Chapter 146: What on Earth is This Guy Here For?

In the dead of night, on a pitch-black and silent street, Gao Ning stood draped in a deep black cloak within the shadow of a street corner, gazing at the inn not far away.

Behind him, two castle gates swung open, and hundreds of fully armed bandits poured out of the castle in neat formations.

They set off in two directions, quickly surrounding the street where the inn was located so tightly that not even a drop of water could leak through.

"You've finally shown your face. I don't know how long I've been waiting for you!"

Gao Ning shook his neck. Although he couldn't be certain exactly who the red dot before him was, it was unmistakably a hostile figure. It was better to kill by mistake than to let one slip away.

If this truly turned out to be his mission target, that would be ideal. If not, Gao Ning wouldn't mind either way.

Having arrived in this Republic of China plane for so long, he hadn't yet found the time to properly enjoy the bustling and colorful atmosphere of the era. How could he let such a trivial thing as a hostile encounter ruin his mood?

The bandits' combat effectiveness wasn't particularly impressive, and there was no telling what strange abilities the hostile entity might possess. Therefore, Gao Ning had no intention of deploying the bandits, nor did he plan to use his other scarce troop types.

Instead, he decided to use a neutral unit: the giant black bear.

Ever since descending into this world, Gao Ning had been steadily accumulating a stockpile of giant black bears. Counting them up, he had been at it for half a year, and the number of bears had already exceeded ten thousand. They occupied at least half of the spaces within the castle.

Gao Ning had recently been struggling with a headache, hesitating over whether he should release them back into the mountains and forests.

After all, the deep mountains and ancient forests held plenty of treasures. Controlling the dense forests across the entire Three Eastern Provinces basically made him half a King of the Northeast, didn't it?

Before he could decide what to do, someone had actually delivered themselves right to his doorstep.

Why hesitate any longer? He would use the giant black bears to lead the charge.

Ancient times had the fire-ox formation to shatter enemy forces; today, they had the nocturnal bear swarm, specializing in assassinating intruders!

The corners of Gao Ning's lips curled upward. A door suddenly materialized across his chest, and a dozen thumb-sized black bears tumbled out from within. With a single leap, they instantly grew to over two meters tall, weighing at least a ton each.

The black bears landed without a sound. After briefly identifying their direction, they charged straight toward the inn.

One, two, three—the black bears surged forward like a tidal wave, instantly forming a dense mass that flooded the street. As far as the eye could see, there was nothing but a sea of furry beasts.

As they stampeded, they produced a deafening roar.

Then came a resounding crash from the inn. The walls and pillars of the ground floor were directly smashed into collapse, and the second-floor rooms instantly caved in, reducing the entire structure to rubble.

Screams echoed continuously from within, and the sounds of panic were no longer entirely human.

The giant black bear army charged forward, tearing apart everything in their path. Their target was locked straight ahead by the neutral unit system, making it impossible for the enemy to escape their sight.

Just minutes prior, Lu Laoqi had still been putting on airs. Confident and cocky, he had brought along two large chests of pets, intending to give his mission target a surprise. He never expected that just minutes later, his opponent would return the favor.

Before he could finish his meal, having only taken two sips of wine, he heard a rumbling vibration shake the ground. Before he even had a chance to stand up and investigate what was happening, a loud crash echoed from below, his footing shifted, and the entire building collapsed.

Lu Laoqi panicked on the spot, frantically darting out his tongue like a snake while hissing incoherently.

At his command, the surrounding black iron wire snakes instantly swarmed together, wrapping Lu Laoqi into an oval-shaped giant egg.

As he plunged heavily to the ground and the roof beams came crashing down from above, the giant egg merely shook slightly, and the falling beams snapped directly into two halves.

Lu Laoqi thought he was safe, little knowing that this was merely the beginning.

A massive paw swept back and forth through the air, sending up clouds of shattered stones, tiles, and dust. The giant egg buried beneath the debris was dug out in a matter of a few strokes.

Several giant black bears let out low growls and lunged fiercely forward. Their razor-sharp claws scraped against the target, producing a jarring screech of grinding metal, while a flurry of bright sparks lit up the dark night.

The iron wire snakes possessed incredible toughness. When an entire swarm intertwined and layered together to wrap around him, their defense was astonishingly rigid. Ordinary precious sabers couldn't even scratch them, let alone the biological weapon black bears.

Logically speaking, the black bears' claws were already razor-sharp—capable of severing a head as easily as cutting melons, slicing a person into five distinct sections with a single swipe.

Who would have thought they would meet their match today?

A dozen black bears surrounded the target densely, continuously swinging their claws and generating violent sparks upon the armor of iron wire snakes.

Dozens more massive black bears waited in the outer perimeter, queuing up to take their turn.

Gao Ning stood on the outermost edge, his feet planted firmly on the back of a giant black bear, frowning as he watched the giant egg being besieged in the distance.

The opponent's defensive capabilities were absurdly strong.

What kind of ability was this?

Gao Ning had never encountered such special creatures before, nor did he know that among snakes, there existed a species like the iron wire snake whose skin was as hard as steel.

However, this did not hinder his assessment of the current situation.

This raid had undeniably succeeded. The innkeeper and staff had been frightened into fainting the moment the swarm of black bears appeared.

A few who tried to turn and run were likewise knocked unconscious by a single swipe from a bear paw. At present, only the target remained stubbornly holding out inside the ruined inn.

Gao Ning glanced at the sky. It was still quite early; there were at least two or three hours before dawn, which was plenty of time for him to test out other methods.

However, resorting to guns and artillery in the dead of night seemed a bit too loud. If the garrison forces of Yuanbao Town were alerted and saw this many black bears storming into the town, the public relations fallout would likely be difficult to manage.

After a moment of thought, Gao Ning decided to use fire.

With a mental prompt from Gao Ning, a squad of soldiers immediately poured out from the internal space of the castle. They hoisted a massive tripod and rolled out several flamethrowers.

Strictly speaking in terms of temperature, a blast furnace would be far more reliable, but under the current circumstances, constructing a blast furnace seemed a bit troublesome.

Right, the ore refinery!

Gao Ning's eyes lit up.

He operated the Red Alert interface, directly selecting to construct an ore refinery right over the ruins of the inn.

The Red Alert system was immensely powerful, and the buildings were constructed entirely by nanobots.

The ruins scattered across the ground served as ideal raw materials for the nanobots to self-replicate, provided there was a sufficient electrical supply.

Upon Gao Ning's confirmation, an invisible surge of energy instantly enveloped the airspace above the inn. The rubble on the ground trembled slightly, covered by a phantom wave of silver ripples that washed over it a few times before vanishing completely without a trace.

The ore refinery rose from nothingness, and its built-in ore miner immediately locked onto the giant egg.

The vehicle pulled up right beside it, its cargo bed opened up, and a slender mechanical arm split into ten extraordinarily long soft filaments. It bound the egg formed by the iron wire snakes tightly, hauled it directly into the cargo compartment, and then spun around to dump it straight into the conveyor port of the ore refinery.

Immediately afterward, Gao Ning watched as the mass of iron wire snakes entered the ore refinery via the conveyor belt. A muffled scream echoed from within, and the red dot representing the target on the Red Alert interface vanished instantly.

The funds counter jumped upward by one hundred million in a split second.

Gao Ning was left speechless.

What on earth was this guy even trying to accomplish?