Chapter 15: Deterioration of the Situation

Arctic Circle - Hua Nation's Camp Command Center.

"Great news! Great news!"

Li Mingzhi, once again holding a pile of papers, excitedly rushed towards Yao Zhenguo.

"At your age, how can you still be so restless!"

Yao Zhenguo laughed at him before asking, "What's the news this time?"

"Commander, take a look at this!"

Instead of hurrying to speak, he handed over a set of photos.

Yao Zhenguo took them and began to look.

The first photo was of a man in a military uniform who suddenly spewed fire when facing an attack from the beetles.

The second photo was of a woman in a town who suddenly sprouted wings from her back and flew into the sky.

Upon seeing all the photos, he frowned, "What are these?"

Li Mingzhi, with a joyful expression, excitedly said, "Yao, these are our humans, they've awakened their superpowers!!!"

"Superpowers?" Yao Zhenguo was stunned.

"Yes, the superpowers that are often fantasized about in novels!"

Not waiting for Yao Zhenguo to continue asking, Li Mingzhi started explaining all at once.

"Our Research Division discovered that in this current environment, many humans, when a certain trait within them combines with Dark Matter, will awaken superpowers. However, we are still researching what exactly this substance is and how the awakening process occurs …."

"But our initial conjecture is that this awakening can only occur in the presence of Dark Matter, as no one here in the Arctic Circle has awakened any superpowers yet..."

"Additionally, the planes returning from various Military Districts brought back a batch of important frontline data. This includes a red crystal, extracted from the brains of these beetles. The Research Division is rapidly studying it..."

"Beep beep beep!"

Just then, an alarm sounded.

Yao Zhenguo promptly interrupted him and quickly turned to ask, "What's going on?"

Soon, a signal officer replied, "Commander, new beasts have appeared simultaneously in the Spatial Channels where more than a dozen Military Districts are located!"

"Are they those Flying Mantises?"

"No, it's a new type of five-meter tall large beetle…"

...

Nanyuan Military District.

There were a total of sixteen Spatial Channels here. Under immense firepower, all of them were controlled, and most of the beetles emerging from them were killed.

However, today, the situation changed.

A beetle about five or six meters wide and twenty meters long appeared. It was covered in a shiny golden shell, like a layer of golden armor.

As soon as this beetle appeared, it broke through the sturdy defense line established by the Military District.

Forget bullets - even artillery shells only made it tremble, without causing any effective damage.

"This beetle's density is too high!"

"So, there's no way to break its defense?"

Wang Dezhen, the commander of the Nanyuan Military District, anxiously watched the defense line shattered in the distance.

In the distance, this golden beetle moved about casually, crushing and demolishing tanks along its path.

Numerous new type of shells hit it without any effect, and couldn't penetrate its golden shell.

"Conventional ammunition is unlikely to work. The density of this beast is terrifying... we would need missiles or even nuclear warheads!"

Missiles? Nuclear warheads? Deploy a nuke on his own military base? That would be madness!

"No, no, we can't use nuclear warheads. Inform all troops to use depleted uranium rounds!"

"Depleted uranium rounds? Sir, these weapons are radioactive..."

"I know there's radiation, but haven't you seen that conventional ammunition is useless? The radiation from these rounds is limited, at least their spread isn't wide..."

The radioactive power of these rounds was indeed not as potent as nuclear, perhaps only about five percent.

But even that was enough to contaminate the human body.

Once contaminated by depleted uranium, conditions like polyuria, mesangial nephritis, renal failure could likely arise.

That's just part of it - the radiation could also cause cell mutations in the body, significantly increasing the risk of cancer.

At a spatial channel in the distance, the golden beetles took the lead in charging, followed by the Black Beetles in the rear. The entire defense line was disrupted, and countless tanks and artillery were destroyed.

Even worse, many soldiers clutching grenades and bombs rushed up there...

Wang Dezhen couldn't bear it anymore. Tears welled up in his eyes as he sternly ordered, "Get on with it, we can't let our soldiers sacrifice in vain!"

In the Nanyuan Military District, although nearly fifty thousand people were stationed, at least ten thousand were logistics soldiers. Out of the remaining forty thousand, the majority were regular forces.

Few could operate missiles and heavy weapons!

Although they had previously suggested using missiles, they could only use lightweight self-guided missiles.

However, most missiles rely on satellite guidance. Their original purpose was to strike targets fourteen thousand kilometers away. And now, with satellites not being able to contact the ground, most of these powerful weapons were useless.

Finally, when the first depleted uranium round successfully hit a golden beetle and penetrated its body, effectively blowing it to pieces, all the soldiers cheered.

However, before they could rejoice for long, many more Spatial Channels were continuously spawning new golden beetles.

Simultaneously, the Flying Mantises also appeared. As soon as this creature appeared, it immediately shot down more than a dozen fighter planes with its short-range speed.

At last, Wang Dezhen gave an order he had been reluctant to give.

"Retreat and solidify the main camp!"

There were more than ten Spatial Channels in the whole Military District. His initial plan was to control these Spatial Channels, then head to the city to rescue the civilians.

But now, it was becoming difficult to control these ten-plus Spatial Channels.

Rescuing the civilians would have to wait. What needed to be done now was to hold the Military District, ensure its combat capabilities, and wait for rescue or orders from the central headquarters.

In an instant, the entire troops sprang into action. According to the preset plan, most of the channels were abandoned, leaving only three Spatial Channels to establish the last line of defense.

...

At this moment, countless Spatial Channels were appearing everywhere in the world in the places shrouded in darkness. In these channels, Black Beetles appeared first, but later, golden Beetles, Flying Mantises, Jumping Beetles, and more and more insects started emerging from the channels.

The Military Districts that originally had the situation under control were now completely thrown into chaos.

Most of the Military Districts, just like Wang Dezhen, chose to shrink their defense lines.

Some Military Districts, however, didn't even get a chance to make that decision before their formations were rushed and broke, and they were plunged into fierce battles.

The situation was even worse than imagined, and it was only getting worse.

In the Military Districts, at least they had heavy weapons to resist to some extent.

The locations of the Spatial Channels were fair and random; they didn't just appear in the Military Districts.

In the cities and towns, countless residents lost their lives, falling prey to the beetles.

The most tragic scenes were on the highways where people had no place to hide and became fine food for the feasting beetles.