Chapter 693.2: I'm Not Fighting These Freaks
“... A meaningless sacrifice is not loyalty. The Wolf God will forgive us this momentary humiliation,” he ground out through clenched teeth.
Hearing that, the guards finally let out a breath of relief. They dropped their weapons, helped their commander out of cover, and limped toward the forest ahead.
Everyone silently rejoiced that their commander had agreed. Otherwise, they would have had to tie him up and drag him over themselves.
Seeing their commander surrender, the last few soldiers still resisting also gave up, discarding their weapons and stepping out of cover.
The prisoners were quickly gathered and, under the guns of three players, escorted to the edge of the battlefield.
More than 100 men squatted in a row in the forest, hands on their heads. Officers and soldiers alike were filthy and dejected.
A battalion unit that had once been at full strength was now reduced to fewer men than a single company. It was an utterly miserable sight.
Looking at the pathetic group, Dumb Turtle, with grass piled atop his helmet, couldn’t help muttering, “Damn... beating these guys doesn’t feel satisfying at all.”
Blastoise, who stood beside him, shook his head. “Too weak.”
Finding it boring, Squirtle slung his LD-47 rifle across his chest and walked to the front of the prisoners, striking a cool pose.
Eyeing that show-off, Dumb Turtle asked, “What the hell are you doing?”
Squirtle urged him, “Quit yapping and take a photo for your old man, make me look handsome.”
“Holy shit, are you serious?” Despite the complaints, Dumb Turtle opened the tactical helmet recorder’s screenshot function and took a close-up of him.
Looking at the photo uploaded to his VM, Squirtle grinned wider the more he looked at it. “Who cares if it’s stupid? I think it’s awesome!”
Three people capturing an entire company. He would definitely post it on the forum later to show off!
Seeing this, Bastoise got jealous too and walked over to strike a pose. “Damn it, take one of me too!”
Roughly understanding what they were doing, Dilrang felt the veins on his forehead bulge, but he had no choice but to look away and swallow the humiliation. What he didn’t know was that, thanks to his very interesting expression, the photographer had also taken a close-up of his face.
Even if it didn’t make the front page of Survivor’s Daily, it would be more than enough for the front page of the trash outlet, the Goblin Observation.
Meanwhile, the blue-skinned Mutant Humans, now nearly full, had finally finished off the prey in the sea. Riding the bloodlust stirred by fresh carnage, they surged ashore and charged toward the rainforest.
They had seen with their own eyes the prey flee into the forest. Having not yet had their fill of killing, how could they allow such prey to escape?
At this moment, Peepo and the teammates beside him finally wore serious expressions.
They would not underestimate those creatures just because their equipment was crude.
Mutant Humans themselves were a half–singularity-level technology. Their base stats already surpassed ordinary human limits.
As bioengineered soldiers, they possessed terrifying vitality and resilience. In other words, they themselves were weapons, it hardly mattered how primitive the tools in their hands were. Even if they were holding nothing but branches, no one would dare be careless.
“Open fire!”
At Peepo’s command, more than 30 gun barrels spewed flame in unison.
Struck by concentrated fire, the leading Mutant Humans’ chests erupted in sprays of blood, yet they did not stop their mad charge.
Several Mutant Humans shot through the head collapsed onto the beach, only to be swallowed almost instantly by the tide of creatures surging ashore behind them.
Watching the Mutant Humans grow ever more numerous, Peepo felt his scalp go numb.
Just then, deafening artillery blasts suddenly tore through the rustling leaves of the jungle. Shells rained down on the beach ahead of him like a storm.
Boom, boom, boom!
Explosions sent dust skyward. The front ranks of blue skinned Mutant Humans were instantly flattened, severed limbs and shattered rocks flying into the air.
“Beautiful!”
Witnessing the carnage, the players erupted in excited cheers, whistling their praise for the gunners who’d hit dead center.
Seeing the artillery strike as well, the Xilande Empire soldiers squatting with their heads down turned deathly pale, falling completely silent. At that moment, they were only grateful that they hadn’t stayed on that beach to die.
Looking again at the officer who had urged them to march to their deaths, their hearts now held only hatred, no trace of longing for the nonexistent spoils or honor remained.
After taking a round of shelling, the blue skinned Mutant Humans’ advance clearly faltered. Many who hadn’t been directly caught in the blasts were left stunned by the thunderous detonations.
Then the second barrage followed immediately.
This time, however, it caused little direct damage and produced no world-shattering fireballs. Instead, palm-sized circular discs rained down across the wave-washed shoreline.
Those were the latest goblin-tech artillery-deployed mines, fired from 155mm guns.
The results proved that, aside from his unreliable experiments, Mosquito could occasionally come up with something genuinely useful, so long as there were real-world examples to draw from.
At that very moment, the Mutant Humans still surging toward the shore had no idea that their line of retreat had already been completely sealed off by a dense minefield.
After both artillery barrages had finished, the 30-man squad led by Peepo also received orders to withdraw. Escorting more than 100 prisoners, they pulled back to the north, deliberately letting the Mutant Humans pour into the rainforest.
Before those Mutant Humans could even celebrate breaking through their prey’s defenses, gunfire erupted from all directions, instantly freezing the ugly grins on their faces.
At some point unknown to them, two companies had already maneuvered around to their left and right, clamping down on their vital points like a pair of red-hot iron tongs.
Leading the assault at this moment was the New Alliance’s elite, the Jungle Corps!
The Mutant Humans caught in the concentrated fire immediately felt that the pressure bearing down on them had more than doubled. The human soldiers rushing in as reinforcements were vastly superior in both firepower and accuracy compared to the 30-odd men who had merely been scratching at them earlier.
And what was flying at them now was no longer just 7mm toys, but 19mm explosive armor-piercing rounds designed for anti-vehicle warfare!
When those hit, it wasn’t a question of leaving a hole in their bodies, it was a question of how much of them was left.
Their bodies were nowhere near as tough as those green skinned brutes from the Brocade River Province, and to maintain mobility they hadn’t worn heavy armor either. Almost the moment contact was made, they left behind over 100 corpses.
As casualties mounted, fear finally appeared on their fish-scaled faces.
Facing opponents even more brutal than themselves, they finally broke.
“Retreat!” someone screamed, and the blue-skinned monsters that had swarmed ashore turned tail and fled back toward the coastline.
The sea was their home turf! As long as they made it back into the water, no matter how fierce those metal lumps wielding chainsaws and cannons were, they could never be a match for creatures under their ancestors’ protection!
At this moment, they still hadn’t realized that their escape route had already been sealed by mines.
The first Mutant Humans to reach the beach didn’t even catch the salty scent of seawater before sudden pillars of flame erupted beneath them, blowing their lower legs apart. They collapsed screaming, clutching what was left of their knees and rolling in agony.
Seeing the brutal end of their fallen kin, the rest of the blue skins slammed on the brakes, staring in terror at the beach painted red with blood, not daring to take another step forward.
More than 500 fish-scaled monsters ended up packed together on the beach.
At the same time, the Jungle Corps, split into two formations, calmly emerged from the edge of the rainforest.
The K-10 exoskeletons coated in green paint stood like iron towers, and together with the cannon guns cradled at their waists formed a steel wall thick with killing intent.
The brothers of the Burning Corps hadn’t even taken action yet. Just the Jungle Corps alone were more than enough to flatten the rabble.
