Chapter 610: The Strongest vs. The Strongest

Chapter 610: The Battle of the Strongest and the Strongest

Gahn felt as if his head had been rammed by the Steel Heart, so much so that he didn't catch the last words of the man before him.

The compressed solid nitrogen blast struck his crown, the airflow powerful enough to tear steel armor not only shattered his skull but also forcibly drove the pulverized fragments into his shoulders and chest.

Even with the regenerative power of the active cells beneath his keratin armor, it was impossible to restore a head smashed like a watermelon...

The entire scene fell into a deathly silence.

Save for the sporadic crackling of burning flames, for a moment only the howling of the cold wind could be heard across the deck.

It was as if someone had pressed pause.

The surrounding players were all dumbfounded.

Seeing their faction leader in danger, they had intended to go and earn some goodwill to avoid a server reset, but in the blink of an eye, the battle was already over.

Staring blankly at the headless BOSS standing there, Jie Yan's eyes went wide, and it took him a while to swallow.

"...He's cheating, right?"

The Kuang Feng beside him was also stunned.

"...One-shot?"

The mutant that even a 20mm autocannon couldn't kill was instantly slain by the Administrator with a single hammer blow.

For a moment, he couldn't tell whether the warhammer was more incredible or the person wielding it.

Fang Chang was also staring wide-eyed.

In his memory, the Administrator personally taking action was ancient history from the Alpha version; he had almost forgotten that this guy was also a ruthless one.

He was curious about only one thing.

What level is this guy?!

Only Lao Bai was not surprised.

To be precise, he had no time to be surprised.

The winged mutants, flapping their wings, did not scatter like birds after their leader's death; instead, they charged even more ferociously, as if maddened.

Lao Bai, wielding the 20mm autocannon, could only spray wildly at the mutants surging in one after another, turning his head to shout at the stunned crowd.

"Damn it! Don't just stand there, help me—!"

Leaving aside the players scrambling to continue fighting, the guards who had rushed over in a panic were also stunned when they saw the monster lying before Chu Guang.

Seeing the Administrator on the deck, Lü Bei was scared out of his wits, and especially when he saw the winged mutant diving, his heart leaped into his throat.

But it turned out to be a false alarm.

The winged beast, with a mighty roar, swooped down at their Administrator, but didn't even touch a hair, instead crashing headfirst into the ground to pay a belated New Year's greeting.

Then they saw the flying giant have its skull shattered by their Administrator's hammer, dying without even a chance to scream.

The guard standing next to Lü Bei swallowed and muttered softly.

"What... just happened?"

Not far away, the ground crew looked fanatical, their lips trembling as they murmured.

"Great Antler God above..."

Their Administrator truly was the Chosen One!

Otherwise, how could that almost certain dive have inexplicably missed?!

And it missed by exactly a single step!

It must be the blessing of the Great Antler God!

In fact, Chu Guang was certainly no "Chosen One," and Gahn's fatal blow missing could not possibly be the work of the Great Antler God.

That guy was in Vault 79, eating chips and burping; there was no way he could have come to help from nearly a thousand kilometers away in Jinhe City.

In the research vessel, Yang Kai stared intently at the holographic screen, his nose almost pressing into the transparent display, his face full of disbelief.

"Deflector shield?! It's actually a deflector shield?!"

He knew that the Steel Heart was equipped with a deflector shield, but after seeing what the Torch Church's bio-soldiers looked like, he had dismissed it as irrelevant.

After all, that thing wasn't omnipotent; it wasn't very effective against slightly slower guided weapons, let alone against bio-soldiers in boarding actions.

But Chu Guang's operation completely overturned his understanding of the deflector shield's battlefield role.

This thing can be used like this?!

Far away, a hundred kilometers off, Alzu was also stunned, staring blankly into the pitch-black north, unable to speak for a long time.

Gahn...

Dead?

That guy was the strongest of the Qi tribe.

The biomass armor he wore was designed specifically to counter power armor, possessing strength to tear steel and defense comparable to alloy armor, along with self-repair capabilities that traditional mechanical armor lacked...

Alzu had not considered the one-in-a-million possibility that the results from Gahn's mutant swarm would fall short of expectations, that they would be pushed back after boarding the airship by the Alliance.

After all, mutants' brains were mostly abnormal.

But even so, the enraged Gahn and the out-of-control bat-winged mutants could at least inflict severe casualties and chaos on the Alliance's frontline command system, buying time for Nago's domain to transition from the third stage to the fourth...

