This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 693: It is impolite not to reciprocate

Chapter 693: Chapter 693: It is impolite not to reciprocate

"Charge! Shove the barrels of your guns up their nostrils! There aren’t even enough of them to make up a hundred team. Crush them with your steel-like will!"

As the order for fire was given under the Killer Dagger, Centurion Di Rang roared out the assault command. In an instant, gunfire erupted on the beach, boiling bullets pouring down like rain into the forest.

He felt that there couldn’t be too many Blue Ground Squirrels hiding in the woods—just a dozen or twenty.

Otherwise, they wouldn’t have feigned relationship cutting with the blue-skinned folks in the sea and posed as if to rescue themselves. They would have simply shown their weapons and finished the job.

That’s certainly what he would have done!

Although most of his troops were exhausted and demoralized, now was the perfect moment to crush the enemy Alliance!

Once the sea creatures caught up and formed a pincer attack with the shore-based Blue Ground Squirrels, they would have no chance of victory!

For this reason, Di Rang shouted indiscriminately, urging his soldiers to charge forward.

However, what he did not expect was that the gunfire erupting from the woods far exceeded his expectations.

Tracers flew like rain toward the beach, and the kicked-up dust and debris formed an impenetrable wall, pinning down all soldiers trying to rush into the forest on the sand, immobile, no matter how much he yelled to push them forward.

The bullets whistled through the air as if they cost nothing, completely dumbfounding the soldiers from the Empire lying on the beach.

Even more deadly were not those whistling bullets; they felt their rifles in their hands were as ineffective as mere fire-sticks against those encased from head to toe in Exoskeleton armor.

Were these guys really part of that Alliance formed less than three years ago?!

Why did they look nothing like what was portrayed in the propaganda posters...

...

About six or seven hundred meters away from the battlefield, on another part of the beach.

Meat Meat stood on a rock, holding binoculars and stared dumbfounded at the distant beach riddled with the sounds of gunfire, before muttering in astonishment.

"Have they gone mad?"

She clearly saw it was a group of blue-skinned mutants with fish scales that had pinned down those guys’ ships. Why were they attacking those trying to help them on the shore?

"Well, maybe, maybe they came specifically for us, but just happened to run into a little accident..."

Comparing the shoreline’s contour, Si Si casually set a coordinate on the VM while speaking.

Pulling her eyes away from the binoculars, Meat Meat looked at her with a puzzled expression, her fluffy face filled with incomprehension.

"...They came for us?"

Si Si nodded and said succinctly.

"How could a normal cargo ship carry so many soldiers? Aren’t they supposed to carry cargo? I can only assume their intentions are not purely what they seem."

It has to be said, these guys really picked the right time, clashing right with the mutant corps sent by the Torch Church in the sea, feeding them ahead of time.

Tail, holding the binoculars, suddenly exclaimed excitedly.

"Whoa! The sound of the Ripper Rifle! Could it be friends from the Army?!"

Si Si spoke with a slight nuance.

"...I don’t know, but I guess not. I feel the people of Weilante wouldn’t be this incompetent and they should have no reason to pick a fight with us. However, the West Winds Empire might."

Standing aside, Sesame Paste curiously glanced at the VM on her arm.

"What were you writing just now on VM?"

Si Si replied, "That, ah, was the bombardment coordinates..."

Meat Meat asked curiously.

"Is that even necessary?"

As they talked, the battle ashore had already ended.

Facing machine gun fire and grenade bursts from the jungle, the couple hundred scattered troops lying on the beach were completely overmatched and couldn’t lift their heads.

After all, they were not amphibious troops, and many of them couldn’t even swim, having barely made it ashore by dinghies and tubs.

Furthermore, the Ripper Rifles, not designed for amphibious operations, had soaked in water and rolled on the damp sand, causing the malfunction rate to skyrocket.

The soldiers had no choice but to clear their chambers while firing, unable to return fire against the automatic weapons of the Alliance.

