This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 426: Can’t Help But Praise, Ah Guang is Really in the Details!

Chapter 426: Chapter 426: Can’t Help But Praise, Ah Guang is Really in the Details!

He found a latrine to squat in and logged off.

Old Soldier organized these flavorful pieces of intelligence into a document.

However, he didn’t immediately post it; instead, he returned to the game and followed Coleway on the road to the Army’s frontline command.

If he let that guy wait too long and found himself zoning out in a latrine, it would be tough to explain...

When night fell, and the peak time for players logging in and out arrived,

Old Soldier spent a good half-hour finishing up the intel and then smugly stuffed it into a forum post.

As he anticipated,

as soon as the new intel went online, it quickly caught the players’ attention.

In just a minute, dozens of comments appeared below the post.

Tail: "Woo-hoo! It’s the dark orcs!

Si Si: "Wow! That’s cool, but it sounds like they just slapped on a new paint job on the model, right? (side eye)"

Debt Giant Eye: "So... it’s just a garrison of a thousand team? This intel is kind of weak, Pangolin bro. (funny)"

Spring Water Commander: "But the equipment parameters are quite interesting. Too bad the prisoners we caught earlier were from the air force; no idea about the army equipment."

Construction Boy with Brick: "How did Coleway know this? Isn’t he an officer on the Iron Heart?"

Spring Water Commander: "His immediate superior is Rachel, belonging to the Marine Corps, responsible for training the Retinue Army; maybe he knows more about land combat equipment? Or did he previously serve in the army system?"

Edge Shoveling: "That’s possible! No wonder we couldn’t get anything out of those prisoners we caught earlier."

Elena: "Not bad. You’ve done well, brother! (funny)"

"..."

Everyone helped to analyze the intel, with some focusing on the characteristics of the equipment to find its weaknesses, while others bragged amidst the chaos.

"Damn! These dogs have really high standards!"

"I risked my life to bring back this intel; be grateful!"

Sitting in front of the computer, Old Soldier rolled his eyes and quickly typed a reply.

Following that, he excitedly hammered the F5 button, keeping an eye on the time in the bottom-right corner and watching the number of replies soar.

Trending list!

This time it had to be secure!

In fact, hitting the trending list didn’t actually come with any rewards. Ah Guang had already tagged his post as high-quality, and the reward for the intelligence-gathering task had been credited to his account.

But everyone has the desire to show off.

To put it more precisely, it’s about realizing self-worth, perched at the pinnacle of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

Old Soldier, who had never received so much attention before, still wanted to try hitting the trending list to experience the feeling of being gazed upon with "admiration."

However, when the reply count hit 522, the click rate hit a bottleneck.

The discussion still involved the same few people, and the ID’s were all familiar.

With his enthusiasm turning to anxiety, Old Soldier switched to the forum’s main page for a look, and what he saw almost made him spit out a mouthful of old blood.

Well, darn.

The hot list has been taken over again!

But this time, it wasn’t stolen by Fang Chang, but by Brother Mole who sneaked away with the tower.

Yes.

Even the heat from that 100 million Cr investment was instantly overshadowed by Brother Mole’s post.

"Playing a Virtual Reality Game within a Completely Real Virtual Reality Game—"

"Guys! The easter egg in the new map is freaking awesome! You can even play other virtual reality games inside a virtual reality game! But to be fair, an easter egg is just an easter egg, when compared to Wasteland OL, those games aren’t realistic enough, their tactile feedback can’t be fully replicated, the NPCs are rather dumb, and the types are too limited!"

"The sales charts are all open-world games, and they’re all role-playing games. Though there’s a bunch of content and the maps are ridiculously large, they completely lack uniqueness. Rather than calling them games, they’re more like virtual communities dressed up as games!"

"Strictly speaking, it’s a rather advanced concept, and if you spend enough time immersed in the game world, you should be able to experience the rich and colorful fun, like playing as a wizard, or an astronaut exploring star systems... But those simple, crude, and creative gameplay elements are hard to find here."

"After a detailed analysis, taking into account the background of Ideal City, it’s not hard to understand why it has turned out this way."

"This ostensibly prosperous city seems to be creating new things every day, yet its innovative capability is actually suppressed."

