This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 514 Celebrating the Birth of a New Settlement

Chapter 514: Chapter 514 Celebrating the Birth of a New Settlement

"Dead?!"

Upon hearing the death of his close general, Cohen sat behind his desk in a daze for several seconds before angrily slamming his fist onto the table.

"Why am I only hearing about this now?"

These days, he had just taken over the affairs of the Falcon Kingdom, struggling with the post-war reconstruction.

General Kras’s industrially established facilities, painstakingly built over a dozen years, had all been destroyed by the Alliance. Those people even spared no machines or engineers in the factories, moving everything to Bistetown next door.

Just having settled the property disputes in the Royal City, he found that the old king’s treasury was so poor that mice could run through it.

Before he could solve this issue, dire news followed closely from the Great Desert.

Wali...

Thinking of that young officer with a promising future, Cohen clenched his teeth so hard sparks seemed to strike between them.

Watching the holographic image of Governor Cohen, Captain Adria looked anxious and hesitated for a long time before nervously continuing.

"As I told you before, we reached the Great Desert and were soon attacked by an unidentified armed force calling themselves the Enlightenment Society. Wali, the Thousands of leaders... was killed by those people."

Fearing the wrath of the Five Star Ten Thousand Leader, Adria dared not pause, he hurriedly continued without even catching his breath.

"But! We have identified the perpetrator... Her name is Zhuang Lan, a resident from one of the refuges."

Cohen cursed with burning rage.

"Where is that person? Bring that bastard to me! I swear I’ll make them regret coming into this world!"

Adria nervously said,

"The Alliance has captured her, but those idiots were negligent in their watch, and she escaped. I originally wanted to capture the perpetrator and then report to you, but her anti-tracking ability is too strong, our people couldn’t catch up..."

Cohen narrowed his eyes.

"Did the Alliance do it on purpose?"

Adria replied with a wry smile,

"I don’t know... but it seems they have no reason to do so. They suffered over a hundred casualties in the attack by the Enlightenment Society."

Cohen snorted coldly.

Regardless of whether it was the Alliance that let the perpetrator escape, it was difficult for him to make trouble for those Blue Ground Squirrels over this matter.

But then again, what is this Enlightenment Society?

They even have something like a phase gun...

Cohen closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair, organizing his thoughts, especially considering the clues about No.0 Shelter and the Torch Plan reported by Captain Adria.

After a moment, he spoke,

"...Have you obtained the original plan for the Torch Plan?"

Adria nervously nodded.

"We have it... including the Administrator’s Log. The company didn’t keep a copy for themselves; they made one for us."

Cohen thought for a moment before instructing,

"Take that data and the Pangolin, and immediately return to Triumph City... Report the situation of No.0 Shelter to the Marshal. Let His Excellency, the Marshal, decide!"

Although he was uneasy about those who claimed to be from the Enlightenment Society, after all, it wasn’t his job. Compared to that, he had more pressing matters to address.

"Governor... Sir."

Seeing Adria’s hesitant expression, Cohen slightly furrowed his brows.

"What else is there?"

Adria hesitated for a while before saying softly, looking down,

"The Adjudicator’s airship... has encountered some problems."

Cohen was startled, sat straight up from the chair, and asked anxiously,

"What do you mean?! A problem? Didn’t you tell me before that it was just a small issue and not a big deal?!"

He remembered clearly.

Although the phase gun could paralyze the deflection shields and anti-gravity devices formed by Gravitons, it wouldn’t affect the airship’s structural integrity.

Adria had reported this to him before—’Although the airship fell from a high altitude due to the phase gun’s influence, the crew of the Adjudicator used their excellent piloting skills to minimize the damage from the hard landing, and it could be fixed in a week.’

Now a week had passed, so how had it become "some issues"?!

Adria explained with a pained face,

"I didn’t expect it to become like this. My engineers initially told me it was a minor issue, but the problems just kept multiplying..."

At first, his engineers assured him that a wing replacement was all it took to get it flying again, but after installing the new wing, they discovered cracks of varying degrees in the links between the wing and airship, as well as in the whole structure steel.

Cohen stared at him intently.

"The core of the escort ship isn’t damaged, right?"

"That, definitely not!" Facing that murderous gaze, Adria immediately replied, "The core of the escort ship is normal! It’s just the hull of the airship that’s damaged..."

Perhaps they should learn from the Alliance and equip their airships with oversized parachutes and airbags for buffering.

