This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 466: Really Treating a Brother Like One of Our Own!

Chapter 466: Chapter 466: Really Treating a Brother Like One of Our Own!

The scorching sun baked the Earth, as if it wanted to evaporate the last bit of moisture from this soil.

Unable to bear the harsh rays of The Sun, Claw of Death, crawling low to the ground, hung its head listlessly and snorted.

"Hiss—"

Living in River Valley Province, it was clearly not adapted to the climate of Luo Xia Province.

However, being an organism at the top of the food chain, its extraordinary ability to adapt to the environment meant it was only uncomfortable, not incapable of perseverance.

Edge Shoveling gently patted its head.

"Good, it’ll be better when we reach the Oasis."

They were only two hundred kilometers away from Oasis No.3.

Following the breach of sector 1 in Defense Zone No.40 by the Skeleton Corps, the Alliance Army had infiltrated three corps, totaling over six thousand troops, behind the G40 defense line.

It wasn’t until a thousand team was wiped out that the Corps Command finally came to their senses.

Just ten minutes ago, a hundred-man artillery team, belatedly shook things up by lobbing area fire twenty kilometers away towards fortification G40-1, unleashing at least two hundred shells.

For an Army struggling with supplies, these two hundred shells represented a significant gesture.

But the Alliance didn’t linger too long over gap number G40-1, making the barrage an empty gesture.

Death Legion was now positioned to the right of the Skeleton Corps.

According to the plan, they were originally meant to move northeast to get behind Defense Zone No.41, using the mobility of the Wolf Cavalry to quickly expand the breach in the defense line and, in coordination with the Lion Kingdom Army occupying position No.40, annihilate the living forces of the Army’s fourth Ten thousand troops.

But now, the situation had changed.

The enemy was less prepared than expected; the fortieth thousand team collapsed within an hour, disorganized and defeated.

Annihilating the enemy’s living forces was no longer the utmost priority. The Alliance could instead seize the moment to expand their victory, aiming to take down the even higher "Regimental command post"!

The so-called Regimental command post was the command post for a Ten thousand troops, the highest frontline command level.

One more level up would be the Corps Headquarters, where General Griffin was located.

Pushing directly to the group army command was unrealistic, but taking a Regimental command post was conceivable.

Capturing it would throw the defenses of sections G40~49 into chaos.

Without a command system, the thousand teams would be unable to support each other effectively, and each defense sector would instantly become isolated.

Even if every Weilante Military Officer were a superhuman, their only fate would be annihilation.

For this reason, the enemy would never allow such a situation to occur.

According to information provided by Pangolin, a Corps Ten Thousand Leader’s command post typically has a direct thousand-infantry team, along with a hundred-man artillery, communications, engineers, army sergeants, and transport teams, totaling a force of between fifteen hundred and two thousand.

And the distance to the very frontline is usually between one hundred and two hundred kilometers.

Under normal circumstances, a strategic depth of one hundred and fifty kilometers would take two days at a slow pace, and at least one day if fast.

But this was just under normal circumstances.

The Corps probably would never have guessed that the Alliance had not only tamed Claw of Death but had even trained a formal cavalry unit using its unique abilities.

Tanks and trucks rely on smooth roads.

But not animals.

Stepping past his Mount, Edge Shoveling walked to the front of the column, looking towards the more than three thousand brothers lined up and ready in the dip below the hill.

More than thirty percent of them were newcomers.

However, after continuous "suicidal training" for half a month, even the latest recruits to the Corps had become qualified soldiers.

Their Combat Power was beyond doubt!

After scanning his brothers present, Edge Shoveling opened the communication System and spoke out loudly.

"The command from headquarters says that Plan Three is going well! The Burning Corps hasn’t even landed, and the enemy has already raised the white flag!"

"In less than an hour, we’ve won the first phase of the operation!"

Hearing that the Battle was going so smoothly, the players all smiled knowingly.

Especially the newcomers.

Having been tormented by Pangolin for half a month, most of the novices were tense as they entered the Battlefield, fearing they might lag and become a burden.

But they hadn’t even seen the shadow of the enemy before the first stage of the Battle was victorious.

This wasn’t the Wasteland.

It was a bit too post-modern!

Debt Giant Eye, standing at the front of the troop, looked toward the young builders and bricks to his side and whispered a joke.

"The Goblin Corps have had such a blast nabbing heads; I bet Old White and his guys are cursing up a storm."

"Hahaha!" Having a low threshold for humor, the young builders couldn’t help but laugh out loud.

Giving those two a blank look, Edge Shoveling continued in a robust voice, ignoring the comment.

"To solidify our achievements, the command from Headquarters ordered the Skeleton Corps to keep pushing forward, targeting the enemy’s Regimental command post!"

