# Chapter 3: A Sure Win for Apocalypse
After the pig-headed man left, Su Xiao heard successive sounds of swallowing and licking. Moments later, the narrow corridor fell silent again.
Through his perception, Su Xiao discovered that among the other wall cages here, a total of eight pig-headed men were imprisoned. Due to their tall stature, with an average height of around 2.3 meters, sitting inside the iron cages appeared extremely cramped, unlike Su Xiao who had enough leisure to take out his death duel terminal.
Su Xiao wouldn't act rashly. Everything here was unknown, and most of the available intelligence could only be speculated upon.
First, this should be the interior of a mobile fortress. Most intelligent races in this world lived in this mode. Without the protection of a fortress, heavy machinery contaminated zones, hunters, scavengers, and aberrant beasts could all cause a settlement to be wiped out in a short time.
Since this was inside a mobile fortress, a fortress with pig-headed men was over 90% likely to be controlled by the Vassal Alliance. It was already normal for the Vassal Alliance to treat pig-headed men as laborers and private property.
Other races tacitly accepted this. The life and death of pig-headed men, their human rights, had nothing to do with them, and it wasn't worth offending the Vassal Alliance over this. In fact, there were righteous people who spoke up for pig-headed men, but their outcomes weren't good. Pig-headed men weren't just laborers; they were also trafficked.
Whether for the Vassal Alliance, the Human Race, or even aberrant beasts, the organs of pig-headed men had decent compatibility. Not too compatible, but not severely rejected either. Who would refuse a chance to extend their life?
When evil relates to one's own interests and one becomes a beneficiary, without the forced constraint of law, most people will tacitly accept it. As long as lies can comfort people's conscience, these lies become the truth people are willing to accept.
"Woof."
Bubu Wang's bark came from outside the iron cage door, indicating that Bubu Wang had successfully escaped. Su Xiao had Bubu scout the environment here.
Half an hour later, Bubu Wang relayed back intelligence. As Su Xiao had guessed, this was indeed a mobile fortress with a population of 600 to 1000.
Currently, this mobile fortress was in a stationed state. In this situation, the mobile fortress could transform into four layers. The topmost third layer was where the Vassal Alliance members lived, complete with control rooms, monitoring rooms, dormitories, dining halls, and so on.
Below the top layer, the second layer, there were crushing factories, fortress mouths, material warehouses, food/freshwater storage rooms, etc.
Further down, the layer nearly level with the ground, the first layer, had numerous sleep pods. Each sleep pod was like a cremation furnace, fixed to the fortress's central pillar on the inside. At first glance, it looked like a ring of metal honeycombs.
This was where pig-headed men rested. After crawling into the sleep pods, they could only lie flat inside. The flat-shaped sleep pods didn't allow them to turn over.
Because the sleep pods were stacked too densely, a large open space remained on the first layer of the fortress. These open areas were left unused. Don't think this was a design flaw of the Vassal Alliance; they did it intentionally. A sufficiently open field of vision allowed better monitoring of the pig-headed men. Each person had an independent, thick sleep pod, separating them before sleep so they couldn't privately converse, preventing them from discussing resistance.
This wasn't even the most ingenious design of the Vassal Alliance. All pig-headed men in the fortress were male pig-headed men.
The reason the Vassal Alliance did this was that they knew that no matter what oppression the opposite sex faced, they would still attract each other, producing longing, admiration. Love would always bloom and bear fruit, bringing new life. When male pig-headed men saw their offspring, even if they had been tamed, their bestial nature would awaken again, ultimately leading to rebellion.
The Vassal Alliance eradicated this. They completely separated male and female pig-headed men. Not to mention meeting, in both parties' cognition, they didn't even understand the concept of the opposite sex.
Fortress Motto: Labor is happiness, happiness brings death, death is sacrifice, sacrifice is virtue.
Simply put, the injuries, illnesses, fatigue, and even death from unpaid labor were ultimately categorized as virtuous. Although this was absurd, it couldn't withstand repetition. Over time, the pig-headed men believed this statement was correct.
This sentence was deeply engraved in every pig-headed man's mind. As for those who couldn't be engraved, those naturally wild, they had long become "commodities," while the rest were sent to labor in the fortress.
Speaking of pig-headed men's labor, we must mention the lowest layer of the fortress. After the fortress stopped moving, it would drive piles on the spot, all the way down to the underground mineral veins.
The pig-headed men's daily work was to dig "Living Ore" in the mine shafts. They worked about 19 hours a day, with a meal time of 10 minutes (one meal per day). Excluding the time to go up and down the mine shafts, their sleep time was less than 4 hours. As for entertainment time, please don't be ridiculous.
"Living Ore" was a unique resource of "Ser Star." It could be used to maintain the fortress's operation, or with "Living Ore" + some special materials, allow the fortress to evolve in size. The fortress wasn't a dead object; this was also why it could move.
The many uses of "Living Ore" naturally made it the hard currency of this world. It could be used to purchase supplies from various fortresses.
After learning this intelligence, Su Xiao began to contemplate whether to stay or leave. The mobile fortress he was currently in was the smallest scale type. Even so, it was a massive thing that could house a thousand people.
While Su Xiao was thinking, a clang came from the door opening, followed by the sound of leather shoes stepping on the ground. Several people walked over and stopped in front of the wall cage where Su Xiao was.
These people all wore robes. The leader's hair was combed meticulously. The skin on the right side of his neck was bluish, vaguely metallic in texture. No mistake, this was a member of the Vassal Alliance.
Beside this Vassal Alliance member was a woman wearing a tech-style helmet and a long dress. Behind the two was a tall figure nearly 2.7 meters tall, covered in armor plates all over. From his burly physique, there was a high probability he was a pig-headed man, a guard type.