"Most industries are either controlled by the five major groups, or indirectly held by them. 99.9% of game companies are subsidiaries of the ’internet giant’ Endpoint Group, and the works they produce are compatible with the same system, use the same set of development tools, and the same material library, naturally turning into a production line of reskinned products."

"Got to say, Ah Guang is super attentive!!"

The post went up less than half an hour ago, and there are already tens of thousands of replies.

It’s not just players enjoying the drama.

Even Backseat Drivers have come to join the excitement.

Tail: "Wow! Pass it on, Ah Guang pays too much attention! Brother Mole said so!

Meat Mountain Big Bun Touch: "Stop it, Tail, do you not want your account anymore?!"

Tail: "!!! That was Si Si who used my phone just now!"

Si Si: "?!"

Cheerful Netizen: "Crying, I haven’t even seen a helmet, and these exalted players are already playing virtual reality games in virtual reality games! QAQ"

Dinosaur Warrior: "Kind-hearted people, please give me a helmet, and remember not to make me pay for shipping, I’m still a student, can you include free shipping for me. T.T"

I Max Black: "Hahaha, wasn’t this map made just for me?! Get me a plane ticket! I’m heading to Ideal City! I’m going to release game albums, I want to be the king of entertainment!!! (Going crazy)"

Thunder Mage Professor Yang: "Wake up, can you even start a company in Ideal City, can a company get investment there, can games made with that investment be listed on Endpoint Cloud? (Funny)"

Fang Chang: "That’s a question, setting aside the issue of visas, looking at the publicly available official information, aside from the vaguely-expressed Kang Mao Group, Endpoint Group’s goodwill towards us can be said to be the lowest among the five."

Crow: "But our videos are still being spread on Endpoint Cloud, why is that? (Curious)"

Fang Chang: "That’s normal, there’s always a power play between the five corporations, and they inevitably hold some control in some segment of each other’s industrial chains. For instance, the video website invested by Silver Wing Group uses operating systems developed by the software companies under Endpoint Group in Chang Ge Group’s smart weapons."

Edge Shoveling: "Damn... I feel like my brain can’t keep up, just tell me where to charge in. (Headache)"

Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Whack!!! (Going crazy)"

Night Ten: "...?"

Inside Shelter No. 404.

Chu Guang, who was peering at the screen in front of the computer, nodded in satisfaction.

Not bad.

On the military side, Old Soldier helps with gathering intelligence, and on the economic side, Fang Chang helps with attracting investments. Operation on both sides, simultaneously shearing wool from both the armies and corporations.

With this pair of hidden dragons and young phoenixes, there is no worry about failing to seize a mere Luo Xia Province.

At that moment, Xiao Qi, sitting at the desk, whispered,

"Master, look at Fang Chang’s post, many people are talking about a dark curtain behind it."

Chu Guang casually clicked on Fang Chang’s post and saw the guy still trying to explain to the rowdy netizens and smiled faintly, unconcernedly saying,

"Let them talk, it’s not the first or second day we’ve heard this."

There is only one point of contention.

You went to the New Map as a tester, why did you reap the benefits first?

If it were an open beta game, there would definitely be a tempo to follow, but since the Game Helmet was gifted to players by the game company for closed beta testing, the reasoning for this tempo doesn’t stand.

That’s why Chu Guang never loosens up on closed beta privileges, preferring to occasionally auction off technology rather than sell helmets, precisely because of this reason.

Moreover, that cannot be considered a personal benefit.

The Bull Horse Group, like Steel Factory No. 81, is a collective holding enterprise funded by Shelter No. 404, with all four shareholders holding single-digit percentages, and Shelter No. 404 taking the lion’s share of the dividends.

And the money from the dividends is largely spent on the Alliance, whether subsidizing NPC shops where most players buy their equipment or investing in infrastructure.

The "Miner" Type I Exoskeleton sells for 4000Cr in the company, can fetch up to 8000 chips in the Giant Stone City, but only sells for 2000 silver coins (with purchase limits) in NPC shops — the amount of subsidy here is no small sum.

Furthermore, the money spent on road repairs doesn’t just appear out of thin air.

