The alloy gate of the west city wall, under the third heavy blow of the Metal Crocodile-Dragon Chain Hammer's giant tail, collapsed inward and twisted, like rotten wood struck by a battle-axe wielded by a giant god! The ear-splitting sound of tearing metal mixed with the screeching of a bursting hydraulic system instantly drowned out all the roars and gunfire on the battlefield!
A terrifying gap, wide enough for a truck to pass through, opened up like the gaping maw of hell!
"Roar—!!!"
The roar of the zombie horde instantly reached its peak! Like a school of sharks smelling blood, a black torrent of death surged madly through the gap!
Leading the charge were dozens of Ghouls, built like bulls, charging like a swarm of tanks!
They ignored the Metal Storm pouring down from the city walls on both sides, using their bodies to forcefully smash through the temporarily constructed sandbag bunkers and barbed wire! Closely following them were a tide of ordinary Ghouls and incredibly fast Scaled-Claw Rats! They poured into the interior of The Boulder through the gap torn open by the Bone-Armored Ghouls, like black oil!
"Hold them! Hold them! Concentrate fire on the gap! Ability users! Stop them!" The West Gate defense Commander roared hoarsely in the communication channel, his voice distorted by despair!
But it was too late!
Behind the city wall gap was a relatively open material transfer plaza. At this moment, it became a death harvesting ground! The firepower of the automatic turrets was fragmented and suppressed by the surging zombie horde!
The soldiers, relying on overturned trucks and containers, fought desperately, but the defense line instantly became riddled with holes, like a dam struck by a flood!
Screams, the sound of bones shattering, and the tearing of flesh instantly filled the entire space!
Even more critically! The three-headed Giant Lizard abandoned the burning ammunition depot (which had been urgently injected with inert gas to extinguish the fire), and its three ferocious heads turned simultaneously! The middle head, which spewed venomous flames, once again glowed with an eerie green light! Its target was directly—the Medical Center, only a few hundred meters away from the West Gate plaza!
Boom—!!!
A pillar of venomous flame, thicker and more scorching than before, like lava spewing from hell, tore through the air, carrying terrifying high temperatures capable of incinerating everything, and slammed heavily onto the thick alloy outer wall of the Medical Center!
Hiss—!!!
An ear-grating corrosive sound instantly rang out! The special alloy outer wall, strong enough to withstand heavy artillery bombardment, rapidly softened, deformed, and melted under the terrifying high temperature and corrosiveness of the venomous flames, like butter thrown into a furnace! Pungent thick smoke mixed with the stench of melting metal rose into the sky! In just a few seconds! A huge molten hole, over three meters in diameter, appeared on the outer wall of the Medical Center! Inside the hole, the Medical Center's brightly lit but now silent and panicked corridors were visible!
"Medical Center outer wall breached! Repeat! Medical Center breached!" A shrill alarm blasted in the command center!
"No—!" Chen Xue's terrified shriek came through the Medical Center's internal communication, which had not yet been completely cut off! She was being forcibly dragged towards the emergency evacuation passage by two soldiers, her eyes fixed on the rolling black tide of death outside the molten hole in the outer wall!
"Zombie horde! The zombie horde is surging towards the Medical Center!" The observer's roar was tinged with collapse!
Inside the command center, Qin Weiguo's face was ashen! He stared intently at the holographic sandbox! The crimson light representing the main force of the zombie horde, like sharks smelling blood, was madly surging towards the molten hole in the Medical Center's outer wall! The target was clear! Straight for the core!
"Ling Chen!" Qin Weiguo squeezed the name through his teeth! Sure enough! He was the target! Either rescue or eliminate! The zombie horde must not succeed!
"Zhou Zhengyang! I don't care what method you use! Guard the Medical Center for me! Not a single Ghoul must get close to Ling Chen's ward! If he dies... or is taken away... I will hold you accountable!" Qin Weiguo's command was like an ice pick, stabbing fiercely into the communication channel!
