Translator: _Min_ Editor: Caron_
Black smoke saturated the air.
It was hard to determine if it was the cloud, radiation dust, or smoke from the rockets.
In a remote area east of Jia City, houses were scattered all around.
Under the shadow of the smoke, a few mutant cockroaches swayed their one-meter long antennae while they searched for rotten food.
To the ten-something people who walked by them, they didn’t show any interest; only sour aromas could draw their interest. The starving cockroaches occasionally attacked the zombies, but they would often be scratched to death.
If a zombie and a mutant cockroach moved together, without a doubt, it must be because of a mutant flood, because only in a mutant flood would the mutants forget their hunger and attack the survivors along with the zombies.
Were there any other cities where a mutant flood was happening? No one knew. People mainly stuck to the places they knew best. Even merchant fleets that traveled far distances only managed to reach the Northern Alliance Area.
The current mutant flood was limited to Wanghai CIty, so Jiang Chen, currently in the rural area of Jia City, thought the air there was extra fresh.
“The battle is currently at a stalemate; we advanced 500 meters to the Jia Sports Center yesterday, but we were quickly fended off by their attack. The mutated humans obtained a large number of electromagnetic interference grenades and EMP grenades out of nowhere.”
“The snipers in the Hunter Corps provided great help, but following the battle pushing toward the city, there were more obstructions. The mutated humans’ mortars and grenades also led to a high number of casualties to the Hunter Corps.”
Cheng Weiguo looked as the cockroach on the road dashed into the shadows before he lowered the rifle.
“That’s terrible.”
Jiang Chen smiled as he led Cheng Weiguo and a group of soldiers in the direction opposite Jia City in a delighted mood.
The general didn’t feel frustrated by the stalemate of the battle which made Cheng Weiguo somewhat at ease.
But with the frontline getting further and further away from them, he had a troubled look.
“General, can I ask where we’re going?”
They walked ten kilometers already and they would almost be in the next town at this rate, but they still weren’t at the place Jiang Chen mentioned.
“We’re here.”
Jiang Chen stopped and smiled at the abandoned factory in front of him.
Two days ago when the helicopter took him here, he randomly chose a spacious warehouse as a storage space for his arms. Because of the mutated humans, there were no survivors in the area. Thus there was no need to worry about their arms being stolen by scavengers; he only needed to place them further away from the frontlines to avoid being hit by stray shells.
After he chose the location, he returned to the modern world to patiently wait for the Russians to deliver the arms.
The perplexed Cheng Weiguo followed Jiang Chen into the warehouse.
But when he saw the contents, his bewildered expression visibly transformed into shock. His widened eyes looked as if they were about to pop out.
“This is-”
Jiang Chen began to laugh as he savored Cheng Weiguo’s shocked expression. He then returned to the door and shouted at the soldiers behind them.
“Soldiers, prepare to get on the truck. We’ll take the mutated humans to see Jesus!”
…
Since fossil fuels had almost completely been replaced before the war, only the wealthy could afford to have a few internal combustion engine vehicles in their homes. Hence, cars that burned fuel were almost considered artifacts.
When Jiang Chen ordered the soldiers onto the car, he was dumbfounded to realize that the soldiers didn’t know how to drive. With no other choice, he had to step up and personally demonstrate how to maneuver the vehicles.
With the general as the instructor, the soldiers focused all their attention on learning. While the principles behind internal combustion vehicles were drastically different from the electric vehicles common in the apocalypse, the driving style was similar. They spent an hour familiarizing themselves with the clutch before the soldiers finally figured out how to drive.
As to the conversion between the firing distance and angle, it was written on a sheet. The soldier responsible for firing would only need to punch it into the calculator.
The eight BM-21s rolled out of the warehouse one by one and dispersed under Jiang Chen’s command. The stents on the side of the truck were released to stabilize the truck to finish the deployment. One hundred survivors from the Seventh Area transported rockets that filled the entire warehouse. Two people worked together to lift a 67 kilogram, 3-meter-long rocket and push it onto the launcher.
Before loading the rockets, Jiang Chen instructed them to only load the white rockets – the red rockets were solid fuel rockets used against the zombies and mutants.
The rockets were loaded in an orderly fashion.
Jiang Chen took Cheng Weiguo to the roof of a building two hundred meters out.
Jiang Chen looked into the binoculars with eyes narrowed at Jia City 13 kilometers away. He grinned.
“Take a few more looks; it’ll be a different place in a moment.”
Cheng Weiguo didn’t pick up his binoculars. Instead, he looked at the hive-shaped rockets lined up with concern.
“Do we really not need to move out the soldiers in the city?”
Regarding the weapon that existed two centuries ago, he was afraid the rockets would drop on his men’s heads.
“Don’t worry, a one-kilometer distance is enough.”
Although Russian weapons weren’t particularly precise, they wouldn’t be off by more than one kilometer. Jiang Chen glared at Cheng Weiguo.
[You don’t understand the intelligence of the “ancient.”]
“General… Where did you get those artifacts?” Cheng Weiguo picked up the tablet used to control the rockets, asking the question troubling him.
“The vehicles are from a military museum. The rockets are manufactured following blueprints.” Jiang Chen didn’t mind his blatant question as he answered nonchalantly.
Seeing that Jiang Chen didn’t plan on elaborating further, Cheng Weiguo knew better than to probe. He was indeed loyal, but he had curiosity too.
The helicopter arrived above Jia City and hovered just out of the mutated humans’ air defense range.
With the help of the radiation dust and cloud, it managed to disguise its presence and provided the aerial map for the battlefield. The wide range life signal detector opened and marked the locations of mutated humans on the control tablet.
With the red dots reaching only ten thousand, the mutated humans probably had shielding devices to block their locations, but they must have a limited range and were only capable of disguising important targets.
Based on human observation, they marked the unidentified areas. Cheng Weiguo nodded to Jiang Chen and handed over the tablet.
The general would order the annihilation of the mutated humans!
Jiang Chen looked at the launcher vehicles locked and loaded two hundred meters out. He then took the tablet.
The distance and target were clearly identified on the screen.
“Listen to my order! Angle 220, distance 14.1 kilometers. Prepare to fire!”
The hive-shaped rocket launchers gradually tilted up and all stopped at the same angle. When the blue flags rose up, one by one, signaling was ready. He took a deep breath and passed the tablet back to Cheng Weiguo.
He pressed his earpiece. Jiang Chen looked in Jia City’s direction and shouted ferociously.
“Fire!”
