This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 443: The Collision of Iron and Blood

Chapter 443: Chapter 443: The Collision of Iron and Blood

The twilight that plummeted from the sky seemed to ignite the horizon. Across the boundless Gobi Desert were scattered pieces of scrapped steel and slowly burning flames.

At the same time as the "Cloud Dragonfly" launched a surprise attack on the airport, nearly one hundred kilometers to the east of Lost Valley, the battle between the Alliance Skull Legion and the Falcon Kingdom’s First Armored Motorcycle Army was drawing to a close.

Nearly all of the Falcon Kingdom’s First Armored Motorcycle Army’s 40 heavy tanks were annihilated!

The only four remaining tanks, due to damaged engines and tracks, were marooned on the Gobi Desert, waiting for rescue that they had no idea when would come...

In front of a 60-megajoule electromagnetic cannon, whether it’s one meter of equivalent armor or 1.5 meters, both are as fragile as paper.

After all, back before the Prosperity Epoch, these were the kind of naval guns placed on warships!

When dealing with tanks that travel on land, whether you hit the hull or the gun tower, a single shot is all it takes.

Unfortunately, due to the legion commander’s misjudgment of the Alliance’s firepower, they stretched their defensive line too long, allowing the Alliance’s armor cluster to almost unhindered run through Falcon Kingdom’s defense line as thin as paper.

Scattered along a frontline spanning several kilometers, the heavy tanks had no choice but to leave their cover, turn around, and regroup while chasing the enemy.

Due to the enormous range difference between the two sides and the relatively open terrain of the Gobi Desert, these heavy tanks quickly became moving steel coffins.

And because of their poor mobility, those that were targeted by the electromagnetic cannon didn’t even have a chance to dodge; they were simply called out by the 60-megajoule shells.

Faced with a hopeless situation, many of the Falcon Kingdom’s crew simply gave up on fighting back; as soon as they were targeted by the electromagnetic cannon, they immediately abandoned their tanks and ran.

After all, the tanks were provided by the Secret Country.

They didn’t need to feel sorry for scrapping them.

At least one-third of the Conqueror No. 10s were "scared stiff" this way.

In contrast, the 50 Conqueror No. 5 light tanks, with their superior maneuverability, caused considerable trouble for the Alliance.

However, a light tank is still a light tank, and strong mobility can’t make up for the disadvantages in armor and caliber. It didn’t even require a tank destroyer to take action, a single 155mm high-explosive bomb was enough to take them out.

The vast majority of Conqueror No. 5s were not destroyed due to their armor being penetrated, but due to the overpressure effect of the high-explosive bombs that killed the crew inside the vehicle.

Mole even believed that if their target wasn’t the airport, and if they had enough time and ammunition, they could annihilate the entire armored force without a scratch...

However, things cannot always go as planned.

Plans not keeping pace with changes is the norm.

If the legion had anticipated that they could mount a 60-megajoule electromagnetic cannon on a tank, they definitely wouldn’t have established such a "straight line" defense waiting for them, but would have concentrated all armored units together like the Alliance did, using the gap between tank destroyer shots to quickly advance within a two-kilometer range.

If the Alliance expected that Hover Tanks had been deployed to Luo Xia Province and had known through intelligence that it was waiting right in front of the Skull Legion, they definitely would have postponed the start of the entire operation... although that would have increased the risk of encountering a nuclear strike.

Sadly...

This game isn’t as real-wishing as if.

With the Hover Tank joining the fray, what was a smooth breakthrough for the Skeleton Corps soon became a fierce struggle.

Even a twenty-kilogram steel needle with the muzzle kinetic energy of 60 megajoules was still unable to penetrate the Meissner effect armor of the Hover Tank.

After a fierce and deadly struggle, the mere five remaining Type B Mark II tank destroyers were eventually destroyed one by one by that impenetrable beast.

On the official forum of Wasteland OL, there was a chorus of wails.

Players who were "kicked offline" by that BOSS kept showing up on the forums to share their experiences, typing out posts crying foul about the lack of scientific basis.

"Damn it! Is that thing locked in health or what?!"

"I definitely hit it with at least two shots, and it didn’t even flinch!"

"Sixty megajoules, and even ship cannons can’t penetrate it?!"

