Chapter 404: Impa.s.se, Lies
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Anyone who underestimated the enemy would suffer an extremely tragic price in a war.
Lu Yongyi knew this clearly from the beginning.
However, the others…
The raft warriors, captains of the sand s.h.i.+ps, and even the captains of a few large s.h.i.+ps only learned this lesson after suffering multiple casualties today.
“How many people have died…”
Sitting on the deck of Tundra One, which had been smeared red with blood, Lu Yongyi clutched the bleeding wound on his shoulder; his eyes remained sharp while looking at the corpses of foreign races all around him.
At this moment, he thought of his old friend… Qiu Xinghuo.
He even wondered if the fleet would have encountered today’s dilemma at all, had Xinghuo still been alive.
“Shelter Leader Lu, our… battle casualties… are over 50%…”
“Data… The data is still being calculated…”
“There are still 7 large s.h.i.+ps, 18 small s.h.i.+ps, and 22 more… raft ferries!”
Zhang Long, who was slumped on the ground beside him, also had blood all over his body. In addition to that, there was also an extremely terrifying hole covered with blood on his leg.
If they did not use some game items to stop the bleeding, given his current injury, he would already be on the verge of death and would be in no condition to report the battle’s statistical data.
The numbers and figures that emerged from his mouth were shocking!
The fact that the battle casualties exceeded 50% meant that 200 thousand of the initial 400 thousand people in the Tundra fleet had been buried at sea forever from just this battle alone.
Moreover, they had 15 large s.h.i.+ps previously, but now that number had been halved as 8 of them had been sunk in battle.
The situation for the small s.h.i.+ps was even more tragic. Nearly 40 s.h.i.+ps sank in this battle, resulting in an unprecedented loss of lives.
As for the raft ferries, since the foreign races were not targeting them initially, they were the ones with the highest number of survivors from the battle.
“How much ammunition do we have…”
The issue of ammunition was taboo for Lu Yongyi previously, and he would not have let everyone know the specific details.
At this moment, he also seemed to have thought things through and turned around to ask the guard behind him.
Unfortunately, the voice that would reply immediately in the past did not and could not respond to him.
Today, his questions went unanswered.
Lu Yongyi turned his head and, the next second, he closed his eyes in sorrow.
He did not cry when he was slashed twice by the foreign races, nor did he cry when he was stabbed in the shoulder by the foreign races. He had not cried even though his body was riddled with wounds.
Yet, for some reason, at this moment, on his ashen dark face that was covered in bloodstains, two lines of invisible and clear tears flowed down, taking with them some of the ash and grime.
Behind him was a man.
A man with wounds all over his body who looked as if he had been bathed in blood.
When he died, he propped his body upright with his weapon.
When he died, he stared straight ahead with his eyes widened in a ferocious glare.
When he died, he refused to use his final bullets on himself to end the pain.
He was bleeding profusely while he was alive and he died in pain.
Sensing Lu Yongyi’s grief that came from deep within, all the survivors on the deck of Tundra One did not make a sound.
They were all “lonely beasts” sitting on the deck, smelling of gunpowder.
They roared and licked their “wounds”.
Like the soldiers on Earth who suffered from PTSD after they partic.i.p.ated in the war, they were the “losers” in this battle.
However, there were always exceptions.
Suddenly, a series of crisp voices were heard from behind Lu Yongyi.
“We’re out of bullets for the machine guns. There are still 1800 rounds remaining for the rifles, and the pistols have… 9,300 rounds remaining.”
“14 packs of explosives. Four 3kg packs, two 5kg packs, and one 10kg pack. The remaining seven are all 1kg packs.”
“We have 6200 crossbow arrows, 3910 bows, 300 spears, 120 blades, and 220 pikes.”
“As for people, we have 322!”
Compared with the crackling sound of burning wood, and the screams from under the s.h.i.+p, these voices were like gus.h.i.+ng springwater that instantly poured into everyone’s dried-up hearts.
The next second, all those who were injured but still able to support themselves turned their heads in astonishment and looked at the source of the voices.
In their line of sight…
The main deck hatch cover, which had been crushed by the collapsed wood, suddenly opened.
At first, an arm pushed up a small gap, but then, more than a dozen arms emerged from the gap and pushed up the hatch cover.
Then, five spears appeared between the gap.
Using the principle of leverage, the wooden mast that had been pressing down against the hatch cover was s.h.i.+fted very slowly.
However, as time pa.s.sed, their combined efforts allowed them to pry open the hatch, revealing a gap that was large enough for one person to pa.s.s through.
From this gap, a youthful face that was full of tenacity emerged.
Her steps were firm, and she was holding a steel blade that looked out of place with her appearance. Although the smell on the main deck was acrid and pungent, she still walked out as if she had not smelled it.
Then, from behind her, familiar figures walked out one after another.
In less than a minute, it was as if those on the main deck had been granted a second wind!
All the crew members who had not been able to get out immediately, due to the sudden start of the battle, came up from the cabin armed with various weapons the moment the fleet was on the verge of life and death.
It did not matter that there was still fear on their faces and in their eyes.
At this moment, it was already good enough that they could stand here.
“Good! Good! Good!”
Lu Yongyi shouted “good” thrice with a hint of grief and sorrow in his voice.
“I hereby announce the establishment of Tundra One’s emergency response teams. The captain is Kong Yangyu and the deputy captains are Yang Chan and Dang Qi!”
“Captain Kong Yangyu will lead the first team to the other s.h.i.+ps to search for and rescue the remaining survivors, restore our contact with the raft team, and rearrange our defensive lines!”
“Deputy captain Yang Chan will lead the second team and spare no efforts in treating the wounded!”
