Chapter 180: A Total Crush

Chapter 180 – The Crushing Bureau

“I have reached the designated combat position and am commencing sweep operations.”

“The front line is swarming with civilians brandishing single‑shot rifles; I have circumnavigated them.”

“I have ordered ten spear‑head robots to execute point‑targeted elimination of high‑value targets on the front; the 30A chip lacks sufficient compute power, request Fuxi for computational support.”

Through the radio, Lei Jie’s calm voice crackled.

Immediately after, Fuxi’s voice answered.

“Copy that. Mesh network is clear; computational resources have been re‑allocated. Providing a 5 % boost to the War‑Cranium system.”

“Ten spear‑head robots have been marked; I will pilot them.”

“Understood, you take the helm.”

As the words faded, Lei Jie floored the accelerator, crushing the squad of over a dozen “supervisors” armed with automatic weapons, and thundered toward the rear of the front line.

The hulking 30A, a beast of steel, barreled across the endless plain; every would‑be melee attacker was locked by its intelligent fire‑control system and then effortlessly cut down by the 8.6 mm light machine gun mounted on its turret.

Amid the chaos the monster stood out, a torrent of rockets and unknown anti‑tank missiles bearing down, yet the omnidirectional millimeter‑wave radar coupled with infrared composite sensors rendered those “obsolete” weapons utterly harmless.

They were too slow.

Empowered by Fuxi’s 5 % compute augmentation, the War‑Cranium entered its full form, and within a ten‑millionth of a second it had identified and predicted every airborne target.

Of the dozen‑plus contacts, only two or three entered the danger envelope.

Even those few were easily intercepted by the “Arm‑Shield‑2” close‑in defense system.

Not a single shell from the battlefield could trigger the reactive armor of the 30A tank; the undersized projectiles could not even breach its outer protective skin.

Lei Jie moved as if in a world without men, steering the tank while the 125 mm smoothbore fired a cluster of lethal burst shells into the dense crowd behind the front; as the shells detonated, hundreds of steel beads erupted into an unstoppable barrage, enveloping every living target within a fifty‑meter radius of the blast point.

The formation of the Huadu main force collapsed on the spot, yet they had long outgrown the era of line infantry.

The scattering of personnel posed a massive challenge to efficient lethality, and at that moment the ten “spear‑head” wheeled robots that had followed the assault fulfilled their intended purpose.

The 8.6 mm universal machine guns they bore fired in rapid, rhythmic bursts, reaping the lives of one moving target after another.

Weakly protected, almost unprotected Huadu civilians fell one after another; in merely two minutes Lei Jie had swept a full pass across the battlefield, severing the link between the fleeing civilians ahead and the main force behind.

Meanwhile, Fuxi personally piloted ten spear‑head robots to identify the hidden “supervisory squad” among the refugees, and after consulting Chen Jian, deployed five Iron Wolf robots into the fray, efficiently eliminating high‑value targets while herding the bewildered, already disintegrating refugees eastward.

The battlefield’s boundaries were redrawn; the defunct line at Ban Tower Town had long become history.

Where the 30A now stands, a new front line is forged.

Shen Yue continuously monitored the unmanned combat units, and once drone footage confirmed all units had reached their attack positions, he issued the order without hesitation.

“Attention, attention, commence attack on enemy support fire.”

“There may be a ten‑second lag; all units, prepare anti‑artillery defenses.”

“Those mech‑cult scum are hopeless; they couldn’t hold out five minutes!”

“Our engagement was too hasty; deployment is in chaos!”

“Chaos has its own tactics.”

Chen Jian’s voice crackled over the radio:

“Situation is acceptable for now; keep firing amidst the chaos.”

“Zeng Yi, Xie Liu, are you ready for rocket‑artillery fire?”

“First volley, commence!”

Zeng Yi shouted back, his voice trembling with obvious excitement.

Clearly, it was not merely his first participation in an operation of this scale, but the fact that his inaugural large‑scale engagement already immersed him in a high‑grade, unmanned war.

And he was a part of it himself!

His fingers, slightly trembling, pressed the fire button; a heartbeat later the calibrated 107 fire‑ball nest spewed flame, and nine pulse‑guided rockets bearing smart warheads burst forth.

The other Saint‑blooded comrades mirrored his actions, launching a total of thirty‑six rockets toward targets nearly five kilometres away; after a spine‑chilling scream, they rained down with a thunderous impact.

“Boom!”

“Boom, boom, boom!”

