Chapter 580: The Torch's Tribunal

Chapter 580: The Tribunal of the Torch

The night-shrouded Pinecone Farm was filled with the crackling sound of gunfire like firecrackers; the moonlight spilled on the ground held not a trace of purity, illuminating only shocking fragments of flesh and blood.

Like a tide, the hordes of walking corpses surged toward the Alliance soldiers stationed in the manor house.

In the flying tracer fire, they fell like wheat swept into a harvester, then came wave after wave like surf crashing on a beach, quickly filling the gaps one after another.

The firepower of just twenty men was utterly insufficient to hold back these fearless creatures.

Those zombie-like believers soon broke through the net of gunfire, crashing into the villa through doors and windows, madly biting anyone they saw.

Not only that, some in military uniforms even fired guns and threw grenades.

That was the most deadly!

"Damn! Are these guys cheating?" After shooting dead a zombie wielding a rifle, Haogou's face turned pale.

He had played plenty of zombie-themed FPS games, but this was the first time he'd heard of zombies using guns.

"The first floor can't hold... Old Bai! How much longer do you need?" While changing magazines and retreating near the stairs, Fangchang gritted his teeth and called out over the comm channel.

Only static hiss came through the channel.

After the seagull drone crashed, the enemy stopped hiding and directly launched electronic warfare, first cutting off their communications.

But Fangchang felt it wasn't that simple.

Amid the static noise, he faintly heard other sounds... It didn't seem like mere jamming; it also contained some kind of unconscious disturbance from something else.

Regardless, the first floor had already fallen.

The Alliance players had to abandon their positions on the first floor, retreating to the second, and using barricades and doors, engaged the zombies in close-quarters combat in the narrow corridors.

Just as the battle inside the manor was raging, at a hotel not far from the estate.

Four men in white lab coats sat in a room on the fifth floor, gazing out the window at the Zhao mansion at the storm's center, chatting with smiles on their faces.

"The combat effectiveness of ordinary test subjects is still too weak; after all, they're just ordinary people. The Naguo fruit hasn't fundamentally changed their physical functions."

"Indeed, if they can't properly use tools at hand, humans are even less effective than animals."

"True, when it comes to direct combat power, mutants are a more suitable choice... But on the flip side, those green-skinned monsters aren't very obedient."

The four sitting here were all apostles of the Torch Church.

But unlike those apostles converted from wastelanders, their status and authority were far higher than those mere missionary preachers.

They not only clearly knew what the "Torch" was, but also fully understood that what they were doing had nothing to do with the faith they had created.

Such cases were not without precedent in distant history.

Some grassroots personnel far from the core of religious authority were deeply convinced of their faith, well-versed in scriptures and theories, and devoted their lives diligently to their beliefs.

However, a few close to the core of religious authority were soberly aware that faith and doctrine were essentially tools to drive their servants. Though this didn't conflict with their piety and fervor, they would make the tools serve their proper purpose.

Thus, wars often waged in the name of gods were actually not for the gods, but for worldly power and wealth.

That was exactly how the apostles close to the Torch Church's core of power operated.

The only difference was that they did all this not for worldly power or wealth—there was nothing like that to pursue in the wasteland.

What they truly chased was far nobler than the believers of classical times.

All of this was for the future of civilization.

Watching the lives blooming in sparks and the blood spilling in the mud, one of the apostles wore an intoxicated smile on his face.

Both the process and the result made this experiment perfect!

While he quietly admired the experiment, the other three chatted animatedly.

"Isn't A-111's performance passable?"

"Ah, you mean Goliath... That thing is indeed passable, but it can only serve as a meat shield. Expecting it to play the role of a 'tank' on the front lines is still a stretch. The Bishop had too high hopes for it; I believe after this, he'll realize the problem."

"Unless we install some special weapons on it, but its inability to operate them is a big issue."

"Speaking of which, I have to praise the soldiers of this settlement. Though they were thugs trained by the farm owner, their skills are decent. The Naguo fruit and the Gospel just compensate for their lack of fighting spirit; this system is tailor-made for them."

"Haha, you say that, but I think those serf test subjects are actually hindering them."

"Not entirely; at least they can consume some ammunition."

In front of the Alliance soldiers, most test subjects were just cannon fodder, but those who had once been the farm owner's thugs were different.

They could use rifles, even knew how to load, change magazines, and aim. Though their accuracy was a bit off, their fearless tactics still caused considerable trouble for the Alliance soldiers.

Besides those operating rifles, some technical soldiers could even drive vehicles and operate fixed weapons—a remarkable discovery.

