Chapter 633: Never Seen Such an Outrageous Tactic

Chapter 633: Never Seen Such an Outrageous Tactic

The afternoon sun fell upon the tranquil Sector 06, another day of clear skies as usual.

Li Shudong, patrolling the front line, tightened the oxygen tank on his back and glanced up at the grayish sky, thinking how nice a rain would be.

It wouldn’t dispel that suffocating musty smell, but at least it would make the air look cleaner.

He was a soldier of the First Corps, enlisted just before the new year.

Though the day of the Wave drew ever closer, he felt little fear—instead, a hint of anticipation.

Word had it that after the Wave ended, the First Corps would be reorganized into the Alliance’s First Army, structured according to the old Human Federation system. If he could distinguish himself in this battle, he might just become a squad leader or platoon commander.

Fighting mindless aberrants was always easier than fighting the Varantians.

At least in theory.

Just as he was thinking this, a long, drawn-out “BEEEEEP” came from behind his head.

He turned instinctively and saw, at a window on the wall of a nearby building, a massive loudspeaker protruding.

No, not one—a whole cluster.

Dozens of speakers of various sizes clung to the wall like ivy, all aimed straight at the city center.

As he wondered what they were for, the cluster seemed to finish its sound check and finally began to speak.

Crisp, standard Human Federation language drifted from the speakers, playing what sounded like *Survivor Daily*?

Li Shudong wasn’t the only one stunned; Wang Dashan beside him was equally baffled.

“…Why are they suddenly playing the news?”

“No idea…”

Usually, the news was played in the mess hall during meals—this was the first time it had been broadcast on the front line.

“What are they doing?”

“Maybe Logistics hooked up the wrong wires.”

“Should someone go ask?”

The soldiers exchanged puzzled glances.

Just then, their squad leader walked over and cleared his throat.

“Get back to your positions. Stop gossiping here.”

Seeing the squad leader approach, Li Shudong quickly saluted.

“Report! There seems to be something wrong with the broadcast on the front line!”

As if expecting someone to bring this up, the squad leader replied curtly,

“Don’t worry, there’s nothing wrong with the broadcast. This is a new tactic developed by the Shelter for the Wave. The higher-ups briefed us on it during yesterday’s meeting. Let them play.”

The operation was codenamed “Bodyguard,” and the building and radio station shared the same name.

According to Army Command’s assessment, this year’s Wave might launch an attack from an unexpected direction, potentially bypassing the defense line designed based on spore cloud density.

To regain the initiative on the battlefield, they needed to exploit the Mother Entity’s misunderstanding of humans by creating a fake weak point in the middle of the left flank as bait.

Though he had no idea how a few loudspeakers could serve as bait, it was the Shelter residents’ idea, and he trusted them.

If the plan worked, the main force of the mold would be pinned down on Sector 06, allowing the Alliance to concentrate its forces and strike the Wave that had penetrated deep into their territory.

The soldiers exchanged glances, their faces blank with confusion. Even the veterans from the Fallen Cloud Province campaign looked equally bewildered, as if they’d never seen anything like it.

New… tactic?

What kind of tactic was this?

…

The *Survivor Daily* news played for half an hour, followed by another half hour of newspaper readings, but soon there was nothing left to broadcast.

Standing by the radio, the players, caught unprepared, began to worry.

Turning to look at the group behind him, Luo Yu scratched the back of his head.

“Well… what do we play next?”

They exchanged glances, and Quan Jia suggested,

“Weather forecast?”

WC You Zhen Wen rolled his eyes.

“We don’t even have a weather satellite—forecast my ass… Hey, should we just loop it?”

Fang Chang shook his head.

“Better not. If it’s in Human Federation language, it’ll be easy to see through… Ah, I almost forgot—we can broadcast stuff from the real world!”

Lao Bai scratched his head and proposed,

“Then… broadcast the real-world *Xinwen Lianbo*?”

Luo Yu’s eyes lit up.

“Not a bad idea.”

Fang Chang cleared his throat lightly.

“Think broader. It doesn’t have to be news. We can play crosstalk, skits, music—anything that Xiya can’t parse or find a pattern in.”

Mo Shu scratched his head, feeling the plan wasn’t too reliable, but couldn’t think of anything better.

“And then it’ll think this is our nest? Isn’t that too simple…”

Fang Chang shook his head.

“Just that isn’t enough, of course. We need to adjust troop deployments when the BGM plays, or launch feints against areas outside the defense line… That’s actually not hard. As long as we make it believe it’s found a pattern, our operation will succeed.”

This time, they finally understood. Bian Yuan Hua Shui grinned and picked up his rifle from the side.

“Got it. Leave the feint to us Death Corps!”

Wen Zi also chuckled.

“Leave the singing to me! I’m good at that!”

