The next morning, Lin Feng opened his eyes, tangled in Chen Yanyan’s long legs. After the woman’s gentle ministrations, the frustration that had festered in him yesterday had vanished, leaving him refreshed and clear-headed.

He lifted the long leg draped across his chest, got up, pulled on his shorts, left a kiss on Chen Yanyan’s face, and then walked into the bathroom.

After washing up, Lin Feng went into the dining room and made two fried eggs.

Chen Yanyan, wearing one of his shirts, hugged Lin Feng’s waist from behind:

"One egg won’t be enough to satisfy me..."

"I need two!"

As she spoke, she spun Lin Feng around to face her:

"Let me eat my fill first."

Lin Feng sucked in a sharp breath.

Half an hour later, sitting at the dining table, he watched the woman cook as Identification data appeared in his eyes:

「Chen Yanyan, Lv. 19/19」

「Life Value: 150, Physique: 150, Spirit: 185↑」

「Evaluation: A woman blessed with explosive luck who always finds her own unique way to Upgrade. Remember, a spiritual connection is more important than physical union.」

Lin Feng coughed lightly. As his relationship with Chen Yanyan deepened, her Spiritual Value had begun to rise continuously, day and night.

It was even on the verge of breaking through the limits of Tier One.

Correspondingly, her piloting skills became more and more superb—whether it was grasping the Battleship’s controls or Lin Feng’s own.

But the last sentence of the Evaluation made Lin Feng, who had been smiling faintly, narrow his eyes, because he had dreamed of her again that morning while he slept.

In that barren and dilapidated Spirit World.

Moreover, as their spiritual connection deepened, Chen Yanyan’s appearance in his dreams grew increasingly clear and detailed. Compared to the blurry, game-texture-like background, she was the only real-world object in the dreamscape besides the two pieces of equipment bound to him.

Lin Feng didn’t know if this was a good sign.

He felt a little uneasy about that time with the sinking black sun, and about suddenly hearing his mother, He Yiwen’s, voice.

If Chen Yanyan was dragged into this, things would only get more complicated.

’Maybe I should tell her about this...’

Lin Feng felt a little conflicted.

In the end, after she brought him a bowl of hearty brunch, he swallowed the words he was about to say.

"Eat up. It’s getting late."

"We have to set out for Jia City at eleven."

"Oh, right. The Land Patrol Battleship has successfully bonded with the other eight Tank Replicas. I can simultaneously control their movement and weapons systems."

Lin Feng nodded, picking up his bowl without surprise. This was all within his expectations; this was exactly what Chen Yanyan’s Mechanical Pioneering Superpower was for.

Ten minutes later, he walked out of the Battleship, fully armed.

The time was now 9:30 in the morning.

The team hadn’t returned from their satisfying test drive until after midnight last night, so Lin Feng had specifically instructed Li Ran to let the exhausted members sleep in.

After all, the next day’s mission was even more demanding.

There was no need to get up early. If they weren’t well-rested, they’d have no energy and be more prone to mistakes.

And so, the camp that was supposed to wake up and assemble at 5:30 according to regulations didn’t stir until nine. Those few extra hours of sleep made for the most comfortable morning the team members had had in days.

Even the guards on rotating patrol duty were guaranteed more than six hours of solid sleep.

By the time Lin Feng walked out of the Battleship, the team members had already cleaned themselves up and were gathered in the dining area, eating.

The individual combat rations tasted much better after being heated and steamed, unlike in the field where they were hard to stomach. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

The last delivery from Han Yuxin and Hu Fei had been twenty days’ worth of individual combat rations for one hundred people. Now, it was more than enough for their team of one hundred and fifty to last ten days.

By the time they finished eating and cleaned up, it was already ten in the morning. The horn of the Land Patrol Battleship sounded, signaling that it was time to depart.

Lin Feng saw Shen Jie emerge from the two-story hotel with Zhang Liying, his face concealed by his suit of Red Profound Armor.

The Red Profound Armor was certainly convenient.

Once everyone had boarded the Flying Wing Tank Replicas, Chen Yanyan gave the order, and they drove out of the service area, heading for the outskirts of Jia City as planned.

A little over ten minutes later, they were traveling down the highway and arrived at the outskirts of Jia City’s northern suburbs, a location fifteen kilometers distant.

Lin Feng ordered the convoy to halt and turn. He had the eight Tanks line up with the Land Patrol Battleship at the center, all of them aiming at the Jia City District three kilometers away.

They then fired several volleys, baptizing with fire the bloody battlefield where tens of thousands of the Swarm had been annihilated just the day before.

Fifty Shotguns and a hundred Heavy Machine Guns blanketed the entire Jia City North District, forcing the nearby Red-Armored Beetle Swarm to cower in their deep pits, not daring to peek out.

After unleashing over a thousand shells in a continuous barrage, Lin Feng waved his hand to signal a pause.

He had brought the Tanks here to fire their cannons not only to test the powerful firepower of his fledgling fleet, but also, naturally, to intimidate—a demonstration of the formidable strength of the forces under his command.

Although yesterday’s bombardment from hundreds of Shotguns, which tore through thousands of the Black Spine Zerg Swarm, had already given the Jia City Mother Empress a taste of their power, the team’s mobility back then had been extremely poor. They could only defend passively from their established battle line, and the attack had caught the Zerg by surprise, exploiting an information gap.

If the Zerg Race had been given two or three days, the Mother Empress could have absolutely commanded the Swarm to dig tunnels from the Underground and launch a raid.

Therefore, what the Jia City Mother Empress truly valued was Lin Feng’s personal strength—his ability to eliminate a top-tier Tier Two Swarm, led by a Tier Two Late Stage Tiger Spine Zerg, in such a short amount of time.

And that level of strength was enough to make the Mother Empress show her sincerity by appearing in person to negotiate a deal with Lin Feng.

But with this bombardment, Lin Feng was proving something else: that not only could he fight, but he could also run exceptionally well.

A mobile defensive line was far more threatening than a static one.