This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 576: Funds are Burning!

Chapter 576: Chapter 576: Funds are Burning!

The inn at the entrance of the Pinecone Wood Farm, where candlelight flickered in the simply decorated room, Wu Wen Zhou paced uneasily, unable to fall asleep.

The situation was getting out of hand...

At first, all he did was agree to help Yang River’s mercenary, to take Yang River’s six-year-old daughter out of the Zhao Residence.

Whether it was out of gratitude for past kindness or for his own interest, he planned to lend a hand.

It wasn’t really a high-risk situation.

Though Yang River was his boss, the task wasn’t carried out through him, but by mercenaries hired from outside.

After the event, he could simply claim ignorance.

And if Yang River completely detached himself from the Pinecone Wood Farm, staying loyal himself and clearly defining the boundaries with Yang River, he would be the exclusive merchant of the Pinecone Wood Farm in the future.

Yang River had also urged him to leave together, claiming that even without the resources of the Pinecone Wood Farm, they could still make a fortune with the capital they had saved before.

However, he had declined the offer without a second thought.

He thirsted for power and wealth more than the fleeting freedom.

He was well aware of the difference between him and Yang River; that guy might have had his fill, but he had yet to savor that intoxicating taste.

Maybe in the future, he would make the same choice as his former boss, but that would have to be after he had saved up a substantial amount of money.

Backing out now would not only mean wasting all the effort he had put into pleasing the master, but he would also never be able to live the life he’d always dreamed of.

However, after seeing what happened in the Town of Hope and having a detailed conversation with Fang Chang, he felt as though a bucket of cold water had been poured over his head.

It’s no good making money if you don’t live to spend it.

Maybe the boss was right.

The people here had gone insane.

So without hesitation, he had agreed to the terms set by the Alliance, helping the Alliance’s soldiers enter the settlement. In exchange, the Alliance would send an aircraft to take him and his family away from this plantation.

What he didn’t expect was that things had gone off track from the start.

The Alliance had no intention of discreetly investigating that "Holy Land" or the Bishop hiding there; instead, they were plotting something far more terrifying and bold.

What was even more unexpected was that they had been watched by General Luo Feihui’s spies while in the Town of Hope, and that ambitious man had also gotten involved.

Even if he was slow, he had now come to his senses.

He had been played!

Though it couldn’t be said that the Alliance had deceived him, those cunning people just hadn’t revealed all their plans.

After all, compared to cautiously infiltrating, bribing relevant personnel for intelligence, taking over the farm outright, and seizing the people for a slow interrogation was also a form of investigation.

And much more efficient.

Not only that.

If the Alliance controlled the entire farm, his family would naturally be safe, which could be considered fulfilling the terms of his agreement.

But—

Could it really go so smoothly?

He couldn’t help but look out into the pitch-black night outside the window.

Was this night a little too quiet...?

"Knock knock—"

There came a knocking at the door.

The sudden sound startled Wu Wen Zhou, who was already anxious, and he quickly walked to the door.

His hand on the doorknob, he hesitated to open it immediately; instead, he cautiously asked,

"Who’s there?"

"..."

It was dead silent outside, not a sound could be heard.

The knocking seemed to have faded into the distance, but he was certain that the person was still at the door, as he hadn’t heard any footsteps indicating departure.

A sense of unease wandering in his mind, he switched to holding the doorknob with his left hand while his right hand reached into his pocket, gripping the revolver hidden there and lightly disengaging the safety.

Then, gritting his teeth, he opened the door.

Standing at the door was the innkeeper, his acquaintance Li Liangchuan.

Seeing that familiar face, Wu Wen Zhou instantly relaxed, his pounding heart calmed down, and he felt as if he had shed a huge burden.

"...Damn, you knock and don’t say anything, trying to scare the hell out of me?!"

The man standing at the door didn’t speak but just stood there like a sleepwalker, staring straight at him, mouth closed, silent.

Confronted with that hollow gaze, Wu Wen Zhou swallowed nervously and tentatively called out his name,

"...Liangchuan?"

