“Are you kidding?”
After a moment’s pause, Chi Yao asked.

Jing Xi: “Do I look like I’m kidding?”

Chi Yao: “…”

He had considered that Jing Xi might be interested in him, but he never expected to be categorized as a “wife.”

The leader of such a large pirate group, a top-tier alpha, marrying into someone else’s family as a wife?

Chi Yao looked Jing Xi up and down.

It didn’t seem entirely impossible.

Chi Yao: “If you had said so earlier, our kids might be all grown up by now.”

Jing Xi: “…”

“Marrying into the Jing family means a hundred years less of struggle. What a great opportunity.” Chi Yao looked at him and smiled. “Why don’t we get the certificate now?”

Jing Xi: “…………”

This person was always like this.

He told lies with a straight face and laughed off the truth, making it impossible to tell what he really meant.

“Fine. I’ll have Grandpa pick a date for me,” Jing Xi said expressionlessly. “If you dare to break the engagement, be prepared for retaliation from the entire Jing family.”

Chi Yao: “…”

Retaliation from the Jing family?

That old man Jing Rong would probably just pester him for chess. What other means of retaliation could he have?

As they were talking, the notification sound of an incoming video call suddenly rang.

It was from Jin Ze of the support troops.

“Boss, a lot of level-four and five mutated species suddenly appeared. My men can’t handle it! Requesting support!”

On the screen, Jin Ze’s head was covered in dirt, blood dripped from a scrape on his face, and his combat gear was damaged in several places.

Jing Xi’s expression changed. He walked out of the temporary rest area and pushed open the door to the command center.

“No feedback from the monitoring on the northern front?”

The programmer responsible for monitoring that area stood up to report.

“Sir, a large number of mutated species suddenly appeared on the northern front 10 seconds ago!”

Jing Xi frowned.

The timing coincided with Jin Ze’s message.

Either the monitoring was delayed, or this batch of mutated species had anti-monitoring capabilities, just like the ones in the southern cave.

Jing Xi: “Prioritize the safety of the refugees. Defend your position and wait for rescue.”

Jin Ze: “Yes, sir!”

After hanging up the video call, Jing Xi looked at another window, which displayed the current locations and progress of the various legion units.

The northeastern archipelago needed emergency rescue; those troops couldn’t be moved.

The vanguard troops were in the most severe red zone and had a tough battle to fight tonight; they couldn’t be moved either.

The mecha and fighter jet units were already scattered providing support everywhere. Only a few could be redeployed…

“I’ll go.”

Chi Yao’s voice came from the other side of the virtual screen.

Jing Xi looked at him. “You’ll go?”

Chi Yao canceled Feilong’s automatic route, opened the map, and locked onto Jin Ze’s location.

“It’s very close from here.”

Jing Xi’s hands on the armrests tightened and then relaxed.

“Be careful.”

Chi Yao scoffed, “Do I need you to tell me that? I cherish my life more than you know.”

Jing Xi: “…”

After leaving the south, Chi Yao hung up the video call. It took him a long while to react.

“Wait, how did we get engaged?”

Was it really that casual?

A palm-sized virtual screen popped up on his wrist, complete with a black smoke effect.

[Are you proud of marrying into another family?]

Chi Yao: “None of your damn business.”

Xiao Hei: [If you two get married, can you give me away as part of the dowry?]

Chi Yao: “Do you want to wear that floral coat again?”

Xiao Hei: [Heh.]

Chi Yao: “Heh.”

At the temporary command center, Jing Xi redeployed a portion of the troops from various combat units to the northern front.

Although there were many people there, they had to manage the rescue effort and also had many new recruits from the past two years, which limited their actions.

Yan Kai brought tea and placed it by Jing Xi’s hand. He glanced at the dozens of overlapping virtual screens in front of him, feeling both respect and pity for his boss.

The old saying was right: he who wears the crown must bear its weight. Not everyone could be a legion commander.

He had been acting as an assistant for a few days and had already lost a large amount of hair.

It was a miracle his boss wasn’t bald.

“Boss, have some water first,” Yan Kai said in a low voice.

Jing Xi snapped back to reality. “Have the supplies from the food bureau arrived?”

