82: The first battle in Heaven! Angels: You're not playing by the rules!

Li Qiang's earth-shattering roar was like an order, instantly activating the most primal DNA in tens of thousands of players.

"It's real!"

"Brothers! These floor tiles are pure natural white marble!"

"Forget about those damn angels! Everyone, get your tools out!"

"Pry up the floor tiles first!!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, he was the first to set an example.

Li Qiang pulled out his treasured Standard Engineer's Shovel from his backpack, which he had brought all the way from the Wasteland world. He aimed it at the edge of an intact white marble floor tile beneath his feet and forcefully inserted it.

"Heave-ho!"

Accompanied by a strenuous roar and the bulging muscles in his arm, a floor tile, one meter long on each side, twenty centimeters thick, and smooth as a mirror, was forcibly pried up by him.

A System prompt appeared at the opportune moment: [Acquired: Holy White Marble Floor Tile (Excellent Grade Building Material) x1].

This action seemed to flip a switch of madness.

"Holy crap! It really is Materials!"

"We're rich! This one piece is enough to build a toilet back in Black Iron City, right?"

"Don't just stand there! Get to work! If you're late, you won't even get soup!"

The players, who had been somewhat bewildered by their arrival in the Celestial Realm, instantly found their life's purpose.

"Clang! Clang! Clang!"

The crisp sound of metal clashing echoed throughout the entire Cloud Bridge. Tens of thousands of players pulled out their tools—engineer's shovels, power hammers, mining picks. Some even used the hilts of their swords and rifle butts to launch an unprecedented 'renovation' project on the holy plaza beneath their feet.

The scene was incredibly spectacular for a time.

Looking around, the dense crowd was all lying on the ground, butts in the air, grunting and prying up floor tiles. With those movements and expressions, one might have thought a construction crew from some site had Transmigrated here.

Lin Xiaowan's eyes held no other colors; under her passive skill, Eye of Greed, the entire world was a brilliant gold and purple. She directed her guild members to 'harvest' from the edge of the plaza in an organized and disciplined manner, far more efficiently than the scattered individuals.

"That one, that one with runes, it's worth more! Pry that one first!" she shrieked, her voice hoarse from overexcitement.

Wang Wei, however, did not participate in this low-level manual labor. He squatted by the edge of a pried-up tile pit, picked up a bit of dust with his mechanical finger, and placed it on an analyzer.

"Analyzing composition... 95% silicon dioxide, small amount of unknown high-energy particles... hardness comparable to diamond. My heavens, these bird-men use this material for flooring? What a waste of natural resources!" he muttered to himself, his eyes behind his glasses filled with condemnation and... envy for such wasteful behavior.

Amidst this bustling scene of labor, a cold, emotionless electronic voice, like a bolt from the blue, boomed at the end of the plaza.

"Halt! Filthy Mortals!"

This voice seemed to carry a compelling force, causing all players' movements to involuntarily pause.

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound, only to see an entire team of guards, each over three meters tall and clad in streamlined silver armor, appear at some point before the massive silver gate leading to the inner city of the Celestial Realm.

They held long spears shimmering with energy, and though they had no wings, a faint halo floated around their bodies, making them look like statues come to life from mythology.

[Icon Guards LV.35]

The leading Guard Captain stepped forward. Its silver helmet had no facial features, only a cross-shaped red light flickering. It mechanically raised its hand and, in a flat, uninflected tone, began to declare a pre-programmed message.

"This is the Domain of the Gods. You have trespassed without permission, committing the sin of arrogance."

"Desecrating the Holy Bridge and destroying sacred runes is the sin of blasphemy."

"According to the Celestial Code, Volume Three, Article Seven, your sins are unforgivable, and you shall be..."

The Guard Captain's words were cut short by an even louder roar.

"So noisy!"

Li Qiang, carrying the second floor tile he had just pried up, stood up, sweating profusely, and impatiently glared at the pretentious guards.

"So what if we pry up a few of your floor tiles? Is it really necessary to babble on for so long? It's not like we're not giving them back!"

