As the mortar squad arrived, the team that had yet to engage in battle hit the road.
They followed the border between Kongse and Yin Country, traversing the entire city, and circled around the decoy town built by Tiantai Pharmaceutical in the suburbs, approaching the shelter from the south.
All along the way, the soldiers followed the vehicles on foot. To prevent the largely decimated infantry from escaping or turning against them, Moby Dick deliberately had the bodyguards’ SUV trail at the end of the column.
However, no one complained about the trouble caused by Wei Tianyang. Both Yaha and Moby Dick knew that if these people were a set of playing cards, then the fighters of Red were limited-use AOE, Yaha was the endurance, other people in the Black House were support, and Wei Tianyang was the main core C.
As for these soldiers, they were just soldiers, purely expendable and human shields.
Wei Tianyang sat in the passenger seat of the van, his body covered in blood, wiping his right arm with a cloth, which caused immense psychological pressure to the new driver beside him.
The recent slaughter had secretly labeled him in everyone’s minds as a "psychopath prone to intermittent fits of murderous rage."
Moby Dick looked at the black van filled with semi-finished products through the rearview mirror, his expression dark.
"Ishmael... when I find the opportunity... I will finish you... I will finish you... Fuck... You think you can be dignified in front of me? You think you can do whatever you want? You’re the first one, Ishmael... but also the last!" He gritted his teeth, his mind already envisioning numerous cruel tortures.
"Once Tiantai Pharmaceutical’s presence in Chicken Snake Country is completely eliminated, once we have used you up, we will kick you out... Then, all of you... all of you... I will burn all of you alive, oh... no, that Yaha, I will slowly assault her in front of you, I will let you watch as I slowly destroy her... Then, I will let the real Superpower Special Forces slowly kill you..."
Moby Dick took a deep breath, pulled a finely crafted iron cigarette case from his pocket, and lit a cigarette for himself.
Without a word, the convoy entered the wilderness, and finally, a light rain began to fall. When the shelter, built upon black muddy ground, appeared on the horizon, the rain had intensified.
Everyone dismounted and walked, Moby Dick included. For concealment, none could use umbrellas, so they all had to wear muddy camouflage raincoats.
They had walked for less than a few minutes when a river of black wastewater appeared before them. This was the contaminated water created by the production of Black Medicine and neutralizers, stretching from the distant horizon and rendering the soil it touched barren, killing any crops. Thus, each Heavenly Fallen Objects Shelter was surrounded by extensive wilderness.
The mortar squad, under the supervision of three bodyguards, moved to ambush from the high ground west of the shelter, while the infantry approached from the front across the undulating black land, with the semi-finished products following behind. Once inside the building, it would be their moment to shine.
Before that, fighters would first perform an airstrike, followed by multiple rounds of continuous bombardment by the mortar team. Two helicopters would also appear at the right moment, using heavy machine guns to mow down any emerging enemies.
Under the cover of this artillery, the infantry and the semi-finished products would begin their assault and infiltrate the interior of the building.
Moby Dick only needed to watch from the rear. When the battle was over, he would enter to identify the location of the Heavenly Fallen Objects Shelter sphere and take over the entire building’s system, stealing Tiantai Pharmaceutical’s relevant research data. Then, he would gleefully call for backup from Red Pharmaceutical to transfer the Heavenly Fallen Objects back.
He imagined all this and chuckled audibly, but there was a tough battle ahead.
Three scouts were sent out to reconnoiter; they returned only half an hour later, simply shaking their heads.
The delay in engaging made Moby Dick slightly irritated.
"That kind of building typically has no more than 50 guards, mostly research groups, doctors, cleaners, etc... Despite appearing large, 70% of the space is dedicated to the shelter spheres and the morgue," he said to the temporary team leader positioned within the infantry line.
Moby Dick knew the layout of the shelter like the back of his hand as, after all, every pharmaceutical company’s shelter was the same.
This was not due to laziness; the structure, supported by iron pillars like an hourglass with the shelter material placed inside a vacuum sphere and suspended by chains, was the result of decades of iterations for the best scientific arrangement for preserving and researching Heavenly Fallen Objects.
"That building looks too quiet from the outside. The scouts said, it seems like there’s no one inside," the team leader shook his head and said.
"Of course, it looks empty from the outside! Do you know why? Because the fucking place has air conditioning! It even has vending machines selling proletarian poor man’s sweet water like Coke and free Wi-Fi! Only a moron would stand outside," Moby Dick angrily retorted.
