This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 270: Black Box, Reverse Engineering, and Unexpected Surprises (Thanks "Fan Shang" for the alliance master reward)

Chapter 270: Chapter 270: Black Box, Reverse Engineering, and Unexpected Surprises (Thanks "Fan Shang" for the alliance master reward)

Official Forum.

Lethal: "Decaying Knight spotted!"

Soul Chaser: "Old Soldier scraped like a champ!"

Makabazi: "Even Mosquito scraped!"

Quit Smoking: "Manager nailed it with two shots!"

WC There’s a Mosquito: "Damn! How could you blame me for scraping? Who knew he was so fast? Using a knife to split a rocket is totally unreasonable! (Freaking out)"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Damn, theoretically, Decaying Knight should be level 60, right? Two shots took down a level 60 boss, what level must the Manager be?!"

Spring Water Commander: "Maybe eighty!"

Edge Water: "Be confident, it’s like one of those ’Arthas’ faction leaders, is level 100 too outrageous? Not at all!"

Elena: "I think you can compare him to the Human Emperor of the West, never shows off unless he has to, and when he does, it’s all flash. (Funny)"

Crow: "Wuwuwu, I didn’t get to see the cool Manager show off. (Ｔ▽Ｔ)"

Fang Chang: "Wake up, he’s just a paper man."

Crow: "What does it matter! It’s better than you guys drooling over Little Fish, isn’t it?

Fang Chang: "!That’s Night Ten, not me."

Night Ten: "Get lost! Did I?"

Teng Teng: "You guys are all messed up. (Side eye)"

Tail: "Aow! Who dares to bully Little Fish, I’ll break their legs! ψ(｀∇´)ψ"

Meat Mountain Big Steamed Bun: "!!! Who wants to bully Little Fish! (Angry)"

Night Ten: "Blazing! Damn Fang Chang, blackening me again! QAQ"

The escaping mole from the canyon: "(Sideways smile)"

Players who went offline brought the battle reports back to the forum, those who didn’t go offline also found a place to idle, and in "reality" they joined the forum frenzy.

Since any major game event would pop up in a small window on the official forum, there was no fear of missing out.

Compared to the previous battles, this one saw the heaviest use of high-firepower weaponry ever at Shelter No. 404!

Dozens of Maxim guns firing like crazy, 88mm mortars bombing in turns, and quadruple anti-aircraft guns using high-explosive shells for several rounds of carpet bombing; the Variants storming through the ruins were mowed down like frost-hit rice fields.

This clearly demonstrated how helpless numbers are against firepower.

After the machine guns and shells ceased fire, even the concrete on the ground got sizzling hot!

After several rounds of saturated firepower coverage, the charge whistle sounded, and that immersive shock surged everyone’s adrenaline!

Those who experienced it all said, it was incredibly thrilling!

Isn’t this a lot more real than the watered-down shells and water guns in "Dirt Car 2042"?

Watching the battle reports on the forum, players who weren’t there felt it was a pity.

Especially the 125 brothers who died yesterday, they were green with envy.

Missing out on such an exciting scene was a huge loss!

Silver Daddy: "Damn it! Why three days to respawn?"

Silver Hand: "Why can’t we use alt accounts!"

Dinosaur Warrior: "Damn! You still want to use alts! Just be human!"

Thunder Mage Professor Yang: "Indeed! We haven’t even got the beta access!"

While everyone was feeling regretful, a one-and-a-half-minute video suddenly updated on the official website.

Clean and sharp cuts with explosive BGM, it felt like an epic blockbuster!

It must be said, Xiao Qi’s video editing skills are getting better. Wasteland OL’s invisible yet tangible benefits are growing ever more appealing, at least 1/10th of the credit should go to him.

Although there are still stubborn folks like Grandpa Ao, adhering to "I haven’t seen it, so it doesn’t exist" and "My logical deduction equals the world’s truth," it didn’t stop most bystanders from typing ’666’ below the video.

"Awesome! Is this the next-gen game?"

"Can the models be this detailed??"

