127: Chapter 127 The "Grand Gift" from a Different Race

The auspex screen was densely packed with enemy unit markers, rapidly approaching along the treeline.

Fu Haoran glanced at the screen, showing no surprise whatsoever.

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Lucifelle walked over and asked, "How were you so certain that there would be a traitor among the refugees?"

"It actually wasn't hard," Fu Haoran said without boasting. "I looked through some news and rumors, and happened to find an internet celebrity chimpanzee named Charlie."

"When I saw that an extreme animal rights organization were its fans, the rest was easy to guess."

"It's nothing more than instigating a group of animal rights activists overflowing with misplaced compassion, letting them charge brainlessly."

"That chimpanzee successfully broke into a prison to free the laboratory apes; why wouldn't it use that tactic a second time?"

"Furthermore, I checked this chimpanzee's academic record. It has perfect scores in history and philosophy from Stanford."

"What does that prove?" Lucifelle asked, somewhat puzzled.

"It proves it is beastly enough, and cold-blooded enough."

Lucifelle grew interested, twirling a lock of her hair with one hand. "Are you jealous that its education is higher than yours?"

Fu Haoran looked at her with a face full of dark lines, feeling insulted. Although his grades were indeed quite a bit lower, grades don't represent IQ, right?

Fu Haoran decided to correct Lucifelle's misconception, explaining, "As the old saying goes, 'most heartless are the scholars, while most righteous are the butchers.' People who are too clever never have simple thoughts."

"Besides, a beast that has read through human history and is highly ambitious will certainly understand that achieving great things requires sacrifice."

"And the easiest to sacrifice are naturally those muddle-headed fools."

Before his voice had even faded, a commotion broke out outside the position.

"You're crazy! Come back!"

Lucy rushed to the front of the position, holding a young boy in her arms.

"Don't shoot! You are not allowed to shoot!" Lucy held a knife to the boy's neck, warning, "Those chimpanzees were forced into this too! We must use love to influence them!"

The soldiers in the position were momentarily stunned, but not a single person lowered their gun.

"Do you know what you're doing?! Using a child to threaten us!" someone shouted angrily.

There wasn't a hint of regret on Lucy's face. Instead, she stiffened her neck and yelled, "For species equality, this bit of sacrifice is necessary!"

Fu Haoran's face was extremely dark. He had a sniper rifle, but he lacked confidence in his marksmanship.

Just as Fu Haoran was looking for a sniper, someone volunteered.

"No need for such trouble. I'll do it."

As Lucifelle spoke, she opened a pocket dimension and, with a wave of her hand, severed Lucy's wrist.

"Ah!"

In her pain, Lucy let go. By the time she regained her senses, the child was gone.

Lucifelle brought the child back safely.

Having lost her leverage and knowing she would surely die if she went back, Lucy turned and ran toward the chimpanzee army.

"No need to shoot," Fu Haoran suddenly said.

The moment he spoke, Lucy had just rushed into the ape army. In the next second, an ape slapped her, and another gave her an elbow strike.

Lucy fell to her knees in pain, and then, the nightmare began.

The apes didn't avoid her at all; they simply trampled over her body.

"No, I'm one of you! I'm one of Charlie's people! I'm on your side!"

"Ah, help! No!"

The screams soon turned into whimpers and then quickly vanished.

[System Notification: Congratulations to the Host for completing the achievement 'Kill the Moralist First in Troubled Times.' Universal Points +500!]

After Fu Haoran finished watching the traitor's end, he ordered, "Fire at will."

Instantly, Laser Cannons, Boltguns, and stubbers spat tongues of fire. The chimpanzees leaping through the woods under the cover of night were immediately locked onto by the wolf spider sentry turrets.

A dense barrage swept through, blowing both apes and trees into shredded debris.

In front of the position, the charging chimpanzees fell in swaths.

Seeing that the sneak attack had failed, the remaining chimpanzees immediately sought cover and set up weapons to counterattack.

But what they held were, after all, conventional thermal weapons of the 2K World.

Fu Haoran's troops were using 30K war machines from thirty thousand years in the future.

Hiding behind an earthen mound?

