[Player ID: Yu Yuan Shelter has entered the 'Underground Mine' region]

['Yu Yuan Shelter' VS 'Moss Cottage Shelter', player invasion war officially begins]

"Impossible!"

An extremely suppressed voice rang out within the shelter.

The smile vanished from Xiao Wu's face as he stared in disbelief at the prompt information on the Virtual Light Screen.

Just a second ago, the Truce Period had just ended. Shouldn't it have been Mountain Stone Shelter sending the invasion notification?

How could it have become Yu Yuan Shelter? And there wasn't even a 1-hour war preparation period; he was directly dragged into a state of war.

Refusing to accept this, Xiao Wu opened [Social] and sent a message to his older sister.

—[Sorry, you are in a state of war. The 'Social' function has been temporarily suspended]

But immediately after, a look of savage fury appeared on his face.

"Yu Yuan... Yu Yuan... you damned beast..."

"How dare you!"

After the initial shock, Xiao Wu regained his composure. He remembered what his older sister had mentioned before—that she had already made arrangements regarding Yu Yuan Shelter.

An idea immediately formed in his mind.

"Although I don't know how Yu Yuan managed to skip the war preparation period and launch an invasion against me directly..."

"But once Mountain Stone Shelter discovers that the invasion was preempted by someone else, they will definitely inform my older sister. She should already know about the situation by now..." After calming down, Xiao Wu's mind raced frantically, and he quickly understood what he needed to do now.

That was—to stall.

Yes, stall.

He didn't need to do anything.

He just needed to drag things out with Yu Yuan Shelter here as much as possible.

"Since Yu Yuan Shelter launched an invasion against me, that means his own shelter is in an unprotected state. Even if there are thug factions guarding it, there's a clear difference between having a player in command and not having one."

"My older sister will definitely send someone to invade his shelter..."

Once Yu Yuan receives the notification that his shelter is being invaded, if he wants to return to his own world as quickly as possible, there's only one method: find and kill me as fast as he can.

Otherwise, he can only wait here for 7 days.

Xiao Wu began putting on his gear.

His own shelter was too conspicuous a target. He still didn't know how many troops Yu Yuan had brought, but he had the one-hour shelter location guidance assistance.

He no longer held any underestimation towards Yu Yuan Shelter. Staying in the shelter would only be a dead end.

The risk was too great.

Xiao Wu prepared to head deep underground. That area was not only topographically complex and labyrinthine, housing dangerous subterranean hunting spiders, geothermal traps, and phantom bats, but it also contained the most perilous zone in this underground world—the dungeon.

The dungeon was precisely the lair of that Regional Overlord-level faction, with an extremely high danger coefficient.

Xiao Wu was always extremely careful and cautious whenever he entered the deep underground regions, because a single misstep could lead to injury at best, or a direct account deletion at worst.

But now, facing the threat from Yu Yuan, Xiao Wu could no longer afford such concerns.

Yu Yuan wanted to end the battle as quickly as possible, but Xiao Wu was determined to deny him that wish.

Only by entering the deep underground, relying on his familiarity with that area, could he possibly withstand Yu Yuan's pursuit and firmly drag Yu Yuan here.

Xiao Wu's schemes ran far deeper than just that.

If the invasion war here couldn't be concluded quickly, and his home base was being invaded by someone else, facing this unfavorable situation on two fronts, the psychological pressure on Yu Yuan would undoubtedly increase exponentially over time.

Once feelings of anxiety and panic set in, Yu Yuan would make mistakes.

And that was precisely the greatest taboo when exploring the deep underground regions.

Xiao Wu not only wanted to drag Yu Yuan here, he wanted to personally witness this damned werewolf enter his grave.

He quickly finished donning his gear, stashed all high-value items into his backpack, and brought along sufficient supplies.

Grabbing his weapon, he rushed out of the shelter, activated the shelter's defensive facilities, and ran towards the location leading deep underground.

"Yu Yuan, come and chase me if you dare!"

————————

Squeak squeak—

The Stealth Rat, Zhi Zhi, stood before Yu Yuan, rising up on its hind legs, lifting its head and emitting a series of squeaks.

Yu Yuan, meanwhile, continuously surveyed the surrounding environment.

Looking at the pit props and the roof along the mine tunnel walls, his mood was quite good.

"Heh heh! An underground mining area, isn't this just a mine tunnel?"

Yu Yuan had been thinking about finding resource points earlier!

He never expected the area where Moss Cottage was located would actually be a mine tunnel zone. Talk about a pillow arriving just as you're feeling sleepy?

"The mineral analysis from the lizard's toe earlier seemed to indicate not just metals, but traces of coal as well. That means there aren't just metal mines here; coal resources should also be plentiful."

Yu Yuan pondered.

The status of this region in Yu Yuan's mind skyrocketed.

Whether it was metal ores or coal mines, both were indispensable resources for future civilization development. Once he secured this place, he would have to conduct a thorough survey.

While he was lost in thought, one rat after another emerged from various corners, finally gathering in an area several meters in front of Zhi Zhi, lying on the ground awaiting orders.

Yu Yuan had already reached the 300-meter perimeter of Moss Cottage Shelter. The coordinate guidance on the Virtual Light Screen had already become ineffective. The purpose of Zhi Zhi summoning so many rats now was simple: to once again leverage the advantage of a vast ocean of rodents to dig out the location of Moss Cottage Shelter.

But soon, his attention was drawn to several exceptionally large rats mixed within the rodent swarm. The bodies of the other rats were either pitch-black or dusty gray, and their appearance wasn't much different from normal rats.

However, the fur on these several large rats was a light coffee color. Their size ranged from 0.5 meters to 1 meter, with very short tails only about ten centimeters long. They looked quite plump.

To Yu Yuan, they looked more like big fat rabbits rather than rats, just without the long ears.

These little creatures lay quietly on the ground, their eyes fixed unblinkingly on the Stealth Rat ahead.

A thought struck Yu Yuan, and the Loser's Cube appeared in his hand.

"Zhi Zhi, tell those big rats not to resist."

Squeak squeak—

With Zhi Zhi's cooperation, the Loser's Cube appeared above those several large rats and quickly contained all these big fellows.

After waiting a bit longer, the number of rats gathered before Yu Yuan had already reached several hundred.

Although not a huge amount, it was sufficient.

"That's enough, Zhi Zhi. Let's begin! Let's dig out Moss Cottage's shelter."

Squeak squeak—

Following Zhi Zhi's command, these rats also rose up energetically, half-crouching on the ground, emitting "squeak squeak" cries.

Then, they began to move. Most of the rats all turned and ran back in the direction they came from.

But about one-third of the rats showed no intention of leaving at all. Instead, they started "squeak squeak"-ing at the Stealth Rat, their two front paws waving about in a sort of dance.

Yu Yuan narrowed his eyes, a light smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"It seems things are even simpler than I imagined!"

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by lotustale.com