Harem Legion: Queens of the Apocalypse-Chapter 245 Crystal Rush: The Game Has Changed

Magnus drove the sleeper truck himself and stopped at the plastic soccer field where he’d already marked a meteorite earlier that day. It wasn’t big, but the area was open enough. A duck that had wandered in got scared off by him.

The meteorite was roughly nine meters long. He turned the truck so that the headlights shone directly on a crack in the meteorite. Then he hopped off and walked to the front. Up top, a steel plate with barbs lay across the truck roof.

The steel structure was solid, built with thick metal bars and rebar, though the rest of it was thinner rolled steel to keep it light.

Harper drove up in her off-road vehicle. Magnus waved at her, signaling where to go. She drove around to the other side of the meteorite, turned her vehicle so its rear faced the sleeper truck, with the meteorite between the two.

Magnus jogged over, pulled out a steel cable, looped it back, and hooked it to the steel shelter’s frame on top of the sleeper truck. He adjusted the angle, then gave Harper another hand signal.

She slowly drove forward, dragging the blood-stained crimson steel shelter along. With a loud thud, it dropped into place. She stopped. Seeing Magnus gesture again, she nudged forward a bit more, aligning the shelter’s front directly against the meteorite. Then he signaled her to stop.

Next, Magnus signaled the sleeper truck. Emily was driving from inside. She repositioned it so the truck’s exit lined up with the steel shelter, then turned off the engine. She looked out, waiting for his next move.

First time doing this - the whole thing was clumsy. Magnus carefully directed each adjustment. Once the shelter was tight against both the meteorite and the truck, he pulled out a plastic sheet from his backpack and started sealing the gaps.

He sealed the space between the shelter and the truck, between the shelter and meteorite, leaving only a small opening, which he used to slip outside. Climbing over the shelter’s roof, he sealed that final gap from the outside. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

Then he walked a slow, careful circle around the whole setup, checking everything. Once satisfied, he looked up at the night sky.

Every now and then, huge bats flew overhead. Around the soccer field, over a hundred mutant rat beasts stood alert, watching like they could smell something to eat.

The sleeper truck had two doors - one at the front, now sealed within the steel shelter, and one in the middle still exposed. Magnus walked to that door and tapped lightly. It opened, and he quickly jumped inside.

"Looks good."

Inside, all the women were geared up and ready. Magnus paced the narrow aisle of the truck’s cabin a few times, nerves tight. If this setup didn’t work, he had no clue how they’d ever dig crystal from meteorites without burning through their precious supply.

"I’ll head out first - stand guard five meters away. You send out ten at a time. Keep the door open. If things go sideways, run fast."

"I’ll take the first team," Emily said, standing at the doorway. She handed each frontline woman a Metal Crystal. "If anything happens, crush your crystal and get back here. Fast."

Each of the ten female team members nodded and took a Metal Crystal in hand. Emily gave Magnus a slight nod. He turned, stepped off from the back of the sleeper truck, walked about five meters, bent down to pick up a small stone, and threw it onto the steel canopy. The clear clink echoed sharply.

The front door of the sleeper truck creaked open. Emily took a deep breath, gripped her flashlight tightly, and was the first to get off. She moved slowly, ears perked up, wary of any sound around them.

Adding Emily, there were eleven women. They stuck close along the canopy wall, edging forward until they reached the meteorite wall. A distance less than ten meters - they took three full minutes to cover it.

Magnus kept scanning the area above, nerves taut. His flashlight swung to check the rat beasts creeping at the edge.

Nothing unusual.

He slowly backed away - ten meters... still nothing.

Then fifteen, thirty, fifty... a hundred meters.

Still dead quiet.

The rat beasts loitered at the edge of the turf field, unmoving. The giant bats in the sky flitted around aimlessly, as though unaware of what was happening below.

Did they pull it off?

Magnus sprang up onto the meteorite, flashing his light toward the direction of the plastic tarp as a signal.

Only then did the ten women with Emily finally exhale in relief. Some rushed back to the truck for gear, then led another thirty or so women down, forming two neat lines. Each one stood half a meter apart, a bright red bucket in hand.

The two at the front crouched with military shovels, digging up meteorite soil and dumping it into their buckets. The second row picked them up and passed them down the line, until finally the soil reached the sleeper truck, where a team waited to sift for Crystals.

Did they really make it?

Magnus returned to Harper’s off-road vehicle, eyes locked on the steel shelter and the threats of the wasteland.

He knew wasting the Super Fire Crystal wasn’t wise, so if he could stay inside the vehicle, he would. That meteorite stood about two and a half stories tall. No way the sleeper truck could carry all that soil.

Sitting in Harper’s vehicle, he figured - if the soil’s just lying there, may as well use it. They couldn’t take it all anyway.

Mixed with water, meteorite soil could burn for 24 hours. It might keep those rat beasts at bay, too.

With that thought, he jumped down, climbed into the sleeper truck from the back, slung woven sacks over his shoulder, and began hauling meteorite dirt bit by bit. He laid down three thick rings of it between the trucks and the meteorite, doused them with water, then lit them all up.

Each ring of meteorite soil surged into five-meter-high blue flames, lighting the area like a blaze. Rats and bats alike backed off a dozen meters, keeping their distance but still watching.

After over an hour, the meteorite was fully dug out. Back in the truck, Magnus checked their haul - eighteen Crystals in total: six Water Crystals, five Metal Crystals, five Fire Crystals, one Super Fire Crystal, and a single Life Crystal.

And a whole truckload of meteorite soil to boot.

They’d spent a full hour on it - but the take was solid. More importantly, the Ice Regiment had finally figured out a way to safely dig meteorites. That alone was worth everything.