This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 441: The Moment of Counterattack!

Chapter 441: Chapter 441: The Moment of Counterattack!

"Boom!!!!"

Prosperity Epoch.

Outside the riverbank.

A deafening explosion shattered the silence of the afternoon.

Shattered rocks and dust rained down like droplets, making the soldiers of the Falcon Kingdom crouch lower in their trenches, instinctively, to shield their lunch boxes.

"Damn it—"

"My ears...crap!"

"What was that sound?"

"A nuclear bomb?"

This had been the rumor spreading among the troops recently.

The Army had planned to wipe Prosperity Epoch off the map with nuclear weapons.

Could it be...

They had already used them?

Clutching his stinging ears, a soldier struggled to his feet, found his steel helmet to put on, and peeked his head out of the trench, desperately looking in the direction of Prosperity Epoch.

However...

The despair-inducing riverbank still stood tall.

A numb pupil briefly flickered with despair.

As if realizing something, he turned his stiff neck, trying to look behind him.

And as he did, his narrowed pupils suddenly dispersed the light, and the despair hidden deep within the window of his soul spread across his entire face at that same moment.

Smoke.

Fire.

Drifting heatwaves.

The entire world seemed to be on fire.

Crawling black smoke connected the sky to the ground, like a torrent pouring down from the underworld, with no end in sight whether one looked up, left, or right.

The center of the explosion was a hundred-meter-wide crater; the vast battlefield had a corner directly erased, with uplifted soil, shattered rocks, and corpses... burying the winding trenches.

There were no cries of agony.

Only a deathly silence.

He remembered it was the position of the 1st ten thousand troops’ 7th thousand team; he even remembered those young men had just replaced the battered 2nd ten thousand troops’ 4th thousand team yesterday.

His Adam’s apple moved slightly as the sound of swallowing saliva became the only audible noise in this silent world.

And then, it suddenly started to rain.

The droplets were red.

He lifted his trembling right hand, touched his nose with his index finger, and that hot, sticky sensation nearly stopped his heartbeat.

The rain intensified abruptly.

From a light drizzle to a downpour that became solid and incessant, more fragments of flesh and bone debris fell from the sky, pounding his steel helmet and making a cacophony of pings and clangs like hail.

What was all this for?

What was the purpose of his existence here?

Fear finally breached the soldier’s mental defenses; kneeling in the trench, he hugged his helmet with both hands and let out a heart-wrenching scream.

And in the distance were deafening artillery fire, continuous gunfire, and the cries of a charge accompanied by the sound of tanks’ tracks rolling forward...

The rage and hatred of tens of thousands of people completely pulled the surviving soldier from that silent world back to reality—

"Charge—!"

...

"Bang—!"

The thunderous sound of artillery, like a horn being blown, shattered the surrounding clouds, nudging the lightly swaying Iron Heart cruising below them.

Thick plumes rose from the 400mm main cannon, arching in a perfect parabola, descending towards the ground together with diving propeller planes.

Watching the flames rise from the ground, Spring Water Commander, standing beside the railing of Iron Heart’s deck, couldn’t help but click his tongue in astonishment.

"...That yield might not be much smaller than a tactical nuclear bomb."

And eco-friendly with no radioactive dust.

Just that the crater is a bit too big, probably will take some effort to fill.

Speaking of which, the last time he saw this thing fire was on the ground; now, from a different perspective, it felt completely different to him.

Facing the firepower of this "air battleship," the siege line of Falcon Kingdom around Prosperity Epoch was collapsing at a visible rate.

The Goblin Corps’ aerial squadron cruised along the edge of the explosion’s shockwave, with forty W-2 ground-attack aircraft’s cannons continuously firing to strafe the ground; this was already the second round of air raids.

I Max Black looked towards Spring Water standing next to him.

"When do we go in?"

"It’s not our turn yet."

"Dang, it’s about to end!"

"Airships are the protagonists of this war; let our allies handle the charging into the fray. Our role is to appear at a crucial moment in a crucial position, like when the enemy armored units suddenly rush in, we’ll reinforce with anti-tank weapons, etc... But now it seems there’s probably no need for that," Spring Water Commander took out his binoculars and glanced at the ground.

The enemy line was collapsing faster than anticipated.

It looks like the Army has decided to give up this position...

A chain of black dots appeared in the distant sky.

The Falcon Kingdom’s flight squadron was trying to salvage the situation, with thirty "Eagle Type" propeller planes entering the battlefield from the northwest.

However, from the moment those twinkling red dots appeared on Iron Heart’s radar screen, their fate was sealed.

"Master, enemy planes have entered the firing range!"

