invincible on the seas. It doesn't matter if they use it to speed up their ships or exert their influence over other people's ships because they're both great ways to use this power!"

"I'm so, so jealous. The toad clan's only power is that we can spray corrosive slime. It's rubbish compared to theirs!"

"So? We freshwater crabs can only experience a five-second long increase in speed, and it only works when we're escaping. It's infuriating."

"…"

The mysterious warrior named Simba stood at the bow of the ship and began directing the wind's movements, just as everyone had expected.

Although most of the ordinary foreign races were shocked, it did not come as a surprise to the more powerful foreign races.

To assess how powerful one's powers were, they not only had to examine their properties, but also how one utilized them.

Currently, based on the control that Golden Lion King and Simba were exhibiting, it seemed to be quite powerful, but not to the point where people could not accept it.

Hope One's lights shone across the surface of the sea and allowed everyone to see the Oreo clan's first enemy in battle.

It was pitch black, as if a portion of the sea had changed colors!

Some flew in the sky, some swam through the water, some stood on rafts, and some rowed boats.

Although their boats were miles behind Hope One, they made up for it in sheer numbers, shocking everyone who was watching the live broadcast stream!

Leopard men, cat people, Taurens, werewolves… These were ordinary foreign races that were similar to humans despite their odd looks, and did not seem very intimidating.

However, there were also spiders with human faces, praying mantises with two blades attached to their arms, bats with babies' faces, and centipedes that had eyes all over their bodies…

While they were all humanoids and looked different anatomically, they still possessed similar traits with the other foreign races.

These insect foreign races might be a foreign race just like them, but it did not stop them from feeling disgusted at the sight of such creatures.

Moreover, although this was a squad comprising various soldiers from different squads, they had a strong visual impact that was comparable to a uniformed and well-organized squad.

To some extent, their squad was even scarier!

Even Su Mo, who put on a brave front as he stood at the bow of the ship, secretly gulped.

A person who suffered from trypophobia would have probably fainted immediately if they witnessed this scene in front of them.

If Su Mo had not forced himself to calm down, he would probably have grabbed his machine gun and begun to pepper the approaching squad with bullets to suppress his nervousness.

Thankfully, due to his constant mental training and the murderous aura he had cultivated during his killing spree out at sea several hours ago, Su Mo managed to calm himself down and focus on controlling the lion clan's wind ability.

"I believe everyone is seeing what I'm seeing. These foreign races are harboring evil intentions as they launch their first attack against the Oreo clan."

"So, in such a situation, we don't need much of a reason to fight back. We won't scurry away in fright if that's what you're thinking we're about to do."

"Everyone, we'll talk again once we're done with the first battle!"

The ragtag squad still had another kilometer to go before they clashed with Hope One. Su Mo had control over the surrounding hundred meters of the ship.

Connie took advantage of the remaining time she had left and continued speaking, using her moral high ground to verbally assault the other party.

Although the leaders of numerous foreign races were watching the stream, they still did not post any comments on the comments screen even after hearing what Connie had to say.

However, everyone on the sea now hastened their movements.

The already tense atmosphere was turned up to an even higher level. Based on the speed both parties were traveling at, it would take less than half a second for them to collide.

"Simba, you just have to focus on controlling. I'll inject the energy!"

Su Mo currently could not spare Connie any attention and reply to what she had said because it was his first time facing so many enemies at once.

The OS sounded like it was going into overdrive in his earphones as it transmitted coordinates every five seconds and suggested the best times to attack.

When the two parties were about 400 meters apart, Su Mo began swinging his left arm in a circular motion.

When they were 300 meters apart, Su Mo's right arm began moving as well; it looked like he was making knife-cut noodles as he made rapid cross-cuts in the air.

This method was somewhat similar to the typhoon barrier he had used before but, this time, Su Mo did not create a protective perimeter around Hope One.

Instead, with Connie's help, he created a massive whirlwind that reached the clouds!

On Earth, whirlwinds were classified as strong, but small-scale, convective weather occurrences that suddenly occurred in local areas.

They were vortexes of wind formed by the instabilities and turbulence created by bad weather.

Under the effect of the wind's speed and direction, the upward airflow will generate vertical velocity. In other words, the whirlwind would begin rotating horizontally.

The principles seemed a little difficult to understand, but as a mischievous child, Su Mo's favorite activity as a kid was stepping on tiny dust devils!"

The tiny dust devils that were formed inland were rarely major, and it always brought about an extraordinary feeling when you stepped into one because you would feel like you were flying into the air.

However, when they were formed in places near the sea or on the sea itself…

Once it became a waterspout, it would also become every experienced ship captain or sailor's biggest nightmare!

When they were about 200 meters apart, Su Mo had already managed to construct and form a weak whirlwind.

At the same time, the air currents near Hope One started flowing more rapidly because of the whirlwind. This meant that the flying foreign races would have their dreams of breaking through the barrier crushed.

The foreign races floating along in rafts and swimming in the sea also sensed the impending danger, and they had no choice but to halt their approach.

However, they had forgotten something very important…

They were not on land now. It was not a scenario where two armies stood in their respective positions during a face-off.

They were on the sea!

An ocean of infinite possibilities!

If the enemy won't move, I'll move!

Under the OS's control, even as the foreign races retreated slowly, the distance between the two parties shrank to 150 meters.

