Chapter 281: Self-Detonation

Chapter 281 Self‑Destruction

“Hold the line!”

Chen Jian stood beside a bastion of the defensive line, gripping his explosive‑shot gun, aiming at the swarming small monsters ahead, and swiftly pulled the trigger.

“Bang bang bang bang—”

The rapid stream of tiny grenades picked off each charging creature with surgical precision; scarcely a single monster managed to breach his defenses.

The corpses piled up on the open ground less than a hundred meters from the line, and in a daze Chen Jian felt as though he were playing a tower‑defense game.

Monsters, cannons, machine guns, soldiers.

Isn’t this the classic tower‑defense mode?

The only difference was that his side’s ammunition was not infinite!

“Maintain firepower!”

“Aim before you fire! Allocate your firepower wisely!”

Chen Jian shouted his orders over the radio, and the veteran soldiers of the Huaxia army, already accustomed to this new style of combat and stationed in each bastion, instantly assumed squad‑command duties.

The chaotic gunfire fell into rhythm; the once‑fearful warriors, now as swift as mantises, calmly opened fire, bullet after bullet piercing the monsters’ bodies and spraying crimson clouds.

Modern weapons had pushed the killing efficiency against the monsters to its limit; if they kept fighting this way, no matter how many monsters came, it would amount to nothing more than a vegetable delivery for the Huaxia troops.

——

Yet a defense line stretching dozens of kilometers remained far too loose.

Moreover, the onslaught was launched by far more than one kind of monster.

Besides the mantises, countless other small beasts that Chen Jian could not name— even the dreaded terror‑demons and water‑spirits— charged recklessly toward the new city of Jinling.

Using their sheer numbers, they broke through a layer of dense fire, crossed the buffer zone, and surged straight for Base 011.

“Unmanned combat cluster, activate!”

“All militia reserves, prepare for battle, brace for impact!”

Chen Jian issued the command again, and moments later the crack of guns rang behind him.

An unmanned corps, led by drones and high‑mobility Iron Wolves, surged onto the field, weaving through the buffer zone behind the line with a maneuverability that rivaled the monsters themselves.

Under the joint command of Fuxi and Zhanlu, the unmanned cluster slaughtered every intruder with no blind spot, and not a single monster managed to reach the third‑layer perimeter, five kilometers out from Base 011.

The situation seemed to have steadied; what remained was the long, tedious grind of extermination.

Yet Chen Jian’s furrowed brow never eased.

His gaze was locked on the crater left by the first‑rank monster’s bombardment.

It still had not died.

Even after being forced up from the earth by an air‑burst, even after withstanding the shock of two close‑range air‑bomb explosions, it remained alive!

In its final vanishing moment, Chen Jian clearly saw its body shattered beyond repair.

It was almost split in two.

Yet it still moved.

Such vitality— is this what a first‑rank monster is?

At that moment, the underground seismic monitors, crippled by the artillery barrage, failed en masse, and Chen Jian lost all control over the creature.

A deep unease seized him; he could not tell whether the monster had completed its “support mission” and vanished, or was brewing its next assault.

“Everyone, prepare for impact defense!”

Chen Jian swapped the magazine of his explosive‑shot gun and shouted:

“Leijie! Find the location of the Whale‑Eel!”

“It’s still active! If it bursts up from beneath our feet, we’ll be dead!”

“I can’t!”

A hoarse voice crackled over the radio.

“Keep moving; it can’t sense you from underground!”

“As long as you don’t stand like a fool, it shouldn’t reach you!”

“Understood!”

Chen Jian gritted his teeth, and the Nezha exoskeleton shifted into full‑power mode.

Then, along the G25 highway that cut through the defensive line, Chen Jian sprinted like a man possessed.

He wasn’t merely “running away”; more importantly, he intended to use his firepower to plug the gaps along the entire line.

Like a mobile bunker, wherever Chen Jian passed, the stragglers were singled out and eliminated one by one.

He gradually forgot the threat of the Whale‑Eel, or rather, he fell into a tunnel‑vision reverie long overdue.

Apart from the hostile targets within his narrow field of view, everything else ceased to matter.

His combat efficiency surged to unprecedented heights, yet unknowingly his peril also climbed to its apex.

As he once again changed the shotgun magazine and paused before a new bastion, the edge of his helmet’s smart visor flared a vivid red.

