The gray-green mist crept quietly closer.

Watching the wall and machine-gun emplacements only a stone’s throw away, countless pairs of eyes lurking in the darkness began to reflect a scarlet gleam.

It was 6:00 in the evening. Twilight had just fallen over Clearspring City, and the temperature hadn’t dropped too much.

For the spore clouds drifting in the air and the sub-entities lurking in the underground tunnels, night was the perfect cover.

As the evening wind began to stir, the visibility across the northern suburbs silently dropped to less than 50 meters in the stillness.

Watching its children, Thea felt a rush of satisfaction.

The only pity was that the humans had severed all the side tunnels in the northern underground passages. Otherwise, she could have infiltrated her sub-entities behind their defenses and launched a sudden strike from the rear.

Then its plan would have been perfect...

“Go, my children.”

With unseen eyes, it looked down upon those bloodthirsty souls standing on the scarlet fungal carpet and uttered a soundless cry. “Turn them into the nourishment that breeds life...”

“Devour them!”

...

“WRAAAGGGHHHH!”

The piercing roar shattered the night’s silence. The swarm of Mutant Slime Mold charging the defensive line surged forward like a torrential storm, their murderous aura so intense that it made every soldier involuntarily hold his breath.

From the towering city wall, torrents of flame spurted out from gun barrels, and roaring shells traced fiery arcs through the mist, slamming into the ruins of shattered streets.

Tides of sub-entities fell in heaps, but those behind them pressed forward relentlessly.

Each explosion was like a pebble thrown into an ocean, vanishing without a ripple in the vast, crashing tide.

Less than a kilometer from Boulder Town’s defensive line, soldiers gripping their assault rifles felt panic creeping across their faces.

They were soldiers of the Punishment Battalion, and also criminals captured during the crackdown the year before.

They knew the Tide all too well, having once lived beneath the Great Wall.

Yet when truly facing it, even the most hardened killers could not suppress the bone-deep terror that gripped them.

The usually sluggish Crunchers now seemed high on frenzy. Even the weakest sub-entities had become rabid beasts, moving in perfect unison under the hive’s guiding will.

They were beings even Deathclaws avoided. No single mutant in the wasteland could stand against them during the Tide. They would devour everything in sight!

Tear, chew, swallow...

Until every inch of flesh from their prey was absorbed into their Hive, becoming part of that monstrous consciousness, they wouldn’t stop.

“Goddamn it, how many of them are there?!” a prisoner shouted in horror as he watched the creatures fall in the crossfire, only to be instantly replaced by more.

“Great Stag God above...” Crouched behind a sandbag wall, another muttered a desperate prayer, trying to use the sacred name of the Great Stag God to still his trembling heart.

Not far away, a bald, burly man kept glancing back, his eyes flashing between ferocity and panic. If not for the machine guns of the enforcement squad aimed squarely at the backs of their heads, he would have fled without hesitation, as far as his legs could carry him.

Each defensive point held only about 100 men, each squad responsible for one street.

In front of them was a tidal sea of Slime Mold and behind them lay the militia’s positions. If they fell, those behind would rain artillery on them without a second thought.

As their commander, Bit’s eyes were filled with turmoil. That was their only chance at freedom. Only through blood could they prove their loyalty. Only through loyalty could they become human again!

When the artillery finally fell silent, the Crunchers were already within the machine-gun’s firing arc. He squeezed the trigger and screamed as he unleashed his fear.

“AAAAAAAHHHH!”

...

The Tide had already crashed into Boulder Town’s lines. The New Alliance’s defensive lines remained eerily quiet.

Yet everyone could feel the pressure, a swelling undercurrent beneath the silence.

Three Mutant Slime Mold Deathclaw Assimilated Types crept along the edges of ruined buildings, accompanied by dozens of Slime Mold ridden monsters. Using the night and gray fog as cover, they moved toward the border of Defense Sector 06’s third position, intending to flank the center.

The human Mother Body was right before them!

Their amber eyes glowed with hunger for blood. They could already see that noisy building blaring its strange sounds.

But just as their fangs bared, orange-red flares suddenly shot skyward, turning the streets near the third position as bright as day.

The three Deathclaw Assimilated Types and the other beasts were instantly exposed in the light. At the same moment, two quad-barrel 20mm anti-aircraft guns swiveled toward them.

Seeing the sneaking shadows, Kakarot, crouched at a ruined window, yelled in excitement, “Open fire!”

Streams of tracers flew like fiery willow fluff, sweeping down the street with full force.

The Deathclaws barely had time to react before gunfire tore through them. They howled in pain, whipping their tails as they tried to flee.

Shame, the Storm Corps had been waiting for them.

Players crouched at windows had already mounted their 37mm heavy rifles and pulled the triggers the instant the anti-aircraft guns roared.

