Gahn felt as though his head had been rammed by the Heart of Steel itself, so violently that he couldn't even make out what the person in front of him had said at the very end.
The blast of nitrogen compressed into a solid mass slammed directly onto the crown of his skull. The air current—powerful enough to tear through steel armor—not only shattered his cranium, but forcibly drove the pulverized fragments down into his shoulders and chest cavity.
No matter how potent the regenerative power of the active cells beneath his keratin armor was, there was no putting a head shattered like a watermelon back together...
The entire deck fell dead silent.
Aside from the crackle of sporadic fires, for a time only the howling of the cold wind could be heard across the deck.
It was as if someone had hit pause.
The surrounding players were all struck dumb.
Seeing the boss of their faction in danger, they had intended to charge up to farm some affinity points—and prevent a server wipe in the process. Yet in the blink of an eye, the battle was already over.
Staring blankly at the headless boss still standing upright, Jieyan's eyes went wide and vacant. It took him quite a while to swallow hard.
"...Hacks, surely."
Beside him, Kuang Feng was equally stunned.
"...Instakilled?"
A mutant that not even a 20mm autocannon could bring down had been one-shotted by the Administrator with a single swing of a hammer.
For a moment, he couldn't tell whether that warhammer was utterly broken or if the man wielding it was just that insane.
Fang Chang was staring blankly as well.
In his memory, the Administrator fighting personally was ancient history dating back to the Alpha test. He had almost forgotten that this guy was an absolute monster too.
He was curious about only one thing:
What level is this guy, anyway?!
Only Lao Bai wasn't shocked.
More accurately, he didn't have time to be.
The winged mutants didn't scatter in panic just because their leader had fallen; instead, as if losing their minds entirely, they lunged even more ferociously.
Clutching his 20mm cannon, Lao Bai could only spray madly at the mutants diving at them in waves, turning his head to shout at the dazed crowd.
"Holy crap! Don't just stand there like idiots, help out—!"
Setting aside the flustered players scrambling back into combat, the guards who had rushed over in a panic were also stunned upon seeing the fallen monster before Chu Guang.
When he initially saw the Administrator step onto the deck, Lyu Bei had been scared nearly out of his wits, and watching that winged mutant dive had sent his heart leaping into his throat.
He had never expected it to end in a false alarm.
That winged beast had roared with immense bravado as it swooped toward their Administrator, only to touch not a single hair, slamming headfirst into the deck instead like it was bowing for New Year greetings.
And then they saw the flying giant's skull crushed by a single hammer strike from their Administrator, dying before it could even utter a scream.
A guard standing next to Lyu Bei swallowed hard and muttered under his breath.
"What... just happened?"
Not far away, a ground crewman wore an expression of fanaticism, his lips trembling as he whispered:
"Great Horned Deer God above..."
Their Administrator truly was the chosen of god!
Otherwise, how could anyone explain why a dive that was practically guaranteed to hit had veered off course so bafflingly?!
And it missed by just a single step!
It had to be the blessing of the Great Horned Deer God!
In reality, Chu Guang was naturally no "chosen one," and Gahn's fatal strike going off course certainly hadn't been caused by the Great Horned Deer God's intervention.
That fellow was currently munching potato chips and burping in Vault 79; there was no way it could have dashed nearly a thousand kilometers to Jinhe City to lend a hand.
Inside the research vessel, Yang Kai stared fixedly at the holographic screen, his nose nearly pressing right through the transparent display, his face filled with utter disbelief.
"A deflector shield?! That was actually a deflector shield?!"
He certainly knew the Heart of Steel was equipped with a deflector shield, but after seeing what the Church of the Torch's biological soldiers looked like, he hadn't thought much of it.
After all, such systems were not omnipotent; they weren't even very effective against slightly slower guided munitions, let alone biological soldiers conducting boarding operations.
Yet Chu Guang's move completely upended his battlefield positioning and understanding of deflector shields.
This thing could actually be used like that?!
A hundred kilometers away, Arzu was equally astounded, staring blankly toward the pitch-black north, unable to speak for a long time.
Gahn... was dead?
That brute was the strongest warrior of the Qi Tribe.
The biomass armor on him was specifically designed to counter powered armor. Not only did it possess strength capable of tearing through steel and defense comparable to alloy plating, but it also had regenerative capabilities that conventional mechanical armor could never match...
It wasn't as if Arzu hadn't considered the one-in-ten-thousand possibility that the mutant swarm led by Gahn might achieve less than expected and get pushed back by the Alliance after boarding the airship.
After all, mutants were mostly deranged.
Even so, a berserk Gahn and uncontrolled Batwings should have at least inflicted severe casualties and chaos on the Alliance's frontline command structure, buying time for the domain constructed by the Na fruit to transition from the third stage to the fourth...
