54: Chapter 54 Commander

Jiang Ruoxue stood on his left, looking up at his profile. At three and a half meters to her one point seven, her neck was a bit tired from looking up, but her expression was calm; she didn't mind this height difference.

"I'm thinking about the alloy barriers of our Safe Zone." Lin Yan didn't look at her, his gaze still fixed on the city wall. "From childhood to adulthood, I always thought that was the greatest architecture of human civilization. Now, seeing this city wall, I suddenly realize that from the day humans started building walls with stone, they have been doing the same thing. Only the materials have changed, and the enemies have changed."

"But what they are doing has never changed." Jiang Ruoxue took up his words, "Blocking the things outside that want to kill us, protecting the people inside we want to protect."

Lin Yan turned his head to look at her.

The two looked at each other for a moment without speaking, but something was connected at this moment.

Jiang Ruoxue moved her gaze away first and walked towards the city gate. After walking two steps, she stopped again, not looking back, her voice very light.

"Let's go. The city wall isn't for looking at."

The city gate was a massive wooden structure, its surface covered with thick iron plates. Rivets the size of an adult's head were densely nailed into the iron sheet, like the scales of some giant creature.

The gate was half-open, and two rows of soldiers holding muskets stood at the entrance.

The leader was a man in his early thirties, with an old scar on his left cheek extending from his cheekbone to his jaw.

The moment he saw Lin Yan, he rang the alarm bell and shouted: "There's a giant! Prepare."

The soldiers beside him gathered quickly, aiming their muskets at Lin Yan, and the cannons in the arrow tower also aimed at him.

Qin Chuan saw this scene and quickly waved his hands, shouting, "Misunderstanding! Misunderstanding! We are not giants, we are here to help you."

At this time, the leading man also noticed that there were three normal humans beside him and waved his hand to pause the aiming.

He stepped forward, his eyes scanning Lin Yan and the other three, lingering for a while on Lin Yan's three-and-a-half-meter height.

"Holy crap! Are you f***ing turning into a giant!?"

Lin Yan took a step forward: "No, it's my special ability."

"I was going to say, what kind of giant wears gear. You scared me; I thought it was some new breed."

The leading soldier's gaze moved from the Licker armor to the wind-scale bracers, then to the blood rage ring, and finally landed on Lin Yan's gauntlets, "Where are you from?"

Qin Chuan was about to open his mouth to say "We came from a very far place," but Lin Yan pressed his shoulder and spoke first.

"Where we come from is not important." Lin Yan's voice was not loud, but very steady, "As long as we can fight, that's enough."

The leading soldier looked at him and nodded.

At three and a half meters tall, standing at the city gate, he was like a small, mobile city wall.

He grinned, revealing teeth yellowed by smoke, with some unknown meat residue stuck between them.

"Strange, a bunch of outsiders came today."

"Especially you, big guy! Over three meters."

He waved his hand.

"Let them through! Take them to see the Commander!"

The Commander was on the city wall.

He was surrounded by a group of soldiers, standing behind the battlements, holding a roll of parchment map, discussing something with his adjutant. Lin Yan and the others were led up; he did not turn around immediately, but finished the last few words on the map before turning slowly.

A man in his fifties.

His left arm was severed below the elbow, the stump wrapped in a worn leather sheath, with dense scratches on it. There was an old scar on his face extending from his left forehead to his right jaw, pulling his right eye lower than the left, but it did not affect his vision. His right eye was slightly slanted downward; when he looked at people, it was as if he was aiming.

"Outsiders?" He didn't even turn his head.

"Yeah." Lin Yan stood behind him.

"Let me tell you something, giants will come to attack the city soon." The Commander's tone was very flat, "If you want to leave, you can leave now. The city gate won't be closed, and no one will stop you."

He turned around, his gaze sweeping over the four of them one by one, and he was also startled when he saw Lin Yan. Then he calmed down and said, "But if you choose to stay, you must participate in defending the city and listen to my orders. There is only one rule on this city wall: listen to the command when you are alive, and don't add to the chaos when you are dead."

