Gate of Apocalypse

"Is everything ready?"

Tire moved his body and looked at the men behind him.

"Ready for battle."

Jojo was still in his red trench coat, Roddy had gotten into one of the Sentinel armor that had been reinforced with star sand, Spare tire waved his liquid metal arm, Xia Xiaolei's parasite armor had covered his body, and Flagimusi lightly touched the short knives in his hands.

"Xia Xiaolei, report on the status of the camp."

"Rodigo got the information earlier, down below is a composite brigade of marines with two battalions of marines. The life forms sensed by the parasite armor are over seven thousand, roughly in line with that number." Xia Xiaolei immediately reported, "The number is a little off, there may be some other temporarily transferred researchers."

"The number is quite large, but it doesn't look like they should be on alert." Roddy's voice came from the external loudspeaker of the Sentinel armor, "The results of my scans here show that the large weapons are hardly in a state of readiness. I do have some concerns that this camp may not be able to take a beating if some other team does."

"The clearing operation is over, now it's in a state of rest." Tire nodded, "But there's no need to worry too much. No matter how low the alert level of the U.S. Army is, it won't be shot as a target. As long as they can react at once, it's not that easy for an ordinary team to defeat all of them in such numbers."

"The problem is, it's not like we need to exterminate all the American troops here to rob the meteorite." Roddy hehely laughed, "It's just a surprise attack, as long as we can take the meteorite before they can react. I'm now wondering if I should give them a shot in the arm."

The Sentinel Armor's head swiveled and swept over the others, "Me, Xia Xiaolei, and Spare Tire. All three of us have long-range firepower. How about firing a couple of cannons to scare them off and make them not so relaxed?"

Tire considered carefully and shook his head, "Let's not. If there is an attack and the US military raises the security level, we won't be able to monitor it from such a close distance. It's better to wait and see what happens first. Moreover, even if the other teams at ...... get information about the current location of the meteorite, after seeing this number of U.S. troops, it should be unlikely that they will choose to attack directly."

"All will wait for the meteorite transport to start, right?" Roddy smacked his lips, "If it stays this calm, the meteorite's transport team won't deploy too many troops. Teams that are clear-headed would have waited to strike at that time. But I'm afraid that some of the teams at ...... are not so clear-headed."

"Even if they did, it wouldn't be a big problem." Tire laughed, "With our current strength, is it still a difficult task to secure such a dart? Unless ......"

"Tire Guy!"

Xia Xiaolei suddenly turned his head, his voice somewhat serious: "There are other vital signs appearing."

"Location? Number of people?" The tire immediately looked at Xia Xiaolei.

"West." Xia Xiaolei turned his head to the west, and the crystals covering his eyes flickered slightly, "Ten ...... twenty ...... thirty ...... well, there's More than eighty people."

"More than eighty?" Tire was originally a little wary, but after hearing the number Xia Xiaolei reported, his expression relaxed: "This number of people, it's unlikely to be a group of players or Awakened, it should be one of the US Army's squads."

"No ......" Xia Xiaolei's voice was slightly hesitant, "But they move at a ...... fast pace!"

"How fast?" Tire's face was heavy.

"One minute ...... no, thirty seconds to reach the camp!"

At the same time as Xia Xiaolei's voice fell, a subtle buzzing sound was heard in several people's ears.

And that buzzing sound - everyone was familiar with it!

The engines of a tidal fighter!

Several missiles suddenly appeared from the sky without warning, aiming at the helicopter gunships and tanks on the ground.

At the same time, dozens of small unmanned fighter jets were suddenly released from the sky and began repeatedly swooping and strafing towards the ground.

A large number of beams of light swept across the ground in a series of bursts, igniting a sea of fire on the ground.

"Tires ......"

Roddy poked his head out of the Sentinel armor and grinned at the tires, "Were you just going to say, unless ...... is a thorn flower cluster?"

......

"Fuck!?"

Tian Lie looked down at a sea of fire in the distance below, and then up at the sky.

After two rounds of ground washing, the one tidal fighter had disengaged its stealth mode and was landing. The dozens of drones, however, were still in the air, launching constant dive-to-ground attacks to disperse the assembling American troops.

On its wings on both sides, two large thorn patterns were flaunting their power.

After landing, the tidal fighter immediately opened its hatch, and dozens of players rushed out, immediately spread out, and began to surround the camp.

Several of them immediately took out advanced equipment such as thunderstorm chariots or infantry armor.

As for the others, although they only used ordinary single-unit equipment, many of them summoned their battle pets and started slaughtering the American soldiers who hadn't reacted yet.

