Chapter 731: Where Are My People? They Were Just Here!

Chapter 731: Where Are My Men? They Were Just Here!

On the northern front.

Beneath an endless clear sky, a majestic steel airship broke through the clouds, revealing the bridge gondola suspended beneath its bow.

Gazing down at the sunken wasteland and the layered mountain ranges below, the Chiliarch Lioum, seated in the bridge, curled the corners of his mouth upward.

He tossed the popsicle stick to a servant standing nearby, pushed himself up from his chair using the armrests, and walked to the floor-to-ceiling windows of the bridge. Squinting, he looked down at the Ten-Peak Mountain, now within arm's reach.

Eighty li of Bone Road?

Ridiculous.

On their turf, an opponent of this caliber was nothing more than a matter of one bombing run and one charge.

If that wasn't enough, just repeat the process.

It might not work well against the ever-multiplying slime molds, but it was more than enough to deal with mutants.

"...Too slow. If we let these snails advance bit by bit, this battle will drag on until next year. I say we skip the Ten-Peak Mountain and take out the nest of those cultists in one fell swoop."

Hearing his commander's words, the adjutant standing behind Lioum cleared his throat and quickly reminded him.

"General, sir, I think it's better not to stray too far from the main force."

Lioum let out a chuckle.

"Do you really think these mutants could take down our airship?"

This was not a reckless decision.

No matter what high-tech tricks the Torch used, the mutants on this mountain still needed to eat and needed ammunition—and all of that had to be shipped from the Coastal Province.

As long as they cut off the enemy's supply lines, hunger alone would kill off half of them.

The adjutant understood his meaning but still cautiously added a warning.

"Previously, the Alliance encountered a group of flying mutants near Jinhe City, which they called Bat-Winged Men. Even with air cover, those Bat-Winged Men managed to board their airship, leading to a fierce struggle."

"Ha, are those fools incapable of using radar?" Lioum sneered, curling his lip in disdain. Though his face showed contempt, a flicker of caution stirred in his heart, and he dropped the idea of flying the airship directly over the Ten-Peak Mountain.

He knew the Alliance would have radar, but in this world, every spear has its shield.

There are many ways to lock onto a target, and just as many ways to counter radar.

The Torch's people had come from Vault 117 and had been developing for quite some time. They excelled in biotechnology, but they weren't limited to it.

Returning to his seat, Lioum looked at the adjutant and gave an order.

"Notify General Modlin of the 31st Myriarchy. Tell him we've arrived. Have his men assemble at the gondola."

The adjutant snapped to attention and saluted.

"Yes, sir!"

...

North of the Weifu Military Base, the anchor chain dropped from the Loyalty airship slammed heavily into the ground, kicking up clouds of dust.

Then, from the belly of the airship, a gondola descended like a swing lowering from the sky, slowly settling onto the ground.

About a hundred Valyrian soldiers, tall and with prominent noses, marched out in neat formation from the gondola, which was the size of a heavy truck.

They wore uniform gray-black uniforms, matte-colored steel helmets, and carried identical automatic weapons on their backs, with armor plates strapped across their chests. Among them, the fire support soldiers carrying ammunition boxes and machine guns were even equipped with full-body exoskeletons!

Compared to the soldiers the players had encountered before in the desert, these men were undoubtedly far more elite!

Beside the military base, Debt Big Eyes and Construction Youth and Bricks watched from a distance.

When they saw the Valyrian exoskeletons, Construction Youth and Bricks widened his eyes in surprise.

"These Valyrians have exoskeletons too?"

Debt Big Eyes also found it surprising, but he felt it would be beneath him to act as astonished as the strength-type brute beside him, so he offered a rational analysis.

"Nothing to be too surprised about. Even Boulder City has that kind of stuff, and they even produce their own cybernetics. The Legion, after all, is one of the three major powers on the wasteland. It's not like they can't build exoskeletons."

Construction Youth and Bricks scratched his head.

"I'm just wondering... why haven't we seen them before?"

Debt Big Eyes: "Hmm... maybe they used them all up fighting the Grand Canyon?"

Of course, faction support levels and local logistics efficiency were also factors.

Back then, the Legion's eastward expansion faction was already on its last legs. They had to rely on auxiliary troops and clone units for the frontlines, and they were running out of ammunition. Exoskeletons, for them, were a bit of a luxury.