At least that was how he had envisioned it.

And that was why, the moment he saw Chu Guang, he was elated, almost impatiently urging Gahn to go and finish him off.

As long as Chu Guang died—

Not just the Jinhe City war zone, but the entire Alliance would inevitably fall into endless chaos!

No one in the entire central region would be able to stop the light of the Torch and its faith from shining upon this barren land.

Yet he never expected that, at the very moment he had almost seen the dawn of victory, all the light was extinguished before his eyes.

The power they had prided themselves on.

The trap they had spent years laying in Jinhe City to counter the covetous eyes of the Legion, the Academy, and the Corporation...

Was wiped out in a single blow.

The cold evening wind blew against his face. Alzu's Adam's apple moved, and despair gradually crept onto his wrinkled face.

"No..."

The cool, watery night dissolved that dejected wail. They had used up the last card buried in this land.

This war was still ongoing.

But the war here was already over...

...

On the Steel Heart.

Looking at the headless corpse before him, the blood pooling at his feet, and the tracer rounds dancing in the night, Chu Guang expressionlessly withdrew his warhammer.

Beasts are, after all, beasts.

They want to arm-wrestle an entire airship.

Do they think this tonnage is a joke?

"I was planning to tear your wings off and throw you off the deck to see how big a crater you'd make... This death is too good for you."

He truly had intended that.

Though he didn’t know how big a leader this creature was in the Odd Tribe, considering that mutant society revered the strong, this thing commanding over ten thousand minions was clearly no low-ranking figure—at least a chieftain of ten thousand, with countless innocent souls on its hands.

But Chu Guang quickly reconsidered: what if its wings grew back during free fall, or if some overlooked mutant saved it? That would be a huge loss.

Better to finish off such a menace in one go; since ancient times, showing off without finishing the job never ended well.

And besides—

He Ya had asked him to collect some research samples.

He also wanted to figure out what exactly this creature was.

Just then, a squad of guards in Type-5 exoskeletons jogged over.

Leading them was naturally Lü Bei, the young man carrying a rifle, a short sword stained with blood at his waist, and his chest armor smeared with gore.

He lifted his helmet visor, looked at Chu Guang, and asked anxiously,

"Sir... are you alright?"

Seeing the worried young man, Chu Guang smiled faintly and said gently,

"Do I look like something’s wrong?"

Chu Guang meant to comfort this loyal lad, but Lü Bei was taken aback, and his expression suddenly turned ashamed.

He lowered his head, guilt rising in his eyes.

As the captain of the guard, he should have been his shield, yet he had let the Administrator fall into danger—a failure of his duty.

Guessing his thoughts, Chu Guang thought for a moment and continued,

"Lift your head."

"Ordering you to lead your men and fight alongside the crew was my command; standing here with the Alliance soldiers was my judgment. You have faithfully fulfilled your duty. You should be proud of yourself, not guilty."

Hooking his warhammer behind him, Chu Guang stepped forward and patted his shoulder.

"You’ve done well enough."

As he spoke, he turned his gaze toward the northern night sky.

The tracer fire, rising like sparks, grew thinner.

The flapping mutants, having lost their leader, shrieked and plunged onto the deck, launching suicidal attacks against the soldiers.

Though their assault grew fiercer, it lacked any order—not only failing to reverse the tide but hastening their collapse.

More and more mutants fell from the sky; few survivors remained. Anyone could see these flying beasts were on their last legs.

Then, two flickering lights appeared in the distance.

Two Orca transport planes flew in from the night sky, one after the other, switching from fixed-wing to vertical takeoff mode, trailing azure plasma plumes as they hovered and landed on the northern side of the Steel Heart’s deck.

Over a hundred well-trained soldiers and mechanized equipment deployed swiftly.

But just as they finished deployment, the battle on the deck had already ended—the last mutant was wiped out.

Seeing the sharp-toothed monster that fell beside him, Gu Wei, who had just boarded the deck with a light machine gun, was startled.

"Damn... what the hell is that?!"

He wasn’t the only one shocked.

Many soldiers stared in surprise at the sharp-toothed creatures littering the deck.

"Mutants?!"

"And they’ve got wings!"

"What’s so strange about that... Over in Cloud Province, there are ones with gills under their chins."

"Hiss... Do you think it’s possible that the mutants in Cloud Province and these winged freaks are all monsters created by the same bunch?"