However, encounters with phase gun attacks were too rare; the airships’ internal buffer cabins were enough to handle ordinary crash accidents.

Convincing the Air Force’s manufacturing bureau and the logistics department due to an accidental mishap would not be an easy task.

Cohen took a deep breath, suppressing the rage and rising blood pressure in his heart, trying to speak as calmly as possible,

"How long will it take."

Glancing nervously at the holographic image in front of him, Adria said quietly,

"...Some parts need to be delivered from the western side of the Great Desert, at least three months."

Cohen: "I %￥#@!"

...

Late at night.

The camp, not far from the Industrial Building, was brightly lit.

Players dragged tables to the open space in the middle of the camp, setting up large pots for stewing meat and grills for barbecuing nearby.

A few Strength-type players were busy skinning and deboning a freshly captured mutant stag and a Hyena, while a few fearless players were testing their luck with a never-before-seen Variant.

"What is this thing, huh? Looks weird..." Silver Daddy poked curiously with a stick at the fluffy Variant lying on the ground.

The creature was pitch-black all over, pretty small, and covered with uneven layers of fur, with round, bulbous eyes like light bulbs. It was too small to be a monkey, did not have wings to be a bat, and its sharp fangs were intimidatingly visible, and it had unnaturally large ears.

Nobody knew where it came from; supposedly, a player found the thing at the entrance and then tossed it here.

Not sure whether the thing was edible, Silver Sword gave up and tossed it to the side with a sigh,

"If only Old Na were here!"

Silver Hand said, laughing cheekily.

"There you go, harassing Old Na again!"

Silver Sword gave him a scornful glance.

"Harassing? This is called making the best use of things!"

Silver Daddy could not help but laugh out loud.

"Hahaha! Are you trying to kill your old man with laughter?"

The two cursed almost in unison.

"Scram!"

The little fellow tilted its head and mimicked the sound.

"Scram?"

Silver Daddy’s eyes lit up, and he leaned in closer to the little thing sitting on the ground.

"Eh?! This ugly thing can talk?"

Silver Sword and Silver Hand looked at each other.

"Did you hear that?"

"No, I..."

"Tsk, you two useless things. You could miss an SSSR Level Divine Pet if it was right in front of you!"

With disdain, Silver Daddy squatted down and playfully patted its head.

"Ugly thing, say it again for Daddy to hear—ouch, damn it!"

Before he could finish speaking, his nose was bitten. As he staggered backwards, the "ugly thing" pounced on his face, kicked with its hind legs, jumped to the ground, and ran off without a trace.

Silver Sword hurriedly caught his stumbling brother, while Silver Hand, completely ignoring him, went straight after the runaway SSSR Level Divine Pet.

"Damn, are you okay??"

Silver Daddy covered his nose with both hands.

"Crap... it’s swollen."

"What’s swollen?"

Silver Daddy grimaced and released his hands.

"My nose..."

Seeing the ping-pong-sized tip of his nose, Silver Sword could not help but snort with laughter, heartlessly like a pig’s squeal.

"Puhahaha!"

In the end, the little guy was caught by a passing "Pangolin" comrade. Seeing as it didn’t look tasty, it was given back to Silver Daddy.

Enduring the soreness of his nose and the strange looks from others, Silver Daddy took the little fellow to researcher Meng Liang on the escort ship. Unfortunately, the thing he picked up was not some SSSR Level miraculous creature, it was just an ordinary Variant.

Its teeth were slightly toxic, so just to be safe, Meng Liang gave the unlucky brother an anti-inflammatory shot.

Because its cry sounded very similar to "scram", it was recorded in the official bestiary as the "Rolling Beast" and was not recommended for consumption.

To retaliate against this creature for making him look foolish, Silver Daddy named it "Ugly Thing", but due to his brothers’ objections, he was forced to change its name to "Coal Ball".

The little thing indeed looked like a coal ball.

Deep down, Silver Daddy still harbored a little hope.

What if?

What if it grew up to become awesome?

Ugly ducklings can turn into swans!

He didn’t expect it to sprout a bunch of tentacles like Xiaoyu, but at least it should be better than those quickly depreciating wholesale goods like the Claw of Death, right?

If nothing else worked, being rideable would be good enough.

Stuffing a sliced piece of meat into its mouth, Silver Daddy sighed leisurely,

"Coal Ball, you gotta eat more, the future of the Silver Corps depends on you."

