A Breakthrough Torn from the Northern Front

A deathly silence hung over the underground monitoring room. Every researcher present, whether from the Enterprise or the Alliance, stared wide-eyed in sheer astonishment. Except for Heya. As the sole researcher on the "relevant research project," she was likely the only person here who possessed any insider knowledge. A deep flush covered her fair face, and her eyes sparkled with fierce excitement. As though scrutinizing an impossible scientific miracle, she stared unblinkingly at the screen. Her gaze burned with sheer fanaticism, and she could not stop murmuring under her breath. "Is this what sixty percent gene sequence unlock progress looks like? This feels... this is even more absurd than the theoretical projections from the evaluations!" No— Could this even be called a carbon-based organism anymore?! At the frame rate of the security cameras, the feed couldn't even capture the trajectory of that punch! Her heart pounded violently, and her breath turned shallow and ragged. In that very instant, Heya snapped to attention and muttered to herself, "...Wait. Could that unidentifiable 'Talent'... also be related to this?!" Was it physical strength enhancement? Or was it far more than just strength...? While the researchers were lost in wonder, the monster clad in biological power armor suddenly surged back to his feet amid a chorus of gasps and launched another assault. Driven to rabid fury, he sent a savage roar echoing down the length of the corridor. Madness blazed in those dark green eyes. Muscle fibers packed with strength rivaling an Evolutionary detonated in an instant, and his massive frame shot forward like an artillery shell once more. That horrifying explosive burst seemed even stronger and faster than before! And yet— The outcome differed not in the slightest from the last time. Taking a fist full in the face, the Beastmaster didn't even have time to utter a shriek of pain before he slammed violently back into the floor. "Don't you have any other tricks?" Looking at the Beastmaster tangled in a pile of crushed concrete, Chu Guang found the spectacle growing dull. Reaching out, he hefted the hammer standing on the floor and walked toward him. Hearing the steady footsteps, the Beastmaster struggled up from the shattered debris. Wiping the viscous slime from the corner of his mouth, he glared with venom at Chu Guang as the man approached. "What kind of monster... are you?!" His voice trembled slightly, and his razor-sharp claws shuddered uncontrollably. Not out of fear. It was purely because three thunderous, concussive blows had knocked his endocrine system completely out of whack. "I'm no monster. I am who I am," Chu Guang said calmly. "Impossible!" the Beastmaster roared, cutting him off as his dark green pupils bored into Chu Guang. "This can't be human strength... Even if you modified his power armor, your body could never endure that kind of speed and power!" "Modify it?" Chu Guang smiled faintly. "There was never any need." He knew the fellow was fishing for information. Unfortunately, he had no idea what was happening inside his own body either. According to the conclusion Heya had reached long ago, the "results" generated by his players exploring their gene sequences would ultimately accumulate upon his body in some manner. In a sense, his very existence was a "Singularity" beyond the event horizon. Existing theoretical science could barely scratch its surface, let alone fathom its origin. Just like the "morphogenetic field" that connected the players. Or the "Gestalt Lifeform" that the Torch sought so desperately in vain... Disbelief flickered in the Beastmaster's eyes; he clearly refused to believe Chu Guang's words. Chu Guang had no intention of explaining himself anyway. He merely swung back the square iron warhammer— And the atmospheric nitrogen gathered over the striking face, compressed almost into a solid mass! "Go to hell." He pronounced the demon's death sentence with quiet finality. "That's where you belong." A detonating torrent of air erupted in an instant, ravaging the surroundings like razor blades, blasting apart windowpanes and gouging deep furrows into the walls! No flashy flourishes, nor any need for such things. Winding up into a sweeping arc, Chu Guang brought the warhammer down with vicious force against the half-crouched Beastmaster. Confronted by the gale-force hammer, the Beastmaster raised his arms in an instinctive guard. Yet the biological power armor in which he took such pride proved as fragile as paper, shattering into fragments in a heartbeat. Agony wrenched a howl from his throat, but the tearing squall crammed into his maw, inflating