The visual spectacle of this rocket barrage paled in comparison to Huadu’s first carpet‑bombing, yet the destructive effect far surpassed anything Huadu could dream of.

Rockets that struck Huadu’s artillery positions halted their counter‑attack; only a handful of shells were fired before the positions were engulfed in a sea of fire.

In the next instant, the Golden Eagle‑11 reconnaissance‑strike UAV descended, releasing all sixteen air‑launched smart‑guided rockets from its payload, individually designating every towed artillery piece on the ground.

Immediately after, twenty “Vermilion Bird” cruise missiles entered autonomous search mode, guided by the War‑Cranium, methodically eliminating any remaining active support fire.

Towed artillery, rockets, heavy machine guns, autocannons, mortars

In less than thirty seconds, none survived.

At this juncture, the strike against the enemy’s rear‑line support fire entered its final phase.

Six Puffer S2 hexacopter attack drones lowered altitude, employing the 8.6 mm guns mounted on their belly weapon stations to reap the moving targets in a final sweep.

Augmented by algorithms and raw compute, the killing efficiency cut through the battlefield like the scythe of Death.

Huadu combatants fell in wave after wave; within moments, blood had soaked the earth completely.

Panic spread unchecked, and a rout erupted instantly.

Even those who had ingested copious drugs before the battle snapped to clarity in the face of absolute, death‑inducing terror.

They scrambled toward the woods, desperate to evade the ghost‑like hunters descending from the sky.

Little did they know that ten minutes earlier, the Iron Wolf unmanned robot swarm tasked with corralling the battlefield had already reached its designated positions and begun tightening the interior.

Still, the 8.6 mm guns reserved for unmanned units.

Once the fire‑control system locked onto the enemy’s coordinates, their flight was over.

In fact, they no longer needed to flee.

At this moment, the battlefield, split into three fragments, had become a boiling cauldron; in the final seconds, Huadu finally

managed to mount a limited counter‑offensive.

Yet they misjudged a crucial fact.

The greatest threat to them was not the rampaging steel behemoth tearing across the field, but the scattered autonomous killers hidden throughout the battlefield.

—

They were unaware of this.

After cobbling together a barely functional hundred‑man squad, they seized every weapon at hand and launched a desperate charge against the monster.

20 mm cannons, 35 mm grenades, 12.7 mm machine guns, rocket launchers, mortars

A dense hail of fire enveloped the 30A, and the sheer number of airborne targets instantly overwhelmed the tank’s active defense tracking limits.

Flames erupted, smoke billowed, and the beast was shrouded, seemingly annihilated by an unstoppable torrent of firepower.

Yet it lasted only an instant.

Though explosions and glare obscured the line of sight, the UAV’s high‑altitude perspective never faltered.

As Lei Jie slammed the accelerator toward the squad that dared to provoke him, every Huadu face was already etched with despair.

"I've already surrounded the entire enemy!"

Leijie's voice rang through the radio once more.

"Captain, how are things on your end? Do you need support?"

Upon hearing the call, Chen Jian swapped the magazine of his grenade launcher, while around him lay a chaotic heap of no fewer than twenty corpses.

He studied the victims' attire and insignia carefully, then replied:

"Deploy two drones and sweep toward Laian Town!"

"The enemy forward command post has been seized, yet I suspect the key figures aren't here!"

"They've set up a radio station; it must be a remote command!"

"I'm heading to Laian now, Fuxi; I need a vehicle!"

As Chen Jian's words faded, Fuxi's voice crackled. "The road from our current position to Laian Town is poor, lacking any spare high‑mobility vehicles."

"Chief, I advise you to run."

"The route is plotted."

"Damn it, He Shuo, move!"

"Zeng Yi, Xie Liu, Ji Xing, take over our positions!"

"Understood!"

At the command, Chen Jian lifted his foot and set off.

The "Nezha" mech had long been in combat mode, and at full power it unleashed astonishing speed.

Chen Jian and his companion surged forward along Fuxi's prescribed path, skirting rugged jungle and hills, sprinting along the relatively flat road.

Five minutes later, through a drone's eye, Chen Jian spotted Huadu soldiers still active within Laian Town.

By their numbers and gear, it was unmistakably a genuine "guard regiment"!

My hunch was right.

The enemy's true commander, the high‑ranking figure, remained in Laian Town!

This time, we’ll wipe them out in one fell swoop!

Chen Jian quickened his pace, yet he did not order the drones to strike immediately.

