This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 317 The Flying Knife that Descends from the Sky

Chapter 317: Chapter 317 The Flying Knife that Descends from the Sky

What’s the best method to test the performance of a weapon?

Of course, it’s real combat.

Paper data and performance in real combat are completely different concepts; an excellent performance on the shooting range is not as good as taking it to the battlefield for some practice.

The Burning Corps, positioned at the front line, soon received the first major operation mission after the launch of the Warrior operation...

In the dead of night.

Northern urban area of West State City.

A group of Looters carrying rifles was cautiously walking on the pitch-black streets, their flashlights carefully sweeping on both sides of the street.

Every now and then, they shone their lights overhead.

The continuous days of attacks had left the entire tribe in a state of panic.

The local survivors who had formed a guerrilla team were already troublesome enough, and now a group of uninvited guests had arrived in West State City.

These people not only had sophisticated weapons and formidable firepower but were also well-trained and possessed extraordinary physical fitness, and many even exhibited characteristics clearly belonging to the Awakeners.

These paratroopers moved through the desolate city district like ghosts, launching surprise attacks on isolated patrol teams or fixed checkpoints, sentries, and gun towers.

Moreover, their tactics were quite cunning; as soon as they were caught in a stand-off, they would immediately retreat, giving no chance for pursuit.

What particularly troubled the Looters was that the attacks weren’t taking place in the same district; they could even happen simultaneously in both the southern and northern parts of the city.

This was a headache for the Looters who lacked radio equipment.

Due to the lack of sufficient communication devices to distribute to every ten-man team, they could only use signal flares to report the approximate location of the attacks.

And once multiple facilities were attacked at the same time, the sky was filled with flares, and the area echoed with the sound of alarms being triggered.

As for which areas had more or fewer people, what equipment the enemy had, they had no idea. The hundred-man teams and even the thousand-man teams responsible for the defense area were often caught in the awkward situation of not knowing where to send reinforcements.

But this wasn’t even what troubled the Looters the most.

What really killed them was that these sneaky Blue Jackets appeared inexhaustible.

Occasionally, the Looters managed to kill one or two attackers, but there was never a decrease in the number of assailants.

Just how many paratroopers did these Blue Jackets have?!

Did they have so many planes for training?

All these questions became a curse weighing on the minds of Golden Tooth and the other Ya Clan’s higher-ups.

This included Wu Lun, who previously boasted to Golden Tooth, swearing to root out those ground squirrels.

In the past week, he had led his men to kill at least eleven paratroopers from the New Alliance, and one time even wiped out a four-man squad.

However, eerily enough...

The people he had killed three days ago, he saw again today.

"...Could they be twins?"

Wu Lun moved his gun barrel, still smoking blue smoke, away from the body, frowning as he stared intently at the face on the ground, the more he looked, the more familiar it seemed.

Could they be clones?

That wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.

After all, clones weren’t a rare thing these days.

But to train clones to act like normal people wasn’t easy, let alone train them into well-disciplined soldiers.

Wu Lun noticed the vital signs monitor on the man’s arm, removed it, and with two light taps on the right side of his exoskeleton helmet, he said,

"Hack into the VM system."

A window was projected onto the lens of his helmet.

[Processing...]

The New Alliance’s Blue Jackets didn’t just reset the vital signs monitor’s system and modify this device into a wrist computer, but they also rewrote the system with their own coded language.

However.

Hacking a mere terminal was nothing for his combat support AI equipped with an "A-level hacking plugin."

Handing over the hacking operation to the AI, Wu Lun quietly waited a few seconds.

During this time, both the VM screen and his helmet’s lens simultaneously popped up with two messages.

[Unauthorized access detected, DNA verification failed.]

[System deleted.]

Looking at the Chinese characters that appeared on the VM screen, Wu Lun was startled for a moment.

"...What’s this written?"

...

meters away, in a residential building.

Three small players crouched quietly at the edge of the rooftop, peering through binoculars at the body of Corner Old Six and the exoskeleton soldiers by his side.

