Making Amends for Mistakes

Chapter 28 1.28 Chapter Making Up for Mistakes

The canyon was filled with the smell of gunpowder, the smell of blood, and the panicked shouts of Jian City soldiers who had lost their ability to move after being injured. Wei Keng, on the other hand, had to deal with overturned cars, injured Dragon Horses, and Mechanical War Beasts that needed to be finished off.

Facing a pile of equipment, Wei Keng picked up a captured assault rifle, disassembled and assembled it according to the system's tutorial, and then selected a prominent large rock two hundred meters away as a target for calibration shots.

After a few bursts of fire, Wei Keng still maintained his earlier opinion that this weapon, if used properly, would cause him great casualties. However, the troops who had come to "punish" him just now completely lacked combat organization. The machine gunner was sniped, and no one replaced him!

Throughout the entire battle after the White-Bearded Commander overturned, the number of people in this unit who effectively fired at him, aiming at him with their guns, was less than eight from beginning to end.

Moreover, Wei Keng himself had a cheat. When eight people aimed at him, the system had already highlighted the threat trajectory in Wei Keng's vision, and the snipers had killed them a few tenths of a second earlier.

The infantrymen of Jian City lay flat, and mortar shells rained down from the sky, making the other armored vehicles redundant obstacles. The drivers of these vehicles might have been used to fighting easy battles inside safe steel shells for too long, and had no understanding of the battlefield. When faced with artillery fire that could destroy them, they either swerved violently or tried to go around to a hillside.

The cars that swerved crashed into other horse carriages. To escape, they stomped on the accelerator, crushing the Dragon Horses to death.

As for the cars that tried to go around the hillside, they clearly lacked the skill. The vehicles tilted with the slope, and the wheels hit a large rock, completely losing balance. They rolled down the slope, with all four tires spinning towards the sky.

With such noobs, Wei Keng simply let the machine guns open fire and join the suppression.

Wei Keng's brigade, which had originally only planned to engage in guerrilla warfare and provide flanking harassment, now descended the mountain with submachine guns, hunched over.

This should have been a distance of rivers of blood, from three hundred meters to eighty meters. Wei Keng ran for a full minute, but encountered no fire blockade in the middle.

Only five Wei Keng soldiers were hit in this battle. Since Wei Keng was wearing the Kevlar Helmet and Ceramic Plate bulletproof vest from the first batch of supplies, the projectiles basically did not penetrate Wei Keng's armor. Only one Wei Keng was unlucky enough to be shot in the shoulder, which was the only combat damage.

When Wei Keng completed the deployment of the infantry squad at the front line, "da da da," the submachine gun with a large number of magazines suppressed them at close range, making them scramble in panic. Then, they fled through an opening left by Wei Keng, leaving behind 78 wounded and 14 corpses.

Fifteen minutes after the battle ended, far behind the battlefield.

At the main production base, after receiving the battle situation information provided by the system, Wei Keng went to Fang Hong and Zeng He and asked tactfully, "This, Kaomu, the white-haired old man, do you know them?"

Fang Hong frowned, "He is from the Military Faction in the Council. He has always been demanding increased military investment within the city."

Zeng He, "What's wrong, is he the commander-in-chief of this expedition against you?"

Wei Keng nodded, "Do you two know him well?"

Zeng He shook her head, "Not well. This old man is very stubborn." She thought Wei Keng wanted her to help with communication, and immediately refused the task. The thought of that old man's harsh facial expression towards her, who had been a prisoner, made her feel uncomfortable.

Fang Hong, however, was kind and seemed to want to help Wei Keng. He opened his mouth and promised Wei Keng that he would "come forward to communicate." Zeng He pulled him back and shook her head at Fang Hong, telling him not to interfere.

Wei Keng paused and said, "This, I just had an encounter battle with him."

Zeng He's expression froze, and she hurriedly wanted to ask. At this moment, Fang Hong pulled her back and looked at Wei Keng, signaling him to speak.

Wei Keng took a deep breath and said, "This battle was an even match between him and me. We both earned each other's respect, so the problem is solved. I think you can go home tomorrow. Do you need me to bring any specialties? Small chili, native ginger, or peanut oil?" Peanut oil is extracted from plants with peanut genes.

Fang Hong and Zeng He stared at each other, dumbfounded.

Regarding the captives, Wei Keng had questioned each one, and none were familiar with Kaomu. It seemed that stubborn old fellow had poor interpersonal relationships. Wei Keng: "No one is looking for revenge on me."

