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

One hour and forty-five minutes later, in the command center of the Awakened Headquarters.

"Clang!"

The meeting room door was violently pushed open.

Ye Xiao and Zhu Jingye, dressed in full tactical gear covered in sand and dust, rushed directly from the tarmac to the hall.

"Brother Su!"

Ye Xiao slammed the two bloodstained Tang swords heavily onto the table, the scabbards clanging against the metal surface.

"Boss Su."

Zhu Jingye's eyes were also burning with enthusiasm.

They knew in their hearts that Su Ran would never have summoned them back in such a hurry unless there was a major event.

"Everyone's here."

Su Ran's gaze slowly swept over the four people in front of her: Ye Xiao, Zhu Jingye, Mo Yun, and Bai Lu.

This is the most elite Awakened Squad that Great Xia can currently boast, and it is also Great Xia's sharpest weapon.

Su Ran gave Mo Yun a look.

Mo Yun immediately typed rapidly on the control panel, switching the real-time thermal image of the Jiangcheng Jinmao Tower to the main screen.

"To make a long story short, this is our next goal."

Su Ran pointed at the mass of flesh and blood, speaking very quickly.

"The outer perimeter defenders have begun a large-scale retreat, just to leave an absolutely safe distance for the thermobaric missiles."

"The military has given us a six-hour deadline. Within six hours, Bai Lu must implant the mental anchor into the core control center of the Mother Nest."

Su Ran raised her wrist, glanced at the blood-red numbers flashing on the tactical terminal, and her voice remained calm.

"I plan to reserve two hours for pure action time."

Excluding travel time, we have one hour and fifty minutes to prepare.

"Holy crap..."

Ye Xiao gasped as he looked at the blood and flesh wall that was rapidly draining his sanity.

"I've only been away from it for half a month, how did it grow into this monstrous shape?"

"Is that a ring of mutated beast corpses all around?"

"It was a live sacrifice."

A hint of seriousness flashed in Mo Yun's eyes as he added,

"It devours its own kind, using high-energy biomass to accelerate the final hatching process."

Zhu Jingye's eyes sharpened, and he asked in a deep voice,

"Brother Su, how should we fight? Should we call in the Sharp Sword Special Forces for cover?"

Su Ran shook her head.

"No unit can cover us. Our only core mission is to protect Bailu."

His gaze shifted to Bai Lu, who was sitting on the sofa beside him, his eyes intense.

"Let her enter the core area of ​​the mother nest, imprint a mental seal on the fourth-order mother body that is about to hatch, and take over the entire mother nest."

All five of them had serious expressions.

A sense of impending storm hung in the air.

Su Ran walked to the sand table and placed her hands on the edge.

"There is no turning back for this mission."

He spoke softly, but his enunciation was extremely forceful.

"A fourth-tier variant, possessing rudimentary tactical thinking and regional control capabilities."

Once it escapes, the heartland of the Great Xia will never know peace.

The bottom line given by the Great Xia military is six hours.

If Bai Lu cannot implant the mental imprint into the brain of the fourth-order mother within six hours…

Su Ran paused for a moment, her eyes as cold as knives.

"The core area of ​​Jiangcheng, along with the mother nest, will be completely wiped out!"

"Playing this big right from the start?"

Ye Xiao whistled, trying to ease the tension.

"I'm just a Tier 3 player, and I'm already going to fight a Tier 4 boss? That's exciting!"

"Shut your mouth."

Bai Lu swallowed an energy bar and gave Ye Xiao a cold glance.

A short rest and the replenishment of the crystal core liquid greatly restored her mental state.

A confident smile curved her lips, completely dispelling her previous fragility.

"With me, the Empress, in front of you, you just need to stay obediently behind me."

"Hey!"

Ye Xiao's eyes widened, and he instantly became displeased.

"The top-performing samples in your experiment were all captured by me!"

Mo Yun ignored their bickering and looked at Su Ran, asking seriously,

"Brother Su, do we have a specific tactical plan for facing a fourth-tier opponent?"

"no."

Su Ran said very bluntly, "Let's just play it by ear."

In his previous life, he survived like a rat in the apocalypse, never directly confronting a fourth-tier king-level mutated creature.

His knowledge of the monster's terror came entirely from the D-file and fragmented images.

Hearing Su Ran's crisp "No," Ye Xiao and Zhu Jingye couldn't help but twitch their lips.

"But don't worry, I've got your back."

Looking at everyone's reactions, Su Ran's tone exuded absolute confidence.

It would be a terrible waste to destroy this mother nest with three thermobaric bombs fired by the Great Xia military.

Even if the final control operation doesn't go smoothly, he is at least confident that he can forcibly preserve the incubation core of this mother nest for the Great Xia!

