Chapter 1610: The Festered Land

It was simple to deal with the aftermath. The purpose was to make it look as if the crew in the landing unit had died, and the entire thing was logically damaged in the crash. It was a ruse to cover up the real purpose of the landing unit and the essential part of Operation Best Actor.

It was not difficult to fake the death of the crew. Hao Ren and his buddies had never appeared before the festered monsters, who could never know who was behind the drone cluster. Before this, there were only drones and autonomous robots on the surface of Naqdal fortress; had the festered observed it earlier, all they saw were only a bunch of lifeless machines.

So, all Hao Ren had to do was to leave a bunch of empty shells of the autonomous robots in the command station.

Before this, Hao Ren and Nolan had produced a large number of autonomous robots and prototype drones but without the chips. They placed them in various locations of the command station to make the illusion that these machines were the ones controlling the landing unit.

Meanwhile, Hao Ren had also erased all signs that could trace to human control from the central control chamber: the ergonomic seats and handles, and manually operated consoles, which all had self-destruct setting.

It was a carefully crafted plan from the beginning. In the understanding of the festered, there were only drones, autonomous robots, and the guardian giants. The human controllers like Hao Ren were the phantoms that never existed. Never in those monsters’ mind, that a group of infiltrators had already landed on their planet-class battleship. What they were going to find in the command station would only further reinforce this false impression.

After putting in the disguise personnel, Hao Ren ordered the shutting down of all powers in the command station, and the starting of the self-destruct countdown. The explosion would destroy the entire command and wipe out any clues that suggested the inertial suppressor had protected the core area.

The team finally stepped foot on the land of Amantir.

Considering the dangers and the complicated situation on the planet, Hao Ren had left Lil Pea onboard the Petrachelys. It was a total mobilization of only the ‘professionals’ who could deal with any situation. Under the cover of the fissure and raised earth around the impact crater, the team first left the crash site and then found a higher ground where they could have a better view of the land.

The land on Amantir exuded a dark-red luster that felt disturbing as if it was soaked in blood. Gullies and canyons were everywhere, and steam and plume columns spewed out from the cracks continually, making the entire area covered in a blanket of haze and mist.

Hao Ren peered through the toxic fog and looked into the distance. There were silhouettes of things erected on the horizon; these were the anti-air artillery pointing up into space, and the minaret of the temples used for battle. The power of the Mad Lord had transformed these once sacred things and the chaotic energy in which had destroyed thousands of drones and guardian battleships earlier. A small number of these silhouettes still emitted flashes from time to time; apparently, they were still in pursuit of the retreating drones and guardian battleships in space.

Meanwhile, in the other direction, the terrain was depressed with a bright red light rising at the end of the horizon as if the sun is about to rise from there. Black spots appeared to be like mosquitoes when looking from here fluttered in and around the red light in the background. It was where the equatorial rift was when looking from space. The black spots that looked like mosquitoes were the army of festered giants and cyborg monsters.

The surface of Amantir was not entirely barren. It had an extremely thriving ecosystem, but the power of the Mad Lord had distorted all lives into hideous forms. On the dark-red earth, the twisted giant plants that looked like some swollen limbs grew out of the ground, they trembled and squirmed in the poisonous wind. There were also many strange things like mushrooms that grew between the rocks and gravel. Their huge umbrella could almost cover an entire house. Amantir once had the same surface ecology as the other two planetary fortresses, but after the spread of the power of the Mad Lord, these surviving plants had acquired this twisted and weird-looking appearance.

But these plants were not as useless as they seemed; at least, they could be a good cover.

“It is so disgusting.” Lily covered her nose while looking at a wriggling bandy plant. It had broad leaves and thick stems, but the leaves were full of blood vein-like bulges, and the whole plant squirmed on the ground like some animal. This sanity-level testing thing had goosebumps rising on the skin of the husky maiden. Even with the life-support collar, the Lily still covered her nose as if a disgusting smell had drifted into her nostrils. “I think I can no longer write Indie stuff after going home.”

