This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 145: Martyr and Unexpected Casualties

Chapter 145: Chapter 145: Martyr and Unexpected Casualties

"I swear... this is the most delicious noodles I’ve had since I left my hometown!"

"So tasty! Are these really made with our noodles??"

"Flavor I’ve never found in seasoning packets! Unbelievable, how did they do this?"

"What on earth did they put in the soup? Damn it, why is it so good... I want another bowl!"

"Hot, hot, hot, hiss... it’s burning me!"

"What are you doing?"

"Getting in line!"

"You’re not driving anymore??"

"No rush, I’m going for another bowl, hehe!"

A group of NPCs in grey coats squatting beside the camp, slurping noodles, looked as funny as could be, leaving the players nearby dumbfounded.

"Are they really that good?"

"Seems... not bad?"

"After all, it’s the craftsmanship of the Fried Egg Master, a stable performance as usual!"

"Smells so good~~ I miss Crow Boss’s grilled mushrooms."

Watching the NPCs enjoy their noodles so much made the noodles in the players’ hands smell even better.

Old Luka counted his money, a total of 80 CR, and his wrinkled face bloomed with joy.

He sold 20 meals, not only solving the players’ food issue but also making a small profit. Two more in line were coming, and early in the morning, this might earn him 100 CR.

If the Boss knew, he would definitely be very happy!

He couldn’t wait to tell his master the good news!

At that time, Lu Yang in his powered armor and Director Li from the logistics department were coming down from the elevator of the Pioneer.

Seeing the crew members squatting at the entrance of the Blue Jacket camp slurping noodles, both were stunned.

Lu Yang approached and asked.

"What are you eating?"

The squatting marine soldiers immediately stood up, holding their bowls in their right hands, and reported at attention.

"Captain, we’re eating noodles!"

"What kind of noodles?"

"I don’t know, but they’re really delicious! I suggest you try them too, only 4 CR, very cheap, and a good amount."

CR a bowl?

Lu Yang was confused, didn’t quite understand, but Li De standing beside him seemed to get it, his eyebrows twitching severely.

But he didn’t say anything.

A little side business was harmless enough; he wasn’t so miserly as to restrict his staff on where to spend their money.

As long as it didn’t interfere with the real work.

However, it seems these guys were truly dogs... They usually didn’t like to do field service, but today they were all lining up next to the elevator.

Li De glared fiercely at a few familiar faces from the logistics department squatting on the ground and left without a word.

...

Around 9 am, a blizzard suddenly hit the Outpost Base.

The north wind howled, almost ripping the roof off the granary.

Fortunately, Chu Guang borrowed a can of foam spray from Luo Hua to reinforce the roof of the granary, saving the teetering granary in time.

Looking at Chu Guang, who entered the barracks looking like a snowman, Luo Hua said with a helpless and sympathetic expression.

"Honestly... the conditions here are too crude, didn’t the refuge have any production tools or something?"

Chu Guang patted the snow hanging on him and casually placed the can of foam spray at the entrance of the barracks, saying indifferently.

"I guess the refuge ran out of budget halfway through construction... Are you feeling better?"

"Much better... Did I say something weird last night?" Luo Hua said nervously.

He was well aware of his own mouth; even normally, he couldn’t keep it shut, let alone when drinking.

Of course, Chu Guang wouldn’t tell him about the 200+ key points he marked on VM, so he simply made up a story on the spot.

"No, you just told me the story of you and your bionic partner back home—"

"Okay, okay, please don’t say more." Luo Hua hurriedly stopped Chu Guang from continuing, glancing at Ais nearby.

Seeing she hadn’t paid any attention to this side, he breathed a sigh of relief.

The Pioneer wasn’t very big, and he didn’t want his private life to become the butt of his colleagues’ jokes.

Huh?

Chu Guang looked at him with surprise.

Really had one?

Chu Guang, who had not been too concerned before, suddenly became a bit curious.

At this moment, Ais looked up.

"The captain is coming over. I told him about your drunkenness when I contacted him just now. You’d better think about how to explain it to him."

"What do you mean ’drunkenness’? That’s called socializing!" Luo Hua tried to be smart, bringing up the words Chu Guang taught him.

Ais was taken aback for a moment, regained her composure, and said with an expressionless face.

"You can explain it to the captain."

Hearing this, Luo Hua suddenly deflated like a punctured ball and shut his mouth.

Chu Guang patted his shoulder consolingly, offering him a friendly smile.

"Don’t worry, my friend, I will explain it for you!"

Luo Hua looked over, his face full of gratitude.

"Thank you, you really are a good person!"

Chu Guang smiled and said.

