This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 302 This Clearly Isn’t Human’s Doing

Chapter 302: Chapter 302 This Clearly Isn’t Human’s Doing

If Wu Lun hadn’t been certain he hadn’t grabbed the wrong map, he would have almost thought he’d gone the wrong way.

He fell silent for a while before saying with an unsure tone,

"...Is this West State?"

"It should be." Dimitri nodded, squinting as he surveyed the distance, "The southern suburbs of West State City, it should have been called Qingstone County before the war."

Mountains encircled the county town on its east and west sides, nested under the ridges, surrounded by exuberant vegetation and dense trees.

There were no skyscrapers here, only gardens, row houses, and villas. It was evident that those who lived here before the war pursued a certain quality of life.

To the east, there was a highway and a maglev train station connecting West State and Clearspring, only now these infrastructures had long been overtaken by wildly growing vegetation, morphing into mounds of concrete debris and wreckage.

Within the convenience of the Prosperity Epoch, this was just an inconspicuous little county town, but now it had become the southern gate of West State City.

Clearly, the Ya clan stationed in West State City had also realized this. If they couldn’t deal with their southern neighbors, they at least needed to secure their own gateway.

Surveying with binoculars, Wu Lun noticed that there were quite a few Looters stationed here, at least one or two thousand-team squads.

Not only that, but they had also fortified their positions.

Half-collapsed row houses and villas had their gaps sealed off with wood and aluminum sheets, concrete buildings over three floors were transformed into bunkers and gun towers, and the streets were filled with barricades made of concrete blocks and wooden stakes. Every window seemed to harbor hidden outposts, whether overt or covert.

The entire town had been turned into a fortress.

Dimitri couldn’t help but be impressed by this rabble’s capabilities.

"How do we contact them?"

"With this."

Wu Lun replied concisely, pulling out a signal gun and fired into the sky.

A red flare soared upward.

It wasn’t long before they saw a dozen figures approaching them.

These people were dressed in beast skins, many even bare-chested, giving off an uncivilized appearance, yet without exception, they all wielded the weapons of civilized people—either automatic or bolt-action rifles.

Warily eyeing this group of soldiers clad in jet-black exoskeletons, the leading Centurion scrutinized the foremost Wu Lun and cautiously asked,

"Who are you?"

His helmet’s visor facing him, Wu Lun took out an iron card proving his identity and shook it, responding impassively,

"Torch."

Torch?

The Looters following the Centurion started murmuring among themselves, each face showing surprise, as they whispered to one another.

A look of surprise was also plastered on the Centurion’s face, but it quickly turned to elation.

"Please follow me."

After the two groups merged, the procession set back on the road.

The Centurion led the way in front, quickly taking Wu Lun, Dimitri, and their party through the checkpoint at the entrance to the county town.

However, after entering the fortress, Dimitri immediately retracted his previous appraisal of these "allies."

The sanitation here was appalling; it was like a trash heap.

The street was permeated with the stench of decay, corpses and excrement were dumped carelessly, fist-sized rats roamed freely as if they owned the place.

Dimitri lowered his voice, whispering in the communication channel,

"This place might have a plague outbreak."

Wu Lun’s gaze swept through the streets as he replied softly,

"That’s obvious."

Noticing Wu Lun’s gaze lingering on a corner of the wall, the guiding Centurion chuckled obsequiously,

"Don’t mind it, they’re just a few rats... We’re almost there."

The Ya clan’s command center was situated on the west side of the county town, in the Qing Stone Department Store, a cylindrical building five stories high that stood out against the rest of the town.

In terms of concealment, using this as the command center was definitely not a good idea, but the building’s exterior wall featured a large number of steel structures, and it even had two underground commercial areas and a garage leading straight to the surface, which from a defensive standpoint, made it the most suitable choice.

In the department store’s first floor, Wu Lun and Dimitri met the highest commander here—Lion Tooth.

"Welcome! Friends from afar! I am the Thousands of leaders of the Ya Clan, Lion Tooth. You can consider this place your home."

Lion Tooth came forward beaming with pleasure, spreading his arms for a hug with the allies, but seeing their nonresponse, he awkwardly shifted to a handshake.

Wu Lun extended his hand to meet his.

"Wu Lun, Apostle of the Saint Heir."

"Best wishes to the Saint Heir for good health, please pass on my greetings..." Sensing an unfavorable undertone in the man’s eyes before him, Lion Tooth quickly ceased his awkward greeting, and with a slight cough, hastily moved on, "So, Apostle, I must inquire what brought you all this way?"

