Night shrouded Pinecone Farm as deafening gunfire crackled like firecrackers. Not a trace of pristine moonlight touched the ground; every illuminated patch revealed gruesome severed flesh and blood.
Like a surging tide, a horde of the walking dead hurled themselves at the Alliance soldiers garrisoned inside the estate's mansion.
Amidst the crisscrossing tracer rounds, they tumbled like wheat swept into a harvester, yet like waves crashing onto a beach, they came wave after wave, quickly filling every breach.
The firepower of a mere twenty men was nowhere near enough to withstand these fearless creatures.
The zombielike zealots soon breached the barrage, crashing through doors and windows into the villa, biting anyone they caught like raving lunatics.
Worse still, some clad in military uniforms could actually shoot and hurl grenades.
That was the truly lethal part!
"Holy shit! Are these bastards hacking?" Having just gunned down a walking corpse spraying a rifle, Hao Gou's face was completely pale.
He had played his fair share of zombie FPS games, but this was the first time he had ever heard of zombies knowing how to shoot.
"We can't hold the first floor! Lao Bai! How much longer do you need!" Fang Chang shouted through gritted teeth over the comm channel as he swapped magazines and fell back toward the stairs.
Only the hiss of static answered over the comms.
After the Seagull drone crashed, the enemy dropped all pretense and initiated electronic warfare, cutting off their communications first.
Yet Fang Chang couldn't shake the feeling that it wasn't so simple.
Beneath the hiss of static, he could faintly hear other noises... It didn't seem like pure jamming, but rather carried the unconscious disturbance of something else.
Regardless, the first floor had fallen.
The Alliance players had no choice but to abandon their ground-floor position and retreat to the second floor, using barricades and doors to engage the living dead in brutal close-quarters combat along the narrow hallway.
***
While the battle raged inside the mansion, four men in white coats sat inside a fifth-floor room of a hotel not far from the estate.
They gazed out the window at the Zhao residence, which sat squarely in the eye of the storm, chatting with smiles on their faces.
"Standard test subjects are still a bit too weak in combat power. In the end, they're just ordinary humans. The na fruit hasn't fundamentally altered their physiology."
"Indeed. If they can't make proper use of the tools at hand, humans are even worse at fighting than beasts."
"True enough. In terms of raw combat capability, mutants are definitely the better choice... though those green-skinned monsters aren't nearly as obedient."
The four seated here were all Apostles of the Church of the Torch.
Unlike the Apostles converted from common wastelanders, however, both their status and authority were far higher than those of the charlatans merely tasked with proselytizing.
Not only did they clearly understand what the 'Torch' truly was, but they were also well aware that their actions had virtually nothing to do with the faith they had fabricated.
Such situations were hardly unprecedented in distant history.
Grassroots personnel far removed from the core of religious authority believed implicitly in their faith, reciting scriptures and dogma with ease, dedicating their entire lives diligently to their beliefs.
Yet the few near the inner sanctum of power knew clearly that faith and dogma were fundamentally tools to manipulate their servants. While this did not conflict with their devotion and fervor, they intended to make the tool fulfill its proper purpose.
Thus, wars waged in the name of deities were often not for any god at all, but for secular power and wealth.
So it was with the Apostles who genuinely stood near the Church of the Torch's core of authority.
The only difference was that they weren't doing any of this for secular power or wealth; no such things existed to pursue on the wasteland anyway.
What they truly chased was infinitely nobler than what ancient zealots had sought.
It was all for the future of civilization.
Watching life blossom in sparks and blood spill into the mud, a spellbound smile spread across the face of one Apostle.
In both process and outcome, this experiment could only be described as flawless!
As he quietly savored the experiment, the other three chatted enthusiastically.
"A-111 didn't perform too terribly, did it?"
"Ah, you mean Goliath... That thing is decent enough, but it can only serve as a meat shield. Expecting it to function as a 'tank' on a frontal battlefield is a bit of a stretch. The Bishop held overly high expectations for it. After this, I trust he'll realize where the problem lies."
"Unless we mount specialized weaponry on it, but its inability to operate them is a major issue."
"Speaking of which, we really must commend the soldiers of this settlement. Even though they were merely thugs trained by a landlord, their skills are quite decent. The na fruit and Gospel happen to compensate for their lack of fighting will. This system is practically tailored for them."
"Haha, put that way, I'd say those serf test subjects actually got in their way."
"Not entirely. At the very least, exhausting the enemy's ammunition was a viable contribution."
Against the Alliance soldiers, most test subjects were only good for feeding the kill count, but the troops who once served as the landlord's enforcers were different.
