He glanced at the bent military dagger in his hand. This dagger should never have pierced the chitinous shell of the bug's eyelid, yet he had driven it in with sheer brute force. As a result, the tip of the military dagger had completely warped after just one thrust. This was hardly a high-tech blade; it didn't even possess the strength of titanium alloy. Without a second thought, he tossed the dagger aside, pulled out the sharp claw embedded in his own abdomen, letting the blood gush forth. He planted one foot on the insect carcass and wrenched his left hand with tremendous force—a strength ten times that of an ordinary man, amplified by his internal energy—managing to tear the lethal claw loose right from the joint. It was a spear-like appendage, about a meter long, fashioned from some unknown external tissue whose hardness was astonishing. After a few more attempts to wield it, he charged back toward the spider-like insect.

The spider-bug had been watching him the entire time, reacting with lightning speed. Upon seeing Zheng Zha violently rip the limb from the other spider-bug, it abandoned its massacre of the remaining soldiers. Instead, it reared up its six claws, screeched, and lunged at Zheng Zha.

(Such speed, faster than my normal pace. What now? Should I use 'Explosion'?) In that instant, several thoughts flashed through Zheng Zha’s mind. But before he could react, several bullets struck the tips of the bug's running claws. Though the bullets lacked immense power, these few shots were delivered with exquisite timing, fired precisely in the momentary gaps.

With such uncanny, precise force, the bug was sent tumbling. The direction it rolled happened to be right in front of Zheng Zha, so without hesitation, Zheng Zha drove the claw forward with all his might, plunging it in an instant.

The claw pierced the bug's head.

The insect struggled for only a few more seconds before slowly going limp.

Zheng Zha pulled the claw free and gasped heavily.

Then, more than ten soldiers rushed toward him, cheering wildly. They shouted encouragement, while several female soldiers frantically used gauze and bandages to dress the wound in his stomach. Wang Xia also approached him, asking with concern, "How are you? Is it serious?" "Nothing major... What high reward points! One for every hundred... How about you? Did you get any reward points when you used the micro-nuclear bomb just now?" Zheng Zha vaguely recalled the 'Main God's' voice prompt he had faintly heard earlier.

He then spoke to Wang Xia.

Wang Xia froze for a moment before offering a wry smile. "I didn't get any reward points... It seems using the micro-nuclear bomb doesn't grant points. Perhaps it's because we used their weapons..." Zheng Zha managed a weak smile as he looked at the adoring eyes of the surrounding soldiers, especially the female soldiers carefully and hurriedly bandaging his wound. He sighed and spoke to those around him, "Everyone return to your posts and await rotation according to the schedule! First squad, keep firing; Second squad, prepare your weapons! Coordinate rotation, one hundred men at a time. Third squad, start clearing the corpses... And assign half the personnel to resupply the other soldiers with ammunition! Move!" With Zheng Zha's loud shout, the soldiers scattered instantly, rushing to their assigned stations. Meanwhile, the soldiers elsewhere on the hilltop sat on the ground, resting quietly. Every one of them knew that this moment required everything they had, and they couldn't waste a single second of rest that conserved energy. This time might be their last chance to rest before they were sent back to the front lines to fight to the death.

The first squad was slowly replaced by the second. These remaining three hundred-plus soldiers could still roar and fire wildly while on the line, but once they stepped off, they collapsed as if their frames had come apart, requiring two men to support them toward the bonfire for a sip of warm, thin water and a bite of compressed rations. It took these soldiers over ten minutes to recover their senses, after which they sat there silently, as if all strength had been drained from them.

It wasn't just physical exhaustion, though that had been severe. More oppressive was the psychological strain—facing the endless, dense swarm of bugs that seemed capable of instantly piercing their defenses at any moment. They were fortunate to be on the easily defended hilltop; if they had encountered such numbers on flat ground, they would have been completely annihilated within tens of minutes, perhaps even sooner...

