The Ultimate Evolution

“Special force team Wolf Teeth, move into Tunnel 8. Special force team Knife Edge, move into Tunnel 4….”

“Activate the “Seeder” system. I repeat, activate the “Seeder” system.”

“Attention all units, attention all units, initiate level 1 combat preparation! All units are strictly prohibited from going outside without approval. All armed forces are authorised to open fire at anyone who appears suspicious. This is not a drill, I repeat, this is absolutely not a drill!!”

“…..”

Hearing Sheyan’s orders, Major Lee beside him asked tentatively, “Time is pressing, but isn’t it a bit too early to enter level 1 combat preparation?”

Sheyan lifted his head up. There was an unprecedented level of seriousness on his face.

“Against these people, if you only give the order to enter level 1 combat preparation when you think it’s time to do so, it’ll already be too late. You would’ve missed the best chance!”

“But!” Major Lee seemed like he still wanted to argue, but Sheyan ruthlessly cut him off.

“You have to understand, Major, I was granted the authority to command by both Mr. G and Dr. W. If you have any questions, you can voice your protests to those two and ask them to deprive me of commanding rights. Otherwise, you have no right to interfere with my orders. I now order you to get out of this command room. I think your current mental state is seriously interfering with my job.”

“You can’t do this!” Major Lee threw his cap to the ground in anger!

“What’s the duty of a soldier?” asked Sheyan coldly.

Major Lee immediately froze like an eggplant that was thrown into the freezer. After that, he came down from the command station and walked towards the exit with heavy steps, unwillingness apparent in his gait.

When he reached the exit, he suddenly turned around and told Sheyan, “Seaman! You have to remember, this isn’t a drill! Every command you issue, every action, involves countless lives! You have to think of the nightmares that will haunt you for years to come and the blood on your hands!”

Sheyan instead stared at him with pity, and sighed. “Son, you still don’t understand why Mr. G and Dr. W gave up on you.”

“And why’s that? It’s merely because you understand the enemy better than I do,” Major Lee replied resolutely.

“You’re wrong. If there’s any other choice, those two wouldn’t have handed over the command to a stranger like me. There’s a saying from where I came from: “the compassionate do not lead an army”. You’ve got the f*cking command right in your hands, but all you can think about are conscience, lives, nightmares, and the blood staining your hands! Remember this — no victory comes easy. If we want to win, we have to pay for it with human lives!”

“What they want is not a victory without casualties, but a guarantee the job will get done, at any cost! Serving as a soldier means sacrificing yourself for a greater cause. A general builds his success upon ten thousand rotting bones. From ancient times to this day, no one has ever won a war with cowardice and indecisiveness. Mr. G and Dr. W will be satisfied as long as the experiment succeeds, even if every soldier here dies.”

“That’s impossible! Impossible!” Major Lee’s rational mind told him that every word Sheyan uttered was true, but he still dashed towards Sheyan with bloodshot eyes. He grabbed Sheyan’s collar and roared, “That’s absolutely impossible!”

“He’s right. That’s exactly why we gave up on you! Lee, what we ask for now is the result, not the process. We’ve always anticipated from you a guarantee that you will accomplish the task at all costs, but all you’ve been doing is stressing about the lives that will be lost and so on. You never thought that in that position, the only thing a soldier has to do is obey orders, and then go to war!” Suddenly, Mr. G’s voice was heard. It was clear that he had been monitoring the situation here all this while.

Major Lee looked like he had been struck by lightning. He staggered back unsteadily and sat down on the sofa with his face pale. That was obviously a severe blow to him.

Sheyan had already started to mobilise the troops. The size of the troops that could be sent here to guard the place could not be too large, or they would be noticed by foreign media. Therefore, all of them were elites. The whole garrison force was broken down and re-divided into thirteen squads. They laid in ambush, waiting to kill.

Party Ace’s greatest advantage now was not that they had the help of an army of storyline characters, but that Rocky and his party did not know that they were here, so they could explode at a critical moment to give Rocky’s group a heavy blow! That’s right, just like what Bind did to them, ie. hit them where it hurts most the moment they put down their guard….

At this time, the joint scanning of three military satellites finally found the location of those seven people. They had simply camouflaged themselves – or, to be exact, camouflaged their tents – like stones that were half as big as a house. They had set up camp in a rocky terrain with great confidence.

