Chapter 580 Torch Tribunal

  Chapter 580 The Torch Tribunal

  The night shrouded the Pinewood Farm, and the noisy sound of gunfire was like firecrackers. The moonlight sprinkled on the ground could not see the slightest brightness, and the illuminated places were all shocking pieces of meat and blood. The

  zombies, like a tide, rushed towards the Alliance soldiers stationed in the manor house.

  In the flying tracer light, they fell like wheat caught in the harvester, and like waves hitting the beach, they came one after another, and soon filled the gap one after another.

  The firepower of only twenty people was not enough to resist this group of fearless guys.

  Those believers who were like living dead quickly broke through the blockade of the firepower network, crashed into the villa through the gate and windows, and bit anyone they saw like crazy.

  Not only that, some guys in military uniforms would shoot and throw grenades.

  This is the most deadly!

  ”Fuck! Are these guys cheating?” After killing a zombie who was firing a rifle, Haogou’s face turned pale.

  He had played many zombie-themed FPS games, but this was the first time he heard that zombies could shoot.

  ”The first floor can’t be defended… Lao Bai! How long do you have!” Fang Chang gritted his teeth and shouted in the communication channel while changing the magazine and retreating to the stairs.

  There was only the rustling sound of electricity in the communication channel.

  After the Seagull drone crashed, the opponent no longer concealed it and directly launched electronic warfare, first cutting off their communication.

  But Fang Chang always felt that it was not that simple.

  In the current noise, he vaguely heard other sounds… It seemed that it was not just a simple interference behavior, but also contained unconscious disturbances of something else.

  In any case, the first floor had been captured.

  The players of the alliance had to abandon their positions on the first floor and retreat to the second floor. With the help of roadblocks and doors, they fought hand-to-hand with the zombies in the narrow corridor.

  While the battle in the mansion was raging, in a hotel not far from the manor,

  four men in white coats were sitting in a room on the fifth floor, looking out the window at the Zhao Mansion in the center of the storm, talking with smiles on their faces.

  ”The combat power of the general experimental subjects is still too weak. After all, they are just ordinary people. The Naguo has not fundamentally changed their body functions.”

  ”Sure enough, if you can’t make good use of the tools at hand, the combat power of humans is not as good as that of animals.”

  ”Indeed, in terms of direct combat power, mutants are indeed a more suitable choice… But relatively speaking, those green-skinned monsters are not very obedient.”

  The four people sitting here are all apostles of the Torch Church.

  However, unlike the apostles who naturalized from the wastelanders, their status and authority are much higher than those charlatans who are only responsible for preaching.

  Not only do they know very clearly what the “Torch” is, but they also clearly understand that what they are doing actually has nothing to do with the beliefs they created.

  This situation is not without precedent in the long history.

  Some grassroots personnel far away from the core of the church have no doubts about their beliefs, and they are very familiar with various scriptures and theories, and they devote their lives to their beliefs.

  However, a few people close to the core of the church know clearly that faith and doctrine are essentially just tools for them to drive their servants. Although this does not conflict with their piety and enthusiasm, they will make the tools play their due value.

  Therefore, wars often launched in the name of gods are actually not for gods, but for secular power and wealth.

  Those apostles who are really close to the power core of the Torch Church are like this.

  The only difference is that they do all this not for secular power and wealth, and there is no such thing to pursue in the wasteland.

  What they are really pursuing is much more noble than the believers in the classical era.

  All this is for the future of civilization.

  Looking at the life blooming in the sparks and the blood falling in the mud, one of the apostles showed an intoxicated smile on his face.

  Whether it is the process or the result, this experiment is perfect!

  While he was quietly admiring the experiment, the other three were talking with great interest.

  ”Isn’t the performance of A-111 okay?”

  ”Ah, you said Goliath…that thing is indeed okay, but it can only be used as a meat shield. It is still a bit far-fetched to expect it to play the role of a ‘tank’ on the front battlefield. The bishop has too high expectations for it. I believe that after this time, he will realize the problem.”

