This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 632: Never Seen Such an Absurd Tactic

Chapter 632: Chapter 632: Never Seen Such an Absurd Tactic

Afternoon sunlight bathed the tranquil Zone 06, and today was another clear day, as always.

Patrolling the position, Li Shudong tightened the oxygen tank on his back and glanced at the grey sky overhead, thinking that it would be great to have a rain shower.

Although it wouldn’t disperse the suffocating musty smell, at least it would make the air look cleaner.

He was a soldier of the First Army Corps, having enlisted just before the year’s end.

Even though the day of the Tide’s outbreak was drawing closer, he wasn’t very fearful, but rather felt a trace of anticipation.

He had heard that after the Tide, the First Army Corps would be restructured into the Alliance First Army, divided according to the organization of the Human Alliance Era. If he could earn a merit in this battle, perhaps he could become a squad leader or a platoon leader.

Fighting against the brainless Variants had to be somewhat easier than fighting the Weilante People.

At least that was the theory.

As he pondered this, a long, drawn-out "beep—" sound suddenly came from behind his head.

He instinctively turned around, only to catch sight of a large loudspeaker sticking out from a window on a nearby building wall.

To be precise, it wasn’t one, but a series of them.

Dozens of loudspeakers, large and small, were dotted on the wall like ivy, directly facing the direction of the city center.

While he was puzzled about what was happening, the series of loudspeakers seemed to have completed a sound check and finally started to speak.

The clear sounds of Human Alliance language floated from the string of loudspeakers, apparently broadcasting Survivor’s Daily?

Li Shudong wasn’t the only one taken aback; Wang Dashan standing nearby was also startled.

"...Why are they suddenly broadcasting the news?"

"I don’t know..."

Usually, they played the news in the canteen at meal times; broadcasting at the front line was a first.

"What are they up to?"

"Maybe the logistics department mixed up the wires."

"Who will go ask?"

A group of soldiers exchanged glances as they communicated.

At this time, their captain walked over and coughed.

"Get back to your positions, stop chattering here."

Seeing the captain come over, Li Shudong promptly saluted.

"Report! There seems to be a problem with the broadcast on the position!"

As if anticipating that someone would bring this up, the captain said succinctly.

"Relax, there’s no problem with that broadcast. It’s a new tactic developed by the refuge for the Tide; the higher-ups specifically explained it to us in the meeting yesterday. Let them broadcast."

The operation’s code name was "bodyguard," and the code name for that building and the radio station was the same.

According to the judgement of the Army Command, this year’s Tide could very likely attack from an unexpected direction, and the originally designed defense line might be bypassed.

To regain control of the Battlefield, they needed to use the Mother Entity’s misunderstanding of humans and create a falsified weak point in the middle of the left defense as bait.

Although he wasn’t quite sure how a few loudspeakers could serve as bait, it was an idea from the Residents of the refuge, which he trusted.

If the plan went well, the main force of the Mucosal Entity would be drawn to Defense Line No.6, and the Alliance could then concentrate forces to strike hard at the Tide that had penetrated deep into our territory.

Several soldiers glanced at each other with baffled expressions, even the old soldiers from the Luo Xia Province Battlefield showed a naïve face.

A new... tactic?

What kind of tactic was that?

...

The news from Survivor’s Daily had been broadcast for half an hour, the newspaper had been read for another half hour, but soon there was nothing more to air.

Standing beside the radio station, the insufficiently prepared group of players began to worry.

Looking back at the crowd behind them, Falling Feather scratched the back of his head.

"What... should we broadcast next?"

Everyone looked at one another, and Discourage suggested.

"Weather forecast?"

WC’s real Mosquito Brother rolled his eyes.

"We don’t even have meteorological satellites; what is there to predict... Speaking of which, should we loop the broadcast?"

Fang Chang shook his head.

"It’s better not to. If it’s in Human Alliance language, it can easily give away flaws... sheesh, I almost forgot, we can broadcast stuff from the Real World!"

