Eh? You want to try the humanoid girl's iron fist too?

The "green zone" is where the green banknote virus cannot survive.

In any case, tens of thousands of people are locked down on the island, most of them hiding in the city to better avoid the virus and vicious mobs.

These people are considered to be relatively normal in their thinking.

Besides them, there are also some special individuals who occasionally live in those abandoned high-rise buildings.

Raphael secured the counter to his waistband and protected it with the compartment where he kept his pistol magazines.

"Now that we're here, let's try to get in and take a look."

She decided not to wait any longer, climbed onto the bus lying on the side of the road, and flew over the barbed wire fence amidst the astonished gazes of passing scavengers.

Book 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 14 The Purifier

As they froze to death on the chaotic streets of a heavily contaminated area, Bertrand Philip led three agents of the "Grey Wolves" team on a final push near the Empire State Building.

One of the young men, Brian Quinn Jr., was someone Bertrand had been keeping an eye on. Quinn was 25 years old. When he first reported to the team, Bertrand immediately noticed some issues with his personality.

At Fort Drum, one morning at 6:30, Quinn was absent from assembly, so Bertrand kicked his door.

“What’s up, Chief?” Quinn asked sleepily.

"What the hell is wrong with you?! You didn't attend the assembly!" Bertrand said. "Get your training clothes on and out here right now!"

Similar mistakes kept recurring, forcing Bertrand to undergo "corrective" training. He truly couldn't understand what kind of psychological test the National Strategic Bureau had conducted, allowing even such a worthless person to be admitted.

He protested to his superiors, but they said Quinn was a perfect fit for the "North American Grey Wolves" squad and was practically the best candidate.

In addition, the allocation order has been issued, and as long as he doesn't cause any major problems, they won't consider redistribution unless Quinn voluntarily requests a transfer.

Therefore, Bertrand could only add some traditional skills, making him do push-ups, sit-ups, run laps on the training field, and sprint up hills—any kind of training that would make his body ache for days, so that he wouldn't forget the consequences of being lazy.

Bertrand knew Quinn had the potential to become a secret agent, and he loved asking questions.

After a weapons disassembly and assembly training session, everyone was dismissed, but Quinn continued practicing.

"Hey kid! Training's over."

Quinn smiled at him.

“I’m curious,” Bertrand asked with a smile, “why are you so serious about weapons?”

Quinn replied, "I don't know what others are thinking, but I'm prepared to come back alive. Although we're not soldiers who are deployed to hot zones at any time, if the system decides that we need to be deployed one day, I have to make sure it's working properly first."

Seventeen-year-old Bertrand had been tempted by drugs. As a young man, Bertrand loved trying new things and didn't seem to have any negative effects.

But when he turned 18, he began to realize that if he stayed in his hometown after graduating from high school, he would eventually end up in prison or die a violent death.

This is not just empty talk. One day, a friend of his overdosed on drugs and fell from the third-floor window of an abandoned house. Although he survived, he was left with a lifelong disability.

Not long after, Bertrand joined the army.

While receiving basic Marine Corps training at Fort Drum, Bertrand asked Quinn why he decided to join the Strategic Bureau.

Quinn replied:

“My life is a mess. You’re a white kid from a rich neighborhood who’s never seen the life of street gangs and drug dealers. I’ve lived there since I was a kid, and it’s rotten. If I don’t find a way to get out, there’s only one ending for me: to become a headless, handless, nameless corpse.”

How did they come looking for you?

"I don't know either, you know that."

Quinn remembered that he had just left community college and had gone through a lot of trouble to get a job with the Baltimore Police Department.

“When they came to me, I had only been with the police force for a year.”

Now, Bertrand no longer cares about Quinn's background, because they are walking on some of the most dangerous streets in New York. The snow there must be at least 2 inches (5 centimeters) deep, almost ankle-deep.

None of the squad members had ever been to a battlefield, so Bertrand, who had been to Syria, naturally became their leader.

For almost all agents, even those who are strong and professionally trained, walking on snow while carrying at least 80 pounds (36 kilograms) of equipment is the most severe test.

They have many things to worry about—falling down, enemies, and idiots hiding in high-rise buildings.

Those who are hiding might accidentally bump into a piece of trash, and everyone will shout "Watch out!" and scatter, grabbing their guns and ready to retaliate at any moment.

It's a painful process before you get used to it.

Two days after arriving in New York, they were tracking down a gang that used flamethrowers and guns to commit crimes. These people were utterly despicable, setting people on fire indiscriminately and even setting up improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in inconspicuous locations on the roadside.

This group of people is a bunch of lunatics.

ISAC analyzed the remaining information at the crime scene and told him and his team that the people burning things were actually blue-collar workers such as sanitation workers and cleaners in New York.

They lost everything after the major outbreak.

Subsequently, under Joe Filo's leadership, the "Purifiers" gang was formed. They firmly believed that the only way to save the city was to burn all infected or suspected infected people and objects.

These Purifiers roamed the city, and in just a few days, ISAC's cloud system received multiple reports of sightings and engagements from agents.

When the virus struck New York, the sanitation workers trapped in the city refused to sit idly by and formed the "Purifiers," determined to save themselves in an extreme and blind way.

