Author: 年终 / Nian Zhong

Translator: Kinky || https://kinkytranslations.com/

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Chapter 108: Stalemate

Shu Jun adjusted his movements cautiously, constantly sensing Sigma’s actions. On the surface, it seemed like they had the advantage, but realistically, considering the situation, Sigma hadn’t truly started yet.

Sigma’s lifespan was likely over a hundred years, and its collection abilities were indispensable. Not every ability could be used for combat, but it couldn’t be possible for it to only possess three noteworthy combat skills—Luo Duan certainly still held some hidden cards.

Not to mention the Erosion Swamps with brains acting as the main offensive force, the number of regular Erosion Swamp had already reached hundreds. They were approaching Y City from various directions, trying to find a way to penetrate deeper into the city. The numerous breaches caused by Shu Jun’s previous actions hadn’t been repaired yet, and the Erosion Swamps overflowed the buildings around the city, relentlessly squeezing towards the city center.

Yi Ning couldn’t stop them.

The human forces dispatched outside the city were limited, and they were already giving their all to hold back the three Erosion Swamps with brains. Zhu Yanchen took the most elite soldiers with him, forming a small team. Yi Ning ordered the remaining soldiers to guard the largest breach, tightly holding the new weapons in their hands.

“Marshal Yi, there is more than one breach! Shu Jun damaged dozens of sections of the protective wall a few days ago, and there are still those remaining Erosion Swamps…”

“Guard the most dangerous one,” Yi Ning said hoarsely. “He didn’t bring Xia Liang with him, and Zhu Sheng is also in the city. There must still be defenders inside the city. If we try to intercept everything outside the city, even if our manpower is increased tenfold, it wouldn’t be enough.”

“But—”

“If we don’t divert these Erosion Swamps and let them flood in through the same breach, the people inside won’t be able to handle it.”

When it came to regular Erosion Swamps, as long as purifiers could be utilized, ordinary people could barely handle them with adequate protection. But facing such a large army of monsters in front of them, the chances of regular citizens winning were absolutely zero.

Zhu Yanchen’s team had long disappeared from sight, and seeing their successful advancement, people in their hearts felt a sense of luck to varying degrees—since the weapons in their hands made no difference, as long as they were careful, the things in front of them would be easily dealt with.

However, it was ultimately just wishful thinking.

The creatures made of erosion surged continuously. Yi Ning gritted his teeth and decided to confront the horde in front of him using the methods employed against mutant beasts.

The escort team took the lead, using armored vehicles equipped with suppression weapons to crush the creatures. This method proved effective initially. However, the cooling parts of the vehicles quickly attracted the floating erosion spheres. They swarmed towards the rear of the vehicles, one after another, and exploded. The vehicles themselves were heavy and found it difficult to maneuver agilely to evade these spheres. It was as if a rain of erosion substance fell from above each vehicle, with liquid erosion continuously splattering into the seams of the vehicles’ equipment, rapidly eroding the mechanical structures. The heavy armored vehicles gradually came to a halt in their original positions.

Coming to a stop wasn’t the main concern; the swarming horde enveloped the massive vehicles and began to squeeze into their interiors. Their bodies seemed like they were made of rubbery clay, able to forcefully squeeze through gaps less than an inch wide.

Inside the armored vehicles, a powerful short-range communication system was set up. However, after the vehicles came to a stop, the calm reports gradually turned into panicked shouts, followed by weak moans. By the time three or four creatures squeezed into the vehicles, there was only silence left inside.

They were submerged in the pitch-black Erosion Swamp, eroded and marred, like ships sinking into the depths of the sea.

All eight large armored vehicles were wiped out—the entire process lasting no more than ten minutes. The randomly floating spheres continued to collide with the wreckage of the vehicles, and the splattered erosion substance continued to erode the purifiers of the operators.

In just a short ten minutes, they only managed to slightly delay the advance of the horde of monsters. More spheres floated in from the grayish mist, and the contorted creatures took another step forward, heading towards the city center of Y City.

Yi Ning’s ears rang, and it felt like his heart had jumped into his throat. Having witnessed the battles of synthetic humans too often, he had developed the mistaken impression that the Erosion Swamps weren’t that formidable. They had underestimated what lay before them; in an instant, they had lost eight vehicles and twenty-four soldiers.

This was only the beginning, and the lives of those people disappeared like bubbles.