The reason was simple: the frontline battle was still raging, and the firepower of a Golden Eagle and a Puffer were insufficient to cleanse the near‑hundred guards inside Laian Town.

If we let them stall and alert the key figure, causing him to withdraw early, pursuing him would become far more difficult.

Thus, Chen Jian ordered the two drones to hover covertly, while he and He Shuo raced toward Laian Town without a single pause.

After twenty minutes, they finally covered ten kilometers and reached Laian Town's outskirts.

At the very moment they faced the enemy, the airborne drones launched their assault.

Bang bang bang bang bang—

Machine‑gun fire erupted, and several guard posts fell instantly.

Chen Jian and He Shuo surged forward, their weapon mounts snapping open.

In that instant, they were like an eight‑armed Nezha.

Light machine guns, heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, and "sleeve‑arrow" man‑portable missiles.

All fire poured forth, raging toward the dense gathering point of the Huadu troops.

The battle hit its climax the instant it ignited, and their foes scarcely had time to react.

In less than ten seconds, Chen Jian and his comrade had pushed into Laian Town's inner ring.

By then, no fewer than fifty enemies lay dead at their feet.

At that moment, the enemy finally mounted their first counter‑offensive.

Bullets rained like raindrops toward them, yet shielded by their composite‑material armor, they neither flinched nor dodged, instead relying on fire‑control systems to lock high‑value targets and prioritize the elimination of those brandishing rocket launchers and explosives.

It was then that Chen Jian realized just how terrifying the exoskeleton's combat power could be in close‑quarters fighting.

Every obstacle became meaningless, every blind spot vanished; even if the enemy managed a preemptive strike, the armor remained impenetrable!

They advanced steadily, and when they saw Huadu troops converging on a building within the city, he instantly recognized it as the ultimate target.

The final breaching charge from behind was to be fired at this very moment.

"He Shuo! Prepare the kill‑bomb!"

"Understood!"

The two crouched in unison, then Chen Jian's shoulder‑mounted rocket launcher hurled a breaching projectile at lightning speed.

"Boom!"

The massive blast instantly shattered the building's outer wall.

Within the split‑second gap after the explosion, He Shuo's rocket on his shoulder fired a kill‑bomb of its own.

"Boom!"

The explosion roared inside the structure, sending plumes of smoke and fire outward.

A few seconds later, the brick‑stone edifice collapsed with a thunderous crash.

The Huadu soldiers still sprinting toward the building froze in place, stunned.

When they finally recovered, a single thought remained in their minds:

Run!

The decapitation raid instantly turned into a wholesale annihilation; Chen Jian and his partner methodically swept the remaining combatants in Laian Town, driving bullet after bullet into skulls already tainted and utterly corrupted by drugs.

Just as the gunfire in Laian Town fell silent, the battle on the outskirts of Banta Town entered its final phase.

The battlefield contracted again and again, until it was confined within a ring less than five hundred meters in radius.

Hundreds of unmanned combat units, a 30A tank, and three Sanctified Blood‑bearers encircled the nearly thousand Huadu infantry still stubbornly resisting; anyone who dared raise a weapon faced a ruthless, indifferent "cleanup."

"It's over."

Chen Jian heaved aside the broken stone slabs of the collapsed building and spoke:

"The enemy rear command post has been destroyed, the command radio located; there are sand tables and maps here—quite professional."

"No wonder they could beat the monsters; it's not just the drugs."

"In the 006 there must be more than gear—perhaps tactical manuals as well."

"Fortunately, they've only grasped the surface."

"A total of eight commanders, all confirmed dead."

"Copy that, our fight here is concluded."

Leijie replied briefly:

"Notify the Mechanical Cult; begin processing the prisoners."

"Understood."

"The others continue to hold their positions, preventing any counterattack."

"Understood."

The group reported the situation one by one, and at that moment, Xie Liu suddenly spoke:

"Captain, are there any women in the command center?"

"None. What's the matter?"

Chen Jian asked, puzzled, while Xie Liu replied:

"Nothing, I was just wondering whether we were so lucky as to have taken down the queen of Huadu."

"That doesn't make us that fortunate; if such a pivotal figure were that easy to capture, the war wouldn't need to be fought."

Chen Jian let out a soft sigh, then said:

"Never mind, we will certainly march on Huadu."

"When the time comes, none of Huadu's high‑ranking officials will escape."

"Understood!"

With Xie Liu's reply hanging in the air, Chen Jian continued:

"All right, the battle is essentially over."

"Stay sharp! The triumphant parade is at hand!"

(End of Chapter)