A Post-Apocalyptic Journey to Another World

It was completely dark, but the First Division headquarters was still brightly lit, with staff officers busy collecting and processing information from various combat units.

This rift wave saw the emergence of many intelligent and organized groups of monsters, causing unexpected losses to all units. The division headquarters made a decisive decision and ordered all attacking units to retreat.

The entire command post was in a flurry of activity, with staff officers running back and forth, indicating that almost all the front-line troops were in trouble!

In a corner of the command post, there was a small room separated by glass. Inside, General Huo and Political Commissar Wu Sheng were discussing something. Next to them stood an old man with a full head of white hair in an afro style, which was clearly the result of long-term neglect.

Division Commander Huo Mingde took the newly compiled troop casualty data from a staff officer, frowned, and noted that the First Division was well-trained and its losses were not significant, but still exceeded his expectations.

Fortunately, the troops have begun to withdraw. The fact that the monsters can cause losses to the troops in urban warfare does not mean that they can gain an advantage in open field battles.

Therefore, this battle is basically over. Although the human army won in terms of the results, it had no choice but to retreat in the face of the enormous number of monsters. Strategically, it was a defeat!

Commander Huo rubbed his temples and said, "The war is getting worse and worse, and the monsters are increasing in number. We need more troops!"

Wu Sheng also took a look at the report and said, "Old Huo, not everyone agrees with our expansion of the army. Some members of the Pingyuan Municipal Party Committee leadership have expressed reservations about us distributing weapons to the militia. Recently, there have been incidents of some militia members attacking them without provocation. Due to the proliferation of firearms, their security work has become extremely difficult!"

"A proliferation of firearms?" Upon hearing this, General Huo's scarred face twitched. "Don't the militia regiments store their weapons in armory when they're not on missions? How can there be a proliferation of firearms?"

Wu Sheng picked up a booklet, flipped through it, and said, "In addition to the militia regiments we train, the militia forces in Pingyuan City also include militias trained by the police system. Furthermore, various government agencies in Pingyuan City apply to higher authorities for firearms under the pretext of employee training. Both of these applications bypass us and go directly to higher authorities. Their management is lax, and there have even been cases of firearms being sold on the black market!"

Hearing this, the white-haired old man next to him smiled bitterly and interjected, "Old Huo, they're turning the tables on us! They're pretending to accuse us, but their real intention is to muddy the waters, diverting attention and confusing the public, so you're too busy to investigate them."

General Huo sighed, looking somewhat weary, and said, "Academician Gao, how can I possibly spare the time to bother them who are profiting from the national crisis? These corrupt and short-sighted bureaucrats! Well, Pingyuan City has nearly 20 million people, and we've only trained a few hundred thousand militiamen so far. Most of them are unarmed, so losing some of our weapons might not be such a bad thing!"

“Yes!” Wu Sheng said, “This time the monster wave is larger and stronger, and there are even intelligent leader-level monsters. We were unprepared, and all our units have suffered heavy losses. Right now, we can only evacuate the people in the villages and towns to our defense zone first, and then slowly reclaim the lost territory when we have enough troops.”

At this point, he turned to the old man with the messy hair and asked, "Academician Gao, have your probe robots sent back any messages?"

Academician Gao was none other than the old man with the messy white hair, Gao Longzhi. He was an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and one of the leaders of the military research team. Gao Longzhi shook his head: "The probe robot disguised as a stone lost contact as soon as it passed through the spacetime rift."

Wu Sheng said, "Should we send another reconnaissance team to try?"

General Huo immediately rejected the suggestion: "No, we have already ruled out three groups in a row. All the people who entered the spacetime rift have disappeared without a trace. Dozens of soldiers have already sacrificed their lives. We cannot use the lives of our soldiers for pointless testing!"

At this point, all three fell silent. Scientists worldwide still haven't figured out the origin of this disaster, and not a single country has been able to retrieve even a single piece of information from the other side of the rift. It's as if an invisible force has blocked all attempts to probe.

Even the most confident military strategists and leaders cannot help but feel bewildered when faced with an unknown enemy.

"Knock, knock, knock..." A knock on the door broke the silence, and then a staff officer entered the small room: "Reporting to the division commander, Battalion Commander Xue and the others are back!"

……

When Gao Longzhi saw the alpha wolf's corpse, he instantly lost his composure. He abandoned General Huo and Political Commissar Wu Sheng, ran over, touched and looked at it here and there, as happy as a child who had received a new toy.

After petting it for a while, he even rubbed his cheek against the alpha wolf's large head, sending chills down everyone's spine! After that, he took out a pocket watch-like device, scanned it against the wolf's head, and suddenly his expression changed. He asked Xue Gang with a menacing look, "Battalion Commander Xue! Where's the magic crystal? It's gone!"

Xue Gang was taken aback by the question and looked at Zhang Xi and Xu Liang, who both feigned ignorance. Xu Liang genuinely didn't understand, while Zhang Xi pretended not to.

Gao Longzhi didn't press the matter; after all, he had plenty of magic crystals in his lab. He simply called a few people to carry the wolf's carcass away; he had more important business to attend to today.

General Huo didn't care about magic crystals. He looked at Zhang Xi, nodded with satisfaction, and said, "Zhang Xi, I've read the battlefield records that Xue Gang sent back. When I, Huo, lead troops, I reward merits and punish demerits! You're a student soldier, so I can't give you a rank. So, feel free to make any requests you may have."

Zhang Xi didn't care about military rank; it was meaningless to him. He preferred something more practical and said, "Commander, I'm planning to ask for leave to go home for a while."

General Huo said, "You're a student soldier, so you can go home anytime. That can't be considered a requirement. What else?"

Zhang Xi said, "I plan to go to the outskirts of Pingyuan City to visit a relative of mine, so I need a set of equipment and weapons and ammunition."

"Alright!" General Huo liked this soldier even more for being willing to risk his life for the sake of friendship: "You can go to the armory and collect whatever you like, any individual weapon. Before that, you and Xu Liang need to go to Academician Gao's place; he needs you to do a test!"

……

The core area of ​​the First Division's base was not the command post but a research center, a three-story cylindrical building that was usually heavily guarded. Even commanders at all levels were not allowed to enter without a pass.

Guided by a staff member from the research center, Zhang Xi and Xu Liang passed through three security gates before finally reaching the lobby on the first floor. It was nearly late at night, yet many staff members were still bustling about, conducting various tests.

The staff member told Zhang Xi and Xu Liang to wait a moment, then left. Bored while waiting, the two curiously looked at the nearest test station.

Several workers were using a robotic arm to pull on a piece of fur from an unknown animal. The electronic screen on the robotic arm, which displayed the pulling force, showed a reading of two tons, but the fur was only slightly deformed and was not broken.

Xu Liang was staring in disbelief: "What is this thing? It's so sturdy!" Before Zhang Xi could reply, a short, bespectacled young female staff member approached them and asked, "Excuse me, are you Comrades Zhang Xi and Xu Liang?"

The two nodded. The woman with glasses looked at them and then at the two files in her hand, and said, "Please follow me." The three walked through a corridor and came to a door. They pushed the door open and entered, but the scene inside surprised them.