141: Try it out

The entrance to the Yellow Sea Sand Cave secret realm was once a small town with a considerable population before the apocalypse.

As for now, besides the wind-blown ruins, there are only those damned zombies and bugs.

Because the number of Raptors overflowing from the entrance was not large, Lu Yang first dispatched three hundred-man teams to advance towards the secret realm entrance from the east, west, and south directions.

As for the north, it was left to the Three Mountains, to give him a sense of participation.

That area was the back of the secret realm entrance, and the number of Zerg was negligible.

Yang Kui, as the most senior Train Police Squad leader on the Xinhuo Train, was appointed Deputy Commander of the "Cornerstone" Detachment by Lu Yang due to his reliability. Lu Yang himself was, of course, the Commander.

In this operation, Yang Kui led one hundred-man team, Wang Hu led one hundred-man team, and Zhang Fang led one hundred-man team.

They were all veterans whom Lu Yang trusted deeply.

They followed the three-three system, with three people per squad. The main weapon was the standard Level 6 Jiaolong Assault Rifle, and the secondary weapon, depending on urban warfare or other needs, would be equipped with a Level 6 Harvester Individual Grenade Launcher and a Level 6 Double-Barreled Thunder-Gun Shotgun.

Interspersed were Level 6 Kuangfeng I Light Machine Gun fire support squads and sniper squads equipped with Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifles.

It was just a pity that the Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle purchased from the Three Mountains was only Level 5, which was a bit low.

In the Intermediate Zone, at least Level 6 was needed.

Lu Yang once wanted to analyze the production line blueprint of the Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle, but the Reverse Technology Research Center was temporarily unable to free up a slot.

After trading for a large amount of Level 4 Iron Mine from the Three Mountains previously, Lu Yang upgraded the Reverse Technology Research Center to red quality, and was finally able to analyze the orange finished weapon "Quad Rocket Launcher" found in the Armed Thug's warehouse.

Although the caliber of this thing was not as large as the PLZ vehicle-mounted howitzer, its firepower was much fiercer.

It fired four rounds at once, and the reload time was extremely fast.

It could flatten a hilltop in an extremely short time.

After the Reverse Technology Research Center was upgraded, Lu Yang immediately chose to analyze it.

It's just that the analysis speed was a bit slow; it had been several days now, and the progress was only 1.2%.

Therefore, for the Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle to be applicable in more scenarios, if there was a purple upgrade stone among the rewards after this medium-sized secret realm ended, Lu Yang planned to give one to Liu Lei.

However, it had to be specified to upgrade the Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle.

This way, a Level 6 Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle, even if it couldn't compare to the level of other weapons on the Xinhuo Train, would at least be sufficient in the Intermediate Zone.

“Bang—”

The snipers occupying the high ground fired first, attacking the clearly targeted Level 5 Raptors.

These bugs had extremely tenacious vitality.

Even with the caliber of the Poison Dragon Heavy Sniper Rifle, a headshot made it difficult to kill them directly; another shot was needed.

From a distance, the Raptors, over two meters tall and over four meters long, were not terrifying.

But when the combat troops made close contact, they would clearly feel the oppressive presence of these basic combat units specially created by the Zerg.

Each one was like a terrifying monster that could be the protagonist in a pre-apocalypse movie.

A burst of bullets swept across, and unless their legs could be hit, it was difficult to achieve results.

Moreover, their movement speed was exceptionally fast.

They jumped and leaped seven or eight meters at a time. If it weren't for the drones operated by Xiao Xin in mid-air, the three hundred-man teams would have suffered considerable casualties upon contact.

Seeing this, Xiao Xin immediately changed the combat strategy according to Lu Yang's instructions.

First, he supported them with three more hundred-man companies, and then immediately arranged for the logistics troops to start building cover on the spot.

By setting up machine gun firing points, they would advance gradually.

The combat power of these bugs was too strong; Lu Yang had to admit that his own combat troops still had shortcomings in field combat.

At the same time, the number of snipers was greatly increased.

Since close-quarters combat offered no advantage, they would use long-range firepower to shoot them dead.

Then, when the number of Raptors was reduced to only a few stragglers, ground troops would be dispatched to clear the battlefield.

That would be much more appropriate.

As long as the shortcomings of the "Cornerstone Detachment" could be recognized, and the soldiers could gain some real combat experience, serving as a practical training exercise.

Lu Yang didn't mind spending more time.

However, just as everything was progressing smoothly, the teleportation light gate at the underground secret realm entrance of the Yellow Sea Sand Cave suddenly experienced a violent fluctuation.

Then, a large number of red dots appeared on the Xinhuo Train's enemy-seeking radar.

At the same time, battlefield reconnaissance drones and space-based early warning spheres simultaneously transmitted monitoring footage.

Many long, narrow, seven to eight-meter-long, dark brown alien Zerg, Hydralisks, appeared on the battlefield.

Their heads were sharply wedge-shaped, covered with a thick, chitinous head-armor with spinal protrusions.

Directly in front of the head-armor was a huge, V-shaped sensory groove running horizontally across, inside which glowed an eerie, crimson light. Their extremely terrifying mouthparts were composed of four asymmetrical, serrated, bony mandibles that could tear open like a flower, revealing deeper, dense, needle-like fangs capable of tearing apart main battle tank armor.

Its back was highly arched, looking like a huge, wrinkled sac, with dark gold-glowing armor-piercing spinal needles subtly showing through.

Its scythe-like forelimbs, more ferocious than a Raptor's, had incredibly sharp edges, like the scythe of the Grim Reaper. Its extremely thick, dinosaur-like recurved hind legs allowed it to leap and glide two to three times farther than a Raptor.

These were the Hydralisks, the Zerg's intermediate combat units evolved from Raptors.

Upon appearing, they launched dense armor-piercing spinal needles at the dozens of drones in the sky.

Shooting them down like rain.

Then they jumped and glided to the center of the battlefield, clearing space behind them for many seemingly two to three-meter-tall, very clumsy Poison Blight Exploding Bugs, which looked like huge green sacs.

Behind the Poison Blight Exploding Bugs were several huge, two-story-tall, strange bugs that somewhat resembled Hydralisks but more like giant spiders, with severely atrophied forelimbs—the Ground Spine Spiders.

They moved slowly using several slender auxiliary limbs on their sides, and their dorsal launch cavity structure was abnormally enlarged and prominent, almost occupying their entire upper body.

Beneath their thin skin, one could see the deadly bone spikes inside, ready to be launched.

Upon appearing, they immediately burrowed underground.

Their figures disappeared very quickly.

Behind the Ground Spine Spiders were the Raptors, hundreds of which had been eliminated by the Xinhuo Train earlier.

However, this time, the Raptors that rushed out were like a surging tide, quickly exceeding several thousand in a short period, and their numbers were still rapidly increasing.

For a time, everywhere the Xinhuo Train could see became an ocean of Zerg.