"At the same time, there has been a change to our mission here, the original operation is canceled, and our allies will handle the garrison at Defense Zone No.41. Our new task from Command is to continue forward, advancing to No. 330 high ground a hundred and fifty kilometers away!"

"That’s the first tooth in the mouth of the Army’s fourth Ten thousand troops’ command post! Once we pull that out, we can shove our tanks’ barrels into the enemy’s throat!"

The young builder and brick laughed and shouted.

"Sir! How many are there?"

The drum washing machine laughed and followed with another comment.

"Is there enough for each of our brothers to get one?"

Edge Shoveling laughed heartily.

"It’s probably not enough, according to aerial imagery, there’s just one anti-aircraft artillery position on the top of that hill, with an estimated deployment of only around a hundred troops."

The construction site lad and Brick clicked their tongues.

"Just one company."

"Just because it’s only one company, we mustn’t underestimate our enemies!" Edge Shoveling said sternly, "They’re definitely not weak and they have clearly seen through our plans, with at least four thousand-men teams currently moving from the front line to the rear along the road network."

"If they want to intercept the advancing Skeleton Corps, No. 330 high ground is their best choice. Therefore, we need to seize it before the enemy does and cover our Skeleton brothers as they pass this last checkpoint!"

With that, Edge Shoveling cracked a grin.

"The headquarters gave us twenty-four hours, but I think this deadline is downright disrespectful of our brothers’ mobility!"

For some reason, the construction site lad and Brick suddenly felt a shiver and muttered to themselves.

"I’ve always had this ominous premonition."

As if to coincide with his feeling,

...the very next thing Edge Shoveling said confirmed his suspicion.

"...Fifty wolf cavalry take five hundred brothers and set out with me first! We’ll cut through the enemy’s belly in a straight line, aiming to reach our destination before midnight!"

"The rest will follow old Construction Site, transportation is limited... so I’m afraid the strength-type brothers will have to put in a bit of extra effort!"

Having said that, Edge Shoveling didn’t wait for the strength-type players to react before he waved his hand grandly, issuing the order with great momentum.

"Move out!"

As Edge Shoveling called names over the communications channel, five hundred-man teams of agility system players quickly got in line, mounting their mounts, the Claws of Death.

They moved as swift as though fearing they’d miss out if they were too slow.

"Brother, I’ll take off first!" Debt Giant Eye laughed and clapped the construction worker on the shoulder, climbing behind Edge Shoveling.

Watching the cloud of dust as they disappeared into the distance and then turning to look at the more than two thousand brothers left with just a few hundred bicycles and tricycles, the construction site lad and Brick had an expression of wry amusement.

It took a while for him to squeeze out a word from his mouth.

"Chip!"

This guy.

He really didn’t consider his brothers as outsiders.

No, more like he didn’t consider them human!

From some version onwards, the once glorious strength system was being used like beasts of burden by everyone, while the originally not-so-useful intelligence system seemed not so useless after the mass production of neurological connection equipment.

Thinking about this, the old construction worker couldn’t help but clench his fists.

Damn it!

When will the strength system rise again!

The newbie holding a shotgun was clueless about the upcoming events, but he walked up excitedly to the team leader and asked eagerly.

"Captain, what are we going to do now?"

The other newbies followed suit and asked excitedly.

"Are we going through as well?"

"How do we go through?"

The construction site lad and Brick muttered as they mounted a tricycle and pushed down on the pedals hard.

"Get on!"

...

Oasis No.3, Corps Headquarters.

Upon hearing the frontline reports, General Griffin was stunned for a good minute before he came back to his senses.

The news that the G40-1 position was breached by the Alliance nearly coincided with the collapse of the 40th thousand team.

If it weren’t for knowing the officers of the 40th thousand team were all Vellante People, he would have barely stopped himself from suspecting a traitor among them.

Otherwise, there was no explanation for how these idiots couldn’t even hold out for an hour.

Seeing that General Griffin didn’t speak, the adjutant swallowed hard and continued.

"According to the report from the 4th ten-thousand team, the Alliance deployed the Iron Heart in this battle and concentrated almost all armored units..."

"It seems they’re not just probing; they’re determined to fight a decisive battle with us."

At these words, General Griffin’s face grew even darker, like storm clouds ready to burst, as if it could drip water.

Originally, according to his plan, that ultimatum could have bought him at least a month’s time, but unexpectedly, the Alliance launched a full offensive after just half a month.

This not only meant that the entire situation was rapidly sliding into an unfavorable turn for him, but it also meant that his previous series of deployments had become self-indulgent, and all speculations and arrangements had become superfluous soliloquies.

The Alliance had guessed their logistics situation from the very beginning.

That’s why they deliberately chose a position to "show weakness" to them, making them believe that the Alliance’s logistics were almost on par with theirs, to the point where they couldn’t even scrape together a decent number of rifles.

