Chapter 778: Destruction Is Much Faster Than Construction

Chapter 778: Destruction Comes Far Faster Than Construction

"Wasteland OL" Official Website.

[Announcement: The southern sea area is now open. Players holding a VM and downloading the electronic pass plugin can freely enter and exit various settlements.]

[Recommended Gameplay:

1. Life profession players can register a mining company locally, purchase a cargo ship and resource exploration pod to venture into the deep sea, exploring and excavating ruins of Human Union-era underwater facilities and undeveloped seabed mineral deposits! (Recommended for advanced players)

2. The northern islands of the southern sea area are under reconstruction. The South Sea Alliance welcomes players to invest, start businesses, and seek employment. Supporting local construction will yield generous silver coins, regional reputation, and contribution rewards. There are endless bricks to carry and screws to tighten! (Recommended for beginner players)

3. Scientific expedition team and biological research institute missions: The Alliance Scientific Expedition Team and Biological Research Institute have established research stations in Coral City. The Heavenly Court Space Station near the entrance of Vault 70 is now open for investigation. Upon reaching the map area, find the relevant quest NPC or accept quests directly through the VM.

4. ……

]

[The above are only recommended gameplay from the development team. For more content, please explore in the game!]

Shortly after the announcement was posted, the comment section below instantly erupted.

Especially among life profession players.

Recent updates had all strengthened combat profession gameplay. After waiting with bated breath, the spring for life profession players had finally arrived!

Crow: "Ooh ooh ooh! Great news! Epic buff for life profession players! (*′???｀)?"

Quit Smoking: "Even with the buff, there are no mushrooms for you to pick. (dazed)"

Crow: "I'm not just about picking mushrooms! I do explore the game world, you know! (｀Д′)"

Debt-Eyes: "Elaborate on that exploration. (lecherous)"

Night Ten: "What are the administrator's measurements? (sarcastic)"

Crow: "How would I know!! (*?ω?)?╰ひ╯"

T-Rex Warrior: "Damn devs, I beg you, just give me a helmet!! T.T"

Professor Yang, Thunder King: "Good grief, begging for a handout while standing tall."

Proud Lord: "Laughable. Is it worth it over some empty promise? Just fooling people with a bunch of PV videos. Hah, whoever believes it is my dad! (sweating yellow face)"

Irena: "Then why don't you remove the 'pre-registered for two and a half years' badge? (sarcastic)"

Elf King Fortune: "My dad is fine. Did this guy mean to say 'I am your dad' and typo? (sarcastic)"

Farseeing Eagle: "Newbie asks: How much does a mining ship cost, and how long to break even?"

Battle Wolf: "Can I be a pirate? I want to be the Pirate King! I want rivers of blood! (frustrated)"

Trouble Stick: "Disguising as a southern sea mining ship to rob Verant merchant ships should be fine, probably. If not, forget I said it. (sarcastic)"

Tube Dog: "Hehe, golden fur, and big, hehehehe."

Scapegoat: "Bro, get a grip..."

Night Ten: "Guang: How the hell would I know? Explore in the game. (sarcastic)"

Quit Smoking: "Hahaha, damn!"

Canyon Mole: "Night Ten, put in some effort, when will you open the gate to the Wandering Swamp? (sarcastic)"

Night Ten: "Ah, don't get me started. Too many tears. This wall is too hard to dig through. (headache)"

Gale: "You'd better be talking about digging a wall. (side-eye smile)"

……

While players and cloud players were chattering on the forum, a particularly fast agility-type player had already taken the Dolphin cargo submarine for an early taste of the "new map."

The underwater settlement, nestled beside coral reefs and kelp forests, had restored power to 50% of its area. Many Coral City residents stranded on the islands had returned to their familiar homes.

As the lighting system activated, transparent domes glowed like motionless fluorescent jellyfish, and ripples of colorful light spread across the seabed like a dazzling rainbow.

Watching the kaleidoscopic scene outside the submarine's porthole, Tail excitedly formed an O with her mouth, her nose pressed flat against the glass.

"Ooh ooh ooh! Is this the legendary Coral City?"

Standing beside him, Meatball was even more exaggerated, a fluffy mass nearly filling the entire window.

"So amazing!!"

With cat ears gently twitching, Sesame Paste, standing behind Tail, let out a heartfelt sigh.

"It feels like an underwater Ideal City..."

Though not as vast as the Ideal City, the technological sophistication here was no less.