Immediately, an alarm blared in his ears.

“Danger! Forward!”

The Zhanlu system issued a terse command; almost reflexively, Chen Jian lunged forward.

Powered by the Nezha mech’s immense thrust, he instantly put dozens of meters between himself and the threat, and at that instant the ground behind him roared thunderously.

“Boom!”

Earth and stone splintered, dust rose in clouds.

The half‑body Whale‑Eel thrust itself up from the earth, then slammed down with brutal force.

“Bang!”

Its massive form crushed the sturdy bastion; despite meticulous design, the structure could not withstand the overwhelming force and collapsed into ruin.

The barrel of a 152 mm howitzer, like a spear, pierced the Whale‑Eel’s flesh; the loaded shell fired in a coincidence so improbably low it seemed miraculous.

“Boom!”

A gaping wound erupted on the creature’s back, yet even with such grievous injury it kept moving.

Like a fish on the brink of dying of thirst on a dry bank, the Whale‑Eel struggled onward.

Chen Jian intended to finish it with his recoil‑free cannon and rocket launcher, but in that instant a fierce sense of crisis surged through him.

Run!

Chen Jian didn’t hesitate, spun and sprinted; the next second, a massive, blinding, dazzling flash of electric light erupted from countless blisters on the Whale‑Eel’s back.

Plasma surged, the air was ripped apart, and the flickering arcs rendered everything under the setting sun dim.

Under the searing heat, vegetation ignited, and its body was instantly reduced to charcoal.

The soil and stones on the ground were melted by the scorching heat, dark crimson light flickering, and within a hundred meters of the monster's body, it was almost a flowing sea of lava.

A lightning storm.

Chen Jian's hair stood on end.

At the same time, a massive current pierced the earth; instinctively he leapt high, yet the bolt still ripped through the air upward, raging across his mech.

Chen Jian's vision went black.

The smart visor failed.

The system collapsed.

The circuitry burned.

He crashed to the ground, the battery strapped to his exoskeleton belching white smoke.

It's about to explode!

In that split‑second, every lock on the exoskeleton auto‑released; Chen Jian scrambled out, snatched the fallen grenade launcher, and fled.

“Boom!”

The not‑very‑loud blast brought an unbearable blaze, and the precious exoskeleton turned to ash before his eyes.

Damn.

Is this the so‑called “electronic interference” truth?

Piercing with raw current?

Turns out it’s damn effective!

Nonsense—such a fierce current, a single strike is a death sentence!

If not for the exoskeleton’s meticulously crafted Faraday cage, I’d be done here too!

High‑temperature ammunition cook‑off isn’t a joke; the ammo I carry could shatter me into fragments.

Chen Jian’s heart hammered; he turned toward the collapsed bastion, where three stationed soldiers struggled to crawl from the rubble.

They're still alive!

Without a moment to think, Chen Jian slipped past the charred corpse of the whale‑eel and surged toward the ruins. Accustomed to the weight and shackles of the exoskeleton, he was surprised to find himself more agile without its armor.

Though his speed had dropped, the rugged terrain did not hinder his steps.

Summoning every ounce of strength, he lifted the stone slab crushing the wounded man's leg, exhaled heavily, then asked:

“Do you still have any mobility?”

The soldier, once of the Guard Brigade, slumped on the ground, shook his head, and replied:

“I can’t move. I’ll stay here to cover the retreat!”

“No one needs your cover.”

“Huang Xing, haul him out!”

“Understood!”

Huang Xing of the Fifth Company, Second Squad of the Chinese army clenched his teeth, nodded, tore a bandage from his waist to crudely bind his clearly broken left arm, then swiftly strapped a drag line to the Guard soldier and pulled him toward the base.

Their progress was painfully slow; Chen Jian called the puffer‑fish drone to lower its altitude for escort, then prepared to turn back to the battlefield.

Huang Xing stared back in astonishment and asked:

“Commander! Why haven’t you withdrawn?”

“Withdraw? The fight isn’t over yet!”

Chen Jian didn’t look back, yet Huang Xing called out again.

“Commander! Your mech is damaged!”

“You must retreat with us! It’s too dangerous otherwise!”

“I’m no fool!”

Chen Jian kept moving.

“Without a mech, you can’t fight? Retreat yourselves, I don’t care!”