There was still no response, the man’s pupils lifelessly fixed in place.

Finally feeling something amiss, Wu Wen Zhou backed into the guest room, drew his revolver completely out of his pocket, and aimed it at the man’s head.

With a vicious look, he barked,

"What are you trying to pull? What’s with the ghost act?!"

The reception to the threatening tone seemed to finally elicit a slight reaction, or perhaps something else awakened him, as the innkeeper slowly shifted his drooping gaze, looking towards Wu Wen Zhou, who had retreated into the guest room.

Staring intently into those lifeless pupils, Wu Wen Zhou gulped, retreating towards the wooden table near the window, his index finger resting on the trigger as he still aimed at that head.

In those turbid eyes, he saw a bare craving!

It was the look of a starving beast when it sees prey alone, a look Wu Wen Zhou, who had walked the Wasteland for many years, could not mistake!

This guy was off!

Definitely off!

"Don’t come any closer! I’m warning you! Approach any further and I’ll shoot—! Ahhhh!"

Venting his anger and fright through his shouts and watching his staggering friend charge at him, he firmly pulled the trigger.

More than once!

"Bang bang—!"

The thunder of gunpowder echoed in the room, and the bullets unhesitatingly shattered his friend’s head, the brain matter and blood splattering out onto the hallway.

"Don’t blame me... I warned you."

Staring at the corpse on the ground, Wu Wen Zhou, who was leaning on the table, gasped for air forcibly. However, before he could catch his breath, a series of figures appearing at the doorway changed his complexion instantly.

One, two, three...

It was a group!

Dressed as servants, they stared at him with abyss-like eyes, akin to walking corpses, and then opened their mouths, emitting a low growl that dragged on like mud.

"Ughhh—"

Like a torrential mountain flood.

They pounced.

"Aaaaah!" In utter terror, Wu Wen Zhou fired his revolver wildly at the oncoming crowd.

Accompanied by the explosions of gunfire, the muzzle flashes flickered in a window, partially obscured by curtains, like the last flickering of a candle in the evening breeze.

Before long, a pool of crimson blood spattered against the window, followed by the outline of a distorted face and blood handprints, completely covering the warm light...

At the same time, right in the center of the settlement.

The luxurious mansion belonging to the farm owner was likewise shrouded in a blood-red atmosphere.

"Aren’t you looking for me?"

"Now that I’m right in front of you, why have you gone silent? Gagaga—"

Along with that voice, a dry laughter also echoed in the deathly still hall, bearing an inexplicable strangeness.

People immediately looked up to see a middle-aged man standing on the overhanging balcony of the second floor, his murky gaze overlooking everyone in the hall from above the railing.

He seemed to have been waiting here all along.

Waiting for them to come to him.

After a quick glance at the image on the VM, Fang Chang’s pupils tightened slightly, and when he looked at the man again, his eyes were filled with surprise.

Zhao Tiangan?!

Wrong—

"...Luo Gan?"

Fang Chang stared intently at the man.

Falling Feather glanced at him quickly, her eyes seeming to ask, "What are you talking about?"

But Fang Chang didn’t respond.

Just now, he had thought of a possibility...

Although it sounded outlandish, this could explain why the Holy Land was considered absolutely safe.

And it was from a scientific perspective devoid of any religious coloring...

Because that thing wasn’t even on the "earth".

And precisely because it was not on earth, in theory, anyone could listen to his gospel. And if he wished, he could appear anywhere.

Hearing that name, the man’s face revealed a strange smile.

"Heh heh... Caught on, have you? Quicker than I imagined."

"Aha, I see..."

Fang Chang looked at him calmly, his expression gradually taking on a hint of gravity.

Glancing at the expression on Fang Chang’s face, "All the good names are taken by dogs" swallowed his saliva nervously and excitedly and hurriedly asked.

"What are you talking about... I don’t understand?!"

He could understand a few phrases of United Human language.

But all he heard was baffling.

