Chapter 162: Chapter 162: The Nations Exterminate the Beasts, Survivors Occupy the Ice Continent

"Sigh, it’s just a drop in the bucket," Qi Suian sighed.

After studying the Venerable Core and finding it useless, he’d tossed it into the Melting Furnace.

Ever since he acquired the Feast ability, these cores were only good for fuel.

After that, the Tai Sui God remained on the Ice Continent to hunt, while Qi Suian continued to study and research the Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic.

One had to admit, life was quite comfortable.

Until the Extraordinary Survivors from the various nations landed once more.

This time, it wasn’t just a three-thousand-strong Vanguard Army, but a massive force of hundreds of thousands.

And they smoothly occupied the entire Ice Continent.

Qi Suian actually suspected that the nations weren’t just planning to conquer the Ice Continent, but had united to migrate there.

They had abandoned their original territories to make the Ice Continent their new home.

The cost was high, but the rewards were undoubtedly immense.

In terms of the concentration of the cold energy environment alone, the Ice Continent was the Cold Beast Ancestral Court.

In past cold energy eras, the Cold Energy Monsters had always been stronger than humans.

This was not only due to their numbers but also because they occupied the Ice Continent, giving them an advantage in high-end combat power.

But things were different now. Thanks to their productivity, the population of winter-era humans had never dwindled.

Now, by occupying the prime environment of the Ice Continent and evolving in this manner, they would sooner or later shed their reliance on the Qi Cultivation Method and evolve like the Cold Energy Monsters, gaining the innate ability to absorb cold energy.

Winter-era humans needed the Qi Cultivation Method, but they weren’t limited to it.

Over time, winter-era humans could also develop special energy organs—called abilities, but in reality, cores.

The energy organs they had before were artificially created by combining the Qi Cultivation Method with their abilities; they were, at best, simplified, undeveloped versions of a true core.

After occupying the Ice Continent, the hundreds of thousands of survivors quickly annihilated all the Cold Energy Monsters on it. Under the relentless, at-all-costs assault of the ability-wielding Clone Legion, their losses were great, but so were their gains.

Afterward, the Ice Continent entered a phase of vigorous development and transformation.

The nations transfused resources from their original homelands, allowing the Ice Continent to gradually flourish.

During this period, that whale-type Venerable-class Cold Energy Monster sensed the changes on the Ice Continent and took action despite its injuries.

The result was, of course, predictable. The Extraordinary Survivors of the nations, armed with a vast arsenal of modern firearms, were terrifyingly powerful in combat.

If it hadn’t fled so quickly, it would have been turned into a pile of mangled flesh on the spot.

One-on-one, a survivor was not necessarily a match for a Cold Energy Monster, but the humans had firearms and organized military units.

This wasn’t some ancient era with only swords and crossbows; all kinds of weapons of mass destruction were emerging one after another.

It could only be said that even Venerable-class Cold Energy Monsters had fallen behind the times.

Especially after the nations used the special abilities of clones to counteract the effects of low temperatures on their firearms, their combat effectiveness had been fully restored.

Faced with this situation, even Qi Suian had to keep his distance.

If they ganged up, they could overwhelm Qi Suian with sheer numbers.

As he was now, he couldn’t destroy all the nations by himself. The most he could do was cause some destruction; he was incapable of truly shattering their foundation.

Therefore, the best way to get rid of them was to detonate the Cold Energy Source and blow up the whole world.

After migrating to the Ice Continent, the nations quickly began surveying it, searching for the Cold Energy Source.

To this day, they had found nothing.

Qi Suian had also tagged along on these surveys, but his attitude was rather casual. His focus remained on studying and researching the Low-level Poison Element Attachment Magic.

As for the Tai Sui God, it hadn’t been idle either. It was true that it no longer had Cold Energy Monsters for fuel, but now it had Extraordinary Survivors.

And in terms of capture difficulty, using Extraordinary Survivors was far less costly than using Cold Energy Monsters, so its daily efficiency was much higher.

Especially since these survivors were all clustered together, Qi Suian captured them battalion by battalion to use as fuel.

Before, when the nations were scattered, it hadn’t been so convenient for Qi Suian to capture them.

One could say that Qi Suian was taking great advantage of the situation.

The drawback, however, was also obvious: in terms of quality, they were inferior to Cold Energy Monsters.

But it didn’t matter. The sheer quantity not only compensated for the lack of quality but was also more cost-effective.

It was this very behavior that caused Qi Suian’s kill count in the "Time-Limited Event: Violator" to skyrocket without pause.

Furthermore, the nations had also taken notice of him.

And they were currently gathering forces to eliminate the menace that was Qi Suian.

They couldn’t let Qi Suian continue his slaughter. The number of people dying each day might just be a fraction of the total population, but allowing it to continue would cause widespread panic.

Because of the Apocalypse Game’s chat channel, news traveled fast.

If they didn’t solve this problem, it would definitely undermine the foundation of their rule.

Killing Qi Suian would not only yield extremely generous rewards but also serve as a way to boost their prestige and placate the populace.

It was, one might say, all benefit and no drawback.

And yet... they were still busy bickering.

The plan itself was excellent, and not difficult to implement.

The key issue was: who would get the lion’s share of the kill reward?

