This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 134: Distant Visitor

Chapter 134: Chapter 134: Distant Visitor

North suburb of Qingquan City.

Trudging through the snow that reached their calves, five black pieces of power armor walked beneath the abandoned elevated highways, heading toward the direction of Qingquan City.

"... Detected radio activity, approximately four kilometers straight ahead, low signal activity, unresolvable."

"Can you identify who they are?"

"Obviously not, we know nothing about this area... I suggest we ask a local for information first."

"Good idea."

Lu Yang looked past the road signs denoting place names and raised his head to gaze at the silent city ahead, frowning beneath his helmet.

"So this is Qingquan City."

Qingquan City, located in the southern River Valley Province, once served as an important hub for the central cluster of cities and supported a population of hundreds of millions.

As for now, it was feared that the current population wouldn’t even constitute a fraction of its former glory.

Lu Yang extended his index finger, lightly tapping the side of his helmet, and quickly pulled up a geographic information image of the Qingquan area from the database.

Compared to the beautiful times before the war, the place now resembled hell, left only with desolation, decay, depression, and death.

"This damned war..."

Lu Yang confirmed the map with a glance and waved his fist forward, leading his four squad members along the remnants of the elevated highway.

The transformation did not end with Qingquan City. If they wanted to reminisce about the past, they could go on from the horizon to the Kuiper Belt.

But doing so was pointless.

The reason they had traveled thousands of miles from the East Coast to this location was not for archaeology or to film a documentary, but to keep moving westward, deeper into the wilderness in search of humanity’s last hope—the legendary Shelter No.0.

As for why they stopped here...

Honestly, Lu Yang didn’t want to.

However, unfortunately, their transport had experienced a slight malfunction.

To quickly repair it, they could only seek help from nearby survivors.

He didn’t want to waste several months here.

According to their experience on the journey, once they stopped for over a month, trouble would continuously find them.

"Captain, there’s a drone watching us."

The marine walking to Lu Yang’s left looked up at the airspace straight ahead and added in a jocular tone.

"It’s a cute little fellow... My database doesn’t have a matching model, but just by its looks, it seems to be a civilian model from before the war that’s been modified. Hard to believe it can fly so high."

Another marine spoke lazily.

"It looks like there’s a shelter nearby. Great, we don’t have to deal with the locals."

"How do you know the people living in the shelter aren’t locals? You forgot that guy in the Blue Jacket we met last time? He kept claiming he was from Shelter No.117, and then immediately swallowed the gum I gave him."

"Hahaha!"

As they spoke, uncontrollable laughter echoed through the communication channel.

Clearly, they weren’t too concerned about the little guy above.

"Stop digressing, someone’s watching us."

Pulling out the jamming gun from his waist, the marine walking on the farthest side looked at their captain with an inquiring gaze.

"Do you need me to take it down?"

"No need."

Lu Yang gestured with his hand, signaling his comrades to pause, and then waved towards the sky, showing they had noticed it.

"Distant friends, we mean no harm. If it’s convenient, could we talk?"

Unsure whether the drone had an audio collection system, Lu Yang activated the loudspeaker on his power armor helmet to convey his friendliness.

The sound echoed over the ruins.

Perhaps it had heard his voice, or perhaps it had realized that it had been spotted, but the drone descended in altitude and flew to their front.

It was a silver-white sphere, surprisingly small, with propeller blades made of some unknown material, flying silently in the air.

Lu Yang watched as it stopped in front of him, circled around him once, and then slowly drifted toward Wetland Park.

The team members beside him exchanged glances.

"Is this a gesture of friendship?"

"Probably, it seems to be inviting us over."

"Captain, should we go?"

Lu Yang pondered for a moment before saying,

"Wang Yi, stay behind and look for a high point nearby to observe, the rest of you follow me."

"Yes!"

...

Outpost Base, third floor of the sanatorium.

Watching the four people entering Wetland Park through the screen on his arm, Chu Guang’s face grew solemn.

Power armor!

He had only heard about this from the survivors before, and now, seeing it for the first time, it was even more exaggerated than he had imagined.

Thick, full-protection armor covered every inch of their skin, and the rectangular modular rifles in their hands emitted a chilling cold light.

They looked like humanoid tanks walking straight out of a sci-fi movie set, formidable and intimidating.

Chu Guang even wondered, half in doubt, whether ordinary caliber bullets hitting them would feel like mere tickles.