Initially, they mustered a bit of combat courage from who knows where, but in less than five minutes, that feigned bravery vanished without a trace.

Many even stripped off their seawater-drenched trousers on the spot, waving them above their heads with rifle barrels and bayonets to plead for a ceasefire, completely losing their earlier fierce demeanor.

Honestly, they seemed more like they had come here to joke around rather than to pick a fight.

Si Si raised her binoculars for a quick glance into the distance.

"... it’s delayed firepower, not meant for them. The people in the water are almost gone; those scaly creatures should be coming ashore now."

...

On the other side, at the very front line of the firefight.

Watching the underwear rising from the distant beach, Fool Turtle released the trigger of the machine gun and shouted towards the nearby captain.

"Boss, they’ve surrendered!"

Centurion Di Rang glanced for a moment towards the distant beach and lowered his rifle, giving a glance to the nearby Strength Type beast.

"Go yell at them, tell them our cannons are aimed at their position. If they don’t want to be blasted by 155mm shells, they should throw their equipment on the beach and come over here with their hands up!"

The Strength Type beast nodded, said "you got it," and excitedly ran forward. Following the translated sentence from the VM, he shouted across the beach a hundred meters away.

"Everyone ahead, listen up! You are surrounded by us!"

"If you don’t want to get blasted, drop your weapons and ammunition immediately and come with your hands over your heads!"

"Otherwise, we’ll treat you as accomplices of the mutants and blast you together!"

Hearing this, the soldiers on the beach panicked instantly, but even then, no one dared to climb out of their cover.

Partly they feared the Alliance might be deceiving them, and partly they feared execution by their own side.

Just then, a shell "whooshed" and landed on the beach, the blast flinging dust and dirt ten meters into the air, leaving a shockingly deep crater on the ground.

It was a calibration shot from the Alliance artillery, not an actual barrage.

Nonetheless, the thunderous blast still terrified the group sprawled on the beach, unable to hold back their fear any longer. They discarded their weapons and packs and, with hands raised, desperately sprinted towards the rainforest ahead.

"Come back! Damn it! You cowardly wretches! A disgrace to the Wolf Tribe!"

Centurion Di Rang glared fiercely at the soldiers discarding their helmets and running towards the enemy’s position, his eyes bloodshot with rage.

These useless animals!

There were only twenty or thirty people on the opposite side—so what if they had exoskeletons? Even if they had power armor, getting shot enough would still render them inoperative!

If only they had been a bit braver, grabbed their weapons and charged instead of scurrying away like rats, they would have already captured the enemy’s position!

The guard, shivering beside him, looked at the officer.

"Sir, those cowards have betrayed us."

"We don’t have anyone left to use, should we continue fighting those guys?"

They were not afraid of death.

But this could hardly be called war.

Everyone they encountered along the way had told them that the Blue Ground Squirrels were nothing but brute force pretending to be strong, chased all the way to River Valley Province by a branch of the Army and barely surviving under the protection of corporations and the biased intervention of the Academy.

However, the figures standing before them now were clearly not those kinds of creatures; they were even more terrifying than the Vellante People whose veins seemingly flowed with gunpowder.

Seeing his guards’ faces filled with panic, Centurion Di Rang knew these cowards were backing out. Mud-smeared anger filled his face, and his teeth gnashed.

He was an officer knighted by the Emperor himself, his valor was the pride of the Grey Wolf Army!

Surrender?

He would rather die here!

But just then, he caught a glimpse in the corner of his eye of those eerie blue shadows surging toward the shoreline, sending a bone-chilling coldness crawling up his spine.

Watching his own soldiers held underwater by those creatures, guts spilled and organs extracted and devoured alive.

If he had a choice, he would rather be executed by Alliance artillery than be caught by these beings.

"Meaningless sacrifices are not loyalty, the Wolf God will forgive us our momentary humiliation." he gritted out the words.

Hearing this, the guards finally sighed in relief, dropping their weapons and helping the officer out of their cover, limping toward the front-line forest.

Everyone felt fortunate that the officer had agreed...