"...Definitely cheating."

"Where are the planners? Calling the planners!"

"Probably a dog planner driving that thing!"

He must have been working overtime and had no time to browse the forum.

Until the end, Ah Guang wasn’t called out by them either.

And in many people’s eyes, this also firmly confirmed their guess—"It must be Dog Guang torturing them with that thing."

Besides those cursing and swearing, many people were also analyzing the weakness of that armor.

"What’s the deal with that turtle shell?"

"The official website’s setting collection mentioned it’s related to superconductivity... but didn’t specify how it works, nor did it mention the principle."

"Superconductivity... so does that mean any electrically conductive bullets won’t work?"

"Maybe that’s really the case. Plus, the mass bombs from railguns are highly conductive anyway. Those shots we thought hit might not have even touched them."

The so-called Meissner effect is the phenomenon where a superconductor repels a magnetic field as it transitions from a normal state to a superconducting state.

According to the description on the official forum, when bullets get close to the Hover Tank, they transition to a superconductive state for some reason.

Meanwhile, the Hover Tank itself is generating a magnetic field. A superconductor entering the magnetic field will create an induced current on its surface with no loss, thus producing a magnetic field of the same magnitude but opposite direction to that provided by the tank.

On the surface, it looks like the bullets are deflected by the armor, when in reality, they never even touch the armor, being repelled by the magnetic field at an infinitely close distance.

Paired with the steep angle of the wedge-shaped armor, standard kinetic energy weapons simply can’t breach its defense, at best they might scrape the surface of the armor.

The only consolation for Mole was that although the BOSS battle wasn’t going well, the scales of victory were still tipped in their favor on the whole.

The mission’s goal wasn’t to annihilate the enemy tanks in a skirmish but to raid the airport on the north side of Lost Valley, 150 kilometers away from the battlefield.

Although that "Wanderer" was unreasonably powerful, it was, after all, just one tank.

His last command "divide and conquer," "advance separately," still had some effect, and the good brothers who were destroyed and disconnected were not as many as expected.

Despite the significant casualties, there were still 15 No. 2 tanks that had successfully left the communication range.

For the remaining nearly one hundred kilometers of off-road stretch, two to three hours should be sufficient.

If nothing unexpected happened, they should be able to arrive before the sunset.

As a person left behind to intercept the pursuers, all he could do now was to trust his teammates...

Shaking his groggy head, Mole, who had been disconnected for a while, finally dragged his wobbly consciousness awake from the coma.

Half an hour ago, his tank took a hit.

At that moment, he felt nothing, just a tremble beneath his feet, and then a pale blue pop-up appeared in front of him, displaying [Connection Disconnected].

And it was the kind that wouldn’t reconnect no matter what!

Since the No. 2 B-type vehicle used by the No. 60 electromagnetic cannon equipped with metallic hydrogen batteries, survival was basically impossible once breached.

So, when he found himself disconnected, Mole almost gave up any hope of reconnecting.

However, the fact that the respawn countdown hadn’t started in his helmet reignited a glimmer of hope in his heart that had already gone cold.

Perhaps it was this persistence that moved the server, as after nearly half an hour of trying, he slipped back into the tank in a haze.

He had actually reconnected!

Discovering that this "lighter" hadn’t exploded, Mole didn’t have time to rejoice nor any hesitation, immediately logging off to call up the other two crew members as well.

But looking at it now...

It seemed that only the driver who sat in front of his left leg had successfully reconnected with him.

As for the one in front of his right leg, he had become a sticky mess of blood and charred flesh that probably even the Manager wouldn’t recognize.

"Damn..."

Mole clicked his tongue.

Even with the sensory filters’ protection, seeing that bloody, mangled corpse still inevitably sent shivers down his spine.

"If this game could get a license, I’d write my name backwards!"

Suppressing the churning in his stomach, he began inspecting the condition of the tank.

The shell had hit the frontal armor on the right side of the hull. Thankfully, even though it shot through the sturdy frame along with the engine and the Strength Type’s human flesh-loading mechanism, it had not damaged the gun tower.

The fuel tank on the left side was still intact, ruling out the risk of fire.

The metallic hydrogen battery was located at the front right side, narrowly missed by the shell by just a bit, but luckily, it was indeed just a bit.

