Sky-cracking Rider

"A dozen?"

Huang Xiulun's face turned as dark as the bottom of a pot.

The combat personnel brought by Operation "Wall of Sighs" were just these, and the only S-Class superpower user was brought over by Chen Fei. Where was he going to find another eleven S-Class superpower users?

The thought of a terrifying divine species "Sagali" lurking nearby made Huang Xiulun restless.

"This is not Heaven, but Hell!"

Chen Fei couldn't help but sigh. As expected of the "Lord of the Sky," he directly gave the army setting up an ambush to capture him a deep lesson (thankful for not killing them?).

There was no need for the "Grey Hole" to transport them to this unknown life planet; throw them onto a lifeless barren celestial body, and before long, they all would be dead.

Such as extremely low or high temperatures, lack of air, gravity anomalies, magnetic field anomalies, drought without water, or life-forbidden zones filled with acidic seas. They wouldn't even have the "leisure" to tinker with something like a "sky dome," creating a human-friendly artificial habitat for themselves.

Even if the "sky dome" was completed, it wouldn't stop the divine species "Sagali" from coveting in the dark.

So far, Chen Fei hadn't been able to guess the real intention of the other party, always feeling that the "Lord of the Sky" was playing a big game of chess that he couldn't see through, and the scheme was enormous, beyond everyone's imagination.

"What exactly does that Lin family want?"

It wasn't just Chen Fei thinking this; even Huang Xiulun was filled with doubts.

He wasn't skilled at intelligence analysis; although he had suspicions, he couldn't analyze more clues.

Trapped on an alien star, surrounded by strong enemies, the 10,000-plus members of the Operation "Wall of Sighs," though using "Atlantis" as their home base, were anxious every second they spent here.

Chen Fei pondered for a moment and said to Huang Xiulun, who was frowning deeply, "Deputy Mayor Huang, you should prepare a mandatory survey, asking everyone's interests and skills. Maybe we'll have some unexpected discoveries."

"What do you mean?"

Huang Xiulun still didn't quite understand.

"Profession is profession, interest is interest. Maybe among the 10,000-plus people, there are hidden talents?"

Chen Fei had no choice but to rethink the talent archives.

The Operation "Wall of Sighs," from top to bottom, from frontline combat personnel to logistics, had a total of 17,631 people. The personal information archives he currently had only recorded household registration, employment history, and certified vocational skills, but some information undoubtedly remained unregistered.

The survey questionnaire managed by Huang Xiulun was meant to further squeeze human resources and see if there were any usable skills. As for whether it was reliable, well, treating a dead horse like a living one — they couldn't afford to consider much else right now.

"Are you trying to find hidden S-Class superpower users?"

Huang Xiulun couldn't help but laugh. He knew the anecdotes of the "Scripture Pavilion Sweeping Monk" and the "Librarian." He thought that perhaps the Operation "Wall of Sighs" force was truly filled with hidden talents, and they could muster twelve S-Class superpower users to suppress a divine species "Sagali." Finding just one is challenging enough, let alone twelve — it was simply unrealistic!

If there were indeed so many great talents and such power, not only the divine species but even the Lin family couldn't possibly have used the "Grey Hole" to ambush them and pull off a brilliant escape.

"How could it be? I just want to try my luck first. The survey must be completed within 24 hours, and I need to get busy."

Chen Fei issued an eviction order.

Initially, he wanted to slack off, but the thought of nearby parasitic species eyeing them made him feel as if sitting on thorns.

How could he let others sleep peacefully beside his bed? Even if he couldn't beat that divine species, Chen Fei intended to cause some trouble for them, lest they truly think they could waltz in as if it were an empty city.

The entire "sky dome" scheme was calculated and designed by Artificial Intelligence AI "Adam," not only to isolate the just-ended acidic rain but also to withstand heavy snowfall.

Rain and snow are two different matters. Rain falls along the dome's curvature, naturally shedding off, but snow accumulates little by little, getting thicker and thicker. There's no reliance on an automatic snow removal system. If a malfunction or inefficiency occurs, with snow accumulating to a meter or even several meters thick atop the "sky dome," the consequences would be almost catastrophic.

The silicon carbide "sky dome" translucent panels were still delayed, but the main framework of the dome had been set up in advance. The main structure centered on "Atlantis" extended upward with load-bearing columns. Each column was also a skyscraper with a diameter exceeding 50 meters. Its hollow structure could serve as rooms, although the current population base didn't require such numerous rooms. However, creating a solid metal column was impossible since the basin's bottom couldn't support such weight pressure.