Their heavyweight armor and equipment did not seem to affect their mobility at all; from the way they moved effortlessly through the jungle and over obstacles, it seemed almost playful.

Chu Guang roughly estimated that their equipment weighed at least 1.5 to 2 tons, likely powered by fusion batteries.

He had recently operated the "Hummingbird," flying a circle around the lead power armor and had not seen any obvious fuel tanks or battery structures. If they were powered by something like solid hydrogen fuel cells, which could have a very high fuel density, it still couldn’t account for this level of capability.

Clearly, the power armor they wore was top-grade!

Should a conflict arise, it seemed that the entire Outpost Base, except for the hammer behind him, could pose some threat to their armor.

Compared to these individuals, the green-skinned muscle men of Street No. 76 were nothing.

"Xiao Qi, you head back underground."

Xiao Qi tilted its camera and asked Chu Guang.

"But master, it’s only afternoon."

"It doesn’t matter what time it is, I’m not sure if those people outside are friends or foes. If a conflict happens, I might not be able to look after you, it’s safer if you go down first."

"Although Xiao Qi is happy to hear master say that, Xiao Qi won’t abandon you and hide alone. Besides, you don’t have to be too nervous. Those people are probably from a shelter too, they might not be a big problem for us."

Chu Guang looked at it in surprise.

"You can tell?"

Xiao Qi said,

"Well, not necessarily, but the electromagnetic rifles they carry look a lot like pre-war standard-issue weapons. Moreover, after they spotted our drone, they didn’t shoot it down but instead showed friendliness to us... If they came with hostile intent, it feels unnecessary for them to go through such trouble. What do you think, master?"

"Me? I don’t know, but I usually don’t place my hopes on other people’s kindness."

After pondering for a moment, Chu Guang weighed the EMP grenade in his hand and casually stuffed it into his pocket.

Although he was unclear on how effective this thing would be against power armor, having it was better than not.

Even if it could only disable the opponent’s electronic devices for a couple of seconds, it would buy him an extra two seconds to react.

Chu Guang decided to keep any negotiations within a distance of three meters.

Even if an accident occurred, he would use the nitrogen-powered hammer in his hand to teach the opposing side a profound lesson.

...

North entrance of the Outpost Base.

Players at the North gate market gazed at the four strange contraptions approaching from afar, expressions of naivete spreading across their faces.

"Goodness! What are those things?"

"Could those be power armors from the official website data!"

"Where did these NPCs come from?"

"Logically analyzing, the Game must have a hidden prosperity setting. When the prosperity reaches a certain level, it attracts wild NPCs to visit!"

"Their weapons look freaking cool... Honestly, I want to buy one!"

"Starting price is at least 100,000 silver. Go ahead and buy it."

"Damn!"

Sitting at their stall in the market, the Autumn Grass Autumn Leaf sisters also noticed the situation outside the market.

As they watched the four contraptions approaching the north entrance, Autumn Leaf blinked curiously.

"Sister, what are those? They look like their armor is even prettier than the Manager’s."

"I don’t know... they seem to be called power armors," Autumn Grass said nervously, pulling her sister’s hand and pulling her into her embrace, "Don’t stare at them."

Clearly, these people were not familiar with those wearing blue jackets around them.

A group of armed strangers appearing at their doorstep could not be assumed to have good intentions, regardless of the circumstances.

Should they inform the tribal chief?

Autumn Grass pondered nervously.

Just then, a figure appeared at the north entrance.

The Manager, carrying a long-handled war hammer, accompanied by several Blue Jackets, walked out from the Outpost Base.

Watching the man approaching, a Marine beside Lu Yang, couldn’t help but tease in the communication channel.

"Do you see that hammer behind him? I’ve never seen such a strange weapon... wait, is that even a weapon?"

"Shut up."

Lu Yang gave his teammate a warning glare, tucked his weapon behind his back, and lifted a finger to tap the side of his helmet, retracting the face shield as a gesture of friendliness.

"Are you folks from a shelter?"

"Manager of Shelter No.404, Chu Guang," the man stopped in front of them, staring sharply, "Who are you? Why have you come here?"

"Lu Yang, a corporate employee, serving in the First Pioneer Corps of the ’Silver Wing Group’ overseas division. We come from the distant East Coast and are heading west in search of something. We mean no harm; we just happened to pass by here."

The term "Corporate" was somewhat familiar to Chu Guang; a large survivor base located on the East Coast was rumored to originally be either Shelter No.6 or Shelter No.66. Their influence was said to be vast, supposedly spanning an entire province on the East Coast.