If it weren't for the threat of supply shortages, they wouldn't have been so desperate to push into the River Valley Province, seeking settlements like Boulder City that could help solve their logistics and equipment problems.

Of course, a more reasonable explanation was that most players had just left the newbie village at the time.

In that situation, throwing in a dozen airships and a bunch of fully equipped elites would have been a bit too much for the dog of a game designer.

Just as Big Eyes and the construction worker were sizing up the legendary regulars of the Eastern Legion, a train was approaching from the north in the distance.

This train had thirty-two cars, and the passengers inside were a motley and unusual mix.

Among them were people from the Academy, from the Corporation, and even the expeditionary force of the Xilan Empire.

The latter were the most numerous—thirty of the thirty-two cars were filled with them.

Although the Xilan Empire had recently fought an undeclared war with the Alliance and hadn't even signed a ceasefire agreement, as a member of the Sticky Conglomerate, the Xilan Emperor generously waved his hand and dispatched thirty thousand troops.

Of course, this wasn't generosity born of shared human destiny; it was entirely for the sake of the Valyrians. After all, compared to losing a few insignificant lower-class lives, eternal friendship was far more important.

In the last car of the train, the front half was occupied by a group of figures in exoskeletons, tactical helmets, and gas masks.

They exuded an aura of "keep away," sitting motionless and rigid in the car.

The back half of the car housed the Corporation's 7th Air Squadron.

Their car had originally been further up, but they had been squeezed here by those guys from the Boro Province.

Who knows if the commander of the Xilan Empire's expeditionary force had taken some bad medicine, but he insisted on stuffing two hundred people into a car with a maximum capacity of one hundred eighteen.

And so it ended up like this.

Chewing gum, a pilot in the back row glanced at his comrade beside him and lowered his voice to whisper.

"I bet they're androids... and not the smart kind."

As everyone knew, the Academy's androids were the most boring beings on the wasteland, just as dull as their researchers.

The comrade chuckled, about to make a joke, when the officer sitting nearby, who had been resting with his eyes closed, glanced at these two restless souls. He closed his eyes again and spoke slowly.

"The Alpha Task Mobile Unit. They're not androids; they're the real deal—special forces, hunters of the swamps. The Academy has fitted them with every cybernetic implant imaginable. Their average cybernetic rate is over 30%. Not only that, almost all of them are Awakened—though drug-induced. Don't underestimate them."

The pilots exchanged surprised looks, but not because of the cybernetic rate or the special forces status.

"Drug-induced Awakening?"

"Who would use that stuff?"

At least in Ideal City, Awakening wasn't a good thing; it meant losing a lot of life's pleasures.

The random expression of non-coding genes could not only cause hereditary diseases but, more critically, reduce the chance of having offspring.

Although most residents of Ideal City had no interest in having children, wanting and being able to are two different things.

Life is but once, and awakening is irreversible; most people dare not trifle with their own lives.

After all, if one truly seeks power, using cybernetic limbs or exoskeletons would suffice—there is no need to push the organic part to its absolute limit.

Opening his eyes, the officer with folded arms glanced at the rows of backs turned toward them, his expression complex as he spoke.

"The Science Committee is a place utterly unlike Ideal City; those fellows have proven with their actions that high technology does not necessarily mean a high standard of living, and that by applying scientific management methods, even keeping the majority at a low living standard does not hinder them from building spaceships—indeed, it allows limited resources to be used where they matter most..."

"For ordinary people who cannot become researchers or even surveyors, joining the Alpha Task Force is another way out—at least the equipment and drugs are free, and it can improve the family's living conditions."

The pilot sitting beside him couldn't help but click his tongue, utterly unable to imagine such a life.

At least he had joined the Seventh Air Fleet because he loved flying planes.

"What a bunch of terrifying people..."

The officer continued to rest with his eyes closed.

Flying bombing and transport missions in mountainous terrain, to be honest, he had little experience, even though the air base by the Tianshui tributary was nestled in a mountain region.

But compared to his own safety, what worried him more was the 100th Mechanized Mountain Division from Ideal City.

Those fellows seemed to be arriving today as well.

He and his men at least had fighter jets, but those young lads—many of them were said to be going into battle for the first time...

Would it really be okay?

...

