Jiangkou

"Ding! Main dungeon missions: 1. Cover the mass evacuation; 2. Hold out for 7 days."

"You! Yes, you!" a booming voice called.

Wang Ji turned around. Not far behind him, a troop of soldiers was approaching in a loose formation. Most of them were wounded, looking dusty and bedraggled.

Wang Ji looked surprised and pointed at himself. "Me? Are you talking to me?"

The young soldier, whose shoulder boards marked him as a second lieutenant, said, "Who else? Comrade, the 112th Division Vanguard Battalion needs to conscript you temporarily! We need you to help cover the evacuation. Are you willing?"

Wang Ji answered without hesitation. "No!"

"You... What a waste of your warrior status!" The second lieutenant stared at him for a moment, then said scornfully and continued on without looking back.

Wang Ji glanced at the Grade 5 Combat Suit he was wearing and the War Blade in his hand, then smiled wryly. Completing the dungeon mission was what mattered!

A minibus nearby suddenly swerved off the road and became stuck in a ditch. Wang Ji immediately walked over. "Hey!" With a sudden burst of strength, he dragged the four- or five-ton minibus out.

"Whoa... Brother, you're amazing!" the driver said admiringly. The thirty or forty passengers crammed into the bus all looked at Wang Ji in admiration. Wang Ji asked, "Can I get a ride?"

"No problem! Come on, everyone, squeeze together and make room for this young brother!"

Wang Ji waved a hand. "No need. I'll ride on the roof!"

"Huh?" The driver stared at him in surprise. What kind of quirk was that? He'd rather sit on the roof than inside.

Wang Ji sat on the roof, watching the long line of people evacuating. Every main road and side street heading north was filled with the same chaotic scene of war and panic.

"Whoosh!" A flock of giant flying monsters, each like a huge goose with a three- or four-meter wingspan, swept overhead.

"Ah! Monsters!" Several of them suddenly swooped down!

One clawed at Wang Ji. The others joined forces and charged toward a bus up ahead.

"Get lost!" Wang Ji struck at just the right moment, cutting into the base of the giant goose monster's wing. Feathers drifted through the air like snowflakes. "Screech! Scree!"

The goose monster cried out in pain. A spray of blood burst from it as it veered into the ditch beside the road.

Up ahead, the bus under attack had withstood the monsters' charge, but its windows were completely shattered. The driver lost control and slammed into the vehicle in front.

Chaos erupted!

The steady flow of evacuation vehicles came to a sudden halt. Everyone stared at the monsters outside in terror.

A dozen young men rushed out of their vehicles and quickly joined forces to help at the accident scene.

"Ah!" A goose monster swooped down again, knocking one of the men five or six meters away before grabbing another and flying into the sky. A moment later, a long, harrowing scream rang out, and the man it had seized was dropped from high above.

"Thud!" He hit the ground as a mangled heap of flesh.

The other men helping at the scene were terrified. Two of them fled back into their vehicles, but the rest pressed on, risking their lives to move the bus to the side of the road. The traffic started moving again!

The sky was dark, and an atmosphere of fear and grim resolve spread through the crowd, but courage and hope filled the air too.

Evacuate! Get out as quickly as possible, no matter the cost! Just 200 kilometers ahead, a defensive wall dozens of meters high and hundreds of meters thick was under construction. An unprecedented, magnificent Base City was being built! Once they reached it, they would be safe!

Evacuate!

When this nation faced its darkest hour, the strength it unleashed could sweep aside any obstacle.

Wang Ji jumped down from the bus, quickly killed the goose monster with the injured wing, then ran alongside the convoy, protecting it as it moved forward.

"Bang, bang, bang!..." The army in the rear had opened fire! Heavy machine guns spat out tongues of flame more than a meter long. Blood blossomed across several geese, and they flapped helplessly as they fell to the ground.

"Pick up the pace! The monsters are coming!"

Wang Ji was puzzled. "Hadn't the monsters been wiped out?" There had been seven flying monsters in total, and only one had escaped.

Just ten minutes later, amid the chaos and gunfire coming from behind, the monsters arrived after all! The flying monsters had only been the opening act.

"Awoo... Awoo..." A few Brindle Mastiffs charged out of the distant trees, howling.

"Damn it! You're still just a dog, no matter how much you howl!" Wang Ji didn't wait for them to reach him. He charged straight at them!

