This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 308: Great Victory at Qingstone County!

Chapter 308: Chapter 308: Great Victory at Qingstone County!

Less than twenty minutes after the air raid, the northern urban area of Qing Shi County had already turned into a sea of fire.

The survivors from the northern suburbs of Qingquan City seemed to have tampered with their fortifications; the aircraft, their propellers spinning wildly, strafed the rooftops of buildings, and soon, the buildings flared up like lighters.

Fire was everywhere in the city.

The scorching heatwave and thick smoke completely blocked their retreat to the south.

Woken by the earth-shattering explosions, Lord Shiya had just gotten out of bed when he received the command from the messenger— he was to immediately lead his men to fight the fire.

It was an order directly from Lord Shiya, and he dared not delay. He quickly called over his men who were firing rifles into the air and rushed towards the fires in the south.

However, to his surprise, just as he and his men hurriedly arrived at the scene, an airplane crashed right before his eyes.

And it crashed less than fifty meters away on the street!

Lord Shiya was stunned at that moment, and quickly realized what had happened, then a surge of rage shot up to his forehead.

Thinking of his brothers who perished in the air raid and the raging inferno all around, he no longer cared about the firefighting mission. Without a second thought, he led his entire hundred-man team toward the crash site.

A hundred against one, whether it was a full-grown man or just a mouse—even a cockroach couldn’t slip away under his watch!

And indeed, it was the case.

The unfortunate pilot, running around like a headless fly, was quickly cornered in a dead-end alley.

Staring at the wretched figure screaming in the alley, a sinister grin spread across Lord Shiya’s lips, and his eyes gleamed with cruelty.

He stopped a subordinate who was setting up a rocket launcher and, instead, took out a smoke grenade. He smirked and hurled it into the alley.

Then, he waved his hand forward.

"Capture him alive for me!"

Lord Shiya swore.

If he caught that guy, he would make that damned pilot regret coming into this world.

He would try every cruel torture he had heard of or seen on that man, until he squeezed out all the information. Then he would slice off his flesh piece by piece, throwing it into the frying pan right before his eyes.

Excitedly licking his lips, Lord Shiya hadn’t yet decided where to start when a piercing shriek came from behind his head.

He whirled around, and his gaze met the overwhelming rain of fire.

The wailing sound, like that of a church organ, rendered the concrete fortifications as mere paper, easily blown sky-high by the relentless destructive force.

There was no time to drop down.

Even dropping down offered no shelter.

Fear and panic flashed across Lord Shiya’s eyes.

And then the next second, he and his entire hundred-man team, along with the street beneath them, were blasted into the air!

At that moment, in the sky.

Piloting his battered glider, Falling Feather reached to lift his windshield and stretched his neck to look outside.

This glance made him click his tongue inadvertently.

"Man..."

This firepower...

Was absolutely brutal!

Within a radius of six hundred meters, at least fifty 130mm rockets had fallen.

The instantaneous delivery of saturating firepower even drew a silent circle in the midst of the roaring flames.

He had intended to pick up Mosquito Coach.

It seemed now that there was no need...

In the air, ace pilots momentarily forgot to dive, and the noisy gunfire on the ground paused in unison for a few seconds.

The world seemed to have hit the pause button, with only the scalding smoke drifting quietly.

At the same time, on the second floor of the department store.

Looking northwards through the reinforced window, Lord Shiya’s face was blank, and his companion Bernie, standing beside him, was equally astonished.

The explosion, almost piercing through the eardrums, made him think for a moment that a tactical nuclear bomb had been used.

What kind of opponent were they facing...

Swallowing hard, Bernie comforted the Lord Shiya standing next to him, and himself.

"It’s fine... This level of firepower can’t last."

"We only have one hundred-man team and two fire points in the south. As long as they weren’t all clustered together and got hit directly, at most we’ll lose thirty percent... forty percent at most."

The reloading of rocket artillery was incredibly cumbersome; ten seconds of launch and ten minutes of loading were normal, and they were costly. If they could exchange twenty or thirty lives for nearly fifty enemy rockets, it was undoubtedly worth it.

In fact, Bernie’s judgment wasn’t wrong.