Xiao Qi’s voice was full of enthusiasm in the communication channel.

Chu Guang, standing in front of the bridge’s floor-to-ceiling window, gazing at a clear patch of sky, announced their demise with a tranquil tone.

"Fire."

"Roger!"

As the playful remark ended, a sky full of flares lit up the heavens in an instant, with smoke and fire from the explosions forming impenetrable walls, instantly adding another cloud to the clear sky.

Under the overwhelming firepower, any evasive maneuver lost its meaning in that moment.

If they couldn’t break through the entire airspace within the span of a breath, being shredded by countless shrapnel was the only outcome.

Finod stood not far away and swallowed hard.

The Iron Heart truly understands how to play this guy.

He even felt the illusion that upon reaching the hands of this devil, the combat power of the airship had jumped up an entire order of magnitude.

Under the coordination between the shelter server and the shelter AI system, every anti-aircraft cannon on the Iron Heart had its performance squeezed to the limit, even probabilistically covering those explosive fragments performing Brownian motion, which expanded the volume of the fire net by 1.5 times without changing the efficiency!

Especially the brainwave of turning the deck into an airplane runway.

It truly made his jaw drop.

Of course, the Iron Heart could carry plane-borne aircraft, but they were generally vertical takeoff and landing aircraft.

This method of throwing propeller planes out like paper airplanes was something beyond his imagination.

Aren’t they worried about accidents at all?

"Enemy air units have been completely annihilated!"

Xiao Qi’s report came through the communication channel.

Chu Guang nodded slightly and withdrew his gaze from the distant sky engulfed in dense smoke, turning his attention back to the nearby City of Abundance.

On the battlefield shrouded in thick smoke, the Beetle Corps, led by Prince Wenter, had burst out of the western gate on the river embankment and, with the assistance of the Honey Badger Kingdom’s restoration army, completely crushed the defense line of the first ten thousand troops of the Falcon Kingdom.

In fact, before they had emerged from the river embankment, the Falcon Kingdom’s defense line was already on the verge of collapse.

The repeated dive attacks and bombings by thirty W-2 ground attack aircraft had almost paralyzed the fixed fire points in the position.

Moreover, a total of four 400mm heavy high-explosive bombs and incendiary bombs that fell from the sky directly overwhelmed the morale of the Falcon Kingdom’s soldiers.

There were far more soldiers laying down their weapons and throwing up their hands to surrender than those killed on the spot by the artillery fire.

Although most of them fought back stubbornly, it still could not change the defeat that was already sealed.

The nuclear bombs were not deployed at the airport closest to this location, and the Army had not even approved more planes to be brought in.

Even as early as last night, the Alliance’s reconnaissance planes discovered that at least three ten thousand troops and two artillery squads had already withdrawn in the northwest direction.

And these people left to cover the rear were the expendable pawns that Griffin had fed the Alliance.

Under the circumstances where the supply line in the north could not be maintained, it was the most realistic judgment, and Griffin’s choice was even more resolute.

If a fortress couldn’t be taken, then abandon it straight away, and during unfavorable situations, don’t hesitate to tactically retreat, never underestimating the seemingly inconspicuous Alliance.

This old fox was craftier than he imagined.

Considering a cautious approach, Chu Guang had not ordered the airship to penetrate deeply into enemy territory, pursuing the retreating enemy forces.

The Alliance would not design a weapon that it could not handle itself, so he had reason to believe that the Army also held a trump card that could take care of the Iron Heart.

At least according to Yin Fang, the chief researcher of the Alliance, technology manipulating gravitons was not impregnable, otherwise the Prosperity Epoch would not have ended so abruptly.

When it was necessary to go all-in, he would do so without hesitation, but when there were safer options available, he would also choose the latter without hesitation.

The Iron Heart would not detach from the front lines to penetrate deep into enemy territory. Chu Guang personally would lead this flagship, steadily advancing the frontline step by step.

The counterattack on the City of Abundance no longer held any suspense.

By contrast, he was more worried about the situation to the south.

If his initial strategic judgment was correct, then the Army’s nuclear bomb should already be deploying towards the airport in Lost Valley...

Staring out at the battlefield through the floor-to-ceiling window, Vanus pondered for a moment before suddenly speaking up.

"It’s too fast."

Chu Guang looked at him.

"Fast?"

"Hmm..." Vanus nodded slightly, deep in thought, "I didn’t even see a hint of effective resistance."

Chu Guang smiled faintly.

"Isn’t that good?"

"It’s not bad, but it makes me feel a bit strange..."

Vanus pondered for a moment, then suddenly spoke up.