At that moment, the foreign races also realized that it was going to be impossible for them to escape. Thus, they raced forward once more.

In an instant, all sorts of weird powers appeared across the sea's surface, making it look like a scene from a Hollywood movie.

Some shot fireballs like Kobold mages, and there were also icy spikes that sent a chill running down one's spine.

Disgusting-looking slime splashed everywhere, which were accompanied by more than a hundred barbs that were about 50 centimeters long.

As the battle progressed, the two parties actively engaging in the battle would naturally have no time to pay attention to the numerical disparity or how epic this historical battle looked.

However, millions of viewers who belonged to the foreign races watched intently from their spot on top of Hope One. They felt like they were watching a movie as they felt their muscles tense up.

Moreover, Connie had enabled permissions for foreign races who had a strength rating of at least eight and had permissions to conduct live broadcast streams of their own to speak without requesting permission beforehand.

Several foreign races realized that this was a great chance for them to gain more fame, and they immediately connected to the stream and began commentating on the battle's proceedings, just like how news stations did back on Earth.

Among them, the Silver-haired Mastiff, though lacking a particularly high strength rating at only 8.1, had impeccable hosting skills and became the top choice for most of the ordinary foreign races viewing the stream.

"Here we can see a foreign races' squad of massive size formed from various races. From what we can see, there are at least 20 different races in this squad."

"Given that it's such a large squad, and that it comprises so many different races. I'm willing to bet that this whole thing was pre-planned!"

"However, even when faced with this squad, the two warriors from the mysterious Oreo clan do not seem to be flustered. Look, they're still controlling the whirlwind that's slowly rising from the sea's surface. I can't believe they're not planning to escape, do they really think that…"

"Their mortal bodies are comparable to that of a god!"

The Silver-haired Mastiff yelled and screamed as he watched the ragtag squad's attacks fail to travel across the hundred-meter distance to hit Hope One, and his cries caused all of the ordinary foreign races to become agitated!

Most ordinary foreign races would go through their entire lives without ever seeing something like this!

"The King of Lions, which belongs to the Oreo clan, is still moving forward. Their whirlwind is moving in tandem with it at the same time."

"Oh, no. This is not good news for the foreign races' squad. The Oreo clan can launch attacks from over a hundred meters away, but the furthest distance their attacks can cover is less than fifty meters!"

"They're going to meet!"

There were only 120 meters left between them!

Although the whirlwind had not actually come into contact with the foreign races' squad yet, the troops perched on the rafts in front had already been thrown into the sea because of the crashing waves.

There were also members of the foreign races who did not react in time and sank into the sea when their raft overturned.

The lion clan's wind ability seemed mediocre and unimpressive when used on land.

However, in Su Mo's hands, it became one of the most impressive foreign race powers on the sea!

Connie, who was standing behind Su Mo and helping to contribute some energy, could also sense how Su Mo was controlling this whirlwind.

An odd feeling crept over her.

"So… wind can be used in this way too!"

Connie was impressed when she saw how Su Mo controlled the wind and exerted so much power with it despite not using any complicated tactics.

However, she did not know…

An odd feeling had also crept over Su Mo when he saw the enemies retreating in terror because he had never used the power of a blessing like this before.

"Is this… how an individual transcendence feels?"

He controlled the whirlwind and watched as it moved around the sea according to his will.

A sense of power that Su Mo had never sensed before washed over him.

Breathe in… breathe out!

The whirlwind trembled and quivered as his breath rose and fell.

As they continued injecting energy into the whirlwind, the wind speed had long since surpassed the seventh-level on the Beaufort scale and had become even more terrifying with the help of nature's power.

It was perfectly reasonable that their opponent, the foreign races, would suffer such a quick and devastating defeat!

Yes, they had not even had the chance to fight head-to-head!

All it took was a whirlwind on the sea to scare the foreign races' squad, who were terrified of dying.

No one dared to take the lead, and no one wanted to walk straight to their deaths. Everyone wanted to wait for the whirlwind to end, and for the strength-based foreign races' squad to provide them with cover and support.

From the audience's point of view, it looked like…

Su Mo had managed to stop tens of thousands of foreign races by himself!

"Oh my god, this mysterious lion warrior has made thousands of foreign races retreat all by himself."

"There is no way his strength rating is just 3.8!"

If you fought ten people by yourself, your strength rating would be a 2.

If you fought a hundred people by yourself, your strength rating would be a 3.

If you fought five hundred people by yourself, your strength rating would at least be a 6.

Whereas if you fought a thousand people by yourself, your strength rating would be at least 8!

However, the foreign races were all startled after watching Su Mo take on and defeat thousands of people by himself. Even the Silver-haired Mastiff host was stunned.

The whirlwind that Simba had created was like a natural barrier, and no one dared to cross it.

It was the epitome of "individual heroism". It was an eye-opening and mind-numbing thing to watch!

However…

"Holy sh*t, what the f*ck… is that?"

"Guys, guys, look. Look over there!"

Despite being suspended in mid-air, not everyone could get a clear view of the battlefield while it raged at dawn.

However, when the Silver-haired Mastiff stuttered and caught everyone's attention, the screen exploded with comments!

Countless question marks and exclamation points flowed across the screen like a river.

At the same time, the foreign races' comments screen experienced something legendary for the first time…

It stalled!

