Chapter 786.1: Killing Freaks
Chapter 786.1: Killing Freaks
“RWARGGG!”
The resounding bellow pierced through the rolling smoke and shattered the fear clinging to the defensive line.
A Mutant Human with shrapnel embedded all over its body struggled up from the crooked trench, picked up the machine gun that had been knocked loose by the blast and dropped at its feet, worked the action with a click, and set it back on the lip of the trench.
There were enough Mutant Humans stationed along the beach to form an entire division. However, those 10,000 or so Mutant Humans were not packed together on the shoreline. Instead, they had built a defense in depth extending roughly five kilometers inland.
The highly saline-alkaline beach and soil were unfavorable to the growth of Na Fruit, so the Torch Church had not expanded its Kingdom of Heaven across the coastal strip. Instead, the area had been left to the Mutant Humans to defend. However, although the blue-skinned Mutant Humans and green-skinned Mutant Humans shared the same roots, they clearly did not get along.
“Stay behind cover!” a Mutant Human centurion roared roughly, grabbing a blue-skinned fishman and throwing it out of the trench. “You! Don’t stay behind cover. Get into the sea and hold them back!”
“Gah?”
Gunfire rattled from behind. Bullets whistled over the fishman’s head, forcing it to scramble forward on all fours. Even so, it still turned around and glared viciously back at them.
Its miserable appearance earned no sympathy from its supposed allies. The greenskins laughed loudly and fired another burst of bullets near its scaly feet.
Although the naval bombardment had been fierce, it had not actually killed that many Mutant Humans. Those creatures possessed extraordinarily tenacious vitality. In particular, the handful of biologically modified Zombie Mutant Humans could even regrow their heads after losing them.
And that wasn’t all. Compared with their brethren who had died on Ten Peaks Mountain, these Mutant Humans were much better equipped. From the homogeneous steel plates welded across their chests to the massive weapons spitting flames in their hands, all of it had been produced by North Island Heavy Industry during the Chalas’ rule.
It was obvious that Chalas had never placed his hopes on his own marines. Or rather, he had never expected those picky fishermen to defeat New Alliance soldiers on land.
He had understood immediately that the navy was North Island Federation’s only true pillar, and that the only forces capable of competing with New Alliance soldiers on land were those hulking green-skinned brutes.
Instead of using their already limited resources to improve the marines’ equipment, it made more sense to use steel and gunpowder to arm Mutant Human cannon fodder.
In truth, there was nothing inherently wrong with that line of thinking. Making the strong exert their strength and sending those unafraid of death to die was, after all, one of the basic rules by which societies operated.
Unfortunately, the Mutant Humans had another fatal flaw besides their strength and fearlessness, and that flaw ruined his plan.
They had no discipline whatsoever!
Implanting every Mutant Human with a chip for direct control was simply too expensive.
As a result, even by the time the southern-seas civil war ended, Chalas still had not managed to import those enemies of humanity into North Island’s trenches to fill the line. At most, he had used them briefly on Sandbar Island.
And so these green-skinned beasts had simply stood along the Death Coast, watching helplessly as he lost the civil war.
Perhaps compared with the Torch Church, the North Island Federation had been the survivor faction that truly needed the Poro Province to save it.
With the southern seas’ technological strength combined with the Poro Province’s enormous manpower, even the Wislanders would probably have trembled a little. After all, clones lacked complete minds and could only ever serve as cannon fodder, whereas the people there were living, breathing human beings.
But reality had no room for so many ifs. Chalas had already lost the civil war. Now it was these vermin’s turn!
The amphibious armored vehicles at the very front were the first to climb onto the beach, practically riding the edge of the artillery barrage as they entered the battlefield.
“First unit has landed on the beach!”
“Push forward! Crush them!”
“WAHOOO!”
Battle cries filled the communications channel.
At the same time, the guns mounted atop the Alligator amphibious armored vehicles began firing.
The 37mm rapid-fire cannons thundered repeatedly, shell casings clanging as they poured from the sides of the turrets, while thick streams of tracers lashed toward the trenches along the beach!
Against 37mm armor-piercing incendiary rounds, the Mutant Humans’ flesh and blood stood no chance at all. Bodies and armor alike were punched straight through. Every flash of cannon fire unleashed another storm of blood and gore!
In the briefest instant of contact, dozens more Mutant Humans turned to blood mist and flesh patties inside the trenches.
Suffering enormous casualties only drove the Mutant Humans into greater savagery. Roaring furiously, they thrust their weapons over the cover and returned fire at the players landing on the beach.
Their 20mm heavy machine guns spewed tongues of flame, but striking the frontal armor of the Alligator amphibious armored vehicles was like scraping at an itch. The rounds left nothing more than scratches and dents and achieved virtually nothing else.
