This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 475: A Misfire

Chapter 475: Chapter 475: A Misfire

Although in various ways it was unreliable, when their lives were at stake, the pilot named Sun Ze still displayed exceptional flying skills. He managed to control the fall with the only remaining engine—

Even though it was just barely under control.

"We’re fifty meters from the ground! Brace for a hard landing—"

Sun Ze shouted loudly, but before he could finish, a huge "Duang" sound came from below everyone’s feet.

The instant overload of acceleration almost turned everyone’s face pale and nearly made them faint.

The safety belts, almost embedded into the exoskeleton, were so tight that they made Night Ten roll his eyes, nearly losing his breath.

At the same time, a muffled impact spread through the wilderness as the "Tiger Whale" transport plane stirred up clouds of dust upon the flat ground.

"Cough, cough..."

Sitting in the pilot’s seat, Sun Ze coughed violently, shaking his dizzy head. He pulled down the emergency handle that hung above him as he gradually came to his senses.

The tailgate of the transport plane slowly fell, and he too slowly regained consciousness.

"...Incredible... I actually managed to land it."

Sun Ze muttered to himself, looking outside then at his own hands, the confusion on his face gradually replaced by the joy of having survived.

He struggled to reach out, pushing the unconscious co-pilot beside him, calling out excitedly.

"Hey, buddy, are you okay? Wake up! We made it!!"

The person didn’t respond, but there was still a heartbeat and breathing; probably just hadn’t snapped out of the impact shock yet.

After unfastening his seatbelt and standing up, Old White took a rifle off his power armor, loaded it, and said to Sun Ze sitting in the pilot’s seat.

"You might not want to celebrate just yet; we have just made an emergency landing, not safely returned... This place is the Wasteland."

Looking at the unfamiliar wilderness outside the cabin, Sun Ze, finally aware of the severity of the situation, swallowed nervously and slowly nodded.

"Understood..."

Old White continued to ask.

"How long to fix it?"

Quickly bowing his head towards the touchscreen in front of the rudder, Sun Ze got serious and started tapping sharply on the screen.

"I don’t know, I need to check the damage first... The auxiliary pilot AI reported foreign objects in the engine, melting the plasma jet nozzles- it might have been an unlucky bird."

"No chance... it couldn’t be a bird," the co-pilot who was gradually waking from his stupor coughed and weakly said, "I remember the radar handbook said, within 50 meters it could even capture a bullet..."

Sun Ze asked in a hurry.

"Did you bring the handbook?"

"That thing..."

The co-pilot gasped for two seconds, finally managing to squeeze out the next sentence.

"... I think there should be one in the toolbox."

"... You guys fix it first."

Looking at the two still searching for the handbook, Old White turned away with a full head of annoyance, deciding it was better not to waste words with them for the time being.

He worried his blood pressure wouldn’t hold up.

Although not of the Perception variant, he always had a bad feeling.

The Army’s radar technology was passable, but their anti-radar technology was not so clever, no better than corporate air defense technology.

If the "missile" evaded corporation radar, it likely used some coating that absorbed electromagnetic waves.

He suddenly thought of the anti-radar coating on the Soaring Clouds fighter.

If he remembered correctly, that came from Shelter 101.

The director of Shelter 101 had been one of the three founders of the Academy; reasonably suspecting, the Academy should also have similar or even more advanced technology.

Although he didn’t understand why the Academy would launch a sudden attack, this was the Wasteland.

Things that happen here don’t always need a reason.

At the same time the plane landed.

The Burning Corps players had already moved through the open tailgate, swiftly making their way outside the cabin, dispersing in groups of four, professionally finding cover to prepare for defense.

Striding out from the cabin, Old White calmly gave an order.

"Wild Wind, deploy the fixed-wing drone to search the surrounding five-kilometer area. Night Ten, find a high point nearby to set up your gun. Quit Smoking, take your squad northeast to search for our pilots; report any suspicious targets immediately, free fire allowed. All other squads disperse and defend; we need to hold this place until the plane is fixed!"

The communication channel echoed with uniform responses.

"Roger that!"

Meanwhile, on the other side.

Looking at the drone surveillance footage projected on his Tactical Goggles, Zheng Hao’s face showed a hint of surprise.

