Steel torrents pioneering a different world

Chapter 105 The Cataclysm of the Undead!!! (Two chapters combined, please subscribe)
"Hey, what is that?"

"What is it?" Senior Brother Zhang asked.

"Look!"

Qin Longlong switches camera angles.

Soon, the end encompassed the huge alloy cage below!

"Such a big cage? What's in it?"

He zoomed in and saw a huge creature locked in a cage, its tentacles writhing helplessly.

Several staff members in protective suits were busy outside the cage, forcefully cutting the octopus's tentacles.

"Holy crap, is this the otherworldly giant octopus? It's so big! How many kilograms of teppanyaki could it make?" Qin Longlong exclaimed, subconsciously swallowing.

Senior Brother Li also came over and smacked his lips: "Don't overthink it, this thing is poisonous to us, we can't eat it."

Senior Brother Zhang said with a smile, "I heard from the professors that the mackerel and salmon in the lake taste absolutely amazing. The brothers in the advance team have tried them and there's not a problem at all. After the observation period ends in a few days, I estimate they'll open the supply to us!"

"Really? I've been eyeing the special cafeteria menu for ages! That sashimi, wow, just looking at the pictures makes my mouth water!"

"I heard that if you dip it in soy sauce and wasabi, the flavor is so delicious you'll want to swallow your tongue!"

The young people instantly transformed from weapons experts into gourmets, their conversation veerging completely off-topic.

Qin Longlong, feeling playful, simply controlled the drone to circle a few times over the fish farm, giving everyone a good look.

Just as everyone was chatting enthusiastically and preparing to control the drone back to the control center, the image on the main screen gradually started to drop frames and showed a strong high latency.

"Huh, the drone signal is acting strangely!"
-
More than 40 kilometers away, Zhao Chong, who was in charge of guarding the area around the uranium mine, clearing away the undead skeletons, and ensuring the safety of the mineral exploration team, was hiding in his tent, staring blankly at the scenery outside.

Suddenly, a beeping sound rang out.

"Captain, the jamming signal has suddenly intensified!"

Have any enemy tracks been spotted nearby?

"Nothing was found, but there was a problem with our signal link with headquarters."

"Where are the Wing Loong drones overhead? Have our drones detected the enemy?"

"The drones dispatched from headquarters are still there. Our drones haven't detected any targets!"

"Activate signal boost mode. Contact headquarters immediately. Be vigilant and alert your surroundings!"

"Ok!"
-
Two and a half kilometers away, near the time portal, is the drone control center.

Lu Zheng, the pilot of the Wing Loong drone, was holding a cup of scalding hot tea, staring calmly at the main screen in front of him.

On the screen, the Wing Loong-3 drone is hovering at an altitude of 4,500 meters, with the gray-white earth covered by ice and snow below.

4500 meters is not the optimal cruising altitude for the Wing Loong-3.

This behemoth, with a wingspan of 24 meters and a maximum takeoff weight of over six tons, should have been soaring at an altitude of 10,000 meters.

But in this other world, five thousand meters is an invisible gate to hell.

Scientists only concluded after losing several drones that a special layer of magical particle turbulence exists above 5,000 meters. There, known aerodynamics are highly susceptible to failure; the combustion efficiency of their drones' conventional fuels drops by more than 70%, and the aircraft's engines, like those suffering from asthma, could shut down at any moment.

Four thousand five hundred meters is the optimal distance for stable flight.

Unfortunately, this altitude is just too high to break through the blizzards that are everywhere in this world.

Without the aid of high-precision weapons, the accuracy of the troops' long-range support weapons is greatly reduced!

"Om-"

The lights in the control center flickered, and the image on the main screen went dark for a moment.

"What's going on? Is the power supply unstable?"

The young drone pilot, Xiao Zhao, watched the situation with a puzzled look and noticed that the drone's signal strength had suddenly dropped by two bars!
The pilot next to him, Lu Zheng, also put down his teacup and glanced at the rows of environmental data streams.

Atmospheric pressure is dropping abnormally, and wind speed readings are starting to fluctuate. Electromagnetic interference is increasing!
"Probably caused by a strange blizzard!"

Lu Zheng paused slightly as he watched the various reconnaissance indices rise rapidly, then placed his finger on the control panel. "Attention all flight units, sudden environmental change. Activate drone enhancement mode and prepare to deal with extreme weather."

As soon as he finished speaking, the footage transmitted by the drone began to shake slightly, and the wind noise readings skyrocketed.

What was just normal airflow at high altitude has now turned into a muffled roar.

"Platoon Leader Lu, the wind speed has increased! It's so fast! The wind speed has exceeded 40 kilometers per hour! Damn it, how come it's still increasing!" Xiao Zhao's voice was a little distorted.

