This Game Is Too Real -
Chapter 628: The Tide Returns!
Chapter 628: Chapter 628: The Tide Returns!
"Roar——!!"
In the city center of Qingquan City, desolate and dilapidated streets were shrouded in gray-green fog, presenting a desolate scene.
A monster covered in wounds was furiously struggling, yet the iron hand pressing down on its head, which was adorned with crimson fungus, remained immovable.
The crack in the center of the helmet emitted a creepy red light, resembling the pupil of a devil.
Out of fear and awe, those noisy bipedal creatures called it "Evolutionary body" or "Decaying Knight".
For the Lair, which controlled every mucosal cell in the city, this was just a trivial atom in the grand scheme of its existence, unnecessary to have its own name.
Xiya was the same.
However, unlike other mucosae, it had invested extra effort when creating Xiya.
The newly created body not only inherited the essence and nutrients It had accumulated over two hundred years on the path of evolution but also inherited its will.
At the same time, the entity known as Xiya bore more of Its hopes—
namely, to spread the footprint of the species to even more distant places.
To reach where Its tendrils had yet to touch!
The unfortunate "little guy" who had wandered into the territory was still struggling uselessly, roaring, trying to defy two centuries of evolutionary achievement with its sheer strength.
It quietly observed this uncivilized organic body, and unlike usual, did not command its tiny fraction to devour and assimilate it, but instead glanced down at Xiya standing in the middle of the broken street.
"Eat it."
Pheromones spread through intermingling spores.
Sensing the call from its mother, Xiya slowly nodded and then raised its limbs, which resembled crimson, muddy tendrils.
Those tendrils served as its arms.
The cilia at its tips gave off a silent call, sending invisible ripples throughout the sea of spores.
The gray-green color began to gather around the furry, bear-like beast, swirling around its body and becoming increasingly dense.
"Roar!!!"
A look of terror emerged on the monster’s face, and its struggles intensified; its thick, muscular fur convulsed like wriggling leeches, trying to break free from the hand pressing against its head.
Xiya simply watched it and then gently tightened its extended "hand."
The gray-green fog instantly dispersed several inches outward, and the monster’s chest suddenly expanded, its eyes bulging out.
It gasped desperately, but its body uncontrollably grew heavier and heavier, eventually losing all strength, even unable to resist the weight on its shoulder, and stopped resisting.
A wisp of gray fog drifted from the crack in the helmet, and the Decaying Knight released its grip on the monster’s head and stepped aside like a true knight.
"Very good."
Watching Xiya, who had now mastered its power, it revealed a content smile, and the spores throughout the city gently waved with a joyful frequency.
Its child had now fully mastered the ability to deprive its prey of breath; it would be stronger than its previous child.
It seemed already to see those weak organic beings, scattering in flight from the pursuit of the young assimilator.
Xiya stared at its extended tendrils—or rather, its arms and spoke after a moment.
"My body can’t breathe; I feel their wails."
Surrounding spores and the entities it controlled were part of its body, serving both as conduits and carriers of its consciousness.
Faced with its puzzled child, it softly said,
"Don’t worry, my child."
"Your enemies are the same, those weak flesh masses like the prey under your feet need constant breath to live. You can endure far more than they can, you are better suited to the land beneath your feet, and this world ultimately belongs to those who can adapt to it."
"Now, eat it."
Xiya slowly nodded, its skirt-shaped lower limbs wriggling forward, moving beside the unconscious monster.
The expanding skirt resembled a giant maw, its contour along the ground revealing a slit.
Countless crimson tendrils burst from the slit, piercing the monster like slender leeches, boring into its skin, sucking the blood and absorbing the remaining organic nutrients into its body.
The surrounding spores oscillated with a pleasurable frequency, the Decaying Knight lowered its head even more, the crimson light in its eyes glowing ever brighter.
In that moment—
the mucosal entities across the ruins all witnessed the "coronation" of a new king, rejoicing at its birth.
Except for one anomaly.
Feeling the bloodlust in the air, it involuntarily held its breath, not daring to make a "sound".
Fortunately, it did not rely on spores to communicate, so other mucosal Variants neither recognized nor sensed its presence.
Otherwise, there was no doubt that those guys would have done everything possible to nip this heresy in the bud...
"Wasteland OL" Official Website, the forum was bustling as always today.
And all of this was due to a freshly released server announcement.
[Server Announcement: "Tide Redux" expansion pack released!]
[Brief: Spring has arrived, and it’s breeding season for the animals, and the asexual "Mutated slime fungus" is no exception.
