Chapter 200 – Total Annihilation
She was between two machines, the gap in the middle about the width of an adult man’s shoulders. She had moved just in time, as the next moment, a deformed genetic monster’s body got stuck in the position she had been.
The genetic monster was larger than any she had seen before, with a head nearly reaching the width of the gap.
It had been crawling on the machines, observing Tu Ran through the gap.
To it, Tu Ran seemed like a juicy piece of meat, waiting to be consumed.
However, despite its increased size, its brain was still inadequate. It had not accurately estimated whether its size could navigate the gap freely.
The massive impact of jumping from above had wedged it tightly.
Its eight legs struggled desperately to push out, emitting a “hiss, hiss, hiss” sound. It exerted all its effort to pull its head out of the gap, and after several attempts, there were faint signs of movement.
It seemed very happy, and its cries changed pitch.
But it had forgotten that a human stood nearby, and it was unlikely to wait for it to remove its head.
Tu Ran raised her submachine gun, stepping back to a safe distance, and opened a rapid-fire barrage at its head.
Bullets rained into its skull, and thick, black blood gushed out in spurts.
Moss quickly spread from beneath its eight limbs, creeping towards Tu Ran.
Tu Ran retreated, her back pressed against the wall.
The two machines were placed against the wall, with only one exit in the narrow gap.
Now, the only exit was blocked by the genetic monster’s head.
Tu Ran looked up. The two machines were at least seven or eight meters high, with smooth surfaces and no handholds, making it impossible for her to climb up.
The dark green, foul-smelling moss approached rapidly, and the mechanical surfaces it covered emitted a “sizzle, sizzle, sizzle” sound.
The moss was corroding the machinery.
The moss, clawing and thrashing, advanced toward Tu Ran, surrounding her from all directions.
Tu Ran’s eyes darkened.
Her pitch-black pupils were calm.
“Blooming, Flowers, Full, Moon!”
She recited the words slowly, one by one.
As the final word was spoken, the monster’s human-like face twisted.
Its eight legs convulsed violently, scratching at its own body as if trying to dig something out.
The advancing moss stalled for a moment, then began to retreat rapidly.
At that moment, a vibrant, flowering vine was quickly sprouting and growing within the monster’s intestines, penetrating its insides, and squeezing through the gaps in its bones. The thorny branches sliced through its smooth internal mucous membranes, causing blood to gush out and pool in its abdomen.
The branches grew quickly, and its stomach acid was unable to fend them off.
Eventually, they pierced through its belly, emerging from its throat, esophagus, mouth, nostrils, and eyes.
Dozens of delicate flowers bloomed playfully on the branches, flourishing on its deformed, hideous body.
The monster lay in eternal sleep surrounded by flowers.
It was the first time Tu Ran had used [Blooming Flowers and Full Moon] as a weapon. Witnessing its power left her agape.
The long-range attack was incredibly strong—truly powerful.
The smoke was mostly dissipated, and Xie Hong might have woken up by now.
The monster’s death was so bizarre that Tu Ran couldn’t leave the intact body here.
The monster’s head was still about a meter above the ground. Tu Ran crouched and passed through underneath it.
Standing up, she looked at the enormous monster surrounded by flowers and inserted an armor-piercing bomb into the flower cluster.
She immediately withdrew, leaving the gap.
As soon as she emerged, Tu Ran saw Xie Hong putting on his helmet.
“Get down!” she shouted, diving into a blast-proof room.
Reacting instinctively to the shout, Xie Hong dropped to the ground.
The next second, “Boom!”
After the deafening explosion, chunks of the monster’s remains rained down from the sky like a heavy downpour, splattering everywhere.
Tu Ran, experienced in such matters, had already gone to the safety room in the workshop and avoided getting hit.
Xie Hong, unfamiliar with this kind of situation, was drenched in the aftermath.
He thought lying down would keep him safe, but he ended up covered in debris. His once pristine and high-grade combat suit became filthy and stained, and the monster’s corrosive blood and flesh made a sizzling noise as it damaged his suit.
Frightened, Xie Hong worried that if the suit couldn’t hold up, the corrosive liquid might seep in.
He quickly activated [Ice Freeze], covering the back of his suit with a transparent layer of ice, which made the sizzling sound vanish instantly.
After moving around a bit, the ice cracked and fell to the ground, taking the corrosive blood and flesh with it.
Xie Hong breathed a sigh of relief, noting that his view was now marred by the remnants of the explosion. He felt a pang of fear, relieved that he had put on his helmet in time; otherwise, he might have ended up with a hole in his head.
He looked over at Xie Wei, whom he had placed in the corner. With the ice layer protecting him, Xie Wei was unharmed.
Once he had confirmed this, Xie Hong turned his attention to the “culprit” behind all this chaos.
The “culprit” emerged innocently from the safety room.
“General Xie Hong, hello. I’m here to support you,” Tu Ran said.
Xie Hong replied, “…I think you’re here to send me off.”
“General Xie Hong, you jest,” Tu Ran replied.
Xie Hong gave her a sidelong glance before shifting his gaze, “Have you seen my communicator?”
He had searched for it before the explosion but hadn’t found it.
Now, the ground was a mess, making it even harder to locate.
His communicator had already been crushed and kicked away by Tu Ran, so she had no idea where it was. She shook her head, “I don’t know. Mine was also damaged by the monster.”
Xie Hong paused his search and recalled that his communicator might have been crushed by a genetic monster.
“General Xie Hong, it seems that the genetic monsters here have been cleared out. Should we go to support the western and northern zones? They also requested support from Zero before I arrived in the eastern zone,” Tu Ran suggested.
“I’ll go. You take him out of the factory,” Xie Hong said, pointing to Xie Wei’s location.
Tu Ran did not argue, “Understood.”
She walked over to Xie Wei, pushed aside the ice shield covering him, and revealed the curled-up figure inside.
Tu Ran picked up his laser gun with her right hand and draped his arm over her shoulder with her left, half-carrying, half-dragging him out of the factory.
Xie Hong quickly made his way through the factory interior toward Xie Xu’s location in the western zone.
When Tu Ran emerged from the factory’s main entrance, she saw a ring of fully armed guards and a group of about twenty pioneers.
Among them, Tu Ran recognized a few familiar faces.
For example, Ding Naiqing, Yao Bei, and Zhao Yan.
They seemed to be preparing to enter the factory.
“Sister Ran?!”
Ding Naiqing looked at her in disbelief.
They had been urgently redeployed from other areas. The commanding officer had ordered them to enter the Sankar Arsenal to support the northern and western zones while also searching for survivors in the eastern zone.
After several explosions in the eastern zone, all monitoring systems had been destroyed. The communicators of anyone entering the eastern zone could no longer detect life signs, and the eastern zone had been presumed annihilated.