BANG!

One Deathclaw Assimilated Type’s head exploded instantly, while the other two were torn open across their chest and shoulder in a mist of blood.

Though the new spores had strong fire-suppressing effects, the New Alliance had long adapted: following the Biological Research Institution’s advice, they had replaced their incendiary rounds’ cores with magnesium-based fuel.

The high carbon dioxide concentration didn’t smother the flames. Rather, it fed them. The white blaze burning on the Deathclaws’ bodies grew even brighter!

Their agonized roars echoed through the fire-scorched streets as Thea’s first elite assault squad, her vanguard, was annihilated under the Storm Corps’ concentrated fire.

“Looks like this Mother Body’s micro-control sucks,” Ghostbuster muttered with a laugh, swapping magazines in his 37mm heavy rifle.

Kakarot’s voice crackled through their communication channel. “Don’t relax yet, this is only the start. There’s plenty more coming!”

Ghostbuster grinned and replied, “Relax, I got this!”

In seconds, dozens of elite monsters were wiped out. The Storm Corps had completely stunned the Tide’s vanguard before it could even reach the New Alliance line.

On the red fungal carpet, Thea froze, unable to sense the sub-entities it had just lost.

Assimilated Types were different from regular ones. They couldn’t be bred in nurseries. They had to be caught alive from the wasteland and personally corrupted.

Deathclaws, apex predators of the land, were ten or even dozens of times harder to capture than normal mutated creatures.

It had planned to use them to tear a hole in the New Alliance line, letting its main horde surge through and drown the humans. It never expected those cunning humans to see right through its plan!

After a stunned moment, Thea let out a shrill scream. Every cell in its body trembled with fury.

Yet... so be it.

Their reaction only confirmed that her theory was correct!

The humans did indeed possess a consciousness that ruled them.

They had a Mother Body!

Also, their Mother Body was indeed vital to them! Otherwise, they would never have placed such heavy defenses before that concrete structure emitting sound, even as their kind were slaughtered elsewhere.

She opened her mouth, sending forth countless agitated spores that pulsed with her silent wrath.

Under that furious impulse, the sub-entities lurking near the New Alliance’s Defense Sector 06 also ignited with burning bloodlust.

Crunchers began swarming out of subway entrances. Along the north, more and more high-tier sub-entities gathered.

Creepers scaled the walls of high-rises, and hulking Tyrants with keratin armor stomped through the fog.

The once-still northern suburbs of Clearspring City boiled to life in an instant.

And not just the Slime Mold, the New Alliance’s radio channels were boiling too.

“Massive Evolved Types are here from the underground tunnels!”

“Estimated count over one million!”

“Holy hell, did every Mutant Slime Mold in Clearspring City come out?!”

“Haha, perfect timing!”

“They are forming dense ranks near Sector 06! Positions 1, 2, and 3 already in contact!”

“Death Corps, turn around immediately! Execute the plan!”

“Roger that!”

At the same time, atop the fourth position in Defense Sector 06, Ghostbuster’s grin froze as he saw wave after wave of Evolved Types flooding the streets.

A Tyrant charged, slamming into their barricade to tear it apart. He pulled the trigger and fired a 37mm armor-piercing incendiary shell.

A white flash pierced through the Tyrant’s chest, but it didn’t stop.

Only after two more shots did the beast finally collapse into the black sludge.

But that Tyrant was only one in an ocean of monsters.

Endless creatures surged over its corpse, rushing toward the barricade in a storm of tracer fire.

Ghostbuster’s finger never left the trigger. The moment one magazine was empty, another slammed in. His barrel glowed red-hot.

Watching the swarm growing thicker by the second, he cursed, “Shit, these bastards lost their damn minds or what?!”

Chunks of flesh trailing green smoke fell nearby, spewing corrosive acid mist.

He quickly donned his gas mask, grumbling through the burning sting on his neck, and kept firing.

And indeed, he was right.

Thea had lost its temper and went mad.

On one hand, it was certain that the Mother Body behind that line was the humans’ weakness. On the other, the New Alliance’s firepower had greatly exceeded its expectations.

Dark windows kept spitting flame as shells rained from above, shredding its children.

Its power could extinguish fire, but not stop explosions.

Worse still, the humans had already adapted to its ability, cleverly using alternating fire modes. First, they shelled the area to create spore vacuum zones, then launched incendiaries, and finally used artillery to shield the advance of the flames.

Though it could still smother the flames, it couldn’t prevent vast numbers of its sub-entities and their corpses from being burned to ash.

Lives were vanishing in the flickering firelight, yet the New Alliance’s line showed not the slightest sign of weakness.

Amid endless death, Thea could feel the sorrow of its children.