128: Chapter 128: The entire region has been incorporated; the enemy's advance team?

Six in the morning.

Jiang Jiuyou, wearing military boots, appeared punctually in front of the Ghost Fortress.

The armored door opened hydraulically.

The moment she stepped over the threshold, her footsteps paused for a beat.

To the left of the sofa, Blood Rose was curled into a ball, wrapped in a blanket.

Her wine-red curly hair was scattered everywhere, and the calves and ankles exposed outside the blanket were covered in purple finger marks.

Her neck rested crookedly against a cushion, and from her collarbone to the base of her ear was a shocking array of hickeys and pinch marks; her breathing was light and shallow.

The blanket had slipped halfway, and the zipper of her black leather jacket was undone, allowing a large expanse of snowy white curves to spill from the edges of the fabric.

Jiang Jiuyou's military boots paused at the door for an extra 0.5 seconds.

Then she withdrew her gaze and walked up the stairs.

First floor, second floor—the pillows on the c-rank mental soothing bed were messily wrinkled.

Third floor, fourth floor.

In the control tower, Chen Chen was already awake, sitting in the pilot's seat scrolling through the system panel.

"Resource inventory." Jiang Jiuyou pulled a folding data tablet from her tactical pouch and handed it over.

Chen Chen reached out to take it.

As his fingers touched the data tablet, his fingertips brushed against the back of Jiang Jiuyou's hand.

Jiang Jiuyou's hand twitched.

She withdrew her hand and clenched it for two seconds.

"Population: 198. Vehicles: 45, including two B-ranks. 12 A-rank talent holders, including 7 from the original Dark Division team, 2 from the military, and 3 independents."

Her speaking pace was half a beat faster than usual.

"Regarding ammunition, stocks of thirty-millimeter armor-piercing rounds are low, but a batch of unregistered twenty-millimeter machine gun rounds was found in Iron Wall's military convoy, quite a significant amount. Additionally—"

She pulled a second document from her pouch.

"Working through the night according to the defense blueprints you provided, we used parts from dismantled independent vehicles to build a mobile defense position for the Ghost Fortress. Six detachable fire points, each equipped with two medium-caliber machine guns, deployed in a hexagonal pattern centered on the Ghost Fortress; they can be fully deployed within three minutes."

Chen Chen scanned the data.

"You did better than I expected, Jiuyou."

He addressed her by name directly.

Jiang Jiuyou's silver-white hair covered half her face, making it impossible to see her expression.

"It's part of the deal, don't think that just because of this—"

"Just because of what?"

Chen Chen stood up from the pilot's seat.

The morning light from the panoramic window streamed in behind him, outlining his sharp features.

His gaze traveled down from Jiang Jiuyou's tight black turtleneck lining, across the curve defined by her belt, and down to her long legs encased in straight-cut tactical pants.

He scanned slowly.

On purpose.

Jiang Jiuyou gritted her teeth.

"Don't think this will let me be ranked seventh."

"Who said I was ranking you seventh?"

Jiang Jiuyou's pupils constricted slightly.

Chen Chen put the data tablet into his silver-grade storage ring and patted Jiang Jiuyou's shoulder.

His palm lingered for two seconds.

"Go back and manage your people."

Jiang Jiuyou turned and left.

The sound of her military boots on the stairs was half a beat faster than when she arrived.

Reaching the first floor, as she passed the sofa, her peripheral vision caught another glimpse of Blood Rose.

The blanket had slipped down a bit more.

Jiang Jiuyou quickened her pace, pushed open the armored door, and stepped into the cold wind.

After the door closed, she stood in place for three seconds.

Taking a deep breath.

"...Hot."

She looked down at the back of her hand; the spot where Chen Chen's fingertips had brushed against her still held a lingering warmth.

Inside the first-floor cabin, Jiang Yanxue propped herself up halfway on the sofa, her dark red pupils staring at the closed armored door.

"She blushed."

Shen Wanbing pressed her necklace, not even looking up: "I didn't see it."

"The blue light on your necklace flashed three times."

Shen Wanbing's fingers tightened around the necklace.

"...Watch the Radar."

...

Nine in the morning.

The first general assembly after the reorganization was held in an open area three hundred meters from the perimeter of the Ghost Fortress.

198 people and 45 vehicles were lined up in three neat phalanxes.

Shen Wanbing announced the real-time data updates for the comprehensive faction value through the vehicle's loudspeaker.

A holographic projection was cast onto the armored side of the Ghost Fortress, the giant scarlet numbers visible to everyone.

[comprehensive faction value: Ranked 1st in District 069]

[Population: 198]

[Vehicles: 45]

[Core Member Average Level: Lv.8.2]

[Resource Reserve Rating: A+]

The numbers shimmered in the sunlight, and the progress bar stayed firmly in the first-place position.

Below, there was total silence.

The disorganized stragglers who were fighting for themselves yesterday looked at these numbers today; regardless of what they thought privately, they were outwardly convinced.