But what he didn’t know was that the hundred-man team, sent by Lord Shiya to fight the fire, hadn’t dispersed in the ruins but had all rushed to block the lone pilot.

Lacking sufficient radio equipment, they didn’t even know that the previous barrage had wiped out one of their platoons...

In the southern part of Qing Shi County.

At the junction of the forest and the urban area.

Standing on a partially collapsed overpass, Chu Guang, wearing powered armor, was overlooking the entire battlefield through two Hummingbird drones.

Fifteen minutes earlier, the First Army Corps and a player-formed vanguard had reached the frontlines, setting up a temporary command post and a radio station, bringing a ten-kilometer radius under their communication range.

At the same time, the Gnome Soldiers Artillery Group’s ten self-propelled rocket artillery vehicles had completed their deployment and had delivered a round of saturating firepower onto Qing Shi County.

"Stunning firepower..."

Holding binoculars, Vanus, standing beside him, had surprise written all over his face.

Although he had helped plan the combat, the firepower of the New Alliance’s rocket artillery far exceeded his expectations.

Chu Guang smiled faintly.

"Recognize the fortifications up ahead?"

After pondering for a moment, Vanus said.

"...It looks like the style of the 210,000 people in the Expeditionary Army; they’re good at digging trenches, building bridges, and frontline fortifications."

"It seems we’re about to meet some old friends soon."

Vanus laughed wryly, without responding to the comment.

"The saturation fire coverage has ended, and the enemy probably hasn’t recovered from our bombardment yet," he suggested. "I recommend we proceed to the next step of the plan now."

"That’s exactly what I intended."

Idle chatter ended.

Chu Guang stretched out his index finger to lightly tap on the side of his helmet, calling up the holographic screen.

He paused, then issued the order with a calm voice.

"Xiao Qi, update Battle Plan Number 2 on the VM of each army corps!"

A lively voice came through his earpiece.

"Alright, Master!"

As his words fell, Chu Guang grabbed the warhammer hanging behind him, and cleanly pointed it forward under the eager gazes of the surrounding players.

"The fortress of the Chewing Bone Tribe is just ahead, let’s go smash their gateway."

"Advance, all forces—forward!"

Unable to contain their excitement, the players responded with shouts that split the skies as they received the attack order.

"For the Alliance!"

"Long live the City of Dawn!"

"Manager is awesome!"

"Demacia!"

"Roar!"

The slogans, neat yet varied, echoed across the battlefield as the battle to liberate Qing Shi County officially commenced.

Under the cover of supporting fire, players followed their respective army corps leaders forward, some even excitedly blowing their homemade bugles.

Before the action began, the command center of the New Alliance had devised Battle Plans 1, 2, and 3 based on intelligence gathered in advance.

These plans detailed the specific steps for each army corps, and the commanders would decide which plan to implement based on the actual situation on the ground.

In the battle, different sizes of army corps would undertake different battlefield tasks, and the scoring rules would be differentiated according to the type of task.

Some teams were responsible for assaulting strategic facilities, others for pushing the front line and capturing points, generally, highly mobile teams were responsible for flanking and envelopment, while teams with strong breakthrough capabilities were tasked with storming positions.

As for the tactical choices of each player under an army corps, those would be decided through consultations between the corps commanders and their squad members.

After so many battles, players capable of serving as corps commanders were highly trusted veteran players.

They knew better than anyone how to maximize the potential of their squads, and the fact that their squad members had been playing with them for many versions was proof of their charisma or organizational skills.

The size of the army corps could determine its upper limit, but whether it could recruit enough members depended on the players’ efforts.

Whether by leading their teammates joyfully or paying their real-life salaries, as long as it didn’t affect the server rules, Chu Guang wouldn’t interfere.

Returning to the front lines.

Located at the edge of the county, the printing factory served as the first line of defense for the Chewing Bone Tribe in the southern part of Qing Shi County and was the first nail in the players’ path.

Iron Hand led a hundred-man team ordered to defend that area. They had pre-deployed two 12mm heavy machine guns and two 60mm mortars there and had slaves dig nearly a kilometer of trenches. At the forefront of the trench, they deployed barbed wire and spiked wooden stakes.