They could handle rifles, knew how to chamber rounds, reload, and even aim. Even if their accuracy was somewhat poor, their utterly fearless assaults still caused considerable trouble for the Alliance soldiers.
Beyond riflemen, some specialized troops could even operate vehicles and stationary heavy weapons—a truly remarkable discovery.
Thanks to this settlement's cooperation, and especially that of the landlord, their research had taken a major leap forward.
And this wasn't merely their progress!
It was a step for human civilization toward glorious evolution!
The landlord, now down in the underworld, should surely feel immensely honored by this radiant moment.
After all, if not for them, that pedantic, foolish man and his ignorant slaves would never have contributed anything beneficial to human civilization in their entire lifetimes, let alone left behind a single word in this dark epoch of history.
He and his settlement were like a piece of rotting wood abandoned in the corner of the ruins, capable of nothing except slowly decaying beneath the erosion of time.
At least now, these useless wretches could serve as kindling—as fuel to ignite the torch...
The Apostles seated in the room continued their lively discussion.
"...Is it muscle memory? To still operate anti-aircraft cannons and automatic rifles."
"If we had a large batch of trained test subjects and injected them with the 'Gospel' at a designated moment, they might display substantial power on the battlefield."
"Assuming proper command."
"This reminds me of the Legion's clones."
"The Legion's clones are incomparable to ours. Those creatures grown at eight times normal speed can do nothing except fight, but our believers are different."
"By merely shifting the Gospel to different frequencies, we can manipulate their thoughts and emotions, driving them to complete all manner of simple labor... Tsk, come to think of it, the most suitable places for them really are plantations and factories. Throwing them onto the battlefield without training just to waste ammo is a bit of a waste."
Just then, the Apostle who had been staring out the window suddenly frowned, a sneer curling at the corner of his lips.
"...We underestimated these fellows."
The other three stopped talking and looked toward him.
"What happened?"
"Nothing much. A little white mouse slipped out of the cage and happened to stumble upon what we placed in the Annex," the Apostle by the window remarked casually.
The other three exchanged glances.
"Weren't they after Zhao Tiangan?"
"Why go to the Annex?"
"Could that Zhang Zhengyang have leaked it?"
The Apostle by the window shook his head.
"Impossible. That fellow was merely an outer member handling proselytization. He didn't even know about the experiments, so how could he know what was beneath the Annex?"
The sneer on his lips took on a sharper edge of mockery as he continued in an offhand tone.
"In any case, the Bishop has already detected it. The rest isn't our concern."
"The Executioners will handle the cleanup."
Although brute force wasn't the Church of the Torch's specialty, and they rarely used armed invasions to achieve their goals, an apparatus of violence remained indispensable to them.
The Tribunal was precisely such an institution.
Unlike the various knight orders under the church, they functioned more like secret agents than regular forces engaging in military operations on open battlefields.
Whenever an interfering factor disrupted an experiment within a parish and direct action by regular troops was deemed inappropriate, professionals from the Tribunal stepped in to purge it.
They were commonly known as 'Executioners.'
Equipped with top-of-the-line gear and trained in elite combat, they could finish off ordinary wastelanders in a single clash.
Even Awakened were no exception.
Hearing the word 'Executioner,' relaxed smiles appeared on the Apostles' faces.
Those operatives boasted a success rate near ninety-five percent across their operations in Haiya and Jinchuan Province. Given the Tribunal's track record, dealing with a single rat that had slipped into the laboratory would be effortless.
Yet what these Apostles did not know was that the Executioner squad they pinned their hopes upon was currently running into trouble...
***
Near the estate's perimeter wall, within the rustling woods, stood a dozen figures clad in exoskeletons.
They gripped uniquely designed weapons, their streamlined armor outfitting them to the teeth, while their pitch-black coatings blended seamlessly with the night.
Like specters, they lay in wait within the darkness.
Watching the [Connection Lost] icon flashing on his tactical visor, Li Jie, captain of the Executioner squad, felt a creeping gravity settle over his brow. He turned toward a subordinate beside him.
"Still no word from Wu Zhe?"
The subordinate addressed looked equally solemn and replied in a low voice,
"Not yet... He's too close to the psychic interference device."
Near the psychic interference device, radio signals suffered severe interference.
Normally, they maintained contact with the laboratory via wired data channels. However, with the activation of Plan No. 03, the researchers in that laboratory had already evacuated completely.
Consequently, no one currently knew what had transpired down there.
"Damn it, what is that guy dawdling for!" a man cradling a light machine gun muttered with a curse. "He couldn't have screwed up, could he?"
Another stern-faced man said softly,
"That shouldn't be the case. There was only one rat, and Wu Zhe isn't some rookie on his first mission. He can handle a minor task like this."
A minor task, was it...
