Chapter 47: The Hidden King-Level Monster

“The efficiency of eliminating the beasts is even faster than I expected. Jarvis, well done.”
Standing atop the city wall, Jiang Chen gazed into the distance, watching as the endless waves of beasts approached only to be swiftly destroyed, and couldn’t help but express his admiration.
After hours of fierce battle, the area between one and five kilometers outside the city was now carpeted with monster corpses, piled together to form a natural barrier.
The weaker monsters, upon entering this zone, immediately slowed down, becoming easy targets for the ‘Gunners.’
Farther out, the ground was riddled with craters and scattered, mangled flesh—remnants of the rocket bombardment.
Over a hundred thousand rockets had scoured the earth several times, annihilating hundreds of thousands of monsters.
Yet despite the heavy losses, more than fifty thousand beasts remained in the horde.
At this point, all the rockets brought from the Jiangnan Base City had been exhausted.
The mechs still had enough ammunition, but with fifty thousand monsters and just over a hundred mechs—even if they only needed to defend a single direction—Jiang Chen could not guarantee they would hold.
If there were too many Beast General or Lord-class monsters among them, there could be a fatal lapse.
“Perhaps I’ll have to intervene myself. Still, it seems there are no Planetary-class monsters left,” Jiang Chen mused.
In the earlier battles, he had personally identified and confirmed over thirty Lord-class monsters slain, and perhaps even more had died unnoticed in the chaos.
Judging from the current movements of the horde, there were surely several Lord-class monsters still driving them from behind; otherwise, with such losses, even the most fearless beasts would have collapsed by now.
“Not every Lord-class monster possesses distinctive, recognizable features. Many species are difficult to distinguish by appearance alone, and we cannot confirm how many high-level monsters remain,” Jarvis’ voice sounded. “Still, with only a few tens of thousands left, the mech squad can confidently hold the line.”
“Then I’ll leave it to you…” Jiang Chen began, but suddenly his expression changed.
The earth shuddered violently, cracks splintering through the city wall, with many buildings inside collapsing.

Fortunately, the wall was forged from extremely sturdy alloy; otherwise, it might have crumbled outright in this quake.
Some unlucky ‘Boxer’ mechs tumbled off the wall but quickly clambered back up.
Only a handful, too badly damaged, lay motionless, awaiting repair from the SCVs.
“Detecting a strong force fluctuation—this isn’t an ordinary earthquake. It’s an earth-element King-class monster attacking!” Jarvis rapidly assessed the data from the monitoring instruments. “It’s underground, twelve hundred meters ahead and thirty meters deep! Judging by the strength of the force, it’s estimated between Planetary Level Two and Three!”
“So there really is a King-class monster? Hiding so deep, only appearing now as the battle nears its end.” Jiang Chen stood, preparing to act. “Jarvis, lock onto its position for me. I’ll deal with it myself.”
“Master, would you allow the mech squad to handle this monster?” Jarvis suggested. “A Planetary-class monster around Level Three would be perfect for testing the squad’s limits.”
The firepower of ‘Snipers’ and ‘Firebats’ was sufficient to confront Planetary-class monsters.
Though they could only handle the lower tiers—unable to breach Emperor-class defenses—they might still be able to hunt King-class monsters.
These were, of course, theoretical calculations based on mech and weapon specs; no one had yet confirmed their effectiveness in actual combat.
Now, this monster presented the perfect opportunity.
Jiang Chen was tempted, yet a bit uneasy. “Against a burrowing monster, neither ‘Snipers’ nor ‘Firebats’ can easily attack it directly, right? And if we send a large number of mechs to besiege the King-class, what happens to the remaining beast horde?”
Jarvis quickly outlined his plan: “We only need to dispatch a small squad; the base’s defensive line won’t be significantly impacted. As for burrowing—we still have six ‘High-Pressure Shock Bombs’ among our weapons, which should suffice to force the target out of the ground.”
Jiang Chen hesitated only briefly before nodding. “Very well, I’ll leave it to you. If trouble arises, I’ll step in.”
Whether it was the beast horde or a monster estimated at Planetary Level Three, Jiang Chen was confident he could handle it, so he had no cause for worry.
Taking this chance to test the mech squad’s limits was also a worthwhile endeavor.
During this brief exchange, the unknown earth-element Planetary-class monster launched two more attacks, triggering considerable tremors.

Though the damage was not severe, many mechs had their attacks disrupted, reducing their efficiency and allowing the beast horde to advance. The vanguard was now less than a kilometer from the city wall.
At that moment, a squad of twelve ‘Boxer’ mechs, newly re-equipped, charged out of the base toward the hiding place of the Planetary-class monster.
This was a non-standard squad, with only one ‘Gunner’—far fewer than usual.
Instead, there were six ‘Snipers,’ two ‘Firebats,’ two ‘Guardians,’ and one ‘Engineer.’
As the mech squad leapt from the wall, a launcher with a barrel over ten meters long was hoisted up, along with six slender rounds.
One ‘Boxer’ dropped its rifle, hefted the missile launcher, and, assisted by an SCV, loaded the rounds. After a quick aim, it pressed the launch button.
Scorching flames erupted, the rocket trailing a long plume as it soared above the beast horde, detonating sharply twenty meters above the ground.
There was no violent blast or flying shrapnel—just a single, thunderous explosion that spread rapidly.
Sonic weaponry was not famed for its lethality, but its penetration was astonishing, able to ignore most types of cover, including earth and stone.
Deep underground, a pangolin-shaped monster over a hundred meters long, glowing with earthy yellow light, was gathering force to launch another attack.
Suddenly, a terrifying sonic wave descended from above, its high-frequency vibrations making the beast dizzy, its head seeming to split apart, its control over its body nearly lost.
Before it could attempt to dispel the vertigo with force, a second round exploded with a deafening roar, following swiftly behind.