Otherwise, they would have had to drag him there.

Seeing their own officer surrender, the few remaining Imperial soldiers who were still resisting also gave up, dropping their weapons and stepping out from cover.

A group of prisoners was quickly rounded up, herded by three players wielding guns to the edge of the battlefield.

Over a hundred people, hands on their heads, squatted in a row in the forest; officers and soldiers alike, all looking dirt-covered and disheveled.

What remained of the normally full-strength thousand team couldn’t even be cobbled together into one platoon, a sight miserably pitiful to behold.

Watching this group of pathetic figures, Fool Turtle, a straw mount on his head, couldn’t help cursing.

"Damn, winning over these guys doesn’t even feel like an achievement."

The player named Squirtle shook his head.

"Too weak."

Finding it boring anyway, Genie Turtle slung the LD-47 rifle across his chest and walked in front of the prisoners, striking a guard’s pose.

Glancing at that annoying-looking guy, Fool Turtle asked.

"What are you doing?"

Genie Turtle urged, chuckling.

"Don’t waste time, get one for your daddy, make sure I look handsome."

"Damn, are you serious?"

Although he complained, Fool Turtle still activated the screenshot feature of his tactical helmet and took a close-up shot of the man.

Looking at the photo transferred to his vm, Genie Turtle liked it more and more and laughed out loud.

"It doesn’t matter if you think it’s pointless; I think it’s fun!"

The three of them captured a hundred-strong team,

and he couldn’t wait to show off on the Forum when they got back!

Seeing this, Squirtle, also starved for attention, couldn’t resist approaching and striking a pose.

"Damn it, take one of me too!"

Centurion Di Rang, somewhat understanding what these guys were up to, felt veins popping on his forehead but was powerless to intervene, humiliatingly turning his head aside, swallowing his frustration.

At this moment, he didn’t know that, due to his rather photogenic frustration, the photographer also took a close-up of his face.

Even if it wouldn’t make the front page of the Survivor’s Daily, hitting the front page of the Goblin Observation Report wasn’t a problem at all.

On another note, the blue-skinned mutants, satiated from their hunt in the sea, rode the bloodlust that the carnage incited to the shore, pursuing into the direction of the jungle.

They had seen these prey escape into the forest, and, far from satiated, they would not allow their quarry to slip away.

At this moment, Kill dagger and his teammates finally put on serious faces.

They weren’t about to take these guys lightly just because their gear looked shabby.

Mutant technology alone was a singularity-level existence, the baseline surpassing the limits of normal humans.

As bio-soldiers, they possessed immense vitality and toughness, essentially making them living weapons, rendering the crudeness of their armaments irrelevant.

Even if they wielded only tree branches, no one dared to underestimate them.

"Fire!" came the command from Kill dagger, and over thirty gun barrels simultaneously spewed flames.

As the barrage of bullets struck, the chest of a mutant at the forefront burst into a cloud of blood mist, but it did not stop its frenzied sprint.

Several mutants with perforated skulls collapsed onto the beach, quickly overwhelmed by a tide of incoming mutants from the sea.

Seeing the ever-increasing swarm of mutants, Kill dagger felt a shiver run through his scalp.

Just then, a deafening cannonade tore through the rustling jungle, the speeding cannonballs falling like raindrops on the beach in front of him.

"Boom—!"

The explosion sent a cloud of dust skyward, and the leading blue-skinned mutants went down en masse, limbs and shattered rock flying through the air.

"Beautiful!"

Watching the brutal scene, the players cheered excitedly, whistling in appreciation for the gunners who hit their marks spot on.

Also witnessing the barrage of cannon fire, the cowering soldiers of the West Winds Empire lost all color in their faces, and the area fell eerily silent.

At that moment, they were just grateful they hadn’t stayed on the beach to die.

At this moment, looking back at the officer who had goaded them to march to their deaths, their hearts harbored only hatred, devoid of any desire for the nonexistent spoils and honor...

