26: Final team wipe, rebirth from the ashes

Chapter 26: Final Wipeout, Rebirth from Nirvana

The sound of retreating tracks mixed with the gunfire behind him, sharp as a blade, scraping against Lin Zhou's eardrums.

He stood on the bumpy tank hatch, looking back. Toward the mine in the east, purple mist had already spread into a sea of clouds, and the roar of a 5th-tier Radiation Lord made the air tremble. Scarface and the remaining soldiers were locked in a desperate struggle; the gunfire went from dense to sparse, finally completely drowned out by the roar of the zombies.

"Boss... Scarface, he..." a soldier's voice trembled, but Lin Zhou coldly interrupted him before he could finish: "Shut up. Full speed back to the base."

The tank tracks ground over the gravel road, the kicked-up dust making throats ache. Lin Zhou's knuckles turned white as he gripped the Alloy Longblade. He knew Scarface was gone, and those five brothers were gone too. But he couldn't look back; there were hundreds of civilians in the base, and the production capacity that had just recovered a bit—that was the last spark for humanity.

Two hours later, the grizzly tank rushed into the gates of the Red Alert Base.

Atop the walls, the soldiers looked east with pale faces. That purple mist was actually spreading toward the base at a speed visible to the naked eye. The alarm of the Radiation Detector shrieked in the command room, and the values on the screen had soared to ten times the warning line.

"Lin Zhou! This is bad!" Zhao Weiguo stumbled into the command room, the detector in his hand nearly flying out, "Deep in the mine... it's not just one 5th-tier! It's a group! And... and there's an even more terrifying existence!"

Before he could finish, the base's Radar screen suddenly erupted in a burst of ear-piercing noise. Dense red dots surged from the direction of the mine like a tide. The red dot in the very center was blindingly bright, its energy fluctuations far exceeding the 5th-tier; it was a level of terror they had never seen before.

[Warning! Warning! Detected a 6th-tier Radiation Sovereign! Accompanied by three 5th-tier Lords and five thousand Radiation Mutated Zombies! Estimated arrival at the Red Alert Base in ten minutes!]

The system's prompt sounded coldly, and Lin Zhou's pupils suddenly contracted.

6th-tier!

This word was like a thunderclap, leaving his brain blank. A 5th-tier Radiation Lord had already left them with no power to fight back, let alone a 6th-tier Radiation Sovereign?

"Everyone! Enter maximum combat readiness!" Lin Zhou roared, grabbing the walkie-talkie. "All apocalypse tanks, deploy! Rocket Troopers, set up the turrets! All civilians, hide in the Underground Shelters! Chen Mo! Bring out all the Reinforcement Serums! Regardless of the side effects, inject them all!"

The base fell into chaos. The only two remaining apocalypse tanks roared out of the War Factory, the pale purple light of the main cannons charging being the base's last bit of confidence. The Rocket Troopers shouldered their launchers and climbed the walls with pale faces. Civilians cried out in a panic, stumbling into the Underground Shelters under the guidance of soldiers.

Chen Mo ran over holding a box of Reinforcement Serums, his white coat stained with blood, his voice carrying despair: "Lin Zhou! The serum hasn't completed clinical trials! Forcing an injection will..."

"Will kill people, right?" Lin Zhou interrupted him, snatching the serum box and tearing open his combat uniform. "If we don't inject now, it's a dead end anyway!"

He unscrewed a serum and stabbed it hard into his arm. The pale blue liquid surged into his veins, and a violent force instantly swept through his body. Dense stabs of pain came from the joints of his bones, and his vision blurred in waves.

Twenty Reinforced Soldiers followed suit. Once the injections were finished, an abnormal flush appeared on everyone's faces, but their eyes became as fierce as wolves.

Ten minutes passed in an instant.

On the horizon outside the base, the purple mist rolled in. The figure at the very front was a full fifteen meters tall, its body covered in dark purple crystalline scales, and the single horn on its head flickered with an eerie light—it was that 6th-tier Radiation Sovereign. Behind it, three 5th-tier Lords followed like lackeys, and five thousand radiation zombies covered the land. Wherever they passed, not a blade of grass remained.

"Fire!"

At Lin Zhou's command, the main cannons of the apocalypse tanks and grizzly tanks roared simultaneously. Pale purple shells trailed flames, accurately hitting the chest of the 6th-tier Radiation Sovereign.

Boom!

On the purple crystalline scales, only a faint white mark was blasted open.

The 6th-tier Radiation Sovereign let out a contemptuous roar, and its horn suddenly lit up. A thick purple beam of light instantly shot toward the base's wall.

Rumble!

The ten-meter-high alloy wall was like paper, instantly blasted with a huge gap. Rubble and rebar flew through the air, and the Rocket Troopers behind the wall were blown away by the shockwave on the spot, leaving no remains.

"It's useless! It's completely useless!" a soldier shouted in despair, his rifle falling to the ground.

The three 5th-tier Lords took the opportunity to rush into the base, their giant claws swinging. The armor of the apocalypse tanks was like thin paper, easily torn open. Ammunition was detonated, and violent explosions sent flames into the sky.

Radiation zombies flooded in like a tide. The effects of the soldiers' Reinforcement Serums were insignificant in the face of the absolute numerical difference. Cleavers were chipped, bullets were exhausted, and they used their fists and teeth to tear at the zombies.

Zhao Weiguo's intestines were pulled out by a zombie, yet he held onto that zombie tightly and pulled the pin on his last grenade.

Chen Mo was enveloped by the purple mist, his body melting at a speed visible to the naked eye. He took one last look at Lin Zhou, his lips moving as if saying something, but he was drowned out by the roar of the zombies.

Lin Zhou brandished his Alloy Longblade, hacking down one zombie after another. His body was covered in wounds, and dark green pus seeped into his flesh as the virus spread wildly within him. The strength brought by the Reinforcement Serum was rapidly fading.

He looked at the fires in the base, saw the civilians hiding in the shelters crying out in despair, and saw the home he had built with his own hands being devoured bit by bit by the zombies.

A sense of powerlessness instantly swept through his entire body.

He was wrong.

He had been wrong from the very beginning.

He shouldn't have gone to save the Northern Military Region, shouldn't have touched those damn Mutated Minerals, and shouldn't have thought that he could survive the apocalypse just by relying on the red alert system.

The 6th-tier Radiation Sovereign slowly walked up to him, its horn flickering with an eerie light.

Lin Zhou looked up, staring into those cold vertical pupils, and the Alloy Longblade in his hand fell to the ground with a clang.

He didn't dodge, only giving a miserable smile.

"In the end... I still lost..."

The purple beam of light instantly pierced through his chest.

Intense pain arrived, and his consciousness receded like a tide.

He saw the base being completely consumed by flames, saw the zombies rushing into the Underground Shelters, and heard the final screams of the civilians.

He saw his own body, in the purple light, turning into ash bit by bit.

[Detected that the host's vital signs have completely disappeared]

[Detected the host's strong obsession with rebirth]

[red alert system core energy remaining 1%; Time Regression can be activated]

[Regression target: Three days before the outbreak of the apocalypse]

[Countdown: 3... 2... 1... ]