Chapter 406 - Bring up the Rear, the Showdown Has Started
Chapter 406: Bring up the Rear, the Showdown Has Started
Breakout?
The moment Lu Yongyi said that, everyone was stunned. It looked like they thought they were experiencing auditory hallucinations.
However, after they turned their heads and saw the same puzzled expressions on the faces of their peers, they realized that Lu Yongyi had really said that.
They were the ones who had proposed the counter-charge and breakout half a day ago.
It was just that before their breakout plan had come to fruition, the shelter leader Lu Yongyi had harshly refused to entertain their idea and asked Zhang Long to explain why.
At that time, Zhang Long’s voice of reason persuaded everyone to give up the idea and focus on defense.
However, after fighting for a long time, losing more than 200 thousand people, and emptying hundreds of thousands of shells of ammunition, Lu Yongyi was now saying that he wanted to counter-charge and break out of this?
Was he being possessed by the foreign races?
“No, I don’t agree. If we charge now, won’t that mean we’ve sent ourselves to a dead end?”
“It’s so dark out there. Once we rush out, we won’t even be able to tell the difference between our own people and theirs. How do you expect us to fight?”
“Lu Yongyi, don’t be too selfish. There are still hundreds of thousands of people with their eyes on you. I firmly disagree with the counter-charge.”
“Even if I die, I have to die in the defensive circle, or I won’t be reconciled!”
Now that the ammunition support had been obtained and the defensive circle had been formed, the counter-charge breakout was the stupidest choice, no matter which point of view one looked at it from.
All the captains were excited. As they shouted, they indignantly rushed to the temporary command room.
They wanted to question Lu Yongyi’s choices, and while they were at it, they wanted to see if the foreign races had somehow possessed him.
However, when they opened the curtains and walked in, they saw Lu Yongyi and the board hanging behind him on the wall of the command room.
In an instant, the speech they had just prepared vanished from their minds. They had even forgotten why they came here in the first place.
“Shelter Leader Lu…”
Even as he heard the shock and inhale from everyone behind him, Lu Yongyi did not turn his head.
His eyes were still fixed on the board. He was also murmuring as he stared at the cloud of foreign races, half the size of the cloud of the Tundra fleet.
In just ten minutes after the game began updating, the speed of this cloud increased at an incomprehensible speed of 35% under Lu Yongyi’s gaze.
Making a reasonable estimate based on the current fleet which had 180 thousand people, the number of foreign races surrounding the fleet was close to 90 thousand.
Moreover, countless red dots dotted the board.
According to this trend, the number of foreign races would recover directly in 20 minutes after the tsunami ended, and even exceed the number during the previous attack.
At that time, there would not be as much ammunition as before, and there would be no resistance force of nearly 400 thousand people.
The booming population of the foreign races would be able to easily destroy the current defense line with a peak effect of 40%.
At that time, they might not be able to leave, even if they wanted to!
“Let’s go! We’ll bring up the rear and let the rafts go first!”
“If we waste any more time, everyone will die!”
This time, it was not Lu Yongyi who spoke, but Zhang Long, who had been in control of the data this whole time.
Zhang Long was the first to react when the others had not yet figured out why things had suddenly reached such an irreversible stage.
If what Lu Yongyi had said about the reinforcements was true and the physical strength and energy of all the survivors below were also at their peak, it would be difficult for humans to fight back against a hundred thousand members of the foreign races.
However, there was still a good chance if they wanted to drag this on.
That was the problem!
The war had just ended, and all the people on the raft had essentially reached the limits of their physical strength.
Back then, three people were enough to tie with one member of a foreign race, but now it would take at least five or even six people to barely defeat one.
With this situation, unless the current number of survivors quadrupled to 700 thousand, there was absolutely no chance of winning this battle!
However, just as Lu Yongyi said, if all the staff were to counterattack and flee, the surviving numbers of the 180 thousand people present would definitely be greater than those stuck defending here.
“Go. All of you should follow them. The target of the foreign races are me and Tundra One!
“I’ll bring up the rear! Zhang Long, Liu Neng, go break the chain. You should leave with the raft fleet!
“You’ll survive if you hold on until the clock turns and our reinforcements arrive.”
Before the rest of the captains could begin panicking, Lu Yongyi, who had been sitting and staring at the board, shook his head and turned around as if he had figured something out.
His eyes were calm, and there was no trace of panic on his face.
His expression was as it usually was, and he was not afraid of death at all.
Apart from the unconcealed regret in his eyes, his aura was even stronger than the day before.
“You don’t want to leave, huh? If you don’t want to leave, you can stay here with me and die!”
Looking at the dumbfounded captains before him, Lu Yongyi put a ‘relaxed’ smile on his face as he emphasized the word ‘die’.
The captains present shivered one after another after hearing his light tone. They felt like they were being eyed up by venomous snakes.
If Lu Yongyi had been a qualified captain of the fleet and a benevolent leader in the past, then right now, in the eyes of all the captains, he had become a starving wolf.
A starving wolf who had not eaten for three days and had been forced into a corner.
Even though he was skinny and looked like he could be knocked down with just a single blow, everyone believed that those who dared to go up to kill him at this time would definitely be bitten by him with his last ounce of strength…
Then, they would perish together!
In the end, Lu Yongyi did not force the others present in the command room to leave.
He stood up and staggered out. He was going to face his biggest fear since coming to the wasteland.
However, he never expected that as soon as he took a step forward, he would be stopped by someone.
“You’re going? Shelter Leader Lu, this ship is so big, and this sea is so big. Where are you going?
“You’re worthy of the greatest admirations after sacrificing so much for these people, but if you asked me to leave, wouldn’t you be the only one enjoying this reputation? I,
Liu Neng, will not allow this to happen!