Mole tried to charge the capacitor but found that pressing the charge switch did nothing; the indicator light was red.

After assessing the damage, he immediately shouted towards the driver in front of his left leg.

"The capacitor is broken! How is it on your end?"

"The engine is scrapped! The chassis transmission structure is broken; it can be sent straight back to the factory for melting... Damn, there are infantry outside," the player from the Body Constitution System, squeezed amidst the twisted steel, pushed his eyes closer to the periscope and shouted nervously, "It’s people from the Falcon Kingdom!"

Hearing that infantry were approaching from outside, Mole immediately tensed up and turned the periscope towards the west direction facing the front of the vehicle.

On the sand dune there, walking down with limps, were nine people. Judging by their clothing and weapons, they appeared to be light infantry from the Falcon Kingdom’s First Armored Moto Thousand Team.

They were carrying rifles in their hands and anti-tank rocket launchers on their backs, cautiously spreading out and surrounding the unexploded Number Two tank destroyer.

His Adam’s apple bobbed, and Mole took down the LD-50 carbine hanging on the inside of the gun tower, unfolding the collapsible stock.

"...You go fix the capacitor, I’ll take care of them."

"Fix the capacitor?!" The Body Constitution System player was slightly stunned then turned back to look at Mole, "What’s the use of fixing that thing? The electromagnetic gun’s metal bullets can’t even penetrate its defense, right?"

When the five electromagnetic guns fired simultaneously before, that thing didn’t move an inch.

According to the analysis of the brothers on the Forum, that armor was probably designed specifically against electromagnetic guns, completely countering metal bullets without any means to penetrate.

As for armor-piercing shells, high-explosive bombs...

They had tried all the methods that could be used.

"We only have one chance anyway..." Mole said gravely, "Although it might not work, I want to try it again."

"Alright then..."

The player nodded, struggling to squeeze out of the deformed chair, and found the toolbox placed next to the loader.

The damaged capacitor was right beside the loader’s right foot.

Looking at the blood carbonized by the electric current and the completely severed wire ends, the player couldn’t help but feel a chill down his spine.

Mole’s voice came from above.

"Can you fix it?"

He steeled himself and replied.

"...I’ll do my best."

"I’m counting on you."

Mole took a deep breath, his left hand holding onto the hatch handle of the turret, the right hand grasping the LD-50, ready to emerge from the turret to fire before those infantry got too close.

However, just then, not far outside the tank, sudden bursts of gunfire sounded.

Hearing the gunfire, Mole was immediately taken aback.

LD-47’s sound?!

After playing Wasteland OL for so long, he could not possibly mistake the sound of his own people’s gunfire.

Without hesitation, Mole immediately turned the periscope towards the direction from where the sound of the gunfire came.

Right in front of the tank, to the right side, Elena was lying on the sand dune, firing bursts with her LD-47 at the soldiers of the Falcon Kingdom down below the dune.

Apart from Old Na, there was also the Gnome King Riches and three other armored grenadiers from the Skeleton Corps firing alongside.

As infantry combat players of the Skeleton Corps, their combat awareness and sequence level were relatively high in the server.

The ten-man team below the dunes was caught off-guard by the high-ground firepower and quickly turned into sieves, falling in pools of blood.

Seeing the crisis resolved, Mole tapped his index finger on the VM and immediately switched to Elena’s communication channel.

"Old Na! What’s your situation?"

"Everything’s OK on our end; we just wiped out a team... What the fuck? You’re still alive?" Elena, who was reloading, was shocked to hear Mole’s voice.

She thought he was done for, lying unconscious in the dugout after being stunned by a high-explosive bomb. She had just seen Mole’s post on the forum after logging off and assumed he was a goner.

But lo and behold, he’s back online!

Since when did agility types recover as well as body constitution types?!

"Heh heh, isn’t it normal for a non-tribal to have a lucky break after such bad luck? I think my hearing might be a bit off, but it’s not a big problem. Only problem is our tank is probably scrapped, and my driver is still trying to repair it..."

A lucky break indeed.

Elena’s expression became a bit weird.

Using luck on staying alive is such a loss.

Should have saved it for a draw...

But now wasn’t the time for complaints.

Seeing that Mole was still alive, she immediately asked,

"Can you fix your tank?!"

