Guo Yun: Plays Ye Shunguang, teammate Ye Shiyuan

The order to break camp was given quickly, as if Iserd had been waiting for this moment all along.

Before dawn, the camp outside Hollow Zero was no longer as tense and quiet as it had been the night before.

Within a few minutes, the tents were packed up, folded, and loaded onto the trucks. The soldiers silently organized their equipment; no one spoke, only the crisp sound of metal clashing and footsteps intertwined to create a low hum.

Iserld stood at the very front of the line.

She had changed into full combat gear—gear that was completely different from her usual uniform.

The dark gray armor plates clung to her body lines, the material appearing lighter than her uniform, yet reinforced at crucial points. The armor on her chest, shoulders, and forearms bore the insignia of the defense force. The entire set of equipment was devoid of superfluous decoration, clean and sharp like a drawn sword.

Lorenz and Lukro never intended to go with the army from the beginning.

They were still freeloading supplies in the rear; one was leaning against a supply crate flipping through an old magazine he'd somehow gotten his hands on, while the other was stuffing beef into his mouth.

There were even their trusted confidants there flattering them, making the two of them very happy.

Iserd glanced at them from afar, saying nothing and not even frowning.

"Let's go," she said.

The sound wasn't loud, but every soldier could hear it clearly.

The column began to move.

The soldiers of the defense force were arranged in a standard marching formation—vanguard, main force, flanks, and rear guard, with someone in every position, and everyone knew where they were supposed to stand.

Their steps were synchronized but not rigid, their pace consistent but not stiff, like a meticulously tuned machine, with every gear meshing and every part in operation.

Due to a lack of key personnel, the Opoles squad had no choice but to fight the enemy around the defensive forces under Iserd's personal command.

Their figures appeared and disappeared on the periphery of the formation, like a pack of wolves roaming the edge of a flock of sheep, each attack precisely tearing apart those who tried to get close to the main force.

Ling—or rather, Ies—followed in the middle to rear of Yi Xuan, Ye Shunguang, and Ye Shiyuan's group.

Her bangs stood out somewhat in the line. Her round, white head was like a moving lamp in the dark crowd, her two LED eyes constantly darting around, alertly observing everything around her.

Her short legs moved incredibly fast, almost jogging, to keep up with an adult's pace. The smoke bomb strapped to her body swayed gently with her movements, making a soft clinking sound.

"Rin, how's it going on your end?"

Zhe's voice suddenly came from the communicator, with a slight static, which startled Ling so much that her whole body trembled.

"Brother, don't suddenly talk on my channel, it's terrifying!" Ling replied in a low voice.

"Sorry, I just woke up too." Tetsuya's voice carried a hint of apology, but it quickly returned to the serious tone that Rin was familiar with. "But I must remind you that, according to my calculations, the ether concentration inside Void Zero is much higher than before. Be careful and don't go too far forward."

"Okay, okay," Ling muttered softly, glancing down at her round, plump body. "Ies still has smoke grenades on him. If all else fails, I'll throw some smoke grenades and escape in the chaos—"

"bell……"

"Just kidding."

Zhe let out a helpless sigh through the communicator and then hung up.

Bell turned her head, her LED eyes scanning through the crowd and landing on Iserld's back in the distance.

The woman's steps remained steady, each step perfectly synchronized, as if completely unaffected by the chaotic surroundings.

"Attention everyone, we are about to enter the first high-activity zone."

Iserld's voice came through the command channel, even more concise than before, each word like a blade whose weight had been precisely calculated.

"Maintain formation, don't fall behind. If you encounter a skeleton, don't linger in battle, move past quickly. Repeat, don't linger in battle."

The team sped up a bit.

The vanguard soldiers could already see the edge of the first highly active zone—the air there had a faint purple hue, as if it had been polluted by something…

"Forward, engage the enemy."

No sooner had Iserld given the order than the vanguard soldiers opened fire.

Bullets traced bright trajectories in the purple air as the skeletons fell, their bodies shattering into fragments of ether that vanished in mid-air. But more skeletons poured out of the cracks, as if they could never be killed.

Iserd did not stop.

She didn't even speed up or change the rhythm of her steps. She simply raised her weapon and, while advancing, completed the entire sequence of actions: aiming, firing, and shifting position. Every movement was clean and efficient, without a single unnecessary action.

Her shooting accuracy was terrifying; every bullet struck a skeleton's "core" with pinpoint accuracy, as if the moving targets were stationary in her eyes.

"Ophis, the gap on the right."

"receive."

Orpheus's figure swept past the right side of the group, moving so fast that his afterimage was almost invisible.

She spun her weapon in her hand, the dagger flashing in an arc, instantly shattering a nearby skeleton.

"Will-o'-the-wisp" fired seven times in succession, each of the seven beams hitting one of the seven skeletons that were trying to flank from the right, with such precision that it was as if it had been measured with a ruler.

"On the left! A butcher in a dead end!"

The alarm blared across the channel.

Bell turned her head sharply and saw a huge outline taking shape in the ethereal mist to her left.

That was the Dead End Butcher—three times the size of a normal skeleton, covered in purplish-black carapace, with two enormous forelimbs like two rusty scythes, dragging two deep furrows in the ground.

Its head has no eyes, only a huge, constantly opening and closing slit containing three rows of inward-growing sharp teeth.

It charged toward the group, each step causing the ground to tremble slightly.

"Evil shall be slain!"

Hoshimi Miyabi's voice came from the left, as calm as a pool of ice water.

