CHAPTER 394: CHAPTER 186: ANNIHILATION OF THE CITY (PART 2)

As the words fell, Jin Zhong’s heart jolted violently.

The entire city?

Although Liangxi isn’t considered a big city, it still has nearly 3,000 people.

If all these people were to die from the attack of a single level-two monster...

What a tremendous loss that would be??

How could the Holy Hall explain this to those who believe in them??

At this moment, the sound of propellers sliced through the sky.

Jin Zhong looked up, and the familiar plane was diving downwards, dropping two bombs in succession on a corner of the city.

"Boom!"

A massive explosion echoed.

Dust and smoke scattered, and after a moment, Fu Xi’s voice came through the radio again.

"This is 011, calling Jin Zhong’s Guard Brigade."

"The monster’s main body has been neutralized, please enter Liangxi City promptly to organize rescue work."

"Be sure to take precautions to avoid microbial infection."

"Understood."

Jin Zhong stood up and raised his hand towards the soldiers of the Guard Brigade.

"Everyone, prepare for battle."

"Follow me into Liangxi City!"

...

An hour later, Jin Zhong led the team to the edge of Liangxi City, advancing slowly.

The closer they got, the clearer the horrific scene unfolded before them.

Just as the military doctor had predicted, the actual number of casualties in Liangxi City far exceeded Jin Zhong’s estimates. Those uncounted victims had merely been "suffocated" in their rooms.

A thousand?

Two thousand?

Jin Zhong could no longer calculate the exact number of casualties.

Now, he was concerned with only one thing.

Did anyone manage to escape?

How many managed to escape?

He led the team to quickly advance towards the Mechanical God Church, where the City Defense Department was located, checking the bodies lying on the ground along the way, urgently seeking a "miracle."

But no miracle happened.

They were all dead.

Without timely donning of protective suits, they were likely already infected by the peculiar microbes, leaving them no chance of survival.

Moisture condensed inside the protective suits, and sweat was continuously dripping from Jin Zhong’s forehead.

Jin Zhong kicked open the church’s large door, expecting to see the bodies of priests and priests lying on the ground, but in reality...

There was nothing.

"Where is everyone??"

At this moment, something inside Jin Zhong’s heart seemed to be utterly shattered.

He refused to believe the reality before him, quickly searching around the church, then asked:

"Where are the Church Protection Army? Where are the priests and priests?"

"They... probably left first..."

The military doctor’s voice was tinged with bitterness:

"They must have received the news, but instead of organizing people’s evacuation, they chose to leave first..."

"How is this possible?!?"

Jin Zhong’s voice was slightly hoarse.

"Why would they do this? They have absolutely no reason to do this!"

"I don’t even need to question their faith!"

"Even if they were going to leave, why couldn’t they take the civilians in the city with them??"

"They didn’t need to sacrifice anything! They just needed to send out a simple notice!"

"As long as they led the way out, the civilians here would definitely follow!"

"This is unreasonable... this is unreasonable..."

"Boats."

The military doctor suddenly spoke again:

"There were no boats left."

"The Church Protection Army left first because they had to ensure they had boats to board."

"They left from Tai Lake."

"It’s not that they didn’t issue a notification, but they did so only after reaching the boats and a safe distance."

"They were too late..."

"Surely, someone in the city must have escaped, but the number wouldn’t be large..."

"Sinners... Heretics!"

Jin Zhong angrily spoke, yet he hadn’t realized that the ones labeled as "heretics" were his most trusted brothers.

---- No, perhaps it wasn’t just these "heretics" at fault.

It was the Holy Hall.

It was the Saint.

The conversion of the Guard Brigade by the Saint had caused Liangxi to lose the protection of the Guard Brigade, and without the constraint of the most loyal soldiers and their commander, the Church Protection Army here... had lost the purity of their faith.

In that moment, Jin Zhong suddenly felt a sense of despair.

What is truly right?

The previous Saint made mistakes, and he thought the current Saint, his once-closest companion, would bring change, but he had barely taken office and already caused such a grave mistake...