Not taking offense to his rudeness, as it was not the time to create additional issues, Wu Lun stated plainly,

"Blue Jacket from the northern suburbs of Qingquan City took something of ours; I need you to help us retrieve it."

"They took... something of yours? From Death Coast? That’s quite far." Lion Tooth looked puzzled as he continued, "May I ask what it is?"

"A box and a set of power armor. What we need is the former, as for the latter, you may take it."

Power armor!

A momentary flash of greed appeared in Lion Tooth’s eyes, but he quickly calmed down.

"They have power armor?"

"Yes," detecting the hesitance in the eyes of the Looter before him, Wu Lun continued, "Don’t worry, that power armor doesn’t have a shield, it’s just a durable sitting duck. If it shows up on the battlefield, leave it to us to handle."

Upon hearing this, Lion Tooth finally relaxed, a look of satisfaction spreading across his face.

"Excellent, my friend. Although we’ve caught a few Monsters and bears with the equipment you provided, power armor... I had no confidence of handling that."

"What you need to worry about isn’t the power armor, but the fact that these Blue Jackets have planes."

"Planes?!"

Those Blue Jackets have an airplane?!

Could it be that Giant Stone City sold it to them?

Lion Tooth’s eyes were filled with astonishment, his face full of disbelief.

Impossible...

That thing, just like power armor, is a treasure no matter which Survivor Settlement it’s in, a heritage from before the war.

What’s more, the people from Giant Stone City got that batch of equipment from the hands of the Post-War Reconstruction Committee.

"Yes, that’s right," seeing the astonished look on Lion Tooth, Wu Lun almost squeezed the words through his teeth, "Although it’s just a laughable propeller plane, it’s still mounted with two machine guns. You’d best be careful."

Lion Tooth was utterly dumbfounded.

He had no idea what a propeller plane was, but if these people weren’t joking, the group of Blue Jackets in the North Suburbs of Qingquan City could be more troublesome than he had imagined.

"Thank you for the warning. I’ll discuss countermeasures with my staff later...how to reinforce our defensive positions."

"Reinforce your defensive positions? How much more can you reinforce? This place is already becoming a turtle shell," Dmitri said in surprise as he stood by, "Are you still planning to keep moving south?"

"Of course, we want to. This piece of fat is already at our lips, but we didn’t expect the situation in West State City to be so thorny."

With a helpless expression on his face, Lion Tooth continued speaking.

"The survivors here are no match for us, but they cunningly hid in the subway, playing guerrilla with us, relying on their familiarity with the terrain. Plus, there’s been an outbreak of rat plague here recently. The rats are gnawing everywhere like mad. We even have to keep our shoes in cabinets when we sleep... we simply don’t have the spare energy to continue heading south."

Wu Lun looked visibly upset.

"How long will it take for you to settle these troubles?"

Lion Tooth replied with uncertainty.

"We should be able to by the end of this winter."

"Too long!" Wu Lun shook his head, "We can’t wait that long! Those Blue Jackets are absorbing the nearby vagrants. Once they get a firm foothold there, they will become increasingly difficult to deal with! Your only chance is to focus all your efforts on wiping them out now, you can’t wait until winter."

A trace of displeasure crossed Lion Tooth’s face.

After all, their relationship was that of allies, not of a superior and subordinate. His respectful attitude was due to the missionaries of the Torch Church being able to control Variants, and those charging monsters, brown bears, and even the Claws of Death had helped them solve many troublesome opponents.

In exchange, the Chewing Bone Tribe allowed them to preach on their territory, spreading their beliefs to looters in the River Valley Province and even beyond.

However, this didn’t mean he had to follow their commands.

Wait until winter?

What a joke.

What was there to fear from a bunch of vagrants?

He admitted that the combat power of those wolf coats was indeed strong, but they were ultimately limited in number.

In just these few months, the looters who had come to join them had already doubled the size of the Ya Clan.

By autumn, their tens of thousands of soldiers would march side by side, and they could drown those Blue Ground Squirrels in a spit!

"We have our own plan. I can’t just send my men to their deaths because you’re looking for a damn box. Winter is just a few months past. Their wheat has only sprouted a little green. What are we supposed to eat if we attack now, grass?"

"Besides, Black Snake has already fallen into their hands. I can’t deal with those people on my own. If you’re in a hurry, go talk to our leader. Lord Jin Ya is in West State City, and the command for me to be stationed here came from him. Only he has the authority to command me!"

