Chapter 76: Misfire

Volume 1 “Year of Calamity”

Above the sky, Medusa and several Purifiers had once again prepared themselves. Although Medusa still felt somewhat uneasy about An Sheng, she was not one to hesitate. Having made up her mind, she said nothing more.

Flames, lightning, and the Aurora converged once again, launching an assault on a single point of the cage. The Energy Cage flickered once more, and after a violent explosion, a breach appeared again.

“Spatial Displacement!”

“Lightning Avatar!”

Medusa and Fang Yi almost simultaneously activated their skills, vanishing instantly into thin air. The next moment, the two of them appeared within the Killing Formation surrounding the group!

Without any hesitation, they immediately unleashed their most powerful area-of-effect attacks. In an instant, Medusa’s giant Flame Venom Serpent, along with Fang Yi’s thunderstorm resembling the World-Ending Lightning Tribulation, enveloped three Titans and nearly half of the armored special forces soldiers within the Killing Formation.

“Report! Two members of the Alien Race have broken through the Energy Cage!”

A female officer loudly reported the situation. The next moment, a three-dimensional projection of the battlefield below appeared before Chief of Staff Hu Biao.

“Maintain the Antimatter Cage! Dispatch the reserve team to reinforce the combat units. We must eliminate these two aliens!”

Hu Biao proved himself to be a decisive general. Although he hadn’t anticipated that the aliens could break through the Antimatter Energy Cage, his experience allowed him to respond immediately.

The attacks by Medusa and Fang Yi indirectly reduced the pressure on An Sheng and the others inside the cage. The two of them were now drawing the most fire, making the interior of the cage relatively safer.

An Sheng finally had time to glance toward the Fortress below. He saw large numbers of Mechanical Soldiers had cleared the Zombies from the outskirts of the Bunker and established defensive lines. Especially when he saw an ultra-futuristic large aircraft landing outside the Bunker, his anxiously suspended heart finally settled.

No matter what, the people he cared about most would finally be rescued. Perhaps after today, opportunities to see them would become scarce.

At this thought, An Sheng felt a sudden pang of sadness. He was no longer human and ultimately couldn’t live among humans. Especially after today’s events, this realization became even more profound.

Medusa’s mockery wasn’t without reason. As she had said, “The humans you’re desperately trying to protect would turn around and try to kill you.” An Sheng understood this, but he couldn’t bring himself to accept it.

He wasn’t a Saint and couldn’t be that magnanimous. He only hoped that the family members who had endured hardships with him would live better lives in the future. After all, humanity had become much stronger now, no longer helpless against alien slaughter as before.

Just as An Sheng was lamenting the unpredictability of life, he suddenly noticed something unusual about the Mechanical Soldiers outside the Fortress Bunker on the ground. They seemed to be confronting someone?

Looking closely, An Sheng discovered that the Mechanical Soldiers’ Spears were aimed at none other than Xun Lili, who was being protected by many survivors from Yushan.An Sheng had no idea what was happening, but he knew it couldn’t be anything good! This situation made him extremely anxious, yet he could do nothing about it.

He simply lacked the strength to break through the spherical cage. What should he do? What on earth could he do!?

Just then, An Sheng suddenly remembered he still had a small communicator in his pocket. He quickly retrieved it from his trousers.

Fortunately, despite the intense battle, the communicator remained intact. But An Sheng had no time to marvel at the reliability of military equipment—he immediately put on the communicator and pressed the call button.

These small communicators in Yushan were salvaged from Huan’an’s scrapped medium-sized airship. There were fifteen in total. Besides the ones regularly carried by An Sheng, Nie Chong, and Xun Lili, the rest were usually issued to personnel on resource-gathering missions.

For this purpose, Yushan Fortress had established its own communication frequency. However, this indirectly facilitated Ye Rong’s scheme. Communication with the aerospace carrier used a special frequency known only to Ye Rong—not even Wu Hongyu was aware of it.

This was the real reason why, at the time, only Ye Rong’s communicator could contact the fleet.

“Nie Chong! Xun Lili! What’s going on!”

No one responded. One of them was already aboard the airship receiving treatment and hadn’t brought the communicator, while the other was confronting the mechanical warriors and soldiers and had no time to answer.

Luckily, one person heard the call—Butcher!

“Xiao An, is that you? Thank goodness you’re alive!”

Hearing a response at last, An Sheng urgently asked what had happened. Butcher then began cursing and recounting everything that had transpired below.

“That bitch Ye Rong sold you and Lili out! She claimed Xun Lili is a Purifier with mind-controlling superpowers and that many in the fortress have been manipulated! Those dumb soldiers actually believed it! And those scrap-metal robots are pointing their big spears at Lili, ready to kill her! What do we do?”

How would An Sheng know what to do? He never expected things to escalate like this, so he quickly advised Butcher.