In addition, twenty Iron Fist rocket launchers and ten 7mm light machine guns were distributed among the trenches. A frontal assault would undoubtedly be a hard fight. Crossfire raining down from rooftops and trenches would be a nightmare for the infantry.

Of course, Chu Guang wouldn’t let the players recklessly rush in and get slaughtered.

Before the assault on the area began, four 100kg air-dropped bombs and twenty-four 100mm howitzer shells had fallen on Iron Hand’s hundred-man position.

The first round hadn’t even started when Lion Tooth’s mortar positions inside the print factory and the heavy machine guns on the roof were promptly annihilated by the New Alliance’s long-range firepower.

After a round of firepower coverage, the originally intact concrete factory building was now on the verge of collapse after the relentless bombardment.

However, before the Looters hiding inside could recover from the bombardment, another round of dense mortar shells fell on their heads.

"Damn! Will these people ever stop?"

Spitting out a mouthful of bloody sand, Iron Hand, wearing a baseball helmet, pressed his head tightly against the ground, his heart filled with shock and fear.

Before fleeing to the Chewing Bone Tribe, he had been a boxer in underground fights. Although he had often fought fiercely with others, he had never seen anything like this!

Previously, following Lion Tooth around the central part of River Valley Province to loot and plunder, they occasionally encountered some tough nuts to crack. But those survivors merely pushed out a few homemade cannons or bought some from major forces.

The former had good power but poor accuracy—they looked fierce but hit nothing. The latter, though accurate, would run out of ammunition after firing, usually leaving them staring blankly after one or two charges, enough to rout those unprepared softshells.

Unlike these maniacs...

They threw shells over their heads as if the shells cost nothing while planes circled above their positions, strafing round after round.

Listening to the roaring sound of the gunfire, Iron Hand felt his teeth chatter, his hands trembling uncontrollably as he held his gun.

He was an Awakener.

Yet the power flowing through his veins could not bring him any sense of security!

"Boss! How long till reinforcements arrive?"

"Where’s our artillery?"

Our artillery?

Listening to his subordinates’ terrified shouts, Iron Hand’s face twisted into a miserable, bitter smile.

Although he didn’t know the situation behind him, looking at the planes buzzing chaotically above, he could guess with his toes what the state of their artillery positions must be.

Especially after that last round of rocket cover, he had completely given up any hope for supporting fire.

At that moment, the New Alliance’s mortar bombardment of their position stopped, but Iron Hand’s wildly pounding heart rose to his throat.

He knew what the end of the shelling meant.

Trying to expel the fear from his chest with his voice, Iron Hand, clutching his helmet, let out a hysterical roar.

"Prepare to fight!!"

The mortars launched a round of smoke grenades, and the battlefront was instantly enveloped in thick smoke.

The light machine gunners poked their heads out of the trenches again, but as these Looters disengaged their safeties, ready to fire, they were horrified to see two armored trucks, welded with steel plates, leading the charge out of the smoke.

The light machine guns spat out flames, and bullets pelted the trucks like rain, leaving only egg-sized dents in the steel plates.

Ignoring the barrage of bullets, the trucks slightly veered to the right, exposing their side to the Looters’ position.

Immediately, the Looters in the trenches were terrified to see two quadruple anti-aircraft guns standing straight, aimed directly at them.

"Gunner, load high-explosive!"

Leading the infantry following behind, Brother Mole, beaming with excitement, slapped the side of the vehicle, shouting at the player seated at the gun.

"Aim for their machine guns and fire, give it to them!"

Simultaneously, two leveled quadruple anti-aircraft guns unleashed long tongues of flames!

Bang, bang, bang—!

Accompanied by the roaring of machine guns, hundreds of 20mm high-explosive bombs were instantly unleashed above the Looter’s heads. The principal shooter next to the light machine gun was killed instantly, the rampant shrapnel and explosive flames turned the serpentine trench into a literal hell.

The man operating the light machine gun, Iron Hand, was blown up on the spot, half his head flying out of the trench. His deputy, squatting next to him, was so frightened that his legs went weak, completely losing his will to fight.

One Looter summoned his courage, bearing the Iron Fist Rocket Launcher trying to retaliate, but the three-hundred-meter distance was just outside his firing range.