According to a certain Brother Fang, who had spent half a year in the Ideal City and even earned a certification there, the prosperity of the Ideal City had a certain "wateriness" to it.

This wasn't to say the Ideal City wasn't prosperous, but that most wastelanders' first impressions of it were far exaggerated compared to reality.

The reinforced concrete used there was merely early Era of Prosperity technology; the Endpoint Cloud was just a quantum computing network developed from a colony ship's core. The holographic displays, rail transit, and maglev roads, while visually stunning, reflected not technological prowess but sheer productivity.

This was one reason the Academy and the Legion dismissed the Ideal City's prosperity—their ancestors were one family, and they knew each other's true assets.

The Ideal City was essentially a society that had reached high prosperity and then stagnated. But stagnation here wasn't pejorative; it was neutral, for rationally, they had developed their land to its utmost.

If the Era of Prosperity was the benchmark, there was little left to improve.

Compared to the Ideal City, which "looked far more prosperous than it actually was," Coral City was the opposite extreme—"actually far more astonishing than it looked."

It lay a hundred meters deep in the sea, with the deepest parts reaching hundreds of meters.

Building an underwater settlement where humans could live, work, and conduct research under such high pressure was an extraordinary feat.

The technology required to keep this settlement running was no less than that needed to operate a space station.

Especially the fact that the local survivors managed this without a stable supply of nuclear fuel proved they truly had skills.

Hearing the exclamations, Captain Chen Jianhong's lips curled into a proud smile, and he laughed heartily.

"This isn't even the settlement's most magnificent state. It's only about 50% restored. When all facilities are fully operational, it'll be even more stunning! Of course, that'll consume a lot of energy—probably not until the ocean current power station is repaired."

Sisi, who had been silent, spoke with deep emotion.

"Shutting it down takes but a moment... but restarting takes half a year or more."

Chen Jianhong grinned.

"...Pretty much. After all, destruction comes far faster than construction."

So it was with Coral City, and so it had been with the Era of Prosperity.

He had heard that in the distant past, magnificent megastructures connected the sky and earth. Rivers of metal and concrete stretched endlessly across the horizon. Boundless deserts were transformed into farmland. The chaotic, inefficient buildings of the old era were razed to make way for tree-lined wilderness. Humanity, with imagination and technology, divided the planet into several distinct worlds.

And above the heavens, towering colony ships even ventured to new worlds five light-years away.

In that age of extreme prosperity, the bottleneck of science and technology was no longer the limit of imagination; rather, imagination became the bottleneck.

After human civilization reached its historical peak, later generations spent two centuries unable to regain even a ten-thousandth of that past prosperity.

Today's Coral City was but an unremarkable pearl among countless treasures.

"...Today I've shown you my old home. Someday, take me to see the more distant heavens, how about?" Chen Jianhong joked with a smile.

Jumping down from the glass window, Tail turned back and gave a thumbs-up full of determination.

"Oh! It's a deal!"

"Ha ha ha!"

Amused by her lively manner, Chen Jianhong, though he didn't take it seriously in his heart, still said with a smile.

"Alright! It's a deal!"

...

Just as the storm over the southern sea was gradually calming, a greater storm was brewing across the land of the Bolo Province.

In the northeastern corner of the Bolo Province, along the banks of the Tasan River in Mammoth Prefecture, winding trenches carved like scars into the barren earth.

Crouching in those trenches were soldiers of the Moon Tribe Resistance. Some held "Rippers" in their hands, others clutched LD-47s, and still others worked in pairs manning a water-cooled "Maxim" gun retired from Clear Spring City.

The latter, with its high rate of fire, low cost, and ease of maintenance, had made a name for itself during the Clear Spring uprising.

Though the Alliance had long since stopped producing these things and had better replacements, for Rasi, such cheap and reliable equipment was exactly what he needed most.

Besides these, there were also 88mm mortars, early versions of the 20mm "Lance," and a series of other Goblin-tech products. While they might not have been impressive enough for the frontlines of Haiya Province, in the Bolo Province they were still rare and valuable treasures.

After all, the opponents of these Moon Tribe Resistance fighters—aside from a few 100mm cannons that were somewhat presentable—many infantrymen were still using iron-tube rifles, or even bows and arrows and spears, and couldn't even dig a proper trench!

Especially those trenches without any "bends"—not a single deflection point to absorb the shockwave. If a shell landed in such a trench, everyone along that line would die, with nowhere to hide.