Of course, the art of shearing the sheep lies in the continuous harvest, and Chu Guang wouldn’t want the players’ contributions to go uncompensated.

These collectively owned enterprises, while undertaking certain social responsibilities, also enjoy exclusive tasks issued by the Shelter, as well as appropriate resource support.

For example, the second-hand hydrogen plasma arc furnace, worth over 10 million Cr, recently imported by the enterprise, was given priority allocation to Steel Factory No. 81 at an asset price of 30 million silver coins.

From a gameplay perspective, this helps balance the players’ income, preventing values from overflowing.

From a realistic standpoint, before there is enough pie in the market to share, it’s essential to centralize means of production to expand capacity and grow the pie as soon as possible.

More specific plans had been detailed by Chu Guang as far back as the Alpha version.

After several version adjustments, the dividend ratio, and corresponding tax law are already quite perfect.

When cooperation with enterprises becomes closer and trust is more solid, Chu Guang will consider selling tickets to the East Coast to high-ranking citizens or knight-level players, encouraging more life-profession players to develop the market in Ideal City.

The Alliance needs the production technology there.

By then, the residents of Ideal City will also be more open to the players’ creative ideas.

After closing Fang Chang’s post, Chu Guang refocused his attention on Pangolin’s post.

There’s still quite a bit of substance in the post.

Especially the firing range and blast radius of the Conqueror No.10 type II self-propelled artillery, as well as the fire rate and effective range of the Conqueror No.3 anti-aircraft vehicle.

With the information about the former, the Alliance can roughly estimate the charge and explosive power of its 150mm cannon, thus designing bunkers to minimize the damage from shrapnel and shockwaves.

The latter will help the Alliance Air Force design more effective tactics against their ground-based anti-air defenses.

This includes mercenaries — mutants that appeared in the Army’s teams...

To deal with these guys, regular 7mm rifles are not very effective; one needs to use 20 or 37mm "Cavalry Guns" or even RPGs and other rocket launchers.

Chu Guang had already sent these data to Army Command and to military factories such as Steel Factory No. 81 and Goblin Technology.

The Alliance needs to tender for an anti-armor weapon that’s more efficient than the "Spring Knife" and with a stronger destructive effect.

The metallic hydrogen supplied by companies, as well as the azide compound technology recovered from the Wasteland by the Alliance, could provide more available technological options for the new equipment being tendered.

Whether it’s formulating targeted combat plans or designing specific weapons, it’s all part of war preparations.

Additionally, some high-tech guided weapons could be imported with the 300 million in military aid funds.

"Frontline troops need to be equipped with more infantry anti-armor weapons, at least double the baseline ammunition, which is quite a test for logistics..."

"However, speaking of which, a thousand team... roughly the size of a regiment, is actually equipped with over 50 tanks and has also stationed a hundred-man scale mutants camp."

It was quite suspicious that such an elite force composed entirely of Vellante People was not located within an Oasis but instead in the desert near Oasis No. 9.

The terrain around there was not particularly treacherous but rather an open plain.

Associating this with that supply-carrying merchant, Chu Guang stroked his chin and pondered, suddenly having a thought.

Could it be the frontline ammunition depot?

Or at least one of the supply transportation nodes for the frontline!

If they could take that spot down, not only might they find key witnesses and evidence of the Bugra Free State supplying weapons to the Army, but they could also send those munitions to support the frontline with their allies!

And most importantly, this could be an opportunity to test out the high-tech weapons imported from old friends by the Alliance!

With this in mind, Chu Guang immediately looked at Xiao Qi and said.

"Xiao Qi, can you calculate the exact location of that camp based on the players’ Battlefield Atmosphere Group’s travel times and speeds?"

Xiao Qi: "Hmm... it’s a bit difficult. Your players didn’t travel in a straight line, and their speed varied. We can’t pinpoint the small town they departed from and can only speculate on a general direction of advance."

Chu Guang slightly furrowed his brows, about to say something, when Xiao Qi suddenly continued.

"...but it’s not entirely impossible, oh. Your player encountered a sandstorm at noon, right?"

Hearing this, Chu Guang felt delighted and immediately understood his implication.

