"A plane?!"
"And a fucking Mosquito at that..."
Deep in the woods, the group looked up in astonishment as a W-2 ground-attack aircraft strafed the ground before pulling its nose up into a sharp climb.
The mutants outside the town gate opened fire toward the sky, bullets whizzing upward, but none could catch the departing aircraft.
Moments later, the plane banked and circled back for another strafing run, mowing down a large cluster of greenskins who were too slow to take cover.
The autocannons seemed to have eyes.
Clearly, someone on the ground was providing target designation.
Staring up at the sky, Lao Bai looked mildly surprised.
"That guy knows how to fly."
Kuang Feng nodded.
"Most likely one of ours."
The W-2 ground-attack aircraft hadn't even been exported to Jinchuan Province for a full year.
Even a prodigy couldn't possibly master piloting it to such perfection with only a single life.
Lao Bai glanced at the icons of nearby players on his VM and spotted two green dots not far away.
One of the fast-moving green markers clearly displayed the name Luo Yu.
Ye Shi, who was also checking his VM, was equally shocked.
"Holy crap? Brother Luo Yu?"
Jieyan asked in surprise, "What's he doing here?"
Fang Chang thought for a moment and said, "Probably running a side quest. When the Mercenary Guild first launched, didn't they post some new commissions? I saw quite a few high-paying ones get snatched up."
Back then, knowing he was heading to Jinchuan Province anyway, he had considered taking a few quests in the area from the guild. But his fingers hadn't been fast enough; those lucrative commissions were cleared out almost the instant they went live.
Truth be told, that guy's reaction time was insane!
"Doesn't matter why he's here. Since we're fighting the same enemy, he's a teammate!"
With a grin, Lao Bai chambered a round into his rifle.
"Get ready for combat!"
Excited shouts echoed through the comms channel as the others racked their bolts with crisp metallic clicks.
"Avenge Brother Chicken!"
"Awoo!"
About two hours ago.
After evacuating the residents of Dust Town, they had boarded a Viper transport and flown back to this area, intending to avenge Midnight Chicken Slayer and his crew.
Or rather, to finish off that cybernetically modified mutant elite.
The greenskins had originally been partying on the battlefield, but unsatisfied, they had grunted and trudged east.
Tracking the beasts' footprints all the way to this vicinity, Lao Bai's team had soon heard gunfire.
Rushing toward the sound of the fight, they had indeed spotted the greenskins attacking a settlement.
Under normal circumstances, this settlement—riddled with holes and corroded by Na fruit—wouldn't have lasted half an hour against these brutes.
However—
An unexpected twist had clearly occurred.
Listening to the gunfire erupting from all directions, a barely perceptible flicker of panic showed in Oge's vicious eyes as he roared, urging his subordinates forward.
"Charge! Tear them to pieces!"
Searing tracer rounds streaked wildly through the forest.
The hail of bullets pouring directly from their rear was noticeably denser and far trickier than the fire coming from other directions.
It was putting him under serious pressure.
These people were completely different from anyone he had faced before!
Their combat style didn't resemble that of disciplined soldiers, yet it was also distinct from the ruthless fighters he had encountered previously.
They were more like a blend of the two.
They maintained a brutal fighting edge while flawlessly executing tactical coordination.
Operating in three-man fireteams formed into three-group lines, they executed pincer movements, alternating fire to maintain suppression while using intersecting angles to squeeze the absolute limits of available cover.
While the full-power rounds fired from the LD-47s weren't as devastating as armor-piercing bolter rounds, a headshot produced the same result regardless.
A mutant decurion, wearing a fully enclosed steel helmet and armored with steel plates, roared as he led his lackeys in a charge.
Yet he hadn't even taken two steps out of cover before an armor-piercing round from a 20mm Lance shattered his skull.
Scorching brain matter and blood splattered across the dirt, leaving the mutant warriors beside him dumbfounded.
However, the converging barrage didn't pause for their hesitation; clouds of blood quickly burst from their bodies.
