Because I'd Missed the Cut

"A beautiful day! Let's start with a boarding jump!"

"Gun Jesus, supremely benevolent and blessed, Ming De, protect my peace."

"The enemy vehicle is traveling at 120 kilometers per hour towards the intersection of GH1773 and TD50512. The railway locomotive depot has already guided it into a dead end using the switches."

"Guys! Cheer up! We need to catch them alive! This is the only zombie train found in the entire railway system in the past seven months. If these VIPs meet their maker before they spill any important information, I'll be the first to object."

When he finally said this, the commander of the Snow Leopard Battle Group, one of the rapid reaction forces, looked excited.

He and the soldiers prayed to the Gun Jesus, performing the most basic gun-wielding magic. He then recounted the glorious history of the battle group.

"Ferrets were domesticated by humans 2,500 years ago to catch and drive away rats and insects from burrows. We have lapis lazuli guard dogs as companions, but let's not forget our identity—our warband is a natural expert in pest control."

The brothers are well-equipped and strong, almost like a completely different setup from the rapid reaction force six years ago.

The soldiers on the armed special train had clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Their chief instructor was an anonymous man who had absorbed almost all the knightly combat skills and light weapons tactics taught by the gunsmith.

The youngest reservists in the chapter are messengers and communications officers. Many of them are nineteen-year-old students still enrolled in Galahad, but they have already come to Guangling Zhixi to serve. They are students of the gunsmith.

The stokers reported, "The firing range is clear! We're close behind the enemy!"

The regimental commander gave the order, "Fire as a warning! Force the train to a stop!"

A brilliant burst of light erupted from the engine of the armed train as a 105mm howitzer exploded above the speeding zombie train, shattering the rock walls and sending countless rocks raining down.

The basalt struck the metal of the zombie train, immediately scattering sparks everywhere.

Regimental Commander: "Report enemy vehicle movements!"

The stoker, standing in the observer's position, shouted without turning his head, "No intention to slow down or surrender."

The scouts, prone on the observation platform of the armed train, shouted, "Gun flashes and gunshots! Commander! They're going to fight back!"

"You've got some nerve!" the battalion commander exclaimed excitedly. "I love this kind of feisty woman. The whole squad, keep quiet and prepare to approach her!"

A total of 72 breaching soldiers, eager to participate in the boarding operation, arrived at the gun shield platforms of various parts of the train with a full set of grappling hooks. Not long ago, they had to climb onto the roof to complete the boarding operation, but now, the special modifications made to the zombie train have turned the rapid reaction force's armed train into a ferocious beast.

After navigating two sharp bends along the mine, the two trains are finally about to meet.

The Snow Leopard Battle Group's team radio and temporary outpost group radios were completely silent, devoid of any commands. This was the invaluable instruction passed down by the Nameless One: before the decisive battle, do not speak; execute everything as during training exercises.

The locomotive depot's railway signal led the two cars onto a straight dead end. Six kilometers ahead lay an abandoned mine, which had once been rich in rare earth minerals but had become Unmanned Zone after the veins were depleted.

If the ferret cannot stop the zombie train, it will still insist on driving towards the abandoned mine and may crash into the mountainside and be smashed to pieces.

Right now—

--As gunfire erupted from the zombie train, the tallest fighter in each squad, carrying a heavy shield, rushed to his comrade's side the moment they entered the enemy's firing range, filling the defensive gaps in the turret's shield.

Half of the shield bearers in the six groups were women. As an aside, these strong girls had all believed the propaganda department's lies. Because Ferret fought alongside the nameless Big Sister, these admirers volunteered to serve in this battle group.

The experienced ballistics experts in the group quickly determined the type of ammunition and bullet energy by observing the metal penetration marks on the large shield, thus identifying the enemy's primary weapon type.

Immediately before the battle, the soldiers replaced the plates on their modular armor to protect vital areas, increasing their equipment load but reducing the risk to their lives.

Six-clawed steel cables shot out from the side armor of each part of the train, tightly gripping the carriages of the zombie train. The winches connected to the giant grappling hooks started working, quickly catching the speeding zombie train and making the two trains move in parallel and naturally.

In that instant, nearly fifty projectiles were thrown from the Ferret Corps' armed train—stun grenades, flashbangs, tear gas, and smoke grenades—in droves.

Six flashes of light erupted from the window, and many projectiles were swept away into the wilderness by the strong wind. A sigh had just come through the group radio when the group leader slapped him across the face, silencing him completely.

