This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 196: Captured by the Looter?

Chapter 196: Chapter 196: Captured by the Looter?

Everyone must die eventually, their weight either as heavy as Mount Tai or as light as a feather.

If this were real life, Old White felt he would have hesitated for a long time before making such a decision, since it meant giving up too much.

But luckily, this is the Game world.

And in the Game, you can die many times.

Without even a second of hesitation, his body made the choice—

"Run!"

As he roared the word, Old White lifted his Sickle Assault Rifle and pulled the trigger towards the Death Claw that was eyeing Wild Wind.

Ratatat—!

The muzzle flashed with fire as bullets whooshed over the green foliage and pounced towards the monster.

Blood splattered on the black scales, and the Death Claw let out a roar of pain.

With its strong and powerful legs, it suddenly exerted force, dodged the incoming bullets from the side, and charged towards Old White, swinging its deadly claws with ferocity.

Old White was unperturbed, setting his Exoskeleton’s output power to maximum. His seemingly cumbersome body dodged the deadly attack like a rabbit, slipping behind the thick palm tree trunk into the dense forest.

The immobile palm tree wasn’t as lucky.

It shattered completely, as if hit by a bulldozer.

Seeing its prey evade the lethal blow, the Dead Claw let out an angry growl. Its amber eyes swiftly scanned its surroundings. Without half a second of hesitation, it immediately locked onto the direction of its fleeing prey and pursued them fiercely.

Seeing Old White dodge in the opposite direction, Fang Chang’s heart lurched. Before he could ask what Old White was planning to do, he heard Old White’s bellowing voice.

"Head to the elevator! Forget about me!"

Night Ten exclaimed in shock.

"Holy shit? Old White, what the hell are you trying to do?"

"Something big!"

Wild Wind’s right hand, Fang Chang’s bow, and the sniper rifle Night Ten had acquired from the mercenaries of Giant Stone City—though his own Exoskeleton wasn’t cheap, without it, he could still rely on the Talent of the Strength Type to fight; but they couldn’t.

Old White never thought he would make it out alive; in MMORPGs, who doesn’t die at least once?

Having taken a position in the front line, he had already prepared himself to sacrifice his life for his teammates.

"Come to think of it, I haven’t died once in this game."

He didn’t know what dying in the game felt like.

The people on the Forum say it’s just like closing and opening your eyes—

"Roar—"

The roar coming from behind forced Old White to focus entirely on running without any distractions.

However, regrettably, the Death Claw was too agile!

If he was like a rabbit diving into the forest, that thing was like a rampant Gundam, unstoppable by ordinary foliage.

Suddenly, a gust of wind and before Old White could react, a heavy thud struck his back, sending him staggering forward with his Exoskeleton, almost falling to the ground.

That teeth-grinding sound of friction made his heart race to his throat, but thankfully the adaptive stride of the Exoskeleton saved him from falling.

Feeling the rushing air from behind, Old White didn’t dare to look back, mustering all his strength to keep running forward.

That one strike had torn three slashes through the steel plate on his back!

It was lucky he had the steel plate!

Otherwise, from that one blow just now, he would have been gone!

Fang Chang, seeing he couldn’t support Old White, gritted his teeth, raised his Mechanical composite bow, drew the bowstring with force, and released an arrow towards the light source on the ceiling.

The arrowhead pierced the ceiling. The firing pin triggered, and the charge exploded with a bang!

Crash—

Transparent polymer fragments and sparks fell from the ceiling, and the lighting in the ecological park went dark for an instant.

The light in the rainforest dimmed even more.

The charging Dead Claw paused conspicuously; its amber pupils dilated instantly, quickly adapting to the suddenly darkened environment.

Although it was only a moment of pause, it was enough time for Old White to break through the edge of the rainforest, running up to the Looter’s group and knocking over the unfortunate one closest to him with a shoulder charge.

Facing this humanoid "Tank" that suddenly rushed out of the forest, the surrounding Looters screamed shrilly, raising the guns in their hands.

"Block him!"

Muzzles blazed, and bullets rained down like a shower. The unlucky guy hit by Old White was the first to be peppered with holes by his teammates.

Next, the bullets flew towards Old White.

At close range, the steel plate that had taken extra damage was riddled with holes, its welding points broke, and it fell off the Exoskeleton.

But—

It didn’t matter anymore.

Listening to the running noises getting closer behind him, Old White, feeling a weight lift off his chest, pulled out the Short Axe hanging at his waist, the corners of his bloodied mouth curling into a slight arc.

Bring it on.

Let’s have a good fight!

"Limit—"

"Break!"

The jungle on the other side—

"We have to go save him!"

Fang Chang grabbed Night Ten and shook his head at him.

"It’s too late."

Wild Wind also looked at Night Ten, speaking calmly,

"Staying here would only waste Old White’s efforts... let’s go."