When Wei Keng's consciousness cluster completely resolved this matter, feeling an immense sense of relief, a sudden, abrupt anxiety and severe pain spread throughout the entire Wei Keng collective. This intense consciousness warning pain, it seemed, possibly? The Wei Kengs did not want to admit that "one of their individuals" had died.

And now, this kind of incident was happening in the northwest direction.

In the jungle, a liquid mass about three meters in diameter was digesting a Wei Keng.

This Wei Keng belonged to a reconnaissance team. When the Wei Keng collective focused its main attention on the human forces in Jian City to the east, the Wei Kengs stationed in the northwest were only standard squads of ten people. Therefore, facing the sudden deterioration of the situation, the Wei Keng collective had insufficient attention.

If Wei Keng had not been enemies with Jian City, or if the two sides had reached a peace agreement earlier, Wei Keng's plan would have involved dispatching hundred-person level forces for a sweep exploration of the mountain forest, and this crisis would have been eliminated in advance. But who could have predicted the budget in advance?

The enveloped Wei Keng was twitching violently. Within the vacuole, nerves drilled out from Wei Keng's ears, nose, and mouth, attempting to link with its consciousness.

This Wei Keng individual was now trapped in a beautiful illusion. The palace was pure gold, not a single flower was withered, sweet-smelling water flowed in the pond, and a charming woman was chatting with it, constantly asking it questions in a gentle, beautiful tone. However, a warning from its consciousness constantly reminded it that it was within the affected area of a truth serum.

However, this beauty only lasted for a very short while. After its firm resistance, it suddenly fell into an abyss. Thunder, electric current, and the feeling of being crushed inch by inch assailed it. A vast figure represented something that demanded its submission. And this condescending lecture seemed to have struck a chord with the captured Wei Keng.

Half an hour later, The large liquid mass stopped its interrogation.

It spat out the Wei Keng, which was already half melted and whose head had shrunk by one-third. Inside its vacuole, something contracted, and several black, spiky appendages like blades sprang out, giving it the appearance of a spider.

On the main body of this spider-like large droplet, a human face gradually emerged as it flowed, and beside it, a person entirely dark green with eyes extending like snail antennae approached. The two exchanged information through linked neurons that had touched.

Regarding these Wei Kengs, the information they obtained was very scarce, only a few fragmented images, such as skyscrapers and subways rapidly shuttling through various places – scenes from the former civilized world.

The scientific name for this spider and this snail-eyed creature in this world is fused human.

Before the Pandora Era, humans were the only species to create complex consciousness using their own brains, reaching a total number of eight billion. Therefore, humans, with their excellent genotype, were adopted by various regional communities. When a community needed individuals with high intelligence and logical analysis capabilities, they would find human genes to create these fused humans, which appeared very strange to natural humans.

However, consciousness, thought, and wisdom are things that most humans themselves do not understand. Before the Great Cataclysm, global public opinion served the few rulers, so the trend was to indulge human desires, making it easier to control most people.

As long as society had not reached an era where "spiritual realm is extremely high, and material consumption and planning are no longer influenced by low-level tastes," conscious humans, most of the time, still acted according to animalistic desires and instincts.

Therefore, after the Pandora Field communized human accumulations and recreated fused humans, they did not actually exceed this upper limit.

They had now captured a Wei Keng and attempted, as before, to control external senses through neural control, thereby exerting control. For the first time, they did not achieve ideal results.

Therefore, these two fused humans appeared not to understand.

Meanwhile, the twitching Wei Keng underground could no longer distinguish day from night, nor could it tell if it was still in an illusion. It continued to struggle, fighting with all its might.

On the east side, the Wei Keng Brigade, having just finished fighting in Jian City, was on a forced march. To determine the optimal route and ensure there were no ambushes ahead, the Wei Keng main camp dispatched numerous small detachments to directly infiltrate various route nodes, scouting the road conditions for the main force.

These selves, the Wei Keng Collective intended to save, but they would absolutely not repeat the mistakes of Jian City; the roads had to be explored.

Wei Keng had set a goal for himself: to march one hundred kilometers within one day and one night.

The Main World's forced march record was 72.5 kilometers of mountain road in 14 hours.

Wei Keng was saving lives now, and he was also forcing himself to push his limits. However, Wei Keng was still slightly confident. The physical condition of the troops who set that record was definitely not as good as his. He himself was a unified 1.9 meters tall, and his strides were larger. Moreover, he was traveling lightly armed, carrying only a rifle. Grenade launchers, mortars, and heavy machine guns were to be carried by the second wave.

