The Ultimate War Of The Apocalypse
Chapter 557 - 550: Some Things

Chapter 557: Chapter 550: Some Things

The enemy dared not sabotage the fuel storage tanks.

Gao Yuan realized this truth in a very short time, and then, he immediately decided to destroy the storage tanks.

The explosives were all set up, and now, all that was needed was to replace the remote detonation fuse, which was rendered inoperative, with a timed fuse.

Gao Yuan took out an electronic fuse, and as he set the time, instinctively, one could say, he pressed the rapid setting button and then inserted the fuse directly into the C4.

Ten seconds would be enough.

Gao Yuan started running towards the adjacent oil tank.

Although the tanks were adjacent, they were at least fifty meters apart, which was to prevent a fire in one tank from quickly destroying the others.

Gao Yuan took out another fuse and held it in his hand as he ran toward the next tank.

But Gao Yuan didn’t run in a straight line because he felt the space between the two tanks could be exploited by the planes above.

So, Gao Yuan took a zigzag route and, sure enough, his move paid off; a barrage of shells came from the sky once again, but they all hit the vacant space to his left.

As long as the enemy fired, their position would be exposed, and Gao Yuan could speed up and run straight.

When he accelerated again, Gao Yuan felt as if a hot iron block was buried in his leg, searingly painful.

Gao Yuan rushed under the second tank and inserted the timed detonator into the explosives, then he ran toward the third tank.

Ten seconds was not a long time, but for Gao Yuan, it was very long, long enough for him to do a lot of things.

Finally, the first tank exploded, first with a bang— the sound of the explosive detonating— but moments later came a muffled explosion loud enough to pierce the eardrums.

Before hearing the explosion, Gao Yuan felt a great force from behind; his heart seemed to be fiercely squeezed, and his ears instantly lost all sound.

Thankfully, the distance was far enough, and the shock wave didn’t claim Gao Yuan’s life.

Gao Yuan turned around and saw a giant mushroom cloud rising, and beneath the mushroom cloud was a huge ball of fire, tens of meters high.

The tank was ignited.

Gao Yuan took a deep breath and ran forward again; he had to destroy the third tank.

Gao Yuan picked up the pace again, nearing peak speed, which allowed him almost to instantly cover the fifty meters to the third tank.

After inserting the fuse into the explosives, Gao Yuan bolted, but this time, he didn’t get very far.

Gao Yuan had run dozens of meters, roughly thirty or so, and then, as he made another sharp turn, he saw a shell striking close to him.

But this time, the shell seemed not to dodge the tank but was heading straight for it.

Thought and consciousness were only for a moment; Gao Yuan’s eyes were suddenly pained by the flash before, reflexively closing them, his body was thrown up, flying four or five meters forward, landing on his left arm first, then rolling over a dozen times on the ground.

The detonator was lost somewhere, with flames lighting up everything around; Gao Yuan’s clothes were ripped to shreds, his walkie-talkie, helmet, all things not part of his body were destroyed and torn apart by the blast wave, flying away to who knows where.

But it wasn’t over yet, the tank hit by the shells didn’t explode instantly but deflagrated.

Following the shock wave was the ignited fuel, flames landing on Gao Yuan’s back, legs, and head.

Gao Yuan didn’t faint, but it was the stinging pain that spurred him to get up; realizing his left arm was unable to exert any force because it was broken, he instead started to roll on the ground.

The raging fire rapidly dried out every bit of moisture in Gao Yuan’s body, his hair quickly became curly, burning.

Gao Yuan tried to roll to extinguish the flames on his body, but it was futile because the nearby ground had already become a sea of fire.

Gao Yuan leaped up, desperately trying to flee from the flames; his body turned scorched black, the flames driven to his back by the wind, his charred skin lost elasticity, cracking inch by inch as he moved rapidly, fresh blood poured out, thus Gao Yuan turned into a blackened and blood-streaked monster.

But even then, Gao Yuan was still alive.

Gao Yuan was still alive, but he knew, he was convinced, that he was as good as dead.

No one could survive injuries like these.

"I’m sorry, Xiaoyu..."

These words bubbled up from the depths of Gao Yuan’s heart; he didn’t know if he could still speak, and even if he could, his ears heard no sound.

"And Xinghe too."

After silently apologizing to the two people in his heart, Gao Yuan, helped by the light of the massive fire, saw a row of fire extinguishers and rushed over, grabbed one, clamped it between his legs, pulled out the safety pin, then held the fire extinguisher with his right hand and sprayed himself wildly.

Gao Yuan could even see the full process of his own fingertips’ skin cracking and the fluid and blood oozing out.

There was a merciful result of being severely burned all over because the nerves were damaged; Gao Yuan felt no pain.

The monster, once blackened and dyed dark red by blood, became a creature covered in white powder, but the fire on Gao Yuan’s body was completely extinguished.

Now, any action Gao Yuan took was only speeding up his own death, but humans are fated to die, and since death is inevitable, one should do something meaningful before dying.

What is something meaningful?

Gao Yuan felt that what Wang Hu did was meaningful, what the guys from the Da Hong Third Company did was meaningful, and that the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people in the two Stonegate shelters were meaningful.

