A little over a minute later, no living creatures remained on the battlefield save for the seven of them; even the transport ships had been obliterated by either Gauss sniper rifles or the tubular pulse ejector. The power of these two high-tech weapons was truly extraordinary. The tubular pulse ejector possessed sufficient range to hit targets three to four thousand meters away, or even farther. Within a thousand meters, it could effortlessly punch through the alloy armor of a transport ship. Furthermore, it was a sweeping weapon; a continuous burst lasting mere seconds would cause an entire transport ship to violently explode mid-air.

Zero Point’s attack was more direct: a precise, gentle shot aimed squarely at the cockpit. Given the terrifying power of the Gauss sniper rifle, once the trigger was pulled, the pilot inside was guaranteed death. As expected, Zero Point easily downed all seven transport ships. Not a single one had managed to fly even a thousand meters before both of them brought them down.

“Fifty bonus points for every transport ship…” Zero Point picked up the Gauss sniper rifle, then murmured to Zheng Zha, “Fifty bonus points for every transport ship, right?”

Overlord quickly chimed in, “That’s right, fifty bonus points for every transport ship… Oh, and one bonus point for every ten soldiers.”

Zheng Zha paused, then sighed. “Damn it. The ‘Main God’ is clearly encouraging us to engage in wanton destruction. Never mind that. Zhan Lan, have you scanned the location of the Sixth Mobile Unit yet? Find a route with fewer Federal soldiers. It’ll be troublesome if we get caught on camera by war correspondents. We don’t need to worry about the bugs; our weapons should be more than adequate against them…”

Zhan Lan nodded, her eyes closed. “They’re about seventeen kilometers from us, but they’re actually retreating in our direction. There are an enormous number of bugs over there, and they’re still drilling up from underground continuously… They’re coming! Bugs are emerging from the cavern beneath our feet… so many bugs…”

Zheng Zha immediately roared, “Link the visual feed to me, Wang Xia, and Overlord’s consciousness. Luo Gandao, handle close-quarters protection for us. Zero Point and Chu Xuan, keep Zhan Lan safe…”

Before the words fully left his mouth, a mental scan image appeared in Zheng Zha’s mind. He immediately saw countless massive insects, over two meters tall and three meters long, surging upward through subterranean tunnels. The emergence point was on a flat clearing dozens of meters away. He didn't even have time to warn the others before that patch of ground completely collapsed. A pitch-black cavern was revealed in the resulting crater, from which giant insects began to pour out frantically.

These insects were actually quite fast—at least twice the speed of a normal person. Combined with their immense size, their movement was definitely much quicker than humans. They were only tens of meters away, so by the time the cavern appeared, the leading insect was already lunging violently toward the seven of them.

Overlord’s weapon roared once more. This high-tech weapon’s power was exceptional. The foremost insect was utterly pulverized amidst the rapid pa-pa sounds. Beyond piercing it, the sheer force of the massive rounds ripped it into fragments.

(…That carapace is tough. Even with the power of the tubular pulse ejector, it only managed to pierce two or three insects. As expected of the swarm that killed one hundred thousand human soldiers in mere hours…)

Luo Gandao no longer had any psychological barrier to shooting the insects. He grabbed his multi-barreled machine gun and began firing wildly. However, the power of this weapon paled in comparison to the tubular pulse ejector. Its rounds merely sparked against the bodies of the giant bugs, requiring nearly a full second of sustained fire to kill a single one. Yet, bugs continued to pour endlessly from the chasm. As this killing pace dragged on, more and more insects—and insect corpses—began to pile up before the group.

“We underestimated the strength of these bugs. They truly deserve their reputation for wiping out a hundred thousand troops in a few hours. Overlord, keep sweeping, don't let them get close. Wang Xia, use the plasma grenades, just keep the bugs from reaching us.”

Zheng Zha let out a breath. Without hesitation, he took out two Green Devil Skateboards from his spatial pouch, intending to proceed with the earlier plan: the team would use the skateboards to reach the vicinity of the Sixth Mobile Unit, then find an opportunity to join the remnants, and return to space aboard the rescue transports.

