This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 559 Twisted Life and Faith

Chapter 559: Chapter 559 Twisted Life and Faith

As the Burning Corps’ support struck in time, Trash Older Brother, with his claws in action, broke into the battlefield, turning the fight into a one-sided slaughter in an instant.

And everyone truly witnessed the dominance of Trash Older Brother when the wind was in his sails.

Facing forward, there was a risk of being shot into a honeycombed mess.

But for ambush and pursuit, he was exceptionally skilled—a light flick of his claws and the Believers blocking his way were torn in two.

Bathed in blood, with his killing instinct ignited, Trash Older Brother’s amber pupils twinkled with a bloodthirsty gleam.

"Ha ha ha! Thrilling!"

Still not fully satisfied, he raised his head and let out an exhilarating howl, which reverberated through the smoke, causing ripples of sound.

"Awooo!!!"

Pain contorted the faces of the nearby Believers as they instinctively covered their ears.

Perhaps the effects of their stimulants were wearing off, as pain and fear finally caught up with them.

Watching that blood-soaked beast, diehard eyes at last began to take on a shade of terror.

"Monster, monster!"

"Ah, ah!"

"Don’t come here! No—"

With a rain of bullets descending from above, Trash Older Brother dashed into the crowd once again wielding his claws.

In just a few breaths, limbs and severed parts littered the ground, while outside the fence, three or four dozen bodies lay in disarray.

Witnessing the heavy casualties of their enemy, the morale of the Villagers behind the low wall surged.

Tranquility, hunkered down behind cover with the Villagers, also shouted excitedly after Trash Older Brother.

"Nicely done, brother!"

Having said that, he turned to the surrounding Villagers and solemnly and reverently declared,

"The Great Antler God has unleashed divine punishment on these arrogant fools! It’s time to offer our loyalty and bravery to the God that protects us!"

"Hit them hard!"

Feeling the unstoppable momentum, the last bits of cowardice and timidity were wiped clean from the eyes of the Villagers.

Everyone erupted with thunderous shouts, grabbed their tools, scaled the low wall, and chased after the fleeing Believers.

"Oh oh oh!"

Although until now, they had no idea what exactly their religion was called or what its doctrines were...

Watching the helicopter above constantly raining down firepower and the severely wounded Believers in front, the preacher in the gray robe was filled with terror.

"Spread out and hide!"

"Don’t show your back to that lizard—"

"No one retreats! Everyone hold fast!"

Screaming hysterically, he fled desperately into the nearby jungle.

The intelligence was wrong!

This place was nothing like the local people had described, merely a small village of two or three hundred residents. The situation here was far deeper than he had imagined!

Not to mention anything else, that Death Claw in the exoskeleton was horrifying enough!

He must report back to the Bishop immediately!

The mission of preaching was completely out of his mind, all he wanted was to distance himself further from this hellish battlefield...

Running awkwardly through the forest, his face cut by vines and branches, he leaned against a tree trunk, breathing in fresh air.

"Damn..."

He had finally managed to run away!

The sound of gunfire was now so distant he could hardly hear it, and his heart gradually relaxed, straightening up to continue on his way.

However, just as he raised his head, his entire face drained of color, and his heart that had just relaxed momentarily shot to his throat.

Standing in front of him was a power armor unit, shouldering a lengthy sniper rifle as if it had been waiting there for him for a long time.

Though he couldn’t see the expression on that person’s face through the helmet and goggles, he could feel that the person was looking at him with an almost amused gaze.

"If I were you, I’d choose a different direction to run."

...

The battle was over quickly.

The resistance of those Believers was indeed stubborn.

Any ordinary Looter would have fled from such heavy casualties long ago, but these Believers fought to the last with only twenty or so remaining.

Half of those were missing arms and legs.

Shaking off the bits of flesh and blood clinging to his claw, Trash Older Brother looked at Pioneer, who had emerged from nowhere, and couldn’t help but ask,

"What were you up to just now?"

