Chapter 853: Chapter 853
Tang Zheng led Yang Wei back to the team, only to see them on high alert, and Lu Fan squatting beside a Lizardman corpse, prodding its head with his gun muzzle.
"There are even Beastmen, what kind of world is this?" Lu Fan wiped the rain off his face, "Could there be Amazon Cannibals too?"
"Let’s take shelter from the rain first." A few hundred meters away from the land of corpses, Tang Zheng deployed an Infantry Armored Car, and Lu Fan brought out five cars, into which everyone took refuge.
As Tang Zheng’s team took shelter from the heavy rain, the other four teams were doing the same. They didn’t waste time, cramming knowledge into the newbies, trying to teach them how to kill in the shortest time possible.
Caught in the heavy rain, Fleischer’s team was rather unlucky. They were besieged by Lizardmen; however, the quick-reacting Dortmund soccer fans inside the war chariot immediately used the large-caliber machine gun to overturn them, bullets spraying, creating a ground littered with torn corpses.
Xu Changtai’s main squad hadn’t encountered battle yet, but they had lost a member—an old man who couldn’t keep up physically fell behind and then never caught up.
The old man unfortunate enough to encounter Lizardmen didn’t even have a chance to open fire before being taken down by a dart poisoned with anesthetic.
A Lizardman appeared, drawing a dagger, and slashed across his neck.
"No." The old man was like a chicken with its neck wrung, unable to make a sound, watching helplessly as his blood flowed out, drunk by a Lizardman who then caught the rest in a bag.
The Lizardmen were hunting, and after draining the old man’s blood, they skillfully dismembered his body, each carrying away a piece of raw flesh.
The Lizardman holding the head indulged in greed, gouging out the two eyeballs and eating them, as if savoring a delicacy.
A middle-aged woman, weak in her legs and waist, fell behind, propping herself against a large tree to catch her breath when hundreds of toxic insects, the size of fingernails and unnameable, were disturbed. They crawled out from beneath the bark and climbed onto her body from her armature.
The middle-aged woman cried for help, desperately swatting at them, but to no avail. The poisonous bugs climbed onto her head and cheeks, piercing the skin, injecting venom. In less than ten seconds, her body was paralyzed, unable to even speak, forced to watch as the bugs crawled into her body through her ears, mouth, and nostrils, gnawing at her viscera.
The middle-aged woman was eaten alive, her death very tragic. A day later, her entire body was hollowed out, leaving just an empty skin. New ɴᴏᴠᴇʟ ᴄhapters are published on NovєlFіre.net
The newbies heard the middle-aged woman’s cries for help, but no one turned back; they no longer dared to fall behind. Despite their exhaustion, they persevered.
The death was merely that of a burdensome newcomer. Xu Changtai didn’t care. When the heavy rain came, he deployed two war chariots, inviting the soldiers inside to take shelter, while for the newbies, he just threw them a field tent and left them to their own devices.
In the heavy rain, the inexperienced newbies couldn’t possibly pitch the tent properly. They could only squat on the ground, covering their heads with the tent to hide from the rain, but a lot of water still poured into their collars. It was cold, and they shivered from the chill.
Foot-trapping mud forced the newbies to move. They climbed onto the war chariot, and this time, Xu Changtai didn’t stop them. It was because of this that they didn’t lose anyone when the Lizardmen attacked.
Huangfu Xiong manned the machine gun, mowing down the Lizardmen. His expression unchanged, he had long grown accustomed to this carnage. In fact, on a rainy day, he wished he could pull a university girl into his war chariot for some fun, surely that would be delightful. But considering his physical strength and the potential impact, he restrained himself.
Looking at the corpses scattered all around, the newbies all wondered what it would be like to be with another squad. Some female newbies stood in the rain, looking at the endless jungle, feeling boundless panic, and began to cry.
"That group leader even looks after kids; he definitely won’t neglect us," said one girl, causing everyone to sigh with regret.
Yang Fengshu, the shrew, cursed foully. She had intended to pretend to be weak in the legs so college students would support her, but no one paid her any attention. At this moment, under Xu Changtai’s heartless influence, everyone started to look out for themselves, becoming selfish.
"What’s all this noise? Are you looking to die?" Yaoyao was impatient, cursing at Yang Fengshu.
"We’re hungry, do you have any food?" Yang Fengshu, with a smile on her face, seized the opportunity to ask for food, showing no dignity.
Yaoyao wasn’t going to let them starve; she took out some food from her Space Wristwatch and threw it towards the opposite Infantry Armored Car from her car window. But the food fell short, dropping to the ground.
"Haha, sorry, but that’s all I have left. If you don’t mind the dirt, pick it up and eat," Yaoyao said mockingly, her evil taste evident as she watched Yang Fengshu. Following someone like Xu Changtai had changed her; she couldn’t become a kind girl.
"Don’t mind, don’t mind at all." Inside, Yang Fengshu cursed loudly, but she dared not show the slightest dissatisfaction on her face, and still had to put on a smile.
"Stupid bitch." Yaoyao suddenly turned hostile, cursing a word and closed the car window.
