Chapter 544: A Very Beautiful Tattoo
“That’s impossible! Someone gave a false order!”
This was Meng Chao’s first reaction.
The current Pitched Battle Regulations in Dragon City had been pa.s.sed down for decades.
Logically speaking, it did state that all citizens were soldiers, and if they ran into monsters, they had to defend their positions and fight to the bitter end.
Those who did not take up arms because of fear and deserted would be court martialed and denounced by the public after they were punished.
But such harsh regulations had already fallen behind times and hadn’t been carried out for a long time.
The reason for that was simple. Decades ago, Dragon City was in a critical state and was about to be destroyed. The entire city was in ruins, and only one-third of the main city area was still under human control.
All the strong young men had the elderly, their wives, and children behind them. If anyone deserted, the entire frontline would crumble and countless humans would end up as food for the monsters. Even an entire region might turn into the monsters’ paradise. This could then lead to the flames of Earth’s civilization being completely extinguished in the Other World.
During the ruthless era when human civilization was about to be destroyed, military law was adhered to strictly. There was no room for exceptions.
But the current age was different from the past.
As human civilization rebuilt its foundation and the Great Expedition Era that lasted for ten years pa.s.sed them, the frontlines at the borders of Dragon City stabilized and they moved from defensive strategies to tactical counterattacks. There was no longer any need for people to use their precious lives in exchange for s.p.a.ce that they could regain at any moment.
Even if the monsters temporarily occupied a building or a street, humans could calmly mobilize superhumans and the Red Dragon Army to turn the territory the monsters occupied into a slaughterhouse for the monsters.
Hence, unless they saw someone who refused to obey orders and ran around like a headless chicken, which destroyed an entire frontline, or some other extreme situation, like people not saving the elderly and the weak, the Survival Committee usually a.s.sessed that normal citizens were helpless against the monsters invading their region and would not force the normal citizens to use their bodies to fight against the monsters’ fangs and claws to make them die from overeating.
The situation was even more special in Leprosy Village. The Survival Committee should know very well that they did not have the right or power to order the villagers to fight to the end against the fearsome monsters without there being any reinforcements. If that were the case, why did they release such a stupid order?
“Wild Wolf, I’ll tell you the truth, the Survival Committee had indeed set up Plan B. If the hunting squad’s operation failed, they would lock down the entire lair,” Meng Chao said. “And when I say full lock down, I don’t mean them blocking off the flow of information, resources, and manpower.
“Usually, when it comes to a full lock down, they set up a lot of hubs, temporary hospitals, and temporary resource storages between the lair and the outside world. They also send a lot of drones to constantly monitor the situation inside the lair to ensure that the survival and rescue resources can be transported over so that the patients and casualties in the lair can be moved out or at least transferred to the temporary hospitals around the lair to be treated in time.
“The goal of a full lock down is to maintain order so that everyone can survive. But now, they are not sending any resources and manpower to provide reinforcements, so they don’t understand the situation in Leprosy Village, yet they’re using guns to perform a lock down? That’s way too simple and crude. That’s not maintaining order. They’re basically intensifying conflict and destroying order.
“Wild Wolf, you can choose not to believe that the Survival Committee has a conscience, but you must believe that those who managed to become the owners of mega corporations and the politicians of the Survival Committee have some intelligence. It’s impossible for them to be that dumb!”
Meng Chao’s words extinguished Wild Wolf’s rage for the time being, and he fell into deep thought.
Meng Chao saw that his words were working, so he decided to continue. “Also, there’s something more that you should find strange. Based on our guesses, the abnormal beast has already blocked off all internal and external communications in the lair, so how did those armed gang members manage to get the order from the Survival Committee?”
Wild Wolf was slightly stunned, and he narrowed his eyes.
“Let’s say that I’m an armed gang member on the other side of the river and that the news I received is that Leprosy Village’s Wild Wolf has taken many Deification Capsules and is completely mad now. He wants to bring thousands of villagers who have also taken Deification Capsules to rush out. Among them are a lot of people who joined the monsters, and some of them are even carriers of the mutated zombie virus.
“When ‘I’ really saw you charging out murderously, what would I do? I’d definitely fire without hesitation!
“Wild Wolf, do you really want this to happen?”
The wild light in Wild Wolf’s eyes sparkled nonstop.
The gunshots from both sides of the river became louder, and gradually, they were joined by the cries of the dying.
Boom! Boom, boom, boom!
