"... Lin Zi, quick, drink this!"
The scene before my eyes swayed, and the sounds seemed to come from another world.
Lin Zi lay on the ground, watching his comrades help him up, then pick up a vial of blue medicine and feed it to him.
Is that... a mental stabilizer?
Was I... hit by the Calamity Beast's... mental attack?
Lin Zi thought about it with some difficulty and a drowsy feeling.
Before he could think any further, his comrade had already given him the medicine and called out to the side.
Soon, a soldier stepped forward and carried him on his back.
My vision shifted, and the scene changed from the metal ground to the soil on the mountaintop.
He was placed on the ground and turned face up.
After that, nobody paid any attention to him.
Right now, nobody has time to care about him!
The sounds of gunfire and roars echoed in my ears, yet it always seemed as if there was a layer separating us.
Until a cold sensation appeared deep within my brain.
Lin Zi knew that the mental stabilizer was starting to take effect.
From that moment on, the sounds around me gradually became clearer.
Along with the return of sound, the pain that had just appeared and was rapidly escalating also returned.
"I won't die..." Lin Zi thought.
Once that thought came to mind, a Stone was lifted from my heart. I wasn't particularly happy, just exhausted, the kind of exhaustion that leaves you feeling completely drained.
He took a breath; the air was thick with the smell of gunpowder and blood, making him cough twice. His body ached even more, but his mind was now completely clear.
He tilted his head back, trying to glean some information about the battle from the explosions and shouts of battle.
The roars of the Calamity Beast grew closer, but the sound of artillery fire was as dense as rain, showing no signs of abating.
It's alright, it can still hold up...
Just as he breathed a sigh of relief, his gaze inadvertently swept over the high place.
Beneath the leaden clouds, high and far away, there was a black dot.
It wasn't a winged flying Calamity Beast, but it simply stood there quietly in mid-air.
Lin Zi felt as if his blood had turned cold.
Seemingly also noticing the Calamity Beast above, the brigade commander's voice kept coming through the earpiece.
"Everyone, hold on... no matter what... go down there and bring that Sixth Tier Calamity Beast... down!"
"Clear!"
"Learn!"
"Damn it, die! You beasts!"
"Da da da da da..."
"Roar--"
All sorts of sounds echoed through this small mountain town.
Lin Zi's body suddenly trembled, and tears uncontrollably slid down her cheeks.
He didn't know if it was because of the brigade commander's command, the increasingly intense pain in his head, or the future symbolized by the figure in the sky that made him cry.
But in any case, at that moment, he burst into tears.
"Dad, Mom... Haha, hahaha, come on, come on! By the time you get here, the bombers will have already flown past!"
Lin Zi suddenly laughed.
The pain in his mind intensified, and each blink required more effort.
His vision gradually darkened and narrowed, and he seemed to see a huge black shadow flash by within the city.
The brigade commander's voice rang in my ears once more.
Hoarse, calm, yet carrying a resolute determination that Lin Zi had never heard before, a determination to cut off all escape routes.
"Final announcement to all units."
"The nuclear bomb will explode in one minute. Unfortunately, it failed to lure down that Sixth Tier Calamity Beast, but... thank you for your perseverance just now. Fight on!"
"At last..."
May our mountains and rivers remain forever strong, may humanity endure forever!
May our mountains and rivers remain forever, may humanity endure forever!
Through the earpiece, it seemed to come the voice of a soldier, choked with emotion.
Following this, more and more people responded.
May our mountains and rivers remain forever strong, and may our people endure forever!
May our mountains and rivers remain forever strong, and may our people endure forever!
May our mountains and rivers remain forever strong, and may our people endure forever!
The sound grew louder and louder in Lin Zi's ears, until finally it seemed to drown out all the other sounds, leaving only this one.
Lin Zi smiled as he looked at the Calamity Beast high and far away.
He opened his mouth and recited with difficulty and stubbornness:
May our mountains and rivers remain forever, may humanity endure forever!
"Boom--"
The explosion spread outwards from the mountaintop...
"Boom--"
A mushroom cloud rose.
The shockwave propelled metal, rocks, and corpses outwards.
After the echo faded, the once noisy battlefield fell silent.
The surviving Calamity Beast stood up, shook its head, and tried to clear its mind.
Then, they stood still, looking at the scene that had suddenly become flat, and were momentarily bewildered.
After a long while, a roar echoed from the ground, summoning them back together.
Strange voices echoed at the scene, and after a while, the remaining Calamity Beast slowly departed in a certain direction.
At the end of the beast tide, a tentacle stretched out.
The tentacle picked up a relatively intact gun that had fallen to the ground and went back...
Bedrock City.
Shen Heng stood on the city wall, gazing at the dark outline of the distant mountains.
He's been standing here for half an hour.
It's been a month.
It has been a full month since the first batch of cities were built.
In the past month, Bedrock City has faced four attacks from beast hordes.
The scale was not very large, with the largest number being just over two thousand. Most of them were low-level Calamity Beast mixed with a small number of fourth and fifth-level leaders.
With the city walls and well-prepared firepower, they held out without much pressure.
but...
" Captain Shen, General Zhou requests your presence."
A notification sound came from the terminal's " Ringing Sound, the steady electronic tone breaking the silence on the city wall.
Shen Heng paused for a moment before replying.
"I see."
He took one last look at the dark mountains in the distance, then turned and walked down the city wall.
Inside the command post, the glow of an oil lamp flickered on the walls.
Zhou Zhenguo sat at a simple long table, looking at the virtual image map in mid-air.
The old man wasn't wearing a coat, only a military green shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, revealing his thin but still strong arms.
Hearing footsteps, Zhou Zhenguo looked over.
"They've arrived."
Shen Heng walked to the table and looked at the map.
The location and status of each city are marked with different colors.
The red areas are those that have fallen, and the blue areas are those that are still holding out.
Shen Heng glanced at it.
There are still only five marked in red.
"Not much?" Shen Heng asked, his voice unusually clear in the quiet command post.
"No, the strategy worked!" Zhou Zhenguo smiled, his expression a mixture of excitement and relief.
"Have the Calamity Beast dispersed to the Anchor Point and the Eye of Earth Marrow?" Shen Heng asked.
According to information emanating from the fallen city, the initial attack on the city was carried out by Sixth Tier Calamity Beast.
However, seemingly influenced by humanity's resolute stance, the Sixth Tier Calamity Beast stopped participating, and instead, Fifth Tier Calamity Beast led the way.