Over 200 million people were watching the stream together. The ordinary foreign races and Five Royal Clans held their breath and watched intently as…

A white "mountain" rose behind the foreign races' squad!

The mountain was not overly high. It was only around 30 meters tall.

The mountain was not that big either. It was just large enough to cover the entirety of the ragtag foreign races' squad.

However, this mountain was not a mountain!

It was…

A tsunami!

After using the sea wave horn for the first time and spending 1000 Disaster Points, the sea wave horn exuded so much power that even Su Mo found it difficult to believe.

It was different from controlling the lion clan's wind ability.

This time, after witnessing the tsunami that was as large as a "mountain", even Su Mo realized that humans were no match for the immense power that nature held.

As for the foreign races, who turned around to look when they felt something rising up behind them, it would end up being…

The most unforgettable scene of their lives!

Splash…

At that crucial moment, the OS announced that the first squad was less than 10 meters away from Hope One.

Su Mo smiled as he shook his head slowly and signaled for Connie to turn off the live broadcast stream.

Treasure chests would appear if humans killed a foreign race member, and it was bound to raise questions among the foreign races if they noticed.

Thus, the image that was destined to stay in the foreign races' minds was:

Waves as high as mountains, and crazy winds swirling through the sky.

As for what happened later, the scene would represent death, technology, and Old Devil Su's metal hail of bullets.

It was left to the sea to become…

The only audience member!

Chapter 358: Discard All Pretenses, Unleash The Rage!

"Why has it been disconnected? It was fine just a moment ago, then Golden Lion King's live broadcast stream suddenly just vanished!"

"F*ck, I've even taken off my damn trousers, and you're now just letting me watch this?"

"Why is it back to the Thunder Monkey King's stream? Fuck, I wanted to watch the big battle! I wanted to watch the Oreo Clan fight the foreign races!"

"There must be something shady going on. Why won't the Golden Lion King let us watch the battle?!"

"Maybe the Golden Lion King was making it up. Maybe they pretended that they were about to fight, and then just as it was about to get good, they turned off the stream to mess around with us!"

"Let me tell you, Simba's Storm and Waves move was way too awesome. It's right up there with the Royal Clans' strength."

"I can't believe it either. That display was even more powerful than a royal clan!"

"It might seem like they're showing off, but let me tell you, Simba and Connie were able to face off against 10,000 creatures so calmly… they must be really strong!"

"They must be!"

"…"

After Connie turned off the live broadcast stream, everyone left on the channel could only move over to the Thunder Monkey King's stream — previously ranked second — to kill time and complain.

As the initiator of the whole thing, not only was the Thunder Monkey King himself stunned, the other four royal clans were shocked as well. Just from that brief glimpse, they could already tell that the mysterious Oreo Clan was immensely strong. After catching a glimpse of what they were capable of, the royal clans decided that if the Oreo Clan could pass the test, they would set a new precedent and sincerely welcome this powerful foreign clan into the royal clans' fold.

However, at this moment…

The Thunder Monkey King shut off his own stream immediately, and the other four royal clans scrambled to leave the channel. They had one common goal… to establish a friendly connection! They wanted to reach out to the foreign races that had just been in battle and get their hands on the latest information.

It was fine even without the live broadcast stream. They could video call the foreign races and obtain the latest update about the battle situation. As they rushed to contact the foreign races, they suddenly received a notification from the game.

[The players you are trying to contact are currently engaged in combat. Please try contacting them when they have left combat!]

This was the method in which the game protected players in combat, keeping them from being distracted by chat messages at crucial points of the fight. It wasn't just the video call function that was blocked either; other messages wouldn't trigger notifications. One had to wait until the player either left combat, or pro-actively checked their messages.

Usually, this feature garnered praise not just from the ordinary foreign races, but the royal clans as well. It made them feel like the game's creators were both magnanimous and thoughtful. However, receiving such a notification now made them feel like vomiting blood.

"Crap, our first squad was affected by the wave, and are now in combat mode!"

"We can only wait for combat to end, and then contact them!"

For some reason, seeing the message from Cursed Tiger made the hearts of the four other clans skip a beat. With over 23,000 foreign clans poised to attack, the defeat of two players should have been a done deal but, for some reason, the Five Royal Clans were now feeling stabs of panic.

That white wave like a mountain, that massive whirlwind… it all got pushed to the back of their minds; replaced with the image of Su Mo's first appearance on the stream and the "rage" in his eyes!

Why was he so angry? What else did he have up his sleeve? What was he planning?

The Five Royal Clans had no idea, so they could only wait.

…

[Warning! South 87, enemy is 4.9km away from Hope One on the south side. Estimated time of arrival: 7 minutes 35 seconds!]

[Warning! South 99, enemy is 3.6km away from Hope One on the south side. Estimated time of arrival: 5 minutes 12 seconds!]

[Warning…]

[The life signs North 92 of Hope One have begun to disperse. Do you want to activate the tracking algorithm?]

[Tracking algorithm activated. Enemy trajectories will be tracked and predicted in real time…]

[Warning! Warning! Hull damage detected on Hope One. Impact by unknown enemies detected. Do you want to accelerate and retreat?]

[Warning! Warning! Damage detected on Hope One's starboard side. Impact by unknown enemies detected. Request to engage emergency retreat mode!]