His gaze paused on Lin Yan.

"You look stronger than the previous ones, especially you, but I'll say the ugly words upfront: a giant siege cannot be withstood by fighting alone."

He took two steps forward, the leather sheath of his severed arm swaying in front of Lin Yan.

"The rules on the city wall are different from the wild. In the wild, there are just some scattered giants, and if you are strong, you can walk sideways. On the city wall, if you don't listen to the command, no matter how strong you are, you are a dead man."

Lin Yan did not refute and nodded: "Understood."

The Commander looked at him for another two seconds, as if confirming whether this "understood" was genuine or just lip service.

Then he waved his hand, pointing to the east side of the city wall.

"The four of you are assigned to the East Section, Tower 3. That is the flank of the giant's attack, the pressure is smaller than the main gate, suitable for you to get used to the rhythm of defending the city."

He paused, his gaze sweeping over the hills outside the city.

"In a few days, the giants will launch a general offensive. If you can survive, that's your ability. Go and familiarize yourselves first; I will send someone to lead you."

[Evacuation Point automatically activated after successfully holding the city wall for 72 hours when the giants invade.]

Coming out from the Commander, Qin Chuan walked in the front to find the location of the No. 3 arrow tower, and Shen Xin followed behind him, observing the defensive facilities on the city wall as she walked.

The No. 3 arrow tower was a semi-circular structure protruding from the city wall, with a large enough interior space to accommodate dozens of people. The walls of the arrow tower were two meters thick, with a dozen cannons placed inside.

Looking out from the shooting port, it faced a relatively gentle slope outside the city. The slope did not grow grass and exposed gray-white rocks, and there were countless deep scratch marks on the surface of the rocks, which were claw marks left by giants when climbing.

"The total length of the city wall is about six kilometers, with an arrow tower every fifty meters. The main gate is in the center, which is also the direction of the giants' main attack." Qin Chuan pointed to the position of the main gate on the map, and then drew several lines with his fingers, "But it's not just the main gate. According to my reconnaissance, there are at least three giant camps outside the city, distributed in different directions. During the general offensive, they will attack from three directions simultaneously to tie up the city's defense forces."

He pointed to the position of the main gate.

"The main gate has the greatest pressure and requires heavy troops to defend." Then his finger moved to the east section of the city wall, drawing a circle at the location of the No. 3 arrow tower, "The east section where we are is the flank, and the pressure is relatively smaller. But if we can't hold it, the giant's flank troops can bypass to the rear of the main gate and attack from both sides."

Lin Yan looked at the map: three camps, three directions, simultaneous attack. This was not a chaotic charge of disorganized troops, but an organized military operation, completely different from the giants in the wild.

"When will the giants attack?" He asked.

"Tomorrow morning."

The voice came from the door of the arrow tower.

A middle-aged man stood there, with fresh dust on his feet; he should have just returned from patrolling outside the city wall. He walked into the arrow tower, and his rough fingers drew several lines on the map.

"When the first ray of light hits the city wall. They are very punctual, every time, and we have been defending this city wall for over a hundred years."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across everyone's face.

"They will first use small giants to consume ammunition and physical strength, then use medium giants to impact the city gate, and finally use large giants to climb the city wall. The tactics are the same every time."

He straightened his body, and the leather sheath of his severed arm swayed in the dim arrow tower.

"Tomorrow, you will see what a real battlefield is like. It's not the small-scale battles of a dozen or dozens that you encountered outside; it's thousands of giants charging at the same time. The earth will shake, the sky will darken, and the air will be filled with their roars and the smell of blood."

His voice was not loud.

"On that kind of battlefield, individual bravery is limited. You can kill ten, kill a hundred, but can you kill a thousand? How long can your stamina last? How many times can your ability be used?"

He looked at Lin Yan.

At three and a half meters tall, he was indeed conspicuous on the city wall. But in front of this six-kilometer-long city wall, in front of thousands of giants, there was no difference between three and a half meters and one point seven meters.

"Are you wondering how we repelled the giants with just a towering city wall and these ordinary cannons and firearms?"

"Come with me."