New Alliance had replicated the Iron Fist of the Army frequently, even producing several extended versions. They were all too familiar with the specifications of this device.

The rocket, dragging its tail flame, only flew about two hundred and fifty meters before it feebly fell to the ground. Since the terminal fuse did not activate, it didn’t even displace a clump of turf.

"Brothers! Charge!"

Seeing the Looter’s defensive line begin to collapse, Brother Mole excitedly blew the whistle, leading the charge of the Skeleton Corps under the cover of two quadruple anti-aircraft guns.

Aside from the six vehicle crew members + gunner who did not move, forty-four infantrymen each carried an LD-47 processed engineer shovel.

Only the Gnome King Riches held a modified semi-automatic with an extended barrel, replacing the two-foot tripod with bayonets, charging forward while excitedly shouting "Ula".

Rotating bombardments had already brought the morals of those entrenched in the printing factory to the brink of collapse. With the commander’s death and the shrill whistle sounding, they could no longer hold back their fear and ignored the strict orders to hold the line. They abandoned their positions to flee backward.

Of course, Brother Mole wouldn’t give them a chance to regroup. The two quadruple anti-aircraft guns crazily strafed the Looters fleeing the trench.

Soon, only severed limbs lay scattered between the trench and the printing factory in the open space; not even a single complete body could be found.

"Surrender your weapons—not... good, hands on your head and squat."

As Elena jumped into the trench and raised her gun to aim at a Looter, she saw that he had already dropped his weapon. She refrained from firing and instead signaled for him to put his hands on his head and squat.

Capturing prisoners scored higher than killing.

The scores were equivalent to Contribution Points and money.

Their mission was to capture the printing factory, which had now been accomplished. There was no need to waste bullets unnecessarily.

Not far away, Brother Mole had already led people into the factory building, and the battle was nearing its end.

Only then did Elena notice that the soil in the trench beneath her feet had been moistened into mud by blood. She was stepping on half of a corpse, its shape unrecognizable.

"Hisss... this is too bloody." Elena couldn’t help but smack her lips.

Before they had even approached, the three teams of ten stationed there couldn’t even muster up one full team.

At that moment, Gnome King Riches limped into the trench, swearing.

"Damn it, I didn’t even fire a single shot and it’s over. I also caught one in the leg, wonder which bastard did it!"

Saying this, he glared at the prisoner.

"Was it you?"

The prisoner trembled fiercely, unable to understand what was said and dared not speak out, only burying his head even lower.

Gnome King Riches didn’t trouble a surrendered prisoner, pulling out a bandage from his bag to give himself a quick patch-up.

"The battle seems about to end." Elena looked towards the north side of the trench, where the town lay.

Edge’s Death Legion had already launched a charge, engaging in street fighting with Looters positioned in the abandoned residential area.

Heavy exoskeletons couldn’t be utilized due to the narrow terrains, their "half-open armored vehicles" also couldn’t enter the ruins, so the clean-up task was left to the light infantry.

From the intense gunfire, it was evident how fierce the fighting was over there. Looters hiding in stairwells and alleyways were like trapped beasts, finding and dispatching them all was no easy task.

However, Elena wasn’t worried about them.

As one of the few Level 10 Corps of the New Alliance, the Death Legion had a combat power that was definitely T1 level, featuring many high-ranking players from the full server.

The reason why the team seemed a bit bloated was mainly to accommodate the newcomers who wanted to follow the group, hence they had chosen the most "cost-effective" human sea assault approach.

The regulations of different corps varied, some only recruited acquaintances, some only accepted Strength Types or Awakeners, while others didn’t care about the sequence or level, as long as everyone was having fun.

The Death Legion belonged to the latter; besides requiring members not to fear death and to follow commands during an attack, there were no other demands, and members were free to come and go outside of battles.

At this moment, Brother Mole, covered in mud and blood and holding an assault rifle, approached, his face beaming with excitement from the direction of the printing house.

"...The printing house has been taken! The new task is to reorganize on-site while keeping a watchful eye on the southern gate leading to Qing Shi County for our allies!"

King Riches of the Gnomes, who had just bandaged his thigh, asked excitedly.

"Have the war scores come out yet?"