At least, that was his assumption.
It was precisely because of this that the moment he saw Chu Guang, he had been beside himself with glee, practically desperate in urging Gahn to go finish that man off.
As long as Chu Guang died—
Not just the Jinhe City war zone, but the entire Alliance would inevitably plunge into endless turmoil!
Across the entire central region, no one would be left to prevent the light and faith of the Torch from illuminating this barren land.
Yet never in his wildest dreams did he imagine that just as the dawn of victory appeared before his eyes, all light would be snuffed out.
The power they took immense pride in.
The scheme they had spent years setting up in Jinhe City to counter the covetous eyes of the Legion, the Academy, and the Enterprise...
It was completely obliterated in a single strike.
The cold night wind brushed against his face. Arzu's Adam's apple bobbed, despair gradually creeping across his heavily wrinkled face.
"No..."
The cool night washed over that despondent wail. They had played the very last trump card buried in this land.
The war was still going on.
But the war here was over...
...
Aboard the Heart of Steel.
Looking down at the headless corpse fallen before him, the pool of blood spreading toward his feet, and the tracer rounds dancing in the night sky, Chu Guang expressionlessly pulled back his warhammer.
A beast was just a beast.
Trying to arm-wrestle an entire airship.
Did he think this tonnage was a joke?
"I originally planned to tear off your wings and toss you off the deck to see how big a crater you'd make... Dying like this was getting off easy."
He really had planned on doing that.
Although he didn't know how high-ranking this fellow was in the Qi Tribe, considering that mutant society revered the strong, someone capable of commanding over ten thousand lackeys was clearly of no small status—at least a commander of ten thousand, with who knew how many innocent souls on his hands.
Yet Chu Guang quickly had second thoughts. If the fellow regrew his wings during free fall or got rescued by an overlooked mutant, it would be a massive blunder.
It was simpler to just finish off such a menace in one go; since ancient times, anyone showing off without delivering the killing blow never met a good end.
Besides—
Heya had asked him to secure some research samples.
As it happened, he also wanted to figure out what was going on with this creature.
Just then, a group of guards clad in Type 5 exoskeletons jogged over.
Leading them was naturally Lyu Bei. The young man held a rifle, a blood-stained short sword hung from his waist, and his breastplate was spattered with gore.
Flipping up his helmet visor, he looked at Chu Guang and asked hurriedly with deep concern, "My Lord... are you all right?"
Looking at the anxious young man, Chu Guang offered a faint smile and said amiably, "Do I look like someone who isn't all right?"
Chu Guang had merely intended to comfort the loyal lad, but to his surprise, Lyu Bei froze briefly, his expression abruptly turning ashamed.
Lyu Bei lowered his head, self-reproach surfacing in his eyes.
As the commander of the Guards Corps, he was supposed to serve as the Administrator's shield, yet he had allowed him to fall into danger. He had truly failed his duty.
Seeing through his thoughts, Chu Guang pondered for a moment and continued:
"Lift your head."
"Ordering you to lead your men into battle alongside the ship's crew was my command. Standing here alongside the soldiers of the Alliance was also my decision. You have carried out your duties with utmost loyalty; you should be proud of yourself, not ashamed."
Slapping the warhammer onto his back, Chu Guang stepped forward and clapped him on the shoulder.
"You did very well."
As he spoke, he turned his gaze toward the northern night sky.
The tracer fire rising like embers was growing increasingly sparse.
Having lost their backbone, the winged mutants shrieked and dove toward the deck, launching suicidal attacks against the soldiers stationed there.
Although their attacks became fiercer, they lacked any tactical discipline. Far from reversing their decline, it only accelerated their rout.
More and more mutants plunged from the sky until very few survivors remained. Anyone could see that these flying beasts were already on their last legs.
At that moment, two clusters of blinking lights appeared in the distance.
Two Orca transports flew in through the night sky one after the other, switching from fixed-wing mode to VTOL mode. Dragging azure plasma plumes, they hovered and touched down on the northern side of the Heart of Steel's deck.
Over a hundred well-trained soldiers and mechanized equipment rapidly deployed.
Yet at the exact moment their deployment was completed, the fighting on the deck had entirely concluded, with the final mutant eliminated.
Looking at the fanged monster that had crashed down right beside him, Gu Wei, who had just stepped onto the deck holding a light machine gun, jumped in fright.
"Holy shit... What the hell is this thing?!"
He was clearly not the only one surprised.
Looking at the fanged beasts scattered across the deck, many soldiers wore expressions of astonishment.
"Mutants?!"
"And they've got fucking wings!"
"What's so weird about that? Over in Yunjian Province, there are ones with gills under their chins."
"Hiss... Do you think it's possible that the mutants in Yunjian Province and these winged freaks were made by the same people?"
