Looking Back at the Darkness, the Extreme Emerges

Chapter 31: 1.31 Looking Back at Darkness, Extremes Emerge

One Wei Keng was insignificant against the various strange biological swarms of the Gene Colony.

But when the number of Wei Keng exceeded one hundred, it formed a qualitative change! Even if they couldn't defeat the Gene Colony head-on, they could rely on their endurance and organization to quickly insert for brief engagements, then withdraw without leaving anyone behind, and then insert again, and withdraw again.

And when the scale of Wei Keng exceeded five hundred, they could truly roam the entire jungle.

In this era, large carbon-based groups with offensive capabilities found it difficult to maintain a gathering of over a thousand during long-distance movements, as this was the limit of their logistical capabilities.

Logistics—this was a creature's ability to control and collect energy from a region. The Old Era Humans planted a single crop across the entire alluvial plain, gathered organic matter, and then used transportation to concentrate it, which supported armies of tens of thousands to fight hundreds of kilometers away. Such a system was beyond the capabilities of the Gene Colony, which was still in a state of barbarism.

Within a week, Wei Keng had targeted and swept through the four Gene Colonies closest to this area.

Strategically, it was a sweep, like a strong wind scattering fallen leaves, but tactically, it was a cat playing with a mouse!

For the five days before the engagement, Wei Keng had been patiently delaying—this was combat experience gained from Jian City: kill horses, destroy transportation. When the enemy's transportation forces were immobilized due to interference, it was like the bottleneck effect, eroding all combat capabilities of the opposing force.

Heavy sniper rifles were definitely the most effective military supplies Wei Keng had exchanged for this time. One by one, the giant herbivorous Devouring Beasts with huge bellies and small heads were targeted by Wei Keng.

On October 17th, sixty kilometers northeast of the Qingyuan Ruins, this was now the scene of the Wei Keng Collective's engagement with one of the invading colonies.

Wei Keng's current strategic bottom line was that the Gene Colony to the north could not cross the Qingyuan Ruins.

This could be seen from the satellite imagery. The northernmost part of the Zhushui Jiao alluvial plain was Qingyuan. Further north were complete mountain ranges. Wei Keng would climb one or two mountains during production activities, but would never consider mountain roads a pleasure, nor was there a step counter in this world to record your steps.—Bai Linglu: "This can be had."

Returning to the current battlefield area, In the mountain forest, the supply Giant Beasts of the Gene Colony were now emaciated. They hid in the jungle, not daring to come out. They could devour trees for food, but what about water?

"Pop—" A crisp gunshot rang out on the mountaintop. By the riverbank, before the sound even arrived, the head of a Giant Beast attempting to drink exploded and it fell to the ground with a crash. Its massive body was half-submerged in the water source, and the small crustaceans in the lake and the cockroaches in the surrounding soil smelled the scent of blood and began to share a portion. Oh, these two types of small animals might even bite each other.

This Giant Beast, which was the top-tier blood producer for the entire Gene Colony, died like this. And judging from the dozens of white bones by the riverbank, this was not the first one.

Although when this type of species died, they would try their best to return energy and matter to the powerful colonies in the jungle by decomposing them through smaller animals, but—without these Giant Beasts as the primary channel to convert matter and energy, the top-tier Node Creatures within the Gene Colony suffered huge losses when obtaining energy. This loss was insufficient to support the metabolic consumption of the internal clusters.

And what was most helpless for the Gene Colonies was that the Wei Keng launching the sniper attack was eight hundred meters away! This was a distance that even their most combat-effective individuals could not counter.

Those Node Creatures and the surrounding Giant Beasts weighing a ton were like the Yamato and Nagato classes, the pillars of the empire in the Pacific theater of World War II: "The most annoying thing in the world is that there is constant engagement in the vast Pacific Ocean, and I can't even participate once."

During the first five days of this engagement, Wei Keng did not engage these Giant Beast swarms.

Wei Keng taunted from afar: "You guys just stay there, I'll plant an orange tree for you!"

Preventing the slow-moving, slow-metabolizing supply Giant Beasts from approaching water sources was equivalent to cutting off the oil lifeline of an industrial nation in wartime! As long as it was cut off, victory was assured.

Thus, the Wei Keng ambushing the water springs had sealed off four colonies.

The total life radiation of these four gene colonies was several times higher than his own, but just four days without water caused their life radiation to drop by half.

And today, On the evening of the fifth day, these four gene colonies finally couldn't hold on and began their assault.

When Wei Keng saw large numbers of swift species charging out as fast clusters, he was delighted. He had been waiting for the separation of light-weight biological groups and heavy, thick-blooded units within the gene colonies.

This night was a geometric night composed of straight lines drawn by bullets and parabolas drawn by grenade launchers.

In the vision provided by the night vision goggles, the charges of these waves of light-weight beasts were completely blocked by the fire net. Wei Keng's self-made rifle bullets alone shattered their skulls from a hundred meters away. When these beasts approached within fifty meters, the heavy machine guns could directly tear them apart. Of course, the heavy machine guns only fired four times at them; more often, it was the shrapnel from the grenade launchers that harvested them.

