Counterfeit Hero

Mars Planet, fires everywhere.

No one expected that once this world, which relies on factional patterns to maintain its unique societal form for thousands of years, erupted in war, it would be so brutal.

The situation quickly deteriorated to an unbearable level.

Three major factions in a chaotic battle turned the entire Mars Star System into a massive slaughterhouse. The channels of Mars Free Port are completely blocked, Commerce Groups, smuggling ships, and free transport fleets are fleeing one after another. The port cargo throughput has dropped by ninety-nine percent! Nearly cut off.

For the people on this barren planet, without the continuous input of food, energy, and other essential living materials, it is impossible to survive. The outbreak of war has already cut off public environment balance systems, energy and power, and water supply systems in many places. The interruption of material input has further caused the prices of food, drinking water, and other necessities to skyrocket.

The city factions have seized power, and many places have been turned into ruins by the warring parties. Every street is engaged in fierce battles. Tens of thousands of innocent civilians die in the unlimited shelling attacks.

By the fourth day of the war, the entire Free World has turned into a world of marauders.

No one on this planet is a pushover.

When people can’t get their living necessities and start taking risks, the jungle rules of the Free World, the deeply ingrained concept of survival of the fittest among the populace, begin to take effect.

The death toll rises sharply. In the streets, robbery, rape, murder, arson—people who have lost their minds have turned into marauders. They form groups based on family, organization, neighborhood, and friends, engaging in deadly battles over limited living supplies.

One shopping mall after another is ransacked, buildings are set ablaze.

Standing on the rooftop overlooking the city, whether it be Central City, Infantry Port, Xianlong Port, Bering Port, Oslo Port, Thames Port, Lille Port—smoke billows and fierce fires rage everywhere, gunfire, screams, and cries are relentless.

No one expected the war’s chain reactions in the Free World to be so terrifying.

What takes years for human mainstream society to experience in war happened in this world in just four days!

This is a calamity.

However, for the Three Major Schools, the situation is still within acceptable limits.

After the initial chaos, as the actual control zones form, the battles between the Three Major Schools have naturally begun to decrease in intensity.

When the crane and clam fight, the fisher benefits. No one wants to exhaust their strength completely and let other factions take advantage. No one is foolish! Although the tripod war situation is unpredictable, it has a certain natural stability.

The battle must continue, the fight for key industrial zones, transportation routes, and ports remains fiercely contested, with small-scale battles erupting continuously and brutally, but larger scale main force battles are cautiously avoided.

All three factions are meticulously looking for the opportunity to end the conflict decisively.

Their gaze has never left Central City. Everyone knows that this is where victory or defeat lies!

Mars Free Port Center City, tens of times larger than other port cities. As its name suggests, it is the center of Mars. It concentrates over seventy percent of Mars Free Channel’s wealth and more than sixty percent of industrial manufacturing capacity.

In modern warfare, the most crucial determinant of victory is logistics. And Central City is obviously the largest material reserve base. The Northern Industrial Zone, Eastern Port, and storage must be controlled.

Control Central City to control the world.

This is an indisputable iron law for everyone!

In the Tai Sect base at Thames Port, it is chaotic. On the training ground, two companies of Mecha are assembling. Various types of high and low Private Mechas are mixed together, trying hard to maintain formation. Beside them, hundreds of Tai Sect armed personnel are transporting boxes of old ammunition equipped for Mechas.

Most of these armed personnel have not received formal military training. Many are just thugs and hooligans who picked up guns temporarily. They work with their collars loosened and guns slung crookedly, cursing non-stop!

Only the hundreds of Bullfighter mercenaries gathering urgently further away have some semblance of a military appearance. They are the main force of Tai Sect.

In the underground command room buried a hundred meters deep, wrapped in thick high-strength concrete and metal armor plates, the scene is equally chaotic. In front of an old small SkyNet control console, dozens of people are busy. Calls and keyboard clatters rise and fall in succession.

It’s called SkyNet, but it’s just an obsolete central control system. Its role is limited to war information gathering, communications, and command, plus a bit of anti-interference capability. As for real-time battlefield monitoring, radar, electronic camouflage, and battlefield management, missile and air-ground coordination, these functions are non-existent.

Factions, after all, are not the governments of sovereign states. Faction armed forces are not regular armies.

Kubo is pacing back and forth in the command room, already at his wit’s end.

Among the three major factions, Tai Sect is currently on the lower end.

On May 31, in the battle for control of 9th District Northern Industrial Zone of Central City, Tai Sect Bullfighter Mercenary Corps’ 1st Armored Camp and Mountain Breaker Sect’s 7th Broken Army Camp fought fiercely for twenty-six hours. Although Tai Sect barely occupied the 9th District with reinforcements and eliminated nearly half of the enemy in front, the 1st Armored Camp was also severely damaged.