Franky Shogun's First Battle

Aplunan Island, West Coast.

A fifteen-meter-high reinforced concrete breakwater sprawled for dozens of kilometers like a steel beast lying prone, firmly sealing off the island's entire western coast.

Every hundred meters stood a twin-barreled Coastal Defense Cannon fortress fully encased in armored steel plates. Their pitch-black muzzles all aimed toward the nearshore waters, the rifling in their barrels polished to a gleam and radiating a cold, murderous aura.

Behind the breakwater lay layer upon layer of infantry trenches stretching hundreds of meters deep. Heavy machine guns and rocket launchers purchased at great cost from the Underworld lined the trench edges, their dark muzzles uniformly pointed toward the sea.

Farther inland on the plains, over a thousand fully armed King's Army soldiers stood ready for battle, their fingers clamped tightly around their triggers. The savagery left by years of warfare was etched onto every face, yet it still could not conceal the lingering tension in their eyes.

In front of them stood a fifty-man heavy assault unit.

Every member of this unit was broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, a full head taller than ordinary soldiers. Clad in heavy armor that gleamed with a chilling light and holding steel shields half a man's height, even their combat boots were wrapped in thick steel plates. They were the sharpest and most elite force in the King's Army. Relying on this heavy armor, they had smashed through countless defensive lines during their slaughter of the surrounding island nations.

Limited by the broader realities of a sea-based civilization, there was no room for tanks or aircraft to develop. Besides, in this world of extraordinary powers, such metal hulks would only become targets for swordsmen or those with long-range abilities.

For all those reasons, this "manually controlled" armored unit had come into being.

Just three minutes ago, a