Chapter 751: The Breakthrough Tearing Open from the Northern Front

Chapter 751: The Breakthrough Torn Open from the Northern Line

In the underground monitoring room, a deathly silence pervaded.

Whether researchers from the Enterprise or the Alliance, all were uniformly stunned, their eyes wide with disbelief.

Except for Heya.

As the sole researcher of the "relevant research project," she was probably the only one here who knew the inside story.

Her fair face was flushed crimson, and her eyes sparkled with excitement.

As if beholding an incredible scientific miracle, she stared unblinkingly at the screen, her gaze filled with fervor, muttering incessantly under her breath.

"Is this the strength of a 60% gene sequence unlock? This feeling is... it's even more exaggerated than the theoretical analysis values from the tests!"

No—

Should this even be considered a carbon-based lifeform?!

The security camera's frame rate couldn't even capture the trajectory of that punch!

Her heart pounded violently, and her breathing quickened.

In that instant, Heya suddenly snapped back to reality and muttered to herself.

"...Wait, that unrecognizable 'talent'... could it be related to this too?!"

Was it strength enhancement?

Or was it not just strength that was enhanced...

Just as the researchers were marveling, the monster clad in biological power armor suddenly erupted with a shout and launched another attack.

He seemed enraged; the entire corridor echoed with his furious roar.

His dark green eyes burned with madness, and the power comparable to an evolved being burst from his swollen muscles in an instant. His massive body shot out again like a cannonball.

The terrifying explosive force seemed even stronger than before, and his speed was faster!

Yet—

The result this time was no different from the last. The Beast King, taking a punch to the face, didn't even have time to let out a pained howl before crashing to the ground.

"Don't you have any other tricks?"

Watching the Beast King trapped in a pile of concrete debris, Chu Guang gradually grew bored. He reached out, picked up the hammer standing on the ground, and walked toward him.

Hearing the steady footsteps, the Beast King struggled to rise from the shattered stones, wiped the slime dripping from the corner of his mouth, and stared fixedly at Chu Guang approaching him.

"You... what kind of monster are you?!"

His voice trembled slightly, and his sharp claws shook uncontrollably.

Not from fear.

It was purely because those three resounding punches had thrown his endocrine system into chaos.

"I'm no monster. I'm just me," Chu Guang said calmly.

"Impossible!" the Beast King roared, cutting off Chu Guang's words, his dark green pupils glaring at him. "That can't be human strength... Even if you modified his power armor, your body couldn't possibly withstand that speed and power!"

"Modified?" Chu Guang smiled faintly. "There was no need for that."

He knew the guy was trying to pry information out of him.

But unfortunately, he himself didn't fully understand what was happening to him.

According to the conclusion Heya had drawn long ago, the "results" of his players' exploration of the gene sequence would ultimately accumulate on him in some form.

In a sense, his existence itself was a "singularity" beyond the horizon—existing theories could only scratch the surface, never reaching the root.

Just like the "morphogenetic field" connecting the players.

Including the "complete lifeform" that Torch sought in vain...

The Beast King's pupils flickered with disbelief, clearly unconvinced by Chu Guang's words.

But Chu Guang didn't intend to explain further. He simply swung the square iron hammer—

And the nitrogen condensed on its surface, almost compressed into a solid!

"Go to hell."

He said calmly, pronouncing the demon's death sentence.

"That's where you belong."

The explosive airflow burst forth in an instant, raging like sharp blades, tearing through windows and even slicing the surrounding walls!

No flashy moves—there was no need for such things.

Chu Guang, having swung the warhammer in a full arc, slammed it down hard at the Beast King crouching on the ground.

Facing the hammer as swift as a gale, the Beast King instinctively raised his arms to block.

But his proud biological power armor was as fragile as paper, torn apart in an instant.

Intense pain forced a howl from him, but the raging wind sealed his mouth, puffing his cheeks up like balloons.

Then—

The warhammer, having shattered his arms, struck heavily on his crown, driving his head into his shoulders, and crushed him along with half his body into a pulp.

The violent wind stirred up rolling dust.

When the dust settled, the entire corridor was splattered with crimson droplets, as if a rain of blood had fallen.

And at the center of the storm, only Chu Guang holding the hammer and a flattened mass of flesh remained.

Hurried footsteps echoed from the end of the corridor. Lü Bei, frantic with worry, led a group of guards from the basement.

He had come rushing the moment he realized the Administrator was no longer by his side.

But what he hadn't expected was such an exaggerated scene before his eyes...

Not just Lü Bei, but all the guards behind him stood frozen.

This...

Was this their Administrator?

The one who was humble, broad-minded, and almost never lost his temper?!

Even though they had some understanding of the Administrator's strength, they never imagined it could reach such an extreme.

