123: Chapter 123 My brother died yesterday

Three days later.

Continuous acid rain had turned the scorched earth into a muddy swamp.

The muddy water was mixed with the dark red blood of humans and the nauseating green fluids of the Orcs.

This defensive line, stretching several kilometers, had completely transformed into a never-ending meat grinder of flesh and blood.

The number of greenskins was simply too many.

With a base count of tens of millions, even if they stood still and let people hack at them, they would dull the blades of many a sword.

During these three days of brutal attrition, the casualty figures for the Defense Force skyrocketed.

Batch after batch of soldiers were cycled through the trenches; many positions were even filled with corpses, forcing the living to step on the remains of their comrades to continue firing outward.

However, what caused the native Defense Force to feel deeply shocked and even terrified was that mysterious unit of outsiders cutting into the battlefield from the west and south.

Hans, a veteran of the Defense Force, was leaning behind a collapsed bunker, his hands trembling as he lit a low-quality synthetic cigarette.

He took a deep drag and stared blankly at the trench not far away.

There, several warriors wearing scrap-metal armor with eye-catching red hair were sitting on a pile of greenskin corpses, roasting pieces of Orc meat on bayonets over a fire.

Hans's pupils contracted violently.

He stared fixedly at the leading red-haired warrior.

He swore he wasn't seeing things!

Just the afternoon before yesterday, Hans had seen with his own eyes this red-haired warrior being hit directly in the chest by an Orc rocket during a charge, blown into several pieces of shredded meat on the spot!

And just yesterday evening, it was the same red-haired warrior again.

During a melee with an Orc Boss, he had been split from shoulder to waist by a massive Power Axe; his internal organs spilled everywhere, and he was dead as could be!

But now, this guy who should have died twice was actually sitting there alive and well, eating roasted meat while bragging and joking with his companions!

Hans felt his sanity crumbling.

Girding his loins and clutching his laser rifle, he cautiously approached.

"You..."

Hans pointed at the red-haired player, his voice trembling as if he were looking at a ghost from the Warp.

"You... the day before yesterday and yesterday, weren't you blown to bits and cleaved in half? How are you still alive?!"

The red-haired player, [Love Burial Family Young Master], turned his head and looked at this terrified NPC veteran.

He rolled his eyes, took a bite of the roasted meat, and replied matter-of-factly:

"What are you looking at? The one who died the day before yesterday was my eldest brother. The one who died yesterday was my second brother. I'm the third."

Hans was left utterly dumbfounded:

"You... just how many brothers do you have in your family? You all look exactly the same?"

"Oh, quite a lot."

The red-haired player grinned, revealing a row of white teeth.

"In the Stasis Pods of the Shelter, there are at least over a thousand biological brothers like me. Dying a dozen times is nothing—just a drop in the bucket."

*Clatter.*

The cigarette in Hans's mouth fell into the mud.

His legs went weak, and he slumped onto the ground.

It wasn't just Hans.

The entire Defense Force along the line, and even the Astra Militarum Political Commissar Arthas, had noticed this terrifying phenomenon.

This mysterious unit had been clashing head-on with the greenskins for three days and three nights!

According to their suicidal, all-offense-no-defense fighting style, even a full-strength Space Marine Chapter should have been wiped out by now!

However, the numbers of this army didn't decrease at all; instead, they seemed to grow as the battle raged!

It was as if there was an assembly line in their rear that could mass-produce living people out of thin air.

One dies at the front, and another is immediately replenished from the back.

An endless stream, an eternal cycle!

...

Fire Seed Shelter, B1 Main Control Room.

Lin Li sat in a large leather swivel chair, watching the various data points flickering on the big screen.

"Three days. The average respawn count for players has reached 1.5 times."

Lin Li rubbed his chin.

"Although they can respawn after dying, continuous high-intensity online combat will lead to psychological and mental fatigue for the players. The front line has reached a stalemate."

He pulled up satellite footage and looked inside Coastal City.

After the fat Governor was shot in the head by the Political Commissar, the Hive City had fallen into a chaotic power vacuum for a time.

Although that iron-blooded Political Commissar had forcibly stabilized the front line with the barrel of a gun and even brought in a batch of cannon fodder from the bottom-tier gangs,

without the logistical coordination of the Governors Mansion, the ammunition and food supplies for the Defense Force had already suffered a serious breakdown.

The firing frequency of the artillery on the city walls was getting lower and lower.

"The timing is about right."

Lin Li stood up and stretched.

His usual casual, mocking expression instantly vanished, replaced by a cold and sharp decisiveness.

"As the old saying goes, chaos is a ladder. It's time someone cleaned up this mess."

Lin Li turned and walked toward the locker room.

Amidst the dull sound of mechanical locking, he donned that heavy, stylish red heavy Power Armor.

Picking up his halberd, Lin Li strode toward the elevator.

"73! Stay in the main control room and keep a close eye on the satellite radar! If you notice any anomalies, notify me immediately!"

"As you command, Creator."

The doors to the Gene Lab opened.

The supreme Commander of the Fourth Legion of Thunder Warriors—Ushtan—was bare-chested, performing high-intensity restorative physical training in the open area.

Heavy alloy barbells flew up and down in his hands like toys.

Seeing Lin Li enter, Ushtan stopped and casually picked up a towel to wipe the sweat from his body.

After cellular reconstruction, the genetic defects in his body had been completely erased.