He had thought that falling from an altitude of five to six hundred meters would have left the plane’s occupants dead or incapacitated. Yet, they immediately went into combat mode upon landing, without even a moment’s hesitation.

"They’re a bit different from the rumors..." The voice of the vice-captain, Song Changfeng, came through the communication channel, "Looks like not everyone from the East Coast is useless."

"That’s for sure."

While slightly wary in his heart, Zheng Hao didn’t show it and continued to give orders in a lowered voice.

"Attention all, the enemy has dispersed to defend. We’ve identified nineteen sets of exoskeletons and one set of power armor... Models are outdated from the United Human, OD-10 ’Dragon Cavalry’, Type 5 ’Light Cavalry’, Type 6 ’Heavy Cavalry’. Switch to armor-piercing ammunition."

He then looked toward a young man with an expressionless face next to him.

"Xuan Feng, you take Group B to the map marker to intercept ’the target’."

"Yes."

The man nodded silently and dispassionately, and a party of six split from the group, rapidly moving toward the wetlands in the southeast.

Zheng Hao turned his gaze toward the southern sky, his brow slightly furrowed.

"Drones..."

A fixed-wing drone circled overhead.

It looked simple, but he didn’t underestimate the opponent because of that.

"Xiao Jiang, can you shoot it down?"

A dissatisfied response came through the communication channel.

"Captain... I must remind you, we’ve only got ’two’ left."

"Drop the ’beehive’ at the crash site."

The communication channel fell briefly silent.

"Are you sure? We actually don’t need to engage them in a firefight, as long as we intercept—"

"Confirmed."

Hearing the captain’s decisive answer, Jiang Xuezhou stopped talking and took a deep breath before saying,

"Received."

Miles away, the cover on the top of the crawler opened, and with a plume of smoke, a cylindrical object one meter in diameter was launched into the sky. After igniting, it raced toward the direction of the crash site.

This conspicuous scene was immediately spotted by the fixed-wing drones circling above.

With his eyes closed, Wild Wind slightly raised his head, his expression serious as he said,

"Enemy ground vehicle spotted... They’ve fired a missile at us! Model... I’ve never seen it in the game."

"Damn it!"

Old White’s face slightly changed as he couldn’t help but curse.

Since it was a rescue mission, only infantry weapons were placed in the transport plane.

Without the luxury of hesitation, Old White immediately rushed to the side of the transport plane, grabbed the two pilots who were repairing the device, and pulled them away from the plane.

Sun Ze, who was flipping through a manual, asked in panic,

"What are you doing?"

"Missile!"

"Missile?!" Sun Ze froze, and instinctively said, "But the radar—"

He started to say the radar had no response, but before he could finish speaking, the silvery white missile had already appeared above everyone.

To everyone’s surprise, it did not charge straight at the plane, nor did it explode. Instead, it opened its arc-shaped shell.

Dozens of palm-sized drones flew out of the missile, like a killing swarm of bees, rushing at the people surrounding the transport plane.

Old White’s pupils slightly contracted.

Almost reflexively, he took an EMP grenade from the armor’s shell, which he had obtained from the Manager. He set the delay fuse to 3 seconds and then threw the grenade into the sky with the force of a baseball pitch.

He wasn’t sure if it would work.

But this was the only way right now!

The hundred meters closed in a flash.

Almost at the moment of colliding with the drone swarm, a piercing buzzing noise crept into the communication channel.

The pulse current stimulated by nuclear energy instantly paralyzed the miniature electronic components inside those dozens of micro drones.

The drones, which had no time to disperse, fell to the ground like flies hitting an electric fly swatter, along with the plummeting beehive, dropping to the ground as if dumplings were being thrown down.

Miles away, seated on the crawler, Jiang Xuezhou felt a slight sting in his forehead, his brow furling involuntarily.

"Swarm destroyed... The enemy used EMP weapons," came the voice over the communication channel in disbelief.

"EMP?!"

Jiang Xuezhou took a light breath and nodded seriously,

"Yes... and it’s some kind of miniaturized EMP device, extremely powerful at close range. Do not underestimate the strength of our adversaries!"

The method to resist EMP is simple: almost anything that can block electromagnetic waves can also block an electromagnetic pulse, theoretically a "Faraday cage" over the devices would suffice, without the need for any particularly sophisticated technology.

