The Hawk forces arrived at Huawang City once more, bringing ten clones, twenty thousand Ghost Fighters, the Sixteenth Armored Division, and two Army Groups, totaling nearly half a million personnel. Additionally, they brought two million combat robots as cannon fodder vanguard. Of the three hundred and twenty battlecruisers, Yang Ying had summoned two hundred for fire suppression.

As Yang Ying’s main force deployed outside Huagang City, the great capitalists of the northern suburbs instantly panicked. They were already aware that the Tran Mercenary Group was a formidable armed force capable of raiding—and succeeding against—the Kustar people, placing them in a completely different category from disorganized mobs of resistance fighters or armed workers.

The two thousand warships they had finally managed to call upon were devastated in less than half a day, with fewer than half remaining, most captured. Facing the assault of the Tran Mercenary Group with only their private armies was clearly going to be a major problem.

Before Yang Ying’s main force could even approach the northern suburbs, envoys sent by the great capitalists were already at their doorsteps.

However, since all thirteen of the Yang Ying contingent were flying in their combat aircraft overhead, every envoy met with empty air. They could only negotiate with the ground troops, and Yang Ying had already instructed the ground forces: if they encountered such people, do not say a word of argument; immediately place them under soft detention and hand them over to the Ghost Special Agent Unit for processing. Yang Ying’s order was to extract every detail of the enemy’s military deployment from their mouths.

The Ghost Special Agents possessed many methods for making people talk. Especially in this high-tech age, various truth serums, brain-probing machines, and mind-influencing spells made them all the more formidable.

The Ghost Special Agents had an innate talent for awakening psychic powers. As time passed, some elites had begun to awaken, though the numbers were small—only a handful, and their strength was negligible. Yet, it was a promising start. Several awakened Ghost Special Agents had mastered the Charm spell, the most common spell used by psionicists to extract intelligence. It was highly effective against those without psychic power and weak wills.

However, as secret detection technology advanced, so too did the means to protect secrets within one's mind, such as the famous Garlan Star product, the Mind Protection Chip, which could enable a brain to resist the corrosion of various drugs, spells, and machines, effectively safeguarding all secrets.

Clearly, these great capitalists had taken precautions regarding their own secrets; the envoys they dispatched generally possessed the ability to protect their own thoughts, meaning the Ghost Special Agents did not gain much, though they managed to dig up a little information here and there.

According to the testimonies of several envoys, since Sa’an, sent by the Kustar Empire, had retreated in disgrace, the major local families were extremely terrified. While preparing terms for peace, they were simultaneously mobilizing all their forces in case negotiations failed and they had to fight to the bitter end.

At this time, five million combat robots and two million private soldiers, along with countless light and heavy weapons, had already gathered in several underground fortresses in the northern suburbs. Moreover, starting two days prior, the various private armies began coordinating to deploy all sorts of landmines across the northern suburbs—induction mines, contact mines, intelligent mines, and so on. Now, that beautiful stretch of open land spanning dozens of kilometers had become a massive minefield; danger lurked every three to five steps.

However, these actions had long been noticed by the Observers; it was not new intelligence. Yang Ying was fully prepared for this, and those two million robotic cannon fodder had been brought precisely to deal with that minefield.

The ground troops marched to the northwest corner of Huawang City. The robots arrayed themselves in a line formation, advancing in waves with short distances between successive ranks.

Each line stretched three thousand meters from left to right, enough to carve out a safe passage for the main force.

As the robots stepped into the minefield, one mine after another detonated. Some explosions flared blue, possessing intense heat capable of instantly melting metal, and each blast was enough to wipe out twenty robots. Other mines, once triggered, would leap from underground and explode in mid-air, covering a wider area and destroying fifty to sixty robots at once. Still other mines possessed judgment; seeming to deem the combat robots too much like mere fodder, they spared them, waiting for larger targets to approach before detonating.

Violent explosions erupted continuously. Fortunately, the distance between the front and rear ranks of robots was great enough that explosions in front rarely affected those behind, so while the robots suffered constant losses, their advance was relatively smooth.

At this moment, a formation of invisible Ghost Special Agents arrived at the northern exit of Huawang City. To the right of the road leading out of the urban area stood a bronze statue of a figure one hundred meters tall. This greenish color was similar to the scales of the Flin people, which is why bronze statues were never lacking in the areas where the Flin resided. This statue depicted an old man, portrayed gazing with a satisfied expression over everything within Huawang City. It was rumored that this man was the first mayor of Huawang City and one of the original explorers who first surveyed the planet Dorun.

The bronze statue was more than twice the height of the Statue of Liberty and stood at the highest elevation in the vicinity, offering the farthest view. The Ghost Special Agents ascended to the statue's pinnacle, the old man’s head, where a platform equipped with high-powered binoculars allowed visitors to observe the scenery.