Heavy rain pelted down, affecting visibility, but it wasn’t all drawbacks, as at least the squads had deployed their own reconnaissance methods, and there was no need to worry about being sniped.
"You guys wait here; I’ll go check it out myself." The heavy rain showed no sign of stopping, and Tang Zheng couldn’t wait, so he decided to take solo action.
"It’s too dangerous, I’ll go with you," Lu Fan didn’t want to separate from Tang Zheng, and Xin Lan, the old soldier, also voiced opposition.
"It’s settled then, I’ll be back in no more than five hours," Tang Zheng refused, suited up in his Iron Hellfire armor, thrusters at full power, and headed towards the center of the island marked on the map. Breaking the sound barrier, the rainwater left a clear trail in the sky, which quickly vanished.
"Damn it, Fanfan also wants Hellfire," Lu Fan pouted, kicking the car wall with her calf in frustration.
The infrared detector flashed with red dots non-stop, a symbol of the vibrant tropical rainforest. In less than a minute, Tang Zheng saw the dilapidated castle, covered with green plants and thick thorny vines concealing it.
After flying around, Tang Zheng landed in the rainforest and hid for five minutes. After ascertaining there was no danger, he began moving toward the castle.
A few minutes earlier, Fleischer and the woman in leather clothes had also landed nearby in their power armor, entering through the castle’s rear entrance.
"Captain, what do we do?" The brown-haired man, clad in camouflage, held a telescope, observing the castle; he spotted Tang Zheng during this time.
"Wait," Landeck wasn’t in a hurry, ready to reap the benefits of the fishermen; everyone who came had power armor, a symbol of elite forces, something ordinary Conquerors couldn’t afford.
The castle’s iron gate was rusted and overgrown with plants. With a heavy Magnetostorm Rifle in hand, Tang Zheng pushed the gate with his foot, but as soon as he touched it, it fell with a bang, kicking up a large splash and scattering many bugs.
Tang Zheng entered the courtyard with its stone material floor weathered, covered with green moss, and slippery with water. Once sure that no one was there, he sprinted quickly toward a statue thirty meters away, trying to avoid startling any monsters.
"Could it be they’re waiting for me to enter the castle for an ambush?" Though there were no corpses or bloodstains in the courtyard, a battle had clearly taken place here. Some plants were broken by bullets, and there were empty casings on the ground―all clues to the recent events. However, Tang Zheng, bold and skilled, saw no reason to retreat.
Climbing the steps and peering through the damaged door, Tang Zheng slipped inside. A smell mixed with dampness and rotting wood assailed his nostrils, along with a pungent stench that resembled that of a corpse.
Tang Zheng pulled on his hood and fastened his helmet, revealing only his eyes. He no longer had to worry about aimlessly and wastefully searching, there was fresh blood on the ground.
Following the blood, Tang Zheng walked through the corridor to an underground entrance surrounded by chaotic footprints of humans, Lizardmen, and a three-pronged shape that seemed to belong to the ventral feet of some insect.
Tang Zheng switched to a helmet equipped with a headlamp, holding the flashlight in his left hand and the gun in his right, resting on the back of his hand as he slowly descended.
"Right now, I’m like a beacon in the black night; if I get sniped, that would be quite a sight," he mused as he entered the underground passage. Darkness enveloped him like a great net, and even Tang Zheng felt a bit oppressed by the square passage, only three meters wide, reminiscent of a cage. Not knowing where it ended caused an inexplicable panic.
Every hundred meters, there was a turn. Although imperceptible, Tang Zheng knew the passage sloped downward. After three minutes, to conserve energy, Tang Zheng summoned his Velociraptor mount and rode it. And in a critical moment, he could also use it as a meat shield.
Tang Zheng abandoned the idea of throwing out Remote Control Bombs to trap anyone following him. The building was too old; one wrong explosion could cause a collapse and trap him as well.
The walls around him were square metal plates with tiny holes designed to spray lasers when in defensive mode. But without electric power, they were useless, and the cameras every fifty meters naturally couldn’t operate either.
After about three thousand meters, the passage ended and Tang Zheng appeared in front of a large door. He estimated he was about sixty to seventy meters underground.
The door was ajar, and Tang Zheng easily entered without being attacked, which momentarily put him at ease. But as he turned his flashlight, its beam revealed a pair of the narrow eyes characteristic of cold-blooded animals, staring intently at him.
Sounds of slicing air came from above and beside him as the Lizardmen launched their attack.
Tang Zheng sprang backward while opening fire, and a Thunderball burst forth, blowing away the Lizardman in front. He was sure there were no enemies behind him.
With a flick of his right hand, the spinning flashlight kept the beam moving, sweeping across those cold-blooded Lizardmen and dazzling their eyes, momentarily halting their advance.
The S-Class Firearms were powerful, and with only three shots, he cleared a swath of space. Not wanting to waste bullets, Tang Zheng pulled out a Gatling Machine Gun with one hand, firing a burst while activating his Light Defense Shield.
The Lizardmen screamed as they were struck, but just when Tang Zheng thought he had eradicated them and was about to check around, gunshots suddenly rang out; the enemy had been attacked from behind.
(To be continued. If you work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to cast your recommendation votes and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)