Lost Rookie exclaimed softly, "Damn... Customs guys group!"

Item Carrier smacked his lips, "Tsk tsk, he got KO’d as soon as he landed, Old Six is so unlucky..."

Lost Rookie: "So unlucky +1, didn’t even grab a gun before getting wiped by the boss party."

"We’ve failed to rendezvous... side mission canceled, let’s do the main mission," Sniper Bai said as he quietly retreated from the edge of the building after seeing the icon disappear on the VM.

Lost Rookie, holding his semi-automatic, reluctantly looked at the group of "elite monsters" on the distant street.

"Damn, I really want to sneak in a shot."

Item Carrier nodded in agreement.

"Their exoskeletons look very expensive, must be worth quite a few silver coins!"

Sniper Bai rolled his eyes.

"Quit dreaming, the mission is more important."

There were only two missions tonight, one side mission and one main mission.

The side mission was to recover teammates who had parachuted into the battlefield, but it was unexpected that Old Six was so unlucky, not only did he land right on the street, but he also ran into a patrolling boss party – he didn’t even touch a gun before he was killed.

As for the main mission, it was to attack any of the Looter outposts located on the northern side, causing chaos in the northern urban area.

The main force of the Burning Corps was going to strike at a munitions depot in the southern part of West State City with a thousand-man caliber arsenal at dawn.

And their task was to create as much chaos as possible in the north before the main force made their move, to tie down the Looter’s reinforcement troops.

Summing it up in one sentence, make a scene!

The bigger the ruckus, the better.

Of course, try not to run into that squad from before.

With the little gear they had on them, thinking of going head-to-head with those exoskeleton soldiers armed to the teeth was a bit of wishful thinking.

If a real fight broke out, the enemy could easily shoot them in the chest and head; without full protective armor, high stats would still mean certain death.

The three men quietly retreated downstairs.

About a kilometer in the opposite direction of the exoskeleton soldiers, they quickly found an outpost of the Ya Clan.

To limit the guerrilla team’s operating area, the Ya Clan had set up checkpoints at the entrances of various roads in West State City.

A Looter was standing inside the guardhouse, with a homemade cigarette hanging from his mouth.

Two others stood to the left and right of the barricade, yakking away. Another sat by the fire, skewering some unidentifiable meat, occasionally throwing in a comment.

Seeing this, Sniper Bai immediately signaled for his teammates to stop and, without a second word, took the RPG rocket launcher off his back, loaded it with a high-explosive grenade, aimed at the barricade, and pulled the trigger.

There was a whoosh.

A trail of white smoke streaked past, and an RPG slammed directly into the roadblock.

"Boom—!"

The two Looters standing by the barricade hadn’t even reacted before the explosion’s shockwave blew them away.

The shrill wail of shrapnel whizzed around erratically, scratching streaks across the concrete ground and walls.

"Rocket launcher!"

The Looter in the guardhouse ducked to avoid the debris flying in through the window, panicked, pulled out a signal gun, and fired a shot into the sky.

The Looter by the fire pit crawled into the ruins, heedless of the blood on his face, and poked out his rifle to fire wildly outside.

Bullets whipped into a display case meters away from the players.

Seeing the green flare rise, Sniper Bai grinned, put the smoking launcher tube back into his backpack while chambering his rifle.

"Mission accomplished!"

"Brothers, free fire!"

"Just get it done!"

...

Rat-tat-tat—!

Gunfire echoed throughout the streets littered with rubble and remains, shattering the city’s quiet.

Having taken out an outpost, the trio didn’t linger. Before reinforcements arrived, they continued toward the next target on the map.

Meanwhile, a W-2 ground attack plane, painted with a shark’s head, had silently flown over West State City.

It wasn’t carrying missiles under its body, but a "Spring Knife" with its rotors folded inward.

Confirming the course and distance once again through the VM, Mosquito, wearing a pilot’s cap and goggles, skillfully unlocked the bomb release’s safety and shouted.

