Chapter 37: Pre-battle Meeting

Originally, Wang Gongtou wasn't worried about tomorrow's action.

Even before reaching Black Tortoise Tier Three, it could easily kill a Steel Bone Vulture; now that it has evolved, dealing with a corpse spider queen of comparable strength is no problem.

But after Lin Yue relayed the latest intelligence, Wang Gongtou's relaxed and carefree expression was gone.

"How is the corpse spider queen evolving so fast? Also, how could this shopping center possibly hold so many spiders given its small size?"

Han Ya remained silent, simply wiping clean the military short blade in her hand that had been stained with countless monsters' black blood.

Her movements were slow and meticulous, as if she wanted to polish every trace of cold light on the blade to perfection.

Only those familiar with her know that this is her unique way of adjusting her condition before a major battle.

Gui Ying and his teammates listened silently, their expressions solemn.

They understood better than anyone what the combination of 'a spider swarm numbering over a thousand' and 'an impending evolution of the spider queen' meant.

If they are even slightly careless, none of them will come back alive.

They had known this before coming, yet they still came without hesitation. Who are they? They are Night Blade; from the moment they accepted the mission, retreat was not an option.

"What? Old Wang, are you scared?"

Lin Yue remained calmly sitting by the fire, even having the leisure to roast the last piece of luncheon meat and hand it to Wang Gongtou, who was looking at it eagerly beside him.

"Never mind that the spider queen hasn't evolved yet; even if it did, Black Tortoise could handle it. As for the nearly thousand spider swarm, that's no problem either."

"Lin Xiaozi, this is no joke!"

Wang Gongtou took the roasted meat, but had no appetite, and anxiously said,

"As the saying goes: many ants can bite down an elephant! The impending evolution of the corpse spider queen combined with a spider swarm numbering over a thousand is truly not as easy to deal with as you think."

"I know."

Lin Yue nodded, stood up, and glanced around at everyone.

"Everyone, come in. Let's hold a meeting."

……

Xuanwu City, inside the simple command room.

Lin Yue, Wang Gongtou, Han Ya, and all members of Night Blade sat around a huge earth-and-stone sand table.

The sand table was a model of the 'New World Shopping Center' recreated by Black Tortoise at Lin Yue's request, based on the three-dimensional map from the tactical tablet.

Although the details were rough, creating something out of nothing in such a short time still left everyone feeling incredulous.

"I won't repeat the specifics; everyone, speak freely!"

Lin Yue's finger pointed to the center of the sand table, the main building of the shopping center that rose eight stories high.

"Old Wang, you're a construction engineer; why don't you speak first?"

"Cough cough."

Wang Gongtou cleared his throat, and years of professional habit let him quickly get into the zone.

He adjusted his glasses, pointed at the sand table model, and said,

"The structure of this shopping center is a typical frame shear wall structure; the main load-bearing relies on the shear walls distributed around the perimeter and core area, as well as these steel-reinforced concrete columns with diameters over one meter. Once the core load-bearing structure at the bottom is destroyed, the entire building will collapse like pulling out a block, resulting in a catastrophic total collapse."

He paused, then pointed to the underground portion of the sand table, his expression turning grave.

"The most troublesome part is its underground section. It has three full levels, with a total area exceeding fifty thousand square meters. According to intelligence from the refuge, that spider queen has a ninety percent chance of hiding in the deepest underground level three."

"Although Black Tortoise is very powerful, its size is too large to enter; to kill the spider queen, we must lure it out. But outside guard thousands of corpse spiders—how can we get close? We'll likely be torn apart by the spider swarm before we even reach the queen."

Upon hearing this, Lin Yue said nothing, merely looking toward Gui Ying.

"Captain Gui Ying, what does the military think?"

Gui Ying fell silent for a moment, then rose and walked to the sand table.

"Mr. Lin, before we came, Commander Zhang authorized me to use our final trump card."

Meanwhile, as Gui Ying spoke, a teammate placed a silver metal briefcase on the table, which clicked open with a 'pa-da' sound, revealing a white phosphorus incendiary bomb the size of a fist lying still inside.

Wang Gongtou's pupils contracted sharply.

"White phosphorus incendiary bomb! You actually brought this?!"

"That's right."

Gui Ying nodded, his expression solemn.

"Our plan is for Night Blade to forcefully break in, use white phosphorus bombs underground to create chaos and clear out the spider swarm. The bomb's power is enough to affect the entire underground space, forcing the spider queen to reveal herself. At that point, it will be up to you and Black Tortoise, Mr. Lin."

The command room fell into dead silence.

This plan can hardly be called anything but crazy, can hardly be called anything but brutal.

This is a plan that uses the lives of all members of Night Blade's Special Forces Squad to exchange for a chance to completely eradicate the corpse spider nest.

This is the resolve of the Refuge's Special Forces Squad.

Of course, this is also because Black Tortoise is participating in the battle; otherwise, even if Night Blade's squad were willing to sacrifice, they couldn't possibly cleanse the corpse spider nest completely.

"I object!"

Lin Yue didn't even think, just directly rejected the plan.

"Why?"

Gui Ying's brows were tightly knit, his face full of incomprehension.

In his view, this was currently the plan with the least casualties and highest chance of success.

"Because it's unnecessary."

Lin Yue stood up and slowly walked to the sand table.

He looked at everyone, and the corner of his mouth suddenly curled into a confident smile.

"Who said…… we must go in and fight them?"

He reached out, his finger lightly tracing across the sand table, finally stopping at the core load-bearing column directly beneath the shopping center.

"Old Wang, you just said that destroying the core load-bearing structure at the bottom will cause the whole building to collapse, right?"

"Yes… that's correct, but…"

Wang Gongtou froze; he seemed to have vaguely guessed something.

Lin Yue smiled and said:

"Old Wang, you've forgotten Black Tortoise's abilities?"

"Little Lin, what you mean is...."

Wang Gongtou suddenly lifted his head, a glint flashing in his eyes.

The few people around listened to their riddles, looking at each other in bewilderment.

What on earth are they talking about?

Lin Yue ignored the others' confusion, a sharp light flashing in his eyes, and continued:

"That's right, Old Wang, exactly what you're thinking. We simply destroy that core load-bearing pillar; when the building collapses, it'll drive them out just the same. Moreover, the collapse itself can crush many rotting corpse spiders—this is better than detonating white phosphorus grenades!"

Afterward, he pointed again to the abandoned subway line beneath the shopping mall.

"However, getting close to that core load-bearing pillar isn't easy either, so our real target is this abandoned subway tunnel."

"There, with Black Tortoise's power, we can likewise destroy the shopping mall's core load-bearing pillar!"

After Lin Yue finished speaking, the command room fell into dead silence.

Yeah, they've been thinking with conventional tactics, forgetting that their greatest reliance now is a giant beast capable of controlling the earth!

With such power, there's indeed no need to let the Night Blade squad go to their deaths!

Gui Ying stared at Lin Yue for a long time before squeezing out a few hoarse words from his throat.

"Mr. Lin… this plan is good, but if any miscalculation occurs, we… might also end up buried down there!"

Lin Yue merely smiled at him and softly said:

"Don't worry, with Black Tortoise here, what you said isn't a problem!"