The blue-skinned mutants, having just endured a round of shelling, clearly showed signs of stalling in their advance.

Many not directly swept away by the artillery were stunned by the deafening blasts.

Just then, a second round of shelling quickly followed.

However, this round did not cause much direct casualties nor did it ignite the kind of destructive fire from before, instead, palm-sized discs rained like droplets onto the beach freshly washed over by seawater.

This was the latest artillery-fired mine developed by Goblin Technology, launched through 155mm cannons.

In fact, aside from unreliable brainstorms, Mosquito occasionally came up with some useful items, given realistic examples to reference.

At this very moment, the mutants heading for the shore were unaware that their retreat had been completely cut off by a dense minefield.

And right after the two rounds of shelling, the squad of thirty led by Killer Dagger received the order to retreat, taking over a hundred prisoners northward, pushing the group of mutants into the rainforest.

Before the mutants could celebrate breaking through the defensive line, gunshots from all sides quickly solidified the ugly smiles on their faces.

Unbeknownst to them, two hundred-strong teams had already flanked them on both sides, like a red-hot iron vise ferociously squeezing at their critical points.

Now leading the assault was the Alliance’s elite—the Jungle Corps!

The mutants under concentrated fire definitely felt the pressure on them more than double; the reinforcements—human soldiers—showed firepower and accuracy far superior to the thirty or so people who had previously merely tickled them.

They were now not only being targeted by 7mm pipes but also by 19mm armor-piercing rounds specific to bomb guns!

Such impacts weren’t just about leaving a hole; it was a question of how much of them would remain.

These mutants, far less sturdy than the green-skinned creatures of the Brocade River Province and opting to forgo heavy armor for mobility, dropped hundreds of corpses almost upon the first contact.

Bearing more and more casualties, expressions of fear finally surfaced on their fish-scaled faces.

Faced with these more ruthless beings, they finally felt fear.

"Retreat!!"

Someone shouted, leading the horde of blue-skinned creatures that had swarmed the shore to frantically flee toward the coastline.

The sea was their home ground!

Once they got into the sea, even those wielding chainsaws and holding onto cannons, suited in exoskeletons, would surely be no match for them, protected by their ancestors!

Little did they know at this moment that their escape route was already sealed by mines.

The first of the mutants to reach the beach hadn’t even smelled the scent of seawater before sudden flares erupted, blasting off their lower legs, causing them to fall and painfully writhing while clutching at their severed knees.

Seeing their kind fall in a tragic state, the rest of the blue-skinned mutants hastily halted, peering fearfully at the beach stained red with blood, not daring to advance further.

Over five hundred scaly creatures thus crowded together on the beach.

Meanwhile, the Jungle Corps, divided into two teams, emerged unhurriedly from the rainforest’s edge.

Those K-10 exoskeletons, painted green, like towers of iron with bomb guns poised at the waist, formed a daunting steel wall brimming with a chilling air of slaughter.

The Burning Corps brothers hadn’t even taken action yet.

Their presence alone was sufficient to crush these inferior creatures.

Watching the group with faces full of despair, Midnight Chicken Killing sneered, swapped out his 19mm gun’s explosive arrows, and revved up the chainsaw blade welded to his arm.

The remaining riffraff were sitting ducks, so there was no need to waste precious ammunition.

For this group of beasts that had abandoned their humanity, only the most brutal deaths were fitting for them.

"Killing time has arrived!"

The two steel walls advanced simultaneously, bringing suffocating death and striking a final blow to the poor creatures cornered on the beach.

The blue-skinned mutants were either cleaved in two by the chainsaw-like giant swords or had their legs blown off by mines as they fled in panic.

Watching the chunks of flesh and splatters of blood thrown into the sky by the chainsaw, Centurion Di Rang, squatting with his head in his hands, turned pale and his lips trembled uncontrollably.

He felt like a child.

Not only weak but also naive, to think he could trip a giant with a tree branch.

And of course, the outcome was evident; they did not even come close to the giant’s leg before being nearly killed by an inadvertently extended toe...

