"There are quite a few people, but I haven't seen their boss."
Shui Yue felt his neck stiffen.
Originally planning to sneak an attack, maybe bomb so critical facility or hack into their server room like last ti, or at least blow their commander's head off, but in the sea of people, not a trace was seen.
Sword Saint interjected, "Can you hack into their communication network?"
"I'll give it a try."
Shui Yue pulled out a box the size of a phone from his pocket and fiddled with it; a gadget bought through rcenary channels.
"Hmm... No, there are no large-scale network fluctuations here, and I see many people equipped with radios. I guess the last incident made them stay alert."
"Damn the planner."
Red Barrel cursed.
"Patching every day, at tis like this, can't the NPCs have lower intelligence?"
As the two were complaining, Shui Yue suddenly spoke
"Hold on! I think I heard sothing."
His expression turned very serious, trying hard to increase the reception frequency of his ears and finding ways to filter out aningless noise.
He even adjusted his sitting posture, striving to see more intel through the gaps.
His position happened to be near the rear camp of the Chaotic Blade Association, where he could see many people running, unloading sothing from the carriage.
The familiar large black tubes looked identical to the batch of weapons they seized at Stone Ridge Mountain.
"Mortars, both 81 and 120, they seem to be preparing to bomb you."
Additionally, Shui Yue heard them ntioning sothing about coordinating with the artillery unit to fire together.
Shui Yue recalled that he ntioned in the elite summary reports that he saw two 155 howitzers over at Golden City. Although he felt it was absurd for these to be in the hands of bandits, it was indeed true.
"Damn, you guys better hide! These bastards are about to use 155 to bomb!"
Unable to shout a warning, Shui Yue could only send a text ssage on the channel.
"Huh?"
Red Barrel was stunned; he thought they were 5 to 6 kiloters away, Chaotic Blade Association shouldn't be able to hit them, and they had a high vantage point with a scope over a dozen kiloters.
How could he not see the enemy artillery, yet Shui Yue said the opponent is about to bomb?
Clearly, he had so misunderstanding about the killing range of modern weapons; even the 2024 howitzer could easily have a range over 30 kiloters.
It's as if you can't see them, but they've already bombarded to your face.
Whoosh—
The deadly whistling sound approached from the sky.
A 50-kilogram shell landed more than a hundred ters in front of the player's position and exploded with a blinding flash, flas, and black smoke rising instantly, sending debris soaring tens or even hundreds of ters high, brushing around like bullets.
The explosive roar and shockwave swept across the front trenches
Red Barrel only felt a buzz in his ears followed by complete silence, the whole world seed to be trembling, feeling like an earthquake, the gust scraped painfully across his face, and the scene before him was spinning, akin to the apocalypse.
What the... what the hell is this?
Is this a 155 howitzer?
If it gets a bit closer, wouldn't he be finished?
In Night City, players never experienced this level of weaponry; the closest was when Lin Miao had Mann toss that plasma magazine to blow up the Night Wanderer's tank.
But at that ti, they weren't as close to witness its power firsthand, and though the impact of plasma weapons on hitpoints is definitely higher than the howitzer, their affected range can't compare to the howitzer.
Quite a few players were directly stunned by this blast.
How could those superheroes in TV dramas survive lying under incoming shellfire?
Wildman also saw the site through Lewis's cara and imdiately shouted loudly in the channel
"Retreat! Quick retreat! This is a test-fire; large-scale shelling is imminent! Quickly get behind the mountain! Frontline players dive into cat-ears holes for cover! Quick! Quick! Quick!"
The brief dizziness and confusion were swiftly dispelled by Wildman's cries.
The players' unique high-efficiency execution and fearless attitude were evident at this mont. Even though they were awed by the howitzer's power one second, in the next, they were bending over with guns in hand, diving into pre-dug cat-ears holes in the trenches, and those farther away simply retreated to the mountain trenches, trying to stay away from the frontline.
You could say the players from Ox and Horse Construction Corporation were indeed skilled in earthwork; their dug cat-ears holes were not only spacious but reinforced with composite boards, with four to five people able to crawl inside without feeling cramped.
And after a brief pause from the explosion, the two groups from Ox and Horse quickly sped up their digging, so even operating the MT-1 with oversized military shovels to dig.
You bomb your way, we'll dig ours; anyway, the shells can't reach us.
Sure enough, as Wildman said, after the first shell missed, the artillery from Chaotic Blade Association quickly corrected the angle based on the impact point, and in less than ten seconds, six truck-mounted 155 howitzers reloaded and fired.
Just standing next to these few cannons, hearing the thunderous explosion of propellant igniting, the artilleryn's hearts nearly stopped.
It should be noted, unless under special circumstances, such as warring with other large Wandering Tribes, even Chaotic Blade Association wouldn't mobilize these big guns.
Moreover, these weren't weapons supported by Huang Ban; they were Chaotic Blade Association's own armant. The aftermath of the unified war left so much debris, more than just the Netherworld Dog Team abandoned in Dog Town; otherwise, Olivia wouldn't have six 155 howitzers on hand, and a few 120s could dominate in Evil Land a decade ago.
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