Chapter 446: Chapter 446: Bug Den

Listening to the spaceship’s groaning, Long Ming turned to Luoxue and the others.

"Shouldn’t we think about getting a new ship? This one doesn’t feel very safe!"

"That depends on whether we make enough money from this mining operation."

Qian Wei said to Long Ming with a smile.

"That’s probably not going to happen."

Long Ming replied with a laugh.

A long while later, the ship broke through the atmosphere and flew toward their designated work zone.

"Luoxue, everyone, come take a look!"

Fu Fuqing suddenly shouted with a grave expression.

Hearing the shout, Long Ming and the others rushed to Fu Fuqing’s side.

"What’s wrong?"

"See for yourselves!"

Fu Fuqing displayed the image of the work zone captured by the optical imaging device.

The red earth was densely pockmarked with Wormholes.

The expressions on Luoxue, Qian Wei, and the others immediately grew grim.

Jing Chuan couldn’t help but curse.

"Fuck, so many Wormholes? Did that son of a bitch Dikaya assign us such a dangerous place?"

Qian Wei and the others fell silent.

Even if these many Wormholes had been cleared before, there were bound to be a large number of bugs still lurking inside.

It wouldn’t be surprising if even a high-level Type IV bug popped out of one of them.

Luoxue frowned and said to everyone.

"Alright, complaining is useless. We’re not as strong as others right now. When faced with injustice, all we can do is endure. What we must do is gather our strength under this oppression and rise up!"

"Yes!"

Jing Chuan and the others nodded in response.

"Fu Fuqing, avoid the Wormhole area and find a good spot to land!"

Luoxue turned and instructed Fu Fuqing.

"Understood!"

Fu Fuqing immediately began piloting the small spaceship toward the edge of their assigned zone, descending as far away from the Wormholes as possible.

Soon, the small spaceship landed on the crimson earth, and the rear hatch opened.

Jing Chuan and the others disembarked, driving massive excavators.

Meanwhile, Long Ming and Luoxue flew out of the ship, piloting their Mechanical Gods.

"Qian Wei, Jing Chuan, Zhihan, Jiang Heng! Take the excavators and your men, spread out, and survey the surrounding area for mineral resources!"

"Alright!"

"If you run into any danger, call for help immediately!"

"Understood!"

Qian Wei and the others piloted the excavators, taking soldiers with them as they spread out to survey the area.

Luoxue then looked at Long Ming and said.

"Long Ming, we’ll stay here and provide support!"

"Okay!"

Long Ming nodded slightly, gazing at Qian Wei and the others as they surveyed in the distance.

He watched as they drove the excavators to a desired survey location, took out the accompanying mechanical survey equipment, and drove it into the ground.

The equipment was triangular, with a spiraling metal probe at its center that continuously drilled downward into the earth.

...

「The next day at noon.」

Long Ming, piloting the Gale, leaned against the spaceship and silently watched everyone at work.

’Mining is usually such tedious, boring work.’

’I’ve thought of a lot of ways to make money recently, but I’ve shot them all down.’

’Good invitations are nearly impossible to get right now. I can’t just waste the only 4x4 invitation I have, either. I looked it up, and apparently even a V5 Mechanical God has been taken down in there. Only a handful of people have ever made it through.’

’As for taking missions, they mostly award merit points, not much cash. Besides, I don’t have a ship or a crew, and I can’t fly on my own, so that’s a non-starter.’

Long Ming couldn’t help but sigh. ’Making money is so damn hard.’

"What’s on your mind? What’s with all the sighing?"

Just then, Luoxue approached, piloting the Graylight.

Long Ming turned to Luoxue and replied.

"It’s nothing. How’s it going over there? Is the surveying and mining going smoothly?"

"Not smoothly. So far, we’ve only found one deposit of Tier 2 gray sulfur ore, which is on the lower end of quality for Tier 2 minerals."

Luoxue replied, shaking her head.

"That’s a problem. We can find ways to deal with the danger in this zone, but it’s a huge blow if we can’t find any valuable ore."

Long Ming said to Luoxue, feeling a headache coming on.

"I have an idea."

Luoxue said after a few seconds of silence.

"What is it?"

"There are no good resources here. I’m thinking of exploring the Wormholes."

"That’s very risky."

"Sigh... We don’t have a choice."

"I’ll go with you."

Long Ming said after a moment of thought.

"Okay."

Luoxue nodded in agreement.

The two of them piloted their Mechanical Gods and flew at a low altitude toward the Wormhole area.

Soon, they were flying above the Wormholes.

Looking down, they could see numerous Wormholes of varying sizes.

"Which Wormhole should we enter?"

Long Ming asked thoughtfully.

"We’ll explore them one by one, in order. As we go, we need to clear out any potential threats."

Luoxue said as she flew toward a nearby Wormhole.

Long Ming silently followed her.

「Several minutes later.」

Piloting their Mechanical Gods, Long Ming and Luoxue entered a Wormhole and descended into its depths.

The Wormhole tunnel was extremely dark, with almost zero visibility.

They both activated their night vision modes.

THUD.

They finally landed at the bottom of the Wormhole, finding themselves in a circular cavern.

They warily scanned their surroundings.

Inside the cavern, they could see a few scattered Type I crawlers squirming about. The surrounding rock walls were riddled with irregular tunnels.

"These tunnels are all connected to each other?"

Long Ming said with a slight frown.

"It seems this whole area is one large Insect Nest."

Luoxue was also surprised.

"Now we’ll see how lucky we are. If there are a lot of bugs left in here, forget mining—we’ll be lucky to get out alive."

"Yeah. Let’s explore for now."

"Which way?"

Long Ming asked with a nod.

"That way."

Luoxue chose a larger tunnel and piloted her Mechanical God toward it, dispatching the crawlers along the path as she went.

Long Ming drew his Light Saber and followed beside Luoxue.

After entering the tunnel, they proceeded deeper. The passage grew wider as they went.

Just then, a Type II black-shelled bug flew toward them from up ahead.

Luoxue charged forward at high speed, raising the Metal Blade in her hand and bringing it down in a vicious slash.

SLICE!

The black-shelled bug was cleaved in two.

Watching Luoxue’s clean and decisive kill, Long Ming couldn’t help but praise her.

"I’m surprised. You just got your Mechanical God, but you can already pilot it so well."

"I may have just gotten this Mechanical God, but I started learning and practicing piloting techniques over a year ago."

Luoxue didn’t hide this from Long Ming.

"Impressive!"

Long Ming couldn’t help but nod.

The two continued deeper, sporadically encountering low-level bugs, all of which they dispatched with ease.

But as they went deeper, forks in the path appeared one after another, making the underground Insect Nest feel like a labyrinth.

"The terrain down here is even more complex than I thought. Where should we head now?"

Long Ming asked with a slight frown.

"Hold on."

Luoxue stopped at a fork and carefully observed the rock walls of both tunnels.

Long Ming stood by quietly, waiting.

"The right."

Luoxue immediately led Long Ming to the right.

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