A Post-Apocalyptic Journey to Another World

Pingyuan City has six satellite cities, each surrounded by numerous small towns. A reconnaissance drone is circling over a small town called Nanxing. The town's streets and alleys are littered with bloodstains and mutilated corpses, and dark shadows occasionally flash by.

On an open field outside Nanxing Town, the reconnaissance battalion was assembling. Their mission was to eliminate the otherworldly monsters in Nanxing Town. In an armored command vehicle, Battalion Commander Xue Gang and his three company commanders stood in front of a 3D holographic sand table. As information scanned by the unmanned reconnaissance aircraft was continuously transmitted to the computer on the sand table, the 3D model of Nanxing Town on the sand table gradually took shape, and various information became increasingly rich.

Xue Gang looked at the information displayed on the sand table and muttered to himself, "The monster in Nanxing Town is a black wolf! We've dealt with this kind of monster before!"

Close-up footage from the drone shows that these wolves have bloodshot eyes and are each nearly two meters long, making them veritable giant wolves!

Qi Lianzhang chimed in, "Our Seventh Company has dealt with these black wolves before. If we can't concentrate our firepower on their heads or hearts, we often have to empty half a magazine to kill them! And they're fast and strong like calves. Last time, we were caught off guard and lost more than ten comrades!"

"Have the soldiers reload with high-explosive dumdum rounds." Xue Gang said, pointing directly at a section of the 3D optoelectronic sand table with his finger, zooming in on it. It was a civilian house. He pointed to several figures in the thermal imaging and said to the company commanders, "There are still many survivors hiding in their homes in the town. We can't use heavy weapons."

"High-explosive dumdum bullets are explicitly prohibited by international conventions. If we do this—" Before the Ninth Company Commander could finish speaking, he slapped his forehead: "Ha! I actually talked about humanitarian conventions with such monsters! I must have lost my mind!"

After listening to the Ninth Company Commander's words, Xue Gang did not hide his dissatisfaction with his subordinates: "As a commander, this kind of habitual thinking is very dangerous and will harm you and your soldiers. We are facing an unknown enemy. As the saying goes, 'Know yourself and know your enemy, and you will never be defeated!' We don't understand our opponent, and we've already lost half the battle, so we can't afford to tie our own hands!"

Li Liansheng was short-tempered. He complained, "Battalion Commander, just give the order! Our Eighth Company is willing to be the vanguard!"

Xue Gang nodded, pointing to an open area on the northwest side of Nanxing Town: "Set up firepower here, lure the wolves out to fight, and avoid unnecessary casualties. You have five minutes to set up the defensive line!" After giving the order, he turned around and muttered to himself, "Hopefully they are just a pack of wild beasts, as they seem!"

Five minutes later, a squad of soldiers arrived on the outskirts of the town, fired a burst of shots, and then turned and ran.

Soon, dark figures darted out from the town's alleyways, appearing behind the fleeing soldiers. At a glance, there were at least fifty or sixty of them! Behind them, more dark figures continued to move about in the town.

Just as the black wolves charging at the front were about to catch up with the soldiers, an explosion occurred within the pack, followed by a series of booming sounds! It was a time-delay mine; with each mine detonated, two or three black wolves were thrown into the air, howling in agony!

The explosion of landmines was like the opening note of a symphony! Immediately following was the roar of assault rifles in the hands of soldiers, heavy machine guns on armored vehicles, grenade launchers, and the four self-propelled artillery pieces supported by the division headquarters! A dense net of fire covered an open area only a hundred meters away from Nanxing Town.

The black wolf at the very front, about the size of a small pony, was struck in the right foreleg by a high-explosive dumdum bullet! The bullet spun and pierced the muscle before exploding! The black wolf's right foreleg was blasted into the air!

The beast howled and, unable to stop its momentum, collapsed to its right. At the same time, another bullet struck its head with a loud bang, splattering red and white blood everywhere. A wolf carcass, missing its right leg and head, lay in a pool of blood, quickly covered by the carcasses of the black wolves behind it!

While fierce fighting rages on the front lines, the rear command is also constantly gathering information and compiling combat logs. These logs will be archived and fed back to higher-level command systems and intelligence analysis departments, serving as the basis for post-battle rewards and punishments and for enemy situation analysis.

One of these items is the frontline commanders' notes on their combat experiences.

While observing the battlefield, Xue Gang shared his thoughts on the battle through the recording system on the command vehicle: "These black wolves are nearly two meters tall, fast, and strong. But their weaknesses are also very obvious: they are bloodthirsty and insane. Once they see blood, even the blood of their own kind, they will lose their minds and go berserk. We are using this characteristic of the black wolves, which we learned in the last battle, to deal with them. I predict that, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we can end the battle with zero casualties."

He paused, then continued, "Personally, I think that the monster invasion that has already occurred, while seemingly terrifying, is actually not difficult to deal with. They lack intelligence and can only attack us based on instinct. With sufficient intelligence about the monsters, we can make targeted tactical deployments, just like we did this time. Therefore, I believe that first, we must have unwavering confidence in victory, and second, intelligence gathering is of paramount importance!"

"Awooo..." A deep, resonant howl from the town center interrupted Xue Gang's narration. The black wolves that were rushing out of the town stopped upon hearing the howl, the bloodthirsty light in their crimson eyes gradually faded, and then they turned and disappeared into the town's streets and alleys.

……

The fierce battle had come to an end. The soldiers were cleaning up the battlefield, and the officers gathered again to discuss the next steps. The wolf howl and the sudden retreat of the pack cast a shadow over everyone's hearts.

Inside the command vehicle, Xue Gang summoned the company commanders again. The impatient Li Liansheng started shouting as soon as he got in the vehicle: "Battalion Commander! In that battle just now, we took down seventy or eighty black wolves. It was really exhilarating!"

Xue Gang nodded: "Drone reconnaissance shows that there are about two hundred wolves in the town, and nearly half of them have been lost. This is good news! However, the wolves' reaction just now exposed a situation that we did not have in mind."

"It's obvious they have an alpha wolf, meaning they have a brain and a commander! And the alpha wolf is very cunning; it's trying to fight us in urban warfare!"

The company commander said, "We're not afraid of street fighting; it'll just take longer. Our resolve to attack cannot waver. Besides, there are still many surviving residents in the town. It's not safe for them to hide in their homes; their doors aren't much of an obstacle for Black Wolf."

The Ninth Company Commander added, "If it drags on until night, it will be disadvantageous for us."

“I understand,” Xue Gang said, frowning. “We didn’t find the alpha wolf during our reconnaissance just now. My concern isn’t the wolf itself. I’m worried about whether there are other undiscovered monsters in the town. A powerful enemy isn’t scary; unknown enemies are the real trouble! So…”

Xue Gang raised his eyebrows, stared at his subordinates, and ordered, "Each of your companies will organize a reconnaissance team to conduct a probing attack. The rest of you, provide cover!"

"Yes, sir!" The three company commanders saluted in unison, got out of the vehicle, and began to assign tasks to the designated area.

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