First Intergalactic Emperor: Starting With The Ancient Goddess-Chapter 372: SA- The Third Mode (ii)

The battlefield hologram updated. A massive red wave of players surged across the landscape like a living tsunami. Buildings toppled. Forests caught fire. Tanks and war machines appeared out of nowhere—players had spawned with every vehicle skin and weapon they owned.

A red wave of players spread across the landscape, thousands of tanks, artillery trucks, skirmish squads, and armored suits rushing forward in massive formations. It looked like a global military parade heading straight for his bunker.

Kora zoomed in. "Commander, eastern forces have entered artillery range."

"Fire," Xavier said.

The artillery roared on the map. Explosions tore through the first wave of attackers. Smoke and debris rolled across the fields, and thousands of players were erased in seconds.

But something else caught Xavier’s attention.

A strange flash of light appeared on the western plains. A second later, half the terrain shifted — like the ground itself jumped. A whole line of attackers moved far faster than they should have, their approach almost unnatural.

"General," Xavier said, "why are they moving like that?"

Lyden frowned. "Unknown. There must be anomalous conditions affecting the field. Environmental interference, perhaps."

Environmental interference. A perfect in-world explanation for whatever was happening.

Then another anomaly struck.

A beam of concentrated light crashed down from the sky and carved a burning crater into the battlefield, wiping out several thousand players instantly. The shockwave rippled through the hologram.

Varron stared at it. "High-energy discharge detected. That weapon doesn’t match coalition capabilities."

The bunker trembled again. Xavier kept his eyes on the map.

"Whatever it is," he said, "we adapt. Continue all defensive lines."

"Yes, Commander," Kora replied.

Moments later, another notification flashed.

[Enemy forces reached the eastern ridge]

[Artillery effectiveness: 87%]

[Enemy losses increasing rapidly]

And then—

[Unusual activity detected in Western Cliff Sector]

Xavier zoomed in.

Players were scaling the cliff at impossible speeds, using grapples that were definitely not part of this game.

Lyden tapped several buttons. "Commander, intelligence does not recognize the equipment those troops are using."

"What does that mean?" Xavier asked.

"It means," Lyden said, "the enemy is unpredictable. They may have discovered unstable zones in the battlefield. We must assume anything can happen."

That was a very polite in-world way to say: the map is breaking.

The alarms blared again.

[Inner Perimeter Under Attack]

Varron slammed his fist on the table. "They breached that fast? Impossible. No force has ever reached the inner gate in under fifteen minutes!"

"Nothing about this invasion is normal," Lyden muttered.

Xavier folded his arms. "Then let’s defend like hell."

He zoomed the map in further. Troops on both fronts were falling into the bunker’s outer layers. Gates were buckling. Entire corridors shuddered from explosives.

"General Kora," Xavier said, "divert elite units to the inner perimeter. Hold it. If that falls, we fall."

"Yes, Commander."

"Varron," Xavier continued, "prepare secondary squads on standby. If the wall cracks, you block the tunnel."

Varron grinned. "With pleasure."

The bunker vibrated under another massive bombardment, metal groaning overhead. The first gate cracked. Smoke poured into the corridors.

Lyden adjusted the projection. "Commander... I estimate the outer layer will not hold much longer."

Xavier cracked his knuckles. "Good. Let them in."

The generals looked at him.

"We fight better in tight spaces," Xavier said. "This is our home turf."

Xavier watched the hologram pulse red as the first inner corridor took a direct hit. The steel plating buckled inward, dust spilling through the cracks. A second explosion followed, and one of the side-walls collapsed entirely. Enemy players poured through the breach—hundreds of them—sprinting across the tight corridor like they expected an easy win.

"Seal that corridor," he said. "We can’t let any more enemies enter the bunker. Do whatever it takes. I will deal with the ones who are already inside."

Lyden nodded and activated a set of commands on his tactical panel. The floor beneath the invading players split open, dropping an entire swarm straight into an automated shredding chamber below. The moment the bodies disappeared, thick steel slabs rose from the ground with a grinding roar, slamming together to create a wall three times thicker than before.

The screams cut off instantly.

Varron barked a laugh. "They won’t be coming through there again."

"Good," Xavier said. "Let them find another choke point."

Kora tapped into the comm lines. "Commander, our troops on Level 3 are still holding. But multiple assassination units are bypassing the main forces. They’re trying to cut through maintenance shafts."

