This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 607: Blood Rain Blossoming in the Sky

Chapter 607: Chapter 607: Blood Rain Blossoming in the Sky

Hundreds of gun barrels were aimed at the radar-marked area.

As bursts of flames flickered, tracer rounds pierced the grey-green fog, howling toward the oncoming swarm of Different Species Clusters flapping their wings.

Jia En, who was flying close to the ground, suddenly felt a chill on his neck, followed by an abrupt surge of alarm in his forehead.

He jerked his head up and, before he could grasp what was happening, saw blinding flashes of light exploding in the air.

"Boom!"

The closest batwing people were caught in the blast, instantly torn to shreds by the pythons-sized tracers.

The others nearby weren’t spared either.

The 155mm fragmentation shells with proximity fuzes detonated one after another, scattering deadly shrapnel like Death’s sickles amidst the exploding light and dense smoke walls, reaping blood-drenched lives with abandon.

The air suddenly filled with a blood rain, bits of flesh and falling limbs everywhere.

"Scatter!"

Remembering the reminder from the Saint Heir, Jia En roared with a strained voice, then with a flap of his wings, he sidestepped the incoming tracers and chased toward the direction from which the shells had come.

The whistling sounds of projectiles passed by him, exploding upon the ground nearby, yet they caused him no harm.

The biological armor gifted by the Torch Church not only possessed exceptional keratin armor but also a strong self-repair capability.

General explosive shrapnel and 7mm rifle bullets could hardly hurt him, and even if he was injured, he could quickly regenerate damaged tissue by absorbing more biomass!

Growing accustomed to the strength of this biological armor and dancing through bullets and shells, Jia En’s courage grew, and the last of his panic dissipated.

Dodging another howling shell, he looked up toward the direction it had come from and let out an excited roar.

"Cowards who only dare to fire from afar, haven’t you had your fill? Hahaha, with that little ability, you think to bring me down? Dream on!"

More than ten kilometers away, the Iron Heart’s crew obviously couldn’t hear the animal’s barking.

At that moment, the captain in the bridge was fixated on the screen of the control terminal, watching the swiftly vanishing red dots as they fell.

The operators at the control terminals shouted loudly.

"Artillery strike hit! Damage confirmed effective!"

"The number of individual creatures in the cluster is rapidly decreasing!"

"They’re spreading out!"

"There’s only 10 kilometers left!"

"Radar marking area adjusted!"

The first officer standing to the side clenched his fists, his heart mixed with joy and concern.

The joy was that they had indeed guessed the enemy’s movements correctly, which weren’t any bait.

However, the concern was that there were simply too many enemies!

To date, they still didn’t know what exactly was attacking them, only able to discern a vague scanning silhouette on the radar.

Looking up at the captain, the first officer said gravely.

"There are still more than eight thousand of them, and they could reach us in just ten minutes... we might not be able to eliminate them all with just our anti-air weapons."

"We must not let them get close to the Iron Heart!"

The captain looked at the radar screen with a grave face and after pondering for a moment, he finally gave the command.

"Launch the carrier-borne planes!"

In the fog, and especially at night, the interception efficiency of the carrier-borne planes was quite limited.

Even though the visibility in the airspace where the Iron Heart was positioned was much higher than on the ground, it was still only about two hundred meters.

This meant that the pilots’ shooting window would be very brief, and considering the irregular maneuvers of the suspected Different Species targets, the timing for firing was almost instantaneous; miss it and they’d have to circle around again.

But even so.

It was better than leaving the planes on the deck and fighting those creatures with bayonets!

On the deck of the Iron Heart.

Players from the Goblin Corps had been sitting in the cockpit for a long time, waiting.

Finally, the order to take off came. Falling Feather didn’t say a word, pushed down the throttle, and slipped off the runway holding the control stick.

The planes that followed took off one after another, avoiding the edges of the fire net and pouncing toward the airspace marked by the radar.

Wind Clear, lined up as well, brought the plane onto the runway, glanced around, and muttered in confusion.

"Where’s the leader?"

Gui Gui’s voice came over the communications channel.

"I don’t know either... I was just wondering where that guy went."

It was very unlike Mosquito’s style to miss such a thrilling action.

Then, from the common channel, Falling Feather’s voice rang out.

"Brothers, that asshole Mosquito has dumped the command pot on me again... Although I don’t know what the hell the enemy is, they clearly picked the wrong fight!"

Saying this, he mimicked Mosquito’s unique nasal voice and shouted with closed eyes.