  ”Unless it is equipped with some special weapons, but not being able to operate it is a big problem.”

  ”Speaking of this, I have to praise the soldiers of this settlement. Although they are thugs trained by the farmers, their skills are still good. Nago and Gospel can make up for their shortcomings in fighting will. This system is simply tailor-made for them.”

  ”Haha, now that you say that, I think those serf experimental subjects are hindering them.”

  ”Not entirely, at least it is feasible to consume some ammunition.”

  In front of the soldiers of the Alliance, most of the experimental subjects can only be killed, but those soldiers who used to be thugs for the farmers here are different.

  They can use rifles, and even know how to load and change magazines and aim. Even if their accuracy is a little off, this fearless fighting style still caused a lot of trouble for the Alliance soldiers.

  In addition to the soldiers who operate rifles, some technical soldiers can even drive vehicles and operate fixed weapons. This is an incredible discovery.

  Thanks to the cooperation of this settlement, especially the cooperation of the farmer, their research has taken a big step forward.

  And this is not just their progress! It is also

  a step towards the glorious evolution of human civilization!

  I believe that the farmer who is already in the underworld should feel extremely honored by the light at this moment.

  After all, if it weren’t for them, that pedantic and stupid guy and his stupid and ignorant slaves would not be able to contribute anything useful to human civilization throughout their lives, let alone leave even a word in this dark history.

  He and his settlement are like a rotten wood left in the corner of the ruins, and can do nothing except decaying little by little under the corrosion of time.

  At least now, these incompetent guys can still be used as firewood, as fuel to ignite the torch…

  The apostles sitting in the room discussed and exchanged ideas with great interest.

  ”…Is it muscle memory? They can actually operate anti-aircraft guns and automatic rifles.”

  ”If there are a large number of trained test subjects, and they are injected with ‘gospel’ at a specific moment, perhaps they can exert sufficient power on the battlefield.”

  ”Under proper command.”

  ”This reminds me of the Legion’s clones.”

  ”The Legion’s clones are nothing like ours. Those guys who grow eight times faster can do nothing but fight, but our believers are different.”

  ”As long as we switch to different frequencies of the ‘Gospel’, we can manipulate their thoughts and emotions and drive them to complete various simple tasks… Tsk, thinking about it, the best places for them are still plantations and factories. It’s a bit of a waste to send them to the battlefield without any training to consume ammunition.”

  At this moment, the apostle who had been staring out the window suddenly frowned, and a sneer appeared at the corner of his mouth.

  ”…I underestimated these guys.”

  The three stopped talking and looked at him.

  ”What’s wrong?”

  ”Nothing, a little white mouse slipped out of the cage and happened to find the things we put in the annex.” The apostle sitting by the window said indifferently.

  The other three apostles looked at each other.

  ”Aren’t they going to Zhao Tiangan?”

  ”Why go to the annex?”

  ”Did that Zhang Zhengyang leak it?”

  The apostle sitting by the window shook his head.

  ”Impossible, that guy is just a peripheral staff member in charge of preaching. He doesn’t even know about the experiment. How could he know what is under the annex?”

  The sneer on the corner of his mouth gradually took on a hint of sarcasm, and he continued in a casual tone.

  ”Anyway, the bishop has already found it, and we don’t need to worry about the rest.”

  ”The Executioner will clean it up.”

  Although force is not the specialty of the Torch Church, and they rarely achieve their goals through armed invasion, the violent machine is still indispensable to them.

  For example, the Inquisition is such an institution.

  They are different from the various knights under the church. Compared with the regular army engaged in military operations on the front battlefield, they are more like agents.

  When there are interference factors that affect the progress of the experiment in the diocese, and it is not suitable for the regular army to take action, the professionals of the Inquisition will take action to clean it up.

