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

Upon hearing Su Ran's plan, Bai Lu's eyes lit up, and she immediately stepped forward and blurted out,

"I'll go with you."

Su Ran looked down at her, then glanced at the fourth-tier mother body that looked like a small mountain next to her, and refused without hesitation.

"no."

Bai Lu froze, her beautiful brows furrowing instantly.

Why?

"What I'm going to do is high-frequency, wide-ranging mobile guerrilla warfare, which may involve moving between several war zones in a single day."

"The cargo hold of the Xuan Nu fighter jet can't fit Little Grey and your entire monster army."

Su Ran's tone left no room for argument.

This is indeed a major flaw.

The little gray thing is too conspicuous in size; apart from large transport planes, ordinary fighter jets simply cannot fit it.

The white deer kicked away a pebble at its feet and fell silent.

But the expression on his face clearly said four words: I'm not happy.

"So I'll just stay here alone?"

Bai Lu's voice was muffled, carrying an unusual hint of girlish temper.

"This is so boring, I'm not doing it."

Seeing her like this, Su Ran was about to speak to comfort her.

"Brother Su! This is easy to handle!"

Ye Xiao was still holding a half-empty bottle of liquor, grinning carefree.

Su Ran turned to look at him.

Ye Xiao pointed directly to Zhu Jingye, who was still fast asleep inside the tent, with his thumb, and patted his chest to guarantee it.

"Send me the coordinates of all those high-level mutated beasts! Leave the decapitation work to me and Jingye!"

"You know how dedicated he is to physical recovery."

With the help of the third-order crystal core extract, I'll be able to stand up first thing tomorrow morning, and by the next day I'll be jumping around again.

He tilted his head back and took another big gulp, then wiped his chin.

"My combat power, coupled with the dedicated 'damage transfer', allows me to ignore the load and maintain my peak condition!"

As long as we don't run into any more fourth-tier monsters with brains, hunting those peak third-tier beasts should be a piece of cake.

"Brother Su, please let us have some fun!"

Su Ran pondered for a moment.

Ye Xiao's suggestion was not unfounded; the individual combat capabilities of this combination had indeed reached their current peak.

Seeing that Su Ran did not refute, Ye Xiao immediately turned to Bai Lu and expressed his thoughts.

"Brother Su, you take this newly recruited monster legion and go find those front lines that are being fiercely attacked by the beast horde."

His words were reasonable and well-founded, and there was no hint of joking in them.

"Those heavily fortified, meat grinder-like battlefields are the best testing grounds for the Warcraft legions!"

"Your presence will be a good opportunity for the garrison troops in all the major war zones of Great Xia to see just how powerful the trump cards our Awakened Headquarters holds are!"

Upon hearing this, Bai Lu's previously tense face instantly brightened, and she visibly relaxed.

She didn't speak, but stared intently at Su Ran with her clear, cold eyes, her gaze full of expectation.

Ye Xiao took a half step closer, staring at the majestic fourth-tier hellhound in the distance, his tone revealing undisguised envy.

"To be honest, seeing the white deer ride this thing down from the sky today, charging into the beast herd and killing its way in and out seven times, was fucking awesome!"

That's way cooler than piloting a cold, hard mech.

Ye Xiao swallowed hard, his face filled with longing.

"If I ever encounter a large-framed, fiercely temperamental mutant tiger or bear, I'd love to catch one and ride it for a while!"

Su Ran was so angry she laughed.

"Aren't the Cheng Ying mechs enough for you to pilot?"

Su Ran laughed and scolded, then her eyes turned serious.

"Alright. The task of pulling out the nails all over the world is now entrusted to you and Jingye."

Once Jingye wakes up, we'll immediately set off to carry out the decapitation mission.

Remember, if you encounter unforeseen circumstances, don't try to fight them head-on; if you can't win, call for air support.

Seeing Su Ran nod, Ye Xiao chuckled with delight.

"Alright! Mission accomplished!"

After saying that, he turned around and ran briskly towards the mecha maintenance area.

Su Ran turned her head and met Bai Lu's gaze again.

"Let's go, Bai Lu, let's go together."

He made the final decision and issued the order.

"We're taking Little Grey and the Warcraft Legion to fight a frontal battle."

The corners of Bai Lu's mouth curved into an almost imperceptible smile, and she simply nodded.

"it is good."

……

Kunlun Base, Central Hall.

The holographic globe on the dome rotates silently, its surface covered with countless flashing red dots.

Li Guodong stood in front of the control panel, holding a chipped enamel mug.

The jar was filled with the strongest tea leaves, the bitter taste lingering in my mouth, barely suppressing the nerve pain caused by consecutive all-nighters.

"Beep! Beep! Beep!"