"No need to be polite, after all, you have helped me a lot... cough, what I mean is, I’ll be relying on you for future contact with your director."

It was truly good to work with such a simple-minded lad.

Luo Hua, completely unaware, smiled and said, "I wouldn’t say it’s a bother, it’s all part of the job! If you ever have any trouble in the future, as long as I can help, please feel free to ask me!"

Chu Guang: "Definitely!"

Ais: "..."

...

The blizzard had been raging for a little over an hour and had only started to subside just before half-past ten. At this time, a group of people arrived at the north gate of Wetland Park.

Captain Lu Yang, clad in his powered armor, was leading 4 marine soldiers to the north entrance of Outpost Base, followed by a four-legged mechanical dog carrying a large box.

Different from their previous arrangement.

Besides the power armor Captain Lu himself was wearing, among the four marines he brought, only two were clad in power armor and were equipped with powerful Gauss Rifles.

As for the other two, they were wearing light mechanical exoskeletons. One was holding a compact and handy assault rifle, and the other was carrying a light machine gun.

Apart from the supplies on the mechanical dog, they also carried large, heavy backpacks on their backs, preparing for a long trek.

Chu Guang, through the VM, had arranged a mission and brought four players armed with iron pipe rifles to meet their allies.

Seeing Chu Guang approaching, Lu Yang said with a smile,

"... we encountered two Mutant Brown Bears on our way here, which delayed us a bit."

"You guys are really lucky to run into two at the same time."

What about the bears?

Don’t these people collect their hunt?

Chu Guang glanced at them and saw no sign of bears.

Thinking this, he tapped a few times on the VM, sending a message to Xiao Qi to help draft a mission: to send two Perception-type players to follow these people’s tracks northward and see if they could locate those two Mutant Brown Bears.

The weight of a Mutant Brown Bear could exceed 1000 kilograms, which in Chu Guang’s eyes, was all meat.

The blizzard had just passed.

With some luck, they should be able to find them.

"Maybe it was a male and a female," Captain Lu said with a hearty laugh, looking at a fully-armed Chu Guang before asking, "It looks like you are all prepared?"

Chu Guang replied with a faint smile.

"We are ready anytime."

Captain Lu: "So are we! Then I’ll leave you to lead the way!"

Chu Guang nodded and gestured to the four eager young players behind him.

"Let’s go!"

...

The players had never been to the edge of the Five Ring Line, but Chu Guang had been there a few times, though it had been in autumn; winter was a completely different situation.

But no matter, Bet Street was full of Scavengers living off the resources around the Five Ring Line.

Chu Guang took his group to Bet Street and found Yu Xiong, the head of the security, intending to borrow a savvy lad to help out.

After listening to Chu Guang’s request, Yu Xiong immediately said,

"A big blizzard just came through. Yu Hu is actually at home, why don’t I call him over to help you? He’s familiar with the area around the Five Ring Line."

"No need, one guide will be enough, let him stay home in this dreadful weather. There’s not much good work around the Five Ring Line."

Yu Xiong chuckled and said.

"Alright, just let me know if you need anything, and I’ll take care of it!"

After parting with Yu Xiong, Chu Guang took the security team lad and walked outside. On their way out of town, he casually asked,

"What’s your name?"

The lad, who had obviously seen Chu Guang entering the Castle, responded with a look of reverence,

"Zhao Yang, sir."

That’s an interesting name.

"Is Zhao Mole a relative of yours?"

Zhao Yang paused, then hurriedly replied, "He’s my younger brother!"

Chu Guang nodded and moved on to business.

"In a bit, your job will be to serve as our guide. Do well, and I will give you 5 silver coins once the task is completed."

The wages for NPCs were much lower than for players. A guard in Bet Street only made 60 silver coins a month, which breaks down to 2 silver coins per day.

Hearing that he could earn 5 silver coins just by going to the edge of the Five Ring Line, Zhao Yang immediately got excited and firmly assured,

"Rest assured, sir, I will do the work you assign me with all my heart!"

Chu Guang smiled.

"Then I look forward to your performance."

After joining up with Captain Lu Yang and his group and observing the three power armors and the two shiny exoskeletons, Zhao Yang was so shocked he could hardly speak.

He certainly didn’t know what the "Pioneer" was, nor any enterprise, but the neighbors of Wetland Park had powered armor?!

Amidst his shock, he couldn’t help but marvel.

It seems the old town chief didn’t lose in vain.

With such equipment, not to mention the Blood Hand Clan, probably no one in the North suburbs of Qingquan City could be a match.

He’d have to share this big news with everyone later!

Thanks to the guide’s help, the group smoothly entered the fifth ring road without wasting too much time crossing the ruins.

