True Apocalypse Game

Chapter 101: Chapter 101: The Salvation Army’s Expedition

The former Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming.

BOOM!

With a deafening explosion, a heavy landmine detonated not far ahead, blasting dozens of charging men into the air. Severed limbs scattered across the sky like crimson fireworks.

However, a few of the bodies simply vanished mid-air, as if they had never been there at all.

"Watch out, these guys planted mines! Hold the attack!" Nick roared.

Before him was a trench line defended by tens of thousands of people.

It was the position of those savages who called themselves the Science Race.

By analyzing missile launch trajectories, electromagnetic pulse frequencies, and various other complex mathematical calculations—combined with their own knowledge of Eagle Country’s military installations—the assembled players had pinpointed five locations on the North American Continent that housed the intelligent nuclear strike system.

Yellowstone National Park was one of them.

In the real world, Nick had visited many times to soak in the hot springs, see the super volcano, and picnic with family and friends. He loved this place.

But he never would have dreamed that in the True Apocalypse Game, Yellowstone National Park would become one of the server locations for the intelligent nuclear strike system.

What surprised him even more was that there were several large Shelters here, apparently the former barracks of the troops who guarded the nuclear strike system.

Centuries had passed. The people in those large Shelters had long since forgotten most of their past technology due to the harsh environment, but they still remembered their mission to protect the nuclear strike system.

These people gradually evolved into a tribe called the "Science Race," and they considered the underground bunker of the nuclear strike system their Holy Land!

When the army formed by the players arrived, they were immediately attacked by the Science Race.

This Science Race tribe, having evolved from the people in the Shelters, was still equipped with advanced gunpowder weapons, even landmines and grenades, making the battle incredibly brutal.

The player side was an expeditionary force of nearly thirty thousand.

Aside from the nearly ten thousand players, the rest were NPCs they had mobilized from various regions.

The players had promised the NPCs that they would end the apocalypse and bring lasting peace to the world.

Many of these players had been diplomats and politicians, possessing excellent persuasive skills, so they had managed to recruit a considerable number of reinforcements.

Yellowstone National Park was the fourth of the five server locations.

Of the first three locations, two were guarded by automated defense robots. Fortunately, the robots were relatively inflexible. Though many died, the players eventually broke through and destroyed the servers.

The third location was beneath Mount Rushmore in former South Dakota.

A tribe of several thousand people was stationed there as well. Fortunately, with their powerful fire support, the players managed to annihilate the tribe.

In the end, they used explosives to blast through tens of meters of Granite, finally destroying the server within. freёweɓnovel.com

During that time, many players died and returned to their respawn points, but they all rushed back immediately after respawning.

But this position at Yellowstone National Park was the toughest nut to crack yet.

Their machine gun nests alone were giving the players a massive headache.

Although the players also had firearms, they lacked heavy weapons, let alone aircraft.

The battle felt like a throwback to the machine gun trench warfare of World War I; there seemed to be no better way than to pile up bodies.

RAT-A-TAT-TAT... A rain of bullets swept toward them. The players’ squad was pinned behind a hill, unable to even lift their heads.

"Motherfucker!" Nick swore, ducking behind a large boulder as stone chips flew everywhere.

While the Science Race tribe had degenerated in other areas, with no real Science to speak of, they had maintained their ancestors’ high standards in the use and manufacture of weapons.

Nick could even see some of the tribe’s high-ranking members wearing tattered Eagle Country military uniforms. Clearly, their ancestors had passed down their military discipline as well. ’I wonder if they still have to polish their boots,’ he thought wryly.

"Brigade Commander, should we call for artillery support?" a player next to Nick asked.

After more than a dozen major and minor sieges and dozens of battles against the Withered, the nearly ten thousand players had gradually formed a strict military system.

The ten thousand players formed a legion, which was divided into ten brigades of one thousand men each. Nick was the Brigade Commander of the Sixth Brigade.

In this battle, his Sixth Brigade was the assault team, charging at the very front.

Behind him, players fanned out in tactical three-man fireteams, a classic infantry tactic, taking cover in the tall grass.