Yan Kai: “They left the warehouse half an hour ago. The logistics department brothers are already waiting at the station. They’ll be sent to the northern front after inspection.”

Jing Xi nodded. “The reserve bureau will also have a batch of supplies this afternoon. Keep a close eye on it.”

Yan Kai: “Yes, sir!”

After arranging the matters at hand, Jing Xi’s tense nerves finally relaxed a little.

As he relaxed, Chi Yao’s perpetually nonchalant face flashed before his eyes.

The fingers resting on the armrest twitched slightly.

Chi Yao had actually agreed.

It was so unbelievably smooth, it felt fake, and he couldn’t feel much joy.

Chi Yao’s words replayed uncontrollably in his mind. Jing Xi hummed lightly and muttered to himself, “Will you be giving birth to the child, or will I?”

Yan Kai, who happened to overhear this: “???”

The boss must have said “shoes,” not “child,” right?

The northern front was in chaos.

“Get the elderly and children out first! Quick, quick, quick!!!”

“Level-four mutated spiders have appeared in the east-side shopping mall! Everyone, hide in the subway station to the west! Send two heavy tanks to block the subway entrance!”

“Team Two said there are still two elderly people trapped on the seventh floor of the residential complex they just passed!”

Jin Ze was at his wit’s end. His eyes swept over the devastation around him.

“Proceed according to the original plan!”

“But the elderly are asking for help—” a beta new recruit said anxiously.

“We can’t worry about that now!” Jin Ze cut him off loudly. “More people might die trying to save them!”

The beta recruit bit his lip, his eyes red, unable to say a word.

“Captain, let me go!” Chu Xiao walked up to Jin Ze, covered in dirt and grime, but his eyes were firm. “I know which building they’re in. I will definitely escort them back safely!”

Jin Ze suppressed his anger. “Don’t cause more trouble for me!”

Chu Xiao followed him, walking briskly. “I remember the evacuation route. I’ll definitely catch up with the main force. Please send me!”

Jin Ze glanced at the distant residential complex, then in another direction.

The high-rise building was occupied by mutated spiders and was on the verge of collapse.

Following their path, they would soon reach that residential complex.

“Captain, please believe me!” Chu Xiao suppressed his emotions and said urgently. “My mother is lying in a hospital bed waiting for my salary to pay her medical bills. I won’t let anything happen to me!”

Jin Ze gritted his teeth, took off his sidearm, and thrust it into his hand, saying angrily, “If you lose my gun, you’ll get a hundred military lashes!”

Chu Xiao was overjoyed. “Yes, sir!”

He slung his light sniper rifle over his back, gripped the newly acquired sidearm, and charged back into the battlefield filled with smoke and blood.

“Feilong, activate precision scan.”

During the few minutes of flight, Chi Yao had familiarized himself with Feilong’s control panel.

Feilong AI: [Activated—Biological response detected 20 kilometers away, 45° north by east.]

As it spoke, a coordinate on the map in front of Chi Yao was magnified.

There were only three small yellow dots in this area, surrounded by large red markers of mutated species.

Chi Yao: “Let’s go check it out.”

On the ground, Chu Xiao successfully returned to the residential complex and immediately saw the elderly people calling for help from a seventh-floor balcony.

The complex looked like it had been hit by a typhoon, with debris and abandoned vehicles everywhere.

A corner of the old building where the elderly were located had already collapsed, pulled down by spider silk.

He finally found the entrance, but it was blocked by a collapsed wall, making it impossible to get in.

Chu Xiao put all his effort into smashing a hole in the wall when a loud noise came from behind him. He turned to look.

The mutated spiders had already invaded the bustling downtown area across the street, with spider silk covering the high-rises and tracks.

At this distance, a single leap from a spider could land it right in front of him.

Seeing the giant mutated spiders getting closer, the two elderly people also fell into despair.

“Child, don’t come up!” the old man cried, his voice hoarse. “Run, don’t worry about us!”

Chu Xiao desperately chiseled at the wall. “Don’t worry, it’ll be done soon!”

“Be careful!”

Suddenly hearing the old man’s cry, Chu Xiao instinctively dove to the side.

Bang!

A spider appeared where he had just been standing, its leg, thicker than a person, already piercing the hole he had made.

