Third Stage Conflict

Chapter 39: 1.39 Third Stage Conflict

In summer, cicadas chirp, making one feel annoyed by the environment. But after autumn arrives and all things quiet down, one feels that some matters cannot wait any longer.

An individual from the Wei Keng Collective, responsible for strategic planning, held a ruler and drew lines while rambling to himself, summarizing: "In this world, I am not that special. Just because my attention is focused on certain things doesn't mean other things won't come knocking. Similarly, just because I'm gradually gaining experience in one area doesn't mean I'll always be singled out for tasks."

Bai Linglu's record: The activity of transmigration is not a movie plot. Just because the transmigrator (Wei Keng) makes an effort, disasters won't be averted. Nor will they avoid the natives of this plane just because many onlookers wish to remain as bystanders.

Now, the conflict between human city activities and natural ecological gene colonies can be clearly divided into several stages based on their mutual influence over different periods. Let's review the past journey:

Stage One: Wei Keng had just descended upon the ruins of Zhushui Jiao. In this area of less than fifty square kilometers, the stubborn newcomer Wei Keng and the world's various strange gene colonies directly clashed head-on.

Stage Two: Wei Keng had established a foothold in Zhushui Jiao and his influence extended to a radius of four to five hundred kilometers around it. By the standards of this world, Wei Keng, who still considered himself an ordinary person, attempted to unite the human survivors in the region and "strike back" against Pandora's gene colonies. He faced a fierce backlash from the natural world, and after losing a dozen individuals, he became more brutal. He unilaterally declared "Prosperity for the compliant, destruction for the defiant" to all life within the region.

During this stage, Wei Keng won again, and his rise accelerated, completely shattering the ecological balance of the region. The conflicts between even more powerful gene colony forces began to unfold across a wider area.

However, the first to bear the brunt were no longer Wei Keng, but the human city-states in the region who had cooperated with Wei Keng?

Multiple city-states to the north were besieged by southward-advancing creatures. Jian City, which had the most dealings with Wei Keng in late summer, also faced a crisis.

Jian City was enveloped by the threat of life colonies, with thick mist appearing around it. The dense fog rendered the machine guns and artillery on the city walls effective only within a range of forty to fifty meters, turning them into "close-range firepower." Because the small species killed or shattered by bullets were dragged away by vines extending from behind the mist and devoured by giant beasts lurking in the rear, the people of Jian City felt as if they were facing an unknown anomaly with infinite health.

The details of these city-states being besieged were relayed to the Wei Keng Settlement in the Zhujiang Region by Zeng Jiakan, a messenger from Jian City who risked his life to break through the encirclement.

When Wei Keng saw the warrior who had broken through, his entire body was covered in grape-like tumors. Some tumors wriggled with anemone-tentacle-like hairs, while others had begun to keratinize.

Faced with such a situation, the other natives of this plane within the stronghold avoided him.

Of course, someone still tremblingly offered a solution: blood transfusion! The blood of many, many people.

However, if experienced physicians from traditional city-states were to judge, Zeng Jiakan's current mutation had already surpassed the limit that a blood transfusion could save!

After detailed discussions within the Wei Keng Collective, Wei Keng, standing by Zeng Jiakan's sickbed, asked a question: "Do you trust me?"

Lying on the sickbed, Zeng Jiakan's cheeks were covered in gelatinous rotten flesh. He spoke with a wheezing voice, "I do. That's why I came to you, please save Jian City."

Wei Keng calmly shook his head. "No, you came to me to relieve Jian City's predicament. Jian City is currently besieged by anomalies, and you are looking for another anomaly to counter them."

A hint of stiffness appeared in Zeng Jiakan's eyes.

Wei Keng stared at Zeng Jiakan and said in a low voice, "You are unwilling to even admit that I am human!"

Zeng Jiakan remained silent!

However, Wei Keng did not press further. Instead, six Wei Keng individuals responsible for medical care took out medical equipment and drew two hundred milliliters of blood from their own veins.

Zeng Jiakan watched all this, wanting to say something, but thinking of his current mutated state, he remained silent. Because his current appearance made him a true outsider, someone no one would want to associate with.

Wei Keng: "My blood won't turn you into someone like me. You are an adult, you've completed growth and development, your bones and muscles are already fixed, and even your thoughts have achieved independence. Now, your life tissues have been interfered with by external species' life activities, causing mutation. Among all the strong external interference sources you can currently access, my genes are the closest to yours. Do you understand?"

Zeng Jiakan squeezed out a smile: "Thank you for being willing to save me."

Wei Keng: "No need to thank me. As fellow beings, it's only right." After speaking, he placed a stick by his mouth, telling him to bite down.

Wei Keng inserted the catheter into his vein, injected blood into his body, and then began to surgically remove the severely mutated tumors on his body. On the other side, he used a scalpel to cut open the webbing between his fingers, then bandaged it. Throughout the entire process, Wei Keng did not administer any anesthetic, but he kept a close eye on him the whole time.

