The whole nation is trying to survive on the cable car; I'm choosing one of three options at ea

The old man offered no further explanation. He carefully put the divination ball away and took out another item from his chest... a bronze mirror the size of a palm. The mirror's surface was as smooth as ice, with fine, ancient runes engraved along its edges. These runes seemed alive, flowing slowly along the edge of the bronze mirror.

He placed his palm on the back of the bronze mirror and whispered something. The runes on the surface of the mirror lit up simultaneously, and then the image in the divination ball was compressed into an extremely thin beam of light, shooting out from the mirror and heading straight into an invisible direction in the high sky.

The light traveled so fast that it was almost invisible, leaving only a silver line thinner than a hair in the night sky before disappearing instantly into the clouds.

The old man put down the bronze mirror, turned around, and looked at the soldiers fighting fiercely behind him.

His voice wasn't loud, but it was incredibly penetrating, so loud that every soldier fighting on the front lines could hear every single word.

"Our hope may have arrived."

The moment those five words landed, the atmosphere on the defensive line underwent a subtle change.

A soldier who was using his shield to block the monster's attack heard the words. He paused for a very brief moment, then pushed his shield forward another step.

That step was more steady and forceful than before, as if something inside him had been rekindled.

An archer who was backing away to reload heard the words. His finger trembled slightly as he nocked the arrow, but this time he completed the reload much faster. What normally took three seconds, he accomplished in just two.

A mage who had been slumped on the ground, his arms covered in blood, heard those words. He pushed himself up from his knees and gripped his staff tightly again. The faint light at the tip of the staff, which had been almost extinguished, flickered again... though dim, it did not go out completely.

A light appeared in a person's eyes.

The infectious power of that light far surpasses that of any tactical command.

No reason is needed, no explanation is needed, just let them know... there are still people fighting, there are still people far away who have not been defeated, there are still people living, standing, and holding on in some direction unknown to them.

The old man gazed at the giant flower outside the city, slowly dissipating. The last few petals of the flower were turning into tiny specks of light in the night sky, like a melting starry sky. His lips moved slightly, the sound so soft that only he could hear it.

"People like this..."

His gaze passed through the fading light and landed on the distant horizon obscured by thick fog. He couldn't see anything there, but he knew the cable car was traveling somewhere there.

"They'll probably make a move."

......

When the giant object landed its second step, Su Mu could feel the cable car beneath his feet vibrating.

The vibration was not the metallic tremor of the previous Pear Garden Demon Princess's silk attack, but a deeper, more resonant vibration, as if the entire steel cable was being repeatedly pulled and tugged by something.

It is too big.

It was so powerful that every step it took created a visible shockwave on the ground; so powerful that low-level monsters were crushed, flattened, and turned to ashes as it passed by; so powerful that the thick fog surrounding it was pushed aside by its body, revealing the real, cracked, and collapsing earth below.

Su Mu did not hesitate.

He came up with a solution.

And that method is to use wooden boards.

Each piece of armor has 10 points and can bear a weight of 300 kg. If you only lay one layer, it's no different from paper. But what if you lay fifty layers? Or a hundred layers?

His talent for mass production is at full capacity.

Each plank doesn't consume materials; as long as he has time to lay them, he can keep stacking them on top of each other.

One piece, ten pieces, thirty pieces, fifty pieces... stacked layer upon layer on the outside of the cable car, forming an ugly, bloated wooden shell.

The outer shell extends from the bottom of the cable car to the roof, like a cocoon wrapped in wooden strips—rough, irregular, but thick enough.

[Number of wooden plank layers: Currently 56 layers]

Su Mu didn't stop. He continued to pull out planks, laying them one by one on the outermost layer. But the area he could lay them was limited... The cable car was only so big, and the outer platform was already almost completely covered with planks; going any further would exceed the load-bearing limit.

He had just finished laying the edge of the sixtieth layer when the giant object moved.

Its attack came faster than Su Mu had anticipated.

A massive, all-encompassing hand emerged from the thick fog, covering the space above the cable car. Su Mu felt an overwhelming pressure... as if an entire mountain was crashing down on his head.

The palm fell.

The wooden shell lost 20% of its health upon contact.

However, the Architectural Shield talent spread a pale white light film across each wooden plank.

【木板损伤：第1层→第5层（护盾触发）→第5层→第9层（免疫触发）→第9层→第13层（免疫）→第13层→第17层（免疫）】

The giant's hand was briefly blocked by the immune shield when it touched each layer of wooden planks. Although it only lasted for a fraction of a second, the resistance was clearly perceptible.

Its speed was reduced layer by layer, as if it had crashed into a wall that was constantly repairing itself, and it had to exert force again for each layer it advanced.

Su Mu didn't wait; the cable car reached its maximum speed and sped away...

A ride to the dust.

time flies.

The giant creature's hand finally pierced through the last layer of wooden shell.

When those fingers touched the cable car itself, Su Mu felt the entire vehicle suddenly sink, and the steel cables emitted a screeching sound, as if something was struggling under extreme tension.

The durability bar on the panel jumped: [Cable Car Durability: 100% → 80%], and the building shield expanded, blocking the remaining impact.

The Soviet didn't wait for it to strike a second time.

He pushed the fuel valve to its maximum. The cable car lurched forward on the steel cable, its speed instantly increasing from a constant rate to the highest setting, the cable stretched taut as if it would snap the entire track. The wind howled outside the window, and the edges of the already pierced wooden outer shell cracked, peeled, and fell off in the airflow.

The giant creature caught up with its second step.

Its speed was faster than the cable car; each step it took was equivalent to more than ten seconds of travel on the cable car. The distance was slowly but irreversibly closing. Su Mu could see that palm rise again, this time higher than before, and the time it took to gather strength was longer... It was preparing to strike and completely pierce through that wooden shell.