Chapter 348: Reverse Invasion

Chapter 348: Reverse Invasion

Artificial humans.

The moment Chen Jian uttered the word in the air, the entire Huaxia army had already sentenced the “Mountain City” faction to death.

If before it had been an attempt to wrest peace through struggle, to cooperate with the Mountain City organization under total suppression and work together for humanity’s future, then now the clash of the two forces has entered an endless, unyielding stalemate.

No, the Huaxia army does not reject genetic modification.

The Holy Blooded, the Blood Skeletons, are all products of genetic engineering projects.

Yet Chen Jian holds no prejudice against them; even toward the Blood Skeletons he feels only a revulsion and hatred for “malignant kin.”

But artificial humans are different.

Artificial humans controlled by brain‑machine interfaces are even more distinct.

This technology utterly dismantles the boundary between man and thing; it is not merely “creating a new race,” it could be said to have dragged the entire human species under water, fundamentally shaking the foundation of human unity.

Should this technology continue to evolve and eventually reach a point where it can effortlessly dominate other humans,

would humanity still truly exist?

To synchronize control over so many artificial beings, only one avenue remains.

A centralized computing system.

If that is the case,

are humans still humans, or merely machines?

This question cannot be answered in a short span.

Yet to Chen Jian the answer is simple.

It is the omen of the mutant Iron‑Man rebellion!

Gazing at the blood spattered ground and the brain matter shattered like tofu dregs, Chen Jian drew a deep breath.

Then he spoke into the radio:

“The situation is essentially clear.”

“Within Mountain City, it is highly probable that no true humans remain.”

“All the ‘Mountain City folk’ we have seen are merely transformed machines beneath flesh.”

“We must devise new tactics against them.”

“Leijie, at maximum speed, bring our ground‑attack aircraft over; I need high‑altitude suppressive fire.”

“Understood! Orders have already been sent; arrival expected in an hour.”

Leijie responded swiftly, while Chen Jian’s mind raced, mapping out the next phase of the battle in his head.

It is now certain that the “living forces” we are fighting are also puppets under brain‑machine control.

In theory, a strong electromagnetic pulse would affect them as well.

Yet their flexible armor shields a great deal of the pulse, reducing damage to a manageable level.

But if that is so,

what of the receivers?

Where are their receivers?

Chen Jian crouched, carefully inspecting the brain‑machine plug that Ji Xing had extracted from the skull, then picked up the remaining half of a skull on the ground; after tearing through flesh and skin, he immediately found two small metal contacts on the bone.

“This thing is linked to their flexible armor.”

Chen Jian exhaled lightly, furrowing his brow as he said:

“So where is the power source for that flexible armor?”

“There must be a power source for this thing, right??”

“A bio‑battery.”

Leijie’s voice crackled over the radio.

“I’ve seen the corpse Ji Xing brought back.”

“The organs of these artificial beings have been cultivated and altered; their gastric acid concentration is far higher than that of normal humans.”

“The brain‑machine runs on bio‑electric power—look at the plug, does it contain a storage module?”

Chen Jian lowered his head again and answered:

“Yes!”

“There is a distinct storage module!”

“That’s it!”

Leijie’s tone on the radio grew slightly grave.

“In essence, these Mountain City people are no different from the monsters they control, only smaller in stature.”

“Mountain macaques!”

“Do you remember? These Mountain City folk are essentially a pack of ‘mountain macaques’!”

“Only their controllability is higher, and they can wield weapons!”

In an instant, Chen Jian’s mind cleared.

From the moment he first saw these Mountain City people, an inexplicable sense of familiarity had lingered within him.

Now that feeling finally took solid form.

Indeed, they are kin to those mountain macaques.

Yet perhaps the macaques are the partially uncontrolled first generation.

This is evident from their wanton slaughter of an entire settlement.

—

But was that truly a mindless outburst of a lost control?

Or did the settlement razed by the macaques hide something that could threaten Mountain City?

Chen Jian had no time for further contemplation.

He already had a plan in mind.

“We need not confront them head‑on.”

“Establish an electromagnetic shield!”

“Impossible.”