[Current speed: 4.5 knots. If this speed is maintained, the probability of being surrounded is 98%. If cruising speed is activated, the probability of being surrounded is 0.006%. If Hope One reaches maximum speed, the probability of being surrounded is 0%. Do you want to accelerate and retreat?]

[…]

With the enemy just ahead, the OS's notification system had gone into overdrive, with pings and prompts coming one after another.

Su Mo took his time and put away his majestic three-pointed two-edged sword. The whirlwind and waves seemed incredibly powerful over the stream just three minutes ago, but they actually didn't do as much damage as people would have expected. Instead, after the stream ended, the terrible wave immediately announced its own "demise".

It was very easy to use the horn. One only had to use the so-called "authority of the God of the Ocean", spend Disaster Points, and make a request. This mysterious old horn would then, within limits, make its owner's wishes come true.

While using it, Su Mo's wish was to create a wave that would have an impact on the surrounding 10km radius. However, the horn got it wrong and created a "beautiful misunderstanding" instead. Of course, that misunderstanding came at a cost.

If it was only required to make the sea churn a little more violently, 1,000 Disaster Points would naturally be sufficient, but to create this terrifying wave, the horn had to initiate a much more complex process. To create a wave that would surge, crash, and roll into the distance… more than 10,000 Disaster Points were needed. Therefore, what all the foreign races present at the battle witnessed instead was the wave seemingly dissolve in mid-air, before gently returning to the surface of the sea.

In addition to the various self-inflicted accidents caused by the mad panic induced by the wave, of the 8,500 foreign races, the wave's kill count didn't even cross the 100 mark! With this, the previously stunned squad seemed to come to their senses, and began taunting Su Mo and Connie loudly.

The whirlwind was still active, so the flying foreign races were unable to draw near, but some of the foreign races had cleverly hidden themselves underwater and swam toward Hope One. Seeing Hope One's seemingly flimsy outer facade, and imagining that it would be as simple as destroying a raft, they excitedly launched their first wave of attacks.

"Leader, should we retaliate? I don't think I can hold on much longer!"

Connie, who had been expending energy this whole time, stood behind Su Mo, her face already pale. As a lion priestess whose actual strength was actually extremely low, five minutes of expending energy had already pushed her to her limit.

Given Hope One's blessing level, the strength of the whirlwind would swiftly decline to nothingness if Connie halted her energy output. The flying foreign races would immediately press their advantage and break through, launching "suicide attacks" on those on deck.

"Wait. Just hold on for two more minutes until they come over!"

"Operating System, move back! Allow the enemies on both fronts to converge together!"

[Captain Su Mo, your order has been received. Hope One will activate Tank Mode to funnel the enemies to the target location of South 90!]

As an intelligent system that would run indefinitely as long as there was a power source, the OS's voice remained expressionless even during this desperate situation. No one found this lack of emotion frightening. It actually provided people a sense of comfort on the edge of a big battle.

Yes, it had reached this stage.

Su Mo had already taken all the factors into consideration, and had perfected his plan. Pushing his own abilities to the limit, he had also weakened the enemy — who had no hope of winning — as much as he could. He executed every step perfectly.

Seeing Hope One move southwards, some stray combatants thought that it was retreating and began to chase after it. Su Mo's right hand was still controlling the whirlwind, but he raised his left hand slowly, pressing down on the Bluetooth headset on his left ear.

Upon receiving the order, the combat agents hiding below deck sprang into action, leaping into position on the turrets where the machine guns were mounted. According to their battle arrangements, each combat agent had been paired with one bionic mechanic.

While the combat agent quickly fixed itself into position using a few large screws, a mechanic brought over a case of ammunition. The combat agent handled itself like a seasoned warrior, loading the gun with such familiarity that it would send a chill up the spines of those observing.

From the moment Su Mo gave the order, to the moment the guns were loaded, and to the moment the bionic mechanic brought over the second case of ammunition, the entire process had only taken… one minute and 25 seconds!

There were eight combat agents distributed evenly from the bow to the stern, port and starboard, covering every possible attack angle, except for directly below Hope One.

Sitting next to the Annihilator, Su Mo put on a good show, pulling down the periscope, calmly watching the progress of the battle outside.

[Real-time report: South 86, South 92, South 115, South 70, South 98… In 12 directions, the closest distance between the foreign races and Hope One is 0.8km, with the furthest being 1.69km away. Estimated time to contact: 42 seconds!]

[North 95, North 112, North 80, North 103, North 44, North 168, North 12… In 16 directions, the closest distance between the foreign races and Hope One is 0.2km, with the furthest being 1.13km away. Estimated time to contact: 36 seconds!]

[Detected: The current situation has triggered the conditions of the special combat readiness state. Do you want to activate the fire-control auxiliary system?]

Finally! The moment had finally come! After 25 days of waiting, and a whole month of lying dormant.

Hearing that the impending battle was only 40 seconds away, he looked towards Connie, who seemed to be on the verge of passing out.

Su Mo efficiently dispersed the whirlwind and picked up Connie, before running toward the bridge with great strides.

A disguise? There was no need for that anymore!

Forty seconds later, in this part of the sea, Hope One burst to life with terrifying firepower. It would make every foreign race member forever remember what rage looked like..

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Chapter 359 - Fire! Fire! Fire!

One step, two steps, three steps! Su Mo ran swiftly but, as the whirlwind rapidly dissipated, the flying foreign races behind him adjusted their speed and moved even quicker!