Judging by the sound of gunfire, there were at least a dozen or twenty people, with no shortage of automatic weapons. If there were covers in the vicinity that could be used for dragging out the fight, they might have stood a chance.

The plain rainforest terrain offered no reliable cover, with the advantage undoubtedly lying with the side that had more people.

Old White had also reached level 10, and had been reluctant to upgrade his equipment. Afterwards, everyone could chip in and buy him a brand-new Miner Type I.

The three of them rushed into the elevator, and Fang Chang punched the up button.

The elevator slowly ascended.

At the entrance of the corridor, Old White’s figure was no longer visible, only the sight of the Dead Claw engaging in close combat with those Looters like a tiger entering a flock of sheep; claws swept through sending blood and gore flying.

However, those Looters seemed to be no cowards.

Standing in front of the floor-to-ceiling window, Night Ten saw a Looter near the emergency corridor shouldering a tubular launcher, pulling the trigger at the Dead Claw.

Three rocket projectiles blasted out from three different angles at once, the orange tail flames drew three straight, crisscrossing paths in the air.

Two of them missed, burrowing into the trees past the Dead Claw’s tail, while the other hit its left shoulder squarely, the explosion’s flames and shrapnel blasting its flesh apart.

"Roar—!"

With a pained roar, the Death Claw staggered and turned to flee into the woods. At the same time, the fire suppression system at the top of the greenhouse was triggered, and rain began to fall in the rainforest.

The Looters dared not pursue, grabbing their barely breathing companions on the ground, they fired into the dim jungle even as they retreated toward the emergency corridor.

Staring at the fire outside the window, Night Ten couldn’t help but mutter to himself.

"Monsters..."

To have withstood a hit from a rocket launcher!

That’s preposterous!

At this time, the leader of the Looters who had retreated to the entrance of the safe passage suddenly lifted his head and squinted at the rising elevator.

Even in the dim light, he still saw the three people inside.

He called out something to his subordinates behind him. While they coordinated their comrades to run out, he sprayed a burst of bullets toward the elevator.

The whizzing bullets clanged against the floor-to-ceiling windows of the elevator, giving Night Ten, who was standing by the window, a shock.

Fortunately, the elevator was sturdy enough; the bullets only left a string of spiderweb-like cracks on the window without penetrating.

The elevator arrived at the floor.

Not waiting for the doors to fully open, the three people immediately darted out of the elevator and ran north along the corridor, taking a big detour to exit the Enclosing Wall from the back of Building 3.

It was only then that they realized that in front of Building 3’s main gate, there were more than forty or fifty people!

Not far from the Open Space, two trucks parked and unloading goods, and a few Looters leading mutated hyenas rushed into the building to support their comrades at the front.

The three of them climbed over the half-collapsed Enclosing Wall, skirting around the perimeter of the research base, reaching the west side of Building 3 about five hundred meters away to observe.

Fang Chang, "Damn, that looks like half a company at least."

Night Ten too couldn’t help cursing, "Fuck, where did these fucking Looters come from? Are they here for the fuel rods too?!"

"I thought so at first, but now I’m not sure," hiding behind broken concrete walls, Fang Chang frowned, biting his thumb and pondering for a moment before saying, "They clearly plan to encamp here... Look at those two trucks, don’t they look familiar?"

Night Ten squinted and took a closer look, suddenly shocked.

"Same model as the Army? Holy shit, are they from the Army?!"

"Chew-bone," Wild Wind, who had not spoken up until now, suddenly popped out a word, "Remember what was mentioned in the alpha 0.9 version update... With the collapse of the Army, a vast Looter force is rising in the central part of the River Valley Province. Now it seems they must have taken over some of the Army’s equipment."

A group of Looters had previously come to Changjiu Farm, and their leader seemed to be Tu, who is now working on road construction with the Centurions, undergoing labor reform. And the weapons they used, even their coats, were the same as the Army’s.

If even irregular fighters could get their hands on the Army’s gear...

These organized Looters must have even more weaponry taken from the Army.

The expressions on Night Ten and Fang Chang’s faces also became more serious.

Fang Chang immediately made a decision.

"We must report the situation here to the Manager as soon as possible!"

"Yeah," Wild Wind nodded, "I was thinking the same."

Old White should have logged off by now.

Later, when they got back, they could log off and join him on the official website.

...

Honestly, Old White himself thought that charging up to the Looters’ faces was tantamount to a guaranteed death. The exoskeleton was, after all, not power armor, especially since it was just a basic KV-1 model. Though the steel plates could stop bullets, they couldn’t withstand the fatigue caused by continuous shooting and crossfire from multiple angles.

The so-called shameless and brave Warrior could only appear on the battlefield.

After cutting down three Looters and wounding four or maybe five more, Old White who had taken hits in his belly finally collapsed, his vision darkening.

