Chapter 1: Monsters of the Dead City

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Southern Huaguo, 2025.

“Damn it, where the hell have they brought me?”

Chen Jian raised his VECTOR 23 binoculars, staring at the unfamiliar city before him, his entire being sinking into the bottomless depths of doubt.

He wasn’t alone in this confusion; his teammates beside him wore equally grave expressions.

Shen Yue, the radio operator, tried once more to activate the radio, cycling through every channel he could in vain, before finally coming to a conclusion.

“All communication with HQ has been cut off. Not even the LF longwave frequencies are responding.”

“All satellites are out of contact, including both Beidou and GPS.”

“Using the sextant for navigation and calculating by latitude and longitude, we should be about a kilometer outside Chuansha’s urban area.”

“But obviously, this city is nothing like the Chuansha we know.”

When he finished, Chen Jian nodded slowly.

In truth, it took little effort to reach that conclusion.

The city ahead of them couldn’t possibly be Chuansha, nor did it resemble any other large city in their memory.

None of the major cities he knew, especially those within the borders, could ever be as wild and overgrown, as derelict and desolate, as this.

The strangest part was that, whether judging by the surrounding landscape or the Xiang River flowing through the area, this place unmistakably matched Chuansha.

So what had gone wrong?

Chen Jian glanced back at the other three team members, each face mirroring his own bewilderment.

Clearly, none of them could figure out how a simple field training exercise could have devolved into such chaos—everything was normal when they set out, but now everything was amiss.

The unfamiliar environment weighed heavily on Chen Jian, and the only thing giving him a sliver of security was the 191 pistol in his hand, fully loaded with live rounds.

He lowered his binoculars and flipped down the Type-20 quad-tube thermal fusion night vision goggles attached to his helmet, scanning the city ahead for a moment before speaking:

“I can’t see anything.”

“He Shuo, can you see anything from your side?”

Hearing the question, He Shuo, the sniper, lifted his face from the thermal sight and shook his head slowly.

“No active heat sources detected so far.”

“No lights. No heat signatures. This city… it’s a dead city.”

At those words, a chill ran through the entire squad.

Each of them realized the gravity of their situation, yet even under this extreme pressure, Shen Yue managed a wry chuckle.

“I can finally believe this isn’t some elaborate GZ conspiracy.”

“No matter how capable they are, even they couldn’t evacuate an entire city overnight.”

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Shen Yue’s words made the others laugh as well.

Indeed, just hours ago, when they first noticed the lost signals and disrupted comms, they’d assumed it was yet another sudden confrontation drill.

But now it was clear—this was something else entirely.

“So there are only two possibilities now,” mused Lei Jie, the breacher at the flank.

“Either the enemy attacked while we were training and managed to take out an entire city within twenty-four hours without us even noticing, or… we’ve crossed over to somewhere else. This is no longer Earth—or at least, not our era. So, which seems more likely to you?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” Chen Jian replied without hesitation. Hearing this, the others even seemed to relax a little.

Each of them was a highly trained special operative, used to adapting to the unexpected far more than ordinary people.

What they feared most was not the unfamiliar, but a hopeless dead end.

Clearly, this wasn’t a dead end.

After a brief pause, Chen Jian spoke again:

“Prepare to move closer to the city. We need to gather valuable information and understand what’s going on.”

“I’ll take point. Lei Jie, cover the flank at thirty meters. Shen Yue, follow Lei Jie and establish electromagnetic shielding. He Shuo, hang back a hundred meters and observe.”

“Objective: secure the tallest building ahead, then spread out and establish a defensive perimeter as soon as we enter.”

“Move out!”

At his command, everyone sprang into action.

Chen Jian gripped his 191 assault rifle, equipped with an HM3X sight, and carried a heavy LG-6 semi-automatic grenade launcher slung over his shoulder.

These weapons were intended for live-fire target practice after the drill, but now, it was clear there would be no targets.

Perhaps, these weapons might soon have to face a new kind of enemy.

That thought flashed through Chen Jian’s mind, only to be quickly dismissed.

He pressed forward, not moving particularly fast, advancing steadily while using the real-time data from his Type-18 AR smart tactical goggles to keep track of his teammates’ positions.

Though all satellite navigation systems had failed, the IFF longwave triangulation module in their gear still displayed their approximate locations in real time, allowing Chen Jian to focus more on the unknown ahead.

Starting from their previous position, the squad took seven minutes to advance to within five hundred meters of the target building.

Chen Jian’s breathing quickened, his gun hand starting to ache from tension.

Still, there was nothing to see in the night vision. Raising his hand, he made a gesture; in an instant, the squad’s personal PADs used image recognition to decode the signal and relay it to the others’ visors.

The four-man squad silently shifted formation. Chen Jian advanced, Shen Yue and Lei Jie spread out to the sides, while He Shuo followed right behind, forming a wedge-shaped assault line.

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Their pace quickened. After a final check confirming no abnormalities, they rushed toward the target building.

Two hundred meters.

Chen Jian flicked the safety off his 191, moving quickly with his rifle at the ready.

One hundred meters.

He could already see the entrance to the building and the desolate, ruined street laid bare before him.

Lei Jie and Shen Yue each took control of a side of the street. According to their plan, Chen Jian was to breach the door next.

But just then, a sudden, jarring crash shattered the silence.

Bang!

Everyone froze, weapons raised, instantly alert. At the same moment, the counter-sniper radar automatically identified the unfamiliar noise and marked its origin on their visors in milliseconds.

Chen Jian swung his rifle toward the source of the noise. Through his thermal fusion goggles, night turned to day.

“Something fell—middle floors of that residential block, a hundred and fifty meters away,” came He Shuo’s voice from behind.

“A big sofa, dropped from the rooftop.”

“There might be someone up there!”

“On alert!” Chen Jian ordered, gripping his foregrip tightly.

Almost as his words left his lips, another barely audible sound followed.

This time, everyone’s eyes were fixed precisely on the source.

And then, they all stood frozen.

“What the hell is that?” He Shuo’s horrified question crackled through the headset. Chen Jian didn’t respond. Instead, he dropped into a crouch, finger tensed on the trigger, ready to shoot.

Meanwhile, Shen Yue had already hit the ground, deploying the tripod for the 201 general-purpose machine gun.

Everyone understood—whatever was on the other side was an enemy.

Because what came barreling toward them was a monster over three meters tall, its body covered in keratinous spikes, its legs jointed backwards like a mantis, leaping across the ground in eerie silence and terrifying speed, charging straight at them!

Chen Jian squeezed the trigger, shouting,

“Open fire!”