He had already started to regret taking on this mission from his superiors.

But it was too late for regrets now...

...

From the first gunshot to the last, a full hour had elapsed.

Mogavi had also maintained his face-down pose, pretending to be dead on the beach for an entire hour.

Fortunately, his location on the beach was not the center of the battlefield.

Neither the first thousand of the Grey Wolf Army rushing to reincarnate nor the mutants who followed, howling and chasing the scent of blood into the jungle, noticed him feigning death on the sand.

After an indeterminate amount of time, footsteps approached, a hand grabbed the collar of his shirt, and lifted him off the beach like picking up a small chicken.

"Don’t kill me! I-I am not with those guys!"

Feeling somewhat familiar with the face, Green Lantern Old Wine turned on the flashlight, illuminating his muddy face and stared at his eyes in sudden shock.

"Fuck? You’re that... conniving skins trader?"

...

Staring at the man in front of him, Mogavi’s mouth hung open in surprise, speechless for a moment.

Unexpectedly encountering an acquaintance, Green Lantern Old Wine was also surprised and after pulling him up from the ground, released him and dusted the sand off his shoulder.

"Hey, remember me?"

Mogavi nodded nervously, then looked at him bewilderedly and asked.

"Wait, I remember you... aren’t you the Butcher? What are you doing here?"

Green Lantern Old Wine gave him a strange look.

"Isn’t it normal to have three jobs at level twenty? I don’t just work as a Butcher; having a main profession and taking tasks as a Soldier is basic, right?"

Mogavi: "...?"

Seeing the NPC’s baffled expression, Green Lantern Old Wine quickly remembered he wasn’t from the Alliance and patted his shoulder, coming to a realization.

"I almost forgot you aren’t one of us, nevermind... By the way, weren’t you supposed to be stocking up at Silver Moon Bay? How did you end up with those fools?"

Upon hearing this, a wave of frustration surged in Mogavi’s heart, and a bitter smile appeared on his face.

"...Do you think I wanted this? I was kidnapped by them."

"Kidnapped?!"

Green Lantern Old Wine looked at him surprised, then his gaze shifted towards the people tied up like rice dumplings at the edge of the forest, his face showing a peculiar expression as he continued to ask.

"By those people?"

Mogavi nervously nodded.

"Yes..."

Sensing that there might be more to tonight’s incident, Green Lantern Old Wine suddenly became interested.

"Can you tell me what happened?"

Mogavi looked at him with a bitter smile.

"That would be a long story."

"That’s fine, we just finished fighting, we have plenty of time, just tell us."

Green Lantern Old Wine said playfully, and the other players cleaning up the battlefield, noticing the situation over here, also curiously gathered around.

Seeing all those eyes looking at him, Mogavi suddenly felt that this might be a good opportunity for revenge.

So, he swallowed his saliva, organized his thoughts for a moment, and began speaking in a mournful tone.

"It was a bright and sunny morning, I had been drinking all night and was just about to get up and pay the bill when a group of Imperial Guards burst through the tavern door and yanked me off my chair..."

...

While Mogavi was bitterly complaining about Captain Archim’s outrageous and blatant kidnapping in the streets, Centurion Di Rang, and his fiercely loyal guards, beaten black and blue, were being escorted to a military base several kilometers away, still stubbornly pretending to be calm.

At first, they even refused to admit they were soldiers of West Winds Empire and stubbornly claimed to be people from Silver Moon Bay, claiming their presence there was merely because they were passing by.

It wasn’t until the players brought forth a girl from the Moon Clan that their poor act was exposed.

"He is from the Wolf Tribe! He and his subordinates are all lackeys of the Sun People and the Cow People!"

The girl spat out these words through clenched teeth, paying no heed to Di Rang’s threatening gaze, then respectfully looked at Fang Chang and said, "Sir, I am certain, it must be the Empire who sent them here!"

"Good, thank you for your identification, please go back and rest now, we’ll handle things here."

