The central plaza of Buzhou Outpost was now completely drowned in an enchanting purple radiance.
It wasn’t an aurora, but a mountain of “Violet” Super-Energy Ore stacked high on the ground.
With every chunk of ore deposited, the system settlement notifications chimed endlessly like a free-for-all, rapid as a summer rainstorm beating on a tin roof.
That wasn’t mere sound—it was a “Rags-to-Riches Rhapsody” playing against the eardrums of every single player.
Li Lei glanced at his personal terminal, watching the Contribution Point balance jump in crazy digits.
Sweet!
This was what overnight wealth felt like!
This was true class mobility!
However, before everyone could fully process the excitement, a bright red “NEW” tag suddenly popped up right in the center of their retinas.
[Quartermaster Store Update: X-7 “Ranger” Light Low-Altitude Reconnaissance Craft, equipped with detection radar and light self-defense armament]
[Price: 10,000 Contribution Points per unit]
[Note: A man’s ultimate dream. No explanation needed.]
On the ground, the players who had just been cheering for “financial freedom” fell silent for a second.
Hardcore Lao Wang had the fastest hand speed, opening the detail page first.
When the streamlined, cold metal-gleaming holographic model floating in midair without any support popped up, all sanity evaporated from his eyes, leaving only two words—
“Holy shit!”
That classic phrase voiced the shared sentiment of everyone present.
“Six hundred kilometers per hour? And it can mount light and heavy weapons?” Construction Site Palu nearly pressed his face into Lao Wang’s virtual screen, drool practically leaking out.
“This is what you call a vehicle! Compared to this, those modified pickup trucks we slapped together from scrap metal are absolute industrial trash!”
In the next second, however, everyone’s gaze locked dead onto that desperate string of zeros.
“Ten thousand points?! My fresh earnings haven’t even warmed up in my hand!”
“Do the devs even have a conscience? This is a targeted cash grab, isn’t it?!”
“This isn’t selling a car, this is harvesting my literal organs!”
Curses echoed across the plaza, but their bodies were honest.
In less than ten minutes, five makeshift “Tycoon Squads” were established.
Fifty thousand Contribution Points flowed out like water, swallowed up by the system and into the pockets of the mastermind, Yao Qian.
*Clack—Boom!*
At the side of the base, the heavy blast doors of the massive manufacturing facility—doors that had never opened before—slowly swung wide.
Five silver-grey craft shaped like deep-sea barracudas were pushed out on massive mechanical arms.
They had no wheels; visible blue ion glows hissed beneath their chassis, kicking up clouds of sand and dust with powerful air currents.
The sheer precision and oppressive presence unique to advanced technology instantly brought the spectating players’ adrenaline to a boiling peak.
“I’ll go first! Nobody snatch it from me!”
Hands trembling, he pulled open the canopy and crammed himself into the snug, high-pressure bucket seat, feeling as if his entire soul had ascended.
“Engine start… Vector nozzles self-check complete…”
As he slammed down on the red ignition button, the low hum instantly pitched into a high-frequency scream, like the awakening roar of an apex beast.
Without any runway takeoff—
The steel monster rose straight up ten meters on the spot before a burst of brilliant blue flames erupted from its rear thrusters.
A terrifying pushback force struck instantly, making Palu feel as though his internal organs were pinned against the seat back.
*Whoosh!*
A streak of silver light sliced through the air, leaving an afterimage on everyone’s retinas before disappearing over the horizon at the end of the Gobi in the blink of an eye.
“Is… is this what flying feels like?”
The players on the ground all tilted their heads back, necks bent at ninety-degree angles, mouths agape wide enough to fit an egg.
…
With aerial vehicles, humanity’s exploration radius expanded geometrically.
The five teams roared off in different directions.
Team Three chose due north.
Far away from the skeleton mining area, this was a blank, untouched zone where no player had ever set foot.
“Keep an eye on the radar!” In the passenger seat, Hardcore Lao Wang gripped the grab handle tightly, his face pale—clearly still unaccustomed to the rollercoaster-like thrill.
“Terrain ahead looks wrong! Data is jumping wildly!”
It was indeed wrong.
As the craft passed over a towering black mountain ridge, the withered, yellow-grey Gobi suddenly vanished.
In its place was a creepy, dark green jungle.
“Holy crap?
A forest in the desert?” In the back seat, “Frequent-Pee Bro” glued his face to the porthole window.
“Does this planet come with green belts? The contrast is way too crazy!”
“Radar shows life signals, but the signature… why is it so spotty?” Lao Wang frowned, tapping the dashboard.
“There’s definitely something down there. Find a place to land and check it out!”
The craft descended slowly, hovering beside a seemingly flat patch of humus soil.
The air current blew away the top layer of rotting leaves, exposing the slick, oily black mud beneath.
*Hiss—* The cabin door opened.
An indescribable stench flooded inside.
“Gag— this smells worse than the dump behind my house.” Frequent-Pee Bro jumped down first, holding his nose with one hand while unbuckling his belt with the other.
“I can’t hold it. Flying that fast shook up my bladder. I’m gonna go drain the tank and leave a biological marker while I’m at it.”
“Don’t wander off! This place is wicked!” Lao Wang shouted after him, holding his heavily modified rifle and scanning the surroundings warily.
Humming an unknown tune, Frequent-Pee Bro jogged over to a strange tree thick enough for two men to wrap their arms around.
The tree looked quite distinctive.
Its bark didn’t have rough, natural cracks, but rather strip-like textures resembling muscle fibers.
The off-white surface even felt warm and elastic to the touch.
“Heh, looks like a personal trainer at the gym. It even has abs.”
Frequent-Pee Bro bantered while happily relieving himself.
The sound of splashing liquid echoed harshly in the silent jungle.
The warm liquid soaked into the tree roots.
Nobody noticed that as the fluid seeped in, the off-white fibers beneath the tree bark began to twitch subtly.
Within its dim veins, a dark red radiance resembling magma flared up.
“Ah, sweet relief!”
Frequent-Pee Bro shook himself off and prepared to pull up his pants.
In that split second—
Without warning, without any boss entrance music, without even bringing a gust of wind.
The trunk of the “personal trainer tree” before him suddenly split open.
*Pfft!*
A dull, wet sound of a weapon biting into flesh.
Frequent-Pee Bro looked down, staring dumbfoundedly at his own chest.
A wrist-thick wooden spike covered in barbed thorns had effortlessly impaled his chest, pinning him in midair like a piece of barbecue on a skewer.
Blood gushed out along the grooves of the spike.
“I…”
He opened his mouth, wanting to complain about young people having no martial virtue, but his vision rapidly faded to grey.
This brave soul, who had wanted to leave his “here I was” mark on an alien world, returned directly to the respawn point before he could even pull up his pants.
*Crack crack crack—*
An ear-grating pop of bones snapping echoed abruptly.
The “tree” had come alive.
It forcibly pulled itself out of the mud from its base.
The roots previously buried underground twisted and intertwined, transforming into two thick, powerful lower limbs.
The off-white bark peeled back in layers, and three cracks at the top of the trunk burst open, revealing three compound eyes arranged in a triangular pattern inside.
It was a three-meter-tall killing machine covered in plant armor.
It slowly retracted the wooden spear dripping with the player’s warm blood, its dark red compound eyes coldly locking onto the other four players nearby.
In the next second, Li Lei’s voice exploded through the comms channel with a throat-shredding scream that made everyone’s eardrums ache:
“All hands fire!! That’s not a tree! THAT’S A MONSTER!!!”