This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 207: Incredible Creatures and Technological Qi Point

Chapter 207: Chapter 207: Incredible Creatures and Technological Qi Point

"Hmm... uh-huh, hmm-hmm..."

At the entrance of Highway Town.

Tail, arms folded around a rifle, leaned against a rust-streaked highway sign, lazily humming a tune Si Si had never heard before.

It was quite pleasing to the ear, actually.

"What is Ah Wei humming?"

Seeing Si Si look over, Tail’s mouth curled into a proud smile and said,

"A song from the radio!"

"Radio?" Si Si was momentarily dumbfounded.

What an ancient concept.

Tail’s eyes sparkled as they said, "There’s a radio in the lounge on the first floor of the sanatorium. At night, it plays some incomprehensible stuff, and in the afternoon, it cycles through the same few songs — possibly an original soundtrack built into The Game! I observed it for a whole day! Oh, Si Si actually didn’t discover this Easter egg!"

Why would I care about something that boring?

Si Si helplessly looked at the slowly moving clouds above and sighed lightly.

"Say, is it really okay for us to slack off like this every time?"

Tail glanced at Si Si with dissatisfaction.

"What do you mean slacking off? Hasn’t Tail been working hard?"

Si Si reminded.

"I heard that getting distracted while on guard is a death flag, you know."

Tail was unconcerned and said,

"Not afraid, Tails is of the Agile system. As long as Tail is fast enough, death will always be one step behind Tail!"

Si Si: "..."

Their squad was currently located on an interstate highway leading to the east.

The terrain of the highway was elevated, with gentle slopes descending on both sides. Being an interstate highway, there were few buildings in sight. Beyond the guardrails were stretches of pine and cypresses, dotted with dry branches, fallen leaves, and shrubs in the woods.

The Survivor Base they were in was named Highway Town, which, as the name suggested, was a small town built along the highway. The only landmark here was probably the highway sign Tail was leaning on—about three stories tall—which likely lent the Survivor Settlement its name.

The survivors here had constructed a long, narrow settlement along the highway using materials dismantled from old cars and lumber from felled trees.

This had its benefits: during rainy weather, there was no worry about their homes flooding and when wolf packs or Hyenas roamed through, they wouldn’t dare launch an attack on those dwelling on the slope so flippantly.

The architectural style here was quite wild, just like the temperament of the local residents.

They didn’t farm much, mainly raising goats as tall as horses. If there had to be one difference highlighted between them and the Nomads, it would probably be their reluctance to move their settlement easily; they also occasionally planted economic crops like Cam Trees, selling the rubber and oil-extractable Kamu fruits produced to traveling merchants.

To be honest, Si Si greatly admired the operators of Wasteland OL for making each Survivor Settlement so distinct in style. And this stylistic diversity was not just reflected in the game’s models and textures, but reached deeper into the game’s core.

These survivors had their own unique cultures and customs, a moral code, worldview, and beliefs different from others.

And this level of detail was not just reflected at the community level, but was accurate right down to each individual in that community.

While they were on guard, a kid dressed in furs stood beneath a small tree as if saying farewell to something. Men and women with their bags packed stood at their doorsteps, looking wistfully at their newly repaired home.

Not far away, an argument broke out between a scar-faced man and an elder over fifty, who were having a heated argument about taking the Cam Trees in the field, entwined with hemp rope and plastic, with them.

They were all so vividly alive.

They not only had their own distinct lives, but their life trajectories were influenced by countless variables, evolving into an elaborate tree diagram of possibilities rather than a straight line with a clear end.

This was much more impressive than any sandbox games Si Si had ever played.

It was even "more impressive" than reality!

She was even tempted to set out immediately, pack her bags, and embark on a journey.

But then again...

Wasn’t this itself a form of distraction?

Si Si glanced to the sides unwittingly. She noticed no one was paying any attention to them.

Maybe the other squad members had low expectations of them from the get-go, with I Max Black and another Perception system companion consciously heading out for reconnaissance.

Brother Battlefield, carrying a rifle, was restless, wandering off in the distance looking for a fight, but the cold weather was too much, not even a mutated hyena to be found.

Captain Spring Water, dressed in the only "orange" Exoskeleton in the whole server, always stood at the most stable position commanding the base, assigning specific tasks to each team member with care—including Brother Battlefield and I Max Black, who were out as baits.

Overall, this squad was fairly reliable, at least more so than Brother Edge, Midnight Chicken Killing’s death cart team, and the deranged people’s cart team.