his cheeks like balloons. And then— The hammer that had just obliterated his arms slammed brutally into the crown of his skull, crushing his head down into his shoulders and pulping his upper torso into bloody paste. The raging shockwave churned up billows of dust. When the dust finally settled, crimson droplets showered the entire hallway like an unholy rain. At the center of that storm, only Chu Guang remained with hammer in hand, standing beside a flattened mess of mashed flesh. Hurried footsteps sounded from the end of the corridor as Lyu Bei rushed up from the basement, leading a squad of Guards Corps soldiers in frantic concern. The moment he had discovered the Administrator was missing from his side, he had gathered his men to hurry here. Yet he never imagined that such an over-the-top scene would greet his eyes... Not just Lyu Bei, but every guard behind him froze in place. This... Was their Administrator? That courteous, open-minded, almost never bad-tempered... Administrator?! Even though they knew the Administrator was extraordinarily powerful, none of them had imagined it to such an absurd degree. Every pair of eyes filled with unadulterated reverence. While personal combat prowess was not the reason they pledged their loyalty to him, in a wasteland governed by the law of the jungle, supreme power naturally commanded the respect of every wastelander. That was an undeniable truth. Inside the underground monitoring room. The researchers were equally dumbfounded, struck utterly speechless. After a long time, an elderly professor from Yunjian University swallowed hard, poked the Alliance researcher beside him with an index finger, and asked in a trembling voice, "Is this... really your Administrator?" What he had originally wanted to ask was, "Is that guy even human?" On second thought, he felt that would be far too offensive, so he adjusted his wording on the fly. The Alliance researcher looked completely baffled as well, but nodded subconsciously. "Of course... Genuine and unadulterated." A female researcher from Yunjian University stared with feverish zeal, grabbing a partner from Camp 101 next to her. "What technology is this? I don't mean to pry, I just want to understand what just happened... Could you lend me a few samples—" Before the collaborator could answer, Heya snapped like a cat guarding its food, cutting off the woman's wild fantasy without hesitation. "Don't even dream about it!" At the same time, outside the research institute, the players and NPCs in the open lot looked toward the ruined wall and the corridor where Chu Guang stood. When the winged creature had smashed through the wall and charged inside earlier, they had noticed the commotion at the facility and subsequently heard explosive blasts echoing like artillery fire. Realizing the Alliance's Administrator was inside, General Babita wore a mixed look of hope and anxiety, though leaning far more toward hope. He had even inwardly cheered for the monster. Elsewhere, an NCO of the Hound Special Forces turned toward a nearby Storm Corps soldier and couldn't help asking, "Your Administrator is over there... Aren't you going to help him?" Hearing the NPC speak, Catching Ghosts at Graves gave him an odd look, thinking to himself that this was just an in-game cutscene. What was there to make a fuss about? Given the Administrator's level and stat sheet, expecting that creature to harm him was vastly underestimating the power of "technology." Waving his hand, Catching Ghosts at Graves smiled and said, "No need. By the time we get over there, he'll have probably taken that thing apart for spare parts." The Hound Special Forces NCO: "...?" Exaggerated as that phrasing was, Catching Ghosts at Graves had still underestimated their esteemed Administrator. Strictly speaking, forget taking him apart for spare parts. Judging by that smear of pixelated gore, not a single intact part could be salvaged. Glancing down at the thick blood coating his frame, Chu Guang fell silent for a moment before muttering, "Seems I overdid it a bit." He should have kept a head. And now he was soaked in blood... Well, it didn't really matter. X-16 would clean it off for him anyway. Flicking the shredded meat and gore off his hammer, Chu Guang stepped over the Beastmaster's remains, climbed the stairs to the third floor of the institute, and stood before the breach in the collapsed wall. The moment that figure appeared in the gap, an expression of sheer disbelief surfaced in nearly everyone's eyes. Except for the residents of Shelter 404. The players, who had fought alongside him time and time again, knew full well how powerful he was. More than that. He was their banner. No