"Understood... we just need to determine the path of the sandstorm, and by considering the approximate direction of the pangolin’s movement, we can identify the overlapping area in the middle and pinpoint the approximate location of the ammunition depot!"

Xiao Qi, with a thumbs up and a happy smile on his face, said.

"Worthy of the master, you’re amazing!"

"...It’s a pity we don’t have a weather satellite to determine the trajectory of the sandstorm," Chu Guang touched his chin and continued to ponder to himself, "but the locals living in Oasis No. 9 should know."

Thinking this, he quickly ordered.

"Notify Kaliman for me. Have him bring a pigeon and wait for me at Alliance Army Command first thing tomorrow morning!"

Xiao Qi, full of energy, said.

"Okay!"

...

South of Dawn City.

The Frost Spear Clan village.

With the news that the Manager was coming to inspect the organization of books at the Merchant Guild, Frost Snow, who happened to be on duty today, deliberately wore her favorite dress and even borrowed some cosmetics from her sister, who worked at the trade station.

However, not being very good at makeup, she was too embarrassed to use much and just put on some very light makeup with the help of her sister.

Gently tidying her sister’s eyebrows while making small talk, Frost River said.

"...Just this won’t be enough, you know? There are too many handsome men and beautiful women in the shelter, and those Residents always like to hang around him."

Frost Snow said in a low voice, blushing.

"After all, he is their Manager..."

Crow said patiently.

"What I mean is, if you want to impress that person deeply, at least let him know your name, you’ve got to find opportunities to create some coincidences or accidents."

"Accidents?!"

"Don’t just do something rash, I’m not saying you should plot anything against him... Sigh, never mind, it’s too complicated to explain, you better not think too much about it."

After some effort,

Frost Snow finally managed to get to the Merchant Guild before the start of her shift.

During the handover of her duties, she learned from the personnel department that in addition to the Manager, there would also be a distinguished guest from Luo Xia Province arriving today.

"Distinguished guest?"

"It’s a member of the Honey Badger Kingdom’s Royal Family; the Manager plans on having her help us sort through the books in the warehouse. Your main task today is to show her around and brief her on the work."

The girl responsible for personnel gave her a couple of glances, and a smile suddenly spread across her face before she said teasingly, "That’s a pretty dress, it suits you well. Where did you buy it from?"

"Teng, Teng Teng’s Cottage."

The personnel member curved the corner of her mouth.

"Looks like they’ve got a new collection, I’ll go check it out after work."

After getting up to speed on the work matters, Frost Snow, her face flushed, hurriedly left the personnel office and headed to the warehouse next to the Merchant Guild, where she anxiously waited for half an hour.

Finally, a figure appeared in the distance, walking towards her.

However, she did not see the azure power armor but rather a girl wearing a long dress.

With lightly curled brown hair and a fair, delicate face that resembled a porcelain doll, this girl possessed a special aura that involuntarily made Frost Snow feel a bit nervous.

But it was only a bit.

Stopping in front of Frost Snow, the young girl blinked and asked very politely,

"Hello, is this the book warehouse of the Merchant Guild?"

Snapping back to reality, Frost Snow quickly smiled and said,

"Yes... I am the staff member on duty today; you can call me Frost Snow. May I ask who you are?"

With a slight curtsy as was custom in the palace, the girl looked at her and blinked.

"Afni, that’s my name, or you can also call me Nini."

The demure, endearing appearance made Frost Snow want to pat her head.

But that sort of thing was merely a thought, too impolite towards a guest.

"Afni... Are you the guest the Manager was talking about?"

"Mhm," Afni nodded her head, speaking with a clear and delightful voice, "The Manager has gone to deal with some work matters, so I came here alone. From now on, we’ll be colleagues, so if there’s anything I don’t do well, I hope you’ll be understanding."

"You’re too polite, please follow me."

Leading Afni into the warehouse, Frost Snow briefly introduced the workflow.

To put it simply, it involved removing books from cardboard boxes, quickly scanning them with a Vm to record them into the database for cataloging, and sorting them into various major categories based on their content, such as natural science, humanities, historical documents, and so on.

Initially, both were a bit reserved, but as they were of similar age and started chatting, they gradually became more familiar with each other.