"Hey hey hey, this is Mosquito, respond if you receive!"

A noisy voice came through the communication channel.

"...Burning Corps received, I’m Old White... we’ve reached the target site, ready to move at any time."

"Okay!"

As Mosquito responded, he pressed the bomber’s button, chuckled, and said, "...The drone’s online, control transfer complete, have fun!"

The "Spring Knife" detached from the bomber, gliding powerlessly towards the target airspace.

At the same time, in the Southern Urban District of West State City, in a dark alleyway.

Wild Wind, wearing headphones and sitting on the ground, looked up at Old White who stood at the entrance of the alley.

"...Connected."

The drone’s camera view had synced to his VM.

Old White nodded, flashed an OK sign, and ended the communication with Mosquito.

Right then, a big grey rat, a meter long, burst out of the other end of the alley with a few followers.

Old White squatted down.

Stopping in his tracks, Difficult for the Strong stood up, and excitedly reported the situation he’d investigated while sneaking in, with his uniquely raspy, sharp voice.

"I’ve checked it out!"

"The tank is still parked in the northeast corner of the underground garage, the position hasn’t changed! There are two anti-aircraft trucks parked near it, probably just driven in today!"

Old White gave a thumbs up.

"Thanks, bro."

Difficult for the Strong chuckled.

"Don’t mention it! There are a lot of people inside, it’ll be a good show soon!"

Standing up from the ground, Old White chambered his rifle cleanly and signaled to Fang Chang and Wild Wind in the alley.

"Prepare to move!"

"Received!"

After a brief reply, Wild Wind tapped his headphones twice, then slowly closed his eyes, syncing his consciousness with the gliding drone’s view and unfolding its six rotors.

The control circuit of the Spring Knife drone and the Y-1 Firefly were of the same model, and even the operating software was identical.

It could be operated through a VM touch screen or through a neural connection device, with the assistance of a communication base station for immersive connection.

After one last check of the information on the VM, Old White turned off the screen and led the way out of the alley.

[Task 1: Destroy the ammunition depot located in the "Television Station" in the southern urban district.]

[Task 2: Use the "Spring Knife" experimental self-destruct drone to destroy a Conqueror No. 10 tank and photograph the wreckage.]

Located in the south of West State City, the old TV station had a total of three buildings and a two-story underground garage, housing 200-300 Looters and 20-40 artisans serving the Ya Clan.

This was a camp of the Ya Clan outside the Four New Districts, led by a Centurion called "Wind Howl," and it was also his domain.

According to the information from Brother Difficult for the Strong, midnight was when the camp’s defenses were most lax throughout the day, especially between twelve and twelve-thirty.

Sentries due for shift change hardly paid attention to patrolling.

The camp’s ammunition depot was located in the basement of the building on the west side of the TV station, with a Conqueror No. 10 in the middle of maintenance parked right in the eastern side of the underground garage.

The two missions coincidentally aligned.

The operation officially began.

Old White, leading Fang Chang, swiftly advanced along the pitch-dark streets toward the direction of the television station.

Perched atop a building, Night Ten, with an LD-47j semi-automatic equipped with a makeshift silencer, quickly eliminated two sentries stationed at the front gate of the television station and within a wooden watchtower, covering Old White and Fang Chang as they approached the television station’s enclosing wall.

They scaled the wall.

Dodging the campfires within the compound, the duo pressed against the wall and moved quickly. However, just as they were about to turn a corner, the leisurely sound of footsteps came from the right front.

Old White quickly gestured for Fang Chang to stop, then signaled two fingers and made a fist with his left hand.

Fang Chang instantly understood, drawing an arrow from his quiver and notching it to his bow, quietly moving behind a wooden box on the left.

Old White, meanwhile, abandoned his rifle and drew his dagger, creeping up to the corner of the wall, signaling to Fang Chang behind cover.

’OK?’

’OK.’

Hidden in the shadows, Fang Chang held his breath, counting down in his head as he drew the bowstring.

’Bullet time—’

’Now!’

