After two days, the number of soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division had dropped to four hundred.

All of the 400 men were wounded, and even Gaston, who was in the bunker of the headquarters as the division commander, had a blood-stained and blackened bandage on his forehead.

After the first and second lines of defense were lost one after another, this last line of defense was about to be unable to withstand the enemy's attack.

And just last night, Gaston's headquarters was almost wiped out by the enemy who attacked from the flank.

From the latest night attack, Gaston also understood that the outer defense line of the core industrial area was likely to be on the verge of collective collapse now, and there was a high probability that the positions around him had been taken by the enemy.

After much deliberation and struggle, Major General Gaston finally decided to retreat his troops into the core industrial area and continue the battle against Army Group South.

After making up his mind, he said he would do it.

Immediately take advantage of the gap between battles to take out the war zone map to draw the route that has been planned for a long time, and then arrange the most elite squad to carry some of the ammunition to the designated location for hiding.

Then the troops were quickly arranged, and the evacuation began in an orderly manner.

Although the commander of Army Group South quickly realized what Gaston was up to, the soldiers of the 7th Infantry Division were too fast.

By the time the enemy commander arrived at the front with the order to launch a general offensive in advance, Gaston had already withdrawn into the core industrial area with more than 300 men of the 7th Division.

Faced with this situation, the front-line commander of Army Group South had no choice but to wipe out the coalition forces in the other defense areas first, and then deal with the remnants of the 7th Division that had entered the core industrial area.

。

The construction of the core industrial area of Dun Ling City was first started at the end of the First Apologetic War, which is longer than the history of Dun Ling City itself. After more than 30 years of building materials, it finally has today's predecessor, the Thames Industrial Zone.

In the days that followed, after continuous renovation and development, the Thames River Industrial Area, which was more than twice as large as the original, was renamed the Core Industrial Area of Tun Ling, and became part of Tun Ling City.

During the time of the Apologetic Wars, the Duchy of Dunling had realized the epoch-making significance of steam technology.

Therefore, while the other countries of the Anti-Religious Alliance took advantage of the early victory and plundered the wealth of the Spiritual Cult, the Duchy of Dunling was stealing the steam technology of the Holy Kingdom.

It's a pity that the steam technology of the Holy Kingdom back then was very different from now, so even if he learned the steam technology used by the Holy Kingdom in the early days, the steam technology of the Duchy of Dunling was still not as good as the current Spirit Kingdom.

With the same power of steam engine, the scale of the Duchy of Dunling is eight times that of the Kingdom of Ling. Therefore, the huge core industrial area of Dunling City is actually not as good as the Jiu Industrial Zone of Sanctuary City, let alone the current new industrial zone.

The difference in technology is reflected in all aspects, in fact, the most obvious is not only the size of the steam engine but also the thickness of the steam pipe.

Shengguo uses seamless steel pipes, which have strong compressive resistance, the overall structure looks more regular, and there is an anti-rust layer on the surface.

The insulation materials are also more advanced, which can ensure low heat loss from long pipeline transportation, reduce steam costs, and greatly promote the development of the city.

This is why there are at most three or four modern steam metropolises in other countries, and almost every big city in the Holy Kingdom can be counted as a steam metropolis.

However, the Duchy of Dunling obviously did not have seamless steel pipe technology, and used relatively low-grade insulation methods, and the steam pipes used were thick and rusty, and the connections that had not been repaired for a long time often leaked.

This not only results in a loss of steam, but also the need for steam pipeline workers to wear thick asbestos clothing to keep their lives safe.

The high cost of steam has limited the development of Dun Ling City, which has become what it is today, due to the natural conditions of the River Thames and the core industrial area standing at one-fifth of the city.

So, faced with a pipeline area where there could be a lot of hot steam leaking, Gaston had to choose a good path.

Otherwise, a sudden leak in the pipeline, or an area of the pipeline without thermal insulation, is likely to cause non-combat attrition.

Luckily, the 7th Infantry Division was home to workers who were familiar with the steam factory.

Therefore, the troops, under his guidance, quickly passed through the dense peripheral pipeline area and entered the factory area.

The arrival of the war suddenly silenced the factory that had been in full swing, and countless tall buildings blocked out the sound outside, and the war and this place seemed to be two worlds

Entering here, the soldiers of the 7th Division, including Gaston, were a little uncomfortable, after all, they had just experienced a fierce battle.

However, the enemy may enter here at any time, so he and others must hurry into the battle position and prepare for battle. Now is not the time to lament what is there and what is not.

The first position was selected from the pipeline area to the coal mine that must be passed through to the plant area.

Before the war in Dunling, most of the coal mines here were relocated.

However, because it was transferred in a hurry, many tools, storage crates, and various cranes were laid out in a chaotic manner, making them suitable for combat.