Having been disconnected for so long, Pioneer felt a bit embarrassed and clearing his throat, he said,

"Cough... I took my little brothers and dug a tunnel, planning to plant Dynamite right under their feet... but it seems it was not needed."

Initially, he had planned to join the front lines and exchange gunfire, but the one-meter-tall low wall completely blocked his approach.

Now it seemed the bad idea of digging tunnels wasn’t much better; without a fixed frontline for the enemy, by the time he managed to dig halfway, his allies had begun to clean up the battlefield.

Pick up trash 99 level: "Damn, you, Old Six!"

Pioneer glanced at him and retorted, "Cut it out, as if you’ve got the right to talk, Old Six. You hid in the back rows without joining the battle, do you have any shame?"

Just as Trash Older Brother was about to retort, Tranquility, shouldering a rifle, walked over and looked around.

"Where’s that guy in the gray robe? Did any of you see him?"

Trash Older Brother paused, then smacked his forehead and said,

"Damn! We let that BOSS escape!"

As the words left his mouth, a loud voice came from not too far away.

"He won’t get far."

Trash Older Brother quickly turned his head, only to see Old White, clad in power armor, leading a line of nine, emerging from the neighboring woods.

The preacher draped in a gray robe was being held captive by Night Ten.

After giving the preacher a kick in the behind, Night Ten said with a mischievous grin as he watched the preacher stumble forward.

"This thing is also called a BOSS? At best it’s just an Elite Monster."

The preacher, who had just received a kick, couldn’t understand what the soldier behind him was saying, nor did he dare to fight back, so he timidly got up from the ground.

"Night Ten! Old White!!" Seeing those familiar faces, the excitement on Trash Older Brother’s face was unmistakable.

Not just Old White and Night Ten, Wild Wind, Fang Chang, and Quit Smoking were also here!

"Haha, long time no see!"

Old White slapped Trash Older Brother on the shoulder and continued with a smile.

"Looks like we made it just in time."

Walking through the collapsed fence and standing next to Tranquility, the mayor of Dusty Town, Qin Baitian, nervously addressed the group of fully armed soldiers.

"May I ask who these people are..."

Tranquility coughed lightly and pulled him aside.

"Those big shots are Genetically Enhanced Individuals."

Qin Baitian stared at him dumbfounded.

"Gen... what?"

"You can think of them as the Emperor’s own sons." Tranquility bluffed shamelessly, "Whether it’s the Great Antler God or the Big Horn Rat... Strictly speaking, they are all servants of that Emperor."

Qin Baitian was profoundly shocked and nodded in understanding.

"So that’s how it is..."

It seems that the temple will have to accommodate a few more statues...

...

Under Tranquility’s direction, the villagers of Dusty Town began to clean up the battlefield, and the unwilling rat minions came scurrying to help.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Trash Older Brother, Old White turned his attention to the terrified preacher.

This guy gave him a different feeling compared to the Apostle they had previously captured from the Chewing Bone Tribe.

That old man was harder than a stone, and they couldn’t get any useful information from him before he was allowed to commit suicide in jail.

This guy, however, seemed like a monk who had taken up the robes mid-journey and probably didn’t even fully believe in the doctrines of the Torch Church.

In other words, he was just an opportunist in the team.

Clearly, expanding too quickly wasn’t always a good thing.

Old White lifted the face shield of his helmet and stared into the preacher’s eyes.

"Now we begin, I ask and you answer, don’t waste my time, understand?"

The preacher swallowed hard, his face pale, nodded, and stammered.

"Unders... understood."

"Good. If you take more than two seconds to think, I’ll assume you’re lying," Old White nodded briskly and continued, "Your name?"

"Zhang Zhengyang."

"Age?"

"31..."

"Sex?"

"...Male."

"Position?"

"Apostle."

"Who sent you?"

"Lo—"

Having inadvertently blurted out a syllable, he tried to stop himself, but it was too late.

Old White, with piercing eyes, pressed on.

"Lo what?"

Zhang Zhengyang swallowed and said,

"Luo Gan... he is the Pioneer of Brocade River City."