  They are usually called “Executioners”.

  Those guys have the most sophisticated equipment and have received professional combat training. Ordinary wastelanders can’t last more than one round in their hands.

  Even the awakened ones.

  Hearing the word “executioner”, all the apostles smiled with relief.

  The success rate of those guys in Haiya and Jinchuan provinces was close to 95%. With the past record of the Tribunal, it was not too easy to deal with a little mouse that sneaked into the laboratory.

  However, what these apostles did not know was that the executioner team that they had placed high hopes on was in trouble at this moment…

  Beside the wall of the manor, in the rustling woods, stood a dozen figures wearing exoskeletons.

  They held unique weapons in their hands, and the streamlined armor armed them to the teeth. The black paint made them blend perfectly with the night.

  They were like ghosts, waiting for an opportunity to move in the dark.

  Looking at the flashing “connection lost” icon in the tactical eyepiece, Li Jie, the captain of the executioner team, gradually showed a trace of solemnity between his eyebrows, and looked at his subordinates beside him and said.

  ”Is there no news about Wu Zhe yet?”

  The subordinate who was stopped by him also looked solemn and said in a deep voice.

  ”Not yet… He’s too close to the mind interference device.”

  Near the mind interference device, the radio signal will be seriously interfered.

  Normally, they communicate with the laboratory through a wired data channel. However, with the launch of Plan 03, the researchers in that laboratory have been completely evacuated.

  Therefore, no one knows what happened there now.

  ”Damn, what is that guy dawdling about!” A man holding a light machine gun in both hands muttered with curses, “Is it screwed up?”

  Another man with a stern look whispered.

  ”That shouldn’t be the case. There is only one mouse, and Wu Zhe is not a rookie who has been on a mission for the first time. This little thing can still be handled well.”

  A little thing…

  Li Jie looked solemnly in the direction of the annex and said in an elusive tone.

  ”I hope so.”

  To be honest, he has confidence in Wu Zhe.

  That guy is also an old member of the team. Before coming to Jinhe City, they have cooperated many times, and that guy has never let him down.

  However, for some reason, although it was just a simple cleanup job, he always felt uneasy in his heart, as if something unexpected would happen.

  Perhaps he should not let Wu Zhe go alone.

  But he actually had no choice about this matter.

  The Alliance’s reinforcements arrived.

  The Bishop asked him to leave all the Alliance members here.

  Although this was not arranged in the experimental plan, if the Alliance soldiers could be left, they could easily blame the Alliance for what happened here.

  The Alliance slaughtered people in the settlements of Jinchuan Province…

  This story was not only convenient enough for them, but also the local farmers must love to hear it.

  After all, compared to these “godmen who are not interested in secular power”, those guys who shouted to eliminate slavery and oppression are much more hateful!

  Not far from them, the Alliance’s transport plane had broken through the blockade of the anti-aircraft firepower network, and finally successfully lowered its altitude and speed, switched to vertical take-off and landing mode, and was landing on the roof of the villa in the center of the manor. The

  Alliance soldiers had retreated to the top floor of the villa.

  Once the transport plane stops, the soldiers will immediately board the transport plane and evacuate.

  They must not be allowed to evacuate!

  Li Jie’s eyes gradually turned cold, he raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist, then pointed at the hovering transport plane.

  The executioner beside him understood, took off the portable rocket launcher on his back, knelt on one knee and carried it on his shoulder, aiming at the transport plane not far away.

  ”Image locked!”

  Li Jie shouted sharply.

  ”Fire!”

  With a light “bang”, a forearm-long missile broke through the dust cover, ignited while being ejected from the launch tube, and flew towards the transport plane that had just stopped on the roof of the villa with a thin tail flame.

  The hovering transport plane obviously discovered the missile and tried to make an evasive maneuver.

  However, it was basically impossible to dodge at such a short distance.

