Gaining a tiny bit of weight every day, my weight is a billion tons.

In the monitoring room, Shen Hongyuan answered the phone.

The voice on the other end was deep and familiar; it was an old acquaintance from the Southern Military Region's frontline command, codenamed "Iron Wall."

"Old Shen, the alert level has been raised."

"How so?"

"The third line of defense on the periphery detected seven cross-border fluctuations from last night to this morning."

There are at least four second-tier source beasts, one of which has energy characteristics that... suggest it is third-tier.

"What! Tier 3?!"

His voice suddenly rose in pitch, making the glass in the monitoring room vibrate.

"What are you doing in the frontline reconnaissance department?!"

The third-tier source beasts were pushed from the core of the abyss to the outer perimeter, a journey of hundreds of kilometers. Was your early warning network just for show?!

Where are the defenses? Where are the patrols? Are those staff officers asleep or blind?!

There was a two-second silence on the other end of the phone, with no rebuttal.

Because there's really no way to refute it.

Iron Wall's tone was tinged with bitterness: "Old Shen, this was indeed our negligence, I won't deny it. That third-tier source beast... was a 'Mountain-Splitting Iron-Spine Rhinoceros.'"

Shen Hongyuan's pupils contracted sharply.

Ironwall continued, "At 2:17 a.m. last night, the Ironback Rhinoceros suddenly broke through the outer perimeter of the third defense line and charged wildly, knocking over two of our reconnaissance teams."

Five of the seven armored reconnaissance vehicles were destroyed, and fourteen Awakened Ones were sent to the rear with injuries ranging from minor to serious.

By the time reinforcements arrived, the beast had turned back into the abyss.

"Coming and going as you please?" Shen Hongyuan clenched his teeth.

“Hmm,” Ironwall repeated, his voice deep, “the whole process took less than twelve minutes. It didn’t seem like it was foraging for food; it was more like… probing.”

Shen Hongyuan felt a chill run down his spine.

The strength of source beasts and humans has never been equivalent.

Source beasts are born with incredibly strong physical bodies and energy circulation efficiency far exceeding that of human awakened beings, making it almost common for them to crush their peers.

The true combat power of a third-tier source beast is comparable to that of a fourth-tier human expert.

The Mountain-Splitting Iron-Spine Rhinoceros is a top-tier predator among the third-tier predators.

Its entire body is covered in metal-like bone armor, and its single horn on its head can pierce through any known alloy armor.

This thing has a violent temper; when it runs, it can even collapse mountains.

These things used to stay obediently in the abyss and never cross the line.

They've been visiting each other frequently lately!

Tiebi sighed: "Old Shen, as you know, the Abyss Rift is spread throughout the entire Southern War Zone."

With hundreds of entrances of varying sizes, no one could predict from which point the source beasts would emerge.

With only so many troops, the allocation of combat power is too limited to cover everything.

We've been robbing Peter to pay Paul for quite some time now.

Shen Hongyuan didn't speak; he understood.

There are a total of 13 abyss entrances that need to be guarded against throughout the Southern Military Region.

If the defensive line is stretched too far, there will never be enough awakened individuals.

Everywhere is crying out for manpower, everywhere needs reinforcements.

This is not the problem of any one person; it is the predicament of all humanity in the face of the abyss.

"The central government has urgently dispatched two more mech companies to reinforce the defenses in Jiangcheng."

The conflict between the East and the West is also escalating, and the expansion rate of all the Abyss Rifts is still increasing.

This represents an increase of 5.2 percent compared to last month.

Shen Hongyuan's pupils contracted slightly.

It's not 3.7 anymore.

rose again.

The crack expands, releasing energy.

The activity range of high-level source beasts is expanding outwards.

These bad news items, taken together, are harbingers of impending disaster.

"Your daughter's training mission..." There was a pause on the other end of the phone, "...is she leaving tomorrow?"

"Um."

"Brother, let me be frank with you, Lao Shen, give her a break. It's not that I'm afraid of trouble, it's just that this whole thing is abnormal."