The current Ushtan had returned to the peak state he possessed during the Unification Wars of Terra.

His height exceeded 2.5 meters, and his muscles were as bulging as rock; standing there, he looked like an insurmountable iron tower.

"Lord Excellence," Ushtan greeted with a slight bow of his head.

"Stop training, there's work to do."

Lin Li tilted his chin up. "Grab your weapons and come with me to Coastal City."

Ushtan didn't waste any words.

He turned to the equipment rack, put on a set of simple battle armor polished from high-strength alloy plates, and slung a massive two-handed Power Greatsword onto his back.

Lin Li took this super bodyguard, who was comparable to a mobile fortress, out of the Shelter and sped all the way to Shahe Town.

Inside the underground air-raid Shelter of Shahe Town.

That ancient dedicated railway line leading to the outskirts of Coastal City had been completely cleared by the players.

Old-fashioned nuclear-powered trains were parked by the platform.

The two boarded a train.

Accompanied by the piercing screech of wheels against rails, the train plunged into the dark underground tunnel.

The carriage swayed violently.

Lin Li leaned against his seat and couldn't help but complain:

"The suspension system of this junk car is a disaster. I must have those science and engineering guys redesign the suspension when we get back; otherwise, this level of jolting will make people vomit up their breakfast."

Ushtan stood aside like a statue, not responding.

However, his sharp eyes were secretly observing Lin Li.

He noticed that while this Lord often complained about insignificant trifles, he was extremely keen and decisive when making strategic decisions.

"Lord Excellence. Are we going to Coastal City to take over the Defense Force there?" Ushtan asked in a deep voice.

Lin Li gave a cold laugh:

"Take over the Defense Force? No, think bigger. What I want to take over is the entire Coastal City and absolute control over its two hundred million people!"

Some time later.

With a screech of brakes, the train stopped at an abandoned underground freight station on the westernmost outskirts of Coastal City.

This place was less than five kilometers away from the frontline combat zone.

The faint roar of artillery could be heard from the surface.

Lin Li and Ushtan followed the mottled concrete stairs out of the underground platform.

The surface.

This was a defensive position belonging to the Defense Force's second-line reserves.

Because the front line was strained, only a few hundred exhausted wounded soldiers and logistical personnel with despair in their eyes remained to guard this position.

When that heavy iron door of the air-raid Shelter was suddenly pushed open,

Lin Li, wearing his red Power Armor, was the first to step out.

And following closely behind him was the 2.5-meter-tall, heavily armored Thunder Commander radiating a tangible, tragic murderous aura—Ushtan!

Because Ushtan's physique was so massive, the simple battle armor made him look like an ancient god of war stepped out of myth.

The Defense Force soldiers guarding the position turned their heads one after another at the sound.

When they clearly saw Ushtan's giant-like figure and that superhuman sense of oppression,

the entire position instantly fell into a deathly silence.

A veteran Defense Force soldier with a missing arm dropped his canteen, spilling water all over the ground.

His eyes widened, and his lips trembled uncontrollably.

In this era of information isolation,

the awareness of the Empire's low-level soldiers was extremely limited.

In their religious education and the legends passed down by word of mouth, a human over 2.5 meters tall, wearing heavy armor and possessing terrifying combat power, had only one identity!

"An Angel..."

The veteran's knees went weak, and he knelt heavily into the mud, his hands frantically tracing the Aquila double-headed eagle emblem on his chest as tears streamed down his face.

"It's the Emperor's Angel! It's Lord Astartes!!"

"An Angel has descended! The God-Emperor has not abandoned us!"

"Praise the Throne! We are saved!"

*Whoosh.*

Hundreds of Defense Force soldiers, medical staff, and even the severely wounded lying on stretchers struggled to roll off and kneel in prayer toward Ushtan.

In their eyes, this 2.5-meter-tall giant was the legendary Space Marine who would save everything, the incarnation of the Emperor in the physical universe!

Looking at the kneeling, fervently praying Defense Force,

Ushtan's face instantly turned ashen.

His fingers gripping the greatsword cracked, and a flash of deep disgust crossed his eyes.

As an original Thunder Warrior who had been betrayed and purged by the Emperor, to now be mistaken by these ignorant mortals for the Astartes Space Marines who had replaced them!

To Ushtan, this was a massive mockery!

"Shut up! I am no damn Angel!" Ushtan gritted his teeth, instinctively wanting to clarify his identity.

But just as he was about to speak,

a hand clad in red Power Armor firmly pressed against his arm.

Lin Li turned his head and gave Ushtan a look that told him to stay calm.

Lin Li was already laughing inwardly.

He had brought Ushtan along originally just to be a powerful bodyguard and enforcer.

But he never expected these natives would automatically fill in the blanks and mistake a Thunder Warrior for a Space Marine!

In the Warhammer universe, the words 'Space Marine' were the ultimate political pass!

They represented absolute imperial authority that could not be defied!

Lin Li calculated silently, "Since they've misunderstood, then let this beautiful misunderstanding continue!"

With the identity of an Emperor's Angel as a martial deterrent, combined with the The Fourth Calamity's terrifying record on the front lines,

Lin Li's confidence in taking over this Hive City instantly jumped to one hundred percent!

Lin Li took a step forward, not denying the soldiers' title for them.

He looked down at the veteran who had led the kneeling and issued his first command in a majestic voice:

"Stand up, soldier. Take us to see your supreme Commander!"