The negotiation failed.

Lion Tooth firmly rejected the Torch Church apostles’ suggestion to immediately head south. He would continue to reinforce the fortifications here, and together with his staff, they would make the entire county as impregnable as a fortress.

But this Centurion also indicated that if he received orders from the leader, he would send a hundred team to support them.

A hundred team...

Wu Lun just smirked when he heard this proposal.

What could a hundred barbarians do?

They would be cannon fodder on the battlefield, and they seemed to be completely unaware of it.

However, after learning that these people were incapacitated by orders in their hands, Wu Lun knew he probably had to meet their leader in order to persuade them to continue south.

After coming out of the department store, Dmitri glanced at his teammate.

"Shall we go to the city area now?"

"Uh-huh," Wu Lun nodded, drawing an imaginary line in the air with his index finger, "It’s just over thirty kilometers from here to West State. If we advance along the corridor beneath the ridge... if we’re fast, we should get there by tomorrow evening."

Stepping on and killing a rat that scurried to his feet, Wu Lun wiped his shoe disdainfully, his furrowed brow squeezed into a knot.

These damned rats...

Where the hell did they come from?

...

Where the hell did these rats come from?

Difficult for the Strong was also utterly baffled.

He admitted that he might have played a small part in speeding up the process, but that was about it.

To be fair, rats and cockroaches were already abundant on the wasteland, any dirty corner could become their breeding ground.

Those unattended bodies, and the lack of sufficient predators, were the root of the rat plague.

Compared to Mutant Cockroaches, rats, being mammals, were slightly less prolific, but they were smarter and more combative, quickly becoming the true masters of West State City.

They moved in packs, gnawing at everything they encountered, above and beneath the ground. Looters and survivors alike were helpless against them.

Difficult for the Strong hadn’t failed to try to discipline his ranks, to tighten the regimentation, but he found what he thought was simply not working.

Firstly, the language was different.

Secondly, rats are inherently cunning and have no sense of loyalty.

Even those little brothers he had subdued were not always obedient, and evasiveness was all too common.

The generator for burning wood hummed as it turned, the wires next to it having been patched up several times already.

These damned rats always gnawed at the wires while he slept. Several had been electrocuted, not learning their lesson, luckily the radio and hibernation pods were undamaged; otherwise, that would really be a loss.

The most loyal turned out to be the female rats.

Under the difficult circumstances of "artificial intervention," rats had gained more than enough food and space to survive, and they queued up to breed, frantically expanding the scale of their population.

Yet their affectionate looks were somewhat frightening to the strong.

Thank God!

It didn’t have that thing.

For the first time, he had the thought that not having it was actually not bad...

"Respected Manager... the rat plague in West State City isn’t my doing!"

Under the ruins lay the nest.

Standing next to the radio, the one facing difficulty twitched nervously upon hearing the Manager’s inquiry.

Although he had been reporting back on the situation in West State City, he had selectively concealed the rat plague, both on the Forum and over phone calls.

He wasn’t afraid of other NPCs, but the Manager was, after all, the Manager.

That fella had GM authority in its settings, capable of physical punishments for illegal in-game behavior.

Who wouldn’t panic at that?

And who the hell knows what kind of punishment logic the AI has.

Ah Guang had stressed to him on the Forum more than once that the closed beta server had a lot of issues. If GMs revoke your closed beta privileges, there’s no channel for a manual appeal to unblock it; the reclaimed privileges will be inherited by new players.

A serious voice came over the phone.

"I don’t mean to blame you, I just hope you’ll tell the truth about the situation there."

The strong one knew he ultimately couldn’t keep it hidden. After some hesitation, he chose to confess honestly, spilling all the previously concealed information.

Following the vivid description from the one facing challenges, Chu Guang found himself between laughter and tears.

This guy really is something, thinking up artificial breeding.

No, should say he’s a rat talent.

After all, it wasn’t humans doing it.

"... Manager?"

Seeing that there was no response from the phone, he felt even more uneasy.

"... Ahem, no worries, I’m just a bit surprised. Give me a moment to think."

Time ticked by, each second stretching out like a year for the one in difficulty.

At last, the Manager on the other end of the phone spoke again.

"... You did quite well. The rat plague has delayed the Ya Clan’s southward advance, buying us precious time for development. However, you indeed failed to control your subordinates, and an indiscriminate plague has severely impacted the local survivors’ resistance movement."

