Chapter 754.1: I AM THE TIDE

Within the dense gray-green fog, a ten-man squad armed to the teeth advanced cautiously.

Each soldier wore fully sealed exoframe. Some carried compact G9 Black Swan assault rifles, others shouldered Gauss rifles fitted with extended magnetic rails, while a few had a pair of short, thick portable rocket launchers strapped across their backs.

At the center of the formation rolled a three-meter-wide unmanned tracked vehicle. Mounted atop it was a remote weapon station bearing a menacing 20mm autocannon, with a 60mm short-barreled automatic grenade launcher hanging beneath the barrel.

Its silver-white paint scheme looked utterly out of place amid the bleak surroundings, but no one dared question the squad's firepower.

Only a few days earlier, the Highest Council had finally approved a new batch of equipment procurement, purchasing Long Axe Group's stockpile of top-tier weapons.

Perhaps the horrific casualties on the front lines had finally shocked the Highest Council into silence. No one was still spouting idiotic nonsense like: "We're fighting enemies without exoframe. Our soldiers don't need Gauss rifles, they just need to tell the aircraft where to bomb."

Thanks to that, Tang Feng had finally gotten his hands on the sniper rifle he had dreamed of. Though at that point, he wasn't particularly interested in it anymore. All those fancy specifications meant nothing. When it came to staying alive, the best weapon was simply the one he was the most comfortable using.

"... Where are we now?"

"Ocean Edge Province."

"Ocean Edge Province? So this is Ocean Edge Province? I thought we'd landed on Mars." The machine gunner carrying a light machine gun glanced at the faded, tattered tourist poster in his hand before looking toward the broken elevated highway ahead and the rusted freeway sign lying crooked among piles of shattered concrete.

[Lai Peak City - 5 kilometers ahead]

Ahead lay Lai Peak City, the first stop after entering Ocean Edge Province.

Only, there was no city to be seen. As far as the eye could reach, there was nothing but ruin and desolation. The land seemed less like Earth and more like the surface of a dead planet. Beneath the pitch-black soil flowed a dark emerald slurry, like rivers of magma splitting apart hell itself. Corrosion from the Na Fruit had seeped into every inch of the land.

Not a single living tree remained. There wasn’t even a blade of grass.

The dead trunks standing across the wasteland resembled weathered skeletons bleached by centuries. Every last trace of nourishment had been stripped away to sustain the true master of this land, the Na Fruit.

Conditions in the Ocean Edge Province were even worse than in the Manor Guardian Plains.

Or rather, the hell they had witnessed there had merely been the tip of the iceberg compared to the true inferno.

Curling his lips slightly, the machine gunner tossed the tourist poster aside.

Nearby, a rifleman knelt and removed a test tube from the sample kit at his waist before routinely collecting a soil sample rich in Na Fruit.

That was one of the assignments given to them by the frontline research institute. After entering Ocean Edge Province, they were to collect one soil sample every 100 meters they advanced.

Their primary mission, however, was to reconnoiter the outskirts of the urban ruins in Northern Position One and determine the enemy's location.

It sounded like work better suited to drones, but unfortunately, drones had already flown over the area several times. They hadn't found people. They hadn't even found a single living creature. The most reasonable conclusion was that the Torch Church had probably exterminated everything across this nearly 670,000 square kilometer province.

Of course, there was another possibility. The people had simply been hidden away.

After all, breeding mutants required humans. Project Complete Human experiments also required humans. Although clones could solve part of the problem, when scale, cost, and every other practical consideration were taken into account, naturally born humans were still far cheaper.

Besides, the land had already become hell on earth. Unlike the Great Desert, it wasn't filled with all sorts of Prosperity Era technology. No one could realistically expect a massive power station, thousands of skilled technicians, and a state-of-the-art cloning facility to still be operating.

If that were actually the case, things would have been much simpler. A single nuclear missile would be enough to wipe the Torch Church off the face of the earth.

Unfortunately, those monsters had no need for industry. They required neither electricity nor consumer goods. At most, they maintained a handful of scattered workshops to modify weapons better suited to themselves.

