Chapter 746: The Fourth Stage of Heaven! (3/4)

Chapter 746: The Fourth Stage of Heaven! (3/4)

His expression shifting between uncertainty and gloom, he looked at his equally silent adjutant and lowered his voice.

“Notify Benoit in Dawn City to contact Triumph City. The front needs five… no, ten divisions of reinforcements.”

They had to ensure not only victory but also control over Haiya Province after the war.

Until they figured out what that fog was that had turned the clones traitor.

At the very least, that technology couldn’t be secretly used by the Academy or the Corporation.

The adjutant nodded gravely.

“Yes, sir!”

Elsewhere, at the Weifu Military Base.

The Praetorian Guard, composed of Awakened, swiftly suppressed the clone soldiers charging toward the Coalition’s supreme command and rendezvoused with the rapidly reacting 2nd Regiment of the Corporation’s 100th Division.

The Naguo corruption primarily targeted those with weak immune systems and wavering wills.

Every member of the Praetorian Guard was an Awakened, having undergone rigorous selection and training, and they were utterly loyal to Chu Guang. Thus, not a single one was assimilated into a puppet of “Heaven.”

Though the Corporation’s soldiers were not Awakened, most had installed bionic implants or prosthetics to boost immunity, so they too remained largely unaffected.

As for the Alpha Task Force, needless to say, despite their average immunity, their gas masks were no mere decoration.

Only Alpha protozoa could penetrate the masks; ordinary spores and slime mold could not get through.

Moreover, most of them had undergone mental castration surgery, so even if infected, they could hardly become Heaven’s puppets.

In the end, the most humiliated was the Legion.

Though the Verant men all seemed unfazed, the Glory Army had triggered a massive disaster, dragging the entire 31st Division down with it in disgrace.

As for the Empire, since most of the Ratfolk were scattered outside and unarmed, even when the disaster struck, it harmed no one.

The situation inside the military base was quickly brought under control, but more “zombies” kept emerging endlessly from the Weifu Wasteland, converging on the base.

Some survivors from Kun Town fled into the base, while others rode horses, motorcycles, or three-wheelers along the railway line north to Mafu Town.

That was the edge of the fog—surely those filthy things wouldn’t keep pouring out there.

At the Coalition’s supreme command.

Lü Bei, clad in an exoskeleton, approached Chu Guang and spoke solemnly.

“My lord, the area is secure. Please return to the airship immediately!”

“No need,” Chu Guang said, glancing up at the gray, mist-filled sky. “I’ve already ordered the airship to fall back.”

According to radar data from the airship, a group of flying units was approaching the Weifu Wasteland from the south.

If nothing went wrong, those creatures were likely the “Bat-winged Men” they had encountered before in Jinhe City.

Or perhaps an improved version of them.

The airship *Loyalty* seemed to have sensed the approaching threat and was moving northward.

Having those things board the airship would indeed be troublesome, especially since he wasn’t on it and few players remained aboard.

So he had ordered the airship to retreat, playing the role of a mobile artillery platform and carrier.

As for himself, Chu Guang wasn’t too worried.

He rarely acted, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t.

Yet Lü Bei’s eyes still held concern, and he wanted to persuade him further.

“But…”

“I don’t want to hear ambiguous answers like ‘but.’”

Seeing that Chu Guang had no intention of changing his mind, Lü Bei finally bowed his head.

“Yes, my lord.”

Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction and continued giving orders.

“Now, take me to the temporary research facility.”

When the crisis first erupted, he had ordered half of the Praetorian Guard to head to the temporary research facility.

There, not only were there wounded from the Alpha Task Force, but also prisoners rescued from the front lines—all of whom were Naguo addicts.

Sure enough, those people had also run into trouble.

Fortunately, the Praetorian Guard had been swift; otherwise, relying on the few security guards at the facility, they might not have been able to withstand those hundreds of hands.

To be honest, the bishop on Ten Peaks Mountain had given him quite a surprise.

While everyone’s attention was on Ten Peaks Mountain, he had planted a bomb right under their feet.

Chu Guang had actually suspected that the “Heaven” in the Weifu City area might already be complete. And in the fourth stage of Heaven, its continued existence no longer depended on a pseudo-hive entity.

Perhaps that was the real reason the Torch Church had evacuated the survivors—not out of fear of the Coalition and a voluntary contraction of their defenses.

