This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 500 "End of the ’Vast Desert’ Expansion Pack

Chapter 500: Chapter 500 "End of the ’Vast Desert’ Expansion Pack

Victory’s glory belongs solely to the victor.

For the vanquished, even when afforded dignity, it is hard to feel joy.

Compared to Ideal City and City of Dawn, Falcon City, having just entered night, seemed somewhat tranquil.

Although the ceasefire agreement was named "Falcon City Agreement," it had nothing to do with the Falcon Kingdom nor considered its interests.

However, for the nobles here, that did not imply a complete disaster.

Triumph City, supreme above all, eventually stepped in; although it did not send a massive army to help them reclaim their lost honor, it at least spared them the disgrace of surrender as a defeated nation.

As for Bistetown.

That godforsaken place was never within the boundaries of Oasis No.2; from the start, it was something General Kras forcibly pushed on them. Let the Alliance take it if they want; it’s not their loss anyway.

Only the citizens in the Royal City—or more precisely, those young men who had been demobilized—would feel indignant about such an outcome.

They had fought an indubitable war, but aside from scars and disabilities, they gained nothing; many even lost their wealth and family members.

In the end, even the lords who rode over their heads didn’t change.

The King remained the king, and the Weilante People still held the leash.

What was even more hateful was that those Weilante People gave them no compensation...

...

In the castle’s council chamber.

Various representatives carried away the agreement, well pleased, and this royal room finally returned to its king.

Only a few guest rooms short of retaking the whole castle.

A group of well-dressed nobles sat there, the residual warmth on their chairs making them feel dignified, as if they had partaken in the noon negotiations.

"So the Alliance has finally abandoned Oasis No.2."

"It looks like it."

"I wonder what impact this will have on the desert situation."

"Can that Citizens’ Self-Government Committee be disbanded now? Those pestilent fools are always spouting treasonous talk and mingling with deserters!"

"Perhaps the Weilante People will help us sort out this mess."

"Ah... the Weilante People, I hope they won’t drag us into an unprepared battle again."

"The governor who came this time should be competent, feels far better than that idiot Kras."

As King Montegarde watched the nobles whisper privately in the council chamber, his face showed neither sadness nor joy.

For him, it was merely a change of masters; whether it was the Army or the Alliance, it made no difference.

It could even be said that the Army was easier to deal with; at least those Weilante People rarely touched the royal cake—so long as they obediently listened, that was enough.

At that moment, a stern-faced man strode in.

His hair was dry, his skin rough, and years of military service had aged his once young and handsome face prematurely, even inscribing it with the weathering inappropriate for his age.

"Your Majesty, the head of the William Industrial Zone has reported to me: the Alliance’s Army moved out of the industrial park, taking with them almost all the equipment from the Royal Foundry and even the engineers and technical workers... including their families!"

William uttered these words nearly gnashing his teeth, his tone filled with rage.

He valued industrial importance more than any noble; those machines, though they did not produce honey or milk, could help them rob even greater expanses of land.

Especially after this war, he believed more firmly than ever that only industry could save the kingdom.

That’s why, after the Alliance liberated him yesterday, he left Bistetown immediately without caring for the injured soldiers and rode swiftly with a small escort to the industrial district he had established.

However, upon arrival, the situation plunged him into despair.

The Alliance had almost removed everything movable.

Except for a few empty workshops and warehouses, the vast park had not a single remnant left for him.

Taking a deep breath, he struggled to control his emotions and continued with a trembling voice.

"...I beseech you to meet with the governor, sir, and press him to demand from the Alliance to return the looted equipment and population."

Hearing his son’s request, Montegarde sighed slowly, saying helplessly.

"The governor will not help us... he even let the Alliance have Griffin’s equipment; the war is over, son, all the cakes that should be shared are already distributed, today we only discuss future matters."

There was something he left unsaid.

They were not just unqualified to share the cake; they were the cake itself.

William gritted his teeth.

"But at least... should not those craftsmen be returned to us as prisoners? They keep proclaiming abolition; surely they can’t be capturing them to make slaves?"

King Montegarde fell silent for a while.

"That manager indeed did not push things to the extreme."

Hope reignited in William’s heart.

"Then..."

Montegarde sighed.

"They let those prisoners freely decide whether to stay or leave."

William stood stunned.

The nobles around the meeting table whispered among themselves, and Earl Krunwi couldn’t help but curse, banging his fist on the table.

"These robbers!"

...

The next morning.

Dressed in a sharp suit, Taote arrived early at the Citizens’ Self-Government Committee’s building, greeted the doorman, and hummed a little tune as he went to the office.

This place used to be the tax bureau’s building, but since the Alliance moved the accounts, those haughty bureaucrats dared not return, and this large building was left for their use.