In just one night, over six hundred swift species were eliminated at eight ambush points. By the time the giant beasts were only halfway through their journey, the front lines had already been wiped out.

This kind of disconnect was fatal.

When the gene colonies realized the situation was hopeless and ordered the giant beasts to turn back, Wei Keng, having finished his sniping, carried his Type 60 mortar and heavy machine gun and blocked them again. There was no need to worry about swift species assault clusters appearing from the left or right; he could output with ease.

These giant beasts' formidable healing abilities took the brunt of the attack. After being hit by over a thousand bullets from Wei Keng and his team within five minutes, even the thickest health bars would be depleted due to blood loss and massive damage to soft tissues that couldn't be reorganized in time, leading to death.

As soon as they fell, several Wei Keng would hold four-meter-long bamboo poles and thrust them into a wound, then pull the pin on the cluster grenade at the tip, awaiting an explosion that meant no resurrection.

By the morning of the sixth day, the radiation intensity of the four gene colonies within a one hundred and twenty-kilometer radius was less than Wei Keng's. Moreover—due to lack of water, their life values were still rapidly declining.

In the system space, Bai Linglu, with her waist-length hair, sat high on a light chair. Oh, she only had hair in this space; returning from the gravity well left her smooth and unwilling to look in a mirror.

She looked at the latest uploaded data, pursed her lips, and controlled herself from making a sound, because once she opened her mouth to narrate, she couldn't contain the surprise and pride in her tone.

The data for the Wei Keng Collective in terms of psychic resonance had increased fourfold.

Judging by the scale of the Main World's consciousness nodes that could accept Information Enthalpy, the average value for each Wei Keng individual had soared from 43 all the way to 129. Although this average value had decreased after reaching its peak, it still remained above 80.

The highest peak value for a single individual reached 675. A consciousness exceeding 1000 was considered High Minister.

Wei Keng's values were not isolated; they now existed in batches and groups on this plane! Bai Linglu had checked. In all transmigration situations, including those of various Transmigrators in the current Plane War, there was no phenomenon like Wei Keng's. This kind of massive outbreak of consciousness scale was extremely rare.

It seemed like a night of slaughter. The entire daytime of the sixth day was uneventful, and the mountain forest here was quiet.

But the life scale of the gene colonies that Wei Keng had entangled continued to decline, and they were already pitiful as living beings.

However, on the seventh day, Wei Keng discovered that large-scale autophagy had appeared within these colonies, and many individuals were shrinking. It could be judged that their internal hunger had reached a critical point, and they were even unable to maintain normal operations.

Therefore, the Wei Keng units consolidated their smaller clusters, preparing to form a large cluster and systematically dismantle each colony one by one. After a morning of marching, they circled around two mountains and arrived at the first target. This was the strongest gene colony among those Wei Keng had blockaded, and it was also a colony that had killed one of his own individuals.

The Wei Keng Collective, responsible for observation, determined the wind direction. The action team ignited firewood below the small hill, and thick smoke surged towards the summit. On another path along the mountainside, Wei Keng manned his firearms, blocking the passage and refusing to let any fox-sized creature escape.

After half an hour of smoke, several smoke piles were covered with dirt, and the smoke at the foot of the mountain immediately ceased. While the smoke on the mountain had not yet dispersed, the Wei Keng Collective attacked. Their advance was crushing. Although some beasts were incredibly ferocious before their demise, facing multi-angled coordinated strikes, these mad beasts all became corpses with torn skins.

Reaching the mountaintop, Wei Keng quickly found the node creature with the strongest life radiation. However, upon seeing this thing, Wei Keng fell silent once more.

A week ago, when Wei Keng saw his own remains melted into wreckage by the Thought-Stealing Spider, he had prepared himself to accept any horrific sight in this world. Yet, this world always presented situations that challenged the limits.

What he saw now was a corpulent creature sitting upright, two meters tall. Its posture resembled a toad, but it was not a toad. Its mouthparts belonged to a Death Worm, and it had no eyes, or rather, its eyes were on its neck.

Around its neck were four tumor-like growths. Upon closer inspection, these were human heads. The eyes on these human heads provided observation for the corpulent creature.

Three of the human heads were clearly old, their skull structures seemingly shrunken and gradually collapsing into the skin. Their facial features were indistinguishable. However, the new human head, Wei Keng was certain, was his own.

Regarding this, Wei Keng gazed at his own remains, speechless and without words.

As Wei Keng approached, the human head that was his own opened its eyes. This head, already parasitized by the corpulent entity, seemed to feel the excitement of gene radiation when it met the gaze of the many Wei Kengs. Its eyes flickered for a moment, then vanished. It was like a spark jumping from dead ashes, then disappearing completely.

