"Zi!"
After the explosion, a piercing electric current sound rang out.
When Zhou Yuan turned around to look, the Starship Worm had disappeared, replaced by a dazzling blue light.
The blue light filled the entire space, dyeing the fireball produced by the tactical nuclear bomb explosion into a thunderball, swallowing up the thick smoke and darkness of the coastline.
The thunderball was rapidly expanding, and in the blink of an eye, its diameter had exceeded five hundred meters.
Then it began to rapidly contract, in an instant becoming a tiny bright point that was only slightly brighter than a flashlight.
"Boom!!!"
In the next moment, the sky and earth were completely shrouded in blue light.
The originally tiny bright point burst into countless electromagnetic currents, forming a powerful blue glow shockwave that swept towards all directions.
"Get down!"
"The nuclear blast shockwave is coming!"
Zhou Yuan's heart sank, and he quickly instructed his team members to take cover.
Upon hearing Zhou Yuan's words, his team members quickly found cover if they had one, or simply lay prone on the ground if they did not have cover.
In just that short moment, the blue glow shockwave arrived.
"Holy crap!"
"This damn thing is too powerful!"
As soon as the collision occurred, Zhou Yuan's expression changed because he, who was originally lying prone on the ground, had already been lifted up by the shockwave for more than ten meters.
And the shockwave had yet to stop, with more energy following.
Wave after wave of shockwaves blew him around on the ground like a leaf.
Almost at the same time, all of his equipment, such as his combat device, pressure generator, tactical goggles, and other devices, malfunctioned.
Even his body felt numb and painful, possibly due to the ion energy explosion on the Starship Worm.
... ...
After struggling for about ten seconds, the shockwave finally stopped.
"Everyone sound off, let me hear your voices!"
Zhou Yuan gritted his teeth to fight off the numbness and pain and got up from the ground, using his headset to call out to his team members.
"Commander, I'm here, I can't move now."
"Damn it, my pants seem to be wet from electricity..."
"I can't hear what you're saying, my head is filled with the roar of machines."
One by one, team members replied to Zhou Yuan, although their conditions were not good, they were not directly killed by the shockwave either.
"Good, I'll cover you, get back to operational status as soon as possible."
Zhou Yuan had originally wanted to say "evacuate as soon as possible," but he changed his wording halfway through.
Thirty-odd special operations teams' firepower + two tactical nuclear bombs + Starship Worm explosion, all aimed at the mountain foothills + beaches + coastlines.
After these three waves of heavy firepower, there were no living worms in sight, and it was safe.
This battle ended here.
"Are you guys okay?"
Soon, Zhou Yuan's team was discovered and surrounded by an unknown fully-equipped special operations unit.
"Sir, we're fine, just need a rest," Zhou Yuan said as he stood up and saluted the captain of the unit.
"The impact was strong earlier, there might still be incapacitated people nearby," the captain replied.
"I'll handle it," Zhou Yuan assured, and the captain nodded, giving orders for two teams to stay and protect them while the rest continued on.
With some support around him, Zhou Yuan finally relaxed. His condition wasn't great - his body still felt numb, and his team members couldn't even stand properly. They were vulnerable to any random soldier bug that came their way.
[Killed a Starship Bug, gained some Soul Points.]
[Killed a Soldier Bug, gained 1.2 Soul Points.]
[Killed a Tank Bug, gained 120 Soul Points.]
[Killed a Soldier Bug, gained...]
"Awesome!"
During their break, Zhou Yuan glanced at the notification panel. Seeing the messages, he felt the soreness and numbness in his body diminish.
He had killed a Starship Bug and obtained 180,000 Soul Points! The original price was 150,000, but with the Strong Bug Killer title providing a 20% bonus to kills, it increased to 180,000. There were also many smaller rewards.
The Starship Bug had released combat bugs from within itself. When the explosion happened earlier, not only did the Starship Bug die, but its escort team didn't escape either.
Licking his lips, Zhou Yuan opened his personal panel.
Host: Zhou Yuan
Identity: Federation Lieutenant, 18-year-old male enhanced human
Attributes: Strength 3, Speed 5.5, Jump 2.5, Agility 2.5, Endurance 3, Defense 3, Self-healing 3, Skill 1.6, Mental Function 5.5
Skills: Psychic Sensing, Telepathy, Psychokinesis, Rapid Learning...
Equipment: Jump Frog, Heavy Atomic Flight Wing Suit, Laser Bird, Inferno Grenade...
Title: Strong Bug Killer - 20% bonus to kills, Speed +3
Soul Points: 1,017,000
Seeing his Soul Points balance reach a million, Zhou Yuan's smile widened as he sat down on the ground.
Before the battle began, he had only a little over 800,000 Soul Points.
"That wave just now, I accumulated over 200,000 soul points in one go and unlocked several achievements. But it's not the time to tally up the gains yet. He plans to organize everything after returning to Mars and then he'll have plenty of time to enjoy. ... ...
Resting in place for about two minutes, Zhou Yuan fully recovered his state, and all the soreness and numbness in his body disappeared. His teammates were slower to recover but they could walk without a problem.
"Sir, I'm behind the soldier worm's corpse," came the voice of the laser bird through the earpiece.
"I'm going to refill the water," Zhou Yuan greeted his teammates and then found the laser bird, which transformed into a large pineapple-shaped magazine lying on the ground.
"Why so slow?" Zhou Yuan whispered as he picked up the laser bird and put it into the magazine case.
He had just received a message from Buck that the temporary command center had confirmed the death of the starship worm and was arranging their evacuation. If the laser bird had been a few minutes late, they would have been stuck on Hydra forever.
"Sir, you were offline earlier, so I couldn't determine your location," the laser bird replied.
"Alright, I forgot."
"You did well. Your intelligence helped me a lot," Zhou Yuan patted the magazine case and returned to the team to call them over to meet Buck.