"Commander! Our manpower..." Zhou Zhengyang's voice carried a hint of despair. The Medical Center's guard force was already weak, and most of the soldiers had been transferred to the city wall defenses!
"Ability User Special Operations Team, Third Squad! Immediately reinforce the Medical Center! At all costs! Hold the isolation ward!" Qin Weiguo ordered sharply! He suddenly turned his head, looking at the light point representing Lin Wei's location (S-section lounge) on the adjacent holographic screen, "Notify Lin Wei! Tell her to use her Discernment ability! Lock onto all abnormal mental fluctuations inside the Medical Center! Especially... Ling Chen's ward!"
He would use a two-pronged approach! Physical defense and mental detection! He wanted to see if that "severely injured and comatose" boy could keep up the act under the claws of the zombie horde and the gaze of Discernment!
Medical Center, isolation ward.
The massive sound and vibration of the outer wall being melted through slammed heavily against the ward's alloy wall like a heavy hammer! Dust rustled down from the ceiling! Monitoring instruments emitted ear-piercing alarms! Lights flickered violently!
On the bed, Ling Chen's body was violently tossed up by this sudden intense vibration, then fell heavily! The plaster cast on his left arm hit the edge of the bed, producing a grating sound of cracking (disguise)! The tube of his oxygen mask was pulled off, and he "painfully" coughed, blood spilling from the corner of his mouth (biting the inside of his mouth)! On the monitoring screen, his heart rate instantly soared to 120! Blood pressure fluctuated wildly!
"Cough cough... ugh..." He let out a weak and painful groan, his eyelids trembling with difficulty, as if trying to wake up, but being dragged into deeper darkness by intense pain and weakness.
Perfect! An impeccable stress reaction for a severely injured person!
But in the depths of Ling Chen's consciousness, the Soul Jade Physique's cold will operated like a high-speed supercomputer! The location of the molten hole in the outer wall! The direction and speed of the surging zombie horde! Zhou Zhengyang's movements in deploying guards! And even... that mental fluctuation rising from the S-section direction, sweeping through the entire Medical Center like an invisible probe, bearing the characteristics of Discernment... Lin Wei had made her move!
His mind instantly connected with Zhuang Han!
Final Orders:
Main zombie horde! Change target! Abandon the direct assault on the ward! Concentrate all efforts on assaulting the Medical Center's energy core and main control room! Create greater chaos!
Crocodile-Dragon! Feign severe injury and retreat! Draw the fortress's pursuit fire!
Zombie Rhinos! Target: Medical Center's underground backup energy pipeline! Smash through it!
Giant Lizard! Venomous flame head! Target: Medical Center's top-floor communication tower! Destroy it!
Bat swarm! Mix into the zombie horde! Infiltrate the Medical Center! Target: Isolation ward! Create... a "rescue" illusion!
The core of the orders: Feint! Create greater chaos to divert everyone's attention from the ward!
At the same time, let the bat swarm infiltrate, creating the illusion that the zombie horde's target is indeed Ling Chen! But... not rescue, but... elimination! Or... create a scene of "failed rescue"!
Chaos! Only absolute chaos could conceal the truth!
Inside the Medical Center, it was already a scene of apocalypse!
Ear-piercing alarms, explosions, gunshots, the roars of Ghouls, the screams of the wounded... interwoven into a symphony of death! Thick smoke filled the corridors, and flames flickered!
The Ghouls pouring in from the molten hole in the outer wall were like a black tide, instantly submerging the ground floor corridors and some wards! Guard soldiers, relying on corners and overturned hospital beds, resisted desperately, but the defense line was steadily retreating!
Zhou Zhengyang, with the few remaining soldiers and Wang Lei (his Steel Skin defense was formidable, and he was temporarily transferred to support), held fast before the last alloy gate leading to the isolation ward area! Bullets swept towards the surging Ghouls like a Metal Storm! But the number of Ghouls was too great! Unending!
"Hold them! Hold them!" Zhou Zhengyang roared hoarsely, the barrel of his assault rifle glowing red hot! The corner of his eye glanced at the ward monitoring screen!
