The Black-Backed Ape Pack

Jiangkou.

The ten-kilometer riverside highway was littered with wreckage. Along the way, dozens of super aquatic monsters had attacked, leaving thousands of lives behind on that short stretch of road.

Wang Ji felt a fire smoldering inside him.

"We made it! We finally made it!" the young second lieutenant said, his voice trembling.

Wang Ji nodded heavily.

"This is Jiangkou, Jiangkou Town. From here, the road heads north along the Luan River. It still runs beside a river, but the Luan is a small one, only a hundred or so meters wide and two or three meters deep. Super monsters can't easily make their way along its bed!" the young second lieutenant said.

The Luan River flowed from north to south, joining the Baiyang River at Jiangkou. As the road curved north, leaving the Baiyang behind, the ten-kilometer flight along the riverside highway finally came to an end.

"Whoosh!"

A tentacle as thick as a person's waist swept toward them!

Damn it! Why were there still more? This made no sense!

Wang Ji had let his guard down for just a moment, and now it was too late to react. With no other choice, he put all his strength into a slash at the tentacle. It was like a rubber tire, absorbing the blow, rebounding, and sliding aside. Despite the several thousand kilograms of force behind Wang Ji's strike, it only cut twenty centimeters into the tentacle.

Wang Ji watched helplessly as it coiled around him.

"Get out of the way!" A tremendous shove from behind sent Wang Ji tumbling aside. Then he watched as the tentacle snatched up the young second lieutenant.

"You..." Wang Ji's mind went blank. Had he just been saved? That guy... was he an idiot? He'd given up his life to save him! What a blockhead!

Wang Ji wanted to cry, but forced himself to hold it in. "It's just a dungeon! A dungeon! It's not real! It isn't!"

Wang Ji muttered to himself.

"Bang, bang, bang..." A furious burst of gunfire erupted.

Wang Ji looked toward the river. A monster with a body over ten meters long and eight tentacles, each more than a hundred meters long, loomed in the water.

The river was only a little over three meters deep. With the slightest movement, the monster's body could no longer be hidden beneath the water.

Now that the river wasn't concealing it, the guns and cannons could do real damage.

"Boom!" "Boom!" "Boom!"

Several mortar shells and rockets slammed into the monster in quick succession. Ten minutes later, the guns fell silent, and the river was strewn with the monster's severed limbs.

"Do you want to avenge him?" a firm voice asked.

"What?" Wang Ji looked up in a daze.

"If you do, come with me!" The speaker was a soldier in his thirties or forties, with the rank of major. He had a cold gaze and moved with crisp efficiency. In a suit, he would have looked more like a high-powered lawyer.

Wang Ji followed him numbly. The major pointed ahead. "Over there! Do you see them?"

"Huh?"

"There's a pack of Black-Backed Apes over there! They've attacked us many times. A lot of Li An's comrades have died because of them. Help us get rid of them. I think Li An would be very happy!" the major said.

"Li An?" Wang Ji asked.

"The second lieutenant who just saved you. That was Li An. Are you willing to help?"

"All right." Wang Ji nodded. The major's words had left him feeling strangely uncomfortable, but he still wanted to help. After all, he was seething with anger and overcome by an inexplicable grief. He needed to let it out.

"Roar! Ooh..."

This was a hastily assembled assault team. Each team had fifteen people, all warriors. There were also plenty of snipers and machine guns aimed at the area. However, those using conventional weapons could only provide long-range support. These War General Level Black-Backed Apes were too fast for long-range weapons to hit. Only a missile barrage could take them out.

But the whole world was in chaos. Production of precision weapons had ground to a halt, and every missile fired meant one fewer left. How could they afford to waste them?

"Ooh... ooh-ooh..." The apes pounded their chests and let out shrill roars. As soon as Wang Ji's team entered the woods, a boulder the size of a table came hurtling toward them.

"Get out of the way!" shouted the captain leading the team, a first lieutenant. He had the strength of a Beginner Warlord, and seemed to be the strongest fighter in the army outside.

Along with the boulder came countless stones, some as big as heads and others as large as washbasins. The barrage was terrifying.

"Thud!" "Agh..." Two team members were hit by rocks, their bones and tendons breaking in an instant!

The captain's eyes turned bloodshot. He made his decision at once. "Charge! Get in there!"

"Boom!" "Boom!"

The infantry and artillery worked in tandem. More than ten mortar shells landed in front of the team, suppressing the Black-Backed Apes' stone barrage and clearing the path ahead. They also opened up a line of fire for the supporting weapons behind them.

"Charge!"

In the blink of an eye, the thirteen remaining members of the team were fighting five Black-Backed Apes.

Only the captain was a War General Level fighter. Five others were Advanced Warrior Level, while the rest were weaker still. The weakest Black-Backed Ape, on the other hand, had the strength of a Junior Beast General. Given the difference in strength, they couldn't afford to split up.

The thirteen of them held together, tying down two of the apes. The captain and another uniformed first lieutenant, an Advanced Warrior Level fighter, fought the apes head-on, heedless of their injuries.

The two apes were genuinely held at bay for a moment. Once they lost their mobility, "Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!" More than ten anti-materiel sniper rifles opened fire together.

The two Black-Backed Apes' bodies shuddered violently as the high-powered bullets drove them back.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang!" A dozen seconds later, they had been reduced to two heaps of shredded meat, riddled with holes.

"Roar!"

Suddenly, a Black-Backed Ape with a layer of silver fur pounded its chest in fury. Its eyes turned bloodred. "Roar!"

With a crackle, it suddenly grew half a foot taller, its muscles bulging across its body. A terrifying aura radiated from it.

"Roar!" A blur shot past. The captain at the front did everything he could to block it, but was sent flying in an instant. "Pfft..." A cloud of blood burst from his mouth.

"Thud! Boom! Crack!"

In the blink of an eye, the thirteen-person team had become a joke. The captain was gravely wounded, and four others were killed outright, either by its charge or its claws. Only eight were still in fighting shape.

"Keep going! Even if we die, we have to keep fighting! If we run now, we'll only die faster!" the captain shouted between ragged breaths.

"Charge!" Wang Ji roared.

Wang Ji and the three men closest to him quickly engaged a Black-Backed Ape. The Beast General Level ape was frighteningly intelligent. It would rather take a slash than let them pin it down. Wang Ji fought through his injuries, blocking its attacks with everything he had. He even used his own body to stop it head-on and keep it from building up speed. At last, Wang Ji crashed straight into it.

"Pfft..." An Intermediate Warrior colliding with a Beast General Level monster snapped several of Wang Ji's ribs in an instant. He flew seven or eight meters through the air like a rag doll.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang..." In that instant, Wang Ji's collision had made the Black-Backed Ape falter. Dozens of armor-piercing rounds tore into its body.

The Black-Backed Ape roared in frustration, then collapsed, twitching.

"Roar!" The Silver-Furred Black-Backed Ape charged the surviving team members again.

"Bang, bang, bang, bang!..."

Half a minute later, every member of the team had been killed or wounded. Only the captain and Wang Ji still had a breath left, the first relying on his War General Level physique, the second on the Series 5 Equipment he wore. The only one still standing was the Silver-Furred Black-Backed Ape.

"Concentrate fire! Hit it with mortars, then sweep the area indiscriminately with the machine guns!" The major's voice rang coldly over the walkie-talkie.

"Battalion commander! There are still survivors! At least two team members are still alive!"

"I said, sweep the area indiscriminately!"