"The engine’s probably beyond saving, but the vehicle’s capacitors should still work, just need to connect the broken wires... probably." Mole trailed off as he saw the guy fixing the tank throw a glare back at him, adding another word thereafter.

Elena swallowed.

"So... what do we do now?"

Mole took a deep breath and calmed himself.

"Do you have eyes on that Hover Tank?"

Elena picked up the binoculars hanging around her neck and started scanning the surroundings.

After a while, she replied.

"Can’t see it... wait, there’s a big cloud of smoke to the southwest, heading in our direction!"

"Uh-huh, probably heard your gunfire. I guess they’ll come to check it out too," said Mole.

Lying next to Elena, Gnome King Riches also looked in that direction and muttered under his breath,

"How strange... Does that hunk of metal not generate heat? Why can’t I see any heat source at all?"

He had found it odd just now.

Other tanks were so hot they glowed white.

But that Hover Tank was pitch black in his "Thermal Vision."

"Not seeing a heat source is normal; seeing it would be abnormal."

Mole took another deep breath and slowly continued, "Listen up... Whether we can make it or not, we have one more chance, and only one."

The brothers of the Army quieted down, waiting for his command.

Mole paused before continuing.

"At your current location, to the northwest, there’s a light tank stranded... If I remember correctly, it was destroyed by a 155."

Elena immediately asked.

"And then?"

Mole said, "Figure out how to start it!"

Elena looked completely baffled.

"Damn... I’ve never driven a tank before."

While speaking, he quickly glanced at Gnome King Riches beside him, hoping to see a reliable expression on his face, but the latter looked just as baffled.

It wasn’t too difficult to drive the Alliance’s trucks; having hands was sufficient.

But driving a tank was a different story altogether.

Moreover, that wasn’t even their own tank but the enemy’s.

However...

In Mole’s view, that didn’t matter.

He had never counted on the Conqueror No. 5’s 60mm "little pipe" being able to pose any threat to the Hover Tank.

After a deep breath, he said earnestly,

"Don’t worry! Just follow my command..."

...

On the Gobi desert.

Upon receiving the news that the infantry had encountered the enemy, Stan directed the driver to change direction, heading toward the northeastern dunes.

There lay a destroyed Alliance tank.

Unlike the other tanks, it didn’t burst into flames like a lighter, but simply lay prostrate on the leeward slope of the dunes.

Since the Alliance tanks had scattered and fled, Stan had no time to confirm the destruction, so he left it to the First Moto Thousand Team’s infantry to handle.

However, he could never have imagined...

These trash couldn’t even handle that bit of work.

"...Eleventh Infantry, report your status immediately!"

Only the sizzle of electrical current came from the other end of the communication channel.

He had been waiting for a long time since the gunfire started, but no response came.

Stan’s eyes burned with fury as he couldn’t help but curse,

"What a bunch of wastes..."

He tossed the communicator onto the shelf next to the water bottle, then pressed the button to reactivate the Meissner effect armor and ordered the driver,

"Target northeast direction, maintain speed at thirty yards!"

The driver crisply responded,

"Roger!"

There wasn’t a single soul in sight amidst the rolling sands in the distance, but he wouldn’t mistake the gunfire that erupted minutes ago. It was probably the tank’s drivers making a last-ditch struggle.

Stan wasn’t concerned about those few who slipped through the net; what infuriated him was that those infantrymen couldn’t even do a simple cleanup after the battle.

It was such a waste to give the great Marshal His Majesty’s tanks to these incompetents!

The target was slowly drawing closer.

Eyes glued to the sight, Stan kicked the driver’s seat, and the driver intuitively halted the tank.

Not far off.

At the foot of a dune 2 kilometers away, a desert-camouflaged tank wreck lay quietly.

The frontal armor bore a twisted hole punched straight through.

The gun turret hung motionless, just as it had an hour ago.

With this level of damage, the tank was undoubtedly scrapped, but that didn’t necessarily mean the crew inside was dead—in fact, there was a fifty percent chance they’d survive.

Looking at the ten corpses 200 meters ahead of the tank wreck, Stan smirked coldly in his heart.

There were no footprints around the tank.

Nor were there any bloodstains.

The survivor must still be hiding inside the tank, playing dead.

