176: Chapter 176 A single shot to wake you all up!!!

Ten kilometers outside the Floating City.

More than three thousand modified heavy vehicles covered the edge of the acid marsh.

Behind them were the survivors being squeezed forward.

Three hundred thousand people.

Some held weapons, some pushed broken vehicles, and others held children.

The black mist was advancing from further away, and no one dared to stop.

At the very front, a man clad in blue and white combat armor stood atop a hundred-meter-long magnetic storm crawler.

He was the leader of one of the The Three Major Alliances in Zone 03.

Lei Wanjun.

SS-grade talent, Magnetic Storm Control.

He held a megaphone, aiming it at the Sea Scale in the sky.

"Chen Chen!"

"Listen up!"

"The black mist has gone berserk, and everyone is running for their lives!"

"You alone occupying the Floating City, occupying the shield, occupying the nuclear warships—is this reasonable?"

The public channel exploded instantly.

"Share the fortress!"

"Let us in!"

"Resources belong to all humanity!"

"Chen Chen, don't play dead!"

Lei Wanjun grew more confident as he shouted.

"We don't want your life!"

"Just open the city gates and share control!"

"We, the The Three Major Alliances, can guarantee your safety!"

Inside the city, some newly joined survivors began to waver.

Near the south gate, a tall, thin man muttered softly.

"Three hundred thousand people..."

"If a real fight breaks out, we won't be able to hold them off, right?"

"Why not let some of them in first?"

"We are all human, and with the black mist coming, we can't just watch them die..."

As soon as he finished speaking, a dark red blade flash streaked by.

The man's head flew off, rolling twice before stopping.

Jiang Yanxue retracted her blade.

Fresh blood splattered onto the faces of the people nearby.

She raised her eyelids, her voice low.

"Who else wants to be a saint?"

The people around all retreated.

No one dared to make a sound.

Yi Chang walked over in her high heels, glancing at the corpse.

"Drag it to the outer maintenance team; we're short a coolie."

Jiang Yanxue raised an eyebrow.

"Can it work without a head?"

Yi Chang flipped open her data pad.

"It can serve as a warning sign."

Jiang Yanxue laughed.

"You, this deputy city lord, are quite interesting."

...

Outside the city.

Lei Wanjun waited for a long time without receiving a response.

His expression darkened.

"Chen Chen!"

"Don't think that just because you killed a Fifth-Order, you can go against three hundred thousand people!"

"I'll give you another ten seconds!"

Chen Chen stood on the top platform of the City Lord Tower, shirtless, with a black combat jacket draped over his shoulders.

Shen Wanbing stood by his side, her interface full of artillery trajectories.

Jiang Jiuyou sat in the Pilot Tower, the lights on the sub-command console lighting up layer by layer.

Shen Wanxing huddled in the back and spoke softly.

"There are so many of them."

Su Xiaoqi gnawed on a meat bone.

"So much experience."

Blood Rose laughed until her shoulders shook.

"I love hearing that."

Lei Wanjun did not wait for the ten seconds to finish.

He waved his hand.

"Three thousand war vehicles!"

"Bombard it for me!"

Boom, boom, boom—

Artillery fire erupted simultaneously.

Armor-piercing shells, electromagnetic cannons, rockets, and magnetic storm energy beams smashed densely into the A-grade dome of the Floating City.

Large ripples exploded on the surface of the shield.

Many people in the city were scared into crouching down.

Shen Wanbing reported the numbers.

"Shield durability dropped by three percent."

"Artillery intensity is lower than estimated."

Jiang Jiuyou spoke coldly in the channel.

"They are probing."

Chen Chen looked at the group of war vehicles below.

Lei Wanjun stood on the roof of the vehicle, a fanatical look already appearing on his face.

"Do you see that!"

"Their shield is not invincible!"

"Keep shelling!"

"Break the city gates, and resources will be shared by all!"

The three hundred thousand people outside the city were incited.

The shouts came one wave after another.

"Seize the city!"

"A way to live!"

"Share the resources!"

Chen Chen raised his hand and pulled the red safety catch next to the main console.

Click.

The main cannon interface of the Sea Scale began to preheat.

Jiang Jiuyou's breathing paused slightly in the communication.

"The main cannon just fired once; the risk of overload is very high."

Chen Chen looked at the targets on the Radar that were so dense they turned red.

"Can Firepower Overload be activated?"

Jiang Jiuyou's fingers fell onto the button from under her cloak.

She smiled, her voice still carrying the hoarseness from last night.

"Just finished upgrading, it would be a pity not to try."

Chen Chen pressed the master control.

"Since they want to come in, we'll send them to hell to grab a spot."

He paused for half a second, his voice transmitting across the entire fleet channel.

"Sea Scale main cannon."

"Firepower Overload."

"Plow the ground for me!"

...

"Firepower Overload, confirmed."

Jiang Jiuyou's fingertips descended.

On the sub-command console, all firepower nodes within twenty kilometers lit up instantly.

The three main weapon wells beneath the Sea Scale turned again.

All the turrets on the perimeter of the Floating City unlocked.

The Fleet Link halo of the Ghost Fortress expanded in circles, directly dragging the city walls, docks, secondary cannons, and outer vehicles into the same fire control network.

[Mechanical Empress: Starport Resonance activated.]

[God-level active skill: Firepower Overload enabled.]

[Duration: 180 seconds.]

