Chapter 347: Raising Reward
Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
Whoos.h.!.+
In the defense circle, some kind of device shot out purple-red biohazard gas and covered the entire camp. Poisonous gas was the best form of attack for this kind of tiny insects in large numbers. This specially made poisonous gas was very strong—even flying insects that could endure fire would fall to the ground after tens of seconds, then struggle till their death.
This time, thunderous roars appeared, and enormous beasts with an average height of more than ten meters charged forward together with the swarm. The beast wave at the last stage was much more terrifying than the previous stages. These beasts were all species at the top of the food chain in Planet Sunil—Bone Armor War Elephants that stood tens of meters tall, Lava Flying Serpents that breathed scorching fire from their mouths, and many more. It would take a defense team at least twenty seconds of focus fire to kill one beast.
The poisonous gas was everywhere. It was a weapon to kill the swarm, but it was also a double-edged sword. If the armor of a soldier were torn open by the beasts, they would also be affected when they were exposed in the poisonous gas. Even though every soldier’s armor was equipped with the antidote, it would only delay the effect of the poison and make it non-lethal. However, it would still paralyze the person affected. The Sunils’ technology could not formulate a poisonous gas that was only effective on insects, so they could only use strong biohazard gas.
While the gas was a double-edged sword, it was the only way to deal with these flying bugs. A group of them could suck a Sunil completely dry in half a second, so they absolutely could not let them enter the city or it would be a horrifying disaster. They had to stop it outside the city no matter what. At the last stage of the Catastrophe, everyone had to fight in the poisonous gas—the situation was truly worse.
The two outermost lines of defense were already about half destroyed after the previous two stages, and this was the Sunils’ disadvantage as well. The beast wave approached the defense team camp against the cannon and fire.
The ground shook violently, and a Bone Armor War Elephant charged toward B12 Defense Team in an overwhelming form. Even Neville, who had iron will, could not help but be nervous because of the pressure from its enormous size. At this moment, a large stream of light covered in electric sparks descended from the sky, blasting half of the Bone Armor War Elephant’s body away, and its flesh splashed onto the ground. Neville looked up—this stream of light had left a distorted mark across the sky, and its ending was connected to the battles.h.i.+p.
The nine battles.h.i.+ps in the sky finally fired after doing nothing for half a mouth. Blue light surged in the Electromagnetic Rail Cannons, shooting out bullets covered in electric sparks, picking only enormous beasts as targets, reducing the pressure on the ground immediately.
The battle broke up instantly. Deafening cannon fire and electric spark shone across the battlefield. The beast wave was unending, and the stench and metallic smell of blood were pungent. The defense team fired wildly while firelight illuminated on the corpses of soldiers and carca.s.ses of beasts all over the floor. The losses on both sides were huge!
Clank!
In the B12 Defense Team camp, a more than ten-meter-long pure purple Thunder Leopard moved quickly like a flash of purple lightning, cutting through one of the defense soldiers’ armor, slas.h.i.+ng the soldier inside in half as well. Neville ignored it and commanded his subordinates to focus fire with a serious face. He only had twelve subordinates left—the loss was more than half.
“Do not be shaken, defend the camp!” Neville ordered coldly and harshly.
Countless bullets shot into the thick hide of the Thunder Leopard, spaying out blood. The Thunder Leopard growled as it pounced around, killing every soldier. Soon, Neville was the last one left. The Thunder Leopard was still very healthy, and the countless fresh vital signs far in the city were extremely luring to this Thunder Leopard, which was bloodthirsty in nature.
Just as the Thunder Leopard was about to cross the line of defense, Neville immediately stood in front of it, firing his machine gun. After seeing the Thunder Leopard killing the soldiers so easily, he knew that he was definitely not a match, but he still tried to stop the Thunder Leopard without any hesitation.
The duty of the Defense Team was carved deep in his bones—not allowing any beast to cross the line of defense he was in charge of!
As long as no order came from above, he would never back off.
The Thunder Leopard growled with anger and pounced toward Neville. Controlling the NCO Cla.s.s armor, Neville engaged with it, rolling around dodging and leaving wounds on the Thunder Leopard one after another. He slid from below the Thunder Leopard’s abdomen and dodged its claws. Just as he was about to stand up, he felt an extreme pain on his left arm; the Thunder Leopard had turned its head around in a very strange way and bitten through his arm armor.
The poisonous gas streamed in from the hole. Neville felt piercing pain from his skin, which quickly turned into the numbness of being poisoned. As he held his breath, the antidote was injected into his wrist, and a sense of burning flew through his body.
“After injecting the antidote, the poison effect will be delayed for about two minutes. If I hold my breath, I should be able to last ten more seconds… I have to kill this beast within this time.” Neville’s expression was cold. Even though he was poisoned, he still prioritized stopping the enemy; he had put his life aside long ago.
The man and the beast fought each other. Neville abandoned the bulky machine gun, favoring the saw on his wrist and the cannon and rockets embedded into the armor to fight. After dozens of seconds of heated combat, both parties were covered in wounds. Neville started to feel his body getting stiff, and his head was becoming heavy. It seemed that the effect of excessive blood loss and poisoning was starting to get to him.