One unlucky bastard had half his shoulder blown away, while another was left with only half a jaw dangling from his neck.
In a single exchange of fire, the ten-man squad was cut down by more than half!
And the relentless gunfire kept pressing closer, like a sudden downpour, tearing open a breach in the mutants' once-solid battle line.
Oge glared fiercely at the figures clad in exoskeletons.
Instinct told him these foes were dangerous!
More dangerous than all the prey he had ever hunted in his life combined!
Yet that was precisely what infuriated him to no end.
It felt as if a juicy steak on his plate had suddenly leaped up and slapped him across the face.
How dare these feeble, hideous two-legged livestock stand before him like this?!
Making him suffer setback after setback!
Oge ground his teeth until they creaked, his gums flushed a bloody crimson.
The metallic components on his right arm rattled violently as the muscles across his entire body bulged and twisted like writhing earthworms.
"Oge—"
"Will chop you into mincemeat for pies!"
He roared in blind fury, charging like an enraged wild bull as he swept his heavy machine gun in a frantic barrage. The recoil seemed nonexistent to him; bowl-thick streams of fire sprayed wildly, tearing tree trunks as thick as thighs to shreds and sending wood chips flying.
The sudden surge of firepower momentarily suppressed the human soldiers' advance. The humans fired back, but ordinary rifle bullets couldn't penetrate his defenses.
His vitals were completely shielded by steel, and his head was crowned with a welded helmet fifteen millimeters thick—something even full-power rifle rounds couldn't hope to pierce!
After exploding a mutant's head with an arrow, Fang Chang was forced back behind cover by the suppressing fire and immediately glanced toward Ye Shi.
"Ye Shi!"
"On it!"
Aiming at the figure sweeping the field with the machine gun, Ye Shi, propping up his Gauss rifle, inhaled a deep breath of freezing air and flicked the charging switch with his index finger.
*Hum—*
The whine of electrical current resonated.
Blue arcs accumulated terrifying energy within the barrel. A mass projectile had already slid into the chamber, primed like a cocked ballista.
Calm...
His mind settled into an unprecedented stillness. Expressionless, he aligned the crosshairs with that hideous face, pulled the trigger—
And released!
*Bang—!*
A sonic boom cracked through the air as the hypersonic mass projectile pierced the woods, hurtling straight toward that green head.
Yet the unexpected happened.
As if teleporting, the mutant abruptly shifted to the side, dodging the fatal strike with a blur of motion.
The mass projectile slammed into a tree trunk, punching clean through the wood that was wider than a man's embrace.
Having sidestepped the lethal blow, the mutant stood right beside the drifting wood splinters, his bloodthirsty glare stabbing forward like daggers.
Meeting those eyes, Ye Shi was utterly shocked.
"Holy shit?!"
Beside him, Jieyan froze as well.
"Did you miss?"
Ye Shi stammered blankly, "No... How the hell did he dodge that?!"
Before his voice had even faded, a burst of 20mm autocannon rounds strafed down from the sky toward the mutant.
Against ordinary flesh and blood, a volley of 20mm armor-piercing shells would have shredded the target into a sieve, but the mutant seemed to be hacking, displaying his uncanny evasive skill once more.
Staring intently through his sights, Ye Shi realized he couldn't even track the creature's movement path.
As an Agility-type, Fang Chang narrowed his eyes.
His extraordinary dynamic vision allowed him to catch subtle traces invisible to ordinary people.
"...Bullet time?"
He possessed a similar talent.
In short, by accelerating the brain's processing speed for optic nerve signals, the surrounding world was deconstructed into individual frames.
The practical result was that everything, including himself, appeared to slow down.
However, even if one could see a bullet flying toward them, dodging it was no easy feat—even he couldn't guarantee doing so with one hundred percent certainty.
Let alone a mass projectile exiting the barrel at several times the speed of sound.
