Chapter 913: The Icy Fortification and Frozen Blood

Translator: Min Editor: Rundi

The frozen Yangtze River divided the city into two. North of the river was under the control of Northern Alliance Area while the area to the south was occupied by NAC.

Two days ago, the last batch of troops responsible to cover the retreat also returned to the line of defense and established a multi-layer defense line along the river.

The thickness of the ice layer was close to one meter. With special tires, it was not a problem to allow light armored units to pass. However, this thick ice was still far from enough to hold up the weight of the Wanderer tank. With the restriction of the terrain, the fierce offensive from the Northern Alliance Area finally halted to a temporary stop.

It was also on this ice that the NAC’s artillery exerted its maximum advantage. An electromagnetic pulse cannon could easily penetrate the ice, turning a solid layer of ice into broken ice shards, preventing soldiers from trespassing.

Machine guns along the bank also easily weaved a firepower net. On this frozen river, even the narrowest part was more than 1,100 meters in distance. It was almost an impossible task to rush through this ice sheet with bare flesh and blood.

Under the command of Han Junhua, the defense line of the Second Army was more than several times stronger than it was two days ago.

…

Scooping the snow from the foxhole to the outside with a shovel, Hu Cheng tossed down the shovel and rubbed his numb face. It was freezing outside, with wind gusting. His breath immediately turned into white fog as he sat on the ammunition box.

Two days ago, the retreat order freed him from the hell on the front line. Taking advantage of the light machine guns he had picked up from the battlefield, he was assigned to the foxhole.

There was only one task. It was to press the trigger when the enemy charged. He loved this job very much, he didn’t need to aim and just needed to use firepower to force the enemy to retreat.

In fact, their machine gunners did do that. NAC’s supply was sufficient, enough that he did not need to calculate how much ammunition remained.

Yesterday, those “barbarians” tried to launch three fake attacks and two assaults, but they were forced back without exception.

Today, they were suprisingly quiet, except for occasional shots through the blowing snow, there were basically no new movements.

There was an electric kettle not far from his hand. In such a weather, there was nothing better than drinking a hot cup of cocoa… Of course, hot cocoa was just a thing in his imagination. Since he climbed out of the hibernation chamber, he hadn’t seen any of these comfort things before the war.

He tossed a few dry tea leaves in the boiling water. This tea came from the tea garden near the Sixth Street with a beautiful name called Intoxicating Tea. Just brew in boiling water for a while, it would produce an alcoholic taste.

The tea was not just intoxicating, but also warmed the stomach.

These things were popular among the middle class. One of the most expensive luxury items that they could enjoy. If it was not for the generosity of General Jiang, they simply wouldn’t have the opportunity to enjoy these.

If he was to pay money for this, he would be too stingy.

Hu Cheng took out the binoculars, and cautiously leaned against the edge of the pit and confirmed the line of defense on the opposite side.

“Very well, it seems that they are too cold too,” muttering, Hu Cheng put the binoculars into his pocket, sat back onto the ammunition box, rubbing his hands together. Then, turned off the electric kettle, took out a steel cup, poured half a cup for himself, and took small sips.

He had never seen such a cold winter, nor had he seen such strange snow. When he woke up from the hibernation chamber, the toughest decade already passed. He heard from those who lived through the most difficult period after the war that this may be the fabled nuclear winter?

Intoxicating Tea also had the benefit of reducing radiation.

After finishing the tea, Hu Cheng looked at his radiation value and the iodine inventory on his EP. He stepped back to the machine gun position, and adjusted his grip.

At this moment, he suddenly saw a few green figures in the distance.

His eyes squinted, then Hu Cheng whispered and grabbed the binoculars.

“Am I seeing things?!”

Lifting up the binoculars, he examined the distance.

For a moment, he actually saw mutated humans. Could it be that I’m too tired? It was indeed possible since he didn’t get good sleep for many days.

The binoculars fell on the snowdrift and Hu Cheng opened his mouth in daze.

[Are they really mutated humans?]

[How could this be?!]

However, the enemy did not give him the time to react from his shock. After a series of intensive gunshots, mutated human soldiers armed with C-grade steels, carrying rifles began taking charge at NAC’s zone of control.

Hu Cheng buried his head out of reflexes, and there was a homing sound from above. The shell exploded about 10 meters behind the foxhole.

The flying shrapnel knocked down the electric kettle. Without the time to be pained by the waste of perfectly fine tea. Hu Cheng quickly swept away the snow on his body before he leaped beside the machine gun and unleashed a fury of bullets!

The bullet sputtered a series of sparks on the steel armor. From the trajectory of the bullets, the bullets did not penetrate through the simple and crude armor.

“Damn it!”

An inexplicable panic entered his mind. Hu Cheng gnashed his teeth and tore off the chain on the machine gun. He scrambled to change into armor-piercing bullets, and once again unleashed bullets to those mutated humans.

The recoil shattered the ice cones on the edge of the cement bunker, and it also pained his muscles. The speed of the machine gun was much slower, but the penetration power more than doubled. Many mutated humans’ armor were knocked off and then they were shredded by the bullets and shrapnel rain, but more mutated humans rushed into NAC’s first line of defense and began to fight with the soldiers behind the trenches!

Even if there were shots and their internal organs crushed into slush, these mutated humans didn’t die immediately. The simple minded creature was far more difficult to deal with than they thought when they were driven by their desire to kill.

Python drones and Reptile drones were immediately mobilized, but the EMP weapons launched by the First Legion caused a lot of trouble for these robotic units. Although the EMP did not directly destroy the drones, the side effects of overloading the circuit forced the drones to stall.

A mutated human rushed right below Hu Cheng’s machine gun and had avoided the maximum shooting angle of the machine gun. Through that snowstorm, he could even see the despicable face, and the drool that was frozen on the corner of its mouth.

“Go to hell! You disgusting green skins!”

Hu Cheng roared, grabbed the rifle with a bayonet from his side. He shoved it out from the bunker and stabbed the mutated human’s head in a commanding position. A few rounds of bullets struck next to him. Cement chips and ice shards left a few bloody scratches on his face.

The bayonet did not pierce the mutated human’s face, but stuck on its arm.

However, he did not flinch. A suddenly flick torn open the muscles of the mutated human’s arm.

The mutated human howled out in agony. Its rifle dropped to the ground, but the other hand reflexively took out the crude machete from its waist. It swung toward Hu Cheng.

Docking his head, he avoided this hit. Hu Cheng caught the opportunity and aimed at the ugly face. He pressed the trigger in desperation.

With the burst of fire, the orange trajectory brought blood and hit the snow, and then sizzled to form a white mist. The machine gun bullets from across the river suppressed Hu Cheng back into the foxhole. More and more mutated humans rushed onto the frozen river surface and opened fire.

As he anxiously prepared to shoot, there was a shrill screech nearby.

Before he could react, bursts of fire exploded on the ice, the explosions blew large chucks of ice along with snow and ice shards meters into the air. When everything dispersed, the entire river was already fragmented, and large sections of ice slowly drift down the river.

There were no traces of mutated humans left? Only the smoke of the explosion lingered on the fractured ice surface in the howling blizzard…

“Beautiful!”

He threw a punch at the concrete wall and shouted at the surface of the river in excitement.

Although he also knew that it would take less than a day for the shattered ice surface to be frozen again by the blizzard, at least for the next ten hours he didn’t have to worry about his own defense zone. Even if he napped against his machine gun for a while, it wouldn’t be a problem…

He hadn’t closed his eyes for a long time.

But, just as he dozed off, he was still confused.

[Where did the mutated humans come from?]

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