However, what surprised Old White was the fact that when he put on his helmet again, he found that his character had not died.

Old White looked around and realized he was lying in a room.

This was no longer the underground greenhouse; it must be a room somewhere in the aboveground Building 3.

His wounds had been hastily bandaged, his VM and equipment had been taken away, and handcuffs on his wrists and ankles restricted his movements.

Old White tried to break free, but noticing the bloodstains on the bandages were spreading, he quickly ceased his reckless actions.

Although he had prepared himself to face death courageously, he wanted to understand what his current situation was before that.

At that moment, the room’s door opened.

A man with sun-tanned skin and tattoos on his face walked in from outside.

Old White sized him up, noting his tattered fur coat, ripped pants, and a bunch of odd trinkets hanging around his neck, including teeth and stones, giving him a very punk look.

A burly man with lip piercings followed behind him, likely acting as a bodyguard of sorts. If you replaced the iron pipe wrapped in tape that he held with a guitar or bass, you might mistake him for a member of some heavy metal band walking down the street...

The tattoo-faced man came up to him, and just when Old White was wondering what this guy was up to, he suddenly squatted down, staring at him intensely with his nose, sharp as an eagle’s, almost poking Old White’s face.

Old White felt a chill run down his spine.

Fuck.

Could it be?

Although the residents of the shelter did indeed have delicate skin, it wasn’t to the point where even men...

"Are you survivors from Qingquan City?"

Old White didn’t understand what he was saying and didn’t want to know either, putting on an expression of stubborn defiance.

The man seemed to understand the expression on his face, smirked mockingly, and stood up.

"My name is Card."

"You’re very strong and brave, a true warrior."

"A warrior like you should have a status and wealth that matches you, not to end up as a pathetic pile of Variant excrement."

"Will you join us, enjoy all the glory and riches, or become a lowly slave, sold to work in the mines until death?"

"I’ll give you time to think."

After leaving these words, the man turned and walked away.

Until the end, Old White didn’t understand what he wanted to express; all he heard was a string of incomprehensible chatter.

Faced with the empty room, Old White fell silent.

I mean...

What exactly is my status now?

A hostage?

A captive?

Fuck!

Am I dead or not?

...

Floor B3 of Shelter No. 404.

Standing in the planting area, Chu Guang looked at the bean sprout-sized green dots in the soilless cultivation units, his face expressing the warmth of a proud father.

The bok choy had germinated quickly; it had only been three days, and they were already sprouting.

The chives next to them would have to wait a bit longer, taking about a week to sprout.

These leafy vegetables were all intended to improve their meal variety, but the real treasures were in the rows of cultivation units beside them.

By next spring, the corn, rice, wheat, and sorghum crops planted there would be ready for harvest. He planned to save the first harvest entirely for seeds.

Not just the Greenhouse Ruins.

Chu Guang intended to utilize all the land from the north of Linghu to the south of Elm District.

With the vast land stretching over ten kilometers in length and width, and with enough refugees, it wouldn’t be a problem to cultivate tens of thousands of acres of fertile land. Optimistically, maybe up to twenty thousand acres in the first year.

If efficiency wasn’t sufficient, they’d have to make up for it with quantity.

The theoretical planting area of 50 acres in the shelter, no matter how high its efficiency, could only sustain five people per acre, not even enough to feed a thousand. With traditional farming, despite its lower efficiency, even if one acre could only sustain between one and two people, it would still be enough to feed tens of thousands.

Compared to cultivation chambers, food is the real foundation for increasing troop numbers.

Surely they couldn’t really expect the players to eat rotten meat and cockroaches, right?

That would be a bit too hardcore.

As Chu Guang was admiring his little bok choy, the speaker inside the planting area suddenly broadcasted Xiao Qi’s voice.

"Master."

Chu Guang responded absent-mindedly.

"What’s up?"

"Your players seem to have run into trouble!"

"If they run into trouble, so be it, let it be a lesson. Don’t worry, my players are smart; they’ll solve any problems they encounter themselves."

Hearing Xiao Qi’s voice, Chu Guang wasn’t the least bit flustered; in fact, he even reassured him.

After unlocking Floor B3, the number of players in the shelter had been increasing, and Chu Guang couldn’t afford to care about so many people anymore.

When there were few people before, the death of a single one was heart-wrenching, but now with shortages of food, electricity, mining, and production capacity, there was no shortage of people and Resurrection Coins.

He only had to set the rules and let the players fuss within them. He couldn’t manage, nor did he want to manage, the troubles of one or two players.

There’s no such thing as a father taking care of his son for a lifetime, right?

The fun of this game lies in exploration, so players should discover for themselves how to increase NPC affinity and trigger hidden quests.