However, a "swarm" requires the beehive to coordinate and direct, so it’s not possible to simply and crudely block out all external signals.

The Academy’s technicians dealt with this by adding a small buffer component to the communication module, sufficient to withstand ordinary EMP weapons.

But the buffering components of fifty drones were all breached at the same time!

This clearly wasn’t a conventional EMP weapon stimulated by chemical energy!

As everyone knows, the difficulty of miniaturizing EMP weapons is by no means less than the difficulty of miniaturizing nuclear weapons, especially maintaining output power while miniaturizing is even more challenging!

An EMP weapon capable of paralyzing an entire "swarm" of drones likely suggests a foe whose strength might exceed their expectations...

Zheng Hao’s eyes were filled with caution, and his gaze grew more wary.

At the same time, around the transport plane, watching the smoking drones fall at his feet, Killer Dagger clicked his tongue.

"What the heck is this?"

The players on the ground were just outside the coverage area of the EMP grenade. Although the communication system experienced a brief fault, it had not been significantly affected, and their equipment functions were all normal.

"Almost certainly Y-2 ’Butterfly Knife’ type close-range drones..." Someone with a bad name must have been a dog, muttered softly, "Damn... could it be the Academy?"

"The Academy?!" Kidney Fighter exclaimed in surprise, "Damn, what have we done to offend them?"

"This here is Wasteland, you think this is the Real World," Killer Dagger rolled his eyes and retorted, "All that nonsense isn’t needed, just blast these old codgers’ Gold Coins and call it a day!"

Even in the Real World, this kind of "unauthorized" military action would not get any official recognition, and if someone died, it would probably be deemed an accident during training.

Wasteland is even less regulated.

In this desolate, ownerless Land Without a Master, anything can happen.

But then again, having an entire drone squad wiped out by an EMP grenade, if these people are really from the Academy, they don’t seem so tough...

Unlike the feelings of the few squad members, Old White had no sense of relief at all.

Especially after he heard that exclamation from Sun Ze.

"The Swarm... it’s actually the Swarm!"

"The Swarm?" Old White asked, furrowing his brow.

Sun Ze swallowed and explained with a trembling voice,

"An Academy weapon, rumored to leave no survivors within a five hundred-meter radius, it’s mainly used to clear Variants..."

Old White’s face darkened slightly.

Regardless of the reasons, since the other side had made a lethal move...

There was no need for them to be polite either.

Over the communication channel, Wild Wind’s voice came through,

"A squad is approaching us, less than eight hundred meters away."

Old White tapped his forefinger on his helmet and ordered calmly,

"Teams three and four, defend in place. Teams one and two, follow me to counterattack! All units, pay attention, safety off, free fire! I repeat, free fire!"

Almost at the very moment Old White’s words fell, Quit Smoking, who had led team five deep into a reed swamp, had already engaged the enemy unit in combat.

The flames at the muzzle flickered across the marsh, and tracers hissed wildly through reeds taller than a man.

The Burning Corps, like the Storm Corps, adopted the triad system: a ten-person squad similar to an infantry platoon in the Real World, consisting of a squad leader and three tactical teams.

The advantage was clear division of labor, effectively reducing casualties, and also conveniently mentoring rookies. It worked well for both large-scale operations and small-scale military actions.

However, the downside of this tactic was not non-existent, such as the feeling of being short-handed in terms of firepower when the equipment gap was not significant.

Faced with the crossfire from six people, Group Five momentarily found themselves at a disadvantage.

Their helmets pressed tightly into the mud of the shallow bank, Quit Smoking spat out a grasshopper that had made its way into his mouth and rolled to the side to change his magazine.

Just as he was about to lift his muzzle to return fire, a burst of bullets, as though they had eyes, whizzed past and buried themselves into the mud in front of him, forcing him to shrink back.

Mud splattered into his collar, and Quit Smoking cursed as he opened his mic.

"Group Five engaging the enemy! They must be after our pilot! Damn it... These guys are like they’ve got some kind of cheat activated!"

Gunfire was also heard at the other end of the communications channel.

Clearly, Old White was involved in a firefight as well.

"That’s normal, they have drones too; it makes no sense not to use them... Do you see Falling Feather?"

"Not yet—wait!" Quit Smoking’s eyes suddenly lit up as he saw a bright spot appear on the VM map. "I see him—"

Just as he was about to say that Falling Feather had come within communication range, there was a loud noise at the back of his head, and his vision went dark as his entire face buried into the mud.

