This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 399: The Time Has Come to Test Mobilization Capability

Chapter 399: Chapter 399: The Time Has Come to Test Mobilization Capability

While the Iron Heart unleashed its fury on the deserted district, the official game forum was bustling with activity in another world.

Almost immediately after logging off, the Death Legion’s players couldn’t wait to share the firsthand battle reports from the frontline on the official website.

Besides reporting the results of the battle, these pioneers who first tasted the "crab" also shared their practical experience and test thoughts on the "Wolf Cavalry" tactics.

Yuye Shisanlang: "Damn, that felt good!"

Midnight With an Umbrella, No Knife: "666!"

Sheep Again Package: "Garbage Lord is freaking awesome! (voice crack)"

Laplace: "No exaggeration, no bias, our Garbage Lord is pretty much flawless except for not being the brightest bulb!"

Mama, You Wouldn’t Either: "Can’t get any better! There’s no mount more perfect than Garbage Lord!"

Pick up trash 99 level: "???"

Edge Shoveling: "Cough cough, it’s okay to call him that in private, but let’s be a little more respectful in Garbage Lord’s presence."

Tail: "Damn it, Tail wants to raise one too! QAQ"

Si Si: "Ah Tail, aren’t you riding Meat Meat anymore?"

Tail: "Only kids would have to choose, Ah Tail of course wants them all! ψ(｀∇´)ψ"

To date, Shelter No.79 has installed 17 Claws of Death with mind interference devices, and almost all have been assigned to the Death Legion.

In last night’s ambush, almost all seventeen Wolf Cavalry had been deployed, and the results they achieved were quite gratifying—living up to the Manager’s expectations.

Twenty cavalry against a hundred-man squad and ten Army elites.

The battle lasted less than three minutes from the exchange of fire to the end, and the opponents had barely formed an effective resistance before they were routed by the Wolf Cavalry’s charge.

Practice had proved that this outdated cavalry tactic, though seemingly unreliable, when combined with new era biological technology and tactical concepts, had an unexpected chemistry-like miraculous effect on the Wasteland.

The high melee and mobility of the Claw of Death, coupled with the players’ mid-close range firepower, created an "Orc-Unity" fighting style that was almost invincible in rugged terrain—especially in urban settings!

Especially against unarmored, less mobile soft targets, those infantry relying on cover to shoot were practically live targets for the hunting Claws of Death.

Of course, while the DPS of the Claw of Death was high, the role of the players on the battlefield was equally undeniable.

For example, in last night’s ambush.

It wasn’t just the Claws of Death that performed well, but also the light weapons designed for the "Wolf Cavalry" by Goblin Technology.

The most outstanding performances undoubtedly belonged to two models: the LD-50 carbine and the "Whirlwind" grenade launcher!

The former, at first glance, resembled the AK-74U, but it was an improvement on the LD-47 rifle, using the same 7mm full-power cartridges, yet its overall structure was more compact than that of the assault rifle with slightly better power and stability than a submachine gun.

Its design concept was not for cavalry to fire from the back of the Claw of Death to kill enemies, but to allow them to dismount and enter buildings with the mighty melee and sensitive smell of the Claw of Death to clear out any remaining enemies.

However, practice showed that firing from atop the Claw of Death, although less than ideal in output, was not unfeasible.

At least for level 20 Agility system players, as long as they timed their shots correctly and were familiar with their weapons, they could hit targets behind cover while on the move.

At the same time, the Wolf Cavalry hardly had any need to dismount for combat, recharging their rounds and retreating was the most efficient tactic.

As for clearing out remaining enemies in buildings.

That could be left to the other infantry of the Death Legion who were all street-fighting experts and good at using cheap weapons to save on costs.

As for the other equipment crafted for the Wolf Cavalry—the "Whirlwind" grenade launcher—it was a Goblin Technology replica of the real-world MGL revolver grenade launcher.

The thing looked like an oversized revolver.

Its revolver-style chamber allowed for the quick firing of multiple grenades, unleashing vast firepower to suppress and cover the cavalry as they quickly broke through the defenses.