According to the joint analysis of the coalition, the Torch Church likely controlled several shelters that served as research facilities, along with a number of black boxes possessing specialized functions.

That also explained why they were able to field equipment whose technological sophistication far exceeded what Ocean Edge Province's current industrial conditions should have made possible, despite lacking any large-scale manufacturing capability.

"... I heard Lai Peak City was famous for its hot springs." Picking up the discarded tourist poster, one of the soldiers glanced at it and chuckled. "Says they're out in the suburbs... should be somewhere near us."

The soldier beside him whistled and teased, "You planning on taking a soak? I heard the people infected are still lying in the Cloud University research institute."

"Haha... on second thought, maybe not."

The squad chatted idly over their communication channel.

Standing on the edge of the formation, Tang Feng suddenly frowned.

The dark emerald fluid flowing beneath the soil seemed to be converging toward them. The movement was incredibly subtle, but the bionic implant adhered to his retina had already recorded the motion.

Numbers didn't lie.

He disengaged his rifle's safety and slowly aimed toward a section of ruined buildings shrouded in gray mist.

"Contact!"

The chatter on the communication channel ceased instantly. The soldiers immediately spread out into defensive positions. One heavy infantryman rapidly unfolded the collapsible shield strapped to his back and slammed it into the ground, forming a fan-shaped barricade.

The machine gunner hurried behind it, rested his light machine gun atop the firing slit, and shouted over his shoulder. "Machine gun position ready!"

Nearby, the drone operator crouched low. His backpack emitted two loud pops. Two folded quadcopters launched into the air, flipped several times to stabilize themselves, then shot into the fog like arrows released from a bowstring.

"Drones airborne! Sweeping nearby area..."

"... No moving targets detected!"

The squad's marksman peered through his Gauss rifle's thermal optic and saw that the screen showed nothing. He frowned and looked back at Tang Feng before sighing. "Did you see it wrong?"

"It's underground!" Tang Feng took a deep breath. "That dark green slime... it's gathering beneath us. I've got a really bad feeling."

The squad leader walked over to the drone operator and patted him on the shoulder. Understanding immediately, the operator shared one drone's video feed with him. Putting on a visor resembling a pair of glasses over his helmet, the squad leader guided the drone in a slow circle.

Through the aerial view, he carefully observed the dark green slurry covering the entire landscape. Soon, his brows furrowed.

Just as Tang Feng had said, the green mass was pulsating with a steady rhythm. It seemed to be channeling some unknown force toward a point directly beneath their feet.

Viewed from directly overhead, the pattern became far more obvious and far more spectacular.

The drone footage was simultaneously projected onto every squad member's tactical visor and a rifleman swallowed hard. "I heard some organs don't get used normally... and only fill with blood when they're needed."

"... Damn. I've got a bad feeling too." The squad leader gulped as his expression became increasingly grim. He immediately reported the situation to headquarters before shouting over their communication channel, "Mission aborted! Prepare to withdraw...!"

Almost the instant the words left his mouth, a rustling sound emerged from within the dense fog, like cicadas suddenly beginning to sing in autumn.

Tang Feng caught sight of a fleeting shadow. Acting on pure instinct, he raised his rifle and fired without hesitation.

Ratatatatata...

Orange muzzle flashes erupted and tracer rounds instantly tore through the black figure bursting from the mist.

It was a half-human, half-dog monster, its body emaciated like a dried sausage. Its bald face and skull looked as though they had been horribly burned.

Several rounds struck its chest and it let out a piercing howl as dark green blood sprayed from the wounds.

Yet even then, it didn't stop. Running on all fours, it charged directly toward the Enterprise squad.

At that moment, a magnetically accelerated kinetic round punched through the top of its skull before exiting between its legs. Its body exploded as though fed into an industrial meat grinder. The enormous kinetic energy blew it apart into a cloud of black-green blood mist. Its mangled limbs scattered across the ground while the blood mist slowly dispersed into the surrounding fog.

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