Chapter 23: Battlefield
A whistling sound tore through the night sky as a shell slowly spun through the air, ultimately landing at the edge of a trench.
Boom!
The firelight briefly dispelled the darkness, sending mud flying from the impact point. The scattered dirt struck a charred tree trunk, riddling the repeatedly burned tree like a sieve.
Even the mud blasted into the air by the shell had the power of a shotgun blast; the lethality at the center of the explosion was unimaginable.
The orange firelight gradually faded, leaving a faint smell of burning in the air—the unique scent of white gunpowder combustion. Some genius had concocted this "White Phosphorus Acidic Gunpowder," which had kinetic energy hundreds of times greater than ordinary gunpowder. The genius's original intention was to provide energy for humanity, but unfortunately, "White Phosphorus Acidic Gunpowder" was used for war.
White gunpowder + Threaded Steel firearms could penetrate almost anything. Ordinary steel was as fragile as paper; the only materials that could provide defense were Threaded Steel and Lomis Crystal.
One gram of Lomis Crystal cost 15 million Rank, so it was never meant for warfare.
In the trench under the night sky, Su Xiao brushed the dirt off his head. Based on his estimate, if a white gunpowder shell landed within 3 meters of him, he would be severely injured if not killed.
The shell was filled with compressed white gunpowder, whose instantaneous explosive force was even stronger than Apollo's.
It wasn't just Su Xiao; no contractor in this world dared to withstand a white gunpowder shell head-on. A heavy tank had once carelessly taken a hit, and the result was that his teammates had to scoop him up—he had been blown to pieces.
Contractors could dominate on a cold weapon battlefield, but on a fourth-tier hot weapon battlefield like this, anyone with a sane mind wouldn't recklessly jump out of the trench.
Given Su Xiao's survivability, he could withstand at most 8 to 10 shots. If it were a heavy machine gun strafing, his chances would be grim.
The physical fitness of humans in this world wasn't exceptionally high. Trained ordinary soldiers had Strength, Agility, and Endurance attributes around 30 to 40 points, while civilians were around 10 points, with some attributes at about 8 points.
The soldiers of the Geya Alliance were like this, and the ordinary soldiers of the Sun Kingdom were similar. There weren't many Divine Envoys with powerful close-combat abilities.
In this environment, the world was classified as a fourth-tier high-intensity battlefield. The power of the firearms was evident; a single round of concentrated fire was something no contractor could withstand.
In other words, every soldier on the battlefield, armed with white gunpowder + Threaded Steel firearms, had the attack power of a fourth-tier contractor, though their speed and survivability were relatively weaker.
If a third-tier contractor encountered such a soldier at a distance in a 1v1, the battle would essentially be over the moment the contractor took a single hit.
Su Xiao had long noticed this, which meant his chances of dying on the battlefield weren't low. This sense of pressure and crisis quickened his blood flow and made his limbs more agile.
Leaning against the front of the trench, Su Xiao pushed aside a soldier whose head had been crushed by a rock. That guy was unlucky; after the shell blasted the mud, a pebble the size of a soybean had penetrated through a gap in the Threaded Steel plate, directly killing him.
Mud, rocks, even tree bark—everything blasted into the air by the shell was a deadly weapon. This was Hailan Star, and now, Su Xiao was in the Lanchuan War Zone.
The Lanchuan War Zone was the border between the Geya Alliance and the Sun Kingdom. Both great powers continued to expand, but neither would occupy the Lanchuan War Zone; it was deliberately left as a war buffer zone.
The war between the two great powers wasn't for justice, punishment, or any noble reason. The war had only one purpose: resources.
Hailan Star couldn't sustain two great powers for long. Before resources were completely depleted, a war between them was inevitable. The current war was exactly that—the losing side would rapidly decline, eventually becoming a small nation or being completely destroyed.
The smell of blood mixed with the scent of earth permeated the trench. It was now 11 PM. Su Xiao's current unit, the 12th Regiment, was engaged with a tank division of the Sun Kingdom.
According to Su Xiao's observations, there was an enemy trench about 700 meters away. This was already the front line. Behind Su Xiao was the Geya Alliance's main army; ahead was the Sun Kingdom's main army.
As for which enemy unit they were facing, it was unknown for now, only that it was a tank division.
A regiment of the Geya Alliance naturally couldn't fight a division of the Sun Kingdom. The enemy tank division was spread horizontally, simultaneously engaging multiple Geya Alliance units.
Inside the trench, Su Xiao loaded bullets into his Mr. 24 sniper rifle. The other members of the Kill Squad had already dispersed, looking for opportunities to infiltrate behind enemy lines. As a sniper, Su Xiao wouldn't go deep behind enemy lines yet; he needed to provide cover for the others first.
Saint and Earth had already slipped across under the cover of night, their current status unknown. For now, Su Xiao still needed to cover three people as they entered a forest 300 meters diagonally to the side of the trench. Once they got there, they could find their own way to infiltrate the enemy forces.
Hiss, hiss, hiss～
The wireless radio carried by the little assistant emitted signal interference. She immediately picked up the receiver.
"This is White Ghost. Can you hear me?"
The little assistant's voice was crisp. She wasn't tall, only about 1.5 meters, wearing a standard black military uniform, with short hair and a fair face smudged with some dirt.
If not for the little assistant's pretty face and the mysterious bulge on her chest, Su Xiao wouldn't have been able to tell if she was male or female in the darkness. When they first met, his first impression of her was: Can a man be this beautiful?
It wasn't a problem with Su Xiao's eyesight, but her short brown hair and androgynous attire easily made people mistake her for a young boy. However, after she saluted with her chest puffed out, Su Xiao realized she was a woman.
Despite Su Xiao's refusal, Skain had "enthusiastically" assigned the little assistant to him. It was said she was the best spotter in the 12th Regiment, but she had a habit of jinxing her partners. She had worked with 27 snipers before, and now the grass on their graves was three feet tall.
Because of this, the little assistant had fallen into depression. After her regiment commander gave her a good "officer's beating," breaking two of her ribs and her forearm, her depression was cured, and she became a lively girl again—a lively girl who could kill a four-meter-tall brown bear with her bare hands.
When she received the mission to assist the Kill Squad's White Ghost, the little assistant cheered. If the Kill Squad were warriors chosen from ten thousand, then White Ghost was the best sniper in the Kill Squad, on par with Ninkov of the 1st Legion, who was a member of the Assassination Squad.
That led to the scene in the trench. The little assistant's eyes were full of excitement, looking as if she wanted to snatch the sniper rifle from Su Xiao's hands and fire a few shots for fun.
"I can hear you. This is Saint. Earth and I have successfully infiltrated."
Saint's voice came through the radio. Su Xiao took the receiver from the little assistant.
"Pathfinder Dog and Blind Mountain will enter the forest in at most ten minutes."
"Understood. We'll create a diversion in nine minutes. You cover them."
Su Xiao didn't reply. He pulled the bolt and leaned his upper body out of the trench.
Bang. Bang. Bang.
After three shots, the enemy trench fell silent for a moment. Three machine gunners had been shot in the head.
"Beautiful!"
"Shut up."
"Got it～"
The little assistant poked her head out of the trench and began observing the positions of nearby enemies.
"South direction, 169 degrees, 710 meters, wind speed 3.1..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the enemy who was charging forward in a crouch was already shot in the head by Su Xiao.