"Maintain attitude during flight."

Lu Zheng's eyes were fixed on the screen, his fingers making slight but rapid adjustments on the joystick to counteract the yaw caused by the strong wind.

The Wing Loong-3 drone struggled to maintain its balance in the gradually increasing gale-force winds, which reached Force 6, like a small boat that could be swallowed by giant waves at any moment.

Just then, Lu Zheng's pupils contracted slightly.

At the edge of the optical camera's field of view, the drone spotted an unusual storm shadow on the horizon tens of kilometers away.

The shadow was a deeper color than the sky, like a splash of thick ink on the heavens, and it was pressing toward the base at a visible speed.

"What's that?" Xiao Zhao noticed it too. "A new storm cloud?"

"The storm clouds are too strong, and the interference index is also wrong!"

Lu Zheng frowned deeply. He quickly flew the drone towards that spot and zoomed in.

On the screen, the shadow was gradually growing larger!

The shadows are like a blizzard, boundless and endless!
The blizzard was rapidly approaching southwards, towards their location.

Lu Zheng checked the distance between the drone and their control center—207 kilometers!

The drone estimated the distance to the blizzard to be about 50 kilometers, meaning the storm cloud was only 257 kilometers away.

Lu Zheng's sixth sense told him that those dark clouds were very strange, because he had been here for a long time and had never seen a blizzard blowing in from the north.

"Drone, keep approaching! Zoom in at maximum magnification!"

"Report: The drone signal is currently unstable; getting too close could damage the equipment."

The weather conditions were severe at the moment. The drone was a full 50 kilometers away from the blizzard, and even with the camera zoomed to its maximum, it was unable to detect whether there were any targets inside the blizzard.

“I sense something’s wrong. I’m boosting the drone’s signal to its strongest setting. Let’s continue our close-up reconnaissance.” Lu Zheng had great faith in his intuition.

"Report: The impact is significant. If it flies another 30 kilometers forward, the drone will be completely out of control!"

"30 kilometers should be enough."

The Wing Loong 3 drone for domestic use is equipped with many high-end features, such as the 50x optical zoom used in military applications. It can easily identify vehicle targets at a distance of 20 kilometers, lock onto human targets at 10 kilometers, and easily pinpoint the detailed license plate numbers at 5 kilometers.

Drones aren't flying into blizzards, so as long as their anti-interference capabilities are strong enough, a distance of 20 kilometers or so is sufficient.

As Lu Zheng hesitated, the brigade commander's voice came through the communication channel: "Lu Zheng, the drone's reconnaissance footage has been transferred to the command center's large screen. Continue flying forward; the command headquarters needs to understand the situation there."

"understand!"

With orders from their superiors, the group became bolder in their flights.

The drone high in the sky was 227 kilometers away from them at that moment.

After being reinforced by a large signal tower, the drone signal, while still present at this distance, gradually became unstable.

After the drone flew another five kilometers, the zoomed-in camera transmitted more images back.

Amidst the blizzard, the faint traces of some large creatures could be seen. The magnified view also transmitted back the scenery from dozens of kilometers away.

Those are completely different scenes.

The southern forests and snowfields, which were not affected by the super blizzard, were bright and clear. Although the wind was strong at level six, it was at least relatively calm.

Meanwhile, dozens of kilometers to the north, a raging blizzard rages, teeming with countless large animals.

As the drone drew closer, more intelligence was relayed back.

Countless tiny, independent, yet remarkably uniform humanoid skeletons formed a vast, gray-white wave that blotted out the sky.

"Holy crap!" Xiao Zhao gasped, his voice trembling. "What are those things inside the super blizzard?"

"Yes!"

At the command post not far away, everyone was watching the video of the Wing Loong 3 with serious expressions.

The entire command center was deathly silent, with only the low hum of the server cluster's cooling fans breaking out.

All eyes were fixed on the central main screen.

As the drone ventured closer.

On the screen, countless eerie blue dots danced in the wind and snow, like will-o'-the-wisps in the night.

The camera gradually zooms in, revealing each point of light as a pair of burning soul flames in the eye sockets of a skull, until the horizon stretches out to an endless, loosely scattered mass of undead skeletons!

They weren't walking, but rather gliding at high speed along the ground in a strange, quick, small-step jogging motion.

If a human were to get close, they could probably hear the clicking sound of bones rubbing together.

The surging skeletons were of various kinds, most of them carrying rusty metal weapons, while others carried crystal-clear ice spears, ice swords and shields, which reflected a chilling light in the dim snowstorm.

