PFRG: Chapter 183

It was two hours later that the Dawn team returned to the ground.

Under Chi Ting’s arrangement, everyone cooperated with Lu Nanling to complete the statistical integration of all NPC personnel underground.

As the second wave of alien attacks approached, people from other teams had already gathered back at the entrance area. They all looked over when they saw the people from the Dawn team.

He Yuanqing immediately stepped forward to greet them. He glanced at the figures of the others behind him, and got straight to the point. “Have you received the side quest?”

This was originally a competitive instance. The contribution values of all the teams were clearly displayed on the centralized ranking list. In the previous period, as the trust value of the residents increased, the Dawn team’s instance contribution was also constantly updated. Now the teams in this instance were all top teams. They didn’t need to think too much. Past experience was enough for them to guess that the Dawn team had found the so-called fortress residents.

Chi Ting didn’t hide it. He nodded and said, “Yes, we got it.”

He Yuanqing lowered his voice at the right time. “What I can guess, the old foxes in other teams must already know. The second wave will start soon. You must be careful after it is over, and don’t let them find out…”

“It’s okay,” Chi Ting replied. “These residents are currently living underground. The entrance isn’t far from here. There is a secret passage at the end of the fourth alley behind Nansan Road.”

He didn’t try to conceal his voice when speaking, so the other teams who had been paying attention also heard it.

He Yuanqing obviously hadn’t expected Chi Ting to share the information he had collected with great difficulty so easily. He frowned in confusion and reminded, “In this instance, it isn’t necessary to share all the information.”

“It’s okay.” Chi Ting smiled slightly. “Once the enemy attack is over, I will also need people to help with the transfer of personnel.”

He clicked on the virtual map in front of him, selected two points, and connected them with a horizontal line. “We need to ensure that all residents arrive at this location safely before the third wave of monsters launches an attack.”

As he spoke, he turned and waved to the other teams paying attention to this side. “Everyone is welcome to assist.”

Once these words were spoken, the surroundings fell into a brief silence.

The players from each major team exchanged glances, but no one responded for a while.

They naturally wanted to know the location of these NPC residents, but the Dawn team made it public too casually. This made them have to think about it in more depth.

For example, as the rules stated, assisting in the transfer of these resident NPCs could obviously gain a certain amount of trust. However, if they needed to assist in a long-distance transfer, would the time and physical strength consumed in the process be enough to make them give up the time killing monsters that they would inevitably have to sacrifice?

It was a tower defense instance. Obviously, tower defense was the first priority. If the side quest took too much time, it might not be worth it.

“See, these people are starting to make a fuss again.” Lou Yueren saw this scene and smiled cheerfully. “So, dear, sometimes you really shouldn’t rely too much on these bad habits of humans.”

After hearing these words, He Yuanqing saw this sarcastic face and wanted to ask this guy if he had completely severed ties with ‘humanity.’

Chi Ting didn’t care about such statements. All he wanted was to ensure a perfect ending. At least this time, he would never allow the same mistake to happen again.

He picked an empty space nearby, leaned against the wall, and closed his eyes. He enjoyed the calm before the storm. “Don’t worry, they will be willing to help.”

Such words clearly sounded suggestive. Lou Yueren glanced at this face a few times, raised an eyebrow slightly, smiled silently, and said nothing more.

The countdown continued.

Finally, after everyone had made some final adjustments, the second wave of attacks broke out.

A familiar feeling of vibration came faintly from under their feet. This time, there was an increasingly severe dust storm along with the sound.

The team members, who had arrived at various locations, were fully armed. It wasn’t the first time they encountered such a scene, but their expressions were more solemn than the previous time.

This strong sense of uneasiness didn’t come from the monster group whose number was more than doubled this time, but due to the countdown timer that refreshed again. It suddenly became 10 hours.

Such detailed changes were enough for veteran players to detect a very serious problem.

According to the initial rules, they would face a total of nine waves of attacks from alien armies in the instance.

After the first wave ended, the interval before the second wave of attacks was 12 hours. Now the interval between the second and third waves had become 10 hours. Did this mean that when each subsequent wave of monsters came out, the interval would be shortened to 8 hours, 6 hours, 4 hours, or even… less than an hour?

Judging from the current situation, the second wave of alien troops was far superior to the first wave in terms of both appearance and number. If each subsequent wave showed such an increase, along with the ever-shortening time for launching attacks, they would sooner or later not have enough time to annihilate the previous wave. Then they would need to face the next wave of even more massive monster attacks.