Old White scratched the back of his head and suggested, "Then... broadcast the news from the Real World?"

Falling Feather’s eyes lit up.

"That’s a good idea."

Fang Chang cleared his throat gently.

"Open your minds a little, it doesn’t have to be news. You can play crosstalk, comedy sketches, music... as long as it’s content that Xiya can’t parse and can’t find a pattern in."

Mole scratched his head, feeling that this plan didn’t seem too reliable, yet couldn’t think of a better idea.

"And then it will treat this place as our Lair? It seems a bit too simple..."

Fang Chang shook his head.

"Just this alone of course isn’t enough; we need to adjust troop deployments when the BGM sounds, or launch feints outside the defense line... these aren’t actually hard. All we need to do is convince it that it has found a pattern, then our operation is a success."

This last statement was finally understood, and Edge Shoveling smiled, picking up the rifle that was set aside.

"Got it, leave the feint to us, Death Legion!"

Mosquito laughed too.

"I’ll handle the singing! I’m good at this work!"

Seeing the guy showing off, Falling Feather couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

"Stop bullshitting, your duck voice better not scare away our allies."

Night Ten: "Hahaha!"

The room was filled with joviality, even the usually expressionless Wild Wind couldn’t help but curl up the corners of her mouth, only Mosquito looked displeased at being made fun of.

"Cut it out, you’re just jealous of my heavenly voice. Today, I must show off my skill!"

After speaking, Mosquito snatched the microphone that had been lying on the radio, Falling Feather didn’t stop him, instead, she smiled and switched the radio from recording to live broadcasting.

"Eh?"

"It’s alright, Xiaoyu, if this guy wants to show off, let’s let him show off!"

There was silence for a moment.

Everyone was waiting for Brother Mosquito to begin.

After brewing his emotions for a short while, Mosquito coughed and cleared his throat vigorously.

"Cough, cough!"

His emotions were all set, ready to start singing.

However, an awkward moment happened.

Even though he had decided to show off, he had no idea what to sing.

But he already had the microphone in hand, and everyone’s eyes were on him. If he didn’t sing something, he wouldn’t be able to leave the stage with dignity.

Facing the quiet room, Mosquito looked embarrassed, digging his toes into the floor.

It wasn’t until then that he remembered the radio wasn’t just broadcasting to a dozen people, but to hundreds of thousands.

With the power of the speakers outside, probably everyone in Giant Stone City could hear his cough!

It didn’t matter what the NPCs thought.

But what was crucial was that some bastard would definitely record his singing and put it on the internet.

If his cover was blown, how would he brag afterward?

Sweat broke out on his forehead in his anxiety.

Just then, an idea suddenly dawned on him, and he had a plan.

What to do about an awkward situation?

Just play something even more awkward!

"Next, I’m bringing everyone a hit song from my favorite singer!"

Taking a deep breath, the man who opened his mouth begin as if he was a skilled carpenter lifting a saw off a violin.

"Just because—"

He hadn’t even fully started singing, having just spat out two words, when he was taken down and the microphone snatched away by the people around him.

"That’s enough, I believe you can sing!"

"Let it go, Mosquito! Brother Mosquito!"

"I’m begging you, please don’t sing!"

As he watched several Strength Types snatch the microphone from him and escort him out the door, Mosquito kept howling.

"Let me go! I can still sing! Let me finish—ahh!"

Watching the figure disappear outside the door, Fang Chang silently withdrew his gaze, clearing his throat softly.

"...Let’s just play some more regular music instead."

Falling Feather nodded in agreement.

"+1."

...

After a whole afternoon of messing around, the radio operation codenamed "bodyguard" finally got back on track.

Actually, to call it a battlefield radio was a stretch; in reality, it had become a song request station for the goofy players.

The request process was simple.

Leave a message in the corresponding thread on the official website, and you could stuff the song you liked into the playlist.

Logging into the official website was convenient now, with no need to go offline, as long as you were within the VM’s signal coverage. Syncing data from the real world to the Game wasn’t difficult either, a VM could handle that too.

