A 120-kilogram tungsten-core projectile directly hit the upper body of the Meat Mountain. The metal projectile, traveling at 2520 meters per second, directly pulverised half of the Meat Mountain's body into scattered flesh upon impact.
“No defense at all? And no rapid regeneration either,” Hu Kun murmured to himself, watching the scene on the screen. However, he then locked onto another Meat Mountain.
Just then, the Meat Mountain whose upper body had been blown off began to violently writhe. Bulges started appearing and continuously squirming beneath its skin. Swarms of Blood Crows began gushing out from the penetrated wound and the oral orifices on its body, like an attacked beehive, continuously pouring out from the mountain’s body. After the Blood Crows poured out, the Meat Mountain’s remaining body rapidly deflated like a punctured balloon.
The Blood Crows were only the size of an adult’s palm, entirely blood-red with two wings. They had no heads, but where a head should have been, there was a dark yellow eye the size of a ping-pong ball. Their abdomens had no sharp claws but possessed a vertically growing oral orifice that almost traversed the entire body of the Blood Crow.
The UAV swarm in the air detected the approaching Blood Crows and quickly changed formation. The laser guns mounted on their bellies began to strafe the Blood Crow swarm.
The Blood Crows were not only incredibly fast in the air but also possessed astonishing agility. The Blood Crow swarm would sometimes disperse and sometimes converge in the air, almost avoiding all attacks from the UAVs. They directly charged into the UAV swarm and engaged in a chaotic battle. The Blood Crows directly attached themselves to the UAVs' outer shells and began releasing bio-electromagnetic pulses. In just one round, more than half of the UAV swarm in the sky was gone.
Realizing the situation was dire, Hu Kun immediately began to mobilize the machine guns and anti-aircraft artillery on the position to support the aerial UAV formation. However, events unfolded much faster than he had anticipated. In just five minutes, two of the four UAV swarm circling in the sky had been fully taken offline, and the remaining two formations were also in precarious situations, with the number of online UAVs continuously decreasing.
Immediately after, another Meat Mountain also began spewing countless Blood Crows from its oral orifices into the sky. As the Meat Mountain's body shriveled, even more Blood Crows were ejected into the sky. Now, the sky above the position was almost completely occupied by flying Blood Crows, and human UAVs were constantly crashing.
The moment UAV support was lost in the air, the Zombie Tide on the ground, as if receiving a signal, suddenly lunged towards Hu Kun’s position. After circling the air and finding no UAVs as targets, the Blood Crows circling in the air also began to attack the soldiers on the ground.
“Mayday, Mayday! These blood-red monstrous birds have paralyzed our power armor. Their oral orifices also contain strong acid that can corrode the power armor’s shell. Help me…”
“We need anti-aircraft fire support.”
“Commander, request to retreat! Our people are being slaughtered, ah~”
Instantly, various cries for help and calls for support flooded the communication channel. Hu Kun no longer had his initial composure and immediately began allocating firepower and coordinating support within the position. The situation on the Battlefield was constantly changing. The human side, which had just been sailing smoothly, was now instantly at a disadvantage. The defending soldiers had already begun to fight with the zombie horde. Some soldiers began to drop their firearms and pick up close-combat weapons like electromagnetic knives to fight the Mutated Creatures.
Blood Crows had already begun circling around the N1 Tank, preparing to pounce on it. Although the bio-pulse emitted by a single Blood Crow was very weak, if their numbers were sufficient, they could directly paralyze this metal behemoth. Fortunately, the N1 Tank’s secondary weapon system was equipped with four unmanned Gauss rapid-fire cannons, which had a considerable effect in close-range anti-air defense. The Blood Crows in the air, after leaving a trail of bodies, were unable to get close to the N1 Tank.
“These damned zombies.” The Mutants had already rushed near the N1 Tank, but Hu Kun had no worries. As long as there were no Roadblocks or other Mutants with anti-armor capabilities, the N1 Tank's four tracks alone could crush countless zombies. Compared to that, he was more concerned about the situation of the soldiers on the Battlefield.
The command system indicated that out of the original two hundred soldiers, over a hundred were still fighting. This was also because he had brought several light armored vehicles, many of which were equipped with Gauss rapid-fire cannons. It was thanks to the anti-aircraft fire composed of these vehicles that more than half of the soldiers had survived. Otherwise, he feared that in the first wave of impact, less than half of the people he brought would have remained.
“Sir, should we request reinforcements from the rear, or retreat first?” his adjutant beside him suggested to Hu Kun.
Hu Kun shook his head. It was not yet time to retreat, but requesting reinforcements was possible. “Contract the formation. soldiers, stay close to the armored vehicles. Protect the armored units with anti-aircraft capabilities in the center and move towards me.”
Just then, the gunner responsible for controlling the tank’s aiming suddenly said, “Sir, the body of that unkilled Meat Mountain has started wriggling again.”
