Chapter 86: Chapter 86: Blood Demon’s Welcome Gift
This lengthy speech, coupled with the final question, left Joey’s teammates silent.
They sensed Joey’s unease or, rather, fear.
After a long pause, one of the teammates finally took a deep breath and asked with some difficulty, “Joey, are you worried that the Savior, I mean Mr. Shen, won’t be able to rescue us? That shouldn’t be the case, right? The Blood Demon is so terrified of him, and he has already saved so many countries. Haven’t the news reported it?”
“I hope he can too, but this place is different from those regions, and if all our confidence is solely built on him alone, then should he fail, even slightly, all our confidence will completely collapse.” Joey showed a bitter expression.
Yes, this was his greatest worry.
In this country, from the public, to officials, to generals, to soldiers, even these Chosen Ones, no one had any confidence in defeating the Blood Demon, pinning all their hopes on that one Savior from the East.
This was undoubtedly extremely dangerous.
Just as he had just said.
Such fragile warriors, did they really have a chance to be rescued?
Could Mr. Shen really rescue them, rescue this country?
At this moment, his teammates were also at a loss for words. Before, no one had doubted it, or rather, dared to doubt it.
But now that Joey had pointed it out, fear began to spread.
They couldn’t imagine, if the arriving Savior really failed, or wasn’t as powerful as they imagined, what they would become, what this country, even this world, would turn into.
But other than praying, there seemed to be no other option.
And at this moment, Shen Hao had already entered the border of this country.
The hours of flight time were almost his and his team members’ first real rest in nearly half a month. Before, they could only use spare time to relieve tiredness briefly, which naturally couldn’t compare to now.
Now every one of them was energetic, even eager for battle.
“I never expected there would come a time when we need to rescue this country.” Song Cheng sat next to a window, looking out as if feeling quite emotional.
“Internal conflicts and external conflicts are different,” Dong Gong laughed on the side, “Speaking of which, we were once allies.”
“Tsk, tsk.” Song Cheng smacked his lips, “Not gonna lie, seeing those people on the internet begging us to come, it feels pretty good.”
Back in the day, when he was dominant on the internet, he could be considered somewhat of a critic.
It indeed felt pretty good now.
“That being said, we still need to be careful,” Cheng Youqing interjected from the side, “This place is different from ours, most people are realistic and selfish, we need to be cautious about some situations.”
“Old Cheng, you used to come here often,” Song Cheng grew more curious, “Tell us about it, I’ve only been here twice for programmer competitions.”
“What’s there to say, human interactions are just like that, impulsive yet communal,” Cheng Youqing shook his head, “I’ve met quite a few disgusting people here, but also made a good number of decent friends, regardless, it’s all better than the Blood Demon.”
Shen Hao glanced at the discussion but didn’t interject.
He just looked at Dong Gong and asked, “How much longer till we arrive?”
“About twenty-eight minutes,” Dong Gong responded, “We’ve already made contact with the ground base once, they say, everything is all right.”
Shen Hao nodded.
The chosen location was quite close to the coastal border.
It was also to ensure that they could arrive in the shortest time possible.
In reality, their arrival was a secret, only scheduled in advance with the West State and not disclosed to the public. They were also prepared to catch the Blood Demon by surprise in the first battle,
potentially clearing a major city, earning some points, announcing his arrival with a significant victory to greatly inspire the public.
However, just twenty-five minutes later, a piercing alarm suddenly sounded in the cockpit!
“We’ve been locked on! It’s missiles, lots of them!”
“What!” the members in the cabin were startled.
Dong Gong even jumped up immediately and rushed to the cockpit.
The radar information shared by the ground base clearly displayed several red dots flying towards them, all ground-launched missiles! What was worse, the origins of the missiles were completely different; they were surrounded from all sides!
“What did the people at the ground base say?” Dong Gong quickly asked.
“They said it’s the SAGE system, with over twenty launch sites malfunctioning at the same time!” the pilot clearly had made an emergency contact, “and they had no prior awareness of it!”