“Contact the higher-ups in the reinforcement troops immediately! Have Nie Chong reach out to them and explain. Nie Chong is still an active-duty soldier—they might believe him.”

After hearing this, Butcher replied helplessly, “We’d love to, but communications with the higher-ups are cut off. Besides, Nie Chong’s been taken to the airship now. We can’t get out, and we can’t see him.”

All the worst things had to happen in one day! An Sheng roared in fury, using this as his only way to vent and lament the injustice of fate.

“Xiao An, don’t worry. No matter what, we’ll protect Lili. And you—be careful up there. Don’t die on us, brother!”

Butcher’s voice came through the communicator, hoarse and raspy. He had shouted too many reload commands and cursed too much today—his throat was nearly gone.

“Please do not interfere with our mission to eliminate the alien race!”

A young officer stepped forward, loudly reprimanding Old Zhang and the others shielding Xun Lili.

Old Zhang showed no intention of backing down. Mimicking the officer, he also stepped forward and confronted him with an even louder voice.”Comrade, I’ve said it many times, she’s not from the Alien Race, she’s our family! Everyone in Yushan can vouch for her!”

“She’s being controlled by the Purifier!”

Ye Rong spoke again. Though everyone knew she was spouting nonsense, the officers clearly didn’t share that view.

Butcher immediately flared up upon hearing this woman making baseless accusations again, raising his rifle to aim at her head.

“You damn bitch! Believe me or not, I’ll blow your brains out!”

Butcher’s action was undoubtedly unwise and played right into Ye Rong’s trap. The moment he raised his rifle, several officers immediately swung their guns toward him.

“Drop your weapon immediately!”

Most survivors in the Fortress were armed. Already resentful about their family member being misunderstood, they couldn’t tolerate the officers now threatening ordinary people like them.

Instantly, nearly all armed survivors in the Fortress aimed their weapons at the officers. The atmosphere inside and outside the Bunker became intensely charged, with the potential for bloody conflict at any moment.

This was exactly the situation Ye Rong had hoped for. Of course, it wasn’t enough yet – she needed to add fuel to the fire. So this woman, driven mad by hatred, committed an even more insane act.

Ye Rong suddenly stood up and bumped into an armed survivor beside her. Though bound, she had received professional military training. Using her hands tied behind her back, she pulled the survivor’s right finger that was resting on the trigger!

A dull “Bang!” echoed – the survivor’s Type 81 had accidentally discharged!

Though the bullet only whizzed past an officer’s head at the entrance without hitting anyone, the officer’s instinct made him pull the trigger of his rifle.

The next moment, the survivor whose gun Ye Rong had caused to misfire had a massive bloody hole appear in his chest.

The firearms in the Kunlun Base officers’ hands were no longer the low-powered conventional weapons from before, but newly issued EMP Weapons – new individual firearms specifically developed to combat Zombies and Mutants.

The power of this shot was at least six to seven times greater than ordinary bullets. The survivor’s chest was blown open with a huge bloody hole twenty-five centimeters in diameter, and two survivors behind him were also affected, killed instantly.

“Bastards!”

The killing of their family member enraged the Yushan Fortress survivors. No longer caring who they were facing, they all pulled their triggers, firing angry bullets at the officers.

The sudden turn of events completely stunned Old Zhang at the cave entrance. But the officer opposite him reacted quickly, pulling him and Zhou Xiaoxiao beside him backward.

The next moment, Xun Lili lost their cover and was exposed to the line of fire. However, since there were still several survivors near her, the Intelligent Mechanical Soldiers chose close-quarters combat to avoid harming innocents. Dozens of sharp High-Tech Electromagnetic Oscillation Battle Axes came attacking toward Xun Lili.Xun Lili was no ordinary person and highly skilled in martial arts, so she naturally wouldn’t surrender without a fight. However, fearing that engaging in combat here would endanger the Fortress survivors around her, she immediately leaped toward the hillside behind her.

Her action was undoubtedly suicidal, because once she distanced herself from these survivors, the Mechanical Soldiers would no longer hold back. What awaited her next would be countless torrents of bullets, along with devastating missile strikes and Particle Cannon fire coverage!

From below, An Sheng, with his enhanced vision after mutation, saw the situation clearly. He urgently called out Butcher’s name.

“Brother Wang, Brother Wang, respond if you hear me!”

The communicator transmitted Butcher’s furious roar!

“They killed our people! I’m going to slaughter them!”

An Sheng never dreamed that the survivors of Yushan would actually clash with the rescue troops! Why? Why on earth!?

Today, my contract was rejected.

I feel somewhat sad, suddenly overwhelmed by a sense of helplessness.

A friend told me this book is a slow-burn type. The early plot development is too slow, which isn’t good for a new book.

Moreover, due to poor genre selection, the commercial potential is weak, so it won’t be favored.

At first, I didn’t believe it, but now I’ve finally bowed to reality.

What he said was true.