However, due to its distinctive method of expansion, Corporate’s control over its "branches" in the area was weak, and the true assets completely controlled by Corporate might only amount to a survivor base somewhat larger than Giant Stone City.

Many traders who were not even from Corporate, and not even from the East Coast, liked to do business under the banner of Corporate.

As for the Silver Wing Group, it was probably one of Corporate’s branches, perhaps newly established for a specific purpose; Chu Guang hadn’t even heard of it.

The straight-line distance from the East Coast to River Valley Province was thousands of kilometers, and if one considered the actual travel distance, it could well be over ten thousand.

With such a vast distance, any message could potentially be distorted by the time it reached here.

Regardless of whom they pledged allegiance to, considering they managed to travel from the East Coast to River Valley Province, the equipment and strength of this group should not be underestimated!

Although Chu Guang was curious about what Corporate was searching for in the west, he knew that even if he asked, this man would likely not disclose it, so he refrained from asking indiscreetly.

After observing Lu Yang for a moment, Chu Guang continued.

"Is the thing you’re looking for in Qingquan City?"

Lu Yang shook his head and said.

"Of course not, River Valley Province can only be considered the central part of this continent, whereas the West we speak of is a place much farther from here."

He paused for a moment and continued speaking to Chu Guang.

"Let’s speak frankly, our main force is stationed in an open area about 10 kilometers from here. If possible, we wouldn’t want to stay here either, but unfortunately our Pioneer encountered a minor issue, so we had to come here for help."

Chu Guang: "What is the Pioneer?"

"You can think of it as our means of transportation, originally comprised of four SC-500 tracked transport platforms. We’ve slightly modified it by connecting them together and adding some modular facilities suitable for long-distance travel. As for what it specifically looks like," Lu Yang was unsure how to describe it so he simply gestured broadly with his hands, "It’s huge!"

"Tracked transport platform?"

With such a vague description, Chu Guang couldn’t help frowning, "Can you be more specific? Like its length, width, or tonnage..."

After thinking for a while, Lu Yang replied with certainty.

"The tonnage is about twelve thousand tons!"

"???"

What the heck?!

Twelve thousand tons?!

Hearing that number, Chu Guang was shocked on the spot.

If he remembered correctly, even the Gustav Train Gun only weighed 1500 tons, right?

Even the tracked transport platforms used to transport the colossal Saturn V rocket only weighed a total of 3000 tons with a maximum load of 8000 tons...

Twelve thousand tons!

Did they bring a cruiser onto land or what?

Chu Guang didn’t ask whether those twelve thousand tons were the net weight or the maximum load weight. Either way, the number was already beyond his comprehension.

It was hard to imagine such a massive thing "sailing" across the Wasteland.

Definitely, it wasn’t running on oil.

Returning to his senses from the shock, Chu Guang took a deep breath and, looking at the expectant Lu Yang, shook his head.

"I’m sorry to disappoint you, we have some engineers in our shelter... but the kind of thing you’re talking about is obviously beyond their capabilities, I’m afraid I can’t help you with this!"

Forget exceeding capabilities.

Such a heavy transportation vehicle was something his players could probably only understand through game settings.

Chu Guang suddenly became curious about what it actually looked like.

If possible, he wanted to take a photo and post it on the official website.

Seeing that the Manager had misunderstood his intention, Lu Yang quickly waved his hands to explain.

"No no no, my friend, you’ve misunderstood! We’re not seeking technical help from you. We have our own engineers and production tools, we know how to fix the damaged parts. But the problem is, we are short on manpower, and our reserves of materials and energy are nearly depleted."

To sum it up: they’re short of people, minerals, and power?

But I’m short of those too!

Chu Guang looked at him and cautiously asked,

"So what’s your proposal?"

Lu Yang spoke sincerely, "We hope you can lend us some manpower to help us collect the nearby resources that can be utilized. Besides that, we need someone familiar with the local terrain as a guide! We know where to find what we need! Of course, we won’t let you help us for free, we will pay."

Upon hearing the word "compensation," Chu Guang finally became interested in the topic.

Moreover, from what he said, it sounded like they knew where to find nuclear fusion fuel?

That’s valuable stuff!

With a pleased smile on his face, Chu Guang extended his right hand.

"Of course, my friend, helping others is the noblest of virtues!"

"However, it seems the snow is getting heavier. If it’s convenient, please come inside and we can talk further."