This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 734: The Battle of Broken Blade Mountain!

Chapter 734: Chapter 734: The Battle of Broken Blade Mountain!

"This is Flying Fox, we have arrived at the target airspace!"

"Let’s get to work! I don’t want to miss today’s lunch. Damn, the guys from Wandering Swamp eat like they’ve never tasted meat before, are they starved ghosts reborn?!"

"Haha! Maybe they really can’t get enough food back home!"

"This morning’s ’wontons’ were not bad, I think that’s what they’re called—"

"No distractions, focus on your targets."

"Received!"

On the west side of Broken Blade Mountain.

Twelve Cloud Dragonfly Flapping Machines, wings churning, carried missile racks fully loaded with ammunition furiously circled a side of the mountain.

At the same time, three platoons made up of mercenaries also finished assembling and launched their attack from the north.

It was eight in the morning now.

And, in the hour prior, their allied forces had bombarded the mountain with at least 500 155-mm heavy artillery shells, washing over every accessible position.

As if sensing the upcoming assault, the mutants on the mountain were already poised for battle, fierce eyes glaring down from above, clutching an assortment of weapons, ready to teach these ignorant humans a lesson.

It was the same with the mercenaries below.

They had come all the way from the Province of Yúnjiānxíng to slaughter these green-skinned creatures.

For a chance to live in the Ideal City and for the generous rewards!

Almost as soon as they made eye contact, visible sparks flew—

Mercenary leader: "Fire—!"

Mutant Centurion: "Chop them to pieces!!"

The two roars erupted simultaneously, and in an instant, the cliffs burst into dazzling sparks and streaming tracers.

Amidst the hail of gunfire, a mercenary was struck in the chest by a high-caliber round, his blood-soaked bulletproof insert shattered instantly, blood spurting from his chest and mouth as his comrades quickly dragged him behind a rock.

The mutant who fired the shot was quickly turned into a sieve by a burst of rifle fire.

Yet, until the last bullet pierced his skull, that creature furiously kept firing his shotgun.

Battle was imminent!

The melee entered a heated phase immediately!

More and more mutants emerged from cover, engaging in gunfire with the mercenaries assaulting the mountain.

Constantly, bodies fell—mutants and exoskeleton-clad soldiers alike.

The scene was utter chaos.

The noisy gunfire and shouting mingled together, resonating through the mountain crevices.

The mercenaries’ assault momentarily stalemated, teetering on the verge of losing ground.

That’s when, all of a sudden, missiles with metallic hydrogen warheads fell from the sky without warning, exploding in burst after burst of orange-red flames among the mountains!

Those burning flames, like sudden bursts of lava, sent countless Goblins flying!

Also, those large green-skinned creatures, who didn’t even have time to let out a scream before being blown into shreds of flesh.

Alongside the spiraling Cloud Dragonfly Flapping Machines, the copilot’s finger nearly welded to the trigger, continuously firing rockets and cannons under the guidance of infantry, harvesting hundreds of lives in a blink.

"Beautifully done!"

Watching the fiery path carved out, a mercenary hunkered behind cover shouted excitedly to the skies, then, with boosted morale, led his team members up the winding path.

Following them were over twenty unmanned "Hellhound" vehicles.

Against the relentless barrage, those green-skinned fellows stood no chance, the rugged, jagged stones now draped in severed limbs and charred blood stains,

Under the cover of the Cloud Dragonfly Flapping Machines, the mercenaries ascending toward the mountaintop advanced irresistibly, swiftly reaching the mountainside.

Nearby, on Black Cloud Peak, the young men from the first group of the 100th Mechanized Mountain Division watched with boiling blood, all eagerly rubbing their hands, getting ready to step forward and reinforce.

"Sir, when do we join in?" a soldier clad in an exoskeleton approached the commander, asking eagerly.

His name was Tang Feng. He enlisted partly for the fate of humanity but was more inspired by the recruitment ad on Endpoint Cloud that said "Fight for the fate of humanity."

The commander glanced at him, then toward the towering mountain and simply said,

"Wait till I tell you to go."

Upon hearing this unhelpful remark, the initially eager crowd instantly felt disappointed.

They were already at the very front line but could only watch as their fellow forces stole the spotlight.

