Swallowed Star

by Alexander Buchanez

  Suddenly--

  "PENG!" a deep sound full of force rang.

  In practically an instant, the bullet went through the air and shot through. Not only was the power of this alloyed armor piercing bullet destructively high, but its speed was also a couple times higher than the speed of sound. Because it was faster than the speed of sound, the sonic boom it causes is behind the bullet, which means that the sound won't reach the monster until after it has been hit by the bullet.

  The bloodthirsty tank walked slowly on the street, commanding large amounts of monsters.

  "PU!"

  The scales between the back of the ear and the neck instantaneously combusted, dramatically blowing up a hole as the bullet forced its way through.

  "AO~~" the bloodthirsty tank wailed in pain as it started staggering and swaying around. After it regained its balance, the bloodthirsty tank immediately howled in rage and bitterness over and over. In an instant, the large amounts of pig type monsters that were spread out immediately rushed towards it, and the spot where the bloodthirsty tank was hit started bleeding. It kept howling over and over, but it wasn't able to determine where the bullet was shot from.

  ......

  On the roof, Chen Gu slightly raised his head and moved the optical aimer device away from his eye as he said confidently: "My luck was pretty good, I hit its vital spot. This bloodthirsty boar didn't die instantly because its life force is strong, but it'll fall for sure within 5 minutes". The first shot is the most effective shot in long ranged sniping because the commander level monster isn't prepared for it.

  However, if the first bullet fails to strike a vital point, then there'll be trouble.

  And a commander level monster has extremely high defense, so its pretty good if a bullet could just pierce through its armor. Because of that, bullets usually concentrate on high penetration powered 'armor piercing bullets' and not some of the destructive explosion bullets. If you can't even get through the armor, then what's the point of being destructive?

  "Nice shooting" laughed Zhang Ke as he gave a thumbs up.

  "The skull of a bloodthirsty tank is extremely hard. Even if you get through the scales, the bloodthirsty tank isn't affected much" laughed Gao Feng, "Chen Gu, this gun is fantastic". If Chen Gu failed, then they would have to kill all of the monsters guarding the bloodthirsty tank, which is too difficult!

  "Don't praise me too much"

  Chen Gu laughed: "Now you guys have to think of a way to get the corpse of that bloodthirsty tank. There are hundreds of monsters surrounding it. And if we're too slow..... another fighter squad might steal our loot".

  "Don't jinx it, there are probably at most two or three fighter squads in this country level city". Gao Feng laughed, "Alright guys, let's tidy up and depart, to get the corpse down there".

  Chapter 46: The corpse of the monster

  "Zhang Ke, go and carry one of Chen Gu's steel cases!" commanded Gao Feng.

  "Yes, captain".

  Spear Zhang Ke headed towards Chen Gu, where Chen Gu was currently disassembling his heavy sniper rifle and putting it back into the wooden case. He put the wooden case and large amounts of ammunition into the steel case and handed it over to Zhang Ke. After that, Chen Gu opened the other steel case and took out a grim machine gun. He wrapped the bullet chains around himself and attached one of the ends to the machine gun.

  Luo Feng clicked his tongue after seeing such a sight and couldn't help but to be amazed.

  Heated weapons are usually only very effective against soldier level monsters. For example, there was luck involved in the one shot killing of the 'bloodthirsty tank'. With such a large body and tough skull, even if the bloodthirsty tank gets hit by a bullet, it usually doesn't affect it at all.

  So--

  There are very few spots where you can kill it in one hit. Like the eyes, right below the skullcap, and behind the ears. You have to be extremely accurate when shooting. One, you need skill, and second, you need luck. If the bloodthirsty tank was just a bit more cautious, or even if it just changed its direction, the shot would've missed.

  "Go, go down"

  After Gao Feng's command, Luo Feng and the others went down the staircase and quickly left the blue sky sector.

  ����

  Five minutes later, Luo Feng and the others were in a small alley. Wei Tie, who was leading, sneakily made a peek outside, and said as he turned his head: "Captain, the bloodthirsty tank is down and dead".

  "Old Chen, damn nice" Gao Feng gave a thumbs up.