"Feels like a movie without the filter!"

"Be confident, it might just be a movie with a filter."

"Ah, real or not, putting so much effort into a promotional video, even if it’s fake, feels worth it!"

"Mobile game giants delight, we’ve got more material for ads! (Funny)"

...

While the official site was buzzing, on the frontlines on Street No. 68, players and NPCs were clearing the battlefield atop mountains of corpses and seas of bones.

There wasn’t much to clean up.

Other than bodies, it was just more bodies, black blood seeping into the soil, rotting flesh emitting foul odors, even through gas masks.

The mucor species and other Variants like Death Claw and Monsters differ; the latter’s parts are somewhat useful, their meat even edible when roasted, but the former’s parts even Old Na couldn’t handle.

Watching rats and roaches scurry from the street corner, the two rookies in gas masks, amazed by the immersive atmosphere of Wasteland OL, walked deeper into the battlefield.

"Say, do the mucor’s fruiting bodies rot too?"

"Duh, do mushrooms from your house not spoil?"

"Hey, I’ve actually never seen that."

The two whispered a few words to each other as they approached a power armor filled with mucor.

The fungal mat on the steel surface had necrosed, and black blood seeped from the gaps in the armor. Its entire head had been shattered, and its chest bore a hole the size of half a fist.

Two rookies marveled at the large hole.

Armor that even a 37mm Heavy Cavalry Gun couldn’t penetrate was actually pierced by a single shot from a Gauss Rifle.

The power was too fierce!

The two didn’t waste time, they tied up the hulking body with ropes, placed it on a sled, and huffed and puffed as they dragged it back to their position.

[Mission: Recover the "Decaying Knight’s" body (Completed)]

[Reward: 15 Silver coins, 10 contributions]

The reward was in hand!

They were one step closer to obtaining the VM!

Looking at the fifteen silver coins in their palms, the two rookies’ faces were brimming with joyful smiles.

At this rate, it wouldn’t be long before they reached T1!

...

The body of the Decaying Knight was dragged to the Garden Street Metro Station and temporarily stored outside the buffer room of Shelter No.117.

Yin Fang had struggled with the cutter for a long time, but finally managed to disassemble the power armor from the body.

Hera, taking samples from various parts of the large body, continuously took them back to the medical lab for analysis.

Yin Fang handed over the armor fragments removed from the power armor to Batch for research.

As for himself, he started studying the black box disassembled from the inside of the power armor, trying to restore some useful data from it.

That day, the Variants launched two offensives, one in the afternoon and one in the evening, but neither in terms of quality nor quantity did they compare to the battle in the morning.

Vanus believed that these Eaters were probably trying to deplete their ammunition.

Perhaps gaining experience from past battles with Giant Stone City, those mucor species seemed to know that their enemies had ammunition limitations.

However, the Shelter No. 404 of today was no longer what it once was. After multiple battle-tested upgrades, the military industrial capacity of the new industrial sector was nearly at full throttle.

Making tractors might take some time, but making guns and cannons, his little players were quite savvy!

Besides the frontal battlefield’s melee, the side battlefield’s offensive and defense never ceased either.

Many Crawlers overcome obstacles and shelters, and crawled to the flanks of their position, trying to replicate their earlier progressive victory at Street No. 65.

Unfortunately for them, this time their opponents were not a mixed team of rookies and old players, but rather the Hunter Squads led by the Oxhorse Squad.

In a confrontation of scattered troops against scattered troops, the players still had the upper hand.

Although lacking heavy artillery support, they fully unleashed their individual combat capabilities.

A Level 6 Strength-type player or Level 7 Agility-type or Constitution-type player could essentially match a Crawler evenly.

And if it was a Level 10 Awakener, as long as they were not of the Intelligence or Perception systems, they could easily handle a Crawler one-on-one.

They wouldn’t even need to use their guns!

The first day of the battle ended in a draw after minor victories on both the main and side battlefields.

However, even though Shelter No. 404 had secured a phased victory, neither the players nor the guards took it lightly.

The tide coming from the south was incessant, showing no signs of stopping.