In the lower left corner of the main screen, an encrypted communication request with extremely high privileges popped up.

Location: Great Lakes region of North America.

"Bring them in."

Li Guodong took a sip of strong tea.

The screen flickered for two seconds, then the image froze.

Old Luke's face appeared on the big screen.

His eyes were sunken, his chin was covered with messy gray stubble, and he looked utterly exhausted and defeated.

"Director Li, good evening."

Old Luke spoke dryly, his voice mixed with static noise from the signal transmission.

"This is probably our last call for some time to come."

"To make a long story short, President Luke, how's the situation over there?"

Li Guodong placed the teacup on the control panel.

"Huangshi can't be suppressed anymore."

Old Luke swallowed hard, his Adam's apple bobbing violently.

"The twelve large underground bunkers controlled by the Free Beacon Federation have all been physically locked down."

The airtight door was reinforced according to Da Xia's drawings, and the life support system and internal circulation filter tower were operating at full power.

All federal survivors have been moved to extremely deep underground bunkers.

He moved the camera and aimed it at a geological monitoring instrument next to him.

The image is full of large red spots and noise.

"The pressure in the magma chamber beneath the main crater of Huangshi has exceeded the standard by five times."

The surface temperature exceeded 75 degrees Celsius. Waterways dried up, and vegetation spontaneously combusted.

Old Luke turned the camera back to his face, his eyes bloodshot.

"The most terrifying thing is those monsters. Tens of millions of mutated creatures have all gone mad."

The high temperatures, instead of driving them away, acted like a deadly aphrodisiac, drawing them in droves to the crater.

He gave two dry laughs, which sounded even worse than crying.

"Daxia's space-based satellites should have captured it, right?"

That scene... it was like God opening the gates of hell!

"I saw it."

Li Guodong's expression remained unchanged, but his voice was cold and hard.

The thermal image transmitted back by the space-based satellite was right next to him. Outside the reddish-purple heat source area in the heart of North America, there were dense patches of black dots.

Even the information received by the Free Beacon Federation was lagging behind that of the Great Xia Central Government.

"Seven main cables of the shallow communication base station, located 30 meters underground, were just broken by the rock strata. Our signal won't last much longer."

Old Luke took a deep breath and made a praying gesture.

"This is the last briefing to Daxia for now. In a few hours, the North American defense zone will be completely cut off."

The only sound in the lobby was the operation of the exhaust fans.

Everyone understands what the word "out of contact" means in the apocalypse.

An isolated island. A steel island buried underground.

"How long will the supplies last you?" Li Guodong asked in a deep voice.

"Rations are distributed according to quotas, and if the water circulation system doesn't collapse, we can survive for six months."

Old Luke stared directly at the screen and gave a deadline.

"Once the volcanic ash subsides and the surface radiation levels drop to a safe level, we will reopen the airtight doors."

"We will restore communication with Daxia as soon as possible."

"it is good."

Li Guodong nodded, without any unnecessary bureaucratic jargon, "Great Xia wishes you good luck."

"Thank you for the assistance from Great Xia during this time. May the glory of Great Xia endure forever."

Old Luke took a deep breath and finally spoke.

Communication was cut off.

The number of snowflakes on the screen suddenly increased, accompanied by a piercing whistling sound, and the screen went completely black.

On the holographic globe, the last few flashing dots of light on the North American plate also went out.

Li Guodong picked up the teacup again.

Beside him, Lao Chen, the head of the geological monitoring team, strode over with a stack of creased paper reports.

Since the supercomputer screen is too large to view, Lao Chen is used to printing out the key data.

"Chief! The latest model simulation results are in!"

Old Chen spread the report on the control panel, pointing to a parabola that soared almost vertically.

"Based on seismic wave feedback and crustal stress calculations, a large area of ​​rock structure beneath the main crater of Huangshi has collapsed."

Old Chen pushed up his black-rimmed glasses, which had slipped down to the bridge of his nose.

"Countdown, no more than twelve hours."

"Has the scale been determined?" Li Guodong stared at the parabola.

"The VEI index is conservatively estimated at level 8. A supervolcano eruption."

The veins on the back of Old Chen's hand bulged, and his tone conveyed the unique reverence of someone who works in geology.

"A thousand cubic kilometers of ejecta will directly penetrate the troposphere and rush into the stratosphere."

These high concentrations of sulfur dioxide and volcanic dust will travel around the Earth with the westerly winds.

Within three days, the entire North American continent will be completely obscured.

Within two weeks, volcanic ash will spread globally through atmospheric circulation.

Old Chen drew a large circle on the map with a red pen, encompassing the entire Pacific Ocean and the Northern Hemisphere.

