Chapter 790.1: NO ONE KNOWS LIGHT BETTER THAN ME

On the Death Coast, construction crews in work clothes were climbing ashore one after another across a floating pier made of steel plates, carrying shovels and toolboxes.

They were soldiers of the Xilande Empire Expeditionary Force who had previously been stationed at French Fry Harbor.

Although the New Alliance had occasionally dragged them out for target practice, the players clearly had never intended to throw them onto the frontline from the very beginning.

And thank heavens for that. The moment many of them stepped ashore, they vomited violently on the spot, their faces pale and their limbs numb.

Seasickness was naturally part of the reason, but at least half of it came from the horrific scene on the beach.

Bloated and mutilated corpses were scattered haphazardly across the sand. Blue ones, green ones, and human ones. Although the players had already removed the bodies from the trenches, some mutants that had died in the sea were later washed ashore one after another by the waves.

And there were more than corpses. Mutated creatures drawn by the smell had also begun wandering over. Some absurdly large sea crabs were the first to catch the scent of decay. They descended on the bodies with rustling movements and happily dug into the all-you-can-eat buffet.

The soldiers swallowed saliva and stomach acid as they moved their stiff legs toward shore. Then, without warning, a gunshot cracked from the beach.

Bang!

The sudden sound startled everyone. Muscle memory from training made them instinctively drop flat to the ground until they saw a blue coat in an exoskeleton walking toward them.

“Relax. It’s me.” Half Wasted walked over beside the pier carrying a shotgun and waved with a smile. Then he pointed toward a spot not far from the row of floating steel platforms beneath their feet.

A mutated sea crab more than a meter tall lay toppled in a waterlogged sand pit, half of its head completely blown apart by the shotgun blast. Its shell was so similar in color to the beach that none of the soldiers, whose attention had been entirely on the corpses along the shore, had noticed it.

Looking at the badly shaken expeditionary soldiers, Half Wasted grinned. “Watch where you step. Those claws are damn strong. One snap is enough to cut your leg clean off. We’ve already spent enough money on you people. We really don’t want to have to buy you prosthetic legs too.”

When no one replied, Half Wasted stopped wasting words and got straight to the point.

“Your job is simple. Clear the bodies off the beach, drag them all to a location about five kilometers from the coastline, then burn them with the fuel we provide.”

“We’ve already broken the Torch Church’s military presence in this area, so there shouldn’t be much danger. Of course, all I can say is ‘shouldn’t’. Anything can happen on a battlefield. Keep your eyes open and be ready to respond to anything dangerous that might come up.”

“That’s the situation. If you have questions, now’s the best time to ask. If not, you can start working.”

After saying that, Half Wasted waited for a moment.

When no one spoke, he was just about to turn and leave when a young man timidly raised his hand. “I... have a question.”

His voice was hesitant. Most Rat Clan people sounded like that when speaking with them.

Half Wasted didn’t mind and waved his right hand. “Ask.”

The young man swallowed and spoke quickly. “Why not just let those crabs eat them...”

From his perspective, there was no need to deal with the corpses at all. If they simply left them alone, the crabs would eventually eat them clean.

Hearing the fanciful idea, Half Wasted laughed and teased, “Once you’ve fed them all until they’re full, how many of them do you think there’ll be afterward?”

Why did these NPCs act even more like NPCs than he did?

He was about to turn away when the young man quietly added, “What if we moved the bodies somewhere farther from the pier? We could dig a water pit there and bury the corpses inside... Maybe we could lure the mutated sea crabs over there too.”

It wasn’t that he thought moving the bodies was troublesome. He mainly felt it would be a waste to drive away crabs that were edible.

Back when they had first arrived at French Fry Harbor, they had often picked up crabs killed by New Alliance soldiers and roasted them together with the troops.

Half Wasted looked at the young man in surprise.

Damn.

Were the NPCs in this game really so resourceful?!

But to be fair, after thinking the idea over carefully, it actually sounded pretty good. Of course, the main reason was that he also wanted to improve the food he could get around the area.

In the end, he walked over with a grin and patted the young man on the shoulder. “Brother, what’s your name?”

The young man answered nervously, “Dam...”

“Then I’ll call you Adam. Hahaha, Adam, future crab tycoon.” As he spoke, Half Wasted tossed him a set of keys with vehicle tags attached. Then, thinking of something, he handed over the weapon in his own hands as well and continued with a smile, “You can borrow the truck. These people are all under your command. Right, take this shotgun and radio too. I want your crab farm at least five kilometers from here. If you get attacked, call us.”

The young man froze for a second, then nodded ecstatically. “Don’t worry, sir! Leave it to me. I’ll definitely make sure you’re satisfied!”

