Chapter 175: Heartless Cannon, Clearing The Fog
Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
“Hold onto me tightly and don’t fall off.”
Instructing Zhong Qingshu to hold onto his waist tightly, the two of them bent their bodies at the same time. Staying within Oreo’s slipstream, they glided swiftly over the snowy ground.
Witnessing a husky’s terrifying endurance, and the fact that Oreo had earned the blessing of ice and snow, Su Mo rejoiced over the fact that the first pet he received was a husky and not some other creature.
Only a husky would be able display such frightening power amidst a blizzard, a silver lining in the face of a terrible disaster.
“Later… we’ll storm the front. You take some people and think of a way to use our previous method to tunnel through and save her!”
“My little sister’s name is Su Chan.. I… I’m counting on you!”
Buffeted by the fierce winds, Su Mo opened his mouth with difficulty to communicate with Zhong Qingshu behind him.
Feeling Zhong Qingshu nod firmly, the panic in Su Mo’s heart lessened. At the same time, he started multitasking, thinking of how to fight his way into the kobold castle.
Using conventional weapons to attack directly was obviously not quite possible.
Even with firearms, it would be extremely difficult to break through the kobold castle’s thick stone walls, not to mention that there was a huge disparity in the number of people on each of their sides.
‘The only advantage I have are my explosives. I have 60 packs of explosives. Using these, I must force them out to have a decisive battle!’
There were more than a thousand kobolds, maybe even 2000.
With so many in the castle, if Su Mo did not have to consider his sister’s situation, he would have sent the Dongfeng Missile straight into the center to baptize the castle in the flames of destruction.
Currently, however…
‘What do I have that can get my explosives into the castle and force them out to battle!’
Gripping the rope tightly and staring at the kobold castle he was rapidly approaching, Su Mo quickly thought about all the weapons he saw, intentionally or unintentionally, during the civilized era.
From ancient scaling ladders, trebuchets, and siege engines, to modern howitzers and bombers; all weapons designed for siege followed the same concept:
To bypass the towering city walls and attack the enemies inside!
‘I don’t know where Sis is locked up, so if I want to make them come out, I have to make them feel fear.’
‘At the very least, they have to feel that, if they don’t come out of the castle, their shelter will collapse!’
Although the kobolds did not know that his little sister was in their hands and could be used as a hostage, because he did not want to harm those that should not be harmed, Su Mo decided to focus on safety.
At this time, the weapons he could choose from became clear at once.
“RPG, the field artillery gun…”
Su Mo flipped through these items in the creation interface one after another, but seeing the thousands—even up to ten thousand—survival points listed in the requirements, Su Mo’s head started hurting a little.
He wanted the kobolds to come out and fight, but he could not just blow up their castle. These weapons were either too powerful, or they were not powerful enough to serve as a deterrent.
‘What item can launch my explosives over castle walls or damage their walls directly?’
If he eliminated all modern war weapons, if he wanted to throw explosive packs over, the only ones left were trebuchets or…
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“The Heartless Cannon!” (T/N: 沒良心炮 méi liángxīn pào; another name for 飛雷炮, Fēi léi pào, which is a variation of the Livens Projector.)
Su Mo, who had seen Feng Xiaogang’s ‘Assembly’ program back on planet Earth, was not unfamiliar with this kind of weapon.
During the War of Liberation, the People’s Liberation Army had very few options in terms of artillery. In a situation where they were disadvantaged from a weapons and equipment standpoint, the officers and soldiers created a frightening weapon—using gasoline cans as barrels, they made an explosives launcher.
After filling up the propellant, the explosives would be bundled into a disc shape and placed in the barrel. Then the propellant could be ignited, and a ten-kilogram pack of explosives could be launched a distance of 150 to 200 meters.
The caliber of this weapon was absolutely shocking—the caliber was as large as the barrel’s thickness!
With the powerful explosions produced by the large amounts of explosives, bunkers, people and horses would be blown up wherever it landed.