Coal Ball chewing the meat piece tilted its head.

"Scram?"

Silver Daddy: "...%￥#@!"

This ugly thing was beyond saving!

Despite a few mishaps, thankfully with the Body Constitution System players trying the poisons, most of the food that made it to the table was safe and even those that were problematic weren’t too dangerous.

In addition to some abnormal or uniquely presented food, occasionally there were some regular delicacies.

Like mashed potatoes with a hint of milk flavor, bread baked with garlic paste and salt, fried rice with sausage bits and diced carrots, roasted double-headed cow steak, along with unlimited supplies of beer and wine.

Chu Guang had confiscated a lot of good liquor from the Falcon King’s cellar, and it was now coming in handy. He, not much of a drinker himself, magnanimously handed out benefits to the players and "NPCs".

Some survivors stood curiously beside the tents, watching the lively people, and under the encouragement of the atmosphere, they gradually joined in too.

Although they didn’t know what they were doing, it seemed that the food and drinks were free.

Watching the people who seemed to be celebrating something, Lama, who was following Chu Guang, looked surprised and asked in a hoarse voice,

"What are they... doing?"

Seeing the blazing bonfire, Chu Guang’s lips curled into a smile,

"Celebrating the birth of a new settlement."

On hearing this, Lama’s surprise became even more evident.

After hearing the story of the Pioneer from Chu Guang, she thought the name Pioneer City was a solemn one, but it appeared not to be the case.

Glancing at Lama, Chu Guang guessed what she was surprised about and briefly added,

"We rarely grieve outside of funerals. Those we commemorate would probably not wish us to be downcast all the time but prefer us to move forward with their ideals."

Lama nodded vacantly, clearly not understanding.

Chu Guang didn’t explain further but just smiled and said,

"Don’t just hang around behind me, go enjoy the celebration... The food and drinks are free tonight. If you’re not interested, you might as well get some sleep early."

"Tomorrow, I will explain the work you need to do."

After saying this, he walked alone to the spot that the players had reserved for him, leaving Lama standing there, not knowing what to do next.

As the Manager of the Alliance and Marshal of the Expeditionary Army, and honorary captain of the Iron Heart... naturally, he had to sit at the head of the long table.

A faction BOSS must look the part.

It was also a part of the players’ immersion.

Chu Guang, sitting at the head, poured himself a glass of the strongest drink.

Looking back at those fiery, piercing eyes, he grasped the cup filled with spirited liquor and raised it high above to all the present players and NPCs with a voice solemn and sonorous.

"To the future of Pioneer City, cheers!"

The response was a chorus of excited shouts.

"Cheers!"

"Long live Pioneer City!"

"Long live the Manager!"

"Long live the Alliance!"

The preparations were over, and the celebration officially began, the noise was incessant, with laughter and the clinking of cups heard everywhere.

The city, named after former companions, will be the fourth survivor settlement established by the Alliance after Falling Leaves City, and also another "overseas" enclave of the Alliance following Bister Town.

The warriors from the Alliance were celebrating the birth of Pioneer City with a ceremony, offering congratulations and blessings, as well as a farewell to the companions about to go their separate ways.

The Iron Heart was fully repaired, and after tonight, it would set off on the return journey.

The vast majority of players would return to the City of Dawn with the Iron Heart, but more than a hundred players had decided to stay.

They would continue the unfinished tasks, exploring the undiscovered relics within the "Primitive Eastern Industrial Zone" and search for the whereabouts of the Enlightenment Society active in the area.

Although this meant they might miss the Tide next spring, "Wasteland OL" itself didn’t specify how one had to play.

Even without following the main storyline, there was plenty to do.

As for saving the game, there was no need to worry about that.

Chu Guang had already ordered a hundred sleep cabins to be transferred from the airship to the surface.

The Alliance’s infrastructure aid to the Falcon Kingdom and Honey Badger Kingdom was not only limited to roads and railways but also included power grids and communications, among other things.

Especially with communications.

The easternmost signal tower of the Alliance had already reached Bister Town, and soon Pioneer City would also erect a signal tower to send and receive signals.

Although signals were unstable in the Great Desert, there were times when they were stable, and after the sleep cabins completed the scans, the data would be transmitted back when the weather conditions were right.

By reducing risky behaviors and rotating the use of save points, a hundred sleep cabins could meet the save needs of several hundred players.

As long as one stuck with the main force, saving the game was never an issue...