None of the pilots knew that those guys wearing gas masks weren't unintelligent; they had simply turned off unnecessary plugins and cybernetic limbs during the march to save energy.

Some bionic prosthetics require bioelectric current to activate, and the computing power needed to drive them also places a burden on the brain and the chips within.

Wastelanders who cannot control themselves often fall unconscious or even go mad from exceeding their computing limits, but the soldiers of the Alpha Task Force never face such problems.

If unnecessary, they can even maintain only basic bodily functions and the communication module in their implanted chips, reducing metabolism and neural activity to a minimum.

While the corporate pilots were pointing fingers at the backs of their heads, they were attentively listening to the squad leader's lecture on the communication channel.

"Sitting behind you is the Seventh Air Fleet of the corporation. Though they are not awakened, they have undergone rigorous training and selection, elites chosen from millions."

"Since the dissolution of the War Construction Committee, Ideal City has been controlled by the Ideal Group and other conglomerates. Ordinary people must constantly hone their skills to survive. That hardship is no less than digging potatoes in the Swamp of Wandering. They, like you, are aces tempered through countless trials... Don't underestimate them! Pull yourselves together!"

The majestic voice echoed in the silence, and the gas-masked figures sat upright, responding silently in their minds.

"Yes!"

...

Just as the forces of the Legion, the Corporation, and the Academy arrived at the front line one after another, the Ten Peaks Mountain was filled with deafening battle cries and intense gunfire!

Before dawn, a group of goblins had stealthily crept onto the Fushan position, launching a surprise attack on the players who were sound asleep.

If this were the early days of the server launch, that tactic might have worked—after all, many players were part-timers who had to get up for work during the day.

But now, not to mention the Death Corps, even some solo players had shifted their focus to the game.

Basically, they never parted with their phones or helmets; as soon as the "@everyone" pop-up appeared, one by one they put on their helmets and returned online.

A player patrolling with a Deathclaw spotted the attack first, and within less than a minute, two hundred players stationed on the mountain logged in collectively. Under the leadership of Edge Skimmer, they turned the tables on the attacking goblin force.

In just one hour.

A goblin force of two thousand had suffered over half casualties, and the remaining less than a thousand fled, abandoning their gear.

Because the battle went so smoothly, Edge Skimmer didn't even call for reinforcements from the troops resting at the foot of the mountain, handling the rabble himself.

The only thing that surprised the players was that "goblin" was originally a nickname they had given these green-skinned dwarves, but unexpectedly, the creatures themselves started shouting "goblin, goblin."

Wiping blood off his entrenching tool, Drum Washing Machine muttered regretfully.

"Too hasty. If I'd known the dog planners would let us name them, I'd have called them 'weaklings' instead."

Laplace was startled, not even bothering to wipe the blood off his hands as he hurried over to cover his mouth.

"Damn, shouting 'dog planners' here—are you asking for death?"

Midnight Umbrella Without Knife scratched his head.

"But the problem is, mutants don't really look like ogres either."

Ma'am, You Wouldn't Want That Either, rubbed his chin and thought for a moment: "The cannibalism part is pretty similar, though."

Midnight Umbrella Without Knife: "Uh, I guess so."

He wasn't sure if it was an illusion, but he felt today's goblins were noticeably stronger than yesterday's.

Not only were their tactics more brutal, but they were also harder to deal with, even charging in with explosive barrels strapped to themselves.

The most incredible thing was that these creatures, who had previously fought only on their own, had now banded together.

He wondered if those madmen had used some absurd black tech again.

If they kept going crazy like this, the "War in Heaven" might turn into a "Chaos Invasion"...

"Whoa, things seem lively down the mountain," a player peering downhill exclaimed in surprise.

While they had been fighting just now, the airships of the Vlandians had arrived on the battlefield.

Those big-noses had even brought a huge thing that looked like an "AT-AT Imperial Donkey"!

Was it called "Bison" or something?

Not just the Legion.

The Academy and the Corporation had also arrived at the Weifu military base, including their personnel and vehicles!

Seeing the curious expressions on everyone's faces, Edge Skimmer knew what they were anticipating and smiled in response.

"Hang in there a bit longer—rotation is coming soon!"

Laplace pointed at the scattered corpses on the ground and asked, "What do we do with these bodies? Bury them?"

The soil on this mountain was hard to dig; the frozen ground beneath their feet was as tough as iron.

