Let's go. I'll take you to witness an artistic explosion.

Adults always face countless hardships and disasters, which is why an essential ability they must possess is the capacity to rapidly regulate their mindset.

Xu Kun was very skilled at this.

He quickly took a deep breath and adjusted his mindset. His greatest value was that he could enable Brother Jiang to get an extra reward when completing hidden tasks, essentially acting as a double-reward buff for Brother Jiang.

How could anyone say he was useless?

"Brother Jiang, I'm late."

...

"It's fine."

Chen Jiang squatted on the ground, using a branch to stir the brains of the Xenomorph corpse like drawing pictures in the sand. "The reward for killing one Xenomorph is 1 Paradise Coin."

"Xu Kun, do you know what this means?"

"Uh..."

Xu Kun, who had just regulated his mindset, suddenly choked up a bit and hesitated. "It means the rewards for this E-rank instance are very low?"

"No."

Chen Jiang stood up, tossed the branch aside, yawned, and said casually, "Even if these are merely Level 1 Xenomorphs, the lowest grade of Xenomorphs, getting only 1 Paradise Coin for killing one is still somewhat too low."

"Keep in mind that in this instance, the only Xenomorphs players can encounter are those that have fled into the city; their numbers are extremely small."

"Players cannot possibly come into contact with the endless hordes of Xenomorphs outside the city. That level of warfare is not something players can influence."

"According to this reward mechanism, the Paradise Coins players obtain in this instance are even fewer than in an F-rank instance."

"Every clearly unreasonable detail must inevitably have a more rational explanation."

"And the most reasonable explanation I can imagine is—"

"This instance definitely conceals a large-scale score-farming spot. The instance worries that if the Paradise Coins obtained from killing a single Xenomorph were set too high, players would exploit this method to slaughter Xenomorphs outside the city on a massive scale, thereby acquiring Paradise Coins far exceeding what an E-rank instance should grant."

"Consequently, the restriction imposed by the instance is reducing the Paradise Coins harvested from killing a single Xenomorph."

"Since it has imposed this restriction..."

"There is a high probability it will not restrict that 「hidden large-scale score-farming spot」."

"As for where that 「hidden large-scale score-farming spot」 is and what form it takes, the most straightforward way I can think of is throwing a high-yield bomb into the Xenomorph swarm outside the city. Therefore..."

"I surmise, or rather, I am certain."

"There must be a hidden quest chain within this city. For instance, it could be a fallen 「missile base」 outside the city, or perhaps a high-yield bomb transported to the rear a few days ago that cannot be successfully launched due to missing parts, along with various other possibilities."

"This quest chain is extremely likely to also be a hidden quest of this instance."

"From the very beginning, I was pondering a question."

"The background of this instance requires players to hold out for seven days until reinforcements arrive. I originally thought it would assign arduous tasks to each squad, such as having a specific squad plug a breach or protect a resource point, where a failure of the task would cause the butterfly effect to cause the entire city to fall."

"But later—"

"I found it wasn't like that."

"The impact of our four mercenary squads on this battlefield is simply too small. If the instance background were designed this way, the difficulty should be higher than E-rank, and moreover, no mandatory tasks were assigned to us."

"You could even find a residential neighborhood in the city and live like animals for seven days."

"Men, women, the elderly, the young."

"Anything goes."

"The freedom and openness are very high; you can act entirely as you please."

"This indicates that no matter what, this city will definitely hold out until the seventh day, even if our four squads go AFK within the city."

"The low-risk gameplay is killing Xenomorphs in the city to complete the main quest, acquiring minor rewards while enjoying near-absolute safety."

"The high-risk gameplay is actively seeking out this hidden quest chain, acquiring massive rewards while bearing extremely high risks."

"The logic holds."

"Therefore..."

Chen Jiang lowered his head to glance at the city overview on the tablet, then walked over to the passenger seat of a nearby sedan and smiled. "Let's go. I'll take you to complete an artistic explosion; it should help you rack up quite a bit of Faith Points."

Blind Snake had already pried open the door of a sedan and successfully hotwired the engine.

In an instance set in a modernized city, the lockpicking skill was definitely worth maxing out.

"...Ah?"

Standing in place somewhat blankly, Xu Kun was stunned for a moment before snapping back to reality. Scrambling clumsily, he dove into the back seat of the car, feeling thoroughly dumbfounded at this point.

Brother Jiang had told him at the start that killing a single Xenomorph only rewarded 1 Paradise Coin.

He had nodded.

And then it suddenly jumped to going to complete an artistic explosion!

Honestly speaking.

He didn't consider himself a fool, but he was truly incapable of extracting that much information from the premise of a low reward mechanism. He would have simply cursed inwardly, calling it a trash instance with rewards so low they couldn't even compare to an F-rank instance.

The next moment—

"BOOM!!!"

The roar of the accelerator suddenly shattered the night as the car instantly accelerated, smashed through the barrier at the residential complex entrance, and surged onto the street, speeding toward its destination amid a deafening roar!

Xu Kun's face turned ashen, and he fastened his rear-seat safety belt almost instantaneously.

He had never worn a safety belt in the back seat before. Thanks to Brother Jiang, this bad habit of his was cured.

He just hadn't expected Blind Snake to drive so wildly as well.

Were the two of you taught by the same damn master?!

...

"..."

Sitting in the passenger seat, Chen Jiang calmly lit a cigarette and gazed at the scenery rapidly retreating past the window. When the previous instance ended and he returned to reality, Uncle Ji had sent him a news link.

A few days ago.

During archaeological excavation work of the fifth interglacial period of the ice age in the Federation's 「TS City」, a nearly brand-new 「Audi A6」 was unearthing. Inside the car were some magic performance props and an ancient driver's license bearing the name 「Gu Tian」.

Gu Tian.

He was very familiar with this name; it was the name of his master's partner, and also the name of Blind Snake's master.

He could understand the shock Uncle Ji felt upon seeing that news. This was practically flashing its cards, stating openly that the car dug up from the fifth interglacial period belonged to his master.

The current era was the sixth glacial period.

Nearly 13.82 million years had passed since the fifth interglacial period.

Wonderful.

He had suspected his master of having numerous identities, but he had never imagined that his master might very well be an immortal, already active during the fifth interglacial period and surviving all the way into the interglacial period of the sixth glacial age?

Or perhaps... frozen solid throughout the sixth ice age until unsealed by the arrival of the interglacial period?

Master...

What kind of existence are you precisely?

And why would you suddenly die?

He actually longed to ask, Master... did you really die?

"..."

Sitting in the passenger seat, Chen Jiang looked out the window at the scenery rapidly receding backward, his expression gradually becoming dazed.

Right at that moment—

The vehicle slammed hard on the brakes, jolting him awake and pulling his thoughts back to reality.

He glanced at the destination beside them, the 「Municipal Government Building」, flicked the cigarette ash that had burned down to the filter out the window, unbuckled his safety belt, and strode toward the empty municipal government building.

He needed to find some clues.

The red dots on the tablet were flashing continuously.

Quite a few Xenomorphs were concealed in the corners of this building, not making the slightest sound, waiting patiently like hunters hidden in the night for their prey to arrive.