The Pioneer is equivalent to a Bishop in the Torch Church, usually ruling a diocese, while Apostles are similar to priests or clerics, varying in power from minor to significant.

All this information was available in the official settings on the website.

Old White hadn’t expected to stumble upon a big fish and continued to ask,

"Where is he?"

"In the Holy Land."

"And what is that place?"

"I..."

Before the man could hem and haw, Old White pulled out a map and threw it in front of him.

"Mark the location. I’ll send someone to check it. If there’s nothing there, you know the consequences."

Sweat beads the size of beans broke out on his forehead, Zhang Zhengyang looked up with a miserable expression and saw the power armor standing before him.

"Saint... I really don’t know the exact location of the Holy Land."

Old White pressed the gun against his head.

"You’d better tell the truth, I don’t have the patience for lies."

Terrified, the preacher’s face turned ashen and he knelt on the ground.

"Saint, I swear, everything I’ve said is the truth! The Holy Land is the hiding place for the Pioneers, and besides them and their confidants, no one knows its location! I’m not even sure if he’s in the Brocade River area."

Old White frowned.

"So he usually hides in that Holy Land and issues commands to you?"

"Yes..."

Already confessing to such an extent, Zhang Zhengyang hesitated no longer and continued, "He said the time is ripe, Nago’s grace has spread across this land, and he ordered us to bring Brocade River City’s Survivor Settlement under the Church’s domain... Now only Dusty Town remains outside the following of the Saint Heir."

Night Ten couldn’t help but speak up.

"So you’re planning to physically eliminate the people here?"

Zhang Zhengyang stammered, unable to speak, but dared not to leave out a word, he could only nod meekly in a low voice.

"I, I was planning on persuading them..."

Ignoring his attempts to excuse himself, Old White stared at him and continued,

"Let me ask you another question, what’s going on with these people?"

As he spoke, Old White glanced at a believer not far away who had lost an arm in the explosion, squirming on the ground like an earthworm.

That morbid expression didn’t look like one of pain at all.

In fact, the person was rubbing the dirt with the remaining half of his arm, trying to stop the bleeding by this means, completely ignoring the possibility of the wound becoming infected.

"They ate Nago..." Zhang Zhengyang said, swallowing his saliva.

Turning his gaze away from the believer, Old White looked at the preacher and asked,

"Just taking Nago can turn them into this?"

Zhang Zhengyang quickly shook his head.

"No, of course not. Just eating Nago at most brings about a ’God Travel’ state; though they won’t feel pain, they also won’t have any sensation. We give them injections of ’Holy Water,’ so they can live in a semi-dreaming, semi-conscious state in Heaven and completely obey our orders without feeling pain or fatigue... regardless of whether they’re fighting or working."

Night Ten was stunned for a moment.

"Goodness, Mosquito’s ’Holy Water’ is here."

Wild Wind coughed softly.

"...Those are clearly two different things."

"Where’s the stuff?" Fang Chang, staring at the preacher, continued, "Do you still have that ’Holy Water’?"

"Yes, there’s more!"

Fidgeting under that piercing gaze, Zhang Zhengyang hastily extended his trembling hand and took out a metal box from his pocket, passing it to Fang Chang.

Fang Chang reached out, took it, opened it to glance inside, where there was a syringe and six thumb-sized ampoules.

"Is this all?"

"This is all I brought... I don’t use it often," Zhang Zhengyang said nervously.

He certainly had taken Nago too.

Otherwise, let alone preaching, he wouldn’t be able to survive among a group of infection sources at all.

However, he would control the amount he took, consume it in moderation, keeping ’God Travel’ state to three or four times a month and regularly injecting antibiotics to eliminate the bacteria in his body.

In this way, the negative impact of Nago could be minimized and even the human body could withstand it.

"So these madmen’s combat power has to be maintained by injections?" Night Ten stroked his chin and frowned, "Wow, that’s no small cost."

"The mass-produced drugs are not as expensive as you think, and..." Fang Chang looked at the preacher, "that ’Qi,’ he’s with you, right?"