Everyone could feel it—a storm was brewing!

A day later.

Shelter No. 117.

Chu Guang gathered his experts for a brief meeting, requesting reports on the latest research progress of the "Decaying Knight."

Hera spoke first.

About the "Decaying Knight’s" slice samples, she had conducted a systematic analysis and had already made some initial progress.

"Just a simple explanation will do."

"Firstly, through analyzing the tissue structure of the sporophyte, I found neuronal cells starkly different from the sporophyte’s structure on the sample. Comparing DNA, it apparently belongs to an adult male, and the survival time of this cell might have already exceeded a century... This condition is similar to the symbiosis we’ve observed before, but the mucor in Qingquan City seems to have more thoroughly eroded the nervous system, completely depriving the host of its autonomy."

"You can understand it as having the hard drive and memory changed, leaving only the CPU and half of the graphics card."

Knowing that Chu Guang would not understand too complicated theories, Hera simply used an analogy she thought he might understand.

However, as she spoke this sentence, she did not look at Chu Guang but rather at Batch, who was shivering nearby.

Pausing, Hera shifted her gaze away from the sight of the shaken Batch and looked towards the thoughtful Chu Guang and continued.

"Furthermore, its cystic organs are more exaggerated than other sporophytes, with spore secretion levels reaching hundreds to thousands of times that of a Crawler. For more efficient spore release, it even evolved special organs that transport spores to the surface’s fungal mat of sporophytes, releasing them through the filaments at the ends."

"...All signs suggest that your conjecture is highly likely correct. These ’evolutionary bodies’ that are obviously abnormal from their kind seem to play a commanding role. They can coordinate different consciousness entities just like nodes in a logistics network. Furthermore, they have formed a strict hierarchy internally, where large nodes dominate smaller ones, and so on."

Chu Guang stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"So, if we destroy these node creatures, will the Tide stop?"

Hera nodded.

"It should be like that... At least it will return them to normal."

Whether they run back to the city center or disband on the spot, it poses much less of a threat than them gathering together.

It’s like a hundred Eaters being scattered in an underground parking garage covering several thousand square meters; even a rookie, given some time, could clean them all out.

But if those hundred Eaters formed an organized team and charged up together, without heavy firepower, even Awakeners would find it headache-inducing.

Batch timidly raised his right hand, "...I have a question, if my brain is completely eroded, will I become like this?"

Hera: "We can’t rule out that possibility."

The can trembled, and Batch shuddered, not knowing whether he was relieved that he had escaped quickly or if he was frightened by Hera’s interested gaze that seemed to trigger a conditioned response.

Chu Guang suddenly had an idea and spoke up.

"If we let Batch sneak into the Variant’s lair and shove a 100mm cannon shell weighing three kilograms right next to the Queen..."

Batch looked at Chu Guang with a face full of terror: "Are you trying to get me killed?"

Hera shook her head.

"Besides getting himself killed, there is no meaning in doing that. I should have mentioned before, they rely on weak RNA proteins to recognize their own kind; only the same species can coordinate with a unified consciousness entity, and the recognition codes of the mucor species vary by region. You can imagine what would happen if you throw an ant into another colony’s nest."

Two ants from different colonies might not fight if they meet on the road, but if one follows the other into its nest, the fact that it survives would mean thousands of ants went ’blind’.

The same applies to Mucor species Variants, which also belong to beehive societies.

Batch wouldn’t be attached by the fruiting bodies wandering the streets, but that doesn’t mean he can freely enter the "core areas" like the incubation rooms and the lair.

Especially when encountering self-conscious "evolutionary individuals", being killed on the spot is probably the most likely scenario.

They knew how to maneuver indirectly and launch feint attacks to wear down their opponents, clearly possessing the ability to flexibly handle issues.

At this point, trying to be clever was meaningless.

What a pity.

Chu Guang even thought that, even if he could not deliver the bomb personally, seeing the Queen’s location would be good. At worst, he would borrow a few more thousand chips to order an airstrial with incendiary bombs to toast her.

