Volume One Mutation Chapter Forty-Four The First T4

“Yes, the rain clouds will draw most of the mutated creatures in this area toward them. That’s why the cities we visited before were so empty—they keep chasing the black clouds,” Liu Cong nodded. For some reason, the impending rain filled him with a foreboding sense of unease.

“We need to move faster. We have to reach the G15 defensive line quickly!” Liu Cong urged.

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Beep! Beep!—

“They’re here! Commander, a large number of mutated creatures have entered our attack range!”

The alarms blared, and the command room erupted in frantic activity.

Zhang Chu pressed the intercom switch with a grim face. “Attention, all units! Mutated creatures have entered our attack range. Prepare for battle! I repeat, prepare for battle!”

Fortunately, although the water level continued to rise, its speed was much slower than that of the mutated creatures. That meant that when they reached the G15 wall, there would still be over a hundred meters of sandy beach between the city wall and the water. In that zone, the aquatic mutants would be exposed.

This allowed the ordinary firearms of the soldiers to play a role, greatly conserving the limited supply of underwater combat gear.

As the battle began, the soldiers watched the coastline anxiously. The waters there had become violently turbulent, and faint outlines of gigantic creatures could be seen moving beneath the surface. The water grew shallower, and some larger mutants’ backs broke through the waves—no longer smooth flesh, but covered in thick armor-like scales.

“They’re in the minefield now! They’re about to trigger them!” a soldier shouted.

Almost as if in response, a series of muffled explosions erupted in the shallows. The detonations were only the beginning: more and more mutated creatures either touched or swallowed the water mines scattered throughout the area.

The dense explosions sent water and blood flying, each blast leaving a crimson bloom in the sea. Gradually, the entire stretch of water took on a reddish hue.

Despite the carnage ahead, the mutated creatures pressed on toward land, undeterred. At last, the first aquatic mutant crossed the minefield and hauled itself onto the beach.

“Magnify the image!” Zhang Chu ordered, watching the blurry video feed.

With the view zoomed in, the mysterious aquatic mutant revealed its true form—a bizarre creature, reminiscent of a monster from a biopocalypse, like a gigantic lizard. Its body was covered in black scales; massive limbs bore both claws and webbing, and a long, flattened tail trailed behind. Most unsettling was its head: it had no eyes, no visible nose, only a gaping maw filled with sharp teeth, endlessly snapping at the air.

“Open fire!”

Rat-tat-tat!—

Bullets formed a dense line of fire, striking its body. The scales were so hard that individual shots did little more than spark off the armor, but as more bullets hammered the same spot, the scales shattered and bullets tore into flesh.

The giant armored beast, larger than a crocodile, let out a piercing howl, thrashing its limbs and ignoring the hail of bullets as it clawed toward the wall. Halfway there, its head was reduced to a mangled pulp.

Seeing a monster slain, the soldiers on the wall were emboldened, quickly targeting the next mutant climbing ashore. Yet as more aquatic creatures appeared, the soldiers could not kill them fast enough—the beach was soon crawling with mutants everywhere.

“Deploy heavy weapons!”

The waiting soldiers unlocked the heavy machine guns and unleashed a furious barrage at the beach. These guns could pierce thick steel plates with ease, and now they mowed down swathes of mutants as soon as they came ashore.

Zhang Chu ascended the command platform of G15, overlooking the battlefield and finally seeing those terrifying aberrations clearly. They were myriad in form, most having lost all resemblance to their original species, but each was uniformly black, with limbs ending in sharp claws—at once reminiscent of monsters from biopocalypse films and the Trench creatures from the movie Aquaman.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Mortar shells landed in synchronized waves, stirring up clouds of dust and leaving the ground littered with corpses when the smoke cleared.

Despite the promising situation, Zhang Chu grew more anxious. The water level continued to rise, shrinking the beach between the G15 wall and the sea to seventy meters. Soon, the water would engulf this area completely.

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High above, Liu Cong and Liu Qingqing finally escaped the range of the black clouds, wasting no time as they sped toward G15.

Whoosh! A missile streaked through the sky overhead, its sonic roar echoing long after it was gone, heading straight in the direction of G15.

“Something’s happened! We need to hurry!” Liu Cong said anxiously. If even air-to-ground missiles were in play, what was happening at G15?

Liu Cong actively channeled energy from within Liu Qingqing’s body to her skin. With that done, their speed surged again—so fast that their flight produced sonic booms, like thunder rolling across the sky, filling the air with ear-splitting rumble.

At such speed, even Liu Qingqing’s physique struggled to endure; a suffocating pressure pressed inward, making it difficult even to turn her neck. It was uncomfortable, but seeing Liu Cong’s anxious expression, she kept silent, lips pressed tight as she endured.

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“Missiles! Have the missiles arrived yet?” Zhang Chu shouted into the phone.

“They’re already launched—one hundred and twenty seconds to impact! Old Zhang, hold on a bit longer!”

“If that missile gets here now, the beast will have already breached the defenses! Are you planning to blow us all to kingdom come?” Zhang Chu’s forehead veins bulged as he slammed the phone down.

He hadn’t expected that a gigantic monster would evade the radar, silently approaching until it surfaced right at their doorstep. He immediately called for missile support, and it should have been possible to launch in time. But to his shock, his superior’s claim that missiles were already deployed was a lie!

By the time parameters were set and the missile trajectory calculated, the beast had already set foot on land. If it got any closer, the locked-on missile wouldn’t just obliterate it—it would take G15’s defensive line along with it. How many soldiers’ lives would it cost to bring down this monster?

With that thought, Zhang Chu’s eyes burned with fury.

The moment the colossal beast appeared, it was awe-inspiring—no one could believe a seahorse could become such a thing. It stood a hundred and fifty meters tall; the sixty-meter G15 wall looked like a mere mound beside it. Its massive body forced everyone to crane their necks to see its full form.

Like the other mutants, this giant seahorse was cloaked in a layer of black scales—a peculiar black-water genetic mutation, it seemed. It strode on four enormous legs—yes, legs; the seahorse had grown four limbs like a crab, each supporting its titanic body.

“All units! Focus fire on it! The missile’s almost here—don’t let it get any closer!” Zhang Chu roared.

The sea hadn’t yet reached the base of the wall. Even the smaller mutants were blocked by the sixty-meter-high rampart, and its sheer design made it nearly impossible to climb.

They had to slow the giant seahorse’s advance, to keep the missile from endangering the defenders atop G15. An overwhelming barrage of firepower converged on the beast—bullets, shells, even grenade launchers meant for close-range defense were fired at it. The scene surpassed anything ever depicted in a war film.

Just as everyone watched in hope, praying their bullets would have some effect, the moment of despair arrived.