"If that's the case, we've lost this golden opportunity to take control..."

He spoke to himself.

The moment the thought crossed my mind.

Under Su Ran's deliberate release, a terrifying pressure erupted from his body, instantly sweeping across the entire command hall!

Bai Lu, who was closest, groaned, feeling as if Su Ran in front of him had instantly turned into a bottomless black hole.

There was no violent outburst of energy, only a profound sense of overwhelming power, almost like the crushing force of rules!

"You've broken through?" Bai Lu exclaimed in surprise.

"We've been stuck for so long, it's time to take a step forward."

Su Ran suppressed her aura, looked at the stunned crowd, and chuckled softly.

"Don't worry, with me here, it can't cause any trouble."

"clear!"

With Su Ran's endorsement, the four people's tense nerves were instantly replaced by a fervent fighting spirit, and they responded in unison.

"Check the equipment."

Su Ran glanced at the tactical terminal on his wrist, his eyes sharp as a drawn blade.

"An hour and a half later, the Xuan Nu fighter jet took off. Target: Jin Mao Tower in Jiangcheng!"

The group pushed open the door and dispersed.

Time is of the essence, and no one wants to be a burden in this mission.

Ye Xiao and Zhu Jingye went straight to the equipment depot and decontamination room. They had just returned from the North American wasteland, and the smell of blood on them could be detected from three meters away.

Mo Yun then hurried towards the direction of the Academy of Sciences. He needed to obtain the latest testing data and, incidentally, inquire about the experts' control measures.

The command center fell silent.

Bai Lu remained seated on the sofa, without moving.

Su Ran walked over, pulled up a chair, sat down, and placed a bottle of electrolyte water next to her.

"Aren't you going to prepare?"

"There's nothing to prepare."

Bai Lu spoke softly.

She spent most of the past two weeks in the lab, and mental strength was the only card she had.

Her tone was light, but her fingers unconsciously fiddled with the corner of the label on the bottle.

As for physical defense equipment, for her, a pure mental ability user, there is no difference between wearing one more bulletproof vest and one less when facing a fourth-tier mutated creature.

"Take a break. Controlling that snowy owl in the lab just now took a lot of your energy."

Su Ran leaned back in her chair, looking at her calmly.

The white deer raised its head.

Just now in front of everyone, she declared that she would stand at the forefront, which was to maintain order and save the day.

But when the moment actually came, the drum in her heart was beating louder than anyone else's.

"Su Ran, can I really do it?"

Bai Lu bit her lower lip, her tone tinged with doubt.

"That's... a real fourth-tier monster."

"The snowy owl in the lab before was forcibly brought to near-fourth rank using a drug."

However, a quasi-fourth-tier and a true fourth-tier king are, after all, two completely different life forms.

"Scared?"

Su Ran did not answer directly, but instead asked a question in return.

"A little."

Bai Lu did not deny it, and nodded frankly.

"It will not fail."

Su Ran's tone was steady and very confident.

"You can succeed in the lab, and you will succeed in the nest in Jiangcheng."

Bai Lu looked at him without saying a word.

"I've seen Zhang Qian's experimental data; the logic behind your mental anchor point is working."

Su Ran continued,

"No matter how much the life form of a higher-level alienated organism changes, it cannot escape the objective laws of biological hardware."

The mother egg was hatching, a time when its physical defenses were at their weakest, and also when its mental defenses were most vulnerable.

He even jokingly used an analogy,

"It's like a supercomputer that's just been started up, and the firewall isn't fully in place yet. That's your best chance to hack in."

That's right, isn't it? Our "Hacker Queen"

Bai Lu glanced at Su Ran sideways, not finding the joke particularly funny.

But her clasped hands quietly loosened a little.

"Let's take a step back and say..."

Su Ran stood up and added another sentence.

"If the anchor point really can't be driven in, I'll just cut the mother body to pieces."

"At worst, Great Xia can just give up this fourth-tier battle beast, but with me here, I will ensure that the entire Jiangcheng is preserved intact, and no one can overturn that."

This statement carries immense weight.

It means that even if the road ahead is a dead end, Su Ran can smash the wall with one punch and forcefully create a way out!

Bai Lu picked up the bottle of electrolyte water on the table and tilted her head back to gulp down half of it.

The cool liquid slid down her throat, suppressing the turmoil surging in her heart.

Bai Lu set the remaining half-bottle aside, the timidity in her eyes vanishing instantly.

"Go get me a new bottle! Today, this Empress is going to confront this fourth-tier monster!"

The digital clock ticks away, displaying numbers continuously.

Mo Yun finished packaging the terminal data and glanced at the time.

"Brother Su, there are fifteen minutes left."

"Bang!" The door was pushed open.

Ye Xiao and Zhu Jingye walked in one after the other.