An hour later, the surgery was over. Zeng Jiakan, covered in sweat, spat out the wooden stick he had been biting. Large strands of saliva dripped with the rolling stick onto the quilt beside him. He looked in the mirror at the slowly healing wounds on his body and looked at Wei Keng with difficulty: "Thank you, can I sleep now?" Upon seeing Wei Keng nod, he immediately fainted.

Wei Keng looked at the gradually calming Zeng Jiakan and couldn't help but sigh, "He's a tough man."

While Zeng Jiakan was undergoing surgery, the Wei Keng Group's staff was analyzing the latest intelligence. Jian City was surrounded, and there were many details that needed to be clarified.

First, Wei Keng was puzzled by the mist that had appeared around the city! This was something he hadn't encountered before. If there had been mist earlier, he might have suffered heavy casualties.

Regarding this issue, Bai Jiancha retrieved the Pioneer Archives and provided a hint: "You have encountered mist before. When you first descended, the transpiration effect in the forest increased significantly."

Wei Keng couldn't help but pull up the summary of information from when he first descended. He had launched his attack in the afternoon. Under the direct sunlight, there was no heavy fog, and it ended before evening. After the battle, he had felt a bit damp. Yes, at the end of the battle, when the flanking team set fires, there was a lot of smoke! This seemed to be the reason for the excessive moisture in the forest. He hadn't paid attention at the time, but now that he thought about it, could this be it?

Bai Linglu explained: "The gene colony dominating a region controls the ecological energy flow of that region. During radiation, it affects both plants and animals. Therefore, in large-scale battles, it causes trees to release a large amount of water vapor, forming a mist barrier at night to cover their movements."

As for why Wei Keng didn't encounter it later?

During the second phase of the conflict, the scale of Wei Keng's gene radiation! The entire mountain forest, at the producer level, could no longer effectively communicate with the region's gene colony. It could be said that the stomata of the mountains, rivers, grass, and trees were so frightened by Wei Keng that they closed up. How could they dare to cooperate with the colony to create mist?

Therefore, Bai Linglu speculated for Wei Keng: If the Wei Keng Collective arrived near Jian City, the mist effect in that region would also weaken.

Regardless of Bai Linglu's bold judgment, Wei Keng believed in preparing as much as possible for any risk, adding as much insurance as he could.

Wei Keng Collective: "This... we need to prepare some incendiary bombs!"

Wei Keng was also very cautious about preparing dangerous goods, generally saving where he could, especially with things like White Phosphorus. However, when dealing with war, Wei Keng would prepare them. In Wei Keng's eyes, fighting was the most dangerous thing.

In the third phase, although he wasn't at the forefront, Wei Keng planned to proactively respond by going out to fight, rather than waiting at home.

Inside the Dimensional Space Bubble, Bai Linglu: "Target completed, OYEE!"

For her, all the plans on the list had been exceeded. When she first arrived in this plane, she had suggested to Wei Keng, "If conditions permit, clear the threat within a fifty square kilometers area." At that time, she had only given Wei Keng a heads-up, not really expecting it to be completed. Of course, Wei Keng had refused without hesitation at the time. And now! Now, in the third conflict, all of Wei Keng's planned objectives had surpassed the initial exploration and planning goals.

Bai Linglu opened the Dimensional Distance Broadcast.

At this coordinate, an Exploration Channel was approaching, and Bai Linglu was communicating with this target: "Our arrival was smooth, everything is proceeding without any hindrance, without any hindrance."

Returning the gaze to the Pandora Plane, the Transmigrators on the front lines were dealing with the issues!

On September 29th, supplies were piled up on the dock of the outpost. Wei Keng, after handing over his work to the recruited personnel within the outpost, began waiting with his personal equipment.

Across all the outposts, red flags were flying, and banners read "Coexist in Disaster, Defend Our Homes." In the past, Wei Keng had Telepathy internally, so such things were unnecessary. But now, with external personnel forming a community of interest with him, and aiming to transform into a community of destiny amidst this disaster, propaganda work had to be done well.

The Wei Keng Combat Team, a formation of two battalions, six hundred men, boarded a Steamship heading upstream. Then, utilizing the transport capacity provided by self-assembled Crawler Tractors, they traveled for thirty hours north, entering the mountainous forest region, and began to detour towards the east.

Although Wei Keng's troop numbers had not increased compared to the last time, there was a qualitative change in terms of supplies and heavy firepower, allowing them to fight a "war of plenty."

Unlike last time, where he himself was trapped by the enemy and there was a time limit for the mission, Wei Keng now had more initiative, so the march was prioritized with "stability."

To put it bluntly, whether Jian City lost a few hundred more or fewer people currently had little to do with him. The relationship between the two sides was, at most, a commercial trade relationship. What about the alliance that Zeng Jiakan pleaded for? In the end, it was still unilateral giving from his side.

Wei Keng, as an ordinary person, sometimes had limited capacity to accept group directives from an individual's perspective.

As an individual, when one's society communicates and interacts with another society, if one's own side is essentially giving unilaterally, then! — all this talk of "one big family" or "blood is thicker than water" is merely the collective will of the respective groups hoping to achieve their goals. It is by no means a reality that an ordinary person like himself can rely on. Often, the Upper Echelon of the group can tolerate higher levels of collective sacrifice. But ordinary civilians have no capital to believe in "propaganda that isn't reality." If he truly believed in being one big family and was then deceived by the other side, he could only hang himself. The dialogue window representing the collective when dealing with others would, for the sake of the "bigger picture," remain focused on the bigger picture and would not help him seek compensation at all.