matter what enemy they faced, as long as they stood beside him, fearless courage and an unyielding conviction of victory would surge within their hearts. It was precisely because of this. The instant they saw him appear on the battlefield, almost every player erupted into joyous cheers— "The Administrator is a badass!" "Long live the Alliance!" "Awoo-wahoo!" Bathed in that rousing roar of celebration, the soldiers of the Hound Special Forces looked around in bewilderment, then followed the crowd's gaze toward the research institute. They couldn't understand what those shelter residents were shouting, yet they could feel the fanatical fervor burning in their cheers. The man they regarded as their leader had led them from one victory to the next; they held not the slightest doubt that their future and prospects were bright. Among the soldiers from the Free State, many eyes brimmed with envy. Fighting merely to pay off their debts as soon as possible, they could not comprehend that kind of faith, but that did not stop them from casting envious looks at those radiant people. If only they could have an Administrator who cared about them like that. Everyone couldn't help thinking so in their hearts. Compared to the ideals of Ideal City, that seemed somewhat easier to realize. Unfortunately, cursed with such yearnings, they were forever forced to choose between a bad option and a worse one—most of the time, they were given no choice at all. Not just the Hound Special Forces. Even the soldiers from the Falcon Kingdom looked up at that man in the same awe. Though they had once been beaten black and blue by this fellow, they found they bore him no hatred at all... From a soldier's perspective, a commander who advanced and retreated alongside them was immeasurably better than those cowards hiding in castles and airships. Seeing Chu Guang completely unscathed, a trace of disappointment crept onto General Babita's face, and he let out a soft sigh in his heart. What a shame. Heaven does not bless my empire... Who knew when this endless, dark night would ever end? Sweeping his eyes over everyone across the battlefield, Chu Guang slammed the warhammer heavily onto the ground. "Everyone—!" He switched on his helmet's loudspeaker and raised his voice, shouting words that rang like thunder. "Our enemies are at the end of their rope! Their blustering madness cannot conceal their weakness!" "Their 'Beastmaster' has already perished beneath my hammer!" "If they still wish to throw away their lives, we shall grant their wish!" That voice was like a sharp blade, tearing through the curtain of night and the din of gunfire and shelling. Those gazing up at him, And those soldiers still locked in brutal combat, All erupted with unprecedented morale. A deafening roar answered him across the front: "Kill—!!" ... That thunderous shout acted like a shot of adrenaline, piercing straight into the heart of every fighter. Facing the coalition's soaring morale, the monsters lingering outside the research institute struggled in desperation for a brief while, but were ultimately crushed. Meanwhile, battles across the rest of the military base drew to a close one after another. Under Yu's control, a massive swarm of Gnawers and Crawlers successfully secured the east and west flanks of the military base, holding firm against the corpses that kept crawling from the soil. The Heaven looming above the Weifu Military Base had already collapsed; sending off the puppets awakened by it was merely a matter of time. On the other side, the armored columns of the Skeleton Corps had smashed their way to the base's northern perimeter. While mopping up those "living dead," they also cleaned up the Batwings attacking the northern defense line, as well as the inhuman freaks encased in biological power armor. Just as Chu Guang had declared in his rally cry, the Torch's local forces were spent. They had run out of cards to play! At the same time, aboard the airship *Loyalty*. Sitting on the bridge, General Lium finally received the battle report from the front line. Reading the report carefully to the very end, he let out a slow sigh of relief, then turned to his adjutant beside him, revitalized. "The Blood Mountain position has been taken, and the crisis at Weifu Military Base is resolved. We have won this war!" A look of immense relief washed over the adjutant's face, accompanied by lingering dread. "To think these bastards possessed such a terrifying weapon..." Perhaps they ought to follow the Academy's Alpha Task Force and equip the clone units with gas masks as well. Though useless against bizarre biochemical weapons like the Alpha Protozoa, they could at least resist the corrosion