"Follow me! Hold them off at all costs! Awoo awoo awoo!"

Hearing the utterly dissimilar voice, Wind Clear couldn’t help but laugh, but when she saw everyone else shouting with fervor, she too shouted with full momentum.

"Awoo oh—!"

Ah—

Forgot to etch something on the cockpit.

But it seemed not to matter anymore.

The roaring of the propellers whipped up howling winds on the deck, blowing the steep wings toward the fog-covered battlefield.

The diving planes, like cavalry charging with rifles, surged from above the clouds toward the surging beast swarm flapping their wings.

The wind whistled at the wingtips, the spirit of battle burned on the windscreen, and her fingertip was already pressed on the machine gun trigger.

"I heard there are tens of thousands of monsters."

"Then let’s finish this epic with their blood!"

...

In total, fifty W-2 attack aircraft split into two combat formations, arranged to the left and right of the battle line, like a pair of glowing hot iron pincers, biting towards the cluster of flying variants charging at the Iron Heart.

However, the variants were clearly not vegetarians.

After a few sweeps of machine gun fire, quickly, more than a dozen squads broke away from the variant cluster and bit towards the Alliance’s propeller aircraft.

Speaking purely of technological content, propeller planes were obviously no match for these gene-engineered soldier creatures.

However, for these wing-flapping beasts, catching up to the fixed-wing aircraft wasn’t that easy; it took more than a dozen to work together to manage it.

After sacrificing more than a dozen lives, finally, a monster took advantage of a gap when a W-2 was pulling up to avoid attack. It folded its wings and dived in a glide, plunging headfirst into a player’s cockpit.

"What the hell? What is this thing?! So ugly!"

Startled by the sharp-fanged, green-skinned monster that suddenly burst in, Gui Gui immediately drew her pistol and squeezed the trigger at the howling creature’s forehead.

Two bangs rang out, and black blood sprayed everywhere, freezing onto the cabin hatch in the cold wind that flooded the cockpit.

The monster instantly stopped breathing, but its head got stuck in the nose of the plane, its tail caught in the propeller.

She vaguely saw smoke spewing from the gaps in the engine cover.

At the same time, Feng Qing’s voice came through the communications channel.

"Gui Gui, what’s your situation?!"

While beating the head of the monster that had burrowed into her cockpit with the butt of her pistol, Gui Gui tried to wrestle back control of her out-of-control plane.

However, the speedometer kept climbing higher, and the blood-stuck hatch completely blocked her view outside, nearly driving her mad.

"My propeller is broken! Damn it! Blood is everywhere; I can’t see anything outside, am I upside down or not?!"

"Maybe you should parachute––"

"Parachute my ass! Won’t I just get gnawed to the bones right away?!"

She certainly didn’t think mutants would adhere to anything like the Geneva Conventions, not attacking parachuting pilots; she’d likely be caught and savagely devoured the moment she hung from the sky.

As she spoke, another monster charged at her, its feet Duang! landing on the belly of her plane, causing the already uncontrollable aircraft to sway violently.

The creature stretched out its hands, climbing towards the hatch along the wing, letting out a piercing howl at her, sitting in the cockpit.

Seeing the gaping maw and two green-glowing eyes up close, she sighed helplessly and reached for the pull ring behind and to the side of the cockpit.

The W-2 attack aircraft had two escape mechanisms.

One was to manually open the hatch and parachute out; the other was to attach explosives to the plane’s battery.

The latter was the same model used by infantry, but because it was stuck to the battery, its power was significantly greater, with additional incendiary damage.

"See you in three days!" Clenching her eyes shut, Gui Gui disengaged the safety and pulled the detonator.

The edge of the explosive charges quickly let off a wisp of white smoke.

Using her last sliver of consciousness, she saw, just as she was being dragged out of the cockpit by the sharp-fanged monster, the aircraft beneath her instantly erupted into a fireball, swallowing up all the monsters clinging onto the plane.

"Gui Gui!!"

Watching the blast engulf the aircraft, Feng Qing cried out in anguish and immediately turned the nose of his plane towards where the fireball had fallen.

The machine guns spat fire and roared continuously, and one after another, the struck variants plummeted from the sky.

Until he fired the last round of ammunition...

The fifty W-2 attack aircraft faced nearly eight thousand flying variants, and they were somewhat stretched,

Especially since neither experienced ace pilots nor rookies with less than 2000 flight hours had combat experience against such "irregular maneuvering targets."