A single shot from a Laser Cannon blasted through, leveling the mound and the person behind it.

Hiding behind a rock?

A volley from the Boltguns turned the hard granite directly into powder. The chimpanzees hiding behind it didn't even have time to scream.

The chimpanzee army's charge couldn't even reach within fifty meters of the position.

But they were not entirely unprepared.

The roar of an engine was heard.

An M1A2SEP, the US Army's most advanced main battle tank, crashed through the trees by the roadside and charged out of the forest.

A Depleted Uranium Armor-Piercing Shell instantly left the barrel, striking the concrete fortifications in front of the position and sending debris flying everywhere.

Ordinary Lasguns and stubbers hitting its depleted uranium armor left only shallow scratches, failing to even penetrate the plating.

On the top floor of the Capitol Building, Charlie watched the surveillance footage, a cold sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

This was the pride of the America Army; he didn't believe a single National Guard unit could withstand it.

But his smile lasted only a second.

From behind the position, an even more deafening roar of a main cannon exploded.

The 120mm Battle Cannon of a leman russ tank fired, and the high-explosive shell accurately hit the side of the M1A2's turret.

The main battle tank, weighing over sixty tons, was flipped directly into the air and exploded into a massive fireball.

Before the chimpanzee army could react, a steel beast a whole size larger than the leman russ slowly rolled out from the position.

The eleven cannons of the Baneblade super-heavy tank turned in unison, their muzzles pointing toward the chimpanzee positions in the woods.

In the forest, the chimpanzee anti-tank teams acted immediately. Javelin man-portable anti-tank missiles streaked in trailing fire, accurately hitting the Baneblade's frontal armor.

The violent explosions kicked up a massive cloud of dust.

But when the smoke cleared, the Baneblade tank's armor was unscathed, and it continued to rumble forward.

The Heavy Boltguns on the roof opened fire, shredding the ambushing anti-tank teams and their cover into fragments.

leman russ main battle tanks and chimera armored personnel carriers followed closely behind. The steel torrent crushed the road surface, advancing at full speed toward downtown Washington.

"Leader! We can't stop them! Their armor is too thick! Our weapons can't damage them at all!" the adjutant's roar came from the walkie-talkie, filled with frustration.

Charlie leaned back in his office chair, his tone flat without a hint of emotion. "What are you panicking for? There's no war without casualties."

"Have them retreat and pull the main force into the city. Once we're in urban combat, their advantage in heavy weaponry won't be as effective."

"Between the buildings is just another kind of steel jungle."

...

In the outskirts of Washington, the vanguard of the Planetary Defense Force had already advanced smoothly.

In the buildings on both sides of the street, refugees who had been hiding for days heard human voices and cautiously poked their heads out.

Seeing the Planetary Defense Force warriors in power armor and the grand steel torrent, these survivors' eyes instantly turned red. They knelt on the ground, crying and shouting, "God bless us! God bless us!"

Fu Haoran sat in the command vehicle, listening to the shouts outside, his mouth twitching.

He silently complained in his heart: 'Since you think it's God's blessing, then should I leave?'

Complaining aside, he wouldn't turn his back on Universal Points.

The system panel updated in real-time: killing an armed chimpanzee +2 Universal Points, an elite chimpanzee +5 points. The previous fire attack had earned him nearly 100,000 Universal Points.

Fu Haoran's mouth curled up. "These aren't beasts; they're clearly walking ATMs. Once I save enough points, I can build the first Hive City in Washington."

Fu Haoran chose not to split his forces.

One hundred thousand people might seem like a lot, but scattered into a major city like Washington, they wouldn't even make a splash.

Besides, the advantage was his; a steamroll would suffice.

But he didn't plan to follow the main force on the ground.

For him, this battle was an excellent opportunity to train his troops.

Chapter 127: The "Great Gift" of the Alien Species has surprises; click here to unlock immediately.

Fu Haoran set strict rules for the ground troops: Servo-skulls scout ahead and mark fire points, heavy firepower covers first, and infantry advances along walls to clear remaining enemies. No meaningless charges allowed.

