Chapter 376.1: Surrounded, Ambush, Protect!

With a body nearly 500 meters long, it was almost equivalent to 2

Hindenburg

airships. Even the world's longest aircraft carrier seems like a little brother in front of the behemoth.

It boasted a 400mm short-barrel mortar, 12 100mm secondary cannons, and 144 20 to 30mm anti-aircraft guns, forming a formidable arsenal.

Its massive body, bristling with gun barrels, resembled a hedgehog. It ensured that any approach would be met by at least 20 anti-aircraft guns.

Beyond that, there were 7mm caliber machine guns hidden behind firing ports and what seemed to be hangars.

It was basically a floating fortress!

Chu Guang had no doubts that it not only stored a vast amount of ammunition and supplies but also housed enough soldiers and crew.

Otherwise, there was no point of using such a massive structure! It had to be filled with something...

Looking at the photos obtained by players with their lives, Chu Guang couldn't help but sink into thought.

He wondered if Boulder Town could win against such an unreasonable monster.

Peace was hardly an option...

They preemptively destroyed our communication equipment, dispatched ground troops to attack our players, and immediately opened fire on our planes once they were within range.

Their reaction was swift and decisive, clearly prepared for encounter with us.

Staring at his computer screen, Chu Guang unconsciously furrowed his brows, a serious expression emerging as he thought to himself. Eventually, he mumbled, “This is going to be tough to handle.”

It wasn’t so much a matter of fighting chances. Given the current equipment of the New Alliance, wiping out a marauder force was feasible, but facing an established force from the wastelands was another story.

Players may come back to life, but manpower was only a single component of warfare. Without sufficient weapons, ammunition, and supplies, even if they had superiority in numbers, it was useless.

People could hide in shelters, but production lines for weapons couldn’t be hidden. Factories, farms, and mines couldn’t be moved either.

Chu Guang hadn’t forgotten how his players, armed only with handmade iron pipe rifles by Xia Yan, suffered heavy casualties to barely defeat a comparable number of marauders.

As such... There was no way he could allow that thing to fly over Dawn City.

Gazing intently at Chu Guang, Little Seven didn’t say anything immediately. However, it eventually started to mutter hesitantly, "Master..."

Distracted by his strategic calculations, Chu Guang casually responded, "What is it?"

"I feel like it has more cannons than the planes in your hangar."

Chu Guang’s eyebrows twitched. "... I don't need you to remind me."

"Hmm... Little Seven isn’t trying to mock you, but as your assistant, I must remind you when you’re headed into a dead end. If really necessary... We can actually hide in the shelters. The Administrator System hasn’t set a deadline for you to complete any specific task, right?" Little Seven's voice was soft as it buzzed.

Unusually enough, this time, it didn’t use any of the strange voice packs it downloaded from Earth’s network. Instead, it spoke in the flat, unemotional electronic tone like when Chu Guang first saw it in its bin-like form.

However, what Chu Guang didn’t expect was to detect an unusual emotion in that theoretically emotionless voice.

It sounded less like a suggestion and more like a plea...

It was sentimental, yet also confusing.

He never put himself in danger nor abandoned the ex-dustbin, yet it seemed slightly insecure.

Still, Chu Guang was not ready to consider his last resort.

Closing that door would be easy, But outside it, there were too many things he couldn’t let go of.

"We won’t lose. But..."

“... Pure data didn’t dictate the final outcome. We have many cards in hand, and it’s far from the time to consider giving up."

Chu Guang could tell that Little Seven wanted to say more, but he quickly rubbed its head to reassure the little critter. The confident smile on is face dispelled the worry in Little Seven’s heart.

“Trust me.”

In response, Little Seven no longer said anything.

After five or six minutes, a soft buzz came again. “Then... What do you plan to do?”

“Winning the war alone won’t be easy. We don’t even know how many cards we hold. The first order of business is to figure out how strong that airship is. We also need to know what its weaknesses might be. Then we can start thinking of strategies.” Chu Guang thought for a moment, then continued, "Also, we need to do everything possible to get our neighbors on board our war chariot."

...

Lucky Valley Municipality.

The imposing Heart of Steel slowly descended, its shadow cast like a curtain almost covering half the city district and the edge of the forest.

Hovering close to 500 or 600 meters up in the air, 4 thick anchor chains were thrown from the airship, crashing into the ground below like cannonballs.

After the chains were deployed, the airship’s belly lowered a chain-suspended lift platform.

Soldiers clad in black cloaks, in neat formation, descended from the platform.

Well-trained with sharp gazes and excellent equipment, their presence and combat discipline were clearly superior to the Army’s standard clone forces. The difference was immediately obvious.

Their signature black robes and compact Warrior assault rifles proclaimed their elite status.

They were part of the Army’s Airborne Marine Corps. The steel behemoth conquered the skies, and they would conquer the lands.