"Who knows... but I wouldn’t rule it out!"

"Quiet, prepare for battle—we’re not here on a picnic!" Hearing his teammates chatter on the comms, Yun Song frowned and barked.

At the captain’s shout, everyone shut up, but his latter command left them at a loss.

They knew they weren’t here for a picnic.

But the problem was—

Where was the enemy?

From afar, they’d seen the tracer fire dancing on the deck, but by the time they flew in, the fight seemed already over...

Just then, Old Bai, clad in power armor, walked over from nearby. He lifted his helmet visor and stared in surprise at Yun Song standing at the front.

"What are you doing here?!"

Yun Song was equally baffled but didn’t show it.

"We came to help... Heard you were attacked by the Torch Church? Ten thousand bio-soldiers?"

"You mean this?" Old Bai kicked the mangled mutant at his feet, smirked, and said, "It’s no big—"

"It’s a big deal."

A voice from behind cut him off mid-sentence.

Old Bai instinctively turned to see the Administrator in azure power armor approaching.

Realizing immediately what the Administrator meant, he stepped aside tactfully.

Looking at the approaching Alliance Administrator, Yun Song paused and gave a wry smile.

"Sorry, we came as fast as we could—"

"I’m not blaming you."

Chu Guang shook his head and continued, looking at Yun Song.

"In fact, I’m grateful you extended a hand in this dangerous moment, unlike some who watched from afar, indifferent."

"But I must address the issue of efficiency. We shared our intelligence with you long ago. The threat brewing on this very land is no less than the Enlightened Society and Vault Zero—and it’s not just our threat; it’s one you will eventually face."

"Tonight’s tragedy could have been avoided—and not just tonight’s. If our cooperation had been closer, if you had taken things a bit more seriously, we could have nipped all the trouble in the bud, instead of letting it grow into an inoperable tumor!"

Looking at Chu Guang, Yun Song was momentarily speechless, then said after a long pause,

"Sorry, I’m just a soldier following orders. I can’t influence the Council’s decisions... but I’ll relay your words to my superiors."

Chu Guang glanced at his helmet—the action recorder was on—and slowly nodded.

"Best if you do."

The reason he had called in the Corporation’s people through Eclipse was precisely for this purpose.

He had summoned the corporate ambassador to the Alliance long ago, initiating consultations on the situation in Jinchuan Province and the conspiracies of the Torch Church. Yet, so far, the only support the Alliance had received was two androids.

Clearly, the Council had not truly grasped the gravity of what was unfolding in Jinchuan Province. According to the report from Shu Yu, the Alliance’s ambassador to the corporation, the Council merely treated it as a lingering historical issue, overlooking the far more serious essence beneath the surface.

Given their past tendencies, they would only muster a shred of genuine effort when the problem grew too severe to ignore.

But Chu Guang couldn’t afford to watch them dawdle any longer.

Jinhe City was still far from Yunjian Province and Ideal City, yet it was only seven or eight hundred kilometers away from Qingquan City.

And the Torch Church, besides its stronghold in Jinhe City, also controlled the vast base of Haiya Province.

If the Alliance’s campaign in Jinhe City appeared too smooth, his allies would likely care even less about the matter.

Though the Torch Church’s hidden card in Jinhe City had indeed caught Chu Guang off guard, he immediately realized he could use this incident to proactively invoke the interpretation clause in their mutual treaty, deploying the 26th Commando Unit.

Even if the 26th Commando fired not a single shot or directly entered combat, Yi Chuan would still have to report on this military action to the Council afterward.

And that report would play a crucial role in the Council’s deliberations.

Though it was a bit unfair to Yi Chuan, an honest man, Chu Guang had no choice but to do this to drag the corporation into the fray by any means necessary.

Seeming to grasp Chu Guang’s intent, Yun Song nodded and steeled himself to continue.

“So, is there anything else you need our help with?”

Chu Guang glanced at the corpse nearby.

“I’d like you to take some of these monster corpses back. Your research institute might be interested in the DNA of their cells and the secrets hidden within.”

He recalled hearing from the crew of the Pioneer that Yunjian Province had a type of mutant with blue skin and gills under its jaw.

They could live in the sea, dwelling along the coastline, plaguing the survivor settlements in those areas.

Seeing these flying creatures, he had a nagging feeling—those amphibious mutants might also be the Torch’s handiwork.

Relieved by this simple request, Yun Song let out a quiet sigh and nodded slowly.