"I can't believe I ran into my old boss in this copy, how do I feel now?" Nicole glanced behind her at Tian Lie, "If you had really rushed out earlier just now, it would have been interesting now."

"Hmph." Tian Lie sneered disdainfully, "With ...... these little pups?"

"Yo? That's quite a mouthful." Nicole looked down at the Thornblossom players who had begun to form a battle formation and laughed softly, "Is this what they call a donkey that won't fall down?"

"Couldn't you have phrased it better? It should be called Death of the Tiger. ...... yuck!" Halfway through his speech, Tian Lie reacted, "Damn, I'm not dead yet."

"Okay, now the question is, what are you going to do next?" Nicole looked at Tian Lie derisively, "Do you think you can get them to give up the mission and hand over the items to you with your authority back then? I guess it's hard."

"It's B-team ah ...... I'm afraid it's still really hard." Tian Lie smacked his lips, "If that guy Gaza hasn't died in the copy, he should be the one leading the team. I don't know if I saw it with my own eyes, but when I heard about my death, this guy should have been the one who laughed the most. But ...... I'm more interested in seeing what his face would be like if he saw me appear in front of him."

"You're going to go down and do it now?" Nicole frowned, "There are too many of them."

"What else can we do? Watching them take away mission items?" Tian Lie grunted, "This is the Thorn Flower Group, I know the strength of the B Team. With this number of people, there's no way the US army can stop them. Apart from us, there is no other team that has the strength to be the yellow bird behind them. If we don't do something, they will get the meteorite. If we don't do anything then, we might as well stir the pot now."

"You're sure of victory?"

"No. Gaza is not weak, and there are too many people entering the copy this time. But ...... do you never do it only when you are sure of victory?"

"Okay." Nicole thought about it and accepted Tian Lie's reason, "Let's go."

Tian Lie turned his face to look at Nicole, hesitated, and just shook his head with a bitter smile: "Okay, let's go."

The partner these days had already made him resign himself to his fate. Even if he wanted her to stay here, Nicole would definitely not listen to him. Rather than wasting his breath, it was better to save some energy.

......

"Woo-ha!!!"

A strong, flat-headed black man stood on a thunderstorm chariot, holding a bazooka-shaped weapon in each hand, firing fiercely in front of him, except that what came out of the cannon was not a rocket, but a high-speed ball of light.

The thunderstorm chariot beneath him was painted with a conspicuous flower of thorns.

Behind him were two other Thunderstorm vehicles, moving at medium speed, with their muzzles occasionally lit up with an arc of light.

After the initial attack, the U.S. Army had reacted as quickly as possible.

Although much of the equipment was scrapped in the first round of bombing, a number of AH-64 Longbow Apache helicopter gunships and M1A2 Abrams battle tanks were immediately mobilized and began trying to counterattack.

But the perimeter was crumbling in the face of this unexpected attacker!

The 120mm tail stabilized shelling depleted uranium (DU) armor-piercing round, which could penetrate 650mm of homogeneous steel armor at a distance of two kilometers, could not even leave a mark against the strangely shaped tank.

Every time the tank opened fire, it was bounced off a shimmering blue shield on the Thunderstorm. The Hellfire missiles mounted on the Longbow Apache were only able to burst into a meaningless cloud of fire at the periphery.

Every time the Thunderstorm's gun muzzle fires, the arc of light it sweeps out can be like cutting tofu, slicing tanks and helicopters in half and exploding into a ball of fire.

If only in the face of powerful technological weapons, that's all. Even more frightening to these soldiers was the fact that there were quite a few monsters among the attackers that existed only in myth and legend!

Giant scorpions, armor-clad skeleton soldiers, slimy jelly-like mollusks ......

While these monsters are not exactly bulletproof, and can be wounded and even killed under the dense net of fire, the mental pressure they bring is always hammering at the nerves of American soldiers.

"Captain! Is it really okay for us to be so ostentatious!" Over the intercom, a voice came on, "Making too much noise, what if we're surrounded by other teams?"

"Siege? When have we, the Thorn Flower Crew, ever been afraid of being under siege?" The black man laughed maniacally as he continued to pour firepower forward: "The captain has disappeared for so long, and there are no inspectors assigned to this copy, so of course I'm in charge! Even if someone with no brains dares to hit us, have you forgotten that I still have my magic armor?"

"Just because there are no inspectors ......" the voice on the intercom was still hesitant: "In case you run into a powerful enemy ......".

