Chapter 595.1: Broke the Record

Chapter 595.1: Broke the Record

Li Jinrong was completely stunned.

Lying beside him, Xiao Yue was the same.

The thick haze had dissipated considerably. Both of them clutched binoculars, staring at the battlefield blanketed in artillery fire.

If the earlier barrage had only shaken him with the Heart of Steel’s firepower, then this face-to-face clash overturned everything he thought he knew about humans.

Those guys...

Were they really still human?

He had never seen human soldiers fight Mutant Humans in close combat like that, blow for blow.

Yet, he had personally witnessed a man in a heavy exoskeleton cleave a two meter tall Mutant Human with mechanical augments in half with a chainsaw, then smoothly whip up a looted shotgun to blast apart another green-skin’s skull.

Even more unbelievable was that the beasts were afraid.

Yes.

Fear was clearly seen on their twisted faces. He could hardly believe his eyes. Those beasts who worshiped death and slaughter were frightened, by men even crazier than themselves.

It was as if the sun had risen in the west!

“... Looks like Midnight Pubg has it wrapped up.” Ample Time, standing calmly a short distance away, lowered his binoculars and spoke.

There was no need to doubt the outcome any longer.

Previously, Midnight Pubg and just 20-odd brothers had withstood a unit of Mutant Humans 1,000 strong. Now, with 120 fully equipped heavy infantry fighting a force already half-wrecked by bombardment, if they still managed to fail, they might as well delete their characters and start over.

Even if those Mutant Humans were far stronger than the last batch, beasts were still beasts. Even wielding human weapons, even imitating human tactics, they could not change their inherent savagery.

The only question now was how many heads Midnight Pubg would claim. The fools on the official forum had even started a betting pool and wanted Ample Time to act as the referee.

Unfortunately, visibility was poor, only rough silhouettes could be seen.

They would have to ask Midnight Pubg himself afterward how many he killed.

Xiao Yue swallowed hard, scrambled to his feet, and glanced at Ample Time, unable to hold back a question. “Uh... Those men, are they the Burning Corps?”

If they were, it would not be strange that they had seized the Heart of Steel. They were basically monsters.

Ample Time blinked, scratched his head, and chuckled. “You mean them? Nah, those are brothers of the Jungle Corps, though yeah, they’re a rough lot too.”

Jungle Corps?

Li Jinrong and Xiao Yue exchanged bewildered looks, shock slowly spreading across their faces.

He dimly remembered merchants from the north speaking of the New Alliance’s ace units fighting the Army in the Sunset Province. Besides the Burning Corps, there were the Storm Corps, Death Corps, Skeleton Corps, and a few others. But he had never once heard the name of the Jungle Corps.

If even troops they had never heard of could fight like this...

How terrifying must the legendary Burning Corps be?

Then again, wasn’t the man before them himself a veteran of the Burning Corps?

Realizing how scary the New Alliance was, the gazes the two NPCs turned on Ample Time shifted.

Xiao Yue shot Li Jinrong a look of excitement.

Ocean Edge Province can be saved!

Li Jinrong nodded vigorously, equally excited.

Yes!

With such a powerful neighbor as an ally, how could they not reclaim Ocean Edge Province?

The grand wish to drive those evil cultists from their homeland could be fulfilled!

At last, he saw a glimmer of hope!

...

Elsewhere, by the abandoned water tower, the hunter from Hope Town gaped at the battlefield where the dust had settled.

From the high ground, his view was clearer. He could see the center of the battlefield that was hidden from Ample Time’s party.

There, a snarling green-skin monster had his chest pierced through by a massive chainsaw, blood and flesh flung meters high by its whirring teeth.

Sunlight pierced the thinning gray-green haze, and in the mist of blood it sketched a faint rainbow bridge.

Before the beast stood the metal-clad warrior, his left arm raised, drenched in gore. His steel armor was indistinguishable beneath the crimson wash.

Liu Youxiong gawked at the sight with his jaw slack, unable to close his mouth, unable to believe his eyes.

At last, from his tight throat, a whisper escaped. “... They won?”

A human... If one could still call that man human, had slain a Mutant Human with mechanical augments in one-on-one combat!

From the look of it, the one he felled had been a captain or perhaps even a commander of hundreds.

Gradually, the disbelief in his eyes shifted into awe.

Then, an aged voice whispered in his ear. “Do you envy it?”

