Armor-Piercing Munition: Face Me, Carbon-Based Monster!
Chapter 111 - 23 A Complete Hunt

Chapter 111: Chapter 23 A Complete Hunt

Half an hour later, Zhou Qin and Li Xian left with their people.

The group gathered around the supplies they brought, and after inspecting them, Lei Jie spoke:

"Actually, the stuff is pretty decent."

"Half of these over a hundred sleeve rockets are completely wasted, but the equipment inside isn’t totally destroyed."

"By dismantling the basic components of this half of the missiles and installing them on the other half, with some patching up, I estimate we can get about forty or fifty missiles."

"I also checked the 4 Typhoon Missiles sent by the Ring Chamber of Commerce, three of them have faulty infrared guidance heads."

"Although the guidance systems of the sleeve rockets and Typhoon Missiles are not compatible, in a pinch, we can make do."

"However, the explosive payload of the Typhoon Missiles is honestly too low, it’s really hard to be of much use."

"Overall, it’s this attack drone that’s the most useful."

"When fully loaded, this thing can carry up to 36 sleeve rocket missiles, it’s basically an aerial arsenal."

"That’s not bad."

Chen Jian nodded in satisfaction and then asked:

"Can this thing be repaired?"

"Hard to say."

Lei Jie grimaced and shook his head, responding:

"It’s torn apart, might even be missing components."

"But at a rough glance now, most parts are still intact."

"Anyway, I’ll give it a shot assembling it; just list down whatever is needed, and later we can either ask the Ring Chamber of Commerce, or find them elsewhere."

"I feel it should be repairable, considering the staggering amount of similar rotary-wing drones domestically, I can’t believe they’d all be destroyed, leaving none behind."

Hearing Lei Jie’s words, Chen Jian mused:

"Then we need to advance the Ring Chamber of Commerce’s mission as soon as possible."

"The remaining weapons and ammunition in the city are not much, the automatic grenade launcher only has 190 rounds left, 12 rockets, and only 15 recoilless rifles."

"There are still a lot of bullets in total, but divided among all combat personnel, there’s not even an average allowance per capita. Only the heavy machine gun and high machine bullets are relatively adequate."

"For our next hunting action, we need to make rigorous plans, and we can’t rely on suppressive fire anymore."

"In fact, our weapons are overkill in terms of lethality, with adequate preparation, we can achieve better results with minimal ammunition."

"We need to make full use of early reconnaissance—to start with this operation."

"Understood."

"Understood."

The group responded one after another, and after a moment’s pause, Chen Jian said:

"Let’s make some adjustments to the plan then."

"Shen Yue and Lei Jie will stay, organizing training for combat personnel, and coordinating with Yellow Stone for future production and reconstruction work."

"Lei Jie, Xie Liu, He Shuo will come with me to Wushan Lake for combat reconnaissance."

"Li Shi should stay as well, both to recuperate and to assist as needed."

"Once your injury heals enough for full mobility, you can join us in action again."

"Okay."

Li Shi nodded obediently, but then asked:

"Captain, my shield..."

Chen Jian awkwardly smiled and answered:

"Looking for it, still looking for it... Don’t worry, I’ll definitely find it for you—besides, you won’t need it right now... just focus on recovering."

"Got it."

Being sensible, Li Shi didn’t press further, but in his heart, Chen Jian silently raised the priority of this "minor" task.

After all, it was a promise made long ago and it’s been dragged on for too long now.

On the upcoming trip to Jinling, this matter has to be resolved for him....

....

After assigning tasks within Yellow Stone City, Chen Jian rearranged his gear, accompanied by He Shuo and three others, heading towards Wushan Lake in a cat cart.

This time, his gear has seen some changes.

Apart from the fixed recoilless rifle and two rocket launchers, he also brought along a sleeve rocket launcher, loaded with 6 still usable sleeve rockets selected by Lei Jie.

While his 191 was replaced with the 201, still kept in a fully loaded state.

The weapons carried by the other three were relatively simpler.

Likewise wearing an exoskeleton, He Shuo carried a sniper grenade and a 26 sniper with ample ammunition, plus two rocket launchers.