From the smile on the New Alliance soldier’s face, he felt as though he had suddenly glimpsed an opportunity to change his destiny! If he handled it well, maybe he could even stay with them!

Half Wasted didn’t give it much thought. He grinned, gestured for him to get to work, then walked back toward the shore.

Heaven Stepping had been waiting there. Seeing him return, he asked, “You sure this is fine?”

Half Wasted laughed. “What could go wrong? Might as well make use of those corpses instead of wasting them. Don’t be so serious, hahaha.”

Maybe after the war was over, mutated sea crab would become a local specialty.

Seeing his carefree grin, Heaven Stepping revealed a helpless expression. “Fine.”

He didn’t really care either, as long as it didn’t interfere with the transport of supplies.

...

The dusk hanging at the edge of the sky gradually sank lower. At the same time the expeditionary troops from French Fry Harbor were coming ashore one after another, Nihark, who had stubbornly refused to leave the Southern Sea New Alliance fleet no matter what, finally hesitantly stepped ashore after seeing General Li Minghui go onto land.

He was, after all, a grand duke of the Xilande Empire. He couldn’t let people look down on him.

Besides, as a grand duke of the Xilande Empire, now that the Xilande Empire Expeditionary Force had finally landed on Torch Church territory, it would be somewhat inappropriate for him not to make an appearance.

What he hadn’t expected was that the situation ashore would be far more horrific than he had imagined. Even after an entire day of sea wind, the thick smell of blood had not dispersed.

Standing on the undulating steel plates, Nihark felt as though his nasal passages were submerged in blood. His calves kept going weak beneath him.

So this is the front line...

He swallowed what little saliva remained in his dry mouth, his pupils filled with uncontrollable fear. Although he had already witnessed the New Alliance’s true strength through the holographic screens, seeing death through a display was nowhere near as profound as experiencing it for himself.

These people aren’t human. Neither the ones lying dead across the sand, nor the ones setting up camp ashore...

They are devils!

He pushed away the guards who came forward to support him and moved his stiff legs toward land.

The New Alliance camp was not far away. Rows of tents stood along the edge of the beach, with lights shining from the sentry towers.

Deep down, he still held onto a sliver of hope. He hoped the camp would be filled with wounded men. He hoped the battle had left the Torch Church and the New Alliance mutually devastated. He hoped the Xilande Empire could then rise to stand at the very pinnacle of the world!

But the moment he entered the camp, every one of those hopes was shattered. The soldiers were sitting right on the positions where they had fought, lighting bonfires where their enemies had fallen.

They paid no attention at all to the bullet marks and bloodstains on the ground.

They sat around the flames, laughing and talking as they roasted meat and sang songs.

And it wasn’t only New Alliance soldiers. He personally saw several soldiers from the Expeditionary Force being pulled over to sit with them. Some who knew how to play instruments improvised on short flutes from the Poro Province and drums made of animal hide and bone, accompanying the hoarse yet powerful singing.

“... The gears of the Kingdom of Heaven fall into the furnace. Boiling steel splashes from the forge. The immortal calamity never ceases its march! We shall reforge the realm of mortals!”

“...”

“The hounds of chaos have lost their heads, the flames of punishment are where lies belong. If turning black into white is the road to heaven, we’ll turn the whole damn world upside down!”

He couldn’t understand what they were singing, yet he could feel the blood in his veins surging along with the melody.

A trace of fear suddenly arose in his heart, especially when he noticed the expeditionary soldiers humming along softly as well. The lyrics seemed to contain some kind of treasonous curse...

Someone noticed him and pointed over with a laugh.

By the time he came back to his senses, he had already been pulled over and made to sit beside the bonfire. The guards following him were dragged over as well.

“Cheer up! Stop looking so miserable. The war’s almost over!”

“You people might still have a huge pile of problems to worry about, but at least right now we can celebrate a victory we won together...” Peepo laughed and patted Nihark on the shoulder. “This is a victory for all humanity. It doesn’t belong only to us. It belongs to you too.”

“D-don’t talk nonsense!” Nihark’s eyes widened like an old rat whose tail had been stepped on, and a very, very old rat at that. “We don’t have any problems! We’re doing perfectly fine! You’re the ones with problems! You brought all that disgusting filth... you brought the wasteland into the Poro Province! Before you people came to us, everything was perfectly fine!”

His beard trembled with rage and his lips turned blue. He didn’t even realize the contradiction in his own words! First, he insisted everything was perfectly fine, then immediately saying things had only been fine before the New Alliance arrived.

Looking at the living clown, the players burst out laughing.

Peepo laughed and patted him on the shoulder again. “Of course you’re doing perfectly fine. The people buried in the ground can’t talk.”

He still vaguely remembered that when they had captured this guy, the bastard had been happily enjoying himself in bed.

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.