The soldiers, carrying minimal loads, leaped over a 300-centimeter gap between life and death, and climbed one by one onto the roof of the zombie train from a cannon shield platform over six meters high. Instead of looking for gaps in the train's connection points, they directly picked up welding torches and drilled holes to create firing positions on the cast iron or steel plate roof.

Immediately following this was a second wave of bombardment, while at the same time, the vanguard of the breaching force broke through the windows and entered the train to officially begin their search.

The AA-12 shotguns in the brothers' hands were deadly weapons in close combat. The Ferret warriors entered the room and began to wreak havoc, firing rubber bullets and rock salt bullets to cause widespread damage, and almost instantly brought the train under control.

In just over twenty seconds, the zombie train began to slow down, the locomotive was taken over, and the mad stoker was still adjusting the engine, ready to destroy everything, when a single bullet hit him, dislocating his internal organs and paralyzing him on the ground.

"Commander! There's a hostage!"

Right now—

--The Corps radio finally emitted discordant static.

Once both trains have come to a complete stop, at the rear of the zombie train, a hysterical man wearing a gas mask grabs a pregnant woman who has contracted the disease and points a pistol at her head.

He was so agitated, almost manic, that he couldn't utter a single word and was nearly terrified.

The commander of the Ferret Legion was laughing and joking just a moment ago, but his smile vanished the instant he saw the bandits and hostages.

The rapid reaction force now has medics and pathologists, and one of the members immediately said, "That woman isn't pregnant; it's a sign that the Vita Imprint is about to erupt. Her belly is full of blood butterflies waiting to bloom, Commander! She's very likely a member of the Madness Butterfly Sect, used as a bullet shield!"

The regimental commander said impatiently, "I know! Do you think I'm stupid? But our combat records need to be sent to headquarters, and every shot we fire will be watched! What if we kill the wrong person? And what if this woman really is a hostage?"

When the rapid reaction force is stuck in a stalemate.

The leader stepped off the train alone and headed towards the zombie train.

He was draped in a thick, waterproof robe, like a modern-day priest or crusader, obscuring his inner weaponry, yet he gradually lowered his gun towards the hostage-taking madman.

From primary weapon to secondary weapon, he eventually even threw away his knife.

"Hey kid! Listen up! Can you understand English? What are you saying?"

The bandits did not answer, but watched in horror as their accomplices on the zombie train were interrogated one by one, bound in shackles and detained.

The bandit seemed to be so frightened that he was incapable of normal communication.

The leader walked forward step by step, and receiving no response, he continued to approach.

--A warm orange light shone through the hood, and the camera transmitted the image closely to the rear.

The medic said, "Commander, I can say with 100% certainty that this woman has the Vita Imprint in her belly, and there are signs of worms wriggling around."

Gunshots rang out--

The soldier's heart tightened.

The leader of the ferrets was shot, but his defenses were not breached at all. The bullet tore multiple holes in his wide robe, revealing gold and blue metal armor beneath the ripped fabric.

It was a Flash Butterfly Armor.

The valiant centurion strode forward, braving the weak gunfire, and snatched the weapon from the helmet. Sparks flew from the helmet, and in the blink of an eye, he had completely subdued the bandit.

His movements were clean and efficient. He took the White Lady's product from beside MOLLE's protective panel, and injected the Universal Elixir substitute from the incubator into the hostage's neck with a ring needle.

The woman immediately began to vomit, spewing out patches of worm-like blood clots from her mouth and nose. In the instant that the Blessed Holy Blood went out of control, the aftereffects of her bestial transformation began to appear. Two antlers grew from her head, a thick layer of orange fur quickly covered her skin, and her bones and joints began to deform. But she managed to survive, no matter what.

The group leader delivered the final report.

"Mission accomplished!"

Meanwhile, the various units of the Snow Leopard Battle Group finally returned to their noisy and joyful atmosphere, and the radios of the squads went from dead silence to cheers and jubilation in just one second. The process of detaining the criminals went very smoothly, with almost no obstacles.

This is the dead end for the Madness Butterfly Sect. With its weaponry and troop quality lagging behind the rapid reaction forces, it has no strength left to fight back.

When the Flash Butterfly Armor appears on the front lines, the morale of these cultists immediately collapses. Some of the smaller leaders, whose Madness Index soar, begin to self-destruct upon seeing the Nameless One's armed tactics.

