At precisely four in the morning, Binhai City was struck.
The gas generator tore through the atmosphere at high speed, leaving a trail of fire as it descended, accompanied by a deafening roar!
The villa district on the east side of the city was leveled, over thirty shops collapsed, and roads in two streets buckled like giant waves, sending debris flying half a kilometer away. The street trees were all flattened like grass, their bark stripped away by the blast wave, their roots half exposed.
In residential areas two blocks from the impact point, all windows shattered, large sections of walls cracked, water pipes burst, and every room became a waterfall.
After the dust settled, the gas generator was visible on the satellite imagery: a silver-white cylinder, comparable in size to a marble column of a temple, lay in a crater resembling a meteorite impact.
One minute after landing, the gas generator activated.
A dark green gas spread outwards like a tide.
The poison gas flowed almost like a liquid, hugging the ground, occupying street after street, slowly infiltrating various buildings.
From orbit, Binhai City appeared to bulge in the middle with a mass of dark green, rapidly expanding like a fast-growing tumor.
At seventeen minutes past five, Shiyou City was attacked.
The annihilation bomb seemed very small; it was invisible from orbit.
But the grand theater and art museum of Shiyou City collapsed entirely, the road surface cracked like a spiderweb, and the library’s walls and windows caved in, sending books flying out. Piles of them landed on the street, fluttering white in the wind like a prairie of paper.
Jiang Ye stared blankly at the satellite video, waiting for Shiyou City to suddenly annihilate, turning into scattered debris.
One minute.
Three minutes.
Five minutes.
Nothing happened.
Jiang Ye had expected the annihilation bomb to activate a minute after landing, just like the gas generator, but after such a long wait, the city had not been annihilated.
Could it be… a dud?
Jiang Ye quickly messaged Li Nannan, asking about the activation time of this type of annihilation bomb.
The reply he received filled him with elation!
Li Nannan: "Awesome! You've hit the jackpot. It's currently a dud, because annihilation bombs usually detonate on impact. Something must have gone wrong."
Li Nannan: "You can find someone to dig out this annihilation bomb and send it to a no-man's-land, or sink it to the bottom of the sea. But did you play with firecrackers when you were a kid? You know how those firecrackers are, the fuse burns halfway and stops, but it's still smoking. If you don't touch it, it does nothing. But the moment you touch it, the fuse suddenly finishes burning, and BANG."
Jiang Ye: "Understood. I'll find someone to dig out the annihilation bomb and load it onto a plane to send to the no-man's-land. How many people are needed to move this kind of annihilation bomb?"
Li Nannan: "Five hundred jin, at least four or five strong men are needed."
Closing the chat window, Jiang Ye quickly typed out a notice and posted it on the military communication channel.
【An annihilation bomb has landed near the Shiyou City Art Museum and has not exploded. It may be a complete dud, or it may detonate suddenly after some time.】
【We now require at least 5 people to form a suicide squad, taking a flapping-wing aircraft to Shiyou City to dig out the annihilation bomb and transport it to the sea.】
【Upon successful completion of the mission, there will be a two-rank promotion and a bounty of 8 million per person.】
【Those who wish to sign up, please type '1'.】
Less than half a minute after the announcement was sent, one person replied with '1'.
It was a small team leader named Jiao Hai.
In the next half minute, more and more people in the group replied with '1'. At least a thousand people were willing to be suicide squad members!
Indeed, the more money there was, the braver people became.
Jiang Ye @ed the first five people who messaged, "You five heroes will do. Jiao Hai will temporarily serve as the suicide squad captain. Depart immediately! Activate full holographic recording once you are on the plane; I will track your actions in real-time."
Jiao Hai: "Yes!"
Jiang Ye waited anxiously, the room so quiet he could hear his own heavy breathing.
A few minutes later, the holographic projection popped out.
Five soldiers in exoskeletons were fumbling with their seatbelts as they took their seats in the cabin.
The engine noise intensified within seconds, and the flapping-wing aircraft took off rapidly, accelerating sharply!
After flying for a short while, they could see Shiyou City and its buildings outside the cabin. Many buildings were still powered on, their lights blazing.
The flapping-wing aircraft descended and landed in front of the library.
The suicide squad members leaped out of the cabin and rushed towards the ruins, searching frantically!
Soon, in the center of the ruins, they found an oval-shaped black bomb, about 1.2 meters tall, stuck headfirst into the ground.
The suicide squad members gritted their teeth and pulled at the annihilation bomb. Sweat poured down each of their faces; the effort was secondary to the tension and fear.
Jiang Ye quickly took a photo and sent it to Li Nannan.
Li Nannan: "That's right, it looks like that. Hurry up and transport it."
The suicide squad members pulled out the annihilation bomb, picked up some steel bars from the nearby debris, and used them to support the bomb as they carried it. Everyone was flushed red with exertion, giving their all to load it into the cabin.
"Report, Chief! This thing is heating up! And I can hear something inside, like a timer!" Jiao Hai’s face was so sweaty that drops dripped from his chin as he shouted anxiously.
"Hurry up! Head out to sea, and just throw it overboard when you get there!" Jiang Ye clenched his fists nervously.
The flapping-wing aircraft had already taken off. The suicide squad members fastened their seatbelts, with the massive annihilation bomb placed at their feet.
Jiang Ye tracked the flapping-wing aircraft's position via satellite.
It had left Shiyou City.
One kilometer away.
Three kilometers.
Five kilometers!
They had already flown beyond the annihilation bomb's blast radius, and Shiyou City was successfully saved!
Now, it was up to the suicide squad members to return safely.
The atmosphere inside the cabin was extremely tense. Every suicide squad member stared intently at the annihilation bomb, their faces covered in sweat, as if they had just emerged from a sauna.
Thirty kilometers to the sea.
Twenty kilometers.
Ten kilometers!