Chapter 371: The Fel War （Part 1）

Aside from the Silver Heavy Power Armor, Owen’s seldom-used Thunder Power Hammer, Chainsaw Sword, and Bolter had all been upgraded. It could be said that he was armed to the teeth, and those below Legendary wouldn’t even be able to scratch his defenses.

It was precisely because he knew the capabilities of this equipment that Owen resisted the urge to use the Divine Artifacts. After all, they were his trump cards, and he shouldn’t use them lightly unless it was a special situation.

Full of confidence, Owen, accompanied by Charle and Ai Mi Er, walked into the Fel Secret Realm, starting his grand expedition. As for whether everything would go smoothly, it depended on how powerful his cheats were.

As soon as he entered the Fel Secret Realm, Owen was greeted by the deafening roar of gunfire and explosions. Clearly, the Fel Rats hadn’t missed this opportunity during the shift change and had launched a fierce assault.

However, what impressed Owen the most was the omnipresent wailing. This vast Secret Realm, almost like a Demi-Plane, was dying. Its essence was being extracted, its laws twisted. As a result, the sky was a sickly grayish-green, the earth was dead silent. The entire Secret Realm was turning into a reflection of Fel energy. No wonder the Fel Rats couldn’t be completely eradicated in such a harsh environment—they were propagating by devouring the entire Secret Realm.

The advantage of this was that as long as the Secret Realm hadn’t been completely destroyed, the Fel Rats couldn’t be wiped out. The disadvantage was that if they couldn’t escape before the Secret Realm collapsed, the Fel Rats would vanish. This was why the Goblin Mechanical Army, which controlled the entrance to the Secret Realm, was the Fel Rats’ mortal enemy.

What Owen didn’t understand was the Fel Rats’ thinking. Although the shift change would cause some chaos, before the shift change, they only needed to face one Goblin Mechanical Army, while during the shift change, they had to face two. Couldn’t they do the math?

Little did Owen know, the Fel Rats had tasted success several times in the past and couldn’t let go of that memory. Therefore, even though they hadn’t gained any advantage for a long time due to the Goblin Mechanical Army’s continuous improvements, they still habitually launched attacks during the shift change.

However, the Goblin Mechanical Army had put a lot of thought into their base in the Fel Secret Realm. With the teleportation gate at the entrance of the Secret Realm as the core, they had constructed a large number of semi-permanent defensive structures, connected by crisscrossing trenches, forming a dense defensive network. Currently, a large number of Goblin infantry were holding rifles, setting up machine guns, and launching a fierce attack on the Fel Rats surging from the mountains below. Carefully constructed artillery positions also responded with angry roars, tearing apart countless Fel Rats on their charge.

Owen’s helmet came with various functions, even more comprehensive than the upgraded Warm Baby. At this moment, it was already projecting a large amount of data in front of his eyes through tracking, magnification, and data analysis.

According to the intelligence Owen had read before, the creatures currently running wildly on all fours were the weakest Fel Rats. Apart from their green eyes and greater explosive power, they weren’t much different from the Black-Backed Ratmen in the early ruins. Therefore, their combat power wasn’t strong, but their numbers were simply too overwhelming. So, even though they knew their combat power wasn’t strong, they couldn’t let them get close. Otherwise, once they were engaged in close combat, the high-level units of the Fel Rats would take advantage of the situation, causing the Goblin Mechanical Army to lose its ranged advantage.

Several losses of positions were due to this reason, so even though they knew these Fel Rats were very weak, the guns and cannons couldn’t stop until the barrels overheated and the infantry needed to replenish their ammunition. That was also the time when the high-level units of the Fel Rats would join the battle.

Since it was just the beginning of the war of attrition, Owen didn’t pay too much attention to it, and instead turned his gaze to the position the Goblin Mechanical Army had spent many years building in the Fel Secret Realm.

The place where the Goblin Mechanical Army was stationed was also a carefully selected mountaintop. Except for the top one or two meters of soil, the rest was solid rock, which greatly reduced the efficiency of the Fel Rats digging tunnels.

On this basis, they built a series of semi-underground bunkers with rock and cement, connected by tunnels and trenches. Behind the bunker defense line, there were also multiple artillery positions, ranging from mortars to Firestorm Rocket Launchers, all perfectly accommodated. So, although the sound of gunfire was deafening at the moment, both sides were actually just warming up.

Although his equipment provided astonishing defense and he had a Legendary guard, Owen still didn’t stay outside for long. Led by Da Gu, he went to the command center.

As he was leaving, Owen turned his head and glanced at the teleportation gate behind him.

This was the core of the entire defense system. Because the Mage Corps used special restrictions to bind the entrance of the Fel Secret Realm within the teleportation gate, if the Fel Rats wanted to invade the outside world or escape this collapsing Secret Realm, they could only go through the teleportation gate or destroy it. Otherwise, just like rats in a bag, they wouldn’t be able to harm the outside territory.

The command center was located on the top of the mountain, with a total of eight floors. However, only the top two floors were above ground, while the rest extended deep into the mountain. They served as barracks, warehouses, canteens, hospitals, transportation hubs, and other important functions, connecting the defense system into a whole.

However, although this place was well-equipped, it lacked traces of magic. Apart from the teleportation gate, there wasn’t a single trace of magic here. This was mainly because of the severe erosion of magic by Fel energy.

They didn’t know this at the beginning, so quite a few spellcasters entered the Fel Secret Realm. But before they knew it, they were all infected by Fel energy. If it weren’t for the fact that the spellcasters who came here were converted by the system, they would have likely backfired on the spot, causing huge losses to the advance force.

Even so, none of those spellcasters were saved. They all died by self-destructing with the Fel Rats. Because they knew very well that they were beyond saving. If they didn’t commit suicide, they were afraid that even their souls and bodies would be completely infiltrated by Fel energy. By then, no matter how strong their will was, they wouldn’t be able to control themselves.

The problem was that although this method of death was heroic, it also gave rise to the first batch of Fel Rat Warlocks, causing huge trouble for the subsequent Goblin Mechanical Army. They even lost their position more than once because of this.

It was after this incident that the territory learned about the special nature of the Fel Rats. They didn’t dare to bring in Limit Warriors or anything like that. Otherwise, who knows what the Fel Secret Realm would have become? Perhaps airdropping pods all over the sky, exchanging fire with Bolters, and hacking at each other with Chainsaw Swords.

Although magic couldn’t be used, technology didn’t have any major problems. After all, the Fel Rat mechanics had already developed tanks, mechs, and so on. So, apart from some special technologies, most commonly used technologies could be used here, such as monitors, radios, intercoms, and so on. Therefore, even in the command center, Owen could perfectly control the battle situation.

As the Goblin staff officers continuously received news from the various front lines through the signalmen, more and more pieces were placed on the huge sand table in the command center. Da Gu calmly commanded, making various responses. The whole process was smooth and effortless, everything was well-rehearsed. This made Owen sigh with emotion. Time truly changes a person.

However, with the end of the first round of artillery fire and the infantry’s ammunition being more than half consumed, the real war had just begun.