novel-books Chapter 679 The Meat Grinder
Chapter 679 The Meat Grinder
Chapter 679 The Meat Grinder (4000 words)
On the eighth day of the dungeon, the two sides tacitly launched their final battle.
For every zhang (approximately 3.3 meters) that Anda Khan's white banner moved forward, the drums in the Tatar formation became more frequent, and the entire city wall trembled with the drumbeats from Desheng Gate to Anding Gate.
Blood was everywhere on the city wall. Dried blood was dark brown, while fresh blood was dark red when layered on top of it. It was spread layer by layer on the city bricks, and when you stepped on it, it creaked and groaned.
The fox-faced human and his ilk have gone completely mad.
They gave a death order: take the city at all costs!
Countless Tatar soldiers, like swarms of ants, pressed in simultaneously from the north, west, and east.
Three tiers of queues were arranged in each direction.
The first layer consisted of cavalry charging with arrows, the second layer of infantry carrying ladders, and the third layer of soldiers pushing battering rams and trebuchets.
Eight directions, twenty-four layers of attack, crashing against the city wall like twenty-four waves.
The arrow tower in front of Deshengmen was half destroyed by the trebuchet, and half of the eaves hung precariously on the broken wall.
The musketeers in the arrow tower did not withdraw; they squatted in the ruins and continued loading gunpowder, their faces covered in so much ash that their features were unrecognizable.
On the city wall, a commander's hoarse voice had already stopped ringing.
Fortunately, they improved their tactical hand signals, and with these gestures and the players' excellent combat skills, they managed to keep going.
At noon, the Tatars climbed the city wall to the left of Desheng Gate.
These Tatars had no fear in their eyes, only a thirst and greed for food.
They stepped over the corpses of their comrades, used iron hooks to bite into the gaps in the city bricks, and climbed over the battlements using ladders.
When a person is fighting to the extreme, they will not let out a roar.
Everyone held their breath and focused all their strength into their weapons.
An old soldier picked up the broken spear shaft and stabbed at it.
The spear shaft pierced the Tatar soldier's breastplate and snapped instantly. The veteran reacted quickly, immediately throwing the remaining half of the wood he was holding at the Tatar soldier, then drawing his saber and rushing forward.
The two of them clung to each other, rolled along the city wall, climbed over the collapsed battlements, and fell together from the three-zhang-high wall.
The screams were drowned out by the drumbeats of the next wave of attack.
Three more Tatar soldiers climbed up through the gap, then five, then ten.
A chaotic battle broke out on the city wall, and the chaos spread like a small crack in a pane of glass, rapidly engulfing the entire surface.
Just as this breach was about to be torn open, chaos suddenly broke out in the Tatars' rear.
Under the cover of night, those elite troops sneaked into the abandoned drainage ditch outside Deshengmen and, with lightning speed, stormed into the rear of the Tatar ranks.
Before the Tatar reserves could turn around, more than a dozen were cut down, and a gap was torn in the Tatar formation.
Upon seeing this, Li Qing on the city wall immediately ordered his musket troops to advance and unleash their firepower.
At 4 PM on the eighth day of the dungeon, the Eastern Kingdom players once again defended the precarious city walls.
"Damn it!! What are you all doing? Can't you put in a little effort?" The fox-faced man roared in fury as he stared at the city wall that was so close yet he couldn't breach it.
The ghost baby retorted irritably, "You have the nerve to ask me how you commanded them? You son of a bitch, you almost wiped out all my underlings!!"
The ghost baby was heartbroken; how hard did it take for him to accumulate all this wealth?
That fox-faced, human-bodied scoundrel assigns the most dangerous tasks to other people's forces, while keeping his own forces well hidden and suffering minimal losses.
The fox-faced man bared his teeth and threatened, "At a time like this, what's the point of distinguishing between yours, mine, and his? We only have two days left. If we can't take this city soon, all our previous investments will be wasted. Also, Meng, aren't you being a little too obvious about slacking off?"
Meng Po shrugged: "I'm all alone, unlike you all who have so many followers."
She glanced around, a smirk playing on her lips, and said sarcastically, "Of everyone here, I'm the one closest to the battlefield."
Seeing that the atmosphere on the scene was getting more and more tense and almost turned into a fight, the fox-faced human raised his hand and pressed down: "Alright, the battle is not over yet, and we are already fighting among ourselves. Isn't that shameful?! I suggest that we summon other reincarnated beings to come and help."
"No way!" the ghost infant refused without hesitation. "If we summon them, won't we have to share the crystals with them? We already don't have enough, and we'd just benefit others too?"
Fox-faced human: "Then what do you suggest? Can you provide more henchmen?"
The ghost baby... he can't.
