34: Chapter 34 is all about playing the trump card!

The roar of the artillery tore through the air behind them, and red trajectories streaked across the dark sky—it was the Katyusha rockets speaking.

Jack had never found this sound so pleasant.

The ice beneath his feet was vibrating.

This wasn't a metaphor; it was real feedback from the physics engine.

The Imjin River, this major artery spanning the 38th Parallel, was now as fragile as cracked glass.

With every step, he could hear the 'ka-ka' groans from deep within the ice.

"Spread out! Don't clump together!"

The squad leader's shout was torn to shreds by the fierce wind.

It was useless.

Tens of thousands of charging troops spread across the narrow river surface, like a breached flood.

The US military evidently realized this too, as flares on the opposite bank soared into the sky as if unlimited, bathing the river in a stark white light.

Immediately after, the Grim Reaper's scythe swung down.

Heavy artillery shells slammed into the middle of the river.

It wasn't the dull thud of dirt splashing, but a sharp, cracking sound.

Hundreds of square meters of ice instantly collapsed, and what was once solid ground became a black abyss.

Over a dozen soldiers at the very front were swept directly into the icy, bone-chilling river water without even a groan.

Jack watched as a new recruit beside him lost his footing and plunged in.

He instinctively reached out to grab him, his fingertips only touching the rough cotton sleeve of the other's uniform.

That sleeve was already soaked through with river water, heavy as if filled with lead.

"Grab on!" Jack lay on the edge of the ice hole, half his body submerged in the water.

The new recruit was only sixteen or seventeen, his face frozen purple, his hands flailing wildly.

The minus twenty-degree river water was like liquid knives, capable of causing hypothermia and shock in an instant.

"Let go... Brother... I can't get up..." The recruit's teeth chattered, and his eyes began to lose focus.

"Stop talking nonsense!" Jack gritted his teeth, veins bulging on his arms.

Just then, a mortar shell landed ten meters away.

The shockwave, mixed with shards of ice, swept over him. Jack felt as if his chest had been struck by a sledgehammer, all the air squeezed from his lungs.

His hand slipped, and that young life disappeared into the churning black waves.

Only a tattered cotton hat floated on the surface, spun once, and was also washed away.

"Don't look! Keep going!"

Someone pushed him from behind.

It was Xie Dabao.

This kid was now a combat engineer, carrying heavy bridging equipment on his back.

His face, which usually only analyzed KDA, was now covered in sooty black ash.

"The river is broken!" Brother Bao pointed ahead.

"The main force can't cross! We need to build a bridge!"

The river ahead had been blasted by US heavy artillery, creating a thirty-meter-wide rupture.

The black river water blocked the assault route, and thousands of soldiers were trapped on the ice, becoming live targets for the machine guns on the opposite bank.

"Not enough equipment!" Brother Bao glanced at his backpack, his face ashen.

"That last shell blew away the second squad's pontoon planks!"

Without a bridge, those thirty meters were an impassable chasm.

Jack was about to suggest finding another way when he witnessed a suffocating scene.

Several figures jumped into the water.

They were NPC soldiers. Without any hesitation, they plunged into the river water that could freeze a person's marrow.

The water was waist-deep, and they used their shoulders to carry the remaining planks and ladders.

"Step on them and cross!" the squad leader in the water roared, "Don't dawdle! Hurry!"

A human bridge.

This was not just an illustration in a textbook; this was a flesh-and-blood reality unfolding before his eyes.

Jack could even see the bulging veins on the squad leader's neck, see his lips trembling violently in the extreme cold.

"I'm not going..."

A female player nearby was crying; it was Dai Dai.

She was a Medic, currently trying to throw gauze from her first-aid kit to the people in the water.

"Get over here!" The squad leader cursed, his voice already strained.

"Don't let us freeze for nothing!"

Jack grabbed Dai Dai's arm and dragged her onto the planks.

The planks underfoot swayed; it was the people below trembling.

Every step felt like treading on the spines of his compatriots, burning the soles of his feet.

Just as they rushed across this human bridge, a shriek came from the sky.

