Chapter 758: The Situation

As the creature in the sky flew closer, its appearance became clear to Chen Chuan and his companions.

It was a bird unique to the Merging Land, with a long, sharp, curved beak. Its head was encased in a hard exoskeleton, its eyes buried deep within.

Its feathers were grayish-white, with sharp spines along the edges. At a glance, it looked as if it were covered in a light coat of slender, bone-like plumage.

Upon seeing the creature, information about its origin immediately appeared on Chen Chuan’s Realm Token.

It was a “Skeleton Bird,” one of the more common, highly aggressive, and vengeful birds of the Merging Land. At least a hundred subspecies had been discovered so far. The Realm Token also displayed its weaknesses and how to deal with it.

The driver, Lieutenant Dai, didn’t turn around, only glancing at it in the vehicle’s rearview mirror. He didn’t seem particularly nervous and said in a casual tone:

“Hang tight, sirs. I’m speeding up. We often get these creatures from the Merging Land around here. We can guarantee your safety.”

After speaking, he slammed his foot on the accelerator, instantly increasing their speed. They were only three or four minutes away from the fortress. As long as they reached its firing range, they would be safe.

At that moment, hatches on several of the train cars were thrown open, and fixed turret machine guns swiveled upward, aiming at the sky.

However, the Skeleton Bird seemed to know how dangerous the machine guns were. It didn’t dare approach the train, instead circling in the air before positioning itself above a simple watchtower.

Only then did they see it was clutching a thick tree trunk in its talons. As it swooped past the watchtower, it released its grip. With a CRASH, the trunk smashed down, completely obliterating the wooden roof of the tower.

Having done this, the Skeleton Bird let out a piercing shriek, suddenly accelerated, and shot forward. It looked like it was trying to cut through the gap in the fields of fire between the fortress and the train.

Judging by its trajectory, it would pass directly over their heads.

Chen Chuan had been a little worried about Chaoming, but he saw that his bird had quickly climbed to a high altitude at the outset. Moreover, the Skeleton Bird showed no interest in Chaoming at all; its sole purpose seemed to be destroying the watchtower.

The creature was above them in an instant. They could now see the hard, sharp talons tucked under its belly and feel an oppressive pressure. Counselor Pei immediately drew his sidearm, disengaged the safety, and aimed at the sky with both hands.

The Skeleton Bird seemed to have intended to fly straight past them, but when it saw the military uniforms on Counselor Pei and Lieutenant Dai, the eyes buried deep in its skull turned crimson. It suddenly slowed down, and its shadow rapidly closed in on them.

As Chen Chuan watched the massive wings blot out the light, a brilliant glint flashed in his eyes. In that instant, a wave of Spiritual Power shot out.

This God-Shaking Hammer slammed directly into the Skeleton Bird’s mind. The red light in its eyes vanished, and it seemed to lose consciousness in a flash.

And at that very moment, a black shadow plummeted from the sky. It was Chaoming, diving down. Its sharp, Mutated talons made a diagonal slash at the bird’s neck, SWOOSH, and tore open a massive gash!

Almost simultaneously, a loud BANG echoed from the fortress. A large hole exploded in the Skeleton Bird’s wing and another on its belly, sending flesh and blood spraying from its body.

Chen Chuan’s gaze shifted. On an open-air platform of the fortress stood a major, a large-caliber, double-barreled shoulder cannon resting on his shoulder, its muzzle still smoking.

The pain from its injuries seemed to jolt the Skeleton Bird back to consciousness, but it was too late. Without even a struggle, it lost all strength and plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily to the ground and sending dirt flying.

Soldiers who were on standby immediately rushed out from the fortress in vehicles, crossing paths with Chen Chuan’s car. Once they neared the Skeleton Bird, they all dismounted and began blasting the massive bird with large-caliber firearms. Its body convulsed under the barrage, which continued for a full thirty seconds before stopping.

Their caution was understandable. Creatures from the Merging Land possessed Mutated Organizations and had incredibly tenacious Life Force. If not killed on the spot, there was a chance they could recover.

A CHIRP sounded from above. Chaoming circled twice before descending to land on the car door next to Chen Chuan.

Chen Chuan stroked its soft feathers, sensing Chaoming’s excitement. After all, this was the first time it had fought a creature of its own kind that was so much larger than itself, and it had even managed to wound it.

‘But it’s certainly worthy of praise,’ Chen Chuan thought. ‘That attack was decisive and fierce, perfectly timed right after my Spiritual Attack. We coordinated perfectly.’

In fact, if the Skeleton Bird’s head hadn’t been protected by that hard exoskeleton, the attack would have ripped its skull open.