What was originally a close call with a boarding maneuver, a rare security patrol in the past two years, will now unfold in this abandoned mine—

Six hours after the Snow Leopard Battle Group ended its operations, Transport Department personnel and investigation teams returned to the scene to verify the mission results and search for evidence of the Madness Butterfly Sect.

According to the statements of those involved, this was a long-extinct cult, whose leader had been displayed in the Joestar bar's photo showcase a few years ago, becoming a VIP at Jiang Xueming's "Gongdelin" cult.

But remnants of this sect are still active in the shadows, searching for their holy city— the Shinto City.

Legend has it that this city is located between 8,000 and 12,000 meters underground in the Ryukyu Islands. If you travel along the earthquake zone towards Hokkaido, you will surely find this holy city.

Most of the remnants of this sect are Japanese, because their former leader, the head of their pyramid scheme, used slogans like "[Seeking a sacred abode, escaping into the Shinto]" to start his rebellion.

The sect's predecessor was similar to the [Unborn Alliance] where Lawrence Madison had been, starting as a war gang, growing into a powerful and organized Madness Butterfly Sect. Their ultimate goal was to find this mysterious and sacred city.

Legend has it that the people living in this city can travel to the past and the future, living a carefree life.

They can use the power of the Madness Butterfly at will without worrying about the Vita Imprint backfiring on them.

Humans and wild animals can intermarry, and in duels they can take limbs from their opponents without worrying about rejection.

The people of Shinto City are blessed by the gods. Countless goods come from factories to the shelves. It is a land flowing with milk and honey. Crops grow naturally from the land, and cattle and sheep do not need to be cared for. They have intelligence and obediently come and go from farmhouses every day to eat grass and sleep.

If you encounter setbacks or dissatisfaction in real life, you can go to a place called Guiyi Immortal Land. Here, there is no strife, no chaos, only eternal peace. With just a thought, you can create matter, resurrect deceased relatives, and meet figures from mythology and history. No matter how foolish or wicked a person is, as long as they come to Guiyi Immortal Land, they can instantly become a Buddha.

According to the sect's intelligence, it is located in the Pacific Ring of Fire, along the long-abandoned [TD] railway line. Due to seismic activity, this series of trading hubs were shut down. It has been downgraded to a special area called [Tainted - Rotten, Infected] - like other unknown areas, it requires VIPs to re-explore it to determine the concentration of Spirit Calamity and whether the environment is habitable before construction can be restarted.

As for the claim of a fairyland...

"Bullshit." Ming De put down the investigation materials, seemingly recalling a painful past event.

The Hunter King turned his head and glanced at the BOSS.

Ming De paced back and forth on the table, and after several rounds, he finally stopped.

"Besides this document, what other clues are there?"

The Hunter King handed over an evidence bag, which was found by the leader of the Snow Leopard Battle Group from the zombie train.

The evidence bag contained a regular hexagonal polyhedron. Its material resembled stone, but its surface had rich semiconductor circuit features, and its outer shell made it look more like a technological product.

It has weathered many storms and is quite old, with many cracks caused by natural weathering, exposing the intricate striations and the pyroxene at its core.

It was a pitch-black stone, the most common volcanic rock in the underground world, obsidian. Not many people would use this stone; among the Twelve Elders Council, the Black Stone Man was the rarest.

The boss's expression turned serious. "Where did you find this thing? Tell me in detail."

Hunter King: "In the dining car of the zombie train, there's a safe where they kept their loot and important church documents."

The boss then asked, "What about the people we brought back? What did they say?"

"This strange little box is a relic of Shinto City." The Hunter King stated as concisely as possible, following the written record, "People call it the [VENOM] mechanism. According to the historical records in the Arcane Library, the people of Shinto City combined it with radiant stones and used it as a medium tool, which could unleash incredible power."

BOSS: "Where did you find it? I don't believe these cultists could conjure something out of thin air. They don't have the technology."

The Hunter King was unaware of the origins of [VENOM]. She had lived during the era of the railway system and had never heard of the legends about Shinto City.

According to the boss, this item has a significant history, and its past has been erased.

She then continued.

"It was found in an abandoned mine along the TD railway line, along with the remains of a male in his forties, only bones remained. Thus, this [VENOM] device became a sacred object for cultists. Apart from that, there is no other reliable information."

The boss picked up his pen to write a new request.

--The Hunter King, curious, immediately pressed for more information.

"You seem to care a lot about this Shinto City. Could it be that there is another settlement of the Madness Butterfly Sect in a place unknown to us?"