Ling Chen was still "comatose" on the bed, his monitoring data in chaos, but his vital signs were still present! He had to hold this place!
Just then!
Boom—!!!
The entire Medical Center vibrated violently again! Even more intensely than when the outer wall was breached! Light fixtures and ventilation ducts fell like rain from the ceiling! A heart-stopping, muffled impact sound, as if from deep underground, came from the floor!
"Report! Basement two! Backup energy pipeline area breached by unknown force! Energy leak! Risk of explosion!" Terrified shouts came from the communication channel!
Almost simultaneously!
Boom—!!!
A thick pillar of venomous flame pierced down from the roof of the Medical Center! It slammed heavily onto the base of the communication tower on the roof! Amidst the dazzling fire and explosion, the dozens-of-meters-tall communication tower, like a giant tree cut down, slowly tilted and collapsed with a grating sound of twisting metal! The massive tower body smashed through several floors, finally getting stuck in the Medical Center's atrium, igniting a raging fire! Thick smoke billowed!
Communication cut off! Energy leak! Structural damage! Greater chaos spread like a plague!
The zombie horde pouring into the Medical Center seemed to be guided by some invisible force; part of it continued to assault Zhou Zhengyang's defense line, while another part, like a diversion, surged madly towards the energy core area and the main control room! There... the Medical Center's core equipment and database were stored!
"Damn it! Their goal is destruction! Not rescue!" Zhou Zhengyang instantly understood! The enemy wanted to completely destroy the Medical Center! To obliterate all possible evidence and data, including... the surveillance records in Ling Chen's ward!
"Wang Lei! Take two men! Go to the energy core! Stop them from destroying it!" Zhou Zhengyang made a decisive decision! Once the energy core was destroyed, the entire Medical Center would plunge into darkness and paralysis! The consequences would be unimaginable!
Wang Lei roared, his metallic body enduring the pounces of several Ghouls, smashing a bloody path, and rushing towards the underground area with two soldiers!
Zhou Zhengyang was left with only three soldiers! The pressure on the defense line suddenly increased!
And just then! Several incredibly fast, smaller Scaled-Claw Rats, like ghosts, scurried out from ventilation ducts and holes in the ceiling!
They ignored the firepower of Zhou Zhengyang and the others, their scarlet eyes fixed on the isolation ward!
Their sharp hooked claws scraped against the walls and floor, producing a grating sound, like vengeful spirits seeking lives, as they frantically lunged towards the ward!
"Stop them!" Zhou Zhengyang's eyes were bloodshot!
He turned his gun!
But the Scale-Clawed Rats were too fast!
And their target was clear!
They nimbly dodged bullets, instantly pouncing on the alloy door of the isolation ward!
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Their sharp hooked claws frantically scratched at the thick alloy door panel!
A grating sound that set teeth on edge emanated!
The door panel was instantly covered in deep claw marks!
"No!" Zhou Zhengyang roared in despair!
The last three soldiers beside him were also entangled by the Corpse Ghouls!
Unable to break free!
Inside the ward.
Ling Chen "weakly" "opened" his eyes, looking at the frantically scratching indentations on the alloy door panel, his eyes appropriately revealing "terror" and "despair"!
On the monitoring equipment, his heart rate instantly soared to 150!
Blood pressure exploded!
Perfect!
The "rescue" (or rather, silencing) illusion created by the bat swarm was utterly realistic!
S-Zone lounge.
Lin Wei stood in front of the huge floor-to-ceiling window (one-way bulletproof glass), her face as pale as paper.
Deep within her amber pupils, her Discernment ability was pushed to its limit!
Invisible mental fluctuations, like the most precise radar, penetrated layers of walls and chaotic energy fields, scanning the entire Medical Center!
She saw the frantic influx of the Corpse Tide!
She saw Zhou Zhengyang's desperate resistance!
She saw Wang Lei rushing underground!
She saw those few Scale-Clawed Rats pouncing on the ward!