At first, the songs played on the radio were relatively normal.

There were songs liked by Kids like "The Lone Brave One" and "Against the War," favorites of uncles and aunts.

And some trending BGMs from a certain music app, like "Berlin Antiair Tower" or "Playing with Mud in the Northeast."

But after two days, the popular songs had been played once, and everyone was almost tired of them, really unable to come up with anything new.

Aside from Fang Chang, Brother Quanshui, and a few other high-level players who were still playing their parts seriously, most players had almost forgotten what this bodyguard operation was actually about.

So, some players looking to stir things up popped in and stuffed some weird stuff into the playlist.

Like "Rainbow Ponies."

Or "I Got Smoke," and stuff like that.

One second the radio is going "Neigh, neigh," and the next second it switches to Rick V.

Players hunched over their machine guns were laughing so hard they ran out of breath, and Edge Shoveling, who was about to go on patrol following the music rhythm, barely kept a straight face.

The NPCs, however, were enjoying it, mainly because they didn’t understand the lyrics; they just felt it had a good rhythm, and even hummed along with it.

Three days into the "bodyguard" operation, the deception tactic didn’t seem to be showing any results yet.

However, this battlefield radio named "bodyguard" had been completely played out.

Not just Fang Chang, Old White, Quanshui, Mole, and other old-timers could hardly keep it together, even Chu Guang was sporting a full head of black lines.

His character in the game was an NPC, and although it was claimed to be a nearly realistic artificial intelligence, if it could understand the real world’s internet memes as well, the "reality" of it would be a bit far-fetched.

It’s not rare for real people to pretend to be AI and interact with players in some games that hawk grabbing newbies as a selling point, but the players mistaking themselves for the dog planner Ah Guang was ultimately a matter that seriously affected immersion.

These past few days, he felt too embarrassed to show his face in front of the players, fearing he wouldn’t perform well and would suddenly break out in laughter.

Just when Chu Guang and a group of high-level players were gradually losing faith in the "bodyguard" operation, those covetous eyes lurking outside the defense zone finally began to stir...

...

In the depths of the pitch-black underground tunnel, within the scarlet palace covered with fungal carpet, Xiya, who stood in the center of the fungal carpet, opened her abstract eyes.

"I have found their lair."

The spores floating around it slowly pulsated, conveying this message to the mother that enveloped it.

However, the response it received was unexpectedly intense, like hearing something unbelievable.

"Their lair?! Those organic beings have no lair; they’re just a bunch of dirty, ugly, and confused individuals!"

Xiya pondered for a moment and conveyed her view with certainty.

"No, they do. Remember the prey I captured last time? They were hollow shells, all three of them, their heads like a blank slate."

Hearing this, the lair fell into a brief silence, not directly refuting.

It contradicted the knowledge they had, yet it wasn’t entirely impossible.

After all, a similar situation had occurred once before.

And it was during the last Tide!

The humans that suddenly appeared in the north and those living inside the walls didn’t seem to be the same, their bodies harboring many peculiarities never seen before.

It knew these humans were attempting to study it, even building a huge wall for that purpose, thriving over countless generations upon these ruins...

A trace of vigilance appeared in its emotions.

It didn’t know how far human research had progressed, but if they too had evolved a unified consciousness entity, it was undoubtedly a significant threat to it.

Seeing the mother did not reply, Xiya continued to convey her findings with certainty.

"Something is controlling their emotions, and I sensed its existence. Whenever it speaks, its offspring feel heartfelt pleasure... I believe that is their lair and its voice, their spores."

It was all too familiar with that feeling.

It was just like when it stayed beside its mother!

"...If we can assimilate their lair, analyze it, understand it, even become it... then we can control everything about them and use their experiences for ourselves."

The frailty of human bodies is undoubtable, except for the few individuals possessing extraordinary strength, most needed to use tools to empower themselves.

Yet, that’s precisely what made them unusual.

It could employ their tools; it had mastered this ability a long time ago.

