This Game Is Too Real
Chapter 94: Battle Report, Great Victory, and the Forefront of the New Version!

Chapter 94: Chapter 94: Battle Report, Great Victory, and the Forefront of the New Version!

Just as Chu Guang was engrossed in archaeology with his diary, the "Wasteland OL" official website forum in another world was buzzing with excitement.

The 7 players who had died in battle logged off one after another, almost simultaneously rushing to post firsthand battle reports on the forum for the backseat drivers and jolly folk lurking online.

This battle was much more intense than any before.

The total forces committed by both sides exceeded that of an entire company, with tactics involving splitting and encirclement, fire suppression, and various raids and counter-raids, which left all participating players thoroughly exhilarated, exclaiming their deaths were totally worth it!

Especially during the battle’s finale.

Fifty rocket missiles blanketed the battlefield. At the sound of a whistle, everyone leaped out of the trenches and charged forward, painting such a glorified and exaggerated picture that even the backseat driver forum-goers were thrilled by the spectacle.

"Hahaha, lighting fireworks was too sassy; the other side must’ve been stunned. Just where did you learn these slick moves?"

"But the weirdest thing is that Mosquito’s rockets actually worked? Didn’t you guys say that the flamethrower he made last time didn’t have enough chamber pressure and was missing a backfire valve, resulting in him setting himself on fire?"

"Goblin Technology redeems itself. (Amusing)"

"A one-kilogram warhead is still playing small ball! Next time, let’s get the hot air balloon going and drop 300-pound aviation bombs—that’d definitely do the trick!"

"Hot air balloons seem tough; once you’re up there, you’re an easy target. But you could try building an engine and making a propeller-driven aircraft. Aren’t the Mini-Max series planes made of wood? With a little effort, it’s definitely possible!"

"Go build a tank. Tanks are more reliable, but I hear that near the respawn points it’s either cities or anti-tank trees, which might be tricky."

"Are you guys really talking about the game? Something feels off. (Amusing)"

"Cough cough, we’re discussing plastic models, plastic models!"

While the conversation often veered off-topic, it quickly got back on track as new updates were released.

Whether it was strategizing or playing armchair generals,

Whether they were earnest pre-registered players of the game or just there for the fun, what mattered most to everyone was the outcome of this war.

Though the reports had been favorable so far, everything under control, what if these closed beta players didn’t live up to expectations, or if the Looters had any aces up their sleeve?

If they lost, it would be a complete disaster.

After all, the official statement had made it clear: should the "Winter Is Coming" expansion challenge fail, the game servers would be indefinitely taken offline for recalibration before resuming.

As for how long it would be halted, probably only the planners would know.

Fortunately, the zealous netizens didn’t have to wait for long.

As a "fatally injured" player was forced offline, he brought the victorious news back to the forum, lifting the weight off everyone’s chest.

Makabazi: "I was finished by my teammate! But it doesn’t matter, a glorious victory! 56 Looters, including elite monsters and the BOSS, all annihilated! Hahaha, such an exhilarating massacre! I took down at least three... no, definitely four!"

Quit smoking: "Then how come you’re still dead? (Rolling eyes)"

Crow: "Weakling! Hahahaha! If you died, you’re just a noob! Hahaha! o(*≧▽≦)ツ"

Makabazi: "Damn! You have the nerve to talk? You didn’t even join the fight! (Angry)"

Crow: "Humph, as everyone knows, pretty girls don’t fight; I’ll join in the ruckus once I’ve saved enough to buy power armor. @乛◡乛@"

Quit smoking: "Then why the heck are you playing?? Not playing, just give me the account! T.T"

Grandpa Ao: "Laugh, calling that a war? You can’t combine 100 people and still pretend it’s a war? Not to speak too far, just in our corner two high schools could spontaneously start a fight involving thousands of people. It almost alarmed the county—it didn’t escalate only because of them; otherwise, it would have definitely made the news."

Elena: "Thousands? Is your school called Bellflower Boys’ High? How many dishes are there in the canteen? Stop just drinking the dishwater; eat some food at least. (Amusing)"

Night Ten: "I’m dying of laughter, haha, I can’t even. Damn."

Gnome King Riches: "Yo, Elena joined us to spectate? (Amusing)"

Elena: "You two wait, I’ll remember this. (`Д´*)9"

Mole on The Run: "Scared. (Amusing)"

Every time the forum darling showed up, they monopolized everyone’s amusement; the entire forum was filled with joy and as lively as a festival.