Meanwhile, at the front line, the battle situation shifted once more.

Perhaps running out of ammunition, two attack formations of Cloud Dragonfly Flapping Machines began to return home.

At the same time, the initially faltering mutant enemy surged as if drugged and rose to their feet again.

Particularly amidst those large green-skinned creatures, some different beings began to emerge.

Even with gunshots to the brain, they wouldn’t die immediately but instead charged frantically, their attacks even more dangerous than before their heads burst.

Caught off guard, quite a few mercenaries were caught by the frenzied green-skins, having their heads brutally pummeled, their exoskeleton and bones shattered to pieces, even bitten and ripped open, half of their faces torn off.

Everyone was terrified by this ferocious combat method; not even headshots could kill them, and shooting them in the heart wouldn’t work either. They were utterly fearless under the firepower, and for a moment, no one knew how to counter this.

More dreadfully, these exceptionally tenacious "cockroaches," appearing like regular mutants,

acted like mines buried within the crowd, exploding on touch, and every "explosion" caused substantial trouble for the attacking units.

And these changed individuals wouldn’t give them any time to breathe, seeing the humans falter, they immediately howled and surged forward, their attacks growing even more fierce.

The three groups of mercenaries fighting up to the mountainside immediately fell into a harsh battle, and within moments one group was decimated and had to retreat from that meat grinder-like frontline.

Inside the command room.

Commander Lin Shangwen’s brows were tightly furrowed as he stared at the aerial images on the holographic screen, his face full of solemnity.

These images were captured by the camera mounted beneath the "Seagull" fixed-wing drone.

At this moment, the drone was circling at five hundred meters above Broken Blade Mountain, providing the only close-range support the frontline troops could rely on.

Standing next to him, Chief of Staff Yun Song also wore a grave expression, pondering for a moment before he spoke.

"We have the last eight tactical missiles left, use them to cover their retreat."

As the former leader of Assault Team No. 26, he was well aware of how tough the mutants were.

A regular person would lose more than half of their combat power if they got shot, but these creatures would only grow fiercer in battle after being shot, fighting until they died.

And these green-skins were clearly different from the others.

The Torch Church might have performed more than just cybernetic enhancements on them; there could be biological improvements as well.

Commander Lin nodded in agreement but then hesitated, recalling the mocking faces of the Weilante people.

"But..."

"Whether it’s dealing with pressure from Triumph City or from Ideal City, you’ll have to choose one," Yun Song paused before continuing.

"Even if they are just mercenaries, we can’t really let them all die out there."

Hearing this, Lin Shangwen hesitated no longer and turned to his aide, ordering,

"Order the frontline mercenaries to retreat."

"Also, tell them that if they want to collect their full payment, they need to bring back at least the body of one mutant!"

The aide immediately saluted.

"Yes, sir!"

...

As the retreat order reached the front line, the bloodied mercenaries finally exhaled in relief.

The last two platoons alternated cover as they retreated in an orderly fashion along the narrow, winding mountain path.

Not far from them at Black Cloud Mountain, Midnight, who was without a sword but carried an umbrella, widened his eyes in surprise and said,

"The corporate troops are actually retreating?"

Wasn’t this morning’s artillery round a complete waste then?

Just then, [Tired When Awake] touched his tactical helmet and muttered,

"Speaking of which, what the hell is that mutant? A new creature?"

Upon hearing about a new creature, the Outlaw Maniac immediately turned to him and curiously inquired,

"What the heck? What did you capture?"

Tired When Awake didn’t respond, but he transmitted what his quadrotor drone had captured onto the VM, displaying it to the inquisitive brothers who had gathered close.

In the video, a mutant, missing half its head, charged out from behind a rock, wielding an axe, and sent an unfortunate soul flying before rushing towards the soldiers behind that individual.

The company’s soldiers unleashed a torrent of fire on it, but the creature seemed unfazed, only collapsing into the ground when turned into a sieve.

The spectators around the VM involuntarily gulped.

Damn...

Was it infected with a slime mold?!

Meanwhile, the battle at the front continued.

Seeing that the troops halfway up the mountain had begun to retreat, the mutants naturally did not want to let these humans escape easily; they dragged every kind of weaponry, from long spears to short guns, out of the caves, and hailed them upon the heads of these human objects.