The moment two Looters appeared around the corner, Fang Chang released the bowstring, and Old White lurking at the corner of the wall also moved simultaneously.

Whizz—

The sharp whir of slicing air was fleeting; the Looter on the left was pierced through the throat by an arrow, eyes wide in a choked gasp as blood gushed, collapsing backward.

The man on the right was even less prepared, only hearing the twang of the bowstring before a large hand stretched from the shadows, smothered his mouth, and slit his throat.

The hand loosened its grip on the dagger.

Old White, taking advantage of the motion, dragged the Looter struck in the throat by an arrow as he fell backward, laying the two bodies quietly in the corner.

Making an OK gesture to Fang Chang, Old White regained his grip on the rifle slung over his shoulder, signaling to continue forward.

Sticking to the wall, they crept deeper into the compound, where the sentry standing directly above them on the roof had already been taken out by Night Ten from a distance. The camp was as silent as if it were haunted.

Especially the atmosphere here.

A bloodthirsty scent permeated the entire camp. On the wooden utility poles and windows, hung or nailed bodies could be seen everywhere.

Some had even begun to rot and stink.

Most of these individuals were local survivors.

After executing the captured survivors, the Looters would drain their blood and smear it on the walls in graffiti or strange symbols, cursing and intimidating those survivors hiding underground and the guerrillas from the resistance organization.

But in reality, this method was futile.

The bloody oppression only spurred the determination of the local survivors to fight to the death, resolved to battle the man-eating beasts with black powder, bows and arrows, and spears.

Under Night Ten’s cover, the two of them coordinated tacitly, silently taking out five patrolling sentries as they made their way to the west side of the television station building.

The ammunition depot was hidden on the underground level of the west side building, its iron doors locked tight; the only key was placed in the drawer of the security room.

It was a pity that the size of the member from the Difficult for the Strong brotherhood was slightly too large; otherwise, they could have directly infiltrated the security room and stolen the key while the guard dozed off.

Lowering their footsteps, Old White crept into the guard room—skilled in silent steps and backstabs—he slit the throat of the sleeping Looter, then pocketed the keys from the drawer.

They unlocked the door and entered successfully.

The two shone flashlights around and took in the state of the ammo depot, simultaneously widening their eyes in disbelief.

"Fuck..."

"These bandits are living the good life."

Ripper Rifles lined the walls like firewood sticks, roughly counted there were at least a thousand. By NPC store retail prices of 100 silver coins each, just these rifles were worth 100,000 silver.

But there was more—many rooms were filled with boxes and bundles of ammunition, individual bullets shining with an orange and silver sheen under the flashlight’s glow.

Among them were purchased Copper Shell Bullets as well as homemade steel-shell bullets, and even reloaded bullets processed by slaves and artisans.

From corridor to cubicle, the less than 500 square meters of space was stuffed to the brim with an array of weapons!

Old White did a rough calculation; the weapons, ammunition, and other military supplies added up to at least worth a million!

"...Dammit, they even have 100mm shells here." Standing at the end of a corridor by a room, Fang Chang looked at the orange-yellow shells on the ammo rack and couldn’t help but smack his tongue.

This was such a windfall!

Old White: "Guess it’s for the Conqueror No. 10, a bit shorter than the ones we captured in Qingstone County."

The Conqueror No. 10 tank had many types of turrets, each corresponding to different caliber sizes, mostly 100mm.

Regret showed on Fang Chang’s face.

"It’s a pity we can’t steal them out!"

"Haha, stop dreaming—do you think this game still has storage space?" Old White took out the pre-packaged dynamite from his backpack, gave half to Fang Chang, "Let’s get to work quickly, fast in, fast out."

Having taken photos of all the ammunition in the depot, destroying specific targets would yield considerably higher mission rewards compared to vague ones.

They placed the dynamite under the ammo boxes, Old White and Fang Chang both set delayed fuses, then immediately withdrew from the ammo depot. They got out of the TV station along the original path before the Looter patrol could switch shifts.