"Not that fast, every battle is settled a day later," Brother Mole, sitting at the edge of the trench, gasped for air and continued with a he-he laugh, "but I feel this time the MVP is definitely secured!"

In less than five minutes, they had taken the first line of defense, fifty people had completely wiped out a hundred-member squadron and even captured twelve!

And not a single player had fallen!

It was simply textbook "infantry and tank coordination" tactic, no wonder he had his team practice digging trenches in the North Suburb so many times!

If even this didn’t earn them the MVP, it would only mean that the allies had messed something up.

While the three were chatting and slacking off, those muscular brutes in shiny green armor, led by Midnight Killing Chicken, had also pushed into the urban area.

According to battle plan number 2, if the airstrikes and artillery bombardment didn’t cause the department center to collapse, the command post’s blitz mission was to be jointly undertaken by the Jungle Corps and the Storm Corps.

As for the Burning Corps, they should have already inserted into the southern part of the battlefield by now, guarding against enemy reinforcements and cutting off Lord Lion Tooth’s thousand-team’s retreat.

Those guys were the real tough ones, some of the highest combat power holders in the server were among them, and even when faced with encirclement from enemy reinforcements and Lord Lion Tooth’s thousand team, they were confident enough to handle it calmly.

However, Brother Mole estimated they likely wouldn’t encounter any reinforcements.

There were twenty kilometers from the northernmost part of Qingshi County to West State City, and even if the enemy quickly reacted, assembling reinforcements would take time.

A mere thousand troops obviously couldn’t hold out that long.

"...The Jungle Corps has started advancing, it looks like the second line of defense has been taken by the Death Legion," Brother Mole glanced at his VM, noting that the advance was nearly half an hour ahead of schedule.

King Riches of the Gnomes looked up at the sky.

"Speaking of which, our planes are beginning to return."

Elena remarked with a nuanced expression.

"Can they land safely?"

"Haha, I doubt it!"

Just when people from the Skeleton Corps had completed all their tasks, the Jungle Corps and Storm Corps deeply inside the city had already engaged the enemy.

The two teams split into two different directions of attack and launched fierce attacks on the Looter’s position in a pincer movement.

"Madness! Complete madness!"

Standing at the very frontline of the battlefield, wearing a KV-1 Exoskeleton, Midnight Killing Chicken carried an LD-47j light machine gun in his hand, excitedly shouting as he pushed forward while furiously firing at Looters behind the roadblock.

Side by side with him were the Strength Type creatures, one by one in the same style as their corps leader, spraying bullets as if they cost nothing.

The players in the back, also wearing exoskeletons, dismounted the shoulder armor and arm guards and hung them in front of their chests, throwing grenades over the human wall, blasting the Looters suppressed behind covers into the air.

In fact, bullets really cost nothing; they only affected the battle rating.

But was that even a problem for Brother Killing Chicken?

He and his comrades never really cared about such things.

All they wanted was to have fun!

On the other hand, the Storm Corps was making smooth progress as well.

Under the command of Brother Quanshui, the Battlefield Atmosphere Group, led by I Max Black, who belonged to the Perception Type, stormed ahead and broke through an entire hundred-man team of Looters.

Beaten back step by step, the Looters were forced to release their trump card, a Mutant Brown Bear that had not yet been tamed with the Mind Interference Device.

However, before the brown bear could even let out a roar, it was pinned against the wall by a gigantic White Bear clad in heavy steel armor.

"Roar—!"

Meat Meat, who had pinned the Mutant Brown Bear to the wall, roared at its face, though he still seemed a bit hesitant and uneasy.

The pinned brown bear, likely confused as to why this creature was white and wearing armor, simply froze and didn’t resist further.

Meat Meat looked anxiously at his teammates.

"What do I do next?!"

Tail stepped closer to the big bear pressed against the wall, stroked his chin thoughtfully for a few seconds, and then suddenly said,

"It might be in love with you."

Meat Meat nearly choked on his own spit.

"Pff! How is that possible! How did you come up with such a weird conclusion!"

Tail: "Doesn’t it seem plausible?"

Sesame Paste wore a bemused expression,

"It seems like there’s a logical gap everywhere..."

