True Apocalypse Game

Six lightweight tactical nukes. Although they weren’t equipped with multiple warheads, each one had a yield equivalent to one hundred thousand tons.

That was six hundred thousand tons in total, a yield already on par with a strategic nuclear weapon.

If they detonated at this distance, none of the fleets present—with the exception of the French Fleet—would be able to escape.

They wouldn’t have needed a sea monster; they would have annihilated themselves.

Zhao Weiguo stared intently at the Virginia-class Nuclear Submarine that had smashed onto the Zeus Destroyer, roaring until his voice was hoarse.

"Continue retreating at full speed! Move to the thirty-nautical-mile engagement zone! Carrier air wing, advance and provide support!"

Not far away, the Russian Fleet’s Kuznetsov-class aircraft carrier was already belching thick smoke that blotted out the sky, burning heavy fuel oil as it desperately steamed away from the area.

If those nuclear warheads cooked off, they would be vaporized on the spot!

Inside the command center of the Eagle Country Fleet, Commander Daimon’s face was deathly pale, his body trembling. He, too, stared intently at the nuclear submarine, kicking himself. ’Why did the Department of Defense have to send this sub here?’ He had completely forgotten how desperately he himself had lobbied for it.

Fortunately, the nuclear submarine didn’t explode again. It plunged directly into the water, and the massive influx of seawater extinguished all the flames.

The multi-billion-US-Dollar nuclear submarine, along with the hundreds of crewmen sealed inside, slowly sank to the icy seabed. Seeing this, Daimon actually let out a long sigh of relief.

The crewmen inside had probably been killed by the sheer force of inertia, thrown about the cabin when the submarine had breached the surface.

’Their deaths were a sacrifice for their country...’

"Fall back and disperse! Use naval guns! Do not fire missiles until you have a target lock!" Daimon ordered again. "Maintain a circular formation! Weapons free, I say, weapons free!"

’That sea monster is definitely not dead. It must be lying in wait on the seabed, ready to strike. Unfortunately, radar is useless through water; we have to rely on sonar to find it.’

Although the recent explosion and sinking ship had completely disrupted the underwater acoustic environment, it wasn’t a major issue for their advanced anti-submarine warfare ships.

Several anti-submarine ships were now working to detect sonar signals from the seabed. A few anti-sub helicopters also lifted off from the destroyers’ decks, circling above as they searched for any sign of the deep-sea beast.

Daimon’s face was grim. He knew his strategy had been a total failure.

’To save face, I have to utterly destroy that Exotic Giant Beast and retrieve a substantial amount of its tissue samples.’

Otherwise, he would become the laughingstock of every other nation.

Even now, he wasn’t particularly afraid of the deep-sea beast.

’The beast’s strength is astonishing, true—it can lift a warship of several thousand tons. But this aircraft carrier has a displacement of a full eighty thousand tons. Even that monster can’t possibly be strong enough to lift this.’

’Besides, it’s already heavily wounded. It’s lost so much blood. As long as we can find its main body, we can definitely finish it in one blow!’

’Attacking the tentacles is useless. We have to find its main body!’

’Judging from the length and diameter of that tentacle, the creature’s main body must be at least several hundred meters long—several times larger than an aircraft carrier.’

’But no matter how powerful it is, it’s still just flesh and blood.’

’Our powerful missiles can punch through reinforced concrete. Destroying a creature of flesh and blood should be a simple matter.’

One after another, new types of depth charges were dropped into the sea. Even Daimon never imagined he would find himself in a situation so reminiscent of classic submarine warfare.

The missile launch tubes on every warship were readied, their phased-array radars poised to lock on at a moment’s notice.

If that deep-sea beast dared to show itself again, it would be met with the most intense barrage of firepower imaginable!

Just then, sonar data from several anti-submarine ships appeared on the screen in front of Daimon, displaying a real-time acoustic image of the seabed.

The moment he saw it, Daimon felt a chill run down his spine.

A vast number of sonobuoys had been deployed into the water, some reaching all the way to the ocean floor. They formed a massive sonar net, mapping out the entire seabed in the area.

There on the seabed, extending from the location of the Space Wormhole, a colossal shadow thousands of meters long was swaying and writhing.

It was like a sea snake or an eel growing out of the seabed.

Except this eel was several thousand meters long, with a diameter of over fifty meters—only twenty meters narrower than the hull of an aircraft carrier.

’The main body of the Exotic Giant Beast never even came through the Space Wormhole!’

’From the very beginning, they had been fighting nothing more than a single tentacle!’

’If a single tentacle was thousands of meters long and over fifty meters in diameter... just how enormous was the body of the Exotic Giant Beast!?’

Humanity’s original predictions had estimated the Exotic Giant Beast to be a few hundred meters in size at most. After all, based on all of human history and experience, it was impossible for such a colossal monster to actually exist.

Several hundred meters was already the limit of human imagination.

But now, it was clear they had been completely wrong.

On the screen, the tentacle of the Exotic Giant Beast writhed and coiled in the deep, swaying back and forth. It seemed to be aiming at the ships above, choosing its next target. It was preparing to attack again!

At this moment, he finally and completely regretted his previous decision.

Right now, all he wanted was to retreat, to get as far away from here as possible, to go back to a beach in California and never, ever come back.

"Detonate the depth charges in sequence! Go for maximum damage!" Daimon shouted, swallowing to moisten his dry throat.

The depth charges detonated again immediately. However, it seemed the beast had learned from the previous attack. While the explosions caused some damage, they were nowhere near enough to critically wound the massive tentacle.

In fact, the attack only seemed to enrage it further.

BOOM! With a tremendous roar, a supply ship shuddered violently. An instant later, the hard tip of the tentacle pierced its hull from below. The appendage continued upward, smashing the bridge to pieces. The supply ship’s fuel and ammunition stores instantly cooked off, erupting in a massive fireball!

"Fire!" Daimon roared, ordering his fleet to open fire on their own supply ship.

’This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,’ he thought grimly. ’The ship is lost, and so is the crew. But this is our best chance to pin down that tentacle.’

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! RAT-A-TAT-TAT!

All kinds of artillery began desperately firing at the supply ship. Torpedoes even pierced its hull, causing even more violent explosions.

The Eagle Country Navy sailors aboard didn’t even have time to jump into the sea before they were consumed by the inferno along with their ship.

But there was no sign of the beast’s tentacle.

Everyone was tense. The next moment, another destroyer suddenly trembled. With a BOOM from below, a huge gash running the length of the ship was torn open, and it began to sink rapidly.

Immediately after, two more warships had their hulls ripped open amidst the roar of explosions, their modular compartments torn to shreds!

The crews on the other warships couldn’t see the tentacle at all. They could only watch as ships next to them erupted in screams and explosions, turning into rapidly sinking piles of scrap metal in the blink of an eye!

At that moment, the soldiers felt as if they had returned to the sea monster legends of the Age of Sail, where a monster from the deep would drag all ships into the Abyss!

In the command room of the distant Hua Country carrier, the Shandong, Zhao Weiguo watched the Eagle Country warships sink one after another and muttered to himself,

"This... it’s just like a cat, poking holes..."