The war arrived as scheduled.
Outside the military outpost, white smoke billowed from the rocket launchers. Accompanied by blinding flames, rockets were fired one after another.
"Direct hit. Unit 14. Kill confirmed. Corrected coordinates (114, 23). Barrage, over. "
"Roger, cannon three open fire."
"…"
In the command room, the holographic map collected by Aurora-20 displayed the battlefield in front of Jiang Chen.
The mutated humans' vanguard arrived five kilometers away from the water treatment plant, but under the bombardment of NAC's rockets and kinetic skeleton soldiers, they were beaten senseless.
But the mutated humans didn't know what fear was.
NAC's airstrike on the FEV virus production base clearly angered the mutated humans.
Guru Tribe once again mobilized a division with a total of 5000 people. They were equipped with towing cannons, cannons, and pickup trucks with modified steel shells and mounted machine guns. They marched towards the NAC outpost.
The vanguard force included the most powerful warriors of Guru Tribe. Including lead mutated humans with power hammers, machine gunners with steel armor, and mutated dogs with nuclear bombs on their backs.
But the destruction of the vanguard force calmed the mutated humans' commander down. They didn't order the soldiers to rush forward. Instead, they formed a loose formation based on the city's terrain. They sent slaves and mutated humans to launch a few tentative attacks on the NAC outpost, but they all failed.
For some reason, NAC didn't display its full strength at the beginning, which gave the mutated humans' commander the illusion that the two sides were evenly matched.
But Empire didn't have this illusion. The unmutated human's brain was obviously smarter than the mutated humans.
Empire also mobilized two divisions with a total of 10,000 people and deployed them near the rural area of Hucheng. It was almost half of Empire's force. It was the first time such a large-scale military operation occurred in Hucheng.
But compared to the mutated humans' reckless advance, Empire's soldiers were much more cautious and cunning.
They built fortifications at the edge of the rural area, reinforced abandoned buildings with steel, dug trenches to divide the battlefield, and connected buildings with tunnels.
Needless to say, this tactic was effective against heavy firepower, and it was perfect for the raiders' scattered fighting style.
From the very beginning, they had displayed an attitude of defending to the death.
However, Jiang Chen didn't care about Empire's actions. From the beginning, he didn't plan to suppress Empire with firepower.
One "Fireball-1" cost 100 credits. Based on the Sixth Street's exchange rate, it was around 500 crystals. More than 2,000 rockets were thrown out. It looked like fireworks, but in fact, they were throwing money.
For the Empire, there was no need to burn so much money.
If they wanted to knock down the building, they only needed to use their brains to think about the floor tiles that they stepped on. There was no need to fight to the death with the mobs.
…
In the tavern of the imperial capital, there were a few rare bottles of good wine on the rotten wooden table.
The two of them sat opposite each other and drank to their hearts' content.
"I think that adding population to the word 'power' itself is a hooligan act." Drunk, the mercenary wearing the leather hat opened his mouth wide. Under Zhao Baodong's intentional guidance, he started spouting nonsense.
On the seventh day in the imperial capital, Zhao Baodong once again found the mercenary who brought him in and offered to treat him to a drink.
Alcohol was a great thing. It could numb the tense nerves. No one on the wasteland didn't like it.
At the table, Zhao Baodong successfully found out his name and background.
Xiao Hu, a mercenary active between Hongcheng and Wu City. His life was basically traveling with the merchant fleet and living a life where he could drink and get drunk.
This kind of person was smart, but he didn't have a brain. It was easy to use him.
"Oh?" Zhao Baodong took a sip of the wine in his glass and looked at him with a smile. "Your opinion is unique."
Xiao Hu felt a little smug from the compliment. He grinned and said, "The people here are a bit strange. A lot of rookies who come here for the first time don't understand the situation. Why are mutated humans willing to live in harmony with humans?"
The smile on Zhao Baodong's face grew wider. "I'd like to hear the details."
Then, he waved at the bartender on the side and signaled him to bring two more glasses.
"You can see that other than the poor people in the ghetto, the people here live a good life. But people aren't happy … Of course, I'm referring to the people who live here permanently, not the vagrants like me who just want to have fun everywhere. "
A mysterious smile appeared on Xiao Hu's drunken face as he got closer to Zhao Baodong. "Do you want to know why?"
"Of course." Zhao Baodong smiled.
"They follow a strange equality standard. That is, a small number of people obtain more privileges, and the majority of humans obtain less power. They call it fairness … fairness based on the entire race. "
"I'm surprised … Is the emperor not a human?"