This wasn't surprising. If a biochip was implanted in the back of the head, the Vassal Alliance would use this type of pig-headed man as guards, to be used for rear-guard actions in dangerous times, or as shields.
"Surprising. The Execution Agency didn't immediately sentence you to death but sent you to my fortress. However, those old fellows at the Execution Agency have good eyesight."
The leading slicked-back haired man made a move to step forward. The Vassal Alliance woman beside him immediately pulled him back, shaking her head slightly, signaling to maintain a safe distance.
"I got carried away. You monster slaughtered hundreds of my Vassal Alliance compatriots like livestock. Rest assured, since you've come to Doom Fortress, I'll treat you well."
The slicked-back haired man, the leader of this fortress, Lee Sinney, grinned, revealing a mouthful of metal teeth.
Inside the wall cage, Su Xiao was estimating something. If he struck now and killed the Vassal Alliance member in front, what benefits would there be, and what subsequent troubles would follow?
After weighing the options, Su Xiao decided not to act for now. He raised his hand to touch his neck. A cold sensation came. A collar was around his neck. It wasn't that he couldn't break it, but the semi-fluid inside him interested greatly. This was a semi-fluid bomb. Slight contact with air would cause it to explode violently.
"Take him to the mine shaft. Keep a close watch."
Fortress Leader Lee Sinney left these words and departed with the others, leaving only an old man with a withered figure holding a string of keys.
Moments later, several guards wearing black-red combat uniforms, complete with helmets and black metal face masks, walked over. They weren't equipped with guns. Each had a hollow metal rod about a meter long hanging from their waist.
As Su Xiao's iron cage door was opened, the four guards all unhooked the hollow short rods from their waists. Electric current filled the hollow interior, making the weapon look both primitive in its metallic heaviness and high-tech.
Zzzt!
The tip of the short rod was pressed against the wall, leaving a large scorched mark. This was more of a warning.
Why not directly jab it at Su Xiao? The reason was that these guards knew Su Xiao wasn't easy to mess with. The initial identity brought by -10 Charm Attribute points was no joke.
...
The blazing sun hung high. Semi-metallic crows flew overhead. Below was a ruined city. Cracks spread across the asphalt roadside, with weeds growing inside the cracks.
The former concrete jungle was enveloped by nature. An abandoned shopping mall still stood, its exterior paint severely faded. The ground in front of the door was covered in broken glass.
Inside the abandoned shopping mall, men and women stood or sat. These were contractors from the Apocalypse Paradise side who had gathered here, about a hundred or so.
These contractors weren't the full combat strength of the Apocalypse Paradise side this time. When the opponent wasn't strong, one must use full force to secure victory.
Presumably, the judgment from Holy Light Paradise and Watchful Paradise was also this result. It could be imagined that among the three paradises, any eighth-rank contractor with some fame would be teleported in to seize "Ser Star," this immensely wealthy world.
With over a hundred Apocalypse Paradise contractors gathered, the scene was inevitably a bit noisy. These contractors had relaxed expressions.
No Death Paradise ranger killers, no Sanctuary Paradise fanatics, and more importantly, no Reincarnation Paradise madmen. This world struggle war, in the eyes of the Apocalypse Paradise contractors, was actually too good. It would be best if future world struggle wars followed this standard, blocking Reincarnation Paradise, Death Paradise, and Sanctuary Paradise altogether.
"Everyone, let's talk about this time's plan, hahaha."
A big-faced brother couldn't help it, laughing as he spoke.
"What are you laughing at?"
"Nothing, remembered something happy."
"Don't underestimate the opponent. This time we... hahahaha."
The scene grew more and more joyful. It wasn't that the Apocalypse Paradise contractors were underestimating the enemy, but that this time they didn't have to fight to the death with those three sides' madmen, killers, and fanatics. Their mood was simply elated.
On the steps of the shopping mall's second floor, Molei and Yueshitu sat here. As key eighth-rank combatants being cultivated, their participation in this war world was inevitable. Obtaining the Beast Heart in the World of Paintings had caused Molei and Yueshitu's evaluations in Apocalypse Paradise to soar.
Molei propped her chin with one hand. When she faced those monsters of the same rank in the World of Paintings, she became a sand sculpture girl. But after returning, she found she seemed to have become Big Shot Molei again, which made her feel like she was in a different world, very uncomfortable.
This feeling was like playing a game, just finishing a dungeon with a group of max-level big accounts from various fields of the same rank. What was even more frightening was that in this dungeon, free killing was allowed. When they hit other participants, it was basically scratching (hitting Zuiyasi, maybe not even as fast as his recovery), while other participants could send them packing to the beautiful world in two or three hits.
This made Molei and Yueshitu instantly go autistic. After returning to Apocalypse Paradise, they were still a bit autistic, a feeling of not being able to beat anyone shrouding their hearts.
On the way to this abandoned shopping mall earlier, Molei and Yueshitu encountered a seven-person team from Holy Light Paradise. Then Molei was dumbfounded. After the battle ended, she was particularly puzzled. Why were these contractors so weak? Not that they shattered at a touch, but after taking a hit from her, they were all full of fear.
The confidence that Molei had previously lost to Su Xiao, Wude, and Zuiyasi was now recovering at a rate of +1 point every few minutes. Yueshitu beside her was the same.
"I checked with authority. This time, Reincarnation Paradise absolutely cannot appear. Absolutely impossible."
After Yueshitu said this, her smile grew brighter. As long as she had time, she could summon over 200,000 game system summoning familiars. Previously, she was often dragged out, but this time with Molei around, this could be avoided. Thus, creating a summon beast army was just a matter of time.
Yueshitu and Molei exchanged glances. They both simultaneously felt that this time was basically secure. Clearly, the Apocalypse sisters had forgotten that there was also such a thing as world invasion.