of Na fruit mycelium. The Glorious Army's performance in dragging down the rear during this campaign had utterly disgraced the Legion. General Lium nodded, squinting slightly as he looked out the floor-to-ceiling window toward the west. He had already dispatched a report on the situation to Triumph City; reinforcements would arrive before long. Ten Peaks Mountain was merely an unavoidable checkpoint on their path into Haiya Province. The war between the coalition and the Torch had only just begun. And after that, there would still be the political chess game with the Enterprise, the Academy, the Great Rift Valley... and even the Alliance. For the Legion, that would be the main event. ... The raging fires of war had seemed to ignite in a single instant, and seemed to conclude just as abruptly. When the last Batwing had its throat slit by a player's combat knife after running out of ammunition, the gray horizon finally revealed the pale belly of dawn. Without realizing it, the soldiers in this military base had fought through the entire night! Though Yu's fruiting bodies were still contesting control of the soil against the puppets of the Na fruit mycelium, the latter no longer posed any real threat. As the figures clad in biological power armor fell one after another, both the Batwings and the "living dead" deteriorated into soulless husks, nothing more than walking corpses driven by pure instinct. These disorganized mobs were clearly no match for the army of fruiting bodies led by Yu. Clearing the blight from this Weifu Wasteland completely was only a question of time... News of victory spread rapidly throughout the army. Learning that the enemy had been routed, the taut nerves of the troops finally eased. Many collapsed directly onto the ground, while others stared blankly at the corpses strewn everywhere. The thick stench of blood filled their nostrils; the entire military base had turned into a veritable sea of gore. The sheer intensity of this battle had exceeded most people's wildest imaginations. After all, the populations of most settlements on the wasteland put together wouldn't even fill one of the burial pits dug here. The Wilantes, on the other hand, remained relatively composed, already lining up at the mess hall door with mess tins in hand. Perhaps in the west of the continent, this was considered merely a modest skirmish... Aside from the Wilantes, the calmest members of the entire coalition were naturally the players. To prevent accumulated fatigue from ruining their gameplay during the "daytime," several had already run back to lie down in their hibernation pods to rest. Those who hadn't managed to snag a save point didn't waste time either; after grabbing a quick bite, they helped the NPCs clean up the battlefield. East of the military base. The Southern Construction Corps had demarcated a plot of barren land specifically for piling up bodies. They used trucks to haul the corpses out of the base and dump them here, waiting for the Crawlers spawned by Yu to carry them away. Looking at the mounds of dead bodies, Mosquito couldn't help letting out a sigh. "Holy crap... The Empire took a massive beating on this one." Even without asking, he could guess that aside from the clone cannon fodder, the ones who had suffered the heaviest casualties in this battle were the Rat Clan of the Xilan Empire's expeditionary force. Those poor bastards really had it rough. All they had wanted was a few full meals; they hadn't committed any grave crimes, merely daydreaming about survival at most. Yet they had been run ragged by their officers, living in misery and dying in dishonor. Beside him, Construction Site Boy and Bricks shot him a sideways glance. "...Why do I feel like the Empire isn't the one who lost the most?" Mosquito blinked. "...What's that supposed to mean?" In Debt God reminded him, "Weren't you waiting to collect their grain?" His brow twitching, Mosquito gave a dry cough and defended himself, "I only said I *planned* to collect it... They didn't grow any, so I won't collect, that's all." Though he said that, the thought of free money slipping through his fingers still stung. He clicked his tongue in pain. A missed profit was a loss in its own right. He had to figure out how to make up for this deficit... ... Elsewhere, on the open ground before the temporary research institute at Weifu Military Base, tents bearing medical emblems had been pitched one after another. Half an hour ago, the Enterprise's medical team had departed from the Dawn City airport and had now arrived at the front lines of the Weifu Military Base. Nurses and doctors from Ideal City were bandaging wounded soldiers. In truth, before being