Fang Chang clenched his teeth, squeezing out a sentence through his clenched teeth.

"Mind Interference Device!"

"Mind... Interference?!" Falling Feather looked at him, surprised, not understanding why he suddenly brought up that device.

What did that have to do with the current situation?

Fang Chang kept his eyes fixed on the man and calmly said,

"Remember the characteristics of the Mind Interference Device... The higher the intellect, the more specific the information received, but the less the influence. The lower the intellect, the less information received, but the greater the influence."

He swallowed, continuing,

"Excessive consumption of Nago will lead to a ’God Travel’ state... In that state, the intellect is probably close to zero."

The real "gospel" is probably not that pill!

It’s the Mind Interference Device working somewhere!

And the true function of the pill is not to suppress addiction!

But rather, something that amplifies the signal or aids in signal interpretation!

Of course, this was just his speculation.

But one thing was certain!

From the moment they arrived at Pinecone Wood Farm—no, even earlier, that guy had been watching them!

The man standing on the second-floor overhanging balcony had a fierce light in his eyes.

"Goliath, kill them!"

"ROAR—!"

The very instant he finished speaking, the mountain of flesh sitting on the floor let out a deafening roar, and the windows of the entire building shattered outward from the terrifying sound waves.

"Ugh—"

Several players inside the hall covered their ears. Even though the pain was blocked, their hearing was nearly disabled.

With the intention of catching the leader first, "A Good Dog" quickly raised his gun and fired two shots, hitting the man on the overhanging balcony.

Blood beads burst from the man’s abdomen and shoulder; he fell backward without a sound.

Not expecting the boss to be this weak, "A Good Dog" stared in surprise, then spat with excitement.

"Ptoo! That’s what you get for showing off!"

Fang Chang’s voice came from the side.

"Don’t let your guard down! That guy is just a puppet!"

A Good Dog: "What the hell?!"

"Fire!" Fang Chang gripped his rifle tightly, aiming straight at the hulking figure seated among the corpses.

The mass of flesh that had been seated on the ground had risen and was now charging toward the players standing at the entrance of the hall with heavy steps.

"Ratatat—!"

The muzzle spat flames, the ejected casings clanging as they hit the ground.

Falling Feather pulled the trigger without hesitation, a stream of orange-yellow tracer bullets spraying toward the charging monster.

However, what surprised him was that his bullets seemed to be absorbed by a gigantic mass of gelatin, not even causing a ripple on the body that was like a colossal wall!

"Damn! What the hell is this thing?!"

The focused bullets hit the monster’s enormous head, but still, the massive meat mountain showed no reaction.

Its kinetic energy was completely absorbed!

Even in the face of concentrated fire from ten rifles, the monster named Goliath didn’t slow down in the slightest. Its massive hand, like a windmill, struck toward the people standing at the door, raising a gale within the spacious hall.

"Eeeek—!"

As the monster was about to reach them, Xiaoyu, clad in a K-10 "Iron Wall" exoskeleton, drew his battle knife and charged forward.

The blade pierced the monster’s left chest.

But shockingly, no blood spurted out; it was as if the heart wasn’t even there!

The knife that had pierced in was stuck in fat!

"Damn—"

A brief sob rose on the communication channel.

The monster, like a train, paused for only a moment before sending Xiaoyu’s exoskeleton-clad body flying, continuing its relentless charge toward the crowd.

Still, Xiaoyu’s actions had bought some time for everyone to escape the swooping slap.

Fang Chang, raising his arm to block shards of tiles that sprayed his way, pulled an incendiary bomb from his exoskeleton and hurled it fiercely at the creature named Goliath.

Flames burst into life on the monster’s body!

However, compared to its hefty frame, those burning flames seemed like a flickering flame from a lighter – they couldn’t harm it in the slightest.

But—

He had never expected that thing to take down the beast.

Taking advantage of Goliath’s pained howl, Fang Chang yelled over the communication channel.

"C and D squads, get out of the building!"

"Drone unit, prepare to fire!"

"Old White! Come give us a hand!"