However, to produce those tools as incessantly as humans was beyond its ability.

Occupying the entire planet was just a matter of time; however, to spread seeds to even farther worlds, it needed to do more than just digest them—it had to thoroughly digest their knowledge, and even their underlying thoughts and culture.

After a long contemplation, it slowly spoke.

"You are the smartest of all my children, and perhaps this is a remarkable discovery."

At the very least, it was worth a try.

Having received the mother’s affirmation, Xiya felt joyful, and the tentacles beneath her skirt swayed cheerfully.

"I have a better idea than the previous plan to bypass them; it’s more perfect."

"The people inside the walls and those from the north have united. If we simply apply pressure to that wall, tying up the northern humans’ strength—"

"And then, if we launch a surprise attack, we can completely take over their lair!"

...

Outside Giant Stone City.

At the position near the eastern third ring, Joey, dressed in power armor, was staring intently at the projection in his helmet’s visor.

According to the images taken by drones, millions of offspring were emerging from subway entrances and ruins of buildings between the second and third ring roads, consciously flooding towards Giant Stone City.

Watching that surging Tide, deep seriousness was etched between Joey’s brows.

His adjutant beside him had an ashen face, swallowing nervously.

"Damn it... how can there be so many?"

After the concentration of spores in the air surpassed the critical threshold, the annual Tide ultimately erupted.

Only, the number and quality were entirely beyond the expectations of the Militia Group’s officers.

According to past experiences, to see a million visible offspring meant that there might be more than ten times that in action!

What was more concerning was not merely the quantity.

Apart from the Cannon Fodder Eaters, there were also a significant number of Butchers and Tyrants—offspring with formidable individual combat power—and a few extremely dangerous Evolutionary bodies.

Including giant beasts three stories tall.

Including flying variants flapping their wings.

The species of these monstrosities were diverse, each one looking ferociously intimidating.

It seemed they had completely forgotten the City of Dawn further north and all swarmed toward Giant Stone City.

Upon noticing the mucosal entity’s deliberate gathering, Joey had not hesitated to mobilize five thousand-team units of the Militia Group and had sent 5000 men from the Punishment camp to the front lines.

At the same time, he ordered the idle P-2 "Lightning" attack aircraft on the tarmac to take off immediately and begin the first aerial strike on the main road’s Tide.

Two ion plumes streamed from the smoke-filled sky, dropping two dark shapes towards the densely packed district of offspring.

Orange-red flames rose to the sky, engulfing swathes of Eaters.

But something strange happened.

The flames that were supposed to be raging were as if doused by a bucket of cold water. After devouring half a street of Eaters, the fire did not spread but instead became weaker, eventually leaving a ground full of partially burned corpses and viscous, oily substance.

Without completely burning these nutrients, the mucous fungus would soon reuse them.

On the surface, they were fighting those mucous fungi, but essentially they were combatting the nutrients dominated by the Lair.

The slime mold would continuously recover organic matter from the battlefield and bring it back to the incubation rooms, where it was transformed back into combat units at a certain ratio.

And this was also the aspect of the Tide that people found the most troublesome.

Joey furrowed his brow.

It seemed the Alliance Biological Research Institute’s analysis was correct; the new round of the Tide’s spore clouds could effectively obstruct the combustion of conventional fuel.

Through the lens of a drone, he could clearly see that the moment the flames ignited, the gray-green mist surged towards the fire as if endowed with its own consciousness.

The Tide, having suffered an aerial strike, paused only briefly before continuing its formidable advance towards Giant Stone City.

Some Eaters pounced on the charred corpses and formed a circle on the ground, hungrily consuming them, wasting not a scrap of nutrients.

Of course, those noble evolutionary bodies looked down upon these emaciated wretches, coldly sneering as they looked at the fiery sky above.

They seemed to know where the attack came from and that someone must be watching them from there.

But it didn’t matter—

Under Its will, all resistance was futile!

All carbon-based life forms would become the nourishment that spurred their own prosperity!

