272: Chapter 272 Crisis!

Strasser's team cautiously entered the city and began advancing toward the central area. The city was eerily empty and silent, with only the rustling sound of boots on the ground.

Several figures on the ground caught the attention of Strasser and his men. Upon inspection, they found them still breathing, seemingly in a deep coma.

A soldier reported after confirming.

"Sir, they appear to be workers living in this city. They're still alive. Should we assist them?"

"Leave them be," Strasser said after a moment of contemplation. "They are not our mission objective. Continue forward."

"If they're lucky, a rescue team will find them."

As the team gradually approached the center, a luxurious manor came into Strasser's view—the Watson family estate.

"Target sighted. Prepare to enter."

Over a dozen fully armed team members filed in through the entrance, while the others stood guard and conducted searches outside.

Inside the manor, the task force discovered several unconscious members of the Watson family, including Aisha, Watson's youngest great-great-granddaughter.

At this point, the mission was mostly complete.

Strasser breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Watson family members undergoing medical checks. He prepared to split the task force into two teams: one to continue exploring further inside and the other to escort them out for treatment.

The team regrouped.

But as Strasser was assigning tasks, he suddenly noticed something was amiss—three members of the task force were missing.

Standing on the steps, Strasser swept his sharp gaze over the regrouped team. They had entered with forty-nine members, plus himself making fifty. Now, including himself, there were only forty-seven.

"Who's missing?" Strasser said coldly.

The team members quickly exchanged glances and reported in low voices, "Sir, Hansen, Miller, and Johnson are not here!"

These three were all members of Team C.

Strasser then addressed a burly, bearded man from Team C in front of him, "Did you see them last?"

"Sir, no."

Strasser's expression darkened. A thought flashed through his mind: Could it be that Hansen and the other two had grown greedy for the treasures inside the manor and left the team without permission to loot?

It wasn't impossible. Many things inside these buildings were truly rare and extravagantly luxurious.

Just as Strasser was about to order a search for the missing men, he caught a glimpse of an abnormal disturbance in the Mist about ten meters ahead. Something emerged from within, appearing as a transparent figure...

What is that?!

Strasser focused his gaze, peering intently in that direction, only to find nothing. Was it just his eyes playing tricks?

At that moment, the Mist behind the team stirred again.

Something's wrong. Something is approaching!

In the blink of an eye, Strasser aimed his rifle forward. "Halt! I order you to halt!"

The sudden action by their commander left the team members in front bewildered, completely unaware of what was happening, exchanging confused glances.

The burly, bearded man directly in the line of fire, however, was terrified and pleaded with a pitiful expression, "Sir, I swear I'm not lying! I really don't know where Hansen and the others went."

"I'm not talking about you..."

Bang!

Suddenly, Strasser fired. A bullet whizzed past the top of the bearded man's head, followed by a second...

The gunfire caused some commotion in the team, but then, everyone's pupils constricted as they witnessed an unbelievable scene.

They saw the fired bullets explode into sprays of blood in mid-air, as if some unknown entity had been struck.

This sight made everyone realize: there were unseen enemies in the Mist, and they were already dangerously close.

"Enemy attack!" Strasser roared.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat—

But it was too late. Before the task force members could react, gunfire erupted from all directions as if out of thin air, the muzzle flashes so dense it filled them with despair.

Instantly, over a dozen men screamed and fell. What horrified the others was that these bullets could penetrate their body armor.

"Disperse and take cover! Return fire!"

Strasser executed a tactical roll, activating the thermal imaging on his helmet. But the sight before him chilled his heart. The thermal imaging worked, but it only vaguely revealed objects resembling gun barrels.

Facing unseen enemies, the task force's resistance quickly crumbled. Bullets fired from unpredictable directions; the team members returned fire toward the flashes, but most shots hit nothing.

Judging by the gunfire, the enemy numbered only around twenty. Yet these mere two dozen invisible ghosts were suppressing Strasser's elite task force of nearly fifty, slaughtering them!

Only after Strasser and the remaining dozen or so task force members retreated under fire back into the manor did they get a brief moment to catch their breath.

But surrounded by the advancing ghosts, despair crept into the hearts of the besieged men. If things continued this way, they would eventually die here.

Just then, they suddenly noticed the gunfire at the entrance had stopped. No—the invisible ghosts had shifted their aim, pouring fire toward the northwest.

Peering out, Strasser faintly saw five massive figures slowly emerging from the Mist. They seemed utterly indifferent to the barrage of bullets raining down on them.

Bullets struck their heavy armor, sparking dense showers of sparks and producing loud clanging sounds, most ricocheting off. Only a few penetrated their flesh, yet they seemed completely unfazed.

Even more exaggerated were the weapons they carried—large-caliber machine guns resembling Vulcan cannons. These were not the size of standard infantry weapons. Huge ammo boxes hung at their sides, filled with golden bullets, each as thick as a child's wrist.

The ghosts let out cries of pain, for an indiscriminate storm of bullets had begun...

"Bio-Tyrants!"

"It's Third-Party Technology! That company has also sent people into the Mist!"

Inside the compound walls, several task force members exclaimed. Since that company released these products, they had, of course, learned about these terrifying bio-monsters.

But today, these men truly understood what a real biological weapon was!

Watching the ghosts seemingly powerless against these monsters, an exhausted task force member murmured, "Thank goodness... we're saved..."

The screams of the ghost forces quickly grew sparse amidst the roar of the steel storm. The five Bio-Tyrants advanced steadily like moving fortresses.

But at that moment,

Amidst the ghosts, a bloodstained figure emerged from a camouflage suit. It was a middle-aged man with a resolute face, shouldering a dark gray cannon barrel about a meter long.

The middle-aged man stared with hatred at the five monsters before him. "Whatever monsters you are, taste this antimatter grenade!"

"For Verland!"

The middle-aged man roared, fiercely pulling the trigger of the shoulder-mounted cannon.

A white light expanded outside the manor. In the instant of the explosion, everything within a 200-meter radius turned into a sea of fire.