With a dejected face, the strong one lamented.

"It’s really not my fault, I tried to give them orders, and they all seemed to obey me... One thing to my face, another behind my back."

"I know, which is why I’m not blaming you, but I’m also unable to commend you publicly," Chu Guang paused, then continued, "The New Alliance will remember your contribution, but won’t acknowledge your achievements. We will reward you in a different way, do you understand what I mean?"

Phew.

Scared the crap outta me.

That’s it?

The one facing challenges let out a sigh of relief.

Whether commended or not, it didn’t matter; he didn’t understand what NPCs said anyway. It had no effect on task rewards or his posturing on the Forum.

Plus, it sounded like he might’ve triggered a hidden task?

Rather than feeling any disappointment, he became excited, swearing with an eager voice.

"Don’t worry, respected Manager. I will keep silent about what I’ve done! Where there is Light, there must be shadow. I am willing to be the sharp blade beneath your cloak, sweeping away any obstacles that stand in our way!"

Chu Guang’s toes nearly curled through the floor with embarrassment.

But to accommodate the players’ experience, he endured, playing along with the act, and solemnly wrapped up the scene.

"... I’m glad you feel that way, starting now, I need you to gather intelligence about what lies ahead on our path. Mark the enemy’s ammo depots, firepoints, command centers, troop gathering areas, and any tunnels and trenches on the map as clearly as possible, to support our ground troops and air forces in clearing out the Looters entrenched locally."

"Can you handle these tasks?"

The strong one exclaimed excitedly, "Leave it to me with confidence! I can manage this small task!"

"Hm, I look forward to your good news!" After delegating these tasks, Chu Guang hurriedly hung up the call.

Communication ended.

The strong one issued a sigh of relief, and his previously furrowed face was now brimming with joy.

It’s a rise!

It must’ve gone up!

Just by the tone of the Manager’s last few words, the favorability must’ve skyrocketed!

The rats crowded around him chirped excitedly; even though they didn’t know why their boss was ecstatic, their plump bellies were surely filled with mischief.

Turning to face his minions, eager to show off, the challenged one straightened up and shrilled his call.

"Come on, everybody, gather your brothers."

"We’re off with your Rat Grandpa to stir up trouble!"

...

Though rats can’t speak, the one undergoing challenges had his ways.

Having lived with the rats for so long, he had figured out their habits and methods of exchanging information.

These cunning rats might not strictly carry out his suicidal commands, but scouting for him was no issue.

Dangerous places meant more people, places rich with metal hinted at possible weapon or ammo stores – after pinpointing their rough locations, he’d personally go for a sniff.

Even if not every venture yielded valuable intel, he succeeded at least six times out of ten.

Upon discovering high-value targets, he wouldn’t act immediately but would mark them on the map with VM before quietly slipping away.

At this time, stirring up the snake by hitting the grass would only put the enemy on their guard.

By the time war broke out, the planes and artillery of the New Alliance would give these Looters a great surprise.

Unaware of what was happening right beneath him, Lion Tooth, with the assistance of staff officer Bernie, further fortified the positions in Qingstone County.

They hid fixed machine guns on the rooftops of buildings, using water tanks, distribution boxes, ventilation ducts, and other facilities as cover, and installed powerful searchlights on some roofs to scan the nearby airspace and mountainous areas at night.

Of course, these ideas were not Lion Tooth’s own.

But his team included staff from the Army.

Although Lion Tooth didn’t think that the Blue Jackets would dare to come looking for trouble on their own, Black Snake’s tragic death was a lesson thoroughly learned.

Even if there was just a 1% chance, he would nip it in the bud!

...

Early April.

A whole week had passed since the high-level meeting regarding the Northern Expedition plan.

City of Dawn operated like a pump in motion, crazily absorbing resources from all directions along the opened trade routes.

Steel and aluminum were the main items in demand.

Not only were they needed for manufacturing light and heavy equipment, but the railway under construction was also a black hole of resources, seemingly bottomless.

One steel plant was no longer sufficient to meet the expansion needs of the New Alliance. To satisfy the steel demand of the growing industrial zone, not only had Steel Factory No.81 set up a branch, but Chu Guang had signed an administrative document instructing the logistics department to establish the New Alliance’s first steel plant.

This was also the first steel plant managed by NPCs and collectively controlled by the Alliance.