Those towering skyscrapers looked like tombstones, countless floors high as far as the eye could see. The streets were piled with fallen maglev cars and building rubble, the cracked highways revealing buried pipelines and the base of the maglev tracks below, and the east-west streets had even turned into forests, covered with vegetation and moss in the shadows... But now, all of this was shrouded in snow.

The four young players looked at everything before them, showing astonished expressions on their faces.

Makabazi: "Damn... have you guys played ’The Last of Us’?"

Mole, the escapologist: "To be honest, this is much more shocking."

Midnight Chicken Killing: "The Last of Us 2077 edition?"

Gnome King Riches: "Not bad, it’s got the vibe."

The exploration team from the "Pioneer" had a clear goal. With the help of Zhao Yang, they quickly navigated through a rugged alley to the area marked on the map.

The first floor of the office building was a bank, and the sign hanging at the entrance could barely be made out. Chu Guang was suddenly curious if the vault still contained gold, so he secretly sent a side mission to the four young players via DM.

[Side Mission: Search for the Bank’s Vault]

[Reward: 10 Silver Coins]

"We’re here."

Comparing it with the AR image in his field of vision, Lu Yang tapped the side of his helmet with his index finger and then looked towards Chu Guang.

"Based on our intelligence estimates, the carbon dioxide trap should be somewhere between the 20th and 30th floors."

Chu Guang, "How do you plan to get up there?"

"We’ll take the emergency passage to reach the 20th-floor area, then start going up floor by floor from there. With some luck, we should be able to find it."

"Is there no way to scout from the outside? I have a drone."

"It’s not that simple. That thing isn’t like an external air conditioning unit," joked a marine next to him, "there’ll be a lot to find once we’re inside."

"Yes," nodded Lu Yang, and looking at Chu Guang, he asked, "Would you like to come with us? Or it’s also fine if you wait for us below."

"I’ll wait for you guys then... Oh, and if it’s not too much trouble, could you clear out the Variants on one of the floors for us? We’ll look to see if there are any similar blueprints or structural maps of the building."

"No problem, but I wouldn’t get my hopes up about that."

Captain Lu Yang smiled, then gestured to his teammates.

The large box on the mechanical dog’s back opened, and two quadcopter drones bristling with guns flew out menacingly, following the three power armors and two light infantry into the fray.

Intense gunfire erupted, the orange-yellow trajectories nearly illuminating the entire space of the first-floor lobby. The Eaters lurking in the ruins hadn’t even reacted before they were torn into pieces.

It was a completely one-sided slaughter!

The four young players watched enviously, and the iron pipe rifles they were holding suddenly seemed less appealing.

"That drone is too strong."

"Tat-tat-tat, and that group of Eaters just lay down."

"I really want a set."

Hearing the conversation of the four young players, Chu Guang sympathetically smiled.

Never mind you guys wanting them, I want them too.

Just endure it a bit longer.

Work hard, and maybe in a couple of versions, we’ll have everything.

...

Chu Guang found that the marines from the "Pioneer" were not only incredibly strong in street combat but also in assaulting buildings.

Of course, a large part of this was due to their equipment.

An exoskeleton could stabilize the weapon without any recoil, and the powered armor probably also had an assisted aiming system, not to mention the drone’s support fire. Chu Guang felt that with a set like that, he might just make it too.

However, even with such formidable firepower, it still took them most of the day to advance from the 20th to the 30th floor.

The Variants inside the fifth ring road were not limited to Eaters.

Starting from the 20th floor, they encountered attacks from Crawlers.

Furthermore, there was a type of Variant called "Martyr", which had bulges on their back filled with spores. Usually, they were as still as plants and had mediocre vision and hearing. But once they locked on to a target, they would immediately rush over and explode.

If your Constitution was below 10 points, there was a high chance of poisoning, fainting, or even being corrupted by the mucor upon inhaling the spores. Even if your Constitution was above 10, it was still inadvisable to inhale too much, because everything is about the dosage.

Of course, with a gas mask, there would be no problem.

Just don’t get blasted directly.

On the other side, Chu Guang’s young players, at the deepest part of the first-floor lobby, indeed found a facility that looked like a vault.

But the alloy door had been opened, and inside, there was nothing but a bunch of obsolete banknotes; not a trace of gold was seen.

It was clear to see, in the early years of the Wasteland Era, precious metals like gold still held value. Until later, people realized they couldn’t eat it, and it wasn’t really rare, and it slowly got marginalized.

The players wandered aimlessly in the lobby, somewhat unwilling to give up since they hadn’t found any good loot. Meanwhile, Chu Guang found a sturdy spot to sit and quietly waited for the battle upstairs to end.

