by <unknown>
The two outermost lines of defense were already about half destroyed after the previous two stages, and this was the Sunils’ disadvantage as well. The beast wave approached the defense team camp against the cannon and fire.
The ground shook violently, and a Bone Armor War Elephant charged toward B12 Defense Team in an overwhelming form. Even Neville, who had iron will, could not help but be nervous because of the pressure from its enormous size. At this moment, a large stream of light covered in electric sparks descended from the sky, blasting half of the Bone Armor War Elephant’s body away, and its flesh splashed onto the ground. Neville looked up—this stream of light had left a distorted mark across the sky, and its ending was connected to the battleship.
The nine battleships in the sky finally fired after doing nothing for half a mouth. Blue light surged in the Electromagnetic Rail Cannons, shooting out bullets covered in electric sparks, picking only enormous beasts as targets, reducing the pressure on the ground immediately.
The battle broke up instantly. Deafening cannon fire and electric spark shone across the battlefield. The beast wave was unending, and the stench and metallic smell of blood were pungent. The defense team fired wildly while firelight illuminated on the corpses of soldiers and carcasses of beasts all over the floor. The losses on both sides were huge!
Clank!
In the B12 Defense Team camp, a more than ten-meter-long pure purple Thunder Leopard moved quickly like a flash of purple lightning, cutting through one of the defense soldiers’ armor, slashing the soldier inside in half as well. Neville ignored it and commanded his subordinates to focus fire with a serious face. He only had twelve subordinates left—the loss was more than half.
“Do not be shaken, defend the camp!” Neville ordered coldly and harshly.
Countless bullets shot into the thick hide of the Thunder Leopard, spaying out blood. The Thunder Leopard growled as it pounced around, killing every soldier. Soon, Neville was the last one left. The Thunder Leopard was still very healthy, and the countless fresh vital signs far in the city were extremely luring to this Thunder Leopard, which was bloodthirsty in nature.
Just as the Thunder Leopard was about to cross the line of defense, Neville immediately stood in front of it, firing his machine gun. After seeing the Thunder Leopard killing the soldiers so easily, he knew that he was definitely not a match, but he still tried to stop the Thunder Leopard without any hesitation.
The duty of the Defense Team was carved deep in his bones—not allowing any beast to cross the line of defense he was in charge of!
As long as no order came from above, he would never back off.
The Thunder Leopard growled with anger and pounced toward Neville. Controlling the NCO Class armor, Neville engaged with it, rolling around dodging and leaving wounds on the Thunder Leopard one after another. He slid from below the Thunder Leopard’s abdomen and dodged its claws. Just as he was about to stand up, he felt an extreme pain on his left arm; the Thunder Leopard had turned its head around in a very strange way and bitten through his arm armor.
The poisonous gas streamed in from the hole. Neville felt piercing pain from his skin, which quickly turned into the numbness of being poisoned. As he held his breath, the antidote was injected into his wrist, and a sense of burning flew through his body.
“After injecting the antidote, the poison effect will be delayed for about two minutes. If I hold my breath, I should be able to last ten more seconds… I have to kill this beast within this time.” Neville’s expression was cold. Even though he was poisoned, he still prioritized stopping the enemy; he had put his life aside long ago.
The man and the beast fought each other. Neville abandoned the bulky machine gun, favoring the saw on his wrist and the cannon and rockets embedded into the armor to fight. After dozens of seconds of heated combat, both parties were covered in wounds. Neville started to feel his body getting stiff, and his head was becoming heavy. It seemed that the effect of excessive blood loss and poisoning was starting to get to him.
Neville suddenly stopped moving. The Thunder Leopard pounced over, and he did not dodge, letting the Thunder Leopard press him against the ground and penetrating his chest and abdomen with its claws.
Plop…
Blood spurted out from his mouth, but Neville endured the pain. One of his hands stabbed into the Thunder Leopard’s neck and tightly hung onto the Thunder Leopard; his other hand reached into the Thunder Leopard’s mouth and fired wildly. He knew his movements were too slow, so he had given up his life and used himself as a bait.
The Thunder Leopard twisted itself in agony. It bit off the arm inside its mouth, then slashed its claws down on Neville in a frenzy. Neville was heavily injured, incapable of moving despite the huge claw expanding in his sights.
“This day has finally come for me…” he murmured calmly.
Just as the claw was about to slam down, Neville saw an enormous blinding electric fire descending.
The next moment, Neville and the Thunder Leopard were both covered by the light of the Electromagnetic Rail Cannon.
…
The tragic battle ended. On the first day of the last stage of the Catastrophe, the losses were heavy. Dozens of fighter jets fell, and even the energy shields of two battleships were almost shattered by the countless enormous flying beasts.
“Such a horrifying battle.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen something so large-scale. I’ll never accept this kind of job again.”
Fear still lingered in the hearts of the mercenaries as they gasped for breath. Many corpses of the other mercenaries lay on the floor.