After confirming his teammates had left and the targets on the way to the garage had been cleared, the drone controlled by Wild Wind began to lower its altitude, hurtled toward the entrance of the underground garage, and raced straight to the tanks in the northeastern corner along a preplanned route.

The whirring of the six rotors quickly drew the attention of the Looters, but by the time the drone had zoomed into the garage, intercepting it was impossible.

The drone, flying low, rapidly darted beneath a tank’s chassis. Its 15-kilogram warhead exploded instantaneously, the magnesium-aluminum powder-enhanced blast was comparable to two 155mm shells, especially in a confined space like an underground garage.

The violent shockwave not only scrapped the several-ton tank on the spot but also blasted the two anti-aircraft trucks parked beside it and the responding patrol team into fragments—causing a quarter of the garage to collapse, leaving a gaping crater on the ground.

The Looters in the camp were blown to a stupor, scrambling out of bed, they dashed out of the dorms located in the main building without even having time to put on their clothes.

A crowd rushed towards the ammo depot.

But before they could reach the guard room, a brilliant flash of light ignited right before their eyes.

The power of this explosion was several times that of the previous; the entire western building seemed to have been blown away.

The detonating ammunition crackled like firecrackers, even thrown up into the air by the explosive shockwaves, turning the dead of night into as bright as day with their snapping and popping.

In an instant, the camp was engulfed in death and injuries\; cries of pain and despair filled the air.

Standing amidst the ruins, the Centurion’s face was etched with despair.

Thinking of Lord Jin Ya’s cruel methods and those chilling punishments, his hand trembled as he drew his pistol and stuffed the barrel into his mouth.

The bang that followed, in the heated night, seemed so trivial that nobody even took notice...

"The power of that is way too fierce!" Having recorded the explosion, Night Ten, who was lying at the edge of the rooftop, couldn’t help but exclaim.

The scorching air current even reached him.

It was laced with a stench of something burnt...

Before, when reading discussions about explosive mixtures on the forum, Night Ten hadn’t had a concrete sense of it, but now he had a deep understanding of how egregious these folks were.

Hopefully, they would spend their excess time and energy in the Game rather than causing trouble in reality...

Having saved the video through VM, Night Ten put away his semi-automatic rifle and immediately left the building, hurrying to the rendezvous point, eight hundred meters away.

Old White and his group were already waiting for him there.

"Speaking of which, how do we handle the photo confirmation of the strike?" Suddenly thinking of a critical matter, Night Ten turned to Old White and asked.

Fang Chang glanced at the green dots on the VM map.

"...Difficult for the strong to go there and take photos, let’s return to the operation base and wait for his message."

The entire camp was now in shambles; it was unlikely anyone would notice a fat rat sneaking into the ruins caused by the explosion.

A rat plague had already erupted in West State City.

Rats startled by the explosion scurrying around the ruins were too common, and even if someone did notice him at this critical moment, they would probably ignore him.

But this time, they had poked the hornet’s nest.

The Jinya Faction, enraged, dispatched not one but five thousand teams and issued a deadly order to the Thousands of leaders responsible for patrolling the Southern Urban District that night—

If they couldn’t clear the New Alliance paratroopers from West State City by the end of the month, they’d turn him into a human stick and toss him into the lake to feed the crabs!

All the Looters in West State City were acting like maniacs.

The size of the patrols increased from tens to hundreds, and what was originally a main thoroughfare patrol became a carpet-style search building by building, floor by floor.

However, the players weren’t panicked at all, quite the opposite; they were excited.

What did this mean?

It meant their enemies were desperate!

Feedback fueled motivation. They’d intensify their efforts next time; after annihilating a battalion of the Chewing Bone Tribe this time, the goal for the next was to wipe out a division.

But that said, the original operation base in the abandoned shopping center was clearly no longer safe, and the radios deployed on the roof of the apartment building also had to be moved to the east.

After discussing it with other team leaders in the group, Old White made a decision at once, instructing each team leader to take their teammates and split into smaller units, in teams of eight, groups of four, heading out separately into the ruins of the urban area, alleys, and underground transportation network.