"Ghost knows... but I'd bet it's possible!"
"Quiet! Prepare for combat—we're not on a picnic!" Hearing his squadmates chattering over the comms channel, Yun Song furrowed his brow and barked.
At their captain's reprimand, everyone shut their mouths at once. However, they were completely at a loss regarding the second half of his order.
They naturally knew they weren't here for a picnic.
The problem was—
Where were the enemies?
From far away, they had seen tracer rounds crisscrossing the deck, but by the time they flew in, the battle seemed already over...
At that point, Lao Bai, clad in power armor, walked over from nearby. Flipping up his helmet's visor, he looked with surprise at Yun Song standing at the front of the squad.
"Why are you guys here?!"
Yun Song was thoroughly baffled inside as well, though he didn't let it show on his face.
"We came to help... We heard you were under attack by the Church of the Torch? Over ten thousand biological soldiers?"
"You mean this?" Lao Bai kicked the mangled mutant at his feet and grinned. "It's no big—"
"The situation is very serious."
A voice drifting from behind cut him off mid-sentence.
Lao Bai instinctively turned his head, only to see the Administrator in his azure power armor striding over.
Instantly catching the Administrator's drift, Lao Bai tactfully stepped aside.
Looking at the Alliance Administrator approaching, Yun Song paused for a moment and gave a wry smile.
"My apologies, we rushed here as fast as we could—"
"I don't mean to blame you."
Chu Guang shook his head, looking at Yun Song as he continued.
"In fact, I'm very grateful that you reached out a helping hand in this moment of danger, rather than hiding far away like a certain someone, watching the show as if it had nothing to do with them."
"However, I must bring up the issue of efficiency. We shared our intelligence with you long ago. The threat brewing in the land beneath our feet is no less dangerous than the Enlightenment Society or Vault 0. And this threat does not concern us alone—it is something you will inevitably have to face one day."
"Tonight's tragedy could have been avoided—in fact, not just tonight's. If our cooperation had been tighter, if you had taken this just a little more seriously, we could have nipped all this trouble in the bud instead of waiting until it turned into an inoperable tumor!"
Looking at Chu Guang, Yun Song was somewhat at a loss for words. After a pause, he said, "I apologize. I'm just a soldier following orders, with no say in the Council's decisions... But I will pass your words along to my superiors."
Chu Guang glanced at his helmet, noticing that the operational recorder was on, and gave a slow nod.
"I hope you do."
Calling the Enterprise folks over through Eclipse was originally meant for this very purpose.
Long ago, he had summoned the Enterprise's ambassador to the Alliance to hold consultations regarding the situation in Jinchuan Province and the Church of the Torch's conspiracy. Yet up until now, the only support the Alliance had received was two androids.
Evidently, the Council had never truly taken what was happening in Jinchuan Province seriously. According to reports from the Alliance's ambassador to the Enterprise, Shu Yu, the Council treated it merely as a historical legacy issue during discussions, ignoring its far more severe underlying nature.
Going by their past habits, only when an issue escalated to an unavoidable scale would they bring out a sliver of their real capabilities to deal with it.
Yet Chu Guang couldn't just watch them dawdle any longer.
Jinhe City was still far from Yunjian Province and Ideal City, but it was only seven to eight hundred kilometers from Qingquan City.
Moreover, beyond this single stronghold in Jinhe City, the Church of the Torch controlled a massive base of operations in Haiya Province.
If the Alliance's campaign in Jinhe City proceeded too smoothly, their ally would likely care even less.
While the trump card the Church of the Torch had concealed in Jinhe City had indeed exceeded Chu Guang's expectations, he had immediately realized that he could use this incident to trigger the interpretative clauses of their alliance treaty and scramble the 26th Strike Team.
Even if the 26th Strike Team hadn't fired a single shot or engaged in direct combat, Yi Chuan would still have to submit a report on this military operation to the Council afterward.
And that report would play a pivotal role in the Council's deliberations.
Although it was a bit unfair to an honest fellow like Yi Chuan, to drag the Enterprise into the muddy waters by any means necessary, he had no choice.
Roughly grasping Chu Guang's meaning, Yun Song nodded and pressed on bravely:
"Is there anything else you need our help with?"
Chu Guang looked at the corpses nearby.
"I hope you can take some of these monster corpses back. Your research institute might be interested in their somatic cell DNA and the secrets hidden within."
Earlier, he had heard the crew of the Pioneer mention that there was a kind of mutant in Yunjian Province with blue skin and gills on their jaws.
They could live in the ocean, dwelling along the coastline, causing endless misery to survivor settlements in coastal regions.
Seeing these flying creatures, he had a lingering hunch—could those amphibious mutants also be the Torch's handiwork?