Zhang Zhengyang stiffened and nodded his head, saying cautiously,

"That Mutant tribe... is the earliest in the Brocade River City district to join us."

Fang Chang chuckled.

"And that ’Nago,’ supposedly a cure-all, was also promoted by them, right?"

Zhang Zhengyang silently nodded his head.

"Yes..."

Without looking at this guy anymore, Fang Chang closed the box with the syringes, turned his gaze to Old White, and spoke in Mandarin,

"Now we have a clear idea, the clues are twofold: one is the Pioneer hiding in that so-called ’Holy Land,’ and the other is the Mutant tribe, which numbers over ten thousand... but with just the few of us, I’m afraid it will be challenging to achieve anything significant, we might need to call more of our brothers here."

Considering the influence of the Torch Church in Brocade River Province might not be confined to Brocade River City, relying solely on the Burning Corps wouldn’t be enough.

Not to mention they had only sent a hundred-man team here.

Old White nodded, frowning.

"The problem is the Tide... we might not have many hands to spare."

According to the official website’s announcement, this year’s Tide was expected to be larger than in previous years, especially now that Giant Stone City was also part of the Alliance, one can imagine the pressure on the defense lines.

A large-scale deployment of troops to the Brocade River Province would probably have to wait until after the Tide.

While they were talking, those lying believers began to show new changes: sweat beads the size of beans began to seep out on some people’s foreheads, and their expressions of delight gradually turned to pain.

Some with severe injuries outright passed out.

Seeing Zhang Zhengyang look over for guidance, he nervously said.

"The effect of Nago is about to wear off..."

Nago did not cure any pain but simply allowed the organism to reach an agreement with the bacteria inhabiting its body, coexisting under the unification of the fungal filaments.

Once the effects wore off, those previously docile bacteria would reveal their fierce canine teeth.

And what awaited them was ultimate death.

"We need to keep a few alive."

Old White glanced at Fang Chang and Wild Wind.

"Search their bodies, see if there’s any Nago they carried, and stuff it in their mouths."

Fang Chang nodded seriously.

"Yes."

A few players spread out on the battlefield and quickly searched out some Nago on those believers’ bodies.

Then they found the believers who were still alive, regardless of whether their intestines were hanging out, and stuffed Nago into their mouths.

It was indeed effective.

A few who were in so much pain that their entire faces were twisted comprehensively calmed down after chewing a couple of times. Some were too severely injured for the Nago to be any use, and were left to fend for themselves.

After ensuring the ground was secure, a "Viper" transport plane landed in the farmland to the east of Dusty Town.

Chen Yutong quickly jumped off the plane and walked over to a believer who was paralyzed on the ground, carrying a toolbox.

The person’s injuries were extremely serious, with half of his abdomen sliced open and his intestines spilling out.

Even though she had seen her fair share of Waste Land Wanderers meet tragic deaths, Chen Yutong couldn’t help but feel a tingling in her scalp. Nonetheless, she held her breath and administered a sedative injection to him, then stuffed his intestines back in and sprayed on some clotting spray for a rudimentary wound treatment.

"This guy is beyond saving. Just put him out of his misery," Old White said, coming up beside her and glancing at the fellow lying on the ground.

Being scratched by a Trash Older Brother is no joke.

"I’m not a professional doctor. I didn’t expect to be able to save him... This is just an emergency measure," she paused, then added, "I need research material."

Old White nodded.

"Is there anything I can help with?"

Chen Yutong glanced at the small town nearby.

"If you can get me a quiet room, that would be great. I need to perform a minor surgery on him."

"Hmm, leave it to me."

Old White nodded and tapped on his helmet twice with his index finger, simply conveying the researcher’s needs to Trash Older Brother.

Soon, the large lizard sauntered over, tail swaying, and made an OK gesture with two claws pinched together.

"It’s all arranged,"

Old White said with a smile.

"Thanks."

"Eh, why be formal with brothers? I haven’t even thanked you guys yet," Trash Older Brother said with a grin, noticing the female researcher beside him, "Who is this?"