But Griffin still hadn’t expected the Alliance to be so ruthless!

In order to dull his troops’ vigilance and for this long-planned ambush, they actually sent their own people to die, sacrificing over three thousand lives!

Taking a deep breath, he calmed down and asked.

"What’s the situation with the 4th ten-thousand team now?"

The adjutant replied with a tense expression.

"Ten Thousand Leader Sofft ordered the main force to retreat to No. 330 high ground and re-establish a defensive line to intercept the Alliance’s isolated armored troops. At the same time, they mentioned in the telegram that they hope that the third and fifth ten thousand troops could attack the Alliance’s positions from the west and east directions, containing the Alliance’s forces."

General Griffin looked at the strategic map spread out on the table, his gaze firmly fixed on the location of No. 330 high ground, and his face suddenly changed.

"Tell Sofft to contract his defensive line immediately!"

The adjutant hesitated slightly, his face showing a troubled expression.

"Retreat? But—"

"No, there’s no time!"

Griffin’s brow furrowed, and he suddenly canceled the command, muttering to himself, "Abandoning the position at this point would be even more dangerous. The Alliance’s tanks will catch up with them fast... With the Steel Heart cloaked, once they leave cover, they’ll have nowhere to hide."

Watching the grave expression on General Griffin’s face, several officers standing by exchanged puzzled glances.

Although the Alliance’s combat power had repeatedly exceeded their expectations, they still had an army of a hundred thousand at their command.

The situation was not yet so dire as to be unmanageable.

After a long contemplation, Griffin began issuing orders.

"Have Peidao and the first Navy Aviation squadron move to the airfield at the front line of the third ten thousand troops, ready to support the fourth ten thousand troops at any time!"

The staff officer standing by cautiously reminded him.

"Relying solely on Peidao and the first Navy Aviation squadron might not be enough to handle the Steel Heart, at most they could temporarily disable it."

"I know," Griffin said calmly, "this isn’t a deployment made to handle the Steel Heart."

The staff officer was momentarily stumped.

"Then it is...?"

Without directly answering the question, Griffin gazed at the map and slowly said.

"McCullen once mentioned to me that his Steel Heart was taken down by a group of airborne troops. At the time, I thought he must be insane. How could airborne troops jump onto an airship with hundreds of anti-aircraft cannons forming a defensive position? And how many could even survive such a jump?"

The officers in the tent exchanged looks, sharing the bewilderment in each other’s eyes.

That did indeed sound far-fetched.

With the Steel Heart bristling like a hedgehog with cannons, not to mention parachuting onto its head, it seemed difficult to even fly a plane up to its face!

After a pause, Griffin continued.

"But now, I suddenly feel that he wasn’t insane, nor was he joking."

"The Alliance’s target is the command post of the fourth ten thousand troops. Their commander can’t possibly fail to calculate that, no matter how fast their armored troops advance, they can’t reach No. 330 high ground faster than our reinforcing troops. The hill will snag their treads like a nail..."

"But even though it’s an obvious situation, they still order their armored troops to carry out an impossible task. Such abnormality could only mean one thing: their real card is not on the ground, but in the sky."

The adjutant suddenly looked at General Griffin with realization.

"You mean... they plan to deploy airborne troops to attack No. 330 high ground?!"

Griffin nodded slightly.

"Their planes seem to be made of a special material or coating that presents a radar signature smaller than a sparrow. No matter how you look at it, sending airborne troops for a surprise attack is the best strategy."

"Moreover, to ensure the success of the operation, they will surely take action at night!"

"In doing so, not only will they seize No. 330 high ground before our reinforcing troops, but they can also surround and attack in conjunction with their armored troops breaking through from Defense Zone G40-1."

Speaking thus, a cold smile curled on the lips of General Griffin.

"Heh, these guys are quite ambitious!"

The adjutant’s face gradually took on a serious tone.

"If what you’re saying is true, doesn’t that make the fourth ten thousand troops situation extremely perilous...?"

Griffin didn’t answer the question, but instead turned to the radio operator at his side, his tone decisive as he ordered.

"Send a telegram to Sofft, telling him to dispatch the directly subordinate thousand team to No. 330 high ground after dark!"

The staff officer looked at the general in a daze.

"But doing so would leave the frontline command post’s defenses..."

Griffin replied without hesitation.

"Even without that direct thousand team, they still have the forces of six hundred men teams, which is enough to respond to emergencies. And if they can’t hold No. 330 high ground, those extra thousand men won’t make any difference to them."

Hesitation leads to defeat!

With just those infantrymen, Sofft had no chance of stopping the Alliance tanks in the open field.

Now that it was certain the Alliance would deploy airborne troops to assault No. 330 high ground.

Rather than waiting passively, it was better to take a gamble.