So, when the other party is willing to stand by principles and face common disasters together, such as fighting floods together or confronting foreign enemies together, in short, when they have jointly fulfilled their obligations concerning the 'rules of common survival and development,' then this concept of "one big family" and "blood is thicker than water" can be relied upon as reality, and ordinary individuals and civilians can "rightfully fulfill their obligations."

The current individuals of Wei Keng were all the aforementioned ordinary people. Adhering to these viewpoints of self-interest directly influenced the decision-making of the Wei Keng Collective.

Therefore, Wei Keng's current rescue of Jian City, in terms of operational interest, was for the entire human population of the region, uniting the people of the region, which was conducive to his own development and survival in the area, hence he would not hesitate to fight.

Thus, strategically, Jian City would be preserved. Tactically, to reduce casualties in Jian City, he would not proactively bear excessive losses.

So, in all plans and arrangements, as long as Jian City wasn't completely wiped out, everything was fine.

Only when more than thirty percent of Jian City's population had perished would Wei Keng make slight tactical adjustments.

After marching for thirty hours, Wei Keng's vanguard reconnaissance quickly discovered footprints on the east side of Jian City, indicating a large number of creatures gathering in one area. This sign suggested the presence of a large number of herbivores and Carnivores.

Based on the stride length of the herbivores, Wei Keng determined that this was not the stride of being pursued by Carnivores; an antelope's hooves could leap several meters. These herbivores were migrating unhurriedly, and the Carnivore tracks were on the periphery of the herbivores, much like sheepdogs guarding the flock from the outside.

Upon discovering this situation, the Wei Keng Collective's forward reconnaissance units further judged the quantity and ratio of these biological communities based on the freshness and moisture content of the feces.

Although their firepower and perception had advanced by a major tier compared to the second stage, Wei Keng's tactics and strategy remained cautious and serious.

When the Wei Keng Collective rapidly inserted themselves into the battlefield, the lifeforms migrating south also sensed it. The feeling Wei Keng gave them was: although the total amount of Life Radiation was not strong, its concentration was extremely high. The threat level was extremely high.

Wei Keng's marching speed was as swift as a swallow chasing a swarm of flies.

Although Wei Keng did not pursue extreme forced marches, and even deliberately controlled their speed, the Crawler Tractors equipped with Gas Generators and specially designed supply boxes made the marching efficiency very high. Compared to Wei Keng's unified, group-oriented actions, the gathering of these lifeforms' supplementary herbivores resembled a leisurely outing at a farm!

The southward-moving life colonies are only a threat to human city-state strongholds like Jian City, which lack large-scale mobile warfare capabilities!

[The development of contemporary city-states is entirely based on the squad combat of Beast Tamers. This is because the city-states lack groups that can withstand the Life Radiation from the outside world, unless they can afford to be indifferent to mutations like Yu City in the north.]

They appear too naive when facing field armies like Wei Keng's, which also possess Life Radiation.

These Gene Colonies from the Dongting Lake Colony displayed aggression the moment they discovered the Wei Keng Group. However, because they did not engage in a group charge, Wei Keng did not even record it as combat, merely as contact. Wei Keng did not dedicate significant attention to them.

For instance, within five hours, sixteen ferocious beasts, whose primary form was that of a Tyrannosaurus Rex but with forelimbs long enough to reach the ground, appeared within the Wei Keng Collective's field of vision. This creature's form might be a top-tier biological form that balances speed, mass, and bite force.

However, as soon as they approached the Wei Keng Collective, with a series of gunshots, they fell to the ground with a roar!

What killed these Long-Armed Tyrannosaurus Rexes were anti-tank rifles with two-meter-long barrels, gun mounts, and 13mm caliber.

Set up on a hilltop, loaded with K-Type Bullets, and aiming through an Eight Times Scope at the Tyrannosaurus Rex's forehead, a shot was fired. The recoil, along with the vibration of the gun mount, sent some dust shaking from the ground. The remaining Impact Force, after passing through the spring system, also sent a powerful push to Wei Keng's shoulder.

This type of gun can penetrate 15mm Steel Plates, so it can also crack open the skulls of these Giant Beasts.

Well, the most important thing is that this thing was self-manufactured by Wei Keng. When the system delivers High-Precision Sniper Rifles, Wei Keng calculates the barrel's lifespan with every shot. Sometimes, when facing large targets within three hundred meters, Wei Keng's thrifty nature always felt that the highest cost-effectiveness was not being utilized.

After the gunshot, the Tyrannosaurus Rex's skull was like a chocolate-covered ice cream shell crushed by a finger.

Touching the somewhat hot steel barrel sleeve, Wei Keng, responsible for clearing obstacles, hugged the still-smoking muzzle and licked it (a very foolish action). After burning his tongue, he said cockily, "This is the kind of gun a man should shoot."