And what he was doing now was indeed meaningful.

This had to be done, the refinery must be destroyed. Although Gao Yuan was not certain of its significance, knowing that there was a reason was good enough.

"I’m from the Fierce Tiger Brigade..."

Gao Yuan roared, though he couldn’t hear himself.

The dry powder from the extinguisher was blown away by the strong wind generated by his high-speed running, creating a misty white fog behind him. Under the illumination of the flames, it was beautiful, almost dreamlike.

Despite his serious injuries, Gao Yuan did not slow down; on the contrary, he sped up, his pace quickening once again.

The soles of Gao Yuan’s shoes were not destroyed by the blast wave, but they had caught fire and were now finally coming off completely.

And Gao Yuan’s rapid pace was causing his feet to rapidly wear out.

But Gao Yuan was still not dead, and he could still run.

Without his night-vision goggles, the light from the burning tanks provided enough illumination. Gao Yuan opened his eyes, which now saw only red.

Gao Yuan no longer shouted because he couldn’t hear anyway, and any attempt to scream while running beyond his limits would result in the wind blowing the sound back into his throat.

Finally, Gao Yuan entered the refinery’s main building; he remembered that the most basic but also most important piece of equipment was the Atmospheric Distillation Tower.

Firelight shone through the windows, making the interior of the building flicker with light and shadow. Gao Yuan saw the distillation tower and also found the explosives he had prepared.

The detonator he had been carrying was long gone, but it didn’t matter—there was a fuse on the explosives.

Gao Yuan took the fuse, activated it, and reattached it.

Blowing up the distillation tower would eliminate half of the refinery’s production capacity.

But that wasn’t enough, for there was another. Even without the oil tanks, the loss of a single Atmospheric Distillation Tower still meant an annual capacity of over two million tons, sufficient for the Sanitation Worker Armored Unit in the Malakal Region and enough to fuel many, many aircraft.

Gao Yuan ran out of the main building, looking towards the location of the next Atmospheric Distillation Tower. At that moment, a flash of light passed in front of him.

No sound, no blast wave, no shrapnel. The explosion was somewhat distant from Gao Yuan.

Was that... artillery?

Gao Yuan quickly confirmed it was indeed artillery because the explosions from the continuous but not too dense bombardment were recognizable.

"I’m from Da Hong Third Company of Fierce Tiger Brigade!"

Gao Yuan’s voice was raspy and odd, resembling the sound of torn plastic tarp flapping in the wind.

He took a deep breath, feeling a burning pain in his lungs. Gao Yuan glanced back, looking at the dust and smoke billowing out of the windows of the building behind him, knowing the Atmospheric Distillation Tower had been destroyed.

That was enough. Without looking back for long, Gao Yuan continued running, charging towards the artillery fire.

The bombardment wasn’t dense enough. Your artillery is not up to par!

Gao Yuan thought about when Stonegate Branch One was covered by their own artillery, that level of bombardment was what counted as effective.

Gao Yuan charged through the artillery-covered area, and then... it seemed like he was hit by shrapnel again, but he couldn’t tell for sure since his scorched skin had lost its sense of pain.

But it didn’t matter anyway, as long as he wasn’t dead.

The world as seen through Gao Yuan’s eyes was starting to go dark, due to the growing distance from the flames, but primarily because he was bleeding heavily, was severely injured, and his physical energy was nearly depleted.

Bursts of effort naturally meant high consumption.

Gao Yuan’s speed began to decrease, but he still managed to cross the area covered by artillery as the enemy’s fire was not dense enough, not accurate enough, not plentiful enough.

It felt like a miracle to Gao Yuan that he could even see the second distillation tower, but indeed he saw it, although it was a bit blurry.

He found the explosives, took off the fuse with his not very sensitive fingers, and re-inserted it.

Gao Yuan staggered, his vision rapidly darkening, and every step felt difficult, but even so, the speed at which he moved was still incomparable to that of an ordinary person.

Gao Yuan walked out of the building, feeling the explosion behind him.

The second Atmospheric Distillation Tower, destroyed.

Gao Yuan breathed a sigh of relief, and with that sigh, he suddenly lost all strength. His vision blackened, his knees buckled, and just as he was about to fall, he suddenly remembered he had one last thing to say.

This was his final chance in life; it had to be spoken.

Struggling to stand upright, Gao Yuan looked up at the sky, although he couldn’t see anything, then raised his right arm and bellowed, "I am from the Big Red Third Company of Fierce Tiger Brigade, Gao Yuan!"

It didn’t feel quite right.

"The power of a role model is boundless," Gao Yuan thought, and then finally he roared, "I am... Yan Zhao Gao Yuan!"

Gao Yuan hadn’t finished speaking, but it seemed that this scream had consumed all the air in his lungs, used up his last bit of strength, and drained his last ounce of vitality.

Thus Gao Yuan finally collapsed backward, skyward.

In the rapidly darkening world before him, as he lost consciousness completely, Gao Yuan’s lips moved, unsure if he had made a sound or not.

"So this is it, it’s all over now. So tired..."