In the blizzard, there were also giant bears, their size comparable to infantry fighting vehicles. The rotting corpses and skeletons made them look terrifying!
Even more terrifying were the corrupt giants, some as tall as five meters, with broken iron chains hanging from their bodies, dragging huge stone pillars, walking or riding on hairy mammoths at least six meters tall and covered in wounds, clearing the way for the undead army.

Every step they took seemed to make the earth tremble.

Skeletal warhorses, pale dire wolves, and even some unnamed frost beasts, their riders covered in heavy ice armor, formed scattered yet efficient assault formations, following the main body of the undead army, approaching at high speed.

This is not an army at all.

This is a silent, rapidly moving catastrophe of death!

"It's an army of the undead! They actually attacked us on their own initiative?"

"Their formation is much looser than before! Have they learned from their experience fighting us?"

"Report: In addition to the due north, drones have also detected super blizzards in the northwest and northeast directions, about 80 kilometers away."

"Lu Zheng, zoom in at three o'clock!" Su Mingjin's voice rang out in the command channel.

Upon hearing the command from the command center, Lu Zheng immediately responded and manipulated the drone to turn its camera around.

The camera in the electro-optical pod searches for large targets amidst layers of snow and wind.

Soon, a colossal object caught Lu Zheng's attention.

It was a giant spider made of solid, deep blue ice, over thirty meters tall, equivalent to a ten-story residential building.

Its body has a streamlined shape that is narrow in the front and wide in the back, and the ends of its eight main limbs are not limb tips, but sharp ice claws that gleam with a cold light.

Each movement plows deep furrows into the frozen ground.

What's most chilling is that a figure is sitting on the back of the giant ice spider.

It was a humanoid monster with wrinkled skin like a dried corpse, but covered with a set of ice crystal armor that changed color with the light.

It was the undead BOSS we had fought before, but which ended up making it flee in a sorry state!

It's back, bringing with it a true undead Scourge!

The moment the drone's camera locked onto the target, the undead BOSS sitting atop the ice spider slowly raised its head.

It appears to have spotted the drone!
Lu Zheng, who was controlling the drone, also noticed this strange creature. He immediately zoomed in and saw that the creature's eerie blue eyes radiated coldness and death.

The other party's gaze locked onto the drone, and it seemed to penetrate hundreds of kilometers to meet the eyes of everyone in the command center.

The next second, the blizzard, which could not be seen through by conventional means, suddenly became thicker, like a curtain that instantly covered everything.

The undead boss and that terrifying ice spider vanished swiftly into the snowstorm!

"Don't let it get away! Lock onto it and attack!" Su Mingjin shouted urgently.

"Report, it's disappeared into the snowstorm, we can't lock onto it!"

"Just within that area! Area fire! Quick!"

Lu Zheng practically roared in response: "Understood!"

Without the slightest hesitation, he slammed his thumb heavily onto the weapon's fire button.

The moment a "Thunderbolt" air-to-ground missile detached from its rack, the image on the main screen suddenly flickered.

Zila——!
A piercing crackling sound of electricity exploded from the speakers, drowning out everything else.

The images transmitted by the drone began to spin wildly, with countless snowflake-like interference signals flooding the screen, and the data stream instantly turning into meaningless gibberish.

The last frame shows the missile, trailing a plume of flame, hurtling alone into a thick white void.

Then, the screen began to shake violently and then fell to the ground!

Lu Zheng gritted his teeth and answered, looking at the black screen with a face full of resentment.

"Report! Observer 1 telemetry signal interrupted!"

The command center was so silent that you could hear everyone's own heartbeat.

That pitch-black main screen stood before everyone like a tombstone.

Lu Zheng's hand was still hovering above the launch button, his fingertips trembling slightly, not from fear, but from a surge of anger that had nowhere to go.

"Four thousand five hundred meters, a single strike is fatal. It wasn't launched from the ground, it was an attack from the sky! Is it a flying creature? Aren't those large flying creatures usually in the green forests of the south, not deep in the snowfields? When did they appear in the north?"

Su Mingjin's icy voice broke the silence, each word piercing everyone's ears like an icicle.

"Pull up the last footage and analyze it frame by frame!"

Su Mingjin's voice was completely calm, but those who knew her well knew that this was her way of expressing extreme anger.

"Immediately equip the follow-up drones with self-defense weapons. I need intelligence on that airspace, now!"

"Yes!"

The order was quickly relayed, and new drones began emergency preparations.

With bloodshot eyes, Lu Zheng rushed back to the control panel, his hands typing furiously on the keyboard, pulling up the video stream of the last three seconds before the drone was destroyed.

"Play back, frame by frame!"

The video played on the screen at an extremely slow speed.

The wind and snow continued, an endless cycle.

Suddenly, a blurry black shadow flashed by in the corner of the screen.

(End of this chapter)