The mutated humans had a fatal weakness – they couldn’t stuff their giant bodies into vehicles. Even if they always arrogantly referred to themselves as moving armor, they were just trying to make the best out of a bad situation.
If it wasn’t for the Dusk Church modifying trucks for them, they wouldn’t even be able to operate vehicles.
In the early days of warfare with Fishbone base, they learned how to install cannons onto their trucks. But faced with the Tiger II, their crude “high mobility anti-tank cannons” were a joke.
The most common anti-tank cannon used on the wasteland was Type-99, produced by deconstructing the primary cannon used on the Type-99 light tank. The Type-99 shells couldn’t penetrate the thick front armor of the Tiger II, however. At most, it could break the belt and destroy the observer hole, but one round of Tiger II’s 5 kg bombs could break the cannon along with the truck into pieces.
So the mutated humans learned the hard way to avoid sending out an armored force. Instead, they chose to take down the cannon and fire at them behind cover.
Because of this, the First Corps didn’t encounter any “armored force” resistance.
The eight hours of battle ended as 20,000 rounds of rockets were unleashed onto 20,000 mutated humans. Scorching flames continued to burn inside the war zone and melted all the steel in the area, although Jia City hadn’t directly been struck by a nuclear weapon. Paint and organic construction materials were all unconsumed, but they burned in the flames and emitted toxic fumes into the city.
High temperatures and toxic gas. The city was in shambles.
A lot of mutated humans didn’t die from being buried alive or explosions but from the fires and asphyxiation that ensued.
The soldiers who saw the General personally visiting the battlefield erupted into cheers.
[How is authority built?]
While everyone was wondering whether the fort was indestructible or not, you stood in front of all of us. Because of your presence, the indestructible fort collapsed.
You are the hero.
All the glory belongs to you.
There’s no need for words.
It’s not logic that brings worship but emotion.
Jiang Chen faced the cheering soldiers as he signaled to them that the war wasn’t over yet. He wanted them to stand firm on their positions and wait for the order to change.
Jiang Chen took a tour at the frontlines and met all the soldiers there. He and Cheng Weiguo stood in the middle of their area of control while they enjoyed watching the massive fire.
This wasn’t a war.
With absolute firepower, it was more appropriate to describe this as a slaughter.
“How long do you think the fire will burn for?” Jiang Chen asked nonchalantly.
“If it doesn’t rain, it’ll burn until tomorrow,” Cheng Weiguo said while looking up at the gloomy clouds in the air.
“Then get the soldiers to rest. They won’t be fighting for a while.” Jiang Chen made the order then headed to the command vehicle.
“Roger!” Cheng Weiguo saluted and began to make the order on the tablet.
The flames were beginning to lose control, but the situation soon changed at midnight.
Maybe the wailing of mutated humans received mercy from the heavens since a few raindrops began to fall down. With this change, Cheng Weiguo immediately woke the well-rested soldiers and prepared to launch the order to attack.
Gradually, the rain began to pour down.
The grain-size droplets descended from the sky, smothered the flames, hit the muddy ground…
Rose from the burning steel and rolled down from the power armor’s surface.
“Charge!”
A thunderous shout came from the radio channel as the First Corps battle line began to move forward.
The electrostatic sound of the mortars began to screech in the air as ten lighting bombs rose into the air and lit up the sky near the Sports Center with their orange flames.
The armored force crossed the river and the power armor’s steel boots extinguished the faint footprints as they marched forward.
The rain washed away the chaos on the ground and cooled off the burning corpses. The soldiers who walked by had to hold their breath – the pungent smell of burnt meat lingered even in the heavy rain.
It wasn’t only mutated humans who died under the rockets – thousands of Jia survivors also died as a result. But in the merciless apocalypse, even the previous Defender soldiers rescued from the Seventh Area didn’t drop a single tear for the deceased.
Death was the norm.
3,000 soldiers surrounded the Sports Center that stood tall while they prepared to eliminate their last remaining enemies.
1,000 engineering soldiers were handed rifles to rescue any human captives remaining among the shambles and kill off any undead mutated humans.
Needless to say, the mutated humans were tenacious.
Even in this living hell, there were still a few who survived.
On top of the Tiger II, wearing kinetic armor, Jiang Chen heard an angry roar in the distance.
In the pouring rain, a mutated human with pitch-black skin shook off the debris on top of him, swung the power warhammer in his hand, and hit an engineering soldier into the sky like a golf ball.
A lead mutated human!
The three soldiers all raised their rifles in horror as they began to fire, but the deflected bullets clearly showed that all was futile.
Jiang Chen looked at the figure in silence as the lead mutated human reminded him of an unpleasant memory from the past.
He patted the cannon below him and the Tiger II immediately understood.
The vehicle stopped and the cannon began to rotate.
When Jiang Chen met eyes with the mutated human two hundred meters away, the cannon he was sitting on shook violently.
An eerie blue arc ignited as the electromagnetic pulse bomb fired.
The 5 kg bomb blasted through the raindrops and drew a white trail in the midst of the rain. When the white trail faded, the lead mutated human had already been turned into pieces of meat.
The three soldiers sat up and waved at Jiang Chen to thank him for saving them.
Jiang Chen waved back and signaled the Tiger II to continue.
In the rain, the First Corps soldiers surrounded the Sports Center and engaged in battle on the street 300 meters away. When the Tiger II arrived near the frontlines, he jumped down from the tank.
The power armors 20 meters in front of him were firing with their machine guns.
The battle was at a point where it was one-sided. To be honest, Jiang Chen wanted to put on power armor himself to try the thrilling experience of combat. But when he saw a few enemy rockets smashing a power armor nearby, he quickly gave up on the idea.
Since this wasn’t the modern world, power armor wasn’t invincible.
A few soldiers ran out and dragged the power armor and the injured soldier out amongst enemy fire.
When he walked to the command vehicle, Jiang Chen took off his helmet to dump out some water and spoke to Cheng Weiguo.
“What’s the situation at the frontlines?”
“We’re just closing out. This feels fu*king great.”
He’d never fought a more exhilarating battle than this.
Jiang Chen grinned.
[This is all my cash – forty million USD to buy the lives of 20,000 mutated humans. If this isn’t exhilarating, I don’t know what to say.]
“Once you capture Jia City, leave 1,000 people to defend it – Hang’s Merchant Alliance may send people to scout. But with this scene, I don’t think they’ll have any other ideas. Rest for the night and help Wanghai City tomorrow-”
Boom!
The explosion in the distance suddenly interrupted Jiang Chen mid-sentence.
Jiang Chen stopped then immediately ran out while putting on his helmet.