"Those millions of mutated beasts that ran to fill the crater couldn't even make a splash; they were all burned to glass shards."

This is good news, but the problem lies in the secondary disasters following the eruption.

"Stop with the nonsense, just tell me the impact on the Great Xia mainland!"

Li Guodong tapped the metal tabletop.

"Temperatures are plummeting! This will create a nuclear winter effect that lasts for months!"

Old Chen gave his conclusion.

"Volcanic ash is blocking out sunlight, and the global average temperature is expected to drop by one to three degrees Celsius within a month."

Our Great Xia is located in the Northern Hemisphere, and November is already the ninth month of winter. The next three months will be very difficult to endure.

Extreme blizzards will become the norm.

He turned to a page of the report and continued listing the data.

"The greenhouses in the agricultural base urgently need to have their insulation layers thickened, otherwise crops will freeze to death on a large scale."

With 1.4 billion people to feed, the energy consumption for heating... will at least double!

Upon hearing this, Li Guodong felt his breath catch in his throat.

This is nature reshuffling the deck.

Thousands of top scientists worked day and night in the laboratory, and supercomputers poured computing power into the process at any cost, but even so, humanity was still helpless in the face of such plate-scale geological movements.

Humans are not even parasites compared to the Earth.

"Go and make the arrangements. Issue the weather warning to all war zones and agricultural logistics departments."

Cold-weather supplies are being supplied freely, energy reserves are under enhanced management, and priority is being given to greenhouses and frontline troops.

Li Guodong waved his hand.

"clear!"

Old Chen rolled up the report, turned around, and quickly left.

Li Guodong rested his hands on the cold control panel, looking at the huge dark red area of ​​North America on the globe.

Nuclear winter, combined with volcanic ash, helped humanity eliminate tens of millions of mutated beasts in the most violent way, but it also drove the survivors to the brink of extinction.

He rubbed his aching temples. Over the past month, he had signed countless transfer orders and issued a firm command to routinely cover up nuclear weapons use.

The lives and deaths of tens of millions of people are intertwined with the tip of his pen.

The pressure was like a mountain, making his back stiff.

Just then, a very calm voice suddenly came from behind.

"Guodong..."

His voice wasn't loud, and he didn't speak quickly.

With a hoarse voice from not speaking for a long time, every word fell clearly into Li Guodong's ears.

Li Guodong's hand, holding half a cigarette, froze in mid-air, as ash fell onto the control panel.

He quickly turned his head.

Five meters away, an elderly man wearing a faded Zhongshan suit stood there.

The old man had a full head of white hair, and the wrinkles on his face were a little deeper than they had been a month ago.

Those eyes, however, were surprisingly bright, revealing a serene understanding of the vicissitudes of life.

Li Guodong's mind went blank for a moment.

One month and five days.

Thirty-five days in total!

The highest-level red hotline of the Great Xia Dynasty has always been in a state of absolute silence.

All the generals believed that their commander was planning some earth-shattering scheme, and even the hot-tempered general Zhang Xiao didn't dare to knock on the door.

Today, the door opened.

Before Li Guodong could react, the old man walked with his hands behind his back to the large holographic sand table.

"Come on, tell me about it."

The old man's gaze swept over the dense red lines of battle on the sand table, his tone as gentle as if he were having a casual conversation.

"How has the global situation changed in the past month? How far has our Great Xia's front line advanced?"

The hairs on Li Guodong's back stood on end.

He quickly stubbed out his cigarette, took a deep breath, put his legs together, and straightened his back.

The soldier's inherent qualities were fully restored in that instant.

"Yes, sir!"

Li Guodong straightened his back and put his legs together.

The old man walked to the control panel and casually found a seat to sit down.

He pointed to the opposite seat, his tone gentle yet carrying an undeniable air of authority.

"Sit down and talk. Focus on the important points."

Li Guodong pulled up a chair and sat down.

Without any unnecessary movements, he directly adjusted the holographic sand table to a global perspective.

Li Guodong clicked on South America and several highlighted overseas areas.

"For the past month, the strategic command has been in full control. We've changed our tactics."

In response to the identified mutated beast horde numbering in the tens of millions, the ground-based protracted warfare was abandoned, and the Rocket Force directly launched a targeted nuclear strike.

More than eighty strategic nuclear warheads have been launched so far. High-risk areas in South Asia, Latin America, and parts of Africa have been completely flattened.

The old man looked at the few charred patches on the sand table, tapped his knee twice with his finger, and then spoke.

"continue."

"The Great Xia Expeditionary Force, together with its overseas allies, is currently advancing on several main battlefronts, all of which are in a state of expansion."

Li Guodong frowned and continued his report.

"But the progress... has visibly slowed down."