Yet given a mutant's baseline physical constitution combined with the enhanced performance of cybernetic implants, dodging such a fatal blow wasn't entirely impossible.
"These guys are indeed tougher than we thought..." Fang Chang notched an explosive arrow onto his bowstring and loosed it at the mutant.
The explosive tip released shrapnel in a conical blast, but against that brute's frame, it was like a minor scratch.
The mutant curled his lip in a mocking sneer, completely ignoring the scratch. Unsheathing the chainsaw strapped to his back, he locked it onto his right arm and charged forward with thundering strides.
Looking at that colossal, imposing figure, Ye Shi felt his scalp tingle. He folded the bipod of his Gauss rifle, preparing to fall back and open the distance.
At that moment, Lao Bai stepped forward from behind him, emerging from cover as he unslung the thermal fusion cutting axe mounted on his power armor.
"Leave him to me."
Catching sight of the angular power armor, Oge's bloodshot pupils twitched violently, flaring with savage malice.
He recognized that suit!
He had been on the battlefield last night!
His elder brother had died at this very bastard's hands!
"Oge!!!"
The chainsaw unleashed a piercing screech of metal on metal as he let out an enraged bellow, charging toward the iron monstrosity with massive strides.
His body embodied not only the raw power of flesh and blood, but the pinnacle of technology!
In hand-to-hand combat, no one could best him!
Not even that big fellow!
He swore—
He would make these fools regret ever standing in his path!
Gripping the short axe, Lao Bai kept his eyes fixed on the monster charging toward him, refusing to lower his guard despite his armor.
Instinct honed on the battlefield told him this creature was formidable!
Even stronger than the one Ye Shi had encountered that night!
Even so—
There was zero reason for him to lose!
"Die—!"
Oge let out a furious roar and lunged at the power armor. The five-foot chainsaw felt as light as a toothpick in his grip as he raised it high overhead.
For a split second, he seemed to vanish, leaving only an afterimage in place before abruptly lunging forward several paces.
The downward cleave of the chainsaw carried savage force, crashing toward the power armor like thunder falling from the sky.
Even the surrounding air seemed split apart by the roaring teeth!
*So fast!*
Barely catching the monster's trajectory, Lao Bai's brow tightened sharply as every muscle in his body braced to its limit.
Almost simultaneously, the war axe gripped in his hands surged upward like erupting magma!
"You're the one who's dying—!"
The lighter short axe was a fraction faster.
The blunt edge of the axe smashed upward into the mutant's breastplate. The dull boom of colliding metal rippled outward in shockwaves, threatening to burst eardrums.
Feeling the jolt in his abdomen, Oge grinned, knowing the axe hadn't even breached the steel plate hung over his chest.
Though his chainsaw had yet to land, he could already picture this two-legged beast being crushed and sliced in two!
However—
That smirk lingered on his contorted face for barely a single frame before freezing into disbelief and terror.
A searing wave of thermal energy penetrated his breastplate, scorching his steel-tough skin before punching effortlessly through his abdomen and ribcage!
The strike against his armor didn't feel like an axe at all; it was like a sledgehammer striking red-hot iron, detonating in a brilliant burst of spraying sparks.
The arm clutching the chainsaw lost all strength.
Before he could even let out an agonizing howl, a scorching wave of energy surged through his body and soul, blasting his consciousness straight out of his shattered shell.
The chainsaw flew spinning through the air and embedded itself into the dirt, its chain jammed by mud and gravel. Oge collapsed heavily to his knees, the bloodlust fading from his dulling eyes.
A dead silence fell over the battlefield.
For a moment, even the gunfire ceased.
Green-skinned faces stared blankly toward the scene, watching their chieftain collapse before they could comprehend what had just happened.
It had been too fast.
Both their chieftain's attack and the armored human's counter had unfolded in the blink of an eye.
By the time they processed it, everything was already over.
Cruel, bloodthirsty eyes gradually filled with dread and cowardice. Several mutants began to hesitate, backing away and even turning to flee.