"Where are Griffin’s tanks? Since yesterday, we haven’t seen a single one; the Restoration Army of the Honey Badger Kingdom almost charged into the riverbank without any resistance. If I were in their shoes, I would never have allowed those two forces to successfully join together."

Tanks without infantry are like a spear without a handle.

Under those circumstances, it would have been entirely possible to dispatch several anti-tank teams to work with the armored units to intercept the Restoration Army of the Honey Badger Kingdom.

They didn’t even need to wipe them all out.

The Falcon Kingdom only needed to hold them off, to stall them beneath the riverbank. Once tanks stop, no matter how tough they are, they turn into iron coffins.

"Even if this is Luo Xia Province on the West Coast in principle, even if they have only so many tanks here, this is still too strange..."

After a few seconds of pause, looking at Chu Guang lost in thought, Vanus continued to share his perspective.

"It can’t be that all the tanks are at Camp 530, right?"

...

To the east of Oasis No.4, three hundred kilometers away from Double Peak in the desert, twilight began to shroud the land.

Tanks flickered in and out of visibility in the swirling yellow sand, revealing only a thick barrel and the turret draped in desert camouflage netting.

Sandbags had reinforced the front of the hull, and it was completely buried in the sand.

These tanks were primarily Conqueror No. 5 Light Tanks and No. 10 Heavy Tanks.

To extend the line sufficiently, there was significant distance between tanks, and the large gaps were filled with dugouts where infantry lay prone.

To the far north of the line, an oddly shaped tank was parked.

It had no turret; the barrel was embedded in the wedge-shaped hull, and even more surprising were its tracks, which, unlike being set inside the hull, were attached to the outside of the hull like tires.

An officer dressed in navy blue military uniform stuck half his body out of the tank, holding a telescope in his hand, his prominent nose unwaveringly pointing east.

His name was Stan, a tank commander under Griffin, and also the commander of the Falcon Kingdom’s 1st Armored Motorized Army of a thousand.

A few days ago, General Griffin personally briefed him on this operation.

"Our plan is not foolproof, and if they see through our strategy, attacking our airfield with a motorized unit is their only choice and their last hope. What you need to do is to seal that last door shut!"

All this, of course, was based on the assumption that "the Alliance has seen through their plan," and though the likelihood of this was very slim, it was not impossible.

But Stan wasn’t worried.

Fifty Conqueror No. 5 Light Tanks, forty Conqueror No. 10 and No. 11 Heavy Tanks, as well as the "Wanderer" he was in right now.

Plus a thousand motorized infantry and a vast amount of anti-tank and anti-infantry equipment had spread a huge net over a ten-kilometer-wide battlefront.

Be it a thousand men.

Or ten thousand men!

None shall cross this wall!

At that moment, the voice of a scout reporting enemy vehicles came through the communication channel.

Although the signal chopped due to the rust-laden sandstorm, he still clearly heard those key words.

The scout had repeated himself several times before hanging up the phone.

Stan put down his binoculars, adjusted the headset on one side, and ordered in a merciless voice.

"All units pay attention, enemy units are moving from due south towards G5 area."

"Combat begins!"

The moment the words fell, a deafening explosion suddenly came from afar, and a column of smoke slowly rose from the horizon.

A slightly surprised expression appeared on Stan’s face.

The direction where the smoke was rising...

Was it his position?

Even though he had already laid an ambush and had sent scouts ahead for reconnaissance, they somehow got the drop on with a preemptive strike...

Impossible!

Chaotic and confused voices came through the headset.

"...This is Team 7, ’Hunter’ and ’Obsidian’ destroyed! We’re under attack by an enemy tank cluster, need reinforcements!"

"Damn—"

A deafening blast interrupted the tank commander’s voice. The gunner cursed furiously as the loader vigorously stuffed shells into the gun breach, the clinking and clanking of the shells and the staccato burst of the coaxial machine gun firing made the tense and chaotic battle situation palpable.

When Stan heard that "Hunter" was destroyed, his brow finally furrowed with seriousness.

’Hunter’ and ’Obsidian’ were the call signs for the No. 3 and No. 4 vehicles of Team 7 – Conqueror No. 10 and No. 11 heavy tanks!

The former was self-explanatory.

The latter had nearly 1.5 meters of equivalent armor!

Not only did it feature gap layers and anti-penetration plates, but it also had sandbags for cover.

Such a "moving fortress" couldn’t possibly be penetrated by a single shot, right?!

Whatever Team 7 had encountered, now was not the time for hesitation.

Stan had no time to be surprised, let alone to waste another word, and he immediately retracted half of his body back into the "Wanderer" tank.

With a piercing electric sound, the surface of the gray-black tank seemed to be coated with a transparent film, and even a thin layer of frost formed in the shadow under the barrel!