But this person was like a Ground Squirrel, poking fun and then ducking out, not staying a moment longer to give anyone the chance to retort.

Maybe in their own world, they were battling against some dark force.

And without a doubt, those "mocking" and "belittling" them must be the forum administrators’ alts.

Quit smoking: "Speaking of which, where’s that Trashlord? Why isn’t he here showing off?"

Elena: "Right, right, where’s his slide tackle? (Amusing)"

Night Ten: "Tch, just thinking about that guy is embarrassing. The Manager didn’t let us start fires to keep warm, right? That guy was shivering in the trench, afraid he’d fall asleep, so he started telling jokes to the person next to him. Maybe the jokes were too cold, because not a single person laughed, and he ended up freezing and passing out. We couldn’t wake him up even after the battle ended. In the end, we had to carry him on a stretcher as a casualty, really an embarrassment."

Pick up trash 99 level: "Damn, you think I wanted this? I tried several times, but the system kept showing ’Character Status Abnormal,’ I couldn’t connect at all! When I finally got online, I was already in the cultivation chamber!"

Night Ten: "Anyway, embarrassing. (Amusing)"

Pick up trash 99 level: "@#@%!"

WC truly has Mosquitos: "Hahahaha, I’m the MVP of the field! Who else is there? (Proud)"

Scrambled Eggs with Tomato: "Big boss 666, Goblin Technology is invincible!"

Debt Giant Eye: "Stop joking, I counted the bodies; only three were confirmed dead by the explosion, and it’s not sure if they were killed by your rockets."

Night Ten: "Hahaha, confirmed jesters! But fair is fair, Mosquito’s weapons aren’t that powerful, but they’re quite intimidating. A barrage of rockets sent over and the enemy’s flag went white."

WC truly has Mosquitos: "Damn! You’re the jester! Your whole family is jesters! (Angry)"

Teng Teng: "Don’t quarrel, everyone did great. 0.0."

Old White: "This bunch of sand sculptures isn’t quarrelling at all; they get along quite well, actually."

Teng Teng: "Is it that sort of feeling between two boys?"

Old White: "...how am I supposed to answer that?"

Having just gone through a thrilling battle, many players were still riding their adrenaline highs, wishing they could jump out of bed and do a hundred and eighty push-ups to vent.

But alas, their physical bodies in reality weren’t as formidable as their avatars in the game, and their senses of negative status effects were not diminished in the least; just a little bit of exercise, and muscles started to fatigue, not to mention those who forgot to eat were dealing with low blood sugar and dizziness.

Really, compared to the Game, isn’t reality more of a crappy game?

Fang Chang: "Speaking of which, Mole, you followed the Manager to the Blood Hand Clan’s camp?"

Fugitive Mole: "Yeah, I went, but most of their forces were wiped out by us at the park, so there wasn’t much of a fight when I got there, just followed along for the storyline, then I rummaged through their base turning over containers for spoils of war. Not to blow my own trumpet, but the game really spares no detail, from the dungeon where the prisoners are kept to the rooms of the Looters...tsk tsk, I can only say that sending this stuff to the gallows is letting them off easy."

Night Ten: "What’s the situation? Give us the details."

Fugitive Mole: "What’s there to talk about, you’ll see for yourselves tomorrow, it’s literally hell on earth. But I guess once we’ve cleared this dungeon, it probably won’t respawn, and if there are any Looters nearby, they’ll likely just be solo operators. Now that we’ve dealt with the Looters at the tire factory, the map around there should be open, right? I see lots of landmarks worth exploring; we’ll probably find a ton of good stuff."

Fang Chang: "This time we’re feeling good, tomorrow when we divide up the spoils, we’ll probably feel even better."

Fugitive Mole: "Let me ask a technical question, the budget of your brickyard, can it get involved in the auction of war spoils?"

Fang Chang: "What are you dreaming? If we could get involved, wouldn’t that just be cornering the market?"

With 5000 silver coins, indeed, they had the capital to corner a market.

It hadn’t been three days since the last auction, everyone’s pockets were almost empty, and the war rewards would be tallied after the auction, so this time around, a lot of items would likely go unsold.

Fugitive Mole: "You’re right. We don’t need 5000 silver, with 3000 silver we could nab 50 pieces of equipment easily. Man, untouchable."