They were not entirely devoid of fear.
Most of the time, they were simply braver than their prey.
When confronted by an insurmountable monster, they too would shrink back and run. It was primal survival instinct!
In their eyes, the figure holding the axe and stepping over their chieftain's corpse was an unmitigated monster!
That thing wasn't human at all!
They had never seen a human that looked like that!
A bizarre scene unfolded across the battlefield: mutants, who had always chased prey, were now being chased down by a group of humans with guns.
Behind the firing barricades at the town's west gate, the gathered militiamen and mercenaries watched the chaos in the forest, completely stunned.
"...Did the sun rise in the west? The mutants are actually running away?!"
And it was over a hundred mutants being chased by barely a dozen or two humans!
Lowering his rifle, a mercenary rubbed his eyes and strained to see through the foliage, trying to make sense of what was happening.
He muttered under his breath, "Am I hallucinating...?"
If only one person saw it, it might be an illusion.
But with so many witnesses, it couldn't possibly be a trick of the mind.
Crouching behind the barricade, the mercenary leader's eyes were wide with disbelief before giving way to awe.
Clenching his fist, he shouted excitedly, "Fuck... these guys are badass!"
Were they from the Alliance?
Judging by their gear, they probably were, right?
Watching the heavily armed figures from afar, Mayor Ma wore an expression torn between relief and dread.
He was relieved that they had narrowly survived and that this peaceful town wouldn't be trampled by mutants.
Yet what worried him was that this ruthless squad—capable of beating mutants into the ground—might prove even harder to deal with than the mutants themselves.
There was no such thing as a free lunch in this world.
These people certainly hadn't come to help out of the goodness of their hearts.
He knew that all too well.
The arrival of these outsiders might not bode well for the Jinhe City area, or even the entirety of Jinchuan Province...
"Holy crap? Lao Bai?!"
Up in the clear sky, looking down at the mutants fleeing southward with that squad in hot pursuit, Luo Yu's face was filled with surprise.
He had already verified their identities through his VM.
Below, Starry River and the Little Yus had done the same, quickly linking up with Lao Bai's team before chasing after the routing mutants.
"H-how are things down there?" Kong Lingkai asked tremulously from behind Luo Yu, not daring to open his eyes to look down.
A few stray bullets had struck the fuselage earlier, leaving bullet holes that had nearly scared the soul right out of him.
Relaxing, Luo Yu answered offhandedly, "Ah, pretty much wrapped up."
Kong Lingkai froze. "F-finished?!"
Luo Yu chuckled. "Yep, you guys got lucky. The Alliance's strongest corps happened to be running a mission nearby, heard the gunfire, and came over to help... Those mutants are done for."
"The Alliance..." Kong Lingkai muttered to himself, his expression unreadable, torn between relief and fear.
Luo Yu didn't care what he was thinking. Adjusting his heading, he banked toward the farmland south of the town and circled down for a landing.
Noticing the loss in altitude, Kong Lingkai panicked. "Why are you landing?"
Luo Yu glanced back at him strangely. "Isn't it obvious? The fight's over, and I'm out of ammo. If I don't land, how long do you expect us to float around up here?"
Kong Lingkai stammered for a moment before blurting out, "C-can you fly me south to Pinecone Wood Farm?"
Luo Yu chuckled. "What would I go there for?"
At that, Kong Lingkai grew frantic. "How can you go back on your word! You promised to help me escape—"
Amused, Luo Yu teased, "The mutants are all dead, so what are you escaping from? I said I'd fly you away, but I never promised to let you navigate. Doesn't this count as getting away?"
Seeing that the landlord wanted to argue further, Luo Yu ignored him, deploying the landing flaps while kicking the left rudder and pulling back the throttle.
"Hang on tight!"
With wings tilted up like a massive bird descending to earth, the deployed landing gear soon made intimate contact with the frozen field.
After a series of violent jolts, the landing gear skidded across the dirt for quite a distance.