“No problem. Actually, I was just about to discuss this with you… Anything else?”

Chu Guang was about to say no when a awkward thought struck him, and he cast a subtle glance beyond the deck beside him.

“Well… one of our aircraft is stuck on the barrel of a gun turret. I might need your help retrieving it.”

The production line for Jushi Military Industry’s aircraft hadn’t fully recovered yet, and the Alliance only had two Vipers in total—losing one would be a terrible waste.

It could still be repaired and used.

But upon hearing Chu Guang’s request, Yun Song was taken aback.

An aircraft… stuck on a gun barrel?

How the hell did that happen?

“Alright… I’ll give it a try.”

It wasn’t entirely out of altruism.

He was genuinely curious how the aircraft had ended up there.

At that moment, Kuang Feng, who had been watching from the sidelines, exchanged a subtle glance with Fang Chang, who looked equally bemused, and cleared his throat softly.

“I think I know where Ye Shi went…”

…

The retrieval of the Viper transport wasn’t as troublesome as imagined.

The Killer Whale transport, hovering directly beneath the gun turret, first opened its rear hatch, slowly caught the Viper dangling from the ropes from below, had a few commando soldiers secure it inside the cabin, then increased engine output to rise gradually.

For the massive Killer Whale, the Viper hanging on the 155mm barrel was like a jellyfish, easily swallowed in one gulp.

In that moment, the superiority of the plasma engine over helicopter rotors became clear. Though slower in low-altitude bursts, it offered unmatched stability and nearly omnidirectional maneuverability with no blind spots.

The commando soldiers in the cabin couldn’t help but marvel at the battered, pitted aircraft.

Hard to imagine what it had been through…

The first to emerge from the damaged cabin was the pilot, followed by a woman clutching a rifle in the back seat.

Su Ming, standing nearby, felt a flicker of recognition—he remembered seeing her at the 0th Shelter in the Great Wasteland.

Realizing she was a researcher from the Institute, his eyes widened.

“Wait, you’re—”

Before he could finish, Jiang Xuezhou grabbed his arm, cutting him off, and pleaded.

“Wait! There’s still someone outside!”

“Someone else is—”

Su Ming instinctively looked out of the cabin, his gaze climbing up the dangling rope, and then he saw a sight he would never forget.

There, at the bent part of the barrel, lay a soldier in an exoskeleton, his waist nearly severed by the rope.

At the gruesome scene, Su Ming swallowed hard, an involuntary ache shooting through a certain part of him.

Unimaginable…

What agony the man had endured before death.

“Bring him down.”

Having already noticed the figure on the barrel, Yun Song gave a terse order, signaling the pilot to rise so the bent barrel extended into the hatch.

Several men used cutters to saw off the entire section of barrel.

Looking at this warrior who had clung to the barrel until his last breath, everyone felt a solemn respect.

Seeing Ye Shi, who had been reduced to this state trying to save her, Jiang Xuezhou’s nose stung, and tears and snot gushed out again.

Yun Song sighed, knelt on one knee, and unfastened the helmet to see the warrior’s face.

But the moment he saw it, both he and Su Ming, standing nearby, froze in unison.

This guy…

Looks familiar?

Meanwhile, on the official website of Wasteland Online,

A guy who had just “died” not long ago was cursing in a thread.

“MMP! Why hasn’t the respawn cooldown started counting yet?!”

“It’s been almost an hour!”

Luo Yu: “Is it a bug? Happened to me last time.”

Ye Shi: “Crying. Anyone free to put a bullet in my head?”

Yi Lena: “Sorry, I’m stuck on the front lines. (Sarcastic)”

Jing Wang Fu Gui: “Next time for sure. (Sarcastic)”

WC Zhen You Wen Zi: “Gagaga, my cooldown’s still 70 hours! (Sarcastic)”

Ye Shi: “%￥#@!”

Luoyu: "Wait, Brother Mosquito, where are your eight mechanical arms?"

WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Holy shit! I fucking forgot! QAQ"

Maka Bazi: "Pfft hahaha! You're trying to kill me with laughter!"

Fengqing: "The leader should have told us. If the pay is good, we'd still be willing to go on a suicide mission like this."

Irena: "For a moment, I don't know whether to envy this guy for having so much money he can throw it away, or to pity him for losing so much. (sarcastic)"

Elf King Fugui: "It's okay, Brother Mosquito, we'll help you look. Maybe we can find them. (sarcastic)"