Everyone knew the reward was extremely generous and would be distributed based on contribution.

However, the high-level officials of the nations didn’t see it that way. For them, they could let their subordinates have the scraps, but only after they themselves had eaten their fill.

They wouldn’t let the Apocalypse Game decide the distribution.

So they planned to use certain methods to keep the benefits circulating only among the top brass.

It was equivalent to them doing none of the work but wanting to reap all the rewards.

For the sake of this reward, the leaders of the nations had been engaged in endless open and secret struggles, with no resolution in sight.

Qi Suian couldn’t understand how these people could get their priorities so wrong.

’Shouldn’t the priority be killing me? Why are they already divvying up the spoils?’

It was like a group of people arguing over how many buns they would each eat when they didn’t even have enough money in their pockets to buy a single one.

Some were even thinking about how to take all the rewards for themselves.

Although Qi Suian didn’t know how they planned to do it, these people had been living in comfort for too long. They probably had no idea how cruel the apocalypse truly was.

With such exploitation, the existence of the Extraordinary, and the Apocalypse Game as a channel for advancement, the nations would be doomed even without Qi Suian’s presence.

"It’s really annoying watching them jump around like they’ve already got me in the bag," Qi Suian grumbled.

"I would advise you to endure it. Killing the leaders of the nations would certainly be easy, but it would cause your current conveniences to disappear completely."

The AI indicated this was a minor issue.

As long as the leaders of the nations were still around, the Ice Continent would not descend into chaos and would remain orderly.

This made it convenient for the Tai Sui God to capture survivors for fuel.

If the leaders were to die and the nations lost control of the Ice Continent, the ensuing chaos would make the efficiency of capturing fuel much lower.

They were all gathered together now. Without order, they would scatter, and Qi Suian would have to search for survivors everywhere. What a hassle that would be.

"I know that. It’s for the greater good. Their bickering doesn’t cost me anything."

"In fact, the longer they bicker, the more advantageous it is for me."

"It would be best if I could burn through a hundred thousand or so survivors before they finally react. By then, it’ll be too late." Qi Suian could clearly distinguish his priorities.

If the nations were willing to send him ten thousand survivors as fuel every day, Qi Suian would praise them for a handsome slap even if they came over and smacked him twice.

If they sent a hundred thousand survivors as fuel a day, he would even provide them with a kill-on-demand service.

After all, he could resurrect after dying. So, theoretically, the "Permanent Event: Violator" could never be completed unless a survivor possessed an X-grade weapon or combat item.

Otherwise, the kill conditions could not be met. Thus, the event was more like a carrot dangling in front of a donkey.

Even the Apocalypse Game couldn’t erase Qi Suian. A bunch of its subordinate survivors wanted to kill him? How naive.

Of course, the survivors didn’t know all this. They knew resurrection-type abilities existed, but they didn’t know that Qi Suian’s resurrection had no cooldown.

So for the survivors, and especially for the leaders of the nations, this was an achievable goal.

"I’m afraid not. Given the threat you pose, the leaders of the nations will only be able to withstand the pressure of public opinion for another three to five days at most."

"Therefore, the bickering will soon stop, and you will likely have to face tens of thousands of Extraordinary-ability-wielding survivors and a large Clone Legion."

"That’s actually good news, isn’t it?"

"The Tai Sui God can’t fight them head-on, that’s true, but that’s its only weakness."

"If they can’t instantly destroy the Tai Sui God with a weapon of mass destruction at the moment of the thirty-minute location ping, the rest of the time is our home game."

"The speed of the Wind Master aviation system, the stealth of the Shadow Navigator unit, and so on... with enough time, the Tai Sui God can turn them all into fuel."

If you can’t win a direct confrontation, then use ambushes, guerrilla tactics, and other methods. The disadvantage is that you can’t clash head-on; the advantage is that you can fight in any way *except* clashing head-on.

The power of individual Extraordinaries was gradually revealing its fearsome potential.

This was especially obvious in Qi Suian’s case, as he had protagonist plot armor.

"You are correct. The great power of individuals is gradually changing the social structure and the nature of warfare."

"This situation will become increasingly pronounced in the future."

"Therefore, I advise you to go and reap that whale-type Venerable-class Cold Energy Monster."

"Its injuries have healed, and its core has finished regenerating."

"In about half an hour, it will surface to breathe."

"If you miss this opportunity, its next breath will be in five days."

The AI quickly changed the subject, reminding Qi Suian it was time to harvest the ’leek’ they had previously let go.

"So the wounds from the firearms were less severe than losing its core. Well, it is an Extraordinary Source, after all." Qi Suian hadn’t expected it to recover so quickly.

He had thought it would take at least half a month.

He hadn’t expected its recovery ability to be so strong.

"Then let’s head out. With this second core as fuel—even if the quality is a bit lacking—if the Tai Sui God works hard at capturing more fuel, it should be able to evolve in a few more days."

"As the concentration of the cold energy environment increases, the stronger the Extraordinary become, and the more effective the captured fuel will be."

"As expected, the higher the world’s energy level, the faster the Tai Sui God evolves."

Qi Suian actually knew that the energy levels of the Profound World he was in and the previous Polar Day World were not low; it was just that the energy level of the planet he was on was low.