Time slipped away silently in the anxious tension and subtle unease.
Nine o'clock was approaching.
Every household in the village had long since shut their doors and windows tight. Only sporadic clicks of bullets being chambered and crossbow strings drawn broke the deadly silence, intensifying the tension.
Outside the village, in the wasteland, roars and howls came closer, turning from vague to clear, dense and frenzied, carrying thick malevolence as they surged fiercely!
Inside the house, Su Lin clearly sensed the approaching threat.
His jaw instantly tightened, his pupils dilating and contracting sharply.
The gun in his hand emitted a crisp clang of metal, a bullet chambered with a "click," and his thumb swiftly flicked off the safety.
The door fortified ten times with ghastly mechanisms and the hefty firearm in his hand finally brought a slight sense of security.
He was no stranger to firearms.
He grew up in a military police compound.
Although his biological father left before he was born, fortunately, his father's reliable comrades treated Su Lin as their own nephew or even son.
So while others had just one "stern father,"
He had a group.
Not only did he have to excel academically, but regular physical training in the harshest conditions was also routine.
The grappling techniques to subdue Hou Yong, and other fighting techniques, were personally taught to him by his uncles since he was young.
Pistols, rifles, submachine guns, and even sniper rifles were his "toys" during his youth.
It was precisely because of this strictly restrained childhood that as an adult, he longed to lie back and slack off, to become a lazy bum with nothing to do.
"Brother Kirin."
Holding a petite short bow and with a gun holstered at her waist, Su Tongxi sensed his tension and softly reassured him:
"Don't worry, we're just a Level 1 Safe House; the monsters won't be too many. The past two nights, I shot a few arrows and didn't even need to fire the gun to hold them off."
"Huh?" Su Lin was startled, only remembering how in the first few days of the month, this seemingly delicate little fiancée, without any mechanical assistance, had defended this home all alone, along with the former wastrel occupier!
"Ha!" The burden on his heart dropped completely as he grinned and pulled his petite fiancée into his arms, kissing her little round face all over while rubbing it messily.
"Oh!"
Su Tongxi's cheeks instantly flushed, becoming like kneaded dough, fine red hues spreading evenly, exuding a soft, silly charm.
It was precisely this timid look that always made Su Lin want to tease her.
Just then, there was movement outside, and Su Lin's eyes turned sharp as he released the adorable girl in his arms, whose breath had become shallow with excitement.
"Have they come?"
The wall clock's hour hand pointed steadily to nine.
Dong——! A deep, solemn, heart-penetrating chime suddenly echoed through the silent village!
Without hesitation, Su Lin swung open the door, summoned the House Title Deed, and deactivated the everyday decoy mode of the contraption.
In an instant!
The already ferocious contraption morphed from illusion to reality, fully revealing its menacing form!
With Su Lin's will connecting the switch.
With a simultaneous "crash," a fierce sound!
Like a welcoming carpet, a five-meter stretch of barbed flooring outside the door suddenly erupted with countless cold, sword-length sharp spikes from the previously dense holes! Like a sleeping porcupine suddenly bristling angrily!
Simultaneously, the impact walls on both sides opened like slumbering iron beasts baring their fangs, with a loud "boom!"
The thick walls covered in terrifying iron spikes burst out with violent gusts!
The wild wind howled!
The gusts ruffled Su Tongxi's hair, but she was oblivious, merely clenching her fingers together tightly in front of her chest, her small mouth slightly agape, her almond eyes filled with shock and awe.
Su Lin's eyes flashed with a sense of readiness.
At the end of his vision, shadows had emerged.
Pairs of ghostly green, blood-red eyes first pierced the darkness, followed by the silhouettes of monsters taking shape in the night.
They were all kinds of strange beasts, black as calves in size, bizarre and menacing.
Some looked like cats, others like dogs, and some like wild boars...
"It's the monster 'Shadow Beast'!"
Despite the powerful mechanism, Su Tongxi couldn't help but tense up, her little round face tight with apprehension.
She quickly explained: "The Hunting Group didn't get a chance to clear the wasteland at the start of the month, so at night, the shadows of monsters turn into Shadow Beasts to attack the safe house..."
She looked at Su Lin, asking, "Brother Kirin, since we have mechanisms now, shouldn't we close the door first?"
"No," Su Lin's eyes were sharp as he replied in a deep voice, "I want to see clearly."
The unknown is always the most terrifying.
He wanted to face these so-called monsters head-on, to weigh their threat.
The Shadow Beast groups entering the village began to diverge, each heading towards their respective target safe houses, with numbers varying in each group.
Just as Su Tongxi had said, the intensity of the attacks was determined by the safe house level.
However, the Shadow Beasts swarming toward Su Lin's direction...
"Did you handle dozens of Shadow Beasts on your own the past two nights?" Su Lin looked at his own fiancée strangely.
Could this Hanbao really be so formidable?!
Su Tongxi stared dumbfounded at the swarm of nearly twenty Shadow Beasts ahead, instinctively shaking her head frantically, stuttering:
"No, no! Clearly, there were only four or five in each wave in the past days, and I could hold them off with just arrows..."
Before she could finish speaking, the dozens of varied Shadow Beasts outside let out a shrill, ear-piercing howl, like a breached black tide, charging fiercely towards the entrance!
"Ah!" Su Tongxi exclaimed, instinctively raising her short bow to aim.
Su Lin took a couple of quick breaths, his body as still as a rock, suppressing his emotions, his cold gaze pinned on the Shadow Beast rushing to the front, about to step into the death zone.
The ones leading the charge were shaped like hunting dogs, with pointed snouts and slender waists, their limbs lean and long.
Their four feet flew, moving fast enough to only leave afterimages on the retina, and in the blink of an eye, they stepped onto that fang-laden barbed floor!
In the next moment!
The dormant earth spikes erupted!
Sharp spikes, silver and sword-like, shot up from the holes without warning!
Splush! Splush! Splush!
The leading hunting dog Shadow Beasts couldn't even let out a yelp before being instantly pierced and shredded by countless spikes!
Their elongated limbs were severed, their entire bodies splitting apart like cloth torn by immense force!
Pools of dark liquid and twisted remains scattered!
The bloodshed brought no fear to the mindless Shadow Beasts.
Those behind stepped over their comrades' shattered bodies, agilely leaping into the forward zone.
However, Su Lin's fortified earth spike mechanism demonstrated astonishing intelligence.
Only the areas stepped on by Shadow Beasts would, after a moment's delay, suddenly unleash lethal spikes!
The Shadow Beasts leaping in were like stepping into a meat grinder, once again impaled by the suddenly erupting forest of steel spikes! Torn apart!
Meanwhile, the grid in the front, which had just completed its slaughter, quickly retracted the spikes after several seconds, readying itself for the next victim.
As soon as it sensed new flesh stepping in, it would swiftly thrust out, harvesting mercilessly!
Repeating this cycle, the site's entrance became a high-efficiency, cold slaughtering line.
Su Lin watched this crushingly bloody scene before him.
He puffed his cheeks.
And let out a long breath of air.
The nerve that had been taut ever since he crossed into this world suddenly slackened, a sense of reassurance welling up within him.
Dammit!
What post-apocalyptic wasteland?
What resource scarcity?
What monster attacks?
I've got cheats!
No need to close it!