Chapter 91: Shadow of the Reaper

The name "Reaper," like a cold‑blooded venomous snake, coils around the hearts of everyone in the New Hope fortress who knows of it. Makusi's intel is limited, but it is enough to sketch the outline of a mysterious and dangerous enemy.

To counter the potential threat and verify the intel, Chen Mo dispatched a elite reconnaissance squad led by Han Qing, equipped with the latest Luo Ya detection gear, to the area where Makusi encountered the Reaper for a thorough investigation.

A few days later, Han Qing returned a chilling video.

The footage was shot amid ruins covered with strange fungal patches. On screen, a squad of about ten Reaper soldiers fights a pack of mutated hyenas. The soldiers wear dark‑green, bio‑textured close‑fitting armor that seems to quiver faintly. Their weapons are not metal‑cast but resemble massive chitinous shells encasing biological organs, firing not beams or bullets but high‑speed, corrosive bone spikes or viscous bio‑webs that solidify instantly to bind targets.

Even more unsettling is their combat style. One soldier's arm is torn open by a hyena, and instead of red blood a green slime oozes, the wound visibly writhing and healing before the eye! Another soldier's "bio‑gun" appears depleted; he plugs a conduit at the gun's rear into an interface on his own armor, and the weapon twitches like a living thing before regaining power.

"Holy crap! Do these guys come with built‑in medkits and power banks?" Kaiwen said, watching the footage, feeling his view of technology shaken. "Their biotech tree is twisted beyond belief—worse than Luo Ya's metal tech and the Ark's energy tech!"

"Their individual regeneration and weapon endurance are exceptionally high," Han Qing added gravely. "Moreover, they seem to possess a collective sense, coordinating with a cohesion unlike humans—more like a hive. We tried to capture stragglers, but they're hyper‑alert; once spotted, they either get rescued instantly by comrades or… resort to an extreme measure."

The video cuts to another clip: a Reaper soldier, heavily wounded by Han Qing's squad and unable to retreat, suddenly inflates dramatically, then bursts explosively, spraying green slime and fragments that are highly corrosive and… carry a kind of mental contamination, causing a nearby teammate to briefly lapse into a frenzy.

"Suicide infantry? With a mental‑contamination debuff?" Zhang Yang grinned. "This stuff is far more disgusting than the Ark's iron cans!"

Su Yu stared at the writhing armor and weapons in the footage; her True Knowledge Vision vaguely sensed a chaotic will within them—greedy, devouring, and fiercely hostile to other life forms. "These 'weapons'… are alive. They seem to share a… symbiotic, or rather parasitic, relationship with their users. I sense a strong 'unity' and 'exclusivity.'"

"Unity, exclusivity…" Chen Mo mused, recalling the Ark's Purification doctrine, though this manifestation is far more direct and biological. "Their goal—'cleansing' and 'nursery'—seems to treat all life and civilization outside their system as weeds to be eradicated, turning the world into a 'fertile soil' belonging only to them."

The pressure is unprecedented. Internal reconstruction is a tangled mess, and now an oddly hostile, clearly powerful force has emerged outside.

"We must accelerate force integration and boost defenses," Chen Mo ordered. "Kaiwen, lead the tech division, prioritize analyzing these bio‑weapons' traits and find their weaknesses. Han Qing, expand reconnaissance and set up a multilayer early‑warning system. Raise the alert level at all outer outposts. Also…" He turned to Makusi. "Captain Makusi, thank you for the valuable intel. Your water‑recycling tech is vital to us. I hope the Iron Anvil camp can formally ally with New Hope, share intelligence, and jointly face the threat."

Makusi, one‑armed, clenched his fist to his chest and performed an ancient military salute: "The Iron Anvil is honored. We bring not only technology but also three hundred warriors who have endured the harshest conditions."

The external threat looms, yet internal undercurrents remain unsettled, intensified by the Reaper's emergence.

Led by La Er Si, the Original Pure Fire Sect's "Devout Faction" found a new outlet for its dogmatic beliefs after learning of the Reaper—a foe that utterly defies natural life forms.

They not only preach internally that "all non‑natural creations are chaotic abominations," but also subtly target Kaiwen's team, which is studying safe use of Ark and Luo Ya tech, even insinuating that Su Yu's True Knowledge Vision is a "mutated impure force."

That day, a clash erupted outside the newly re‑operating Third Agricultural Greenhouse.

Kaiwen's team used the Ark's leftover environmental simulators and Luo Ya's energy‑diversion tech to successfully cultivate the first batch of fast‑growing, radiation‑resistant modified potatoes inside the greenhouse. It was huge news, suggesting food shortages might finally ease.

However, La Er Si arrived with a group of followers, blocking the greenhouse entrance, claiming the food spawned by "heretical tech" is "filled with impure energy" that will "defile the eater's soul," and resolutely opposing its distribution to the populace.

"Only crops bathed in pure sunlight and grown in natural soil deserve to feed humanity!" La Er Si shouted, his hand gathering unstable Pure Fire, "You're treading the Ark's and those Reapers' footsteps! Twisting technology to corrupt the very essence of life!"

Kaiwen hopped in fury, pointing at the verdant seedlings: "Bullshit! This stuff fills bellies and keeps people alive! Where's your pure sunlight and natural soil? Outside there's only radioactive dust and mutated beasts! By the time you find them, everyone will have starved to death!"

"Starving is better than a soul tainted!" La Er Si held his ground.