This led Si Si to ponder often on the significance of her and Tail’s presence here.

She glanced at the VM screen’s clock. Tail stretched lazily and yawned,

"Looks like we won’t have a fight today, Si. Getting to show off our skills will have to wait until tomorrow."

"Ah Wei, please try to recall the fact that you’re actually a girl—"

Suddenly, a loud explosion came from afar, cutting off Si Si’s mockery.

The two of them simultaneously turned towards the direction of the explosion, tightening their grip on their weapons.

"Are the enemies coming?!" Tail was brimming with energy, eyes shining.

Si Si took a look at the map, pondered for a moment, and said,

"No... I think the sound is quite far away, probably another squad."

At that moment, the curses of Brother Battlefield from a distance confirmed her guess.

"Fuck! Why wasn’t it us triggering the storyline! Thumbs down!"

Unlike the players’ regrets, the survivors at Highway Town were clearly frightened by the sound of the explosion, each stopping what they were doing and looking uncertainly towards the northeast.

"What happened?"

"That sound..."

"Did something explode?"

"It can’t be people from Chew-bone!"

"Those damn Looters! If I catch them, I’m going to twist their heads off!"

The crowd buzzed with discussion.

Night Owl, standing in the Camu Tree orchard, frowned, the scars from burns on his face squeezing together. His hand went instinctively to his waist but was quickly withdrawn.

That sound was at least 4 kilometers away, with a vast expanse of ruins and wasteland in between, and it would take some time to get here.

The old man, who had been arguing with him just a second ago, was also looking sharply in the northeast direction, murmuring to himself.

"It’s in the direction of the battery factory."

His name was Hooke, and at 56, he was once an agile hunter until he took a bullet to the knee and became the old Camu farmer.

Though he wasn’t an Awakener, surviving to his age, his wealth of experience was no less formidable than genetic strength.

Night Owl looked at him with a grave expression and asked,

"That group of blacksmiths?"

Hooke closed his eyes and nodded slightly.

"Should be... Listen carefully, there are also gunshots, and quite a few at that."

Night Owl held his breath and listened intently for a moment, frowning deeply.

"At least 40 people."

"At least double that."

After glancing at the two acres of trees, the old man finally sighed as if giving up and shook his head in pity.

"Go find your father."

"We need to move faster!"

...

Outside the western gate of Outpost Base, not far from the guard squad’s shooting range, there was a house made of red bricks, with only an iron window facing the Outpost Base.

This was the prison of Outpost Base, and at the moment, it held several prisoners recently transferred from Long Endurance Farm.

In addition to these, there was one special "prisoner" there.

In the wooden shed, the four-meter-long Claw of Death curled up in a corner.

It was wrapped in chains and ropes made of Devil Silk, its amber pupils reflecting a dangerous light, scanning over the people at the door.

Having been looked at by the beast, Xia Yan involuntarily stepped back, nervously gripping the Sickle Assault Rifle in her hand.

This thing.

Was far more dangerous than Crawlers!

"What, what are you doing bringing this thing close to your doorstep?"

Standing beside her, Chu Guang said without hesitation,

"For research, of course."

He was clad in power armor, with a Carbon nanotube bulletproof vest underneath, which he obtained at the start, and a Nitrogen-Powered Hammer on his back; he was armed to the teeth.

Not just a mere Claw of Death, even if the Claw Crab Queen stood before him, he had the confidence he would come out unscathed.

"By the way, you didn’t really need to come along."

"What are you talking about, with something this dangerous, how could I possibly let you come alone?"

Chu Guang looked at Boss Xia, who was tensely colored, with interest, and couldn’t help but wonder when this guy had become so brave.

Was it because of that leg?

Looks like that money was well spent.

"Unbelievable... this is incredible!"

Murmuring to herself, Heya walked forward excitedly, causing Chu Guang to quickly pull her back.

"Have you lost your mind?"

That’s my SSSR Card!

No, I should say, it’s the players’ SSSR Card!

"Lost my mind? No, it’s this world that’s crazy, I’ve never seen such a remarkable creature!"

Gazing at that lizard, Heya continued,

"I checked its DNA, and there’s no doubt it belongs to the phylum Chordata, Order Squamata of the Lizard family! But it has evolved a mechanism to regulate its own body temperature, being able to maintain a high metabolism during winter like mammals and avoid hibernation if it wants, even in the winter!"

"Even Taiga Lizards are only able to keep their body temperature steady during breeding season... Is this really a mutation from radiation?"

