Chapter 594.2: Keep Your Kingdom Of Heaven

A fiery jet pierced his chest, bursting out his scarred back, jerking the massive body skyward.

Wiping blood from his visor, Prone Model tried to catch a breath when another hulking Mutant Human rushed him.

The creature had a cannon barrel fused to one arm and a spiked mace in the other.

That was when he noticed. None of those beasts shared the same mechanical augment!

“Motherfuc... How many of these monsters are there?!”

He hacked the cannon aside, took a mace blow to the shoulder with a grunt, cursed over the communication channel, then swung his axe in return.

They had been shelled so many times! How the hell are there so many left?!

A squadmate’s voice crackled. “The mission brief said 500 to 600 of them.”

The noise made clear how fierce the fight was.

Seeing another green head fly, Prone Model ditched his grease-slick axe and picked up the mace dropped by the elite monster.

“You sure it’s only 500 to 600 of them?!”

Static crackled in the comms channel.

“... To hell with how many are left. Just fucking kill them all!”

Indeed.

To hell with how many there were.

In the bloody frenzy of the fight, Prone Model was getting carried away, his face twisting into a feral grin.

The chance was rare, so he might as well kill to his heart’s content!

“Copy that!”

Gunfire was barely audible in the wilderness anymore. At such close quarters, axes, hammers, and chainsaws proved far more effective.

For Mutant Humans with such stubborn vitality, a bayonet as wide as a finger was little more than a toy. It was often not even as hard as their bones.

Even with their bellies split open and entrails spilling out, they could still swing a club in combat. Only smashing their skulls to pieces or punching a hole clean through their chests could truly kill them!

And for the New Alliance soldiers armed head to toe in anti-mutant weaponry, it was basically the same. Piercing damage from blades and rifles could not break the armor of their Iron Wall exoskeletons.

Even shotguns with overcharged rounds could only kill them with a headshot. Standard rifles needed sustained fire to wear down the plating.

Such drawn-out fighting was not the Mutant Humans’ style, and coincidentally, the Jungle Corps warriors had no interest in kiting and trading fire either.

Both sides chose the same path. They started brutal hand-to-hand combat to decide the outcome, playing into the most primitive way of slaughter.

The chaotic battlefield was like a rolling meat grinder, devouring fresh lives and spitting out mangled flesh.

Kuru’s expression went from feral to frenzied. But after killing only his second New Alliance soldier, that frenzy twisted into bewilderment and panic.

By numbers and strength, his side had the advantage, yet his warriors kept falling one after another.

Close combat was supposed to be their domain!

It was supposed to be their hunt!

These people... Are they really human?

When hot blood sprayed onto him, when it splashed into his mouth, he had been sure they were just the same weaklings they had been eating.

But when a soldier he had cut open with his chainsaw didn’t run, instead lunged at him, snarling, teeth bared, braving the whirring blade, Kuru was stunned.

On such a battlefield, a moment’s distraction meant death. He paid the price for his hesitation.

An explosive blast wrecked his chainsaw, the shattered steel and flesh slamming into his chest.

“AWAGH!”

Kuru roared in pain, staggering back twice. Seeing the fragments lodged in his arm, he yanked them free with a furious snarl and flung them away.

If not for experts of the Torch Church reinforcing his augmentations, that single hit would have left him crippled.

Leaning on his axe-spear, he staggered to his feet. He was as strong as a two-headed ox, but he stumbled like a lame mule.

These people are mad.

No, they aren’t even people!

They are something else wearing human skins!

The weak two-legged beasts could never fight like this! Those before him seemed even more beast-like than himself!

Eventually, the clash began to ebb.

Not because the enemy was faltering, but because more and more Mutant Humans were falling before the steel-clad figures.

Ordinarily, it took three or four of his kind to kill a single exoskeleton soldier. That was also when they managed to do it

And that was the best case.

In truth, three New Alliance soldiers formed a squad, with two more squads providing support. The Mutant Humans often threw away a dozen lives without taking even a single head.

Even in the chaos of melee, those humans kept to a baseline of teamwork, fighting like maniacs but still covering their comrades.

Kuru could never understand.

Whatever it was, one thing was certain. If the battle dragged on the same way, total annihilation was only a matter of time!