Leijie on the other end of the radio immediately objected:

“With the power of our current electromagnetic jamming equipment, we simply cannot disrupt their devices.”

“Even algorithmically we have no advantage.”

“No.”

Chen Jian cut Lei Jie off.

“That’s not what I meant.”

“We certainly lack the capacity for full‑band jamming; in fact, even directional jamming is beyond us.”

“But don’t we have their neural‑interface in our hands?”

“This device is not the same as the neural‑interface we salvaged from the monster.”

“It has a transmitter!”

“Are you sure?”

Lei Jie's voice carried a hint of surprise.

Yet he quickly caught on—it should have been this way all along!

Why would those mountain‑city folk, after their living forces fell in battle, rush to snatch the bodies back at any cost?

There is only one answer.

The corpses matter to them.

Within those bodies lie the crucial gear that can sway their combat effectiveness.

Neural‑interface modules.

“Don’t touch that thing!”

“Did you cut the power yet??”

Lei Jie said in a hurried tone:

“Cut the power immediately; we must prevent the mountain‑city from remotely locking the control unit!”

“Don’t worry.”

Chen Jian stared at the shattered device in his hand and said slowly:

“The power‑cut issue is no longer the most pressing matter.”

“What matters most is”

“Can this thing really be repaired??”

One hour later.

All combat personnel had regrouped.

Chen Jian gripped his explosive rifle tightly and led the charge out of the tunnel.

Behind him, the cart carrying the laser‑emission matrix began to move, while the squad maintained their assigned positions and continued their guard duty.

Everything seemed unchanged.

The team appeared merely to have taken a brief respite before stubbornly persisting with their previous tactics.

But Chen Jian knew the balance of attack and defense had completely shifted.

“Ji Xing, Li Shi, hold the high ground and maintain fire suppression.”

“Lei Jie, keep an eye on the drones and be ready to support any weak points.”

“Jiang Yu! Lower your altitude and strike the ground enemies!”

“Watch out, don’t damage our route!”

“Everyone else, follow the planned operation.”

“This time we need not worry; our informational advantage is fully established!”

“Understood!”

“Copy!” The replies from each unit came in succession; Chen Jian drew a deep breath and exhaled slowly.

He tightened his grip on the rifle, shut down the intelligent fire‑control system of the Nezha exoskeleton, pressed the stock firmly to his shoulder, and advanced at a steady gait.

The footsteps behind him faded, and he, leading Guo Xu and two others, had moved ahead of the convoy by two hundred meters.

This was the engagement point Chen Jian had pre‑designated for this sortie.

He would not allow any mountain‑city combatant from the front to breach this line.

Should they appear, the response would be the most precise and merciless strike imaginable!

“Is the jamming system ready?”

Chen Jian asked again.

“Ready, already linked to the PDA.”

“We’re currently in a power‑cut state and can jam at any moment!”

“Got it!”

Chen Jian gave a brief reply.

At that moment, a dark silhouette flickered less than three hundred meters ahead of him.

“Contact enemy!”

Ji Xing’s voice crackled over the radio.

The next second, a burst of gunfire erupted.

“Bang bang bang bang bang—”

In the thin mist, the reverberations seemed to take shape.

Chen Jian looked up toward the heights; on the platform to the left of his advance, Ji Xing and Li Shi had already opened fire!

12.7 mm and 7.62 mm rounds interwove toward distant targets, and under such heavy fire even the mountain‑city troops clad in flexible armor dared not expose themselves.

The lone “loudmouth” was instantly forced back into the building, its intermittent counter‑attacks appearing feeble.

Yet Chen Jian knew this was only the beginning.

Just as in the previous clash.

At the outset, they had sent only one or two scouts to probe.

Once a defensive weakness was spotted, they would surge forward with overwhelming mobility and launch a fierce assault!

Now, they simply had not found the opening.

The convoy wound through a narrow alley, the flanking structures towering too high for a top‑down strike to gain an effective angle.

Yet a straight‑on attack on the same plane would see their superior mobility eclipsed by the relentless, dense fire of the Huaxia forces.

They were waiting.

They were certainly waiting for the Huaxia troops to leave this cluster of buildings, to move onto the overpass, before commencing a new wave of assault.

