This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 346 Aviation Fuel is a Big Problem

Chapter 346: Chapter 346 Aviation Fuel is a Big Problem

Official Forum.

Members of the Bull and Horse Squad who had logged off early were chatting on the idle talk board.

It all started with Night Ten’s brother posting a reply under the official website announcement, which was accidentally seen by an acquaintance. To defend himself from accusations of free-feeding, claiming it was due to an absurdly difficult map design, he opened a thread in the idle talk section to describe just how dangerous the situation had been.

While Night Ten was in the middle of describing how thousands of drones had them trapped in a building, and how he fought a retreating battle to cover his teammates’ escape, Wild Wind’s ID suddenly popped up in the thread.

Wild Wind, "I was just wondering if you’d be too bored coming down by yourself, but now I see you’ve been blowing your own horn on the official site. (side-eye)"

The Dinosaur Warrior turned dark, "Hahahaha! I knew it was fake!"

Rebel with a small cause, "I knew it all along! Not a single trustworthy word from these Europeans!"

The replies filled with raucous laughter flooded the screen.

Although at this time, ninety percent of the people flooding the forum had never entered the game, that didn’t stop them from jeering.

These damn Exalted!

Take my spear!

Of course, Night Ten wouldn’t pay attention to the backseat drivers’ ridicule, and with a flick of his index finger, he changed the display settings to "View Replies from Closed Beta Players Only."

This was a new feature developed by Brother Guang in the last few versions.

The world instantly became peaceful.

Pretending nothing had happened, Night Ten continued typing.

"What the fuck?! Wild Wind? You came down too?"

Wild Wind, "After we collected Falling Feather’s VM, we prepared to go back the way we came, but when leaving the building, we encountered a large number of evolutionary bodies..."

Wild Wind briefly described the situation at that time.

They hadn’t been away from the building for long when a dozen double-legged robots parasitized by mucosal entities set their sights on them.

Although the weapons systems of these robots had been paralyzed, the "mutated slime fungus" had endowed them with new weapons—tentacles.

Then there were also "snails" that treated magnetic levitation train carriages as their shells blocking the road, and "mud monsters" uglier than Zacks filling up the entire alley.

Compared to that, what Eaters and Crawlers? Utterly weak!

Just like those "mucosal version drones."

Most of the mucosal entity’s combat modes can be summed up in three stages: "Charge at the target," "Close-quarters brawl," and "Eating organs tearing."

Some evolutionary bodies with maternal characteristics could assimilate "heretics" by injecting spores into them, turning them into their own units.

A very small number of Variants relied on "corrosive liquids" or "self-detonation" to damage targets, but such Variants tended to exist in the form of traps and had poor mobility.

These combat methods might seem primitive, but it was this very primitiveness that caused great trouble for squads venturing deep into the third ring.

The vitality of mucor species Variants was outrageously tenacious, their HP more than a zero higher than that of players.

After merging with high-tech products from the Era of Prosperity, these "evolutionary bodies" had gained strong defensive capabilities and modes of mobility that transcended ordinary beings.

And this also resulted in these evolutionary bodies each being as strong as a Source Force Warrior, their combat power outrageously high.

"Anyway, lucky for us that we didn’t encounter any Decaying Knights in power armor, we immediately headed to the evacuation point after retrieving the mission props."

"But an accident still happened on the way back, the mobility of the Intelligence System indeed is a bit weak... well, that’s basically the situation."

Compared to Night Ten’s exaggerated narrative style, Physical Professor tended to be more credible when he spoke. However, when it came to his own specific cause of death, Wild Wind just glossed over it with a light touch, unwilling to elaborate.

Falling Feather, "Cries, that’s too tragic."

Night Ten, "Then your mechanical hand..."

Wild Wind, "I had Fang Zhang chop off my arm."

Night Ten, "Awesome!"

While it was a basic operation, being able to calmly talk about such things in a way was also a sign of strength...

Just then, Quit Smoking’s ID suddenly popped up.

The big guy, "Wow, you guys have been chatting for hundreds of floors now, not bad!"

Night Ten, "Fuck! How come you, a Body Constitution System guy, are also down here?"

Quit Smoking, "Ah, don’t even mention it. I stupidly touched a corpse, and before it had completely cooled down, it suddenly sprang over, and I instantly died!"

Wild Wind, "..."

Quit Smoking, "Cough, don’t worry... Old White and Fang Zhang should be fine, we were already not far from the evacuation point at that time."