Startled, Liu Youxiong whipped his head around, but beside the rusty railing there was only empty air.

The voice was in his mind.

He swallowed hard and answered honestly. “I... I do envy it.”

The air fell silent.

Just as he awkwardly thought he’d imagined it, the voice returned. “Poor soul...”

The voice carried pity, but Liu Youxiong felt no comfort. He muttered under his breath. “No need to tell me, I know.”

Hope Town’s greatest lack was hope. Being born there was the worst curse. He needed no one to remind him.

His father had been eaten by a bear, and his mother named him Youxiong, which meant ‘with bear’, so he would always beware of the wild ones.

Yet when he shouldered the rusty old shotgun and left the village, he found that wild bears weren’t so dangerous. The wasteland was full of far worse monsters.

He had no choice. All his father had left him was that gun that could misfire. With no other skill, if he didn’t hunt, he would starve.

The voice fell quiet. It seemed like it was thinking to itself.

After a moment, it returned.

“If you had that power, what would you do?”

Liu Youxiong answered almost without hesitation. “Make lots of money!”

He heard mercenaries earned well. Whether coins or colored bills, they could buy things no hunted prey could.

But he lacked the skill to fight, and had no fine weapons.

If he had such power...

Maybe he could be like the mercs in the Grizzly and the Streetlamp, eating hunks of meat, drinking deep draughts of wine.

That, to him, was what it meant to be alive.

The voice did not mock his dream, but calmly asked again. “And then?”

Liu Youxiong blinked. “Then... buy some land?”

The voice pressed further. “And then?”

Annoyed, Liu Youxiong scowled. If the thing could appear in his head, why not just pry it open and look itself?

“How many ‘thens’ do you want...?!”

He no longer wanted to humor the pretentious voice, but he couldn’t find the switch to shut it off.

The voice ignored his irritation, continuing in a detached murmur. “The strong devour the weak. And when the weak gain strength, they never think to end the wasteland, they become the next predators. I’ve studied your past, and Boulder Town’s past. Everywhere we search for the impossible exception, but all we find are beasts more hideous than beasts, those meant to live as men turning themselves and others into animals of the forest.”

Half-lost, Liu Youxiong gulped. “Who... who are you?”

“I...” The voice paused, as if debating, then finally spoke plainly. “I am Luo Qian.”

Normally, he told mortals he was the chosen Apostle, apostles that he was a Pathfinder, to save needless explanations.

Unconsciously, he had stepped fully into the role of divinity, thinking with godhood instead of humanity.

But now, he chose differently.

With remnants of Federation Era technology, they had built an almost perfect system for their grand plan, sacrificing themselves before all others to secure eternity for its execution.

Ironically, at the last moment, the one least meant to falter had felt doubt.

Was it truly necessary to tear down the entire house, just to kill the rat inside?

It wasn’t the New Alliance administrator’s jibes that shook him. He had always despised such pragmatists who treated symptoms but not causes.

That man was no greater than Boulder Town’s founder.

What had that settlement become?

Singularity City was no different.

Somewhere along the line, the lofty ideal of saving everyone, trusting no heaven or earth but themselves, had compromised into something unrecognizable. They were worse than Boulder Town’s nobles. At least those beasts pretended to be human and didn’t boil their prey in pots.

The Torch Church’s ways might be extreme, but compared to the pre-war elites’ Project Torch, Luo Qian thought they were merciful.

At least they didn’t mean to wipe out all life to build a pure paradise.

They truly sought to save everyone, to make humanity ascend, to erase the wasteland forever.

Luo Qian never doubted his cause was just, nor cared for ignorant mockery.

But as he moved to silence the voice, he thought of the girl lying in blood.

He thought of all the chips he’d seeded in the parish and the special little lass. He had scattered his godhood in fragments across the land, but his last trace of humanity, he had left with her.

When the chip, carrying memory of her death, was reactivated, feeding data back into him, his soul trembled.

The voice echoed in his ears, questioning him relentlessly.

In 20 years of orderly sacrifices, had they killed more lives than the wasteland’s monsters?

Suddenly, Luo Qian realized that on the road to utopia, he himself had become part of the problem.

The weight was immeasurable...

Just one step remained before heaven’s descent. The New Alliance didn’t yet understand what the fog meant.

But at the very end, he could not strike.

He wanted to ask a commoner’s opinion, as a man, not a god.

It was something he hadn’t done in a long time.