The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse-Chapter 710 - 703: The Long Days and Nights in the Cave

Combat, relentless combat, without pause, with no end in sight.

Shi Lei felt a slight itch on his scalp. Without thinking, he removed his helmet and scratched it. Frustrated that it brought neither relief nor satisfied the itch, he decided to simply pick off a large scab, with hair stuck on it.

Blood immediately began trickling out. The itch was gone, replaced by a sharp sting.

A muffled boom resonated; the stone cave shuddered, dust from the ground starting to drift, but there were no more rocks to fall.

Shi Lei licked his lips, so parched it was unbearable. Even his tongue felt dry, and after running it over his cracked lips, it too began to hurt.

He didn’t know where another blast had occurred, but judging from the magnitude of the explosion, it must have been one that sealed the entire passage. It meant that either the supply of ammunition or of living materials was cut off, but definitely not the route to the command post.

The passage to the command post was right behind Shi Lei. As long as he wasn’t dead, that route wouldn’t be cut off.

"Report, Base No.20’s passage has been destroyed."

The communications officer appeared emotionless as he looked at Shi Lei and said in a tone so calm it was numb, "Captain, Falcon is gone, Base No.20 is gone."

Shi Lei nodded blankly, then in a hoarse voice replied, "Understood, take a break."

"Captain."

The communications officer didn’t just sit down or lie flat on the ground but instead remained standing, walked away among the group of people sprawled out, and stopped in a place where he wouldn’t step on anyone.

"Captain, I think I’ve been infected."

After stating it emotionlessly, he shook his head and said, "Not think, I am infected. That thing, I’ll be going first."

The painfully sprawled-out group of people moved back as the communications officer drew his pistol. He placed the gun into his mouth, and Shi Lei just stared blankly as his communications officer.

Suddenly, the communications officer took the gun out of his mouth. Shi Lei thought he had second thoughts about going through with it and was just about to raise his own rifle when the communications officer whispered, "Is there any water?"

Shi Lei didn’t know how to respond. While trying to think of what to say, the communications officer smiled apologetically and said, "Sorry..."

Like someone who had committed a misdeed, he put the gun back into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Blood and brain matter sprayed onto the stone wall behind him, and the communications officer’s body slumped to the ground.

Shi Lei sighed softly and said, "There really is no water left..."

An Anti-Chemical Militant in a protective suit came over, dragging the communications officer’s body emotionlessly, starting to move it away. Shi Lei got angry and shouted, "What are you doing! Can’t you carry him properly? Get someone to help carry him!"

"It’s just me left."

The Anti-Chemical Militant, facing Shi Lei who held a much higher rank, replied without any courtesy, continuing to drag the communications officer’s body away.

"Just leave him here. We won’t last much longer anyway. Just let him stay here," said Shi Lei.

You couldn’t see the face of the Anti-Chemical Militant, but he replied bluntly, "No, according to regulations, infected bodies must be cremated."

Struggling, the Anti-Chemical Militant continued to move the body. Shi Lei sighed and said, "Why didn’t you say so earlier? If you’d told him to move out before dying, what were you doing earlier?"

There were only mild complaints, no sadness, no anger, no regrets, only... an emptiness remained, only the battle lingered.

The Anti-Chemical Militant struggled to drag the communications officer into the passage, then used a Flamethrower to burn the body into a heap. After that, he returned and leaned against the wall, unmoving.

Nobody gave it another glance because this was the eventual fate of everyone. Death was not something to be feared now; it was a vaguely anticipated release.

It was almost time; the monsters were due to arrive. Shi Lei glanced at his watch, then roared, "Come on, had enough rest? Get ready to greet them."

Several dozen disheveled people gradually got to their feet, lining up on either side of the not-so-large cave, spaced one meter apart.

Just then, Shi Lei heard heavy footsteps from the passage behind him. He looked back and saw a familiar figure running towards him.

The footsteps sounded heavy, and then Shi Lei shouted, "Hey, hey, reinforcements have arrived."

A makeshift mecha emerged, lacking its back half and only having a front part. Its helmet lacked a visor, there was no Electromagnetic Cannon on the shoulders, but an Electromagnetic Gun was held in its hand.

There were a dozen or so people following the mecha, clearly an elite group, though just a dozen in number.

A half-full bucket of water was placed in front of Shi Lei. The middle-aged man operating the makeshift mecha shouted, "Comrades, water is here! Have a quick drink, I’ll hold them off for you, don’t worry."

Shi Lei paused for a moment, then suddenly bellowed, "Damn bullshit! How could you come here? Get back! Go back!"

Mechas required production. With the personnel of Supreme Command almost entirely wiped out, those in charge of designing, producing, and testing Mechas had never been allowed to be put at risk.