While the Alliance was "celebrating" for Pioneer City, Captain Adria was dealing with headaches from the needs of nearly a thousand Marines, crew members, and many officers returning with the airship, stranded in the Great Desert.

Food was not so difficult to solve, as the Adjudicator carried plenty of supplies, and the Falcon Kingdom was not too far away to deliver it.

But apart from food, almost everything else was a problem!

Firstly, the airship required a comprehensive inspection, and the Marines and crew members who used to live on the airship had to evacuate and set up camp.

There were no natives to conscript nearby, and the airship only carried a few laborers. Although setting up a camp was a required skill for the infantry soldiers, the young masters from the Adjudicator and the infantry soldiers from the Steel Heart were totally different matters.

The latter at least had to fight with the Waste Land Wanderers and often operate beyond their supply lines, where setting up tents using scrap and manufacturing their own bullets and firearms was second nature, even carrying lathes for metalworking and furnaces for smelting iron.

The former, however, were usually moored along with the Adjudicator in the airship port at Triumph City and never had the "opportunity" to engage in combat externally, otherwise there wouldn’t be the situation where the infantry and crew combined only totaled one thousand men.

As for importing some slaves from the Falcon Kingdom to serve them...

Even without considering their decimated mobilization capability, that kingdom didn’t have many young men left.

(literal translation for: "光能干不顶用,他们现在需要的是能干活儿的人."?)

Too many prisoners had stayed in Bistetown, those strong young men would rather eat dirt in the desert than go back and be oxen and horses for them.

Adria made a thick-faced request for help to Cohen, but after hearing his plea, the latter’s face darkened, and he hung up the phone after dropping a line that he should figure it out himself.

Consequently, even without any experience in wilderness survival, the five hundred infantry soldiers had to make do, with no choice but to get on with it as best they could.

Fortunately, they hadn’t forgotten what they were taught in the military academy and the new recruit camps. After some fuss, they actually managed to erect the tents.

Looking at the crooked linen tents amidst the ruins, Adria couldn’t help but twitch his eyebrows.

His adjutant ran up to him and said in a nervous whisper,

"We’re still one hundred tents short..."

Adria’s eyes bulged.

"How can we be short by that many! Call the logistics officer to me!"

"It’s not the logistics officer’s fault, mainly because we got a few extra people..." The adjutant explained with a wry smile, casting a stealthy glance in McCullen’s direction.

Adria instantly got what his adjutant meant, but the nearby McCullen obviously didn’t catch on.

The crude living conditions made him recall the brief time he’d spent earlier in the Alliance’s POW Camp.

Just thinking about reliving those painfully embarrassing memories tonight made his complexion turn sour, and he couldn’t help but make a sarcastic remark.

"...Your camping skills are surprising."

"We only prepared enough tents for us..."

Taking into account his noble status, Adria replied very tactfully, but McCullen was ungrateful and continued to quibble.

"I don’t think that’s where the problem lies."

Hearing this, Adria’s patience ran out, and he replied with an unabashed jibe.

"Unfortunately, we would have had enough tents, had it not been for the few hundred defeated lots who need people to wait on them on the way back."

McCullen’s face stiffened.

Seeing him about to fly into a rage, Adria thought better of speaking too harshly. He turned to his adjutant with a grimace,

"I’m going out for a walk."

With that, he left the camp with a few guards.

However, as there was nowhere interesting to go, after wandering aimlessly for a while, he unconsciously headed towards the Alliance’s camp.

Last week, people from the enterprises and the Academy were still there, and he, along with McCullen, was staying in the Alliance’s camp.

Perhaps...

Spend another night there?

He didn’t feel any psychological burden; after all, he hadn’t lost to the Alliance.

Looking at the camp not far away, Captain Adria was wondering how to bring up the matter. Before he got close, he suddenly smelled the aroma of roasted meat and, subconsciously, took a sniff.

Caught in the wind wasn’t just the scent of barbecue but also noisy clamor, making him, who reflexively swallowed his saliva, frown again.

"What are those people doing?"

The guard beside him looked puzzled, but seeing the signal from his superior, quickly dispatched three men to go and check.

Captain Adria waited for a while.

Soon, one of them came running back.

"Report! The soldiers of the Alliance seem to be celebrating the establishment of a new settlement."

"A new settlement?!"

A bad premonition rose in Captain Adria’s heart. Could it be that the residents of the Alliance planned to squat here and not leave?

Although this was a Land Without a Master and he had no reason to meddle, he still felt a sense of foreboding.

