Chapter 1035 - 77: Dawn

Bang!

Jostar plopped down on the floor, his boss Brick sitting beside him, dragging an arm violently torn off.

The battle had been quite tough. The sergeant and Gustavo helped them take down the lunatics on this ship—

Indeed, these bodies were deformed, prosthetics and flesh entwined completely, the pipes flowing not with maintenance fluid, oil, and coolant, but to the Hydra soldiers, they looked somewhat disgusting in their eyes.

Even the Vortex Gang, with their seemingly insane appearance, at worst would just sew torn-off skin onto artificial skin; realistically, the body couldn’t be directly fused with prosthetics, and if they could, they wouldn’t want the prosthetics and flesh to touch at all:

This is usually the area with the most severe immune response, pain is minor, what’s important is it triggers a very serious inflammatory reaction.

The sergeant’s firepower output, the close suppression by Vortex Gang’s trusted lieutenants, and... Gustavo, this Valentino Gang member occasionally taking a few hits on the side, all contributed to this victory.

Brick glanced at Gustavo, lying on the ground barely alive, and let out a strange laugh:

"Haha... this little trash." He said looking at the smoking sergeant, "Your shooting skills aren’t bad. Never saw you fight like this before?"

The sergeant shook his head coldly, standing still for a reason:

His prosthetic enhancement was aimed at using firearm-type weapons, mainly integrating the weapon cooling and feeding systems into the prosthetics for easier carrying and combat as cyber weapons.

These freaky things had outlandish speed and strength, with a tenacity that almost overheated his brain...

Now, he didn’t move, and his expression was grim because his nervous system was somewhat injured, a little numb.

...

The same situation happened in different small groups; at this moment, their gang allegiance further weakened, and in defeating these odd "Cyber Soldiers," the barriers further diminished.

Although not everyone perfectly defeated their opponents, the integrity of the Space Airship was also damaged, overall it was quite good.

Lille traversed between a few Space Airships, making simple repairs to the damaged ships, and during these repairs, he deliberately involved other technology experts and hackers in the repairs.

Five invincible Space Carriers were thus captured bluntly in one round, anchored at New York Port.

And for New Yorkers, the scene was too spectacular:

Just yesterday, they were still ordinary people struggling for survival in the ruins, short on supplies, barely having enough to eat, living in constant fear of occasional bombings.

The enemy soldiers occupied the streets, and searching for supplies outside the shelter was terrifying: no one knew how many sniper rifles were in the streets, nor did anyone know how many people had lost the will to resist under such terrifying pressure, how many became thugs...

To the New Yorkers who returned here, like Frank, New York seemed like a long-dead decaying corpse, decayed, ruined and filled with despair, twisted steel and concrete scattered in the middle of the road.

The smell of explosions lingered in the air, street corners piled with abandoned vehicles, looted stores still burning, broken billboards swaying precariously in the wind...

Before President Ellis and Rocksen colluded to start this war, people thought New Future City would be the direction of the future, now there is nothing left, only ruins left by the brutal war.

The graffiti on the walls and the dark red walls everywhere express the despair of living in this hell, a scene that happened countless times in attacked areas, areas turned upside down by American soldiers under the consideration of "national interest."

People kept emerging from the ruins, covering their faces and crying, grateful to be alive...

Frank was speechless, without even a hint of smug heroism, he didn’t feel proud of saving people, on the contrary, he recalled that he used to be an American soldier who just followed orders.

"Dad, you saved New York!"

In the vehicle, he had already picked up his family, and thanks to Martin’s efforts, they were still alive and well.

Hearing his son’s innocent voice, Frank met those admiring eyes and felt a bit ashamed.

"We didn’t save New York... they saved themselves."

Although these citizens might not have paid attention to other parts of the world, they chose Lille, and Lille helped them fill in this part, to some extent, they also once helped others around the world.

Frank now increasingly understood Lille’s original decision, increasingly ashamed of his past self, increasingly... firming a thought in his heart:

He once foolishly believed he had no choice, as long as he did what the orders told him, he was innocent, now he begins to think that in itself was a kind of sin...

A sin he needs to spend the rest of his life to atone for.

A grand fleet of armored vehicles entered the ruins of New Future City, as technical personnel flooded into the power grid, starting to repair and directly power the infrastructure, the dead city broadcast began to sound again.

The broadcast played the news of Lille’s return to New York, and this time, not only Lille returned to New York:

There were also the Africans and Europeans they thought were unrelated, among them small countries whose names they hadn’t even heard of!

The flags fluttering in the wind stood proudly in the city, vehicles began to distribute food and living supplies, robots continuously marched out from transport vehicles, rescuing and transporting wounded from all over.

The crowd finally overcame fear and exhaustion, the flag unfurled in the sunlight: they had thought they were abandoned by the world, but now, they finally saw the meaning of living.

Just like Martin, it was a war with uneven forces, at least how it seemed at the beginning...

But now, he saw a powerful, united alliance reborn from the ashes of the broken old world, overcoming all obstacles to reclaim what they had lost.

Lille’s body underwent immense changes, a shell forged from steel, vastly different from the frail youth, but Martin knew this had to be Lille:

He didn’t feel unfamiliar, instead, he felt it resembled will projected into reality.

Sitting in the ruins, Martin laughed, no longer wearing the neat suit, but a patched-up coat, face dirty like a refugee, but overall...

"Still quite spirited." Lille smiled, walked to Martin, extending his arm.

The latter chuckled and shook his head, grabbed Lille’s robust arm and stood up—height-wise, he barely reached Lille’s chest.

"You, young man, really grew a lot."

"Circumstances demanded it, had no choice."

"What’s next?"

"Next? Of course, launch a full attack, the enemy is like a paper tiger, crumbles at a touch, no reason to let them continue swaggering."

"Really non-stop—but I like it."

The two stood side by side in the morning sunlight, the smoke had yet to dissipate, but the shadow of the war was fading.

This dead city finally welcomed its dawn.