Han Xiao repaired equipment after equipment. He did not need to take part in the battle directly; after all, in such a dangerous situation, even he was not confident about staying safe, applying for the repairing job was also because he did not want to take the risk. He was there to earn the reward, so it was okay as long as he utilized his abilities and helped; he would not really give his life to other organizations because of money.
During the rare calm period, another group of scouts returned, and all the players came back. The expression on everyone’s face was relaxed, like they did not carry out a dangerous mission but went sightseeing instead. Being in dangerous areas gave no stress to the players at all—they would revive anyway. Although there was a limit to the number of times, most of these people were pro players. Of course, they knew to monitor their times of death.
They were already at max level, so losing some experience was nothing, and the mission reward would cover that loss anyway. Furthermore, it was more useful to earn the universe currency.
The people of Black Star gathered, and after sizing them up, the mercenaries around immediately realized something shocking.
“It looks like they did not lose anyone!”
“What? Every single one came back alive‽”
The mercenaries were completely shocked and curious. They hastily asked from the other members of the scout team and got the answer that these people would revive. Their expressions quickly turned into envy and fear. In the universe, Supers that would not die were the most difficult enemies, and no one dared to take them lightly.
“This mercenary group is entirely made of Immortals!”
“Wow…”
These mercenaries remembered the name of Black Star Mercenary Group, a mercenary group with all members that could not die. In their professional perspective, this mercenary group would become extremely popular in the near future.
Black Star Mercenary Group’s name was reported to the superiors of the military, and they took it very seriously. Immortals were most suitable for reconnaissance, and it could largely reduce the loss of the scout team. Therefore, the military general found Han Xiao personally, talked to him in a very sincere tone, and placed himself lower than Han Xiao, completely different from when he talked to other mercenaries.
What the army expressed was that they hoped the Black Star Mercenary Group would not ta
ke shifts and rest. They wanted the group to go scouting ahead once again. Most importantly, they promised to definitely raise the reward—such useful help definitely deserved better treatment. Thus, the army actively requested to raise the reward because they were afraid that the Black Star Mercenary Group would reject the request.
The mission reward increased to 12,000 Enas, a fifty percent increase. Han Xiao accepted it on the spot, and the bitter players started a new round of reconnaissance. According to the time, it was also the last round of reconnaissance.
The corpses from the battlefield were transported back for their family members or friends to claim. Han Xiao realized that Neville was dead and felt a little emotional; after all, this was someone that he knew.
The family member who came to claim him was a woman, wailing loudly. Han Xiao asked the other soldiers and came to know that this woman was Neville’s wife. Apparently, Neville also had a young kid at home.
…
In Forest City, most people stayed in front of their televisions and watched the live report of the battlefield situation. In such a crisis, the media did not report any fake information at all; they were all the true situation. In an extremely nervous state, they were still able to barely hold on.
The bar did not open. Herlous sat in the attic, watching the report from the television, and drinking alcohol nonstop. Images of the tragic battlefield flashed one after another. Suddenly feeling inexplicably upset, he placed his bottle down, left the bar, and strolled through the streets.
The streets were quiet—there were no pedestrians.
After walking aimlessly for a while, he heard a faint argument. As a grade B Super, although he had not fought for so many years, his sharp senses had not deteriorated. Out of sudden interest, Herlous followed the sound and came to the outside of a building. It was close to the bar, and the sound of argument became clearer as he neared.
“I will reach the required age for the army in a few days. I’m joining the army!”
The voice sounded familiar, like he heard it from someone before. Herlous was a little curious, so he hid and jumped onto the balcony, peeping inside through the window. He realized that he did know the person talking—it was the person who beat up the drunk man in the bar a few days ago, Lana.
Lana was arguing with his parents. Their clothes were all rather poor—they were civilians in low positions. Lana’s parents were very anxious at this moment.
“Joining the army is suicide. I won’t allow you to go!”
Chapter 348. Must Be In Love |
The Sunil Civilization advocated the admiration of Supers and the army, and the spirit of contribution was indoctrinated into them from a young age. Lana had dreamed of joining the army ever since he was a child; he wanted to become an honorable soldier to protect his race, and he had been training hard for it. His neighbor was a veteran, so Lana and the nearby kids always asked the veteran to train them, counting down the days till they reached the age requirement of the army.
The Catastrophe came once every few years, so the time between was all they had for the development period—to collect resources, build more weapons, and train a new batch of soldiers. The Sunils would usually start recruitment for the army after the Catastrophe. Although their population was less than ten percent of their peak population after the DarkStar disaster, the population density was still quite high when they squeezed into a large city.
There were two types of recruitment, one was a self-request, which needed no further explanation, and the other was conscription, targeting prisoners and families with many children. All the youngsters coming of age were also required to take part in military service for some time to go through basic training so that when the time of danger arrived, these people could be recruited as soldiers on the spot.