The soldiers of the 7th Division could withdraw from the outside of the factory all the way into the inside of the factory and then continue the battle inside the factory.

It's just strange that when the large force of the 7th Division entered the factory, a reconnaissance unit that was supposed to be waiting here was completely gone.

All the soldiers couldn't help but raise their rifles in their hands, alerting them to all movements around them.

It is impossible for the reconnaissance force to be late, so there must be some enemy who has already eliminated them.

Gaston felt something was wrong.

The three hundred soldiers quickly rummaged through the entire factory building, and found no traces of blood or the movements of the reconnaissance troops.

In this case, it is likely that the reconnaissance team was killed by the enemy outside before even arriving at this factory.

In this way, weren't they already in the sight of those lurking enemies when they first came in?

Thinking about it, Gaston felt like there were countless sniper rifles out there aiming at the factory. If it weren't for the fact that there were only fans and no windows here, he might have subconsciously fallen down.

Until the situation is clear, the factory cannot go out.

With a team of 200 men, Gaston divided into four ten-man squads and left the factory with three bases of ammunition to carry out reconnaissance missions. The remaining 160 men were deployed in the factory.

As the minutes ticked by, there was no more news from the reconnaissance troops, not even a single gunshot, not even a single sound of footsteps.

It's as if there is a demon out there who chooses people to devour me, and goes out one and eats another.

Faced with this situation, Gaston was also very nervous, and cold sweat began to break out on his forehead.

Is it a hidden power? He didn't know that it was impossible for the hidden power he knew to do such a thing that would make the world disappear without a word.

I don't know how long it was, but half an hour had passed since Gaston felt like he had felt for years.

After so long, the reconnaissance pair must have been gone, and in order to dispel his luck mentality, he glanced at the time.

Five minutes passed.

Gaston's eyes widened in disbelief as he looked at his pocket watch.

Only five minutes later?! How is this possible?!

But if you think about it, you've been in a state of high tension since the figure and voice of the scout force disappeared, so it's possible that time will pass slower than you perceive.

However, he still decided to make the next step with the bad result of the group as the current situation.

The remaining hundred men of the Seventh Division were all recruited. Since they act collectively and come in with nothing happening, it means that the more people there are, the less likely they are to have an accident.

Gaston left the factory with the hundred.

According to what was previously told to the reconnaissance team, they will first go to the steam power tower, the cooling tower, the loading and unloading area, and the transport station to check, so they will now follow the route they must pass through little by little.

The first is the recent steam power tower.

The whole building is more than 40 meters high, of which the building outside the steam tower is more than 30 meters high.

The buildings are divided into three floors in total.

The first level is the place where the transport is collected, and there is a station for the trains that transport the coal to stop and load and unload the coal mine. There is also a worker passage that allows workers to enter the entire building.

Gaston: They are now marching through the workers' passage.

The second floor is the power area, where there are several large electrical units, transformer groups, and houses where workers work.

The third floor is the industrial area, where there are cooling towers, tall lifting machines and, most importantly, the upper part of the steam tower.

It is the driving force of the core industrial area and the largest building in the entire industrial area.

Enter the worker's work building on the second floor. There is an observation room overlooking most of the entire industrial area, and Gaston only found that the whole industrial area is now shrouded in fog.

The unusual scene made him even more nervous. This already shows that there is a hidden power here, but why can't I even see any clues when I lack it?

Gaston led the ten men who had entered the steam tower toward the cooling tower area not far away.

Although the steam power tower has its own cooling tower, it is only used for emergency purposes, and it usually depends on the combination of this huge cooling tower and water tower to operate.

There should be a radio communication device in the cooling tower, the interference in the steam power tower just now is too strong, all there is only a wired telephone.

Entering the cooling tower, the amount of water vapor made it feel very hot, and Gaston loosened his collar.

He entered the cooling tower workers' break room, pulled out his flashlight and began to search.

All of a sudden, he forgot what he was looking for, and just rummaged around in vain.

Eventually, the fear of the unknown drove him out of the dark and enclosed space and into the open space of the industrial area.

He pulled out his pistol and took aim in a panic.

At this time, he suddenly realized, why is there no one around him?

。

The commander of Army Group South in charge of the core industrial zone stopped the troops preparing to enter the core and annihilate the remnants of the defenders.

He vaguely felt that something was wrong in it, but he couldn't tell what was wrong. We can only wait for a moment for the alchemist troops to arrive, and then conduct a search under the cover of the alchemists.

Three days later, a group of alchemists arrived in the core industrial area, and the commander immediately ordered the troops to enter the core industrial area to carry out annihilation operations.

However, when they spent a day and a night searching the interior of the core industrial area, they found no trace of the remnants of the coalition forces, not even the slightest clue.

