66: Chapter 67 The daytime belongs to them for now, but after nightfall, it's ours!

Jack didn't see the shell.

He only saw a blinding flash of light.

It wasn't sunlight, nor the light of an electric lamp,

It was a light that burned the entire world white.

Immediately following that,

The sound vanished.

No,

He even felt as if he had become lost.

There was nothing in his ears,

just emptiness,

a ringing in his brain overpowering everything else.

Then,

an irresistible force violently shoved him into the tunnel entrance,

his back slamming heavily against the tunnel's rock wall.

Gravel and dirt rained down on him, covering his head,

choking him until he couldn't breathe.

The entire world was shaking violently,

not side to side,

but up and down,

like a madman frantically shaking a sieve,

and they were the pebbles inside that sieve.

Even after experiencing the Iron Field defense, they couldn't adapt to artillery bombardment this intense.

"Damn it, did Van Vliet stuff his entire eighteen generations of ancestors down the barrel of that cannon?"

For a moment, he felt Earth's gravity performing a frantic tap dance on Newton's coffin lid,

he couldn't tell up from down or left from right.

"Get down! Everyone get down!"

The Platoon Leader's roar didn't travel through his ears;

it traveled through the vibrating rock wall, striking directly against his sternum.

Jack tightly clutched his head, curling himself up.

He felt like he wasn't in a tunnel, but being buried alive inside a giant cement mixer.

Roar.

It was a continuous, unending roar.

The sound of tens of thousands of shells tearing through the air, impacting the mountain, the explosions—

all sounds twisted, superimposed, finally becoming a pure noise capable of crushing human sanity.

"My ears! I can't hear anything!"

A player let out a terrified scream, but his voice was swallowed by the noise the moment it left his mouth; no one could hear him.

Brother Bao was crouched not far from Jack, staring intently at the constantly jumping red warnings on his system panel.

[Warning: You are within the range of high-intensity sonic attack. Auditory system damage: 90%.]

[Warning: Continuous violent vibration has caused balance sensory disorder. Your movement speed is reduced by 70%.]

[Warning: Airborne dust concentration is too high. Respiratory system is sustaining continuous damage.]

Brother Bao opened his mouth, wanting to say something to Jack,

but he couldn't make a sound; his throat was full of dirt.

He could only watch as the cracks in the tunnel ceiling grew larger and larger,

big chunks of rock and dirt falling down like rain.

This wasn't a battle; it was a natural disaster.

Dai Dai huddled in the innermost part, using her body to shield several wounded NPC soldiers.

She kept her eyes closed, not daring to look at the world outside, which was illuminated red by the firelight.

With every explosion, she could feel the earth beneath her feet wailing and convulsing.

She felt like she wasn't holding wounded soldiers,

but the last vestiges of the hilltop's pulse.

A soldier guarding the tunnel entrance,

without even time to cry out,

was swept out by the blast wave of a near miss explosion.

Jack watched him fly out of the tunnel,

only to be directly hit by another shell mid-air.

There was no gore.

That person,

along with the rifle in his hand,

disintegrated directly into the smallest particles in the air, turning into a cloud of red mist.

Jack felt a churning in his stomach,

he wanted to vomit, but couldn't bring anything up.

He didn't know how long it lasted,

maybe an hour,

maybe a day.

When the roar capable of shaking the soul out of the body

stopped without any warning,

the entire tunnel fell into a suffocating silence.

Everyone remained frozen in their prone positions,

motionless.

Dead silence.

Only the massive ringing in their ears

served as a reminder that what had just happened was not an illusion.

"Cough... Cough cough!"

Jack coughed up a mouthful of mud and sand,

he tried to push himself up,

but his arms trembled uncontrollably.

He looked toward the outside of the tunnel.

The sky was still red.

It was dyed red by the burning earth and smoke.

The original hilltop was gone,

it had been leveled.

Everywhere was churned, scorched earth,

shell craters spewing black smoke.

Not a single intact rock was visible,

not a single surviving plant.

"They are coming up."

The Platoon Leader's voice was as hoarse as two pieces of sandpaper rubbing together.

He used his rifle to support himself as he stood up,

his face completely covered in black ash, only his eyes shone with a terrifying brightness.

"Everyone, prepare for battle."

"Our position has been erased from the map."

"Now, it's our turn to use bayonets and draw it back, inch by inch!"

The moment he rushed out of the tunnel, Jack nearly tripped over the dirt under his feet.

There was no solid ground left.

