637 The Fuse

The battle ensued.

Outside the military outpost, white smoke drifted up at the missile launch grounds. Accompanied by blinding flames, missiles soared into the air, one by one.

"Target hit. Covered unit 14, kill confirmed. Adjusting coordinates (114,23). Smoke covered, over."

"Roger, number 3 cannon fire."

"…"

Inside the control room, the hologram map collected by Aurora-20 reflected real-time battle information to Jiang Chen.

The leading force of the mutated humans arrived 5 kilometers away from the water treatment plant, but under the barrage of missiles by the NAC and the attack of kinetic skeleton soldiers, they were completely wrecked.

But the mutated humans naturally didn't understand fear.

NAC's airstrikes on the FEV virus production bases clearly infuriated the mutated humans.

Guru Tribe mobilized a division of forces totaling 5000 people equipped with artillery, trucks with anti-air cannons, and modified pickup trucks equipped with armor and machine guns. They mobilized to the NAC outpost.

The leading force included the strongest warriors of Guru Tribe. This included lead mutated humans with power hammers, machine gunners wielding steel armors, and mutated dogs strapped with nuclear grenades.

But the complete elimination of the leading force brought the commander of the mutated humans some clarity. He didn't order the troops to just swarm the target, but instead, he ordered them to scatter based on the geography of the city. He sent out slaves and mutated humans to launch some fake attacks against the NAC outpost, but it was all inconsequential.

For some reason, NAC didn't display its full power from the beginning, which gave the mutated humans' commander the false impression that they were equally matched.

But Empire didn't have this illusion; the unaltered brains of humans were clearly more intelligent than mutated humans.

Empire also mobilized two divisions totaling ten thousand, deployed around the rural area of Hucheng. It was half of Empire's forces. Such a massive military attack was the first in Hucheng.

But compared to the brainless rush tactics used by the mutated humans, Empire's soldiers were more cautious and much more devious.

They built defense structures along the borders of the rural area, used reinforced steel to fortify abandoned buildings, dug out trenches to separate the battlefield, and connected the buildings with tunnels underground. Needless to say, their tactics were extremely effective against heavy firepower, and it also suited the raiders' battle style of fighting independently.

From the beginning, their stance was that they would defend their territory with their lives.

Jiang Chen didn't mind Empire's actions; he didn't plan to use fire suppression against Empire. A "Fireball-1" missile cost 100 credits, and based on the conversion rate of the Sixth Street, it was around 500 crystals. With 2000 rounds of missiles, it would be equivalent to scattering money, although it would make for nice fireworks.

There was no need to burn money against Empire.

To dismantle this skyscraper, they just needed to think of a strategy to attack the bottom of the skyscraper disdained by Empire. There was no need to fight to the death against this lousy crowd.

…

Inside the bar at the capital, rare bottles of alcohol were arranged on the corroded table.

Two people sat across each other while downing the drinks.

"I think that increasing one's population to increase power is too rogue." The mercenary with a hat was drunk. He began to talk, and with purposeful probing by Zhao Baodong, he started to blurt out gibberish.

It was his seventh day inside the capital. Zhao Baodong found the mercenary who led him through the door and said he would treat him to drinks.

Alcohol was great. It could numb tense nerves; no one on the wasteland disliked it.

On the table, Zhao Baodang successfully learned his name in addition to other information.

He was Xiao Hu, a mercenary active between Hucheng and Wu City who mostly ran with the merchant fleets between two cities. He lived a poor, drunken life.

While he could be witty, he was unintelligent in nature, which made him easy to manipulate.

"Oh?" Zhao Baodong took a sip of the alcohol and looked at him with a grin. "Your perspective is quite unique."

Xiao Hu felt flattered. He laughed and said, "The people here are weird; a lot of newbies who come here for the first time don't understand why mutated humans are willing to live peacefully with humans."

Zhao Baodong had a brighter smile. "Please explain."

Then he waved his hand at the bartender to signal two more drinks.

"You realize that aside from poor hobos inside the ghetto, everyone's lives are okay? But people aren't happy… Of course, I'm referring to people who live here, not travelers who find fun everywhere."

Xiao Hu's intoxicated face revealed a mysterious smile. He got closer to Zhao Baodong as he said, "Do you want to know why?"

"Of course." Zhao Baodong grinned.

"They believe in a weird standard of equality. The minority receive more special treatment, and the majority receive less power, yet they refer to this as equality… Equality with the species being the unit."