Those things seemed to have been driven out by something; it wasn't like normal territorial expansion.

Shen Hongyuan remained silent for a few seconds.

He could certainly give his daughter a break.

She can just call her advisor and make up any excuse to postpone it.

But he knew Shen Qingci's temper better than anyone else.

If she knew that the more dangerous the front line was, the more protected she would be, she would probably skip the training application and go to the front line as a volunteer.

That girl inherited a stubborn streak from her mother; nothing could sway her.

"Okay. I'll think about it."

hang up the phone.

Shen Hongyuan put down his phone and turned to look at the monitor screen.

On the screen, the tea hadn't completely dried.

The slender boy in the picture is squatting behind a pile of scrapped mecha parts, furtively touching and rummaging through them.

This kid's physical density can no longer be described as "comparable to superalloy".

That was something beyond his comprehension.

Having lived half my life, I've seen countless monsters with spatial talents, but I've never seen an F-rank talent that's this tough.

Secondary petrification mutation?

His confidence in this conclusion has dropped from 90% to 60%.

But no matter what that kid is, one thing is certain... Shen Hongyuan stared intently at the screen.

He made the right bet.

This freak, whose flesh is harder than steel and who is fearless of death, is the best shield he can find for his daughter right now.

Even if it only prolongs her reaction time by a few seconds.

That should be enough.

Shen Hongyuan put down his cup and rubbed his thumb against the edge of his phone case twice.

"Three days." He stared at the furtive figure on the screen, his voice very soft.

"It must go smoothly."

……

Heavy material area of ​​the waste disposal plant.

Su Ming is getting a little arrogant right now.

Ever since I accidentally touched that inferior alien beast crystal.

After swallowing it in one gulp and exchanging it for 100 quality points, his criteria for choosing food completely changed.

Those ordinary scrap metal?

Sorry, I'm not interested.

For the first half hour, he was diligently working on the high-manganese steel armor plate and the titanium-tungsten alloy drive shaft.

One piece costs thirty or forty cents, and a stick costs forty or fifty cents; they gnawed on it with relish.

Now?

It's like you're used to eating A5 Wagyu beef, and suddenly you're asked to go back to eating plain steamed buns.

It's not that I can't eat it, it's just that I've become picky.

His targets were the wrecked mechs with claw marks and signs of energy burning.

Because these kinds of monster crystals are often hidden in the crevices of equipment that have been used in battles with monsters or source beasts.

Broken crystals that couldn't be recovered on the battlefield, residual crystal fragments embedded in armor, and even dried bloodstains of high-level source beasts on the surface of the machine.

What the military considers insignificant impurities in scrap that are not worth extracting, he considers a pure, natural, organic nutritional meal.

Su Ming crouched behind a pile of scrapped infantry armored vehicles.

After searching for a while, my eyes locked onto something.

A tank main armor plate weighing seven or eight hundred pounds.

There is a huge through-dent in the center of the board.

The high-strength alloy at the edge was forcibly torn apart by something.

The torn surface was uneven, with charred burn marks remaining on the surface.

The burns were unevenly distributed, unlike the regular cuts made by an energy weapon.

It looks more like something left behind by some kind of high-temperature organism that grabbed it directly.

Claw marks from a strange beast.

Su Ming's eyes lit up.

He went around to the side of the armor plate, squatted down, and peeled away the surface rust.

Through the gaps in the gears and rivets, I could vaguely see the deepest part... Something was flashing, the light was very faint, but it was definitely flashing.

The problem is, this armor plate is too thick.

The entire plate is made of military-grade special steel, at least six or seven centimeters thick, with gaps so narrow that you can't even stick your finger in.

The normal thing to do is to find cutting equipment or call a tower crane to flip the plate over.

Su Ming looked around.

The nearest worker was fifty meters away.

enough.

He gripped the edge of the torn armor plate with both hands, his fingers digging into the steel plate.

"rise……"

The muscles suddenly tensed, a ton of real weight sank into the feet, and the waist and back exerted force.