Gripping the control stick firmly, Luo Yu relied on his seasoned piloting skills to bring the aircraft to a safe halt.
"Hey, you alright?"
He called out behind him, but hearing no reply, Luo Yu looked back only to find the man slumped in his seat, eyes rolled back.
"Holy crap... He didn't kick the bucket, did he?!"
Startled by the ghost-like state of his passenger, Luo Yu hastily unbuckled his harness, got up, and hauled the man out of the cockpit.
Fortunately, there was still a heartbeat.
He was still alive.
Right on cue, Lao Bai and the others walked over from nearby, accompanied by Starry River and the Little Yus.
"Eewoo!"
Seeing Luo Yu standing beside the plane, the Little Yus clad in exoskeletons let out delighted chirps and swarmed him, patting and checking him all over for injuries.
"Cough—wait, hold on! Careful, there's a guy lying on the ground!" surrounded on all sides, Luo Yu cried out in dismay.
Watching Luo Yu mobbed by the Little Yus, Ye Shi wore a look of envy.
"Damn... I'm kind of jealous."
Kuang Feng glanced at him. "Since when did your tastes get so weird?"
Ye Shi blinked. "What are you talking about...? This pet can clone itself, fight, match a whole squad on its own, and even cast buffs. Isn't that badass? What's that got to do with tastes?"
Kuang Feng eyed Ye Shi strangely. Seeing that the guy wasn't playing dumb, his expression turned subtle as he shifted his gaze away.
"...Fine, my mind was in the gutter."
Ye Shi: "...?"
After quite a bit of fussing, the chirping Little Yus finally released Luo Yu.
Seeing everyone watching with grins, Luo Yu felt his face flush. He straightened his clothes, gave a dry cough, and broke the ice.
"...What a coincidence, running into you guys here."
"Quite a coincidence indeed," Lao Bai grinned. "You here on a quest?"
"Not me. The quest here belongs to Starry River. I was heading to Pinecone Wood Farm to pick someone up..." Surveying the mess around them, Luo Yu sighed and scratched the back of his head gloomily. "Looks like this quest reward won't be easy to collect."
For such a run-down little farm, asking for a slave was like demanding the landlord's lifeblood. The tangled interests involved were probably far more complicated than he had anticipated.
"Don't worry, bro! I'm a man of my word. You helped me, so I'll definitely help you!" Starry River stepped up, clapped him on the shoulder, and chuckled.
Ten thousand silver coins!
He was rich!
Fang Chang and Kuang Feng exchanged a glance before looking back at Luo Yu.
"Pinecone Wood Farm... is that the largest settlement in this region?"
Luo Yu paused, then nodded. "Should be... I haven't heard of any bigger ones."
Fang Chang immediately asked, "Do you know any NPCs there?"
Luo Yu scratched his head. "Not really... but my quest is tied to that settlement. The employer wants me to infiltrate the settlement with a caravan and use the chance to rescue his daughter."
Hearing that, the surrounding players lit up with joy.
Before Luo Yu could react, Fang Chang gripped his shoulder, eyes gleaming.
"Good brother, mind if we hitch a ride?"
Luo Yu was stunned. "...A ride?"
"Yeah!" Fang Chang nodded earnestly. "We need to investigate something at that settlement. Concerning the Church of the Torch."
"The Church of the Torch..."
Hearing the name, Luo Yu suddenly remembered something and added, "Oh, right! That town we just saved—there seems to be a Church of the Torch chapel right inside! Not only that, they're growing a ton of Na fruit! It looks like they blended Na fruit with their faith—"
"It's not just that settlement. All of Jinhe City, and even the whole Jinchuan Province, is in this same damn state... It isn't just the rampant Na fruit, but the mutants too." Lao Bai glanced toward Hope Town, narrowing his eyes. "We want to figure out what they're plotting, and what's hidden beneath the Champion Pharmaceutical Research Institute."
"But first, we need to find out where our enemies are."
Chapter 571