"We must cleanse the heretics."

Jin Zhong said each word deliberately:

"Launch the drones, track the Church Protection Army in the direction of Tai Lake."

"They must stand trial, they..."

"011 Base, calling Jin Zhong’s Guard Brigade."

Before Jin Zhong could finish speaking, Fu Xi’s voice suddenly came through his headset once again.

"Guard Brigade received, please proceed."

"We’ve discovered that the colony has not been completely cleared and there’s a possibility of reanimation."

"Suspicious heat signal detected 2 kilometers east of Liangxi City, 900 meters from your location. Suspected to be the ’Guide’ of the colony monster."

"Location marked. Please proceed quickly to handle it."

"Understood!"

Jin Zhong responded immediately.

The Guide?

Indeed.

This so-called "Level Two Monster" was vastly different from other monsters he had encountered before. It seemed to lack intelligence, being an unfeeling puppet controlled by something else.

It was a puppet.

And now, what he needed to catch was the "Puppet Master"!

Jin Zhong spread out a paper map and quickly explained the situation to his team members.

The team quickly set out, dispersing in a fan-shaped formation to converge on the target area.

The drone had already taken off, and Jin Zhong was controlling it to search for the target’s tracks in the area, but just as he lowered the drone’s altitude, he suddenly noticed a shadow flash across the edge of the drone’s footage.

Then, out of the blue.

"Bang!"

The drone seemed to be hit by something, instantly losing power.

"Over there!"

Jin Zhong didn’t have time to consider the consequences of losing the drone.

He had only one thought in his mind:

This thing knows to take out the drone first, it’s trying to escape!

If it’s not caught now, there might not be another chance!

Quick, must be quick!

His speed was pushed to the limit, and his team members swiftly surrounded the area.

In just 30 seconds, they had formed a relatively loose encirclement.

Jin Zhong continued issuing commands, and the encirclement gradually tightened.

When the encirclement’s radius shrank to 200 meters, the so-called "Puppet Master" finally revealed itself.

It was a humanoid monster.

It even wore clothes.

But behind it was a huge cyst.

The cyst continuously secreted a faint cyan gas.

"Fire!"

Jin Zhong ordered immediately.

"Bang bang bang bang bang----"

The Type 75 rifle spewed flames, bullets pouring out.

Just as the barrage was about to engulf the monster completely, it nimbly leaped upward, grabbing onto the trunk of a tree to climb higher.

You think you can escape like this??

Jin Zhong raised his gun to try to shoot the monster down.

But at that moment.

"Boom!"

A muffled explosion, and the cyst on the monster’s back ruptured into pieces.

The next moment, the monster plummeted from above.

This...

It self-detonated??

Thick cyan smoke spread from the ruptured cyst, quickly dissipating into the air.

The monster had long lost its life, and a follow-up shot shattered its body into pieces.

Jin Zhong couldn’t even comprehend what the intention of its final self-detonation was.

A desperate last stand?

That didn’t seem right either.

Furrowing his brows, Jin Zhong immediately reported the latest situation to Base 011, receiving orders to "return to Liangxi City and defend until reinforcements arrive."

With intense perplexity and a vague unease, Jin Zhong led his team back to Liangxi.

Upon entering the city, he suddenly noticed something unusual.

The entire city seemed to be writhing.

The ground was writhing.

The walls were writhing too.

But upon closer inspection, there appeared to be nothing there.

Jin Zhong instinctively halted and focused intently on the city. This time, he finally saw the source of the anomaly.

The ground wasn’t writhing.

What was writhing were the tiny "particles" in the air.

The Level Two Monster was reassembling!

It hadn’t been destroyed!

In just a few minutes, at the center of Liangxi City, a dark cyan hue gradually coalesced.

The monster had regained its form.

Jin Zhong’s hair stood on end, his eyes widened with rage.

But now, he was out of any means to fight this monster.

"Base 011, this is Jin Zhong of the Guard Brigade."

"The monster has been revived."

"We need support!"

"Bombs won’t kill it."

"Fire! We need fire!"