"Slash!" Wang Ji was no longer the same as he'd been in the Monster Town dungeon. His strength had reached a full 3,600 kilograms, and he'd mastered his footwork and blade techniques. In a single exchange, he cut off a Brindle Mastiff's head.

Wang Ji blocked a pounce with his arm shield. "You beast! Come at me again!"

Being surrounded by four Brindle Mastiffs at once put him under some pressure. But Wang Ji was gradually getting used to applying his footwork in real combat.

Before long, he could hold his own even without relying on his arm shield or Combat Suit. "That's more like it! Come on!"

"Awoo, awoo..." The three remaining Brindle Mastiffs showed signs of fear. Wang Ji chased them down and killed two more.

"I killed four and drove one off!"

But the Brindle Mastiffs were just the tip of the iceberg. Monsters were everywhere, surging after them from behind in a dark, overwhelming tide.

The army formed the first line of defense. Guns and artillery were enough to kill beast soldiers and even beast generals.

Gunfire and artillery roared in unison. Fewer than one or two out of every ten monsters broke through the army's defensive line. But even that one or two in ten was enough to cause devastation.

A monster resembling a wild boar rammed into an SUV. The vehicle's thin bodywork buckled instantly. As its occupants scrambled out, the boar bit a man's head off!

"Die!" The driver shouted in grief and rage, bringing down the alloy blade he had with him on the boar's head. It cut in only five centimeters!

Even after the RR Virus, ordinary people could muster only five or six hundred kilograms of force during the Cataclysm. Very few could quickly become warriors. And even ordinary people who had evolved still couldn't stand up to monsters.

The boar's sharp tusks ripped upward. The man couldn't dodge in time, and his belly split open. "Run! Get out of here!" He looked at his parents and children in the vehicle with desperate hope, but the hand clutching his blade finally fell limp.

Wang Ji raced over at nearly thirty meters per second. His blade flashed, cutting a long gash into the soft flesh along the boar's side. "Splatter..." The boar's entrails spilled across the ground.

One more slash, and the boar fell to the ground, twitching.

There was no time to comfort the family. Wang Ji raced to the next spot!

Everywhere, the world looked like the end of days.

They fought as they retreated! Even in these circumstances, the public's evacuation never stopped! Stopping meant certain death. Their only hope of survival was to reach the newly built Base City!

Beyond the villages and towns stretched a long, broad highway. This had once been the provincial road, Riverside Avenue, with four lanes in each direction. At last, the evacuation convoy began to pick up speed.

Wang Ji collapsed on the roadside, exhausted.

"Hey! You! Yes, you! The 112th Division Vanguard Battalion needs to conscript you temporarily! Are you willing to accept the conscription and help cover the civilians' evacuation?"

"Huh?" Wang Ji turned around in surprise.

"You... Why is it you again!"

Wang Ji smiled. "Why is it you again, too!"

"What a waste of your skills! Forget it, forget it!" the second lieutenant said irritably.

Wang Ji protested, "I've killed forty or fifty monsters this morning. How is that a waste?"

"Oh?" The second lieutenant immediately looked at him differently.

Wang Ji took the opportunity to ask, "Where are we?"

The second lieutenant said worriedly, "By the Baiyang River. Hopefully, nothing goes wrong!"

"Something goes wrong?" Wang Ji asked.

"Splash!"

A tentacle as thick as a person's waist, covered in suckers, dragged a car straight into the Baiyang River beside the road.

"Get through here quickly! Move, move!" the second lieutenant shouted into a megaphone like a madman. The vehicles nearby sped up at once.

The Baiyang River! The river!

Wang Ji suddenly understood. "During the Cataclysm, the most terrifying monsters were in the rivers, lakes, and seas!"

"Whoosh!" Another tentacle whipped toward the shore! It moved at a terrifying speed, at least a hundred meters per second.

The second lieutenant watched helplessly as the tentacle came straight for him. He had no time to dodge.

"Watch out!" Wang Ji slammed into the second lieutenant, knocking him into a drainage ditch. The tentacle roared over Wang Ji's head.

The tentacle missed the second lieutenant, then snatched a car and dragged it into the Baiyang River.

Wang Ji hurriedly asked, "What do we do?"

The second lieutenant glared at him, his fists clenched tight. "What do we do? There's nothing we can do! We don't have heavy weapons! We can only get people through as quickly as possible!"

"Just leave it to luck?"

"Once we get past this stretch, we'll be fine! The riverside highway is only ten kilometers long here! We'll be fine once we're past it!"