After bandaging himself, Wei Keng began to run desperately. After running seven kilometers, the soles of his feet began to swell, and blisters appeared. The pain was like a dull knife scraping flesh. At the same time, his calves ached as if countless ants were crawling within his blood vessels.

After running twenty kilometers, the pain in the soles of his feet disappeared, replaced by numbness, and his legs began to ache. After running thirty kilometers, his legs were trembling from the soreness. After running forty kilometers, his legs were moving mechanically, and some of his selves began to feel pain.

Swish swish swish, the slight vibration of weapons on his body accompanied the entire formation as it advanced, making a gentle ringing sound. No other sounds were heard. As the suffering self in his consciousness transmitted more inexpressible pain, and as this pain was accompanied by temptations that repeatedly pushed him towards his self-limit, his will to survive forced him to continue running. Faced with a choice between enduring torture and enduring fatigue, the Wei Keng Group chose the latter.

After one day and one night, there seemed to be a change. Fatigue spread throughout his body, brewing to its extreme. It was as if something had suddenly activated. The flesh that seemed to be in his abdomen and thighs transformed into liquid cells and flowed towards his muscles.

After system analysis, he received good news: he had once again activated "Superhuman Life Activity."

Wei Keng finished reading the information introduction and sighed, "This is not the physical situation of the Main World after all. There is life radiation here, so my forced march cannot be compared to the Main World."

Bai Linglu was busy again. Wei Keng's case was enough for her to write several high-value theses.

In this world, if the will of a gene colony was very strong, it was very difficult to kill it purely through exhaustion. When the state of some tissues dropped to a certain threshold, other cells would supply them within the Unified Life Radiation Field. Now, all higher animals in the life radiation had the restoration power of amoebas.

At this moment, Wei Keng's abdomen and thighs were rapidly reducing organic matter in their fat cells. The decomposed sugar and lipids flowed through his body fluids to his muscle cells, rapidly repairing the cells under the effect of the life radiation field. This forced march would only result in losing seven to eight jin of fat.

After the twenty-eighth hour of marching, he felt his thighs ache again, and the soles of his feet felt pain again, but there was an unceasing strength in his entire body.

When all endurance is approaching its limit, what supports one's persistence is not whether the party inflicting pain will become merciful, but the growing confidence in one's own ability to resist. Therefore, human tolerance limits will also break through their upper limits layer by layer.

After the thirty-sixth hour, he had marched one hundred and fifty kilometers. Wei Keng's pain gradually disappeared. This time, it was not numbness, but an itchy feeling as the flesh healed. The soles of his feet seemed to have developed a thick layer of calluses, as if they had become a pair of shoes.

As they approached within sixty kilometers, Wei Keng and the others could clearly feel the self who had been captured but was still alive. It was as if his lamp oil was exhausted, and he could annihilate anytime. The marching Wei Keng remained silent, trying to increase his speed. His breathing became deeper, and of course, he dared not open his mouth, as opening it would cause him to lose moisture.

Meanwhile, this symbiotic group had crossed two hills and stopped by a lake. The supply beasts that had rushed over gnawed down large trees, then ejected their stomach fluid with a strong smell, and then wrapped them like cocoons with leaves.

Two hours later, the wood fiber within these cocoons would break, and they could be swallowed into their abdomens in big mouthfuls. After they were full, they would deliver themselves to the strong individuals in the collective to insert pipes and absorb blood.

This southbound gene colony was like a picnic compared to Wei Keng's lightning-fast long-distance raid. In the past two days, they had only moved ten kilometers.

And within this group, the detained Wei Keng survivor was wrapped by spiders for the eighth time.

Due to the constant approach of his own collective, this incomplete Wei Keng could sense his arrival. But now! Wei Keng, under torture, no longer eagerly awaited the arrival of reinforcements as he did at the beginning. He was just holding on, hoping for hope.

Because over the past few days, he had resigned himself to his fate, no longer harboring any illusions. As his own collective approached, the enemy would definitely kill him.

But still, the incomplete Wei Keng persisted. But now, what was the reason for his persistence?

Sensing the nerve tentacles connecting to him again in the vacuole, Wei Keng, who had lost his sight and hearing, said fiercely, "After abusing me for so many days, I want to see you have to give up in frustration and show your cowardly appearance when you admit defeat."