Frost Snow, who had only heard about princesses in fairy tales, curiously observed the foreign-faced young lady. After obtaining her permission, she reached out and touched the soft, brown curls.

"May I ask if Miss Afni is... a princess of the Honey Badger Kingdom?"

"Yes." Afni replied softly.

Although the Falcon Kingdom and the Army had taken over there, she and her brother hadn’t surrendered, and neither had their kingdom’s citizens.

"No wonder you’re so beautiful, you must have many suitors in your country," Frost Snow said, enviously.

"It’s not quite like that," Afni sighed softly, joking in a teasing tone, "If I were really that beautiful, your Manager wouldn’t have rejected my marriage proposal so readily."

A book dropped to the ground with a thud.

"Ah, I’m sorry."

Watching Frost Snow quickly crouch to pick up the book, Afni seemed to sense something from her expression and a mischievous smile curled up on her tranquil face.

"It seems that person is quite beloved by all of you."

"Of course!" Dusting off the book, Frost Snow blushed slightly and said a bit shyly, "A long time ago, we all lived lives of uncertainty. Thanks to that person, we can now live and work happily here... so I hold him in great esteem, too."

The shy smile on her face was visibly brimming with happiness. Afni felt a twinge of envy in her heart.

She wasn’t envious of Frost Snow.

But rather of that Manager, who received so much adoration from his people.

She had been in the Alliance for two days now.

During these two days, she’d seen those enviable smiles more than once.

Men, women, children, and the elderly...

As a ruler of a domain herself, her father was undoubtedly a wise king.

The citizens of the Honey Badger Kingdom respect him from the bottom of their hearts, and their loyalty is as devout as their reverence for the Spirit of the Sand Sea.

Yet, when mentioning her father’s name, in addition to loyalty and reverence, that inner affection and gratitude were seldom visible on people’s faces.

An unseen force had unified these people, from the residents of the shelter to the civilians outside the shelter, everyone had unwavering faith in the Alliance and their own future, even though the flames of war were visible to the naked eye.

How had that man achieved this?

She thirsted for that knowledge.

Perhaps...

As he had said, the answers were all hidden within those books.

Her gaze landed on the boxes filled with books, and Afni spoke after a moment of thought.

"Is our task today to sort out these books?"

"Yes!"

Snapping out of her reverie, Frost Snow composed her expression and said with a friendly smile,

"I’ll teach you how to categorize them. The work is actually quite interesting. If we find an intriguing book, we can borrow it to read at home, as long as it’s returned on time. That’s why we’re always eager to do this job."

"Then let’s get started."

Afni squatted on the ground, not minding the dust dirtying her skirt hem, and picked a thick book out of the box.

Deep black ink imprinted a line of words on the cover—"Research on Classical Economics: The Contradictions and Evolution of Production Relations and Productive Forces."

From the synopsis on the back, it appeared to be an academic work written by scholars from the early years of the Prosperity Epoch.

She gently patted the dust off the cover and flipped open the title page. Although she didn’t quite understand, she still read on.

"Can we talk about that Manager?"

Hearing a subject of interest, Frost Snow’s eyes lit up.

"Of course! What would you like to know?"

Afni thought for a moment and said,

"For example, books he likes to read..."

...

North of the City of Dawn.

The Army Command next to the airport.

Carrying a pigeon cage and standing at the doorway, Kaliman felt out of place and could only awkwardly fix his gaze on his watch.

Fortunately, everyone here was busy, and no one gave him undue attention, which eased his embarrassment.

Just then, a figure appeared at the door.

Seeing the azure power armor, Kaliman finally heaved a sigh of relief, bowed slightly, and respectfully said,

"Good day, Honored Manager sir, may I ask what instructions you have for me?"

Chu Guang glanced at the carrier pigeons in the cage he was holding.

Their sharp beaks and talons didn’t resemble pigeons at all, more like eagles. Especially the tufts of brown feathers above their eyes that looked like erect eyebrows gave them a particularly aggressive appearance.

It was said that the carrier pigeons trained by the Royal Family of the Falcon Kingdom could fly 800 kilometers in a day, while ordinary pigeons typically fly around 500-700 kilometers.