"Creak...!"

He lifted the tank's main armor plate, which weighed seven or eight hundred pounds, off the ground.

not enough.

What he wants to see is in the deepest crevice; simply bringing it up is useless.

Su Ming gritted his teeth and tore his arms to the sides...

"Gah... Gah gah gah gah!!"

The sound of metal tearing was sharp and piercing, like a giant snapping a steel bar.

The six- or seven-centimeter-thick military-grade special steel plate looked like a corrugated cardboard box that had been violently torn apart in Su Ming's hands.

The crack extends from the middle to both sides, and the rusted cross-section reveals the bright silver metal inside.

Fifty meters away, Scarface Li, who was carrying waste materials, suddenly turned his head.

The half-smoked cigarette in his mouth fell to the ground.

"I... damn it..."

The burly men behind him were also stunned.

A young man in his early twenties, who started out as a porter.

The iron pliers in his hand slammed into his foot with a "clang," causing him to grimace in pain.

But his eyes never left Su Ming for a moment.

"That's... the main armor plate of a tank?"

"Damn it, it took four of us with hydraulic shears to cut that thing open, and he... he used his hands?"

"F-rank talent? Are you sure it's F-rank?"

Scarface Li picked up the cigarette butt that had fallen to the ground, found it was out, and then took out a lighter to light it, his hand trembling.

"A final burst of energy before death." He took a deep breath, his voice hoarse.

"The military inspectors said that the secondary petrification mutation has a more explosive force as it gets closer to the end of its lifespan."

There was a pause.

"This kid probably really doesn't have much time left."

The surroundings were quiet for a few seconds.

The young mover muttered something under his breath:

"Damn... if someone who's about to die is this strong, how fierce must they have been when they were alive..."

No one answered.

Su Ming ignored the discussions behind him.

After the armor plate was torn open, the contents of the gaps were exposed to the sunlight.

Four.

Four gray crystalline fragments, each about the size of a thumbnail.

Its surface was stained with dried, dark brown blood, and it emitted a faint but undeniable energy fluctuation.

Next to the crystal fragment, there was a black, hard, shell-like substance about the size of a fingernail.

It is neither metal nor ore.

Su Ming leaned closer and took a sniff.

fishy.

It's extremely fishy, ​​with a wild, unsettling smell that sends chills down your spine.

Source Beast Blood Crust.

Su Ming's pupils contracted slightly.

Who cares what it is, let's eat it first.

He closed the torn armor plate to block his view and placed his left hand on it.

"Devour".

【叮！吞噬一阶劣质异兽结晶碎片×4，质量点+75、+82、+91、+68】

[Ding! Devoured dried blood scabs (residue) of a second-tier source beast, purification and refinement complete, quality points +340]

Three hundred and forty?

A dried scab the size of a fingernail, 340 points?

What if it were a fresh, intact second-tier source beast corpse?

He dared not think about it anymore.

If I keep thinking about it, I won't be able to sleep tonight.

He casually swallowed the torn armor plate as well.

[Ding! Consumed Grade B Military Special Steel Plate, purification and refining complete, quality points +87]

The system notification sounds kept ringing in my mind.

Su Ming felt like a gambler who was stuffing coins into a slot machine, winning every time.

Current mass point balance...

1480.8.

Su Ming rubbed his fingers together.

Adding the remaining time today to continue consuming, and with the daily compound interest growth of 1%, by the time we depart the day after tomorrow...

Maybe I can redeem another talent sequence!

As for the actual mass of 10,000 kilograms required for Tier 3 silver.

It's not even close.

But the direction was right.

And he is now very, very certain of one thing.

The Yuanyuan training that follows is not just about being a human shield for Shen Hongyuan.

That was his self-service restaurant.

The corpses of alien beasts, the remains of source beasts, scattered fragments of crystals...

In his eyes, that meat grinder, which was a headache for the military, was an untapped gold mine.

Su Ming licked his lips and continued searching for the next piece of remains with claw marks.

The humanoid excavator has resumed work.

……