Long-term salvation

There were chaotic footsteps, followed by a few short gunshots—the zombies that could use guns were the soldiers of the reconnaissance company! At this moment, they had become puppets of the blasphemers, becoming part of the abominations guarding the sarcophagus.

Currently, these zombies are cleaning up the supernatural beasts and other zombies near the nuclear power plant, showing wisdom far exceeding that of their "kind". This may be because they are still relatively "fresh".

"Let's avoid them and don't waste time," Rhodes said. He walked forward carefully, but just as he emerged from the shadows, a bullet grazed his cheek, leaving an ugly bullet mark on his camouflage mask!

Without hesitation, Rhode retracted his body, opened a smoke bomb and threw it out. In the swirling smoke, he thought quickly, then shattered the glass of the building next to him and went in with Nikki.

"How did the enemy find me?!" Rhodes gritted his teeth and ran down the corridor.

After smashing the glass at the end of the corridor, he jumped out of the apartment building, kicked the zombie in front of him in the neck, then pulled out his revolver and fired six shots in rapid succession!

Six bullets spun through the radioactive air. The scorching heat from the bullets melted the snowflakes on the trajectory and shot into the zombies' grayish-white heads with hollow eyes. They shot out from the back of their heads, scattering the brain tissue that had not yet rotted onto the snow.

Just as he finished reloading his ammunition, Rhode heard a sharp whistling sound and an explosion. D used his VSS to volley and detonate the incoming RPG. When the metal fragments embedded in Rhode's left arm, he realized how dangerous the situation had been.

"Rifles are fine, but how come you can use an RPG so smoothly... Are you Monolith soldiers now?! Are infantry fighting vehicles or something like that going to happen next?"

After running a few steps forward and tumbling into a bunker, Rhode took a few breaths, tore off his now-ineffective camouflage mask, and gestured to Nikki, who was hiding on the side of a building. Nikki nodded in agreement, then leaned forward slightly and fired several shots at the zombies in the building to the right.

At the same time, Rhodes switched his AK74M rifle to single-shot mode. Seeing Nikki pushed back against the wall by the hail of bullets, he suddenly leaped out, placed the inner reticle of the PSO-1 optical sight on the target, calculated the distance, and fired! Three bursts of single shots pierced three heads, freeing the souls of three once-human warriors.

"Damn! I don't know how the enemy found my position so quickly," Rhodes shouted. He saw Nikki had thrown away the empty VSS rifle and taken out her own weapon. "Let's abandon all that red tape and charge right in! If the nuke explodes, let the Alicorn handle it... Do you have the courage to follow me to death?"

Nikki smiled brightly in response.

Seeing this smile, Rhodes felt a little relieved. He changed the bullets in his weapon, took out a small piece of [Black Stone] and put it into his watch, making the dial ring light up with golden light.

"set off!"

Rhodes stepped out of the shelter and ran forward recklessly, shooting at any supernatural being that could move in front of him, with Nikki in a hooded cloak following closely behind him.

The buildings on both sides were filled with shadowy figures, uttering meaningless murmurs and whispers, repeating their final words before death. The plants that grew from these human creations were intertwined and slowly growing. The radiation broke their DNA chains and caused them to splice randomly. Combined with the power from another supernatural dimension, it made—

"Who cares about you?!" Rhode roared angrily. A flaming sword suddenly emerged from his right hand, slashing through all obstacles in his path. "Get out of my way!"

The dancing flames left dancing shadows on the walls of the building. When the shadows disappeared, the charred marks could not be washed away by the snow water.

The flames could ignite flesh and blood, burn plants, melt snow, and purify the dark forces within, but they could not prevent the meltwater soaked in nuclear radiation from gathering on the ground and flowing into the distance, poisoning the earth, poisoning the rivers, and poisoning every living being that might come here in the future.

At this moment.

Chernobyl's concrete sarcophagus remains largely intact, except for a hole underneath. Six figures in black burqas stand silently outside, armed with machine guns, armor, and Shamshirs.

Inside the hole, everything is twisted.

Chapter 319 Countdown (18/20)

The snow seemed to fall endlessly.

When Rhodes appeared in front of six humanoids in black robes, they simultaneously drew their scimitars and pulled the triggers of their general-purpose machine guns. These humanoids were no more robust than Zakhaev's heavily armored soldiers, but even so, these weapons fired smoothly as if they had no recoil.

The fire line pushed across, lashing the walls of the crooked building like a whip, splashing up a gray mist composed of gravel, sand and radioactive snow.