The entire hilltop had been overturned by artillery fire,

turning into loose, soft topsoil,

where one step sank to the ankle.

The air was filled with a thick, pungent smell,

a mixture of gunpowder, sulfur, and charred meat.

"Spread out! Find cover! Quickly!"

The Platoon Leader roared until his voice was hoarse, but there was no cover left here.

All the trenches had been filled in,

all the rocks had been blasted to pieces.

Looking around,

the entire position was just one huge, still-steaming ash pit.

"Puff puff puff!"

The American machine guns opened fire.

Bullets struck the soft, scorched earth,

kicking up clumps of black dust.

A player who had just rushed out hadn't run five meters

before a spray of blood burst from his chest, and his body slumped down softly without even a groan.

"Damn it! The firing position is over there!"

Brother Bao pointed toward a relatively intact shell crater in the distance,

where several American soldiers were setting up an M1919 heavy machine gun,

spraying fire wantonly.

"Grenades! Suppress them!"

Several soldiers pulled the pins and threw their grenades with all their might.

However,

the grenades landed on the loose dirt,

without even a sound, sinking straight in.

The explosion was muffled,

the dirt clods thrown up were soft and had no killing power.

"Crap!"

Jack cursed,

he finally understood how hard this fight was.

In this terrain reshaped by artillery fire,

all their previous combat experience had become useless.

The American attack formation was textbook,

standard infantry-tank coordination.

Tanks led the way,

infantry followed behind, providing mutual cover,

advancing steadily.

They weren't in a hurry,

because in their eyes, there was no longer any organized resistance left on this position.

"We can't let them advance!"

Jack, his eyes red, picked up a satchel charge from beside a fallen comrade.

"Brother Bao, cover me!"

"Are you crazy!?"

Brother Bao roared.

"Their tanks are coming! If we don't take one out, we'll all die here!"

Jack said no more. He crouched low,

using the shell craters for cover,

and charged toward the M46 tank slowly climbing the slope.

Machine gun bullets zipped past his scalp, bringing a gust of scorching wind.

He could clearly hear the grinding sound of the tank's tracks crushing gravel,

and smell the pungent diesel fumes the tank emitted.

Closer.

Even closer.

Just as he prepared to stand up and throw the satchel charge,

the tank's coaxial machine gun turned its muzzle.

"Watch out!"

Dai Dai's scream rang out from behind.

Jack only felt a numbness in his left knee,

and a massive force threw him to the ground.

Intense pain instantly spread throughout his body.

He looked down,

his left calf was twisted at a grotesque angle,

and blood was gushing out.

"Damn it..."

Jack struggled to stand up,

but his broken leg couldn't support him.

The American infantry had already rushed within twenty meters,

they even began looking at the immobilized prey lying on the ground with mocking eyes.

Despair.

Just then,

a figure suddenly darted out from a shell crater on the flank.

It was the taciturn NPC veteran, Iron Bull.

He said nothing,

snatched the satchel charge from Jack's hand,

and with all his might,

threw it toward the tank's track.

Boom!

A massive explosion erupted,

the tank's left track was blown off,

the huge chassis tilted to one side, unable to move.

Iron Bull was also thrown by the blast wave due to the proximity,

crashing heavily to the ground,

a large hole torn in his chest by shrapnel.

"Go... quickly..."

He spoke these last two words of his life to Jack.

The American assault momentarily stalled due to the immobilized tank.

"Drag him back!"

The Platoon Leader roared,

and several players rushed out, enduring the gunfire to drag Jack back into the tunnel.

The battle lasted until dusk.

After paying the price of dozens of corpses,

the Americans finally occupied the entire surface position.

They planted a Stars and Stripes flag on the main peak,

and cheers carried on the wind,

reaching the ears of everyone inside the tunnel.

Inside the tunnel,

the atmosphere was extremely oppressive.

Dai Dai was sweating profusely, treating Jack's wound.

Since there was no anesthetic, Jack's face was contorted with agony, and sweat soaked his entire body.

"We... lost?"

A young player muttered to himself, his voice choked with sobs.

"Who said we lost?"

The Platoon Leader wiped bloodstains from his bayonet with a piece of torn cloth,

his voice very calm.

"During the day, the position belongs to them."

He looked up,

gazing at the darkening sky outside the tunnel,

his eyes fierce like a wolf's.

"At night, it will be our turn."

"Sound the bugle."

The mournful sound of the military bugle

rang out again in the silent night.

That sound

was a declaration of death to the occupiers.