Since becoming the chairman here, Taote felt that his identity was different from before.

Especially when those nobles looked at him with respect and fear, he felt as if he had become a noble himself, without an official title.

Even the king dared not make him bow.

To highlight his distinguished identity, he specifically found the tailor who made clothes for His Majesty the King and had him make a unique hat.

Of course, unlike those nobles, he paid for it.

Looking at the hat with colorful feathers on the table, Taote grew increasingly fond of it, happily placing it on his head and fiddling with it in front of the mirror.

However, just then, the door to the room was suddenly pushed open, and as he looked up, he saw his secretary walk in with a panicked expression.

A hint of displeasure appeared on Taote’s face.

"Did I not tell you to knock?"

Looking at Taote’s displeased face, the secretary said with a wry smile,

"Forget the door... Big trouble, the people from the Alliance have left!"

Taote jolted up from his chair, his hands bracing against the table and eyes widened.

"Left? The Alliance is leaving?"

The secretary nervously nodded, continuing with a wry smile,

"Yes... they boarded their airship early this morning, and even though it hasn’t yet departed, they’ve already raised their anchor."

Losing interest in the hat on his head, Taote casually pulled it off and tossed it aside, rising to question his secretary anxiously,

"Did they leave any instructions? What should we do now? In the future, do we listen to the Weilante People or to the king?"

The manager’s indifference caused him a trace of horror, and thinking back to the way those nobles looked at him at the execution ground, his spine began to chill.

The secretary hesitated for a moment before speaking tentatively,

"They said... that people ultimately need to save themselves. They’ve come already; the rest is up to us."

Taote stared blankly at his secretary.

"Come over? Rely on ourselves?"

Looking at the finely made hat on the table, and the gun that he had leaned against the windowsill, all he wanted to do was cry...

Seeing the confused chairman, the secretary sighed, but they were in the same boat.

For his own life and his family’s safety, he patiently added,

"Actually, things aren’t as bad as they seem. The citizens are on our side, many of them veterans who dislike the Weilante People more than the Alliance. If we can unite them, we might become a formidable force."

"What good does uniting those people do?" Taote felt a surge of irritation.

He knew better than anyone that those people were a disorganized mob, and likely at the king’s command, they would turn him over to the gallows.

The secretary lowered his voice and continued,

"We have to try... The Weilante People are short on guns right now. The new governor is completely unfamiliar with this place. They need our cooperation, militarily and economically. If we just play along with them, using their power to balance the court, they might not mind having two kings in this kingdom."

Taote calmed down somewhat.

That was actually a good idea.

The Citizens’ Self-Government Committee represented professionals from all industries, and over half of this city’s artisanal and industrial production was related to them, while those nobles could only contribute a little food from their estates and lands at most.

Unless that governor wanted just to be a big landlord, he wouldn’t antagonize them for a few nobles he hardly knew.

Most importantly, trying offered a chance to survive; doing nothing would surely lead to certain death.

"Call all committee members and representatives for a meeting!"

The secretary breathed a sigh of relief.

"Very well, sir."

...

While the Citizens’ Self-Government Committee was busy with the meeting, a lively scene unfolded in Bistetown, on the periphery of Oasis No.2.

Outside the east gate, next to the main road, Weddell clung to a roadside cement block, looking at the two soldiers who approached him, tears streaming down his face as he pleaded,

"I’m not going anywhere! This is my home! I’ve dedicated my life to this place, I want to stay here!"

One of the tall soldiers teased with a smile,

"Isn’t it good being a baron back home?"

The other soldier also added with a laugh,

"Exactly, don’t you have a manor? Just go back and be a lord."

However, to their surprise, Weddell reacted even more fiercely, his crying voice tinged with a beg,

"No! I would rather be a civilian!"

It was a joke.

How could he possibly go back!

Just surrendering to the Alliance without a fight was already a capital offense, let alone becoming the Alliance’s lapdog, making everyone who returned despise him.

Especially the meaningful look from Prince William when he left.

At that moment, he felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave, terrifying him enough to send someone to Oasis No.2 that night to relocate his entire family.

If he had known that the Alliance had no plans to occupy Oasis No.2, he absolutely wouldn’t have been so obsequious.

But who could have predicted that?

With the way the Alliance had struck, they nearly razed the Falcon Kingdom to the ground...

The two Alliance soldiers looked at each other, thinking that they couldn’t just leave him here, disgracing himself, so they went up and pulled him up.

"Get up."

"If you want to stay, stay, no one cares, but don’t block the way."

Weddell’s heart leapt with joy.

"...You guys really aren’t going to kick me out?"

The soldier looked at him with disdain.

"Manager said, those who want to leave can go back on their own, those who want to stay, it’s up to you. That person doesn’t have the time to bother with you."

