42: Chapter 42 How could my fellow villagers be so weak?
On the ridge line.
13 Reincarnators were charging at full speed.
Leading them was Blood Claw, a sinister grin curling his lips. Beside him followed a cyborg with a glowing Mechanical Arm, a man wreathed in flames, and a woman with purple-tinted skin...
Three minutes ago, the Mechanical Arm had scanned a troop of only 400 people, plus three intimidating-looking aircraft and three clunky tanks, with absolutely no aura of any Reincarnators.
To the Reincarnators, this configuration was a joke.
"An army without Reincarnators dares to block our path?!"
"Everyone, finish this quickly!" roared Blood Claw.
The moment he finished speaking, a piercing shriek echoed from the sky.
Blood Claw looked up, his pupils constricting sharply.
Three valkyries were diving from high altitude. The twin-linked autocannons on the sides of the fuselage unlocked instantly, and the rocket pods on the underbelly erupted with tongues of fire.
"Get down, dodge!"
It was too late.
Dense Bolter fire and high-explosive rockets slammed down like hail.
Upon impact, the warheads detonated instantly. Two Reincarnators charging in the front tried to activate their energy shields, but as soon as a faint glimmer appeared, it was torn apart by the autocannons.
The shield fragments scattered like glass.
"Impossible! My A-rank ability shield, how could it be broken by a single volley?!"
Following this was another volley. Blood and bone fragments splattered onto the rocks, instantly scorched black and dry by the high temperature.
The third Reincarnator was hit directly by a rocket, their entire body exploding into a mist of blood before they could even let out a scream.
Wherever the metal storm passed, the ground was plowed into charred gullies.
After one dive, only 9 of the 13 remained.
Fu Haoran frowned slightly: "4 dead in one dive? Is this the level of the Reincarnators?"
"Perhaps they were just the weakest cannon fodder," Lucifer replied.
Fu Haoran felt a tightness in his chest.
Right, perhaps this was just a probe, and the main force was still behind.
On the other side, Blood Claw poked his head out from behind a rock, panting heavily.
Damn it, what kind of firepower is this?
Fortunately, those three aircraft had already passed, and their dive path meant they couldn't turn around immediately.
As long as he took advantage of this gap to rush into the enemy formation and mix with their ranks, the opponent would never dare to fire on their own men!
"Charge!" Blood Claw roared, "Once we get inside, we'll be safe!"
The remaining nine continued to sprint. The werewolf-transformed Blood Claw, the Mechanical Arm, the fire-wielding Fire Guy, and the poison-using Poison Girl all used their abilities, attempting to break through the formation.
However...
Hum~
A low hum came from the front.
Out of the corner of his eye, Blood Claw caught sight of the turrets on four metal platforms rotating simultaneously, with twin-linked heavy Bolters and twin-linked Laser Guns aimed at him.
No, not aimed.
Locked on!
The next instant, the wolf spider sentry turret opened fire.
The twin-linked heavy Bolters spat out rocket-propelled Bolters at an extremely high rate of fire, the scorching projectiles heading straight for Blood Claw like soul-chasing chains.
Thick beams shot straight over.
Blood Claw transformed into his werewolf form, running on all fours and dodging frantically.
It was useless.
Every time he changed direction, the logic engine of the wolf spider sentry turret could accurately predict it. The projectiles and beams grazed his body, leaving deep, bloody wounds.
"Fuck! What is this monster!" Blood Claw roared, "Why are you staring at me!"
The other 7 glanced at him, but no one spoke.
Some even secretly moved sideways, deliberately exposing Blood Claw completely to the artillery fire.
Mechanical Arm glanced at Blood Claw and whispered to the fire man: "Ignore him. These automatic sentry towers won't switch targets once they lock onto one. Let him be the meat shield."
The fire man grinned viciously: "A fitting death."
Poison Girl even slowed her pace, deliberately falling half a step behind.
Their team was originally formed temporarily; they were Reincarnators from different instance worlds who had only teamed up because their factions happened to align.
If it weren't for the system's penalties for killing each other, they would have already started infighting.
Now that Blood Claw was attracting all the firepower?
That's great.
Better him than me.
"Brother Blood Claw, hang in there! We'll charge ahead first!" someone shouted, but their feet moved even faster.
Blood Claw was shaking with rage, but he didn't even have time to curse; he could only dodge with all his might.
The muzzle of the wolf spider never left him.
After all, the logic engine of the wolf spider would lock onto the first target that entered its range until it was killed before switching.
...
The ground position was getting closer and closer.
