Epoch of Twilight

A few hundred meters away there was a tower surrounded by heavy engineering machines and heavy-duty trucks with several big containers. One of its walls had been bombarded, and a giant server was still visible from the ground. Luo Yuan looked up at the tower while the soldiers tried to move the giant server into a big container by using a crane.

Luo Yuan entered the defense base, which was made of several giant rocks. There were many medium to light weapons inside, acting as an emergency defense line.

“Xiao Fei, we’re short on manpower. Why is there only a helicopter? Where are my 2-meter diameter missiles? This is not enough,” a guy with a smoked face and a messy beard complained as he shook hands with the Colonel.

"Buddy, you know that we have a limited supply of weapons, right? Stop thinking about the missiles. You should be grateful that you even have a helicopter. The other teams are also having a hard time, and we have no more soldiers at the military base," the Colonel said rudely as he punched the man on the arm. Obviously, the two of them had known each other for a very long time.

“Oh, I haven’t introduced these evolved survivors to you. They are very powerful,” Xiao Fei said seriously. "Both Mr. Luo and Ms. Mu are 5th level evolved people, while Ms. Wang and Mr. Xie are 4th level.”

Commander Xia quickly shook their hands and said, “It’s great you that were willing to come here. The servers are too important to the rehabilitation center for us to give up. However, there is something I have to tell you...”

He looked hesitant, as if he was not sure whether he should tell them or not. He knew those people were arrogant, and he was worried that they might not be willing to follow the instructions.

"Commander Xia, we are recruited, so we are now your soldiers. You don’t have to say much, we know it’s a dangerous mission," Luo Yuan said, noticing that the man was hesitating to share.

The mission was a very challenging one, and they would need to have a centralized instruction system with high discipline in order to reduce any potential risk. Luo Yuan understood the importance of the servers to the rehabilitation center as well as the development of mankind.

The captain looked delighted as he tapped Luo Yuan on the shoulder. “Great! I know you have your own fighting style though, which will be a bit difficult to combine with front line soldiers. How about the reserve team? That way you can assist wherever it’s the most dangerous.”

“Sure,” Luo Yuan said calmly.

Fatty Xie did not dare protest, even though he was not happy that Luo Yuan had represented them.

“How’s the situation now?” Xiao Fei asked.

“There was a tough battle about an hour ago, but nothing serious until now. I’m afraid this won’t last long though, as lots of sea monsters are moving to land,” Commander Xia said seriously.

“All these marine animals have nothing better to do? Why are they coming to land?” Xiao Fei asked as he kicked a stone on the ground. “What’s the sea level reading at the moment?”

“Based on our report, the water has reached the industrial area, which is five kilometers away from here. We are not sure why. You probably did not notice the mutated algae on the surface of the seawater, but it looked like a carpet. Even the tanks couldn’t move through it.”

“Eutrophication,” Luo Yuan said.

"That’s right. The nitrogen and phosphorus from all the feces, corrosive substances and daily waste have been eliminated into the sea and caused the algae to grow out of control. A lot of plankton was attracted, the big fish ate the small fish, and finally, the sea monsters joined the party," Commander Xie explained.

Luo Yuan felt depressed. Suddenly, a huge volume of air was released by a mysterious energy, and a human shadow appeared. It was too sudden, and Luo Yuan was caught by surprise. He naturally jumped six to seven meters away into the air and pulled out his Zhanmadao. In less than a second, the Zhanmadao was placed against the throat of the mysterious man.

If Luo Yuan had not managed to hold himself back, the man would have died. He looked as pale as a ghost, and he did not dare move an inch.

“Calm down! Calm down! He is one of our people!” Commander Xia said quickly. It had all happened too suddenly, so it had taken him some time to recover. “Put down your sword, put it down.”

Luo Yuan realized he had misunderstood. The man was in an army uniform and had some paint on his face. It was obvious that he was a soldier. Luo Yuan quickly pulled back the Zhanmadao and said awkwardly, “I’m sorry, I was just surprised because you appeared so suddenly. I overreacted.”

"It’s alright," the evolved man, called An Ying, said shyly. He looked socially awkward and frightened as he gasped.

Everyone was curious about him. The scene they had just watched had reminded them of teleporting in movies.

Finally, An Ying recovered and said, "Reporting, sir! There are three light green and green mutated beasts seven kilometers away heading in this direction. Please be prepared."

Everyone looked tense. Commander Xia quickly pressed on his the walkie talkie and gave a few orders. After a moment, the helicopter flew off the ground and An Ying disappeared again, teleporting one kilometer away. After a while, he had totally disappeared.

A few minutes later, a loud sound came from afar and smoke started rising up. Apparently, there was a fierce battle going on. They could hear the conversations on the walkie talkie.

“Killed a small one. Oh no! It’s spraying water! I’m going to lift it now! That was lucky, I almost died man!”

They could hear a man gasping on the other side. He sounded frightened as he said, “You son of a bitch! I’m going to kill you! Damn it!”

“Damn it! Five more are coming! We don’t have enough bullets! We need to get more from the base. We’re heading back.”

The helicopter flew up into the air and headed back to the military base.

“Damn it!” Commander Xia pressed on the walkie talkie again and said, “Get all the cannons ready!”

“Yes, sir!”

“Yes, sir!”

Every once in a while, they heard a roaring sound, followed by a ground vibration. After a while, two scary sea monsters slowly appeared. Their skin was greenish-black with big yellow spots, and they looked like turtles without shells.

They seemed to have gotten hurt by the attack of the helicopter. There was blood and holes all over their bodies. However, their injuries were not life-threatening for a beast about 20 meters long and over 10 meters tall. Finally, Luo Yuan understood why the soldiers needed their help. No bombs or bullets could hurt the beasts if the soldiers did not aim at their weakest points.

“Let them come closer! Ready, fire!!” Commander Xia ordered as he saw the beasts approaching. Modern cannons could shoot very far those days, even at a 10-kilometer distance, although that was not as accurate. The closer the mutated beasts got, the higher possibility to kill them would be.

Suddenly, the two auto-cannons launched the missiles.

Boom!

One of the missiles hit a beast on the head, making it explode on the spot. Another missile hit the leg of the second beast, wounding it severely. The beast seemed to be in extreme pain as it rolled around on the ground.

The bombs had been modified to be more powerful than the two 2-meter diameter missiles of the helicopter. They had killed a sea monster and injured another one with just a single launch.

“Why did you stop firing?” Luo Yuan asked curiously as he saw Commander Xia not giving any more orders.

“We are short on bullets and bombs,” Commander Xia said with an awkward smile.

It was dangerous everywhere, and the resources in the rehabilitation region were insufficient. Due to the high demand from all the teams, there was a limited number of bullets and bombs given to them. Theoretically, the soldiers should have gone back to the military base. However, the computer center had been safer after the mutated beasts had retreated, so they had decided to take a look around and see if there were any resources that they could bring back to the base. None of them had expected to bump into the sea monsters.

Luo Yuan was stunned as he asked, “How many are there left?”

“Eight 2-meter missiles and 30 mortars, plus 5 containers of machine gun bullets,” the Commander said.

“It should be enough. We just need to keep fighting for another 3-5 hours. It should be alright.” Xiao Fei looked at the worksite as he estimated the time.

Luo Yuan did not feel right. He knew his B-Level Mission would not be that easy to complete.

Note:

Eutrophication is the excessive richness of nutrients in a lake or other body of water, frequently due to runoff from the land, which causes a dense growth of plant life and death of animal life from lack of oxygen.