Just as the guerrilla war between the Burning Corps and the Chewing Bone Tribe heated up, Chu Guang received a battle report from the front line and immediately convened a strategy meeting.

"Two pieces of good news!"

"The day before yesterday, in the early hours of the morning, our Spring Knife, guided by ground troops, successfully destroyed the Conqueror No. 10 tank located in the abandoned bunkers in the southern part of West State City."

"From the photos of the blast debris, the damage to the tank’s chassis was severe, the structure was clearly deformed, and two sets of road wheels had fallen off the vehicle."

"Practice has proven that a fifteen-kilogram combat load is enough to destroy the chassis of the Conqueror No. 10 tank! The tactical idea of suicide drones is also viable!"

"Our intelligence personnel have recovered parts of the drone wreckage from the explosion site."

"Due to the short duration of the attack, most of the direct witnesses died in the explosion, and the attention of the enemy forces was diverted by the ammunition depot explosion, so it is highly probable that our enemies are still unclear about what weapon destroyed their tank."

Upon hearing this, joy spread across the faces of the officers present.

The fact that new equipment could counter enemy tanks was even more delightful than capturing Qingstone County and annihilating the Lion Tooth’s thousand team.

It meant they had another strong card to play.

And it was an ace!

Chu Guang was equally pleased.

Unlike the other officers present, he was thinking more about future ramifications.

Being able to destroy the Conqueror No. 10 tank meant not only that the New Alliance had gained the initiative to engage the Chewing Bone Tribe in a decisive battle, but also that they now had the strength to contend with the armored onslaught of an Army.

Of course, Chu Guang was also aware that if they were ever to come into direct conflict with the Army, they would face more than just tanks...

Vanus looked at Chu Guang, his intuition telling him that the Manager probably had more to say.

"These are two pieces of news?"

"Count it as one."

Pausing for a moment to gather his thoughts, Chu Guang continued.

"The second piece of news... which I think is good news."

"The Chewing Bone Tribe has changed their deployment, sent more soldiers to the front lines, and dug anti-explosion bunkers and vehicle shelters in a valley five kilometers from Pine forest. Our planes have spotted their trucks and anti-aircraft vehicles, but no tanks."

"In addition, a large number of slaves were sent to the front line. From aerial photos, they were seen with a small number of modified excavators, bulldozers, and other construction equipment."

"A conservative estimate puts the number there at five thousand!"

Five thousand!

Hearing this number, many officers in the room adopted grave expressions, including Vanus.

The number of registered permanent residents in the New Alliance barely surpassed five thousand, and that included many old people, children, and women.

The enemy’s numbers were overwhelming!

Vanus frowned but was thinking about another matter.

"It’s very much like the operational style of the 21st Ten thousand troops... The commander is likely to be Dylon. Those anti-cannon holes and anti-aircraft cannons deployed on the high ground are probably in preparation for the tanks moving to the front line."

The Ten Thousand Leader of the 21st Ten thousand troops!

That guy was not easy to deal with!

Vanus could even guess his plan.

Nothing more than to use terrain and fortifications to preserve armored units, concentrating forces and armored advantages, and breaking through New Alliance’s defense line with the protection of anti-aircraft vehicles.

Anti-aircraft vehicles couldn’t stop all planes, especially when unprepared.

It looked like the Looters were ready to sacrifice some tanks and determined to storm New Alliance’s position, even at the cost of significant casualties.

Clearly, the continuous casualties and losses had made them frantic.

"...Whether it’s Dylon, Golden Tooth, or anyone else, my intuition tells me that the moment for a savage showdown is upon us. Our enemies have begun to realize that if the standoff continues, they have only one way to go—death... However, the fact that they’ve only discovered this now is a little late."

Placing his hands on the table, Chu Guang looked around at the officers standing in the tent and spoke in a clear and decisive tone.

"We will intercept the armor divisions of the Ya Clan at Pine forest."

"That will be their graveyard!"