The team leader’s face darkened, but seeing Watson by his side, he restrained himself.
"All you need to do is point this device at the top platform of that building, and the fighters will come and bomb the shit out of them, then we can go in! Understand?!" Moby Dick shouted.
"Maybe your intelligence is wrong, perhaps Tiantai Pharmaceutical set up an empty fort strategy waiting for us. Seriously, why don’t you let your bodyguards go in and investigate first?" Yaha mocked at that moment.
Moby Dick wanted to lash out, raising his hand to slap Yaha, but suddenly, the image of Wei Tianyang, bloodied and sitting on the hood of a jeep, flashed through his mind, and he forcefully repressed his anger. With nowhere to put his raised hand, he ended up awkwardly scratching his head.
While they continued their dispute, Wei Tianyang had already entered objective reality.
On that chitinous land, under that bloody galaxy, he walked alone to the base of this grand building.
A year ago, he had escaped the shelter through that drainage opening. Now, he was entering it from there.
Though a year had passed, the structural similarity between the two buildings was astonishing. He walked through the subterranean area where beasts fought, climbed the escalator, passed through the office where he slaughtered a dozen guards, and eventually reached the basement morgue.
The interior was empty.
There wasn’t a single soul present, which meant that within the subjective reality, the building was also devoid of people.
He made his way upwards, reaching the top of the base building once again, where dozens of black steel columns shot into the sky, supporting a square steel platform mid-air. In the middle of it, several black chains held a giant white iron ball in suspension.
was a giant missing its left hand and right leg, with no head—so what was inside this iron ball?
He stared at the iron ball, pondering, when it slowly started becoming transparent.
At the same time, his heartbeat suddenly quickened, as if there was a connection between the two.
The iron ball became completely transparent, and the black chains hung unsupported in the void. At the center of those many chains, a giant orange-yellow moth appeared.
The moth was about the size of a military truck, with a corpulent sandy-brown body adorned with three pairs of similarly colored tusks. Its fuzzy head featured a pair of round, grey eyes, one of which was broken, and the other drooped.
Its wings, covered in black dotted patterns, wrapped around its body, pocked with holes of various sizes as though scorched by heavenly fire. Its swollen abdomen was viciously punctured, with the leaking juices dried up into a fossilized state, sticking to the belly.
It had been long dead, but as Wei Tianyang stared at those grey moth eyes, he still felt a surreal sensation stirring his sanity and a faint cowardice seeping into his heart.
He clutched his chest, bowing his head to catch his breath momentarily, then looked up to find the moth gone.
Next, the giant silver iron ball slowly reappeared and finally cemented itself in its rightful place.
Wei Tianyang felt an indescribable sensation in his right arm, as if insect legs were crawling up his limb.
His scalp tingled, and he instinctively swung his arm.
Whoo!
He found himself airborne.
A sudden force had appeared behind him, the world turned monochrome, and he felt like he had six arms, or perhaps, six legs undulating beneath him.
He wasn’t flying fast nor high, but it was enough to lift him from the base into mid-air.
Wei Tianyang paused, the view presented by his eyes was from either side of his body, not the front.
Oh, no... had he turned into a moth?
Falling rapidly, with a thought, a force emerged again behind him.
Whoo!
His descent stabilized, and the airflow lifted him slightly upwards.
He continuously flapped his wings, soon reaching the shelter’s top platform.
Circling the platform, he practiced turning and moving forward, noting that the heli-pad too was empty—clearly, there was nothing here except for this Heavenly Fallen Object.
It had to be a trap. Red Pharmaceutical’s sudden attack plan on this shelter had leaked, and Tiantai Pharmaceutical had laid an ambush, waiting for everyone to enter.
He landed on the platform, wanting to leave subjective reality.
Just as he thought this, and before he could revert to human form or use the neutralizer and the tiny ritual of "blood implement," the surroundings instantaneously shifted.
In human form, he found himself on the helipad at the top of this building, pouring rain drenching him, reminding him that this was the real world!
Wei Tianyang realized...
This moth had endowed him with the ability to shift between two realities at will!
He tried to turn into a moth in the subjective reality again but failed.
Hmm... he could only fly as a moth in the objective reality.
Now, he could switch into objective reality whenever, flying as a moth, then switch back out, essentially granting him the high-mobility ability of "teleportation"...
Though not too fast, it was enough.