The next second, a BRDM-2 armored vehicle rushed out of the gray fog. Its welded body withstood the bullets from the PKM general-purpose machine gun. As the four-wheel drive system roared, the nearly eight-ton steel behemoth accelerated again and crashed into the veiled humanoids like a galloping steel bull!

The hooded figure, chosen as the target, dropped its machine gun and rolled to the side to evade, unleashing a makeshift cluster grenade. The grenade's fuse had been deliberately shortened, clearly with no regard for the user's life or death—what was there to worry about with a dead person?!

But the armored vehicle vanished into thin air. Rhode, who suddenly appeared, kicked the cluster grenade away, sending it spinning and exploding in mid-air! Orange-red flames spread in all directions, and the shockwave pushed thousands of fragments into the ground, into the stiff flesh covered by the bulletproof vest, and into Rhode's shoulders, who was half-kneeling in a defensive posture.

In the gap between the crossed arms, Rhodes's azure eyes flickered slightly. In the time it took to exhale, he crossed the short distance and punched the face of the robed figure in front of him, making it dent. Then he pulled out his revolver and fired several shots at the other person who was about to raise his machine gun!

Bullets, enhanced for damage to creatures from the other world, pierced the flesh of the corpse, causing corrupted blood flowers to bloom in the radioactive snow of Chernobyl.

When the other hooded figures wanted to fire at Rhodes, Nikki appeared from another direction. Holding a weapon that looked similar to a P90, she fired at the most threatening enemy. The bullet grazed the back of Rhodes' neck and accurately hit the head of the corpse. The precise burst of fire directly shattered the head. Before the corpse slowly collapsed in the snow, the pull ring of the gas canister in its hand had been torn open.

The gas canister rolled on the ground with a hissing sound, and Soman poisonous smoke expanded out and rushed towards Rhodes in the direction of the wind and snow. But the latter, wearing the all-seeing eye mask, just glanced at the gas canister and snapped his fingers. Golden flames suddenly rose like a high wall!

The flames were blazing, and Rhodes walked slowly forward, with only the last enemy left in front of him.

Throwing away the general-purpose machine gun, the black-robed figure tightly grasped the Sheshri scimitar in his hand. He let the handle rotate in his palm, causing the blade to twist in the falling snow, and the sharp blade reflected the cold firelight.

Rhodes raised his hand expressionlessly and fired a shot, knocking the opponent down.

"What a fuss!" Rhodes said, walking towards the hole in the sarcophagus, letting the Geiger counter scream. "If you have the time, you might as well machine-gun me. The chances of killing me are much higher."

Nikki quickly followed, looking at Rhodes with a hint of worry, and asked in a low voice:

"Commander, radiation..."

"It's okay. The lieutenant colonel stuffed several AI-2 first aid kits into my pocket before I got here. I took the anti-radiation medicine inside, so I'll be fine for a while longer." Rhodes twisted his neck. He was indeed feeling uncomfortable now. The stealth suit on his body could still hold up, but the camouflage system had completely stopped working... However, the all-seeing eye mask, which was also produced by the system, could work normally and was not affected by the high-radiation environment at all.

Taking a few more steps toward the hole in the sarcophagus, Rhode turned his head to look at Nikki. Determination and stubbornness surged deep in her calm eyes. Seeing her like this, Rhode shrugged, put on his gas mask, and walked into the hole.

The interior of the sarcophagus was filled with multi-layered white noise, like the dense clicking sounds of countless Geiger counters, which was creepy.

Darkness filled every corner like the air, except for the strange vortex of dark clouds in the center. This abnormal supernatural phenomenon spanned the huge dome made of heavy concrete, throwing the creations of the real world into the other world and summoning the creations of the other world here.

Some snowflakes drifted down from above, following the swirling clouds. These snowflakes, however, were more like ashes wrapped in a dark glaze, stained ochre by the rust trapped in the cracks. When they fell to a height close to the nuclear power plant's generators, they were lifted up again by the rising heat below, forming countless suspended spirals.

Life and death were reversed here and at this moment. The phantoms of people who had died in the nuclear power plant accident slowly emerged. They wore heavy lead suits and gas masks, their eyes behind the goggles full of fearlessness of death, and they rushed towards the melted reactor again and again.

Watching the phantom running past him, Rhode had originally thought he would be ambushed or fall into some terrifying trap after entering the sarcophagus. But now it seemed that there was nothing... or rather, someone was waiting for his arrival.