Every pair of eyes shone with reverence.

Though their loyalty to the Administrator wasn't based on his power, in the wasteland where the law of the jungle prevailed, great strength naturally commanded respect from wastelanders—that was an objective fact.

Inside the underground monitoring room.

The researchers were equally dumbfounded, unable to utter a word.

After a long while, an old professor from Yunjian University swallowed hard, poked the Alliance researcher beside him with his index finger, and asked in a trembling voice.

"Is this... really your Administrator?"

What he had originally wanted to ask was, "Is that guy even human?"

But after a moment’s thought, he felt the question was too intrusive, so he changed his words on the fly.

The Alliance researcher was equally bewildered, yet still nodded instinctively.

“Of course… as genuine as can be.”

A female researcher from Cloud University, her eyes blazing with fervor, grabbed the collaborator from Camp 101 beside her.

“What kind of technology is this? I don’t mean to pry, I just want to understand what just happened… Could you spare me a sample—”

Before the collaborator could answer, Heya, like a cat guarding its food, cut off that wild fantasy without hesitation.

“Don’t even think about it!”

At the same time, outside the research institute, the crowd of players and NPCs on the open ground were all staring at the broken wall and the corridor where Chu Guang stood.

When that winged creature had smashed through the wall and charged in earlier, they had noticed the commotion from the institute, and then heard the thunderous explosions like cannon fire.

Realizing the Alliance’s Administrator was there, General Babita’s face showed a mix of joy and worry, but joy prevailed, and he even found himself silently cheering for the monster.

On the other side, a sergeant from the “Hound” special forces turned to a soldier from the Storm Corps and couldn’t help asking,

“Your Administrator is in there… aren’t you going to help him?”

Hearing the NPC’s voice, Grave Ghost gave him a strange look, thinking it was just a cutscene—what was there to make a fuss about?

With the Administrator’s level and stats, that thing trying to hurt him was underestimating the power of “technology.”

Waving his hand, Grave Ghost said with a smile,

“No need. By the time we get there, he’ll probably have taken that thing apart into pieces.”

Hound Special Forces Sergeant: “…?”

As exaggerated as that description was, Grave Ghost still underestimated the esteemed Administrator.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t even about taking it apart into pieces.

That pile of “mosaic” probably didn’t have a single intact piece left.

Looking down at the thick bloodstains all over himself, Chu Guang muttered after a moment of silence,

“Looks like I overdid it.”

He should have kept a head.

And now he was covered in blood…

But it didn’t really matter.

X-16 would clean him up anyway.

Shaking off the shredded flesh and blood stuck to his hammer, Chu Guang stepped over the Beast King’s corpse, climbed the stairs to the third floor of the institute, and stood before the gap in the collapsed wall.

The moment that figure appeared in the wall’s breach, almost everyone’s eyes filled with disbelief.

Except for the residents of Vault 404.

The players who had fought alongside him more than once knew his strength well.

More than that.

He was like a banner.

No matter the opponent, as long as they stood by his side, their hearts would surge with unyielding courage and the conviction of victory.

And that was why,

the instant they saw him on the battlefield, almost every player let out an excited shout—

“The Administrator is awesome!”

“Long live the Alliance!”

“Oooh!”

Basking in those rousing cheers, the soldiers of the Hound Special Forces looked around in bewilderment, then followed the gazes toward the institute.

They couldn’t understand what the vault residents were cheering about, but they could feel the fervor in those shouts.

The man they regarded as their leader led them from one victory to another, and they never doubted that their future was bright.

Among the soldiers from the Free State, many showed envy in their eyes.

Fighting to pay off their debts, they didn’t understand that kind of faith, but that didn’t stop them from casting envious glances at those shining people.

If only they could have an Administrator who cared about them like that.

Everyone couldn’t help thinking.

Compared to the ideals of Utopia, this seemed much easier to achieve.

But sadly, those who harbored such thoughts always had to choose between a bad option and a worse one, and most of the time, they didn’t even get a choice.

It wasn’t just the Hound Special Forces soldiers.

Even the soldiers from the Falcon Kingdom looked up to that man.

Though he had once beaten them black and blue, they found they didn’t hate him at all…

At least from a soldier’s standpoint, a general who stood with them through thick and thin was far better than those cowards hiding in castles and airships.

Seeing Chu Guang unharmed, General Babita’s face showed a trace of disappointment, and he sighed inwardly.

What a pity.

Heaven does not favor my empire…

This long night, I fear, knows no end.

Scanning the battlefield, Chu Guang slammed his warhammer heavily onto the ground.

“Everyone—”

He opened the speaker on his helmet and raised his voice, letting out a thunderous cry.

