Chapter 791.1: Inside Job

Beneath the ruins of a silent city in the southwestern part of Ocean Edge Province, ugly heads bobbed through the darkness.

Under the pitch-black night sky, bare-chested Mutant Humans pushed carts piled high with chunks of concrete and other construction debris, grunting as they hauled them toward the defensive positions under construction. At the worksite, even more Mutant Human laborers and diminutive Goblins toiled away under the urging lashes of their overseers. Using crude construction equipment, they packed the debris into woven sacks, then piled them together with crooked lengths of rebar to build shelters that were hardly sturdy, but just barely serviceable.

These reinforced-concrete ruins were among the few places beyond Heaven’s reach. After all, no matter how pervasive Na Fruit was, it still couldn’t grow on concrete.

And that wasn’t the only reason. The Torch Church’s most important research facility was nearby, and quite a few of its researchers were still living humans. The Church’s attitude toward those who had value and those who did not, and the treatment it afforded them was obviously quite different.

However, things had changed somewhat recently. As the situation on the front lines continued to deteriorate, the Torch Church had less and less attention to spare for the feelings of the personnel inside the facility. The researchers who had originally worked in Shelter 20 had once been allowed outside for fresh air every day, but ever since the Mutant Humans withdrew to the area, their opportunities to leave had grown fewer and fewer.

The Mutant Human tribe stationed in the region was the Flame Cave Tribe, which had once been active on Ten Peaks Mountain. Its leader was Boruto, and it commanded a force of more than 5,000. After Beast King’s defeat, it had retreated with its followers on the new leader’s orders to recuperate and rebuild their strength.

The Torch Church provided them with ample food, supplies, and human livestock for breeding, but when it came to constructing defensive positions, they had to do the work themselves. Fortunately, that was hardly difficult for them. Mutant Humans were naturally gifted at imitation and possessed the miraculous resourcefulness that could turn trash into treasure.

They had only needed to look at the coalition’s positions from afar before they could imitate them and build something similar, even modifying the design according to their own needs. The fortress they were constructing, for instance, looked like a monstrous beast made from a mountain of garbage. Not only was its surface covered in an interlocking maze of bunkers and watchtowers, but beneath the ground, tunnels of varying depths connected one after another.

Even so, their current situation could hardly be called optimistic. The New Alliance’s army had already landed along the coastline, and those humans would reach them sooner or later. They were running out of time. Before the battle began, they had to finish constructing shelters both above and below ground.

At the edge of the defensive position, several Goblins squatted beneath a ruined concrete building. One of them rubbed a stick between its hands, trying to use some dry twigs and leaves it had picked up to start a fire and roast a rat they had just caught and killed. However, just as smoke was about to rise from the pile of leaves, a broad palm suddenly smacked the back of its head, sending the Goblin flying.

The Goblin shrieked and jabbered, its voice filled with indescribable grievance and terror.

“The Apostle said no fires! The New Alliance is in the sky! They can see light on the ground!” the Mutant Human captain roared angrily. It strode forward, about to teach the Goblin a lesson it would never forget, when a hand reached over from the side and gripped its shoulder.

“I told them to start the fire.”

The Mutant Human turned its head and saw that the one holding its shoulder was a mechanically augmented warrior. The Mutant Human who had spoken was covered in bulging muscles, and half of its head was green flesh while the other half was silvery-gray metal.

Within the Flame Cave Tribe, Mutant Humans worthy of being called warriors were all formidable individuals of exceptional strength, and their status was no lower than that of captains or even commanders.

The captain narrowed its eyes. It was not afraid of the warrior, however, and merely warned, “Are you trying to defy the chieftain’s orders?”

The warrior stared right back without yielding and squeezed out each word through clenched teeth. “... Why should we listen to them? They’re humans too!”

The captain growled, “They’re different. They’ll help us!”

“Help us? You call this helping us? We fought for them and believed they could lead us to victory, but we’ve been losing all the way from Ten Peaks Mountain! We barely won a handful of battles the entire way! And now we’re reduced to living like savages, eating raw food like beasts! We’re not even allowed to cook our meat!”