This classic infantry tactic had been taught to them by a player with a commanding voice. It was a signature specialty of a certain great eastern power from the Chaoxian War.

Nick’s voice was grim. "What’s the status of the demolition team? Are the First, Fifth, and Seventh Brigades in position?"

"The demolition team is about twenty meters from the target, but they’re in a very exposed position. The Legion Commander has ordered a full-scale assault in one minute."

The player acting as a messenger replied, holding a walkie-talkie cobbled together from various parts.

Most of the electronic devices in the entire legion had been jury-rigged by various experts using components salvaged from the ruins.

Even though they were used to the high degree of freedom in this game, it never ceased to amaze them.

"Hmm..." Nick peeked at the enemy position through a crack in the rock. "We’re not close enough. Tell the artillery to open fire in ten seconds!"

They didn’t have many shells in total. Firing them as a barrage would last five minutes at most. Firing too early would be a waste.

As soon as the words left his mouth, Nick waved to the men behind him, broke cover, and charged toward the enemy position, brandishing his automatic rifle.

The thousands of players and NPC soldiers behind him immediately rose and followed, firing as they charged.

The machine gun nests ahead spat fire, instantly cutting down dozens of men. The players who were hit vanished on the spot.

A few more players stepped on landmines and were blown to smithereens.

But they had no time to worry about that.

By the time they had charged several dozen meters, ten seconds had passed. The whistling of artillery shells echoed from a distance, striking the center of the enemy trench line and its surroundings, kicking up clouds of dust and sand that provided cover for the charging soldiers.

The players’ morale soared, and they continued their frenzied charge.

Soon, battle cries erupted from all directions as the forces on the other flanks also began their assault.

For a moment, the air filled with the deafening roar of gunfire and explosions. The players felt a surge of adrenaline, feeling as if they had truly been plunged into the battlefield of a game.

Just as they reached the halfway point, the artillery barrage suddenly thinned out. Some of the shells they had scavenged had just misfired and exploded in the barrel!

At this, the members of the Science Race tribe immediately counterattacked. The sounds of heavy machine guns and automatic rifles rang out continuously, and soldiers in the player army fell one by one, like wheat reaped by a scythe.

Nick took out an enemy gunner with a single shot, then dove into a crater, gritting his teeth as he stared at the enemy position.

This nut was simply too tough to crack. Without enough heavy weaponry, they had no way of getting past the enemy’s rows of machine gun trenches.

Just then, a muffled BOOM suddenly echoed from deep underground.

Immediately after, the ground began to tremble violently, as if a furious dragon had awakened in the earth’s depths.

Then, a massive fissure violently split the ground in the direction of the Science Race’s position. Scalding hot magma surged out, incinerating many of the Science Race members into ash!

The earth instantly became like a bowl of boiling soup. Geysers of lava erupted from within the enemy trenches, subsequently detonating the remaining ammunition.

The sympathetic detonation of explosives and landmines turned into a spectacular fireworks show. The Science Race was nearly wiped out in the blast.

A blue flag was raised, the bright red letters "SA" standing out conspicuously. It was the name the players had given their force.

Salvation Army.

"Hahaha, Mr. F! Brigade Commander! We did it! The server here has been burned to a crisp too!" a comrade-in-arms nearby laughed into his communicator.

Mr. F was Nick’s alias in the game.

Apparently, the demolition team, composed of geologists and volcanologists, had successfully found a weak point in the Yellowstone Super Volcano. With a single blast, they triggered a small-scale volcanic eruption, destroying both the hidden nuclear strike server and the Technology Race in one fell swoop.

Because this dormant super volcano possessed the natural deterrent of being able to destroy the Earth, no nuclear-armed power would ever risk targeting this location. Meanwhile, the abundant geothermal energy could provide a continuous power supply, making it an excellent strategic bunker.

This was one of the reasons the nuclear strike server was located here.

However, this also became a weakness for the players to exploit.

"Hmm..." Nick nodded, gazing into the distance. "Next up is the hardest part... Cheyenne Mountain..."