In any random squad of foreign races, flying types would only make up about five percent of their total number. However, with this particular squad of 8,500, the number of flying types was over 500!

With the air currents restored to their normal states, they swooped in like a flock of vultures, looking almost like a black cloud. They were not worried that the mysterious Simba would retaliate at this time. They had seen the whirlwind vanish when its power ran out, and had caught sight of the "panicky" Su Mo, who was carrying Connie and running across the deck.

The enemies knew that their opponents' defenses would be weakened once their energy had run out, which made this the best time for them to attempt a breakthrough. They launched their attack, rushing over at ten times the speed of the other foreign races' troops. They were set on having a feast on the deck of Hope One.

[System reminder… 18 seconds…]

[System reminder… 13 seconds…]

When the OS's reminder hit 9 seconds, all the flying foreign races saw Su Mo, in the form of Simba, "escape" into the door of the bridge. Seeing this, the leader of the flying foreign races could only shake his head in regret as he watched Simba and Connie enter the seemingly safe room.

At the same time, they could see many little human shapes on the deck. From a distance, they looked like food. Their skin seemed to reflect light, and they looked pretty similar to humans. However, they somehow did not look that appetizing…

With dissatisfied screeches, the enemies swooped in, intending to rip apart that delicious flesh as soon as possible. What greeted them though, was a storm of death and metal!

Da… da… da… da… da! It was like a symphony written by a renowned composer, and also like the final descent of a storm that had been gathering for a long time.

When the little people slowly raised their black weapons, the flying foreign races instinctively felt that something was up, but there was no chance for them to react. They were overwhelmed! Their flesh was torn to pieces! Wings and heads were blown apart, filling the sky with thick black blood. Faced with the bloodthirsty weapons of humans, their bodies seemed as fragile as paper.

Every Type-80 machine gun could go through about 800 rounds of ammunition per minute, which worked out to about 13 bullets per second. At the bow and the stern, as well as the port and starboard, the six machine guns could go through about 80 bullets per second, all aimed at the flying foreign races heading in their direction. With the help of the OS's fire-control auxiliary system, the combat agents were not just shooting indiscriminately, but were able to carry out a controlled sweep even while maintaining a blistering rate of fire.

What was happening here?

Just think about it…

If 80 bullets swept across the designated target area, nothing would be spared. Every bullet would be able to repeatedly hit the target. Under such a barrage, even solid tank armor would not be able to withstand such repeated impact, much less these weak flying foreign races, whose bodies were built for speed and flight rather than strength and durability. Under the hailstorm of 7.62mm caliber bullets, the sky burst with blood and body parts within the span of four or five breaths. Some of the flying foreign races lost their heads even before they managed to register what was happening. Their headless bodies flapped helplessly in the air for a moment before plunging into the sea below.

Eight seconds, or was it five seconds? Standing inside the bridge, Su Mo did not keep count. The flying foreign races were too occupied trying to stay alive to keep track as well. The leader of the flying foreign races was killed in this encounter without ever having the chance to send out a message. This massacre had happened too quickly. Even though the flying foreign races were almost completely wiped out from the sky, their distant reinforcements were still only on their way.

The foreign races on the sea were still happily attacking Hope One's hull with their weapons.

"Damn it, this ship's a really tough nut to crack! My blows are even rebounded from time to time — it's really hurting my hands!"

"It's like a hedgehog. My blade's only leaving tiny knicks on it."

"The Oreo Clan are weak, all they have is this turtle shell. Just wait until I claim their heads — I will definitely look for Cursed Tiger to register the credit!"

"Hang on, brothers. Let's not be in such a hurry to kill them. They're going to die anyway, so let's be real Taurens and go up there to catch that Golden Lion King and have a good time."

"Hey, that's a good idea. Hang on… what's that sound coming from up there?"

"What? Isn't that just the sound of us attacking the ship? It can't possibly be the Oreo Clan retaliating."

"You're right. Forget it, let's just keep going regardless!"

"..."

Ordinary foreign races did not possess shelter cores. In the darkness of night, staying underwater was as good as limiting one's vision to 15 meters. Once they were separated from their leader, these underwater fighters were basically left to their own devices. They did not even register the sounds of machine gun fire coming from above. There were too many foreign races involved, which meant that there were all sorts of random abilities being tossed around. It was expected that there would be some noise. In fact, it would have been really weird if there had only been silence.

There were even some foreign races who began striking against Hope One's hull to the rhythm of the machine gun bursts above.

This wasn't supposed to be fun, but it was! No one worried about the two lions retaliating. With over 20,000 of them amassed, their attention was more focused on who would be the one to gain possession of Hope One first.

"Charge! Kill! The first to set foot on the ship's deck will be rewarded with 500 pounds of meat!"

"Whoever chops off Simba's head will enjoy a lifetime of riches. The Five Royal Clans will provide for you!"

"Let's kill Simba first, and then Su Mo! Charge!"

"Simba, it's time to die!"

"Golden Lion King, I'll rip you to pieces!"

"..."

Using the night-vision cameras located at the bow and stern of Hope One, as well as the upgraded third eye camera, Su Mo could see the undisguised madness in the eyes of all the foreign races from all angles. They were like hungry wolves that had caught a whiff of blood, and were now desperate to feast on meat. The machine guns were still firing, but they showed no fear — it was almost as if they barely registered the presence of the guns at all, and just kept charging toward Hope One.

