"What’s that?"

On a half-collapsed pedestrian bridge, wearing a gas mask and a heavy cavalry exoskeleton, Spring Water Commander held binoculars in his hand and stared intently at the 100 story building across the street.

The streets were filled with gray-green mist, and it was impossible to see too far away.

But even so, he could still clearly see a dark red trace faintly crawling in the middle of the 100 story building.

According to the label on the VM map, the name of this 100 story building was New Era Data Center, and there was a nearby subway station named after it.

Presumably, it was a very lively place 200 years ago.

The 3 players standing next to him also took out their binoculars and looked at the tall building.

Battlefield Cheerleader muttered, "It seems to be on the 41st floor."

Darkest’s heart skipped a beat. "Could that be the hive?"

Battlefield Cheerleader looked at the newcomer in the team and mumbled, "You are an agility type, why don’t you go and have a look?"

Zhang Hai immediately started to grumble. "Hell no! It’s obviously suicide! I’m not going. If you want to go, you can go by yourself."

Darkest shook his head and sighed, "This newcomer is too cowardly."

Zhang Hai rolled his eyes. "Just who the hell are you to say this to me?! You just got into the game 1 version earlier than me. Stop pretending shamelessly that you’re more experienced…”

Darkest turned away and started to curse. "#@%!"

Spring Water Commander opened the VM, compared it to the description information in the database, and read in a low voice, "The room is dark red, and the increase in the spores releasing speed will cause surrounding Slime Mold Mutants to spontaneously move closer to the incubation room. Some of them will actively enter the incubation room and become the nourishment for it to continue to expand..."

There were indeed many Crunchers wandering the streets.

While there was no obvious sign that they were all moving in the direction of the incubation room, they were indeed roaming the streets uncharacteristically in broad daylight.

And the surrounding gray-green mist was most likely caused by the spore cloud!

With a flash of excitement in his eyes, Spring Water Commander immediately set a marker on the map, and took a photo of the building with the headset hanging around his neck.

The photos were sent immediately!

"Done!"

After waiting for a while, the signal light of the VM flickered slightly, and the stamp of mission completion was stamped in the mission column.

It wasn’t just Spring Water Commander. The other 3 players in the team also received a reminder that the mission was completed.

"Damn, 100 silver coins just for a few photos?!" Zhang Hai’s eyes almost popped out of his head.

And one hundred contribution points!

It’s too easy to earn money this way!

Although he was the kind of player who played both the Lifestyle Profession and Combat Profession, his main job was selling ramen at the North Gate Market. ȑ₳Ｎồ𝐁Êṥ

Today, he took up the Hunter profession on a whim after seeing the update and randomly joined a team, but he didn’t expect the mission income to be so damn high!

A bowl of ramen was 5 silver coins. After deducting the cost of 2 silver coins, he had to cook 34 bowls of ramen to earn so many silver coins!

Zhang Hai couldn’t help but sigh to himself…

The income of these Combat Profession players is too high! Sure enough, the price of ramen has to go up!

The players next to him didn’t know what he was thinking and they couldn’t hide the smiles on their faces.

Darkest chuckled, "Got it, the best profession in the current version is the cameraman!"

Battlefield Cheerleader raised an eyebrow curiously. “Damn, your comprehension ability is on another level!"

Zhang Hai looked at Spring Water Commander with excitement. "Brother, what’s next? Is there any follow-up mission?"

Battlefield Cheerleader had already switched the safety of the rifle off, looking at the Crunchers wandering on the opposite street. He looked eager to try something. "What do you say? Do you want us to go in and have a look?"

Spring Water Commander shook his head. "The mission didn’t say anything, it only showed that we can choose to stay here or do whatever we want. Reinforcements are coming from the outpost… They should be arriving an hour later.”

Zhang Hai couldn’t help but grumble, "Seriously? That long?"

Battlefield Cheerleader explained, "It’s already considered fast. Now you can move directly from level B3 to the Flower Garden Street subway station. Before, you had to walk, and it took an hour or two to just walk to Baker Street!"

Spring Water Commander checked the mission column. "There is also a resource point search mission nearby. The coordinates are 230 meters away from the office building. An hour should be enough... How about we finish the side mission first and then come back to wait for the reinforcement?"

Darkest quickly agreed. "Okay!"

𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Battlefield Cheerleader did the same. "I’m fine with that."

Spring Water Commander waved his hand. "Okay then, let’s go!"

...

In fact it didn’t take an hour at all.

Whether it was the side mission searching for resource points, or waiting for their reinforcements.

But what Spring Water Commander didn’t expect was that the lineup of reinforcements was unexpectedly dazzling.

Not only the administrator wearing his azure blue exoframe, but even Hyrja, who usually stayed in the shelter, also came along.

Standing on the half-collapsed overpass, Hyrja only took one look, and then made a judgment with an affirmative tone. "It can’t be wrong... They have already expanded to the outside of the building. If the creeps formed by these Slime Molds are allowed to continue to expand, they will develop into new Hives within a month at the latest."