“Prepare yourselves!”

Chen Jian shouted the order, raised his explosive rifle, and squeezed the trigger on a speck of darkness the size of a grain of rice perched on a rooftop far away.

Bang!

Bang bang!

Even three hundred meters away, without the aid of an intelligent fire‑control system, Chen Jian could still hurl a bullet precisely to the spot he intended.

Boom!

The roar of a grenade detonating echoed from afar; on the rooftop, the fragile concrete shattered, sending shards scattering.

The mountain‑city man hidden behind the wall was struck in rapid succession by the second and third grenades; though the wall sapped much of their penetrative force, the blast wave still hurled him backward in an instant.

Hit!

Chen Jian's gaze shifted, locking onto the fallen foe, and the data instantly streamed through the locally deployed War‑Cranium system to the smart terminals of his comrades.

Without a hint of hesitation, Li Shi abandoned suppression of the unattainable target and, seizing the advantageous terrain, moved to aid Chen Jian in finishing off the prone enemy.

Bang bang bang—

Having wielded the 12.7 mm heavy machine gun for so long, Li Shi had forged a tacit communion with it; a brief burst of no more than five rounds found the struggling enemy with unerring precision.

Under the immense penetrative force, even the toughest flexible material crumbled.

The bullet tore straight through the mountain‑city man's torso, exiting his back and carving bowl‑sized wounds.

The foe collapsed instantly, and at that very moment, more shadows emerged from their hidden alcoves.

They're coming!

All combatants, attention!

Prepare to engage!

I need you to hold for thirty seconds!

Understood!

The acknowledgment crackled through the earpieces, while overhead the ground‑attack aircraft descended.

It was an exceedingly daring offensive.

As the aircraft zeroed in on the ground, the enemies below could likewise lock onto it.

Its fragile armor could not even swallow a handful of bullets.

Not to mention the mountain‑city troops wielded laser weapons.

Such a continuously tracking energy weapon could ignite and shatter the plane within seconds.

Its attack window was brief.

Yet it was sufficient.

Because it only needed to maintain suppression for fifteen seconds!

Bang bang bang bang bang—

A sound like tearing silk rang out from the sky.

Smoke billowed on both sides of the viaduct as incendiary rounds swept like a tongue of flame, nearly engulfing the entire sector.

The first round of suppression lasted less than five seconds.

Immediately after, the aircraft executed a swift turn, delivering an identical five‑second barrage on the opposite side of the bridge.

Withdraw from the battlefield quickly!

Copy that!

Jiang Yu's voice crackled from the air.

With a deft maneuver, the attack plane slipped between the buildings.

At that moment, its tail began to emit a plume of blue smoke.

Just a few seconds away.

It had almost been set ablaze!

But its mission was complete.

Now it fell to the ground forces to coordinate the next wave of suppression.

All fire, full!

Chen Jian's voice was a little hoarse.

After the order, the squad finally erupted into a full‑throttle barrage.

Rifles and machine guns rained fire without pause.

The remaining rockets were all launched.

Gun‑launched grenades and automatic mortars began a covering assault.

Even when the exact positions were unknown, the recoilless cannon fired indiscriminately, seeking to raze any shelter that might conceal foes.

All the sleeve‑mounted missiles strapped to Chen Jian's gear had been fired; against enemies clad in anti‑infrared paint and electro‑chromic camouflage they were of limited effect, yet they did exert some pressure.

The cacophony of explosions rose, and the enemy's assault was halted in an instant.

And this was the opening Chen Jian had been waiting for.

Thirty seconds.

No more, no less.

By now, the bulk of the enemy had already launched their attack.

They strained to close the firefight, only to be stalled for a heartbeat by the dense fire, their bodies laid bare beyond cover.

Through the smart visor, the battlefield map flashed crimson across the screen.

Chen Jian issued the order without hesitation:

Activate the jamming!

In an instant, invisible electromagnetic waves swept through the entire city.

All the mountain‑city troops froze in their tracks.

Though they resumed within a blink, their decision‑making was clearly garbled by severe noise interference.

Now is the moment.

Chen Jian drew a deep breath and continued:

Begin the roll call!

(End of Chapter)