owlsbooks Chapter 145 Military Intervention and Wartime Regulations
Chapter 145 Military Intervention and Wartime Regulations
Jiang Ming drew his greatsword.
System notifications rang in my mind one after another:
[Defeat the Stitching Butcher (Lv.25 Warrior) to gain 8000 experience points.]
[Defeat a higher-level opponent and gain an additional 3000 experience points.]
[Obtained: High-level Necromancer Core *1]
[Obtained: Butcher's Rusty Meat Hook (Blue, Rare)]
[Obtained: Stitches' Tough Leather *5]
Jiang Ming skillfully scanned the items into the storage card without even looking at them carefully.
Looking back, Chen Qi and Zhou Feng were still standing on the stairs, stunned, clearly shocked by the brutal, hand-to-hand combat they had just witnessed.
"What are you standing there for? Get to work." Jiang Ming shook the blood off his greatsword and looked up at the direction leading to the basement.
In the black fog there, countless ghouls were climbing down the collapsed escalator.
Even if each of the three thousand level 12 monsters only gives a few dozen experience points, the total amount adds up to a huge sum of money that would make anyone envious.
Jiang Ming twisted his neck, and his joints made a cracking sound.
After his strength broke through 30 points, he had not yet truly tested the physical limits of this body.
"Brother Jiang, are you really going to do this all by yourself?" Zhou Feng swallowed hard, his voice barely audible.
"What else? Keep it for the New Year?"
Jiang Ming, sword in hand, was about to charge forward and unleash his full power.
Just then, a sickening metallic twisting sound suddenly came from above.
"Click—"
At the same time, countless spiderweb-like cracks appeared on the surface of several main load-bearing columns in the entire underground space, and gravel and cement blocks fell down in a flurry.
The missile bombardment from the two fighter jets in the square, combined with the terrifying recoil and shockwave of Jiang Ming's magic rocket launcher, completely destroyed the structural balance of this underground building.
"It's collapsed! Get back!" Chen Qi roared, grabbed Zhou Feng by the collar, and desperately ran towards the corner of the wall.
Jiang Ming also sensed something was wrong, and immediately raised his foot and tapped it repeatedly in the black water, retreating behind the thickest load-bearing wall after a few leaps.
Rumbling--
A deafening roar, like the sky collapsing and the earth splitting apart.
The concrete ceiling, several meters thick, collapsed completely, bringing with it the ruins of the plaza above and the severed limbs of the orcs.
Smoke and dust billowed into the sky, and the entire second basement level shook violently.
Once the dust settled, the originally dark and oppressive second basement level had been transformed into an open-air pit.
Blinding sunlight streamed in through the enormous hole in the ceiling, which was over fifty meters in diameter.
When the sunlight shone on the ghouls that were afraid of the light, they immediately let out shrill and ear-piercing screams.
Their mutated grayish-white skin emitted plumes of black smoke as they stumbled around in the ruins like headless flies, trampling each other.
"A great opportunity!" Jiang Ming's eyes lit up.
This is practically God helping him gather monsters.
Without the cover of the terrain, these ghouls are like meat on a chopping board.
He was about to draw his sword and leap out to reap the rewards.
A deafening roar suddenly came from the sky.
It wasn't the sharp whistling of a fighter jet flying by, but a dull, continuous, air-tearing sound of propellers.
Jiang Ming looked up.
Above the hole, six dark-painted armed helicopters, arranged in a wedge-shaped combat formation, hovered steadily above the ruins of the square like six steel behemoths.
The weapon racks on both sides of the fuselage were covered with terrifying metal tubes and rocket pods.
"That's... a Z-10 attack helicopter from the military region!" Zhou Feng looked up from his dusty face, recognized the helicopter's outline, and trembled with excitement, tears streaming down his face. "Support has arrived! The main air force support has arrived!"
Jiang Ming suddenly felt an extremely ominous premonition.
"Don't fire! That's my monster—"
Before he could even utter a word, the 30mm autocannon wheel under the helicopter's fuselage had already begun spinning wildly.
hum-
Thick tongues of fire erupted instantly.
This wasn't a short burst; it was an unrestrained barrage of firepower.
The machine gun bullets, as thick as a wrist, rained down like a metallic storm, slamming into the ghoul horde below at a rate of thousands of rounds per minute.
The human body is as fragile as paper in the face of the terrifying kinetic energy of modern weapons.
The scene couldn't be described as just gory; it was pure physical destruction.
Even a level 12 ghoul, with its thick hide, was blown halfway into a bloody mist by a 30mm shell.
If hit head-on, the monster will instantly be torn to pieces.
The dense barrage of fire swept across the ruins twice.