Upon hearing this, Weddell finally broke into a smile, haha laughing as he let go of the concrete pier, dusted off his pants, and returned to town with endless thanks.

Not far from where he had been obstructing the road, an officer from the Second Corps of the Alliance passed through the barbed wire and approached a group of seated prisoners, taking out a megaphone and shouting.

"The war is over, you can go home now."

Officers above the rank of Centurion had already been released yesterday; most people were completely unaware of any ceasefire negotiation.

Initially, people looked at each other, then gradually some began to stand up.

A portion of them crossed through the open gate on the west side towards the wilderness, and upon seeing that the soldiers of the Alliance did not shoot, they continued on their way.

Fewer and fewer people remained on the open space.

A large group chose to leave, but many also headed in the completely opposite direction.

A few soldiers from Falcon Kingdom approached the check post, among them a teenager about fifteen or sixteen years old, who spoke to the soldiers of the Alliance.

"I don’t want to go back."

The soldier of the Alliance looked him over.

"Why?"

The teenager hesitated then said.

"I have nowhere to go."

The soldier continued.

"What about your family?"

The teenager paused for a moment then said softly.

"My father and my brother both left, and last month... my mother too. Let me stay, I can work."

Before the teenager could finish speaking, another hand was raised behind him, eagerly saying,

"Me too! I’m strong, can carry heavy things!"

"I used to farm! I can do agricultural work!"

A chorus of similar shouts came from behind, clearly indicating he was not the only one wanting to stay.

Some people who were hesitantly walking towards the gates stopped unconsciously upon hearing the noise from the other side.

Although they hadn’t been in the POW camp for long, upon reflection, the treatment they received from the Alliance seemed quite fair.

They didn’t whip them for amusement just because they were the victors; the only thing they forced them to do was to repair their own shelters.

Particularly surprising to the prisoners was that the Alliance had even distributed some of the food seized from the Vellante People to them.

This was unthinkable in the eyes of many.

The Vellante People had never treated them as humans, and neither had the nobility of the kingdom, but in the POW camp, they had felt human for a few days.

Even though they knew the enemy’s kindness was not well-intentioned, the thought of the nobility’s attitude made them despair about the life they might return to.

More and more people gathered around the check post, forcing the duty soldiers to fire warning shots into the sky, and one sentry jogged to his superior for instructions.

Before long, a table was added to the camp.

The previously tearful Weddell was seated at the table, now shouting through a megaphone.

"Those who don’t want to leave, come here to register! Think carefully before you write your name down!"

A long queue formed in front of the table.

Some prisoners who had planned to leave hesitated for a moment but ultimately chose to stay, including some lower-ranking officers with the title Centurion.

And so, by noon, the prisoners lingering near Bistetown had been dispersed, and out of over eighty thousand soldiers, forty percent had stayed—more than thirty thousand...

...

Iron Heart.

Chu Guang, standing in the ship’s bridge, received a call from Liuding, the commander of the Second Corps stationed in Bistetown.

After hearing his report, Chu Guang couldn’t help but show a hint of surprise on his face.

"So many, over thirty thousand, chose to stay."

He had initially expected that around ten thousand would be impressive, but over thirty thousand had remained!

What baffled Chu Guang was that, after pondering for a while, he couldn’t recall what they had done right for those prisoners.

Those nobles of Falcon Kingdom surely must have been inhumane.

Including the engineers and their families that the Storm Corps had taken from William Industrial Zone, the population of Bistetown was likely approaching forty thousand.

In the short term, there wouldn’t be much impact as the Alliance had gathered substantial supplies from Horn Fort and the frontlines, but in the long run, food and fresh water supplies would certainly become an issue.

Sensing the Manager’s difficulty, Liuding asked in a grave voice.

"Should we get rid of some of them?"

"There’s no need for that."

Chu Guang coughed.

"If they want to stay, let them."

It would seem petty to drive people away when they had voluntarily chosen to stay.

Moreover, Bistetown, directly governed by the Alliance, could serve as a flag for the Alliance in Luo Xia Province. If it developed well, it would undoubtedly have a positive impact on the image of the Alliance.

The only problem was that it was all sand there, with neither "levees" nor any valuable strategic resources, its only value perhaps being its location.

If agriculture could not be developed, then they would have to develop industry instead.

The military production line relocated from Falcon Kingdom could move to the adjacent Oasis No. 3, which lies within the borders of Honey Badger Kingdom.

As for the civilian production lines, part of them can remain in Bistetown, where there’s ample labor force to get the work done.

Currently, both Honey Badger Kingdom and Falcon Kingdom urgently need post-war reconstruction, with a substantial demand for some industrial products.