Napalm bombs.

The US planes had arrived.

An orange-red fireball accurately struck the broken section.

The high temperature instantly evaporated the river water, and flames spread across the surface, engulfing the planks and the flesh-and-blood bodies beneath.

There were no screams.

Those frozen people didn't even have time to make a sound before they turned into torches.

They remained in their supporting posture amidst the raging fire until they were burned to charcoal and sank to the bottom of the river.

Jack knelt on the snow on the opposite bank, clutching his M1 Carbine tightly.

The wood grain on the rifle butt dug into his palm.

Rage.

This was no longer the anger of losing a game, nor the anger of being flamed by haters.

This anger exploded from his chest, carrying a scent of blood.

"Brother Bao, give me the satchel charges."

Jack stood up, his voice as cold as the river wind.

Brother Bao paused, then handed over the only two remaining five-kilogram satchel charges.

"That bunker up ahead, that's the British firing point."

Jack pointed at a concrete fortification two hundred meters away.

That Vickers Heavy Machine Gun was relentlessly mowing down the lives stranded on the ice.

"What are you going to do? That's a crossfire, a frontal assault is suicide."

Brother Bao glanced at the terrain.

"Who said I'm going to charge head-on?"

Jack pulled the bolt, the sound of a bullet chambering crisp and clear.

He crouched low, using the cover of a large ice floe, and outflanked to the left.

The old injury in his right leg still throbbed faintly, a phantom pain memory from the amputation in the previous chapter.

But this didn't slow him down; instead, it made him clearer-headed.

The US searchlights swept over.

Jack rolled into a shell crater.

The frozen earth above his head was kicked up by machine gun bullets.

He was waiting.

Waiting for a gap.

"Now!"

The moment the searchlight turned, Jack sprang out like a leopard.

He didn't run in a straight line but in a Z-pattern.

His carbine fired continuously.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Precise single shots.

Three US soldiers attempting to outflank him fell dead.

This wasn't an old bolt-action; it was a semi-automatic firearm.

That feeling of powerlessness under suppressive fire finally vanished.

Fifty meters.

Thirty meters.

The machine gunner in the bunker spotted this suicidal madman, and his gun barrel was just about to turn.

Jack had already pulled the fuse from the satchel charge.

Counting down. Three, two, one.

He swung his arm in a full circle and hurled the smoking satchel charge into the firing port.

His motion was as perfect as a professional baseball pitcher's throw.

Boom!

A muffled explosion resonated inside the bunker.

The concrete roof was blown half a meter high, and black smoke mixed with shredded flesh spewed out.

That heavy machine gun, which had been roaring for half the night, finally fell silent.

A breach had been torn in the defense line.

The charge bugle call became incredibly high-pitched at this moment.

Countless gray figures leaped from the ice, surging through this gap.

The battle cries drowned out the artillery and the wind.

The US military's proud "absolute defense line" crumbled at this moment.

Jack stood on the still-smoking ruins, watching the red flag, not particularly vibrant and even stained with gunpowder smoke, planted on the high point of the position.

He didn't cheer.

He turned around and looked at the Imjin River behind him.

The black river water still flowed.

And in that scorched section of the water, new ice was forming.

The remains, still in their supporting postures, had been frozen together, becoming the most solid roadbed to the opposite bank.

The subsequent main force was treading this path, heading south.

Brother Bao walked over, holding a half-burnt map.

It was retrieved from a British officer who had been blown up.

"Look at this." Brother Bao handed the map to Jack.

On the map, a place name was circled in red oil pen, with a skull symbol drawn next to it.

Location, likely in Korea.

"What is that place?" Dai Dai wiped away her tears and leaned over with her first-aid kit.

"That's the last gate to Seoul."

Jack glanced at the British unit insignia on the map: a green tiger.

The Royal Ulster Rifles.

The British ace.

"It seems these British gentlemen are still waiting there for us to give them an explanation."

Jack tucked the map into his 懷裡, the killing intent in his eyes still hadn't dissipated.

"We're fighting the ace!"