Chapter 271: We Lost

Chapter 271: Chapter 271: We Lost

"Beats me. It doesn’t really matter if we go back or not. As long as we clear out the Blood Breath Beasts in this world, this place is pretty nice."

Jing Chuan replied nonchalantly.

"That’s true. There’s not much pollution here, and the resources are plentiful."

Mira and the others said happily.

Although the Blood Breath Beasts were strong, they were just a pack of wild animals without a commander. Given a little time, they could definitely be wiped out.

As Long Ming listened to Jing Chuan and the others chat, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was off. He raised his wristband, opened the mission tab, and glanced at the displayed task.

He discovered that the status of the "Fire of Civilization" mission hadn’t changed.

It showed neither success nor failure.

He was momentarily puzzled.

...

「The next morning, just before dawn.」

Long Ming, Jing Chuan, and the others were lying around a campfire, gazing up at the starry sky.

"What’s going on? Luoxue went to the meeting and still isn’t back."

Jing Chuan said, a little puzzled.

"I don’t know. Maybe there was just too much to discuss after the big battle."

Long Ming also felt that something wasn’t right.

The meeting was certainly taking a very long time.

But just then, Luoxue approached from a distance. Mira called out happily.

"She’s back."

Hearing this, Long Ming and the others scrambled to their feet.

"Sister Luoxue, why are you only back now? You missed the celebration."

Zhihan said to Luoxue.

"It’s fine. I’m a little tired, so I’m going to rest."

Luoxue replied, her expression downcast, then headed toward her tent.

As Long Ming and the others watched Luoxue’s departing figure, they exchanged uneasy glances.

"What happened?"

"I don’t know."

"Luoxue seemed really down."

"Don’t overthink it! We may have won the war, but a lot of people died. It’s normal for her to be in a bad mood."

Jiang Heng said to Jing Chuan and the others.

"That’s true."

Jing Chuan and the others nodded.

Long Ming didn’t say anything in response to Jiang Heng, but a bad feeling crept into his heart.

"Alright, everyone get some rest,"

Jiang Heng told the group.

"Okay."

Long Ming and the others then lay down by the fire to rest.

....

「The next morning.」

Long Ming was leaning against the earthen wall of a trench, having just closed his eyes to sleep.

Just then, Jing Chuan ran over in a hurry, shouting.

"Long Ming, wake up! Something bad’s happened!"

Startled by Jing Chuan’s words, Long Ming shot to his feet and raised his gun.

"Are the Blood Breath Beasts attacking?"

"No."

"Then what is it? You trying to give me a heart attack?"

"Something huge happened! Quick, check the Civilization forums!"

Jing Chuan didn’t know how to explain it to Long Ming.

Hearing this, Long Ming immediately raised his wristband and opened the Civilization Paradise forums to check.

The first thing he saw was a pinned post. The title declared "Shocking News."

Long Ming froze for a second, then clicked on the post.

The post contained a single sentence: "Everyone, we lost. The decapitation strike on Mountain City Mountain has failed."

Below it was a screenshot.

"Uncle Cheng, Cheng Lin has fallen in battle. We lost."

...

Long Ming’s heart skipped a beat. He kept zooming in on the image, which was a screenshot of a private post from the Civilization forums.

And from the looks of it, a soldier from the Third Legion was using the forums to inform a comrade’s family of their death.

The comment section below the post had already blown up.

"This post has to be fake, right?"

"Didn’t the decapitation strike succeed?"

"Yeah, they even killed the Monarch-class Blood Breath Beast."

"That’s right, the monster tide retreated."

"Yeah, it must be fake!"

"The screenshot in this post was probably from before the decapitation strike!"

...

"Stop burying your heads in the sand!"

"If the strike really succeeded, why hasn’t Mountain City Mountain announced the victory yet?!"

"Shut your damn mouth!"

"How are you any different from an ostrich?"

...

Countless people were arguing in the comments below the post.

The more Long Ming read, the tighter his brows furrowed. Although he desperately wanted the decapitation strike to have succeeded, this post didn’t seem like a hoax.

"Long Ming, do you think this is real or fake?"

Jing Chuan asked nervously.

"I don’t know, but I think Luoxue must know something!"

Long Ming replied to Jing Chuan after a moment of thought.

Others might not know if the decapitation strike succeeded, but the higher-ups at Mountain City Mountain definitely would.

"Wait, are you saying it really failed?"

Jing Chuan instantly recalled Luoxue’s expression after the meeting last night, and his face turned grim.

"Forget it, let’s not guess. Let’s just wait for the official announcement."

Long Ming wasn’t too keen on knowing the truth either.

"Alright."

Jing Chuan replied with a sigh.

As time passed, the public outcry continued to build. Panic spread not only among the people of Mountain City Mountain but also in Sinful City and Star Tower.

Everyone on the Civilization forums was questioning Mountain City Mountain, demanding that its leaders come forward to refute the rumors and offer an explanation.

The situation continued to escalate and spiral.

「In a bedchamber in the City Lord’s Mansion.」

City Lord Qian Luo was propped up against the headboard, his face looking even more ancient as he coughed repeatedly.

Qian Ying spoke to City Lord Qian Luo with a complicated expression.

"Father, the news has been leaked. Now the entire populace is demanding we refute the rumors and explain."

"You can’t wrap fire in paper. I had hoped to keep it under wraps for a while, to think of other countermeasures, but I didn’t expect it to be exposed so quickly."

City Lord Qian Luo replied hoarsely.

"How about I send people to arrest the person who made the post and suppress the public outcry as much as possible?"

Qian Ying suggested to City Lord Qian Luo.

"There’s no need. What’s coming will come."

"You mean...?"

"Announce that the decapitation strike failed."

City Lord Qian Luo said to Qian Ying.

"Yes!"

Qian Ying nodded in response.

....

Soon, Mountain City Mountain published an obituary notice on the Civilization forums.

"To all our dear citizens, Mountain City Mountain hereby issues a death notice. The decapitation strike has failed. Of the 100,000 brave soldiers from Mountain City Mountain, 72,575 have fallen."

.....

"No way, the decapitation strike really failed?"

"We lost?"

"Doesn’t that mean we’re screwed?"

"But that’s not right. Why did the monster tide retreat then?"

"Are you stupid? Their royal city must have been attacked, so a large number of Blood Breath Beasts went back to reinforce it. That’s the only reason we got a chance to breathe!"

"So you’re saying... once the Blood Breath Beasts recover, we’re all dead?"

...

In an instant, millions of comments flooded in.

「Inside a trench in Defense Zone C11.」

Long Ming stared at the announcement post, rubbing his forehead with a headache. Even though he had been mentally prepared, seeing the official notice still made him feel sick to his stomach.

"Sigh... I really don’t get it. We clearly killed a Monarch-class monster, so how did the decapitation strike fail? Was there a second one?"

"I don’t know."

...

Jing Chuan and the others discussed among themselves, sighing in despair.

Their once-high morale plummeted to rock bottom.

Just then, Luoxue walked over.

Seeing her, Long Ming and the others quickly surrounded her, asking impatiently.

"Luoxue, did the decapitation strike really fail?"

"Yes."

Luoxue nodded.