Invincible through Touching Corpses

Chapter 312: All In

Another grueling war of attrition followed, lasting a full hour.

When the members of the various Mercenary Corps retreated from the second line of defense to the third, everyone in the temporary command post looked grim.

This wasn’t because of heavy casualties. On the contrary, over the past hour, the Mercenary Corps had developed better synergy. Both personnel casualties and the number of destroyed Combat Robots had decreased.

The problem was, ammunition couldn’t be created out of thin air.

By now, every Mercenary Corps had used up more than half of the ammunition they had brought.

"What’s the exact total of our remaining ammunition? Have you tallied it up?" Lin Xinghai asked a soldier in charge of statistics while the Mecha were out fighting.

"Based on the numbers reported by each Mercenary Corps, our total remaining ammunition is only about 43%," the soldier hurriedly reported.

Hearing this, Lin Xinghai couldn’t help but rub his head. After a long moment, he said, "Alright, have the Military Department hold back 5% of the ammo. That’s our reserve for a breakout. Distribute the rest evenly. If we still can’t win after using it all, we’ll have no choice but to retreat."

At this point, even he was finding it difficult to judge the situation. After more than two hours of intense fighting, they had expended a massive amount of ammunition, but they had also killed as many as 180,000 Zombies.

Having killed so many Zombies, one could clearly see from a high vantage point that the number of Zombies within a few kilometers had been reduced by more than half.

So, it was truly hard to say whether they would run out of ammunition first or finish off the Zombies first.

Under these circumstances, they could only bite the bullet and continue to fight the zombie horde to the death.

...

Time slowly ticked by. Amid a tense atmosphere that everyone found agonizing, another hour passed.

Lin Xinghai once again gave the order to fall back. This time, they abandoned the third line of defense, and all the Mercenary Corps retreated into the shopping mall.

This was their final stronghold. But at this moment, there was no tension on any of the Mercenaries’ faces, only a look of unwillingness to give up.

From the start of the battle until now, they had killed over 250,000 Zombies.

Now, only a little over 40,000 Zombies remained in the horde outside. The Zombies within a few kilometers were nearly all gone. Those few "Hunters" were now roaring desperately, able to summon only two or three thousand Zombies at a time.

This was clearly a sign that they were about to win.

The problem was, they were truly running low on ammunition. They had survived the most difficult phase; it would be utterly infuriating to lose the battle now due to a lack of ammo.

"How much ammunition does each Mercenary Corps have left? Have you tallied it?" Lin Xinghai asked.

"Excluding the portion we set aside, there’s only 9% left," the person in charge of statistics said grimly.

"So, you’re saying the remaining ammunition isn’t enough to annihilate the 40,000-plus Zombies in the horde outside?" Lin Xinghai seemed to be asking a question, yet also muttering to himself.

"That’s right. According to the computer’s calculations, we’re short on ammo by enough to kill at least 10,000 Zombies," replied another person in charge of battlefield coordination.

Lin Xinghai was silent for a long moment, before finally saying fiercely, "Then use the 5% reserve ammunition, too. Annihilate all of these Zombies."

"We can’t!" Zhang Yue grew anxious and quickly tried to persuade him, "We can’t use up all our bullets! Otherwise, getting back will be trouble."

"Besides, even though it looks like there aren’t many Zombies left nearby, that doesn’t mean there are none at all. Didn’t you see that another 1,000-plus just arrived?"

"While that’s nothing compared to the main horde, if we run out of bullets, it will definitely be the straw that breaks the camel’s back."

"Then we just won’t use up *all* the bullets," Lin Xinghai said, shutting down all of Zhang Yue’s arguments with a single sentence.

"Relay my orders. When the Mecha Brigade gets back, they are to split into five teams and charge out in rotations. Each rotation will last at least ten minutes. Don’t worry about how much Perception Power is consumed. What I want right now is to win this war."

"Also, have all the Mercenary Corps hand over their Armor-Piercing Bullets. I will deal with all the High Level Zombies in the horde."

"Tell them to just handle the Intermediate and Ordinary Zombies. Remember, they must aim before firing. Don’t waste a single bullet. Anyone with poor Gun Technique shouldn’t fire at all. Just hide behind the Combat Robots and finish off the wounded."

"And the Superpower Users in the Mercenary Corps—now is not the time to conserve your Superpowers. I want you all to cut loose and kill."

This rapid-fire series of commands from Lin Xinghai left almost everyone dumbfounded. After a brief moment of shock, they hurried to relay his orders.

As this string of orders was passed down, a feeling called hope gradually began to rise in the hearts of all the Mercenary Corps.

Ever since Lin Xinghai’s rise to prominence, he had created far too many miracles. So, even though these orders seemed unreasonable and irrational, the more it put everyone at ease, because breaking the stalemate required breaking the rules.

Everyone believed that as long as Lin Xinghai took action, he would definitely turn the situation around.

The Mecha Brigade was fighting outside, doing its best to prevent the zombie horde from crossing the final line of defense and buying time for those in the stronghold to prepare.

Upon receiving Lin Xinghai’s orders, some Mercenaries with poor Gun Technique didn’t even need to be told; they took out their own ammunition and gave it to the better shots.

After receiving the Armor-Piercing Bullets, Lin Xinghai also began his preparations.

Since their stronghold was a shopping mall, the best firing position was the roof. This meant he couldn’t use the firing platform mounted on his Armored Vehicle.

In fact, because the mall was surrounded by the zombie horde on all sides, he would need to run from side to side to cover all directions.

Of course, with Lin Xinghai’s Speed, running around wasn’t an issue. However, to keep up with his ammunition consumption, they needed to set up several temporary firing points, each with someone assigned to reload for him.

Fortunately, they were short on bullets, not guns. Manpower was also plentiful, so Lin Xinghai stationed people at the four corners of the mall.

Everyone prepared quickly, but the zombie horde charged just as fast. Even with a hundred Mecha fighting outside, it was impossible to block all the Zombies.

RAT-TAT-TAT!

Lin Xinghai, with a gun in each hand, unleashed a torrent of bullets that rained down like a storm.

The High Level Zombies mixed in with the horde were usually a massive headache for the Mercenary Corps. Even members of a Third Level Mercenary Corps often needed two people working together and careful aiming just to take down a single one.

But for Lin Xinghai, there was no difference between an Intermediate and a High Level Zombie. To him, each was just a single shot.

The two Mercenaries assigned to this firing point, responsible for reloading his weapons, were completely stupefied.

They had both been transferred from other Mercenary Corps and had never witnessed how Lin Xinghai slaughtered Zombies before.

When they received their orders and heard they needed to prepare ten Tearing Rifles, all fully loaded, they had privately grumbled, thinking it was overkill.

But now, seeing Lin Xinghai switch directly to full-auto and empty the magazines of both Tearing Rifles in just five seconds, they instantly realized how wrong they had been.

’At this rate of fire, let alone ten Tearing Rifles, even twenty wouldn’t be enough!’