Chapter 38: A Bombardment in Every Sense

Because of the time wasted on pointless internal friction among humans, the Fallen Bugs had finished gathering at Yu-Li Village and were now swarming into the battlefield, a stretch of land that was once farmland and now a marshy grassland.

A spy drone hovered high above, surveying the scene. The device was so small, and its gray stealth coating blended perfectly into the dark, overcast sky, rendering it completely undetected.

Qi An clung to Yang Yuning’s broad back. Carrying her and her equipment—a load of nearly 200 pounds—he still moved with the speed of a sprinting deer, keeping pace with Yu Shuang.

"Stop! They’ve entered my sensory range!" Qi An whispered.

Everyone immediately halted, crouching deeper into the tall grass.

"They’re splitting up into two groups," Qi An reported. "They might be planning a pincer movement. Combined with the 12 we saw earlier, they are moving to surround the convoy from three directions."

The first step was already beyond everyone’s expectations. Zhuang Xiao sighed, "So there really is an Intel-Bug among them!"

"For God's sake, there are nearly 70 of them—that’s almost a full battalion. How could there not be an Intel-Bug?" Yu Shuang smacked the back of his head.

"It’s over 90," Qi An corrected, looking at Yu Shuang. "They’ve split into a three-to-seven ratio. The smaller group is veering west, while the larger one is coming straight for us."

Yu Shuang sucked in a breath at the mention of over 90 bugs, but quickly regained his composure. "We’ll deal with the big one; let the small one do whatever it wants!"

Qi An sketched a rough map on the ground, showing the current distribution and movement trends of the Fallen Bugs. With the distance between them closing to one kilometer, Yu Shuang shouted, "Scatter!"

Six figures, including the intertwined silhouettes of Yang Yuning and Qi An, darted away, tracing winding paths through the green carpet of grass.

Yang Yuning had not yet put on his filtration mask. With the Fallen Bugs this close, his heightened sense of smell was enough to pinpoint their location. Without needing a reminder from Qi An, he stopped at the most advantageous position.

The spy drone returned during this brief interval. Qi An caught the small device, tucked it into her pocket, and quickly switched to the controller for the heavy combat drone. The North-1 equipment was superior; their combat drones were neural-controlled, whereas the Chengfeng Team 2 units were still using outdated, manual controllers.

In the squad channel, Zhuang Xiao was still muttering, "Don't let us hit an Intel-Bug, don't let us hit an Intel-Bug..."

From the middle of the formation, Tang Long launched a rocket.

With a thunderous roar, the attention of all the Fallen Bugs was drawn toward the explosion, and their formation fell into momentary chaos!

At that exact moment, Qi An’s dark-gray combat drone flew to the very front of the insect swarm. Its underbelly opened, and a thumb-sized black payload dropped down.

Directly below, a massive bug—distinguished by an extra pair of tentacles compared to standard worker bugs and a greater number of eyes—shrieked and lunged to the side, wrapping all its tentacles around its head!

Another deafening explosion bloomed like a fireball within the green grass!

That bug, the Intel-Bug leading the swarm, had half its body blown away!

Yet, as expected of a military-grade Intel-Bug, its vitality was immense; it still wasn't dead. But as the smoke began to clear, Yang Yuning leaned out from the grass and fired a single shot, piercing the small cyst on its head!

The Intel-Bug was eliminated.

Qi An looked at Yang Yuning with surprise, and he turned to smile at her, his eyes shining brightly. Despite this being their first time fighting side-by-side, their coordination was perfectly in sync.

The battle had begun, and this opening shot was brilliant, decapitating the Fallen Bugs' command and sowing terror and confusion throughout the swarm.

Yu Shuang cheered inwardly, his blood boiling with adrenaline.

Everyone in the distant convoy realized the battle had started. Li Yi narrowed his eyes, waiting for the moment when this rebellious little team would come crying to him for reinforcements.

That moment, however, still seemed quite far off.

Qi An dropped two more payloads. Her aim was perfect; each hit a cluster of bugs, forcing the advancing creatures to retreat!

Zhao Bohan’s combat drone also took to the sky. While his unit was far less agile than Qi An’s, his objective was clear: to drive the bugs that had been scattered by the bombs back toward the center.

Yu Shuang watched the glowing markers of his team on his tablet, issuing positioning commands through the squad channel, and everyone moved with fluid speed.

Yang Yuning understood the team's tactical layout, but he was still awestruck by their seamless cooperation and execution! The squad was weaving a fishing net, and every member was a knot in that net.

At the northwest corner of the swarm, Tang Long had discarded his rocket launcher. Relying on his terrifying strength, he wielded a heavy machine gun, firing wildly. At the northeast corner, Zhuang Xiao pulled the trigger with blinding speed, his pinpoint accuracy—one shot, one kill—making his lethality even higher.

Su Qingran and Zhao Bohan held the southwest and southeast corners, respectively, coordinating with Yu Shuang, while Qi An and Yang Yuning took the northern front.

The primary goal of this "net" was to drive the Fallen Bugs into a tight cluster—and then blow them to pieces!

If the bugs were allowed to disperse in this terrain, it would be like fish returning to the sea, and the squad would immediately fall into a state of extreme vulnerability. The more clustered they were, the greater the lethality of the payloads.

The opening phase had gone without a hitch; the net was beginning to take shape.

Yang Yuning felt a rush of satisfaction from the flawless cooperation, his shots becoming faster and more fluid.

As the net tightened, the Fallen Bugs began to crowd into a small circle.

During those precious few minutes while the bugs were paralyzed by panic and heavy fire, Qi An deployed all her remaining payloads. Not a single one missed, turning the ground into a chaotic mess of mud, blood, and flesh!

She continued to fire while prone, though her aim was faltering—her hands were trembling. When the squad cleared the 30 "roadblock" bugs last time, it had been her first time killing a living creature, but this time, she was slaughtering them by the dozen!

Qin Tianshuo, Liu Weiyun, and the others on the second line were approaching the area and could smell the overwhelming stench of the Fallen Bugs' blood.

Qin Tianshuo looked surprised, while Liu Weiyun grew restless. She asked on the public channel, "Do the comrades from Central Plains need support?"

There was no answer. The silence made the question feel awkward.

Further away, Li Yi stood on the roof of a truck, staring intently through his binoculars. He saw everything clearly. His hands gripped the binoculars so tightly that he felt as if the explosions were ringing right in his ears—and in his heart.

However, for the members of Team 2, the battle was reaching a critical turning point where it would shift from easy to difficult.

Ten minutes into the fight, they had eliminated three-quarters of the Fallen Bugs, but the accumulation of pollution information was terrifying.

Qi An took off her drone control headset—her drone had been hit by a stray bullet and crashed. She seized the moment to activate the Psionic Energy Conduction Device, linking herself to Tang Long and Zhuang Xiao, who were still within her connection range, while keeping a close eye on the pollution monitoring bracelets of the other three.

The rise in the team’s pollution levels was slower than she had expected, but the average had already reached 40%!

Qi An was in the middle of lowering the pollution levels for Zhuang Xiao and Tang Long when a voice suddenly cut through the squad channel: "I’ve been hit."