This familiar premonition had appeared in his heart before when the Alliance insisted on going to Bistetown.

What on earth are those Blue Ground Mice up to?!

"Take me to see," ordered Captain Adria sternly.

The soldier stood to attention.

"Yes, sir!"

Quickly walking forward with his guard entourage, Captain Adria soon saw the two guards who had been sent earlier. They were currently being pestered by two Alliance soldiers.

One of them seemed to have drunk too much and cheerily reached out a hand to his guard.

"Hey, big nose, come have a drink with us? Hahaha, burp... Go call that Pangolin of yours too! Tell him... I Max Black looks down on him and wants to have a match!"

Pushing away the hand reaching towards his chest, that Vellante soldier said with a dark face,

"Who knows if you’ve poisoned the alcohol!"

I Max Black sneered disdainfully,

"Tch, you think we’re like you?"

That Vellante soldier’s eyes widened,

"What do you mean?"

"You wanna have a go?" I Max Black glared at him, then turned to Debt Giant Eye, "Help me beat this guy up!"

Debt Giant Eye had drunk a bit, but not too much, and shook his head like a motor.

"No fighting, the old man’s Intelligence System; you go find some construction worker."

I Max Black: "Damn! Such an embarrassment!"

Debt Giant Eye: "Chill out! If you’re so great, you do it!"

"Halt!"

Seeing that the two drunken soldiers from the Alliance were about to start fighting, Captain Adria, frightened, hastened his steps and called out to them.

He had no choice, his own guards were too close; he couldn’t ignore it even if he wanted to.

If they got tangled in the mess, in the confusion of darkness, who could tell what might happen? If someone fired a shot, their ceasefire agreement would be void.

However, Captain Adria didn’t know that those two actually got along fine and were just joking around. They had no intention of fighting, and besides, being Perception and Intelligence Systems, two weaklings wouldn’t be able to cause a problem even if they did fight.

After glancing at the big-nosed man, I Max Black, not recognizing his face, asked impatiently,

"Who are you?"

Debt Giant Eye glared at him too,

"Exactly! Why’re ya yellin’ so loud?"

Staring hard at the two disrespectful Residents of the refuge, Captain Adria said sternly,

"Where’s your Administrator?"

I Max Black rolled his eyes,

"What’s it to you?"

So what if you’re a Ten Thousand Leader?

His buddy is a Thousands of leaders!

Don’t go throwing your rank around!

Not wanting to argue with these two drunks, Captain Adria suppressed the urge to burst in anger, took a deep breath to calm himself down, and slowed his speech,

"Tell your Administrator that Captain Adria has something to discuss... You wouldn’t want to be punished by your superior for messing up something important, would you?"

Hearing it was something important, I Max Black dropped the playful attitude and waved his hand,

"Sheesh, say that earlier... Wait for me at the entrance."

Captain Adria watched with a murderous look as the two buddies left with arms over each other’s shoulders, limping toward the direction of the gate.

After waiting in the cold wind for a good while, he finally saw someone come out of the camp gate.

Captain Adria straightened his collar, but when he clearly saw the person, his expression turned dark.

He’d thought the Administrator of the Alliance would come out to meet him personally, but to his surprise, it was those two disrespectful drunks again.

I Max Black, burped, "Our Administrator drank too much, and he says to talk about anything important tomorrow. He also said, the room you had before is still available; you can make do with it for the night if you don’t mind."

Captain Adria was secretly delighted, the previous displeasure instantly vanished, but he didn’t let it show on his face.

"Drank too much? Huh," he said, keeping a stern face and snorting through his nose, "Then we’ll talk when he sobers up!"

That alcohol smells quite good.

I’ll get a couple of bottles later.

Thinking this, Captain Adria reluctantly waved his hand and, accompanied by his guard entourage, headed toward the camp gate.

Watching the big-nosed men walk back into the camp, I Max Black suddenly remembered something and shouted after him,

"Oh right, our Administrator also said something like, he can tell from looking at your kennel that it’s not fit for people to live, let me—"

His words were cut short as Big Eyes covered his mouth.

"Are you dumb? Why did you have to say that?"

I Max Black: "Mmmph—!"

Hearing the distant shout, Captain Adria nearly stumbled, quickened his pace with a dark face, pretending not to have heard.

The guards by his side were grinding their teeth in anger, but seeing their superior’s lack of response, they had no choice but to give up...