Chu Guang didn’t know how to answer that question, since it had been less than a year since he arrived in this world, and it was also the first time he had seen such a terrifying creature.

Standing beside him, Yin Fang also showed an expression of disbelief.

However, his focus was different from Heya’s; he stared intently at the pitch-black device on the Dead Claw’s neck.

It looked like an oversized ring!

"Is it really so preposterous... The device installed on the back of its head, can it really establish a connection with human thought?"

"The results of the interrogation are indeed so, want to give it a try?"

Saying that, Chu Guang took out a prop that looked like "earphones with a microphone" and tossed it into Yin Fang’s hands.

Yin Fang caught it and pondered over it for a while in his hands before intuitively placing it on his head without any guidance.

The power turned on.

He turned the knob to the maximum!

A faint sound of electric current began, like an electrical overload in the brain.

But beyond that, there seemed to be no other sensation.

"How does this thing—ssss ah!"

The stabbing pain that surged in the depths of his mind made Yin Fang gasp in pain and instinctively reached for his temples.

However, the pain came quickly and left just as fast; soon, he adapted to the stinging sensation and let his hand drop.

Watching Yin Fang recover, Chu Guang, who had already tried it once, continued to speak.

"You can try giving that creature an order... for instance, command it to stand up."

Touching the mic at the corner of his mouth, Yin Fang took a deep breath and said to the Dead Claw.

"Stand up!"

The body trembled, and despite resisting the order, the Dead Claw, riddled with scars, slowly stood up from the ground.

What the hell?

It actually worked?!

Yin Fang was shocked, forgetting even the headache as he continued to issue commands through the mic at the corner of his mouth.

"Lie down!"

The Dead Claw obediently lay down.

His expression becoming increasingly astonished, Yin Fang was like someone who had discovered a new continent, excitedly continuing to issue orders to it.

"Stand up!"

"Hop on one foot!"

"Draw a circle on the ground with your tail! Tsk, that doesn’t work? Then howl like a dog!"

"..."

The repeatedly tormented Dead Claw gradually showed an expression of pain, hyperactive neurons in its body caused its brainwaves to become chaotic.

Chu Guang could clearly feel that if it weren’t for the iron chains, this animal would have likely lost its patience and torn the man before it to shreds!

But Yin Fang didn’t care about that.

He wanted to understand where the limits of this device were.

Having tried almost every command that he could think of, just as Yin Fang was pondering what other commands to try, he suddenly felt a wave of dizziness in his brain and stumbled backward.

Chu Guang gently pushed forward with his left hand to catch Doctor Yin, who was falling backwards, while his other hand removed the headset from his head.

"It’s best not to use this thing continuously... It doesn’t only impose a mental strain on the controller, but on the user of the device as well."

Chu Guang had tried this thing once before.

Rather than mind control, the functionality of this device was more akin to a form of "hypnosis."

It couldn’t enable the user to directly manipulate the actions of the controller, but worked by exerting mental pressure to suggest commands in a way that would make the Variant with the ring execute a few simple orders.

Such as preying.

Or moving forward, backing up, or running in a certain direction.

Hopping on one foot was barely executable, but drawing a circle on the ground with its tail or howling like a dog was out of the question.

The device couldn’t coerce the controlled being to perform commands beyond its cognition, unless it had voluntarily done something similar at some point in its life.

Although, even so, this device was incredible, it paled in comparison to the "Morphogenesis Field" in his Shelter No. 404.

Players from "Different World" could literally "soul traverse" into clones—wasn’t that way cooler than any indirect PUA or master’s commands?

As long as the clone didn’t die, the players could keep fighting.

Unlike this fellow.

Bust the ring on its neck and it most likely goes berserk.

"Sorry, I got a bit carried away there, I’ve never seen this kind of technology before..." Yin Fang shook his head, steadying himself.

Chu Guang said thoughtfully.

"Technology not even the Academy knows about?"

Yin Fang replied helplessly.

"The Academy isn’t omniscient. There are things we understand little about or don’t understand at all."

He paused, then continued.

"I should have mentioned this to you before, but in order to facilitate the progression of the reshaping work, we’ve classified technology into seven levels: F, E, D, C, B, A, S for management, to allocate personnel and budget appropriately."

Chu Guang nodded.

"You indeed mentioned it once."

Yin Fang continued.

"In fact, apart from the widely known seven levels, there is also an eighth level outside of this system—we call it the Singularity."

"Singularity?" Chu Guang frowned and asked, "What does that mean?"