Seeing him show off, Luo Yu couldn’t help but roll his eyes.

“Get lost, you. That croaky voice of yours might send our own troops to the grave.”

Ye Shi: “Hahahaha!”

The room was filled with a cheerful atmosphere. Even the usually expressionless Kuang Feng couldn’t help but curl his lips. Only Wen Zi, feeling insulted, wore a displeased look.

“Hmph, looking down on my heavenly voice, huh? Today I’ll have to show you what I’ve got!”

With that, Wen Zi reached out and snatched the microphone from the radio. Luo Yu didn’t stop him; instead, he grinned and switched the radio from recording to live broadcast.

‘Huh?’

“It’s okay, Xiao Yu. Since he’s so eager to show off, let him!”

The room fell silent for a moment.

Everyone was waiting for Brother Mosquito to start singing.

After a moment of emotional preparation, Mosquito coughed and cleared his throat vigorously.

"Ahem!"

The mood was set, and all that remained was to begin.

But then an awkward thing happened.

Though he had decided to show off his skills, he hadn't actually thought of what to sing.

Yet the microphone was already in his hand, and pairs of eyes were fixed on him—if he didn't sing something, he'd have no way to save face.

Facing the silent room, Mosquito's face was full of embarrassment, his toes digging into the ground.

Only now did he remember that this radio station wasn't facing a dozen people, but hundreds of thousands.

Given the power of those speakers outside, even the people of Boulder City could probably hear his cough!

What the NPCs thought didn't matter.

But the key was that some bastard would surely record his singing and upload it online.

If he messed up, how could he brag later?

Sweat broke out on his forehead in panic.

Just then, a sudden flash of inspiration struck his mind, and he had an idea.

What to do when embarrassed?

Just do something even more embarrassing!

"Now I'll bring you a song—the signature piece of my favorite singer!"

Taking a deep breath, the singer's opening stance was like a skilled carpenter raising a saw blade that had been resting on a violin.

"Just because—"

His voice hadn't fully opened yet, and only two words had left his lips, when the people beside him tackled him and snatched the microphone away.

"Alright, alright, I believe you can sing!"

"Forget it, Mosquito! Brother Mosquito!"

"Please, I beg you, don't sing!"

Watching a few strength-type brutes take his microphone and drag him toward the door, Mosquito kept howling.

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

Seeing the figure disappear beyond the door, Fang Chang silently withdrew his gaze and cleared his throat.

"...Let's just play some normal music."

Luoyu nodded in deep agreement.

"+1."

...

After a whole morning of chaotic fussing, the code-named "Bodyguard" field radio station finally got on track.

Actually, calling it a field radio station, this thing had already become a song-request station for the goofy players.

The process for requesting a song was simple.

Leave a comment on the corresponding post on the official website, and you could add your favorite song to the playlist.

Now it was also convenient to log into the official website—no need to log out; just open the VM within signal coverage. Syncing real-world data into the game wasn't hard either; a single VM could handle it.

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

There were "Lonely Warriors" that kids liked, and "Counter-Strike" that older uncles and aunties enjoyed.

There were also some popular BGM from Douyin, like "Berlin Flak Tower" and "I'm Playing in the Mud in Northeast China."

But after two days, most of the popular songs had been played once, and everyone was pretty much tired of them, unable to think of anything new.

In truth, aside from a few hardcore players like Fang Chang and Old Man Spring who were still seriously role-playing, most players had almost forgotten what the "Bodyguard" operation was even about.

So some troublemakers popped up and stuffed some weird stuff into the playlist.

Like "My Little Pony."

Or "I Got Smoke" and such.

One second the radio was going "neigh neigh," and the next it was playing "Rick and Morty."

Players crouching behind machine guns were clutching their stomachs, laughing so hard they nearly lost it, struggling to keep straight faces while casually slacking off on patrol to the rhythm of the music.

The NPCs, on the other hand, were listening with great interest—the key was they couldn't understand the lyrics, only felt the rhythm, and even hummed along to the cheerful beat.

The "Bodyguard" operation had only been going for three days, and the effects of this deception campaign weren't yet visible.

But this field radio station, named "Bodyguard," had been thoroughly corrupted.

Not only were Fang Chang, Old Bai, Spring, Mole, and Edge struggling to keep it together, but Chu Guang was also breaking out in a cold sweat.

His in-game persona was an NPC, officially claimed to be a near-real AI, but if he could even understand real-world memes, that "realism" would be a bit too much to explain.

It wasn't uncommon for real people to pretend to be AI and interact with players in some game companies that sold "harvesting leeks" as a selling point, but if players mistakenly thought he and the dog planner A-Guang were the same person, it would ultimately hurt immersion.

These days, he hadn't dared to show his face in front of the players, afraid he'd mess up the act and suddenly burst out laughing.

