2026-08-01 19:22:34
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 74: Waterborne Skirmish
While Jake's group grappled with the Anomaly, the other teams weren't sitting idle either.Two of the other boats got moving fine. The last one, though, refused to budge no matter what, unclear whether the fault was the boat itself or whoever was at the controls.Realizing the other three boats were mobile while theirs sat dead in the water, that team weighed their options fast.After a quick discussion, they abandoned troubleshooting the boat entirely and turned their firepower on the Anomaly instead, opening a second front.That way, they could split the incoming pressure with Jake's group while buying time for the remaining two boats to clear out.The sudden second attack genuinely caught Anomaly off guard.That crew didn't hold back, either knowing their boat wasn't going anywhere and had limited use beyond this moment, they dumped every last bit of flamethrower fuel in one aggressive push.Their only goal was maximum damage before the Anomaly's vessel drifted out of range entirel
Chapter 73: Seizing the Ship
Hogg got razzed plenty over the poster, but the man had thick skin.Genuinely didn't bother him. He rolled it up right there in front of everyone, fully intending to keep it.Whether he'd sneak off later that night for a private moment with it, only he knew.Once the teasing died down, the group got to business, studying the control console together.All five carried serious physical enhancement, and the night before, they'd all reviewed the boat-operation training video Blake had somehow managed to track down.High Intelligence stats across the board meant near-instant recall of anything they'd studied.So even without any real boating experience, once it came time to actually run the thing, nobody was completely lost. A bit of trial and error later, they had the boat moving under its own power."Easy, easy, don't hit that thing, keep clear for now.""Nice, that's working."Right as they prepared to pull the boat clear of the dock, the Anomaly-infested vessel started moving too.That
Chapter 72: Division of Labor
Jake's luck ran hot that night. Beyond the Gravity Control entry card, he'd also landed a fusion card.Might just be the density of nearby settlements driving up the odds of rare drops, honestly more infected, better probability.Either way, the timing on this fusion card couldn't have landed better.If the Caravan came up empty on a boat by tomorrow night, Jake had already decided he'd hunt down a small fishing boat or something similar to fuse solo, as a backup plan.No version of this ended with him drowning. Not an option....The next morning, Blake pulled everyone together early, laying out the day's assignments one by one.First priority: clear the infected entrenched at the sand quarry.Numbers there were manageable, just a few dozen. The tricky part was the cluster of villages nearby.Which meant the cleanup had to stay quiet. No firearms allowed folding crossbows and axes only, keeping the noise down.Beyond the quarry itself, the real headache was that Anomaly-infested sand
Chapter 71: Shooting Down a Drone
Before pulling out, Blake had someone paint the Caravan's destination and route directly onto the ground, and called out several times over the Caravan's usual radio channel himself.Whether the two stragglers still missing actually caught the message has no way to guarantee that either way.The Caravan crawled forward through constant stops and detours, not reaching the sand quarry until evening.With daylight fading fast, Blake had no choice but to make camp nearby first, sending a drone ahead to scout the quarry itself, laying groundwork for tomorrow's operation.The picture that came back wasn't encouraging. Within a half-mile radius sat several settlements of varying size, and as darkness set in, infected started shambling out of every one of them at a glance.The quarry itself, likely thanks to its buildings, held roughly a hundred infected entrenched inside.Small comfort, no serious threats visible among them.Then the drone's camera swept over the water, and whatever relief h
Chapter 70: Target, Sand Quarry
Once Blake stated what he wanted, Jake didn't dodge the request outright but he wasn't about to subsidize it for free either.Once or twice, sure, that was manageable. Thirty kilowatt-hours wasn't nothing, but he could chalk it up as a contribution to the group.What worried him was Blake getting comfortable enough to start treating it as an on-demand service. No stockpile could survive that kind of open-ended drain."Borrowing it once is fine, no real issue there. It's just"Blake had brightened at the first half, then caught the familiar pivot and frowned, forcing himself to ask. "Just what?""This thing burns serious power. One activation runs thirty, forty kilowatt-hours minimum. Honestly, I've only used it myself once since I got it.""Thirty or forty kilowatt-hours for a single use? That seems steep."Blake looked skeptical, half-convinced Jake was padding the number, but had no way to actually dispute it.The man who'd led Blake over here cut in, annoyed. "Come on, really? Now,
Chapter 69: A Warning from Thousands of Miles Away
"Couldn't they have raised literally anything else? Had to be a hundred dogs, and now my van's got a chunk missing.""Count yourself lucky. Saw a guy back there with a chunk missing out of his skull."...Jake studied the claw marks scarring his vehicle. The deepest gouges, courtesy of the buffalo-sized one, cut a good tenth of an inch into the panel enough to genuinely bother him.Easier to wreck something than build it, as always.All that grinding, all that time pouring into upgrades, and a handful of strays nearly undid it in minutes. Where was the fairness in that?Still, he had it better than most. Plenty of vehicles across the Caravan were far less reinforced than his and had taken much worse holes of every size scattered across their bodies.Word was two vehicles had their windows smashed clean through, everyone inside killed on the spot, left behind in that village for good.Jake grabbed some water and gave his vehicle a quick rinse, washing off the filth of dog blood smeared
You may also like
Kingsman Return
Kuraii161.2K viewsAlchemist In The Cultivator World
Ace19.7K viewsDemons Battle
Princez18.4K viewsHealing God's Heir: Abandoned Son-in-law
Abysalyounglord40.0K viewsThe Dungeon Accountant
NARU169 viewsTHE DRAGON BLOOD SON-IN-LAW
Hunterno104 viewsBorn Between Humans & Beasts
FrankintheHouse99 viewsAwakened As A Half Dragon With A Creation Ability.
Eagle Dira82 views