Chapter 70: The Heretics Must Die  

September 11, 2051.

Due to the severe shortage of supplies and the survivors' camp being unable to sustain itself, Frank Hammer led his elite team to the city of Santa Barbara, located west of Los Angeles, to search for anything useful.

Over the years, these marines observed that the already rotten UAC had no time to manage areas outside the megacities, leading to the abandonment of many original cities and towns.

Only a small number of corrupted UAC soldiers would occasionally patrol between these towns. 

If they discovered human survivors, the corrupted soldiers would indulge in the thrill of slaughter and flesh, leaving half of the survivors alive only to be taken to the megacities for "breeding."

This is why, when Xiao Qiang and Soap crossed the portal, they found a layer of dust covering the tiles of the mall.

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September 13, 11:32 AM.

After completing the collection of supplies, Frank Hammer and his team took a detour, as usual, trying to avoid exposure as much as possible.

However, this time, luck was not on their side. When their convoy reached the small town of Ojai, just thirty kilometers from the camp, they were spotted by UAC soldiers.

To protect the camp, Frank Hammer and his team decided to head into the complex city of Los Angeles, attempting to shake off their pursuers.

Unfortunately, the number of pursuers was too great, and with damaged vehicles and casualties, they were eventually pinned down in a supermarket, unable to advance or retreat.

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11:52 AM.

Thanks to Atlas's intervention, Frank Hammer and a total of fifty-four former marines were temporarily out of immediate danger.

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September 14, 11:40 AM / Today.

Twenty-four hours after the portal opened, the progress of the forward base construction was at 10%, with full completion expected by September 25. 

During the construction period, living supplies, weapons, and personnel would be gradually deployed. By then, it would be possible to carry out reconnaissance, infiltration, and other activities beyond the portal's shielded range.

At this moment.

" ."

Samuel Young took a deep breath as he sorted through the information.

He had already gained enough psychic abilities to create barriers, move objects remotely, and even interfere with the thoughts of those around him to a certain extent.

So, the moment he crossed the portal and arrived on Earth-03, he immediately sensed subtle traces of rage, bloodlust, and... evil, mixed with despair and pain, all emanating from the megacity three hundred kilometers away.

Three hundred kilometers...

This indicated that since 2047, the corrupted UAC had slaughtered countless human compatriots there, creating such intense emotions that Samuel could feel them from three hundred kilometers away.

In the movie version of *Doom*, Karl Urban's character, "Reaper," after injecting the 24th chromosome, gained power and successfully cleared out all the mutated infected, including the marine sergeant played by Dwayne Johnson.

But the situations on Earth-03 suggested that the marine nicknamed "Reaper" failed and likely died at the hands of the sergeant, allowing UAC to obtain the complete data on the 24th chromosome from the Odwa Research Center. 

Afterward, the UAC leadership, possibly in pursuit of "evolution" or greater power, altered themselves using the 24th chromosome while leveraging UAC's absolute influence on Earth-03 to infiltrate various countries and regions.

Government officials and generals were the first to be assimilated, followed by soldiers. At the same time, UAC used methods such as "free check-ups" and "free treatments" to obtain a large number of samples from ordinary citizens.

The preparations for large-scale assimilation were all in place. The next step would be the "Judgment Day" mentioned by the marines.

Thinking this far, Samuel Young's priority was no longer obtaining detailed data on the 24th chromosome or acquiring unique local technologies like the Bio-Force Gun (BFG) or the "Ark" capable of rapid point-to-point teleportation. His only thought now was to rescue the humans trapped in the megacity after September 25.

His secondary goal was to completely eradicate the UAC and the corrupted ones, fully taking control of the situation on Earth-03.

Countless compatriots had been slaughtered by them over the years. The heretics must die.

As for why he had to wait until after September 25, the completion of the forward base and the deployment of military units were one aspect. Another was that in Atlas's operations in other universes, all participating units and personnel had to be deployed to the forward base within 24 hours.

Samuel Young's "Reset" ability rewound time to "24 hours before in that universe." If someone transferred from the main universe to that universe and had not been there for more than 24 hours...

It would trigger a paradox effect. That person might complete the "Reset" in that universe, but due to the "Reset" only affecting a single universe, they would never be able to return to the main universe and would disappear entirely.

After the first portal to *Edge of Tomorrow* opened, Samuel Young had already considered this serious consequence. Thus, it wasn't until the early morning of the fourth day after the portal opened that he led Arthur and others to raid Paris.

(The first portal opened at 14:14 on June 5, and the raid was launched in the early morning of June 9, "Resetting" back to 04:14 on June 8.)

Samuel also issued numerous regulations to avoid incidents like someone creating a "duplicate" in the main universe while the "Reset" was being implemented. 

For instance, when Angela Ziegler Cage first signed the confidentiality agreement, she was explicitly required to comply with the rule: "Before heading to the other side of the 'gate,' you must submit an application to your immediate superior."

The application list would eventually be compiled and sent to Samuel Young, who would personally approve or deny them based on the operational plan.

Apart from the paradox issue, Samuel also utilized the convenience of Pandora being free from any government or national interference to conduct various tests on the portal.

For example, removing all disguises from the forward base and using orbital satellites for observation revealed that within a three-kilometer radius centered on the portal, there was a "blank spot."

Furthermore, cutting down trees within this range did not trigger Eva's defensive mechanisms, while going beyond this range would attract attacks from the local creatures, and so on.

Through a series of studies, Samuel figured out that the portal had a considerable shielding effect, making it undetectable by conventional means unless observed with the naked eye.

Combining this with the intelligence provided by Frank Hammer and others, it became clear that while UAC retained its administrative and military systems after taking control, they were highly chaotic.

This was why, after the advance team quickly wiped out hundreds of corrupted soldiers at Saint Gilles, UAC had not yet dispatched follow-up troops to Los Angeles.

Having sorted out what this world had gone through, Samuel Young waved his hand to dispel all the screens and stood up, heading out of his office.

He was going to ask Alexia, who had also come to the forward base, if she had discovered any useful information from the corpses of the corrupted ones and whether it was possible to develop a device that could shield the corrupted ones from detecting their kind through "brainwaves."

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