Fox-faced human: "The prerequisite for sharing the pie is to eat the pie first. Without calling in reinforcements, are we confident we can clear the dungeon in two days?!"
I had it before, but now my confidence has been shattered.
The proposal of a fox-faced human was passed unanimously.
Ten minutes later, plumes of black smoke rose one after another, from behind the Tatar camp, from the direction of the mountains, from the direction of the grasslands, and from places where there should have been no troops at all.
Wherever a plume of black smoke rose, a flag was raised, depicting a city.
Lin Xiaohe, who had been watching the battlefield closely, sat up slightly. Was this a death trap?
Immediately afterwards, she felt her control over the instance being shaken, as if multiple wormholes had suddenly appeared on a plump peach.
Lin Xiaohe's pupils dilated instantly.
There are Reincarnated beings from outside the instance being summoned in!
Lin Xiaohe quickly looked at the Eastern Kingdom contestants, only to see that the sentry on the watchtower's voice had changed: "There's a new force to the due north! Countless numbers, overwhelming, at least 30,000, no! 50,000! And they're still increasing!"
Looking from the city wall, a black line emerged on the horizon behind the Tatar camp.
The black line was moving and expanding rapidly, spreading towards the city wall at a speed far beyond that of a human march.
The black lines grew wider and denser, eventually transforming into vast, sweeping waves of black.
The sudden and dramatic change left the Dongguo contestants on the city wall stunned.
Li Qing's knuckles cracked as he gripped the binoculars: "Too fast! This violates the dungeon rules!"
The instance rules firmly suppress the strength of both sides in the Ming Dynasty.
But where did this force that defied the rules come from?! Where is Director Lin? Does she know about the problem with the instance?
At the same time, to the west, even more black smoke rose from the direction of the Taihang Mountains, the smoke columns so dense that they formed a black curtain.
The defenders on the western section of the city wall pointed towards the mountains and shouted, "They're coming from the west too!"
To the east, in the direction of Tongzhou, a layer of black mist rose from the surface of the canal, and something was crawling in the mist.
The south side faces the inner city of the capital, which should have been the safest rear area, but suddenly someone on the Yongding Gate tower screamed: "There's black smoke from the south too! There's smoke from the south too!"
It's on all four sides.
……
"Report! Copy anomaly!"
In the command center, all the screens flashed simultaneously, and then the entire screen displayed scrolling error codes.
The alarms blared in unison, a cacophony of different frequencies, sharp and piercing, like dozens of knives scraping against glass at the same time.
Commander Zhang leaned against the edge of the command platform, his knuckles white, his face expressionless, but the veins on his forehead were bulging one by one.
Even without system alarms, the tense situation can be seen with the naked eye.
The entire map was swallowed up by black from the edges to the center, like a drop of ink on rice paper, spreading irreversibly.
The black army nearly submerged the entire city.
"What is this?" Old Zhou's voice was very soft, almost drowned out by the alarm.
Commander Zhang stared at the screen, took a deep drag of his cigarette, and said fiercely, "It's their reinforcements!"
As soon as the words were spoken, a sense of despair spread. They had finally made it to the 8th day, and the dawn of victory was in sight, but these abnormal beings, instead of showing any martial spirit, actually summoned reinforcements and launched a massive troop buildup.
How are we supposed to play this? How are we supposed to fight?!
What should they do?
The young logistics girl, her eyes red, asked timidly, "Does Director Lin have a solution?"
Her team leader shook his head: "Director Lin is only one person, how can she face a massive army?"
"But... what will happen to the hundreds of thousands of people in the capital city instance if the Ming Tombs instance fails?"
No one answered her question, because everyone already had the answer in their hearts.
……
Inside the instance, the Tatar army's encampment.
The fox-faced man, hands on his hips, laughed loudly: "Hahahaha, our military strength is hundreds of times greater than theirs. I refuse to believe that we can't take down a mere small town!"
Beside him was a man of fire, flames engulfing his body and illuminating the entire tent.
"Old Fox, you're really tight-lipped. There are over ten thousand contestants from the East, and you didn't even tell us."
Fox-faced human: "Summoning across dungeons will alert the city lord. I don't want to appear before the city lord unless absolutely necessary."
Mentioning the city lord caused the temperature inside the tent to drop by more than ten degrees Celsius instantly.
Fireman stopped mentioning it, and instead patted his chest, saying, "Don't worry, with the brothers here, a mere ten thousand or so Easterners are easy to handle. By the way, is this dungeon master a newbie? She won't try to scam us, will she?"
The fox-faced human reassured them: "It's alright, we have most of the control over the instance. She can't cause any trouble."
The subtext is that the second Meng won't eat meat; at most, she'll be given a sip of soup.
With that, Fireman was relieved.