However, at this time, no patriotic citizen was taking in the view; only the Ghost Special Agents were there. The lead Ghost Special Agent looked out over the open plains, checked the intelligence relayed by the Observers for a map of the northern suburbs terrain, and signaled backward with a gesture. The other eleven Ghost Special Agents gathered beside him. The group communicated silently using hand signals.

In truth, from such a height, with no one else around, they didn't need to worry about others overhearing them even if they spoke. The reason they still used hand signals was not because the Ghost Special Agents were overly cautious, but simply out of habit.

The leading captain unfurled a holographic sandbox map, tapped several locations, and then tapped several individuals. For every location he tapped, he tapped a person, and the person tapped signaled understanding with a gesture, simultaneously noting the location assigned to them.

Finally, he had designated exactly twelve locations. The entire formation, including the captain, was accounted for. This holographic sandbox map displayed the underground fortresses scanned by the Observers—twelve underground fortresses. These hid seventy percent of the total strength of the great capitalists’ private armies. The fortresses were protected above by reinforced fortifications; walls of composite alloy ten meters thick were nearly impervious to any top-down attack, even ordinary nuclear warheads.

But Yang Ying had ultimately decided to use nuclear weapons—not ordinary ones. To counter these underground fortresses, Yang Ying had his team rush the production of a batch of burrowing missiles over the last two days. Utilizing the most common graphite, subjected to high temperature and high pressure, they could artificially create Graphene-Niobium composite, which was child’s play for the technology of the Tran Mercenary Group. A drill-head made of this material, coupled with the intense kinetic energy generated by falling from orbit onto the planet, was theoretically sufficient to punch through ten meters of composite alloy wall and deliver the warhead deep into the underground fortress.

Of course, with continuous technological advancement, the alloy might not necessarily be softer than the composite; the final result would depend on the actual practice.

The Observers could not directly guide nuclear munitions; they could only indicate the direction. Thus, the guidance work still fell to the professional Ghost Special Agents. After their consultation, the twelve Ghost Special Agents arrived at the edge of the platform, lined up, and raised their rifles to aim at their respective targets. Twelve small red dots silently appeared across the northern plains.

Inside the twelve targeted underground fortresses, several masters who commanded psychic power simultaneously felt a chill run through their bodies, and a powerful sense of foreboding washed over them.

In space, twelve unusually large missiles launched from twelve Behemoth-class battlecruisers, streaking toward Dorun. Upon entering the atmosphere, friction with the air heated their casings red; from a distance, they resembled twelve meteors plummeting suddenly toward the ground.

“Run! The enemy attack is here!”

The psychics who had foreseen the nuclear strike shouted wildly, using telepathy, roaring, and sounding alarms through all means available to warn everyone to flee.

Simultaneously, they were the first to run. Relying on their tougher physiques than ordinary people and movement spells like 'Shortening the Ground,' they vanished almost instantaneously, fleeing in any direction that could take them out of the underground fortresses that now threatened them with death.

Just behind them were the great capitalists and their bodyguards. The bodyguards included psychics, and after their brief explanations, the great capitalists understood that staying underground could mean utter annihilation, so they too urgently fled toward pre-prepared escape routes.

However, the more than one million private soldiers ran into trouble. Hearing evacuation orders on the communication channels, they instantly descended into chaos. After all, exit capacity was limited; each underground fortress held over a hundred thousand private soldiers, and evacuating such a large number collectively was far from easy.

Yang Ying and his thirteen comrades were still flying overhead, watching rows of robotic soldiers march forward below. Behind them, thirty thousand invisible Ghost Fighters hovered silently in the air, seemingly awaiting something.

At that moment, Yang Ying looked up and saw twelve reddening fireballs descending from the sky. He nodded: “Good. They’ve arrived as expected.”

Due to the missile guidance systems, the twelve fireballs struck the ground almost vertically, plunging deep underground like bullets. The soil was torn apart as if it were air, and soon they impacted the alloy plates. The kinetic energy of the Graphene-Niobium composite instantly shattered the alloy, and the burrowing missiles successfully penetrated the earth!

Not many of the private soldiers had managed to escape. After all, a place capable of housing over a hundred thousand soldiers and even more combat robots—how could it be small? Calling it a small town was an understatement.

Those positioned near the center of an underground fortress, without transport, wouldn't even have reached the edge of the fortress by this time.

However, some soldiers did notice a hole suddenly appear overhead. Due to the brief time span, before they could even form a single thought, their vision flashed white, and then they knew nothing more.

BOOM!!!!

I apologize; I have a terrible cold, and the diamond is no match for the germ, leaving my brain foggy. I am posting two chapters today. If I feel better tomorrow, I will certainly make up for the third.

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