There’s young labor available and necessary equipment for production. Getting rich might be difficult, but sustaining themselves shouldn’t be a problem.

"...have the Lion Kingdom Army leave behind their surplus supplies before they pull out, including food, fresh water, and clothing. Winter is approaching, and the desert isn’t warm—don’t let anyone freeze to death."

After a pause, Chu Guang continued speaking.

"Afterwards, I will appoint an official to act as the local governor and arrange for a shipment of supplies from Clear Spring City. For now, you should organize them into four construction armies to start building their own housing... Just don’t let them be idle."

Liuding, with his right hand on his chest, stood at attention and replied firmly.

"Yes!"

Considering that Liuding was a rough man who knew nothing about urban planning and management, Chu Guang patiently explained some details about constructing the new settlement.

For instance, placing the center of the settlement to the east of the airport and reserving areas for the development of commerce and industry.

Ideal Group will provide technical support in terms of cement debris recycling and road construction, relieving the alliance from this concern.

Chu Guang planned an exchange budget of one billion Cr to buy equipment from Ideal City according to the local needs once the alliance governor arrived.

Following these discussions, they were interrupted by the acting captain approaching from outside the bridge, who saluted militarily.

"Report! All units have boarded, and the anchor has been raised; the ship is ready to depart at any time!"

"Very well."

Chu Guang cast one final look through the floor-to-ceiling window at the sun-drenched Survivor Settlement, his lips curling into a faint smile.

It was finally time to say goodbye.

King Montegarde and those nobles were probably already joyously popping champagne.

But they would soon realize they had celebrated too soon.

Including the newly appointed governor.

They would soon discover the "surprise" the alliance left behind for them.

As for what this surprise would eventually become, only time would reveal... The locals here must ultimately decide their own future.

For himself, the war in Luo Xia Province had concluded, and more pressing matters awaited his attention.

Redirecting his gaze from the window, Chu Guang turned to the standing acting captain.

"Set sail!"

The captain saluted crisply.

"Yes!"

...

While the Steel Heart was advancing towards the Great Desert, in some latrine in Far West City, the Battlefield Atmosphere Group was also logging online.

Until the moment Steel Heart set sail, he hadn’t received further instructions from the Manager.

"Goddammit... Did these guys forget about me?" muttered the Old Soldier, pulling up his pants and mockingly pressing the flush button before heading outside.

Since Griffin’s death, he had retreated with the fifth ten-thousand-strong troops to Far West City in the northwest of Oasis No.2, killing time with the bored Weilante People who were waiting to return home.

With the ceasefire agreement in effect, the "Endless Sands" expansion had officially concluded, and just last night’s rewards had been distributed.

Thanks to the major intel he provided earlier, he effortlessly topped the expansion’s individual total score leaderboard—fifty thousand points ahead of the second place!

But what good did it do?

Although he drew a bunch of valuable treasures, the high-quality equipment was of no use without an opportunity to employ it.

His buddies were afraid of wasting it and wanted to use it on his behalf, but he instantly refused without a second thought!

Joking! These treasures were acquired at the risk of his life; how could he let those bastards take them?

If ’I Max Black’ got his hands on it, there’d be nothing left when he returned.

While the Old Soldier was pondering whom to hang out with, a familiar figure approached from afar.

He looked up and saw it was his immediate superior—Colonel Wirie.

The Old Soldier felt no surprise, only annoyance.

Lately, the man had taken to cozying up to him.

Maybe because he was too idle after the defeat, or maybe it was to show appreciation—previously, the Colonel had sent word through his confidants; now, he made unsolicited visits to his tent, which really bothered him and irritated him no end.

Clearly, this time was no different; the Colonel had likely come to chit-chat again.

The Old Soldier even suspected that the Colonel had been waiting outside the privy for quite a while.

Just as the Old Soldier was about to initiate some small talk, Colonel Wirie suddenly pulled him aside with a mysterious expression.

"I’ve got a good opportunity."

"...What opportunity?"

As he looked at the smiling General Vilic, Edge Shoveling instinctively became wary.

The war was over; surely they weren’t going to ask him to assassinate someone?

However, just as he thought that, Vilic’s next words stunned him on the spot.

"According to the ceasefire agreement, we are to send two representatives to No.0 Shelter to jointly investigate that legendary relic with enterprises, academies, and the alliance."

"The governor has nominated his close associate, Thousands of leaders Vali, to go. However, since Vali is a professional officer and considering the potential dangers in the relic, he needs a strong escort... When I heard the governor’s requirements, I immediately thought of you."

Saying this, Vilic extended his hand, patting the stoic Pangolin comrade on the shoulder, and gave him an encouraging look.

"This isn’t just my personal suggestion; General Alec also highly regards your abilities... Make the most of this opportunity."

"I believe in you!"