Xiao Qi: "But but, it’s your Bull-Horse Squad that’s been sent to the northeastern Ecological Park to find fuel rods—shouldn’t you care about that?"

"Cough cough—what the heck?! Bull-Horse Squad?"

Choked, Chu Guang coughed twice and quickly opened the system interface, but found that the clones were all still alive.

Only Old White had disconnected, but there was no danger to his life.

Relieved, Chu Guang continued to ask.

"What kind of trouble did they run into?"

Although he didn’t want to worry about the players’ troubles, the problem was the Bull-Horse Squad was on a mission to get fuel rods.

Even if he didn’t want to care about the players, Chu Guang still had to care about his fuel rods.

Xiao Qi continued to explain.

"That player named White Horse Passing a Gap seems to have been captured by Looters, and the other three just escaped from a Looter encirclement and are now on the way back in a truck."

Old White captured by Looters???

Chu Guang was somewhat dumbfounded.

Wait a minute, what’s the situation with the Looters?

"Weren’t they supposed to be looking for fuel rods? How did they end up entangled with Looters?"

Xiao Qi continued quietly.

"That’s right, but while they were searching for the reactor in the Central State Space ecological laboratory, they encountered a group of Looters, numbering over fifty, exact amount unknown, and they even ran into a Dead Claw. The situation is very complicated, master. Why don’t you just check the official website yourself?"

With the key project in trouble, Chu Guang didn’t hesitate and immediately hurried back to Level B1, to his office.

Computer booting up.

Logging on to the official website.

Without much effort, Chu Guang quickly found Old White’s post on the forum’s homepage.

The post title also went straight to the point, summarizing his current predicament in one sentence—

"I seem to have been captured by Looters??"

In the post.

Old White first simply described the mission he and his three teammates were doing in the ecological laboratory and the series of events that followed.

Including the tropical rainforest in the Ecological Park, the sudden emergence of the Dead Claw, the later intrusion of Looters, and how he, in covering his teammates’ retreat, was unfortunately seriously injured and captured...

"These Looters aren’t quite like the ones we’ve encountered before; their equipment is a mixed bag, but it doesn’t look as shoddy as it seems, not just automatic weapons, they even have anti-armor weapons like rocket launchers! I saw one that looked a bit like the Army’s Iron Fist, and there were a couple that looked like iron pipes, looked pretty powerful too."

"And then there’s the Dead Claw, I’m going to say it—this creature is just too damn unbalanced! A big lizard that’s taller than two people standing up is just outrageous, and runs freakin’ fast too, one swipe of its claw and even a steel plate can’t stop it!"

"We were just damned unlucky, caught right between that beast and the Looters! I fought like hell, even wrecking my exoskeleton, but managed to draw the Dead Claw’s attention onto the Looters’ faces."

"Then it was a melee. I found the Talent unlocked in the Second Stage really badass, with real combat effectiveness even stronger than the data on the panel. It’s kind of hard to describe, you’ll know when you level up to Level 10."

The post had only been up for a short time, and the replies had already broken a hundred.

However, since most players were online at this time, the posts were mainly from Backseat Drivers who hadn’t secured an appointment yet.

Although these players had never entered the game, they had a certain understanding of the basic gameplay and settings from the forum discussions and the comprehensive data updates on the official website.

And many new players were selected from among them.

Thunder Mage Professor Yang: "Captured by Looters???"

Only Moganana Not OK: "Something’s wrong with me, why did several gigabytes of plot suddenly pop into my head?"

Riding a Donkey to the Market: "F*ck, you bunch of dirty turtles!"

Old White: "F*ck off! I’m being serious, what the hell are you thinking about. (Angry)"

④Who understands art: "Speaking of which, that Dead Claw you’re describing feels just like that Trash-king..."

Old White: "Damn, now that you mention it, I kinda see it too. What if Trash-king really trains up to Level 99, and becomes a Dead Claw?"

Elena: "Too bad Trash-king has gone mad in the tunnel, otherwise we might bump into him on the forum right now. (Slippery)"

Old White: "Eh? Old Monk, why aren’t you online?"

Elena: "Ah, that’s a long story, gotta run, I’ll be on later."

Old White: "666"

Gnome King Riches: "I’ve got to ask, why are you making flying on a plane sound so mysterious, I would have thought you were rewarding yourself if I hadn’t seen your Moments. (Slippery)"

Elena: "Get lost. (`Д´*)9"

At that moment.

Suddenly someone threw out a question.

Thunder Mage Professor Yang: "Speaking of which, would there be a chance for a server-wide broadcast if someone gets a first kill on such an Elite Monster?"

The post fell silent for a few seconds.

Then suddenly several silent watchers exploded.

"Holy sh*t!"

"Holy sh*t?"

"Ditched the night shift, logging in!"

-

(The next Chapter will still be around eleven, adjusting my schedule is so hard QAQ)

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