The two washed away the dust and blood from the wasteland and changed into black tactical suits specially made by the Awakeners headquarters.

High-strength composite fibers hugged his body, and Ye Xiao carried two battle swords crossed on his back.

Zhu Jingye, on the other hand, carried a folding tactical heavy shield, his whole being resembling a silent iron wall.

"The material of this outfit is nice, and it's lighter than the one we received before."

Ye Xiao tugged at his collar and stretched his shoulders a couple of times.

"That's the latest good stuff from the Academy of Sciences, woven from nanomaterials extracted from the skin of a third-tier mutated beast."

Mo Yun explained, "It not only has strong physical defense, but it can also withstand a certain degree of high-energy radiation and corrosive venom."

"I have already re-established the external communication frequency bands."

He patted the suitcase he had just brought in.

Five people stood in the center of the huge command hall.

There were no lengthy rallies or emotional pre-battle pep talks.

Su Ran's gaze swept over the four people in front of her.

"You all know what you're supposed to be doing, right?"

"clear."

Ye Xiao gripped the hilt with his backhand, flicked his thumb, and the Tang sword was drawn half an inch from its sheath.

"Slay monsters when you encounter them, and smash walls when you encounter them."

Zhu Jingye raised his head and said with his chest out, "I'll be responsible for helping everyone shift their negative state."

Mo Yun put away the tablet and calmly said, "Leave the environmental interference and toxic fog control to me."

"I'll take responsibility..."

Bai Lu took a deep breath, her eyes resolute. "Imprint the mental imprint into that monster's brain!"

"very good."

Su Ran glanced at the tactical terminal on her wrist.

"Set off."

……

Kunlun Base, ground-based helipad.

With wind and snow raging, visibility was less than 20 meters.

The five people braved the strong winds and quickly boarded the plane.

The hatch closed, shutting out the harsh cold outside.

"Tower, Xuan Nu Zero One, requesting takeoff. Destination coordinates: Jiang City."

Su Ran put on her communication headset, her voice steady.

"Xuan Nu 01, the track is cleared. Good luck."

The fighter jet took off vertically, its tail spewing out a deep blue flame, and sped off southward.

Inside the cabin, Mo Yun projected the latest topographic map of Jiangcheng into the air.

"I have already imported the entire underground pipeline network map of Jiangcheng into your tactical terminals."

The Academy of Sciences previously placed detectors that showed that the Jin Mao Tower’s basement levels, from the first to the third floor, were completely covered by biological granulation tissue, which is the root system area where the mother nest absorbs nutrients.

The fourth-order mother incubation chamber is currently located in the observation deck on the middle floor of the building.

Ye Xiao stared at the screen, frowning.

"Climb up? The elevator in this building must be broken."

"No need to climb."

Su Ran stared at the holographic image, her tone indifferent, "We'll just parachute in from mid-air."

The white deer closed its eyes and adjusted its breathing.

She kept rehearsing the steps of implanting the mental anchor in her mind.

The first step is to tear down the mental defenses, the second step is to find the core consciousness, and the third step is to forcibly wedge in the steel seal.

Every step must be perfect.

Su Ran sat down next to him and glanced at the countdown on the terminal.

Half of the six hours allotted by the military have already passed.

Meanwhile, at a strategic missile base in the northwest of the Great Xia Dynasty.

Three heavy-lift launch vehicles, each over ten meters long, stood silently inside the launch silo.

The warhead is painted with a striking red warning sign, and inside it is a super-powerful thermobaric bomb with enough yield to level half of Jiangcheng.

Inside the control center, the countdown numbers ticked silently.

"Guidance system secondary lock complete. Target deviation value has been corrected to zero."

The operator removed both hands from the keyboard and reported to the commander at the rear.

The commander stared at the screen as the time ticked down, his palms sweating profusely.

"All personnel stand by!"

The commander gritted his teeth and gave the order in a hoarse voice.

"No one may touch the launch button without the unlock order from the highest command!"

……

Jiangcheng Frontline.

The sky was so gloomy it seemed to press down on the ground.

"Bang!"

A high-explosive armor-piercing shell exploded outside the flesh and blood wall.

Amidst the raging flames, a second-tier hellhound that was attempting to merge itself into a wall of flesh was blasted into mincemeat.

The crystal core armored forces stationed three kilometers away are conducting routine fire clearing operations in an attempt to slow down the expansion of the mother nest.

Shrapnel would occasionally hit the thick, fleshy walls, but it wouldn't even leave a dent.

As the granulation tissue writhed, the shrapnel was directly swallowed up.

Forward observation post.

A soldier held up a high-powered telescope, put it down and picked it up again, checking it several times.

"Platoon leader, that thing... seems to have grown even longer."