Samsara Space: They're all begging me to heal them one more time.

Looking at these lifelike movie characters, a glint of greed flashed in the eyes of the reincarnators. In the mission world, plot characters often represent the keys to triggering hidden side quests, or are themselves walking side quests.

But Zhang Yuan didn't go over.

He knew very well that Rico was still a greenhorn, and that so-called "tough guy squad," though brave, was nothing more than slightly tougher cannon fodder in the face of the approaching swarm of insects.

"Sir, where is our defense zone?"

Unlike the other veterans who tried to get close to the main characters, Zhang Yuan went straight to the one-armed sergeant and calmly asked.

The sergeant glanced at the man in the strange tin can (plate armor) with surprise, seemingly taken aback by his composure. He then sneered and tapped heavily on the electronic map on the large screen:

"Since you call yourselves the elite, then we'll leave the toughest challenges to you."

"Do you see that gap in the west city wall?"

The sergeant pointed to a red area on the edge of the map. "That's the outer defense line of the B-sector armory. Yesterday, a tank bug exploded there, collapsing a 30-meter section of the wall. Although the engineers have temporarily sealed it off with shipping containers, it remains the weakest link in the entire base."

"Based on reconnaissance, the main force of the swarm is very likely to break through from there."

"You twenty men, hold your ground! If that breach is breached, I won't even need the bugs; I'll blast you all to smithereens with my plasma cannon! Understand?!"

"The gap on the west side..."

Upon hearing this arrangement, the faces of the seasoned professionals present turned deathly pale.

A defensive gap? That's a death zone where there are no high walls to rely on, and you have to fight the bugs in close combat! And if it falls, you're fully responsible!

"Sir! This isn't fair!" the bald, burly man protested. "We're supposed to be providing heavy firepower support; we should be protecting the reactor in the tower or Sector A..."

"Here, my word is law!" The sergeant drew his large-caliber pistol and pressed it against the bald man's forehead. "Either guard the breach, or be executed on the spot for desertion. Choose one?"

The bald man swallowed hard, stared at the dark muzzle of the gun, and finally chickened out: "I'll go... I'll go, okay?"

While reincarnators may not be afraid of handguns, turning against the plot forces is definitely a bad idea, especially with hundreds of rifles pointed at them all around.

"Very good." The sergeant holstered his gun, not even glancing at the group. "Good luck, mercenaries. I hope you can hold out through the first wave of attacks."

After saying that, he left in a hurry, leaving behind a group of veterans whose faces were ashen.

"Damn it! This is hell mode right from the start!"

"Defend the breach? With what? With our lives?"

The group moved westward, grumbling and cursing. When they reached the so-called "gap," their hearts sank even further.

It was a 30-meter-long section of broken wall and ruins. Although it was piled with thick containers and sandbags, it was like trying to hold back a flood with a paper dam in the face of tens of thousands of insects.

Moreover, the terrain here is open, so not only do we face the swarm of insects head-on, but our heads are also completely exposed to the attack range of flying insects.

"It's over...this time we're really doomed."

The bald, burly man stared at the wide breach, then at the standard-issue heavy machine gun in his hand, his face filled with despair. In this terrain, even if he fired all his bullets, he couldn't seal it off!

However, just as everyone was groaning, Zhang Yuan stood at the very front of the gap, stepped on the hard sand with his toes, and a look of satisfaction flashed in his eyes.

"The view is expansive, the terrain is compact, and there are no obstructions."

Zhang Yuan turned around, looked at his teammates behind him who were also pale-faced, and a slight smile appeared on his lips:

"What a perfect execution ground."

He ignored the veterans who were vying for the high ground of the container and trying to use others as human shields. Instead, he led his three-person team straight to the front of the breach—the death trap that everyone avoided.

"Tao Tao, get to work."

Zhang Yuan pointed to the fan-shaped open space ahead, "Start from here and pave for fifty meters. I want the ground to be so shiny it reflects light."

"Ah Qiang, set up your gun."

He then pointed to the chassis of an abandoned tank half-buried in the sand nearby. "That's your throne. Lay out the ammunition belts; we won't need to conserve bullets later, so fire the barrels until they're red-hot!"

After arranging all this, Zhang Yuan did not stop.

He turned around and looked at the cold woman who was preparing to go alone to the flank to find a guerrilla position.

"Hey, you, Lady Demon Blade."

Zhang Yuan called out to her.

The woman paused, turned around and looked at him coldly, her hand still on the hilt of her knife, clearly still wary of his earlier refusal to join her team.

"What brings you here?"

"Don't go to the flanks. The bugs are too scattered there. You'll have to run fifty meters to chase one bug, which is too inefficient."

Zhang Yuan pointed to the spot next to A-Qiang—it was the side and rear of the entire firepower network, an absolutely safe blind spot.

"See that spot? That's my firepower funnel zone."

Zhang Yuan adjusted his glasses, looking like a salesman demonstrating a top-tier real estate development to a client:

"My machine gunners will be responsible for breaking up and crippling the dense swarms of insects, but inevitably some tough elite monsters will break through the fire net."

"Those elite monsters with low health are yours."

Upon hearing this, the woman's eyes flickered slightly.

"No need to team up, no need to split the loot." Zhang Yuan's voice was full of enticement. "We'll handle bringing the monsters right to your doorstep, and you just need to finish them off."

"Are you sure you want to refuse this free 'feeding' service?"

The woman was silent.

She glanced at the slime tapestry being laid, then at the six-barreled Vulcan cannon preheating. With her keen eye, she could easily see this was an extremely efficient killing trap. If she could harvest the kills at the trap's exit… then the charging speed of her demonic sword would be more than three times its normal rate!

This is an irresistible temptation of profit.

"……snort."

The woman let out a very soft, cold snort, finally retracting her step towards the flank. Holding the enormous demonic sword, she walked with her long legs encased in leather pants to the spot Zhang Yuan had designated.

But just when Zhang Yuan thought the deal was done, she suddenly turned her head, her clear, cold eyes filled with warning and a sense of boundaries:

"Don't get me wrong. I'm standing here simply because this is the most efficient place for killing, which is in my best interest."

She raised her chin, like a proud swan, and her tone was cold and hard as she drew a clear line:

"We're not in a team; we're just using our relationship. When the fight starts, I'll only be responsible for killing the monsters in front of me. If the bugs break through your defenses, or if the flying insects kidnap that little girl, don't expect me to come back to rescue her."

Similarly…

She glanced at the cross on Zhang Yuan's back, a strange glint in her eyes. "Don't waste your mana on me. I don't need healing, much less that kind of weak support. Just take care of your own people."

"And what's with this 'Demon Blade Princess' thing? It sounds awful."

My name is Lin Qingyue.

After saying that, she turned her back, gripped the hilt of the sword with both hands, and assumed a very standard starting stance for drawing the sword, exuding a cold aura that said "Don't touch me".

This is a classic example of "speaking the unpleasant truths upfront."

However, looking at her stubborn back, Zhang Yuan was not angry at all. Instead, he pushed up his glasses and his smile became even more amusing.

"Don't you need it?"

Zhang Yuan chuckled to himself.

"A wise choice." Zhang Yuan didn't expose her arrogance, but simply replied calmly.

The wind gradually stopped.

A dense tremor came from deep within the earth, as if countless war drums were beating simultaneously beneath the earth's crust.

That was the sound of tens of thousands of arthropods striking the ground.

At the horizon, a black line slowly wriggles and thickens, eventually transforming into a black tsunami that stretches across the mountains and plains.

The insect swarm has arrived.