Additionally, weather conditions worsened their effects. In just a few minutes, half of the Goblin Corps had been lost.

Still, even so, the Goblin Corps secured the gunners in the gun bay and Xiao Qi operating the anti-aircraft cannon enough time to take aim.

These last few kilometers were like an insurmountable rift for the wing-flapping beast swarm.

Watching the ripples crawl closer on the terminal screen, all the officers on the bridge couldn’t help but clench their fists.

The Iron Heart had already unloaded tons of ammunition at full fire, but the radar showed there were still nearly four thousand left!

Even the most optimistic estimate predicted that two to three thousand variants would break into the Iron Heart’s blind spot and land on the deck.

It seemed a boarding battle was now unavoidable.

"Notify all ship personnel to collect their weapons and ammunition!"

The captain issued his order, pulled out his service pistol, loaded it, slapped it on the table in front of him, and showed his determination to share the ship’s fate.

The others did the same.

No words were necessary.

And just as that oppressive wave of beasts burst from the mist-enshrouded edge, nearly cast upon the bridge’s panoramic windows, a gray-white transport airship slowly hovered to the front of the Iron Heart, blocking the direct view headed towards it.

Standing next to the captain, the executive officer was taken aback, his face changed instantaneously, and he blurted out subconsciously.

"A transport ship?! What’s that doing here?!"

The transport airship actively descended, heading straight for the cluster of variants, and the faint glimmer of gunfire seemed to indicate that someone was shooting up there.

The captain was equally puzzled but quickly came back to his senses and shouted at the comm officer not far away.

"Tell it to move away!!"

Charging at aerial targets with an airship?!

Had the idiots up there gone mad?!

But as his words fell, a commanding voice came from behind everyone.

"Let them go."

Chu Guang, who had returned to the bridge at some unknown time, soaked in the gaze of many eyes, walked to the panoramic window and stopped.

Quietly watching the fiery rain and the aircraft disappearing into the swarm outside the window, he spoke slowly.

"They are the true warriors."

"Don’t waste their determination."

The bridge was silent.

The captain’s Adam’s apple moved as he guessed the intention of the airship, and he took off his cap, holding it to his chest.

Seeing this, the other officers also silently removed their caps, paying the highest tribute to the sacrificed pilots and the driver of that airship.

Just as the Manager had said.

They were true warriors!

The battle was far from over, and the silent tribute in the bridge lasted only a few seconds.

Meanwhile, unrestrained laughter pierced through the narrow corridor, echoing in the empty cabin of the transport plane.

"Ha ha ha! Ugly things, your Mosquito Grandpa is here!"

Watching the surge of monsters, a guy who had just been named a warrior was excitedly holding a machine gun fitted with an ammunition belt.

He smashed the cockpit glass with the butt of his gun, mounted the machine gun in the center of the cockpit, and opened fire on the swarming beast herd outside with a rattatat of indiscriminate fire.

The spitting flames in the hail of bullets were like a flickering candle flame, with no hope for accuracy, but it was enough to draw the monsters’ hatred.

From afar, the lumbering vessel caught the eye of a group of Variants that had just burst through the clouds. They immediately screamed and pounced.

In just a few breaths, nearly a hundred wing-flapping Variants had climbed onto the nearly fifty-meter-long airship, and their numbers were still increasing.

They couldn’t fathom what this bulging airship was, treating it as if it were birthed from the same mother as the big guy in the sky. So, opening their mouths, they bit into the sturdy gas bag, trying to tear a hole and wriggle inside to kill all the people hidden within.

Watching the whirling pressure gauge and the warning of an engine power failure, the Mosquito in the cockpit was not panicked in the least; he even seemed to be holding back a laugh.

"Don’t be shy, eat up... if that’s not enough, try this for taste!"

Like pulling a magic trick, he took out a detonator from his pocket and clutched the switch in his hand with an evil smile.

The blasting caps placed throughout the airship instantly sparked, running through the whole airship from end to end like electricity.

In this instant, it wasn’t just the thousands of kilograms of TNT explosives ignited but also tens of thousands of cubic meters of hydrogen gas!

The entire nearly fifty-meter-long airship blew up like a lit barrel of oil, instantly becoming an expanding fireball.

The Mosquito, stepping onto the cockpit, was the first to be swept into the inferno, followed by the "big birds" that had already pounced onto the cockpit glass.

"Boom—!"