Wild Wind, "Well, I don’t ask for much... just for someone to survive."

Wild Wind, usually a man of few words, couldn’t help but pray for his teammates this time.

Experience and such were trivial, but their equipment absolutely could not blow up.

Frugality is a trait shared by every "Wasteland OL" player.

It’s not that players don’t want to waste resources, it’s just that they don’t have the conditions.

For mass-produced goods like the LD-47 assault rifle, it’s fine to just buy another if it breaks, but for some weapons with the prefix[Rare]or even[Special], one wouldn’t know where to buy another if they exploded!

In the words of the Dog plan, deciding whether or not to use high-value equipment considering the risk of the mission was also part of the game.

The thread quickly went off track.

Seeing that the whole server’s T0 combat power was so miserably abused by the Variants inside the third ring, the players in the thread and the backseat drivers started a new debate.

Whether the future of the version lies in "genetic enhancement" or "mechanical ascension"...

...

Just as the discussion in the post was heating up, the two surviving members of the Bull and Horse Squad finally returned to City of Dawn, escorted by their team mates from Edge.

The harvest this time was quite astonishing.

Not only did the Bull and Horse Squad bring back the missing pilot’s VM and the tissue samples of the mutated mucosal species from inside Qingquan City’s third ring road, but they also brought back a large number of evolutionary body catalogs and relics!

Especially the latter.

They could not only enrich the setting collection on the "Wasteland OL" official website and feed Backseat Drivers more cakes, but they also provided a wealth of research material for the archaeology team.

The relics of those evolutionary bodies were like living fossils.

With their bodies, they recorded the shapes and working methods of the high-tech products from the Era of Prosperity.

For the New Alliance, which relied entirely on archaeology for scientific research, the help was no doubt immense!

Since Yin Fang was in West State City working on fuel rods and couldn’t come back for the time being, Chu Guang sent these samples to the medical laboratory to let Heya research in the meantime.

On Yin Fang’s side, Chu Guang asked him to help analyze the pilot’s VM data.

Regarding Falling Feather’s crash, Chu Guang always felt something was amiss.

Especially according to the pilot’s description on the Forum, it further confirmed his suspicion.

The glider didn’t crash due to an accident.

It was shot down by something...

Without a long wait, Yin Fang quickly completed the analysis of the data.

In the communication channel, he began to speak.

"You guessed it right, your little airplane was indeed shot down, and it was taken down by an EMP or similar weapon."

EMP?!

The wooden glider?

Chu Guang’s expression was filled with weirdness.

Speaking of which.

The structure of the airplane made by Mosquito was already as simple as it could get.

Apart from the battery and a few instrument panels, which had a bit of technological essence, the degree of electronic elements in other parts was almost close to 0.

As is well known, in the absence of countermeasures against Electromagnetic Pulses, the smaller the electronic devices are constructed, the more powerful the killing effect of the EMP will be.

For something as thick as a brick, like the "big brother" phones and old-fashioned radios, the effect of Electromagnetic Pulses is quite limited.

Not to mention the wooden airplane designed by Mosquito.

"Are you sure you didn’t see it wrong?"

"I’m certain, very certain. If I could get something wrong that’s written in the ’black box,’ then I may as well have lived these twenty-plus years for nothing."

After a pause, Yin Fang continued, "Although it sounds strange, the data traces from the VM indicate that the time of the Electromagnetic Pulse and the strong impact almost coincide."

"A reasonable speculation is that the Electromagnetic Pulse caused the signal location component in the VM to malfunction, and due to low environmental visibility, the pilot lost judgment of direction and ended up crashing."

"...That does make sense." A solemn look crossed Chu Guang’s face.

If the crash was caused by an EMP attack, only two possibilities remained.

Either the evolutionary bodies within the third ring road or the steel friends from Giant Stone City gave him a rocket boost.

The latter possibility was very small.

Using Electromagnetic Pulse weapons against modern equipment was like using a nuclear bomb as fireworks.

And it might not even work.

But if it was the evolutionary bodies...

Chu Guang couldn’t imagine how those mutated mucosal species managed it.

Seeing that Chu Guang didn’t speak, Yin Fang continued with his own thoughts.

"...Honestly, I’m starting to have more respect for those annoying mucors. Whether it’s the parasites on Batch’s body or the power armors and tanks that appeared in the Tide, their learning and environmental adaptation abilities even give me a feeling..."

Here, Yin Fang hesitated for a while, seemingly pondering which words to use.