"We need to establish a ground outpost before nightfall! If you don’t want to sleep in the woods, then move it!"

At the front of the team, a man wearing a black exoskeleton roared, urging his troops to unload the materials from the lift.

His name was Richie, a centurion responsible for building the surface camp and conducting searches and patrols in the surrounding area.

Logistics personnel followed with the second batch of materials, quickly joining the construction of the camp.

Besides shovels and picks, they also deployed 2 mini-excavators to the ground for earthworks. At the same time, 2 light tracked armored vehicles were also deployed.

The 20mm quad anti-aircraft guns mounted on the tracked vehicles not only supplemented the anti-aircraft firepower but also provided mid-range support for the infantry.

It wasn’t just to deter nearby wastelanders but also to handle dangerous mutants.

"Damn, finally got off the airship to get some air..." Walking next to Richie, a man in a black military uniform squinted his eyes, his mood seemingly good.

He was the logistical officer of the Heart of Steel's Airborne Marine Corps, His name was Finod, and coincidentally, he and Richie graduated from the same military academy and ended up on the same airship.

One went into logistics, the other into the Airborne Marine Corps.

"Why are they even dropping excavators down here?"

"We're staying here for at least 3 days, the enemy is hidden, and we're in the open. Although a bunch of barbarians is nothing to fear, it's always good to be well-prepared... These were the staff officer’s exact words, telling us to construct to the standard of a Level 3 fortification, so you guys be careful too."

"I will." Richie lit a cigarette, squinting at the construction workers busy in the camp, yet his mind drifted back to the distant desert.

It was no exaggeration to say that life there was heaven.

Not only were there delicious fruits in unlimited supply, but there were also curvy girls, and even the king didn't live as well as they did.

In Lucky Valley Municipality, apart from the humid air, toxic plants, and dangerous mutants, there were also cunning wastelanders...

At that moment, a staff officer came down the lift to the surface. He walked straight to Richie and spoke bluntly, "Where’s Herrick? Why hasn’t he returned with news?”

Richie shrugged. "I don’t know, we've already shot flares. He should have come back by now, unless something happened."

That was the guess he was inclined to make, and it wasn’t without reason. It was a soldier’s intuition.

The staff officer frowned. "We must find him."

Richie asked, "Can you pinpoint his last known location?"

The officer flipped through the documents in his hand and slowly muttered, "He was entering the River Valley Province from Sunset Province, tracking a merchant convoy."

"A merchant convoy?" Richie grunted with a deep frown on his face.

"Our target is in that convoy. Well, the convoy... Let me think, they can't move away from a water source. Whether it's camels or two-headed oxen, they need to drink their fill to keep moving."

Richie thought for a moment, then turned to look at a stern-faced man behind him. "Vito, take a few brothers and ask around the nearby survivor settlements."

Vito was his most elite scout. He was skilled at using sniper rifles and traps. He was also both smart and could see a long distance away.

Although Richie trusted him completely, he still had to give a warning. "Remember, report back to me as soon as you find anything."

𝙧𝙚𝙚𝔀𝒆𝓫𝓷𝙤𝓿𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝙤𝓶

With an expressionless military salute, Vito quickly led his team southward.

The staff officer watched Richie barking out orders and after the team left, he asked, "How long before you can update me?"

"Not sure, but whether there’s news or not, I’ll contact you by evening." Richie replied.

The staff officer nodded, said nothing more, and turned back to the lift. He seemed unwilling to stay on the surface a moment longer.

Richie didn’t quite understand those people. He, on the other hand, quite liked the feeling of having his feet on the ground.

Finod, who was standing beside him, suddenly asked, "Do you think Herrick might have run into the guys from the Enterprise?"

Richie squinted his eyes. "Hard to say, but I hope so. If that’s the case, we can get it over with and head back."

"It’s probably going to be a little difficult...” Finod mumbled.

Richie frowned. “What do you mean?”

Finod looked around and lowered his voice as he spoke again "General McClennan don’t seem to be satisfied with just intercepting the reinforcements from the Enterprise... I heard he plans to conquer River Valley Province."

His cigarette butt dropped to the ground as Richie’s mouth widened in surprise.

The plan was indeed wild. He wasn't doubting the capability of the Heart of Steel and General McClennan, but he didn’t quite understand the purpose of doing so.

"We're thousands of miles from Army territory." Richie frowned.

Looking at his surprised expression, Finod said softly, "I'm equally surprised, but since it's the general’s decision, you'd better give up any ideas of leaving anytime soon... And don’t tell anyone, especially not that it was me who told you."

Richie steadied himself before responding. "I’ll keep mum."

Stomping on his cigarette butt on the ground, Richie looked at it with a tinge of regret.

Thinking of the tasks assigned by the staff officer, he was about to take a few people around the camp when suddenly the air raid alarm sounded in the sky.