Though their physiques wouldn't easily contract diseases, no one liked staying next to a bacterial culture dish.

Besides, their teammates were down the mountain—even if they didn't care about themselves, they had to consider those people.

But this problem wasn't too hard to solve. Midnight Knife's eyes lit up with an idea.

"Feed them to Big Eye—his wives are voracious eaters."

"Hahaha, damn!" Drum Washing Machine, wiping the blood off his face, couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Everyone roared with laughter, and even Edge Skimmer couldn't suppress a smile, giving a thumbs-up.

"You're a real genius, you bastard!"

...

At the Fushan military base, the camp that had been empty yesterday was now packed with people.

Eight Orca transport planes sat on the tarmac, their massive bodies like whales in the sea.

Beside them were twenty Dragonfly ornithopters, their blade-like flexible wings glinting coldly in the sunlight.

In addition, nearly a hundred heavy trucks, all silver-white, were neatly parked on the open field, like angular blocks.

The emblem of the Ideal Group was conspicuously stamped on the bumper beneath the vehicle's front.

That was the Corporation's 100th Mechanized Mountain Division.

They had flown directly over the mountains of eastern Jinchuan Province via Orca transports, deploying batch by batch on the eastern plains, and after assembling, they had marched here together.

This was probably the first time the Corporation had sent troops to such a distant battlefield.

The Corporation wasn't the only one showing off its toys.

The Academy was the same.

Besides the Alpha Task Force that arrived by train, nearly twenty long, spindle-shaped flying vehicles, about twenty meters in length, landed on the east side of the Weifu Military Base.

Although those aircraft used plasma engines, judging by their slow landing method, their lift seemed not entirely provided by the plasma engines; they were equipped with anti-gravity devices similar to those on research ships and Legion airships.

The Alpha Mobile Task Force, armed to the teeth with exoskeletons, stepped out of the cabin in unison.

Seeming to show off, as they walked toward the camp, they deliberately detoured to the north, passing between the Corporation's 100th Mountain Division and the Legion...

As for the "Hound" special forces of the Bugar Free State, they appeared relatively low-key, quietly waiting behind the Legion with their dozens of military trucks.

Not paying attention to those people's little schemes, Debt-Eyes and the Construction Worker, standing by the military base watching the spectacle, were dumbfounded, their mouths agape.

The Legion, the Corporation, the Academy, the Free State, the Empire...

And a host of survivor factions he had never even heard of were all gathered here.

The entire camp was as lively as a large military expo, or like a parade, with all kinds of bizarre and varied equipment dazzling the eyes.

Debt-Eyes swallowed his saliva.

"Construction Worker..."

Construction Boy and Brick: "What's up?"

Debt-Eyes: "Nothing much, just wanted to ask... doesn't it feel like a military parade?"

Construction Boy and Brick paused, then exclaimed, "Damn! Now that you mention it, it really does!"

Wasteland Alliance Leader, huh...

Although the foundation of this alliance leader seemed a bit shaky.

But it didn't matter; as long as their manager wasn't shaky, that was fine.

At that moment, he just wanted to shout, "Manager is awesome!"

Just then, the two astonished people suddenly spotted a familiar face in the crowd.

"Su Ming?!"

Hearing someone call his name, Su Ming, who was walking toward the camp, stopped and looked doubtfully at the two who had called him, but didn't recognize them.

"...Do we know each other?"

"We've met, we've met, hehe, once before in Luoxia Province," Debt-Eyes said with a smile as he stepped forward, patting his friend beside him and introducing, "This is Construction, and I'm Big Eyes."

"Oh oh! Comrades from back then!" Su Ming nodded in realization. He wanted to comment on how strange their names were, but thought it might be impolite, so he swallowed the words and changed the subject with a smile, "Long time no see, it's been a year, hasn't it!"

"Yeah, a year has flown by!"

Without waiting for the NPC to comment on his name, Debt-Eyes smiled and continued asking.

"By the way, I remember you were in the 26th Commando, right?"

"Yeah," Su Ming nodded, looking at him puzzled, "What's the matter?"

Construction Boy and Brick stared straight at him: "Did you get promoted?"

The young man laughed heartily at that.

"Promoted to what? I'm a non-commissioned officer, a professional sniper. If becoming an instructor counts as a promotion, then maybe I got promoted."

Debt-Eyes scratched his head and asked.