As he spoke, he weighed the white marble tile, which was at least two hundred jin, in his hand. Then, with a sudden spin, he hurled the tile towards the Guard Captain like a discus!

"Whoosh—!"

The heavy tile, whistling through the air, traced a beautiful arc and accurately smashed onto the Guard Captain's helmet.

"Clang—!!!!"

A deafening clang, like a great bell.

The Guard Captain's seemingly indestructible head was thrown back violently, and the cross-shaped light on its helmet flickered intensely a few times, clearly stunned by the sudden blow.

Li Qiang pointed at the guard with a health bar above its head and issued a battle command to the still-stunned players behind him.

"It has a health bar! It's a monster!"

"Brothers! Stop prying! Time to get to work!"

This shout instantly brought all the players back to their senses.

Right! Prying up floor tiles could be done anytime, but BOSSes were time-limited spawns!

"Charge! Strip them of their armor!"

"That spear is good! It looks like a legendary weapon!"

"Don't fight me for it! That captain's helmet is mine!"

Tens of thousands of players, who had just been acting as 'renovation workers,' instantly switched back to 'ruthless bandit' mode. They howled, brandishing their engineer's shovels and power hammers, and launched a tidal wave-like charge at the team of Icon Guardss, which numbered no more than a hundred.

The Guard Captain finally recovered from its 'downtime' state. Its programming evidently did not include a contingency plan for 'being hit in the face with one's own floor tile by an enemy.'

But its combat instincts remained.

"Alert! Hostility detected! Initiating Purification Protocol!"

"First Combat Sequence! Form Holy Shield Array!"

The remaining Icon Guardss immediately sprang into action, moving in perfect unison to form an iron defense line composed of huge shields and light spears. Between the shields, holy energy flowed, forming a massive wall of light.

"Divine Grace Cannon! Fire!"

At the captain's command, the tips of all the guards' long spears simultaneously glowed with dazzling light. The next second, dozens of thick energy beams swept across the charging player crowd.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

Dozens of players at the forefront didn't even have time to scream before they turned into white light amidst the holy glow and returned to the city to revive.

This caused the frenzied players to calm down a bit.

"Holy crap! This thing's damage is a bit high!"

"Don't charge head-on! Find cover!"

However, Li Qiang grinned, a bloodthirsty excitement on his face.

"High damage is good! Monsters that are like 'scratching an itch' are no fun to fight!"

Instead of retreating, he charged forward first, meeting the second volley of light cannons. He held the massive white marble tile in front of him like a shield.

"Sizzle—"

The energy beams struck the tile, erupting in dazzling sparks, but failed to penetrate it immediately.

Taking advantage of this gap, Li Qiang had already rushed to the shield array.

"Open up for me!"

He roared, using all his strength to smash the tile-shield in his hand fiercely against the energy light wall between two guards.

"Crack!"

With a crisp sound, the seemingly indestructible light wall was actually smashed with a crack by this simple and brutal physical attack!

"It's working! Brothers, use their own stuff to hit them!"

The players instantly had an epiphany. They picked up the tiles they had just pried off, imitating Li Qiang, and used these heavy 'bricks' as battering rams and projectiles.

For a time, bricks flew across the plaza, creating an incredibly spectacular scene.

The Icon Guardss' logic circuits descended into complete chaos.

[Analyzing... Enemy is using Zone A flooring to attack Zone B defensive units... Tactical model cannot match...]

[Warning... Enemy disregards divine might... Enemy behavior pattern judged as 'chaotic/disorderly/rogue'...]

While they were still trying to comprehend this illogical tactic, Wang Wei's voice rang out in all players' communication channels.

"Stop smashing the shields! It's too inefficient! I found a weakness!"

"These tin cans' movement patterns are too rigid! They're typical programmed soldiers! Watch me!"

Wang Wei directed several mage players to cast a few low-level Mud Pit spells in front of the shield array.

Several dark, sticky Mud Pits instantly appeared on the holy white marble plaza.

The Icon Guardss clearly hadn't anticipated this. One guard stepped into a Mud Pit, and its metal combat boot, designed for smooth surfaces, instantly slipped.