Three thousand ghouls, along with the orcs who were buried under the rubble but were not quite dead, were blasted into a uniform pile of minced meat in just half a minute.
Not even a single intact bone could be found.
Jiang Ming stood behind the load-bearing wall, staring blankly at the system interface, which was completely devoid of any experience tips. He felt utterly numb.
"My experience..." he gritted his teeth, the veins on the back of his hand gripping the sword bulging.
There are three thousand monsters!
The whole thing was blown up by those few beat-up helicopters!
Zhou Feng jumped up excitedly, waving his rifle and shouting, "Good! Well done!" "Those sons of bitches!"
Jiang Ming turned his head and looked at him with a deep, unsettling gaze.
Zhou Feng felt a chill run down his spine under that gaze, his ecstatic expression instantly freezing. He stammered, "Brother Jiang... what's wrong?"
"It's nothing," Jiang Ming replied curtly, sheathing the [Fire and Thunder Prison] sword back into its sheath on his back, his tone revealing an impulse to kill.
The helicopter ground washing operation has ended.
Two of the planes began to descend, the hatches opened, and fully armed special forces soldiers quickly slid down ropes to the edge of the ruins.
They moved with extreme agility, quickly spreading out after landing and establishing defensive lines using the terrain.
"Safety!"
"Area One cleared!"
"Survivor found!"
Several infrared lasers directly locked onto the location of Jiang Ming and Zhou Feng.
"Put down your weapons, put your hands behind your head, and slowly walk out!" A cold, hard warning came from the loudspeaker.
Chen Qi frowned and looked at Jiang Ming.
These people were carrying real weapons, and Jiang Ming's attire didn't look like that of an ordinary citizen at all.
"Captain, it's us! Zhou Feng from Special Operations Team Three!"
Zhou Feng quickly threw the gun on the ground, raised his hands, and ran out.
The military officer leading the group came over, checked Zhou Feng's ID card, and his tense expression eased slightly.
"Captain Zhou, you've suffered so much. What about the civilians in the shelter?"
Zhou Feng's eyes reddened, and he pointed to the ruins at his feet, which were mixed with black water and bits of flesh: "They're all here... Due to spatial overlap and the leakage of necromancy, they've all turned into monsters."
The officer's expression changed as he looked at the wreckage scattered on the ground. He paused for two seconds, then raised his hand in salute.
My condolences.
Then, his gaze passed over Zhou Feng and landed on Jiang Ming and the others who were slowly walking out.
Especially Jiang Ming, who was walking at the very front.
He was dressed in tactical clothing stained with dark red blood, carried a huge, exaggerated broadsword on his back, and exuded a strong smell of blood and an undisguised murderous aura.
This is definitely not an ordinary person, and doesn't even resemble a soldier from Earth.
"Who are they?" The officer cautiously placed his hand on the holster at his waist, and the surrounding special forces soldiers immediately leveled their rifles.
"Don't panic, sir! This is Brother Jiang Ming. If it weren't for him, our team would have been killed by the orcs long ago!" Zhou Feng quickly stepped in to explain. "He killed that most powerful warrior-level monster down there all by himself!"
"One person? The most powerful general-level monster?" The officer frowned, clearly not believing it.
But when he looked at the giant sword behind Jiang Ming, and then at the huge corpse not far away that had been split in two and had its head burned to ashes, a look of shock flashed in his eyes.
"I am Lei Zhan, company commander of the Dongjiang Military Region Rapid Reaction Force." The officer stared at Jiang Ming. "Thank you for your assistance in the rescue. But this place is now under military control. According to wartime regulations, please hand over your weapons and cooperate with us to go back and register."
Hand over your weapons?
Jiang Ming smiled.
"You stole my monsters, cut off my source of income, and now you want to disarm me?" He took a step forward. "What, is this how the Dongjiang Military Region does business?"
With that step he took, his aura was released without reservation.
The special forces soldiers around felt their breath catch in their throats, as if a mountain was pressing down on their chests, and their fingers instinctively tightened on the triggers.
Lei Zhan was a tough character; he withstood the pressure without backing down and said in a deep voice, "This is a military order. Any unregistered supernatural power must be subject to control. Friends, don't make things difficult for us."
The atmosphere instantly plummeted to freezing point.
Chen Qi's hand was already on the rifle trigger.
With just a gesture from Jiang Ming, these dozen or so men would absolutely dare to fight a regular army.
Just then, a commotion arose from the other side of the ruins.
Several soldiers responsible for cleaning up the battlefield were using shovels to dig out a few dusty crystal cores from the pile of rotten flesh and put them into a specially made lead box.
Jiang Ming glanced at the lead box.