The Variants clinging to the airship were like moths to the flame, swallowed up by the scorching fire and the blast of the explosion in an instant.

The blast even reached the edge of the airship’s deck, forcibly clearing out a vacuum in the surging beast herd.

Variants burnt to a crisp and smoking, with that pungent charred smell, fell from the sky like dumplings, with the other Variants behind them only able to scream and dodge to the sides.

Witnessing the apocalyptic fire, Jia En’s eyes were bloodshot, anger nearly igniting flames out of his nostrils.

Looking at the minions continually falling from the sky, he felt no pity, but the thought of those Batwing People being transformed from the children of his tribe immediately brought a piercing pain to his heart, contorting his ugly face even more.

"Ah ah ah ah!"

"I’m going to kill you all!!!"

Jia En, howling with rage clouding his mind, madly rushed toward the direction of the deck.

Seemingly sensing his fury, the flock of batwing people flapped their wings even more vigorously, their sharp canine teeth emitting one piercing scream after another in the frenzy.

Meanwhile, far away in Brocade River City, Alzu was covered in dark lines, his fists clenched with bulging veins.

Even though he couldn’t see the battlefield directly, his radar perception told him that they had lost nearly five hundred batwing people in just a flash!

And due to the pause in the offensive push, the number of casualties continued to climb!

"These useless creatures!"

Beasts will always be beasts.

Armed with the best equipment but fighting the dumbest of wars!

Had he been in command himself, they surely would have at least touched the edge of the airship without losing more than half of their forces!

But, fortunately, there were still more than two thousand batwing people who had broken through the Steel Heart’s artillery fire, managing to reach the airship’s deck.

At this moment, the main force of the Alliance was at the front lines.

The number of people aboard the Steel Heart and at the ground airport probably didn’t even total a thousand.

A cold, pained sneer spread across Alzu’s face.

"...Enjoy the agony of having your guts spilled!"

"What a pity I can’t hear your wails."

...

At the same time Jia En led the remnants of the batwing people to board the deck, the Guards Corps led by Lu Bei had already engaged them in a firefight.

Although the Guards Corps was not primarily a combat unit, mainly responsible for intelligence gathering and the protection of Alliance Managers, the deployment on the airship was limited to three hundred, but like the players, they were all Awakeners with significant individual fighting capabilities.

In addition, the fight also involved the aircrew that accompanied the ship and some players who had been revived from save points.

Both sides were engaged in close combat around the 400mm main gun and the ammunition elevator, the situation on the battlefield was intense.

Sitting in the research ship on a mountain peak a hundred kilometers away, Yang Kai watched the screen and casually sipped his coffee, utterly calm.

Warfare was not his area of expertise, but instinct told him that the situation of the Alliance was clearly not optimistic at the moment.

However, those people couldn’t be blamed.

He himself had been startled when he first saw the flying mutants; he hadn’t expected the Torch Church to have this card up their sleeve, and to have so many of them!

It seems that Dr. Conclusion’s hypothesis had been confirmed once again.

Those blue-skinned mutants along the coastal regions of the Province of Yúnjiānxíng, with gills and scales, might just be the work of those charlatans.

However, thinking back, it seemed the Army had lost the Steel Heart in just this manner before, with McCullen ultimately forced to board the escape pod and flee with his tail between his legs.

History was repeating itself.

The Alliance, who had taken the Steel Heart in the guise of barbarians, were now having it snatched away in the same manner.

How ironic.

Yang Kai smiled, feeling the time was about right, and pressed on the holographic screen.

He accessed the communication channel left to him by that Alliance Manager, cleared his throat, and in a casual tone, he spoke.

"I hope I’m not disturbing you at this time. It’s clear you’ve done your best, and it’s unfortunate that I can’t be of much help with the situation on the battlefield. However, if you need to retreat, a heads-up to me would suffice. I can bring out a handful of people, maybe three or five, no problem."

Doctor Jie’s model included the possibility of the Alliance’s defeat, even though it was not highly probable.

If the worst outcome were to occur, according to the planned options, he needed to ensure the safety of the Alliance Managers first, then that child carrying the antibodies.

Yet what happened was beyond Yang Kai’s expectation.

Faced with the lifeline he had thrown out, what came back from the communication channel was an unromantically curt refusal.

"There’s no need for your trouble."

Yang Kai’s eyebrows lifted slightly as he rose from his chair.

"Are you sure? Now’s not the time to be playing tough."

A tone of undisguised mockery came through from the communication channel.

