Chapter 114: Whac-A-Mole

The effective range of the Shenwu Great General Cannon is over five hundred meters, while the effective range of the Elm Cannon is at most three hundred meters; in terms of range, the Shenwu Great General Cannon completely crushes the Elm Cannon.

This created a very awkward situation: the Divine Machine Battalion's cannons could hit the position where Meng Yifan was located, while Meng Yifan's soldiers, using Elm Cannons, could not hit the Divine Machine Battalion at all.

Not only that, Meng Yifan's soldiers were all newly recruited and had only been trained for five days; their shooting level was very limited, and it was almost impossible to hit a target three hundred meters away using Elm Cannons.

At their current level, it was best to fire within one hundred meters to barely hit near the target.

In terms of cannon range and the soldiers' shooting level, Meng Yifan's side was at an absolute disadvantage; if they were to line up and go head-to-head, it would be courting death.

If Meng Yifan wanted to win the battle, he had to win by surprise.

The Divine Machine Battalion's round of bombardment ended; the place where Meng Yifan and his men had originally been was filled with smoke and in a mess, yet Zhang Chao and Wang Zhanbiao both frowned.

"Something's not right," Zhang Chao muttered. During that last volley from the Divine Machine Battalion, the enemy had not returned fire, nor were there any screams from the wounded, as if the Divine Machine Battalion had been firing at empty ground.

"Send scouts up to check; what kind of tricks are those rebels pulling now?" Zhang Chao ordered.

Soon, a scout nicknamed 'Shouhouzi' was selected. They were all skilled in Lightness Skill and were very fast. The Divine Machine Battalion's current position was only three or four hundred meters from that trench, and with Shouhouzi's skills, it would only take three seconds to run a round trip.

The Divine Machine Battalion's shelling stopped, and the trench opposite was deathly silent, which made Shouhouzi feel a bit uneasy.

Shouhouzi stretched his body on the Divine Machine Battalion's position, circulated his Yellow Grade High-Rank Lightness Skill, and like an agile monkey, charged toward the enemy's position.

Shouhouzi did not run in a straight line; instead, he would suddenly change direction every few steps, forming an irregular zigzag pattern. He wanted to use this rapid change of direction to dodge the enemy's attacks, but it was useless.

Meng Yifan shouldered a Congreve Rocket Launcher, and with his Level 2 Shooting Technique, a slight observation of Shouhouzi's movement trajectory allowed him to judge Shouhouzi's next move.

"Whoosh!" A rocket with scorching flames spraying from its tail flew toward a spot five meters to the front-left of Shouhouzi.

The initial velocity of the rocket was not fast, but pushed by the tail flame, its acceleration was very rapid, and it soon soared to supersonic speed; it flew the distance of over one hundred meters in the blink of an eye.

"Oh no!" Shouhouzi was shocked. His body was currently moving at high speed and changing direction—specifically, he was changing direction toward the front-left—but the rocket happened to appear right in front of him, as if he were actively throwing himself into the rocket.

"Damn it!" Shouhouzi wanted to change direction again to dodge the rocket, but it was already too late.

Shouhouzi's body was moving very fast and had strong inertia; he couldn't just change direction whenever he wanted. Furthermore, the rocket had already accelerated to supersonic speed, and before Shouhouzi could change direction, the rocket had already struck his body.

"Boom!" The rocket exploded violently, directly blowing Shouhouzi's body into pieces.

"Ding! Killed one First Grade High-Level Martial Artist, gained 50 Experience Value." The Game Panel's notification sound rang out again.

Up to this point in the battle, Meng Yifan and his men had already taken out over four hundred Divine Machine Battalion soldiers, harvesting over three thousand Experience Value.

The Game Panel's rules for calculating Experience Value were very strange; if Meng Yifan killed an enemy alone, he could obtain the full Experience Value.

If a Subject killed an enemy, Meng Yifan could also share a certain amount of Experience Value. The higher the Subject's loyalty, the more Experience Value Meng Yifan would receive, though relatively speaking, it was much less than Meng Yifan killing monsters alone.