  Seeing that the missile was about to hit the target, Li Jie couldn’t help but smile. However, almost at the same time, a scene that he could never have imagined happened.

  ”RPG!!”

  A guy wearing an exoskeleton suddenly screamed, jumped out of the cabin with a running start, and threw himself at the missile that was hitting the side of the transport plane with open arms.

  The missile had entered the terminal flight phase and there was no room for evasion. It collided with the man who pounced on it and exploded into a ball of fireworks!

  The fragments and flames of the explosion were once swept into the cabin of the transport plane. The hot airflow pushed the fuselage of the transport plane and shook slightly, but the transport plane itself did not suffer any damage.

  Looking at the guy who caught the missile with his face, the executioners lurking in the woods were dumbfounded, especially Li Jie, whose mouth twitched fiercely.

  What the hell is this operation? ! It

  was the first time he saw someone catching a missile with a person!

  ”Old Six!!!”

  Looking at Old Six who exploded into a ball of fire in the air, Bai Gei, who was wearing a sniper, stared with wide eyes, holding a rifle and firing randomly at the forest where the missile came from.

  However, the plane was shaking so much at this moment that the rounds of fire only hit nothing.

  Realizing that the attack came from the forest in the east, the pilot sitting in the cockpit of the Viper immediately stepped on the left rudder and tilted the joystick to the right.

  The Viper hovering in the air flicked its tail cleanly and swung from the east side of the villa to the west side.

  The players who were preparing to evacuate the villa also moved, shooting the zombies that pounced on them with rifles while moving to the west side of the villa.

  ”Damn…what was the situation with that missile just now?” The pilot sitting in the driving seat panted and shouted to the soldiers behind him.

  He was a pilot of the aviation team of the Boulder City Militia Regiment. He had been flying this plane for seven or eight years, but it was the first time he participated in such an exciting mission.

  When he thought of what happened just now, he was terrified.

  If that guy hadn’t sacrificed himself, everyone on the plane would have died.

  Unlike him, who was trembling with fear, the man in the power armor was very calm, even to the point of being cold-blooded. Even though his comrade died in front of him, the man’s emotions did not show any ripples.

  Staring at the outside of the cabin, Lao Bai said in a deep voice.

  ”I don’t know, but I guess… 80% of them are from Torch!”

  The pilot was stunned.

  ”Torch?!”

  ”Otherwise, where do you think these things below came from?” Looking at the crowds of heads outside the cabin, Lao Bai couldn’t help but frown.

  For the Alliance, the real trouble may be after tonight.

  But now is not the time to think about these.

  Looking at Fang Chang and his group retreating to the window of the corridor on the west side of the villa, and the surging tide of corpses chasing after them, Lao Bai raised his assault rifle and gave a loud order.

  ”Fire!”

  Including the lost newbie holding the onboard machine gun, the five players squatting on the side of the cabin immediately pulled the trigger and unleashed fierce firepower at the corpses behind the window.

  Orange-yellow tracers rushed over like raindrops, and those stupid guys instantly fell to the ground like wheat being cut, and huddled together in the corridor.

  Looking at Fang Chang who ran to the window, Lao Bai shouted loudly.

  ”Come up!”

  Without any hesitation, Fang Chang raised his hand and smashed the closed window into pieces with the butt of his gun.

  Then he stepped on the window, and under the drive of the exoskeleton, he suddenly jumped out of the window, flew four or five meters in the air, grabbed Lao Bai’s outstretched right hand, and was pulled into the cabin by Lao Bai.

  Finally out of danger.

  Fang Chang sat on the ground with his butt, panting and breathing fresh air.

  It was not until then that Lao Bai noticed that he was carrying a person on his back – or a sticky corpse soaked in blood.

  By comparing the photos in the VM, he barely recognized the face.

  This person is Zhao Tiangan!

  The target of their operation this time!

