Chapter 1407 - 29: Mad Plan

Chapter 1407: Chapter 29: Mad Plan

The shells howled as they hit the ground, earth bursting like fireworks, splattering in all directions.

A hot piece of shrapnel flew into the trench, landing just beside Su Xiao’s feet.

Su Xiao grabbed a handful of bullets from the nearby ammo box, loaded five into the sniper rifle, and tossed the remaining bullets back into the box.

The assault had been going on for half an hour, during which our forces advanced approximately 400 meters, now roughly 300 meters from the enemy trench and less than 400 meters from St. Limen Fortress.

Having advanced this far, the Geya Alliance forces no longer planned to dig trenches forward; if they got closer, they would enter the precise range of the fortress’s heavy machine guns, which fired bullets of a mind-blowing caliber, capable of completely shattering a soldier with at most two shots.

With both trenches over 300 meters apart, both sides steeled themselves for a life-or-death struggle: if the Geya Alliance won, they would become the most prosperous nation on Blue Sea Star; should the Sun Kingdom lose, they would never rise again.

A little assistant in the trench poked his head out, observing the situation at St. Limen Fortress through binoculars.

"A bunch of cowards."

The assistant sneered lightly. Within this half-hour, with the assistant’s coordination, Su Xiao had wreaked havoc on the heavy machine guns and artillery of St. Limen Fortress’s various lookout points. Anyone daring to show themselves at a lookout was sure to get a headshot from Su Xiao within seconds.

The truly terrifying thing about the enemy wasn’t that concrete-and-patterned steel-built trench, nor the towering St. Limen Fortress, but those bunkers half-buried in the earth.

These bunkers were hard to spot, and who knows what heavy weaponry lay within. Sometimes, Geya Alliance troops had barely broken through when they encountered lethal fire from the bunkers, with each salvo easily taking down hundreds, annihilating small units completely on a frequent basis.

Su Xiao poked his head out from the trench, observing the situation at St. Limen Fortress through the sniper scope.

In one of St. Limen Fortress’s lookout points, a sniper was also scanning the battlefield. Light glinting off a lens caught his attention, prompting him to swing his rifle around.

With a crack, the back of the sniper’s head exploded, blood splattered everywhere, staining the surrounding walls crimson. This wasn’t the first such incident—no sooner had the sniper fallen than a comrade dragged away his corpse, and another soldier took his place; yet just as he popped his head out, a bullet zipped into the lookout, embedding itself deep in the concrete wall.

"Huff, huff..."

The soldier holding the sniper rifle panted heavily, letting out a low growl as he propped the rifle at the lookout and fired wildly, not caring if he hit the enemy or not. Then he retreated behind cover, having felt a push against his chest just before withdrawing.

"Ha ha."

This soldier gave a silly laugh, scanning his comrades’ faces, hoping none had witnessed his embarrassing moment. Yet he noticed their gazes were off, with one even grabbing his leg to drag him aside.

"What are you...?"

A warm sensation spread from his chest—he looked down to find a bowl-sized hole there, drenched in blood.

The sounds of firearms mixed together like a lively concert, and the ticket to this concert was costly—your life.

Su Xiao had lost count of how many enemies he’d sniped. Despite the kills, he couldn’t alter the war’s outcome, unless he could destroy St. Limen Fortress.

Blowing up St. Limen Fortress would definitely earn a wealth of Reincarnation Paradise Merit.

Previously, Su Xiao had killed two elite enemy snipers, garnering 6 points of Reincarnation Paradise Merit—3 points per person.

Killing enemy leaders or officers yields 1-50 points of Reincarnation Paradise Merit, based on the enemy’s strength and rank.

Qing Ye’s doings within the Sun Kingdom had spread far and wide; for pulling off that feat, he surely received a massive haul of Reincarnation Paradise Merit.

At present, Su Xiao had discovered a ripe opportunity to earn merit: Reincarnation Paradise Merit = Paradise coin + True Attribute Point + Soul Crystals + Rare Resources, and in War World, personal gains are mainly determined by the merit points amassed.

Bang!

A chunk of threaded steel in front of Su Xiao protruded sharply; he ignored it entirely, focused on perfecting his plan.

"Officer, officer, wake up."

The little assistant, as excited as if on drugs, was behaving as she always did at the start of war.

"Shut up, get lost."

"Can I...?"

The assistant looked at the sniper rifle in Su Xiao’s hands; he casually tossed it to her. As she barely peeked out, a shell landed not far from the trench, blasting her back inside with the shockwave.

Now the little assistant had mellowed considerably; clutching the sniper rifle, she crouched in the shade, covering her ears.

Su Xiao wasn’t reluctant to rack up merit, merely unable to reveal himself; at least a dozen machine gunners and scores of gunners had him marked. Should he show himself anywhere, he’d face a relentless barrage.

Both armies combined exceeded a million in number, and in modern warfare, individual influence on the battlefield was minimal unless performing something unimaginable, like blowing up St. Limen Fortress.

From Su Xiao’s observations, destroying the fortress from the outside was nearly impossible—a 300mm-caliber heavy artillery blast wouldn’t even scratch the metallic exterior of St. Limen Fortress.

Even if Su Xiao lobbed Apollo over, it likely wouldn’t damage St. Limen Fortress—patterned steel’s melting point was 1600℃, and that’s only after being mixed with ’Sub-Rare Solution’; hard-melting would drive up the melting point ridiculously high.

Moreover, Apollo’s temperature spike was only brief upon detonation, so even partially melting the patterned steel wouldn’t significantly harm St. Limen Fortress.

Su Xiao’s idea was to detonate Apollo inside the fortress if it couldn’t be broken from the outside. After all, more than 70% of St. Limen Fortress’s internal structure was concrete.

Once this idea lodged itself in Su Xiao’s mind, he couldn’t let it go. What’s more, his target was inside St. Limen Fortress, so he had to infiltrate.

Unfortunately, Bubu Wang wasn’t present—if he were, and if stray bullets didn’t hit him, he’d surely prance into the fortress confidently.

"I wonder how things are going on Bubu’s side."

Su Xiao hadn’t recalled Bubu Wang because he was preparing for the eventual Contractor brawl.

Having refined his plan, Su Xiao retrieved the sniper rifle from the assistant’s hands, chambered a round, aimed, and fired. The artilleryman at the fortress lookout was headshot: 1 point of Reincarnation Paradise Merit gained.

On the battlefield, only killing elite enemy units earned merit, not ordinary soldiers.

The assault continued unabated, casualties mounting at an alarmingly rapid rate on both sides.

By that afternoon, Su Xiao had hunkered down in the trench, too wary to emerge. At least five enemy snipers were hunting him, each of them battle-hardened and formidable.

Not far from Su Xiao sat a refugee-looking Contractor, with dirt smudged all over his face. Were this a Derivative World, mutual vigilance would prevail among Contractors, but this was War World—mutiny here bore grave repercussions.

Bullets zipped overhead as Su Xiao bandaged his shoulder wound. Amidst gunfire, getting shot was unavoidable.

At seven in the evening, as dusk approached, both sides ceased firing. After a day’s grueling combat, each side’s soldiers needed rest. In this kind of assault warfare, any large unit daring a night raid would be marching to its death.