Chu Guang could probably guess what he wanted to say, but he still asked.

"A feeling of what?"

"A feeling...that they are more suited to this planet than we are."

He paused for a moment before continuing in an uncertain tone.

"Haven’t you noticed? While we are doing archaeology, they’re also doing archaeology, albeit in a completely different way than us, but in fact, they are indeed drawing nutrients from our ancestors."

"The first generation of evolutionary bodies still relied on external objects to strengthen themselves. Like the Decaying Knight we encountered before, whose strength came from the armor that wrapped it. Although a bit hard to deal with, the number of power armors is limited; taking down one means one less to contend with."

"However, by the second generation, they no longer needed external objects but were able to evolve their own knockoff versions of ’power armor,’ and reproduce on a large scale... You should know what I’m talking about."

Chu Guang pondered.

"You mean ’Tyrants’?"

That name that made numerous Waste Land Wanderers pale with fear.

In a one-on-one situation, even Awakeners would find it troublesome. Common 7mm bullets could hardly inflict effective damage, at medium and long distances they could still use large-caliber light and heavy "Cavalry Guns," but up close there were hardly any particularly effective means.

Yin Fang on the other end of the communication channel nodded.

"Exactly!"

According to previous research from the medical laboratory, Tyrants could be considered as two individual entities.

The inner entities were roughly shaped like undergrown Eaters, while the external ones had self-healing keratin armor.

Although the imitation was rather crude, many similarities could prove that the Tyrant had evolved from the "Decaying Knight" blueprint.

"... the Tyrant is the most typical example, we can find connections among ethology, sociology, and biology between the Decaying Knight and the Tyrant."

"This vast ’beehive’ has evolved tens of thousands of evolutionary bodies to fulfill the division of labor in their society. Their imitation of us is clumsy, but it’s just now; historical experience tells us that the development of anything progresses from maturity to immaturity."

"I don’t even dare to assume what it will be like in a century, what the third-generation evolutionary bodies will look like."

"Unlike the Mutants who have given up on humanity, they are becoming us, assimilating us, and trying to replace us."

Yin Fang sighed softly.

"This is the most chilling part..."

...

Dawn City Industrial Zone, the factory of Goblin Technology.

Mosquito, sitting amongst a pile of parts and a blackboard, along with his four self-taught "apprentices," was still losing hair over the task assigned by the Manager.

To break the limits of speed, the first issue to tackle was the engine problem.

The ideal situation would be to go straight to jet propulsion.

However, even the simplest jet propulsion would require parts like the compressor, combustion chamber, and turbine.

The temperature of the fan blades and compressor blades was not too demanding, allowing the use of A3 aluminum alloy, but the turbine blades needed more attention.

Operating temperatures over a thousand degrees would significantly reduce the strength of steel and titanium, so nickel was the only option.

However, even single-crystal nickel alloys risk melting under high heat, hence blades often had tiny internal channels and holes cast into them.

This was a complex technology, demanding not only extremely specific material requirements but also casting technology.

Fortunately, Factory No.81 had indicated they could possibly find a way to solve the engine blade issue.

Getting a MiG engine was unrealistic, but producing something akin to the grandfather of the MiG – "Ta183" – was worth a try.

A sufficient number of long-range jet missiles—or rather jet airplanes—could at least procure a slight air advantage for the New Alliance.

Help from friendly businesses was undoubtedly good news for Goblin Technology.

Being able to craft the blades would at least halve the trouble they faced with jet propulsion engines.

However...

Mosquito hadn’t had the chance to celebrate when he immediately realized a problem more severe than the engine.

They had no fuel!

There were many choices for aviation fuel in reality.

But this was the Wasteland.

The New Alliance’s oil was mainly dependent on the Kham Tree Plantation’s production, but this biomass oil was too "light," lacking the highly branched isoparaffins required.

Using it as an industrial raw material was no problem, as the New Alliance’s industrial demand for isoparaffins wasn’t too severe. For general fuel purposes, it was acceptable, as even without processing, it could be lit with a simple vaporizer.

But aviation fuel was not so easily fooled.

The critical component of aviation kerosene was the highly branched isoparaffins, followed by issues like sulfur content and impurities.

Even with lowered demands for calorific value and density of the fuel, there was no existing technology to refine biomass oil into aviation fuel.

That’s because, in reality, the "Kham Tree" species didn’t even exist, so there was nowhere to copy homework from.