The crowd swelled, including survivors from the Iron Anvil camp who are used to harsh but "natural" living and remain skeptical of the fast‑grown crops. Meanwhile, many starving people backed Kaiwen. Tempers flared, shoving and shouting, on the brink of turning into a clash.

"Everyone, stop!"

Chen Mo arrived promptly with Su Yu and Wang Hu. Wang Hu stepped forward, his battlefield commander aura instantly calming the scene.

Chen Mo's gaze swept over La Er Si and Kaiwen, finally resting on the verdant potato sprouts, and he said gravely, "Hunger is the greatest 'disorder' right now. Solving hunger is the greatest 'order.'" He turned to La Er Si. "Cleric La Er Si, I respect your faith. But faith cannot be a meal, nor can it let everyone starve to death for a single doctrine."

He then looked at Kaiwen. "Kaiwen, technology must be applied cautiously. After harvest, these crops should first supply the engineering construction corps and the defense corps—units with high physical consumption—while the medical team closely monitors consumers' health and creates long‑term tracking files. Until safety is fully confirmed, do not roll them out on a large scale."

He made a pragmatic compromise, neither wholly rejecting the technology nor ignoring some civilians' concerns.

La Er Si's face turned ashen; he wanted to argue, but seeing Wang Hu's steady gaze behind Chen Mo and the majority of the crowd showing approval, he could only huff in frustration and leave with his followers.

Kaiwen, though not thrilled with the outcome, knew it was the safest option for now, muttering, "Just wait and see, when the data comes out, we'll see who gets slapped…".

The crisis is temporarily averted, but Chen Mo knows the ideological rift has deepened. With hostile forces looming outside, internal instability must be resolved quickly, or New Hope could be dismantled from within.

As Chen Mo contemplated how to mend the internal split, Han Qing brought even worse news.

A joint patrol composed of Iron Anvil veterans and New Hope scouts vanished in the outer zone. The final transmission was extremely brief, containing only two words: "Encounter… Hunted…".

Meanwhile, the fortress's energy‑detection array picked up multiple high‑speed signals racing from various directions toward several key outer‑ring resource points—a water‑purification plant, a small mine, and a newly built signal relay station.

"It's the Reapers! They've moved!" Han Qing said urgently. "Their target is our resource nodes; they're probing our defenses and weakening our logistics!"

"Dammit, they're bullying us to the max!" Zhang Yang sprang up. "Chief, let me lead a team to wipe out those inhuman, un‑ghostly things!"

"Don't act rashly!" Chen Mo shouted, his mind racing. The enemy attacks in dispersed, highly mobile, regenerative waves; sending forces to rescue haphazardly could see them picked off one by one.

"Kaiwen, analyze their behavior patterns! Su Yu, sense their energy core or command node!" Chen Mo ordered swiftly.

Kaiwen instantly pulled up all sensor data, his hands a blur on the console: "They're mimicking pack tactics—feints and main assaults! And… their signals show a faint resonance on a certain frequency—there may be a unified command signal source!"

Su Yu also immediately focused her mind; the 【Seer】 ocular lens flashed, reaching across space to sense the battlefield. "Found it! A ruined signal tower five kilometers southeast of the mine. There's a stronger bio‑energy reaction there, coordinating all attack units!"

Capture the thief by first capturing the king!

"Han Qing, Zhang Yang, Wang Hu!" Chen Mo's eyes sharpened. "Each of you lead a rapid‑response team to the three resource points; don't aim for total annihilation, just hold them back! Buy me time!"

"Captain Makusi, your troops are versed in field combat; coordinate with Han Qing's operation!"

"Understood!" Makusi replied without hesitation.

"Hui Jin (over the comm), activate the 'Order Barrier' expansion mode, covering the fortress core and the main resource‑point entrances to prevent enemy infiltration and sabotage!"

"At once."

Chen Mo then turned to Su Yu and Kaiwen. "You both come with me, charge straight at the Yellow Dragon! Eliminate that command node!"

"Just the three of us?" Kaiwen was startled.

"That's enough." Chen Mo gripped the 【Order Governor】 warblade; Luo Ya runes on the blade sensed his battle intent and began to emit blue light. "Large numbers are more easily exposed. We need precision and speed!"

Minutes later, three camouflaged light assault craft silently lifted off, bypassing the frontlines and racing toward the coordinates Su Yu had locked.

On the assault craft, Chen Mo closed his eyes and centered himself, feeling his connection to the planet's order lattice and adjusting his state. Su Yu kept the command node locked with full effort. Kaiwen anxiously monitored enemy signals and the craft's cloaking status.

When they reached the sky above the ruined signal tower, they saw the tower's summit occupied by a massive, magnified‑to‑infinity‑scale nerve‑node‑like biological mass, sprouting countless translucent tendrils that linked to the void, continuously emitting waves of coordinated commands.

That is the Reaper's command node for this operation—a living bio‑signal tower!

"Intruder detected!" The bio‑signal tower seemed to sense the threat; its tendrils snapped back, and dozens of compound eyes opened, locking onto the airborne assault craft! Simultaneously, the tower's base split open, and dozens of swift, dog‑like, snarling bio‑units poured out like Hunter Dogs!

"Land! Quick strike!" Chen Mo was the first to leap from the assault craft, his warblade blazing with brilliant blue light, streaking like a meteor toward the nauseating bio‑cluster!

The real hunt has begun!