Chu Guang glanced at Hyrja and raised an eyebrow. "Is it really okay if you don’t wear a gas mask?"

"It’s okay," Hyrja said with a normal look, "a spore cloud of this magnitude is just a little dust to me."

Okay. Bionic organs are really convenient.

Chu Guang couldn’t help thinking that he should also get a set of it when he had the chance.

Standing on the other side of Chu Guang, Vanus, who was wearing an orange chemical protective suit and a gas mask, was also staring intently at the building ahead. After thinking for a while, he said. "I recommend demolishing that building."

Chu Guang looked at him and asked, "Can taking down the building solve the problem of the incubation room?"

Vanus said succinctly. "Not necessarily, but it makes complex problems easier!"

"Slime Mold’s ability to survive in open spaces is very poor. Except for a few natural caves, it is almost impossible to see Crunchers in the wild. The only way to completely eradicate the hidden dangers brought by the proliferation of Slime Mold is to thoroughly clean up these concrete wastes." After a pause, Vanus added, "That’s what we do on the west side of the continent!"

Having never heard of anything so crazy, Hyrja looked at him in surprise. "That’s crazy... have you considered the possible consequences after the demolition?"

Blowing up a tall building was not as simple as talking about it.

These were concrete buildings that survived the nuclear blast and had held up for 2 centuries, so one could imagine how strong they were.

Even if enough explosives were prepared to completely blow up the load-bearing structure, the fallen reinforced concrete blocks were unlikely to be broken into slag like tofu blocks, but more likely to form a maze that was tens of meters high, and hundreds of meters long.

That would make the situation a lot more complicated!

At least until the building was blasted, both the escape route and the elevator shaft had direct access to the 41st floor.

Vanus was indifferent to Hyrja’s surprise. "First of all, we will blast a large area in a concentrated manner. Secondly, we certainly won’t detonate the explosives and then leave it alone. After the demolition is over, we’ll bombard the area with heavy artillery, we’ll drop incendiaries from airships and we’ll send out our clone troopers... We won’t stop until the source of the infection is completely destroyed."

"Not only the concrete ruins, but also the underground transportation network and drainage system that have been paralyzed will be blasted and demolished.”

Hyrja couldn’t help but sneer. "Maybe you guys just buried the problem out of sight."

Vanus shrugged. "Maybe. I’m just offering a solution. This work has been going on for 2 centuries, and at least in areas where these strategies have been implemented, they’ve worked fairly well."

There was no need for such a high-density residence on the wasteland, and the population concentration effect brought about by the huge maintenance cost was worthless here.

At least in the eyes of Vanus, the only difference between these unused items and garbage was that the latter could at least be recycled.

Those high-rise buildings were sources of endless troubles for him.

Hyrja looked at Chu Guang. "I don’t recommend demolishing the entire building, unless you are completely sure that the Slime Mold inside can be completely removed by doing that, otherwise the complex environment may make the problem even more difficult."

"In short, no matter what you choose in the end, please provide me with at least 1 test tube sample! I need to figure out the biological process of these mutant Slime Molds from the incubation room to the Hive. It is very important! It can help us understand our enemies!" Hyjra concluded.

Chu Guang didn’t give her an answer immediately. Instead, he looked at the outpost’s chief contractor, Sword Execution.

Of all the players, he probably knew the most about engineering.

"How many kilograms of explosives are needed to blow up such a building?" Chu Guang asked.

Sword Execution frowned and thought for a long time before speaking. "For 1.1 tons of TNT, 3,500 dynamites should be enough."

Chu Guang was slightly startled. "Do we need that much?"

Sword Execution said with a wry smile. "This is a conservative estimate… We might actually need a lot more…”

High-rise buildings with hundreds of floors could be found everywhere in Clearspring City, often 500 to 600 meters or even kilometers tall, especially in the direction of the city center. It could easily surpass the tallest building in their world.

Of course, Sword Execution also admitted that there was no comparison between games and reality, and only fools would go to the virtual world to find 100% realism, even if most operators would advertise it that way.

However, if he analyzed it from a professional point of view, assuming that the physics engine of Wasteland Online was professional enough, and if buildings needed to resist earthquakes and other possible natural disasters, the cement they used wouldn’t just be 2 times stronger than that of their world. The amount of steel invested would probably also be an astronomical figure.

While Sword Execution was calculating in his mind, Chu Guang was also doing the same.

1.1 tons of explosives can make 3,000 rounds of 100mm shells! It’s too expensive!

And this is just a conservative estimate...

If the building wasn’t demolished completely, it will be a ticking time bomb if it’s left here half-collapsed.

On the contrary, if players are sent to clear the incubation room on the 41st floor, the possible price to pay is only some Active Matter, thousands of bullets, and a few liters of fuel.

Thinking of this, Chu Guang immediately made a decision and released the continuation of the mission through his VM.

[Main objective:

Destroy the Slime Mold incubation room located on the 41st floor of the New Era Data Center!

]

[Secondary objective:

Collect mutation samples!

]