Glancing gravely toward the Annex, Li Jie spoke in an inscrutable tone.
"Let's hope so."
To be fair, he had confidence in Wu Zhe.
The man was a veteran of the squad. Before arriving in Jinhe City, they had worked together numerous times, and he had never let him down.
Yet for some reason, despite this being a simple cleanup job, an uneasy feeling gnawed at his gut, as though some mishap were bound to occur.
Perhaps he shouldn't have let Wu Zhe go alone.
Then again, he hadn't had much choice in the matter.
The Alliance's reinforcements had arrived.
The Bishop had ordered him to ensure none of the Alliance personnel left this place alive.
Though this wasn't part of the original experimental plan, wiping out the Alliance soldiers would make it simple to pin everything that happened here onto the Alliance.
The Alliance carrying out a massacre in a Jinchuan Province settlement...
Not only was this narrative convenient, but the local landlords would love to hear it.
After all, compared to "pious holy men with no interest in secular power," those who clamored about eradicating slavery and oppression were far more odious!
Not far from them, the Alliance transport had broken through the anti-aircraft barrage. It had finally reduced its speed and altitude, switched to VTOL mode, and was descending toward the roof of the villa in the center of the estate.
The Alliance soldiers had already retreated to the top floor.
Once that transport settled firmly on the roof, those soldiers would board immediately and escape.
They could not be allowed to leave!
Li Jie's gaze turned cold. He raised his right hand into a fist, then pointed toward the hovering transport.
The Executioner beside him understood instantly. Unhooking a man-portable rocket launcher from his back, he dropped to one knee, hoisted it onto his shoulder, and locked onto the transport in the distance.
"Optical lock established!"
Li Jie barked,
"Fire!"
With a sharp pop, a missile the length of a forearm punched through its dust cap, ignited the instant it cleared the launch tube, and streaked toward the transport just touching down on the rooftop, trailing a thin plume of exhaust.
The hovering aircraft evidently spotted the incoming missile and attempted an evasive maneuver.
Yet at such short range, evading it was virtually impossible.
Seeing that the missile was about to strike home, a faint smile began to form on Li Jie's face. Yet almost simultaneously, an unthinkable scene unfolded.
"RPG!!"
A figure in an exoskeleton suddenly let out a bizarre screech, sprinted, and threw himself out of the cabin, arms spread wide as he dove straight toward the missile rocketing at the transport's flank.
The missile had already entered its terminal phase and had zero room to maneuver. It collided head-on with the diving man, detonating into a blazing fireball with a thunderous roar!
Explosive shrapnel and flames briefly swept into the transport's cabin, and the searing shockwave rocked the fuselage slightly, but the aircraft itself suffered no critical damage.
Staring at the guy who had literally caught a missile with his face, the Executioners concealed in the woods were utterly dumbfounded. Li Jie's mouth twitched violently.
What kind of insane maneuver was that?!
This was the first time he had ever seen someone intercept a missile with their bare body!
"Lao Liu!"
Watching Lao Liu disintegrate into a ball of fire in midair, Bai Gei Dai Ju's eyes widened with fury. Clamping his rifle tight, he sprayed a wild burst toward the woods where the missile had originated.
Yet the aircraft was shaking violently, and the volley hit nothing but empty air.
Realizing the attack had come from the woods due east, the pilot in the Viper's cockpit slammed the left rudder pedal while banking the stick hard to the right.
With a clean, decisive tail swing, the hovering Viper shifted from the east side of the villa to the west.
The players inside the villa preparing to evacuate moved accordingly, shooting down lunging corpses while shifting toward the west side of the structure.
"Damn it... what was that missile just now?" the pilot panted, shouting back toward the soldiers behind him.
He was a pilot from the Boulder City militia air wing, and though he had flown this craft for seven or eight years, this was the first time he had ever taken part in such a heart-stopping mission.
The mere thought of what had just happened sent chills down his spine.
If that fellow hadn't sacrificed himself a moment ago, everyone aboard this aircraft would likely be dead.
Unlike his panicked state, however, the man in power armor was remarkably calm—cold-blooded, even. Even with a comrade dying right before his eyes, his expression showed not a ripple of emotion.
Staring intently outside the cabin, Lao Bai said in a deep voice,
"No idea, but my guess... eighty percent chance it's Torch people!"
The pilot froze.
"The Torch?!"
"Where else do you think the monstrosities down there came from?" Lao Bai frowned, watching the sea of bobbing heads below.
For the Alliance, the real trouble would likely begin after tonight.
Still, now was not the time to dwell on that.
Spotting Fang Chang's group retreating toward the window along the west hallway, pursued by a raging horde of corpses, Lao Bai leveled his assault rifle and barked,
"Fire!"