Rod stepped on the borax and slowly walked into the interior of Unit 4 of the nuclear power plant. He saw only narrow passages, collapsed buildings and steel beams, as well as the mess left after the reactor melted and was extinguished.

A series of messy footprints extended deeper into the cave, and the trace of a heavy object being dragged extended deeper into the cave.

"Right here it is," Rhodes whispered, "the nuclear warhead, those Ibris Organization members, and... the pages of the Necronomicon."

Holding the rifle, Rhodes walked in slowly and cautiously. In the field of vision provided by the blindfold, he saw that the entire reactor was covered with a layer of dark red blood, and dozens of tortured corpses fell on top, dripping with blood soaked with radiation.

Rhodes was about to take a few more steps when he suddenly felt nauseous and vomited a few mouthfuls of blood - the blood accumulated inside the gas mask, making it impossible for him to see anything - the excessive nuclear radiation had begun to exceed the system's automatic repair capabilities, and he had to leave this environment before he could be cured.

"Do you feel it? This is the harm humans have done to you."

Chaos's voice echoed in the darkness. He stood on the railing on the opposite side of the reactor. His silver mask was covered in a dark red, as if he had transformed from a calm scholar into a grinning villain.

“O Jesus, in this age, humans are poisoning the earth and the sky, slaughtering their own kind wantonly, wasting enough food to feed twice the current population, and using precious fresh water for their own pleasures… Yet you still come for them, like a moth to a flame.”

Hiding behind a steel beam to avoid Rhode's pistol fire, Chaos clapped his hands lightly, and the bodies of the reconnaissance company soldiers hanging upside down were immediately lowered. They picked up their weapons and pressed towards the former. But even amid the fierce gunfire, Chaos's voice could still be clearly transmitted to Rhode's ears:

"The sins committed by the people of this era are being paid for by you, and you are being made to suffer in their place. Isn't this ridiculous?"

"Shabi."

Rhodes responded with the simplest and most straightforward curse words, which startled Chaos slightly. Just as he reacted, he saw Rhodes below, under the cover of Nikki, taking out a heavy machine gun. The 12.7mm gunfire flickered in this dim area, and the bodies of several zombies were cut in two in the strafing!

Stepping back slightly, Rhodes threw a grenade. When the smoke and dust from the explosion rushed past him, he tore off his gas mask and rushed forward again, raised his revolver, pulled the trigger six times, and pierced the heads of eight corpses.

"D!"

"..." Nikki didn't reply, but just fired in the direction of Rhodes' finger. The bullet hit the wall behind Chaos, who was bending over to avoid it in a panic, and splashed sparks.

"Stop talking nonsense to me. Where's the nuclear warhead?!" Rhodes kicked a zombie over and dodged another's attack. He looked at the young man's face, letting the anger in his heart surge like waves. "Or you can just detonate that thing directly."

"It's in the reactor, in the one that's been pumped in with thousands of tons of boron carbide and sand and has stopped reacting," Chaos said calmly. "You can try to get rid of this thing before the radiation kills you... maybe even the crack will close."

Reactor? Like a forge, the reactor now belched blood-red light upwards, connecting with the swirling clouds above. From it dangled the chains once used to hold up corpses, like the tentacles of a giant octopus.

The interior of the reactor, hollowed out by supernatural evil power, was obviously the ritual site, and those highly radioactive materials were scattered inside the sarcophagus, becoming a poisonous trap that slowly harmed Rhodes' body.

With a slight thought, Rhodes ignored Chaos's reply and a longsword emerged from his hand. He grasped the hilt and plunged the tip of the sword into the borax, which had melted and turned into a nearly black glass. Golden flames immediately cut through the solidified darkness. He closed his eyes, then slowly opened them again, his azure pupils overflowing with majesty and anger.

The zombies that were rushing towards them suddenly stopped just inches away from the savior of mankind. Golden flames suddenly shone from their eyes, mouth and nose, and their entire body was then completely burned from the inside out, turning into a handful of pure ash that slowly dissipated!

He picked up the sword.

The sword light slashed down vertically.

The nuclear fission reactor that once embodied human wisdom and desire was immediately cut open, creating a passage!

"Tsk... I still have to do this. It's really not worth it." Rhodes wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth. "D, catch that scum, don't let him get away!"

After letting Nikki try to catch Chaos, Rod slowly moved forward through the narrow passage that had been cut open. The hot molten metal splashed on him, bringing him unspeakable pain.

