Chapter 349: A War Without Martial Ethics (VI)
After leaving the red brick building, Agent Stanford went to several businesses on the northern section of Central Avenue.
The agent discovered that… no matter if it was a big store he could name or a small store operating underground, all of them were haunted by the undead, or had already been cleared out by the undead, leaving only the mess on the ground and countless operators tied up like pigs and sheep…
What horrified Agent Stanford the most was that he found that the closer he got to the core area of Midtown, the more undead appeared.
When Agent Stanford ran to the middle of Central Avenue with a worried look on his face, the scene he saw made him at a loss for how to react for a moment.
The lord's mansion is gone.
In other words, the former manor house had now become a den of the undead - hundreds of undead were coming in and out of the main gate of the manor house, and from time to time, men and even women who had been stripped to their underwear were carried out of the mansion by the undead and displayed on the street.
Among the crowd of people who were displayed on the roadside like goods, Agent Stanford saw Ezekiel's family knights, the butler, the young master, the lady, the young lady, the son-in-law, and even... Count Ezekiel himself.
Agent Stanford stared at these nobles who had been brought down to the dust in a daze, his hands and feet began to tremble slightly - was it that Charlie Rex had become more brutal, or that the black magician behind Rex had become more unscrupulous? ! Even the former Lord Bartles of Innadri was only imprisoned for a few months and then exiled!
Uh... No, putting a nobleman in prison doesn't seem to be a privilege...
Agent Stanford, who stood stiffly on the other side of the street, slowly raised his head and looked around.
The manor house had become like a public toilet for the undead, which was unbearable to look at. However, there was really no one harassed around it... Whether it was the house of another viscount which was only a hundred meters away from the manor house, or the baron's house opposite the manor house, or the high-end hotel diagonally opposite, or the shipping company and equestrian club further away, none of them looked like they had been harassed by the undead.
The detective with good eyesight also saw that in almost all the buildings facing the street, there were people hiding behind windows and peering in the direction of the Lord's Mansion...
Those who are in the mood to watch the fire at least know that the fire will not burn their homes.
Agent Stanford slightly turned sideways to make way for the undead that passed by him, secretly took a breath, and ran south.
He had to confirm whether the National Guard and Ezekiel's legion had been defeated.
Dutata's National Garrison was well-organized, and Ezekiel's army was also very strong in combat, with the advantage of defending the city. It was hard for Agent Stanford to believe that these two regular armies would be defeated so quickly.
When passing the intersection of East Avenue, Agent Stanford saw more skeletons than the number of undead active on Central Avenue...
Agent Stanford hesitated for a moment, but still worried, he turned and turned into East Street.
After running a few steps, the detective saw the captured Viscount O'Neill's mansion, and the tax commissioner and the city police chief, whose doors were wide open and had also become a public toilet for the undead...
The people lined up on the street were so densely packed that it was impossible to count them...
Agent Stanford walked stiffly to the Tax Office, which seemed to have been emptied. The undead had already evacuated from here and ran to the next location; some brave local merchants came out of their shops and walked not far from the tax officials who were tied up on the ground, listening to those guys wailing and cursing with smiles on their faces.
As he passed the city police station, Detective Stanford saw a local merchant spitting at the city police officer who was tied up on the street.
Agent Stanford trotted to City Hall numbly and found that City Hall was no exception.
Inside the open door, many civil servants, agents, and clerks were being carried out of the City Hall by the undead and placed in a row in the courtyard. Stanford looked around at the door and saw the chief and deputy civil servants of several departments, and even the mayor...
Of course, not everyone was killed by the undead.
In the corridor of the Public Security Department on the left side of the City Hall building, a dozen detective colleagues piled up a few tables in front of the door and held weapons, as if they were ready to fight the undead; but the undead seemed to have no interest in them and had no intention of approaching them.
In the carriage parked in the shed, two civil servants and their secretary were huddled together and shivering, and several operators were nervously guarding the front with weapons in hand; but the undead coming and going seemed unable to see them and ignored these frightened guys.
Across the yard, Agent Stanford also saw a number of clerks crowded in the duty room, their faces looking outside in horror.
Agent Stanford silently glanced at the unfortunate people in the yard who were wailing and struggling for help, and then turned his gaze to the people who were ignored by the undead.
The choice of friend or foe by this group of undead souls seemed to prove something strangely...
Colleagues from the Sheriff's Department noticed Pearson Stanford appearing at the gate and looked at him in surprise.
Stanford walked around the unbridled group of undead in the hospital and walked calmly towards his colleagues.
The three groups of people who were ignored by the undead all saluted in shock at this brave man who dared to walk among the undead.
"Pearson?!" An agent who had a close relationship with Stanford emerged from behind a shelter made of a wooden table and screamed.
"...I just came from the port area." Agent Stanford didn't want to be suspected of having any private relationship with these undead. "I discovered it when I passed by Central Avenue. These undead seem to only attack specific people. If they are not interested in you, then they really are not interested."
Several more agents emerged from behind the wooden table and looked at Stanford in astonishment.
"It's true." Agent Stanford thought about it and deliberately moved a little closer to a passing undead.
The undead ghost glanced at him sideways, raised its bone claws and made a strange gesture towards Agent Stanford. Its dark eye sockets seemed to glance above his head, then it turned its head away and slightly sideways to let Stanford, who was blocking its way, pass.