It's a weird thing, and it stands to reason that even if they run through the core industrial area and run in the other direction, they should leave something behind.

Now it's completely evaporated.

When the infantry returned to the perimeter, the commander frowned at the commander of the infantry unit.

"What about the Alchemist troops?"

"Alchemist troops? What Alchemist troops? The infantry commander looked at the front-line commander with a blank expression.

"Isolate all infantry units!" The front commander, having confirmed that the commander of the infantry unit was not joking, immediately ordered and quickly retreated to the rear of the guards.

It was unclear what was happening, but a team of alchemists immediately arrived and began to isolate the infantry units.

The front-line commander looked at the eerily quiet core industrial area in the distance.

The next day, several oddly shaped armored vehicles arrived on the outskirts of the core industrial area, and the head of the convoy, after a brief exchange with the front-line commander, immediately returned to the armored vehicles.

The oddly shaped convoy then moved into the heart of the industrial complex.

This is a convoy that belongs to the conquest agency.

In the midst of so many years of change, the conquest agency and the Institute of Secret Research have long since put aside the contradictions between each other, and these two relatively pure technical needs rely on each other in this era.

As the older generation withdrew from these two departments, their grievances were taken away as well.

The conquest apparatus has undergone tremendous changes over the years.

The Esoteric Research Institute still has the research of alchemy materials and the Gaia Holy Crown, but what does the conquest mechanism have? It's just that some people from the Apostolic Council and the military came up to check and balance the Institute.

The several shocks of the Apostolic Council naturally affected the conquest organs, and the flight of a large number of people made him stormy.

After learning of this information, Kirsten began to remotely control the infiltration of the secret research institute into the conquest organs.

Maybe even Kirsten didn't expect that Sophia, who came to power at the end of the Anjou family, turned out to be a fan of Kirsten.

Since then, the Esoteric Research Institute and the Conquest Agency have become a family, and if it weren't for the Spirit Master's refusal to interfere too much in the military, the framework of the two departments of scientific research, the Conquest Agency might have merged with the Esoteric Research Institute.

Today's convoy is a newly formed purge regiment that specializes in dealing with weird things.

The original goal of the establishment was to address the legacy of subspace erosion in André County. Now it is also tasked with a mission similar to this one, when there is a strange situation in a certain area of the battlefield where too many stealth forces are in use.

The team's Geiger counters soon spotted an anomalous subspace fluctuation in the underneath of an industrial building, so they immediately entered the interior of the factory and began to search for the underground entrance.

In order to ensure the safety of personnel's movements, first of all, each operative needs at least a mentor-level alchemist, and secondly, the protective clothing they wear is a special alchemy defense device, which can effectively resist the turbulence of time and space and the invasion of subspace.

After a while, one of the team members found a dilapidated entrance under a hoister.

Ready, the combatants walked in the front with the special alchemy shield, and the crowd slowly followed him into the underground.

The first thing that appeared in front of them was a huge valve, and the members of the attack team took out the laser cutting machine and began to work.

After passing through the valve, it is a huge underground space, the size of a factory building.

Countless cables, countless transformers, countless sealed tank pipes covered the ground, and in the center, there was an old man in a white coat and a transparent spherical device, and in the device was a very strange looking stone statue.

If Kirsten had been there, she would have known what the old man was going to do.

The old man seemed to notice the arrival of the purging team, but he didn't care, and even began to improvise.

"Oh boys, it's your lucky day!"

"Who are you? What are you doing? The captain of the squad shouted.

Although the bottom is all industrial products, it looks like the organs and blood vessels of a monster, so he didn't let his actions go down here.

"Oh, I forgot to introduce myself, I'm the Chief Scientific Officer of the Duchy of Dunling, the President of the Edelman Academy of Sciences, Wendal. Che Foster! The old man made a ceremony to the members of the action team here to meet the nobles of the Duchy of Dunling.

"As for what I'm doing, let's put it simply, I'm going to prove that this world is just a game board of the gods! Hahahaha! The old man frantically raised his hands and showed the spherical device in front of him to the members of the action team of the Purge.

"That's it, I can pull the god who plays with our world out of his seat. It's just a moment, but what a great moment! ”

"The chess pieces pull the chess player out of his seat! Ladies and gentlemen ... ”

A thud interrupted Vental's remarks, and he looked down at his left chest, which was pouring blood.

There was another bang, and now the old man stood unsteadily, and staggered down.

"Hahaha, do you think this will stop this adventure? Impossible, the device has already started! Vendal spoke with the last of his strength.

"Fifty years! My dream has finally come true! ”

As soon as the words fell, a rocket hit the spherical device, but the explosion did not occur.

The captain of the task force understands that the situation here is beyond his ability, and what the blind can do is to evacuate this place as soon as possible, report the information here to the people above, and let the people above deal with this matter.