"He's the one who cuts the cake, not the one who pancakes." Xiao Hu burped and gulped down another glass of wine. "The Emperor is chosen by the Senate. How can you expect them to eat flatbread? Stop dreaming. Even if two walls of the stadium collapsed and the mutated humans killed a few humans, they would still enjoy a good meal … Thanks to NAC's merchant fleet, they couldn't afford it even if they had money. "
Talking about the emperor and the Senate in a public setting attracted the attention of the bartender and the people around them. A lot of people who were afraid of trouble already stood up and left. At this time, a mutated human who just came back from hunting sat on the empty seat next to him and ordered a bottle of cheap alcohol from the bartender.
Zhao Baodong, who sat across from him, laughed out loud. He glanced at the dumb mutated human and shook his head. "Let's not talk about the emperor. I want to hear your opinion on those … umm, those with special rights. "
"I don't have an opinion. Other than raising slaves who don't dare to fight back and growing mutated fruits, those lazy bastards can't do anything. I heard the FEV virus turns the brain into mush? Hehe, I can't blame them. And the elder of Guru Tribe, heh? Would people worship a cancer patient with a tumor on his back as a god — "
Slap!
A loud slap interrupted him and sent him flying out the door along with a few white teeth.
Zhao Baodong, who sat across from him, disappeared.
Xiao Hu, who was talking to himself in front of the bottle, became louder and louder as it traveled into the mutated human's ears. The muscular man named Andy immediately slammed the table and stood up. He swung his hand and slapped Xiao Hu's head.
Xiao Hu's back came into contact with the cold concrete floor as he instantly sobered up. He forced himself up from the ground as fear crawled all over his swollen face.
The elder was the highest leader of the mutated humans and the god in the hearts of every Guru Tribe mutated human.
Not to mention insulting them, even talking about them in a public setting would be considered disrespectful by the mutated humans.
"No, no, I, I'm just drunk …"
Xiao Hu, who was on the ground, didn't have time to treat his wounds. He moved back on the street while trembling as he looked at the muscular mutated human walking towards him.
Not to mention that he didn't have a gun on him, even if he did, he wouldn't dare to shoot at the mutated human here. The mutated human would at most lock him up for a few days if they killed him, but if he killed the mutated human, he would become a slave to the mutated human.
That was scarier than the death penalty.
Andy grinned as he clenched his fists and stepped out of the door of the hotel. He walked towards the human on the ground.
Under everyone's watchful eyes, the mutant stepped on the mercenary's body, raised his fist, and punched the mercenary's face.
Crack —
Xiao Hu seemed to hear the sound of his nose breaking, but his dizzy head couldn't even scream in pain.
After a few punches, every punch hit flesh and blood stained the dark green fist.
"Stop hitting him, he's almost dead," someone whispered but immediately looked away when they met the vicious gaze.
"Anyone who dares to disrespect the elder is disrespecting the Guru Tribe! Anyone who disrespects the Guru Tribe must die! " Bathed in the hateful and cowardly gazes, Andy rode on Xiao Hu's body as he laughed maniacally and waved his thick fist.
"Ow ow —!" The mutated humans clapped and cheered for this warrior.
Perhaps they didn't truly respect the elder, but they instinctively craved violence and killing. And the fear in people's eyes when they looked at them only encouraged them to go to extremes.
The guard walked towards Andri, but Andri was not afraid.
Even if he beat this human to death on the street, he would only be imprisoned for a short period of time. No prison guard would dare to treat him unfairly. Perhaps it wouldn't be long before the centurion of the Guru Tribe would negotiate with the officials of the Empire to let him go.
His amber pupils scanned the crowd as he proudly bared his teeth, and his ugly mouth opened and closed two words.
"Coward!"
Even when the miserable mercenary stopped breathing, no one stepped forward to stop his atrocity.
But at this moment, his expression froze on his face.
His line of sight met the muzzle of a gun hidden in the crowd.
And a smile that belonged to a human.
Bang —!
The sound of a gunshot drowned out the noise of the market.
In an instant, an ear-piercing scream sounded.
"Murder!"
Andy fell into a pool of blood. His widened eyes were filled with disbelief. He couldn't believe that he would die in the Empire, especially in the capital city of the Empire.
The guards looked around helplessly, trying to find the shooter, but it was futile in the face of the sea of people. The angry mutated humans shoved and beat the innocent people, trying to find the shooter among them.
Along with the chaotic crowd, Zhao Baodong had already disappeared around the corner of the market.
The dead Andy would never know that his death had sown the seeds of disaster for the collapse of the Empire.
The same scene was playing out in every corner of the Empire.
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