In the apocalypse, I hoarded goods and handed over my storage space to the government.

"What the hell?"

Zhang Guomeng was stunned for a moment, then grabbed the communicator and yelled, "Are you fucking possessed? Mushrooms can block the way? Just run them over!"

"No, Commander! You, you should see for yourself!"

The drone footage switched onto the command screen.

The next second, the previously noisy command vehicle fell silent.

Even seasoned officers and generals, accustomed to seeing mountains of corpses and seas of blood, were stunned at this moment, their pupils constricting.

"It really is a mushroom," the chief of staff murmured.

Across the desolate wasteland ahead, the once gray and withered world was suddenly severed.

In its place, there is a colorful forest.

That's not a tree.

Those are mushrooms.

Tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of giant mushrooms sprang up from the ground, each reaching half a meter or even a meter in height, with caps displaying red, purple, and blue colors, covered with white spots.

They were densely packed together, stretching to the left and right, with no end in sight.

"What the hell is this thing?"

Zhang Guomeng spat out his cigarette, his face grim. "How come you only noticed us when we were almost there? Where's the electronic reconnaissance company? What are they doing! Didn't the thermal imaging detect anything?"

"Reporting, Brigade Commander! There is extremely strong magnetic interference in this area! Our radar waves have no effect whatsoever."

The electronic warfare officer, sweating profusely, typed on the keyboard. "The thermal imager shows a deathly cold zone ahead, with no signs of any living heat source. Based on the data, these should all be 'mutated plants'!"

Differentiated plants.

Su Ran mentioned in her book "The Alienated Creature Handbook" that the plant kingdom will undergo a dramatic change in the second week after the Red Rain ends, and mutated plants will appear.

But Zhang Guomeng never expected that the mutated plants could grow to such a large scale.

He made a decisive decision: "Contact the General Staff and send the footage back!"

Five minutes later.

"drop!"

An urgent telegram, accompanied by a red alert, was sent back to the command vehicle.

The chief of staff picked up the telegram, glanced at it, and his face instantly turned extremely ugly.

"Brigade Commander, the General Staff has replied."

"read!"

According to the "Handbook of Alienated Organisms" compiled by Special Advisor Comrade Su Ran: In the second week after the Red Rain ends, some plants will undergo mutation and become alienated plants.

Compared to mutated creatures, mutated plants possess an extremely strong sense of territory and are adept at camouflage. Physical contact is strictly prohibited until their specific characteristics are fully understood! Active stimulation is strictly prohibited! Repeat, active stimulation is strictly prohibited!

The chief of staff paused, then lowered his voice, "The General Staff recommends that the entire army immediately halt its advance and detour westward to avoid the area!"

"bypass?"

Zhang Guo turned his head sharply, his eyes fierce. "How far do we go?"

The chief of staff gestured rapidly on the map with his fingers, his face contorted in distress.

"This forest covers a vast area, blocking the main road. If we want to go around it, we'll need engineers to repair the road, adding at least 100 kilometers to our journey. Considering the road conditions, we might be delayed by... three days."

Three days?!

"Bang!"

Zhang Guomeng slammed his fist on the control panel, making the water glass tremble violently.

"fart!"

He pointed at the tranquil mushroom forest on the screen, his anger turning into a mocking laugh. "By the time I take a huge detour around there, it'll be too late! The main force is waiting for our heavily armored group to encircle them! I don't have three days to waste on this mushroom patch!"

"But Brigade Commander, this is the opinion given by Advisor Su, and the General Staff also..."

"I don't deny that the intelligence from Advisor Su was useful, but he had never led troops before and didn't understand the importance of timing in a war."

Zhang Guomeng rudely interrupted the chief of staff, pointing to the endless torrent of steel outside.

"That's 120 Type 99A tanks! Sixty 155mm self-propelled howitzers! Whatever kind of mutated plant it is, as long as it's a carbon-based organism, as long as it grows on the ground, there's no problem that a single high-explosive incendiary shell can't solve!"

"If there are any, then two shots!"