In the area under the Heichao team, Lang Xuelin lowered his head and moved his wrists. Then he smiled and shook his head. “I was still wondering when this false alliance would completely fall out. Now it seems that, let alone fall out, we must help each other in harmony. If the intensity continues to increase at this rate, the pressure behind it isn’t something that any team can handle casually. If possible, we have to keep everyone alive as much as possible, or I always feel that we really can’t hold on.”

The members of the Heichao team also smiled bitterly. “To be honest, I already feel that this wave is a bit overwhelming. Captain, with this number… we might not be able to stop them all.”

Lang Xuelin kindly comforted him. “If you can’t stop them, then you can’t stop them. It is okay for a few to slip through occasionally.”

The team member muttered, “But…”

Lang Xuelin raised his eyelids and glanced at the figures behind him. “Don’t worry, don’t we still have two teams to provide backup? Not to mention the strength of the Dawn team that was casually displayed before, just look at the guys from the Jazz team hiding in the back. I don’t believe that they really made it to the quarterfinals just through luck. Just wait and see. If you let some monsters pass by, it will be a good opportunity for me to feel their true strength.”

As he spoke, a shrill chirping sound could be heard faintly in the distance.

Lang Xuelin reached out and gently rubbed his ears. He sighed in disgust once again. “Xi Qinxin’s personal skill is really… so noisy.”

As he finished speaking, his expression gradually became serious and the ground around him started to surge faintly.

Thick vines swayed and oozed out from the ground. Layers of yellow sand slid down the dry stems, gradually approaching the army of monsters heading towards them.

A gust of wind blew by, bringing with it the strong, sickening smell of rot.

The humanoid monsters in front roared and pounced forward. The soft flesh hanging from their bodies made their whole movement look twisted and weird. The moment they opened their bloody mouths, the middle of their skulls cracked simultaneously. The bloody tongue that stretched out was covered with dense barbs. The outer layer of skin peeled off layer by layer with such violent movements, revealing the dense, scarlet, wriggling blood vessels inside. The white bones densely arranged at the main support pole could be vaguely seen in the contracting soft tissue.

Judging from the outside alone, these monsters were far more disgusting than the first wave, and their speed was also much sharper.

Just like the common settings of many instances in this unlimited world, the difficulty was gradually increasing as time passed in the instance.

The Heichao team soon engaged in battle with the second wave of alien troops.

At the same time, in every corner of the battlefield, other teams were also caught in the melee.

The wind carried the strong smell of blood. Thanks to the advice given by the Dawn team during the first wave of monster attacks, the top players in the team didn’t forget to free their hands at the right time while fighting. They clumsily buried the corpses in the ground as quickly as possible before more corpses piled up on the ground.

Lou Yueren, who was still relatively relaxed in the back, saw this scene and commented with a sigh, “To be honest, if this instance was about the speed of burying corpses, they wouldn’t be able to win even if they combined forces.”

Hua Qianmei laughed when she heard this. “Of course. Burying corpses is a job that we did thousands of times back then. How can a rookie like that compare to us?”

Her eyes swept around the surroundings. She gripped the huge scythe in her hand, eager to try. “Captain, you see, there are quite a few lone ones. Say something, and I’ll go.”

“Yes, go ahead.” Chi Ting slowly took off the beads wrapped around his wrist and rubbed his fingers gently on the bone beads. “Didn’t I tell you a long time ago that our team would be responsible for the aftermath?”

He smiled and glanced at Lu Nanling. “I’ll leave the command work to you.”

Lu Nanling nodded. Everything around him was suddenly pulled into his Data World. At the same time, a simple notification window appeared in front of everyone in the Dawn team.

Everyone received the corresponding coordinate instructions.

Compared to others, this was the first time Lou Yueren saw such a simulated notification. He found it very interesting and took a few more glances at it.

The shadows under his feet suddenly expanded as excitement emerged in his eyes. He walked towards the battlefield step by step, not sparing any effort to express his approval of his beloved. “Captain Chi is indeed a prophet. The contribution value that can be gained from the aftermath seems to be more considerable than the thankless work on the front lines.”

The scattered bone beads turned into a large army of phantoms.

Chi Ting stood in the center of the vast army. His eyes swept across the figures that passed by from all directions in the battle zone, and he smiled noncommittally. “Of course, we are professionals at dealing with the aftermath.”