Like a starving wolf, his eyes searched the field until he spotted a distinct figure in the mist.

A black-tower of steel stood at the center. It was an impassable wall.

Already a dozen had fallen before him, the chainsaw fixed to his left arm never stopping, chopping heads as if felling trees.

Blood sprayed over him until he was crimson head to toe. He was like a living banner.

Though he denied being the administrator, he was without doubt the leader of those humans before him.

“Haha, this is insane!”

He seemed to be shouting something in excitement.

Kuru couldn’t hear clearly. He couldn’t understand anyway. But it was clear the New Alliance soldiers around him were emboldened by his roars.

Kuru’s eyes grew sharp as it fixed on that man. He picked up another working chainsaw from the ground.

If he killed that tower... Surely the rest would break and flee!

As if noticing his gaze, the man looked back, helmet sticky with blood, and bared a cruel grin.

Kuru couldn’t see the smile, but the moment their eyes met, his heart skipped, only for humiliation and rage to surge up in its place.

He, a named warrior, had been shaken by prey on his plate!

“Die!” He roared, charging forward.

The man didn’t flinch. He raised the chainsaw welded to his arm proudly and charged in return, howling.

“This is madness!”

“Utter madness!”

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

Contrary to Kuru’s imagination, Midnight Pubg had already forgotten about command, even forgotten he was the command.

Only one thought burned in his head, his last battle record.

He had gone completely berserk!

...

In a sanctuary beyond the mortal plane, Luo Qian watched the battlefield through human eyes, face expressionless.

What barbarity...

What ugliness...

He had once been curious what method the New Alliance would use to pit its pawns against his, but never expected it to be devolving into beasts themselves.

His face held faint disgust, with a trace of pity and compassion.

The wasteland was filth itself, people diving into the jungle just to survive, becoming blood-eating beasts.

In the process, humanity had already become part of the jungle, turning every inch of soil into hell where civilization could not grow.

“... This twisted civilization truly should be reset.” With bitterness and grim satisfaction, he whispered coldly as he watched the writhing masses.

But he quickly realized it was a thought he should not have, he was meant to guide lambs to glorious sacrifice for the grand vision, not judge life and death by personal whim. To do so was desecration of life and of ideals.

It was a desecration of divinity.

“Indeed, my cultivation is still lacking...” Luo Qian lowered his gaze, reflecting, pondering why such unworthy anger had arisen.

Was it because of Yinyin?

That little girl had reminded him of a granddaughter long lost, naive but kind at heart, a bit spoiled yet eager to learn, hating to hurt others.

For a farmer’s child, it was kindness, or weakness.

He had been curious what she might grow into, so he had spoken a few words of guidance as an elder. Sadly, before that bud could bloom, it had withered in a flowerpot by a lab window.

“Truly, in savage soil, no branch of civilization can ever sprout, let alone a delicate flower. Even if she survived, her life would not have been good... Death may have been her gentlest fate.”

He spoke softly into the empty sanctuary, half comforting, half persuading himself.

“Forgive me for not saving you.”

“But I swear, when all is over, you will live carefree in the new world, run free beneath the sun. All that binds you will vanish with the old world... it will be a heaven greater than the Prosperity Era, a true utopia upon earth.”

He sighed.

But then, a mocking laugh intruded into the Sanctuary from beyond his sight.

“Making promises of heaven on earth to the dead, covering your impotence with dreams and lies... What a joke. You think to end this jungle by killing everyone in it? You’re worse than those big-nosed bastards. At least, they lit a fire, and fire really can burn a forest down.”

“Who?!”

Luo Qian’s eyes snapped open, scanning around, but saw no source. His pupils narrowed as he thought of the chip left in Yinyin’s body.

Those people were using her body to spit such blasphemy!

Anger flashed in his clouded eyes. He raised his hand to snuff out the voice, but his withered fingers froze mid-air.

The voice was majestic yet disdainful, ignoring the feeble hand like a dead branch.

“Even if we fall to beasts, fighting the wasteland with rocks, sticks, fists, and teeth, we won’t forget what we are, or where we go.”

“Keep your useless Sanctuary for yourself.”

“We’re not going anywhere. We’ll rebuild civilization here!”