"Load high-explosive," Stan ordered in a chilling voice, ready to send the opponent on his last journey.

"Roger!"

The loader inside the tank swiftly pulled out the armor-piercing shell and replaced it with an orange-tipped explosive round.

However, just as Stan was about to finish off the tank wreck with a high-explosive, a shot struck the side armor.

Whiz—!

The short and crisp sound grazed across the vehicle.

It sounded more like a toothpick scraping on a blackboard than a cannon shot.

From the sound, it was clear that the caliber of the projectile was likely less than 100 millimeters.

Impatiently clicking his tongue, Stan gestured for the driver to turn the tank 60 degrees to the left, facing the direction from which the shot had come.

However, when he looked through the scope at that tank, he was momentarily startled.

Conqueror No.5?

"Is that our tank?"

The driver had also noticed the anomaly and doubtfully looked back at Stan.

Stan frowned, but he quickly realized something and coldly switched off the safety.

"...Just a few dying bugs."

Looking down on the 60 millimeter "little pipe" now, are we?

Still lying there motionless.

They probably didn’t even know how to operate that tank!

Meanwhile, inside the targeted Conqueror No. 5 light tank, Elena was frantically stuffing the shells into the chamber.

As he pulled down the breech, he didn’t forget to shout at Brother Fu Gui sitting in the gunner’s seat.

"Did it hit?"

"It hit!" Eyes glued to the sight, Gnome King Riches casually replied.

Intrigued, Elena continued,

"Did it work?"

"It worked... for shit!"

Watching the Hover Tank pointing its gun barrel their way, Gnome King Riches’s face instantly turned green.

Although he knew he wouldn’t really die, although he knew this was the game world, having that black barrel aimed at him still made his heart pound frantically.

That terrifying sense of oppression penetrated straight into his soul...

He felt as if he could already see himself getting blown to bits.

"Damn it... Can this Mole actually do it?"

Seeing the stiff expression on his face, Elena had already guessed something and said with a subtle expression,

"Questioning this is pointless now, can only trust him this time... Anyway, want to give it another shot before we die?"

"MMP... Ahhh! Shit!" Gnome King Riches cursed and howled in rage, "I’m going all-in with you!"

Just at the moment within the frame where the flames flickered, he almost reflexively squeezed the trigger to fire.

The flames spewed from the 60mm pipe nearly licked the warhead of the high-explosive bomb.

The explosion’s glow instantly engulfed the gun tower!

The two of them didn’t even hear the blast ringing through the steel before they were turned into sieves by the disintegrating debris inside the steel and the shrapnel that penetrated the vehicle’s body.

This time, regardless of being from the Agility system or the Body Constitution system, both were dead beyond question.

However—

Stan, who had destroyed them, didn’t get a chance to mock his opponent’s overestimation of their capabilities, as the cold smirk hanging at the corner of his mouth froze forever on his face.

The sharp, wedge-shaped armor folded inward in a twisted posture, and the 20-kilogram "steel needle," like a mallet striking mochi, blew the vehicle’s body directly in half.

The last frame imprinted on his retina was the gun tower blown away and the flames from the sympathetic explosion.

Up until his death...

He had no idea what had just happened.

Meanwhile, inside the scrapped No. 2 B-type tank destroyer, sparks were crackling; the Strength Type brother, who had been dead for over an hour, was flailing his bloodied, indistinct legs as if they were flickering back to life.

The capacitor that had just been repaired was now completely beyond repair.

The Body Constitution system driver, who had been checking the equipment nearby, was also jolted by the electricity, flailing for quite a while before he came back to his senses, nearly failing to return at all.

He shook his head.

As soon as the player regained consciousness, he scrambled to the observation window near the driver’s seat in a panic and peered out urgently.

When he saw the fire burning on the sand dunes, he was completely shocked.

"... Fuck!?"

Blurted out a curse, he abruptly turned to look at the squad leader sitting below the gun tower.

"Did it work...?"

"Mm..." The Mole was equally shocked by the electricity, but it wasn’t as exaggerated due to the distance.

"Fucking awesome!!!" The player swallowed and excitedly clenched his fists, asking, "Brother, how did you manage it?"

The Mole, leaning on the chair, relaxed his tense shoulders and patiently explained to him.