"Shit! Sniper!"

Without time to hesitate, Item Carrier pulled out a smoke grenade and threw it into the reeds to his left, taking over command in an outraged voice.

"Boss!"

"Quit smoking is down again!"

At the same moment, on the eastern slope of the reed marsh.

The young man with the sniper rifle skillfully operated the bolt, a corner of his mouth holding a foxtail grass, lifted in smug satisfaction.

"One."

A smoke grenade?

With thermal interference, too?

Interesting...

As the spent case ejected from the chamber, Zhao Xiao continued to aim at the person who had thrown the smoke grenade.

However, just as he was about to pull the trigger, a premonition of death suddenly crept over his head.

Almost instinctively, he rolled to the side, and at nearly the same moment, a hail of bullets shattered the piece of slate where he had been lying.

The cut-off grass root went down his throat as Zhao Xiao quickly abandoned the sniper rifle and drew his submachine gun, firing blindly behind him without looking.

The rock in front of him exploded into a cloud of dust and debris. Although it missed him, Night Ten inwardly marveled.

"Damn... Is this guy a Perception type, too?"

Maybe not high purity, but the level should be substantial!

Concealed behind a half-man-height rock, Zhao Xiao glanced at the sniper rifle he had left not far away and muttered a curse before shouting outside the rock.

"How did you find me?"

Night Ten laughed.

"Are you kidding? This is the only high point around here."

"..."

Zhao Xiao’s expression stiffened.

It seemed to make sense...

A standoff ensued.

With less than ten meters’ distance, each taking cover behind a rock, neither could do much to the other—at least for now.

Not wanting to drag on, Zhao Xiao gritted his teeth, put his submachine gun aside on the cover, and pushed it out with the tip of his shoe while drawing his dagger. He tauntingly tapped the rock twice.

"Hand-to-hand combat! Dare you?"

He was a professionally trained combatant.

As long as the other party dared to engage him in close quarters, he would not lose!

"Dare? Why wouldn’t I?"

Seeing the adversary put down his gun, Night Ten immediately felt amused and without a second thought, pulled out a grenade, tossing it to the left side of the rock.

"F*ck you!"

Zhao Xiao, seeing this, suddenly changed color and, cursing, dove to the other side of the cover.

The explosion roared almost the instant he went prone, and the blast wave and shrapnel made him let out a muffled grunt.

Enduring the pain and attempting to get up, the cold barrel of a gun was already pressed against the back of his head.

"I’d advise you not to move."

Hearing the voice above him, Zhao Xiao’s face turned pale with clenched teeth, unable to speak.

Just as Night Ten was about to mock him, the sense of danger surged in his heart along with a simultaneous scarlet killing intent.

He swiftly stepped back to create distance.

At almost the same moment, the whizzing sound nearly grazed his exoskeleton breastplate, leaving crossed streaks in the air.

One thought crossed Night Ten’s mind.

That was quick!

A figure slowly walked up from the bottom of the hillside.

The man’s deadpan face was stiff as if he were a machine.

He had no guns in his hands; instead, two short knives folded inward, merging with his arms—resembling the forelegs of a praying mantis.

Night Ten’s pupils contracted slightly.

Well, this was interesting.

What kind of cyberpunk styling was this?

Upon seeing the man, Zhao Xiao’s expression brightened with surprise.

"Xuan Feng?!"

The man replied with an unfluctuating voice.

"Leave this to me."

Zhao Xiao was just about to say "okay" excitedly when he saw a hand grenade being thrown over.

Again?!

Zhao Xiao’s face instantly changed, and as he was about to dodge, a massive force had already struck his chest.

Grunting from nearly losing his breath, when he came back to his senses, he was already face down in the mud at the bottom of the hillside.

After spitting out a mouthful of mud, Zhao Xiao couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

"Damn it, can’t this be a little gentler?"

After kicking his comrade down the slope, the man called Xuan Feng turned his head to look at the hostile target who had now put more than ten meters between them.

His primary targets were the Variants or Mutants occupying the relics, and written within the bottom layer logic of his AI core was the line of code, "Do not kill unless absolutely necessary."

But now, it was clearly an "absolutely necessary" situation.

