Crossbow bolts and arrows flew together.

Suddenly the ground split open, and an enormous pink flesh-worm bored up out of the soil, wrecking one of the human strongpoints. This was a giant sandworm, its exact Talent unknown, somewhere between super-grade and high-grade. It had only just arrived at the Jianhu County feeding ground and had already smashed a good many defensive works.

"What's gotten into these marine jin beasts, coming ashore to feed like this!" A jin person soldier, cradling a grenade launcher empty of grenades, muttered to himself as he watched the giant sandworm wreck a trench a hundred meters ahead, then settle in to quietly scarf down the iron-fruit potatoes on the ground.

The squad leader shouted, "Quit standing there dazed! Fall back three hundred meters, quick, and get back into the defensive line!"

The soldier retreated with the squad leader, and asked a heavy question. "Squad leader, you think we can hold? What if we can't?"

"Can't hold, there's still the nuclear warhead!"

"But Jianhu County's got a hundred-odd thousand civilians. My wife's still waiting for me."

"What else can we do? If we can't hold, the civilians die for certain too. You expect the jin beasts to do you a favor — let them run first, then take a break?" The squad leader cursed under his breath. "Can't hold means dying. The warhead going off means dying too. Either way it's death, so let's aim to kill a super-grade jin beast and get our money's worth — die and it's not a loss."

"But squad leader, my wife's about to give birth."

"Isn't mine pregnant too?"

"Squad leader, I don't want to die."

"Nobody wants to die. But right now, who can save us?"

The soldier looked at his ammunition-less grenade launcher, his face flushing pale by turns. "Then… squad leader, let's run for it."

The squad leader whipped around and stared hard at the soldier, eyes gone bloodshot.

It was a good while before he spoke, as if letting out a breath. "Little Jia, I'll pretend I didn't hear that…"

The soldier, Little Jia, deflated…