“Hahaha, it’s just death! We’ll die sooner or later anyway. What’s the difference between dying somewhere else and dying here? Are you looking down on the boys?”
Fear was human instinct.
However, when human beings could confront fear, it would then lose its meaning.
Lu Yongyi smiled when he saw Liu Neng stopping him. Then, he nodded.
Except for their differences in appearance, height, and the injuries on their bodies, the two were like mirrors staring at one another. Even their smiles seemed to come out of the same mold.
Lu Yongyi knew his own fears, and the same was true of Liu Neng.
After turning around, Liu Neng was in front as they walked out.
However, just like he had stopped Lu Yongyi, he was stopped too.
What stopped him this time was no longer one person, nor a few, but everyone remaining.
“What is this? Have the two of you decided to put on a performance? Liu Neng, your own ship has sunken, so why are you still pretending?”
“I, Li Hu, have learned a lot of words from birth to the present, but I still haven’t learned the words ‘fear’ and ‘escape’!”
“Isn’t this just death? More than 200 thousand people died just now, so adding me to the pile won’t make a difference.”
“Hahaha, are you still waiting for reinforcements? But, Shelter Leader, putting the others aside, you are really lucky. Let me be your reinforcement. What do you think of that?”
“The person I followed was Lu Yongyi. So how can I leave if he’s still around? I was born in Huaxia, so how can we kneel when the people haven’t risen yet?”
Everyone was speaking at the same time. The disaster was obviously coming, they were obviously meeting death fervently, and they were obviously not going to see the sun tomorrow. However, in this small command room, no matter how one looked at or listened to it, one would only be able to hear hearty laughter and see relieved faces.
Humans in times of peace always wondered why so many of their generous ancestors died vehemently in times of war.
They had tried to imagine this from their ancestor’s perspectives more than once, but they still did not understand why they had chosen this path, a path that seemed incomprehensible when there were so many other choices.
Was this a mission? A sense of responsibility? An impulse?
Looking at the relieved smiles on the faces of the people around them, no one said why, but they all had their own answers.
“Shelter Leader Lu, I’ll direct the people below to evacuate. By the way, can you give me an explosive pack? Every time I climb up and down the stairs of Tundra One, my hands grow. I’m too lazy to climb it again!”
“Okay!”
“Shelter Leader Lu, give me one too. These goddamn sailors can’t aim properly, and they make me so anxious. This time I’ll throw it myself! If I can’t aim well too, I’ll come back to see you with my head off!”
“Okay!”
“Shelter Leader Lu, I want one too! These foreign races will behead us at a glance, so we can’t lose to them. Wait and watch the surprise I’ll give them later!”
“Okay!”
“Shelter Leader Lu…”
“Okay!”
Lu Yongyi did not reprimand the captains who were under him like he used to, as he listened to their ‘unreasonable’ requests, instead, he squinted and smiled while agreeing and nodding.
In less than five minutes, after Lu Yongyi said 39 ‘okays’, all 39 captains who were still alive at the scene were all laughing heartily. Then, they filed out of the command room, feeling relaxed, a completely different mood than the one they had had when they entered the room.
Some disembarked, some gave out commands, and some prepared the weapons.
There were about 40 minutes before the end of the tsunami and there was still plenty of time left for the captains!
…
At 9:03, the raft warriors who received the order seemed to understand something.
However, even if they understood, not many people chose to refute. They simply began to silently execute the last order of the fleet.
It was not scary to sacrifice.
What was scary was sacrificing in vain. If they did not leave, it would mean that more than 10 thousand people who stayed behind would die in vain!
The remaining 22 rafts that were carrying a total of 150 thousand people had begun to gather supplies and prepare for evacuation.
In terms of the evacuation strategy, all the rafts managed to leave in one go.
There were a total of fourteen directions, so even if the foreign races wanted to encircle them or chase them, they could only chase them in a few directions at best.
…
At 9:11, the sea suddenly shook a few times.
Inside the tight front of the foreign races on the opposite side of the Tundra fleet defense circle, three sparks were shot into the sky after some shock waves.
Since it was an internal explosion, after the explosion ended, everyone could still hear the screams of foreign races even if they were far away.
One did not need to think to know that this blow must have caught the foreign races by surprise and made them feel pain!
Yet, unlike before, no one was shocked and no one was surprised at the surging waves now.
Everyone just raised their heads, took three seconds to salute silently in the direction of the explosion, and then devoted themselves to their tasks again.
…
At 9:19, the first raft gradually left the large group under the cover of the tsunami and headed for the opposite position of the foreign races.
Then, at the rate of one boat per minute, 11 raft ferries disappeared within the defensive circle before the tsunami at 9:30 was over.
…
At 9:31, the foreign races did not attack immediately but continued to gather strength in the distance.
The evacuation of the raft ferries did not stop, and the remaining eleven evacuated in sequence at the previous frequency.
…
At 9:45, all the raft ferries were evacuated. 150 thousand people in 14 directions and they completely derailed from the main force.
The crumbling line of defense had not only not deteriorated because of the departure of the rafts. Instead, it became miraculously streamlined and comprehensive.
If the previous ammunition reserves were on the current line of defense, even 100 thousand foreign races would not be able to take a step forward.
However, estimates were just estimates. Before the real fight, all regrets could only be the unwillingness toward the achievements made in the past.
…
At 9:59, 40 minutes had passed since the first raft was evacuated.
The red dots on the board also stopped gathering, eventually keeping the number at around 120 thousand.
This number was much lower than the expectations of the captains, but it was still an astronomical number for the defender today, which only had more than 10 thousand people.
…
At 10:03, looking at each other from a distance, the foreign races seemed to finally discover the current emptiness of the Tundra fleet. They seemed to have finally accumulated enough strength.
They could not wait anymore.
The real showdown had started!