In the depths of the deserted mine, a young player with Xia Country appearance stood in the bed of a standard mining mecha. He had just released a large amount of stolen minerals from his space equipment when he suddenly tilted and collapsed onto the minerals beneath his feet, falling into unconsciousness.

The surrounding air did not change immediately because of this sudden scene. Several seconds later, faint footsteps sounded beside the bed of the unconscious player, precisely that of an invisible Wang Zhifan.

"Just slightly freezing his brain using the Ice Source Power and he’s done... Looks like his strength is quite ordinary, but it saves me from having to resort to my follow-up plans."

At this moment, Wang Zhifan had already jumped onto the bed in front of him. While extending his left hand with the Space Ring to collect the pile of minerals, he quickly examined the equipment on this unconscious player, internally mocking this weak individual.

There was no other choice. Before taking action, he had originally prepared to engage in several rounds of combat with this player, not expecting that his first attempt using the Ice Source Power would succeed, causing the player to fall into a brief coma due to brain freezing.

Of course, Wang Zhifan did not intend to kill this person. Given his mastery level over the Ice Source Power, it would only induce a short-term unconscious effect on this player, and he estimated that the player would wake up at most a minute after he left.

"His best equipment is only at Rare level? Forget it, I don’t lack Rare level items. It seems there’s really no need for killing and plundering."

While filling up the remaining capacity of his Space Ring with minerals, Wang Zhifan also finished checking this mineral thief’s equipment level, finding it lacking as there wasn’t even a single piece of Excellent level. This removed any inclination he had, and he quietly left after collecting the minerals.

In the following time, he invisibly explored the northern mining area, finding nothing worthy of special attention, and returned to his Avatar location through Dream Entrance and Dream Exit to continue monitoring the mining operations.

Thus, by the afternoon of that day, the southern mining area he was responsible for seemed quite peaceful, with no one causing any revenge issues.

He also resolved the previous dispute among three miners using the minerals in his Space Ring, explaining that he found the real thief and retrieved the stolen minerals.

"What a boring mission... Is the core conflict of this mission really just about stealing and preventing the theft of minerals? Dragging on for a whole month?"

By now, it was already evening. Having just finished accounting for his team’s mining output at the mine entrance, Wang Zhifan reflected idly to himself.

Thanks to some of his extra work, his mining team’s data were already nearing the daily full quota, meaning that as long as the days continued like this, clearing the mission would be no problem, though it would be a new level of monotony.

Just as he was pondering whether to find a place to cultivate, his communication watch on his wrist suddenly beeped, indicating an incoming call.

"Who is it?"

Seeing the unfamiliar caller ID, Wang Zhifan connected the call and immediately asked.

"Captain of Team 10! This is William Glen, Captain of Team 2! A large number of monsters have drilled out from underground in the northern mining area! Requesting immediate support! Requesting immediate support!"

The voice from the communication watch was that of a middle-aged man, sounding extremely urgent, with background noise of mecha firing and unidentified creatures howling, greatly enhancing the credibility of his statement.

"Monsters drilled out from underground? I didn’t find anything underground when I checked this morning..."

For a moment, Wang Zhifan felt confused. He had been to the northern section for an inspection a few hours ago, and logically, such a monotonous and barren environment wasn’t conducive to any large monsters because ecologically it made no sense.

"Alright, Mr. William! I’ll be there immediately!"

Though puzzled, Wang Zhifan still agreed and decided to go see for himself.

However, before setting off, he sent a collective message to his team members:

"Attention all team members! Suspected monsters in the mining area! Everyone enter high alert! Start the widest patrol mode! Report any anomalies to me immediately!"

After the communication, he set off swiftly toward the northern mining area, using his Dream Me Avatar as a shortcut, significantly reducing his travel time. This meant he was going light and hadn’t activated his captain-level combat mecha.

About half a minute after the call with Team 2’s captain, Wang Zhifan arrived near the destination, a deep part of the northern mine.

As soon as he arrived, he heard very concentrated gunfire and howling of monsters, mixed with human screams, prompting him to hurry toward the sounds.

After passing through several winding narrow mine passages, he finally reached the battle site.

What he saw were strange snake-like monsters with sharp mouths instead of noses and eyes, charging at a Team 2 defense squad member in the not-so-spacious mine passage.

This defense team member was in a combat mecha, unleashing all their firepower on the monsters, but the monsters, with their tough hides and fearless nature, seemed on the verge of reaching his mecha, which was already heavily physically damaged and precarious.

Originally, such narrow mine passages were very advantageous for combat mechas to hit monsters with no space to dodge, but as the monsters gained the upper hand, the situation reversed, with the passage’s narrowness now restricting the mecha’s quick maneuvers, leaving the team member unable to escape the monsters’ pursuit.