Biomass oil was at the forefront of energy conservation and emission reduction research, replete with "phase results" and proliferate PPTs, but no one had heard of a company that could replace oilfields with oil crops while also solving carbon emissions and industrial raw materials.

Oil grown from the ground?

Could such a good thing even exist?!

If it really existed in reality,

The whole world would go mad!

Just as everyone was racking their brains without finding a solution, Soul Chaser suddenly spoke up, breaking the silence.

"What if... we try solid fuel? Like burning coal?"

Sitting beside him, Fatal’s eyes suddenly lit up.

"You mean the Lippisch P13A?"

Kill God said excitedly.

"Awesome, brother! I’ve seen that thing!"

Though it was in the Game.

Sitting aside, Discourage shook his head, picking up a piece of chalk from the ground.

"Cut the crap, isn’t that an air pulse engine?"

Drawing a simple diagram in the remaining space on the board, it seemed slightly simpler than a turbojet.

But only a bit.

"This thing is still a concept to this day, although it’s resurfaced for research, herald as a breakthrough for N times the speed of sound flight. Yet the heat barrier issue has never been solved, and the insufficient calorific value of the fuel is another major problem. As for the P13A... that thing was just a paper plane, never saw battle, and whether it has ever been made remains a mystery."

Mosquito glanced at him curiously.

"Aren’t you working at the drone factory?"

Discourage embarrassedly grinned.

"Heh, just a hobby... what’s wrong with that, your family runs a furniture factory too, right?"

Mosquito rolled his eyes.

"I really do own a furniture factory."

Discourage couldn’t help laughing and said,

"I didn’t say you weren’t."

Though the problem was still unresolved, the atmosphere of the discussion had become more lively.

Everyone was chipping in with ideas, one after another. Even if many were impractical brainstorms, it was certainly better than watching time slip by in silence.

Just then, there was a knock at the door.

Mosquito got up, walked over, and opened it, but standing at the door was an NPC guard.

Seeing the black uniform, Mosquito was taken aback and blurted out in United Human language without thinking,

"It wasn’t us."

The guard was also taken aback and said, confused,

"What... wasn’t you?"

Noticing the puzzled expression on the guard’s face, Mosquito coughed awkwardly.

"Nothing... just a habit, heh heh."

Every time the guards came knocking, it was never good news; either something had blown up or something had caught fire.

He was almost conditioned to respond that way.

The guard eyed Mosquito suspiciously for a moment but said nothing and professionally handed over the package he was holding.

"Someone asked me to bring this package for you."

"A package for me? Who?" Mosquito took the package, completely baffled.

"A little girl, about this tall..." The guard used his hand to gesture her height, about one meter fifty-six, with golden hair, "She didn’t leave a name, just asked me to deliver this package to Goblin Technology."

Mosquito immediately guessed who it was and said, realizing,

"Oh oh oh, is it that Pai? Thanks!"

"You’re welcome."

After the package was delivered, the guard didn’t linger. He left upon completing the task assigned by the Manager.

The door closed.

Mosquito, holding the package, returned to his disciples with a smug look.

A gift from an NPC!

This was, of course, the time to show off!

The four beasts indeed noticed what was in his hands, and Kill God was the first to approach, asking curiously,

"What’s that you’re holding?"

Mosquito grinned.

"Remember the girl from yesterday?"

Soul Chaser exclaimed in surprise,

"Pai?"

Mosquito shook the package in his hand proudly,

"A gift for me."

Upon hearing this, everyone was first stunned, then shocked.

"Holy shit?"

"You beast!"

Mosquito rolled his eyes,

"Get lost! Can’t it be that she admires my profound knowledge and wants me as her mentor?"

Kill God gagged,

"I’m gonna puke."

Ignoring him, Mosquito opened the package.

However, when he saw what was inside, he froze for a moment.

Inside the package was a glass bottle filled with a transparent liquid.

Holding it in his hand and examining it for a while, Mosquito’s expression was one of confusion,

"What the heck is this?"

Soul Chaser rolled his eyes,

"Weren’t you deep in knowledge?"

"Must be some sort of quest prop from an NPC... why don’t you take a sip?" Discourage suggested teasingly.

To be honest, Mosquito did consider it.

But before drinking, it’s always prudent to give it a sniff.

However, as soon as he unscrewed the cap and brought it close to his nose, the stench that wafted up made his eyebrows scrunch up instantly.

"Holy shit!"

What on earth smelled so foul!

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