But just then, a thin trail of white smoke descended from the sky and exploded next to a cave entrance halfway up the hillside.

A few goblins, struggling with the ammunition, screamed tragically as the explosion of fire turned them into a mixture of shattered flesh and mist, with the big green-skin carrying a pipe gun in front also getting caught in the explosive blaze and rolling down the mountain.

The missile that fell from the sky deterred the mutants from storming out of their caves.

They thought the flapping little flies were back again and cautiously retreated into their caves.

The Beast King had cautioned them that hundreds of meters of rock were the strongest natural barrier; even nuclear weapons were inferior in its presence.

Even with tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of tons of explosive force, against hard rock formed over two billion years, it meant little more than scraping off some rock and soil or blowing out a few collapses.

They had already carved hundreds of interconnected tunnels inside the mountain; even if half collapsed, it would not be a problem, whereas those humans still hoped to construct roads and bridges over their heads!

As long as they did not rush down the mountain in one go, they could last here with their supplies until the end of time.

By eleven o’clock in the morning, the battle, which had lasted for three hours, came to an end.

This battle ended in a draw!

...

At the same time the mercenaries were retreating, on the bridge of the Loyalty Airship, General Lucien wore an unmistakable smirk on his face.

His index finger swept through the air, unfolding a pale blue holographic screen along the path traced by his finger, projecting a window edged with snow-white video.

The corporate commander did not appear on the screen, probably too embarrassed to turn on the camera.

Lucien was not concerned in the least, merely taunting,

"Are you guys capable or not? Maybe you should send the regular army instead, and not waste everyone’s time."

Black Cloud Peak was a position controlled by the army, and his men had been overseeing it; that Mechanized Mountain Division No. 100 stationed there had not made a move, not lifting a finger.

Frankly, compared to those fellows of the servant army, he was more curious about how powerful the regular army from Ideal City really was, and this was also what the Eastern Legion Leader, Salen, was most curious about.

Although they were allies for now, no one could guarantee they wouldn’t fight each other someday.

It seemed to be a way to regain face, the voice came over the communication channel.

"We have already achieved today’s combat goals, the offensive has ended for today."

Hearing this, Lucien almost laughed out loud.

Or he did laugh.

"Achieved? Wasn’t your goal to plant the flag on the mountain peak?"

Lin Shangwen said with a dark face.

"That’s the ultimate goal, clarifying what exactly happened to these mutants was what we were supposed to do today."

Lucien narrowed his eyes, staring at the snow-white in the window, and suddenly smiled.

"Aren’t you scared?"

He was using reverse psychology, trying to provoke the group into sending out the regular army.

Unfortunately, the other party did not take the bait and continued in a calm tone.

"If you call understanding the enemy’s weaknesses, seizing the critical point, and crushing them in one fell swoop being ’scared,’ then you are free to interpret it that way. In my view, our people’s lives are more valuable."

After a pause, Lin Shangwen sneered.

"Losing a thousand-man squad in a day, I really don’t know what there is for you to be proud of."

Catching the barely there sarcasm in that statement, a hint of annoyance flashed across Lucien’s face.

But it was just a hint.

What they lost were only clones, not people from General Modlin’s thirty-first million-man squad.

Regardless, their casualties were less than a company, yet they had successfully planted the flag at the peak of Black Cloud Mountain.

Watching the communication being cut off, Lucien snorted coldly.

"Dead duck still stiff."

...

"To Distant Report"

[At eight this morning, the 100th Mechanized Mountain Division and the 7th Air Force launched a fierce offensive toward Broken Blade Mountain. With minimal casualties, they annihilated over a thousand mutants.

According to intelligence gathered from the frontlines, more and more evidence can directly prove the Torch Church’s crimes against humanity.

A large number of survivors were fed addictive drugs and were artificially imprisoned for breeding purposes. Besides that, the Torch Church’s Apostles also used biotechnological methods from the Era of Prosperity, dangerously modifying some mutants’ genes, producing a large number of dangerously unstable modified breeds...

War correspondent Wu Kai’an reports for you.

]

The next morning.

One two-engine Tiger Whale transport aircraft and one four-engine Overlord stopped respectively at the military base’s apron and airport runway, one following the other.