The human soldiers hadn’t experienced real war in a long time, and seeing the devastation before them, Yi Ning could sense the drop in morale. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a better solution—

“Advance, marksmen! Purify the floating spheres first and set up suppression weapons in place. They will come to us!”

This was also one of the standard tactics, frequently employed by Luo Duan to deal with flying mutant beasts. Yi Ning glanced at the situation and followed suit.

However, the current environment was highly unusual. The range of the suppression weapons was limited, and as the troops advanced as required, aiming and firing in unison, the countless black spheres that filled the sky were reduced to their erosion substance form. However, there were tens of thousands of these spheres, flickering like ghostly flames, continuously approaching from a distance. Relying on the marksmen to eliminate them, it was visibly impossible to clear them all.

Indeed, the speed of the troops’ reactions couldn’t match the speed at which the spheres flew towards them. Many tracking spheres attached themselves to the necks of the marksmen and exploded, taking lives with each blast. Many people tried to retreat and find new cover, but the floating spheres, carried by the airflow, suddenly appeared in their path, once again exploding into a mass of destruction.

The scene was even worse than the armored vehicles being overrun. Living beings were blasted into pieces, their bodies eroded, dying in agony right before their eyes. The vivid red blood flowed into the erosion substance, instantly turning a lifeless gray.

After having climbed to this position all the way, Yi Ning wasn’t on the verge of collapsing because of this. The tragic scene flickered on the screen, and he even held his breath—

It hadn’t been half an hour since Zhu Yanchen left. Judging by the speed of the advancing horde of monsters, in just another half hour, they would break through the escort team and enter Y City directly.

They wouldn’t even be able to buy much time. Sacrifices were coming too quickly, and Yi Ning didn’t dare to directly deploy the main force of the troops into the battlefield.

What should they do?

The monsters continued to advance, unhurriedly traversing the wet mud and bypassing the damaged buildings.

Tap, tap, tap.

No matter how he thought about it, he couldn’t come up with a way to minimize the sacrifices. Did he really have to let these people risk their lives and gamble with their very existence?

Tap, tap, tap.

The escort team maintained the most conservative formation—using the vehicles as cover, placing the suppression weapons externally, and using maximum power for defense, creating an invisible shell. For now, with not many monsters around, this crude method barely managed to hold them off. But the pressure on the frontlines was increasing, and without a better solution, collapse was only a matter of time.

In the temporarily formed command group, no one spoke. Yi Ning had the most theoretical experience among them, but even so, humans had hit a wall from the beginning. Everyone could only look silently at the screens, seemingly hoping for Zhu Yanchen’s mission to succeed and these things to disappear on their own.

“How about… we let some of them in? That way, we can cut them off in the middle, reducing the pressure,” one person dryly suggested. “Zhu Sheng should have more ways to deal with it than we do. Even if it means sacrificing some civilians, I think it would be more reasonable.”

“No, we already have enough ordinary Erosion Swamp entering the city center.” Yi Ning gritted his teeth. “And no one can guarantee that there aren’t any hidden ‘sentient Erosion Swamp’ among the ordinary ones. The pressure in the city center is likely significant; we can’t do it this way.”

Another silence fell over the command group.

“So what should we do then?” The person who had spoken before spoke again, his voice now tinged with fear and anger. “This isn’t peacetime, and it can’t be solved by just chanting slogans. Marshal Yi, if you say it can’t be done, then come up with a solution!”

“Yeah, we can’t defend against so many. If we don’t find a better way, they will overwhelm us in one fell swoop, and the consequences will be even more severe.”

“…That’s true. One can’t bite off more than they can chew. Just letting some of them in, with Zhu Sheng having been in charge for so long, he should be able to handle this situation.”

“And how many should we reduce it to? The fog is too dense; we can’t see the situation on the other side. If we let in that many…”

“No,” Yi Ning rasped, cutting off the conversation.

“What’s wrong, Marshal Yi? Don’t you have a better idea? This is the plan that sacrifices the least.”

“Remember what Zhu Yanchen said? He told us to hold the line. As the overall commander, his decisions must have his reasons.”

“So what? We can’t hold the line, can we? Right and wrong, who doesn’t understand that? It’s easy to talk about what should be done, but it’s only possible if it can be achieved. The armored vehicles and marksmen are our most important forces in this battle, and within the first half-hour, we’re already in such a sorry state—”

“…” Yi Ning’s back was covered in sweat. Time didn’t wait for anyone; they had to adjust their tactics quickly.