Inside the command vehicle, there was a deathly silence.

All the staff officers were intimidated by the murderous aura emanating from this hawkish general.

That was the pressure accumulated over decades of military service.

"Brigadier, this..."

"Pass on my orders!"

With a wave of his hand, Zhang Guomeng cut off that last bit of hesitation.

"Artillery battalion, load napalm! Burn this mushroom forest to the ground!"

"Tank battalions one and two, in a wedge formation, wait until the fire is extinguished, then roll them over in batches!"

The chief of staff tried to stop him, "Brigade Commander, what about the General Staff..."

"When a general is in the field, he may disobey some of the emperor's orders!"

Zhang Guomeng's eyes were bloodshot. "I know the actual situation on the battlefield best. Opportunities on the front lines are fleeting! If we don't arrive at our designated positions on time, there will be a gap in the encirclement!"

Forget about mutated plants; before a 120mm smoothbore cannon and napalm, all living beings are equal!

"Fire!!!"

With a command given.

The steel behemoths, which could no longer contain themselves, roared.

Dozens of self-propelled artillery pieces simultaneously raised their barrels, spewing fire from their muzzles.

"Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh!"

The sound of something tearing through the air ripped through the sky.

A few seconds later.

The napalm bomb exploded in mid-air, and orange-red flames poured down like spilled ink, instantly covering an area of ​​tens of thousands of square meters.

That's a temperature of several thousand degrees!

Zizizi!

The colorful giant mushrooms twisted violently in the flames, their skins quickly charred and curled.

In a daze, it seemed as if an extremely sharp and subtle sound was mixed in with the wind.

It sounded like a baby crying, or like a mouse screaming before it was trampled to death.

"Squeak, squeak..."

But this faint sound was instantly drowned out by the deafening explosion.

five minutes.

The firepower coverage lasted only five minutes.

That once eerie and mysterious mushroom forest has been completely transformed into a charred ruin.

The embers were still burning, and thick black smoke billowed out.

Thick ash covered the ground, leaving only carbonized residue and a bare surface.

"Ceasefire!"

Zhang Guomeng looked at the scorched earth on the screen, sneered, and his tense nerves finally relaxed.

"This is what war is."

He straightened his uniform collar. "Tell the General Staff that the Mushroom Field has been completely wiped out! Tank groups will lead the charge, crushing through in waves! Then the entire army will advance at full speed!"

"yes!"

This time, no one objected.

Faced with overwhelming firepower, fear seems truly superfluous.

Rumble!

The steel behemoth is started again.

Hundreds of main battle tanks, each weighing over fifty tons, swaggered in.

The tense atmosphere on the radio instantly dissipated, replaced by a relaxed, even celebratory, atmosphere.

"Haha, what kind of mutated plants? One shot and they're all reduced to ashes!"

"Who just said we had to take a detour? The General Staff is being too cautious; they make us take a detour at the slightest sign of trouble."

"Strategists are so cunning; the cannons we have are the real deal!"

A tank company commander opened the hatch, poked his head out, felt the heat wave blowing in his face, and joked into the communicator.

"Boss, if you ask me, the fire we've set is so big it'll probably cook the earthworms in the ground."

Zhang Guomeng listened to his subordinates' teasing but did not stop them.

A moderate degree of arrogance is the source of morale for this elite unit.

"Stop talking nonsense, maintain formation, and speed up the process!"

The convoy roared, kicking up clouds of black ash.

The first echelon of thirty tanks had penetrated deep into the heart of this scorched earth.

Forward Tank, number 007.

The driver, Lao Li, is a first-class sergeant with fifteen years of driving experience.

But at that moment, his hand holding the joystick suddenly trembled slightly.

His brows furrowed tightly; the feeling was strange, very strange.

"Why does this ground feel a bit soft?" Old Li muttered to himself.

"soft?"

The loader inside the turret replied nonchalantly, "It just exploded, the soil's definitely loose. Don't be paranoid, speed up!"

"No, that's not right!"

Old Li suddenly opened his eyes wide and stared intently at the periscope.