Netherworld Retrograde

Chapter 211: Chapter 99 Shelter_2

The young Processor also knew that their fledgling crush had already ended.

Li Yelai’s arrival undoubtedly gave the team a strong boost of confidence, as soldiers continuously fired and Spiritual Ability Users cast their powers in succession, covering Li Yelai’s retreat from the Insect Swarm.

And after losing the Hunting Insect, the danger of this batch of the Insect Swarm greatly decreased.

Li Yelai rode the Dragon Colt directly into the air, avoiding the self-destructing rolling worm, and safely returned to the rear of the group.

After suffering heavy casualties, the Insect Swarm gave up the pursuit and quickly retreated with the bodies of other Insect Race members.

”You really came at the right time, making quite the entrance there,” Cheese swallowed a candy, patted the Dragon Colt’s snout, and smiled at Li Yelai.

The godly Dragon Colt snorted, looking at Cheese with its somewhat foolish eyes.

This elicited a wry smile from Cheese, but she didn’t ask any further about the origin of the summoning creature, knowing Li Yelai had been involved in some secret mission.

”Close by, I saw the signal flare and came,” Li Yelai responded with a smile. Seeing a friend in such a situation was also a pleasant surprise for him.

Upon seeing the two injured Processors behind Cheese, he said, ”I’ll take the injured to the shelter first.”

With the Dragon Colt, he could move quickly and take the injured back to the shelter for treatment ahead of the rest.

”No need, we still have some fighting power left. Besides, sending you back and forth would actually weaken our team’s strength,” the Processor with the severed arm responded, the emergence of Li Yelai and the slaying of the Hunting Insect had already relieved a lot of the Human team’s pressure.

The condition of the injured was still manageable. Keeping Li Yelai in the team was the best choice.

Another young Processor chimed in, ”Night General, are you at Four Awakenings?”

Li Yelai shook his head, ”No, I’m at Third Awakening, why?”

The young Processor shook his head with a bitter smile, ”Then no worries.”

He was well aware of the strength of the Hunting Insect; unless faced head-on,

ordinary Third Awakening Spiritual Ability Users would find it hard to take down such Elite Transformed creatures. They excel at ambush and have powerful close combat capabilities — difficult to defend against.

Yet Li Yelai charged into the enemy lines and forcefully killed it. This Night General was probably among the top ranks even among Third Awakening users.

He was naturally completely convinced by Li Yelai.

Following that, Li Yelai dismissed the Dragon Colt summoning and continued to escort the team forward.

From Cheese’s introduction, Li Yelai learned the codenames of the two Processors.

Both were from the South City Branch. The middle-aged man’s codename was Gao Shan, a Third Awakening Spiritual Ability User.

The young man’s codename was Red Band, a Second Awakening Spiritual Ability User.

After an emergency mobilization, they escorted civilians to the shelter and encountered Cheese’s team along the way.

After the two teams joined forces, they continued towards the shelter but encountered an Insect Swarm ambush en route.

Among them, there was also a Hunting Insect.

Gao Shan’s arm was suddenly amputated by a stealth attack from the Hunting Insect.

If not for Li Yelai’s support and the rapid elimination of the Hunting Insect, who knows what might have happened.

”Hunting Insect... is it a mini-boss?” Li Yelai recalled the strength and speed of the Hunting Insect, which would have been a struggle to deal with unless he had ambushed it and gained the upper hand.

Unless he used abilities! Whether it was Xiang Yu’s Face or Huo Qubing’s Face, Li Yelai would have had a chance to kill it before it hid.

However, inside the Disaster Fog, once he invoked the power of the Face, You Must Meet Strong Enemies would be triggered.

Li Yelai might attract some dangerous entities.

Perhaps they were extraordinary creatures from the Doomsday Forest swallowed by the Disaster Fog number 71, like the Fire Crocodile Dragon and others.

They are extraordinary creatures, and even though they are also victims swallowed by the Disaster Fog, they would not cooperate with humans. Mainly because most extraordinary creatures lack the intellect.

Or, it could simply be other higher-ranking units of the Insect Swarm.

Therefore, Li Yelai had always restrained himself from using the Wanxiang Faceless Mask, deeming it best to fight using Virtual Realm Beast Language or Mimicry·Abyss Dragon Scale.