From noon, he waited until three in the afternoon when Lu Yang finally came down with his people.

Unfortunately, they didn’t find the carbon dioxide trap they were looking for in the building. The building’s air purification system had a spare fusion battery, but neither the model nor the specifications matched the type of fuel rods they needed.

Moreover, the battery had little energy left—only 8%.

Lu Yang was a bit downhearted, but he wasn’t discouraged.

In fact, he hadn’t expected to find it on the first day; getting to know the terrain was still a gain for him.

Although Chu Guang had a guess about the outcome, he still asked.

"How’s the situation?"

"Not ideal, but my gut tells me that we should be able to find it around here."

Lu Yang sighed deeply, looking at Chu Guang with an apologetic face.

"Sorry for having you accompany us for so long without any results. Oh, and we found this battery upstairs, although it’s not fully charged... Take it if you need it."

Is this my lucky day?

Chu Guang eagerly accepted the battery with a smile.

"No worries, I always keep my promises."

Please make sure to look more carefully!

If he could find such good things every time, Chu Guang would prefer if they came up empty-handed more often.

Lu Yang was about to say thank you, but just then, a piercing scream came from the side of the hall.

A Martyr!

Lu Yang was shocked and promptly turned to offer support, but it was already too late.

With a thundering explosion!

There was no time to react!

The group quickly moved to help, rushing into the archives room from where the explosion sounded.

The room was a mess, all the cabinets were open, and almost not a single door was left hanging.

And in front of the last standing cabinet lay a Resident of the refuge twisted grotesquely, his body mangled, his face no longer recognizable.

The silence was as if death itself had settled in the air.

No one expected casualties at this time.

The marine soldiers, clad in exoskeletons, gripped their light machine guns, their faces beneath the helmets filled with shock.

"Martyr... damn it!"

"It’s impossible, I checked this place thoroughly!"

Looking at the bloody, mangled corpse on the floor and the cabinet door blown off its hinges, Lu Yang’s Adam’s apple bobbed.

"It’s clear now— it hid inside the cabinet... It exploded the moment the cabinet door was opened."

Another wave of dead silence ensued.

Guilt was written all over everyone’s faces, especially Captain Lu Yang.

He turned to look at Chu Guang and slightly bowed his head, speaking in a heavy tone.

"I’m sorry... I promised I would ensure your safety."

Chu Guang didn’t speak, immersed in a deep silence.

After a while, he sighed softly, his expression weary.

"Death is inevitable; he was prepared for it as soon as he left the refuge, ready to dedicate his life and loyalty to rebuilding our civilization. But, I didn’t expect... why did it have to be him?"

Lu Yang: "He..."

"He was a cheerful, optimistic young man, just got married last month," Chu Guang looked away, his eyes filled with melancholy, "I promised his wife I’d bring him back."

The marine soldiers exchanged looks and silently averted their eyes.

Lu Yang: "...May I see her? I would like to apologize in person."

"With what right? I believe she wouldn’t want to see you, your apology won’t make her feel any better, it will only add to her grief. Besides, I was the one who made her the promise; ultimately, I have to face it... This is the Manager’s fate, you should be able to understand."

"I understand. I too promised their families they would return home with victory and honor..."

Lu Yang rested his hand on Chu Guang’s shoulder, fell silent for a moment, and then continued.

"While I realize this doesn’t make up for our mistake, please let us at least cover his compensation."

"At least materially, I hope his family can be a bit better off."

Chu Guang remained silent.

Now was not the time to blurt out a figure, it would seem too crude and spoil the mood.

He knew well that even if he said nothing now, this man of his word, the captain would surely contact his logistics head upon return and have Li De come negotiate the compensation with him.

As long as the demands weren’t too excessive, they were likely negotiable.

Like money.

Or perhaps...

More trading options.

Chu Guang understood that buying their means of production was unrealistic, but surely using their modular workshops to machine a few handy tools for him would be feasible, right?

They clearly had the capability; it was just a bit of a hassle.

Or better yet, if they could send an engineer to help set up a couple of production lines.

Not too many— just enough to handle cement and steel production would solve over 60% of the problems.

No, this would have to wait until later.

For now, he should focus on sadder thoughts.

Watching the Manager, weighed down with heavy emotions, and the silent NPCs around, the three grimy players nearby exchanged glances.

"What are they mourning?"

"He’s only out of bounds (OB) for three days... it’s not like it’s Makabazi’s first death, and the last one was much worse than this. At least this time he left a complete corpse, or what should be considered one."

"But thinking about it... being OB now means he will definitely miss the next shift change."

"I giao! Now that you mention it, I feel kind of bad for him."

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.