However, the Alliance’s biological research institute had found no trace of hyphae in local soil samples, and later, the Corporation’s researchers had found none either.

Those hyphae seemed to have hidden deep underground, deliberately concealing their existence.

They had even learned to fish.

That was very strange.

“I’m sorry… it’s my fault.” Heya’s face was pale, her lips trembling, her eyes filled with remorse.

Her white lab coat was stained with blood—left there by the security personnel who had protected her.

For the current situation, she blamed entirely on her own oversight.

Thinking of those who had died because of it, her chest ached sharply, and she couldn’t help but sob…

Unlike Heya, who was lost in regret and self-blame, Chu Guang did not think it was her fault.

Any doctor faced with an unfamiliar disease would be at a loss, especially when this thing defied common sense. From his perspective, the card the Torch had played was so uncanny it bordered on “magic.”

She had done well.

It was just that her fellow disciples from the same school were no pushovers either—they had even eaten more meals than her over the years.

Giving her a comforting hug, watching Heya gradually calm down, Chu Guang spoke in a gentle tone.

“It’s not your fault. You did everything you were supposed to do, but we can’t always guess every card in the enemy’s hand. And I admit, they hid this card very well—even I almost thought the mutants on the mountain were their only trump card.”

“Instead of grieving for the dead, we need to focus on solving the problem at hand. You’re the expert in this field. I need your experience and knowledge—we all do.”

Seeming to feel embarrassed by her current state, Heya took the tissue Chu Guang offered and wiped the tears from her cheeks.

She blew her nose hard, and soon her usual calm, capable expression returned to her face.

“Now… what’s the situation outside?”

Chu Guang replied patiently.

“Don’t worry about the outside. We’ve got the situation under control.”

Heya: “And those who lost control?”

After consulting Xiao Qi, Chu Guang replied, “Contain those we can; the severely infected must be executed on the spot.”

Take the clones of the Glory Army, for instance.

Those creatures were far too dangerous—when they went berserk, they didn’t just stab with bayonets but even fired wildly. So much so that without his order, the Legion had already taken the initiative to execute them.

Those Valentines even wanted to put down the uninfected as well, to eliminate the threat entirely.

But he stopped them.

What worried him most now was not the hundred thousand or so zombies surrounding the military base.

Those things were mere cannon fodder before modern weapons, a threat on the level of Devourers at best. On the plains, they posed no effective combat power; the only nuisance was their endless emergence, impossible to guard against fully.

Yet, knowing the Torch as he did, Chu Guang suspected they had more than one card up their sleeve.

This time, it was likely the same as before.

These things crawling out of the ground were merely bait to distract them—something else had already set its sights on them.

That bastard’s counterattack had finally begun!

Hearing that some were still alive, Haya buried her nose in the gap between her palms, took a deep breath, and suddenly spoke with calm resolve.

“Strain B…”

Chu Guang looked at her and asked.

“What?”

Haya: “The Strain B we collected in Baiyue Province! In clinical trials, it showed an inhibitory effect on the growth of Strain J… Since it’s hard to cultivate outside Baiyue, we tried extracting its concentrate. According to experiments in Singularity City, specially processed concentrate has a clear therapeutic effect on Naguo-infected patients—it should restore those with milder symptoms to normal.”

Chu Guang immediately said.

“Is there enough concentrate?”

Haya nodded.

“Production isn’t difficult… but it’s best to treat patients outside the contaminated zone.”

Chu Guang tapped near his ear and gave orders to Xiao Qi.

“Have the 100th Division detach a regiment to transport the contained patients to Singularity City for quarantine and treatment. Also, notify Han Shuang to prepare a quarantine zone capable of holding at least three thousand people.”

Xiao Qi: “Received!”

After issuing the command, Chu Guang looked at the darkening sky beyond the window and furrowed his brow.

The bat-wing men prowling the nearby airspace were likely waiting for nightfall to strike.

He had just received word that the Enterprise’s Seventh Air Fleet’s ornithopters were already on standby on the tarmac.

Given the enemy’s numbers and the risk of being outflanked, he hadn’t ordered an immediate assault.

But these were tactical details—even without his deployment, the allied forces would carry out the battle plan step by step.

What truly concerned him was the strategic level.

The Heavenly Kingdom looming over the Weifu Wasteland had bared its fangs, and the ceaseless emergence of puppets would wreak havoc on the allies’ logistics.