  Chen Gu laughed.

  "However, captain" continued Wei Tie, "there are at least a couple hundred monsters surrounding the body of the bloodthirsty tank. It's gonna be troublesome to retrieve the bloodthirsty tank's corpse". This is the annoying part of killing a commander level monster with far ranged attacks. Even if you succeed, retrieving the valuable materials from the corpse is also very dangerous.

  However--

  It's much safer than killing the commander level monster in the herd of monsters.

  "Same rules, Wei Tie and Wei Qing will distract the herd. When they're confused, we'll go" commanded Gao Feng, and he turned his head towards Luo Feng.

  Luo Feng took a deep breath at this time. Charging at a couple hundred monsters in a herd is indeed the most dangerous situation he's been in so far with the fire hammer squad. Of course, according to the posts he read, these kinds of situations are one of the easier situations that fighter squads have to deal with. There are situations that are tens to hundreds of times more dangerous than this.

  "Luo Feng, you wait next to Chen Gu. Your mission is to protect Chen Gu and not allow any monster to attack him" commanded Gao Feng.

  "Don't worry captain, I definitely won't let even one monster approach brother Chen" nodded Luo Feng.

  Good, let's go!"

  Gao Feng ordered.

  Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Two black lights came flying from the brothers Wei Tie and Wei Qing's hands, as if they were lightning. They flew for around a hundred meters and landed in the middle of the herd of monsters. These two black lights were actually two ellipse-shaped black balls. These ellipse-shaped black balls also had a red timer signal on them.

  The monsters that noticed this thing immediately got away in caution.

  Beep! Beep!

  "BOOM~~"

  The two timer bombs exploded ferociously. Flying fragments followed the powerful explosion, causing the two monsters beside them to fall with blood all over their bodies. At the same time, the bombs released large amounts of smokescreen, which quickly spread around in every direction.

  In terms of power, these two timer bombs only killed one monster by luck and harmed five or six of them. Most of the monsters were just affected by the smoke screen.

  "Charge!" commanded Gao Feng.

  Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

  Luo Feng also exploded all the strength in his body, with his shield in one hand and his ghost blade in the other. He sprinted quickly and followed Chen Gu. The speed of all six members of the fire hammer squad was astonishing. They were around 150 meters away from the commander level monster's corpse in the herd and they got there in four or five seconds.

  And this was with a decreased speed from running into the middle of the herd.

  Captain Gao Feng moved like lightning and charged forwards. He was holding one of his heavy hammers in one of his hands and started swinging it, and only the two sounds "PENG!", "PENG!" were heard. Two of the soldier level monsters' heads immediately exploded after getting smashed. One side were the medium soldier level monsters and the other was the 'beginner level warlord' fighter whose strength neared an 'intermediate level warlord' fighter.

  The difference in strength was too big!

  He was holding his heavy hammer in one hand, but a dagger in the other. In almost an instant, he was next to the corpse of the 'bloodthirsty tank', and he rapidly stuck his dagger into the hole made by the bullet behind the bloodthirsty tank's ear. While Gao Feng was dissecti
ng this corpse and getting the materials, the other five members of the fire hammer squad were in danger.

  "Hurry, Luo Feng, protect old Chen well" said Zhang Ke as he waved his spear.

  The brothers Wei Qing and Wei Tie were protecting Gao Feng. With the bloodthirsty tank's defense, if it was Wei Tie or Luo Feng dissecting it, a large amount of time would be needed. However, with Gao Feng's astonishing strength, half a minute is enough time.

  "HOWL~~"

  "ROAR~~"

  The surrounding monsters discovered Luo Feng and the others and started charging at them. It was like a heavy hummer charging at over 100 km/h at them.

  "Get out" with two skillful steps, Luo Feng smashed the shield in his left hand into the charging horned boar as he dodged, pushing the horned boar off balance. Its gigantic body fell over and shook the ground as it fell onto the already cracked concrete sidewalk, causing large amounts of dust to rise.

  Luo Feng didn't want to kill the enemy, he just wanted to survive for half a minute.

  "XIU!" "XIU!"