Someone from the other side of the river was finally unable to hold back. His mind broke, and he increased his firepower by switching from normal bullets to grenade launchers.
b.a.l.l.s of fire exploded above the river of trash and ignited the miasma above it. Huge flames that shone with a bewitching light bloomed in the air.
There were also villagers on their side of the river who were unable to hold back. They gritted their teeth and switched from normal bullets to plague bullets that contained poisonous blood from monsters. Every bullet that landed on the other side would release green, poisonous bubbles that smelled sour and foul. They also made sizzling sounds.
There were a few unarmed elderly and sick on their side of the river. They were people who had decided to risk their lives to swim to the other side of the river but were chased back by the bullets.
Since they were too weak, before they even climbed up the bank, they were caught in the dense crossfire from both sides and were so terrified that they did not dare to raise their heads.
Fortunately for them, there was a lot of trash floating in the river. They gathered into tall piles, and these people grabbed onto the garbage, which allowed them to catch their breaths.
At that moment, the miasma had begun burning, and the grenades just kept exploding above the river and the embankment.
The elderly and sick panicked, but they had nowhere to run. They could only risk being shot as they tried to climb up the bank.
Meng Chao’s expression changed, and he said to Wild Wolf, “We’ll talk once we save them!”
Before Wild Wolf could react, Meng Chao headed to the place with the most grenades so that he could help the elderly and the weak who had sunk into the mud in the river and could not move.
The gangs across the river only intended to force the villagers back. They never thought about killing them.
But bullets were blind, and when there were so many of them crossing each other’s paths, a lot of the ricocheting bullets and shrapnel from the grenades once they exploded flew everywhere. Dozens of fatal shrapnel charged at the heads of the weak and elderly of Leprosy Village.
When their heads were about to be pierced by burning shards, Meng Chao shouted and punched the air, stirring up layers of air that diverted the shrapnels’ trajectory. They narrowly missed the elderly and landed in the loose mud.
“Come! I’ll take you away!”
Meng Chao pulled out the elderly folk from the mud and helped them climb out of the river.
“Big Brother Chao, I’ll help you!”
A’Ji had been following like a shadow all this while, and he showed a great sense of camaraderie by running over while facing the bullets head-on. He extended his young hands to Meng Chao.
Suddenly, the other side of the river fired a few grenades, and they exploded not far away from A’Ji.
Even though the grenades’ power was largely diminished because they sunk into the mud, the shockwave still threw the boy five meters away before he crashed to the ground.
“A’Ji!”
Meng Chao was furious. He grabbed a few stones that jumped up from the mud and wrapped them with his spirit energy. Then, he threw them violently to the other side.
Even though the largest stone was less than the size of a fist, when Meng Chao threw it with the monstrous strength granted to him by his spirit energy, it still looked like he had just fired a shot from a railway gun.
He did not intentionally aim at the armed people on the other side of the river but the bank with no one around, but the waves of air and the dust that he created still caused a temporary lag in the firepower from the other side.
Wild Wolf and the other Wild Wolves used that chance to save all the elderly and weak who were trapped in the mud.
Su Mulian quickly healed them.
“How is it? Is the kid okay?” Meng Chao paid attention to A’Ji, whose face was pale and whose eyes were shut while he lay in Su Mulian’s arms.
No matter what, this boy was connected to him through fate.
“He’s fine. He just has a mild concussion and some lacerations in his organs.” To Su Mulian, these were minor injuries that could be effortlessly healed.
As expected, as faint green energy flowed from her palm to the boy, and A’Ji’s face quickly gained a rosy hue.
His eyelashes fluttered, and he opened his eyes.
“Big Sis Mulian, you saved me again,” the boy said with an expression of bliss.
Meng Chao sighed in relief.
Then, his gaze froze for a second.
The shockwaves from the grenades had not just blasted A’Ji into the air. They also tore his cloak around shreds and revealed his thin body.
Even though A’ji soon used the tattered pieces of the cloak to cover his chest and Su Mulian brought a new cloak for him, during the one second he was not covered, Meng Chao saw a tattoo on A’Ji’s chest.
They were two intersecting eyes that shared a single pupil. They looked like an X, and the pupil shone with a bewitching light.
Meng Chao’s gaze only froze for one second before he relaxed and said as if nothing happened, “That’s a very beautiful tattoo.”
“Boss Feng forced me to get it.” A’Ji looked disgusted. He pout