Everyone turned their attention to the front lines, each one ready to charge in and feast at any moment.
Suddenly, they sensed something and all looked toward the core of the instance.
Suddenly, a figure leaped into the air.
"It's the second Meng, the dungeon master!"
The figure raised its right hand, loosely clenched its five fingers, and pulled downwards.
The rules of the core of the instance broke simultaneously, and golden runes rose from the bottom of the sandbox, breaking off one by one, shattering into specks of light, and dissipating into the darkness.
Immediately afterwards, golden cracks appeared one after another on the stone wall surrounding the core, spreading upwards along the stone wall at a speed faster than fire.
"This is..." The fox-faced man's voice changed, "What is the Second Meng doing?!"
Fireman was stunned, staring fixedly at the figure, and stammered, "She...she's changing the dungeon rules?!"
Modifying the underlying rules within a running copy—is that something a newbie could possibly do?!
Isn't she afraid of being torn apart by the power of the rules, afraid of being held accountable by the city lord?!
With a flick of his finger, the man reassembled the broken golden rune fragments, forming a new magic array above the Ming Tombs, its golden light dazzling.
The points of light rearranged in the darkness, forming a new magic circle.
On the city wall, smoke filled the air and shouts of battle shook the heavens.
Tatar cavalry and eerie shadows were closing in from all directions, the sound of hooves and the roars of monsters mingling together.
The Eastern Kingdom's contestants had retreated to the last line of defense on the city wall. Their swords were dulled, their arrows were all gone, and the barrels of their muskets were too hot to touch.
Some people were stabbing with broken spears, some were smashing with broken bricks, and some were jumping off the city wall with Tatar soldiers in their arms.
More and more enemies rushed up.
The city is about to fall!
At the critical moment, a golden halo suddenly lit up on the ground in the very center of the city wall.
The aperture expanded outwards, one circle, two circles, three circles, as if someone had pressed a red-hot iron onto a city brick.
The light grew brighter and brighter, so bright that people couldn't open their eyes.
A cold voice exploded in everyone's minds.
"To maintain the balance of the instance, the defender's summoning portal has been opened. Please respond."
The soldiers guarding the city wall were stunned.
Response? How to respond?
"Three, two, one. No response from the defending side. Activate automatic matching mode."
Suddenly, a golden pillar of light shot into the sky from the city wall, its diameter spreading from the city wall all the way to the entire Deshengmen defense zone, and then continuing to spread, spreading to the entire city wall and the entire capital city.
The beam of light pierced through the black smoke behind the Tatar positions, through the black flags leading to the dead city, and through the midday sky, until it broke through the Ming Tombs instance. At an extremely fast speed, it bypassed the Forbidden City instance and spread to the entire capital instance.
……
In the capital city of Zhaoyang District, a certain group that had finally broken through the Fog Sea dungeon was quickly regrouping.
Regiment Commander Yunlong, covered in blood, his gaze hardened: "Report the numbers!"
According to statistics, out of a total of 2000 people, only 986 people successfully exited the dungeon, resulting in a casualty rate of over 50%.
Regiment Commander Yunlong slammed his eyes shut, his teeth grinding together.
Their regiment is an elite force! Every soldier is a top-notch soldier, a precious gem, meant to fight tough and difficult battles!
One instance of the Fog Sea dungeon wiped out more than half of their resources.
How can we avoid causing heartache?
The political commissar patted him on the shoulder, his tone heavy: "We can't relax yet. The capital city is fraught with danger. You still have to lead the brothers to survive."
"I know." Commander Yunlong opened his eyes, and it seemed as if two flames were burning in them.
He would be a man to not avenge this wrong. As long as he lives, he will never let these abnormal people go unpunished!
The group leader, Yunlong, convened a small meeting and, based on his knowledge of the capital's map, began planning the route.
They didn't know how long the capital city instance would last, and most of their supplies were left behind in the fog sea instance.
The wounded need medication.
Therefore, their first goal was to reach the supply depot.
"The nearest supply point to us is B-156, which is 4.5 kilometers away as the crow flies."
The Eastern Kingdom government set up supply points in various districts the night before the dungeon's arrival, including major supermarkets, aviation caves, shopping malls, and office buildings.
If given enough time, the Eastern government would love to set one up in every community.
This foresight ultimately came in handy.
After a short rest, the more than 900 soldiers prepared to head to the B-156 supply depot.
Just then, they suddenly heard a voice in their minds.
[The Ming Tombs raid team from the East has issued a call to all players in the raid, requesting support.]
[The enemy-ally ratio in this instance is 513:1, a huge disparity in strength. The chance of winning is less than one in ten thousand, making it extremely dangerous. Please choose carefully.]
Do you wish to respond to the summons?
【Yes】
【no】