At this point, the reinforcements from behind had also quietly encircled the ship. Unlike the ragtag fighters at the front, the reinforcements had been urgently deployed, and seemed a little exhausted. They did not choose to attack straight away, but stayed motionless quietly on the water, recovering their strength.

At the same time, fire and loud noises erupted from Hope One's deck, drawing their attention. The attack originated from the starboard side. Since all the firepower had been concentrated somewhere else, after a moment's hesitation, the leader of the reinforcements stopped paying attention to the sounds coming from Hope One's main deck.

Slacking off, he summoned the game panel as he chewed on some jerky to recover his strength. After seeing the Five Royal Clans' urgent messages, he sent a soothing message to Clark of the Cursed Tiger…

"The battle is going well. We have successfully surrounded the Oreo Clan. They cannot escape."

"Furthermore, the mysterious lion warrior Simba has already lost his strength, but we don't know where he's hiding right now."

"We'll just need half an hour to successfully conquer this ship!"

Three messages, sent out one after another. Without waiting for Clark's response, the leader confidently shut down the shelter core game's panel.

His actions made the Five Royal Clans want to initiate a video call and check on the battle's progress, but there was nothing they could do about it.

"Brothers, it is finally time for us to prove ourselves. It doesn't matter if we couldn't beat Old Devil Su! Don't panic! As long as we finish this job here, we will be handsomely rewarded with supplies by the Royal Clans."

"Once we get to the New World, armed with these supplies, we'll grow and develop faster than the other clans."

"By then, us rejects of our clans will be the ones basking in glory!"

"Glory! Kill Simba! Capture the King of Lions!"

Seeing tens of thousands of the foreign races shouting, with morale at an all-time high, the leader picked up his battle flag and gave the order. All the reinforcements… finally charged forward!

At this moment, whether it was the troops at the front, or the reinforcements behind, the foreign races had put all their eggs in one basket and had sent forth their entire force. They were all afraid that they would be overtaken by their "comrades" and lose their share of the spoils. Although they had moved quickly on their way here, they moved even faster at this moment.

"Captain, Moore is seeking permission to attack!" From his position in the main gun turret, Moore could see the foreign races wildly rushing forward. He flipped open the safety mechanism and placed his furry hand on the firing button. Once he pressed it, the main gun would erupt at a terrifying rate of fire of 140 rounds per minute! This weapon of mass destruction could fire a single shell that had an explosion radius of 300 meters. As long as there were sufficient shells, it would make no difference whether there were 20,000 troops among the foreign races or 200,000 troops among the foreign races.

"Wait, wait a little longer. Let them come within 500 meters before attacking. Target the ones further away first!"

Inside the bridge, Su Mo had already taken off the mask of the Simba costume, directing his focus on the reports being transmitted from the fire-control radar. On the cusp of issuing the order to attack, there were streaks of blood on Su Mo's lips, and his face also seemed abnormally red.

The foreign races' battle lines were very long. Their vanguard was already within 300 meters of Hope One, but those at the back of the line were still 1.5km out.

While at sea, there was no way to replenish their supply of shells. They had to choose the perfect moment to achieve maximum effect.

"Operating System, activate the fire-control radar's overdrive mode."

"I want reports on any shifts in position within half a second!"

Under the OS's adjustments, the fire-control radar above the bridge shuddered and went into overdrive with a boom. Every half second, the positions of close to 20,000 foreign races' troops were transmitted back to Su Mo.

"Hurry, hurry, my precious ones!"

"That's right, that's right. Keep this speed up! Hurry up and get within a kilometer of Hope One!"

Su Mo's fists were clenched and his eyes bloodshot. Hope One's properties panel still displayed 99.5% durability remaining. His blood sang in his veins. The red dots on the map were gathering together and charging forward! The green dot that was Hope One looked like a tiny boat in the middle of the ocean, in danger of capsizing at any moment.

In the eyes of the foreign races, Hope One was a treasure and a chance at glory. In Su Mo's eyes, those foreign races were exactly the same thing.

"1.05. 1.03. 1.01. 0.99!"

"Now Moore! Fire your d*mn gun!"

"Fire, d*mn it! Fire! Fire!"

"Give them all you've got! Go get them!"

Boom! Boom! Boom!

…

Moore did not respond to Su Mo's enraged screams. Instead, what responded to Su Mo were the blasts of the main gun. The blasts of a 130mm caliber gun! A gun that fired a shell loaded with 40 pounds of TNT! The blasts shook everything around it, and Hope One rocked in its wake. The despairing cries of the foreign races echoed in the air. The bloodthirstiness of human weaponry, the release after one month of quietly lying in wait; it was the moment of harvest, and a time to reap what had been sown.

Hot tears sprang forth from Su Mo's eyes. It was his first step, as humankind's strongest representative, into the New World. He possessed an extraordinary level of fitness but, at this moment, with all this noise and that massive explosion, his eardrums had gone on strike.

After the massive explosion came deadly silence. It was so quiet that it seemed as if sound had completely disappeared from this part of the world; it was almost like a scene from a silent film.

The camera broadcast displayed a scene that looked like hell. His ears were buzzing, and Su Mo could not see things very clearly. There were many foreign races that had tried to escape, but had been completely vaporized by the bombardment. From the high-resolution footage, Su Mo could even see those closest to the ship, peeking out from under the sea, staring at the treasure chests floating atop the sea as their faces displayed… astonishment? Shock? Confusion? Helplessness?