"The Meissner effect not only works against superconductors near a magnetic field but also acts against the force that opposes changes in magnetic flux, even on superconductors far from the magnetic field... So at the instant of firing, that field must have been deactivated, or the phase-transition projectile wouldn’t have been able to fly out at all. It had two choices: either switch off the magnetic field, or turn off the field that causes superconductors to undergo a phase change."

"Whichever choice it was, as long as Newton’s coffin lid was still on... that was the best shooting window."

"Just have to fire at the instant it fires, and hit it before its armor reactivates... there’s a chance to destroy it."

He paused, then continued.

"Of course... this is just my speculation."

And it was lucky that it was Meissner effect armor.

If it were a deflection shield, then this matter would have gone beyond the purview of high school physics.

If he couldn’t even understand the principle, he would really be stumped.

Though he was completely confused, the Body Constitution system player still swallowed his saliva.

"... but you guessed right."

The Mole nodded his head, smiling weakly.

"To be accurate, it was a bet..."

Without the protection of the Meissner effect armor, the thickest alloy armor was just paper before a sixty-megajoule railgun.

The moment his index finger released the trigger.

He felt his back soaked with sweat, but still managed to squeeze out a smile of relief on his face.

Although it came at a heavy cost of casualties, the Skeleton Corps had ultimately annihilated the opposing tank forces and even destroyed the nearly indestructible Wanderer...

Although they couldn’t make it to the airport on time, that couldn’t be helped, this was the best outcome they could achieve.

At least fifteen more tanks had been sent as reinforcements.

And the toughest Wanderer had been dealt with.

With the "Ace Pilot’s" micro-control, holding out for a few more minutes shouldn’t be a problem.

He didn’t know if the Manager could see his efforts, but he had already seen the glittering pop-up window in his hallucinations.

[Congratulations to "Canyon Runaway Mole"... and a host of other players, for achieving the First Kill of the "Wanderer" tank!]

To have such a line left on the Alliance’s monument—

This life was worth it!

...

Meanwhile, in some distant and peaceful world.

No matter how intense the front-line battles were, the atmosphere here was always the most relaxed, a haven for players and Backseat Drivers alike.

Elena, who had gone offline, was now chomping on melon seeds in the Forum along with everyone else.

Upon hearing that the Mole planned to solo the Wanderer, the Backseat Drivers, who were just discussing the boss’s weaknesses, one after another @Professor Yang, asking him to set up a betting pool.

Elena: "Stop betting, guys. The Mole hasn’t shown up for so long; I reckon there’s an eighty percent chance he’s already taken care of it. Isn’t starting a pool now just throwing money away? (Funny)"

Just then, Mosquito slyly interjected.

"How do you know he isn’t too embarrassed to show up on the Forum after losing face?"

Night Ten: "Holy crap! That actually makes sense!"

Star River Unvisited in Dreams: "Ahem, big brothers from the Skeleton Corps, where are you guys? Did your tank fall into a pit? I’ve been waiting so long my chewing gum is turning into rubber."

Elena: "Ahem, we ran into an armored division, but it’s already been dealt with... So what’s up with you? Why did you come online? And what happened?"

Star River Unvisited in Dreams: "Eh, no option, we got bitten by a fighter plane, dodging a burst of machine-gun fire and a missile of unknown type was already quite an achievement."

Crow: "Does that mean the nuclear bomb is about to take off? Σ(゜ロ゜;)"

Teng Teng: "!!"

Short Chat Bullshit: "Holy moly!?"

Players living their lives through on-screen action were blown up in an instant.

Star River Unvisited in Dreams: "Ahem, before I disconnected, I fired the last missile towards the airport, although it might have gone a bit beyond the range... but it should be no big deal!"

Gnome King Riches: "A single missile? Is that enough power?"

Star River Unvisited in Dreams: "Metal hydrogen charge, bro! That’s metal hydrogen! Definitely enough! T.T"

There was no need even to hit the plane directly, just blasting a hole in the airport runway would naturally ground the plane.

Elena: "Hey, that’s good to hear. Anyway, where’s Falling Feather? Why haven’t I seen that guy? (Funny)"

Star River Unvisited in Dreams: "emmm... Not sure, I’ve been wondering about that too."