The former was carrying a group of biological experts from Yunjian University, while the latter was carrying technicians from the Alliance Biological Research Institute.

Although belonging to different factions, they were both at the frontline for the same purpose.

That is, those mutants who won’t stop fighting even after their heads are blown off.

As the person in charge of the military base, Li Jinrong personally came to greet them and arranged them in a three-story concrete building located at a corner of the military base.

It was originally intended as a field hospital to accommodate the injured, but currently, there aren’t many injured, so they temporarily repurposed this space to serve as a battlefield laboratory.

Without any delay, once the body bags filled with samples were delivered from the frontline, the over twenty experts simply held a brief meeting, assigned tasks among themselves, and immediately began dissection studies, testing cellular samples from various mutants.

This work continued from morning until late at night, finally achieving some progress.

At the same time, in Shelter No. 404.

Having just finished a day’s work and about to close his eyes, Chu Guang received a message from Heya and sat up from the bed to meet her in the browsing room on Floor B4.

"The test results are out, and they are quite astonishing... The genomes of those mutants contain pairs of chromosomes with encoding genes that our current technology can’t even fully decipher. The experts from Yunjian University also find it baffling; they claim they’ve never seen such strange mutants."

Chu Guang glanced twice at the report in his hand that he completely did not understand, vaguely nodded as if he understood, and then handed it back to Heya.

"That’s surprising... Are all samples like this?"

Heya: "Only a part! Although we could broadly categorize them as super mutants, they are not exactly like those guys but something in between. What do you think we should call them?"

Chu Guang took a moment to check the official website and saw that players were discussing the issue. He picked a nickname that appeared most frequently from their conversation.

"...Let’s call them zombie mutants, or zombified green skins, what about Zombid for short?"

Heya’s eyes lit up, and she snapped her fingers.

"Okay, let’s call them that... Anyway, these Zombids, besides their incredibly strong regenerative abilities, also possess brain tissue self-healing capabilities that regular mutants don’t have! Clinically, this means even if their heads are smashed, they can regrow them!"

Chu Guang paused, unable to resist asking.

"How is that possible?"

His own regenerative capabilities were also strong, but nowhere near the level of regrowing a blown-up head.

Being able to regrow heads, how bizarre that was.

Were these guys worms?

"We preliminarily speculate that their nervous system has evolved a ’memory backup’ function. As long as a certain proportion of the nervous system remains intact, it can continuously repair the damaged neural tissue. To put it more simply, their actions are entirely controlled by instinct when their brains are destroyed."

Looking at Chu Guang’s dumbfounded face, Heya took a deep breath, her expression turning serious as she continued.

"I must remind you that the Torch’s biological experts might have even more technologies than we initially thought. I even have a feeling that as we are testing them, they are also testing us..."

Having recovered from his initial surprise, Chu Guang nodded briefly and said in a soft voice.

"That’s normal, after all, like you, an experienced expert, they might have a hundred."

He had felt it for a while now.

While he was probing the depth of Torch’s cards, those guys were equally probing the depth of his hand.

Perhaps the war was the same.

Those guys were testing the strength of all parties in the "Sticky Community" bit by bit and continuously refining and improving their technology through the Ten Peaks Mountain battlefield.

The resistance the Allied forces encountered on the third mountain was significantly greater than that they had encountered on Fu Mountain...

In some sense, the growth of those green-skins and the players was rather similar.

The players, who cannot be truly killed, become stronger with each rebirth.

While those guys rapidly iterate through deaths after deaths - those newly grown are even more ruthless and tougher than those who died before.

In both sociological and biological terms, they were absorbing the achievements of the Era of Prosperity in a unique way.

And it was with the help of the technicians left over from that era of prosperity...

At this thought, a grave expression surfaced on Chu Guang’s face, and he pondered deeply.

Heya, somewhat embarrassed by the sudden praise, coughed lightly and said,

"It doesn’t matter how many experts there are, research is a systematic undertaking. Our current research system, adapted and modified from the Academy, is already relatively mature, just lacking some accumulation and foundation. It certainly shouldn’t be inferior to the Torch... However, the problem lies in that accumulation, I actually suspect that those people might have obtained information from some lost projects."

