SCOM - Chapter 101
Chapter 101
A large number of robot dogs suddenly appeared outside the border wall. Ji Yuezhi sent someone to notify the Western United Army while leading the Exoskeleton Legion out of the wall to attack.
There were only second-generation robot dogs. It was clear the Gashiro people just wanted to tie down the border army and prevent them from returning to the city to provide support.
Ji Yuezhi could only trust that the people in the city could hold out. However, with Zuo Luohuan there, he felt a little more at ease.
The various underground shelters in the city were packed to capacity as countless people flooded in.
Zuo Luohuan had gathered about two hundred people on her side. She personally stood at the entrance of a large shelter, allowing only those who had been searched to enter.
They had to prevent anyone from bringing in the new type of robot dogs.
"Leave all belongings outside. Do not bring anything with you." This message played on a continuous loop in the underground escape tunnel. At the slightest unusual movement, members of the Exoskeleton Legion would instantly move to restrain the person.
Standing at the entrance, Zuo Luohuan's gaze fell upon the people being searched. Out of the corner of her eye, she detected a sudden movement. Someone was trying to secretly toss a small sphere in their hand onto the ground.
She raised her hand and fired two consecutive shots. One hit the head of the robot dog that had just landed and hadn't fully transformed, and the other hit the person's leg.
The surrounding people were terrified and scrambled away, hugging the walls. A nearby Exoskeleton Legion member followed up with another shot, hitting the person squarely in the forehead.
In this time of emergency, Zuo Luohuan had ordered them not to leave anyone alive, but to eliminate them directly.
Standing at the entrance, it seemed no one could escape Zuo Luohuan's eyes. Anyone who made a suspicious move was discovered by her.
An Yingjing: 【Our two teams have assembled. We've sent one-third to the underground shelters.】
Xiang Chengping: 【Team assembled, heading to the underground shelters now.】
Zuo Luohuan glanced down at the message on her optical computer. On her way to the border, she had looked at the blueprints for the underground shelters. The city's underground network had passages of various sizes, but they were all interconnected.
She waited here for the team members sent over by Xiang Chengping and Luo Shaoyuan.
"Junior." Xiang Chengping was not only covered in bloodstains, but his mech also bore various scars. His expression was grave. "There should still be people up there."
"You all guard this place. Prevent anyone from sneaking in and causing mass casualties." Zuo Luohuan pointed out a few people, two of whom were snipers. "Come with me."
She led the small group through the underground tunnel, eventually reaching the area beneath the city's public security forces and emerging directly.
The city's public security forces were in complete chaos. They had never encountered robot dogs before, as they had always been kept beyond the border by the Western United Army.
Zuo Luohuan didn't need their help. She came here only to acquire a flyer.
"Fly up to mid-air and head east. If you see anyone acting suspiciously, open fire immediately." With Luo Shaoyuan and An Yingjing in the west, Zuo Luohuan would go east. She had one of them pilot the flyer. "They are specifically targeting crowds. Slow down as soon as you encounter one."
Without a large contingent, Zuo Luohuan only had one flyer and a few snipers.
"There's a crowd ahead!" They had only flown a short distance when the team member in the co-pilot's seat shouted.
More accurately, it was a stampeding crowd. From above, they could see more clearly. Every so often, someone would be killed, blood splattering everywhere, and screams erupted from the crowd on the ground.
"You two stay here and snipe those people holding the spheres." Zuo Luohuan tossed this sentence to the two snipers and then jumped directly from the flyer.
Besides hitting the new robot dogs before they could fully transform, the difficulty would skyrocket afterward. In the blink of an eye, a new robot dog could claim a life.
Zuo Luohuan weaved through the crowd, every shot hitting a new robot dog, never once hesitating.
The observer in the flyer's co-pilot seat thought to himself, Who was it that said Zuo Luohuan's shooting skills weren't as good as Ji Yuezhi's? With such a terrifyingly high accuracy rate, even a sniper might not be able to compare.
For two whole days, the city underwent a dramatic change. The streets were empty, everyone having been moved underground. Zuo Luohuan, Luo Shaoyuan, and the others also went to the underground shelters to assist with the search.
After receiving the news, other regions of the Federation began emergency searches of their jurisdictions to prevent a similar incident.
However, Zuo Luohuan felt it was probably futile. Since Ren Pingbo dared to act so brazenly, he must have made thorough preparations.
"They're still fighting the second-generation robot dogs at the border, but this time, they'll likely be suppressed by our Exoskeleton Legion team," An Yingjing said, standing beside Zuo Luohuan.
"Mm," Zuo Luohuan replied faintly.
"After we finish checking everyone, should we go up and help the city's public security forces search for the new robot dogs?" An Yingjing glanced upward. "The public security forces are also in chaos right now."
Their leader was already dead. Now, they were sustained only by a mixture of fear and anger as they searched.
The members of the Exoskeleton Legion were not in good shape. It wasn't exhaustion, but the feeling of powerlessness from watching those people get killed right before their eyes.
Xiang Chengping had been silent for two days, not speaking except when absolutely necessary.
"These people are all from the Federation." Luo Shaoyuan walked over, annoyed. "Not a single one is from the Gashiro Empire. Have these people gone mad?"
After death, the eyes of Gashiro people would revert to vertical pupils. Luo Shaoyuan had checked their eyes one by one; they were all in a normal state.
Zuo Luohuan sneered, "Ren Pingbo has the ability to bewitch people's hearts."