"Chen Yutong." Old White introduced her in both United Human and Mandarin, then turned to Chen Yutong and continued in United Human, "This is my friend... His name is a bit strange. Just call him Trash Older Brother."

Chen Yutong stared blankly at Trash Older Brother and nodded.

"Hello..."

More than his name,

she found his appearance even more bizarre.

"Hello to you too, respected lady," said Trash Older Brother with a wide smile, turning his gaze to the half-dead captive on the ground and politely asked, "Shall I help you get this guy onto the operating table?"

Old White cleared his throat with a light cough.

"Don’t mess around. If you grip with that claw of yours, he’ll be out of breath instantly."

"Tch!"

Trash Older Brother rolled his eyes, feeling a twinge of envy in his heart.

MMP!

All these damn human players seem to have partners, and here he is, the only bachelor to this day, not even getting a glance from Nicole.

Pah, just you wait!

Once he attains a physique like Yong’s—or even the Mother of Dead Claw—he’ll make all Sparks kneel and sing "Conquest" to him.

"Um... he can talk?"

Watching Trash Older Brother walk away, Chen Yutong finally couldn’t contain her curiosity and turned to ask Old White.

She had indeed heard rumors that the Alliance had tamed some Variants capable of human speech through the Manager.

Initially, she dismissed these tales as simple admiration for a charismatic leader, but never did she expect to actually meet a talking Dead Claw!

This was the first time she had seen it in reality!

"Not only can he talk, but he’s also a resident of the Shelter," said Old White with a smile, "There’s all kinds of weird stuff in the Wasteland. You’ll get used to it."

Chen Yutong nodded blankly.

She’d heard long ago that some southern Shelter had been conducting research on transplanting consciousness from humans to other organic bodies.

Could it be that they had succeeded?

Upon rational analysis, rather than teaching a lizard to talk, she was more inclined to believe that was a human in lizard’s skin.

A gleam of interest began to sparkle in Chen Yutong’s eyes.

Things were getting more interesting...

...

At the Stone City Hall,

Chu Guang, sitting in the office, received a report from Xiao Qi about a battle from the south.

The Burning Corps’ vanguard troops arrived at Dusty Town at 2 p.m. today, where intense gunfire broke out with believers from the Torch Church.

In the operation, players killed ninety-two believers and captured eleven. There were nine casualties among the villagers, six of whom were already out of mortal danger, and no players were harmed.

Among the eleven captives was an Apostle of the Torch Church.

Interrogation of this Apostle revealed that the Torch Church was expanding its influence in Brocade River Province. The specific reason was unknown.

Moreover, according to the Apostle’s confession, the Torch Church had reached some sort of cooperation with the local Mutant powers.

Now, except for the small settlement of Dusty Town, home to two or three hundred households, the entire Brocade River City had been brought under the Church’s territory.

This failed attempt at proselytization could mean that Mutant Corps might come next time.

For fear of retaliation from the Torch Church, the Burning Corps had already mobilized local residents to deploy more defenses and traps around the outskirts of the town.

Meanwhile, the battalion commander, Old White, had expressed a desire for reinforcements in the battle report.

Brocade River City had become the frontline of the conflict between the Alliance and the Torch Church.

Given that the Church’s foothold in the area was still unstable, maintained only by drug distribution and trade incentives, now was undoubtedly the best opportunity to erase the Torch Church’s influence there.

If a medical solution could be found to counteract the effects of Nago, to eliminate the local mutant tribe and guide the residents to resume a normal life with the correct methods, and to plant safe crops, there was still hope of salvation for the survivors of Brocade River City.

The land contaminated by Nago wasn’t beyond salvation. According to Heya’s research findings, burning was sufficient.

After reading the report from start to finish, Chu Guang furrowed his brow and sank into thought.

Everything in the report made sense; he too agreed that it was the optimal moment. However, the problem lay in the Tide coming in two months.

At this rate, they might end up fighting a battle on two fronts...

"This timing is just too perfect."

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