Everyone knew the combat capability of Mechas. The reason they had been able to hold out against the countless attacks of the Serpent People until now was due to controlled nuclear fusion and the Mechas.

But now, the person responsible for testing and training Mecha pilots had arrived—and he was going to die. There would no longer be anyone familiar with, nor capable of skillfully operating, a Mecha.

This is a seed, it can’t die.

But the middle-aged man with half his body outside the mecha whispered, "It’s no use, there’s no material left, nothing is left, we can’t make it anymore."

Shi Lei opened his mouth but said nothing, he looked towards those ten or so people and asked, "You... how many of you are left?"

These were the Imperial Bodyguards, the last force, Shi Lei didn’t know how many there were, but he knew they were definitely the last ones.

Shi Lei wanted to know how long they could hold out after all his people had fallen.

The leader, perhaps worried that Shi Lei had some misunderstanding, whispered, "We’re all here, there’s no one else left. The others have already died in their mechas, so we are the last, there’s no one else."

Just then, someone in the tunnel behind them shouted loudly, "Are we not people?"

Shi Lei glanced back and immediately stood at attention to salute.

"Reporting to the commander..."

"No salutes, no dawdling, I’m just another soldier here under your command."

Along with the voice, a general walked out, followed by another, one after another.

Shi Lei’s heart sank continuously because if this battle were over, then there would be no future.

Somewhat sad, but also feeling a sense of relief, Shi Lei sighed and whispered, "Alright then, let’s... get it over with."

Supreme Command, Base One, when the Serpent People discovered this was a mecha production base and the center for controlled nuclear fusion, they gave up attacking other places and concentrated their efforts on besieging this location.

The Shenzhou People resisted step by step, the Serpent People advanced step by step, now the Supreme Command was left with only the headquarters and one industrial area. To this moment, the Shenzhou People had not given up their last bit of hope. But once the last soldier was dead, the last warrior fallen, then the workers and scientists would have to take up the fight.

But before the last soldier fell, the Shenzhou People would not allow their scientists to battle.

Shi Lei looked at the water bucket and said loudly, "Water’s here, grab a drink quickly."

No one moved, and at that moment, in the section not reached by the light, where the sealed hole had been opened again by the monsters, came the rustling sound of crawling.

Shi Lei could only regretfully say, "Forget it, save it, you won’t feel thirsty if you’re dead, whoever survives can drink."

An old man with the rank shoulder patches of a general approached the electromagnetic gun. He pulled away a visibly nervous soldier, ordering, "Move aside, go have some water, I’ll take over."

The soldier flailed his arms, breaking free from the general’s grasp, rasped out, "No, you can’t."

Shi Lei shouted, "Commander, don’t do this, take turns, one by one, you stay back, further back, it’s bound to be your turn eventually."

The general took a deep breath but hesitated for a moment, and finally he could only huffily step back.

Shi Lei shouted, "We don’t yet know what kind of monsters are coming, but judging from the sound they’re not large. Use the electromagnetic net as the main firepower, if we can’t hold them off then detonate right away. If it’s the spitting kind..."

Shi Lei’s words were for the generals. His soldiers didn’t need his reminders anymore. His responsibility was to blow up everything here if they couldn’t hold the line, so even if the monsters broke through this passage again, they could still hold out for another day or two, or at least a few more hours.

However, the sound suddenly stopped, disappeared, and the area not reached by the light returned to silence.

And just then, Shi Lei heard the sound of running in the tunnel behind him.

It was quite lively today. Before Shi Lei could turn to look, a woman’s scream rang out desperately, "We’ve won! We’ve won! Get out! Go out and take over the Serpent People’s mothership..."

Another one had gone mad.

Not everyone has a will as strong as iron, especially in the face of such utter despair. Even those with an iron will can be melted.

So, it was common for people to go insane, commit suicide, or just rush out wanting to see the sky, the sun—if there was no sun, at least the stars were fine—until they died in some corner, because no one could leave a monster-infested tunnel.

Shi Lei glanced at the newly arrived group of generals and said, "Stop her, take her away."

There was neither sympathy nor pity.

And as Shi Lei had ordered, two generals actually went up to the screaming woman rushing towards them.

"Calm down, go back first, follow orders."

Shi Lei shouted, "If not, let her have some water to calm down."

"Gao Yuan is back! We’ve succeeded! The Spark Plan has succeeded! Gao Yuan has returned with the Ark! The mothership has landed!"

The two generals escorting the woman stopped and let go of her amidst her shouts and jumps, and hearing the content of her cries, both generals froze in place and released the woman.

Nobody dared to speak. At this moment, not a single person dared to ask if this was true, for fear of waking from a dream once the question was asked.