Being the world’s most produced 40mm grenade launcher, the MGL is akin to the AK among grenade launchers, the RPG among rocket launchers, well-liked by paramilitary forces for its reliability and output capacity. The replicas, therefore, are as numerous as cattle, prompting Mosquito to unhesitatingly add it to his product list.

For ease of mass production, Mosquito Brother made certain modifications to the weapon, such as the most notable alteration of reducing the caliber from 40mm to 37mm.

However, even though the caliber of the weapon was reduced by 3mm, its power was by no means small—on the contrary, it was even stronger!

After all, a weapon’s power cannot just be measured by the caliber—it also depends on the charge.

The New Alliance Scientific Expedition Team’s unlocking of the N10- anionic salt azido compound had perfectly replaced the previously used black gold and TNT in the explosive charge of the shell.

This high-performance explosive saved a lot of space in the warhead’s charge area, allowing more steel pellets and shrapnel to be crammed in.

Not just fragmentary grenades.

Goblin Technology had developed a special type of arrow-shaped ammunition for the "Whirlwind" grenade launcher.

Its structure was similar to a shotgun, but instead of the typical steel pellets, it was loaded with slender steel needles!

This kind of specialty bullet had extremely strong close-range armor-piercing capabilities, specifically targeting the hard armor of the Legion soldiers and the bulletproof lining they inserted into their armor.

Although the 7mm full-power rounds of the LD-47 rifle packed a massive amount of kinetic energy and fierce power, their armor-piercing performance was actually not outstanding.

Especially against hard armor, if the bullet fragmented, its armor-piercing capability would be greatly reduced. It could cause internal injuries but had difficulty killing outright.

However, this "arrow-shaped armor-piercing bullet" didn’t have that problem.

When the "Wolf Cavalry" from the Death Legion launched their first charge, the leading five Wolf Cavalry had used this custom ammunition, turning several heavily armored Legion soldiers into porcupines.

The Wolf Cavalry who followed used high-explosive grenades against the unarmored targets like the Retinue Army, delivering a round of covering fire.

It was precisely because of this that when Claw of death charged at those people’s faces, the entire hundred-man team had almost lost the ability to resist and could only be slaughtered unilaterally...

WC Really Have Mosquitos: "Ah, what a pity! There are too many shelters in the urban area, which don’t show the power of explosives! If it was trench warfare, the damage from my grenade launcher would definitely be more terrifying!"

Canyon Escaping Mole: "Trench warfare is still okay, but are you treating this as fighting little kids? (sidelong glance)"

Makabazi: "Hey, only after encountering the Army did I realize that compared to these well-trained regular forces, the Chewing Bone Tribe is just a little brother."

Quit Bullshitting: "Wait, have you actually gone to the front line??"

Makabazi: "It’s not important. My crops went to the front line, which means I went to the front line. (smirk)"

Quit Bullshitting: "What the fuck?! That counts?"

Rolling Drum Washing Machine: "Speaking of which, it’d be great if we could get a shield. I just realized when I got home that both of my legs were shot."

Elena: "Should we steal the Manager’s hammer? I remember that hammer can activate a shield, and it’s pretty awesome too. (smirk)"

Gnome King Riches: "Actually, there’s no need to steal it. If you guys work hard to get our Manager to upgrade to god-tier equipment, once he gets bored with the hammer, you guys should be able to use it, right? (smirk)"

Rolling Drum Washing Machine: "Now that you mention it, I feel like I’m picking up trash."

Fang Chang: "Isn’t picking up trash the essence of the Game? (smirk)"

But having said that, not everyone could pick up equipment used by a Manager.

Such unique, historically significant weapons would fetch sky-high prices at auctions, no matter how good they were.

For instance, the hunting gun from the "Blood Hand Clan BOSS" that Mosquito got hold of earlier, even though it was rusted to the point of falling apart, still started at a five-figure value.

Just as the players were side-tracking to discuss how much the Manager’s hammer was worth, an announcement suddenly popped up on the official website.

[System Announcement: The expansion pack "Sands of Thousand Miles" will launch after the world-class BOSS "Iron Heart" airship is shot down.]

"Fuck?!"

"Awesome!"

After the message came out.