Mirroring the snowflake-like structure of the "Atlantis" nation, it divided into four layers of load-bearing column groups (6-18-54-162), jointly supporting a massive arc "sky dome." Finally, translucent panels were embedded in each hexagonal "mesh," enclosing the basin and the inner city to form an enormous closed greenhouse. It not only could ward off harsh weather but also control the internal ratio of atmospheric components, ensuring an air environment suitable for human survival.

Previously, as the commander-in-chief of the Operation "Wall of Sighs," Huang Xiulun had been quite competent. Despite his deficiencies in intelligence analysis, his implementation abilities were impeccable, and the temporary survey questionnaire was collected perfectly without using the entire 24 hours, all organized uniformly by Artificial Intelligence AI "Adam."

Just after completing the main framework of the "sky dome," Chen Fei, while frowning and drinking a magic potion to replenish spiritual power, compensating for the spiritual power consumption of continuously using psi skills, began reviewing the freshly organized survey questionnaire.

Indeed, unexpected surprises awaited him. Talents lay among the people. Many unverified specialties surfaced through this questionnaire. Although their reliability was unknown, the discovered talents, in both value and meaning, far surpassed the known military skills so far.

A plethora of culinary skills, further categorized into knife skills, dessert skills, noodle-making skills, with surprising expertise in each. Additionally, there were medical skills, martial arts skills, programming skills, electronic technology skills, literary skills, card skills — diverse and aplenty, which even left Huang Xiulun, responsible for this temporary survey, shocked by the hidden talents within the Operation "Wall of Sighs" team. Among them, a superpower user was discovered, unregistered due to a complete lack of self-awareness.

"Found it: spell array enthusiast, alchemy enthusiast. I told you — this was premeditated!"

Chen Fei pointed at the survey statistics on the AR visual assistance interface.

Suddenly, he said, "McKenny, am I right?"

McKenny was the name of that divine species "Sagali," and Chen Fei suddenly said this in an inexplicable manner, not knowing to whom he was speaking. Whether it was the S-Class superpower user Heseman Brown or Huang Xiulun, both suddenly became alert, looking around as if that divine species were lurking here, unseen by anyone.

The guarding security team in the corner rushed out, taking out professional alchemical artifacts or activating their respective abilities to scan the entire room — no, the entire floor, even several floors up and down, thoroughly.

The captain, finding nothing, looked at Chen Fei and asked, "Rookie, where's the parasitic species?"

Chen Fei spread his hands and irresponsibly said, "I just said it casually!"

Completely indifferent to people being nervously uptight for nothing.

Huang Xiulun said, feeling exasperated, "Are you trying to scare us to death?"

In just a short moment, his back was soaked with cold sweat.

"Haha, don't worry!" Chen Fei waved his hand, indifferently saying, "Being worried is useless because if they wanted to take our lives, it'd be as simple as picking something from a bag — no one could resist."

This was tantamount to saying they should lie down and wait to die.

But reality was just like this; Chen Fei, with all his might, was not a match for the divine species, and S-Class superpower user Heseman Brown's psi skills were not the right fit. In the entirety of "Atlantis," there was no resisting force to stop the divine species' slaughter. It was the worst situation but how much worse or bad could it get?

"Are you just waiting to die?"

Huang Xiulun looked disappointedly at this young man who ruled the city with authority.

In the face of the divine species, where's your authority?

"That's right, if not waiting to die, what else can you do for a lowly B-Class metal ability user like me? Don't speak sarcastically. If you can do it, then step up!"

Chen Fei acknowledged his slack attitude, but forcing the impossible — don't hold high hopes.

If you're capable, take the position of mayor willingly.

"Hmph! We'll discuss it later!"

Huang Xiulun turned on his heel to leave. He intended to discuss it with the military heads in the City Management Committee, as a young person simply couldn't be relied upon — collective wisdom was needed to overcome the current perilous situation.

"Is there really no way?"

Heseman Brown only hated that his psi skills were good for defense and escape but not for offense, leaving him completely helpless in the face of the current crisis, wasting his S-Class status.

Chen Fei crossed his hands under his chin, speaking in a deep voice, "If this is all a scheme, we... might have a glimmer of hope!"