  Zhang Ke waved his spear, killing two soldier level monsters and beating down three of them. After that, those three enraged monsters howled and surrounded Zhang Ke as they charged at him. Zhang Ke didn't have a shield; he only used his one spear.

  "Not good", after slashing with his spear, Zhang Ke's face changed.

  "ROAR~~" the speed of an iron fur boar charging is at least 50 m/s. The size of its body is like a small truck, but its speed rivals a sports car's. And not only did Zhang Ke not have the time to block, but there were also three monsters surrounding him in front too.

  "I'm going to receive a heavy wound this time". Zhang Ke clenched his teeth.

  "PENG!"

  A shadow appeared from the side and it stomped on the charging iron fur's body. Doing so under such a high speed would cause you to lose a lot of control over your body. The iron fur boar also lost control after getting stomped and it directly fell over. However, it quickly crawled back up.

  "Brother Zhang, let's hang on here" said Luo Feng.

  "Luo Feng, thanks!" yelled Zhang Ke gratefully. If it wasn't for Luo Feng, Zhang Ke would've definitely received a heavy wound. Zhang Ke thought to himself: "Letting Luo Feng join the fire hammer squad was indeed a good idea. And his steps are so quick and agile".

  "Great technique" praised Chen Gu who was under protection.

  At this time, there were a couple hundred monsters in the herd, and the fight between Luo Feng and the few dozen at the beginning soon attracted many more monsters. Thankfully, the smoke screen blocked their vision and the herd hasn't been able to effectively bring out their full power.

  "Not good, captain, hurry"

  Wei Tie couldn't help but to yell.

  With every passing second, the fire hammer squad's situation worsens. The monsters surrounding them quickly increased in number.

  "Chen Gu, fire!" commanded Gao Feng who was squatting beside the bloodthirsty tank's corpse and being protected by the Wei Jia brothers.

  "Yes".

  Chen Gu licked his lips and smiled savagely. Luo Feng and Zhang Ke, who were beside Chen Gu, immediately stepped back. As Chen Gu pressed the trigger, "TU TU TU~~~" a stream of light sprayed out of the muzzle like crazy. Each and every bullet was an expensive armor piercing bullet that Chen Gu bought.

  They're even a bit threatening to a commander level monster.

  "HOWL~"

  In an instant, large amounts of monsters started howling in pain as the crazily shot armor piercing bullets started entering their bodies. These monsters were strong in vitality, so they usually don't die even after being shot. Only firing at their heads can you kill them in one shot! These armor piercing bullets won't go through a commander level monster's skull, but they usually have no problem with soldier level monsters.

  PENG! One of the monster's cerebrospinal liquid flew out.

  PU! One of the monsters that fell had another hole in its body.

  "Haha..... die, die" as if Chen Gu was going mad, ke-luo alloyed armor piercing bullets continuously streamed from the gun's muzzle. The bullets virtually suppressed a whole side of the herd. Luo Feng and Zhang Ke were stopping the other side of the monsters from attacking Chen Gu.

  As the gun fired, the monsters in the smokescreen were able to quickly determine the correct direction and charged madly.

  When fighting a herd, Chen Gu's skill with the machine gun makes one fighter equal around ten fighters! However, as the machine gun fires, it attracts the attention of other monsters.

  "Okay, let's go"

  Chen Gu, who finished harvesting the material, commanded in a low voice, which made Luo Feng and the others sigh in relief.

  Whoosh! Whoosh!

  The six members of the fire hammer squad started escaping.

  "RUMBLE~~" hundreds of enraged monsters started chasing them. One running monster is enough to shake the concrete earth. Hundreds of them running together made it seem like an earthquake was going on. The entire street and even the ruined homes and apartments beside them started shaking. They even gave off a rumbling echo.

  "Herds sure are scary" Luo Feng turned his head and looked back. The hundreds of monsters that were mad enough to almost go crazy were practically flying at them, so it was quite a startling scene.

  "Over here"

  The fire hammer squad immediately slipped into an alley. The alley was very narrow, so two monsters couldn't walk side by side at the same time; they could only enter one by one. Taking advantage of this, the fire hammer squad kept slipping into small alleys in the built-up areas. They soon shook off the entire herd of monsters.

