"Attack the wheels!" the lead ape Knight roared, spraying the armored car's wheels with his assault rifle.
Judging from the voice, he was the ape who had issued the order to hunt!
The other ape Knights opened fire on the armored car's wheels at the same time. Although their aim was unsteady on horseback, they still landed many hits.
Fortunately, the Defender-3 armored car had honeycomb-structured tires that couldn't go flat. Otherwise, the vehicle would have likely lost its balance.
"HOO-AH! Do not... let the human... escape!"
The cavalry troop that had galloped past on both sides of the armored car had already circled around up ahead, turned, and was charging back.
Shen Feng slammed on the brakes, stopping the armored car. Then, he shifted into drive, floored the accelerator, and charged straight at the approaching cavalry.
The apes hadn't expected the human to charge them instead of fleeing, and for a moment, they were thrown into chaos.
Shen Feng took control of the vehicle's mounted machine gun and began spraying the apes.
This time, a few apes were finally hit. They shrieked in agony as they tumbled from their horses.
'Charge!'
'I have to break through!'
'No, wait. If these apes spotted me a while ago, then there must be an ambush up ahead!'
Shen Feng swerved abruptly, crashing through the highway guardrail and into the wilderness.
Sure enough, just as he left the road, two rockets shot out from further up the highway.
If he had kept going straight, he would have been hit directly.
One of the two rockets flew wide, but the other struck the side of the armored car, bounced off, and exploded in mid-air nearby!
Shen Feng's heart leaped into his throat; he'd never felt so tense.
'I just heard a loud DING. If I hadn't turned when I did, that rocket would have probably pierced the armor!'
After all, while the enemy wasn't using anti-tank rockets, he was only driving a light-armored vehicle!
Now completely focused, Shen Feng steered the armored car toward a deserted city in the distance.
'Against an enemy with heavy firepower like rocket and grenade launchers, I can't fight them in the open.'
A snarling ape Knight galloped up alongside the armored car, repeatedly blasting the wheels with its Shotgun.
His face a mask of fury, Shen Feng wrenched the wheel, knocking the rider and its mount to the ground. He ran them over, the sound of an agonized shriek rising behind him.
The armored car's engine roared like a great beast as it plowed into a thicket of shrubs.
The shrubs were about as tall as a person. The armored car had no trouble, but the horses couldn't advance through the dense thicket.
The pursuers' speed immediately dropped, forcing them to follow in the tracks the armored car left behind.
A surge of daring fury washed over Shen Feng. He quickly set the cruise control, left the driver's seat, and climbed into the gunner's station.
'The driver can only control the external machine gun, but the armored car's most powerful weapon is its main cannon!'
The ape cavalry, still in hot pursuit, froze for a second when they saw the armored car's turret begin to turn.
The turret rotated one hundred eighty degrees, now aiming directly at the pursuers behind them.
The bespectacled ape leader instantly realized what was happening. Seized by a primal, instinctual fear, he leaped from his horse and roared:
"Dismount! Get down! Take cover!"
Before the other ape Knights could react, the Defender-3 armored car's 40mm main cannon began to roar!
A single shell pierced through three ape Knights riding in formation, blowing a massive hole through their bodies. The Knight at the very front was torn in two at the waist!
The shell didn't even explode; it just whistled onward into the distance.
BANG! A warhorse's head was struck by a cannon shell and instantly burst like a firework.
Immediately after, the armored car's main cannon began spitting out whistling shells, relentlessly reaping the lives of the pursuers like the Grim Reaper's scythe!
The armored car was loaded entirely with armor-piercing rounds. Anything they hit was immediately left with a gaping hole.
The ape cavalry, who had just been ferociously hunting a human, were now suddenly gripped by instinctual terror.
The shock of seeing their comrades and mounts torn apart by cannon fire threw many of the apes into a panic. Their horses, startled, refused to move forward.
The path forged by the armored car's tracks had become a road of death!
"Kuafu, what do!? Die... scared!" an ape Knight yelled in despair from the side of the path.
"Dismount, dismount! Take cover!" Kuafu, the one with glasses, roared. "Abandon... horses!"
The remaining ape warriors finally reacted, abandoning their warhorses and leaping into the nearby shrubs for cover.
In just over ten seconds, the armored car's autocannon had fired dozens of shells, claiming the lives of more than twenty apes and several dozen warhorses!
The path the armored car had taken was now a river of blood.
"HOO-AH, HOO-AH!"
The fifty or so remaining apes all gathered around Kuafu, letting out shaken cries.
They had never imagined that challenging a human could be so brutal!
"Kuafu, the humans... have returned... to take everything from apekind!"
"Apes do not want... to go back... in cages!"
"Apes... are civilization's... inheritors!"
"Gather the remaining... horses. Follow him. Ready... the rockets!" One of the lenses in Kuafu's glasses was cracked. He stared grimly through it at the distant armored car and said slowly, "The human... must... die!"
He then pulled the radio from his belt, keyed the button, and said, "All apes, converge on Huicheng. Kill the human!"
The apes present acted with discipline, immediately gathering the remaining horses and tailing the armored car from a distance.
Kuafu also mounted a horse, a large-caliber hunting rifle in hand, and headed toward the nearby city ruins.
...
Inside the armored car, Shen Feng climbed down from the gunner's station, deactivated the cruise control, and took the wheel, continuing to charge forward.
Although the cannon barrage had shocked the ape Knights, Shen Feng didn't believe for a second that he had shaken them.
'Who knows how many of them there are? And those rockets earlier were terrifying.'
'The armor on this thing is tough, but against rockets, it's just a big iron coffin.'
'I have to get into the city fast and use the ruins for cover. Only then can I regain the initiative!'
While driving the armored car, Shen Feng took out his phone and opened the "True Apocalypse Game" app, wanting to find out just what the deal was with these Counter-Strike apes.
The moment he opened it, a mission notification popped up:
"Mutated creature from Stone Statue Apocalypse detected: Silicon-Based Half-Brain Ape (abbreviated: Brain Ape). Side quest alert: Find the cause of the Brain Ape mutation and collect a Brain Ape tissue sample. Does the player accept?"
"Completing the mission will yield a rich reward. If the player refuses the mission, they will receive an unknown punishment."
'Silicon-Based Half-Brain Ape? What the hell is that!?'
But whatever they were, they were clearly not the apes he was familiar with.
Shen Feng's brow furrowed, but he tapped "Accept."
He had a hunch that these so-called Silicon-Based Half-Brain Apes were definitely related to the humans who had gone extinct in this world.
'God knows how many monsters those bastards created before they managed to wipe themselves out!'
The armored car went full throttle, roaring as it plunged into the silent ruins of Huicheng.
Just half an hour later, troops of ape Knights emerged from the wilderness on all sides, flowing together like streams to rally behind Kuafu.
The neighing of warhorses and the roars of apes echoed across the wasteland.
Soon, more than a thousand fully armed ape Knights spurred their warhorses, spears in hand, and charged along the armored car's tracks into the verdant ruins of Huicheng...