And she saw even more... Ling Chen's "terrified and despairing" eyes and soaring vital signs inside the ward!
But... her Bianwei (Discern Micro) ability captured even more!
In that chaotic energy field, against the backdrop of Corpse Ghoul roars and explosion rumbles, she captured a trace of... an extremely subtle, extremely cold, abyss-current-like mental fluctuation!
That fluctuation... did not come from the Corpse Tide!
Instead... it came from inside the ward!
It came from... Ling Chen!
That fluctuation... like the most precise clockwork, maintained a... strange, cold order amidst the chaos!
It seemed to be... guiding something? Controlling something?
Lin Wei's pupils suddenly constricted!
She abruptly concentrated, her Bianwei (Discern Micro) ability like the sharpest probe, attempting to pierce deep into that fluctuation!
Boom—!!!
An indescribable, soul-freezing cold will, like an invisible iceberg, instantly crashed into her mental perception!
A sharp stinging sensation, like steel needles, pierced into her brain!
She let out a muffled groan, her body staggered backward, and her vision instantly went black!
A warm liquid gushed from her nose!
"Lin Wei!" the nearby guard soldier exclaimed!
Lin Wei clutched her throbbing forehead, her Bianwei (Discern Micro) ability forcibly interrupted!
But in that momentary contact, she captured an extremely blurry, yet soul-shaking image:
An... boundless, cold, dark abyss!
Above the abyss... floated a... thorny crown... woven from thirty strands of ink-black lightning!
Cold! Silent! Controlling everything!
"Abyss... crown..." Lin Wei murmured, her voice trembling with uncontrollable fear and terror.
She suddenly looked up, staring in the direction of the Medical Center, her amber pupils filled with unprecedented horror and... a hint of indescribable realization!
That wasn't a serious injury and coma!
That was... a disguise!
Absolute disguise!
That abyss-like will... was Ling Chen's true essence!
She struggled to reach for the communicator, wanting to tell her grandfather about this discovery!
But communication had already been cut off!
The communication tower on the roof was burning fiercely!
Outside the isolation ward.
Those few Scale-Clawed Rats finally tore open a gap in the thick alloy door panel with their sharp hooked claws!
They let out excited squeals, trying to squeeze into the ward!
"No—!" Zhou Zhengyang roared in despair!
At the cost of being scratched on the back by a Corpse Ghoul, he turned his gun and frantically sprayed bullets at the door crack!
Puff puff puff!
Two Scale-Clawed Rats were riddled with holes!
But the third one... darted into the door crack like lightning!
Inside the ward!
Ling Chen watched as the Scale-Clawed Rat, covered in black blood and with scarlet eyes gleaming with madness, pounced on him!
His eyes instantly filled with "extreme terror"!
His body trembled violently!
As if he would be torn to shreds the next second!
But just at this critical moment!
Boom—!!!
Another earth-shattering roar came from the entire Medical Center!
This time... it came from underground!
The backup energy pipeline... exploded!
The terrifying shockwave, like an invisible giant hammer, slammed heavily onto the Medical Center's building structure!
The ceiling above Ling Chen's isolation ward, under the violent shaking and explosion impact, could no longer hold up!
Large chunks of concrete and rebar crashed down like a torrential rain!
Boom!!!
The ward was instantly filled with smoke and dust!
Monitoring equipment was smashed to pieces!
The hospital bed was completely buried by heavy concrete blocks!
The Scale-Clawed Rat that pounced on Ling Chen was also smashed into a pulp by a huge stone slab!
"Ling Chen—!!!" Zhou Zhengyang, who had just broken free from the Corpse Ghoul's entanglement and rushed to the ward door, let out a heart-wrenching roar as he looked at the ward completely buried by the ruins!
It's over!
It's all over!
Ling Chen... was buried alive!
Command Center.
On the holographic sand table, the crimson light points representing the main force of the Corpse Tide, after the Medical Center suffered heavy damage (outer wall melted through, energy explosion, ward collapse), began to retreat like a tide!
