redvbooks Chapter 311 "Death" in a Desperate Situation
Chapter 311 "Death" in a Desperate Situation
Washington, D.C., the White House, and the underground bunker.
The four-star general who once gave orders and directed the nation's affairs has been missing for a full twelve hours.
He left behind a mess and a decision that was both absurd and shocking to everyone.
After hearing the report, the president showed no anger or outburst; he remained silent for a long time before wearily waving his hand and saying, "Let him go. Perhaps... he is right."
No one knows where the general went.
CIA and FBI agents searched almost every corner of Washington, but couldn't find a trace of him.
He was like a pebble thrown into the vast quagmire of North America, a land that had become a blood-red hell, without even causing a ripple.
……
Chicago, ruins.
The once-famous "Windy City" is now nothing but blackened ruins and grotesque monsters roaming the streets.
The air was filled with the acrid smell of molten metal and the stench of rotting flesh.
"Cough...cough cough..."
In an office building that had collapsed halfway, General Marcus—no, he should be called now, the Zero Squad leader codenamed "Death"—was kneeling on the ground, coughing violently.
His brand-new black combat suit was now tattered and covered in blackish-green bloodstains, whether from monsters or humans, it was hard to tell.
He had just experienced the most humiliating and brutal "battle" of his military career.
If that can also be called a "battle".
Just an hour earlier, he had led a hastily assembled group of three survivors from the "Pioneer" squad in an attempt to ambush a small patrol of a dozen or so "Corruptors".
He perfectly replicated the tactics of the Chinese "Dragon Fang" troops in the video.
He personally launched the "Soul-Suppressing Roar".
And then... and then, that was it.
His dry, guttural roar, aside from making his own throat burn, had no effect on the "corruptors."
On the contrary, it attracted them all.
What followed was a complete and utter massacre.
He watched helplessly as the three young lieutenants, who had been with him just yesterday in front of the Pentagon's war table, were pounced on, torn apart, and then melted into a pool of smoking, green, corrosive skeletons by those monsters.
He used his last breath to barely survive, thanks to a roll of steel bars falling from the sky that managed to kill a lone "Corruptor." Then, he scrambled and crawled into the abandoned building.
"drop."
"Personal merit points +1".
"National Merit Points +0.001"
A cold, mechanical voice echoed in his mind.
Marcus gave a bitter laugh.
A small contribution.
He, a four-star general who once commanded a million-strong army, traded the lives of three promising young officers and half his own life for a pitiful little bit of merit.
This is reality.
This is the cruelty of this damned, god-like game.
He pulled out the last high-energy nutrient solution from his tactical pouch and plunged it hard into his thigh.
The cool liquid, injected into the muscles, brought a faint sense of power.
He cannot die.
At least, not yet.
He hasn't figured it out yet.
Why?
Why is it that he can't do what the Chinese can do?
Is it the wrong technique? Or is it the wrong person?
He endured the excruciating pain throughout his body, as if his bones were about to break, and opened the specially made tactical computer on his wrist.
Above, the video of the Battle of Changbai Mountain, which he had watched at least a hundred times, was still playing on a loop.
He stared intently at the screen, at Lin Xiaotian's bulging chest as he activated "Soul-Suppressing Roar".
Also, those "Dragon Fang" warriors, when they swing their swords, there's that faint, almost imperceptible aura on the blade.
"gas……"
"Qi and blood..."
Marcus murmured, repeating the two most essential terms he had seen in the "Cultivation Technique Annotations" from Kunlun Academy, a document worth ten thousand merit points.
He seemed to understand a little.
They misunderstood from the very beginning.
The Chinese people cultivate not just one kind of "skill".
It is also a kind of "energy" that exists inside their bodies!
These American soldiers, through gene injections and intense training, also possessed powerful physiques.
But their bodies are empty!
No, that kind of thing called "qi and blood" or "internal strength"!
Therefore, they can only imitate the "form" of the technique, but not its "spirit"!
This is the root cause of their failure!
"Bullshit!"
Marcus slammed his fist hard into the ground.
This is simply a vicious cycle!
To generate "qi", you need time to cultivate and refine it.
But right now, what they lack most is time!
Outside, those endless monsters will not give you any chance to cultivate in peace!
Could this be the insurmountable obstacle that the damned "game designers" specifically set up for them, these "Western players"?
