Even though they were several hours ahead of schedule, no one dared to relax. They had returned to where Country Z was located—the continent with numerous nations and the highest number of domes to construct.

"2:58, 2:59… three minutes!" Even without a watch, the man in beach shorts's brain worked like a precise timer. "There are eleven cities along this longitude that need to be constructed."

The group groaned collectively, dragging their exhausted bodies back to work. Meanwhile, the 3,000 Guardians, seemingly invigorated after witnessing the collapse of Architect, darted tirelessly into the sky as if fueled by chicken blood* (T/N: Boundless energy). Everyone couldn't help but admire as they watched the composed black-haired youth. (What an incredible display of willpower!)

The work was still grueling, but with the scorching sun no longer relentlessly chasing them, the pressure had eased considerably. Most people managed to grab fleeting moments to rest their eyes for two or three seconds or sip stamina and nutrition potions. Although the saviors were already at their limits, these brief pauses gave them enough strength to keep going for several more hours.

But when they teleported to a mountain city in the southern part of Country Z, C2001—who had been holding everything together for over six days—finally snapped!

At this point, C2001 had long abandoned his stifling suit and was wearing a light-colored T-shirt and shorts borrowed from a volunteer on another continent. However, after being covered in dust and drenched in sweat, the outfit was filthy. Layers of grime, water splashes, and evaporating sweat had transformed the once-white T-shirt into a hardened mix of muddy brown and black stains.

"Programmer! How did you design this city? Why are there so many protruding structures?!"

Still glued to his smart terminal, Beach Shorts didn't even bother looking up as he replied, "I brought it up during the meeting with the leaders of Earth. I told them the mountainous terrain and complex building structures would make constructing a dome extremely difficult. Still, they were unanimous in wanting to preserve this place. What else could I do?"

C2001 looked around at the rollercoaster-like streets, the countless underground bomb shelters, the hilltops covered in high-rises, and the network of suspended trams. He then looked up at the dome above, which was dotted with gaping holes, and toward the eastern sky, which was already beginning to brighten.

"Forget it! Just leave it open!" he exclaimed, waving his arms dramatically. The motion caused his filthy, mop-like hair to sway wildly. "Get everyone evacuated instead..."

"Where'd this lunatic come from?! Saying not to fix it, so you just won't fix it?" A grumpy old man passing by on the street, clearly mistaking the disheveled Architect for some street-corner lunatic, couldn't hold back anymore. Slapping his thigh, he shouted, "In this heat, if you don't get them to patch it up, everyone's gonna be fried to death!"

After finishing his rant, the short and scrawny old man fanned himself with a palm-leaf fan and walked off, shaking his head in frustration. He had no idea that the person he'd just scolded was actually an SSS-level tasker from the Salvation Alliance and the chief commander of Earth's rescue plan.

Sitting in a car, Xiao Yi and Huo Li silently watched the entire scene unfold: "..."

After C2001's outburst, followed by the old man's scolding, he surprisingly calmed down. Ignoring Programmer, he started to demolish the building silently.

The first time they worked on building the dome for this mountain city, everyone had been in a rush to erect reflective panels before the sun's eruption. As a result, they had only completed the easier 70% and left the complex parts for later. Now, being forced back under the relentless chase of the sun, they all felt like procrastinating students cramming homework on the last day of summer vacation, regretting their earlier decisions. (Why didn't we just finish it back then?!)

Now, they had to not only dismantle buildings and add panels but also lay the foundations and erect pillars for the unfinished sections. Dozens of Guardians even flapped their wings and squeezed into a hotpot restaurant that had been converted from an underground bomb shelter to reinforce the metal support columns beneath it. By the time those Guardians emerged, their feathers were saturated with the spicy aroma of the mountain city's hotpot broth…

After overcoming the challenging dome construction in the mountain city, the construction team was once again confronted by the relentless sun. The dome no longer resembled a smooth, flattened drop of water; instead, it appeared as a jagged and uneven shard of light. Exhausted and on the verge of heatstroke, the saviors couldn't bear to look at the unsightly dome they had painstakingly built. They quickly activated their teleportation talismans to escape this architectural nightmare.

.

Fortunately, as they continued their journey, the terrain gradually rose in elevation, bringing cooler temperatures. By the time the clock struck 11 a.m., they finally arrived at the last city that required a dome.

Beneath the dazzling white sunlight, a group of Guardians flapped their wings, struggling to carry building materials as they flew upward. Their ascent was much slower than before; where their earlier wing movements had resembled the majestic and leisurely flight of eagles, they now looked more like frantic sparrows—albeit enormous sparrows with a three-meter wingspan.

The black-haired youth used his spiritual sense to nag incessantly, "Huo Li, make that one fly faster! It's about to fall!"

He watched as one Guardian struggled to flap its wings, ascending just five more meters before collapsing at the dome's edge. With a loud clatter, it dropped the thermal insulation panel it had been carrying, looking completely drained.

Huo Li responded, "It's wings are already flapping fast enough. If it increases the frequency any more, it will start losing feathers."

The black-haired youth envisioned a scene of 3,000 Guardians, formed from the power of faith, desperately flapping their wings while feathers flew everywhere. The mental image made him wisely shut his mouth.

Initially, the Guardians had been a tremendous help with construction. However, they began to suffer from oxygen deficiency upon reaching the plateau! This was particularly evident in this final town, located at an altitude of 6,000 meters above sea level, where the air density was only 40% that of the plains. The Guardians had to flap their wings even faster to overcome Earth's gravity, which only aggravated their altitude sickness.