“Deputy captain Dang Qi will lead the third team and head to the bottom of the s.h.i.+p with materials to repair the damage done to our s.h.i.+p. No matter what, Tundra One cannot be allowed to sink!”
“Roger that!”
After the 300 people were divided into 3 teams in an orderly manner, the division of labor began.
Lu Yongyi also did not pedantically refuse the rescue team’s decision to treat him first.
He glanced at the time. It was 6.08 pm in the evening.
There were only about six hours remaining before the arrival of the “strongest” reinforcements on the wasteland!
He knew that, before he collapsed, there was still hope for this fleet and they could still survive until the arrival of the long-awaited reinforcements.
However, the thing he wanted to know most was whether those d*mned foreign races would dare to surface here again and perish together with the humans in a life and death battle!
…
“h.e.l.lo, is there anyone alive here? Make some noise and we’ll save you!”
“I’m here! There are more than 100 people on the s.h.i.+p and we’re stuck. Help us!”
“Be careful and wait for us!”
Every large s.h.i.+p could accommodate about 500 people. Even if it started to sink, a good number of those people would be able to survive temporarily thanks to the internal structure of the s.h.i.+p.
Within half an hour, the number of search and rescue teams increased, reaching a total of 1500 people.
As the number of people increased, the efficiency of the search and rescue operation also improved significantly.
Before the next wave of the tsunami disaster, the search and rescue operation finally covered all the large s.h.i.+ps and over half of the small s.h.i.+ps.
As for the rest, everyone did not give up hope. While they were preparing defensive measures to resist the tsunami disaster, they continued to plug the gaps in the hull with all their might.
During this process, the raft warriors were not idle. They gathered up the treasure chests that had fallen into the sea to strengthen their strength and calculated the statistics of the previous battle.
The Tundra fleet, which had a population of 398 thousand people previously, only had 167 thousand people remaining. 231 thousand of them had fallen in battle.
If these numbers were converted into percentage values, the casualty rate of the fleet this time was…
57%!
At 6 pm on the wasteland, with the average casualty rate of 21.3% elsewhere, this casualty rate was terrifying and was enough to make those in the know despair.
However, fortunately, the foreign races attacking the Tundra fleet also suffered heavy casualties.
In this battle, the foreign races had sacrificed 60 thousand lives!
Originally, they secretly gathered an army of 100 thousand, yet when the battle was over, the casualty rate of the foreign races was even more terrifying than that of the humans, exceeding 60%.
This number dented the morale of the foreign races, and also bought more time for the humans.
At least for now, the humans could still use the one and a half hours before the next tsunami arrived to quickly organize the establishment of their defensive perimeter.
…
“Who sent you?”
“Ying Tian-… Ah!”
Wasteland time 7.42 pm, 18 minutes before the next tsunami arrived.
All the wounded on Tundra One had been treated. Thanks to the use of some magical medicine from the game, the humans who were on the brink of death all managed to survive.
There was chaos on the lower decks as there was no time to reorganize and repair them.
Therefore, during this period everyone could only stay on the main deck, which was where they witnessed this b.l.o.o.d.y interrogation scene.
One of the spy’s hands was cut off and blood gushed out.
“I’m asking who sent you here!”
“Old Dog Ying! Old Dog Ying sent me here. He completely surrendered to the foreign races and is now on the foreign races’ side.”
“How many of you are there…”
“325 people!”
“Why did you guys attack Tundra One?”
“Because… Old Dog Ying reached an agreement with the foreign races. If he helped the foreign races to achieve a breakthrough on the Tundra fleet’s battlefield, the foreign races would… give him Tundra One, including everyone on Tundra One!”
After answering the questions, the man whose hand was chopped off was as obedient as a chicken; he did not dare to do anything rash anymore.
He told them how Ying Tianlong colluded with the foreign races and how he helped make plans for the foreign races.
This man told them everything in great detail. There were a lot of details and it became evident that he was one of the main perpetrators from Ying Tianlong’s organization.
“Should we throw him overboard?”
“Sure!”
After a long while, seeing that the man had gradually fallen unconscious due to the continuous bleeding, two soldiers stepped forward and threw him off the bow of the s.h.i.+p.
It would only dirty their hands to kill this kind of person.
His final destination was to be buried at sea, becoming the eternal companion of those 230 thousand dead souls!
“Get ready to fight. There are still four hours left until the clock strikes midnight, and there are only the last 40 thousand foreign races remaining. We still have 170 thousand people, so even if we have to fight with our lives, we can’t and won’t lose to them.”
“If we can survive these four hours, we will successfully hold on until our reinforcements arrive. When that time comes, we will no longer have to fight.”
“Zhang Long and Liu Neng, each of you will lead 20 thousand people. The others will lead 10 thousand people each, and I will lead the rest!”
“We have to resist two more rounds of the tsunami disaster. No matter what, we must succeed in resisting these two rounds!”
Looking at the bitter smile on the faces of the people below, Lu Yongyi did not speak further. He nodded and turned around to walk into the temporary command room on the deck behind him.
He lied.
Everyone on deck who received the orders also knew that he had lied.
However, in the hearts of the captains, what they thought was the so-called reinforcements mentioned by Shelter Leader Lu did not exist; that he only told this white lie to give everyone something to strive for.
However, at this moment, they were willing to succ.u.mb to this lie and were not willing to refute it.
They knew that they needed this lie in order to continue moving forward.
However, what they did not know was that the real lie was…
The board hanging on the wall of the temporary command room…
The board that was peppered with many red dots rapidly appearing on the edge and gathering toward the red cloud at the center at an unbelievable speed.