Speaking, Griffin continued to look at the radio operator, who was hurriedly taking notes, and sharply ordered.

"Also, get on the line with the third and fifth ten thousand troops immediately, tell them to reassign forces to support the fourth ten thousand troops right away!"

Pocketing his smoking pen, the radio operator snapped to attention and saluted.

"Yes sir!"

...

At the same time, at the Alliance’s frontline positions.

Under the cover of the Goblin Corps, twenty "Dragonfly" transport planes carrying the Burning Corps began landing one by one on the temporary airstrip.

As each transport plane steadied, ground crew pushing forklifts quickly approached to change the planes’ battery modules.

Meanwhile, the plane’s cargo doors swung open, and players clad in exoskeletons, carrying parachutes and rifles, started disembarking from the cabin.

Everyone wore a displeased expression, cursing and mumbling.

"MMP! That was a lonely kind of flying!"

"Exactly! I haven’t even had my fun yet—how come it’s already over!"

"+1! It’s all because those damn Mosquitoes bombed too fiercely!"

"They licked the ground way too damn clean!"

Standing next to the plane,

the ground crew of the Lion Kingdom watched the airborne soldiers cursing and babbling, expressions of bewilderment creeping onto their faces.

"What are they saying?"

"I don’t know... it doesn’t seem to be United Human language."

"But it sounds like they’re complaining."

"Is it that the progress of the battle is not smooth?" A young ground crew member muttered under his breath, which was overheard by an Alliance Engineer who was checking the plane next to him.

The latter smiled, lips quirked up at the corners, eyes narrowed toward the direction of the airborne soldiers, and casually chimed in.

"Not that it’s not smooth, quite the opposite, it’s too smooth—it ended before they even got a chance to make a move."

The ground crew exchanged glances, bewildered, not at all comprehending the meaning behind those words.

Too smooth?

What’s there to complain about?

The young man who previously guessed that the progress of the battle was problematic looked bewilderingly at the engineer fixing the equipment and asked with a puzzled face.

"I don’t understand... isn’t smooth progress a good thing?"

"Indeed, it’s a good thing—it means that the friendly forces finished the work for them, but there is nothing for them to be happy about. The honor that belongs to warriors is ultimately to be earned on the battlefield. Rather than hiding behind allies, they crave to blaze on the most dangerous front lines, because that is the glory of the Burning Corps."

The engineer paused for a moment, casually continuing.

"As for death, it’s merely the return... I heard someone among them say this while we were drinking at a roadside inn."

After hearing this, everyone’s expressions changed markedly, their gazes instantly filled with respect when looking toward those towering figures.

Shaken to the core, the young man couldn’t help but swallow hard.

"They’re truly a bunch of madmen..."

However, the moment the words left his mouth, he realized his phrasing might have been a bit off and tried to retract his statement.

But the Alliance Engineer didn’t care—tossing a wrench in his hand, he casually replied.

"If it is for plunder, then indeed, they are madmen."

"But if it is for faith, for ideals, for protecting the residents of the Alliance, or for other great causes..."

"That is heroism!"

The young man gaped at the Alliance Engineer in front of him.

Although he couldn’t fully grasp the meaning of the words, a seed of emotion seemed to be unwittingly planted in his heart.

Few realized.

The Alliance Soldiers fighting alongside them not only left an extraordinary impression, but also subtly changed their way of thinking...

Elsewhere,

by the temporary runway,

Old White, clad in "Dragon Cavalry" power armor, trudged with heavy steps to the front of the Burning Corps brothers.

"New mission!"

Night Ten joked.

"Where are we taking a spin this time?"

Seeing the kid was still hung up about the cancellation of the previous operation, Old White cast his gaze around the group, grinning ear to ear.

"Manager says Defense Zone No.40’s stage was too small, not enough room for us to strut our stuff. This time we’re playing big."

Quit Smoking immediately showed interest in his eyes, eagerly asking.

"How big?"

"The fourth Ten Thousand Leader’s Command Post!" Old White continued with a gleaming look, "According to Pangolin’s intel, they have at least a thousand or two people there!"

At the mention of a thousand or two, Night Ten became instantly ecstatic.

"Holy shit! A regiment?!"

Quit Smoking: "Awesome!!!"

Watching his excited teammates, Old White chuckled.

"This time the Skeleton Corps share the same target as us—to paralyze the command system of the Death Legion’s fourth ten thousand troops. But they are still on their way, getting car sick; there is no way they can beat us this time."

Standing to the side, Wild Wind didn’t show much of an emotional change, simply asking.

"When do we leave?"

"After dark!" Old White chuckled as he clapped his shoulder, "Why? Got class today?"

Wild Wind casually nodded.

"Yeah, I need to ask for leave later."

-

(I meant to write more... but I still didn’t finish the second half, embarrassing T.T)