Thanks to the cooperation of this settlement, especially the farm owner's, their research had taken a big step forward.

And this wasn't just their progress!

It was also a step toward the glorious evolution of human civilization!

Surely the farm owner, now in the underworld, would feel immensely honored by this moment of radiance.

After all, without them, that stubborn and foolish man and his ignorant slaves would never have contributed anything beneficial to human civilization in their lifetimes, let alone leave a single word in this dark history.

He and his settlement were like a rotten log abandoned in a corner of ruins, capable of nothing but slowly decaying under the erosion of time.

At least now, these useless fellows could serve as kindling, as fuel to ignite the torch...

The apostles sitting in the room chatted with great interest.

"...Is it muscle memory? They can even operate anti-aircraft guns and automatic rifles."

"If we had a large number of trained test subjects and injected them with the 'Gospel' at specific moments, they might unleash enough power on the battlefield."

"With proper command."

"This reminds me of the Legion's clones."

"The Legion's clones can't compare to ours. Those eight-times-growth-rate guys can do nothing but fight, but our believers are different."

"By switching the frequency of the 'Gospel,' we can manipulate their thoughts and emotions, driving them to complete various simple tasks... Hmm, thinking about it, the best place for them is still plantations and factories. Sending them to the battlefield without any training to waste ammunition is a bit of a loss."

Just then, the apostle who had been staring out the window suddenly frowned, a cold smile curling at the corner of his mouth.

"...Underestimated these guys."

The other three stopped talking and looked at him.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. A little mouse slipped out of the cage and happened to find those things we placed in the annex." The apostle by the window said flatly.

The other three exchanged glances.

"Weren't they after Zhao Tiangan?"

"What are they doing at the annex?"

"Could it be that Zhang Zhengyang leaked it?"

The apostle by the window shook his head.

"Impossible. That guy is just an outer member responsible for missionary work; he doesn't even know about the experiments. How could he know what's stored beneath that annex?"

A faint sneer at the corner of his mouth gradually took on a hint of mockery, and he continued in a casual tone.

"In any case, the Bishop has already discovered it; the rest is no longer our concern."

"The Executioners will handle the cleanup."

Though force was not the Torch Church's forte, and they rarely achieved their goals through armed invasion, the machinery of violence was still indispensable to them.

The Inquisition was one such institution.

Unlike the various knightly orders under the Church, they were closer to agents than to regular troops engaged in military operations on the front lines.

When disruptive factors affecting the experiment's progress emerged within the diocese, and it was unsuitable for the regular army to intervene, professionals from the Inquisition would step in to eliminate them.

They were commonly known as "Executioners."

Those fellows were equipped with the finest gear and had undergone professional combat training; ordinary wastelanders couldn't last a single round against them.

Even the Awakened.

At the mention of the Executioners, the faces of the apostles broke into relaxed smiles.

Those guys had a success rate of nearly 95% in the Haiya and Jinchuan provinces; given the Inquisition's track record, dealing with a little mouse that had slipped into the lab was far too easy.

Yet these apostles had no idea that the Executioner squad they had placed such high hopes on was currently in trouble...

By the manor's wall, amidst the rustling trees, stood a dozen figures clad in exoskeletons.

They held uniquely designed weapons in their hands, their streamlined armor armed them to the teeth, and the pitch-black coating blended them perfectly into the night.

Like ghosts, they lurked in the darkness, waiting for their moment.

Staring at the [Connection Lost] icon flickering on his tactical visor, Li Jie, the leader of the Executioner squad, furrowed his brow with growing gravity, then turned to his subordinate and said.

"Still no word from Wu Zhe?"

The subordinate he had called over wore an equally grave expression and replied in a low voice.

"Not yet... He's too close to the psychic interference device."

Near the psychic interference device, radio signals would be severely disrupted.

Normally, they maintained contact with the lab through wired data channels, but with the activation of Plan 03, all researchers in that lab had fully evacuated.

Thus, no one now knew what was happening in there.

"Damn it, what's that guy dawdling for?" muttered a man clutching a light machine gun, cursing under his breath. "He didn't screw it up, did he?"

Another man with a cold expression spoke softly.

"That shouldn't be the case. There's only one mouse, and Wu Zhe isn't some rookie on his first mission. He can handle this little task."

A little task, huh...

With a grave look toward the direction of the annex, Li Jie said in an unfathomable tone.

"Let's hope so."

To be honest, he had faith in Wu Zhe.