The coordination of Cyril's squad was the best proof. From discovering a fire point to marking coordinates and calling for support, the entire process took less than 10 seconds. They executed the tactics perfectly without a single casualty.

At the corner of the street, Corporal Cyril led his squad forward, hugging the wall.

He made a hand gesture, and a Servo-skull immediately floated out. Just as it rounded the corner, a dense barrage of machine-gun bullets swept over.

The Servo-skull's power was instantly cut, and it dropped straight to the ground, playing dead.

Cyril pulled out a tactical camera and extended it past the wall to take a quick look.

Behind the corner, apes had set up several US Army M2 large-caliber heavy machine guns, creating a temporary fire point that completely locked down the entire street, along with several cannons.

Cyril immediately marked the coordinates of the fire point on his tactical terminal and synchronized them with the Baneblade tank in the rear.

Three seconds later, the main gun roared.

A thick armor-piercing shell punched directly through three walls and landed precisely within the fire point.

Cyril peeked out again; the heavy machine gun position that had been spitting tongues of fire just moments ago was now a pile of ruins.

The remaining few apes were so terrified they turned to run, but they had only taken two steps before the wall beside them burst open.

A leman russ tank crashed directly through the wall, its tracks ruthlessly crushing two apes as its hull-mounted coaxial machine gun instantly opened fire, riddling the remaining few with holes.

The tank commander laughed loudly into the intercom: "The Governor said not to conserve ammunition—use the main gun directly! I just love using cannons to blast xenos!"

...

On the top floor of the Capitol Building, Charlie watched the footage of the frontline collapse, his fingers tapping faster and faster on the tabletop.

With the ape side suffering heavy casualties, Charlie finally couldn't sit still. The bait used for the ambush were all his confidants; every one that died was one less he had, and he would become increasingly passive in the subsequent struggle for authority.

"It's fine, the enemy is about to enter the encirclement," he leaned back in his chair, forcing himself to be comforted.

Charlie had long ago set an ambush on the only path they could take.

Tens of thousands of apes were hidden within dozens of buildings in the core area of Washington, and electromagnetic shielding devices had been activated.

He left only one main road as bait, hoping to lure the human armored units into the narrow streets to trap and destroy them.

Inside the buildings, the apes stared through the gaps in the curtains at the approaching human forces in the distance, not daring to breathe loudly.

"Wait until they've all passed before we strike! By then, their tanks won't even be able to turn around!" an ape squad leader ordered in a low voice.

But they waited and waited, and the roar of the tanks remained in the distance, not drawing a single step closer.

Suddenly, the apes smelled a pungent smoke, followed by the spreading scent of burning.

Someone pulled back a curtain, and their face instantly turned deathly pale.

The building was on fire, the blaze spreading at a terrifying speed, soon engulfing half the structure.

In the sky, valkyrie gunships dropped incendiary bombs. The buildings on both sides of Constitution Avenue instantly erupted into massive fires, with thick smoke blotting out the sun. The apes inside the buildings fell into a panic, either stumbling around choked by the smoke or frantically jumping from windows and rushing for the fire exits.

What awaited them was the firing line of the Planetary Defense Force, which had been waiting for a long time.

Although the stubbers didn't have the armor-penetration of bolters, their rate of fire was high, and a water-like spray of bullets riddled the jumping apes with holes.

The fleeing apes fell from the sky like dumplings, twitching a few times on the ground before falling still.

Fu Haoran watched the sky full of fire, clicking his tongue with a look of regret.

"What a waste. It would have been so much better to turn these chimpanzees into corpse starch to use as fodder for the Genestealer. Burning them like this is such a waste."

He thought to himself that as long as he lowered his moral standards, he might not necessarily lose in a battle of wits against Jia Xu.

...

The apes inside the buildings were either smoked to death or charged out into the muzzles of guns, and those who charged out all became sitting ducks.

The Planetary Defense Force soldiers weren't sharpshooters, and their reactions weren't particularly fast, but they had the advantage of numbers; bullets were spent as if they cost nothing, and they always managed to hit their targets.

When the fire subsided slightly, Jarvis's scan results came in: of the fifty thousand apes in ambush, less than one-tenth had escaped; the rest had all been burned to death inside the buildings.

