Chapter 738.2: Real Heroes

After personally harvesting more than 20 kills, Garbage eventually found himself overwhelmed. Two claws couldn't fight hundreds of hands. His exoskeleton armor plates were shredded by assault-rifle fire.

Soon, a portable rocket launcher slammed into his shoulder.

With one final unwilling roar, he tumbled off the mountainside.

Still, although Garbage failed to survive long enough to rendezvous with Spring Water Commander, his sudden appearance had thoroughly frightened the Mutant Humans.

Their retreat was significantly delayed.

After suffering 300 to 400 additional casualties beyond expectations, the Mutant Humans who had descended the mountain finally managed to withdraw back into the cave systems halfway up the slope.

The Storm Corps wasted no time. Their vanguard immediately followed and seized several tunnel entrances on the mountainside as the main force advanced from below.

Coordinating with the assault teams already inside, they launched a brutal battle against the Mutant Humans entrenched within the mountain.

The players continued using the same tactics that had carried them uphill. A heavily armored soldier with a massive shield led the way. Two lighter infantry followed close behind with a mix of weapons. Tracer rounds formed an impenetrable web inside the narrow tunnels.

Every shot flying at them was absorbed by the ceramic-steel shield as they continued to advance. Seeing rifle bullets fail to penetrate it, a Mutant Human hiding behind cover roared and pulled out a grenade launcher before firing directly at the entrance.

The moment the delayed-fuse grenade came trailing white smoke toward them, the strength type player at the front reacted instantly. Raising his shield, he actually swatted the grenade back. The explosive flew toward the center of the tunnel before detonating in a burst of fire. Fragments rattled harmlessly against the shield.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Using the explosion as cover, an agility type player carrying an RPG crouched beside the shield bearer before the mutant could fire another round.

With practiced movements, he disengaged the safety. The distinctive warhead revealed its identity immediately. It was a thermobaric rocket modeled after the RShG-2 and produced by Goblin Technology.

"RPG!" the player shouted excitedly and pulled the trigger.

A thick trail of smoke shot deep into the tunnel. An instant later, a blinding explosion erupted at the far end. The overpressure seemed to shake the entire cave.

No exotic technology was involved, yet its destructive power was undeniable.

Nearly four kilograms of high-performance fuel filled the warhead. Its effectiveness surpassed many real-world rockets with comparable payloads.

The scorching shockwave nearly knocked over even the shield-bearing strength type player, but the Mutant Humans on the receiving end suffered far worse. Countless were killed or injured instantly and the cave filled with screams and groans.

Even so, these creatures truly lived up to their reputation as products of Singularity-level Technology.

A handful survived. One particularly resilient Zombie Mutant Human staggered over the barricades through pure muscle memory.

Seeing the standing Mutant Human, the strength type player steadied himself and raised his shotgun. With a pull of a trigger, two white-phosphorus rounds slammed directly into the creature's chest. A torrent of fire engulfed it like a dragon's breath and the creature collapsed without making a sound.

"Move!" Kakarot roared. Carrying his shotgun, he stepped over the burning corpse and charged into the devastated cavern.

Several wounded Mutant Humans tried to rise and fight, but the players behind them quickly finished them off.

The cave smelled strongly of burnt meat, but nobody felt hungry. Looking at the mangled corpses scattered everywhere, Darkest clicked his tongue. "These Wislanders are crazy..."

In the tunnel less than 10 meters long, nearly half a company had died.

Kakarot grinned and reloaded his empty shotgun. "It's not like you've never fought them before."

Recalling past battles, Darkest nodded thoughtfully. "True..."

Without respawns, beating those guys would've been pretty difficult. Then again。。。 If there weren't respawns, and death meant deleting their character, who the hell would play the game? Besides, who could compete with the old monsters inheriting the legacy of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee when it came to overpowered advantages?

The Army, the Enterprise, and the Academy all possessed absurd trump cards. Compared to them, Shelter 404's own advantage wasn't nearly as outrageous. As for why the New Alliance could achieve such explosive success, that was simple.

It was because the administrator played his cards well.

While Kakarot and his men secured one position after another, other teams pushing deeper into the labyrinth achieved similar success.

In just 30 minutes, the Storm Corps had advanced all the way back to the positions previously reached by the Army before pushing several hundred meters farther. Along the way they captured four major ammunition depots packed with weapons and equipment.

They also discovered a breeding chamber holding over 500 imprisoned survivors.

In return, the Storm Corps paid a heavy price. Two entire companies were lost, However, casualties on the Mutant Humans’ side were even more severe. It was at least five times higher than their own.

After assigning half a company to evacuate the rescued survivors, Kakarot led the rest of his men deeper into the Mutant Humans positions.

Under the coalition's relentless assault, the Mutant Humans inside the mountain finally began showing signs of exhaustion. No matter how powerful their regeneration was, even those green-skinned monsters had limits. They needed rest to recover from injuries. Only after eating and sleeping could they return to peak condition.

But those human monsters... They had fought nonstop all night. Dawn was almost breaking outside, yet the gunfire inside the tunnels continued unabated.

Both the green-skinned brutes and the Goblins gradually began to feel fear. They had never seen humans like this before...

No, the monsters they were fighting weren't human at all. They felt more like some other species wearing human skin!

Like a wildfire spreading through dry grass, the flames of battle continued advancing through the tunnel network. The fighting spread from the frontline ammunition depots all the way to a foundry located deep within the mountain.

That chamber served as the Rock Axe Clan’s equipment workshop. Several processing furnaces and large workbenches designed by the Torch Church were installed there and there was also an explosives workshop equipped with chemical synthesis tools.

Connected to numerous man-made tunnels, it effectively sat at the very center of the entire underground labyrinth.

Watching the situation deteriorate by the minute, even Orlong, who had been calmly sitting in his "palace" could no longer remain composed. Dragging its massive body forward, it personally headed for the frontline.

It had assumed that the humans would panic and flee the moment they saw it, just like the soldiers from the day before and the day before that. What it never expected was that the instant it barged his way into the foundry, the exhausted-looking humans suddenly became even more energized.

It was as though they had discovered some priceless treasure.

"Holy shit! Dungeon boss!"

"Brothers! Boss fight!"

"Get your weapons, fuck him up!"

"Wooohoo!"

Watching the humans charge toward it while shouting excitedly, a rare trace of fear appeared on Orlong's disgusting toad-like face. "What the hell is wrong with these people?! Beast King, you damn... Where are you?! Tell me what to do!"

For the first time, Orlong addressed the Beast King with his title instead of "that guy."

However, the figure who had always answered his calls failed to appear. It was as though he had never existed.

When no response came no matter how loudly he called, despair briefly appeared on Orlong's face before being replaced by fury.

It had been abandoned!

Those human things truly can’t be trusted! The ones merely wearing human skin while secretly being something else are the same!

Looking at the human soldiers opening fire, Orlong threw back its head and roared. Like a living tank, it charged forward and its blood-covered feet shook the ground with every step.

7mm rounds could do little more than punch tiny holes in its flesh. Even rocket wounds twisted and healed into grotesque masses of writhing flesh resembling centipedes. Even decapitation couldn't kill Orlong. Its vitality surpassed every known surface creature and it rivaled even evolved Mutant Slime Molds.

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