But whichever type they were, they were sufficient for his purposes.

"Come with me."

Chu Guang didn’t explain but led Kaliman directly toward a room at the turn of the corridor.

It was a command room, with pens and paper scattered over a long table, and several cigarette butts left uncleaned in the ashtray.

There had been a meeting here last night.

And that map hanging on the wall not too far away, along with the arrows and dots drawn on it with solid and dashed lines, were the results of last night’s strategy meeting.

Prince Kaliman soon noticed the map and stared at it for a while, a surprised expression slowly emerging on his face.

"...What is this?"

Chu Guang didn’t waste time on pleasantries, cutting straight to the chase.

"Our intelligence personnel have located a suspected logistics hub military base in the desert. We are not sure of its exact location, but we know its approximate area and that yesterday’s sandstorm passed by there."

"There, military supplies sent through the Bugra Free State are stored, which includes the equipment from the Golden Lizard Kingdom I mentioned to you."

Upon hearing the words "Golden Lizard," Kaliman clenched his fists tightly and, through gritted teeth, squeezed out a sentence.

"These shameful traitors ..."

Chu Guang didn’t give him time to dwell on emotions and quickly continued speaking.

"Cursing them is of no use. Let’s talk about our plan instead. We intend to take down this military base, take photos for evidence, capture relevant personnel... in short, collect as many useful clues as possible, and then send them to the Grand Canyon."

"I can’t be sure of the Grand Canyon’s stance, but it’s hard to imagine they would side with the Army right after fighting against them. We need them to manage their own vassals well, preferably to clean out the intelligence network that the Army has been plotting in the Bugra Free State."

"We have detailed intelligence on the military base’s equipment, personnel, and defensive arrangements... This is what we have collected over more than a month. I need your cooperation to take down that military base!"

"After the investigation and evidence gathering are complete, you can take the equipment there."

Looking at the detailed operation plan handed to him by Chu Guang, Prince Kaliman felt overwhelmed.

He was just a diplomat. Though not entirely ignorant about military matters, he knew very little indeed.

Especially when he saw the enemy’s military deployment in the operation plan, his breathing momentarily seized for a few seconds.

Putting down the document in his hand,

Kaliman looked at Chu Guang with a bitter expression, his voice full of difficulty.

"A full thousand-team, and they are the Army’s elite. It would be very difficult... no, it’s almost impossible to take down this place with just our forces."

The combat power of the Army was very strong, far stronger than their servants.

Under normal circumstances, they needed to pay a price five or even ten times higher to hold back an attack from an equal number of troops.

And that was relying on fixed cover for defensive war.

As for proactive offensive warfare...

He wasn’t even sure if the army of the kingdom, which lacked heavy equipment, had ever launched an offensive until now.

"The long-distance teams from the companies aren’t assisting you?" Chu Guang frowned slightly.

Kaliman shook his head.

"That’s true, but they’re mainly responsible for the southern battle zone, together with our main force, primarily harassing the Army’s artillery positions and airbase. But the location of that base... it should be to the north of the 9th Oasis from what you suggest, right?"

Chu Guang nodded.

Kaliman continued.

"... According to my understanding, the western and northern parts of the 9th Oasis have completely fallen. At present, we only have a few guerrilla teams active there, probably only two or three thousand teams, which makes it difficult to form an effective fighting force."

Chu Guang stared at the map for a long while and then spoke up.

"We will send a paratrooper unit to assist you in battle, including providing necessary air support."

From Leaf City Temporary Airport to that military base was nearly 700 kilometers, which already exceeded the combat radius of the W-series fighter planes.

But this was no problem for the company’s Tiger Whale transport aircraft!

As for air support,

Leave it to the fixed-wing drones he had imported from the companies.

Though skeptical about the success of this plan, hearing that Chu Guang would send paratroopers to fight side by side with the kingdom’s forces, Kaliman felt a slight sense of confidence and nodded seriously.

"I will inform the kingdom. Can you tell me the specific time of the action?"

Chu Guang replied without hesitation.

"The day after tomorrow at dawn!"

"We will take down that base before daylight!"

-

(A mistake was made, reportedly said in Chapter 7)