"I'm surprised… is the emperor not human?"

"He's the one cutting the cake, not making the cake." Xiao Hu burped. He took another swig without hiding anything.

"The Emperor is selected from the elders, so do you expect him to eat the cake? Don't dream about it. Even if two walls of the arena collapse and mutated humans kill a few more humans, they'll continue to live lavish lives... I'm thankful for the NAC merchant fleets. Otherwise, we couldn't eat food even if we have the money." Discussing the emperor and elders in the public already drew the attention of the bartender and the people around them. A lot of people afraid of trouble had already left. Right now, a mutated human, who just finished hunting, was sitting at an empty table nearby and ordered cheap alcohol.

Zhao Baodong, who sat across him, laughed and glanced nonchalantly at the dumb-looking mutated human. He shook his head. "Let's not talk about the emperor. I want to listen to your opinion… on the species with special rights."

"I have no comment. Those bastards just eat and sleep every day and only know how to force slaves who are afraid to resist grow mutated fruits; they know nothing else. I heard that the FEV virus will turn people's head into a mess? Haha, they aren't to be blamed. And the elder from Guru Tribe, ha? Who would worship a cancer patient with a tumor on his back as a God—"

Slap—

A loud slap to the face interrupted him.

Zhao Baodong, who was sitting across him, had already disappeared.

The voice of Xiao Hu speaking gibberish to his bottle of alcohol had entered the ears of the mutated human. The giant named Andy stood up as he slapped the table, and he gave Xiao Hu's forehead a hard slap.

With his back on the cold concrete ground, Xiao Hu instantly sobered up. He barely managed up to support himself up from the ground as his bruised face was covered in fear.

The elder was the elder of mutated humans, the God in every Guru Tribe.

Even discussing him in public was viewed as disrespectful by the mutated humans.

"No, no, I-I was just drunk…"

Xiao Hu couldn't tend to his wounds as he crawled back onto the table while looking at the mutated human walking toward him.

He hadn't brought a gun with him. Even if he did bring one, he wouldn't dare to shoot at a mutated human here. A mutated human beating him to death would be locked up at most. If he killed a mutated human, he would be enslaved by the mutated humans.

It was even more terrifying than death.

Andy smiled menacingly. He stepped out of the bar with his fist clenched toward the human on the ground.

As everyone watched, the mutated human stepped onto the mercenary. He swung his fist and punched the mercenary in the face.

Crack—

Xiao Hu seemed to hear his nose bone cracking, but with his dazed head, he couldn't even scream.

After a few punches, every punch landed directly, and the green fist was stained with blood.

"Stop hitting him. He's almost dead," someone whispered, but when met with the mutated human's vicious eyes, that person looked away.

"Anyone disrespectful to the elder is disrespectful to Guru Tribe! Anyone disrespectful to Guru Tribe must die!" Andy bathed in the countless looks of hatred and fear while he sat on top of Xiao Hu. He laughed psychotically while he swung his powerful fists.

"ROAR-" The mutated humans cheered on the warrior.

Perhaps they weren't really respectful of that elder; perhaps they just instinctively craved violence and killing. And the fear present in people's eyes promoted their extremism.

The guard walked to Andy, but Andy was unafraid.

Even if he killed the human here, he would at most spend a few days in prison without any prison guard daring to treat him unfairly. Maybe not long after, the leader of Guru Tribe would negotiate with the officials of Empire to demand his release.

His amber-colored pupils scanned the crowd; he triumphantly exposed his fangs with one word coming out of his ugly mouth:

"Cowards!"

Until the miserable-looking mercenary stopped breathing, no one stopped his atrocious actions.

But then his expression froze.

His eyes met a gun hidden in the crowd.

And the smile belonged to a human.

Bang—

The sound of a pistol broke through the noise of the market.

There were deafening screams instantly.

"Someone was killed!"

Andy laid in a pool of blood. His widened eyes were written with disbelief. He couldn't believe he would die in Empire's capital.

The guards looked around without a clue. They attempted to find the shooter, but it was futile in the massive crowd. The angry mutated humans shoved everyone, beating the innocent crowd while trying to find the murder who fired the shot.

Along with the mass of people, Zhao Baodong disappeared at the end of the market.

The dead Andy would never know that his death was the tipping point to the collapse of this empire.

And the same scene was happening in every corner of Empire.