This was not because the head still retained any life consciousness. It was Wei Keng's powerful life radiation resonating with the residual same-gene tissues of the head, allowing the Wei Keng Collective to read the final encounter recorded by some of the brain tissue in that head.

Within the integrated consciousness of the Wei Keng Collective, a complete picture was obtained:

Half a month ago, when the northern garrisoned squad was surrounded by a horde of beasts, in order for some Self Individuals to return and deliver a message, Wei Keng Reconnaissance Team members 98, 94, and 93 engaged in a blocking operation, while members 84 to 91 retreated.

[Among them, 87 was the individual captured by the Thought-Stealing Spider. The evacuation team did not succeed either and was intercepted by the Thought-Stealing Spider. Only 87 was rescued by the timely arrival of the Wei Keng Collective.]

Three Wei Keng individuals relied on the dirt mounds on the outer perimeter of their temporary stronghold for their final desperate resistance.

Wei Keng 98, after shooting one and stabbing a second, was pounced upon. Knowing there was no hope, Wei Keng bit open a hand grenade, holding the smoking object with his jaws, and shared a mouth-to-mouth kiss goodbye with the 'giant bear' that had pounced on him. His death was without pain.

Wei Keng 94 died in the cabin. After four beasts broke into the cabin, as these beasts tore him bloody and mutilated, Wei Keng 94 endured severe pain, closed the door, knocked over the oil lamp, and pressed the lighter, igniting the branches that had just been dried and piled up to be used as cushions!

Amidst the billowing smoke, he embraced a beast, ignoring its tearing and biting, rolling towards the door and holding it shut, preventing these creatures from breaking it open and escaping. Finally, in the thick smoke, he gradually lost consciousness, feeling the scorching flames inflict a final bit of burning pain on his skin. He couldn't help but sigh, "Ah, this ending, it's so similar to my previous life!"

Wei Keng 93 was the last to die. He watched helplessly as his belly was cut open, his entire strength drained. His gun was empty, and even if it had bullets, Wei Keng wouldn't have had the courage to pull the trigger to end himself. Coincidentally, sensing the fates of his two other selves, this Wei Keng, who had not yet chosen his path, fell into confusion?

Wei Keng 93: "I still want to survive. We can't just die all the time, there must be another way. Why not try?"

However, next, he was grabbed by the monsters with pincers and brought before this corpulent node creature.

Facing such a terrifying entity, Wei Keng 93, as a solitary individual Wei Keng, found it difficult to suppress his fear.

True martyrdom requires momentary courage. If that moment passes, it can turn into cowardice! Wei Keng 93 lacked the resonance of life radiation and the support of the blood courage at the end of battle. Instead, he would waver and make small, cowardly choices.

Wei Keng 93: Upon discovering this thing's ability to communicate, I wanted to beg for mercy.

In this final memory fragment, Wei Keng 93 detailed his plea for mercy, repeatedly emphasizing that his group possessed a great secret.

Of course, he had to narrate that he himself had an even greater secret and wanted to stall for time. In Wei Keng's logic, for an interrogator to extract secrets, they must do so without killing him, using torture bit by bit. Each time he couldn't bear it, he would reveal a little, stalling for time. This was content Wei Keng had read from a manual for captured scouts.

However, upon seeing that the members of the evacuation team he was covering had also been captured, and then processed one by one by these demons within two days, Unit 93 finally despaired. No longer begging for mercy, he faced the enemy with scorn, calmly narrating, "I know nothing."

"In the end, it's better to put away your weakness and die with a little dignity." This was Unit 93's final thought. Immediately after, he watched as the Corpulent Creature opened the Death Worm's gaping maw, and endless darkness swallowed him. All his senses decomposed amidst severe pain, his consciousness was forcibly destroyed, and even some of his memories were scattered and broken.

Now, Wei Keng's consciousness had finished reading this memory of his final moments, and he fell silent.

He wouldn't lie to himself. He had the Blood Courage of someone desperate, and the helplessness of seeing the same fate befall others, wanting to find a way to live. Of course, in the end, there was greater despair and self-humiliation.

The four Wei Kengs near this Node Creature picked up their bayonets, intending to gouge out their own and the other three Human Heads. During this process, the struggle of the Corpulent Monster made Wei Keng's actions difficult. Wei Keng thought for a moment, then only dug out his own Human Head, placed it in a Box, and prepared to Bury it where Unit 98 and Unit 94 had fallen. This was because Unit 93's final thought was that perhaps it would have been better to die there at that time.

Then, the Wei Kengs looked at this ugly Node Creature, their gazes now flickering with an extreme spark. This spark was not at all abrupt; it seemed inherent to Wei Keng himself.

The sun gradually set. Although the Bonfire began to Ignite, the dancing flames seemed only to make the darkness Flicker between the individual Wei Kengs. Wei Keng's shadow was stretched extremely long, eventually merging into the Gloomy jungle.

The image of that Monster, for a whole year, I can't remember which one it was a Reference to. Perhaps Nurgle, or Slaanesh. Oh, I'm going to open the door. Loyalty has arrived.