We once naively thought that the Lair was a mutation naturally formed from a hatchery when spore concentrations exceeded a threshold. However, more and more evidence shows the Lairs are born from a mother, hatched from an old Lair. The purpose of the new is not only to inherit the genes of the old Lair but also our combat experience. Combined with the effects of a warm winter, this wave might be fiercer than in previous years!
According to the Biological Institute’s forecast, the Tide is expected to hit around March 1st in-game time! Players, please be prepared!
This could be the most severe test since the server went live!]
[Activity Rewards: Completing event tasks and killing evolutionary bodies will grant Activity Points, which can be exchanged for limited equipment and titles, and a chance to participate in the final lottery! The prize pool is rich, not only containing mysterious props that even the planners don’t know about but also including valuable prizes like the DLZJ-1 "Xiaguang" power armor! Everyone is welcome to participate enthusiastically!]
Half a month later.
Wasteland OL, following the "Fire Extinguishing Operation," had launched another brand-new expansion pack.
This astonishing update speed truly shocked many players.
And just as Chu Guang had anticipated, the announcement immediately caused an 18th-level earthquake on the official website, and discussions about the new expansion pack quickly shot to the top of the hot topic list for players and backseat drivers.
"Holy shit! What about Beta0.6 version!"
"I remember during Alpha1.1 version the Tide was just a sub-project for server updates? Changed its skin and now it’s an expansion pack?!"
"This event feels too perfunctory!"
"Negative review! More excessive than Company P who copy MODs and CA who raised plasma prices!"
"Brother Guang, could you, my dad, give me a helmet, please! T.T"
"Two years, thirty thousand helmets, this output rate is just ridiculous, Ah Guang, can you even handle it?"
"I think it’s not Brother Guang’s fault. Could it be the cattle and horses in the factory slacking off? Come open a factory in our village! I’ll call the village chief to help you recruit people!"
"Better come here instead. I am the village chief, I’ll bring people to work for you for free!"
"I’ll make you work for free!"
"???"
"Holy crap, that’s a bit dark, bro!"
"Pass it on, someone wants to screw Brother Guang over."
"They’ve gone mad, all of them!"
"Trash! Is it worth fussing over a lousy helmet? I laugh, not even a dog would play!"
Chu Guang, sitting in the browsing room, went through the official website, chuckled silently, already accustomed to these guys’ banter.
But to speak the truth, the Alliance now had a population of a million, and this number was still growing. Compared to this, the speed of issuing 50 to 100 closed beta qualifications per day indeed seemed a bit insufficient to meet the development needs of the Alliance.
Adding up the already issued beta qualifications, he now only had thirty thousand accounts in his hands. Even if all were issued, players would still account for less than 3% of the total population.
Although this number might seem significant, when spread out over a series of matters across Alliance regions, it seemed quite insufficient.
Suddenly, Chu Guang felt like he was playing an SLG game involving dough-kneading. At times, there was a shortage of food but not manpower, and when food wasn’t lacking, manpower was. Once neither were lacking, land started to be the issue, and once there was enough land, it was back to lacking manpower.
"...If the Lair in the city center were solved, I wonder if it could unlock new floors."
Maybe then, new "activation codes" would be released?
Watching the "hungry for more" little seedlings on the holographic screen, a faint smile appeared on Chu Guang’s face.
Don’t worry.
Everyone will get their chance to be a leek!
Everything will come!
Just at that moment, Xiao Qi, who was sitting on the pen holder, suddenly raised her head and said in a pleasant voice.
"Master, your little players have arrived at the second ring of the city center!"
Chu Guang’s heart stirred, and he turned off the webpage on the holographic screen with his index finger.
"Switch the view to their side."
With a playful military salute, Xiao Qi said energetically.
"Received!"
...
At the same time as the official website announced the event, two "Viper" transport planes took off from the helipad in Dawn City. After a period of flying, they arrived at the edge of Qingquan City’s Second Ring Road and slowly hovered next to the rooftop of an abandoned skyscraper.
Several Eaters with drooping shoulders were spaced out on the rooftop, while a long-armed and long-legged Crawler lurked between an abandoned water tank and ventilation ducts, vigilantly watching the two flames approaching beside the tall building.
"Enemy units marked. A total of nineteen Eaters, one Crawler, no Evolutionary bodies or other high-threat targets discovered."
"Prepare to attack."
"Roger."
