Under the cover of Fifth Squad's gunfire, the members of Fifth Squad skillfully operated their tools, completely clearing the barbed wire and landmines at the entrance to the residential area. The entire process was done openly, even with a hint of provocation, yet the genestealers within the residential area, under the strong restraint of the pureblood, none dared to show their faces.
After clearing the area, the players from both squads converged and swaggered to the main entrance of the residential area. The squad leader was about to signal the other players to ready their guns, intending to kick the door open himself, but Joker stopped him.
"We can't use the main entrance," Joker said. "If the enemy isn't stupid, they'll definitely have guns aimed at the door and probably a pile of bombs, just waiting for you to open it. When the door opens, we definitely won't be a match for the prepared genestealers, and we'll all be sent back to the Company Commander."
The squad leader scratched his head and asked, "But there are no windows either, if we don't use the main entrance, where can we go?"
"Feel the material of this wall," Joker gestured for the squad leader to touch the nearby wall. "Although I don't understand warhammer materials science, I can still tell good from bad. This wall, from its look and feel, isn't well-made; at least it's not as blast-resistant as the materials used to forge a hive city."
Joker didn't beat around the bush and directly proposed his plan: "Let's just blow up the wall and breach through it! At least we can catch the genestealers off guard!"
"You're a damn genius!" The squad leader's eyes lit up, and he slapped his thigh. "After this battle, I'll give you my squad leader position!"
"We can talk about transferring the squad leader position later, you go somewhere safe first—if you die accidentally, we'll all still have to go back to the Company Commander."
Meanwhile, in Residential Unit 3 on the first floor of the residential area, several genestealers were aiming crude automatic guns at the door, and a four-armed genestealer was perched on the ceiling in a bizarre posture, ready to ambush enemies at any moment. They were on edge, and after the commotion outside the residential area ceased, their attention became even more focused on the door, almost entirely using their senses to perceive the corridor outside the door, so much so that they overlooked the rustling sound behind them.
With a loud "boom," the wall behind them suddenly exploded, and shattered concrete and rebar fragments, accompanied by the shockwave, instantly claimed the lives of the genestealers in the entire living room.
Just as the players stormed into the living room of this room, the wall of the adjacent Residential Unit 5 also suddenly exploded, and tongues of automatic gun fire spewed from the gaping hole, sweeping wildly into the living room of Unit 3.
Clearly, the genestealers were not fools; the enemies in the adjacent room quickly realized that players could breach walls and immediately retaliated with their heavy firepower. The players were instantly suppressed, but they also counterattacked without hesitation, using some of the living room's furnishings as cover.
The battle instantly escalated to a fever pitch. The players displayed astonishing resilience when facing the genestealers, refusing to retreat, and even with their last breath, they would deliver a heavy blow to the enemy.
A genestealer, using the smoke and dust from the exploded wall, ghost-like, stormed into the living room of Residential Unit 3 from the corridor. Its claws slashed, instantly disemboweling a player who couldn't react in time, spilling bloody intestines all over the floor. The genestealer, thinking its opponent had lost the ability to resist, shifted its attention to the next target.
However, this player struggled, using his last bit of strength to violently plunge a dagger into its head, even twisting it half a turn. The genestealer let out a piercing shriek of agony, and in its rage, it tore the player to shreds with its four arms.
And it, too, due to severe brain trauma, was unable to dodge and was instantly torn apart by the concentrated fire of other players. In fact, even if it had immediately fled, with its brain severely damaged, it wouldn't have lived much longer.
On the other side, a genestealer cunningly hid in the toilet of Residential Unit 3. It held its breath until it heard a player pass by, then seized the opportunity to rush out, killing the unsuspecting player and casually throwing his remains at other players, attempting to intimidate the enemies, block their vision, and quickly relocate to leave the area.
However, the other players didn't care at all; facing the flying remains, they didn't even blink, showing no hesitation. The player at the very front, holding a blood-stained machete, slashed the genestealer's leg three or four times, turning it into a bloody mess. The genestealer, in excruciating pain, tried to counterattack, but was instead taken down by other players who swarmed it, instantly swallowed by a flurry of blades.
The player who first rushed in and killed this genestealer wiped the intestines splattered on his face and couldn't help but complain, "Damn it, that bastard's guts are on my face. This game is really bloody and violent."
"Speaking of which, besides throwing up a couple of times when I first encountered such scenes, I actually adapted very quickly afterward. Am I naturally cut out to be a soldier king?"
"Oh, come on, it's probably just this game putting some kind of thought filter on you."
This player had just finished wiping the intestines from his face while chatting, and was about to re-enter the battle when a stray bullet, flying from an unknown direction with a whistling sound, accurately struck the player's head. With a dull "pop," his head instantly exploded, red and white matter splattered, and his body slumped lifelessly.
After an average of one and a half deaths per person, totaling over thirty lives, no more genestealers appeared on this side of the Helldivers' infiltration, and the players naturally rushed to the next room—the Central Reception Room located in the center of the first floor.
Meanwhile, the pureblood genestealer in the factory manager's room on the top floor listened anxiously to the continuous explosions and gunshots. Through a psychic link, it asked the genestealer stationed on the first floor, "What's the situation?"
"We have temporarily held off the attack, confining the enemies to the side room of the Central Reception Room!" The hybrid genestealer shrieked, its voice filled with the intensity and exhaustion of battle. "They are now attacking the washroom! My Lord, we have suffered heavy casualties, having lost at least a hundred First Generation and fifty Second Generation. I need reinforcements! Give me another squad of Aberrants, and I can not only launch a counterattack, push them out of the toilet, but also retake both the main room and the side room, and hold them for an hour!"
The pureblood genestealer paced anxiously, its massive body moving back and forth in the cramped room. It pondered, then finally responded, "No, that squad of Aberrants in the control room on the second floor can inflict massive casualties on the enemy. I cannot redeploy them."
Upon hearing this, the hybrid genestealer's voice was filled with grief and indignation: "But on the first floor, only the reception room's walls are load-bearing; they can't blast through them, they can only charge head-on. This is our only advantageous terrain on the first floor! If the reception room falls, the first floor will last at most another hour!"
"Show the courage of your loyalty to the void lord!" The pureblood genestealer suddenly stopped pacing and roared, "You've only held the first floor for thirty minutes! Utter such defeatist words again, and I will kill you myself now, without the Astra Militarum!"
The two Squad Leaders, who were in a safe zone outside, did not have a psychic link, but they received information quickly—the dead players would revive near them, so they just had to ask.
"What's the battle situation like now?" Coincidentally, a player revived near them, and they stopped him just as he was about to move forward.
The player's stepping foot paused, and he replied, "We've already taken the side room of the reception room, and now we're assaulting the toilet!"
"You said you took the side room when you revived the third time, and this is your seventh revival already!" The Fourth squad leader couldn't help but complain.
"Before, it was a tug-of-war, but this time we really took it! Their manpower on the first floor is almost depleted by us!" The player argued.