Many enemies who were in the vicinity of the explosion would often not have any visible wounds on their bodies, but they bled profusely internally and were shaken to death by the pulsing waves of the explosion. Hence, it was called the ‘heartless cannon’.
In this environment, this kind of weapon embodied the two characteristics of ‘deterrence’ and ‘bomb’ nicely.
If the kobolds did not come out, they would have to endure the threat of their shelter collapsing from the bombardment. If they came out, then the required conditions for Zhong Qingshu to enter the shelter and save his sister could be met.
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The plan worked!
Seeing that the kobold castle was already in front of him, Su Mo tugged at the rope excitedly and signaled for Oreo to stop.
“Oreo, go bring the rest over! I’m relying on you!”
He produced a bottle of psychic energy water to feed Oreo. Seeing the slight exhaustion on the dog’s face, Su Mo’s face was tender as he unhurriedly patted her huge doggy head.
“Aroo! Woo!”
After drinking the psychic energy water, Oreo’s fur—that had lost its luster—started shining with a little bit of light again. Her size, which had shrunk tens of centimeters in length, recovered once again.
Su Mo nodded. Seeing Oreo’s obedient appearance, Su Mo held back the moist sensation in his eyes and used the hemp rope to tie the snowboard onto Oreo with a knot.
Su Mo patted Oreo’s back. After watching Oreo disappear into the distance, Su Mo turned his head, and his expression turned cold.
Nobody was born a leader, and nobody was born as a war god.
Growth was not something that could be achieved or created at a moment’s notice. Everyone would only see the greatness of a leader and the strength of a war god fighting against a hundred enemies, but very few, or sometimes even no one at all, could see how much was paid in exchange for the “growth” that they exhibited!
Despite being a regular person from the era of Earth, having gone through the initial stages of panic and spent many days between life and death in the wasteland, Su Mo could now swiftly control and regulate his emotions.
Seeing Su Chan’s profile still lit up in his friends’ panel, Su Mo released two heavy breaths and began to get a feel of the situation on his left while studying how to create the Heartless Cannon.
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Zhong Qingshu beside him did not remain idle either. Taking advantage of the snowy night, she quickly scurried around the right side, starting to investigate the kobolds’ defenses as well as where Su Chan might be.
Being able to contact each other through the game panel was more convenient than a walkie-talkie. The two cooperated well, and it took only ten minutes to complete the initial investigation of the castle, after which Oreo returned again.
“It’s late at night. The kobolds are probably asleep inside the castle. Your sister should be safe for now.”
Su Mo laid on the ground as he looked at the image reflected through the binoculars. Hearing Zhong Qingshu’s uncertain words, Su Mo nodded, and the anxiety in his heart was somewhat assuaged.
“I have a plan. I’m not sure if it will work, but this method is indeed the most convenient and optimal given the current circumstances. We must find your little sister’s location quickly!”
After Zhong Qingshu said this, she produced a piece of paper that had a complete map of the kobold castle outlined on it.
“Just say it!” Hearing Zhong Qingshu’s words, Su Mo nodded without hesitation, signaling for her to spit it out.
“Don’t you have the number one ranked shelter in the world right now? I know you people in the ranks can start a live broadcast and stream everything within 50 kilometers. If the system confirms that this is within 50 kilometers of your shelter, through the live broadcast’s perspective, perhaps we can see the kobold castle’s internal structure!”
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Having said this, Zhong Qingshu even highlighted a few important points on the map, hinting that as long as they could observe these locations, they might be able to find Su Chan!
“That’s right! How could I have forgotten this advantage of mine—as long as I’m within 50 kilometers of my shelter, I can use the live broadcast!”
Three average people could come up with a better plan than Zhuge Liang if they put their heads together.
Having suddenly been reminded by Zhong Qingshu, Su Mo looked at the kobold castle. This method of utilizing the game panel’s live broadcast function was not something he would have thought of.
