In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

"We've found out everything about that thing!"

Zhou Jian strode up to Su Ran and slammed the report heavily on the table.

"That's not a forest at all."

The entire operations room fell into a deathly silence.

Su Ran leaned back in her chair and got straight to the point, "Just state your reasons."

"It is alive. Not alive in the plant sense."

Zhou Jian grabbed the keyboard and projected the image of the cell slices from the microscope onto the large screen.

"Look closely! It has no cell walls at all! It's all highly fibrotic striated muscle. The outer layer of bark is a keratinized hard shell."

The red liquid flowing inside is blood rich in high-energy particles.

"Wait a minute, what are you talking about?"

Ye Xiao's gaze darted back and forth between the screen and Zhou Jian's face. "A forest stretching for over ten kilometers, not plants?"

"That's right! The forest outside is all a disguise! There's only one living organism in this area spanning over ten kilometers!"

Zhou Jian gritted his teeth and pointed at the red veins on the screen.

"The beetles crawling all over the ground are worker ants without a digestive system, responsible for devouring flesh and blood to store energy. Those tree trunks and vines are all tentacles."

hiss!

A chorus of gasps filled the meeting room.

"In other words, this is a single mutated entity disguised as a forest."

Su Ran picked up where Zhou Jian left off, her expression turning serious.

He immediately thought of the strange fungal carpet he had contained some time ago.

"Yes! It has a central control hub!"

Zhou Jian's eyes lit up as he continued, "As long as we destroy that core, this monster spanning over ten kilometers will instantly suffer brain death!"

Although Ye Xiao was carefree by nature, he reacted extremely quickly. "How do we find it? By using a ground-penetrating bomb to plow the ground?"

"Too slow, and there's no guarantee of a 100% kill."

Su Ran interrupted, "Moreover, heavy firepower will trigger a stress response throughout the monster's entire body."

His gaze returned to Zhou Jian. "Dr. Zhou, now that you've uncovered its background, you must have a way to locate it, right?"

It's not a question, it's a certainty.

Zhou Jian nodded vigorously.

"Its neurotransmitter transmission is directional. By selecting three sufficiently far coordinates outside the defense line, collecting neural wave signals, and using triangulation, we can calculate the precise location of its 'brain'."

"This job is absolutely ours."

In the corner of the conference room, Mo Yun spoke.

Conventional troops simply could not survive in that death zone, let alone conduct precise pinpoint operations.

Su Ran nodded and, without uttering a single wasted word, gave the order directly.

"Bai Lu, Ye Xiao, Mo Yun. Cooperate with the Academy of Sciences' arrangements to complete the positioning task."

"Understood!" the three answered in unison.

Ten minutes later, at the front line of defense.

Three silver-white metal instruments were delivered to Bai Lu and his two companions.

The front end of the instrument has a probe that is half a meter long.

Zhou Jian's urgent voice came through the headset: "Attention, everyone!"

The probe must penetrate at least 30 centimeters into the core of the main vine and remain there for 10 seconds!

These ten seconds cannot be missed, not even for a second.

"Only ten seconds."

Ye Xiao weighed the instrument in his hand, then moved with lightning speed, heading straight for the left wing.

Bai Lu moved to the right wing, while Mo Yun remained at the front.

The three people were two kilometers apart, forming a huge fan-shaped encirclement.

"Countdown: three, two, one, move out!"

Su Ran's voice boomed across the communication channel.

Left wing.

Ye Xiao plunged into the purple mist like a cheetah.

The blade flashed like snow. The vines blocking the way were chopped into pieces, and foul-smelling red liquid splattered.

A main vine as thick as a water bucket bursts out of the ground, resembling a giant python opening its blood-red maw.

"You're the one!"

Instead of retreating, Ye Xiao advanced, using his legs to propel himself into the air.

With his right hand, he slashed down fiercely with his Tang sword, cleaving through the tough outer skin of the main vine.

He gripped the instrument tightly with his left hand and thrust it forcefully into the wound!

"Sizzle!"

The instrument indicator light turned red.

The main vine writhed violently, while countless tiny vines around it lashed out at Ye Xiao like steel whips.

Right wing.

The white deer walked into the forest.

Countless corpse beetles surged in like a tide.

She snorted coldly, and her invisible mental power, like a giant bulldozer, crushed the swarm of insects into a pile of minced meat.

A main vine attacked from the side with incredible speed.

The white deer's eyes flickered, and its mental power transformed into an invisible hand, tightly gripping the main vine.

"You're the one," she said softly.

The probe pierced precisely. The main vine struggled frantically, but was unable to move under the absolute suppression of its psychic power.

front.

Green mist swirled in Mo Yun's palm.

Instead of confronting them head-on, he used the poisonous fog to drive back a swarm of insects, found a main vine that was retracting its defenses, and, taking advantage of its unpreparedness, plunged the instrument into it.

"Ten-second countdown begins."

Mo Yun glanced at his watch as a large amount of poisonous mist erupted, enveloping him.

At this moment, in the base's biological laboratory.

On the big screen, three red dots flashed simultaneously.

"Full-band signal access! Capturing neural wave flow!"

Zhou Jian's hands moved across the keyboard like afterimages, the keys clattering loudly as he typed.

Lines of complex data flowed down like a waterfall.

"The signal on the left wing has deflected at a 35-degree angle!"

"Right wing deflection angle -15!"

"The positive signal points directly to deeper strategic objectives!"

"Hold on! Just three seconds left!"

Zhou Jian stared intently at the rapidly shrinking intersection in the center of the screen.

front.

Despite facing a barrage of attacks, the three managed to handle the situation with ease.

"three!"

"two!"

"one!"

On the big screen, the three red lines finally locked onto a single point, forming a clear and bright coordinate center!

"Gotcha! Coordinates locked!" Zhou Jian roared excitedly.

"Data collection complete! Withdraw!" Su Ran decisively gave the order.