NOVPUBThe Lower City of Blackwater City was in utter chaos.
Screams and flames were everywhere.
The nobles had issued their final death orders, and the war gang members had gone all out in their last frenzy of madness.
After all, the insect nests in the wild had been completely eradicated by the Military Department. With the bugs—their greatest and most insurmountable enemy—gone, most humans had found the courage to venture out into the wilderness.
So why not indulge in one last debauchery within the city?
If they succeeded, they could seize a large cache of supplies and escape into the wild, living the free life of a warlord in the wastelands.
If they failed, they could still flee with some of their resources intact; starting anew in the wilderness was far better than remaining in the city, caught and crushed between two opposing forces.
Well, except for the unfortunates who died outright or were arrested in the chaos.
In this grand banquet of destruction, everyone seemed to think of themselves as winners!
And so, amidst this upheaval, the war gang members, no longer bound by any restraints, pushed the chaos and plunder to an extreme level far beyond expectation.
This was something no one could have foreseen, not even the nobles orchestrating the uprising from behind the scenes.
Watching the rioters wreak havoc everywhere, even the intermediaries who had carried out the orders felt their eyelids twitching nervously. "Isn't this... a bit too much? The security team blocking their path has already been dealt with. Yet these bastards would rather loot, kill, and burn here than advance to finish the lords' mission." 𝖓𝔬𝔳𝔭𝔲𝔟.𝖈𝖔𝔪
Staring at the buildings engulfed in raging flames, the intermediary felt a pang of unease in his chest. "The lords want their profits... but if everything's destroyed, what good will that do?"
Yet in the face of the war gang members, now bloodlusted and consumed by madness, even he dared not show himself recklessly.
After all, in the current chaos, whether you were with the war gangs or the security team, just showing your face could get you shot dead in an instant.
Faced with the crazed war gang members, the outnumbered security team no longer approached law enforcement gently as they had before. As long as they felt even slightly threatened, it was reason enough to empty their magazines.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!"
A barrage of grenade shells came screaming from afar, blasting violently into the streets of the Central City District.
A few security team members speeding in on motorbikes were instantly blown to pieces in the fiery explosions, while the intense shockwaves made the intermediary, hiding in a corner, instinctively duck his head.
"Holy shit! Where did they get this kind of heavy firepower?! Using this stuff inside a city—they've lost their goddamn minds?!"
The Lower City was deep underground; if the structure collapsed from all this, no one would be able to escape.
Granted, the core infrastructures were sturdy enough, but with such heavy bombardment, who could guarantee safety? That's why this level of firepower was strictly banned and heavily regulated!
The intermediary's assistant leaned towards his ear and whispered cautiously, "Viper-3 model—if I remember correctly... it was part of the supplies we provided them last month."
"..." The intermediary pursed his lips and swallowed hard. "Fuck! That wasn't supposed to be used *here*! These maniacs!"
Just as the words left his mouth, the roar of engines continued to grow louder from the direction of the Central City District.
Mixed within the noise was the unmistakable rumble of heavy military machinery!
The motorcycles were merely advance scouts for the security team—the real force tasked with quelling the insurrection was a newly deployed squadron.
The unique sound of tracks grinding against the steel roads immediately caught the ears of anyone sharp enough to listen. Like monstrous hearts, the thundering engines powered giant steel behemoths that could barely squeeze through the iron streets of the Lower City.
Massive shadows blocked the glow of distant streetlights, and the pounding rhythm of synchronized footsteps drummed relentlessly in the hearts of every rioter.
The moment he saw them, the intermediary's heart sank. "The army!"
"How did the army get here so quickly? Didn't some people say they'd delay their entry into the city as much as possible?"
The assistant, looking at the inferno engulfing the district in front of them, could only taste bitterness on his tongue. "Maybe they... got scared?"
After all, at the outset, no one expected these war gang members to go this completely insane.
Not just the intermediaries or undercover agents watching from the shadows—even the rioters themselves, in the midst of their frenzy, began to feel a deep-seated fear as they watched the steel giants roll in from the distance.
"The army's here!"
"The military is here!"
What could mere flesh and blood do against such fully equipped instruments of war?
The slow-advancing heavy tanks became the ultimate weapons, crushing every last spark of defiance and desire.
"Run!"
"Get the hell out of here!"
"Use those alleys—they can't bring their tanks in there!"
The tanks were unstoppable head-on, capable of flattening anything in their path.
However, not all of the city's roads were open enough to accommodate tanks. The multitude of narrow alleyways—those were the real arteries of the city.
If they could slip into those areas and rely on their familiarity with the terrain, they might still hold their ground and continue fulfilling the nobles' orders while evading the military's overwhelming force.
"Stomp! Stomp!"
Armored soldiers poured out from behind the tanks in tight formation.
"Pursue them! Leave no one alive!"
The cold command came from the mouths of the junior officers, and the frontliners—wielding blast shields—charged in with precision, advancing cautiously yet swiftly in coordinated squads as they entered the pitch-black alleyways.
Gunfire and explosions erupted in every darkened street corner, echoing through the labyrinth that was the city.