The agents who were closer and saw the whole process clearly had their mouths open.
In the carport not far away, the operators who were protecting the only remaining civilian staff also saw this scene. One of them immediately ran over along the wall: "Hey, guys! What the hell is going on?!"
Agent Stanford briefly introduced what he had discovered along the way. Upon hearing that the Lord's Mansion had fallen, everyone present took a deep breath...
A day ago, when the Lady Viscount from Innadri blatantly supported Coulson O'Neill in launching a war of revenge, the people of Dutata City had actually prepared themselves mentally for the possibility that the Ezekiel family would follow in the footsteps of the Bartles family.
There were many families like Viscount O'Neill who urgently contacted ships and planned to transfer some of their property and family members.
It was just... too fast! Innadri's fist came at such a fast speed!
Only twenty-four hours after the declaration of war, the Midtown area, which was thought to be the safest, was filled with undead. Who could react to this!
Even if the Kenyan Empire invaded Middle-earth, with its terrifying size and those incredibly powerful mechanical alchemical weapons, it wouldn't be so fast!
After exchanging information with his colleagues and agents from other departments, Agent Stanford, who had been busy investigating cases and had rarely visited the Public Security Department, was also shocked: "The National Guard and Count Ezekiel's Legion have never fought against the undead?!"
"No." The civil servant from the Logistics Department walked out of the carport with courage and said palely, "Last night, all the garrisons in the city were just transferred to the South Gate to assemble... These undeads definitely did not break in from the South Gate. There was no movement at all in the Innadeli camp outside the South Gate."
Agent Stanford immediately felt what it meant to be in a mess in the wind...
Yes, the Undead Army is indeed very frightening, but the strength of the Undead Army is not so outrageous as to exceed people's imagination.
For example, after the news of the battle between the Tarantan Undead and the Principality of Lionel spread, people who understood military affairs analyzed the combat effectiveness of the Tarantan Undead in the newspapers, and their conclusion was very pertinent - their immortal vitality and endless energy were indeed very troublesome, but the undead army also lacked highly destructive means of attack and effective lethality.
Conventional armies would indeed be at a great disadvantage in a field battle with the Undead, but if they could hold the city while ensuring logistical supplies, then the shortcomings of the Tarantan Undead, such as their low destructive power and inability to quickly and effectively reduce the enemy's manpower, would be fully exposed.
Count Ezekiel was confident that he could defend the city until after the autumn harvest, but his confidence was not blind.
But no one expected that the Innaderites had no intention of fighting a siege war honestly, and directly sent the undead into the central city... This decapitation tactic was unprecedented and it was estimated that it would be difficult to replicate it in the future.
Agent Stanford took out his pocket watch and checked the time. He said grimly, "It's almost ten o'clock... The garrison and the legion should have received the news."
The civil servant from the Logistics Department smiled bitterly, nodded, and then shook his head.
Unlike Innadri, the Logistics Department of Dutata City serves the army, and this civilian official also has military knowledge.
The National Guard and Ezekiel's Legion are indeed capable of fighting, but as cavalry, they are dragged into the quagmire of street fighting, and the enemy is still the immortal and tireless undead... I guess they can only win in their dreams.
"I hope that Viscountess Innadri can treat the Adler people as well as Charles Rex." The civil servant said pessimistically.
Agent Stanford sighed with mixed feelings for the umpteenth time...
Now that they were sure that the undead would not attack them, the two civil servants cheered up, gathered all the people who were let go by the undead, returned to the city hall building, and gritted their teeth to rescue important documents and archival materials from the ruthless undead - no matter who the overlord was, people had to go on with their lives, and the city of Dutata naturally had to keep running stably.
Agent Stanford did not stay to help. He began to worry that the street fighting between the Undead Army and the local defenders in the city would implicate innocent people, so he planned to go and see for - although he could not influence the battle situation, he could at least remind people near the war zone to move as quickly as possible when necessary.
And everything was just as Agent Stanford had speculated. Half an hour after the undead scourge descended upon Midtown, the defenders at the South Gate and the Southeast Gate finally learned that their lair had been raided and were now rushing to Midtown in a panic.
At the same time, because the time on Earth was gradually entering the peak period of players online in the evening, the six temporary teleportation points in the central city area frequently flashed white lights, and batches of newly online players were transferred over...
It took less than ten minutes for Lahong Ge's blood alliance group to completely destroy the lord's mansion. After spending nearly an hour of game time to completely plunder the entire mansion, they continued to look for monsters in the battlefield area in high spirits.
"Damn, are these newbies dogs? They licked it so clean?"
The huge team was pulled to the northern section of the central avenue, and they ran to more than a dozen clubs and casinos that were shown as "monster areas" under the identification spell. Except for the green-named NPCs and the tied-up captive NPCs, there was nothing there.
"There are too many people, and there's not enough space to share such a large battlefield." My friend Huanling put on a mask of pain, "Why didn't this dynamic battlefield come out a month earlier? Those newbies couldn't teleport, and it would all be ours."
"Huh? Wait!" Another friend Ming Feng Chun Pu looked at the private chat and said in surprise, "My apprentice said that a lot of elite monsters appeared on the South Street at six o'clock!"
"Go, go, go! Hurry over there!" Brother Lahong was cheered up.
On the other side, the Qin Guan group that was sweeping the city hall also received the news.
"Brothers, let's move! Here comes a group of fully equipped elite monsters!"