One Viper transport plane swung its nose around, aiming its side cabin’s machine gun at the rooftop, ready to provide fire support at any moment.
The other hovering "Viper" swiftly moved forward, directly flying above the rooftop, less than five meters away.
The Crawler crouching in the shadows hissed lowly, its robust limbs beginning to bend, ready to strike first.
However, what it didn’t know was that the players flying above had already seen it long ago.
Before it could gather enough strength to leap upwards, a large dark shadow descended from the sky, dragging a hot red streak and smashed straight toward it.
The Crawler hadn’t even realized what was happening when a blunt axe, unsharpened, thundered towards its face, followed by sparks that crisply split its body.
Without even a chance to scream, the unfortunate Crawler turned into a mushy mess on the ground, accompanied by the dull thud of feet landing.
A total of ten warriors clad in exoskeletons had completed their deployment, each pulling their bolt actions, readying their weapons, and raising their muzzles.
Noticing the commotion beside them, several Eaters raised their heads, their murky pupils gradually turning blood-red.
They shuffled their frost-stiffened legs, opened their rotten mouths, and emitted hiccup-like roars at the landing warriors.
"Eh—"
Flicking the black slime off his axe, Old White hung it on his power armor and neatly swung his hand forward.
"Open fire."
That casually uttered phrase had just fallen when thick tongues of flame transformed the fog-filled rooftop into daylight.
Amid a burst of gunfire, the nineteen Eaters on the rooftop, along with several more that had rushed up from the stairwell, were instantly turned into sieves.
As planned, the ten players quickly split into two teams.
One team swiftly searched every corner of the rooftop, ensuring no mucosal entities were left behind, while the other pushed forward to the stairwell entrance, slamming a metal plate slightly wider than the door into place, then yanked out the safety pin and punched the red button.
With the "bang" of explosions, numerous steel nails drove into the concrete wall, firmly embedding the metal plate at the door.
But that was not enough.
A few players then took out electric drills, rebar, and welding torches and doubly reinforced the wall-embedded door panel, inserting a layer of "well"-shaped steel bars on the outside.
The thump-thump of pounding on the steel plate came from behind, but the plate remained immovably lodged in place.
Forget dozens of Eaters, even a Tyrant couldn’t break through this now. Team B, who had successfully secured the stairway, had put down their weapons and turned off the safety, while Team A, having also completed their mission, spread out to four corners of the building’s edge to guard against any flying Variants that might come to harass.
Although they were deep in the territory occupied by the "mutated slime fungus," neither the players nor the NPCs showed overly tense expressions.
As the Alliance Biological Research Institute continued its in-depth investigations, the Alliance was increasingly mastering the secrets of the mutated slime funguses.
What used to be conclusions drawn purely from experience or even speculation now had more scientific and stringent theories to back them up.
Every mucosal entity in Qingquan City was connected to the lair’s consciousness, but this didn’t mean that the lair could monitor every single entity all the time, just as the managers of the Alliance couldn’t always keep an eye on every player―they could access VM or the official website’s records when necessary.
The mucosal lair operated similarly.
Threats that were sporadic and passively generated were mostly dealt with in sub-units like the "hatcheries," and only when unidentifiable organisms massively invaded the territory would the lair become directly alarmed.
Just like now.
The central city lair would only feel a few tiny flies landing on it, as usual, never suspecting that these few tiny flies were engaging in an activity that could threaten its very existence.
Looking at the neatly packed equipment and the personnel in protective suits inside the cabin, Jiang Xuezhou, who had nearly strapped himself to his seat with a safety belt, couldn’t contain his curiosity any longer and spoke.
"What are you guys doing?"
Seeing his clueless expression, Night Ten couldn’t help but smirk.
"You don’t understand. We plan to send a little Alliance shock to that big guy in the city center when the tide is at its peak... The shock is ready, we are now in the preparation phase."
Jiang Xuezhou was bewildered.
What is that?
Without further explanation, Night Ten glanced at her and continued.
"By the way, why did you come along? Aren’t you here to help us handle the Nago thing?"
Compared to the "self-limiting" lair, the uncontrollably expanding Nago was obviously more alarming to the Degenerate Empire up north.
Night Ten remembered clearly that Jiang Xuezhou and her face-concealing mentor were there to help them resolve issues related to Nago.
As for the lair in Qingquan City, that was not in their scope of work.