Just as Chu Guang and the veteran players were starting to lose faith in the "Bodyguard" operation, the covetous gaze lurking outside the defense zone finally began to stir...

...

Deep in the pitch-black underground tunnel, inside the scarlet palace covered with fungal mats, Sia, standing in the center of the fungal mat, opened her abstract eyes.

"I've found their nest."

The spores floating around her slowly rippled, sending this message to the mother that enveloped her.

But the ripple that responded to her was unexpectedly violent, as if hearing something unbelievable.

"Their nest?! Those organisms have no nest—they're just a bunch of filthy, ugly, chaotic-minded creatures!"

Sia pondered for a moment, then conveyed her view with certainty.

"No, they do. Remember the prey I captured last time? They were empty shells—all three of them. Their minds were like blank sheets of paper."

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

This contradicted the common sense He knew, but it wasn't entirely impossible.

After all, a similar situation had occurred once before.

And it was during the last wave!

Those humans who suddenly appeared in the north seemed different from the ones living inside the walls. They had many strange traits that He had never seen before.

He was well aware that these humans were trying to study Him, even building a massive wall for that purpose, and had been recuperating in these ruins for countless generations...

A hint of wariness crept into His emotions.

He didn't know how far the humans' research had progressed, but if they too had evolved a unified consciousness, that would undoubtedly be a huge threat to Him.

Seeing that her mother did not answer, Thea continued to convey her discovery with a tone of certainty.

"Something is controlling their emotions, and I sensed its presence. Whenever it makes a sound, its fruiting bodies feel genuine joy from the depths of their being... I believe that is their hive-mother, and its voice is their spore."

She was all too familiar with that feeling.

It was exactly like being by her mother's side!

"...If we can assimilate their hive-mother, analyze it, understand it, even become it... we can control everything about them, making their experience serve us."

The frailty of human flesh was beyond doubt; aside from a few individuals with extraordinary strength, most relied on tools to empower themselves.

Yet that was precisely what made them unusual.

It could use their tools—long ago, it had mastered that ability.

But producing those tools endlessly, as humans did, was beyond its power.

Occupying the entire planet was only a matter of time, but to sow seeds in more distant worlds, it needed to do more than just digest them—it had to fully consume their knowledge, even their deeper thoughts and culture.

After a long silence, it spoke slowly.

"You are the cleverest of all my children. Perhaps this is a remarkable discovery."

At least it was worth a try.

Receiving her mother's approval, Thea felt a surge of joy in body and mind, the tentacles beneath her skirt swaying happily.

"I have a better idea, more perfect than the plan to bypass them."

"The people in the walls and those in the north have united. We only need to pressure that wall, pinning down the northern human forces—"

"Then, with a surprise attack, we can completely occupy their hive-mother!"

...

Outside Boulder City.

At the position on the edge of the West Third Ring, Joey, clad in power armor, stared intently at the projection on his helmet's visor.

According to drone footage, millions of fruiting bodies were emerging from subway entrances and building ruins within the area from the Second Ring to the Third Ring, consciously surging toward Boulder City.

Watching the overwhelming tide, Joey's brow was deeply furrowed.

His adjutant, standing beside him, was pale-faced and couldn't help swallowing.

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

After the spore concentration in the air exceeded the critical threshold, the annual tide had finally erupted.

But its scale and quality far exceeded the expectations of the militia's officers.

Based on past experience, visible fruiting bodies numbered in the millions, and the actual number deployed was likely ten times that!

Yet what was more concerning was not the quantity.

Aside from cannon-fodder Devourers, there were also numerous Butchers, Tyrants, and other individually powerful fruiting bodies, along with a few extremely dangerous evolved forms.

Including beasts three stories tall.

Including winged flying aberrations.

These monsters came in all shapes and sizes, each looking ferocious.

They seemed to have completely forgotten about Dawn City to the north, all rushing toward Boulder City.

Upon discovering the conscious gathering of slime mold fruiting bodies, Joey did not hesitate. He immediately mobilized five thousand-man units of the militia and sent the five-thousand-strong Penal Battalion to the front lines.

At the same time, he ordered the P-2 "Lightning" attack aircraft on standby to take off immediately and launch the first round of airstrikes on the tide along the main roads.

Two ionized plumes streaked across the gray, misty sky, dropping two dark shadows toward the densely packed fruiting bodies in the streets.

Orange-red flames shot into the sky, engulfing swaths of Devourers.

But then something strange happened.

The flames, which should have blazed fiercely, seemed doused with cold water. After consuming half a street of Devourers, they did not grow stronger but weakened, eventually leaving behind a mess of incompletely burned carcasses and viscous, oily substances.

If these nutrients could not be completely incinerated, the slime molds would soon recycle them.

