Just as Mingmei had said, she had overestimated those people. Even when Mu Chen and the others impersonated the higher-ups' dispatched ability users and infiltrated the base, the higher-ups hadn't noticed.

Perhaps the only thing Mingmei could commend was their keen survival instinct?

Without even receiving news of Mu Chen's group entering the city, they had sent a large number of people to this place, surrounding them menacingly in the courtyard.

A battle was imminent!

"Take them to the basement."

While keeping his eyes on the approaching people, Lou Jia whispered to Mingmei standing beside him, "Xiao Feng will tell you where it is."

With that, he stepped forward, blocking the direction of Mingmei and the others' retreat into the house.

The reason was simple: Lou Jia had just seen the hand grenades that some of the people in the approaching group were carrying.

"Be careful."

After Mingmei spoke, she wasted no time in leading the ordinary people and children to the basement with another earth-type ability user.

Seeing one group retreating into the house, the other group stepped forward, claiming that Mu Chen's group had absconded with food, and now the base was going to arrest and interrogate those who remained.

"If you want to condemn someone, you can always find a pretext."

As soon as they finished speaking, a battle erupted. Just as Mingmei jumped into the basement, a loud "Boom!" echoed.

An explosion sounded above her head. The force of the blast sent Mingmei, who hadn't even stabilized after jumping, crashing heavily onto the basement floor.

"Hiss!" The pain brought tears to Mingmei's eyes instantly.

However, Gui Gui told her it was just a bruise and nothing was fractured, which was a stroke of luck.

"Lou Jia really is prescient!"

In the darkness, the earth-type ability user lit a candle, illuminating the small basement. Lou Jia had even installed a hidden ventilation shaft, as if afraid they would be buried alive.

"Yeah."

Mingmei and Wang Wenying comforted the children who seemed frightened by the explosion. They also looked around. The small basement contained several quilts and mats. A brand-new, unpainted wooden shelf held some clean food and water.

Even the candle had been taken from there.

"How worried was he to prepare so much?"

The earth-type ability user was also surprised. He looked up at the basement and exclaimed, "Huh, there's even an earth-type ability enhancement here. No wonder the top exploded, but this basement, dug by non-professionals, is still intact."

"I helped my brother dig it."

Two of Lou Jia's five adopted children had abilities. The oldest boy, Xiao Feng, had the earth-type ability.

Hearing the boy's voice, Mingmei couldn't help but look at the boy beside her who was holding his youngest sister. Although he looked aloof, his eyes were full of pride as he said, "My brother is amazing!"

"Yes, very amazing."

...

"Are they crazy? Why didn't they notify us that these people were coming?"

The expressions of the people fighting above were slightly distorted.

Li Yuan was dumbfounded. Lu Gui had said that if there was an emergency, Julian would send someone to inform them, but clearly no one knew who these people with guns and grenades were!

They were only made of flesh and blood. Would they even survive if they were hit?

"Never mind, let's repel them first!"

With that, Zhen Hu conjured a ball of lightning in his hands and smashed it at the opponents. There were many of them, and they dodged Zhen Hu's attack. They opened fire, and several "bang, bang" sounds rang out. Suddenly, a wall of vines rose from the ground, blocking the opponents' line of sight and bullets.

"Awesome, Lou Jia!"

"So-so, it won't last long." Lou Jia didn't feel any joy from the praise. Instead, he became increasingly angry at the act of throwing grenades and blowing up the house.

If he hadn't prepared the basement beforehand, none of those who had retreated into the house would have escaped!

Thinking of that possibility, Lou Jia's mentality began to crumble, and his eyes were faintly bloodshot.

[Be good, don't come out...]

Pushed by his mother into the narrow safe room, Lou Jia watched helplessly as his mother's figure, unable to enter, collapsed instantly...

Now, as if reversed, he sent the children he raised into the safe basement he had built himself, while he had to stay outside and guard them.

...

"Why?"

Before dying, Merita stared wide-eyed at Julian, who had ambushed her, and asked in disbelief.

"What order did you just give?"

Without answering Merita's question, Julian instead asked about the secret order she had given after leaving another old stubborn person's office, behind everyone else's back.

Hearing Julian's words, Merita suddenly laughed, as if finally understanding why she had been killed by him.

"You...don't you already know?" Merita clutched the dagger in her chest, blood gurgling from her mouth. "Why? Why would you side with those people...when we have such a status..."

"What kind of status do we have?"

Julian suddenly laughed, his eyes mocking as he looked at Merita and whispered the final, devastating words: "Since you value status and bloodline so much, it's a pity you didn't go to the Empire~"

Sure enough, with just those words, Merita completely lost her breath and went offline. But judging from her unclosed eyes, Julian probably knew he had hit her where it hurt the most.

But Julian still didn't show much emotion. He tossed out a ball of fire to destroy the body.

Few players were as lucky as Mu Ning, getting a card with an identity at the base right from the start. Coincidentally, Merita was one of them.

Mu Ning was forced by the situation to be a salted fish, muddling through. In the end, she was forced to join his pirate ship because she was sent to intercept Mu Chen and the others.

But Merita was different.

Julian could confirm that he didn't like Merita, neither in the game nor outside of it. Even if his father told him to be a gentleman to women, Merita's actions made it difficult for him to accept.

Julian still remembered the reason why Merita was criticized during the class meeting their form teacher held after the previous game.

She used her identity in the game to force a student from the Federation to give her their mech.

And in this game, she still relied on her in-game father's status and position to do a lot of disgusting things. The key was that she didn't realize it, and even thought it was normal.

In order to consolidate power and eliminate dissidents, whether it was killing, maiming, threatening, or swindling, she didn't care what methods she used. With Merita's mindset, Julian already suspected how she had even gotten into the school.

After dealing with Merita, Julian didn't stay there. He received news from below that the situation on Lu Gui's side had been brought under control with the return of Mu Chen and the others. Now, it was up to him to deal with the remaining higher-ups...