Xiao Yi struggled to stay quiet for long when he suddenly saw one of the Guardians on the dome explode into a beautiful burst of fireworks.

"Hey, hey! Huo Li, that one made it up there! Why did you kill it?" the black-haired youth exclaimed.

Huo Li replied matter-of-factly, "Although it wouldn't faint mid-flight and crash if it hadn't self-destructed, it would have vomited from altitude sickness in the next second! This is a pathological reaction beyond my control. Unless you want everyone to see a Guardian formed from the power of faith throwing up stomach acid…"

The black-haired youth fell silent again. Ever since he had expressed his distrust in Huo Li, this bigshot had been quietly holding a grudge, which now manifested as poisonous sarcasm.

The frustrated black-haired youth watched as his once-divine Guardians flapped about clumsily like fools in midair, feeling utterly humiliated. The reason behind the transformation of his "Xiao Yi Army" into bumbling idiots sat right beside him.

Irritated, the youth began to communicate through their mental link. "Those Guardians carry Alien genes. Even though they only express their human components, couldn't you enhance their internal mutations to make them a little bit stronger? Even if they had only half of my abilities, they could still fly at 100 miles per hour while carrying loads in low-oxygen conditions. How did my perfectly capable Guardians become weaklings and fools the moment they came under your control?"

Huo Li, leaning back against his black wings in the car and wearing his silver mask, replied impassively through a telepathic sneer, "I have no idea what the internal structure of an Alien looks like. Do you think I'm smart enough to deduce its functionality just by glancing at rows of DNA base pairs? It's already impressive that I figured out how to make them self-destruct quickly. Otherwise, we'd have to keep stopping along the way to clean up after Guardians that fell from the sky and died on impact."

The black-haired youth couldn't help but laugh in exasperation. "Every single one of my non-human limbs has its disintegration genes prioritized at the very top. Just one command, and they can self-destruct. Yet, the great Boss Huo Li has somehow discovered a method to make them collapse. How marvelous!"

Huo Li, unfazed, skipped over the subject and continued his sarcastic retorts. "If you really want them to fly at 100 miles per hour, that's not impossible. After all, I'm only controlling your limbs on your behalf, and everything should follow the master's wishes, right? I could summon them all back, have the Earth staff prepare a bowl of instant noodles for each Guardian, strap an oxygen tank on their backs, and fit them with masks. That way, they'd be good to go for high-intensity labor. Though, admittedly, they might not look very godlike anymore."

The black-haired youth instinctively felt the urge to turn around and punch Huo Li in the face. After all, as his Guardian, Huo Li wouldn't fight back—it was crucial to maintain their cover.

Just as Xiao Yi clenched his fist, he noticed Ge Tai, a heat-exhausted member of the mission who had the ability to copy powers, walking toward them. Reluctantly, Xiao Yi released his grip and glanced at him through the car window to see what he wanted.

Ever since the collapse of C2001, measures had been implemented to prevent the overworked commander from succumbing to exhaustion on the job. Xu Yun Cheng had assigned several other task force members with abilities beneficial for dome construction to assist. Among them, Ge Tai's power-copying ability proved to be the most useful. Every time C2001 used his architectural powers, Ge Tai could store 10% of the output. Even though he could store it 20 times, Ge Tai's use of the ability only reached 50% of C2001's strength. Nonetheless, it provided C2001 with brief moments to catch his breath.

As a result, after every 10 uses of C2001's powers, Ge Tai would step in and perform two uses of the reduced-strength construction ability. With these breaks, Architect was able to improve his progress, making the completion of the remaining 30% of the dome tasks feel less burdensome.

Upon reaching the plateau, all members of the task force were issued oxygen tanks. Unfortunately, the Guardian army did not have the same privilege and quickly changed from being an elite force to becoming a liability.

Ge Tai approached the car door. Everyone now understood how precious it was to preserve any bit of cool air, so instead of signaling Xiao Yi to roll down the window, he spoke through the glass. "22d14, you haven't rested even once this entire time. Judging by the state of your Guardian ability, it seems like it's about to give out. How about I stop helping the Architect for now and assist you instead? Currently, the Architect and I have been exceeding our 30% quota, but the progress on reinforcing the foundations and installing the reflective panels has fallen behind. You're managing 3,000 Guardian Spirits; I could copy your ability and summon 300 of them myself."

The black-haired youth, who possessed no abilities of his own, immediately felt alarmed but tried to remain calm. He casually declined, "That's not necessary. Look at the Architect—he's wobbling and seems like he needs more help. I can push through a bit longer!" Meanwhile, he mentally shouted to Huo Li. (Make them work faster! Losing feathers doesn't matter; just let them disintegrate midair!)

Ge Tai wiped the sweat from his forehead but refused to give up. "2d14 ah, the progress of the Guardian team has lagged the most. The sun will soon be at its peak, and if we don't finish in time, the soldiers and volunteers on the ground will collapse from the heat. Don't worry about my ability; although it's called replication, I can only copy 10% of yours at a time, and once I've used up what I stored, I can't reuse it. I promise I won't hold anything back or steal your ability."

Xiao Yi realized that if he refused again, it would seem suspicious. Suppressing his nervousness, he asked cautiously, "What do I need to do for you to copy or sense my ability? Can you copy it directly now?"