“SAGE, Strategic Aerospace and Aeronautics Warning Environment.” Chen Sihui also arrived in the cockpit at that moment, staring intently at the radar, she quickly said after crushing the lollipop she had been sucking in her mouth, “Deployed since 1953, it took less than thirty years to deploy over three hundred launch sites. The primary purpose of this system is national airspace defense, mainly with ground-to-air missiles. Just a few years ago, they talked about further developing SAGE II. Judging by the speed of these missiles, they should all be old models; not very fast, but still tremendously powerful—the weapon design style of that era focused on high power!”
“How about abandoning the plane and parachuting?” Liu Ruoxi suggested.
For ordinary people, parachuting at this speed meant certain death, but they were all Chosen Ones, and with Shen Hao there, protecting the two pilots was not a problem.
“Parachuting isn’t an issue,” Chen Sihui looked towards Shen Hao, “but it makes us easy targets. These launch points operate systematically; within twenty launch points there are definitely more than four hundred missiles deployed! What’s being launched now is just a small number, waiting for our subsequent response.”
More than fifty missiles were approaching rapidly, and they’d hit in no more than three minutes.
That was exactly when they started to slow down and were about to reach their destination.
It was obviously the “welcoming gift” the Blood Demon had meticulously prepared for Shen Hao.
Inside the base at that moment, chaos had completely erupted.
“What’s going on, why were these launch points activated?!” General Roger became completely enraged, his tone revealing uncontrollable fear, “Twenty-three launch points, do you know how many missiles that is! How could the Blood Demon take control of this? What? You’ve checked already? I f*ck your mother! You should be court-martialed, no, shot immediately!”
The entire military base was engulfed with the shrill sound of alarms, numerous jet pilots rushed to their aircraft, all anti-aircraft guns were activated, aimed at the sky, and even intercept missiles had already been launched, but everyone knew, it was too late!
It was simply too late!
This system was prepared for the enemy planes that swarmed into their territory!
The number was overwhelmingly high!
It was once claimed to guarantee absolute aerial safety for the citizens!
But now, it brought immense fear to everyone involved!
Many soldiers, at this moment, helplessly looked up, they could even see those white trails cutting through the clouds in the distant blue sky!
All the arrows were pointed at their greatest Savior!
That was the Savior they all had been longing for countless times!
Even Joey and the Chosen Ones around him, looking up at the sky right now, were engulfed by immense fear.
They remembered the words Joey had said.
They could not imagine, if that Savior fell here today, what their country, their world would become!
Most likely, the fighting spirit of most people in their country would collapse instantly!
The whole world would cry out in sorrow!
Some people even knelt down, praying desperately for a miracle!
However, compared to their immense fear and despair, the people surrounded by the piercing alarm in the plane were relatively calm.
Because Shen Hao was also calm.
“This welcoming gift is not bad.” He said lightly, “Just not bad.”
“What does the team leader want us to do?” Dong Gong asked.
“Do nothing, just sit tight and prepare to land according to the original plan,” Shen Hao turned and walked towards the tail, “and open the hatch for me.”
“Yes.” The pilot swallowed nervously, his tone laced with a mix of anticipation and fervor.
The missiles were now less than a minute away from impact!
Even as they began to slow down for the descent, time was further compressed!
As the hatch opened, the howling wind rushed in, and everyone watched as Shen Hao leaped out, his figure soaring high, steadying himself atop the transport plane amidst the wild wind!
They seemed to have guessed what Shen Hao was preparing to do.
Sure enough, the next moment, thunder erupted above their heads!
Even those on the ground, strained and desperate, heard the sudden thunder on a clear day, they all widened their eyes, fixated above, watching that black speck being approached by dozens of missiles!
Then, a purple lightning that even the sun’s rays couldn’t suppress flashed across the clouds and sky in an instant!
Dazzling sparks exploded in an instant!
In just a brief moment, these missiles, which were even faster than the speed of sound, were all easily detonated!
So easily that it made people feel it was just simple!
It was like watching a superpower movie that defied all logic, designed solely to stun the audience!
Everyone was completely dazed, including Joey and other Chosen Ones!
While they had long known that Shen Hao could control the Thunder and precisely strike the Blood Demon on the ground, the concept of ground-based Blood Demon and missiles speeding from all directions at multiple times the speed of sound was starkly different!