The three terrifying giant beasts also stopped attacking, the Crocodile Dragon feigned serious injury and retreated southwest, while the Corpse Rhino and Giant Lizard blended into the Corpse Tide, slowly retreating towards the Linghui Academy Ruins.
"The Corpse Tide... retreated?" a staff officer murmured in disbelief.
Qin Weiguo stared intently at the sand table, then looked at the last image from the Medical Center direction—the isolation ward buried by ruins, Zhou Zhengyang's desperate roar...
His face was so grim it could drip water!
The Corpse Tide's goal... was achieved?
Destroy the Medical Center?
Kill Ling Chen?
Destroy the evidence?
He suddenly turned his head, looking at the screen next to him where partial communication had just been restored, showing Lin Wei's pale and terrified face.
"Wei Wei! What did you see? The Medical Center! Ling Chen's ward!" Qin Weiguo asked sharply.
Lin Wei clutched her still throbbing forehead, blood still lingering at her nose.
She looked at her grandfather's oppressive eyes, and in her mind, the cold abyss and the ink-black thorny crown flashed again...
But... an indescribable, cold sense of dread instantly gripped her heart!
As if she would be completely swallowed by endless darkness if she spoke that secret!
It must be wrong, it must be wrong, how could Ling Chen be that kind of person?!!
...Chaos... very chaotic..." She finally lowered her head, her voice trembling imperceptibly, "The energy field is too chaotic... I only saw... the ward collapsed... He... might... be dead..."
Qin Weiguo stared intently at Lin Wei, his sharp gaze seemingly wanting to penetrate her soul.
He saw the fear and evasion in her eyes... What was she hiding?
What secret did that Ling Chen... actually have?
"Dig for me!" Qin Weiguo said into the communicator, his voice like ice, "If he's alive, I want to see him!
If he's dead... dig out his body for me!
Examine it inch by inch!
I want to know... whether he is a human... or a ghost!"
Deep within the Linghui Academy Ruins.
Zhuang Han's massive beast-transformed body slowly crawled out of a collapsed subway tunnel.
The ink-black blood patterns on his left cheek and the scarlet blood patterns on his right cheek still gleamed with an eerie light, but his aura was significantly weaker.
Forcibly controlling three Bone Eater Realm giant beasts and a massive Corpse Tide placed a huge mental burden on him.
His scarlet beast eyes looked towards the Panshi Fortress.
There, smoke billowed and flames soared.
Deep in his consciousness, his master's last command echoed: "...Create a scene of 'failed rescue'... Then... lie low... wait..."
He slowly lowered his head, his massive body, like a giant beast merging into the shadows, silently disappeared into the depths of the ruins.
Mission... accomplished.
Inside the fortress, on the ruins of the Medical Center.
The roar of rescue machinery and the shouts of soldiers intertwined.
Zhou Zhengyang, like a madman, frantically pulled at the heavy concrete blocks with his bare hands, his hands bleeding profusely from being cut by rebar and rubble.
"Quick! Dig fast! He's down there!"
Deep within the ruins.
In the narrow space buried by thick concrete and twisted rebar.
Ling Chen slowly opened his eyes.
All around was dead silence and darkness.
Only muffled digging and shouting came from above.
The cold will of the Soul Jade Physique circulated.
He "saw" Zhou Zhengyang frantically digging above, he saw Qin Weiguo's grim face in the distant command center, he saw Lin Wei's terrified and uneasy figure in the S-Zone lounge...
His body was skillfully "protected" in a relatively safe triangular space by several twisted rebars and heavy stone slabs.
The plaster cast on his left arm had long since shattered, and his arm was bruised and bloody, but it was only a broken forearm bone.
With Chen Xue there, he wasn't worried about this problem.
The monitoring equipment was destroyed, but his vital signs... under the simulation of the Soul Jade Physique, still maintained a faint fluctuation of "seriously injured and dying."
A cold and playful arc slowly curved at the corner of his mouth in the absolute darkness.
The game... was over.
He won.
Qin Weiguo... wouldn't find anything.