“Our enemy is at the end of their rope! Their bluster and madness only mask their weakness!”

“Their ‘Beast King’ lies dead beneath my hammer!”

“If they still want to throw their lives away—then let us oblige them!”

That voice, like a sharp sword, tore through the veil of night and the clamor of gunfire and explosions.

Whether those who watched him,

or the soldiers locked in battle, all erupted with unprecedented morale.

In response came a deafening roar—

“Kill!!”

…

That deafening roar was like a shot of adrenaline, piercing every warrior’s heart.

Facing the high-spirited allied forces, the monsters tangled outside the institute, after a desperate struggle, finally succumbed.

At the same time, the battles elsewhere in the military base were also drawing to a close.

Under Xiaoyu's command, the vast horde of Devourers and Crawlers seized the eastern and western flanks of the military base, firmly blocking the corpses that kept crawling out of the soil.

The Heavenly Kingdom above the Weifu military base had already collapsed, and it was only a matter of time before the puppets awakened by the Heavenly Kingdom were sent away.

On the other side, the armored formation of the Skeleton Corps had also reached the northern side of the military base.

While disposing of those "living dead," they also took care of the bat-winged humans attacking the northern defense line and those grotesque, neither-human-nor-ghost things clad in biological power armor.

Just as Chu Guang had shouted in his rallying cry, the Torch's power in this generation was already spent.

They had no cards left to play!

At the same time, aboard the *Loyalty* airship.

General Lium, seated in the bridge, had finally received the battle report from the front line.

After carefully reading the report to the end, he slowly let out a sigh of relief, then turned to his adjutant standing nearby, speaking with renewed vigor.

"The Blood Mountain position has been taken, the crisis at the Weifu military base is resolved—this war is ours!"

The adjutant's face also showed a relieved expression, speaking with lingering fear.

"I never thought those bastards would have such terrifying weapons in their hands..."

Perhaps they should follow the example of the Academy's Alpha Task Force and equip the clone troops with gas masks as well.

Though it wouldn't work against the bizarre biochemical weapons of the Alpha Protozoa, it could at least resist the corrosion of the Nago mycelium.

The disgraceful performance of the Glorious Army in this battle had completely tarnished their legion's reputation.

General Lium nodded, squinting as he gazed westward through the floor-to-ceiling window.

He had already reported the situation here to Triumph City, and reinforcements would arrive shortly.

Ten-Peak Mountain was merely a necessary pass on their way to the Coastal Province.

The war between the Coalition and the Torch had only just begun.

And after this, there would be the games with Enterprise, the Academy, the Great Rift... and even the Alliance.

For the Legion, that was the real main event.

...

The raging flames of war seemed to rise in an instant, and in an instant, they drew to a close.

When the last bat-winged human had its throat slit by a player's combat knife after emptying its magazine, a faint glimmer of dawn appeared on the gray horizon.

Unbeknownst to them, the soldiers in this military base had been fighting all night!

Though Xiaoyu's fruiting bodies were still vying for control of the land with the puppets of the Nago mycelium, the latter no longer posed a threat.

As those creatures in biological power armor fell one by one, both the bat-winged humans and the "living dead" became soulless shells, mere walking corpses driven by instinct.

These disorganized beings were clearly no match for the army of fruiting bodies led by Xiaoyu.

It was only a matter of time before the corrosion on the Weifu wasteland was completely cleansed...

News of victory quickly spread throughout the entire army.

Learning that the enemy had been routed, the tense nerves of the soldiers finally relaxed.

Many simply collapsed to the ground or stared blankly at the sea of corpses.

The thick smell of blood filled their nostrils, and the entire military base had become a river of blood.

The intensity of this battle exceeded the imagination of most.

After all, the total population of most settlements on the wasteland was less than what filled a single corpse pit here.

The Valiants, however, remained relatively calm, even lining up at the cafeteria door with their mess kits.

Perhaps in the western part of the continent, this was just a small skirmish...

Aside from the Valiants, the calmest among the Coalition were naturally the players.

To prevent accumulated fatigue from affecting their "daytime" gaming, some had already returned to their hibernation pods to rest.

Others who hadn't secured a save point didn't waste time either; after a quick meal, they helped the NPCs clean up the battlefield.

East of the military base.

The Southern Construction Corps had marked out a plot of land on the wasteland specifically for piling up corpses.

They used trucks to haul the bodies from the base and dump them there, waiting for the Crawlers hatched by Xiaoyu to transport them away.

Staring at the piles of dead, Mosquito couldn't help but sigh.

"Damn... the Empire is probably going to be in deep debt this time."

He didn't need to ask to guess that, aside from the clone cannon fodder, the ones who died the most were likely the ratfolk of the Xilan Empire's expeditionary force.