Communication was completely cut off.

Before the silence, he transferred command to the captain of Falcon Kingdom’s direct No. 1 Armored Motorcycle Army of a thousand.

And the price paid for this was almost invincible armor!

Those natives could never have imagined that the Army still held this ace up its sleeve!

A cold arc formed at the corners of Stan’s mouth.

His hands gripped the controls of the gun, he calmly switched on the rangefinder and the optical zoom sight, and at the same time gave an order to the driver in front.

"Target G5 area—"

"Advance!"

The hunt—

Had begun!

...

In the endless Desert Sea, the Alliance’s Skeleton Corps and the Falcon Kingdom’s armored team of a thousand clashed in a skirmish.

Thirty-five No. 2 tanks and 500 armed grenadiers faced off against nearly a hundred Conqueror tanks and almost a thousand light infantrymen waiting in defensive fortifications.

Although the premonition of crisis from the Perception-type players and "Thermal Vision" from good old Fu Gui helped the Skeleton Corps to detect this ambush in advance, allowing them to quickly deploy personnel and equipment before the encounter battle broke out, they avoided being caught off guard.

But it still couldn’t change the disparity in numbers between the two sides.

Both parties were elites in their respective camps, and both had hidden cards that the other did not understand.

This was destined to be a tough battle!

Just as the clash of iron and blood began here, the slaughter 200 kilometers away had already reached a fever pitch.

The troops garrisoned at Petra Fortress had nearly emptied their nest, and nearly 20,000 high-spirited soldiers rallied under Lord Saen, following the guidance of their faith to charge toward Lost Valley.

All modes of transportation from Petra Fortress were temporarily conscripted, whether motorcycles, trucks, or even ox carts and horse-drawn carriages, all used to transport troops, supplies, and to tow artillery, creating a vast dust cloud rolling like a sandstorm.

And General Mclen on the other side was certainly not blind; he quickly noticed the commotion in the west and immediately dispatched his subordinates, setting up formation along the ruins of Highway No. 7.

The two sides engaged in an intense firefight 50 kilometers from the airport.

Due to both sides being unprepared for this war, the firefight quickly turned into a brutal melee.

A battle line extended over ten kilometers, filled with gunfire and cannon fire.

The parties could only rely on the approximate direction and barely distinguish friend from foe in the fading twilight, and then fire towards the flashing muzzle flashes.

As for the advance and retreat of various units or holding positions on the spot, they relied on the occasional small notes brought by messengers.

The setting sun stretched the shadows of the valley, and the entire desert was coated in a blood red hue.

Just as the battle intensified, a thousand-strong armored cavalry unit, led by Saen’s Chief Guard, took a path along the Jubar Mountains to the south of Lost Valley.

Most of the Army and Falcon Kingdom’s troops were pinned to the east and north sides.

Here lay the weakest link in the defense, with only a few machine gun positions and watchtowers standing.

They would serve as a dagger, piercing into the softest part of the beast’s belly, and then emerging from its spine, using dynamite and hand grenades from the horsebacks to destroy the planes parked on the airfield north of the camp, or at least to damage the runway...

And accompanying them were the White Bear Knights, driving their armed trucks.

"Let’s part ways here."

The Chief Guard tugged the reins and rode in front of the trucks, looking at the three men and a bear on the truck and continued,

"We’ll do our best to destroy those two planes, and leave it to you to stop the Calling Evil Spirits ritual!"

Sesame Paste, sitting in the passenger seat, nodded seriously.

"Leave it to us... take care on your way."

"I will."

The Chief Guard gave a grin, knocked his steel-plated breastplate with his raised right fist, then turned his black steed, grabbing the carbine hanging on the saddle.

No grand speeches.

Nor any resounding slogans.

He just kicked the horse’s belly and rode to the front of the formation, and seeing this, the thousand plus cavalry silently followed after him.

Then—

They commenced the charge.

The pounding hooves like rolling thunder on the plains, raising an endless cloud of dust on the Gobi, they charged unflinchingly towards the Army’s encampment.

"To think I’d witness a cavalry charge in the 24th century..."

Meat Meat’s face was filled with surprise, eyes fixed on the direction to the north.

"Oh..."

Tail, who was leaning on the machine gun, also looked towards the north, murmuring to herself in surprise.

"...I hope you all make it back alive."

Those people felt as alive as anyone to her.

"It’s time for us to move."

Si Si glanced at the rearview mirror, then looked at the copilot beside her.

After receiving a pair of determined eyes in response, she restarted the truck and headed toward the southern side of Lost Valley.