Chu Guang slightly furrowed his brow.

"Lost projects?"

"Perfect life forms!"

Heya stared at him intently, her eyes imbued with fervor and desire.

"That Singularity-level technology! The unfinished Singularity of the Era of Prosperity! Whether it’s the Mutants, the Weilante People or their clone men with eight times the growth rate... they are all by-products of that technology!"

Upon hearing this, Chu Guang showed a contemplative expression and couldn’t help but recall the catalyst that caused the collapse of the War Construction Committee more than a century ago – that laboratory on the East Coast.

That laboratory was like a flattened cockroach, scattering its eggs everywhere.

That failed military action also became an indelible stain in corporate history, including the destruction of Singular Point City being intricately linked to that incident.

Possibly...

The Torch might have acquired the data that leaked from that laboratory through some means!

From Torch’s actions around Brocade River City, they seem to be consciously retrieving scattered data about "perfect life forms" from the wasteland!

At this thought, Chu Guang’s eyes faintly flickered.

Although it wasn’t good to start worrying about allied forces now, under no circumstances should this information fall into the hands of the Army!

Seeing Chu Guang lost in thought and silent, Heya earnestly continued,

"Anyway, I need to make a trip to the front line, including figuring out how to restore the soil of Haiye Province..."

"Hmm, going to the site personally sounds good."

Chu Guang nodded and then, as if something occurred to him, he continued,

"Right, wait until the day after tomorrow to leave. I’ll go with you."

"You’re planning to go to the front line too?" Heya looked at him in surprise, and then playfully teased, "Aren’t you just worried about me?"

Chu Guang, undisturbed by her teasing tone, merely smiled faintly and responded,

"I am, after all, the nominal supreme commander of the Allied forces, elected by all parties. I was going to head there anyway. It’s just that I’ve been dealing with rear-guard duties these past few days and only recently finished."

Due to the various contradictions among the Army, the Academy, and corporations, representatives from any party being elected as the supreme commander would face opposition from the other two, hence only candidates representing the Alliance and the Free State participating from the Grand Canyon were "acceptable."

Although the latter also received a few votes, compared to the substantial number of votes the Alliance garnered, they were negligible.

The representative from the Army did have some complaints about the election result but only asked for the commander-in-chief role to be held by Chu Guang personally and didn’t exercise their veto.

Chu Guang knew that those Weilante People didn’t really like him, nor was it the appreciation of the strong that those Wasteland Wanderers always talked about.

Those guys were simply worried about him appointing Vanus or other Weilantes who had been "assimilated" by the Alliance to significant positions, potentially embarrassing them.

From the perspective of Triumph City, this was not impossible. After all, Alliance personnel decisions never asked about one’s origins, only their initial intentions and capabilities.

If serfs could become city lords, then Weilantes could naturally become marshals.

Yet, in Triumph City, these people who had sided with the Alliance had almost become synonymous with disgrace; they would never consider the pursuit of equality justified.

If Vanus were made the commander of the Allied forces and led them to victory, likely nobody in Triumph City would be pleased.

Including the "Loyalty Ship" sent this time by the Eastern Legion, there might be an intention to mock these people subtly.

These individuals just had a bigger nose, but as to whether they were small-minded - possibly even more so than the Academy folks - was hard to say.

Upon hearing Chu Guang’s response, Heya’s face instantly brightened into a radiant smile, and she said cheerfully,

"That’s great! At least now I don’t have to bother you to send the samples to the front line."

"A few days’ delay in the physical exam isn’t a big deal," Chu Guang coughed lightly, a bit embarrassed, only to see Heya shake her head, staring unblinkingly at him.

"No, it’s not really about the physical exam, but about the research on perfect life forms."

She paused, her voice gradually taking on a hint of frenzy, and her gaze grew unusually fervent,

"... others might not know, but I clearly witnessed the whole process of your non-coding genes transforming into coding genes."

Feeling a bit intimidated by her gaze,

Chu Guang picked up his teacup and took a sip of water, disguising the fleeting awkwardness on his face.

"So?"

However, what Heya said next almost made him spit out the water he had just sipped.

"Maybe it’s not just the Weilante people, but parts of your DNA might also result from that Singularity technology!"