Chapter 649 - 619: The Shock of the Cleanup Team

Bu Pengyun was extremely cautious in his arrangements. He first dispatched two scout teams with high-powered Zombie Detectors. Only after they confirmed it was safe did the main force follow them in.

"Are you sure the Xinghai Squad entered the Poisonous Fog District from here? How come there’s no sound of fighting?" Bu Pengyun asked with a frown, cautiously scanning the area after entering.

"Yes, sir. The soldiers at Outpost 123 saw them enter through this area with their own eyes. There’s absolutely no mistake," his adjutant, Xu Liang, quickly replied.

"Alright. Search the area for signs of combat. And turn the Zombie Detectors to maximum power. Make sure we can detect any danger ahead of time," Bu Pengyun said with a nod.

Cleaning up the battlefield was no easy task in a green Poisonous Fog District like this one.

The reason was simple: the visibility was extremely low. The average Martial Artist could only see about one meter around them.

As for the ordinary soldiers, who were merely the Optimized, their field of view was even narrower—it was practically impossible to see their own hands in front of their faces.

On top of that, these men didn’t know Perception Secret Techniques like the Investigation Technique.

Therefore, clearing the battlefield for them was a matter of cautiously feeling their way forward, step by step.

Of course, while the green poisonous fog severely hampered everyone’s vision, they hadn’t exactly become "blind."

The tactical goggles the soldiers wore projected an alternate scene for them.

It was a topographical map they had previously scanned.

Projected directly onto the goggles, it allowed everyone to use the display to clearly see their own positions and those of their teammates.

The map also updated in real-time, using data from the battlefield recorders each soldier wore to scan the surroundings.

Although there was a slight delay in the real-time updates, it was more than sufficient for the soldiers who were here to clear the battlefield.

As the soldiers spread out, they quickly found the corpses of Abyssal Creatures lying on the road.

After confirming their findings, the soldiers quickly moved the bodies onto the Armored Vehicles.

Bu Pengyun, who was commanding from the sidelines, couldn’t help but show a trace of astonishment as he watched corpse after corpse being loaded onto the vehicles.

’They actually managed to wipe out all the Abyssal Creatures in this area. But we only entered three minutes after them. How is it that we can’t even see a shadow of them?’ Bu Pengyun was thoroughly baffled.

Of course, his confusion didn’t stop him from ordering his men to speed up the cleanup operation.

They had a force of 500 people, and they had even brought 100 Combat Robots to assist. Their cleanup speed was, by all accounts, extremely fast.

At first, Bu Pengyun remained quite vigilant. Generally, a team would only do a rough sweep, which meant there were bound to be stragglers.

For example, some Abyssal Creatures hiding in buildings might have survived the initial pass, and his team could be ambushed by them during the cleanup.

Of course, eliminating any remaining Abyssal Creatures was part of the cleanup mission.

However, after the team had advanced several hundred meters, the ever-vigilant Bu Pengyun was surprised to find that not a single Abyssal Creature had rushed out of the buildings to attack his soldiers.

Instead, his soldiers would occasionally haul out the corpses of Petrifying Spiders from inside buildings or from behind walls.

This astonished Bu Pengyun even more. As he reviewed the data being compiled on his datapad, a soft sound of surprise escaped his lips.

"Director Bu, what is it?" Adjutant Xu Liang asked.

"There’s something off about these corpses," Bu Pengyun said.

Xu Liang was taken aback, but before he could ask what he meant, he saw Bu Pengyun walking toward the nearest Armored Vehicle. He had no choice but to hurry after him.

Inside the Armored Vehicle, a good deal of the green poisonous fog had seeped in from the outside due to the soldiers constantly moving in and out.

However, the vehicle had a filtration system that continuously vented the contaminated air.

As a result, the green fog was quite thin inside, and anyone who entered could at least see their surroundings clearly.

The first thing Bu Pengyun did after entering was crouch down and carefully inspect the corpses on the floor.

He had been focused on his men’s safety before, so he hadn’t paid any attention to the corpses of the Abyssal Creatures.

But now, looking at the corpses laid out in the Armored Vehicle, he grew more and more alarmed.

Just then, Xu Liang also noticed the issue. He quickly examined several nearby corpses and couldn’t help but exclaim in shock, "How did they do it? They managed to kill these Abyssal Creatures with a single shot."

"I don’t know, but I finally understand why our cleanup operation can’t keep up with their kill rate," Bu Pengyun said with a sigh.

One had to understand that even outside the Poisonous Fog District, where vision wasn’t severely suppressed, killing an Abyssal Corpse Ghost was difficult. Given their agile reflexes and powerful Physique, even the best marksmen in the army would need to empty an entire magazine just for a chance to take one down.

Under normal circumstances, academy students spent their time on Cultivation and studying Martial Arts. While they might dabble in Firearms, they wouldn’t delve too deeply into Gun Technique—at least, they couldn’t compare to the army’s experts.

Therefore, when facing common Abyssal Creatures, most students didn’t choose to engage them with Firearms. Instead, they would wait for the creatures to close in and then kill them with a single, clean strike of their blade.

There was no doubt about it. The Physique of these Abyssal Creatures was merely equivalent to the Blood Qi Realm Early Stage, and the average student’s physical conditioning far surpassed that. As long as they were holding a weapon like a Vibrating Dagger and went all out, it was entirely possible for them to kill an Abyssal Creature in a single slash.

Of course, if they used Martial Arts, the kill would be even cleaner.

But no matter how decisive the students’ attacks were, how could they possibly be faster than someone pulling a trigger?

Besides, close-quarters combat required one to guard against counterattacks from these Abyssal Creatures to avoid injury. You couldn’t just rush in and start hacking away.

"A Divine Sharpshooter like this could probably kill Abyssal Creatures faster than a hundred students combined," Adjutant Xu Liang remarked after inspecting a Mutated Zombie’s wounds.

Of course, what he didn’t know was that Lin Xinghai had used an automatic firing mode when killing these Abyssal Creatures. Otherwise, Xu Liang wouldn’t have made such a conservative estimate.

Bu Pengyun nodded in agreement. He then pointed to a "Giant Arm" corpse that his soldiers were dragging over. "And there’s more to the Xinghai Squad than just that. Look at those Mutated Zombies. The wounds on their bodies were all inflicted by Superpowers and cold weapons. There isn’t a single trace of Firearms."

Xu Liang was stunned once again. He hadn’t noticed that detail.

"If that’s the case, their team’s combat strength is truly impressive! When a typical squad deals with Mutated Zombies, even if they don’t deploy a Mecha, they’ll at least soften them up with Firearms before charging in," Xu Liang said.

Bu Pengyun corrected him, "Strength is only one part of it. Many squads are capable of this, but they generally don’t do it. The main reason is that they don’t dare to. They’re afraid a team member might die in a moment of carelessness."

"The fact that they dared to do it means that even in the most critical situations, they have someone who can intervene in time to avert disaster."

"I’m becoming more and more curious about this Xinghai Squad. Tell our brothers to pick up the pace. Let’s catch up and see just how they fight."