”Hunting Insect isn’t a mini-boss, it can only be considered an elite monster,” Cheese shook her head: ”It’s good that we just encountered one. If there had been a dozen or so Hunting Insects hunting together, our team probably would have been wiped out.”

Li Yelai’s expression changed slightly; the strength of the Hunting Insects was nothing to scoff at. They were almost comparable to a Third Awakening Awakened Spirit User.

And they moved in groups? Li Yelai dared not imagine if three or more Hunting Insects appeared at the same time whether he would still be able to withstand them. Even with the Face activated, it would be tough.

The Slaughter Insect Swarm was indeed dangerous!

”At present, the Insect Swarm may not have given birth to higher-level Insect Race members. Therefore, there aren’t many Hunting Insects. But as time goes by, they will receive more and more biomass,” Cheese continued, ”Humans, as well as flowers, trees, and those Extraordinary Creatures, even the corpses of their own Insect Swarm, will all be devoured. They will be transformed into biomass, giving birth to more of the Insect Swarm.”

”Doesn’t that mean the more we fight, the more we lose?” Li Yelai looked somewhat serious.

The human struggle against the Insect Swarm came with a cost: ammunition, medicine, food, and the sacrifices of soldiers and civilians.

Within the Disaster Fog, it was difficult for humans to resupply logistics. Meanwhile, the Insect Swarm could grow stronger with each battle, always recovering more biomass, which allowed them to spawn even more of their kind.

One side was like a sourceless well, and the other an endless stream. How could this battle be fought?

Currently, the Slaughter Insect Swarm had not yet launched a general assault on humanity because they had not yet completed collecting biomass.

Once those scattered Extraordinary Creatures were all consumed, would it then be humanity’s turn?

”This is the dangerous aspect of the Slaughter Insect Swarm,” Cheese shook his head, ”What we can do is to do our best to prevent them from gaining more biomass and hold out until human reinforcements arrive. Of course, the higher-ups might have their own considerations. What we need to do is wait for orders.”

Li Yelai silently nodded; it seemed that this was all they could do for now.

Afterward, under Li Yelai’s escort, the team successfully reached the shelter.

It was a shelter located in the underground parking garage of a shopping mall, prepared in advance by Giant City, stocked with plenty of food and medicine.

And it was still possible to communicate with other shelters.

When Li Yelai arrived, all the exits of the shelter had been fortified with defensive structures.

However, the interior, which already housed over three thousand people, seemed a bit crowded after Li Yelai’s team arrived.

The shelter’s defensive forces consisted of fifteen Spiritual Ability Users, plus fifty Iron Guards, and over three hundred members of the City Defense Army and militiamen.

Among the Spiritual Ability Users, the strongest was a Processor from North City, a powerhouse of the Four Awakenings Path of Zero.

Currently, the defensive strength of this shelter seemed adequate.

The official authorities were also training more civilians, giving them the ability to protect themselves.

However, with such a large number of people, the food and medicine in the shelter could last for at most ten days.

Therefore, officials had to regulate and distribute food daily.

This caused some dissatisfaction among the civilians, but after seeing the fully armed Iron Guards and City Defense Army, the discontent quickly vanished...

Li Yelai wondered if his sister, Doll, Starfire, and the captain were safe.

At one of the shelter’s exits, Li Yelai leaned against the wall, pondering with a Communicator on his arm that no longer had any signal.

Then, he saw a piece of jerked meat and a bottle of mineral water handed to him.

Cheese, holding a bag in one hand and food and water in the other, said, ”Eat something first and replenish your strength.”

”Thank you,” Li Yelai took the food and water. He was indeed a bit hungry.

Cheese sat down beside him, pulling a blanket out of the bag.

He draped one over Li Yelai and wrapped another around himself. Then, with both hands, he clutched a cup of hot coffee for warmth.

Their task for the night was to keep guard at the entrance, as Spiritual Ability Users’ perception was keener, hence they took turns on vigil.

In about ten minutes, Li Yelai heard a loud rumbling noise. The violent airstream swept through the streets, directly blowing away billboards.

”Are there typhoons inside the Disaster Fog?” Li Yelai was a bit astonished.

Cheese shook his head, ”It’s the Mixed Element Banner activating; it’s the price of triggering a Taboo Item, a Catastrophe.”

Li Yelai fell into thought.

A Catastrophe, eh... He wondered if it could be leveraged somehow.