Chapter 6: This Is War
After bidding farewell to Ma Wenxuan, Wang Daring, and their group, Su Yaoyang was momentarily at a loss for what to do. He paced back and forth several times, looking at the devastated streets, his heart filled with confusion.
Just as he was unsure of what to do, a sharp whistling sound suddenly came from the sky. Any experienced veteran who heard this sound would immediately drop to the ground.
But for Su Yaoyang, who had just transmigrated from the future, it was the first time he had heard such a sound, and he stood there dumbly and foolishly, completely unresponsive.
“Boom…”
With no preparation whatsoever, a 75mm high-explosive shell exploded less than five meters away from Su Yaoyang.
The violent explosion tore through the air like thunder, shaking everything around. In an instant, a strong and scorching blast wave swept in, kicking up dust and debris as if a giant hand mercilessly slapped the ground.
Amid the flying dust, thick gunpowder smoke spread, like a heavy and gloomy curtain enveloping the entire street.
The explosive power of a 75mm high-explosive shell was no joke. Under normal circumstances, such a close explosion would rupture eardrums, and without timely protective measures, the massive shockwave would shatter internal organs of nearby people.
Even more deadly were the shrapnel and fragments produced by the explosion, which became lethal weapons. These high-speed metal fragments could easily penetrate the human body, causing severe external injuries or even fatal wounds.
By all accounts, Su Yaoyang, only five or six meters from the blast point, had no chance of survival and was surely doomed.
But whether it was an illusion or not, Su Yaoyang suddenly felt a deep blue light circle appear around his body, shielding him in the center. No matter how the massive shockwave, deadly shrapnel, and fragments struck it, it firmly protected him.
But before he could look further, a sharp pain came from his head, and with eyes rolling back, he passed out.
Time passed bit by bit, and after an unknown amount of time, Su Yaoyang finally woke up groggily. After a brief moment of confusion, his mind quickly cleared.
“Was I knocked out by the shell just now? Why does my body seem completely fine?” Su Yaoyang wondered suspiciously while checking his body.
He remembered clearly that the shell had exploded just a few meters away. By rights, such a close blast’s powerful shockwave should have shattered a person, yet he was completely unharmed.
“Right, that blue light—it was that blue light that saved me.” He quickly recalled the blue light that appeared before he passed out, realizing it must be related to that necklace.
Without thinking, he reached for his neck. When he touched the slightly cool necklace, his anxious heart finally calmed.
When he instinctively immersed his mind into it, he found that his compatibility with the necklace had greatly increased, and his mental power had also been greatly enhanced.
A strange silver-white panel also appeared in his mind, with various large and small icons listed on it.
Su Yaoyang ignored everything else and directly opened the weapons category. It contained all sorts of light and heavy weapons—flying in the sky, sailing on the sea, crawling on the ground—but disappointingly, many were in cold gray, indicating they couldn’t be converted yet. The only ones he could convert were light weapons and…
“Huh… these icons are lit up.”
Su Yaoyang was surprised to find that previously he could only convert some silver dollars and light weapons, but now he could even convert some anti-armor weapons and even certain light artillery.
If his mental energy that morning was like a strand of hair, now it had grown to the size of a toothpick.
Don’t underestimate this—compared to that morning, it was a qualitative leap.
For this discovery, Su Yaoyang couldn’t help but be excited. As for why his mental power had increased so much, he felt it must be related to that shell and the suddenly appearing blue light.
“Could this necklace have a protective function?”
Su Yaoyang couldn’t help but speculate in his heart.
“Should I try it again… pfft…”
The thought had just arisen when he forcibly expelled it from his mind. He wasn’t tired of living—why not slowly improve his mental power and compatibility with the necklace through steady effort? Dancing on a tightrope like that was too easy to mess up.
Composing himself, he then lifted his wrist to check the time, only to be startled. The watch showed it was already past three in the afternoon.
“Three twenty-six, I was unconscious for so long?”
“Oh no… I’ve been out so long, Xiao Lu must be worried sick. I need to hurry back.”
With that thought, Su Yaoyang turned to head back, but after just two steps, a whistling sound suddenly pierced the sky into his ears.
As the saying goes, once bitten by a snake, one fears the well rope for ten years. The morning explosion was still fresh in his mind, so upon hearing the whistling, Su Yaoyang instinctively dove to the ground without thinking.
Just as he hit the ground, a shell struck a house dozens of meters away.
“Boom…”
Accompanied by a deafening roar, a shell accurately hit a house dozens of meters away. The already precarious building instantly turned into a pile of rubble.
Countless flying debris arced through the air, mercilessly scattering in all directions like a storm.
Even Su Yaoyang in the distance couldn’t escape.
Small stones and fragments came like raindrops. Some lightly touched and bounced off, while others carried significant force, embedding into his cotton jacket. A few sharp pebbles even scratched his skin, leaving thin bloodstains.
He instinctively shielded his head with his arms, his body trembling slightly, his eyes filled with terror and trembling.
At this moment, the cruelty and ruthlessness of war were magnified infinitely, making him, who grew up in peace, feel the horrors of war for the first time.
He also suddenly realized that he was now in the midst of war, where death could come at any moment.
“I can’t stay here any longer. I need to hurry back, take Xiao Lu, and leave this place!”
He struggled to get up from the ground. Before he could run, hurried footsteps came from behind, accompanied by shrill screams.
“It’s bad—the Japanese are coming in. Run!”
The shrill voice was accompanied by several crisp gunshots.
“What… the Japanese have broken through?”
Su Yaoyang’s heart sank as he turned to look, seeing a group of black figures running toward him from a street on the right…