On the surface, they were fighting the slime molds, but in essence, they were contending with the nutrients controlled by the hive-mother.

The slime molds would continuously reclaim organic matter from the battlefield, returning it to the incubation chambers to be reconstituted into combat units in certain proportions.

This was what made the tide so troublesome.

Joey's brow was tightly knit.

It seemed the analysis from the Alliance Biological Research Institute was correct: the spore clouds generated by the new tide could effectively suppress the burning of conventional fuel.

Through the drone's lens, he clearly saw that when the flames rose, the gray-green mist, as if possessing a will of its own, surged toward the burning fire.

The tide, subjected to aerial bombardment, only paused briefly before continuing its mighty advance toward Boulder City.

Some Devourers pounced on the charred corpses, forming a circle on the ground and devouring them greedily, wasting not a single nutrient.

Those noble evolved forms, of course, looked down on these scrawny wretches, merely sneering coldly at the sky where the flames had fallen.

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

But it didn't matter—

Under Its will, all resistance was futile!

All carbon-based life would become the nourishment for their prosperity!

The vanguard of the tide was now only a kilometer from Boulder City's defenses.

At this rate, within at most an hour, the Penal Battalion's first line of defense would clash with these slime molds.

The adjutant standing beside Joey clenched his fists and finally couldn't help speaking.

"We have to use nuclear weapons!"

It wasn't that he cared about the criminals—he didn't give a damn about those scum's lives.

He simply didn't believe that those bullies, without incendiary support, could hold back the surging tide with just a few machine guns and rifles.

Before Joey could speak, a militia staff officer interrupted the adjutant.

"No! Radioactive materials will accelerate the evolution of the slime molds! We've verified this before—using nukes on the tide only makes next year's tide more ferocious!"

The adjutant clenched his fists and couldn't help retorting.

"Incendiaries are useless, nukes are out of the question... Are you expecting those five thousand cannon fodder, plus conventional artillery, to clean up that garbage?"

Joey's expression was grave.

"I've already requested reinforcements from the Alliance Army Command. They've promised to allocate more personnel to help us."

The adjutant frowned.

"Strange, why hasn't the Alliance been attacked? Why are we the only ones targeted by the tide? Could it be that the Alliance's Biological Research Institute has found a way to make the tide ignore them—"

Before he could finish, he was cut off by an angry rebuke.

"Shut up!"

Staring at the stunned adjutant, Joey grabbed him by the collar, looked him in the eye, and said word by word.

What I need from you is professional advice, not baseless nonsense spoken here! No one can escape the tide unless it is annihilated. I have seen that man; perhaps I don't know him well enough, but I can be certain he is no such incompetent as you claim!

The adjutant nodded timidly.

"Understood..."

"Then get moving!" Joe released his grip on the adjutant's collar. "The front line needs heavy equipment. I need you to immediately pull another batch of heavy machine guns and mortars from the inventory and send them over!"

The adjutant took a deep breath, composed himself, stood at attention, and saluted.

"Yes, sir!"

...

News of the attack on Boulder City soon reached the Alliance's positions.

Fang Chang, still stationed in the broadcast station, frowned at the marked lines on the map, and his previously confident expression showed a hint of wavering.

"The plan failed?"

"No... quite the opposite!"

Clenching his fists on the map, Quanshui beside him was brimming with excitement, offering a completely different view.

His opinion was the exact opposite.

If a few minutes ago he still had doubts about the details of the "Guardian" plan, now he could almost say with certainty that their plan had succeeded!

This Xiya did have some cunning!

But this level of scheming was still too "naive," to the point of being counterproductive.

If it were him, he would have split off a fifth or a quarter of his forces, put pressure on the Alliance, and patiently reenact last year's script.

But what it was doing now was essentially telling them—I have noticed you, but I pretend not to see.

Clearly!

The attack on Boulder City was merely a feint; the main force of the tide was likely lurking beneath the thick fog in the northern suburbs, ready to strike at any moment.

Fang Chang snapped back to reality at that moment. After a brief pause, his solemn expression gradually relaxed into a hint of a smile.

"I see."

Good grief.

This mother entity was actually putting on an act with them.

That was something he hadn't expected.

Just as Fang Chang came to his senses, Quanshui had already grabbed the walkie-talkie on the table.

"Our enemy has taken the bait! Edge, take your men and immediately reinforce toward the west district of Clearspring City... but don't move too fast, be ready to turn back at any moment! Wait for my orders!"

Soon, Edge's response came through the communication channel.

"Roger that!"

After ending the call with Brother Edge, Quanshui then switched the communication to the front line of Sector 06 and shouted with vigor.

"Notify the brothers on the position, tell them to stay sharp!"

"The prey is stirring; a tough battle is coming!"