[Effect: All linked weapon attacks force ignore 50% of target armor.]

Lei Wanjun was still standing on the roof of the hundred-meter magnetic storm crawler, shouting with a megaphone.

"Chen Chen! If you fire now, it's a massacre of your own kind!"

"You will be spurned by all battle zones!"

"You—"

Chen Chen raised his hand and pressed the red confirmation key for the Sea Scale main cannon.

"Plow."

One word.

Jiang Jiuyou followed up with the second command.

"Full firepower."

"Cover Lei Wanjun's vanguard position."

The next second.

Beneath the bow of the Sea Scale, three main weapon wells simultaneously spewed blue-white nuclear energy pulses.

Hundreds of cannons on the city walls fired in synchronization.

Although the Void Annihilation Matrix on the roof of the Ghost Fortress was still cooling down, it still diverted a low-power cutting beam, sweeping along the front line of the enemy war vehicle group.

Boom—

The first round of artillery landed, and a line of fire several thousand meters long was instantly churned up ten kilometers outside the city.

The magnetic storm defense shield that Lei Wanjun was so proud of lasted less than a second.

The blue-white beam pressed down.

That layer of electric grid exploded on the spot.

Lei Wanjun's expression changed abruptly, and he raised his hand, wanting to re-gather the magnetic field.

"How is this possible?!"

The second electromagnetic armor-piercing shell had already smashed into the front of his crawler.

The hundred-meter-long magnetic storm vehicle snapped in half from the middle.

Lei Wanjun was blown away by the impact, his legs were shredded by shrapnel in mid-air, and his whole body slammed into the mud, the megaphone rolling to the side, still sizzling with electricity.

He lay on the ground, half his body covered in blood, looking up at the Floating City.

"I... I have an SS-grade talent..."

Responding to him was the third round of artillery fire.

The vanguard troops behind him, three hundred heavy vehicles, along with thousands of armed members, had their formation broken through within thirty seconds.

The ammunition smashed down with true damage, and armor thickness lost its meaning.

One modified war vehicle after another exploded.

The firelight connected into a sheet.

The members of the The Three Major Alliances who were just shouting "share resources" instantly lost their voices.

Only screams remained in the public channel.

"Stop shooting! Stop shooting!"

"We surrender!"

"The black mist is behind! The artillery fire is in front! Where can we go?!"

"Is Alliance Leader Lei dead? Who will give the order?!"

Lei Wanjun was not dead.

He was being dragged backward by two personal guards.

One leg was gone, and the other was only half left.

He grabbed the collars of his guards tightly.

"Retreat... retreat out of range..."

The guard's voice had changed.

"Alliance Leader, the black mist is pressing in from behind! We can't retreat!"

Lei Wanjun froze.

He finally saw it.

The black mist in the distance was advancing, moving faster than anyone had estimated.

The crowd behind was forced to squeeze forward.

The people in front were forced backward by the artillery fire.

Three hundred thousand people were squeezed outside the perimeter of the Floating City, like being sandwiched between two iron plates.

On the city walls, Iron Wall watched, his scalp tingling.

"Boss, if we keep shooting, we might actually wipe them all out."

Shen Wanbing scanned the data.

"Vanguard heavy cluster losses are sixty-two percent."

"The command chain of the The Three Major Alliances is broken."

"The black mist is less than three kilometers away from their rear."

Jiang Jiuyou sat in front of the sub-command console, her voice somewhat hoarse, but steadier than before.

"One hundred and twenty seconds left for Firepower Overload."

"Continue to suppress, or stop?"

Chen Chen stood on the top of the City Lord Tower, wearing a black combat jacket, looking down at the chaos outside the city.

Three hundred thousand people.

It sounded like a lot.

But the ones who really dared to charge were just that batch at the front holding weapons.

Most of the people behind were just being driven by the black mist.

Chen Chen picked up the full-frequency broadcast.

"Listen up, everyone."

All channels outside the city were forcibly accessed.

The noise was suppressed.

Chen Chen's voice spread across the battlefield.

"First, the high-level officials and heavy troops of the The Three Major Alliances, take another step forward, and you die."

"Second, if you want to live, you can."

"Hand over all high-level resources, blueprints, vehicle cores, and Ability Crystals."

"Third, don't even think about entering the city. You can only go to the lower hold of the Sea Scale."

"There are no sofas, no hot water, and no private rooms there."

"Only air, the floor, and the lowest-grade nutrient paste."

"If you are willing, kneel and wait for registration."

"If you are not willing, walk backward; the black mist will receive you."

There was a brief silence outside the city.

Soon, curses exploded.

"Why?!"

"You are robbing us while we are in trouble!"

"We are humans too!"

"You have such a big city, why won't you let us live in the upper levels!"

Chen Chen raised his hand.

Jiang Jiuyou immediately locked onto the convoy that was cursing the loudest.

"Coordinates confirmed."

"Fire."

Thirty-six city defense cannons fired in unison.

That convoy that was still inciting a charge was instantly cleared.

Even several war vehicles flying the alliance flag next to it were blasted into wreckage.

Chen Chen spoke again.

"I will not say this a third time."

"Hand over the money, kneel and wait."

"Cross the line with weapons, and you die."

"Inciting trouble, and you die."

"Hiding resources, and if you are caught, you and your vehicle will be thrown into the black mist."

This time, no one shouted.