The official forum exploded in an instant.

Another expansion pack in less than two months!

Aren’t the updates coming a bit too frequently?!

...

Rui Valley City, West district.

The Spring Water Commander, hiding on a rooftop, clutched his binoculars, staring intently at the airship above, and suddenly muttered softly,

"...Something is off."

I Max Black, standing by, asked curiously.

"What’s off?"

After pondering for a moment, the Spring Water Commander said,

"Look at that elevator. Yesterday it was full going down, empty going up. Today, it’s full going back up, empty coming down... don’t you think that’s strange?"

And that wasn’t all.

Spring Water had also noticed that several pieces of engineering equipment previously deployed on the ground were gradually being moved from the surface to the sky.

Normally, constructing defensive works is a planned, continuous process, and it made no sense to withdraw the equipment after only a month of deployment.

Unless.

The other side plans to move their position.

Spring Water Commander frowned, suddenly remembering the announcement posted on the official forum last night.

The new expansion pack would launch after the "Iron Heart" was shot down.

If the other side planned to withdraw...

Would the expansion pack still launch?

Putting down the binoculars, Spring Water Commander turned to I Max Black and said,

"Notify the others... log off and hold a combat meeting."

"OK!" I Max Black immediately nodded and headed downstairs.

Although the Army could precisely locate the source of radio signals within twenty kilometers, there were always more solutions than problems.

Previously, the Storm Corps players deployed a large number of manually activated "disposable" radios in the city, which allowed the front-line troops to maintain radio silence while unilaterally delivering orders.

As for confirming whether the orders were carried out, it was simple: just log off and shout in the group chat.

The Legion System in "Wasteland OL" was in fact a variant of the Guild system, and naturally, guilds had "groups" like these.

To make this out-of-game play more efficient, Spring Water specifically created a dispatcher role in the Army, responsible for conveying the front-line players’ feedback from the group chat into the game.

He guessed that everyone must have logged off by now.

Spring Water retracted his binoculars and cautiously retreated inside the building, finding a quiet corner to lie down and logged out of the game.

He picked up his mobile phone and glanced at the WeChat group.

He was just about to communicate his findings with his teammates, when he saw his mole in the enemy camp, "Pangolin," excitedly reporting the latest movements of the Army to his brothers in the group.

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Breaking news! Those big-nosed guys are planning to retreat!"

"Kakarot": "Evacuation?!"

Graveyard Ghost Catcher: "What’s happening???"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "According to the sentries at the entrance of Fallen Leaf Camp, General Griffin has summoned them to head to Oasis No. 9 in Sunset Province; they plan to evacuate within a week... However, Captain McCullen seems reluctant to give up the outpost they established in the Southern River Valley Province and is planning to leave some ground troops to hold the position."

I Max Black: "Damn, are they just going to walk away like that?"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "I’m not sure about that, but from what I heard from the black-robed soldiers discussing, it seems that General McCullen lost his temper last night... Those big-nosed guys have finally realized that they were battling not corporations, but the local natives instead."

It took nearly a month of effort to realize they had been matching wits with thin air, as the corporate reinforcements had already slipped into the desert right under their noses.

Although he hadn’t witnessed it personally, Old Soldier could imagine that General McCullen must be fuming by now.

However...

The other players were more concerned about something else.

I Max Black: "Fuck? They figured out it was us?"

"Kakarot": "Impossible, right? We didn’t blow our cover, did we?"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Well, they haven’t realized it’s us yet, our Alliance’s reputation around Rui Valley City is still too low. Those soldiers in power armor... they seem to have mistaken it for Giant Stone City."

Speaking of which, he had a part to play in this.

Old Soldier remembered that Coleway came to him asking who the strongest local power was, and he answered without hesitation that it was Giant Stone City.

Furthermore, he exaggerated by saying that the nobles of Jushi Inner City were all bootlickers to the corporations and even had their organs replaced with Ideal City products.

That statement was not wrong.

Ever since Brother Fang Chang opened the bionic prosthesis market in Giant Stone City, many nobles in the Inner City had started using high-end goods from the East Coast.

"Kakarot": "Pfft..."