The objective of the Petra Cavalry was to penetrate the defense line on the southern side of Lost Valley and the airport on the north.

Their chances of breaching the defense were only 50%, and that was the most optimistic scenario.

As for them, their target was Lost Valley.

Si Si never expected that they would still be able to receive tasks from the Manager through the official website outside of communication range.

However, the task’s destination coincidentally aligned with their current objective, right in the midst of the "levee" remains.

According to the various clues gathered, the Army was searching for something there.

Whatever that thing was, they absolutely couldn’t let them find it.

It was quite strange when she thought about it.

The news about Oasis No.4 and Lost Valley on the official website was mostly updated by her alone; theoretically, NPCs from the Alliance shouldn’t be aware of what was happening here, aside from the players.

Could NPCs also access the internet?

If that’s really the case, then this Game was far too "real"...

...

At the Army command post on the north side of Lost Valley, General McCullen was standing before a strategic map and a radio set, directing the deployment and dispatch of frontline forces.

The soldiers from Camel Hump Kingdom were no match for those from Falcon Kingdom; in both military theory and organizational level, the two sides were not on the same page.

The former’s only advantage was perhaps their devout faith, which often failed to be effective on the frontline battlefields.

The nearly 20,000-man Petra Fortress couldn’t possibly be a match for him.

Although everything was still under his control, having his feet on the ground still made him feel uneasy.

It was a pity that reclaiming the airships would take some more time.

At this thought, curses began to erupt in McCullen’s heart.

Only now had he realized that he might have been used like a pawn by that skunk.

He had clearly come here to find that Titan’s Shield Core!

If he could secretly take that core, modify it into a weapon, and fire at Iron Heart, he could bring that thing down from heaven.

But then General Griffin had suddenly thrown an order at him, insisting on fixing some airport.

He was very happy to drop a Tactical Nuclear Bomb on the heads of the Alliance, but it was another story to become the frontline because of it.

Now look where he was.

The Alliance had seen through that skunk’s lousy plan and somehow convinced the fence-sitting Camel Hump Kingdom.

Only one or two Ten thousand troops had arrived so far, which posed no difficulty to handle.

But what about later?

Since the nuclear strike plot had been seen through, the Alliance must have already deployed troops to advance in this direction, and the bomb dropped on Qingquan City can’t possibly annihilate those forces.

Furthermore, nearly 100,000 regular troops were stationed at the adjacent Oasis No.4!

Even if the troops trained by the Army from Falcon Kingdom were elite, they couldn’t fight ten times their number like superhumans.

By then, he probably had to escape by plane again...

"It’s time," said a pilot in the command post, glancing at his watch again.

Actually, there was still some time left before the scheduled moment, but staying here made him feel an intense unease.

McCullen waved his hand, "Go now... hurry there and back."

The pilot nodded, picked up his helmet from the table, and walked toward the outside of the tent.

The escorting fighter jets had already taken off upon his command to confirm the safety of the nearby airspace, and then the H-55 "Hurricane" carrying the nuclear warheads would follow.

At the very moment the pilot left the command post, an officer hurried in, saluted next to General McCullen, and reported loudly.

"Report! A cavalry unit has appeared to our south!"

Staring at the strategic map on the table, McCullen coolly gave his orders.

"Redirect 5 wheeled reconnaissance vehicles from the camp to that area, and notify Weiss to lead the camp’s hundred motorcycle troops to the southern position for support immediately! They must prevent them from getting near the airport’s runway!"

"Yes, sir!"

The officer saluted and quickly jogged out.

Watching the figure disappear at the entrance, McCullen’s heart relaxed slightly.

He had been keeping this unit on hand without sending them to the frontlines, precisely to guard against a sneak attack by those natives.

Those barbarians had indeed come!

Cavalry?

McCullen sneered.

He would show them what a foolish decision it was to oppose the Army.

However, just then, an air raid alert suddenly sounded outside the tent.

McCullen froze slightly, doubting he had heard correctly.

Besides this place, where else was there another airport nearby?

At that moment, another officer lifted the tent flap and walked in quickly from the outside.

McCullen read the severity of the situation from his panicked face.

Before he could ask any questions, the officer rapidly reported.

"An airplane is approaching us—"

"Is it from the Alliance or a corporation?" McCullen grabbed his collar urgently, "And our aircraft? Have they taken off yet?"

A barrage of questions rendered the officer flustered.

As he stared at a nose that seemed like it was about to poke into his eyes, he nervously shook his head.

"I... don’t know."

-

(Thanks to "Fate of the Turbulent Seas" for the big reward!!! With one volume per month, this volume will soon be done, and I think I forgot to divide it into Chapters again...)

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