To tell the truth, the tents they used do look exactly like stones from the outside. Apart from the soft material, it was almost impossible to distinguish them from real stones with the naked eye. Even the military satellite had to go through a lot of calculations and investigations before it finally discovered that there were three pieces of stones with exactly the same shape. That was how the suspicion it was them was aroused.

Having confirmed that it was them, Sheyan immediately requested to have ten or so of the most powerful missiles carpet bomb the place, but his request was mercilessly refused. Not that the state was unwilling to bear the cost, but if they caused too much of a commotion, it would easily attract the attention of foreign media. The Tanggula Mountains were the final card up the government’s sleeve, so they couldn’t allow any accidents to happen.

“Oh? If we can’t use missiles….then let’s take a different approach,” A smirk formed on Sheyan’s face.

***

Fifteen minutes later.

The FBI submitted a report to the deputy director regarding something which had just been observed by a spying satellite.

A medium-intensity explosion had occurred in a border area of Kekexili, China.

According to the information they obtained, four Chinese A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers had focused fire on a spot in the Gobi desert from 20,000 meters away.

The rear launcher of each A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launcher could accomodate 12 ready-to-launch rockets with a diameter of 227 mm. The main types of rockets used were M26 dual-purpose rockets and AT2 anti-tank mine rockets.

When a A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launcher shot M26 rockets, 7,726 rounds could be fired in a single volley, which would scatter over an area as large as six soccer fields put together. The place would instantly become a sea of fire. According to the US intelligence report, the power of two A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers firing simultaneously was equivalent to the power of seven battalions of M109 self-propelled howitzers (188 howitzers in total)!

The area was bombarded for up to five minutes. According to investigation, there were no military targets or any signs of spies in the area.

The deputy director looked at the report and then inquired about the A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers in the Chinese army. The data he obtained stated that they had strong firepower, but they had slow movement and low defence, and they would easily expose themselves when they were firing. Therefore, only after the army had gained air control and electronic control on the battlefield could they display their full power. The deputy director curled his lips in disdain, then threw the report into the wastebasket.

The FBI received thousands of copies of this kind of intelligence every day. Artillery shots would be fired countless times in every military drill nowadays; the attention they warranted was totally incomparable to the test firing of newer missiles. Even the most powerful heavy artillery could only fire 200 kilometers away, while missiles could easily cover several thousand kilometers in range. Now those they had to pay attention to.

But this move of Sheyan’s was truly vicious; it had done a terrifying amount of damage to Rocky’s temporary team! The bombardment from four Chinese A150-300 mm wheeled rocket launchers! A firepower equivalent to the continuous bombing from seven battalions of M109 self-propelled howitzers(188 cannons), with the help of satellites for precise positioning and focus!!

In terms of destructive power and lethality, the attack was certainly not inferior to a couple of intercontinental missiles. What was more vicious was that Sheyan, being a contestant himself, naturally knew some safety measures contestants would normally take under the situation. Therefore, he first carried out a five-minute continuous bombing. When he felt that the agility-type and mage-type contestants had used up all the honorary dosages and life-saving methods at their disposal, he stopped for 30 seconds to let them relax. Then, he commenced with two more minutes of continuous bombing….

This sinister assault had instantly killed one of the contestants, while another of the contestants had no choice but to use an escape item to return to the Nightmare Realm in his desperation. More importantly, Sheyan estimated that the remaining contestants had all used their honorary dosages. The most depressing thing about honorary dosages was their long cooldown time, which means that in the battle to come, almost all of Rocky’s people would be one life short!

Of course, the carpet bombing this time was also a heavy blow to the arrogance of Rocky’s team. They immediately vanished from the satellite surveillance. They had probably learnt their lesson and were now starting to take this mission seriously.

But Sheyan was already really satisfied with the result. In this confrontation between two powerful sides, Sheyan had seized the upper hand from the very beginning and had even killed an important chess piece of the opponent’s. What he needed to do next was not to gain a bigger advantage, but to consolidate their current advantage to steadily achieve victory. Besides, Party Ace’s main objective was to win as much time for Dr. W as possible, rather than wiping out the enemies. They must not forget that.