Thanks to its Mutated Organization, Chaoming was agile, flew swiftly, and attacked with lethal precision—all advantages of its small size.

But he estimated that Chaoming would continue to grow. In the past, its external environment had limited its Mutated Organization and size. Entering the Merging Land would likely stimulate further development.

By now, the open-top off-road vehicle had driven into the fortress. The major who had fired the shot walked down from his post and saluted them.

“I am Major Bao Heng of the garrison here, responsible for passage security. Welcome. My apologies if you were alarmed just now.”

Counselor Pei said, “Major Bao, your shot was perfectly timed.”

Bao Heng said with a serious expression, “Counselor Pei, rest assured, I was fully capable of shooting it down before it could attack you.”

Chen Chuan nodded slightly. He believed him. He had noticed earlier that from the moment the great bird appeared, the major had been aiming, looking for the right opportunity to fire. His focus was intense and unwavering—the kind of concentration only possessed by someone with extreme confidence in their abilities.

Bao Heng then turned to Chen Chuan. “You must be Manager Chen. A pleasure. We’ve received a top directive from the Defense Department ordering us to cooperate with your mission. Some preliminary preparations are already complete.”

He glanced at Counselor Pei again. “If either of you has any other requests, please don’t hesitate to ask. The Garrison Army will do its best to accommodate you.”

Chen Chuan said, “Thank you for your trouble.”

After the pleasantries, Major Bao led the two of them toward the fortress commander’s office. Along the way, Chen Chuan asked about the situation and learned that attacks like the one they had just experienced were common, as Fortress No. 3 was located right at the edge of a large, unexplored region.

Migrations within the Merging Land were frequent, and creatures that had just moved into the area often treated it as their territory and attacked the fortress.

And when it came to pack or flock creatures, killing just one would often trigger relentless, continuous attacks. However, the garrison here was long accustomed to it.

Counselor Pei went to report to the fortress’s commanding officer and then made a trip to the intelligence section. When he returned, he said, “Manager Chen, it will take some time to collate the intel from the front. It’s also getting late. Let’s go eat first.”

Chen Chuan agreed, and he and Counselor Pei went to the garrison’s mess hall to eat.

The food in the Merging Land was nothing special, but as they were high-ranking officers, some consideration was at least given to the taste.

After their meal, Counselor Pei went to the operations and intelligence room. All non-essential personnel had already left. A map hung at the front of the room, with important locations and routes already marked.

Counselor Pei said, “The communications room hasn’t received any intelligence reports from Captain Xu, but there hasn’t been any other news either.”

He sighed. “No news is good news, I suppose.”

Chen Chuan said, “Captain Xu is a very experienced man and is skilled at self-preservation. We can trust him.”

Counselor Pei nodded. “Right. There’s something I need to show you, Manager Chen.”

He walked to the map, picked up a command baton, and said, “According to the intelligence we’ve gathered, and analysis from our team…” He tapped a spot on the map with the baton.

“The people from the Federation, or rather, the Lynx Federation, appear to have set up a camp at this location.”

Our communications station has observed a steady stream of Airships heading in that direction recently, averaging one per day. The Airships are departing from various corporate branches located within the Merging Land, so we can be almost certain that this camp is their main rear base for exploring the uncharted territory.”

Chen Chuan looked. The location was in the bottom-right corner of the unexplored region, marked on the map with a symbol of crossed lightning bolts.

On a larger scale, the location was situated on a road that connected directly to their rear. From this point, it was only a little over ten kilometers forward to enter the uncharted region.

‘It seems the Federation and the Lynx Federation are planning to advance cautiously and methodically this time, rather than rushing in headlong,’ Chen Chuan thought.

‘That makes sense. Without arranging a retreat route and a support force in advance, they might not be able to get away successfully even if they find the Lost Object. And with a camp, they can continuously provide support and supplies to their frontline teams.’

‘But on the other hand,’ he mused, staring at the location, ‘if we could destroy this camp, it would be a devastating blow to them. At the very least, it would cut off their support to the front.’

As the thought crossed his mind, his gaze shifted to a blue marker on another part of the map. He asked, “This must be our outpost, correct?”

Counselor Pei said, “It was, but…”

He shook his head. “Five days ago, it was raided by the Old Imperial Family’s elite Cavalry Soldiers. The camp was severely damaged. Over the past few days, it has continued to suffer from relentless attacks.”

But we haven’t abandoned it. We’ve been trying to maintain our presence there, but for now, we can’t send troops to support and rendezvous with Captain Xu’s team inside, let alone project any threat toward the Federation and their people.”

His expression turned grim. “High command suspects that the Old Imperial Family may have reached a limited cooperation agreement with the Federation this time. Their goal is likely to drive us out of the game first.”