"Which eye of yours saw me being tough?"

As the voice fell, the call was cut.

Staring at the icon indicating a communication loss in the holographic window, Yang Kai clicked his tongue in annoyance and leaned back in his chair.

"Heh, seems like I was worrying for nothing."

At the same moment, two "Viper" transport planes burst out of the black clouds and flew above the deck of the Iron Heart.

Watching the monsters climbing onto the deck and the continuous flashing lights, Night Ten’s eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets.

"Holy shit... What the hell is that?!"

It was too dark to see exactly how many there were, but a glance was enough to tell that their numbers were several times their own.

The other players were also surprised to a certain extent.

However, it was merely surprise.

"Some kind of winged beast," Old White said succinctly after confirming the photos taken by the Goblin Corps on his VM. He turned off the screen, chambered the rifle that hung on his chest, and glanced around at his comrades in the cabin. "Get ready to go."

Completely undaunted by the dense swarm of Different Species, everyone in the cabin shouted with high morale.

"Ohh!!!"

The two Vipers descended straight toward the deck of the Iron Heart, jets emitting a ghostly blue glow, hovering over the northernmost side of the deck.

From a height of several meters, players in exoskeletons lined up at the edge of the cabin, one by one jumping out.

Jiang Xuezhou, leaning on her seat, was pale, her fingers around the safety belts turning blue with the strain.

Seeing that Night Ten was also planning to go down, she panicked and quickly spoke up.

"...Wait, you, you’re just going down like that?"

Night Ten grinned while holding the cabin door’s handle.

"Heh, it’s not my first time."

Seeing her face looking terrified, he continued teasingly.

"Just stay here, don’t think about coming down to help."

Without her "pet" by her side, she was a non-combatant. It would only cause trouble if she went down; better to stay on the plane.

But after this battle was over, he was definitely going to give her a hard time.

After all, she had boasted plenty before about how badass she was, yet she was scared like this before the fight had even started.

A Class D researcher.

No more than this!

A joke!

Jiang Xuezhou’s face was pale, unaware of the disparaging narrative unfolding in his mind.

Without his prompting, she had no intention of going down. Plus, she felt dizzy just looking at the height... Was this guy not scared at all?

"Can’t I just shoot from the plane?" She asked tentatively, feeling awkward to be the only one left on the plane, trying to persuade him to stay as well.

"Shoot from the plane?" Night Ten was momentarily dumbfounded, speaking with a strange look, "Are you joking? We’re in the sky, with such strong winds, how could you possibly hit anything—"

Before he could finish, a sense of impending crisis invaded his mind. However, he had no chance to react before a massive force hit the fuselage, sending the Viper spiraling out of control towards the edge of the deck.

"Ah—!"

Watching the world spin outside the cabin, Jiang Xuezhou, who was clamped tightly in her seat, screamed in terror, nearly passing out.

Night Ten was even worse off.

Having already stepped half out the cabin, he barely managed to not be thrown out by the sudden jolt, holding onto the handle by the door with his right hand and staying propped outside the plane by the brute force of his exoskeleton.

Perhaps nudged by the deflection shield, the spinning "Viper" looked like it would crash into the deck, but ultimately, it grazed past the edge.

"Fuck—!"

The pilot, gripping the joystick, exerted all his strength, nearly stomping the rudder through the floor, finally pulling the out-of-control plane back on course.

But at that moment, a creature with canine teeth in its mouth and sinewy muscles crashed its head through the open door.

The face looked as if it came from hell—

At the sight of its green, greasy eyes, Jiang Xuezhou felt a chill run down her spine, and the cold air pouring in from the door suddenly choked her breath and heartbeat.

"...Little Wang." Her lips trembled as she uttered these words, quickly remembering she had left it back in Brocade River City.

Despair crept over Jiang Xuezhou’s face.

But in that split second, a cold gleam flashed in the darkness, and a dagger flew from the other side of the cabin like a javelin, thudding into the creature’s forehead.

The dagger seemed to have hit its eye socket precisely. The creature let out a piercing scream, released its grip, and tumbled out of the cabin.

Jiang Xuezhou was momentarily stunned, her eyes filled with tears as she turned joyfully to where the dagger had come from.

He was still alive!

However, her joy came too soon. The roar of another creature crawling into the cabin instantly killed the fluttering hope in her heart.

"Why the hell didn’t you shoot?!!!"

——

(Thanks to the alliance head "Monster丿" for the reward!!!)

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