"Night Ten! Are you ready yet? If not, it’s okay, we have to pull out!"

Previously, Night Ten hadn’t disembarked but stayed in the carriage, accompanying the coachman to the servant’s dormitory to take Falling Feather’s place in searching for the six-year-old girl.

After all, in order to direct Xiaoyu’s offshoot bodies, it was only when he was nearby that the "little Xiaoyus" could exert their maximum combat power.

There was no response from Night Ten over the communication channel.

But Old White’s voice came quickly, accompanied by the whooshing wind.

"...Hang in there! We’re on our way and will be there soon!"

At the same time, a jarring broadcast tore through the silent night. The shrill laughter echoed above the manor grounds.

"Ha ha ha..."

"It’s no use."

"You can’t escape!"

"Stay right here!"

Goliath roared, crashing through the front door and the adjoining wall, its distorted face letting out a ferocious roar at the players who had fallen into the forecourt.

"Roar—!"

The boisterous air wave tossed leaves and dust as C and D squads, retreating from the villa, fired alternately at the beast.

At the same time, B squad crouched in the flowerbeds, and A squad coming around from the backyard also raised their rifles, aiming their fire at the monster.

Goliath paused momentarily, and amidst its angry roars was a hint of pain – it was clear it wasn’t invulnerable.

It felt pain when injured!

Just then, two trails of fiery tails descended from the sky, hitting the monster’s shoulders, one on each side with precision.

The explosive roar engulfed Goliath, and the deafening scream was abruptly cut off.

Hot air tinged with the scent of charred flesh swirled within the blast.

As the dust settled, a bloody mess was all that stood in the rubble of the collapsed doorway, a sight so wretched that the original form was unrecognizable.

Chunks of char, gray smoke, and waves of heat lay scattered – these were pieces that had flaked off its body.

Watching the burning steps and cobblestones, and the immovable mountain of flesh in the silence, Falling Feather swallowed hard.

"Is it dead...?"

It seemed—

Not yet.

A closer look revealed that the fat body was still steadily rising and falling. Even though it was torn to pieces by the missiles, it hadn’t swallowed its last breath.

And that was not all!

Its back where the wounds were began to sprout tentacle-like strips of flesh, twisting together, visibly stitching up the damaged parts!

This insane healing speed would be outrageous even for the mutants.

Its legs had healed, and it suddenly started to retreat.

Seeing this, Fang Chang immediately roared into his headset.

"Wild Wind! Give us two more shots!"

A calm reply came through.

"Received."

As the voice faded away, two tongues of fire streaked across the night sky as two missiles fell from above, hitting the self-repairing monster once again!

One of the missiles plunged directly into the healing wound, tentacles of flesh writhing around it, trying to eject the foreign object from the body.

However, its response was obviously a step too slow.

The explosion’s blaze erupted violently, tearing the flesh wrapped around the missile into shreds with ease, and once again engulfed the beast.

Even if it recovered at an absurd rate, it was ultimately still a carbon-based organism—if two missiles weren’t enough, then another two it would be!

But this time, it seemed to be enough.

The colossal creature collapsed heavily onto the ground, finally motionless.

Large chunks of black, paste-like substance flowed from the wounds all over its body, thick like oil, resembling both blood and fat.

The battle was over.

But there was no cheering from the crowd.

Everyone was acutely aware that they were standing right in the center of Pine Wood Farm, with at least three thousand-team units outside.

Causing such a commotion in someone else’s home, riddling the house with bullet holes and blood, they couldn’t explain it away even if they had a thousand mouths.

The only one who might have been able to control the situation, General Luo Feihui, was already dead.

"Something doesn’t feel right..."

Withdrawing his gaze from the mountain-like corpse, Fang Chang cautiously swept his eyes around, his gun muzzle patrolling the garden’s edges.

"Isn’t it too quiet around here?"

If he remembered correctly, from the manor’s main entrance to where they were now, there should have been at least two sentry posts and more than a hundred soldiers.

