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Chapter 53 Learning and Adapting
Chapter 53 Learning and Adapting
Chapter 53 Learning and Adapting
[Killed 890 Walkers, 12 Hunters, 40 Flyers.]
Richard stared at the holographic screen in front of him for a moment. While at it, he made a calculation. Killing one walker is 1,000 gold coins, a total of 890,000 gold coins. 5,000 gold coins per every Flyer, so 200,000 gold coins, and 100,000 gold coins per Hunter, a total of 1,200,000 gold coins.
Overall, he earned 1,489,000 gold coins in one salvo. So much he had spent on armored personnel carriers, tanks, transport vehicles, and transport and attack helicopters. Those military hardware generate profit when in combat with the zombies. But having those vehicles in combat meant that zombies were close to the base.
Looking at the screen once again, he learned one important thing, artillery is effective for farming gold coins! But the threat is not yet terminated. On the screen, the Goliath groaned in agony, its high voice screeching the ears of everyone inside the command center. And then his eyes gleamed ominously red.
"Oh he is pissed," Graves noted.
"He's not happy,"? Mark added.
"We should hit it again, sir," Philip suggested.
"I agree," Richard said and spoke through the microphone. "Excalibur this is Blackwatch Actual. It was a direct hit! I repeat, a direct hit! I want you to launch another missile. Stand by for new coordinates, over."
A voice responded promptly, confirming the order. "Copy that, Actual. Excalibur standing by."
A new batch of missiles roared to life, emerging with a fiery burst from the missile tubes of the M142 HIMARS.
Inside the command center, all eyes remained fixed on the screen. The Goliath, still reeling from the first barrage of missiles, seemed to regain its composure, albeit with a more menacing aura. Its red eyes scanned the battlefield, and the groaning sounds grew even more chilling.
Richard scrunched up his eyebrows as he watched closely on the screen. There he noticed something atop the Goliath's figure. It was a bar, a health bar to be precise.
That's right, he had almost forgotten about the features of his system. Where he could tell how many health points a zombie left. Based on the bar, it appeared that the Goliath incurred a minute of damage, about three percent.
So the Goliath is not indestructible, no matter how enormous its size, as long as it has a health bar, it can be killed!
As he was reveling in that discovery, five missiles from M142 HIMARS struck at the body of the Goliath, engulfing it in a fiery inferno. Its health bar immediately shaved away and from what he can tell, a six percent damage.
The mutated zombies around it were caught and died instantly.
[Killed 424 Walkers, 2 Hunters,? 14 Flyers.]
It was lower than the first salvo. Perhaps due to the missile impacting at the Goliath's feet and not directly at its body.
The Goliath roared once again in pain, it was louder than before. It clenched its teets and it huffed and puffed as if it were struggling to maintain its dominance on the battlefield.
"If we keep doing this, the Goliath would fall before it even reaches Oriental," Graves observed. "Sir, I think it's best that you purchase more artillery hardware and have it set up on the ground."
Richard nodded in agreement and opened his system. When the holographic screen appeared in front of him, he tilted his head to the side, quizzically.
"Huh?"
[Previous balance: 580,000 gold coins.]
[New Balance: 2,092,400 gold coins.]
This doesn't seem right, why was his previous balance 580,000 gold coins? He remembered spending 1,200,000 gold coins for an additional Abrams tank and M117 Guardian. And he only had 1,300,000 gold coins.
But at that moment, he suddenly realized that he had a 40 percent discount activated. He ran a hand over his face, grinning at the realization.
"How could I miss it? I was maybe too engrossed in what was in front of me at the time."
Nevertheless, he purchased five additional HIMARS, each costing 350,000 gold coins and a total of 1,750,000 gold coins. With the forty percent discount applied, it was reduced to 1,050,000 gold coins. He also bought a crew manning the vehicles, so another 15,000 gold coins. Leaving him with 1,044,000 gold coins should he confirm the purchase.
That was still a lot of money, so without hesitation, he confirmed the purchase, and the M142 HIMARS was transferred to his inventory. Now he only needs to summon it.
"How many rocket tubes does the HIMARS have?" Richard asked.
"There are six rocket tubes sir," Graves answered. "Why do you ask sir?"
"And can it be fired instantaneously?" Richard asked, his mind already racing with a plan.
Graves exchanged puzzled glances with his fellow Chief of Staff.
"Well, sir, it can fire multiple rockets in rapid succession, but it takes a moment to reload the tubes after all missiles are spent. Have you perhaps come up with an idea sir?" Graves replied.
"Yes there is one," Richard revealed. "We'll fire all of it at the Goliath."
Since each HIMARS fired two missiles, they only had four in their rocket tubes. With new directives, the HIMARS operators fired all the missiles at once. 20 missiles with high explosive ordnance streak across the sky, leaving fiery trails in their wake.
As the missiles closed in on the Goliath, the behemoth changed its stance, raising its massive, black shield.
Explosions blossomed as the missiles struck the shield, creating a brilliant and chaotic display of light and sound to the point it almost knocked over the drone flying in the area.
But as the smoke and dust settled, clicked his tongue as he saw the Goliath health bar didn't increase even a fraction. However, the infected around the Goliath weren't so lucky. He killed 1,203 walkers, 23 Flyers, and 5 Hunters.
"So I guess we have to hit him at the part where he couldn't protect himself with his shield…" Richard said, rubbing his chin. He added. "There must be a vital spot where we can hit—"
Richard paused as an idea dawned upon him. He opened his system and tapped at the zombie encounters tab. "Oh, I found it. The Goliath has a blister-like biomass in the neck, under its arm, and on its leg. If we hit the Goliath there with a missile, it would surely deal significant damage."
"But sir, there is a problem," Mark chimed in. "Long-range artillery is ineffective if we are striking vital spots. The Goliath could simply raise its shield and block the barrage of missiles again."
"Mark was right, sir," Graves concurred. "The only chance we can hit the biomass is if we get close to it. A soldier equipped with a javelin missile would do a job and for guaranteed hits, we are going to need a laser designator. But this is when the Goliath reached Oriental. Our priority is if we can't kill it, we have to slow it down."
Hearing that, Richard just got another idea.
"Sara, would you please display the map of Metro Manila on the screen please," Richard ordered.
Sara didn't ask why and simply complied with Richard's request. The map of Metro Manila replaced the display of the live footage of the drone. Richard walked forward to the television screen and faced his Joint Chief of Staff.
"Okay, on this map, there is a river called Pasig River. It cuts through the city and divides it into two halves. The Goliath is currently on the northern side, making its way south towards Oriental. We can use the geography of the city to our advantage."
"But sir, may I remind you that the Goliath is very tall and could simply walk over it? The Hunters would simply jump and the Flyers well, they are flying in the air," Graves pointed out, his concern evident. "We won't be able to slow them."
"Uhm we are not slowing them down, Graves, we are decreasing their numbers," Richard corrected.
"Elaborate sir."
"You see, the zombies or walkers can't swim, and the majority of the hordes are made up of walkers. We can deal with Hunters and Flyers and Goliath with specialized weapons but the main threat to our forces is the tens of thousands of zombies flooding into Oriental. The wave is a bad omen, it could mean a lot of things, starting with hundreds of thousands of zombies coming at us in all directions. The north side of the Pasig River is a more populous region than the south."
"Oh, I didn't notice that sir," Graves admitted. "I apologize. So, how are we going to prevent the mutated zombies going to the south from the north?"
"It's simple, there are a total of 24 bridges that cross the Pasig River. We will blow them up."