The five players crouched beside the cabin door, including Lost Noob manning the mounted machine gun, squeezed their triggers, unleashing a ferocious hail of lead into the swarm behind the window.
Streams of orange tracers poured out like rain. The mindless creatures were reaped like wheat, collapsing in heaps that clogged the hallway.
Spotting Fang Chang dashing to the window, Lao Bai roared,
"Get up here, fast!"
Without hesitation, Fang Chang smashed the closed window to pieces with his rifle butt.
Planting a boot on the sill, he propelled himself outward with the power of his exoskeleton, leaping four or five meters through the air. He caught Lao Bai's outstretched hand and was hauled into the cabin.
Finally out of danger.
Fang Chang slumped to the floor, panting heavily as he gulped in fresh air.
Only then did Lao Bai notice the person strapped to his back—or rather, a corpse drenched in sticky blood.
Matching the face against the photo in his VM, he barely recognized him.
It was Zhao Tiangan!
The target of their mission!
According to the original plan, they had intended to capture this landlord alive, using him to indirectly control the settlement and gather intelligence on the Church of the Torch. They hadn't expected those charlatans to already be waiting for them here.
Now Pinecone Farm had turned into this hellscape.
Dead or alive, this man was no longer of any use to the Alliance.
"The enemy launched electronic warfare. Our communications went down, and we couldn't reach you guys..." Steadying his ragged breathing, Fang Chang looked up at Lao Bai.
"Not just you; same for us. Their jamming equipment probably blankets the entire area..." Glancing at the corpse lying nearby, Lao Bai shot Fang Chang an inquiring look. "Why'd you bring this guy along?"
Fang Chang exhaled softly.
"There's something bizarre about him. I suspect that absolutely safe 'Sanctuary'... isn't actually a physical shelter or safehouse in the way we understand it."
Lao Bai frowned.
"What do you mean?"
"Simply put, that Sanctuary might be a virtual space. It's even possible that Bishop named Luo Qian is virtual too... He might not have a physical body at all, which is why he needs believers' bodies to communicate with us—and only specific people can serve as vessels to receive his consciousness."
Lao Bai stared blankly, unable to fathom how he had deduced such an astonishing hypothesis.
"That's one hell of a wild guess..."
Fang Chang caught his breath.
"It's just a theory... To find out the truth, we'll need Ms. Chen to dissect this guy's brain. In any case, we have to bring him back to the military base."
As they spoke, Luo Yu leaped into the aircraft, hauled aboard by Bai Gei Dai Ju waiting at the edge.
Then came Jieyan, followed by Hao Gou. Only four players had survived.
As for Yu's fruiting bodies, they had been overwhelmed by the tide of walking dead while covering the players' retreat from the first floor to the upper levels.
Losing fruiting bodies wasn't actually that bad; they were like Yu's hair, easily regenerated in whatever numbers desired so long as nutrients were abundant.
It was only because sharing a single consciousness across too many bodies degraded operational efficiency, and because Yu had only recently evolved into a mother body and lacked experience, that the count had been capped at ten.
Still, the thought of losing ten sets of K-10 Iron Wall exoskeletons plunged Luo Yu into deep depression.
Fortunately, Brother Fang Chang had previously promised that the Burning Corps would reimburse ninety percent of equipment losses; otherwise, this devastating setback would have knocked him back several game versions.
With the last player aboard, the Viper transport pulled away from the villa, steering clear of the direction the previous missile had flown from and heading toward the west side of the estate.
Glancing over the personnel in the cabin, Lao Bai suddenly wore a look of surprise.
"Wait, where's Ye Shi? Did that guy actually kick the bucket?"
It defied logic.
That kid's luck was notoriously tough.
Back when they boarded the Heart of Steel, he had been the sole survivor.
"I don't know. He was the first to lose contact, before the jamming even started. I figured he might have already kicked..." Fang Chang trailed off, his expression shifting slightly. "I see."
Seeing his look of sudden realization, Jieyan crouched beside him and asked curiously,
"You see what?"
Fang Chang blurted out without pausing for breath,
"The Annex! The psychic interference device is in the Annex!"
Even as he spoke, a red flare suddenly shot into the night sky.
Directly from the direction of the Annex!
Spotting the flashing red beacon, Lao Bai strode to the cockpit immediately, gripped the back of the pilot's seat, and shouted,
"We still have a man left behind! Head toward that flare!"
Hearing that, the pilot was stunned.
"Are you crazy?! Those bastards have anti-aircraft missiles!"
"I'm certain! We have to pick him up!" Lao Bai stared firmly into his eyes. "Just fly us over to get him—we'll handle the rest!"
Chapter 579