Chu Xiao drew his sidearm and fired several shots at the mutated spider’s eyes.

The spider retreated in pain.

Chu Xiao raised his gun and slowly moved over.

With its help, the hole in the wall was now large enough for him to crawl through.

But before he could reach the hole, another spider leaped from the building opposite, heading straight for the two elderly people.

Chu Xiao’s pupils contracted.

“Get out of the way!”

After this great disaster, the two elderly people were already physically exhausted. They could only watch as danger approached, helpless.

Just as the tip of the spider’s leg was about to pierce the old man, it was suddenly knocked a hundred meters away by a tremendous force.

Chu Xiao’s eyes flashed, and he looked up abruptly.

Against the light of the star, a white mecha hovered there.

Is that Feilong?

Major General Jing is here?!

The spider crashed through a row of houses and struggled to get up, but in the next moment, it was sliced in two by a single strike.

Chi Yao controlled the joystick, looking at the spider with its guts flying everywhere on the screen, a disgusted look on his face.

“Disgusting thing.”

“Sir! Sir!”

A young alpha appeared in a newly popped-up small window, waving his arms excitedly.

Chi Yao glanced at him and, surprisingly, recognized him.

“Why is this kid here all by himself?”

Watching the mecha approach, Chu Xiao’s eyes lit up.

The sound of cracking echoed in his ears. The already precarious old building looked like it was about to collapse.

The two elderly people were thrown out.

Chu Xiao subconsciously ran towards them, but he was too late to catch them.

A white shadow flashed before his eyes. Chu Xiao only felt a sense of weightlessness, and when he came to his senses, he was already sitting in the mecha’s mechanical hand.

A familiar voice came from above.

“The building is collapsing and you still run towards it. Feeling lucky?”

Chu Xiao was stunned. That voice wasn’t right.

When he realized, his eyes widened slightly.

It can’t be—

Chu Xiao: “Y-y-you, you are—”

“How pitiful, stuttering at such a young age.”

Chu Xiao: “…”

That’s right. That laugh, that mocking tone, it’s the leader of Extreme Shadow!

Just as the mecha lifted off, the residential complex was overrun by leaping mutated spiders.

Chi Yao looked at the monitoring screen filled with dense spiders and felt his skin crawl.

“Locate Jin Ze’s coordinates.”

Feilong AI: [Locating—]

Jin Ze led his people out of the subway exit from the next station and couldn’t help but look back.

The two landmark buildings next to the residential complex were already covered in spiders. The complex itself was probably—

“Captain, there are mutated centipedes ahead!”

Jin Ze wiped his face to hide the grief in his eyes and shouted, “Get this group of people onto the warship first!”

The rescue warships were stationed in a grid pattern. Each team escorted the rescued refugees to the nearest warship.

The closest warship to them was two streets away.

But when they reached the street corner, the entire street was already occupied by mutated centipedes.

Fighter jets bombed from the air, and tanks blocked the front of the main force for cover.

The air was filled with the smell of burnt meat and stench, and metal and stone fragments flew everywhere.

Jin Ze jumped to the top of a tank.

In a cloud of smoke, a thirty-meter-tall centipede appeared in his thermal imaging visor, like a giant dragon.

Its sharp long legs swiped, and a fighter jet crashed.

A level-five mutated centipede?!

In front of such a creature, humans were more fragile than ants.

It was impossible to save everyone from it!

Even with Jin Ze’s extensive combat experience, he felt a bit of despair at this moment.

With the manpower and equipment he had on hand, the probability of defeating it was only 1%.

“Captain! The road ahead is completely blocked!”

“The spiders are chasing us, they’re less than a thousand meters away!”

“The number of centipedes is still increasing, what do we do?!”

Jin Ze quickly scanned his surroundings and made a decisive decision for everyone to retreat.

Returning to the subway station might offer a glimmer of hope. Standing here was just waiting to die.

He opened his terminal and said urgently to the other end, “Send a warship to my location!”

Just as they retreated a few meters, a roar suddenly sounded in his ear, followed by the giant centipede’s eerie shriek.

Jin Ze turned his head to look, his eyes wide.

Feilong? The boss came personally?!

They were saved!

Jin Ze said to the person on the other end of the still-open call, “Hold on for a moment, the warship is no longer needed!”

