Chapter 68: Into a Post-Apocalyptic Superpower Novel, Day 20

Chapter 68: The Twentieth Day in the Post-Apocalyptic Superpower Novel

Deafening sirens blared, snapping the entire Blazing Fortress awake.

High on the walls, the first line of defense far from the base hummed with energy as various weapons systems activated, fully prepared.

Every single fighter snapped into motion like clockwork gears, rushing to their designated battle stations according to the pre-planned protocols. The air was thick with the metallic smell, gunpowder, and a suffocating feeling like a storm was about to break.

The eastern wall, facing that ominous forest, was one of the hardest-pressed sections.

Ji Zishi led the Second Squad, alongside three other squads, tasked with holding this position.

Perhaps sensing the activation of defenses, the rumbling from underground grew louder. The battle exploded the instant the defense system was fully up!

Just as An Yi had warned, this wave of attack didn’t come from the surface—it came from underground.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Several hundred meters in front of the wall, the ground violently burst open into countless holes. Massive, segmented drill worms, their bodies coated in viscous corrosive fluids, burst forth. They opened circular mouths ringed with teeth and spewed torrents of thick, green, corrosive slime toward the wall’s foundation!

Sizzle—!

The sturdy concrete foundation instantly began to smoke, the surface quickly corroding and melting away!

“Open fire! Target those worms! Lay down suppressing fire!” Ji Zishi’s voice rang out through the loudspeakers across the battlefield.

Heavy weapons spat flame; explosives detonated among the swarm.

But these worms were tough and resilient. Even when blown apart, their remaining segments still spewed corrosive fluids, making them a royal pain to handle.

Next, from the holes, countless translucent, jellyfish-like beings—poison spore sacs—drifted out like phantoms!

They drifted lightly, their bodies glowing with an ominous green light.

“Watch out for the floaters! They self-destruct! Shoot them down from a distance!” An Yi’s calm voice rang out.

He stood at the crenellations of the wall. With a sweep of his hands, the moisture in the air instantly condensed into countless razor-sharp ice discs. They spun with eerie precision, moving as if alive, homing in on the spore sacs!

Puff! Puff! Puff!

The ice discs easily cut through the fragile outer membrane, the extreme cold instantly penetrating!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The struck spore sacs violently exploded mid-air, unleashing clouds of green poison mist. Most of it was blocked outside the wall. Only a few exploded close enough for the mist to reach the barrier, but it was quickly blown away by raised barriers and strong winds.

An Yi’s attacks didn’t stop.

He precisely controlled the moisture in the air, forming massive water vortexes that swept up countless mutated creatures of all shapes emerging from the holes, hurling them into the air.

Then—

The water vortexes instantly flash-froze into giant ice pillars connecting heaven and earth, trapping the creatures inside as frozen statues. They then shattered with a deafening crack, crumbling into dust!

When an occasional flying mutant or even a super-agile predator broke through the line of fire and leaped onto the wall, An Yi didn’t even need large movements.

A glance, and a water blade silently carved through. The mutant was eerily diced mid-air into clean chunks, as if dismantled by an invisible hand!

He was truly unstoppable – a god-killing, Buddha-slaying force.

The eastern wall section under his defense became a death zone.

He remained calm and unhurried amid the hail of bullets and blazing powers. This absolute power and control not only intimidated the mutants but also greatly boosted the morale of every soldier behind him!

“Holy crap… An Yi is just too insane…” muttered a soldier while reloading, awe in his eyes.

“Is he even human?”

“Freaking legend!”

Ji Zishi, while ferociously unleashing lightning to clear mutants, couldn’t help but repeatedly glance in An Yi’s direction.

Every time he saw An Yi’s breathtaking moves, his heart felt as if struck by something, filled with shock and an indescribable admiration.

This was the An Yi he admired – this strong!

And amid this efficient slaughter, An Yi always kept a sliver of his mind on the battlefield.

His spatial ability quietly activated, sweeping up in large swaths the frozen, severed remains—especially those of the new drill worms and spore sacs—and even some splattered samples of corrosive mucus into his space while no one was watching.

Thanks to An Yi’s warning, though the battle was fierce and the mutant assault relentless, the wall held firm under the combined efforts of An Yi, a near-invincible force, and other soldiers.

Losses were minimized. Aside from some energy and equipment consumption, casualties among personnel were extremely low.

Listening to the live comments scrolling in his ear, An Yi understood that Ji Qin’s defense on the western side was also going smoothly.

“So cool!”

“Our Ji Qin and An Yi are so cool!”

“So strong! This power feels so awesome!”

“Fight! Hell yeah!”

“...”

When the last wave of mutants shattered under concentrated fire, the eastern battle came to a close first.

The smoke hadn’t yet cleared, and the walls and ground were littered with mutant remains and ice crystals, but the defense line remained intact!

Soldiers slumped behind the crenellations, gasping for air. Their faces showed exhaustion, but also relief of survival and joy of victory.

Ji Zishi wiped the sweat and grime off his face and quickly walked to An Yi’s side.

An Yi still stood there, gazing toward the eerily silent forest. His face was a little pale—a sign of psychic exhaustion—but he still stood tall.

“Is it over?” he asked, his voice hoarse but excited.

“For now.”

An Yi withdrew his gaze, looked at him, and nodded slightly. “The western side is still fighting, but the sounds are dying down. It should be under control too.”

Ji Zishi looked at his calm profile. A tide of feelings surged in his chest. Thousands of words caught in his throat, finally coming out as just one sentence: “It was all thanks to you… An Yi.”

Without An Yi’s warning, the defense could never have been so smooth, and the losses would never have been so small.

Even the entire Blazing Fortress might have paid a devastating price.

An Yi gave a faint smile, saying nothing more.

Ji Zishi looked at An Yi’s silhouette outlined by the sunlight. His heart, still pounding from battle, began to race again with a different emotion.

He couldn’t stop himself from stepping closer: “An Yi…”

“I…” He thought of An Yi’s powerful appearance on the battlefield, and an involuntary sense of inferiority arose: “Do you think I’m useless?”

He had always thought himself quite strong, but compared to Ji Qin and An Yi… it seemed he wasn’t that strong anymore. Especially, his head wasn’t as sharp as theirs either…