Xavier snapped his fingers at her. "You’re with me."

He stepped out of the war room, and both Kora and Varron followed close behind while Lyden remained at the table, coordinating from afar. The hallway outside was packed with NPC soldiers taking defensive positions. The lighting flickered from the bombardment above, giving everything a faint, unstable glow.

A squad leader saluted. "Commander, assassination forces incoming. They’ve breached Ventilation Sector C!"

Xavier didn’t slow. "Show me."

They turned a corner just as a group of stealth-class players burst through a grated ceiling hatch, weapons drawn, bodies flickering with cloaking fields. They lunged forward with blades and short-range rifles, planning to cut down anyone in reach.

They didn’t expect NPC elites to be this smart or this fast.

Varron charged first, slamming into the nearest assassin with enough force to send him flying across the room. Kora followed with two clean shots, dropping another before he even touched the ground. Xavier stepped into the chaos, grabbed one assassin by the throat, and slammed him into the wall so hard the avatar flickered red and shattered.

The rest of the assassination squad tried their luck, swarming Xavier from multiple angles. He moved through them with frightening precision—grabbing wrists, twisting arms, smashing helmets into metal walls, ripping weapons out of their hands. The NPC elites worked around him seamlessly, moving like they’d trained under him for years.

Within twenty seconds, the entire squad was gone.

Kora wiped her blade clean. "Commander, it seems they underestimated us."

"They always do," Xavier said. "But we’re not done."

Another explosion rattled the bunker. Dust drifted from the ceiling. Xavier glanced upward, then turned to the others.

"We fall back one level. There are too many angles here."

They retreated deeper into the bunker, descending a reinforced elevator into the strategic command chamber—one layer above the core. The room wasn’t as large as the main war room, but it had multiple holo-panels, auxiliary controls, and a full command interface for emergency situations.

Lyden’s voice came through the comm panel. "Commander, outer battalions report that enemy numbers are still increasing."

"Show me," Xavier said.

The wall-sized hologram activated, displaying the battlefield above ground. NPC artillery units were firing nonstop, blasting hundreds of players at a time. Tanks rolled across the plains, pushing back enormous clusters of attackers. Flamethrower squads lit up the trenches. Snipers along the cliffs dropped anyone who tried climbing.

But the attackers weren’t slowing down. Every time one wave died, the next filled the gap.

Entire mountainsides collapsed under the sheer volume of explosions. AI-controlled bombers streaked across the sky like shooting stars. The horizon looked like a sea of fire and smoke, and the sound of war thundered through the bunker walls.

Then something strange happened again.

A crack in the sky—thin, bright, almost like a glitch—opened for a moment. A massive object fell through it, hit the ground, bounced once, and rolled forward like a lost meteor before coming to a stop.

And it was a... giant rubber duck. Bright yellow. Huge. Completely harmless. And absolutely ridiculous.

The front lines stopped for a second—both sides staring at it.

Varron blinked. "Commander... is that... a weapon?"

Kora looked equally lost. "It... appears to be some kind of foreign object."

Xavier stared flatly at the map. "Ignore it."

The duck exploded in confetti five seconds later, doing zero damage.

It was a neutral dev twist. Chaos for chaos’ sake. No advantage to either side—just confusion. The players got the scare, and the devs got their laugh.

Lyden’s voice crackled over the comms. "Commander, the temporary anomaly caused hesitation among both factions, but hostilities have resumed."

"No shit," Xavier muttered.

He turned away from the hologram and shouted, "Get me a glass of juice!"

One of the staff officers jumped. "Right away, Commander!"

Varron raised an eyebrow. "Juice?"

"I’m thirsty," Xavier said. "And this is stressful."

The officer sprinted out to fetch it while Xavier pointed at the map again.

"Shift the eastern battalions south. The ridge is thinning. We’ll hold longer if they reposition."

Lyden updated the formations. "Done."

"Now rotate the armored units to the west. Those climbers are freakishly fast."

"Yes, Commander."

"And tell the railgun battery to prepare a synchronized strike. I want to wipe out their next heavy push."

Kora nodded. "I’ll coordinate it with the artillery squads."

Another tremor shook the bunker. Lights flickered, alarms blared, and metallic groans echoed through the walls.

The enemy was getting closer, and the war was nowhere near finished.

Xavier cracked his neck and leaned forward.

"Alright," he said. "Let’s see who breaks first."