The warrior stepped forward until its nose was almost touching the captain’s face and continued viciously, “Why did we have to provoke so many human things at once? Before the Torch Church stirred up this huge mess, they didn’t even have time to bother with us!”

The captain glared at the warrior provocatively. “You’re scared?”

The warrior was not angered by the provocation and simply glared back and snapped, “I’m not afraid of those human things. I just think there’s no need...”

Before it could finish, a sudden premonition of danger came from overhead. It happened in an instant, so quickly that the warrior had no time to react before the blast wave hurled it through the air. It only stopped when it slammed into a damaged concrete wall.

All that remained on the ground was a scattering of severed limbs. The captain who had been confronting it moments ago had vanished without a trace.

The warrior struggled upright and shook its head. Its terrified and bewildered eyes swept blankly across its surroundings, unable to understand what had just happened. All it could hear was a chorus of panicked screams throughout the defensive position.

It soon found out what had happened.

A flash of fire flickered in the sky. An instant later, a sharp whoosh tore through the air, followed almost simultaneously by another explosion that thundered across the position. The explosion struck a defensive position 100 meters to its left, blasting the laborers hauling construction materials straight into the air.

“RWRAAAG!”

Half-buried beneath a pile of rubble, the Mutant Human warrior let out an unwilling roar, trying to drive the fear from its chest and frighten away the threat in the sky.

It accomplished nothing. The thunderous cannon fire continued unabated.

What confused it, however, was that the fire had clearly never been lit. How were the New Alliance people aiming at them?!

...

At the same time, 1,000 meters above the ground, an Overlord transport aircraft circled through the sky, propelled by four streams of plasma exhaust. A thick, elongated cannon barrel protruded from its open side hatch.

Three players wearing exoskeletons stood behind the cannon. One was busy aiming, another was loading, while the third held a pair of binoculars and watched the impact point.

“Direct hit! Fuck, that shot took out at least 10!”

“Hahaha! Fucking hell, putting a 155mm gun on a plane is awesome!”

“Let me have a couple shots later...”

“Loaded!”

“FIRE!”

With a deafening blast, a long tongue of flame erupted from the side of the aircraft. The tremendous recoil even caused the enormous fuselage to sway slightly. Moments later, an explosion blossomed across the ground. Flames and dust swallowed more than a dozen Mutant Humans along with the Goblins beside them.

In truth, the Mutant Humans’ blackout precautions were completely pointless. Viewed from above through thermal imaging sights, every glowing humanoid figure stood out as brightly as an LED lamp.

Some of the smarter ones began lying flat on the ground and pretending to be dead. The less intelligent ones swarmed toward a building instead.

“Load a bunker buster! Quick!” With his eye pressed against the sight, Ice and Fire shouted to the loader behind him before turning the winch and training the sight on a low concrete bunker.

At least 30 or 40 Mutant Humans had run into that place earlier, with several more jammed at the entrance because they couldn’t squeeze inside. Clearly, none of them realized just how stupid their behavior was.

After calculating the lead, he pulled the firing line without hesitation. The smoke from the shot once again blended into the clouds outside the cabin.

The shell struck the roof of the bunker dead-on. The primary warhead detonated first, blasting open the concrete shelter, and the secondary warhead exploded immediately afterward, making the entire structure shudder.

But then something astonishing happened. The shell clearly only had two warheads, yet the building it struck suffered a third explosion. The final explosion was anything but small. A rapid series of crackling detonations sounded like firecrackers, and a dazzling burst of flame blew the entire concrete building apart. Debris from the explosion was hurled nearly 100 meters into the air.

Not only were the greenskins hiding inside and crowding around the entrance blown to pieces, but even Mutant Humans and Goblins 50 meters away were mowed down by the shockwave and shrapnel.

Holding up his binoculars, Delicious Ducky’s eyes widened as he exclaimed, “Holy shit... Did we just set off an ammunition depot?!”

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