Industrial Cthulhu doesn't believe in the end times.

Chapter 83 So I wasted my time traveling?

"Have you made contact with the shelter?"

"We just got in touch and the intelligence has been shared."

The convoy from the Taimon base rushed to a hilltop outside Haiqu city. At that moment, the artillery was pouring ammunition onto the battlefield from the newly established position. They only had eighteen heavy cannons, but they fired a dense barrage many times over.

There's no way around it; the ability-wielding loaders are indeed very useful. The only thing limiting their firing speed right now is the heat dissipation efficiency of the cannon barrel.

But this also greatly alleviated the problem—the water-based humanoid water cooling system was well-received by both artillery and machine gun users.

Su Xun and his group received news of a zombie horde in Haiqu on their way there, so the convoy sped up. So far, they are not too late. The zombie attack seems fierce, but overall, the situation is still very close.

Jiang Yi took the General Staff's documents to Su Xun: "The location of the temporary command post has been determined. The target is a middle school that has been cleared out. There are large-scale air-raid shelters under the school. If we need to detonate a nuclear bomb, we can take shelter there from the impact."

For nuclear weapons, radiation is merely a byproduct of the explosion, a manifestation of incomplete fuel reaction. Modern nuclear weapons are not as radioactive as many people imagine. After surviving the initial impact, they don't really need to worry about the subsequent problems.

In particular, those with superhuman abilities are actually more resistant to radiation, which is one of the reasons why Su Xun wanted to gather so many people with superhuman abilities.

After glancing at the documents Jiang Yi handed him, Su Xun nodded and continued to observe the battlefield situation.

He had just glanced at the fog. There were no major disturbances there yet, and without entering it, he couldn't really see anything wrong. Cognitive illusions shrouded the area, and if he really wanted to observe useful information, he would have to go deep inside himself.

However, that's why they came, and it's not urgent yet; the problem of zombies is what needs to be solved.

Su Xun's gaze swept across the city through the binoculars.

In the early days of the apocalypse, when communication problems were not yet solved, humans often liked to set up command posts in very conspicuous places. This habit gradually disappeared after zombies evolved long-range attack methods.

In fact, in Su Xun's eyes, the positions of these early zombie lords were quite conspicuous, and they were not very good at hiding themselves yet.

Su Xun has explained the relevant judgment methods to many people, but these things that rely on experience and judgment are just like that; they cannot be learned simply by studying them, and there are also limitations such as the perspective of observation.

Overall, Su Xun found both sides' tactics to be quite immature.

Soon, Su found her goal.

"Go find the artillery scouts and have them calculate the coordinates of that hospital. Tell the artillery battalion they only have one chance; they must hit it!"

"In the first round, unleash all your shells on the main hospital building with a rapid eight-round barrage. Then, provide fire coverage around the hospital. Once you've fired two rounds, immediately move to a new position!"

Jiang Yi turned to contact the relevant personnel, while Su Xun put down his binoculars and gazed into the distance.

He did not order the shelter's artillery to also fire on that target; one artillery battalion would have been sufficient to accomplish the task. Currently, the shelter was still under considerable pressure.

The cannon fire stopped for a moment. A successful first shot from a long distance is quite difficult, so they usually conduct calibration shots, but they don't have that opportunity now, as calibration shots would disturb the zombie lord.

However, for the artillerymen of the University of Tokyo, this was not an impossible task. In fact, being able to visually locate the target meant it wasn't too far for them. Moreover, they now had many additional safeguards.

Unsure about the wind force? No problem, a wind-type ability user will tell you.

Questioning humidity levels? Don't panic, water-based ability users have been studying this for a long time.

Even the potential problem of barrel explosion is no longer a major concern, because metal-type ability users can basically determine the condition of the cannon, which can largely prevent accidents.

Even though the artillery positions were extremely far from the target, they could still provide a rough estimate through observation. In Su Xun's eyes, this was where the elemental affinity ability truly came into play.

Looking at the area that stood out as unusually quiet amidst the chaotic battlefield, Su Xun sneered inwardly.

It probably felt very safe, and in fact it was. Countless mutated zombies were scattered around it. If it were Su Xun's previous life, the only way to deal with such a being would probably be for a group of superhumans to team up and risk their lives to break in, or to fight their way through the zombie horde head-on.

But now, they can even field organized armies on the very first day of the apocalypse. You asked me to fight like this before I was reborn, and you expect me to fight like this after I'm reborn? Then what was the point of my rebirth?

With heavy artillery, who would bother with your massive army to take the head? How about a 90-pound 155mm high-explosive anti-tank shell?
A moment later, all the cannons in the entire artillery battalion pointed in the same direction. As the command flag was suddenly waved down, all the cannons spewed out bright flames, proclaiming the majesty of the god of war.

Without a calibration gun, after the first shot, numerous cannons immediately resumed firing. The eighteen cannons fired eight times in succession, and at least half of the 144 shells hit the building.

Reinforced concrete buildings are inherently quite sturdy, but assault munitions are designed specifically for this purpose. They rely on their enormous kinetic energy and hard warheads to forcefully penetrate the building walls and explode inside. In the confined space, the powerful overpressure and fragmentation can cause devastating damage.

No matter how ferocious the zombie lord is, it is still not completely free from the carbon-based category. When it encounters this level of overpressure, it will be pulverized.

The zombie lord must be quite talented to be able to mobilize so many zombies in a city. After this one is dealt with, it will probably be a long time before the zombie horde here can breed the next one—if they have any chance at all.

The entire battlefield seemed to fall silent for a moment; the zombies' incessant roars suddenly stopped, leaving only the machine guns in the shelter still spitting fire.

"Did you make it?"

"I don't know, but at the very least it can interrupt its commands."

In fact, most of them were killed. Su Xun could already see some chaos taking place, with some zombies being attracted by the explosions and rushing away from the battlefield.

Once the zombie lord is gone, it's only a matter of time before these mindless creatures are wiped out.

Although Haiqu fought a tough battle against this zombie horde, the fact that he cleared out a lot of mutated zombies ahead of time is not necessarily a bad thing.

"Keep firing! Don't hesitate! Scan that area; there's no one left alive there!"

Seeing that the remaining zombies no longer posed a threat, Su Xun stopped paying attention to them. He glanced at the distant city shrouded in fog and then looked at the school that had been chosen as the temporary command post.

The campus is about ten kilometers from the edge of the fog, located on the edge of the city. The surrounding buildings are sparse, making it a good place to set up a command post.

(End of this chapter)