High-concentration Necromancer Crystals (material)
[Preview: Can be used to craft high-level necromancy items, or as an energy source to power specific constructs.]
This is the essence dropped by those three thousand ghouls!
Jiang Ming narrowed his eyes.
"Okay, you'll cooperate with the registration, right?" Jiang Ming suddenly relented, spreading his hands. "No problem."
Zhou Feng breathed a sigh of relief, and Lei Zhan also relaxed his guard slightly.
"However," Jiang Ming changed the subject, pointing to the soldier holding the lead box, "give me those stones you picked up, and I'll go with you."
Lei Zhan looked in the direction Jiang Ming was pointing, and his brows immediately furrowed into a tight knot.
Those were necromancy crystals that the soldiers had just collected from the pile of ghoul corpses.
"That's impossible," Lei Zhan replied bluntly, his tone unyielding. "All special materials obtained from monsters are now under military control and must be handed over to the research department for study. This is a top-level order."
Jiang Ming wasn't angry at all after hearing this; instead, he looked at Lei Zhan with great interest.
"Supreme orders?" Jiang Ming chuckled. "Did your research department tell you that this thing will start emitting toxic radiation if it's out of an environment filled with necromantic energy for more than ten minutes?"
Jiang Ming continued, "Your broken lead box can't block the necromantic radiation at all. In five minutes at most, the soldier holding the box will start losing clumps of hair, his skin will fester, and he'll become a mindless walking corpse, just like these things lying on the ground."
The soldier holding the lead box trembled and almost dropped it.
Lei Zhan's face turned ashen: "Don't try to scare us! Our protective equipment is all custom-made!"
"Don't believe me?" Jiang Ming pointed to the soldier's wrist. "Look at his watch, isn't it starting to turn black?"
Several soldiers immediately crowded over to take a look.
Sure enough, the inside of the tactical watch worn by the soldier had been covered with a layer of gray fog, and the hands were spinning wildly.
The special forces soldiers around him instinctively took two steps back.
Lei Zhan gritted his teeth, staring intently at Jiang Ming: "Do you have a way to handle this?"
"Of course." Jiang Ming took two steps forward, completely ignoring the gun barrels pointed at him around him. "Only I can handle this right now."
Lei Zhan was struggling.
His orders were to seal off the site and collect any valuable samples from the otherworld.
But he dared not gamble if the cost was increased casualties.
"Company commander, this thing is too hot to handle," the adjutant beside him advised in a low voice. "We don't have any professional containment equipment. If something really happens, no one can bear the responsibility. Besides... this guy looks really strange. There's no need to start a conflict now."
Lei Zhan took a deep breath and winked at the soldier.
The soldiers, feeling as if they had been granted a pardon, quickly placed the lead box on the ground and retreated far away.
Jiang Ming walked over, and without even opening the box, simply waved his hand.
The lead box on the ground vanished into thin air.
This ability to conjure objects out of thin air once again made Lei Zhan's pupils shrink.
Space-based superpowers?
Or is it some kind of extraordinary tool?
"Alright, I've taken the things. Don't we need to register? Lead the way." Jiang Ming clapped his hands, looking as relaxed as if he were strolling through a farmers' market.
Seeing this, Chen Qi and the others also put down their weapons, but they all hung their guns in the most convenient position on their chests, ready to fire at any time.
Lei Zhan gave Jiang Ming a deep look, then picked up the walkie-talkie: "Calling command, the site has been cleared, and a group of special survivors have been found. Requesting a vehicle to pick them up."
Fifteen minutes later.
Two heavy armored personnel carriers were parked outside Yonghui Plaza.
Jiang Ming and his group were arranged to ride in the second car, with Lei Zhan personally leading a team to escort them.
The carriage was dimly lit, and the engine roared deafeningly.
Lin Yu and several students huddled in a corner, trembling with fear.
They were traumatized today. After escaping from the alien mine, they witnessed the Blue Star military's barrage of fire, and their minds are still a mess.
Marlowe was so frightened that he buried his head under the belly of the dire wolf, fearing that he would be dragged out and dissected by these "human soldiers" in green clothes.
Jiang Ming sat on the bench, closing his eyes to rest.
He was calculating what he had just gained in his mind.
High-concentration Necromancer Crystals *45
Although we didn't gain any experience, the value of this batch of crystals is definitely not low.
Necromantic materials are scarce even in other worlds, let alone on Earth.
What he just said to Lei Zhan was half true and half false.
Necromantic radiation does exist, but it doesn't take effect that quickly.
He simply took advantage of the information gap to trick people into handing over these materials.
"Brother Jiang," Chen Qi leaned closer and whispered, "Are we really going to go back with them like this? What if they detain us?"
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