"But... weren't you in that commando unit before? Are the Corporation's security department and regular army the same system?"

It wasn't that he wanted to pry for information.

It was just too strange.

It was like a security guard switching to the regular army, and becoming an instructor at that.

Seeing the confusion in his eyes, Su Ming smiled and explained.

"We don't have that kind of distinction there. The 100th Mountain Division is actually an expansion of the 26th Commando... Not to make you laugh, but we don't actually have a standing army. The council pulled them out so we could train them, preparing for the future. There are a lot of newbies in there; we might even need your help training them."

After all, they were allies, so he didn't hold back when speaking.

Construction Boy and Brick was stunned, his mind still not wrapping around it, stuck on a detail.

"But... aren't you the 100th Mountain Division? If there's a 100, naturally there's a 99, right? How can there be no standing army?"

Su Ming scratched the back of his head and chuckled.

"Ahem... to be honest, at first when we mobilized, we were called 001. But then our team leader thought it wasn't right, so he suggested to the council, and we changed it to 100. That sounds more imposing."

Suddenly remembering something, his face showed regret. He glanced quickly at the airship not far away, then lowered his voice and added a sentence after that.

"Oh, and don't go around telling this... and if you accidentally do, don't say it came from me."

Looking at this guy, Debt-Eyes and Construction Boy and Brick were completely shocked.

"Holy crap?!"

"Awesome!"

That works?!

But to be fair, when they first heard that number, they were really fooled...

...

Just as the two were stunned by the accidental secret, the train station next to the camp was in a noisy uproar.

Soldiers of the Xilan Empire were crowded together at the edge of the train station, apparently something had gone wrong.

Hearing the report from his subordinate, Li Jinrong, who had just finished receiving the Corporation, hurried over without a moment's delay.

After all, the survivor factions from various wastelands had different cultural backgrounds, and customs formed over two hundred years varied, so friction was inevitable.

Although the manager had specifically instructed him to keep an eye on those from Boro Province, he never expected trouble on the very first day.

Upon arriving at the scene, he quickly found the man who was shouting and looking for the train conductor.

"I'm the person in charge here, Li Jinrong, commander of the Southern Construction Corps. May I ask who you are?"

The tall man raised his nostrils and extended his right hand.

"Babita, of the Horse Tribe, Baron, and Ten-Thousand Commander of the Xilan Expeditionary Force!"

Ignoring the long string of titles, Li Jinrong stared at him seriously and asked.

"So, General Babita, what seems to be the problem?"

"What problem?" Babita shouted angrily, "I can't find my men! And you ask me what the problem is!"

"Can't... can't find your men?"

Li Jinrong was taken aback, then glanced at the vast throng of soldiers behind him and said with a strange expression, "Aren't they right here?"

Seeing that he was still playing dumb, Babita grew even more furious and said angrily,

"Not just these! There are thirty thousand in total! Several trains have arrived, but I've counted and counted and there are only two ten-thousand-man units! You've lost our men!"

Li Jinrong nearly spat out a mouthful of old blood.

"How could they possibly be lost?"

"Who knows! They were on your trains! It was agreed that logistics would be your responsibility! Now the men are gone—don't you bear any responsibility?"

Feeling that his words lacked force, Babita shouted again.

"We paid for this!"

That was true enough.

The Alliance hadn't covered their logistics out of its own pocket; it had simply sold them the transport capacity and resources at a cheap price, converted into currency as a package.

Losing an entire ten thousand men...

This was indeed a serious matter.

If ten thousand military-trained refugees suddenly appeared within the Alliance's territory, even if they hadn't brought guns on the train, it would be a huge problem.

Realizing the gravity of the issue, Li Jinrong's expression gradually changed. He dared not delay, and told the man to wait a moment while he went to the station's communications room.

Before investigating where the men had been lost, he needed to find out the numbers of the trains that had transported those soldiers and at which stations they had stopped...

Meanwhile, over a thousand kilometers away.

In front of the scenic Fries Port, cargo ships floated on the sea, and a group of soldiers, sweating on their foreheads from the heat, stared blankly at the shore.

The officer standing at the stern swallowed his saliva.

He glanced at the people on shore who were standing in readiness, then looked bewilderedly at the adjutant beside him, swallowed again, and asked.

"We..."

"Did we board the wrong ship?"