  According to the original plan, they were going to control the farmer, indirectly control the entire settlement, and then indirectly collect information about the Torch Church, but they didn’t expect that group of charlatans were already waiting for them here.

  Now the Pinewood Farm has become a ghost.

  Whether this guy is dead or not, it has lost its use to the alliance.

  ”The other side launched an electronic warfare, and our communication has problems. We haven’t been able to contact you since just now…” Fang Chang looked at Lao Bai and said, calming down his disordered breathing.

  ”It’s not just you, it’s the same for us. Their jamming equipment probably covers the entire area…” Looking at the corpse lying next to him, Lao Bai cast an inquiring look at Fang Chang, “Why did you bring this guy with you?”

  Fang Chang said with a light breath.

  ”This guy is a bit weird. I suspect that the absolutely safe ‘sanctuary’… is not actually the kind of shelter or safe house in the physical sense that we understand.”

  Lao Bai frowned.

  ”What do you mean?”

  ”In simple terms, the holy land may be a virtual space, and it is not even ruled out that the bishop named Luo Qian is virtual… He does not have his own body at all, so he needs to rely on the bodies of believers to communicate with us, and only certain people can serve as carriers of his consciousness.”

  Lao Bai stared at him blankly, not understanding how he deduced this amazing conjecture.

  ”Your imagination… is quite big.”

  Fang Chang breathed softly.

  ”This is just my guess… To find out the truth, I have to trouble Ms. Chen to dissect this guy’s brain. In short, we have to take him back to the military base.”

  As the two were talking, Luo Yu also jumped onto the plane and was pulled up by Bai Ge with a sniper who was waiting at the side of the cabin.

  Then it was Quitting Smoking and Good Dog. There were only four players left alive.

  As for Xiao Yu’s fruiting bodies, in order to cover the players, they were submerged by the tide of zombies when they moved from the first floor to the upper floors.

  Fruiting bodies are actually not bad. That thing is like Xiao Yu’s hair. As long as there are enough nutrients, you can have as many as you want soon.

  It was just because too many sub-entities sharing the same consciousness would affect the efficiency of operation, and Xiaoyu, who had just been promoted to the mother body, was not yet proficient in the business, so the number was controlled at 10.

  However, when Luoyu thought of the loss of ten sets of K-10 “Iron Wall” exoskeletons, he became depressed.

  Fortunately, Brother Fang Chang promised him that the Burning Corps would reimburse 90% of the equipment losses, otherwise this wave of “major damage” would have directly taken him back several versions.

  As the last player jumped into the cabin, the “Viper” transport plane immediately distanced itself from the villa, avoiding the direction from which the missile had previously flown, and flew towards the west side of the manor.

  Glancing at the people in the cabin, Lao Bai suddenly showed a surprised expression on his face.

  ”Speaking of which, where is Ye Shi? That guy is dead?”

  Unscientific.

  That kid’s life is not ordinary.

  He was the only one who survived when he landed on the Iron Heart.

  ”I don’t know, he was the first to lose contact. There was no interference at that time, and I’m afraid he was already dead at that time…” When he said this, Fang Chang suddenly paused, his face changed slightly, “I see.”

  Seeing his expression as if he understood something again, the smoke-free squatting next to him asked curiously.

  ”I see what?”

  Fang Chang said without breathing.

  ”The annex! The mind interference device is in the annex!”

  Just as he was speaking, a red flare suddenly rose into the sky.

  That was the direction of the annex!

  Seeing the flashing red light, Lao Bai immediately walked to the side of the cockpit, grabbed the back of the pilot’s seat and shouted loudly.

  ”We still have some people who haven’t evacuated! Go to the location of the flare!”

  Hearing this, the pilot was shocked.

  ”Are you sure?! Those guys have anti-aircraft missiles!”

  ”I’m sure! We have to pick him up!” Lao Bai stared into his eyes seriously, “Just go and pick him up, we’ll figure out the rest!”

  (End of this chapter)