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

Two kilometers outside the mining area.

Six all-terrain stealth combat vehicles were parked behind the sand dunes.

A fully armed captain wearing tactical goggles pushed open the car door.

"Captain, the people in the camp are in a state of panic. The two Awakened targets are resting; they haven't fully recovered from the battle during the day."

The adjutant stepped forward to report.

The captain nodded, glanced at the tactical terminal on his wrist, and coldly issued the order.

"Release high-concentration inducer No. 3."

"Bang!"

A silenced grenade pierced the night sky and exploded suddenly 500 meters above the camp.

There was no firelight, only a faint purple mist, imperceptible to the naked eye, spreading rapidly with the wind.

Less than three minutes.

The sand beneath my feet began to tremble slightly.

From the horizon came a chilling roar.

That wasn't just a few, but a frenzy of hundreds or even thousands of mutated beasts gathered together.

In the distance, billowing smoke and dust rose.

Hundreds of mutated sand wolves, bison, and even a massive Tier 3 berserk lizard, with their eyes red, surged toward the camp like a tidal wave.

Inside the camp, cries and curses filled the air.

The commander stood on the sand dune, watching this scene, and smiled with satisfaction.

"Captain, the inducer has been released."

The communications officer compiled the data.

"Within a five-kilometer radius, there are approximately four hundred mutated creatures. Most are second-tier, and there is one third-tier leader."

The commander nodded.

"Four hundred of them are enough to flatten that broken fence."

He turned to look behind him.

The rear compartment of the armored vehicle opened to reveal three specially made metal hibernation pods, with several boxes of high-pressure tranquilizer guns and directional electromagnetic pulse transmitters piled up next to them.

Listen carefully.

The commander's voice was transmitted to each team member's ears via a built-in channel.

"The target is those three Asian Awakened Ones inside. Once the beast tide breaks through the outer defenses, the assault team will cut in from the western mine ruins."

"Pulse generator ready, disable their communication terminals and positioning chips immediately."

"Adjust the specially formulated anesthetic dosage to the maximum. Once the target is incapacitated, load them into the evacuation capsule. As for any witnesses nearby, leave no one alive!"

The team members pulled the bolts of their rifles in perfect unison.

"action."

……

Mining camp.

The alarm went off without warning.

A piercing alarm blared throughout the mining camp.

"A beast tide! It's a beast tide! Something's coming from the northwest!"

The guards on the watchtower shouted at the top of their lungs.

The searchlight was shone on them.

At the edge of the dunes, pairs of scarlet eyes appeared.

The sheer number of them is enough to make your scalp tingle.

They were drawn into a frenzy by the scent of the attractant.

The entire camp was in an uproar.

The refugees screamed and ran in panic, while the guards fired indiscriminately.

Jon Chen ran out to maintain order and shouted to direct the defense line.

"Hold the gate! Suppressive crossfire! Don't retreat!"

In the center of the camp.

Ye Xiao stood up, looked at the billowing dust in the distance, raised his hand, and pressed the earpiece.

"Shen Ning, notify all spies in the 'Sharp Sword' network. Protect the civilians and retreat to the core area."

"Dedicated."

Ye Xiao drew his twin swords, their blades gleaming coldly in the night.

"Get ready to work. Remember, don't stand out too much."

Zhu Jingye grinned and gripped the fire axe tightly.

"clear."

The night breeze became sticky, and a pungent, fishy stench fermented in the air.

The outermost barbed wire fence of the defensive line was reduced to scrap metal in the first wave of attack.

Several second-tier mutated sand wolves used a running start to leap over the three-meter-high abandoned minecart shelter and crash heavily into the crowd.

With each swing of its claws, flesh and blood flew everywhere.

The screams drowned out the gunshots.

"Hold the line! Don't back down!"

Jon Chen crouched behind the sandbags, then turned and roared at the several trembling refugees behind him.

"Back off means death! Open fire!"

Survivors without proper training find their mental defenses crumbling rapidly in the face of hundreds or thousands of bloodthirsty monsters.

Someone dropped his gun and ran deeper into the camp, only to have his chest crushed by a mutated bison that pounced on him.

Fresh blood seeped into the parched sand.

Panic spread like a plague.

Ye Xiao and Zhu Jingye were in the ruins area on the west side of the camp.

This place was originally a miners' dormitory, but now only ruins remain, making it the most vulnerable in terms of defense.

A mutated wild boar, the size of a small armored vehicle, crashed into two tents and headed straight for the two people.

"Brother Ye, I'll take care of this!"

Zhu Jingye, carrying a fire axe, went to meet them.

He dodged the wild boar's savage charge by sidestepping it, and using the strength of his waist, he cleaved the axe blade hard into the boar's thick neck.

With a muffled thud, the axe blade got stuck in the thick bone plate.

The wild boar, in pain, shook its head violently, and Zhu Jingye was thrown by a tremendous force, crashing heavily onto the sand.

"It's fucking hard."

Zhu Jingye got up and spat out the sand from his mouth.

He didn't use any superpowers; he relied entirely on his physical strength to endure the pain.

Ye Xiao, wielding two swords, moved swiftly through the ruins.

The Tang sword flashed two cold streaks in the night, precisely slicing open the wild boar's side.

The wild boar collapsed to the ground with a thud, but it wasn't dead; it just rolled around on the ground and howled wildly.

The strong smell of blood immediately attracted several hyenas in the distance.

"Don't appear too relaxed."

Ye Xiao leaned against a broken steel beam, his chest heaving violently.

"The bait needs to smell good, but it also needs to look like it's easy to bite."

Several mutated hyenas surrounded them, baring their teeth and probing.

The two men constantly moved and pulled each other through the ruins, their lives filled with peril as they swung knives and axes.

Each block seemed extremely difficult.

At the highest point of the mining area, atop an abandoned ore dressing tower.

Three figures dressed in unmarked, low-temperature camouflage uniforms were lurking inside the steel frame structure.

They wore fully enclosed tactical helmets and had the gray "E-17" number printed on their arms.

The lead agent whispered the order over the internal channel: "Observe the target's status."

"Captain, the target is about to run out of stamina."

The camp's perimeter had been completely torn apart by the beast horde, and ordinary armed forces were tied down by the horde and unable to provide support.

A chilling, venomous command immediately came through the walkie-talkie.

"Assault team, take them down!"