Back when he defected, it wasn't just Ren Pingbo alone. He also brought several brilliant young geniuses with him to join the Gashiro Empire. Unfortunately, he ended up killing all of them.
As for the reason, it was very simple: he grew tired of the people following him.
Luo Shaoyuan pulled An Yingjing aside and asked in a low voice, "What's going on? Is Zuo Luohuan in a bad mood?"
"It might be because she shot ordinary citizens with her light gun," An Yingjing said.
He had heard from team members that Zuo Luohuan hadn't hesitated from the very beginning. Her first few shots had gone straight through ordinary citizens. Although they had already had their throats slit, anyone would likely feel a psychological burden.
The two of them moved to the side to talk. Zuo Luohuan didn't notice. She stood in a corner of the tunnel, gazing at the crowd still queuing outside, her hand gripping her light gun.
If An Yingjing had asked her, Zuo Luohuan would have said she felt no significant burden. The people were already dead. In those few seconds, she could save others. If she had hesitated and allowed more people to be killed, that would have been a burden on her heart.
Her bad mood was purely because she had lost the ring.
Although there was a crossroads ahead, the street Zuo Luohuan had emerged from was rather secluded. The moment she put on her skeletal mech, she had placed the white bag on the side of the street, against a wall.
It was chaotic at that time. She didn't think anyone would have taken the ring while fleeing. As for those carrying the new robot dogs, they were a group of suicide soldiers; who among them would take her things.
In that situation, only someone unmoved by the surrounding environment, perhaps even leisurely, would bend down to pick up a small bag.
Thinking of a certain possibility, Zuo Luohuan's expression turned even uglier.
Five days later, after the emergency search on the surface was complete, the people underground were finally allowed to return.
To date, the Exoskeleton Legion members had dealt with over two thousand new robot dogs, but the casualties they caused were several times that number.
Zuo Luohuan and the others rushed to the border almost without rest. At this time, Ji Yuezhi was still outside the border wall, leading his team in battle against the second-generation robot dogs.
The former members of the Winter Army were clearly more at ease. Many of the members who were still military academy students were rather clumsy when dealing with the second-generation robot dogs.
Ji Yuezhi quickly adjusted his deployment, having the inexperienced military students follow behind at first. After these few days of battle, these student members grew rapidly, so he readjusted the teams.
Real combat is always the best teacher.
The second-generation robot dogs were at a great disadvantage against the Exoskeleton Legion members, but there were too many of them. They employed a war of attrition. Not being human, they only needed energy blocks, and could wear down the border army with sheer numbers.
When Zuo Luohuan returned to the border, Ji Yuezhi was outside the border wall, completely surrounded by second-generation robot dogs.
She jumped directly down from the wall. Without using her light gun, she drew a saber with her other hand and hacked at the robot dogs. Only by striking them with every slash could she vent the rage in her heart.
Zuo Luohuan's speed was so fast that she instantly carved an opening around Ji Yuezhi, leaving the nearby Western United Army soldiers dumbfounded.
So many second-generation robot dogs... although they couldn't compare to the Exoskeleton Legion, this was... too exaggerated.
Ji Yuezhi shot a second-generation robot dog to his side with a backhand shot. Looking at the suddenly appeared Zuo Luohuan, his eyes curved slightly. He knew she would return safely.
"Since they've delivered the materials to our doorstep, it would be a waste not to take them," Zuo Luohuan said, looking back at Ji Yuezhi.
"Alright," Ji Yuezhi said, his voice tinged with a smile.
Some people are destined to be a shot of adrenaline on the battlefield. As long as she was on the field, her every move could make the surrounding team members' blood boil with excitement.
Instantly, the already exhausted Exoskeleton Legion was reinvigorated, excitedly taking on the vast number of second-generation robot dogs.
Ji Yuezhi began to coordinate the teams on site, constantly rotating them. Any second-generation robot dog that appeared in their line of sight could not escape the encirclement; all of them had to be left behind.
"Fuck, Zuo Luohuan hasn't rested for days. Is she really okay?" Luo Shaoyuan had already rested for two rotations. Watching Zuo Luohuan outside the border wall, she said with some alarm, "It's a good thing we're on the same general team now."
"You think her level is so much higher than ours for nothing?" Cha Lili tilted his head back and took a swig of water. He was waiting for a classmate from the weapons department to help him repair his skeletal mech. "Were those new robot dogs in the city hard to deal with?"
"Those things are like lice, they just latch onto people. If you don't hit them in time, they're a weapon of mass destruction in a crowd." Mentioning this, Luo Shaoyuan recalled the scene when she first started dealing with them, able only to watch as people died one after another. That feeling of powerlessness was the greatest shock she had ever received in her life.
"How did they get in?"
"They weren't Gashiro people. They were all from the Federation," Luo Shaoyuan said.
Cha Lili wiped away a bead of sweat and looked down. "Is the number of second-generation robot dogs decreasing?"
Luo Shaoyuan looked down and saw that, indeed, the endless stream they had seen upon arrival was gone.
"Zuo Luohuan said we can't refuse materials delivered to our door." Luo Shaoyuan put on her skeletal mech and charged down with her people.
The Western United Army had originally thought the Gashiro people were serious this time and that the border was likely to fall. They never expected that such a huge number of second-generation robot dogs would all end up being left behind.
Zuo Luohuan pressed the button in her palm, and the skeletal mech instantly receded. She looked at Ji Yuezhi opposite her, strode over, and threw her arms around him. "...I missed you."
Although the two were on the same battlefield, they hadn't had a chance to speak since that first day's exchange.
Comments
Post a Comment