Thick fog engulfed the wilderness.

Two in the morning.

The night shrouded the earth and completely obscured the traces of biological activities during the day.

It was another sleepless night in the Hope Village as the news of Chen Shen and Li Hu was passed back to the villagers.

Six huge spotlights illuminated the skies in an instant, and the street lights of the village were switched to full power mode.

A series of harsh sirens began to echo through the village speakers that had never been used in the past.

The sound-asleep villagers were startled and subconsciously got out of their beds.

“Sh*t! It’s a Level 1 danger alert!

Three long beeps and two short beeps.

Most villagers recognized the alert’s rating from their previous drills.

There could only be one reason for the alert to sound on such an ordinary night!

The village had entered a critical life and death situation!

After grasping the significance of the alert, a small number of villagers went pale and were dumbfounded.

Meanwhile, many villagers excitedly got dressed and rushed toward the department of the armed forces.

War was everyone’s worst nightmare in peaceful times. It was the darkest moments that civilians feared to face the most.

However, in the wasteland, for the residents of Hope village, it was an opportunity for them to decide their fate!

A Level 1 alert meant that every villager was a soldier at that moment!

Regardless of your previous status or job, every villager was granted permission to pick up weapons when the alarm went off.

All armed villagers would be collectively considered village soldiers in a real war.

They would be rewarded three times the normal rates if they managed to kill any enemies that invaded their village.

The rewards would not only give them a chance to exchange a large number of living resources but also a chance to exchange land, materials, knowledge, and other resources that Su Mo had announced in the past.

On top of that, if they could kill the enemy’s leader or make a crucial contribution during the battle, they would be granted permission to enter the underground shelter if they passed the shelter leader, Su Mo’s test.

With such abundant rewards at stake, the villagers could not help but get excited!

In less than ten minutes, more than 500 villagers had already gathered in front of the Armed Forces.

Su Deben, standing in front of the department, praised in his heart, ‘The villager’s hearts are with us!’

…

“Are you sure they’re not hostile toward humans?

“I saw Chen Shen still tied up! How isn’t that them showing hostility toward us?”

The three soldiers returned to the high slope, where Li Hu’s team was still observing the mysterious building complex.

Li Hu’s frowned as he heard the report of the three soldiers returning to the team.

The moment the murlocs took out ropes to bind the four of them, he could not suppress wanting to attack while he was hiding behind.

He would have initiated an attack and caused a war in the wilderness if it was not for Chen Shen raising his hand to signal them not to move.

Otherwise, it would not be as peaceful as now.

“Captain Li Hu, you have to trust us. Although those murlocs have ugly appearances, they aren’t bloodthirsty or despise us like the other foreign races.

“I don’t know how to describe it, but their eyes had the same looks as humans! There wasn’t much difference!

“The village chief requested for us to be released, and they clearly understood our language. This means that there’s a chance to negotiate with them!”

The three soldiers understood why Chen Shen had them return to the team. Chen Yu, Chen Shen’s cousin, explained frantically, tried his best to dispel Li Hu’s desire to storm in to save the village chief.

Unlike Chen Shen’s euphemism, Chen Yu’s straightforward answer displeased Li Hu.

Despite the dissatisfaction, Li Hu did not dare to act rashly because their village chief was taken as a hostage.

He had no choice but to keep observing the movements in the mysterious building complex through the telescope.

…

A five-story building inside the mysterious building complex.

Chen Shen was fully prepared before he entered the building.

He imagined the building interior to be like a modern sci-fi movie with holographic projections everywhere and pure with metal instruments with an advanced scientific vibe.

There would be countless murlocs in standard white coats and protection gears, chatting with professional jargons like scientific research experts!

He also pictured hundreds of humans imprisoned inside, forced to work for the murlocs day and night to develop advanced and terrifying technology to suppress other foreign races in the wasteland.

The worst-case scenario in his head was that the cloaked murloc wanted to request him to find various scientific research scholars for them in exchange for some reward.

However, everything was all in his head.

When he entered the building, his imagination was shattered.

The technology he expected to see could not be seen anywhere inside.

The grand scene of advanced technology only existed in his mind a minute ago.

Inside the five-story building, there was nothing impressive at all.

No matter which direction he looked, it merely resembled an old government building in the 1990s!

Inside the dark corridor, the dim ceiling lamps illuminated the place with a faint yellow light.

The floor that he stepped on was glossy and exuded a disgusting fishy smell.

Numerous black handprints and some sticky unidentifiable secretion could be seen on the walls.

Chen Shen had to hold his breath as he walked through the place, desperately trying to stop himself from being affected by the pungent smell.

“What do you think? The building is pretty good, right?”

Seeing Chen Shen’s red face from holding his breath, the cloaked murloc turned his head and smiled for the first time.

His smile contained a little bit of pride and satisfaction.

It seemed that to him, every “outsider” that entered the building would be shocked and terrified.

Moreover, Chen Shen’s reaction was much more exaggerated than others.

“Good, it’s astonishing!”

Chen Shen inevitably had to take in another breath of the disgusting air when responding to the cloaked murloc.

He almost choked and puked out the soup he drank in the afternoon.

Fortunately, the smell began to subside after they climbed spiraling stairs to the second floor. Following behind the cloaked murloc, Chen Shen was relieved that the smell was less unpleasant and merely smelled like a fish market.

Finally, he was able to breathe again and observe the surroundings.