Any organic threats to the "Beacon" squad had to be eliminated by all means necessary, even if it meant using the dismemberment tools that were normally reserved for battling large Variants.

Slapping off the metal fragments stuck to his synthetic skin, Xuan Feng didn’t speak and casually walked toward the person.

Watching the approaching monster, Night Ten felt cold sweat slide down his forehead, and he aimed his LD-50 at its head.

"What the hell are you?"

It can’t be killed with a grenade!

Is this some kind of Terminator?!

"It’s none of your concern."

The man unfolded his Mantis Knife and bent his legs slightly, like a mantis ready to pounce, poised to kill his prey in one strike.

This also made Night Ten’s heart leap to his throat in an instant.

He could anticipate the threat of death...

But that did not mean he could evade it.

Just at this critical moment, a dozen crimson tentacles shot out from the reed marsh at the bottom of the hillside, wrapping around Xuan Feng like chains and quickly immobilizing all his joints.

With his motor functions restricted, a rare trace of confusion appeared in Xuan Feng’s eyes, as if he had never encountered such a situation.

He tried to move, but could not budge an inch.

The Spring Knife snapped shut like scissors, yet it was just short of reaching the joint, far beyond the blade’s reach.

The tentacles that bound him seemed all too familiar with the human body’s structure.

Xuan Feng bowed his head in thought.

"Hmm... this is troublesome."

By a strange coincidence, Xiaoyu crouching in the reed marsh was just as perplexed as he was at the moment.

"Yi wu???"

The person it had bitten felt like a cold, hard stone; not a single cell could be penetrated through its eyes, ears, mouth, or nose.

Not a neuron could be found that would allow for invasion.

This guy...

Why can’t it be eaten?

"What the hell... what’s that thing?!"

Seeing the sudden burst of crimson tentacles from the reed marsh, Zhao Xiao’s face was instantly marked with panic, and he instinctively scrambled back to increase the distance.

Xuan Feng was already the highest-equipped bionic person in their squad, specifically used to handle high-threat targets that were difficult to deal with using conventional weapons, such as the Claw of Death, Mutated Leeches, and Mutants.

It was no exaggeration to say that its solo combat capability was the ceiling of their squad’s strength, not even the captain could match him!

But now—

It was so controlled that it couldn’t move at all.

Clenching his teeth, Zhao Xiao mustered his courage, pulled out the pistol from his tactical vest, and was about to aim at the tentacles wrapped around Xuan Feng.

This was the last gun on him.

However, just then, the cold muzzle of a gun was once again pressed against the back of his head. At the same time, a sharp command came.

"Drop your weapons! Hands on your head and lie flat!"

Hearing the voice, Zhao Xiao’s expression stiffened for a moment.

The tentacles had startled him earlier, and for a moment, he had not noticed any movement behind him.

Seeing no movement from him, Falling Feather kicked him in the back.

"For the last time, drop your weapons right now!"

"Don’t, don’t shoot!"

He hadn’t expected to be captured twice in one day.

Zhao Xiao threw away the pistol with a wry smile, clasped his hands over his head, and slowly began to kneel.

However, just as he was about to lie down, his eyes locked onto that splash of black muck, and his expression instantly froze.

"Uh, can I... change my position?"

He said in a low, embarrassed voice, trying to ask for permission, but the person behind him couldn’t be bothered to waste words and directly kicked him in the buttocks.

Looking at the guy with his head buried in the mud, Falling Feather rolled his eyes.

"If I say lie down, you lie down, what’s all this nonsense for?"

Falling Feather pressed on the VM, selected the blinking communication window, cleared his throat, and spoke.

"This is Falling Feather, I have successfully regrouped with my pickup... How are things on your end?"

The sound of gunshots from the other end of the communication channel had diminished.

It seemed like the end was near.

"We’re about to wrap things up here too... the guys who attacked us have suffered heavy casualties and are retreating. Can you make it back on your own? Or should I send a few more to meet you?"

Falling Feather glanced back at the slope.

Night Ten was trying to shut down the bionic person controlled by Xiaoyu, but without much success, the three of them were at a stalemate.

With a subtly changed expression, Falling Feather continued.

"Um, we have a slight situation here... if it’s convenient for you, still send a few people over."

Old White’s response was crisp and without hesitation.

"Received."