"Squeak—"

This three-meter-tall behemoth swayed in place twice in an extremely comical manner, then crashed backward, incidentally knocking down two teammates behind it.

A huge gap instantly appeared in the perfect shield array.

"Now! Go! Dismantle them!" Li Qiang roared.

The players, like sharks smelling blood, swarmed through the gap.

The ensuing battle could no longer be called a battle, but a one-sided, organized 'disassembly operation.'

The players completely ignored conventional tactics.

An Icon Guards had just raised its light spear, ready to impale the enemy in front of it, but the player didn't dodge. Instead, he spread his arms and tightly hugged its waist.

"Brothers! I've got him! Go for it!" the player shouted.

The guard's processor was completely unable to comprehend this suicidal attack. It stabbed its spear through the player's body, but the player, even as he turned into white light, had a satisfied smile on his face, his hands still tightly restraining it.

In this split second of stagnation, seven or eight players had already pounced.

Some hugged its legs, some used ropes to entangle its arms, and even more, one player directly jumped onto its back, pulled out a rogue's lock-picking tools, and furiously jabbed at the wiring interface on its back of the neck.

"Don't hit the body! It's all high-resistance alloy! Dismantle the parts! Their joint connections are the weak points!" Wang Wei commanded loudly from the rear.

Thus, an even stranger scene appeared on the battlefield.

A warrior player gave up attacking; he circled behind the guard and violently struck the back of its knee joint with his shield.

A mage player no longer cast fireballs but used his Hand of Force to specifically steal the guard's spare energy packs from its waist.

Li Qiang was even more valiant. He jumped onto a guard's shoulder and furiously smashed its neck connection with a power hammer, sparks flying as if he were blacksmithing.

How could the noble, holy Celestial Guards have ever seen such a vulgar and shameless fighting style?

Their programming only contained honorable tactics like frontal charges, shield defenses, and energy volleys. Faced with this group of 'Mortals' who went for the crotch, locked throats, dismantled joints, and used every conceivable dirty trick, their logic circuits frantically struggled at the brink of overload.

[Warning! Encountering unknown combat mode!]

[Warning! Enemy is dismantling my left arm! Requesting tactical support!]

[Warning! My energy core has been stolen!]

[System... System crash... Zzzzt...]

A few minutes later, the battle (or rather, disassembly) ended.

Before the once majestic silver gate, it was now a mess.

One hundred Icon Guardss were dismembered, their parts piled into small mountains. Lin Xiaowan was directing the crafting players, joyfully sorting and packing these parts.

"Put intact armor plates here! Throw damaged ones into the furnace!"

"Energy spears go separately! These are hard currency!"

And the leading Guard Captain suffered the most tragic fate.

It was stripped bare, its expensive silver armor gone, leaving only a faintly glowing energy undergarment, a testament to its last shred of dignity. It was 'nailed' to the silver gate by the players with its own light spear in a humiliating posture, publicly displayed as a war trophy.

Several players even gathered around it excitedly, adjusting angles to take photos with this 'backdrop' using the System's built-in camera function.

Li Qiang looked at his masterpiece with satisfaction. He was carrying the newly confiscated energy long spear, still warm, and was about to see if he could pry off the emblem on the gate when... "Woo—woo—woo—!!!!"

A sharp, urgent alarm suddenly blared from deep within the Celestial Realm, echoing throughout the entire Cloud!

All players' movements froze.

Li Qiang looked up, only to see hundreds, even thousands, of light points simultaneously illuminating in the distant sky!

Immediately after, countless light wings made of pure energy unfurled simultaneously, obscuring the warm sunlight. A pressure a hundred times more terrifying than all one hundred guards combined descended from the heavens!

A cold, grand voice resonated deep within everyone's Soul, no longer through an amplification device, but as a direct transmission of consciousness.

"Invasion alert! Level One 'Abyssal Grade' contamination source detected!"

"Purification Protocol initiated!"

"First to Tenth Combat Sequences, all units deploy! Target—Cloud Bridge!"

"—Purification commencing!"