During disasters, who would go out tens of kilometers to fight their enemy?
In the two disasters, there were dozens of people in the ranks, including Su Mo himself, and nobody had done something like that.
“If I want the system to recognize that this is within 50 kilometers of my shelter, I’ll need my shelter, and this…”
“You just need a complete shelter core!”
After Zhong Qingshu reminded Su Mo of this loophole, Su Mo’s thoughts became clear.
A complete shelter core was the same as the cards. As long as it was placed into the storage space, it could be carried around and not take up space.
Seeing that he still had eight complete cores, Su Mo became determined and summoned forth one of them to create his shelter.
“I choose to build… an above-ground shelter!”
As the temporary command room for this battle, for the first time, Su Mo chose to create an above-ground shelter.
The safehouse core in his hand shook after hearing his instructions and flew straight into the dirt beneath Su Mo’s feet like a seed.
From there, it formed a wooden, somewhat rundown, hut on the ground.
Walking into the house, Su Mo did pay any heed to his survival points at all and used up 350 survival points to create a simple lighting setup.
The setup was very simple—a lithium battery connected to a light bulb—but after turning on the power, a bright light burst forth.
“Game, start the live broadcast. For the first perspective, restrict the upper part of the shelter and disallow movement. Everyone can join.
“For the second perspective, allow movement within 50 kilometers. No other players are allowed to watch this perspective!”
After quickly setting up the live broadcast’s limitations and seeing the ‘start live’ button light up at the bottom, Su Mo eagerly stood up, opened the wooden hut’s door, and walked out.
Under the blizzard, the originally dark world suddenly turned bright after the live broadcast was turned on.
Thanks to the host’s authority, at this moment, it was as if Su Mo had opened a third perspective and his vision left his body behind, floating up into the air.
300 meters…
200 meters…
100 meters…
As his view approached the kobold castle, seeing that these naive kobolds did not sense anything at all, Su Mo was overjoyed. He threw himself into it and started investigating Su Chan’s whereabouts.
However, Su Mo—who was very urgently exploring the kobold castle—did not know that this live broadcast at 3 at night blew up the moment it started!
Boom!
Wow!
This live broadcast room that appeared at three in the morning without a name and only with the number ‘1’ attracted the attention of a small group of people but, after seeing that it was Su Mo’s live broadcast room as well as its content, these people went crazy.
“F*ck me, Hurry up and watch Su Mo’s live broadcast in the disaster resistance channel’s live broadcast. What the f*ck is he doing at night?”
“F*ck, where is this castle from? It’s too abnormal, isn’t it? Could it be the base of an foreign mythical race?”
“What’s Su Mo doing? Why can he livestream there? What does he want to do? He’s going to fight in this weather?”
“Heavens, there’s a negative 20-degree blizzard outside, yet Su Mo dares to go out?”
“I know this race—it’s the kobolds. There’s a small tribe near our shelter. These thieves are especially savage and can release fireballs. They’re ten times better to have around than the Taurens, but what the f*ck is this? There are so many kobolds near Almighty Su’s shelter? And a castle?”
“凸(艹皿艹), what the hell?”1
Su Mo wanted to broadcast the act of attacking an foreign race’s shelter live?
Once the news began to spread wildly on the World Channel and Regional Channel…
At this moment, countless people who had already laid down and changed shifts were called up by their companions to watch this unprecedented, supreme broadcast.
Some people guessed that Su Mo was trying to take advantage of the stormy weather to see if he could eke out a small reward.
Some people guessed that such a magnificent castle could not be beaten at all with just human strength and that Su Mo just came to observe it.
There were also a few people who had already become heated “Su Fans” who were frantically posting messages in the comments that he was going to become the first person in the world to individually challenge the invincible foreign race to establish humankind’s prestige.
In the middle of the night, this live broadcast became a carnival for all humankind!
Until the first person came up and revealed the reason!