Having said that, he kept the grenade launcher in hand and ran toward the next bastion, while at that moment Fuxi had already reacted swiftly, dispatching an unmanned combat squad to provide support.

“Exoskeleton airdrop in progress, estimated arrival in five minutes.”

Through the drone’s speaker, Chen Jian re‑established contact with the base.

He issued the order:

“Notify Shen Yue’s unit to prepare for the second wave of artillery; a massive monster is approaching the perimeter!”

“Copy that.”

Fuxi’s voice crackled faintly; Chen Jian let out a slight sigh of relief and kept sprinting forward.

In fact, before his mech was shattered by the current, he had already spotted a distant “cluster of giant monsters.”

Those beasts loomed in the forest like moving hills, seemingly waiting for a chance to strike.

So what exactly were they waiting for?

For the smaller creatures to exhaust the ammunition of a defensive line?

For the whale‑eel’s self‑detonation to tear open a breach?

If that’s the case, why haven’t they moved yet?

Chen Jian sensed a vague truth: this sudden onslaught by the beast tide was not that simple.

It wasn’t a raid, merely a feint.

These monsters seemed to be probing, trying to gauge the layout of Base 011.

What the hell?

Fire‑power reconnaissance?!

Chen Jian had no time to ponder; at that instant three multipurpose octocopter drones formed a transport unit and hovered above his head.

The drones lowered, dropping a spare exoskeleton before Chen Jian.

The exoskeleton unfolded; Chen Jian stepped in, locked it tight, and completed the prep.

Two minutes later, Chen Jian was once again clad in full helmet and armor, battle‑ready.

Even his weapons and ammo were replenished.

Simultaneously, the bastion on the first defensive line resumed its barrage.

The roar of cannons rang out, shells soaring over tens of kilometres to fall far away.

Through the tactical visor’s drone feed, Chen Jian saw with crystal clarity the shells splashing into empty air.

“Boom!”

The exploding firelight and plumes of smoke burst flower by flower, yet they inflicted no substantive damage on the distant giant monsters.

Because, at the very instant the shell arrived, that horde of gigantic monsters suddenly and impeccably retreated hundreds of meters backward.

They seized the time lag between the firing and the impact!

At their speed, as long as they receive the exact “fire the guns” command, evading the bombardment would be a breeze!

Chen Jian drew a deep breath.

He finally relinquished the last sliver of illusion he held about the Beast Tide.

He could no longer regard them as mere ordinary monsters on the spot.

They were a legion of monsters—organized, tactical, a true army!

“Shen Yue, cease fire.”

“Lei Jie, erect electromagnetic shielding!”

“Recall the bomber, load the nuclear warhead, and prepare for high‑altitude bombing!”

“.Understood.”

Lei Jie's reply crackled through the headset; Chen Jian lifted his explosive rifle and shattered the skull of a charging monster with a single shot.

The number of small monsters was dwindling, and the first feint seemed to be drawing to a close.

Gunfire along the front line grew sparser, and in the rear buffer zone the harvest of the unmanned combat swarm was nearing its end.

“All combat units, bring the fight to an immediate halt!”

Chen Jian issued the order again, and the response came instantly.

“Copy that!”

“Received!”

For a moment, the gunfire surged once more, dense as a storm.

When Chen Jian emptied the last magazine of his explosive rifle, not a single monster silhouette remained along the entire defensive line.

In its place lay tier upon tier of corpses.

As far as the eye could see, blood, slime, and severed limbs littered the ground.

The battlefield had become a colossal meat grinder; every monster that dared to charge in had been shredded into fragments.

Cheers rose from every corner, and every soul at Base 011011, whether they had fought or not, celebrated the resounding victory.

Yet Chen Jian knew this was merely the beginning.

When Shen Yue, who also commanded the front‑line battle, stepped before him, he spoke without hesitation:

“This was a fire‑power reconnaissance.”

“I see it.”

Shen Yue furrowed his brow.

“If our assessment is correct, those monsters may launch another assault deep into the night.”

“That would be the true Beast Tide. The first line may not hold; should we pre‑emptively detonate the peripheral nuclear warhead?”

“Act according to the situation.”

Chen Jian’s tone was low, but he soon exhaled and added:

“But for now, we have not reached that point.”

“These monsters are indeed clever, yet not clever enough.”

“They won’t assume our artillery has only a single use, will they?”

(End of Chapter)