They shouldered flamethrowers and turned city after city into scorched earth, only in this way could they eradicate patellar tendons in the cities.

At that moment, Bertrand, who was deep in thought, suddenly heard a hissing sound.

"what happened?"

“The battery might be leaking,” Quinn said to Bertrand. The infrared scope’s batteries were stacked together, filled with some kind of inert gas, and would hiss if there were any cracks.

"Check immediately."

So Quinn crouched down behind a charred car, removed the infrared scope mounted on the rail of the UMP45 submachine gun, and was about to examine it further when a beam of red light suddenly shone on the captain's cheek.

Fire, as a crucial element that brought humanity from primitive society to civilized society, possessed the property of both production and destruction, and was quickly used by humans in the military field.

What alarmed and baffled him was that this group of blue-collar workers, whose average education level was only that of a public high school graduate, had produced handcrafted individual flamethrowers. Moreover, the fuel they used for their flamethrowers was processed solidified fuel.

gasoline.

Long, scorching flames danced across the streets, turning piles of garbage and corpses along the roadside into fireballs.

They burned everything, muttering incantations, like charlatans on the street trying to swindle money:

“These streets have been infected, and to save our city, we must burn away the virus, including every trace of it, no matter the cost.”

"Shall we go to war?" Quinn asked.

His upper body was pressed against the car, and his submachine gun was already pointed at one of the rioters.

“Kill them all (leave no one alive).”

Volume 1: The World Before the Great War: Chapter 15 The Girl Who Fell From the Sky (Seeking votes and support)

As dusk approached, Zamora Markovic wanted to relax, but something felt off—like in an old movie plot where it was "too quiet, too quiet."

Suddenly, a series of gunshots and shouts rang out.

Several oval-shaped objects rolled nimbly toward them from the ground.

Boom! Boom! Something terrible has happened! He quickly lay down on the ground and looked around: What happened?

The screams of agony only began after the shock of the explosion subsided.

Things are not looking good.

Just look at the blood that has spilled onto the road; it's obvious that someone was blown to pieces.

Markovic felt very lucky; the "grenadiers" Ivan Dora and Wat Dennis, who were at the forefront, used their bodies to lure away all the strange things.

While cursing, he used his free hand to draw a cross in front of him.

Several burly men, dressed no differently from ordinary people, except that their wrists and shoulders gleamed with a faint orange-yellow light, and they held objects that Markovic was extremely familiar with.

Their movements were coordinated and efficient, and they chose cover carefully for each move.

Since the two sides are almost at bay, running away would only put them in an extremely disadvantageous situation.

"We can't back down!" he shouted. "We outnumber them, let's fight them!"

After someone stepped forward to take the lead, the Purifiers' front, which was on the verge of collapse, stabilized.

Grenadiers, who were throwing homemade incendiary bombs, frantically hurled explosives, while the "burners," clad in heavy homemade bulletproof vests and carrying heavy fuel canisters, set up their flamethrowers and spewed streams of fire at the enemy dozens of yards away.

It was only then that Markovic remembered what had been troubling him.

These people weren't police officers; the police in charge of homicide cases were long gone, and the SWAT team was too busy to even defend their own base. During his brief service, he had seen all sorts of visitors at the camp headquarters.

Officers and other ranks, infantry, and all other unnamed branches. They would wear various insignia and badges, and different shades of camouflage, but all shared common characteristics—the qualities of a soldier.

But these people have none of that.

He strongly doubted that they were the military, but there are so many special departments, who can say for sure?

At that moment, the guy over there threw out something that looked like a briefcase, which turned into an unmanned autonomous machine gun turret a few seconds later.

Da da da da...

"Damn it, who are these people?" Markovic thought. Those weren't weapons that ordinary military or police personnel could carry.

This is no small matter. The emergence of this equipment means that they can make up for the disadvantage of insufficient manpower through technology, and may even gain an advantage in equipment.

Although they used pistol bullets, the continuous hail of bullets and the clanging sound of them hitting the outer wall of the bunker were enough to terrify most people.

Even though pistol bullets are relatively weak, if enough are fired per unit of time, they can still riddle a person with bullets. This is called winning by sheer numbers.

Alright, alright, let's wait and see how long this thing can be so arrogant.

The autonomous machine gun turrets unleashed a barrage of fire in the direction of the Purifier squad, pinning the Burners down and preventing them from raising their heads.

……

The attack began.

For many agents, this was the first time in their lives they had intentionally killed one of their own. They had no idea who the enemy was, which organization they were associated with, or what their motives were.

In fact, none of this matters.

Bertrand and his "North American Grey Wolves" squad had determined the general identity of the enemy and launched their operation with an advantage in equipment and personnel quality.

The M4 assault rifle, UMP45, and M240 are their primary weapons, and no matter how terrifying the enemy's flames are, it will only render their efforts to counterattack futile.

As Bertrand returned fire, he thought to himself how great it would be to recruit snipers. Taking out fire-breathing enemies at a safe distance would make their attacks much more efficient.

In just a few days, the city's security situation has become much worse than predicted.