In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

The horizon.

A dark, overwhelming horde of corpses pressed in.

The roar drowned out the engine's rumble.

Zhao Tiejun, holding up his binoculars, gave a loud order.

"Fire."

Behind the Great Xia position.

Three hundred PHL-191 box rocket launchers raised their launch tubes high.

The firelight pierced the gray sky.

"Swish, swish, swish!"

Tens of thousands of rockets, trailing long plumes of flame, transformed into a torrential meteor shower, hurtling into the center of the zombie horde in parabolic arcs.

"Boom! Boom! Rumble!!!"

The earthquake trembled incessantly.

The high-temperature blast wave flattened all the ruins and buildings along the way.

In the epicenter of the explosion, tens of thousands of zombies were instantly vaporized.

The front row of Type 99A main battle tanks began to roar.

"Bang! Bang!"

The 125mm smoothbore cannon spewed fire, precisely targeting the high-level mutants that were trying to break through the fire net.

In the trenches, the auxiliary soldiers watched the devastating scene unfold before them.

They all had blank stares.

The five rounds of salvo have ended.

The city ruins ahead had been razed to the ground, and the stench of burning flesh drifted into the trenches with the wind.

"Assisting troops! All-out assault!"

Chen Feng drew his sidearm, pointing the muzzle forward.

"Enter the city and wipe out the remaining enemy! The more you kill, the more points you gain! Anyone who retreats even half a step will die!"

Jacques gritted his teeth and was the first to leap out of the trench with his gun.

"Crystal Core Exoskeleton! My thousand points! My exoskeleton! Don't fucking try and take it from me!"

The burly man with the scar ran and roared.

"Scarface, advance with the team! Maintain formation!"

Jacques shouted from behind, his face ashen, "Damn it! You mob have no military discipline whatsoever!"

Deep within the ruins, the surviving mutated beasts eked out a living.

A grotesque zombie with half its body charred protruded from behind the broken wall and lunged at Jacques.

Jacques raised his gun and fired, but in his haste, he missed.

The sharp claws approached his throat.

At this critical moment, a tactical machete slashed diagonally from the side, directly severing the zombie's head.

The scarred, burly man kicked the corpse aside and skillfully dug out the crystal core.

"This one's on me. Your aim is terrible."

Jacques, panting, said, "...Thank you."

"Useless coward who only knows how to hide underground! He'll still be useless if he comes out!"

The burly man walked forward without looking back.

"Stay close! Don't fucking hold me back from earning points!"

Under the threat of death and the lure of resources, internal conflicts among humanity were forcibly suppressed.

They had only one thought in their minds: kill more mutated monsters, earn Great Xia points, and survive!

To advance.

Suppression.

Further progress is needed.

In just half a month, the Western Front Army Group of the Great Xia swept across the Central European Plain.

The size of the auxiliary troops expanded exponentially, from 100,000 to 800,000.

mid-October.

A low-pressure, lead-gray cloud layer.

Zhao Tiejun's command vehicle was parked on the high ground.

Ahead lay the outline of a grand yet dilapidated city.

Paris.

The Great Xia army and foreign auxiliary troops set up camp 200 kilometers outside the city.

Zhao Tiejun stared at the satellite reconnaissance footage, his brow furrowed.

In the image, the metal frame of the Eiffel Tower is covered with countless calluses.

The Seine River turned into a dark red river of blood, its channels teeming with mutated creatures tearing each other apart.

"Frontline reconnaissance company, report the specific data," Zhao Tiejun said in a low voice.

The adjutant opened the report and began speaking quickly.

"Commander, the density of the zombie horde in Paris exceeds any we've encountered before. Conservative estimates put the number at over five million."

"It is specifically noted that a large-scale swarm of mutated corpse vultures has been discovered on the Eiffel Tower. The number is estimated to exceed ten thousand."

The holographic projection then magnified the image of the Eiffel Tower proportionally.

Dense shadows swirled around the spire, like a persistent dark cloud.

His voice was strained, and his fingers tapped rapidly on the control panel.

"Their body length generally exceeds three meters, and their wingspan reaches five meters. Their feathers have undergone metallic mutation."

Zhao Tiejun's brows furrowed into a tight knot.

A million-strong horde of zombies on land is easy to defeat.

PHL-191 rocket artillery bombarded the area, Type 99A main battle tanks pushed forward, and with nearly 10,000 auxiliary troops providing support, it was like a bulldozer passing through.

But those that fly in the sky are a different matter.

"How many Crystal Core Radar Vehicles did you bring?" Zhao Tiejun asked.

"Only twenty vehicles are allocated to the front line."

The chief of staff opened the data panel,

"The coverage is insufficient. Conventional fire control radar cannot lock onto these highly mobile, high-energy-level mutated creatures."

"If these ten thousand carrion vultures are startled and startle the camp, they will scatter in a vast, overwhelming manner..."

The chief of staff didn't continue.

Zhao Tiejun knew perfectly well what was going on.

The million-strong contingent was located just 200 kilometers outside the city.

If these ten thousand mutated monsters were to charge into the position, it would be a one-sided massacre.

The morale that had been built up would collapse in an instant.

"We must annihilate them in one fell swoop."

Zhao Tiejun issued a death order: "Uproot them completely; we must not allow them to take to the air and form an organized assault."

A deathly silence fell inside the command vehicle.

The operations staff looked at each other in bewilderment.

"Commander..."

A senior staff officer stepped forward and lowered his voice.

"Physical firepower alone cannot wipe out a flight cluster of this size instantly with conventional yields. Unless... nuclear weapons are used."

The moment those words were spoken, the temperature inside the car seemed to plummet to freezing.

"no."

Zhao Tiejun was resolute, leaving no room for negotiation.

Since the outbreak of the apocalypse, the Great Xia Expeditionary Force has swept across the Eurasian continent without ever using nuclear weapons.

He pointed to the edge of the holographic map and shouted angrily.

"This is not an isolated island in the sea. The Central European Plain connects to the western advance corridor of Bactria."

A nuclear explosion can kill most monsters due to its high temperature and shockwave.

However, residual nuclear radiation is a deadly poison to humans.

"Unless it's an isolated island in the ocean, where bombing won't cause any radiation monsters to emerge, nuclear weapons can only be used as a last resort on the continental shelf."

Even before the expedition began, Su Ran had clearly pointed out the limitations of nuclear weapons.

The top management of Daxia had already listed it as the last option.

"Don't forget the pre-war briefing by Advisor Su."

Zhao Tiejun's stern gaze swept over the crowd.

"Alienated organisms are immune to radiation, and some individuals can even become mobile sources of radiation in high-radiation environments. This is like drinking poison to quench thirst."

The staff officer lowered his head. "It was my oversight."

"Nuclear weapons should be reserved as a last resort."

Zhao Tiejun straightened up, took a deep breath, and focused his gaze back on the camp layout map.

"Logistics Department, what's the current status of those hundred-plus foreign Awakened individuals transferred with the military?"

"Rest and recuperate in Camp 3."

"Retrieve the data."

Zhao Tiejun watched the scrolling data stream on the screen.

"There are a few fire and lightning types among them, and their individual destructive power is quite high."

Go ask them if they can wipe out all ten thousand beasts on the tower at once.

The chief of staff looked up, his eyes lighting up.

"You mean, send them on annihilation missions?"

"That's right! You raise an army for a thousand days, but only use it for one. The food in Great Xia isn't that delicious."

Zhao Tiejun issued the order, his tone stern and unyielding.

"Anything that can cause harm to the group should be brought out for a test."

"Have the technical department investigate and see if they can assemble a strategic-level decapitation team to take down those beasts on the tower."