Even though only a few short minutes had passed since the fight started, it was unlikely that the nearby patrolling teams and sentries were so deaf that they had no reaction whatsoever.

He hurriedly glanced at the thermal imaging aerial view on his VM, with the huge corpse in the center of the screen aglow with white light, and the bright spots right in front of the villa obviously representing them.

Further away, a series of white light spots had already gathered near the estate, poised and ready to attack.

This was not the anomaly.

However, as he zoomed out the camera to look even farther away, he saw those light spots indicating soldiers still moving along fixed routes, patrolling in an orderly fashion...

Fang Chang suddenly realized something and roared.

"Wild Wind! Use up all the reserve ammo!"

"Use it up?"

As the words left his mouth, Wild Wind seemed to catch on and, without hesitation, fired the remaining four "Dove" missiles from the drone at the open space outside the settlement.

But then something eerie happened.

The four missiles shot out, then made a sudden turn in the air, adjusted their direction, and headed straight for the main entrance of the villa.

Watching the plumes of fire curl in the air, Fang Chang’s face went pale as he shouted over the squad’s voice channel.

"Get inside the villa!"

As soon as the words left his mouth, he dashed toward the villa they had previously evacuated.

Almost at the very moment his front foot crossed the threshold, an explosive blaze burst behind him, not far off, the hot blast pushing him right inside, his helmet banging against a column and almost knocking him unconscious.

He was lucky.

Two players, just a step behind, were engulfed by the boiling blaze, sacrificed on the spot under the cover fire of friendly forces.

Wild Wind’s voice came through the communication channel.

"The drone was hijacked... Sorry! My—"

"It’s not your fault... There’s an expert on the other side."

Looking back at the burning flames and rising from the ground, Fang Chang caught his breath slightly and stood up with the support of his rifle butt.

He suddenly remembered a previous encounter with the Torch Church back in East District of Qingquan City, on a mission transporting fuel rods.

Those guys were few in number but well-equipped and well-trained. If it hadn’t been for home-field advantage and timely support from Mosquito Brother’s aircraft, they would have had virtually no chance of victory.

A blaze shot up in the air.

Seagull, valued at 300Cr, upon actively detecting a loss of control, triggered the self-destruct program and glided toward a preset safety coordinate.

million. And in Cr.

This time it was literally their funds going up in flames.

The sky was lit not only by the wreckage of Seagull but also by a series of tracer rounds ascending skyward, weaving into a fire net in the air.

Looking out the window at the night sky illuminated by anti-aircraft fire, Fang Chang immediately felt a sense of foreboding and shouted into his headset.

"Old White... What’s your situation?"

Static filled the communication channel, followed by the clamor of gunfire and wind, indicative of the fierce battle.

"We’re being chased off by anti-aircraft fire! Can’t approach the center of the settlement... You’ll have to hold on a bit longer!"

The nimble "Viper" wasn’t likely to be shot down by a few quad anti-aircraft guns, but they couldn’t switch to hover mode and decelerate for landing smoothly under the harassment of anti-aircraft fire.

"...Someone is approaching outside!" Falling Feather, tensely aiming his rifle out of the window, called out, "Damn, looks like there’s quite a number of them!"

Almost at the same time, Old White’s voice continued through the communication channel.

"Many targets are moving toward you... Be careful! Something feels off about those people!"

"Prepare for battle!"

Fang Chang quickly got close to the window, also placing his rifle on the windowsill, while signaling Teams A and B to head to the second floor.

The defenses were set.

Taking a short breath, he clenched his teeth and continued.

"Approximately... how many?"

Old White replied gravely.

"I can’t see very clearly from here, but if I’m not mistaken... the number is probably at least tens of thousands!"

Fang Chang was stunned.

"Tens of thousands?!"

Common sense and instinct told him that Old White must have been mistaken.

However, an affirmative answer came through the communication channel.

"Yes, ’tens of thousands’ might even be a conservative estimate... The entire settlement’s leaders are converging in your direction!"

Fang Chang: "???"

What the hell?!