Yin Fang replied, "It represents the cutting edge, a placeholder for the future. These technologies are like singularities in calculus, points of nondifferentiability in complex functions, an isolated island outside of the set... They are bottlenecks between us and the future."

"For example, you might never have heard of things like the neutrino channel, or the Mutants that are rampant in the Wasteland... They are all Singularities. Although immature, they usually have extremely tempting prospects. Once completed, they could predictably trigger a technological revolution. For example, the former would correspond to faster-than-light travel, allowing us to reach further star systems more quickly and cheaply. The latter would correspond to a super life form capable of adapting to all environments."

As he spoke, Yin Fang shrugged his shoulders.

"Of course, the technological revolution I mentioned is under the premise of a complete society. What we need now is not innovation, but revival. Hence... the Academy doesn’t know much about the Singularity, only selectively retaining some topics worth continuing, and focusing the recycling work mainly on the mature technologies within the system."

Technological entities outside of the system, even the "future technologies" that were not completed before the war.

An inappropriate comparison, perhaps akin to the forbidden spells in fantasy settings?

That’s how Chu Guang could only understand it.

"I’m suddenly curious, the clones of the Army, are they considered the Singularity?"

To Chu Guang’s surprise, Yin Fang nodded decisively.

"Yes, but only half so. The full name of the topic should be ’Life-Cycle Adjustable Technology.’ If it could be completed, in theory, we could shorten or extend any period of any life’s life-cycle, truly mastering evolution."

"If you want, you can be a child for a lifetime or an adult—you will be genetically immortal. Our race will completely break away from the outdated r-strategy and k-strategy, no longer subject to natural selection, but will define ourselves by ourselves."

Standing next to him, Heya was stunned on the spot.

"This can be done?"

"Who knows?" Yin Fang shrugged, "Maybe yes, maybe no. Only the future knows anything about the future."

Yin Fang and Heya began an academic discussion on whether such a thing could be realized. Heya clearly didn’t believe it, stating that it was unheard of.

Yin Fang merely sneered at her firm statement.

"How young... Didn’t your mentor ever teach you not to make hasty conclusions about the unknown?"

Hearing Yin Fang actually turn the topic to her own mentor, Heya immediately bristled.

Throughout the entire conversation, Xia Yan was completely baffled, having lost track of when she had stopped understanding what was being discussed.

Chu Guang, however, was lost in thought.

He suddenly thought of that recording, the one about the "Morphogenesis Field."

He organized his thoughts for a moment and interrupted the two’s argument.

"If there is a technology that can establish a strong correlation between consciousness entities in two different dimensions and transmit information across the limits of space and time."

"What kind of devilry is that? Magic?" Yin Fang, caught up in the argument, replied without thinking, his tone sounding mocking.

But perhaps realizing that the person he was speaking to was not to be trifled with, he immediately shut his mouth.

However, Chu Guang didn’t take his words to heart.

Because he felt the same.

It sounded utterly miraculous, something unheard of.

But seeing Yin Fang’s reaction, Chu Guang roughly understood.

The technology hidden within Shelter No. 404 had obviously surpassed the knowledge of the Academy and thus could not be within the FEDCBAS classification system.

Without a doubt, it had reached the realm of the "Singularity"!

And it seemed to have matured...

Just as Chu Guang was about to discuss the Torch Church with Heya, Xiao Qi’s voice suddenly came through the communication channel.

"Master, your players are in trouble!"

Hearing this, Chu Guang was slightly stunned. Without asking for details, he immediately closed his helmet’s visor and tapped a few times in front of the Tactical Goggles, switching to the map interface.

Xia Yan, standing beside him and noticing Chu Guang’s sudden action, hurriedly asked in a low voice.

"What happened?"

Staring at the map, Chu Guang’s brow furrowed as he said in a grave voice.

"There’s a situation."

As soon as the words fell, a guard ran up from a distance.

Standing before Chu Guang, he saluted and said solemnly,

"Manager, the team you sent to cover the evacuation of survivors at the battery factory has encountered an attack by Looter!"

"I know, I’ve already arranged for support."

Chu Guang looked up at the sanatorium and saw a spare Hummingbird drone shoot toward the sky, quickly disappearing in the northeast direction.

Just now, he had mobilized a nearby team to go to the aid and had issued a defense mission to the frontline players.

They must hold on until reinforcement arrives!

"You’ve got to hold out!"

-

(The next Chapter is not finished yet... I should be able to finish it by twelve, daily ten thousand words is too hard for a handicap like me QAQ)

This chapter is updated by freew(e)bnovel.(c)om