Only one armored vehicle was unlucky enough to have its gun barrel damaged by the sweeping fire, though that did not prevent it from continuing to advance across the beach.
“We use this!” A Mutant Human roared and, grunting with effort, hauled a huge weapon out of a wooden crate.
It was a massive gun nearly two meters long, with a muzzle almost as wide as an adult man’s wrist. It pushed the weapon over the cover, aimed at the nearest armored vehicle, and viciously pulled the trigger.
BOOM!
Flame burst forward like an explosion.
The enormous projectile instantly struck the front armor of the Alligator and a searing metal jet punched through, disabling the engine at the front of the vehicle. The armored vehicle immediately lost power, and black smoke began pouring from the cooling vents near the front of its hull.
Seeing that the attack had worked, the Mutant Human cheered excitedly and reached into the crate for another dark, squat little sweet potato, preparing to repeat the trick.
But the instant it lowered its head to look for one, several explosions cracked over it. Before the Mutant Human could even grunt, it toppled stiffly to the ground.
Several high-explosive grenades followed the muzzle flash straight into the trench, and the storm of fragments instantly riddled its body with holes.
At the same time, the previously hit Alligator ran a tire into a reef and finally came to a complete stop. The gunner had no choice but to cease fire and launch smoke grenades forward.
The Mutant Humans on the beachhead had clearly noticed it. Machine-gun barrels swung toward the vehicle and opened fire, thick tracers hammering against the hull with loud clangs.
The communications channel immediately erupted into chaos.
“Fuck!”
“Recoilless rifles?!”
“Motherfucker! Did they already get a delivery of that batch?!”
“Probably something they built themselves... North Island had a small number of specialists that Chalas sent into Torch Church’s territory to assist with research.”
“Where the hell did they get a factory?!”
“Engine disabled!”
“Dismount!”
“No Family is down!”
“Whose family?!”
“It’s No Family! His ID is No Family!”
“Holy shit, what kind of dumbass names do you people come up with?”
“Fuck you, shut up! I just got knocked out by the blast for a moment! I’m not down yet!”
A vehicle immobilized on the beach was nothing more than a live target, and everyone knew they couldn’t linger there. The rear hatches of the vehicle quickly swung open to both sides. Under cover from the neighboring armored vehicles, the players wearing exoskeletons rapidly evacuated from the cabin with several members of the vehicle crew.
Bullets punched through the smoke screen, whistling over their heads and occasionally striking the ground nearby, but not one of them showed any fear. Instead, every face was filled with excitement.
This game is too realistic!
Only the squad leader was screaming himself hoarse. “Move! Don’t fucking stop here looking for cover! Rush the trench ahead! Everyone, keep moving!”
In fact, for the Mutant Humans crouching inside the trenches, it was hardly easy to hit players wearing exoskeletons with unfamiliar machine guns and rifles while under bombardment from heavy artillery and suppressing fire from armored vehicles. Their extraordinary vitality and regenerative ability did not mean the shockwaves from exploding shells had no effect on them.
Their heads would still ring, their vision would still go black, and because their brains were not particularly developed in the first place, being caught in shellfire only made them more confused and crazed.
The armored vehicles that had landed were not the players’ only advantage.
Most of the exoskeletons issued to the Burning Corps were Type 5 police models from the pre-war era. Their polymer chest armor could even stop two or three rounds from a heavy machine gun. Not to mention, most of those players were awakeners. Unless they took a hit to a vital point, even if they were unlucky enough to catch one or two rounds, they could often keep moving as though nothing had happened.
Within only a few breaths, the players forced to dismount had already caught up with the armored vehicles charging ahead. Using them as mobile cover, they followed closely behind and continued pushing forward.
300 meters vanished in the blink of an eye. The Alligator armored vehicles soon reached the edge of the trenches and successfully broke through the Mutant Humans’ first defensive line.
Apart from the players who had been forced to dismount early, the rest of Burning Corps’ first unit also leapt from their armored vehicles and charged into the crooked trenches, engaging the Mutant Humans hiding inside in brutal close-quarters combat.
“RARGGGGGGH!” Standing with its hulking body upright, a Zombie Mutant Human gripped a large-caliber rifle and swung it like a club at Peepo as he dropped into the trench.
Peepo ducked beneath the blow, drew the short axe hanging from his chest armor, and slashed upward in one smooth motion. The blade struck the Mutant Human squarely across the neck and completely severed its oily-green head.
The Mutant Human remained standing without moving, but its shoulders suddenly jerked. From the severed stump of its neck, strands of fleshy red tendrils began spreading outward, rapidly extending upward at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Watching it happen, Peepo was completely stunned and he gasped in shock, “Holy shit! It really can grow its head back after losing it?!”
He had thought the brothers on the Northern Front had been exaggerating.
This thing is actually something else!