Night Ten: "It hurts, if only there were banks, I’d take out a loan and buy a set of power armor, and then get a fully kitted out +14 automatic rifle."

Fang Chang: "Dreaming is something you’re good at."

Actually, no matter how you slice it, from this battle, we stood to gain no matter what.

Last time we faced just a small squad led by a Centurion, and the average profit for each player was more than ten silver coins.

This time, not only did we wipe out five whole teams, but we also knocked over their base.

Wouldn’t it make sense for us to get at least fifty or sixty silver coins, or a hundred and eighty Contribution Points?

At the very least we have to get fifty silver coins, not a coin less!

Fugitive Mole: "Hey, isn’t anyone curious? The B2 level is about to open. What do you guys think we’ll find there?"

Night Ten: "I have a feeling there’ll be a major update, probably the Alpha 0.5 version."

Fang Chang: "Listening to your words is like listening to a speech."

Old White: "If that hunch had any use, it wouldn’t be completely useless."

Night Ten: "Goddammit! Then analyze it!"

Fang Chang: "I’ll just tell you the conclusion. I expect the next phase of updates to focus on two areas. One is the game system itself, and the other is the game content."

Canyon Running Mole: "What does Fang Chang think?"

Fang Chang was pleased with the address. The two most popular technical players on the forum right now were himself and Mole.

Flattered by this brown-nosing, he even typed faster.

"Let’s start with the game system itself. Previously, there has been a strong demand on the forum for a simpler attribute interface. But what you newcomers might not know is that at the very beginning, there wasn’t even an attribute interface to speak of, let alone level settings, everything had to be discovered by the players!"

"But soon, we found that each player’s initial attributes were different; some were obviously stronger, some had sharper intuition, while others were faster. It wasn’t until we asked the planners that we learned that players had the concepts of attributes and levels!"

"They said it was for realism, but too much realism was a burden. On our strong suggestion, the planning team had a meeting for several days and finally integrated the settings of attributes and levels into the game in the form of data. The attribute panel you see now was actually made later; it didn’t exist before."

"Then there’s money. At first, there was no concept of money at all, and rewards for chopping down trees were all settled with contribution points. Around alpha 0.3, the task system and the economic system were overhauled, and that’s when we got the silver coins we use now, as well as the later concepts of citizen identity level and private land."

"In fact, players who have been playing for a while can feel that the rules of Wasteland OL are being perfected bit by bit. The planners are also exploring, balancing the lever between realism and playability."

"The currency system is already well-developed at the moment, so I guess the development team will try to improve players’ in-game interface next, like making the ’gene sequence development progress more intuitive’? It would be great to also add a progress bar for ’proficiency level’; it would give a better sense of achievement when grinding, right?"

"Now, about the game content! This is the part I’m most looking forward to!"

"Many of you have probably noticed that this time we took down the Blood Hand Clan’s base, not only taking over the equipment of these Looters but also freeing a large number of prisoners they had captured!"

"Most of these people are survivors who have suffered at the hands of the Looters. They are not just pale names; they all have different identities. Some may come from shelters, others from other survivor bases... like the Brown Farm we’ve visited, or the setting with Bet Street, Giant Stone City, and so on."

"In their hometowns, they might have their own social relationships, and somewhere in this Wasteland, they might have their own family."

"The identities of these NPCs might become clues, unlocking more side plots for us, and how we properly settle them and establish relationships with these NPCs will also be a new test for our ’virtual community’!"

"So, I boldly speculate that with winter coming, the next expansion pack might revolve around this very proposition!"

Fang Chang’s views were affirmed by many.

Including Canyon Running Mole and other technical players.

As the game has progressed to this stage, the number of players has far exceeded the NPC count. If the number were to multiply several times over, it would be obviously difficult for Manager and his assistants to handle all the interactions.

If Wasteland OL’s ambition is to create a game world close to reality, and build a human-friendly virtual community in the virtual realm, then the next expansion pack will undoubtedly revolve around the relationships between NPCs and players.

And these pitiful rescued people are undoubtedly a good opportunity.

The nearby survivor bases, which have also been rid of the Looters’ tyranny and harassment, would surely be grateful to this army of justice.

Fang Chang felt he had completely grasped the planners’ thinking.

Thinking this, he, sitting groggily in front of his computer, couldn’t help but smile triumphantly.

Just as expected from me!

Absolutely niubi!

Search the lightnovelworld.cc website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.