"This has nothing to do with the Madness Butterfly Sect," the BOSS replied casually. "We previously built many settlements in the Ring of Fire because the geological activity in this area is relatively high—to give you an example."

The boss vividly described why a city should be built in a volcanic zone.

Most elements in nature are arranged from lightest to heaviest. The more precious the heavy element, the closer it is to the Earth's core. For example, gold requires geological movement to emerge from rock layers and cool as lava into large nuggets and scattered gold dust, which humans can then mine.

The cities built along the Pacific Rim, from the Nine Realms Station and the Arcane Library, were once the largest underground mines of heavy elements and rare earth elements.

These towns, riding the wave of rapid automation, became darlings of the Cold War before the revision of the Convention on the Elimination of All Formations, and possessed fourteen natural uranium deposits.

The disastrous failure of the last harvest season led to man-made disasters by the Madness Butterfly Sect in these towns, followed by natural disasters caused by geological activity in 1984, which resulted in the loss of all communication between more than ten astral nodes, including the Shinto City, the collapse of railways, and the displacement of mountains.

Today, no one knows where these cities are, nor what they look like. All historical accounts have been altered and erased—because of nuclear suppression, these demons of the underworld will never be allowed to return to the world of the living.

The Hunter King said, "Your current idea is to send a special operations team to investigate this matter?"

From a thick stack of personnel files, the boss selected a very reliable person. "Bu Liuxing, you're the one."

Hunter King: "Don't we have a better candidate?"

BOSS: "The other VIPs all have their own missions. After crushing the Madness Butterfly Sect, recruitment is expanding everywhere—he needs a trial."

Hunter King: "Boss, I advise you to think twice before you act."

BOSS: "He hasn't made any progress in six years, stuck in his 'transformation period,' spending all his time memorizing and studying, practically doing his master's and doctoral studies in the Arcane Library. Is the ultimate goal of his life really just to pass the civil service exam?!"

Hunter King: "Then is it necessary to mobilize the entire Nameless Clan's forces?"

BOSS: "This is just an exploration mission, nothing more than an exploration mission, not an extermination operation. I think this kid should be able to handle it—the gunsmith has to take care of his child, and the nameless guy's efficiency in gathering intelligence and killing people is just a matter of a phone call."

Hunter King: "That's right, these warriors will immediately gather as soon as the Summoning Bell rings."

Meanwhile, at the Galahad Magic Academy in Balason.

A gladiator was built in the center of the Great Beck Stadium.

Meteor's eyesight gradually deteriorated due to prolonged studying at his desk. Eyes are a mysterious thing; they can't be easily cured with Universal Elixir cure. When the lens and iris adapt to a certain focal point, nearsightedness naturally develops. To correct vision, you would have to gouge out your eyeball and then use Universal Elixir to create a new one.

A Xing doesn't need it in the short term; he can manage with glasses on, and 3301 likes his refined and gentle appearance.

At this moment, he was wearing a shirt and trousers, talking to Shao Jinghao and several other students about the secrets to subduing the monsters.

Meteor hadn't been on the battlefield for far too long and was still a bit rusty. He gripped the heavy steel sword, stepped forward, and engaged Ahei in battle.

The enormous wolfhound, when it stands up, is nearly two meters tall, like a shooting star.

Ahei is the eldest of the three war dogs. It is 411 centimeters long and nearly six meters long with its tail, just like a sports car.

Meteor gave a live demonstration with the students and still felt as capable as he had been six years ago, making him an excellent teaching assistant.

He raised his sword and swung it, then turned and knelt on one knee, his posture both handsome and natural.

Ahei's eyes widened, and like a husky, its ears instantly turned into airplane ears as it retreated, its four paws moving like the wind.

Meteor said, "As long as your combined strength exceeds 120 kilograms, even if your cold weapon is like a training steel sword that hasn't been sharpened—we'll unleash a half-circle slash from our robes, quickly get to the low position of the calamity beast, and attack its forelimbs. Eighty percent of the four-legged enemies on the <Great Rift of All Things> will be knocked to the ground by this powerful slash."

Shao Jinghao has now grown into a strong young man, and he looks curiously at Ahei is completely unharmed.

"Meteor Teacher! Then why didn't Black Brother fall down?"

Meteor snorted coldly, looking extremely smug.

"Hmph! Because I haven't fought in so long, I'm incredibly bad at it, so I didn't manage to cut anything!"