"Emmm... Anyway, it has surrendered. We don’t kill prisoners of war," Sisi contemplated the tamed brown bear for a moment and nodded, "Decided, it will now be the second mount for the Meat Meat Knights!"

Meat Meat: "Wait, what is Meat Meat Knights?! And why is there suddenly a brown bear added when it was supposed to be the White Bear Knights?!"

Sesame Paste: "Huh? I thought the logical gap was about the mount."

Sisi subtly averted her gaze.

"After all, white bears are so rare here..."

Tail completely changed the subject and excitedly gave a thumbs-up,

"Wow! Meat Meat, well done! Capturing a big guy, let’s see who still calls us just the Atmosphere Group!"

Although registered with the Merchant Guild as the White Bear Knights, it had nothing to do with the concept of knights or corps.

But that wasn’t important.

Long ago, Tail and Sisi had already been mixing in Brother Quanshui’s team, and had straightforwardly dragged Sesame Paste and Meat Meat into the fray too.

The three wore Light Cavalry Exoskeletons worth ten thousand silver coins, and Meat Meat’s gear was also purchased with money earned from past trading.

Even though the gear was bought with their own money, it didn’t stop Tail from leading the charge at the forefront.

Not far away.

The Battlefield veterans had already stormed into a department store, where gunfire erupted frequently, occasionally accompanied by grenades exploding.

The battle seemed fiercely intense.

Shiya didn’t surrender and continued resisting stubbornly with his Personal Body Guard. However, as the gunfire neared deeper inside, that so-called resistance was clearly a dying struggle.

Soon, the Jungle Corps, launching an offense along the main street, had also successfully crushed the Looters’ defenses along the highway, chasing the fleeing troops right to the base of the building.

The Jungle Corps successfully rendezvoused with the Storm Corps.

After negotiation between the two corps leaders, they decided to dispatch a ten-man team from the Jungle Corps into the building for support, while the rest guarded the building’s various entrances and exits.

Limited space inside meant limited troops could be deployed.

This game’s collision volume was extremely realistic; there was no such thing as clipping through models.

Firing with gun barrels passing through teammates wasn’t possible here; crowding too many people in one spot would only be a hindrance.

"...it looks like the battle is over."

In the southern part of Qingshi County, beside road wreckage.

Accessing cameras worn by players from his console, Chu Guang switched to the first-person view of the Battlefield Atmosphere Group, watching as this veteran kicked open the tightly shut iron door and led the charge into Shiya’s hideout, pinning a group of Looter leaders against tables and walls.

"Nobody move!"

"Hands on your heads!"

The video was noisy.

The signal inside the building was poor, causing frequent image freezing and severe shaking.

However, it didn’t stop Chu Guang from enjoying the defeated and resigned expressions on the Looters’ faces.

After this battle, the route from Qingquan City to West State City would be completely open, with nothing more to impede his advance.

The New Alliance’s railway, along with the supply convoy, would soon reach the frontline. As the continuous supplies arrived from the rear, he would use heavy artillery to show the Chew-bone Tribe Looters where they really belonged.

"Three hours ahead of the battle plan... Your residents’ combat power is simply unbelievable."

Vanus couldn’t help but express his genuine surprise after viewing the images Chu Guang shared on VM.

Even a military formed by reserve officers might not do better than them.

Perhaps next time he draws up a battle plan, he can consider some more aggressive strategies to maximize their strengths.

Looking up at the sky, Vanus continued,

"We’ve ended the campaign before noon, and the headquarters of the Ya Clan in West State City probably hasn’t received the news yet."

"That’s perfect."

Chu Guang smiled lightly,

"We can push the front line another ten kilometers forward."

The copper mines lay to the west of Qing Shi County, inside United Human’s Geological Park. To ensure stable production, maintaining the front line at the northern part of Qing Shi County wasn’t enough; they needed to push further.

He had studied the map. Ten kilometers north of Qing Shi County was a mountain hollow, perfectly suitable for establishing defenses on the high ground to the south.

Vanus hesitated,

"Isn’t this too aggressive? If their response is swift enough, they might not leave us much time to dig fortifications."

Chu Guang shook his head, speaking casually,

"That’s exactly what we need to catch them off guard!"

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