That guy was a veteran of the squad; before coming to Jinhe City, they had cooperated many times, and he had never let him down.

Yet for some reason, even though it was just a simple cleanup job, he couldn't shake a nagging unease, as if something unexpected might happen.

Perhaps he shouldn't have sent Wu Zhe alone.

But on this matter, he really had no choice.

The Alliance's reinforcements had arrived.

The Bishop had ordered him to keep all the Alliance personnel here.

Though this wasn't part of the experiment's plan, if they could detain the Alliance soldiers, they could easily pin what happened here on the Alliance.

The Alliance's massacre in the settlements of Jinchuan Province...

This story was not only convenient for them but would surely be well received by the local farm owners.

After all, compared to them—these "priests with no interest in secular power"—those who clamored to eliminate slavery and oppression were far more detestable!

Not far from them, the Alliance's transport plane had broken through the anti-aircraft net, finally managed to reduce altitude and speed, switched to vertical takeoff and landing mode, and was descending toward the roof of the central villa in the manor.

The Alliance soldiers had already retreated to the top floor of the villa.

Once that transport plane touched down, those soldiers would immediately board and evacuate.

They must not be allowed to escape!

Li Jie's gaze gradually turned cold. He raised his right hand, clenched it into a fist, then pointed at the hovering transport plane.

The Executioner beside him understood immediately. He took the portable rocket launcher off his back, knelt on one knee, shouldered it, and aimed at the nearby transport plane.

"Target locked!"

Li Jie barked.

"Fire!"

With a soft "thump," a missile the length of an arm burst through the dust cover, ignited as it ejected from the launcher, and streaked toward the transport plane that had just settled on the villa's roof, trailing a thin plume of flame.

The hovering transport plane clearly spotted the missile and attempted evasive maneuvers.

But at such a short distance, dodging was virtually impossible.

Just as the missile was about to hit its target, a smile crept onto Li Jie's face. Yet at almost the same moment, something utterly unexpected happened.

"RPG!!"

A figure in an exoskeleton suddenly let out a strange yell, took a running leap out of the cabin, and spread his arms as he lunged toward the missile hurtling at the transport plane's side.

The missile was already in its terminal phase, with no room to evade, and collided head-on with the charging figure, exploding into a fireball with a "boom!"

Shrapnel and flames swept into the transport plane's cabin for a moment, and the scorching blast rocked the fuselage slightly, but the plane itself suffered no damage.

Watching the guy who had taken the missile with his face, the Executioners lurking in the woods were dumbfounded. Li Jie, in particular, twitched his mouth fiercely.

What the hell kind of move was that?!

It was the first time he had ever seen someone intercept a missile with their body!

"Lao Liu!!!"

Staring at Lao Liu, who had turned into a ball of flame in the sky, Baigei Daiju's eyes widened in shock as he clutched his rifle and sprayed wildly into the woods from which the missile had come.

But the plane was shaking violently, and the burst hit nothing but empty air.

Realizing the attack came from the woods due east, the pilot in the Viper's cockpit stomped on the left rudder and tilted the control stick to the right.

The hovering "Viper" executed a clean tail-swing, shifting from the east side of the villa to the west.

The players inside the villa, preparing to evacuate, moved as well, firing their rifles at the surging zombies while shifting toward the villa's west side.

"Damn... what was that missile about?" the pilot in the seat gasped, shouting back at the soldiers behind him.

He was a pilot from the Megacity Civil Guard Aviation Unit, with seven or eight years of flying experience, but this was his first time on such a thrilling mission.

Thinking back on what had just happened, a chill of fear ran through him.

If that guy hadn't sacrificed himself, everyone on this plane would have been dead by now.

Unlike him, whose heart was pounding with terror, the man in the powered armor remained eerily calm, almost to the point of cold-bloodedness. Even as a comrade fell dead before his eyes, not a flicker of emotion crossed his face.

Staring fixedly out of the cabin, Old White said in a low voice.

“I don’t know, but I reckon… eight out of ten, it’s the Torch people!”

The pilot was stunned.

“Torch?!”

“Or else where do you think all those freaks down there came from?” Watching the surging heads outside the cabin, Old White couldn’t help frowning.

For the Alliance, the real trouble was probably still to come after tonight.

But now wasn’t the time to dwell on that.

Looking at Fang Chang and his group, who had retreated to the window on the west side of the villa’s corridor, and the surging tide of corpses chasing them, Old White raised his assault rifle and barked an order.

“Open fire!”

Including the lost newbie manning the mounted machine gun, the five players crouched by the side of the cabin immediately pulled their triggers, unleashing a fierce barrage of fire at the corpse tide behind the window.