"Zheng Zha, be careful! One of those new Tank Bugs is charging up here. It’s not fast, but the bugs around it are moving to its rear. I fear something is unusual," Zhan Lan's voice suddenly transmitted into Zheng Zha’s mind. Simultaneously, she sent over a scanned image. Zheng Zha indeed saw a massive, black bug, seven or eight meters tall, moving toward them with a heavy, lurching gait. It waved two enormous pincers, resembling a magnified longhorn beetle, except this beetle's carapace looked like black rebar, so dark it weighed heavily on the heart.

"Wang Xia, how is your modification of the potent explosives coming along? What's the power like?" Zheng Zha quickly turned to Wang Xia. The man pulled several regular-looking grenades from his inner pocket, which immediately puzzled Zheng Zha.

Wang Xia urgently explained, "Modifying explosives in this era is quite high-tech. This is a white crystalline explosive I’ve never seen before. Each grenade contains only a thumb-sized white crystal, surrounded by black stabilizing agents. I don't know the exact power, but it should be immense. So, I took the crystals from ten grenades and put them into one, but I had to use much less stabilizer. I don't know how it will perform... it might be very dangerous. You decide whether to use this grenade."

Zheng Zha nodded, accepting the grenade. After a moment’s thought, he placed several grenades into his spatial storage ring. Since there wasn't enough stabilizer, they might detonate unexpectedly if he moved too violently, so storing them in the ring seemed safer. He then turned his attention back to the direct front of the position, muttering, "Wang Xia, when that Tank Bug moves closer, use the micro-nuclear bomb for the attack... And you still have that fourth spare nuclear bomb, right? Don't just keep it stored. Assemble all of them and use them immediately if we are in danger, or we might not even last two or three hours..." As they spoke, dozens of Flamethrower Bugs were crawling uphill from the base of the mountain. Several of these Flamethrower Bugs had round tumors on their backs—something they now knew were parasitic spider-like close-combat bugs capable of projection. Their melee power even surpassed that of the ground-crawling bugs, so these specific Flamethrower Bugs received special attention. They were annihilated from afar when they were still five hundred meters out from the main group, but those dozens of tumors were ejected nonetheless. This time, however, the tumors did not land above the defense line; instead, they crashed down about a hundred meters in front of the position. As soon as they deployed, they frantically rushed toward the soldiers on the line, but under the barrage of hundreds of guns, these dozens of spider-bugs were instantly shredded on the ground.

There are always trade-offs. Many soldiers’ attention had been focused on the spider-bugs and the Flamethrower Beetles carrying them, allowing several Flamethrower Beetles to reach within a hundred meters of the defense line. The foreheads of these beetles glowed crimson, and intense lines of fire scorched toward the position. Even from that distance, those on the line felt an unbearable heat; fire lines of that temperature could surely burn bone to ash! Overlord roared madly, "Don't panic! They are still far away. Keep firing, keep firing! You must not retreat even half a step, or face military justice!" With that, he stood alone at the very front, wildly spraying with two standard submachine guns. This action bolstered the courage of the surrounding soldiers, and they all roared back. Some burly Caucasian men even ripped off their shirts and leaped out, all uniting to fire madly at these Flamethrower Beetles.

Finally, these Flamethrower Beetles were not truly invulnerable to blades and bullets. When they were about fifty meters from the position, their carapaces were finally pierced. Before they could spew fire again, their entire bodies began to disintegrate under the barrage, and with a massive roar, they finally collapsed onto the ground.

Everyone collectively breathed a sigh of relief. Because the Flamethrower Beetles had made their attack, the main swarm of bugs behind them could not keep up immediately, giving all the soldiers a moment to recover. Instantly, over a hundred men collapsed to the ground. Chu Xuan, noticing this, immediately ordered the next platoon to rotate in, sending this exhausted unit down to rest, even though their scheduled time hadn't arrived yet...

"Zheng Zha, the Tank Bug is here! Be careful, the Tank Bug is being shielded... Something is definitely wrong!" jumped the...