Their faces did not display any fear. Yes, no fear at all!

They had forgotten what fear even felt like when faced with such unearthly destruction. In fact, their minds could not even register what had taken place. Like the dazed Su Mo who was sitting inside the bridge, they too were deafened. Completely and utterly deafened.

At 6.18am, just before dawn, just before the sun would announce the start of a new day, all was silent.. The long night had ended.

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Chapter 360 - Crushing Gunfire! I… Am Old Devil Su!

The foreign races had been defeated!

They had completely and utterly failed!

Their deaths were not in vain — they had provided him spectacular gains — both in terms of profit as well as reputation.

With Moore at the helm of the Annihilator, bombarding away like a "lunatic", 23500 foreign races had been buried forever under the ocean after experiencing a 32-second, and 76-shell barrage from the Annihilator.

Yesterday, this ocean had still been azure blue. Under the sunlight, the waves shimmered.

However, as the sun rose today, the ocean today had already been stained a daunting blackish-red!

By the time their screams echoed and dwindled, they had become an eternal part of the sea; transforming into the black ash that was now scattered across the waters.

They had come rushing over, and they had "passed away" in a rush too.

Fortunately…

They left "gifts" behind.

Sitting inside the bridge, Su Mo's ears were both covered in blood, which dripped down onto the golden fur of the Simba onesie.

Humankind's weapons of war could decimate the large number of foreign races.

However, human bodies were still so "frail"!

Still, when he saw the image of the ocean transmitted through the camera feed, which displayed many places shining with golden light, sitting in the captain's seat, Su Mo finally could not suppress the emotions in his heart and laughed out loud!

The next second, a silvery-gray card that exuded starlight appeared in Su Mo's hand.

Unlike the talisman simulation world, in the real wasteland world, the number of "hidden aces" in Su Mo's hands were many!

Upon detecting its holder's physical condition, the Mountain and Sea Painting Scroll card started automatically gathering power, which it transmitted slowly up his arm.

His damaged ears seemed to recover the instant this power rushed forth.

It was like a blind person who suddenly had a cornea transplant and could now see the real world.

Sitting inside the bridge, the silent world finally ceased, and the incessant buzzing noises in his ears disappeared and were replaced by the sounds of the real world around him.

Crackle…

Wah…

Complex noises started appearing. Su Mo's brain started quickly accepting, processing and analyzing the information brought by these sounds.

The flames released by the TNT explosions were still blazing on the surface of the ocean.

A few of the foreign races' terrified screams could still be heard.

The enemies in the distance had already been wiped out by Moore and turned into ash.

However, the few enemies who were within the 200-meter radius around Hope One, or who were hiding underneath it, temporarily avoided death.

Those who had dashed to the forefront and done the dirty work were the foreign races' pitiful cannon fodder troops.

They did not have shelter cores, nor did they have teammates. Their leader was dead, and their races were facing extinction.

They saw the treasure chests floating on the sea clearly.

A "bold" guess arose in these foreign races' minds.

However, even if they wanted to send such an "important" message to the other foreign races at this moment…

They could not do so!

In other words, this battle, despite the fact that they were still alive and kicking, had already ended!

[Respected Captain Su Mo, the OS has already analyzed and extracted all signs of creature activity within a 300-meter radius in real-time. The current creatures are determined to be: enemies]

[Will you activate the image analysis transmission to assist the combat agents in making precise attacks against the enemy?]

Alongside the OS's voice, in the display, a map of red dots had been marked out by the OS.

In the presence of light and at close range, this real-time image analysis system was even better than the fire-control radar!

There were still 76 surviving foreign races at the moment. According to the OS's judgment, the time it would take to annihilate them all was…

Only 7 seconds!

In 7 seconds, the combat agents could wipe out all the enemies under the OS's instructions.

"Send out the message to the combat agents in real-time. Without my instructions, do not attack!"

He was not in a rush to eliminate them so, after waving a hand and giving orders to the OS, Su Mo slowly stood up.

The morning sea breeze that passed through the opened door was slightly humid and cold. Accompanied by the heavy smell of blood and gunpowder, it felt disgusting.

Having used up all her strength, Connie — who had fallen unconscious as she laid on the bridge — involuntarily curled up after feeling the cold wind.

After thinking about it, Su Mo took off the Simba onesie. After covering Connie with it, he strode outside.

At this moment, there was no longer a need to pretend!

The Annihilator's strength ensured that Su Mo had no need to compromise with the foreign races!

All the foreign races would forever fear…

Old Devil Su!

He did not choose to stand on the deck to observe the tragic situation unfolding below.

After putting on the full set of combat uniform, Su Mo walked over to the deck's hidden passageway and arrived at the emergency exit, where he opened the emergency hatch that led out to sea.

The treasure chests on the sea were still floating around but, if he left them alone for too long, they would likely float away with the waves.

In this situation, he had to go out to sea and collect these treasure chests as soon as possible before the treasure chests drifted away.

Taking out the lifeboat from the storage space and tossing it into the ocean, Su Mo hopped onto it smoothly and stood up steadily in just two seconds.

Picking up the oars and rowing toward the flashing golden lights, Su Mo quickly reached his intended target.

On the way, several of the surviving foreign races were floating on the surface of the sea.

