Chapter 685

The frigid winds of Antarctica carried ice crystals, scraping against the base's alloy outer walls with a piercing shriek.

This silver-gray fortress buried beneath the ice cap was bathed in the deathly pale sunlight of the polar day.

The automated turrets around the base slowly rotated, their scanning lasers drawing spiderweb-like red lines across the snow. At one of the base entrances, five soldiers in heavy Power Armor leaned against blast walls, slacking off.

Frost coated the seams of their armor, and their breaths condensed into white mist in the minus-forty-degree air.

"Fuck, this godforsaken place." The squad-leading sergeant flipped up his helmet visor and pulled out a crumpled pack of cigarettes. "Three more days on duty, then we get rotated out."

His deputy, a burly man with a scar on his chin, leaned over to borrow a light. The blue flame of the windproof lighter illuminated his slightly purplish face.

"Did you hear? Something huge happened in the capital."

"What could possibly happen?" The third soldier blew out a smoke ring. "Those old bastards fighting in parliament again?"

Scarface lowered his voice. "My cousin's in the capital defense force. He said some 'superhero' who looked like he walked out of an anime—or maybe a comic—went on a rampage at headquarters yesterday and tossed two battleships around like toys."

He gestured extravagantly. "Laser eyes, could fly, and was fucking invulnerable."

"Seriously?"

"Come on, your cousin didn't get drunk and make that up, did he?!"

"HAHAHA!!"

At those words, everyone burst into laughter, which sounded especially grating across the empty ice field.

"Bullshit!" The youngest soldier kicked at the snow. "If something like that really happened, it would've blown up all over the internet. You think the Public Opinion Control Department gets paid to do nothing?"

At that moment, the sergeant