For Night Ten’s query, Jiang Xuezhou cleared his throat and spoke earnestly,
"According to our analysis of the samples, the gene pool of the Nago fungus has a high degree of DNA overlap with the ’Mutated slime fungus’ in Qingquan City. It can be fundamentally determined that this biological weapon is based on the ’Mutated slime fungus’ from Qingquan City... My mentor suspects that residents of Shelter No. 117 might have explored the ancient battlefield in the center of Qingquan City, where clues we need may exist. Rest assured, I have already discussed it with your manager, who has approved my participation as an accompanying research member in the related Tide operations."
From her observations, the residents of the Alliance had an unusual respect, even worship, for the manager, often bringing him up and wishing him a long life.
She wasn’t particularly interested in that person, but since she was on their turf, she still brought out some respect in the spirit of ’When in Rome, do as the Romans do’.
However, what she didn’t expect was that someone didn’t care about the latter half of her words but focused on a seemingly insignificant detail,
"Wait, did you say the residents of Shelter No. 117 might have gone to the city center?!" Night Ten stared at Jiang Xuezhou with a face that looked like he had discovered a new continent.
"I..."
Realizing she had misspoken, Jiang Xuezhou inwardly cursed, about to close her open mouth, but seeing Night Ten’s exaggerated expression, she quickly realized this issue might not be so easily fooled.
"I... I didn’t say that..." Out of guilt, she added in a low voice, "Don’t go spreading that around, okay?"
Night Ten chuckled, giving her a look that said "I get it."
"Rest assured, I understand, you never said it."
Good grief!
Another bunch of Contribution Points won!
He had just awoken on the Iron Heart when he received a mission in his task bar, which was to act as a bodyguard for a visiting Class D researcher from the Alliance and report all intelligence regarding the Academy he heard from her.
Based on the value of the intelligence, the Alliance would award him Contribution Points. Night Ten still remembered the envious, jealous, and hateful look from Fang Chang when he mentioned this in the group that day.
Seeing Night Ten obviously hadn’t understood, Jiang Xuezhou panicked.
"I really didn’t say that! Don’t go spreading it around, okay? If my mentor hears about it, I’m dead, really dead..."
Night Ten: "Don’t worry, our manager is very tight-lipped."
Jiang Xuezhou: "???"
In the minute it took for their few exchanges, the battle on the skyscraper rooftop had ended.
Old White, standing next to the Crawler’s corpse, lightly tapped the side of his tactical helmet, switching to the command channel.
"The landing area is secured, ready for deployment."
A rustling sound came from the communication channel followed by a crisp response,
"Received."
As the words fell, two "Viper" transport planes descended one after the other onto the skyscraper rooftop, the hot plasma streams blowing away the thick snow and dust.
Once the aircraft stabilized, twelve personnel wearing protective suits, gas masks, and carrying oxygen tubes also landed on the rooftop.
Also deployed with them was a communication radio, an air quality testing device, and disassembled parachutes, among other equipment.
The Alliance Biological Research Institute would calculate the approximate location of the lair in the city center based on the spore concentration during the Tide and the movement patterns of the mucosal entities.
As long as they could get approximate coordinates, the Alliance could directly deploy ground forces, and under the cover fire of "Dragon" missiles and 400mm ship guns, perform a surgical-like precise strike on the lair in the city center!
Even if that creature hid in a nuclear crater or bunker, capable of withstanding conventional bombing, it definitely couldn’t withstand a sudden confrontation from the Burning Corps.
The Alliance would take advantage of this violent Tide to once and for all end the threat that had troubled Qingquan City for two eras.
Old White was filled with confidence in this.
Even if this year’s Tide was different from previous years, it didn’t matter, as the Alliance was no longer the same as before.
The survivors of Qingquan City no longer fought alone nor needed to face the threat of the Tide by themselves anymore. The survivors from the Falling Leaves Province provided a constant supply of food, while those from Dawn City supplied weapons and steel.
Not only the NPCs had united.
The scale and quality of the players were incomparable to the early versions.
If he remembered correctly, the manager was barely level twenty back then.
Now, the average level of the entire Burning Corps had surpassed this number, and he himself had reached LV43.
In terms of strength alone, among all the players on the server, perhaps only his ridiculously strong brother could arm-wrestle with him.
As for the combat experience beyond attributes,
they were all veterans who had been through countless battles.
"Bring it on."
Looking at the mysterious, shifting gray-green fog in the distance, he felt the fighting spirit within him burning like flames, his lips unknowingly curling into a slight grin.
"Let’s see what Ah Guang has prepared for us this time!"
—
(Thanks to the alliance leader "城府还是城府" for the reward!!!)
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