Hu Kun quickly looked at the screen. The second Meat Mountain, after spewing a massive amount of Blood Crows, had deflated like a flat tire. Hu Kun, busy dealing with the Blood Crow swarm in the sky, had not paid attention to the deflated Meat Mountain. He had considered the Meat Mountain a disposable tool for carrying Blood Crows, but now the Meat Mountain’s flesh began to writhe and constantly refill, and even in the deflated oral orifices, Blood Crow wings could be seen flapping.
“Switch to plasma rounds and fire two continuous shots. Don’t miss the other remnant body either.” Hu Kun immediately realized that this Meat Mountain’s body could continue to incubate new Blood Crows. In that case, he would use plasma rounds to burn it directly to ashes.
Plasma rounds were a special type of projectile compatible with the N1 Tank, encasing plasma in a plasma state within the projectile body. Upon hitting the Meat Mountain, they immediately exploded, and the blue plasma instantly melted the Meat Mountain’s body and the surrounding earth. Only then did the continuously writhing flesh completely quiet down.
Thus, the situation on the Battlefield could be said to have been temporarily brought under control, but the defensive line had already been breached by Mutated Creatures. In the past ten minutes, thousands of Mutated Creatures had already passed through the defensive line and surged towards the rear.
Hu Kun immediately instructed his deputy, “Immediately contact the rear defensive line, report the new aerial units of the Zombie Tide we encountered, tell them that Mutated Creatures have breached the defensive line and are heading to the rear, and ask them to send support as soon as possible, or we will have to retreat.”
The deputy immediately put on his headset and began communicating with the rear. Hu Kun also picked up his teacup, which he had almost spilled earlier; the coffee inside was still warm. Although Hu Kun had only received the lowest passing grade upon graduating from the North Wudi Empire Military Academy, he still harbored a sense of professional soldier's honor within him. Although he had never been on a front-line Battlefield during wartime, he had always yearned to establish his own career. Originally, none of this would have fallen to him. Although his theoretical knowledge was very solid, his teachers had evaluated him as diligent but too rigid, unsuited for the rapidly changing situations on the Battlefield, which was why Hu Kun had only received a barely passing graduation score.
However, it was different after waking up in the wasteland. It was filled with various bandit gangs and warlord groups. Some people had lived in the Doomsday environment since birth, let alone received military training; they wouldn't even know how to use “The Art of War.” If the Zhu Hong Business Association hadn't constantly restricted his power, Hu Kun felt he might even be able to restore the Empire's glory in this wasteland.
A mere group of zombies, Hu Kun wouldn't even put them in his eyes. They were merely rotting flesh infected by radiation and bacteria. If he were given a fully staffed mobile mixed brigade, Hu Kun was confident he could directly retake the entire Shangqing City and completely eradicate the zombies, Mutants, and Mutated Creatures.
Just as Hu Kun was smugly holding his teacup, his adjutant, who had finished his call, stood beside him. After the call, the adjutant’s face was pale, and he tremblingly patted Hu Kun’s shoulder.
Noticing the adjutant’s unusual behavior, Hu Kun cleared his throat and asked, “What’s wrong?”
The adjutant hesitated for a second, then instead of speaking directly, he lowered his head and whispered into Hu Kun’s ear.
Hu Kun’s expression changed from composed to shocked, then to terrified, and finally to furious. Eventually, he couldn’t help but smash the teacup in his hand.
“Immediately reorganize the formation and retreat south,” Hu Kun said immediately.
After Hu Kun gave the order, the adjutant said nothing more and immediately began to relay Hu Kun’s commands. The remaining soldiers immediately boarded the armored vehicles. After adjusting their formation, with the N1 Tank as the vanguard, they began to retreat towards the weaker part of the Zombie Tide to the south.
Hu Kun sat in the driver’s seat, his expression somewhat volatile. Just a moment ago, his adjutant had told him a shocking piece of news. Approximately 30 minutes prior, the newly constructed defensive line behind him had already been overrun by the Zombie Tide. A portion of the Zombie Tide had not emerged from the west of Shangqing City but had circled from the north, directly assaulting the new defensive line built behind Hu Kun.
The situation was roughly similar to what Hu Kun had encountered: the Zombie Tide largely consisted of high-level Mutated Creatures with energy values of 50-150, including four or five Meat Mountains and several Mutants. This Zombie Tide, which had detoured from the north, easily destroyed the newly constructed defensive line and penetrated the original No. 3 and No. 2 defensive lines. It had now reached the No. 1 defensive line on the outskirts of Huaicheng District.
The friendly forces defending the rear defensive lines had not warned him. When the zombie horde arrived, they had not warned him to retreat quickly. What angered Hu Kun the most was that although the newly constructed defensive line was defended by the Blood Bell Gang and the Hongwen Gang, lines No. 3 and No. 2 were guarded by Zhu Hong Business Association troops. He had clearly kept his combat system connected, and the rear could detect that he was holding his ground, yet no one had warned him that he should retreat.
By now, the route to retreat directly back to Huai City had been cut off by the Zombie Tide. The only hope of breaking through was to the south. If they didn't break through quickly while ammunition was still relatively plentiful, the N1 Tank would likely become Hu Kun's luxurious coffin.