Of course, Lana wished for more than joining the military services. He wanted to request to enter the army and become an official soldier, but he was met with strong rejection from his parents.
“How can you say something like this? Protecting the race is an honorable thing to do; countless people have sacrificed themselves. I’m willing to dedicate my life to it, too. It’s an honor!” Lana said with his eyes wide open.
“You’re still young and don’t understand many things,” Lana’s parents said. “There are so many people joining the army every year—it won’t make a difference if you don’t go.”
“No, it’s a shameful thing! My dream is to protect our race!” Lana said passionately.
“Then have you thought about us?” Lana’s mother was sobbing. “You used to always look for Mr. Neville next door for training. Yesterday, he was killed in action. His corpse was transported back, shattered. You did not witness the scene—his wife fainted while crying many, many times, and he left a child with only a mother, only able to get past the days with pension money. It’s way too heartbreaking. He still has a kid of a few years old to raise, and we are already old. We only have one child, you. If you die, what do we do? How do you want us to live?”
Lana could not speak properly as he mumbled, “This is not right…”
“Lana, be it Supers, the army, or Mr. Neville, they are all great people, but we are just normal civilians. I love my race, and I will work to contribute to the race. The battlefield shouldn’t be something in our consideration.” The Father placed his hands on Lana’s shoulders and spoke with a heavy heart. He respected Supers, and he respected the army too. While he appreciated the contribution that they made, when it came to himself, he could not make the same choice.
Lana lowered his head and stopped speaking.
“Lana, you have to promise us!” the mother said anxiously.
“… I promise,” Lana said unwillingly while looking down. “I will enter military service, not the army.”
His parents heaved sighs of relief.
Outside, Herlous leaned against the window sill, staring blankly into the sky.
In the sky, the nine battleships blocked the sunlight that was supposed to shine into the city like heavy clouds, the engines on their undersides creating streams of air that became wind. The pungent smell from outside the city could almost not be smelled as the engine fumes were blown into the city.
Many memories showed up in his mind—Fernas’ bitter smile, Lana’s passion, that drunk customer’s blame, the bloody battlefield, the sacrificed soldiers, the admiring people, countless times of pulling himself away from reality after sobering up, every day he spent letting himself rot while being in the bar, and the DarkStar disaster, which he had not thought of for a long time. That was the last time that he had seen his older brother, Delvis.
In his memories, Delvis was still wearing a pair of thick glasses, with messy and oily hair that had not been washed for a long time. His white research coat looked like a robe on his short and thin body, appearing weirdly funny. In the video communication, standing before a research lab with a shattered dome, Delvis pushed his glasses out of habit, then said to his hulking younger brother, Herlous, “Kid, I left something for you in the research lab at home. The password is our parents’ birthday backward. I didn’t waste much energy on the encryption.”
His tone was just like normal, full of disappointment and expecting better from him but with a little hint of not wanting to leave. The communication ended there. At the time, Herlous had looked outside the window, at the direction of the military research lab where Delvis had worked. There had been countless ferocious DarkStar Battleships hovering above, along with mushroom clouds exploding from the ground.
He had used the password to open Delvis’s personal research room—Herlous had always wanted to sneak in and wreak havoc. However, he never could figure out the password. Inside, he had seen the inheritance that his older brother had left for him.
More and more memories appeared. Herlous still remembered, back then, he was a thug that did nothing useful, enjoying himself with his older brother’s salary, reaching grade B at an extremely young age. He had been a thousand
times stronger than Delvis, but he had always stood lower when he faced his older brother, always getting blamed and scolded. Yet, he had not cared because it made no difference.
“Brother…” Herlous muttered softly to himself.
The memories were like rolling bubbles. His thoughts stopped at Han Xiao’s deep and dark eyes—his pupils seemed to have the current of time hidden in them.
Herlous’ expression became a little firm. He went back to the bar, entered the attic, then opened a wardrobe that had been closed for a very long time. Inside was the tunnel toward the secret basement under the bar, which was already covered in dust. He walked down slowly, turned on the light, gazed upon the pile of boxes in the basement. Most of them were Delvis’s relic.
He walked directly to the corner of the basement, pulled out a wooden box, swept away the accumulated dust, and opened the cover.
Inside was a dark colored suit, the inheritance that Delvis had left for him, armor that had been specially built for him in secret—[Shattered Light]!
During the DarkStar disaster, Herlous had relied on this armor to stay alive, and he had never used it after that. Thus, it had simply collected dust in the basement as a souvenir of his older brother.
It was possibly the last usable Commander Class armor in the entire Sunil race.
Herlous stared at the armor, and his eyes gradually turned sharp.
“It’s been too long since I battled… hope I don’t get cramp.”
…
The beasts appearing in the last stage were horrendously strong. They were all at the top of the food chain on the planet, and some of them already exceeded the beast category and could be called monsters.