Under the light of dawn, as they watched Su Mo working hard to row the boat, they all felt a little dazed.

However, with tacit agreement, none of them made a sound, and nobody dared to attack…

Because this person, and the face hidden under the armor…

Was unmistakably familiar!

'It's Old Devil Su! So the mysterious lion warrior is Old Devil Su. That sounds about right. Only Old Devil Su would have the kind of strength to build a ship like this.'

'It's a pity that the Five Royal Clans are still plotting over how to kill Old Devil Su. I never thought he would take the initiative to make the first move and catch everyone by surprise!'

'20 thousand, 20 thousand. There were 20 thousand of us!'

'The foreign races are all going to die!'

'…'

Countless strange thoughts popped up in their heads. Although they did not understand just how Su Mo had appeared here, or how he attracted this "kill" order from the Five Royal Clans, as the winner declared almighty, they had lost completely and fairly!

With a weapon of mass destruction like this, even if the Five Royal Clans had been present here today, they would be full of regret and loathing!

This had already far surpassed the limits of the foreign races' knowledge; much like how Su Mo had slayed a god at the kobold castle, it was something that was outside the scope of their imaginations.

"Old Devil Su is coming. Should we attack?"

Unlike how he hunted the foreign races' spies on the sea last time, Su Mo rowed even faster this time.

The oars had already turned into a blur, as if he had no desire to take action against them.

Seeing the Old Devil Su who was famous among the foreign races rushing over at this speed, one of the foreign races blocking his way had asked that question.

Those words were not spoken loudly. With the ambient noise on the ocean, it was barely audible.

However, strangely, the foreign races at the side seemed to hear it just fine, and used their actions to answer his question.

A single path!

A path that headed straight out into the distant ocean!

As Su Mo rowed the boat forward, all the foreign races that were blocking the way all immediately started slowly moving aside.

None of the foreign races chose to "commit suicide".

None of the foreign races wanted to "accomplish the mission".

They just kept observing — observing Su Mo's calm face, observing Su Mo rowing the oars across the waters, observing Su Mo rushing up to the treasure chests, and then putting them in his storage space!

Seeing that Su Mo was clearly not going to take action against them, and since they were no longer compelled by their leaders' orders, their choice was very…

True to their heart!

Back on the ship, Moore, who was still on standby inside the main gun turret, as well as Oreo who was strolling on the deck, also found that the situation had already been settled.

Taking Big Spark and Little Spark along, the four little ones happily dashed out the emergency hatch.

Without any hesitation, they jumped down toward the surface of the ocean that was dirty, but full of a rewarding "scent".

In just two months, compared to the skinny frail bodies they had when he first saw them, of these two wildfeather chickens, Big Spark's body had already reached half a meter long, and Little Spark's was already more than 40 centimeters long.

The four little soldiers split up and started swimming toward Su Mo's surroundings, helping Su Mo to collect the treasure chests floating on the ocean!

Moore started swimming toward the location where there were the most foreign races gathered, according to the plan Su Mo had given him previously.

"If you disarm yourselves, we will not kill you. If you surrender, we won't kill you. If you're willing to follow the Oreo Clan, we won't kill you!"

"Our captain Su Mo is the most amazing person on the wasteland. As long as you are willing to follow him, as long as you're willing to follow orders honestly, you'll be allowed to live!"

"All foreign races who submit only need to follow the captain's orders and work for 14 hours each natural day."

"Then you'll be allowed to live aboard the wasteland's safest ship, have three full meals a day, and discover a road to advancement, a way to improve your strength, and a bright future!"

"It's now 6.32 in the morning. You have only 30 minutes to consider this offer!"

"Before seven, whoever is willing to submit, please swim to my left side. Those who aren't willing or have other thoughts can go to my right side and wait for death!"

Unlike these weak and skinny foreign races, Moore, as a lightning bear warrior who ate and slept well, had an overwhelmingly sturdy physique.

His voice was extremely loud. Even Su Mo, who was 400 meters away, could still hear it.

Like a roar of thunder, all of the foreign races on the water and below were shaken.

However, what shocked these foreign races was not his voice, but the contents of the words he passed on.

Among the 76 surviving troops of the foreign races, three unlucky ones had been too weak and had succumbed to fatigue and drowned in the ocean.

Among the 73 remaining, around 15 of them could understand human words.

Hearing Moore's words, they revealed a trace of disbelief, and then when they saw Oreo, as well as Big Spark and Little Spark, they looked as if they had realized something.

The other foreign races who could not understand did not swim away either. After talking to those who understood and comprehending the offer, their faces showed stunned expressions.

Submit to the humans?

No, submit to Old Devil Su?

As long as they worked 14 hours a day, they could become Old Devil Su's underlings, board this frightening ship, and eat three full meals a day?

They could even join the mysterious Oreo Clan that their leaders mentioned?

A feeling like manna raining from heaven slowly arose in the hearts of these foreign races who knew their inner desires.

As ones who possessed the ability to converse and understand the human language, these fifteen were originally the higher-level members of the smaller races. They were unlike the other cannon fodder troops and naturally knew what exactly the mysterious Oreo Clan represented…

The sixth Royal Clan!

The mysterious lion warrior with a strength rating exceeding 3!

No, the case was solved!

That mysterious lion warrior was definitely Old Devil Su!

Only Old Devil Su would possess such strength!

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