converted into a temporary research institute, this concrete building had originally been designated as a reserve medical facility. Only because there had been few casualties earlier was it repurposed for research. And the open ground in front of the building had been set aside specifically to accommodate casualties that exceeded projections. It was just that neither the Southern Construction Corps nor the various factions of the coalition had expected this clearing to actually see use. And before the coalition had even crossed into Haiya Province, no less. After all, judging from the first two engagements, the strength shown by the Church of the Torch hadn't seemed particularly formidable; their positions had collapsed at the slightest push... While Chu Guang was checking in on the wounded, Li Jinrong, commander of the Southern Construction Corps, limped over toward him. A bandage was wrapped around his arm, looking like a gunshot wound—most likely inflicted by the Glorious Army's clones. Though the Ripper rifle was low-tech, the trauma inflicted by its full-power cartridges was nothing to scoff at. Fortunately, the bullet had passed clean through his arm without hitting bone or artery, nor had it lodged inside. Because of that, this minor injury hadn't interfered with his work in the slightest. He hadn't even bothered seeking out a doctor, simply grabbing a roll of bandages and wrapping it up himself. "Aside from the Legion refusing to cooperate with casualty assessments for the Glorious Army, casualty tallies for the coalition's various contingents are basically complete. Right now, the heaviest losses belong to the Xilan Empire's expeditionary force. Many of them were poisoned the moment the mist rose..." Chu Guang frowned and asked, "How many did they lose in total?" Li Jinrong swallowed hard and continued, "Counting the missing... it comes to fourteen thousand seven hundred." If Yu hadn't salvaged some of them, that number would have been even more shocking. Even though he had anticipated the casualties of the Xilan Empire's expeditionary force would be horrific, Chu Guang still couldn't help catching his breath upon hearing that figure. Nearly fifteen thousand people... Only twenty thousand soldiers had made it all the way to Jinchuan Province. That was a casualty rate close to three-quarters! Seeing Chu Guang's solemn expression, Li Jinrong hesitated for a moment before adding, "The commander of the Xilan expeditionary force hopes the coalition can provide some compensation to the families of those fallen soldiers... He said they were the pillars of fourteen thousand seven hundred families, who came here for the shared destiny of all mankind. Their families should receive not merely ashes and honorary titles, but sustenance provided by those who survived because of them." Hearing that high-sounding rhetoric, Chu Guang's mouth twitched. Pillars of fourteen thousand seven hundred families, indeed... More like livestock from some noble's plantation. Though he had never set foot in Brahma Province, that didn't mean he was blind to conditions there. He was certain that even if he helped them secure a compensation fund from the Academy or the Enterprise, or even paid the money out of his own pocket, it would never reach the hands of those soldiers' families. In the end, it would almost certainly line the pockets of some aristocrat. Or simply go straight into Babita's own. Yet at this moment, he thought of a friend who had died before his time. In a sense, Chu Guang now stood in a similar position. He could simply ignore those people, and no one would fault him for it. Even General Babita himself, upon reflection later, would likely feel embarrassed for having made the demand. After all, those Rat Clan troops hadn't contributed anything useful; in the end, they had even muddled into sabotaging friendly forces, to the point that even the Legion, which was closest to them, disdained them as a nuisance. Yet if one never planted the seeds in one's pocket, no matter how many seeds they hoarded, the wasteland would forever remain a wasteland—even if they ultimately won this war. After a long silence, Chu Guang spoke: "Tell Babita that the coalition is a military body, not a welfare agency, but the SMRC recognizes their sacrifice." "If he truly wants to do something for those fourteen thousand seven hundred fallen soldiers, have him compile an accurate registry of their names, families, and residential addresses." "We will, through an officially recognized resolution, grant appropriate compensation directly to the families of all fallen soldiers and their respective communities." Li Jinrong nodded with solemn conviction. "Understood!"