Just then, Zhan Lan suddenly frowned and spoke urgently, “Temporarily sever the mental link and the Mind Chain… We’ve been detected, but it’s a generalized scan; they haven’t locked onto our consciousness yet. Wait a moment, I’ll use Mind Lash to shield us from the scan. Give me thirty seconds…”

Hearing this, Zheng Zha immediately put down the Green Devil Skateboards and stood next to Zhan Lan, grasping the Tiger Soul Saber. His eyes glazed over; he had entered the process of unlocking the first stage of his Gene Lock. This was the moment they were most vulnerable to a sneak attack. If bugs burst from underground, they would have no way to detect them in advance. The only thing he could rely on was his precognition to give him an early warning…

Zheng Zha then noticed that Chu Xuan was not positioned around the group. He had actually run into the middle of the corpses of the soldiers who had been shot. Chu Xuan was meticulously searching, pulling out several red warheads the size of a fist. Zheng Zha knew these warheads intimately; they were one of their targets in this horror movie world… miniature nuclear warheads, shoulder-launched, only the size of a fist, yet possessing power comparable to D-grade or even D-plus-grade high-tech weaponry.

At that moment, Chu Xuan suddenly tossed aside the warheads. He flicked his wrists, and two Gauss pistols appeared in his hands. Zheng Zha then felt a tremor beneath his feet. Before he could even shout, the area where Chu Xuan stood completely collapsed. Several black holes immediately opened in the resulting pit, and massive bugs shot out of them.

Zheng Zha’s heart tightened. The insect was only two or three meters from Chu Xuan from the moment it burst from the hole. Just as its massive pincers were about to clamp down on him, in an instant that felt agonizingly slow, Chu Xuan brought one pistol to his shoulder, its muzzle aimed at the bug behind him. With a few sharp pa-pa clicks, the Gauss pistol’s power, at least greater than the multi-barreled machine gun, easily drilled through the insect’s head. Chu Xuan’s two pistols began to spin at a dazzling speed. No matter where the bugs pouring from the caves emerged—to any side of him—they were instantly struck by the Gauss bullets. Chu Xuan stood there impassively, continuously shifting the aim of his pistols. Alone, not a single bug could approach within three meters of him, and dozens of insect corpses were already piling up on the ground…

This continued until Zhan Lan urgently called out, “Done!” Chu Xuan had stood alone against the onslaught underground for over ten seconds, completely unharmed. But Zheng Zha could see that his movements were starting to become slightly stiff, his speed gradually slowing; it was clear that the rapid gun handling was tremendously taxing on his stamina. As Zhan Lan reconnected the scan feed to Zheng Zha’s mind, he leaped forward with his saber, simultaneously shouting, “Zhan Lan, link my consciousness with Chu Xuan’s…”

Having yelled the command, Zheng Zha bounded up and jumped into the crater. At the same time, he used the Mind Chain to silently communicate a firing countdown to Chu Xuan.

“Stop!”

The instant Zheng Zha roared in his mind, he landed behind Chu Xuan. With a horizontal sweep of the Tiger Soul Saber, several charging insects were sliced cleanly in half. Chu Xuan snapped out of his previous state, continuing to sweep fire only directly in front of him, having completely ceded the rear defense to Zheng Zha.

“Zhan Lan, link my consciousness to Wang Xia… Chu Xuan, when I yell stop, cease fire immediately. I will carry you out of this crater. Continuing to fight here isn't sustainable. The scan shows an endless stream of bugs still emerging; we’ll be buried under corpses eventually!” Zheng Zha spoke urgently through their mental link, while also communicating to Wang Xia: “Wang Xia, toss the timed plasma bomb toward us, set the timer for four seconds… Are you ready? Throw it into this pit when I give the signal!”

“Stop!”

“Throw!”

Zheng Zha bellowed, and at the same moment, he began furiously circulating his internal energy and Vampire energy. In less than a second, he entered his “explosion” state. Everything around him seemed to slow down; even the insects’ rapid movements appeared sluggish, like a slow-motion replay. Without thinking, he spun around, grabbed Chu Xuan by the shoulders, lifted him, and charged toward the crater’s edge.

The ground had collapsed about four meters deep. Zheng Zha forcefully pushed off the bottom, then used a single-foot stamp on the crater’s lip to spring upward, leaping clear of the pit. The timed bomb had just reached the bottom of the crater, landing precisely where four red warheads were still lying on the ground…

Zheng Zha clearly saw his objective. He used his Qinggong technique recklessly, diving toward Zhan Lan. Before she could react, he tackled both Zhan Lan and Chu Xuan to the ground. Just then, a blue plasma sphere erupted meters high from behind them. Along with the sphere, several thunderous explosions followed, and a miniature mushroom cloud ascended nearly a hundred meters behind the group. The resulting fog of the blast enveloped them all… (To be continued) Jump to