Streaks of orange tracer rounds flew like raindrops, and those dull-witted creatures fell like wheat scythed down, piling up in a tangle in the corridor.

Seeing Fang Chang by the window, Old White roared.

“Get up here!”

Without a second thought, Fang Chang raised his rifle butt and smashed the closed window into pieces.

Then he planted one foot on the sill, and with the drive of his exoskeleton, he leaped out of the window, flying four or five meters through the air, grabbing Old White’s outstretched right hand and being pulled into the cabin.

Finally out of danger.

Fang Chang slumped to the floor, gasping for breath, inhaling the fresh air.

Only then did Old White notice that on his back he carried a person—or rather, a corpse soaked sticky with blood.

Through photo comparison on the VM, he barely recognized the face.

It was Zhao Tiangan!

The target of their mission!

According to the original plan, they were supposed to take control of this farm owner, indirectly control the entire settlement, and then indirectly gather intelligence on the Torch Church. They never expected those cultists to be waiting for them here.

Now Pinecone Farm had turned into this mess.

Whether the guy was dead or alive, he was useless to the Alliance now.

“They launched an electronic warfare attack; our comms went down. We couldn’t reach you for a while…” Calming his ragged breathing, Fang Chang looked at Old White.

“Not just you, us too. Their jamming equipment probably covers the whole area…” Glancing at the corpse lying nearby, Old White shot Fang Chang a questioning look. “Why did you bring this guy along?”

Fang Chang took a light breath and said.

“There’s something odd about him. I suspect that absolutely safe ‘Sanctuary’… might not be the kind of physical shelter or safe house we imagined.”

Old White frowned.

“What do you mean?”

“In short, that Sanctuary might be a virtual space. It’s even possible that the bishop named Luo Qian is virtual… He doesn’t have his own body, so he needs to communicate with us through the bodies of believers, and only specific individuals can serve as vessels for his consciousness.”

Old White stared at him blankly, not understanding how he had deduced such a startling theory.

“That’s quite a leap of imagination…”

Fang Chang took another light breath.

“It’s just my guess… As for the truth, we’ll have to trouble Ms. Chen to dissect this guy’s brain. Anyway, we need to bring him back to the military base.”

As they were talking, Luo Yu also jumped onto the plane, pulled up by Bai Ge Dai Ju waiting by the cabin edge.

Then came Jie Yan and Hao Gou. Only four players survived in total.

As for Xiao Yu’s fruiting bodies, to cover the players’ retreat, they had already been overwhelmed by the tide of walking corpses when moving from the first floor to the second.

The fruiting bodies were actually fine—they were like Xiao Yu’s hair; as long as nutrients were sufficient, she could spawn as many as she wanted quickly. But considering that too many fruiting bodies sharing one consciousness would affect operational efficiency, and Xiao Yu, who had just advanced to mother body, wasn’t yet skilled at it, she had kept the number to ten.

Yet thinking about the loss of ten sets of K-10 “Iron Wall” exoskeletons, Luo Yu felt utterly depressed.

Fortunately, Brother Fang Chang had promised him earlier that the Burning Legion would reimburse 90% of the equipment losses. Otherwise, this “big break” would have sent him back several versions.

As the last player jumped into the cabin, the “Viper” transport plane immediately pulled away from the villa, avoiding the direction from which the missiles had come, and flew toward the west side of the estate.

Scanning the people in the cabin, Old White suddenly looked surprised.

“Speaking of which, where’s Ye Shi? That guy actually bit it?”

Unbelievable.

That kid had an unusually tough life.

Back when they landed on the Steel Heart, he was the only one who survived.

“No idea. He was the first to lose contact. There was no interference then, so he was probably already dead…” Fang Chang paused mid-sentence, his expression shifting slightly. “I see.”

Seeing his look of sudden understanding, Jie Yan, crouching nearby, asked curiously.

“See what?”

Fang Chang said without pausing for breath.

“The annex! That psychic interference device is in the annex!”

Just as he spoke, a red flare shot into the sky.

It was exactly in the direction of the annex!

Seeing the flashing red light, Old White immediately walked to the cockpit, grabbed the pilot’s seat back, and shouted.

“We still have people who haven’t evacuated! Head to the flare’s position!”

Hearing this, the pilot was shocked.

“Are you sure?! Those guys have anti-air missiles!”

“I’m sure! We have to pick him up!” Old White stared intently into his eyes. “You just go pick him up; we’ll figure out the rest.”