Just then, Marcus felt a deep sense of despair.
A series of suppressed, panting sounds and light footsteps came from the direction of the stairwell.
"Who?!"
Marcus jolted awake, instantly springing to his feet and raising the rifle in his hand, which was now almost completely drained of power.
"No...don't shoot! General! It's...it's us!"
A young voice, thick with a Texas accent, trembled as it shouted.
Immediately afterwards, three young soldiers, also covered in blood and in a sorry state, emerged from the dark corner of the staircase.
They all looked to be no more than twenty years old.
His face still held a trace of childish fear.
But their eyes were unusually bright.
In their hands, too, were special alloy battle blades purchased from China.
"You... are from the 7th Brigade of the 'Pioneers'?"
Marcus recognized them; the unit numbers on their uniforms.
"Yes, General!" The leader, the Texas kid, saw Marcus as if he had seen a savior, and was so excited he almost cried. "We are the 7th Brigade, the 'Rattlesnake' squad! We were ordered to support Chicago! But... but we just arrived, and..."
The Texas kid can't keep going.
Behind him, his two comrades also lowered their heads, their shoulders trembling slightly.
Marcus knew what they had been through.
Because he, too, had just experienced it.
"How many of you are left?" Marcus asked in a deep voice.
"It's...it's just the three of us now." The Texas kid's voice was filled with sorrow. "Our team had twenty people, and now, it's just the three of us left."
"How did you guys survive?" Marcus asked the question that concerned him most.
"We..." The Texas kid hesitated for a moment, then, as if he had made up his mind, he took something out of his pocket that was wrapped in a waterproof cloth.
That was a gray stone that looked like some kind of biological crystal.
“We found this in the body of a ‘rammer,’” the Texas kid said. “We initially thought it was useless. But then, when we were being chased by monsters and had nowhere to run, John… he accidentally crushed this stone.”
"and then?"
"Then, a strange, warm current entered his body from his hand. And then, like those Chinese people, he chopped off the head of a 'Corruptor' with a single stroke!"
The Texas kid pointed to a relatively thin soldier next to him, who was wearing glasses.
The soldier named John nodded, a hint of disbelief still on his face.
"I...I don't know what happened. I just felt like there was a ball of fire inside my body. And then, instinctively, I swung a knife..."
Marcus's pupils suddenly contracted!
He strode over and snatched the gray stone, now only half-full, from the Texas kid's hand.
He could clearly sense a faint but pure life energy emanating from this stone!
This is, "Qi"!
This is the "energy" that they have been searching for so long, yet have been unable to grasp!
"So...so that's how it is!"
"Haha...hahahaha!"
Marcus suddenly burst into laughter!
The laughter was filled with the ecstasy of surviving a catastrophe, and a kind of almost frenzied enlightenment!
"We don't need to cultivate ourselves! We don't need to meditate!"
"We can eat! We can directly extract the energy we need from the bodies of these monsters!"
"This is the true way to 'level up' in this game!"
"Kill monsters! Get loot! Gain experience! This, fucking, is the way we Americans are best at playing!"
His laughter echoed through the empty, abandoned building.
This also alerted the monsters outside who were wandering around.
"roar--!"
A roar, louder and more ferocious than any of the previous "Corruptors," came from below the building!
Immediately afterwards, the entire building shook violently!
It felt as if I had been violently struck by a speeding train engine!
The floor-to-ceiling windows in the lobby shattered with a loud crash!
A huge, ferocious head covered in thick bone armor emerged from below!
That was an E-rank "Calamity Beast"—the Rammer!
Its two small, blood-red eyes were staring intently at the four "energy sources" inside the building, which it found incredibly delicious.
The Texas kid and his two comrades were instantly terrified, their faces turning ashen and their legs trembling uncontrollably.
However, Marcus looked at that enormous monster.
There was not a trace of fear in his eyes.
Instead, a greedy gleam erupted from it, as if it had seen an unparalleled delicacy!
"Children," he said, turning to look at the three terrified young soldiers, a sinister smile spreading across his face.
"Do you want to live?"
"Do you want to become stronger, like those Chinese people?"
"Then, don't stand there like a woman!"
"Take up your knives!"
"Come with me, let's enjoy our first 'feast' of the day!"