The artillery barrage came suddenly and fiercely.
Lucas only saw some flashes in the sky, and then he was almost deafened by the explosions.
The soundproofing function of the bus currently only prevented the sound from leaking out, but it didn't stop the outside noise from coming in.
At this moment, Lucas quickly started the bus, activated the autopilot after setting the destination, and drove down the mountain.
Previously, Lucas had been thinking about how to evade the artillery shelling.
But when the shells started exploding, Lucas suddenly felt he should go down the mountain and directly ram the various artillery vehicles and missile launchers with the bus.
Intense explosions kept resonating, with flashes of fire lighting up the sky one after another.
The first wave of artillery shelling didn't have specific targets.
The mountain was covered with dense vegetation, and it was impossible to see anything under the trees from below, so they could only launch attacks in a general area.
The first wave of shelling had a relatively small number of shells and quickly came to an end.
Then, Lucas saw three military drones ascending into the sky.
The drones quickly gained altitude.
Boom!
While Lucas was standing by the bus window, shooting down one of the drones, a small self-guided missile suddenly appeared beneath the fastest ascending drone, heading straight for the bus.
At this moment, Lucas saw a small flame trailing behind the missile.
His intuition told him that if the bus was directly hit by this thing, the exterior might be fine, but there was a high chance of it flipping over from the explosion.
After all, although the bus's exterior was sturdy, it wasn't as heavy as he had imagined.
Taking a deep breath, Lucas adjusted his mindset.
Take aim!
Boom!
From aiming to shooting, it was just a blink of an eye.
Nearly a hundred shots were fired, and Lucas's proficiency in using the sniper rifle made a qualitative leap.
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A louder sound than the exploding shells reverberated in the sky.
The missile detonated, creating a beautiful fireworks display in mid-air.
Boom!
Another shot.
The drone was destroyed.
Boom!
Fragments of the second drone rained down from the sky.
As Lucas was about to take his third shot, the third drone suddenly made a violent ascent.
It was precisely at this moment that the second round of artillery shelling arrived.
Countless red dots appeared in Lucas's eyes.
Truly countless.
In just an instant, the shells hit the ground.
The bus must have been locked onto by the drone's camera, and the second round of shelling bombarded the bus from all directions.
Trees, rocks, and soil flew in all directions, covering a distance of tens of meters in an instant.
Thick smoke filled the air, and in the blink of an eye, the bus was engulfed in artillery fire. The drone's camera couldn't even capture the exact location of the vehicle.
Perhaps they thought Lucas hadn't died. As the second wave of bombardment ended, within seconds, countless flashes appeared in the sky.
The third wave of artillery shells came...
Boom, boom, boom...
The fourth wave...
Boom, boom, boom...
Explosions reverberated through the land.
This was a real battlefield!
Only the military could create such a battlefield.
It felt as if the whole world was about to be shattered.
Finally, after the fourth wave of shelling, the explosions temporarily ceased.
Because the world was shrouded in darkness, no one could see the specific situation.
No one knew if Lucas was dead or alive.
Two more drones rose from the foot of the mountain.
Three drones continued to hover in the area where the bus had been, waiting for the smoke to dissipate so they could locate the bus.
Five minutes passed...
Ten minutes passed...
Fifteen minutes passed...
Most of the thick smoke from the explosions had dissipated by now.
But the front of Mount Phoenix was ablaze, spreading upwards from the halfway point.
"Where's the bus?"
"Can anyone tell me where such a large vehicle has gone?"
Finally, using the night vision function of the drones, Henry and Matteo saw the destroyed mountain road.
Or rather, this stretch of nearly a hundred meters of twisted road could hardly be called a road anymore.
To the naked eye, there was no sign of a road.
There were cement debris of varying sizes, fallen and burning tree trunks, and the soil still smoking.
"Where's the bus?"
"Get all the drones in the air immediately!"
Matteo, with his impulsive temperament, didn't notice the bus and immediately erupted in anger, shouting hysterically.
Not finding any traces of the bus at this moment, both of them felt a strong sense of unease.
Matteo was somewhat better off, as he hadn't witnessed Lucas's power firsthand.
But Henry was different.
He knew very well that if Lucas hadn't been killed by the explosion and was now charging down the mountain...
The consequences...
He would probably be killed himself...
Naturally, Lucas hadn't been killed in the explosion.
The bus hadn't even suffered any damage.
Time rewound to when the light spots of the second wave of shells appeared in the sky. Suddenly, Lucas spoke and, at the cost of using two red worm cores, temporarily increased the speed of the bus by three times.
And at that moment, the air barrier opened directly...
The whole bus instantly turned into a bullet and shot out from its original position just before the second wave of shells fell.
At that moment, Lucas and the mute girl were thrown off balance by the tremendous inertia created by the sudden acceleration of the bus and fell to the floor of the bus. The mute girl instantly clung to Lucas.
The mute girl's legs wrapped around Lucas and her hands covered Lucas' ears.
This posture minimized the damage Lucas would receive.
The bus shot out in a straight line, crashing into a large tree in front, smashing the mounds of earth and boulders between the bends of the mountain road, and then descending onto a lower section of the road, continuing its rapid descent.
Layer after layer, it kept descending, covering many levels in just a few seconds.
This reckless process lasted for about twenty seconds before the bus finally came to a stop.
In those twenty seconds, the bus had moved nearly five hundred meters downward from its original position, despite the obstacles.
And it had taken two red worm cores in those twenty seconds.
It was unimaginable how much power the system had bestowed upon the bus in those twenty seconds.
Lucas had evaded the frenzied artillery onslaught.
An invisible rage was already burning in his eyes as he broke free of the mute girl's embrace and staggered to the driver's seat.
Before being bombarded, Lucas hadn't even considered confronting the military.
Even if they couldn't be together, Lucas didn't want to provoke one of the most powerful forces in this apocalyptic world—the military.
But now, Lucas's mindset had completely changed. At least for today, he wanted to teach the military a lesson, or rather, seek revenge!
At the foot of the mountain.
Henry, in his restlessness, suddenly felt a gust of wind blowing on his face from not far away.
This wind was hot, as if something large was moving and stirring it up.
"Henry!"
The wind brought a voice.
Henry felt like someone was calling him.
Startled, Henry looked up in the direction the wind was blowing.
Dimly, through the darkness and thick smoke, he saw two light spots...