Those poor bastards.

They just wanted a few decent meals, hadn't committed any heinous crimes—at most, they'd entertained some thoughts—yet they were pushed around by their officers, living miserably and dying without honor.

Standing beside him, Construction Boy and Brick shot him a glance.

"...I don't think the Empire is the one losing the most."

Mosquito was taken aback.

"...What do you mean?"

Debt-Eyes reminded him.

"Aren't you still waiting to collect their grain?"

His brow twitched, and Mosquito cleared his throat defensively.

"I just said I planned to collect it... They haven't grown it yet, so I won't collect it."

Though he said that, thinking about the easy money he couldn't get, his face still showed regret, and he couldn't help but wince in pain.

Not earning was also a loss.

He'd have to figure out how to make up for that shortfall...

...

On the other side, at the Weifu military base, tents marked with medical symbols had been set up on the open ground in front of the temporary research institute.

Half an hour ago, Enterprise's medical team had departed from Shuguang City Airport and had now arrived at the front line of the Weifu military base. Nurses and doctors from Ideal City were bandaging the wounds of injured soldiers.

In fact, before being converted into a temporary research institute, this concrete building itself was a reserve medical facility, only later repurposed for research due to a lack of casualties.

The open ground in front of the building had also been reserved to accommodate "unexpectedly high numbers of wounded."

But neither the Southern Construction Corps nor the various factions of the Coalition had ever imagined that this open ground would actually be put to use.

And so early, before the Coalition even entered the Coastal Province.

After all, judging from the first two battles, the Torch Church's strength hadn't seemed very formidable—their positions had fallen with a single push...

Just as Chu Guang was visiting the wounded, Li Jinrong, the commander of the Southern Construction Corps, limped over.

His arm was bandaged, apparently from a gunshot wound, likely inflicted by the clones of the Glorious Army.

Though the technical sophistication of the Ripper rifle was low, the damage from full-power rounds was no joke.

But luckily, the bullet passed clean through his arm, striking neither bone nor artery, nor lodging inside.

And so it was that this minor wound didn't affect his work in the slightest; he didn't even see a doctor, just bandaged it himself and called it done.

"Aside from the Legion's refusal to cooperate in investigating the casualties of the Glorious Army, the casualty counts for all other Coalition forces are essentially complete. The heaviest losses are from the Xilan Empire's Expeditionary Force—many of them were poisoned as soon as the fog set in..."

Chu Guang frowned and asked.

"How many did they lose in total?"

Li Jinrong swallowed hard and continued.

"Counting the missing... it adds up to 14,700."

If not for Xiaoyu rescuing some back, that number would have been even more staggering.

Even though he had anticipated that the Xilan Expeditionary Force's casualties would be horrific, hearing that figure still made Chu Guang involuntarily hold his breath.

Nearly fifteen thousand men...

Only twenty thousand soldiers had made it to Jinchuan Province in the first place—this attrition was close to three-quarters!

Watching Chu Guang's grim expression, Li Jinrong hesitated a moment before continuing.

"The commander of the Xilan Expeditionary Force hopes the Coalition can provide some compensation to the families of the fallen soldiers... They were the pillars of 14,700 households. They came here for the common fate of all humanity. Their families should receive not only ashes and honors, but also the support of those who survived because of them."

Hearing this high-sounding speech, the corner of Chu Guang's mouth twitched involuntarily.

Pillars of 14,700 households, huh...

More like livestock on some farm, probably.

Though he had never been to the Brahmaputra Province, that didn't mean he was ignorant of the situation there.

He could be certain that even if he helped them secure compensation from the Academy or the Corporation, or even paid it out of his own pocket, that money would never reach those families' hands—it would end up in some noble's coffers.

Or perhaps straight into Babita's own pocket.

But at that moment, he thought of a friend who had died young.

In a sense, he now stood in a similar position.

He could ignore those people, and no one would think him wrong. Even General Babita himself, who had made the request, would blush upon reflection.

After all, those Ratmen had been utterly useless, even managing to bungle and harm their allies, so much so that even the Legion, who were closest to them, found them a nuisance.

But if he didn't plant the seeds in his pocket, no matter how many seeds they hoarded, the wasteland would always remain a wasteland, even if they ultimately won this war.

After a long silence, Chu Guang spoke.

"Tell Babita that the Coalition is a military body, not a welfare institution—but the Glacial Commonwealth acknowledges the sacrifice of those people."

"If he truly wants to do something for those 14,700 dead soldiers, then carefully tally their names, families, and addresses."

"We will, through a publicly recognized resolution, provide appropriate compensation to the families of all fallen soldiers and the collectives they belonged to."

Li Jinrong nodded earnestly.

"Understood!"