Fu Haoran looked at the results without much surprise.

Looking at the burning buildings, Fu Haoran ordered: "Take a detour; there's nothing left for us to do here."

By this time, the ground forces had advanced to the foot of Capitol Hill. 90% of the Washington urban area had been reclaimed, and victory was certain.

[Phased Main Quest: Quell the Ape Calamity (Phase 1). 90% of Washington urban area reclaimed, main rebel forces annihilated!]

[System Reward: Unlocked purchase permissions for Paladin Knight Mech. Issued one exclusive discount coupon, which can be used to deduct 5,000 general points!]

Fu Haoran opened the system panel and frowned at the price of the Paladin Knight Titan: 20,000 general points + 1,300,000 Throne Coins.

"Holy crap, it's that expensive?" He couldn't help but curse. "It's just a Knight Mecha, not a real Titan. Is this necessary?"

Strictly speaking, a Knight Mecha wasn't considered an orthodox Titan, but it sounded good to say.

After all, Knight Mechas were easier to obtain; even the smallest Warhound-class Titan wasn't something one could get just anywhere.

Fu Haoran rubbed his chin, hesitating for a moment: "Forget it, I won't buy it for now. I'll reconsider when there's a need."

...

In the underground bunker of the Capitol Building, Charlie looked at the remnants who had fled back, his face as white as paper.

No matter how cold he was, he realized that defeat was inevitable.

Charlie slumped in his chair, the composure in his eyes completely vanished. He knew he had lost. It wasn't a loss of combat power, but because the opposing commander didn't play by the rules at all.

He had predicted his opponent's every move, but the opponent had simply flipped the chessboard.

"He clearly could have used missiles to bomb the city, yet he chose to set the buildings on fire. Wasn't he afraid of burning down all of Washington?"

But he had forgotten that Fu Haoran wasn't American at all.

The man didn't care at all whether the city burned or not.

If Fu Haoran were here, he would certainly tell him: It's not my home, and it's not my motherland, so if it burns, it burns. Besides, these are all wealthy districts; there won't be any moral condemnation for burning them.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Charlie turned to activate the backup cross-world portal to escape.

As long as he could flee back to the parallel world, he would always have a chance to make a comeback.

However, just as the portal lit up, a tall figure stepped out from the light curtain, wearing the standard armor of an ape general, with cold eyes.

It was the Overseer of the parallel world's Ape Empire, Hawk.

"You have failed, Charlie," General Hawk spoke.

Charlie's expression changed, and he immediately defended himself: "Overseer! This was just an accident! I have a better plan! Just give me time, and I will definitely fight my way back and take this world!"

Hawk shook his head: "No need. We missed our only chance. Next time, the humans will be on guard, and there will never be such a good opportunity again."

"However, before I leave, I must leave a grand gift for the humans."

Before Charlie could react, Hawk grabbed him by the neck and plunged a syringe deep into his carotid artery.

The green liquid was instantly injected into his body.

Charlie immediately felt a sense of weakness throughout his body, as if a fire were burning inside him. His bones made sharp cracking sounds, and his body began to swell uncontrollably.

Hawk looked at his distorted face and said coldly: "Don't worry, this thing won't take your life. It will only make you stronger and larger."

"Use your body to give the humans one last lesson. Let them forever remember the fear of the Ape Race."

With that, Hawk turned and walked into the portal, leading his remaining confidants back to the parallel world without looking back.

In the bunker, Charlie's body swelled wildly, his height skyrocketing from 1.8 meters to several meters, and he continued to grow.

"Charlie, what's happening to you?" His adjutant saw him struggling in pain and hurriedly stepped forward to check.

But he didn't know that Charlie was in excruciating pain, his consciousness being swallowed by a violent rage, leaving only the instinct to feed.

Seeing "food" being offered voluntarily, it opened its mouth without hesitation and crushed the adjutant's head in one bite, blood splattering across the wall.

The surrounding apes scattered in terror, but they were instantly overtaken. Sharp claws tore through bodies and fangs gnawed on flesh; the bunker was soon filled with the severed limbs of their own kind, and the smell of blood was pungent.