Unlike Factory No.81, which mainly produced military equipment,

Steel Factory No.1 primarily supplied steel for infrastructure construction, with some of its equipment processed by machine tools and some purchased from Giant Stone City. The technical staff comprised professional players with life skills occupations, as well as unemployed engineers hired from Giant Stone City.

As for the A3 aviation aluminum produced by Bachi Aluminum Factory, most of it was supplied to the production line of "Electric Donkeys," while the remaining capacity was practically devoured by List Factory for producing more durable KV-1 Exoskeletons.

Before the war began, Chu Guang needed enough trucks to deliver supplies and troops to the front and use KV-1 Exoskeletons to ensure the players’ mobility and combat capabilities.

By the end of the month, the number of players could reach 2500+, but the combat professionals who would actually go to the front lines were about 1500 or so.

The disparity in numbers could only be compensated for with mobility and firepower.

Besides steel and aluminum, copper and sulfur were the second-largest resources in demand by the New Alliance.

Copper was primarily used for manufacturing bullets and laying electrical networks; that goes without saying.

Artillery shells could be made of steel, but bullets were best made of copper, which not only preserved better, but also performed excellently in shooting, effectively reducing the rate of jamming and barrel wear compared to steel-cased ammunition.

Electricity was even more critical; both Exoskeletons, trucks, and the players’ save points needed the support of the electrical systems.

The main use for sulfur was to make sulfuric acid.

That’s not just related to one production line; from steel plants to chemical plants, there aren’t many industrial chains that can operate without it.

As the war machine powered up, the industrial zone’s capacity constantly expanded, and almost every resource demand sharply rose.

It was around this time that Old Charlie, the president of the Merchant Guild, brought Chu Guang some bad news...

"Although you’ve likely noticed something from the inventory data, just to be safe, I still have to tell you that our industrial scale is expanding faster than anticipated, and the copper and sulfur mines produced by surrounding Survivor Settlements have already experienced price hikes due to our purchases."

In the base’s reception room,

After hearing Old Charlie’s report, Chu Guang thought for a moment, then raised his head.

"How much did it increase?"

"Copper prices in Red River Town went up by twenty percent, the sulfur price at least thirty percent. These are the latest numbers."

Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully.

"That’s more or less consistent with the information I have."

Last night, players had discussed this matter on the Forum, not only about copper and sulfur mines; some rare metals were outright out of stock.

Chu Guang had, in fact, anticipated this situation.

The vouchers issued by the Red River Town mine were essentially a form of futures. This trading model was designed not only to facilitate their purchase of commodities from other survivors but also to coordinate the mine’s output.

In other words, they wouldn’t produce a bunch of ores they didn’t need and stockpile them in their warehouses; they determined production for the next quarter based on the vouchers issued in the previous one.

If someone suddenly needed a large amount of spot goods, a price hike was natural.

However...

This rate of price increase was somewhat abrupt.

The Northern Expedition had only been underway for a week, and no matter how rapidly the demand increased, Chu Guang did not believe that Red River Town’s warehouses lacked even this small reserve.

Chu Guang had reason to suspect that someone, guessing something through certain information, was playing a game of hoarding and reluctant selling with him.

Old Charlie had also evidently guessed what might be the case, saying in a not so direct way.

"Our resources are in others’ control, and this problem’s impact will become increasingly apparent. Either we can open up more trade routes, reducing reliance on a single source of raw materials, or I can have my own sources of raw materials to solve part of our resource needs."

"I was thinking the same, in fact, one of the purposes of this Northern Expedition is to solve the raw material issue."

Chu Guang nodded, looking at the map on the wall.

"The exploratory team of the New Alliance has investigated the information on Qingstone County. To the west of it, the former Qing Shi Geological Park is a mining area of Qing Shi Mining Company, with an underlying porphyry copper molybdenum deposit estimated to be at least one million tons in reserve."

Charlie’s face showed surprise.

"It hasn’t been mined?"

"It has, but only a small part; according to the records, the mine was shut down early in the Prosperity Epoch due to cost issues and later converted into a geological park, with a practice base and geological research institute adjacent to it."

With a faint smile, Chu Guang continued.

"In fact, it’s not just the copper molybdenum deposit; according to the analysis of our exploratory team’s personnel, there are numerous identified but undeveloped resources in the surrounding area. As long as we take control of West State City, the resources issue will naturally sort itself out."

"But what about the current problem? Even if we take over Qingstone County, mining will take time—"

As these words left his mouth, a glimmer of realization suddenly appeared in Old Charlie’s eyes.

"I see..."

"I think I understand your point now."

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