Regrettably, Chu Guang then looked toward Yin Fang.

This "Chief of Shelter No. 404’s Scientific Expedition Team and Dean of Academy Branch 404", had been frowning and silent since the meeting started, obviously pondering something.

Chu Guang’s intuition told him that he might have discovered something.

"What about you? Did you find anything?"

Yin Fang slowly nodded.

"I found the action recorder of the T-10 power armor."

"Action recorder?" Batch’s face showed a surprised expression as he looked over and asked, "Is that thing still working?"

"Of course, T-10 power armor belongs to the Human Alliance Army’s land combat forces; the ’black box’ is located near the waist," Yin Fang said as he gently placed a thumb-sized, orange box shaped like a nail clipper on the table.

"Although the data is severely damaged... I restored a little bit of fragments."

Chu Guang: "What did you find?"

Yin Fang: "The armor is tagged as T-10: A71C98U. When I was investigating relics in Luo Xia Province, I happened upon this series in an abandoned research facility. If I’m not mistaken, it originally belonged to the 71st Armored Brigade of the Human Alliance and was re-purposed by ’The Post-War Reconstruction Committee’ after the Wasteland Era."

The Post-War Reconstruction Committee.

The first time he heard this name, it seemed to be in a holographic image left by Dr. Principle. Various signs indicated that this organization had a significant influence during the early Wasteland Era—about two hundred years ago.

According to clues provided by players, Giant Stone City seemed to be one of the survivors’ settlements established by the Post-War Reconstruction Committee.

Even the formidable giant walls were constructed by the Committee.

Chu Guang’s brows knit slightly.

Several clues seemed to connect, but a few crucial pieces of the puzzle were missing.

He wanted to know.

What role did Shelter No.404 play in all this?

Yin Fang paused before continuing.

"Two centuries ago, a military operation was launched by the forces to which this armor belonged, targeting a suspected lair in the city center’s nuclear crater. The black box didn’t record the final outcome of the operation, but it was likely a failure, with remaining data noting why the power armor was scrapped."

Chu Guang: "Why was that?"

"EMP."

Chu Guang was stunned.

But Hera was even more surprised.

"EMP?! Are you saying those Mucors use electromagnetic pulses?"

Yin Fang shrugged his shoulders.

"I don’t know; who knows about two-hundred-year-old events? Maybe the mutated mucor figured out a way to trigger electromagnetic pulses, or perhaps it was friendly fire... Regardless, according to the black box records, a strong electromagnetic pulse destroyed over thirty percent of electronic components in the power armor 2 hours, 31 minutes, and 17 seconds into the battle, causing the electric arc engine to shut down forcibly."

"The mobility-limited armor was quickly surrounded and completely overrun after running out of ammunition. The erosion began with the gas exchange system, then the life support, and finally the energy system... The entire process lasted twenty years, continuing until the black box’s functions ceased."

Batch held his breath.

It took him a long time to speak painfully.

"That’s too tragic."

Watching spores gradually cover the optics, and the spores being continuously injected into the body through the life support system, resulting in the ultimate paralysis of the immune functions, turning one into the puppet of the lair.

Maintaining the last neural cells alive in a special way until the body was utterly destroyed was the only way to obtain release.

It was more cruel than death by a thousand cuts.

Yin Fang silently nodded his head.

"What bothers me is these Mucors... They seem to know us very well."

Chu Guang looked at Yin Fang and asked.

"Doesn’t the academy have records of where these Mucors came from?"

Yin Fang shook his head.

"Don’t know; if there is, it’s not something a Level D explorer like me could access."

"Mutated slime fungus, radiation, Variants, Mutants, and Looters all over the place..."

"They didn’t know what those madmen had done two hundred years ago to blow up their mother planet into what it looked like now."

"No wonder the East Coast corporations pinned their hopes on the legend of No.0 Shelter; the Academy simply gave up and hid in the Wandering Swamp."

Chu Guang even felt that the fact that the First Generation Manager of Shelter No.404 didn’t tell him anything might also be a form of "protection."