  �����

  Half an hour later.

  Luo Feng and the others quietly came to a roof of a hotel that was 18 stories high.

  "Haha, everybody did a great job this time" laughed captain Gao Feng, "Chen Gu, that shot was brilliant. Luo Feng, you were great too, you saved Zhang Ke. Yup, this 'bloodthirsty tank' is a medium commander level monster, and it's one of the hardest medium commander level monsters to hunt. We sure made a bit of cash this time. I wouldn't have thought that we'd make this much on our first day; we sure got a ton right when we started. I estimate that as this month goes on, our income won't be small at all".

  Luo Feng, Chen Gu, and the others all started laughing one by one.

  Luo Feng looked at his tactical communications watch and was startled: "a phone call?"

  Even if someone calls, this tactical communications watch won't distract the fighter. The fighter has to look at the watch himself to find out if someone called him.

  "It's from home" laughed Luo Feng, and he gave a voice command, "Call back!"

  "Beep, beep, beep, beep....."

  The tactical communications watch called Luo Feng's home.

  Chapter 47: Tiger Fang Squad

  "Yo, bro"

  Luo Feng couldn't help but to laugh after hearing the sound that came from the tactical communications watch: "Luo Hua, weren't you heating things up with that young lady? How come you have the time to call me!"

  "Haha....."

  On the balcony, Chen Gu, Zhang Ke, and the others came one by one and started laughing.

  "Even if I have a wife I can't forget my older brother" laughed the younger brother in the tactical communications watch, "Oh yea, bro. I called to tell you something. Nan officially agreed to be my girlfriend, haha..... isn't your brother great"

  The younger brother laughed joyfully.

  How long has it been? He hasn't been this happy before.

  "The power of love is indeed great". Luo Feng thought to himself, "He's been crippled for so long, so he has a lot of psychological pressure to deal with. For him to be so happy after getting a girlfriend......" Luo Feng was happy for his brother, and immediately laughed: "You still gotta work hard and get that certificate!"

  "Bro, we can't rush this. We gotta go step by step" laughed Luo Hua.

  "Oh yea, what about mom and dad?" asked Luo Feng.

&nbs
p; "They went grocery shopping" answered Luo Hua.

  Luo Feng nodded.....

  Mom can finally go grocery shopping in the afternoon, and Dad can finally relax and spend time with Mom in the market.

  "I'm fine bro. Be careful while you're out of the city" said Luo Hua out of concern.

  "No worries!"

  After the call ended, Luo Feng had a smile all over his face.

  "Alright, since Luo Feng is done with his phone call, everyone come here for a sec" said Gao Feng. In a moment, Luo Feng and the others walked over, "today, we just entered the city and produced great results! As always, we'll divide the spoils based on everyone's contribution in the battle!"

  "After we finish hunting and return to base to resupply, we'll do the dividing". Suddenly, Gao Feng's expression became very serious, "However, let me give a reminder, that everybody must be extremely cautious! This is an area with a high amount of buildings, where all the monsters' nests are. There will be a huge amount of commander level monsters in the entire city. So don't let your guards down, or else it'll be troublesome if any of you get into a dangerous situation. Many fighters died last year".

  "Yes"

  Chen Gu, Zhang Ke, the Wei Jia brothers, and Luo Feng all nodded seriously.

  Luo Feng also knew.....

  That joining the army was the safest. The mortality rate of a fighter like him barging into the wilderness was extremely high!

  "Everybody used up quite a bit of energy in the slaughter just now. We were also rushing through the night, so everybody rest now. After 4 PM, we'll move out!" decided Gao Feng.

  "Yes"

  "Phew, time to rest"

  The six members of the fire hammer squad either leaned against something or laid down to rest.

  ���

  While the fire hammer squad was well-hidden and resting on the rooftop of the hotel, the tiger fang squad already entered the #0201 country level city. The six of them were carefully moving throughout the alleys of the ruined city. Some of the alleys' walls were collapsed, and some even had corpses of monsters in them.