Invincible through Touching Corpses

Chapter 311: Attrition

BOOM! RUMBLE!

As the vanguard of the zombie horde entered firing range, the major Mercenary Corps naturally didn’t hold back and immediately opened fire.

The bombardment of Hand Cannons and the sweeping fire of Tearing Rifles took turns, and the Zombies charging at the front fell one wave after another.

The members of the Third Level Mercenary Corps were definitely elites among the Mercenaries. On top of that, they had just experienced a battle against a horde of several million Zombies the previous night, so it was no exaggeration to say they had rich experience in dealing with them.

A battlefield like this one didn’t actually put much pressure on these Mercenary Corps; they even felt it was rather relaxing.

Of course, this wasn’t just their imagination. It was the truth.

For one, the density of a 20,000-strong Zombie horde couldn’t compare to one numbering in the millions.

On the other hand, it was currently daytime—and during the noon hour, when the sun was at its fiercest. The combat effectiveness of these Zombies was reduced by more than twenty percent compared to normal.

Of course, there was one aspect that couldn’t compare to yesterday’s great battle.

That was their current ammunition, which was all self-supplied and limited in quantity.

This meant the Mercenary Corps didn’t dare to expend it so recklessly.

For example, when bombarding with their Hand Cannons, they not only had to pick the spots with the most Zombies, but they also had to coordinate with the squad next to them to avoid wasting two shells on the same spot.

Even when using Tearing Rifles for sweeping fire, they would fire a single burst to alleviate some pressure, then immediately switch to single-shot mode, firing one bullet at a time.

Even the Combat Robots were all in melee mode at the front, hacking with their Great Sabers instead of activating their machine guns for suppressive fire.

Under these circumstances, they conserved ammunition, but their efficiency at killing Zombies naturally decreased as a result.

Lin Xinghai stood on the roof of the shopping mall, watching this scene with a calm expression. Although the limited ammunition would hinder the full performance of the Mercenary Corps, it was still enough to handle the situation.

He didn’t even have any intention of intervening.

The battle was fierce. Batches of Zombies were reaped, but even more joined the battlefield.

Time slowly ticked by. Ten minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minutes, one hour.

Soon, the battle had lasted for a full hour. At this point, the various Mercenary Corps were still fighting fiercely on the first line of defense; the Zombie horde had yet to break through.

But Lin Xinghai had no choice but to order a retreat. The Zombie corpses piled up outside the defensive line had already grown as high as a small hill.

If the Zombies behind them were to climb over this "corpse mountain" and charge down from above, the Mercenaries below the line would have a much harder time killing them. If this continued, problems would arise sooner or later.

With the retreat order given, the Mercenary Corps fell back in an orderly fashion under the cover of cannon fire.

Meanwhile, in the temporary command post, Lin Xinghai looked at a soldier in charge of intelligence gathering and asked, "How many Zombies have we killed so far? What are our casualties?"

"Sir, we have killed a total of 82,800 Zombies. Eight people are injured and one is dead. 2,080 Combat Robots have been destroyed," the soldier quickly reported.

Lin Xinghai rubbed his forehead. The number of Zombies they had killed already exceeded the maximum horde size estimated for them by the staff office.

And it was far from over. The Zombie horde besieging their cleanup point still numbered over 50,000.

Furthermore, those three "Hunters" were still roaring ceaselessly, calling more Zombies over.

To speed up the process of summoning Zombies, the three "Hunters" had even split up, roaring from three different directions.

"Tell the Mercenary Corps below to find more ways to conserve ammunition. This fight is probably going to drag on."

"This will only end when we run out of bullets, or when we’ve killed every last Zombie in this area, leaving those ’Hunters’ with no more to summon," Lin Xinghai said with a light sigh.

The others in the temporary command post heard this, but they were also at a loss.

This wasn’t a question of whether they could win, but of who would wear the other down first.

"Right." Lin Xinghai seemed to have thought of something and ordered, "The Mecha of each Mercenary Corps are a vital combat force. Don’t let them sit idle. While we’re switching defensive lines, have them all charge out for a sortie. Using cold weapons to fight will save us some ammunition."

As the order was given, one Mecha after another charged out of the shopping mall that served as their cleanup point.

At first, no one thought much of it. After all, Mecha charging out to fight a Zombie swarm was a common sight, especially for the weaker First and Second Level Mercenary Corps.

But as more and more Mecha rushed out, a feeling of shock slowly began to fill everyone’s hearts.

You had to understand, there were a full 20 Mercenary Corps present, 15 of which were Third Level Mercenary Corps. With five Mecha per corps, that alone was 75 Mecha.

Adding the remaining few Second Level Mercenary Corps and the several Mecha from the rapid response force, the number of Mecha charging out now totaled over a hundred.

Each Mecha weighed over ten tons. With a hundred of them charging forward together, the sheer rumbling sound of their footfalls felt like an earth-shattering landslide.

"This is truly spectacular. I’ve mentioned before that the Military Department should form a Mecha Brigade. Unfortunately, there wasn’t even enough funding to expand the Shelter back then, so the matter was dropped."

"I never thought I’d get to see it here today. If we had assembled a Mecha force like this during the Zombie horde attack last night, maybe the fight wouldn’t have been so hard," Zhang Yue said with deep emotion.

Lin Xinghai watched the hundred-plus Mecha plunge into the Zombie horde like elephants charging into an anthill. A single stomp could crush several Zombies, and a horizontal swing of their weapons could kill a dozen more.

The combined killing efficiency of over a hundred Mecha was surprisingly not much slower than that of more than 5,000 Mercenaries.

"If we could really form such a Mecha force, their combat power would indeed be terrifying. But in last night’s situation, it would have been impossible to assemble one," Lin Xinghai said, shaking his head after watching for a moment.

"The defensive line was already stretched thin yesterday. If we had pulled away the Mecha from these Mercenary Corps, believe me, the line would have collapsed in less than half an hour."

"As for why we can field a Mecha Brigade today, it’s because more than half of all the Third Level Mercenary Corps in the entire Mercenary Guild are gathered here. Under normal circumstances, a scene like this would never happen."

"Besides, against a massive horde like this, Mecha can only ever serve as a reserve force. After all, piloting a Mecha puts too much strain on one’s Perception Power. It’s impossible to sustain a prolonged battle for several hours," Lin Xinghai said.

Zhang Yue opened his mouth but found that everything Lin Xinghai said was correct. He couldn’t refute any of it.

After 15 minutes of combat, Lin Xinghai had the Mecha withdraw. A core force like the Mecha needed to be kept in good condition.

And with that 15-minute breather, the condition of the Mercenaries improved considerably.

But as the Zombie horde reached the second line of defense, the battle once again fell into a stalemate.