Iron Wall stood at the front of the military echelon, with fresh bandages on his left arm and a grim expression.

His adjutant leaned in and whispered something, but Iron Wall shook his head.

He glanced at the Void Annihilation Matrix on the roof of the Ghost Fortress and kept his mouth shut.

Chen Chen did not come out to give a speech.

Shen Wanbing handled all administrative tasks for him—resource distribution, patrol scheduling, communication frequency unification, and vehicle registration.

Every item was handled methodically, with an efficiency that made Iron Wall's military staff feel ashamed of their own.

Jiang Jiuyou was responsible for the execution level.

Those with objections—

That head on the iron pole was still drying in the wind.

There were no objections.

...

Two in the afternoon.

In the fourth-floor control tower, Chen Chen finished reviewing the intelligence slate given by the proprietress and organized all known information about District 068.

Bishop of Ashes, ranked 1st in District 068, Lv.11.

His talent was unknown, but judging by the vocal characteristics and spiritual pressure shown in the cross-district broadcasts, it was highly likely to be a Spirit-type or Faith-type talent.

He controlled the only Safe City in District 068 and had thousands of fanatical followers.

The followers were not ordinary survivors—Park Jae-hyun had said that the Bishop of Ashes would perform a certain "baptism" on them; after the baptism, the followers' pain sensitivity decreased, their ferocity increased greatly, and they gained a certain resistance to Spirit-type attacks.

Chen Chen turned off the slate and leaned back in his chair.

The communicator rang.

Shen Wanbing.

"Thirty kilometers to the northeast, abnormal fluctuations have appeared in the spatial barrier."

Chen Chen sat up straight.

"What kind of fluctuations?"

"The cross-district barrier... has torn prematurely. A crack, very narrow, but something has already come through."

Shen Wanbing's speaking pace was no longer steady.

"Seven scarlet heat sources. Moving at over two hundred kilometers per hour. Direction—straight for us."

Chen Chen's hand pressed onto the control console.

"How much longer until they arrive?"

"At their current speed, less than eight minutes."

Eight minutes.

Chen Chen pressed the full-frequency communication button for the vehicle's loudspeaker.

"All forces on alert, defend your positions. No one is to open fire without my command."

The camp below erupted into chaos.

Soldiers rushed out of tents, and the independents scrambled into their vehicles.

Iron Wall was shouting something at the top of his lungs in the military echelon, and his adjutant flipped the safety off the dual-barrel rapid-fire cannon.

Jiang Jiuyou's Dark Division was the fastest.

Within thirty seconds, the engines of all nineteen vehicles were ignited, and forty talent holders were in position.

Chen Chen pulled up the communication channel.

"Hongye."

Second-floor suspension pod.

Qin Hongye was already prone at the firing position; the newly replaced acceleration rails of her Gauss sniper rifle had finished preheating, and the barrel protruded two inches from the firing window.

Her dark brown pupils activated her A-rank Eagle Eye talent.

The scene ten kilometers away was crystal clear in her scope.

Seven war chariots.

Their design was unlike anything seen before—the chassis were welded with white bones and dried flesh, and an organic weapon resembling a tentacle was mounted on the roof. The entire vehicle emitted a visible dark red mist.

"Lock onto the lead vehicle," Chen Chen's voice came through the communicator.

Qin Hongye's crosshairs settled steadily on the engine compartment of the lead chariot.

Fatal Lock · Weak Point Break—triggered.

A scarlet crosshair mark lit up in the scope, marking a spot on a welding seam of the engine compartment's casing.

With a 45% trigger probability, the first shot hit the mark.

"Marking complete. Engine compartment weld seam, distance nine thousand eight hundred meters," Qin Hongye's voice was as cold as metal.

"Fire."

A single word.

Qin Hongye pulled the trigger.

The moment the Gauss projectile left the barrel, the electromagnetic acceleration rails burst with a brief blue-white flash.

The projectile was propelled to a limit of nearly three times the speed of sound within the acceleration rails, tearing through the air and leaving an invisible trajectory.

Nine thousand eight hundred meters.

Zero point three seconds.

The lead chariot was racing at a top speed of two hundred kilometers per hour, the bone ornaments on its roof rattling in the wind.

The follower in the cockpit was frantically reciting some prayer.

Then, everything went quiet.

The projectile accurately penetrated the weld seam, dealing 100% true damage to the engine core.

The engine's energy went out of control within 0.01 seconds, and the ten-ton chariot began to tear apart from the centerline toward both sides.

Metal, bone, and flesh disintegrated into a sky full of fragments at high speed, while burning parts crashed into the Gobi, creating over a dozen craters.

The people inside the vehicle didn't even have time to react.

They were directly vaporized.

Outside the Ghost Fortress, nearly two hundred survivors froze in unison.

They had seen nothing.

And then—that most arrogant chariot ten kilometers away simply shattered out of thin air.

This... was the most terrifying part!