After struggling through, Rhodes saw a metal box placed inside the reactor that looked like a skylight. A large amount of borax had been poured into this place to stop the reaction, but now it was dug open by some force. He looked at the layers of densely arranged, razor-sharp protrusions on the skylight's ring wall that were constantly rotating... It turned out to be the right choice not to enter from above.

Not to mention, there was a faint suction force coming from above, as if some force was pulling everything below, but this force was not yet strong enough to suck in the reactor or the entire nuclear power plant.

Maybe the person who caused all this just doesn't want to do it right now?

Thinking this, Rhode walked forward and saw the flesh-and-blood creature beating like a heart on the metal box, as well as the countdown engraved on it:

03:00

02:59

02:58

……

"Now, what are you going to do? Savior of mankind in this era..."

Chapter 320: The Tragedy of Chernobyl (19/20)

When Nikki climbed over the obstruction and stepped on the ashes left by the zombies, Chaos did not run away, nor did he try to fight back. He just calmly walked out from behind the collapsed steel beam. As the leader of the Ibris organization, "Chaos" himself did not have any destructive power. He was more like a scholar leader of a secret school.

After Nikki shot through his legs with his weapon, Chaos collapsed on the ground, laughing softly and saying:

"You are our 'archenemy', someone who must be killed. Therefore, I believe that using a nuclear bomb is most appropriate for your status."

"Really?" Rhodes observed the thing carefully, his face showing a bit of relaxation. "Thank you for your appreciation, leader of the Ibris organization... Your name is Chaos, right? Obviously, you don't need to answer."

"..."

"Say something, we're all going to die anyway."

Rhodes began to rummage out things from his storage space, taking out various weapon parts, ammunition, and small items he needed for daily use, filling up the small space inside the reactor.

"For example, where you came from, where you are going, and your subsequent plans."

Rhodes said nonchalantly, and then began to try to remove the metal box on the outer layer of the nuclear bomb, but this thing seemed to be closely connected with the internal detonation structure, coupled with the impact of radiation on the body... It was completely impossible to deal with this thing here, not to mention that he himself was by no means a nuclear disposal expert specializing in this field.

And this metal box is way too big! What's going on? Slavs just love big bangs and big explosions, right?

After a few seconds of silence, Chaos's voice rang out again in Rhode's ears, panting with the same weakness and pain—as if his mask was tightening, squeezing his head and the soul of this madman—coughing a few times, Chaos said:

"Since we're all going to die, what's the point of saying it?"

"Just think of it as telling me a joke."

"Hahaha, Ersa, you can also say such interesting things?" Chaos squeezed a little laughter from his throat, his body curled up, "I thought you were a blazing furnace, a cold machine set to the goal of 'saving humanity'."

"I consider myself a person with a great sense of humor, so of course I can make some witty remarks."

"But in this situation, it's better not to be a human being."

"……Ah."

His movements paused for a moment, and then he sneered and placed his palm over the metal box containing the nuclear warhead. The next second, when the countdown reached 01:00, the entire metal box vanished without a trace! Vanished into thin air, leaving no trace of its existence in this world!

"...I'm so sorry, but humans are a little more resilient than you think."

Rhodes put the metal box containing the nuclear bomb into his storage space!

In that eternal cage of time, the countdown to the detonation of the nuclear bomb is also frozen, postponing the impending destruction indefinitely until it is released one day in the future.

Chaos: “…”

"It's amazing, isn't it?"

Rhodes chuckled a few times, but he didn't relax at all in his heart - the current storage space was only big enough to hold them, and now that one was solved, where were the remaining two?

He coughed up some blood, then left through the narrow passage he had come from, climbed the ramp, walked up to Chaos, and asked indifferently:

"Where are the remaining nukes?"

"You found one in the earth, so why not look up at the sky?"

Sky? Rhode's gaze fell on the swaying chains, and as he drew his sword, a raging flame followed the blade and penetrated Chaos's right leg, dispersing the already chaotic energy of the otherworld, scorching and burning his flesh bit by bit!

Chaos let out a shrill scream. The pain that came from his soul was not a torture he could withstand.

"You have chained a nuclear bomb," Rhodes said in a firm tone, his voice cold. "When did the countdown begin?"

"Right after the first nuclear bomb disappears, right? Five or six minutes left, right? You'd better act quickly, Jesus. If that thing explodes at the rift between the inner world and the real world... we don't know what the consequences will be."

"..."