In the eyes of Meng Dayong and the others, the Thousand-man Unit of the Divine Machine Battalion was a powerful enemy, but in Meng Yifan's eyes, they were just a group of elite monsters, all here to deliver Experience Value.

As long as he wiped them all out, Meng Yifan could harvest a massive amount of Experience Value, and his strength would advance by leaps and bounds.

Meng Yifan first spent 1310 Experience Value to max out his defense. In this way, his three basic physical attributes—defense, strength, and speed—were all added to 200 points, which was already the limit for a Second Grade Martial Artist.

Even for a sect prodigy practicing a Heaven Grade Cultivation Method, at the Second Grade Martial Artist stage, their physical fitness would at most be the same as Meng Yifan's.

Meng Yifan did not upgrade with the remaining Experience Value for the time being, because once he leveled up, the Experience Value gained from hunting the same enemies would drop by a large margin.

This was easy to understand: killing high-level monsters grants an Experience Value bonus, while killing low-level monsters reduces the Experience Value significantly.

Meng Yifan now had over two thousand Experience Value left, not enough for him to advance to a Third Grade Martial Artist, but after wiping out the Divine Machine Battalion, the Experience Value would be just about enough to level up.

Shouhouzi had been blown to death, and Zhang Chao shouted loudly, "Ten cannons on the left side, aim at the direction of those rebels, fire!"

Ten Shenwu Great General Cannons let out a roar, and ten Explosive Shells covered the place where Meng Yifan had just been standing.

Unfortunately, after firing the rocket, Meng Yifan had long since run along the trench to another location, and the ten Explosive Shells had once again hit nothing.

Zhang Chao frowned; he had played the game of Whac-A-Mole when he was a child and felt that the current enemies were like a group of moles.

They usually hid underground, making it impossible for you to find where they were hiding; if the Divine Machine Battalion got close, these rats would suddenly pop out and launch a fatal attack on the Divine Machine Battalion.

"Lord Zhang, I have fought in wars for over a decade and have never encountered such a bizarre battle; I clearly know the enemy is nearby, yet I cannot figure out where they are hiding?" Wang Zhanbiao also felt a massive headache.

The Divine Machine Battalion's Shenwu Great General Cannons could clearly crush the rebels, but they just couldn't find where the enemy was. Firing cannons to attack always felt like hitting the air; they had power but nowhere to use it, leaving people completely baffled.

"Send out ten scouts to investigate from different directions; I don't believe that every single person among the rebels is a master archer." Zhang Chao ordered.

Ten scouts set off; they dispersed and circled around from all directions, wanting to see up close what exactly was going on inside the trench.

It was indeed impossible for Meng Yifan alone to block scouts approaching from different directions.

The scouts were very fast, and when they approached within one hundred meters of the trench, groups of enemies suddenly emerged from different directions beneath the ground.

After Zhang Shagen and the other soldiers popped their heads out, they set up the Elm Cannons and began a wild bombardment.

Meng Yifan's soldiers' shooting level was indeed poor; to ensure they hit the enemies, Meng Yifan had them group six Elm Cannons together, with three loaded with Shrapnel Shells and three loaded with Explosive Shells, attacking one scout simultaneously.

Shrapnel Shells hit a wide area, and at close range, there was no issue of missing.

However, when the scouts rushed over, they were wearing armor and holding shields; the power of the iron fragments could not cause fatal damage to the scouts, only injuring them and restricting their mobility.

At this moment, three Explosive Shells flying over were enough to blow a scout to death.

"Boom! Boom!" The ten scouts were hit by cannonballs one after another and were completely wiped out before they could even get close to the edge of the trench.

The Divine Machine Battalion's artillery aimed at Meng Yifan's soldiers and launched a frantic counterattack.

But after Meng Yifan's soldiers fired a shot, they immediately retreated into the Cat-Ear Holes, and then, taking advantage of the lull in the Divine Machine Battalion's artillery fire, they quickly shifted positions.

This made the Divine Machine Battalion's soldiers very frustrated; they wanted to engage the enemy in an artillery duel, but they couldn't even find the opponent's location.