"After all, the more one understood about this world, the more it led to despair."

The only people who could optimistically face these challenges were probably those happy players.

Chu Guang took a deep breath.

"Is there anything else to report?"

"I," Batch raised his hand. Seeing everyone looking at him, he nervously continued, "Regarding the materials of that power armor... I’ve carefully studied its structure."

Chu Guang immediately said.

"Can it be replicated?"

Batch hesitated, then gave a wry smile.

"Porous aluminum magnesium manganese alloy as the structure, alternately filled with boron carbide and silicon carbide, that’s just the first layer."

Seeing Chu Guang’s expectant look, Yin Fang sighed and turned to Iron Can sitting in the corner.

"He won’t understand this complex explanation; you might as well speak plainly."

Chu Guang displeasedly looked at Yin Fang.

"What do you mean by that?"

How could I not understand!

Xiao Qi, who had been quietly peeking at the screen, suddenly chimed in.

"That’s right! Are you looking down on the wise and mighty Manager? Master, do you need me to take care of him?"

Chu Guang cleared his throat.

"That won’t be necessary."

And what’s this "wise and mighty Manager" nonsense? He couldn’t recall ever teaching Xiao Qi to address him that way.

Yin Fang rolled his eyes at the camera on the ceiling.

He had wanted to dismantle that "wastebasket" to study it earlier, but Chu Guang didn’t agree and strictly forbade him from doing so, so he had abandoned the idea.

Curiosity was one thing, but he wasn’t foolish.

However, it seemed that the petty AI had remembered this incident.

Batch quickly smoothed things over and continued.

"The T-10 power armor is pre-war equipment; its armor shell is likely based on 3D printing technology, directly constructed at the atomic level. Our technological gap is too vast, not to mention here, even enterprises cannot produce this."

A mere 40mm of composite armor could provide an equivalent thickness of 400mm homogeneous steel on the vertical plane, adding just a slight angle could it exceed a thousand?

The protection was comparable to modern main battle tanks!

From what he remembered, the Iron Fist Rocket Launcher from the Army could damage the enterprise’s power armor, clearly even enterprises didn’t have the conditions to replicate these armor plates.

Seeing the disappointed look on Chu Guang’s face, Batch continued.

"However, it’s not without gains."

"We previously decoded a material called ’A3 alloy’ from the Central State Space database, but due to missing data and lack of samples, its exact composition was never confirmed."

Yin Fang looked at him in surprise.

"Could it be..."

"Yes," Batch nodded excitedly, "the missing part should be aluminum magnesium manganese alloy."

Chu Guang immediately asked.

"Is this alloy very strong?"

Yin Fang: "Not just strong, it’s extremely strong, and its uses are broad while relatively cheap, from exoskeleton frames to major machinery components."

"To put it in more tangible terms, if the KV-1 Exoskeleton’s framework was switched to A3 aerospace aluminum alloy, with no change in weight and only a slight increase in cost, it could double the protective strength, maximum load, and durability."

"It’s at least a C-Class technology!"

Not just for exoskeletons, from ground vehicles to airborne drones, all could benefit from this breakthrough.

If this were at the Academy, this merit alone would be enough for him to rise from a Level D explorer to a Level C Researcher.

The only flaw is the risk of ignition in an oxidizing environment.

But as long as it wasn’t used extensively or mixed with other materials, it wouldn’t be a big problem!

Chu Guang’s eyes suddenly brightened.

"Can we make it?"

That was all he cared about!

Batch nodded, his tone much more relaxed than before.

"Compared to the T-10’s composite armor, the mass production of the A3 aerospace aluminum alloy wouldn’t be too difficult; I should be able to handle it."

Hearing this, Chu Guang’s face lit up with joy.

He hadn’t expected to recover such good material from that piece of junk!

It was truly a pleasant surprise!

After the meeting, Chu Guang updated some of Hera’s research results on the official website, sharing it as an official guide with the players.

Meanwhile, at West Third Ring in Qingquan City,

that dark and silent ruin was ablaze with roaring flames...

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