Chapter 7

Everyone fell silent for a moment before bursting into laughter.

"Click." Grosso pulled back the safety catch of his automatic rifle, tilted his head, and aimed the scope with his right eye, slowly raising the gun and pointing it at Tang Fang.

"Snap."

Tang Fang’s face darkened, and he squinted his eyes slightly.

"Ha ha ha ha." Grosso gave him a mocking look, turned around, and waved his hand, saying, "Those who want to follow me, come on."

Several white men exchanged glances and quickly followed, and then two more hesitated for a moment before rushing to catch up.

Grosso took away eight people in total, leaving twenty after the four who had died.

Byron didn’t say a word. After wiping his dagger, he sheathed it on his leg and turned away with a very cool demeanor.

Hausen stood up, grinned, and closely followed Byron, then the small man, followed by the woman with a tulip tattoo on her chest...

In total, twelve people chose to follow Hausen, as he had once been a pirate leader and was far more respected and likable than Grosso.

Only seven people remained at the scene, one of whom was injured.

Tang Fang waited for a moment, and seeing no one else leave, he took a deep breath, straightened his body, and walked toward the setting sun.

The bearded man didn’t say a word, picked up his gun, and slowly followed, leaving only one woman and three men, one of whom was injured.

"Alros actually chose to follow him?" The three men exchanged glances, gritted their teeth, and followed.

Only the black man with a leg wound and the yellow-skinned woman with a leather collar around her neck remained.

As a fellow yellow-skinned person, Tang Fang couldn’t help but look back. He saw her slowly walk to the black man’s side and hand him her water bottle.

"Thank you." The black man reached out to take it, unscrewed the cap, and was about to drink when suddenly, a flash of light appeared in the setting sun. A snow-white dagger instantly cut through his carotid artery, and the spurt of blood splattered all over the woman.

"Swish." The dagger was sheathed, and the woman forcefully pried open his fingers, took back her water bottle, and walked slowly, trailing far behind Tang Fang and the others.

The setting sun cast a straight shadow behind her, and drops of blood trickled down her face, making her look like a blood-soaked female demon.

The three men in the middle started discussing again. Alros maintained his cold expression, while a glint of light flashed in Tang Fang’s eyes. The value representing crystals on the system interface jumped to 35.

The setting sun faded, and the sky was dyed red with blood-like light. The barren desert and Gobi suddenly turned icy and bone-chilling. Black winds, mixed with radioactive substances, howled like knives, swirling and forming towering wind columns. A purple lightning bolt split the sky, and the unique thunderstorm night of Planet 5 descended.

The entrance to the underground cave was right in front of them. Tang Fang looked back at the ink-black sky behind him, where the thunderclouds roared like waves and the wind howled. No one could survive the thunderstorm on Planet 5, not even the native inhabitants, who could only tremble in fear in the underground caves.

When the thunderclouds completely obscured the sky, Tang Fang and his group also entered the cave. According to the official description, this mission was simple: find the resource points marked by the research ship, determine the mineral composition and reserves. Of course, there were dangers, such as encountering rock bugs during the journey.

Most of the prisoners had served in the military and naturally didn’t take these low-level insects seriously. For them, this mission was a good deal; once the goal was achieved, they would regain their freedom.

The Butcher’s Run, as the official mission was called, was considered a suicide mission. However, Tang Fang knew that there were no aliens underground, just some low-level rock bugs. To be honest, he wasn’t too concerned about the resource points; he was more interested in the rock bugs. The more life energy he absorbed, the more puppies he could hatch, and the more secure his life would be.

Time passed, and they had unknowingly descended hundreds of meters underground. Rock bugs were tunneling experts, and the large and small caves crisscrossed, forming a labyrinth-like network.

After walking a short distance along a slippery tunnel, a pungent, foul smell hit them—rock bug excrement.

Tang Fang stopped, signaled to the others, and lowered his night vision goggles. He leaned forward to take a look, then reached for a fragmentation grenade from his belt, pressed the detonator, and gently threw it.

"Whirr." The sound of the grenade rolling on the ground.

"Hisss..."

Then came a series of insect chirps, clearly indicating that the rock bugs had noticed something.

But it was too late.

"Boom." With an explosion, a shower of rock fragments rained down.

After the shockwaves subsided, the group emerged from the cave. The light swept over a stone chamber about ten meters in diameter, with four or five tunnels leading off from it.

At the site of the fragmentation grenade explosion lay over twenty dead rock bugs, their bodies and yellow-green fluids scattered on the ground.

"Life energy collection complete, quantity 46."

Seeing the crystal value on the system interface jump to 81, Tang Fang’s lips curled into a faint smile. As long as he killed as many rock bugs as possible, he could collect more life energy and form a puppy army.

He skillfully directed a larva to transform into an egg, then walked to the front of the other tunnels. After a moment’s hesitation, he jumped into a downward-sloping pit. The woman followed silently.

The three men, however, sniffed the air at the pit’s entrance and their faces changed.

"Is this kid trying to get himself killed? This route has the strongest smell, and he still chose to jump down."

"Damn it, bastard, he’s trying to kill us."

"If he wants to die, let him. We might as well take another route."

Alros maintained his indifferent expression, glanced at the three men, and then ducked into the pit.

The three men exchanged glances, looked at the dead rock bugs behind them, and then at the dark, bottomless tunnels. After some hesitation, they finally decided to follow and jumped in one by one.

The pit was deep, and they walked for over ten minutes, leaning forward, before hearing the sound of dripping water nearby. Tang Fang turned off the lighting, put on his night vision goggles, and slowly moved to the cave entrance. He scanned the area and found that it was a deep abyss.

A three-foot-wide rock path stretched across, and ten meters below was a bottomless pool of water. On one side of the pool was a rock platform about two meters above the water, covered with rock bug eggs. The pungent smell of excrement came from there.

Tang Fang examined the platform closely and felt somewhat disappointed. There were no adult rock bugs, only a large number of eggs.

He took out his navigation device and glanced at it. The target location was still a long way off, and he had to cross to the other side. After some hesitation, he removed his night vision goggles, raised his gun, and carefully walked across the suspended stone bridge.