"A powerful enemy?" The black man continued to laugh maniacally, "The guys in Zero City have been wiped out, Zack, so tell me where else a powerful enemy can pop up! Listen, Zach, you're a newcomer and you need to figure out what the word thorn cluster means! Even if the leader is temporarily unaccounted for, we, the Thorn Flower Crew, are still the biggest and strongest team in the player world!"

"Okay ......" the voice hesitated, but still didn't comment further.

Soon, when all the heavy equipment had been cleared away, the American army began to rout.

"Come on, let's clean up the battlefield! Don't let any of the motley crew get there first!"

The black man jumped out of the Thunderstorm tank, looked at the retreating American soldiers, and laughed as he walked forward.

A row of improvised field barracks in front of them surrounded a large plastic improvised building, and it was obvious that beneath the building was the crater.

From the three Thunderstorm tanks, a few players also emerged, all wearing advanced protective clothing and carrying energy weapons in their hands, all with an untamed look on their faces.

"Turn down the weapon power, and don't even fire." The black man turned his head to look at the team's subordinates and warned, "Whoever breaks the mission item, I'll skin him!"

He then strode toward the barracks, complaining as he walked, "I can't believe they don't show the location of mission items on the radar. How did this copy development team design it?"

Passing through the barracks, the black man kicked open the door of the improvised building, and was greeted with a barrage of bullets that had no effect on the protective suit he wore.

"Go to hell, punk!" The black man, who had just instructed his subordinates, now seemed to have put his own words behind him, and opened fire with both of his energy cannons, blasting the resisting American soldiers and the bunker in front of him to smithereens, the excitement on his face rising higher and higher.

Fortunately, the building was still clearly marked, and the blacks, with their squad members, cleared away the scattered resistance as they moved inside.

"Central Core Custody. This is it!" The black man grinned widely, lifted the energy cannon, and pulled the trigger on the sealed door in front of him.

Inside, several researchers in chemical suits were shivering behind tables and chairs with their heads in their hands. Behind a glass door separating the operating rooms, an oval-shaped stone half the size of a man was covered by a glass cover.

The black man strode through the door, put away an energy cannon, took a laser pistol out of his storage device, and fired one shot at each of the researchers, the last shot hitting the glass of the booth and melting a large hole.

"Captain ......," a man wearing windshield glasses followed behind him and whispered a reminder, "Put on your protective gear, don't hold it directly with your hands. According to the information we got from the U.S. military's communication network, this meteorite carries alien genes and may be capable of infection."

His voice was that of the guy who had just talked to the black man on the communicator.

The black man froze, thought about it, nodded, turned around, walked over to a dead researcher, stripped the hazmat suit off the corpse and put it on, lifted a metal case on the table, and walked back to the glass cover.

"No ...... can't open ......"

Faint gasps of breath came from the corner of the room.

A researcher struggled to hold up half of his body from the floor and stared at it with dead eyes, "This thing ...... is too dangerous ......"

His abdomen had been punctured by a laser, and even his intestines were leaking out and he was in a dying state.

"Thanks for the heads up!"

The black man smiled cruelly, aimed the pistol at his head once more, and pulled the trigger.

He turned around, carrying the metal case into the compartment, found the control switch to open the glass cover, his rubber-gloved hand just touched the meteorite, and his whole body suddenly stopped.

"Captain?"

After a few seconds of stillness, the man in the goggles asked a probing question.

That meteorite, I don't know what the hell it is. Although it carried alien genes on it, but at least it shouldn't be an airborne infection. ......

"Damn, there's a mission like this?!" The black man suddenly burst into a wild roar: "Shit! Why am I not an Awakened! Why don't I have an exclusive number!"

Several members of the Thorn Flower group behind them all looked at each other, wondering what was going on.

"Never mind. Looks like we won't get this kind of benefit." The black man growled lowly, his voice full of anger and reluctance, his hands forcefully picked up the meteorite and was about to put it into the metal box: "Let's go, take it away, find a zoo or something like that, let it absorb more genes until it's done hatching."

"Hatching?" The man in the goggles wonders: "This stuff ......"

"This damn thing is not a meteorite! It's an egg!" The black man's tone was still not good.

"What about after the hatching ......?" another member of the group hesitated, "Won't we be attacked?"

"When it hatches, the mission is over. Our goal is to protect it until then." The black man muffled, "The genes carried on this guy only work on NPCs, we won't be infected. Let's go back to downtown Los Angeles and kill anything that gets in the way of the house ......"

"Team ...... Captain!!!"

A scream of terror suddenly rang out from the black man's communicator.