The remaining seven finally reached three hundred meters from the front line.
Then they saw the enemy's formation.
More than three hundred soldiers stood in neat rows on the open ground.
No cover, no spreading out; they just stood there straight, holding their guns.
The front row was even kneeling on one knee, the second row standing—a standard firing line formation.
A tall Reincarnator sneered.
"Are these soldiers idiots?" he shouted to his companions, "Standing in line like live targets, we can wipe them all out with one charge!"
Another Reincarnator who specialized in speed even put away his weapon, provocatively closing in on the soldier formation with his movement: "What a waste of time. We don't even need to use our full strength against weaklings like this."
They had seen too many indigenous armies like this.
Battle formations from the flintlock era, trying to stop Reincarnators?
A joke.
Wade stood in the center of the formation, raising his hand expressionlessly: "For the Emperor!"
Then he swung it down sharply.
"Fire."
Hundreds of red laser beams lit up simultaneously.
The dense "flashlight" rays wove into a giant net, instantly covering the seven people a hundred meters away.
The Reincarnator charging at the very front didn't even have time to strike a defensive pose before his head was pierced by the laser.
His body carbonized rapidly like burning paper, falling face-first to the ground and kicking up a cloud of charred ash.
The Reincarnator who had put away his weapon to provoke them was hit in the legs by the lasers. Before his screams could even fall, he was completely torn apart by the subsequent laser beams, not even leaving intact limbs behind.
"Shields!" someone screamed, raising an energy barrier.
It was useless.
The laser beams pierced directly through the shield, opening a fist-sized charred hole in his chest.
"What kind of weapon is this..." The voice stopped abruptly.
Seven people.
One second.
All fell, leaving only seven piles of charred remains emitting black smoke.
Not even decent resistance.
The commander of the Leman Russ Tank had just shouted the fire command, hadn't even pulled the breechblock, the valkyrie was still turning in the air, and the four wolf spiders were still chasing after Blood Claw.
The battle... was over.
Blood Claw finally shook off the firepower blockade of the wolf spiders and poked his head out from behind a rock.
Then he froze.
Where were the people?
Where were his teammates?
On the ground, there were only seven piles of charred remains still emitting smoke.
More than three hundred soldiers stood neatly in place, their Laser Guns still pointing in their direction, the red light on the muzzles slowly extinguishing.
A chill went from the soles of Blood Claw's feet straight to the top of his head.
He turned and ran.
Transforming into werewolf form, running on all fours, sprinting with all his might.
Rocks, shrubs, gullies—everything flew past him.
His agility attribute had tripled; his speed was enough to leave any prey behind.
"I can get away."
"I will definitely get away."
A whistling wind came from behind.
Blood Claw subconsciously looked back; it was the valkyrie gunship turning back!
Then he saw the autocannon under the fuselage slowly aiming at him.
"No!"
The autocannon fired.
Dense projectiles struck instantly. Blood Claw's body was blasted into minced meat in mid-air, scattered on the charred rocks, without even a complete trace left behind.
Inside the bridge.
Fu Haoran stared at the projection screen, stunned for two seconds.
On the screen, all 13 red dots had disappeared.
The Leman Russ Tank hadn't even had a chance to fire, the valkyrie had only completed one dive, the four wolf spiders had been chasing one person for ages, and the three hundred-plus soldiers had fired one round of shots.
And then, it was gone.
That's it?
Fu Haoran had been prepared for a fierce, drawn-out battle, but the situation before him... was excessively clean.
"I maxed out the transmission array, brought all the heavy firepower, and the other side didn't even last one volley?"
"So I spent all that time preparing, just to blow up a few mosquitoes?"
Just then, Lucifer lightly added a knife: "It seems they didn't manage to receive the grand artillery welcome you prepared for your fellow countrymen."
Fu Haoran ignored her and checked the system panel.
[Killed 13 hostile Reincarnators, obtained 15,600 points, General Points +4234]
[Current Ranking: Not on the leaderboard]
[World Line Change Rate: +0.37%]
[Detected enemy equipment remains: ...]
Fu Haoran fell silent.
"Killed 13 people, and I can't even get on the leaderboard... No, this is definitely not their main force, they are too weak... Weak to the point of being abnormal; they must be cannon fodder to test my trump cards!"
"I was careless! My trump cards have almost been figured out, while I know nothing about them!"
"As expected of a bunch of old schemers, they even pit their own people!"
Fu Haoran gained a deeper understanding of the sinister nature of the Reincarnator world; otherwise, how could he explain why a bunch of old "players" would come out to die?