“I didn’t know that you have ever written any Indie stuff?” Vivian also found the environment on Amantir pretty offensive, but she did not want to look weak in front of the husky. “I know you only write dog food reviews and the boys’ love genre.”

Lily glared at her. “Who said that I only wrote these? I have written reviews for Max Factor and the wuxia of the Republic!”

Vivian sighed with her arm crossed. “Oh, please! Can you not talk about anything around 1930?”

Hao Ren looked at the quarrelsome duo helplessly. He then looked at the silhouettes in the distance. “According to the information supplied by Salaman, the control center of Amantir is right there, next to the equatorial rift. There is an army of festered monsters stationed there, and the Amantir crystal there in the underground.”

Lily scratched her head. “An army of festered monsters? How do we get in?”

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Nangong Sanba looked at Lily with mouth agape. “Did you not listen during the discussion?”

“I could not help it; I fell asleep halfway,” Lily said with an innocent look.

Hao Ren sighed. “There are several underground passages, which are ventilation ducts. To the giants, these ventilation ducts could no way be deemed as the passageways. So, the festered monsters do not really guard the places. We can sneak in via one of these ducts.”

“Those are pretty big loopholes. The monsters are not so smart, after all.”

“It is not about smart or not, but the monsters have a long-established mindset that their opponents are only the guardian giants. It is a mind trap they always easily overlook,” Hao Ren said. “It is like when you play hide and seek with people, you will not think of looking for people in the shoe box.”

Lily nodded. “I do. Lil Pea always hides in the shoe box. But my sharp nose can always find her.”

Hao Ren was struck dumb and smacked himself on the forehead. “Why am I explaining so much to a husky?”

While speaking, the group still kept going.

Hao Ren had carefully calculated and planned the landing spot. It was not far from the target, which was the Amantir crystal in the control center, and there were no festered monsters along the way. It might sound cool to drop the landing unit there and smash those buildings into pieces, but he had to scrap the idea to avoid getting surrounded by the monsters after landing.

From the landing spot to the Amantir control center, it was an open hilly area with nothing in between for cover. If the monsters flew a reconnaissance team above, Hao Ren and his team would have no way to hide. But luck was on their side, they crossed the area without a hitch.

It was because the festered monsters’ attention was still on the battlefield in space.

The drones and guardians had retreated and pretended to have suffered huge losses. But they did not go far. Instead, they had built a massive space bunker and weapon platform, seemingly preparing for a protracted battle. The festered monsters had been getting the upper hand for the past thousands of years, and there had never been an instant where the opponents could set up bunker right at their doorstep. But the drone fleet patrolling on the edge of the battlefield became a deterrent to the commander of the festered army. So, this had diverted the attention of the Amantir forces.

It inevitably affected the defense and surveillance on Amantir.

But this diversion would not last long. Hao Ren always reminded himself that Amantir was a planetary battleship, and battleship could fly.

If the supreme commander of the festered army realized that they could never defeat the guardians and the drones and decided to give up attacking the Heart, the Amantir could turn around and flee into deep space, and no one would be able to stop it.

But during the discussion, Salaman believed that even if the Amantir chose to flee, it would not happen right away. The festered army had invested so much energy and time trying to destroy the sacred land, they would not give up just like that unless it is absolutely necessary.

The magnificent temples stood in the distance, where there were different types of distorted monsters flying in the air patrolling the area.

The festered monsters might have directed a lot of energy and attention to the battlefield in space, but guarding the command center was of paramount importance. So, here it was—the limit of their operation on the surface.

Behind a pile of strange stones, the group stopped. Hao Ren crouched as he pointed to a metal gate protruded out of the ground not far away. “That is one of the air duct inlets.”

The MDT floated in the air. “I can sense the steady airflow, the air duct is working and unblocked.”

Hao Ren nodded. “We will go in here.”