Chapter 652 - 622: Shocked Again

Upon hearing Lin Xinghai’s command, everyone’s faces instantly fell.

But since Lin Xinghai had spoken, they had no choice but to grit their teeth, push forward at an even faster speed, and brace for more ferocious attacks.

For the Xinghai Squad, killing a Tier Three Death Claw was just a minor incident, but for the military team following behind, it was an entirely different story.

...

「One minute earlier.」

Bu Pengyun led his contingent of soldiers, pushing forward with all haste. With over 500 people working in unison, they finally closed to within 1000 meters of the Xinghai Squad.

At this distance, though the green toxic mist prevented them from seeing the Xinghai Squad in action, they could get a rough idea of the team’s combat situation using various detection instruments.

"Xu Liang, send them a message. Give them a heads-up first, then we’ll..." Bu Pengyun was cut off mid-sentence by a piercing alarm.

Everyone’s heart seized at the sound, as it signaled the appearance of a Mutated Zombie.

In that instant, it wasn’t just Bu Pengyun; all the nearby officers, from battalion commanders to platoon leaders, simultaneously fixed their gazes on the Zombie Detector.

Their first priority was to determine whether the Mutated Zombie was charging their position, which would dictate the correct tactical deployment.

To their relief, the newly appeared Mutated Zombie was not targeting them.

However, their relief was short-lived. Their hearts leaped back into their throats as soon as they read the detailed information on the detector.

The approaching creature was a Death Claw—and a Third Level one at that.

A Mutated Zombie of this Level would be incredibly difficult to fend off, even from a fortified position outside the mist. It was a far graver threat here, where the green toxic mist gave Mutated Zombies a home-field advantage.

If this Third Level Death Claw had been coming for them, their unit of over 500 soldiers would have suffered at least fifty percent casualties, even if they managed to repel it.

Although they knew these academy cadets must have the strength to handle Body Shaping Realm Level Mutated Zombies to dare accept such an extermination mission, everyone couldn’t help but break into a cold sweat for them.

It couldn’t be helped. Even among Third Level Mutated Zombies, there was a spectrum of strength, and the Death Claw was undoubtedly the one with the greatest siege-breaking capability.

"Commander, should we provide them with some fire support?" Xu Liang asked quickly, having snapped out of it.

"Right! Fire support! Have the artillery battalion prepare. Tell them to start with a barrage of man-portable missiles, then get that cruise missile ready to launch. If—"

Bu Pengyun’s orders came to an abrupt halt.

Everyone stared at the Zombie Detector in astonishment, because the red blip representing the Third Level Death Claw had vanished.

It wasn’t just the large red blip. Even the tiny orange blips surrounding it—representing Abyssal Creatures—were also vanishing at an absolutely terrifying speed.

It felt as if someone had taken a rag and simply wiped all the dots clean off the LCD screen.

Anyone who saw this would have subconsciously assumed the Zombie Detector was broken. Otherwise, how could something so outrageous possibly happen?

But while one Zombie Detector might malfunction, surely all of them couldn’t have failed at the exact same time!

Their convoy was equipped with a full ten Zombie Detectors, yet now, almost without exception, none of them showed any trace of a Mutated Zombie.

Even the ordinary Abyssal Creatures seemed to have vanished into thin air.

This could only mean that what they had just seen wasn’t a trick of the eyes or a faulty Zombie Detector, but something that had actually happened.

As they accepted this reality, a chill crept up from the depths of their hearts. Shock and horror completely filled their minds.

It was the feeling of having their worldview turned completely upside down.

But undeniably, a sense of excitement and elation also welled up from within them.

"Move out! Let’s go see what happened!" Bu Pengyun ordered at once.

So eager was he to see what had happened that Bu Pengyun ignored the several clusters of Abyssal Creature corpses they passed. ’We can come back and deal with those later.’

They quickly arrived at the scene, where they immediately found the grisly remains of the Third Level Death Claw.

"This Death Claw’s injuries are strange. They don’t look like they were caused by a Superpower. It seems more like the damage from some kind of firearm," Xu Liang said, crouching down to look at the Death Claw, whose head was nearly half-charred.

"You’re not wrong." Bu Pengyun crouched down as well.

He then extracted a nearly molten slug from the Death Claw’s head. "If I’m not mistaken, this Death Claw was killed by a third-generation Gauss Rifle firing a Depleted Uranium Armor-Piercing Round."

"How is that possible?" Xu Liang was incredulous.

Military officers like them had at least some knowledge of the latest developments in firearms.

After all, the first units to be equipped with the third-generation Gauss Rifle weren’t the major academies, but the Military Department.

In fact, within the military, many Divine Sharpshooters among the elite teams tasked with operating deep inside the green toxic mist were equipped with this third-generation Gauss Rifle.

This newly developed firearm possessed terrifying power and, in theory, could indeed threaten Body Shaping Realm Mutated Zombies.

But that was just in theory.

After all, even a common High Level Zombie possessed a powerful danger sense and agile evasion abilities, to say nothing of a Mutated Zombie.

Even a Mutated Zombie like the Armored Corpse, despite its large and seemingly slow-moving frame, had movement and reaction speeds far superior to those of a typical Abyssal Creature once it actually started moving.

It was practically impossible for an ordinary soldier to hit one without resorting to wide-area suppressive fire.

Not even a Divine Sharpshooter was confident enough to guarantee a one-hundred-percent chance of hitting a Mutated Zombie’s head.

Therefore, the third-generation Gauss Rifle posed a limited threat to Mutated Zombies.

If a Divine Sharpshooter was wielding a Gauss Rifle, that was one thing. Against a First Level Mutated Zombie, if one shot didn’t work, a few more could still take it down.

But trying to take on a Third Level Mutated Zombie was a stretch.

Even if a shot landed, it was highly unlikely to hit the Zombie’s most fatal spot—its head. That was, after all, the vital point it would protect above all else.

And while a Depleted Uranium Armor-Piercing Round was terrifying, if it only hit the body, these Mutated Zombies could simply gouge out the part that was hit to avoid the subsequent fiery damage from the round’s payload.

With a Mutated Zombie’s terrifying regenerative abilities, such an injury was entirely survivable.

Therefore, to inflict fatal damage on these Mutated Zombies with a Gauss Rifle, one had to hit them in the head. Even a Mutated Zombie wouldn’t dare dig a hole in its own skull.

Just like this Death Claw, which could only be burned alive in the end.

But that brought up another question. A Body Shaping Realm Level Mutated Zombie’s reactions were incredibly fast. They could sense danger in advance, but even if they didn’t, they could still dodge a bullet after it left the barrel.

Under such circumstances, it should be impossible to hit a Mutated Zombie of this Level.

And yet, the corpse before their eyes was tangible proof to the contrary.

"Record all of this. We may have discovered something extraordinary," Bu Pengyun said in a low voice, taking a deep breath to suppress the various emotions swirling within him.

"Got it!" Xu Liang at his side nodded immediately. But he also understood what Bu Pengyun was thinking and couldn’t help but remind him, "We shouldn’t jump to conclusions. Perhaps they were only able to do this by using some kind of Superpower."