Chapter 602.2: The Meatgrinder

Chapter 602.2: The Meatgrinder

Escaping Mole rubbed his chin. “Comms jamming?”

Eye Owe Money nodded. “Pretty much.”

“Alright, I’ll pull a few guys over.” Tapping his temple, Escaping Mole studied the VM’s map while calmly giving orders.

“Teams 2 and 4, new mission, rendezvous at the marked coordinates immediately. Also, communication channels are jammed in the target area. Switch to backup relay protocol!”

It sounded cool, but backup relay protocol meant leaving one of them offline as a human radio, passing frontline intel through their group chat.

Two crisp replies came through instantly.

“Copy!”

Escaping Mole cut the channel, gestured for Eye Owe Money to follow, then called to the squad in the street. “Hold here a while, we’ll check on something with the Death Corps and be back.”

Aiming his rifle down the empty street, Elf Wang barked back without turning, his back to the Chimera.

“Okay!”

...

At the same time,

600 meters west of the frontline, the district that suffered from the air raid was a wreck. Charred craters, cracked walls, twisted rebar, and smoldering concrete filled the streets.

A few mangled corpses lay fused to the street, likely stray Mutant Humans caught in the blast.

Anything left in the open hadn’t survived.

Kicking open a bent metal door, Chimo emerged from the rubble with soot across his face. He gulped fresh air greedily, only to choke on the acrid stench.

“Damn that bastard!”

He only lived because he and his partner bolted into a reinforced stairwell just in time.

He wanted to curse that old man to death for barely giving them a warning before running off to save his own skin.

Either way, the place was blown. He needed to fall back somewhere safer...

The instant his boot touched the street, a warning prickle shot up his spine. Reflexively, he dove into a roll, crouching behind shattered concrete.

At that exact moment, an arrow buried itself where he had been standing.

𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Seeing it, Chimo curled his lip in disdain, only for the smirk to freeze instantly.

In his peripheral vision, he caught a faint red gleam.

“Shit!”

No time to dodge. A beep was all that was heard as the arrow erupted into fire, a blast hurling steel in every direction.

The shockwave slammed his chestplate, rattling his insides. Even with armor, he suffered greatly.

Ignoring the bleeding scratches, he popped a smoke grenade at his feet and staggered to another safer cover.

He jabbed his helmet and roared into his communication channel. “Tang He! Find that archer! Tang He?”

There was no reply.

Chimo’s face darkened. He instantly thought of Arzu and cursed.

“Damn old dog...”

That geezer definitely let the hounds loose to clear up all loose ends.

Those brain-dead freaks couldn’t tell friend from foe. All they did was to stuff whatever moved into their mouths.

He had to get out fast!

Meanwhile, Ample Time, who had released the arrow, raised a brow at the man who dodged.

Trying to run?

“Heh... let’s see where you go.”

He and Old White had deployed 20 players right after the bombing.

Now that the target was spotted, he wasn’t letting him slip away.

“Old White, target right ahead, member of the Torch Church confirmed. Marked it on the map. Old White?”

Only static crackled back.

Ample Time’s face hardened.

Communications jammed?

“Damn!”

He cursed, drew another explosive arrow onto his Daybreak, and advanced low toward cover.

Nearby teammates definitely heard the firefight and would be closing in.

He just had to pin the man down.

Then, a deafening roar split the fog. Gunfire burst from the street.

Ample Time froze, staring, and his pupils shrank.

A bloated giant stood in the street, right arm a mass of snake-thick tendrils, left arm a steel claw.

The creature’s flesh writhed like maggots, pulsing with grotesque force under the greenish haze.

Peepo charged in, steel fists hammering with exhaust jets blazing, blows that could wreck an armored carrier.

Against that wormy bulk, they barely caused its skin to ripple.

The monster groaned, but didn’t step back.

Then a tendril lashed like lightning, smacking Peepo across the chest and batting him away like a toy, slamming him unconscious into the ground.

Ample Time stared at the scene with his throat dry.

“Is that a Butcher?!”

No... The creature was more twisted than the Mutant Slime Molds in Clearspring City.

They were bigger and stronger, like the evolved types from the previous Tide.

As it lumbered toward the fallen Peepo, Ample Time loosed an explosive arrow at its face.

It blew its head apart in a fiery spray.

He blinked.

His arrows only carried a few dozen grams of charge, not that kind of power.

The reaction was too damn exaggerated.

Sure enough, the hulking body didn’t even flinch.

Chunks of meat wriggled back up its shoulders. They were wormlike and re-formed a grotesque head in seconds.

The skull fragments on the ground were only worm-flesh, many still squirming back toward the host. Some had died, but a portion of them were still fine.

With his eyes wide in shock, Ample Time swore under his breath.

What the fuck kind of insane bio-tech is this?!

Where the fuck did he come from?!

The scariest thing was... The hollow eyes of the boss-creature locked onto him.

Even through fog and distance, he felt could feel the creature’s hatred.

The tendrils drifted like seaweed, but he had seen how fast they could move.

Peepo still wasn’t moving.

“Another boss fight, huh...”

Ample Time’s battle spirit surged. He drew a new arrow with an orange tag.

That was a fire arrow, packed with solid hydrogen and high-grade kerosene, enough to create a blazing patch meters wide.

If explosives failed, he would burn the bastard!

...

Several hundred meters away, Arzu watched from another rooftop. His expression was calm as his lips curled upwards in a faint smile.

He never expected a mere servant to stall the New Alliance’s elite. Those who had come were clearly the Burning Corps.

However, causing enough chaos to cover the fool from the Judgment Panel’s escape was enough.

He disliked those two bumblers, but if captured alive instead of killed, they would be in trouble.

He hoped those two fools would learn humility from their failure.

Their foes weren’t dumb locals. That mysterious Shelter 404 might be more dangerous than the Enterprise or the Academy.

The Judgment Panel should’ve realized that a year ago.

Soon, footsteps sounded behind him.

A hunched and wrinkled elder appeared.

His skin was green and he was robed in ornate vestments. Clearly, he was a Mutant Human.

His age was impossible to guess.

Staring at Arzu’s back, he sighed softly, “The New Alliance has unlimited strength. Our tribe bleeds dearly. At this rate, we’ll lose this war.”

Arzu turned, meeting the elder’s cloudy eyes. “Gomo.”

“What is it?”

“Do you want to restore Singularity City’s glory?”

His voice dripped with persuasion.

Gomo frowned, then softened. “I dream of it.”

“Then convince your child.” Arzu’s gaze returned to the foggy city, eyes narrowing. “Tell him to hold on a while longer.”

“Soon, the chosen Apostle will grant him power equal to gods.”