147: Return to base

Zhang Lei slowly landed on the edge of the lava pit, which was still emitting wisps of heat, his gaze sweeping sharply across the scorched bottom of the pit.

He reached out and grasped the air; an invisible force drew the brilliant blue third-order crystal core, which was radiating immense energy fluctuations from the center of the pit, into his palm.

The crystal core felt warm and smooth to the touch, yet it contained a heart-stopping power.

He examined it carefully before putting it away with satisfaction.

Afterward, he directed everyone to board the aircraft quickly.

Through the powerful detection systems of the apollo fighter jet and the auxiliary scanning of the Spy Satellite, they found eight other missing special forces members and four lucky surviving Evolvers in the rugged mountains and forests.

As for the others, they were likely doomed, having perished in this desperate environment or fallen prey to beasts.

The original arrangement was for the Lujiang Base group to take one fighter jet and the Honors Conferment Group to take the other.

However, after witnessing the god-like power of Zhang Lei with her own eyes, Ye Anhe was shaken to her core, almost instantly transforming into a fanatical fangirl.

Without hesitation, she abandoned the Honors Conferment Group and insisted on riding in the same fighter jet as Zhang Lei, under the pretext of "expressing gratitude."

Inside the cabin, Ye Anhe deliberately sat in the seat next to Zhang Lei.

With Li Xian no longer there to be an eyesore, she seemed like a different person.

Her original quiet and serious demeanor was cast to the winds, replaced by an irrepressible excitement and curiosity, and she became talkative.

Her beautiful eyes shimmered as she constantly examined the interior of the apollo fighter jet, which was filled with futuristic technological design.

She could not help but exclaim: "Officer Zhang Lei, is your Lujiang Base conducting some kind of secret, super-era research? This fighter jet... it is just too sci-fi! I have never seen this kind of power mode and layout! And that... is that a stasis pod? My God, this kind of black technology that I have only ever seen in science fiction movies, you have actually realized it!"

She looked at the shell of the stasis pod in the rest area, which was emitting a soft blue light, like a child who had discovered a new toy, her tone filled with wonder.

Watching her innocent and curious appearance, which was so different from her identity as a Lieutenant Colonel in the military, Zhang Lei could not help but smile, relaxing against the back of his chair: "Lieutenant Colonel Ye, you are too polite; there is no need to keep calling me Officer. In terms of military rank, you are a Lieutenant Colonel, which is one level higher than me, a Major."

Ye Anhe shook her head vigorously, her expression becoming more serious: "In the military, strength is the true rank! This is what my elders have taught me since I was a child. A powerhouse like you, regardless of what rank you wear on your shoulder, deserves to be respectfully addressed as 'Officer' by everyone."

Coming from a prestigious family, she had seen too many spoiled brats like Li Xian who held high positions by relying on the shade of their ancestors.

Even she herself, if not for her Ye family background, would not have been able to achieve the rank of Lieutenant Colonel at this age.

Therefore, she felt genuine admiration for a powerhouse like Zhang Lei who had earned his status through absolute strength, and she dared not be the least bit presumptuous.

Zhang Lei smiled and stopped dwelling on the issue of address, turning instead to say warmly: "Lieutenant Colonel Ye, now that you have arrived at our base, you can stay for a few more days and have a good look around. I will arrange for someone to take you around. Now that the zombies throughout Lujiang City have been wiped out by us, it is absolutely safe, so you can rest assured."

"Really? That is great!" Ye Anhe nodded excitedly, her eyes sparkling.

Subconsciously, she looked at the well-defined, handsome, and resolute profile of Zhang Lei.

Her heart beat uncontrollably faster, and a sense of shyness, unbefitting her age and akin to a young girl in love, quietly welled up in her heart, causing her fair cheeks to flush slightly.

She hurriedly and embarrassedly turned her face away, pretending to look at the sea of clouds outside the window.

...

Qingyuan Mountain was more than five hundred kilometers away from Lujiang Base, but for the apollo aerospace fighter equipped with high-energy particle thrusters, this distance was traversed in the blink of an eye.

Not long after, the Lujiang Base, which lay on the ground like a steel behemoth, became clearly visible below.

The two apollo fighter jets hovered in tacit understanding in the airspace a few kilometers away from the base, and the magnetic cabin doors lowered steadily.

The Honors Conferment Group, with complex emotions, stepped onto the land of Lujiang one by one.

As soon as their feet touched the ground, everyone gasped in shock at the scene before them!

"Hiss—this... is this a base?!"

In the distance, a towering, fifteen-meter-high giant wall stretched to the edge of their vision like an ancient mountain range!

On the wall, densely packed with various automated defensive weapons they had seen or never seen before: Machine Gun Bunkers, close-in rapid-fire sentry guns, missile silos...

The cold metallic luster shimmered in the sunlight, revealing a heart-stopping aura of destruction.

The completeness and modernization of its defense system were in no way inferior to the core base established by the Central Theater Command, which relied on the vast military management area in the suburbs of the Kyoto Base!

An Evolver from the Honors Conferment Group could not help but whisper in amazement: "My God... this wall height and firepower configuration... how did they manage to build it in such a short time?!"

You have to know, the Kyoto Base was established on the foundation of an existing million-strong garrison base, with decades of accumulation and countless ready-made permanent fortifications, plus hundreds of thousands of troops and millions of civilians working day and night to reinforce and expand it, to have its current scale.

And the Lujiang Base, how long has it been since the apocalypse broke out? In just a few short months, they had actually built such a magnificent, armed-to-the-teeth steel fortress out of thin air!

This was simply a miracle!

Just as everyone was still immersed in the shock of the outer defenses, the incredibly thick alloy gate of the Lujiang Base slowly rose upward, accompanied by the low roar of hydraulics.

The first thing that caught their eyes was a massive, breathtaking steel figure!

A behemoth painted in deep military green camouflage, nearly twice the size of a conventional main battle tank, drove steadily out of the gate like a war beast awakening from ancient times!

Its iconic twin-linked 155mm giant turret instantly captured everyone's attention!

"Twin... twin-linked 155mm caliber heavy cannons?!"

A special forces member who knew something about the military exclaimed, his eyes almost popping out, "This... how is this possible?! How did they solve the recoil?!"

Before the apocalypse on Blue Star, the 155mm caliber was already in the category of heavy army artillery, commonly used for towed long-range howitzers, with a range easily exceeding 30 kilometers.

Its terrifying recoil was simply not something a tank chassis could withstand.

And a twin-linked 155mm turret was a design that only existed in theory or on naval vessels!

The combined recoil and terrifying muzzle blast produced when firing would be enough to flip over any land vehicle!

However, the Red Alert black technology apocalypse tank, by relying on its internally integrated micro-gravitational field modulation engine, cleverly offset most of the recoil; its chassis, which used ultra-high-strength lightweight composite armor, provided a solid foundation; and its powerful micro-nuclear power supply device gave it almost infinite surging power!

All this black technology perfectly solved all the impossibilities!