Hearing this relatively straightforward request, Yun Song felt a sense of relief and nodded slowly.
"No problem. In fact, I was just about to consult you about that... Anything else?"
Chu Guang was just about to say no when he suddenly recalled an awkward matter. With a subtle expression, he glanced beyond the side of the deck.
"Well... we have an aircraft hanging from the barrel of a gun battery. We might need your help retrieving it."
Boulder Military's aircraft production line wasn't fully restored yet; the Alliance only had two Vipers in total, and losing one would be too great a pity.
After a bit of repairs, it would still fly.
However, upon hearing Chu Guang's request, Yun Song froze.
An aircraft... hanging from a gun barrel?
How the hell did that happen?
"All right... I'll try."
It wasn't entirely out of goodwill.
Mainly, he was also extremely curious about just how an aircraft managed to end up hanging there.
Meanwhile, Kuang Feng, who had been watching from the sidelines, gave a subtle look to Fang Chang, whose expression was equally nuanced, and coughed softly.
"I think I know where Ye Shi went..."
...
The recovery of the Viper transport was not as troublesome as imagined.
Hovering directly below the gun battery, the Orca transport first opened its rear cargo door, slowly cradling the tethered Viper from beneath. Several strike team soldiers secured it inside the cargo bay, after which the pilot increased engine output and gradually gained altitude.
To the massive Orca, the Viper dangling from the 155mm gun barrel was like a jellyfish, effortlessly swallowed whole.
At this moment, the superiority of plasma engines over helicopter rotors became immediately apparent. While their low-altitude dash speed might not match rotors, they possessed stability and omnidirectional maneuverability with virtually zero blind spots that rotors could never achieve.
Looking at the aircraft battered, gnawed, and pitted all over, the strike team soldiers in the cabin couldn't help clicking their tongues in wonder.
It was hard to imagine what on earth this craft had endured...
The first to climb out of the damaged cabin was the pilot, followed by the lady in the back seat clutching a rifle.
Standing nearby, Su Ming felt this woman looked somewhat familiar, quickly recalling that he had seen her back at Vault 0 in the Great Desert.
Realizing she was a researcher from the Academy, his eyes widened at once.
"Wait, you're—"
While he was reeling in shock, Jiang Xuezhou grabbed his arm, cutting him off with a plea:
"Wait! There's still someone outside!"
"Someone else...?"
Su Ming instinctively looked outside the cabin. His gaze traced upward along the suspending cables, and what he saw next was a sight he would never forget.
Lying atop the bent section of the gun barrel was a soldier in an exoskeleton, his waist nearly snapped entirely in two by the cables.
Taking in the gruesome scene, Su Ming gulped reflexively, feeling a sympathetic pang in a certain part of his body.
It was unimaginable...
Just what agony that man must have suffered before he died.
"Bring him down," Yun Song ordered concisely, having noticed the figure sprawled across the barrel long before. He signaled the pilot to ascend, allowing the bent gun barrel to extend inside the hatch.
Several men stepped forward with cutting torches and sawed off that entire section of the barrel.
Looking at this brave warrior who had clung tenaciously to the barrel without letting go even in death, everyone felt a surge of solemn respect.
Seeing Ye Shi reduced to this state just to save her, Jiang Xuezhou felt her nose sting, and tears and snot poured forth once more.
Yun Song let out a sigh. Kneeling on one knee, he unfastened the helmet, wanting to see the hero's face.
Yet the moment he laid eyes on that face, both he and Su Ming beside him froze in unison.
This guy...
looks kind of familiar, doesn't he?
Meanwhile, on the official Wasteland Online forum.
A certain fellow who had "died" not long ago was cursing up a storm in a thread.
"Fucking hell! Why hasn't my respawn cooldown started ticking yet?!"
"It's been almost an hour!"
Luo Yu: "Is it bugged? Happened to me last time too."
Ye Shi: "Crying my eyes out here! Can someone free go put a bullet through my head?!"
Elaina: "Pity I'm on the front lines and can't help ya. (Funny)"
Elven King Fugui: "Next time for sure. (Funny)"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Gagaga, I've still got 70 hours left on my cooldown! (Funny)"
Ye Shi: "%¥#@!"
Luo Yu: "Wait a sec, Brother Mosquito, what happened to your eight robotic arms?"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Holy shit! I fucking forgot about them! QAQ"
Makabazi: "Pffft hahahaha! You're gonna kill me with laughter!"
Feng Qing: "Commander should've told us. If a suicide mission pays well, we'd gladly take it."
Elaina: "For a moment, I don't know whether to envy him having enough cash to throw around, or feel sorry for him taking such a massive loss. (Funny)"
Elven King Fugui: "Don't sweat it, Brother Mosquito, we'll help you look. Maybe we can salvage them. (Funny)"
Chapter 609