His brain cycled through the tactics against the Erosion Swamps that synthetic humans had devised, but no matter which piece of the puzzle he tried, it couldn’t fit into the current situation. In the past, he could adjust and experiment without any burden, but now, even a slight misstep would result in pointless sacrifices and further declining morale.

The ticking of the second hand didn’t stop due to this anxiety, and the number of monsters outside kept increasing. They crowded outside the suppression range, starting to pave a path with corpses—the monsters in the forefront were reduced to erosion substance by the suppression weapons, and the amount of this substance continued to grow, indicating a trend of accumulating into an ordinary Erosion Swamp.

The human blockade couldn’t hold up for too long in the deep Erosion Swamp.

What should they do?

Yi Ning tasted the metallic tang of blood in his mouth.

…He stared at the sand table in front of him, feeling true despair for the first time.

Not far away, Zhu Yanchen’s team was also rushing forward, fighting against the clock.

To deceive the enemy, this small team had only around twenty members. They skirted around the areas with the densest concentration of monsters and charged towards the enemy’s rear. The team he led consisted of elites, so there were no situations where they would drop the ball at critical moments. Just as Zhu Yanchen had expected, the Erosion Swamps behind the monsters were solely focused on charging towards the city, lacking any interest in this small team with its limited numbers. That way, they barely managed to break through one encirclement after another, approaching the vicinity of the Erosion Swamp.

However, when one of the elite team members saw the Erosion Swamp behind the monsters, he nearly fell to the ground.

The thing in front of them was something that no human could handle, no matter how you looked at it.

It was too massive.

The two sentient Erosion Swamp and their creations floated in the air, appearing as gigantic, uncomfortable spheres. Another Erosion Swamp was responsible for keeping them fixed in place. From a distance, they stuck together, resembling eyeballs and brains peeled from human bodies.

Countless small floating spheres oozed out from beneath the two large spheres, while the large Erosion Swamp that intertwined them extended tentacle-like appendages, delving into the ground, allowing humanoid creatures to emerge, struggling to stand up.

The combination of these three Erosion Swamps wasn’t as large as Sigma and Shu Jun battling in the distance, but it was comparable to a four-story building. They were exerting their full effort to create monsters, and the number of monsters surrounding them was terrifying. It would be a challenge to even eliminate them, let alone get close.

Forget about twenty people; even twenty thousand people might not be able to suppress them.

“Team A, equip yourselves with standard suppression machinery and take up positions on the high ground over there. Team B will assist Team A and focus on dispelling enemies approaching from behind” Zhu Yanchen’s voice remained calm. “Team C, throw old-style purification grenades from the twelve o’clock direction later to attract their attention.”

“Diverting their attention is not a problem, but what do we do when the horde rushes up?” Although they were divided into teams, each team consisted of only six or seven people. The person in charge of Team C had a pale face. “I’m talking about those spheres; even if the erosion substance can’t pass through the purification machinery, the explosive force alone is enough to blow us to pieces!”

“They won’t easily change targets.”

“Why not?”

“A lion won’t give up attacking a gazelle because of fleas on its fur. We humans are too few in their eyes to be considered a threat,” Zhu Yanchen instructed decisively. “Those monsters don’t have intelligence; they can only obey the most basic commands. For the Erosion Swamp, adjusting their instructions temporarily just to deal with a few humans would come at too high a cost. As long as we control the level of provocation carefully, they won’t mobilize the horde.”

“T-Then how do we stop it?”

“The next part is crucial,” Zhu Yanchen said in a deep voice. “I will use old-style purification grenades to break through their outer shells and infiltrate the Erosion Swamp. You need to provoke them intelligently, enticing them to change positions and creating an opportunity for me.”

“…The risk is too high. This is not child’s play,” the person in charge of Team C whispered. “That’s an Erosion Swamp; if you fail once, you’ll die.”

“I don’t intend to succeed on the first try.”

Zhu Yanchen smiled.

“Don’t worry, I won’t die until I kill them. As for the reason… I’ll explain it properly once I bring all of you back alive.”

The team members looked at each other and tentatively accepted this seemingly absurd and ridiculous tactic. “When you infiltrate…”

“The Erosion Swamp erodes sophisticated machinery, making it difficult to activate destructive weapons inside. Instead, I will carry a short-range powerful communication device. Once I send a signal, immediately shoot at my location.”

“?!?”

“There must be absolutely no hesitation.”

“But…”

“What’s your answer?”

“Yes!” The group gritted their teeth and replied.

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