Spring Water Commander: "I see, that makes sense now."

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Sense about what?"

Spring Water Commander: "Since they’ve realized that corporate reinforcements have entered the desert, they were likely called back for defense. General Griffin, I suppose, must be something like a commandant of the Army stationed in Sunset Province. Otherwise, I don’t believe that McCullen wouldn’t try to pound Giant Stone City with a few salvos before leaving."

Although they had gained a certain advantage recently, he was very clear that this small advantage was far from enough to force the Army to retreat and cut their losses.

Unless the other party had changed their deployment.

From this perspective, the friendly forces that penetrated deep into the desert must have had some impact; otherwise, the Steel Heart wouldn’t have rushed back for reinforcement.

He originally thought those twenty power armors wouldn’t be of much use.

Now it seemed he had underestimated the power of technology.

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Say, if that world-class BOSS gets away... can we still launch our new expansion pack?"

I Max Black: "What the fuck?! You didn’t mention this, and I almost forgot, isn’t the condition for launching the new expansion pack to destroy that airship?"

The messages in the group instantly flooded the screen.

They had discussed the server announcement all day yesterday, and it hadn’t even been 24 hours, were they now being told that the expansion pack might be gone?!

Spring Water Commander: "This is also my biggest concern. For now, let’s not consider the planners playing us for fools. I speculate there are two possibilities, one is that the expansion pack will be delayed, and the other is that the missed Steel Heart becomes one of the new expansion pack’s BOSSes."

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "If it’s the latter... does that mean there’s no impact?"

Spring Water Commander: "No, the latter is the worst-case scenario."

I Max Black: "Huh?"

Spring Water Commander: "Think about it, if an airship is already so difficult to deal with, what happens when it returns to merge with the main forces, after sorting out the trouble in the desert, and comes back? Won’t the difficulty skyrocket from hell to nightmare?"

The troops aboard the Steel Heart were mostly composed of light infantry and light armor. The likes of heavy equipment, such as Conqueror series tanks, hadn’t been encountered yet.

Not to mention the various support-capable infantry fighting vehicles, self-propelled guns, and the clone light infantry adept at human sea assaults.

Spring Water believed the army must possess these things.

Once the Steel Heart was allowed to return and merge with the army’s ground forces, forming an integrated air-ground combat system, the boost in combat power would be anything but simple arithmetic like "1+1=2".

By then, the Alliance would face not merely a battleship flying in the sky, but a true "Army"!

Seeing that no one spoke in the group, Spring Water Commander continued typing.

"The most fatal part is, if the addition of the Steel Heart changes the situation on the western front, we will most likely have to face the direct threat from the Army."

"This is the last chance, and the only chance. We must keep it here before it retreats from the River Valley Province."

"At all costs!"

If they lost,

the server would reset.

And everything they had gained from the game would be taken back with the server’s closure.

Although most players approached the game with a relaxed attitude, the fact was that their fate had already been tied to this "world".

Even if they mockingly complained about the dog planners being inhuman, most players wouldn’t deny that they obtained many indispensable things from Wasteland OL.

Be it friendship, love, money, knowledge, status, or something else.

At this moment,

every player in the group got serious.

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Do we have any good methods?"

After a moment of silence, Spring Water Commander typed.

"Yes."

"But we can’t do it with just the few of us!"

"I need cooperation from other armies... No, not just the players from the army system, but also those individual players who haven’t joined any armies, even the lifestyle profession players. We need at least five thousand people to ensure our plan unfolds smoothly."

Kakarot: "Five thousand people... The server for Wasteland OL only has about five thousand people, right?"

Grave Catching Ghost: "Including newbies, we might scrape together just over five thousand, but newbies who have just joined the game struggle to even kill a cockroach... I think it’s doubtful."

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "And we have at most one week’s time..."

Watching the messages continually popping up in the group, Spring Water Commander moved his thumb and continued typing.

"Yes."

"The time has come to test our mobilization capabilities."

-

(I feel much better today, I’ll go for another shot this afternoon then I don’t need to go anymore... I feel if I crossed over to the wasteland, I probably wouldn’t last a Chapter before being gone.)

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