After giving the girl a reassuring look, Fang Chang sent her to the door and then turned back to the still defiant centurion, continuing to speak.

"I advise you to confess honestly, we are not unreasonable people. I ask you again, why did you open fire on us? And who ordered you?"

"I’ve told you many times, I thought those mutants were with you! Since we encountered them on your territory, I admit my mistake, but you are not completely blameless!" Di Rang still stubbornly clung to that argument, unwilling to confess anything.

Fang Chang slightly narrowed his eyes.

"Do you think I’m a fool? Over a thousand people, fully armed with weapons and ammunition, carrying two weeks’ worth of dried food—do you think you were here to feed fish in the Southern sea area?"

...

Di Rang shut his mouth, opting for silence to avoid the interrogation.

Fang Chang’s brows twitched slightly.

Just as he was contemplating whether to employ harsher methods, there was a knock at the door, followed by Kill dagger entering.

"We found a survivor on the beach; his name is Mogavi. According to him, he was kidnapped here by these West Winds Empire soldiers. Besides that, he has disclosed quite a few interesting facts, including how he was kidnapped by Captain Archim onto the ship, including that these captured men are from the first thousand team of the West Winds Empire’s Grey Wolf Army."

Hearing the name Mogavi, Di Rang’s eyes suddenly bulged.

"Is that guy still alive?"

Fang Chang’s face also showed a hint of surprise, but it was for another reason.

"Why does this name sound familiar?"

Killer Dagger said with a smile.

"That guy had been here before, and made a fortune from those living profession players, the one who collected several bales of fur."

Fang Chang showed a dawning expression.

"So it was him."

Killer Dagger continued.

"According to his story, this thousand team boarded a ship at Jin Jialun Port in Poluo Province, met up with Captain Archim’s warship in the Poluo Sea, and then headed towards the Baiyue Strait. Their target is Potato Harbor, and just like those guys with scales, they’re all headed for us."

Fang Chang asked with a puzzled face.

"When did we ever provoke them?"

To traverse the entire Poluo Sea, crossing two thousand kilometers just to deliver a head.

How big could the grudge be?

Killer Dagger made a helpless gesture.

"That, I don’t know. Mogavi couldn’t clarify either. He only remembered Captain Archim mentioning that the Empire wanted to make the Alliance’s Manager pay for his arrogance and rudeness, to take some interest from his settlement, and even wanted to host a seven-night silver party at the port..."

"Of course, when they do bad things, they pluck a leaf and cover their eyes, proclaiming themselves as Looters. This way, no one would know who did the bad things, and the Alliance couldn’t even get angry at anyone."

At the end, even Killer Dagger couldn’t help but laugh.

Hearing that humorous statement, Fang Chang almost couldn’t hold back either, casting a half-smiling look towards the only guy in the room who couldn’t laugh.

Feeling intimidated by that gaze, Di Rang swallowed his saliva, instinctively defending himself.

"Not seven days and nights, but... three days... No, I never said that, that guy is making things up!"

Fang Chang chuckled lightly.

"So, what you mean is, the part about the ’Empire making our Manager pay the price’ was indeed said."

A drop of cold sweat rolled down Di Rang’s forehead as he swallowed his saliva again, his scalp tingling with unease.

He always had an ominous premonition but couldn’t pinpoint what it was exactly.

Standing next to the trembling Centurion, Fang Chang placed his hand on his shoulder, speaking in a somewhat comforting tone.

"Don’t worry, we won’t be teaching anyone a lesson just because someone uttered some silly rude remarks. Feel lucky; you’re not worth the effort."

Hearing this, Di Rang felt relieved.

But before he could completely relax, the guy patting his shoulder swiftly changed his tone.

"However, it’s quite pitiful that you guys have come all this way only to get hammered for no good reason."

Looking at the clueless Centurion, Fang Chang’s face took on a slightly malicious smile, continuing deliberately.

"Well, let it be said, it’s only polite to reciprocate."

"Since you came from a ship at Jin Jialun Port, we might just reluctantly make a trip there and send you back."