Xie Liu and Zeng Yi each carried a 191 and a 201 on their backs.

To ensure their mobility, most of the ammunition was shouldered by He Shuo, who would take on the role of frontline reconnaissance and enemy lure, when necessary.

The group headed south along S412, once again passing the corpse of the gigantic Qin Yuan.

However, in just one night, this colossal, once invincible monster had become a carcass for the taking.

Many wild animals gathered at its body, gnawing on its flesh, and upon witnessing this scene, Zeng Yi clicked his tongue and said:

"In a year or two, a bunch of deformed monsters will probably emerge in this area again."

"If possible, we should try to cremate the monster corpses after future battles."

"Otherwise, this cycle won’t end—how long before we can exterminate all the monsters in this world?"

"Makes sense."

Chen Jian nodded in agreement, but an inkling of doubt arose in his heart.

If the "genes" of monsters can be transmitted in such a way, how did the very first monsters come into being?

What was that near-apocalyptic disaster, really?

Instinctively, Chen Jian thought it was some kind of radiation.

Yet, its final form resembled a virus...

Very odd.

To get closer to the truth, he might have to head north, to see the Imperial City and find more detailed records left in Xiehe back then...

He gently shook his head, temporarily setting aside this somewhat distant plan, and instead said:

"Based on the information left by the Ring Chamber of Commerce, this time we have to deal with a non-standard Level 4 Monster."

"It can be handled with a small number of combatants, poses little threat to humans, isn’t very strong in battle, and isn’t even that large, reportedly only four or five meters tall."

"Wuxue Town, next to Wushan Lake, is its main target for attacks, and that’s where the Ring Chamber of Commerce encountered it."

"The area is mostly pinpointed, the only challenge is that this monster’s movements are incredibly secretive, often launching attacks by surprise and then retreating without giving any chance for direct combat."

"We have scant information and intelligence about it, we don’t know where its lair is either."

"Therefore, our first task is to find it, to pinpoint its location."

"Once its position is confirmed, then eliminate it."

"...Sounds like Monster Hunter, or Witcher 3."

He Shuo commented vaguely from the side.

"...Something like that, anyway, most of our previous fights with monsters have been encounters, but this time we may need to go through an entire process."

"This would be beneficial in enhancing our coordination. If we can successfully complete this, subsequently we could develop a set of standard operating procedures, solidify methodologies, align granularities, identify grips, consolidate underlying logic, pre-blend, and execute a set of reusable combos..."

"...Where’d you pick up all these buzzwords?"

He Shuo looked at Chen Jian with mixed amusement and disbelief, asking:

"Have you been freelancing? Doing corporate training?"

"Watched too many movies."

Chen Jian replied nonchalantly and continued:

"No matter what, we need to reach Wuxue Town first."

"Zeng Yi, are you familiar with this town?"

"Familiar."

Zeng Yi nodded, and replied:

"It’s a necessary stopping point on the route from Jinling to Han Shui City. Before the monsters in the Han Shui Relics were cleared, it was the last stop along the entire trade route."

"Business activity is frequent, but the population isn’t large."

"Probably due to the pressure from the Blood Skull, in recent years, Wuxue Town’s population has been moving towards the northwest, to Caohe and Xishui."

"However... I reckon this trend is about to reverse soon."

"Why?"

Chen Jian asked curiously.

"Because we’ve almost wiped out the Water Ghosts that were harassing them."

"Captain, don’t you remember? When we were surrounded in Yellow Stone City, the first wave we fought against was the Water Ghosts."

"If it weren’t for us nearly eradicating them at that time, the Ring Chamber of Commerce’s first task for us would’ve been to clear the Water Ghosts..."

"....Makes sense."

Chen Jian didn’t anticipate this connection between the two events.

Though, this indirectly reflects Zeng Yi’s familiarity with the logic of the wasteland’s operations.

Moreover, he has a good mind for this.

This could be someone worth focusing training efforts on.

Chen Jian pondered silently over the "Personnel Development Plan" in his mind, while the cat cart continued to move forward.

Getting closer to Wuxue City, this small town threatened by beasts gradually revealed its true form from within the river’s mist...