Chi Yao controlled Feilong to fly low, throwing the three people in its hand towards Jin Ze.

“Find a place to hide first.”

Jin Ze was pinned to the ground by the three people suddenly thrown at him. Seeing that it was Chu Xiao, he was overjoyed, but hearing the voice from the mecha, he couldn’t smile anymore.

Not the boss?

Then who was piloting Feilong?!

Jin Ze quickly shouted into the terminal, “Hurry up and arrange for a warship to come over!”

“Captain, do you need it or not, please make it clear!” an anxious voice came from the other end.

Jin Ze gritted his teeth. “Yes, very much needed!”

As soon as he finished speaking, Feilong charged towards the giant centipede, the long sword in its hand directly piercing two of the centipede’s eyes on one side.

“Fuck!” Jin Ze cursed under his breath and said to the other end of the terminal, “Not needed anymore!”

An angry curse came from the other end. “Captain, don’t fucking play with me at a time like this!”

Jin Ze: “Stop your fucking nonsense and get to work!”

In the air, Chi Yao flicked the blood off his long sword and weaved through the long legs of the level-five mutated centipede, searching for an attack point.

The shells of centipedes were already hard, and a level-five mutated species was even more indestructible. To kill them, you either had to use a destructive weapon or attack their weak spot.

But this centipede was extremely wary after being blinded, and Chi Yao couldn’t find a place to strike.

He pulled the joystick back to the centipede’s head, and with one strike, he blinded the other row of the centipede’s eyes as well.

“Ugly, stupid, and huge. What a nuisance.”

Xiao Hei: [It is ugly.]

Chi Yao chuckled lightly. “It’s rare for you to agree with me.”

Xiao Hei: [Stop talking and get him.]

Chi Yao deliberately shook his head. “The weapon’s strength isn’t enough.”

After a moment, another line of text appeared above Xiao Hei’s head: [If you promise to give me away as dowry, I’ll let you use the greatsword mode.]

Chi Yao: “Fine.”

Soon, a nearly ten-meter-long sword appeared in Feilong’s left hand.

On the ground, after Chi Yao tied up the level-five mutated centipede, it became less difficult for the others to deal with the remaining level-three and four mutated species.

Jin Ze watched the mecha in the sky flexibly weave around the hundred-meter-long level-five mutated centipede.

Under a storm of attacks, the two long swords in its hands chopped off the centipede’s long legs one by one.

“Holy crap—!” Jin Ze was a little dumbfounded.

He had only seen such fierce attacks from the boss.

A single mecha could take down a level-five mutated centipede?!

“Which damn unit is this brother from?” Jin Ze muttered to himself. “With such strong skills, he can’t be nameless—”

Chu Xiao settled the two terrified elderly people and ran back. Hearing Jin Ze’s words, he scratched his head, not knowing whether to say it or not.

“He’s very strong, on par with our commander.”

Jin Ze looked at him. “You know who he is?!”

Chu Xiao was a little scared. “I-I know, but I can’t say.”

As they were talking, the terminal suddenly rang. Jin Ze saw it was the boss and immediately answered.

Jing Xi: “What’s the situation on your end?”

Jin Ze: “No major casualties. Brothers from the mecha unit have already arrived to provide support.”

“Mm,” Jing Xi said lightly. “The danger level in your area has been upgraded. I’ve redeployed. After you get this group of refugees onto the warship, retreat to the second line.”

Jin Ze: “Yes, sir!”

Jing Xi: “Is he fighting the centipede? Switch the view over so I can see.”

Jin Ze was stunned for a moment before realizing who the “he” the boss was referring to was.

He switched the view to the sky, his tone unable to hide his surprise. “Boss, we have such talent in our legion! This is amazing! One of Old Lu’s men?”

Jing Xi watched as Chi Yao utterly thrashed the level-five mutated centipede, leaving it defenseless, his eyes gleaming.

That person’s craziness should be used in places like this.

“No,” Jing Xi said in a low voice. “He is my not-yet-engaged wife.”

Jin Ze: “…?!!”

What wife?

Chu Xiao: “…!!!”

A what?

Chi Yao, who was on a video call with Jing Xi, missed a strike with his sword.

“…”