Rin didn't even see how she appeared. Hoshimi Miyabi's figure swept out from the flank of the group, moving with such speed that it seemed as if she had been propelled away by some force.

The moment her sword was drawn, the surrounding air temperature plummeted, and tiny ice crystals began to condense in the purple ethereal mist.

Sensing the threat, the Dead End Butcher swung its two scythe-like forelimbs in a cross motion, creating two purple blade gusts of wind. Hoshimi Miyabi did not dodge; instead, her body lowered slightly, and her blade rose from below, unleashing an icy blue light that collided with the Dead End Butcher's blade gusts of wind.

The icy blue blade sliced ​​through two streams of wind like butter, its momentum undiminished, striking the Butcher of the Dead End in the chest. The sound of the carapace shattering was as crisp as breaking glass, and purple fluid gushed from the crack, freezing into ice crystals the instant it touched the air.

The Dead End Butcher let out a sharp roar, and its body began to freeze from the wounds. The ice spread at a visible speed, covering its chest, shoulders, and forelimbs.

It tried to retreat, tried to escape, but the ice was spreading faster and faster.

Hoshimi Miyabi had already sheathed her sword.

She turned and left without looking back.

Behind him, the Dead End Butcher's body was completely frozen, like an ugly ice sculpture, and then shattered into countless ice crystals in the next second, scattering in the purple air like some kind of untimely, tragic snowflakes.

……

"We are about to enter the second most active zone; pay attention to clearing out high-value targets."

Iserde's voice remained calm.

The intensity of the second highly active region is more than one level higher than that of the first region.

The ether concentration nearly doubled, and the air was filled with a pungent odor, like metal and rotten stuff mixed together.

Soldiers with lower etheric fitness had begun to show symptoms of discomfort. Some were gagging, some were having nosebleeds, and some were experiencing uncontrollable hand tremors. But no one stopped, and no one fell behind.

The density of the remains is also completely different.

The skeletons in the first district are like scattered soldiers, while the skeletons in the second district are like a well-organized army.

They surged in from all directions, no longer charging blindly, but with a kind of vague coordination—holding the front, flanking from both sides, and even a few agile skeletons tried to get around to the rear to attack the rearguard.

Iserde made a quick decision.

"The main force of the defense forces halts here." Her voice came through the command channel, leaving no room for argument. "Organize a defensive line; do not advance rashly. Those with high etheric aptitude will temporarily form small squads and continue the advance."

She turned to look at the high-end combatants around her—Orpheus & "Ghost Fire", Sid, Hoshimi Miyabi, Tsukishiro Ryu, Asaba Yuuma, Aokaku, Ye Shunguang, Ye Shiyuan, and Yi Xuan.

"What we're seeing ahead is probably a swarm of Nineveh bees," Iserd explained briefly. "I estimate I can only hold out in the third area. That should be the limit for me and my current team. Once we reach the third highly active area, the task of eliminating Nineveh will be yours."

Everyone nodded.

……

The speed at which high-end combat capabilities are advancing is astonishing.

The second most active zone's Yi Hai was like paper in front of them—not because Yi Hai was too weak, but because these people were too strong.

Hoshimi Miyabi walked at the front, her sword never fully drawn, only the blade visible. Each time the sound of the blade being drawn rang out, several skeletons were frozen into ice sculptures, only to shatter the next second.

Her steps were slow, but each step was precisely timed to coincide with the gaps in Yi Hai's attacks, like a prophet who had foreseen all the attacks.

Tsukishiro Ryu and Asaba Yuuma worked together so well they seemed like one person. Ryu's naginata was responsible for clearing out enemies at close to mid-range, and the electric current attached to the blade jumped among the horde of corpses, one after another, like a chain of lightning.

Yuzhen stood to her side and slightly behind, her bow and arrows precisely targeting and killing the elite soldiers who tried to approach from the blind spot.

Each arrow he fired was crackling with lightning. After piercing through Yi Hai's body, the arrow would leave a brief trail of electricity in the air, like glowing threads.

Cangjiao's fighting style is the most direct and also the most ferocious.

She planted the iron flag in the ground, and the ground within a 20-meter radius of the flag began to freeze.

The moment a skeleton steps into this area, its feet freeze, drastically reducing its speed. Then she swings the iron flag, sweeping the immobilized skeletons into pieces like garbage. Each swing of the iron flag is accompanied by a heavy whistling sound, and the ice patterns on the flag emit a piercing buzzing sound as it is swung.

Ye Shunguang and Ye Shiyuan walked side by side. Their swordsmanship was completely different, yet they complemented each other perfectly.

More importantly, Ye Shunguang's white-haired state never stopped, and with the system giving her a crucial buff that reduced memory loss by 99%, she managed to take down almost all the monsters except for a few fast-moving, high-health Yi Hai who managed to break through their blockade.

As a result, the Dragon Kingdom team's points are still growing exponentially, having already exceeded one million.

Yi Xuan walked at the very back of the group, making her the tail end of the squad.

She barely made a move, simply following the group forward. But Ling noticed that the Azure Netherbird kept flying around the group, and the concentration of ether in each place it flew over would noticeably decrease.

Yi Xuan would occasionally fold a ball to deflect large-scale attacks, and then, with a "balance of movement and stillness," almost all the missing skeletons would be killed.

Ling was dumbfounded. The scene before her eyes truly shattered her worldview. She never dreamed that the sect she had worshipped would be so powerful.

...But where is Opoles's squad? I haven't seen them...

Ling looked around in confusion, but then, remembering that they were also high-level combatants, she decided to stop paying attention.

We can't just betray them, right?