The Tide’s vanguard was only 1 kilometer from the defense lines of Giant Stone City.

At this rate, within an hour at most, the first line of defense of the Punishment Camp would collide with the slime molds.

The aide standing next to Joey clenched his fist and finally couldn’t help but speak up.

"We have no choice but to use nuclear weapons!"

It wasn’t that he was concerned for those criminals; he didn’t care at all about the fate of that trash.

He simply didn’t believe that the bunch of bullies—afraid of the hard and quick to attack the weak—could stop the surging Tide with just a few machine guns and rifles without the support of incendiary rounds.

Joey had not spoken yet when a staff member of the Militia Group interrupted the aide.

"That’s out of the question! Radioactive substances will accelerate the evolution of the slime mold! Our previous tests confirmed that using nuclear weapons on the Tide just makes the next year’s Tide even more fierce!"

The aide clenched his fists tightly, unable to help himself from saying,

"If incendiary bombs don’t work and nuclear weapons can’t be used... are you expecting those 5,000 Cannon Fodder, along with conventional artillery, to clear out all that trash?"

Joey said with a grave expression,

"I’ve already requested reinforcements from the Alliance Army Command, and they’ve promised to allocate more manpower to help us."

The aide frowned,

"It’s strange, though. Why hasn’t the Alliance been attacked? Is it just us targeted by the Tide? Could it be that the Alliance Biological Research Institute has found some way to make the Tide ignore them—"

His words were cut off by an angry retort.

"Shut up!"

Joey grabbed the aide’s collar, staring into his eyes and said slowly and deliberately,

"What I need from you is professional advice, not baseless talk! No one can escape the Tide unless it’s eradicated. I’ve seen that man; maybe I don’t know him well enough, but I can assure you, he’s not the fool you suggest!"

The aide nodded timidly,

"Understood..."

"If you understand, then get moving!" Joey released the grip on his collar, "The front lines need heavy equipment, I need you to immediately requisition another batch of heavy machine guns and mortars from the stock and send them over!"

The aide took a deep breath to regain his composure and stood at attention, saluting.

"Yes, sir!"

...

The news that Giant Stone City was under attack quickly spread to the Alliance’s posts.

Fang Chang, who was still guarding the radio station, frowned at the various lines on the map, his previously firm belief starting to waver.

"Has the plan failed?"

"No... the exact opposite!"

Clasping his fists on top of the map, Brother Quanshui, who stood next to him, was excited and spirited, offering a completely opposite perspective.

In fact, his view was the antithesis.

If a few minutes earlier, he still had doubts about the details of the "bodyguard" plan, now he was almost certain: their plan had succeeded!

That Xiya was a bit calculating!

It was just that such a level of planning was still too "naive," so much so that it seemed rather conspicuous.

If it were up to him, he would have diverted a fifth or a quarter of the forces to pressure the Alliance side, patiently replaying last year’s scenario.

And its current approach was tantamount to telling them: I’ve noticed you, but I’m pretending I haven’t seen you.

It was clear!

The attack on the Giant Stone City was just a feint; the main force of the Tide was probably lurking beneath the dense fog in the "North Suburb," ready to attack at any moment.

By now, Fang Chang had also snapped back to reality. After a moment of stunned silence, his serious expression gradually relaxed into a smile,

"I see."

The old soldier.

The entity had actually started to play their game.

This was unexpected for him.

Just as Fang Chang snapped back to attention, Brother Quanshui had already grabbed the walkie-talkie on the table.

"Our enemy has taken the bait! Edge, take your brothers and immediately head towards the East District of Clear Spring City... but don’t move too quickly, be ready to turn back at any moment! Wait for my message!"

Soon, the reply from Edge Shoveling came through the communication channel,

"Received!"

After hanging up on Mosquito Brother, Brother Quanshui then switched the communication to the front line of Zone 06, shouting enthusiastically,

"Notify the brothers on the position to be vigilant!"

"The prey is stirring, a tough fight is about to begin!"