Neville suddenly stopped moving. The Thunder Leopard pounced over, and he did not dodge, letting the Thunder Leopard press him against the ground and penetrating his chest and abdomen with its claws.
Plop…
Blood spurted out from his mouth, but Neville endured the pain. One of his hands stabbed into the Thunder Leopard’s neck and tightly hung onto the Thunder Leopard; his other hand reached into the Thunder Leopard’s mouth and fired wildly. He knew his movements were too slow, so he had given up his life and used himself as a bait.
The Thunder Leopard twisted itself in agony. It bit off the arm inside its mouth, then slashed its claws down on Neville in a frenzy. Neville was heavily injured, incapable of moving despite the huge claw expanding in his sights.
“This day has finally come for me…” he murmured calmly.
Just as the claw was about to slam down, Neville saw an enormous blinding electric fire descending.
The next moment, Neville and the Thunder Leopard were both covered by the light of the Electromagnetic Rail Cannon.
…
The tragic battle ended. On the first day of the last stage of the Catastrophe, the losses were heavy. Dozens of fighter jets fell, and even the energy s.h.i.+elds of two battles.h.i.+ps were almost shattered by the countless enormous flying beasts.
“Such a horrifying battle.”
“This is the first time I’ve seen something so large-scale. I’ll never accept this kind of job again.”
Fear still lingered in the hearts of the mercenaries as they gasped for breath. Many corpses of the other mercenaries lay on the floor.
Han Xiao repaired equipment after equipment. He did not need to take part in the battle directly; after all, in such a dangerous situation, even he was not confident about staying safe, applying for the repairing job was also because he did not want to take the risk. He was there to earn the reward, so it was okay as long as he utilized his abilities and helped; he would not really give his life to other organizations because of money.
During the rare calm period, another group of scouts returned, and all the players came back. The expression on everyone’s face was relaxed, like they did not carry out a dangerous mission but went sightseeing instead. Being in dangerous areas gave no stress to the players at all—they would revive anyway. Although there was a limit to the number of times, most of these people were pro players. Of course, they knew to monitor their times of death.
They were already at max level, so losing some experience was nothing, and the mission reward would cover that loss anyway. Furthermore, it was more useful to earn the universe currency.
The people of Black Star gathered, and after sizing them up, the mercenaries around immediately realized something shocking.
“It looks like they did not lose anyone!”
“What? Every single one came back alive‽”
The mercenaries were completely shocked and curious. They hastily asked from the other members of the scout team and got the answer that these people would revive. Their expressions quickly turned into envy and fear. In the universe, Supers that would not die were the most difficult enemies, and no one dared to take them lightly.
“This mercenary group is entirely made of Immortals!”
“Wow…”
These mercenaries remembered the name of Black Star Mercenary Group, a mercenary group with all members that could not die. In their professional perspective, this mercenary group would become extremely popular in the near future.
Black Star Mercenary Group’s name was reported to the superiors of the military, and they took it very seriously. Immortals were most suitable for reconnaissance, and it could largely reduce the loss of the scout team. Therefore, the military general found Han Xiao personally, talked to him in a very sincere tone, and placed himself lower than Han Xiao, completely different from when he talked to other mercenaries.
What the army expressed was that they hoped the Black Star Mercenary Group would not take s.h.i.+fts and rest. They wanted the group to go scouting ahead once again. Most importantly, they promised to definitely raise the reward—such useful help definitely deserved better treatment. Thus, the army actively requested to raise the reward because they were afraid that the Black Star Mercenary Group would reject the request.
The mission reward increased to 12,000 Enas, a fifty percent increase. Han Xiao accepted it on the spot, and the bitter players started a new round of reconnaissance. According to the time, it was also the last round of reconnaissance.
The corpses from the battlefield were transported back for their family members or friends to claim. Han Xiao realized that Neville was dead and felt a little emotional; after all, this was someone that he knew.
The family member who came to claim him was a woman, wailing loudly. Han Xiao asked the other soldiers and came to know that this woman was Neville’s wife. Apparently, Neville also had a young kid at home.
…
In Forest City, most people stayed in front of their televisions and watched the live report of the battlefield situation. In such a crisis, the media did not report any fake information at all; they were all the true situation. In an extremely nervous state, they were still able to barely hold on.
The bar did not open. Herlous sat in the attic, watching the report from the television, and drinking alcohol nonstop. Images of the tragic battlefield flashed one after another. Suddenly feeling inexplicably upset, he placed his bottle down, left the bar, and strolled through the streets.
The streets were quiet—there were no pedestrians.
After walking aimlessly for a while, he heard a faint argument. As a grade B Super, although he had not fought for so many years, his sharp senses had not deteriorated. Out of sudden interest, Herlous followed the sound and came to the outside of a building. It was close to the bar, and the sound of argument became clearer as he neared.
“I will reach the required age for the army in a few days. I’m joining the army!”
The voice sounded familiar, like he heard it from someone before. Herlous was a little curious, so he hid and jumped onto the balcony, peeping inside through the window. He realized that he did know the person talking—it was the person who beat up the drunk man in the bar a few days ago, Lana.
Lana was arguing with his parents. Their clothes were all rather poor—they were civilians in low positions. Lana’s parents were very anxious at this moment.
“Joining the army is suicide. I won’t allow you to go!”