Chapter 38: This World Is So Terrifying

She could only vaguely make out, in the darkness, that somewhere near Jiang City, a mass of indistinguishable monsters—whether human or beast—were leaping in swarms toward the ramparts. The city wall stood a hundred meters tall; unless one could fly like a superhero, it was impossible to jump up from the ground. So the monsters clung instead to the tallest trees near the wall, swinging and vaulting toward the ramparts like Tarzan himself.

The giant trees bent under their weight, creaking and snapping, the air filled with the sound of breaking branches and the monsters’ anguished wails as they fell. Yet nothing could halt their advance. The din of battle thundered; roars shook the heavens; even the massive city walls seemed to tremble in the onslaught.

But before the monsters could reach the ramparts, they were met with a barrage of attacks. First, the spotlights atop the wall—operated by soldiers—shot out beams like swords of light, slicing through the darkness. The intense heat vaporized the rain in midair, and each fierce shaft struck the monsters mercilessly.

Those monsters hit directly were torn open in an instant; some, covered in fur or mutated into plant-like forms, were set ablaze in moments. This force was no weaker—perhaps even stronger—than the “little sun” focus beam in Guan Jun’s hands!

Yet even when transformed into living torches, the monsters pressed forward one after another, heedless of death, like creatures possessed. She saw green giants with blood-red eyes—once thought to be mere cosplay, now terrifyingly real; bloated, monstrous beasts with glowing green skin; and chimeric abominations, as if stitched together from the nightmares of genetic engineering.

Some excelled at close combat, others wielded area magic, still others possessed arcane and unpredictable abilities. The defenders atop the wall did all they could to fight back, but to little effect—they could only battle and retreat in turn.

Such a scene filled Alpha Ji with dread. This world was dangerous! This world was terrifying! It was more horrifying than Resident Evil, Fallout, Mad Max, and Terminator combined! Here, the bosses of other worlds were mere cannon fodder; the lesser creatures, not even worth a glance.

No wonder the lower hundred meters of Jiang City had been utterly abandoned, with several more layers built atop it. Against such a jungle and such monsters, a hundred meters was neither safe nor sufficient.

No wonder, when crossing the jungle, the teachers were all so tense, looking as if they were on the verge of a breakdown. If they ever encountered something like this…

In a word: death!
In two words: total annihilation!

Three words: The End.

Not even an encounter—if they hadn’t hurried, entered the city an hour earlier, or delayed even briefly, would they have been trapped outside, doomed to become cannon fodder?

The thought sent chills down Alpha Ji’s spine.

Suddenly, a roar of engines dispelled her lingering fear. From the flanks of the wall, two armored trains rounded the bend. That’s right—two full-sized trains, running atop the hundred-meter ramparts of Jiang City. Rails stretched below, not just one track, but a series encircling the city’s circular walls.

The trains were powered not only by locomotives, but also by two jet engines each. And not just any jet engines—these were fighter jet engines!

How could she tell? Simple: ordinary jet engines lack afterburners, but fighter engines have them, their exhausts blazing with vibrant flame.

The armored trains halted at their positions. With a cacophony of clanking metal, their inner sides transformed, like something out of Transformers, swiftly forming inward-facing support structures. Meanwhile, all the engines and cannons on the trains swiveled outward.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Ship-grade artillery thundered in measured rhythm.

Rat-tat-tat! Rat-tat-tat! The rattle of rapid-fire autocannons joined in.

A low, howling roar—the searing exhaust of the jet engines—swept the ramparts.

There was more: invisible waves of microwave radiation, visible Tesla coil arcs lashing out, and earth-shattering explosive projectiles.

With their firepower unleashed, the two trains and the organized, resolute soldiers cleansed the ramparts in an instant; the monsters that had vaulted atop were swept away.

This was Jiang City’s true defensive might; the earlier fighting had been only a prelude. Though the city was small, its firepower was fierce beyond compare.

Once the monsters on the wall had been wiped out, the barrage continued, extending outward with relish.

Boom! Boom! Shells and bullets harvested the rampant, feverishly growing jungle beyond the walls like a scythe through wheat. Along with the falling branches and leaves, monsters lurking on the trees—those who hadn’t yet leapt or were lying in wait for their chance—tumbled down as well.

Scorching beams of focused light, dazzling arcs of electricity, invisible microwave bursts—all swept outward, igniting clumps of trees. Though the downpour soon quenched the flames, the rain-burned, brittle branches became ever easier to break.

In the blink of an eye, the jungle within dozens of meters of the ramparts was cleared.

Cries and howls—some fierce, some plaintive, some desperate—rose from all directions as the monsters, along with the collapsing jungle, retreated in waves.

The artillery atop the wall did not cease, though it grew less intense and less frequent. The expendable weapons slowed to conserve ammunition, while the energy-based ones kept firing at full force.

Before, the enemy had been too many and too sudden for precise targeting; now, the defenders could take their time. Their targets were the treetops, shaving them down to a flat crew cut, lowering them so the monsters could no longer easily leap or swing to the ramparts.

There was no other choice—every heavy rainfall drove the jungle mad. Or perhaps, it was the rain that caused the madness.

Rainwater could accelerate material cycles tenfold, even dozens of times, greatly increasing plant activity. If the downpour was heavy and lasted long enough, the canopy could grow upwards by over ten meters in a single day—routine in this world.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The crucial point was that jungle growth required not just water, but nutrients. A jungle activated tenfold craved ten times more nutrients than usual.

Where did these nutrients come from? They could be drawn from the soil, fixed from the carbon in the air—but also from the living creatures within the forest…

Thus, on rainy days, the jungle’s vitality was ten times greater—and so was its danger. This referred not just to the animals and monsters living within, but to the very plants themselves.

So… “Don’t be nervous! Whenever it rains, there are always monsters trying to break into Jiang City to take shelter. Everyone’s used to it,” Ye Chao said, pointing to the calm, unruffled passersby brushing past them.

Alpha Ji was still trembling, and threw a virtual alpaca at Ye Chao. “Saying that doesn’t make me feel any better!”

Ye Chao had already explained: with increased activity and faster cycles, even though this was thirty degrees north latitude and the climate now resembled a pre-apocalypse tropical rainforest, it was considered a drought here if it rained less than two hundred days a year…