As most players who had set foot on this land said on the forums, this place was a completely different world from Haiya Province and Baiyue Province.

If you brought Charas's Marine Corps here, they might win even more easily than the Burning Legion had against them.

Of course, that was without considering supply and terrain factors. If those two elements were taken into account, the outcome would be a bit more nuanced.

On the position of the Mammoth Prefecture local forces, the prefect Bamut held a monocular telescope in his hand, gazing with a smile at the high ground not far away, a faint sneer curling at the corner of his lips.

Just a bunch of serfs.

With such meager numbers, they dared to challenge His Majesty's authority—utterly ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth!

Though Mammoth Prefecture was far from the Celestial Capital, he hadn't skimped a single coin on military spending.

And unlike the soft-shelled crabs of Tiger Prefecture, who had been corrupted by merchants, Mammoth Prefecture had no insidious profiteers. The local forces were firmly in the hands of the nobility and absolutely loyal to His Majesty Wu Tuo.

The Tiger Army might not dare to deal with these Moon Tribe folk, but he certainly wouldn't show these rebels any courtesy.

He would cut off all their heads, load them onto carts, and send them all the way to the Celestial Capital, so those restless traitors could see what fate awaited rebels!

"...I heard that Rasi is nothing but a slave. It seems Duke Nihake didn't train him well."

Hearing Duke Bamut's words, General Dasina, standing beside him, said with a flattering smile.

"Haha! How could Duke Nihake compare to you? If it were you, you'd surely have trained him to be meek and obedient, never daring to bare a fang at his master."

Duke Bamut smiled faintly.

"Train him? A dog that bites the hand that feeds is better hanged from the city wall."

He paused, then suddenly thought of something and spoke.

"By the way, does he have a family?"

General Dasina was taken aback and shook his head.

"Apparently not."

"What a pity."

Bamut clicked his tongue regretfully and handed the telescope back to the attendant beside him.

Fighting an opponent with nothing to lose—just a single worthless life—was the most boring sort. Even if you won, there was little pleasure to be had.

Still, this fellow's identity as a Moon Tribe member might prove useful. He hoped His Majesty would appreciate the gift.

At that moment, a burly man over two meters tall suddenly stepped forward and bowed respectfully.

"Honorable Duke Bamut, General Dasina, please allow me to lead the vanguard! I swear to you, before sunset, I will drag that dead dog before you!"

Bamut glanced at him, finding the warrior fierce and imposing, and a hint of admiration crept into his expression.

The general standing nearby, perceptive as ever, stepped forward half a pace to introduce him.

"This is Zakshir, a chiliarch under my command. His Longfang Thousand-Man Company is among the elite of our forces! He is more than fit to lead the vanguard!"

"Very well," said Duke Bamut, nodding approvingly after hearing the professional opinion. He looked at the two-meter-tall man. "Chiliarch Zakshir, since your commander also thinks highly of you, you shall lead the vanguard."

The burly man's face lit up with joy, and he quickly expressed his gratitude.

"Thank you, Your Grace! Thank you, General!"

Mammoth Prefecture was remote, and such a large bandit threat was rare. If he could earn merit, perhaps in his lifetime he might yet hope to become a myriarch!

Having received his orders, Zakshir did not hesitate. He turned and returned to his own camp, summoned his officers for a brief mobilization meeting, and then led over a thousand men, surging like a dark tide to the front lines.

Every one of them carried Ripper rifles, and they had two 100mm infantry guns pulled by a pair of two-headed oxen. Their firepower was by no means lacking!

Seeing these fierce-looking fellows, the soldiers on the local forces' positions showed expressions of awe and instinctively made way for them.

"It's the Longfangs..."

"Chiliarch Zakshir himself is going into battle!"

"Those Moon Tribe folk are as good as dead..."

To them, the Gray Wolf Army and the Vlandian officers were too distant, but the Longfang Thousand-Man Company was a visible god of war standing right beside them.

These men not only wielded the finest equipment but were also all tall and sturdy, as strong as young bulls.

Almost no one doubted that once these fellows struck, those bandits would collapse instantly.

In fact, ever since that resistance force had entered Mammoth Prefecture, they had never lost a small skirmish but had never won a large-scale battle. Their main forces had retreated again and again, now pushed to the banks of the Tasan River, barely holding their ground thanks to the higher terrain.

There had been plenty of rain lately, and the Tasan River was swift. Even if they wanted to cross and escape, they had little chance.

Moreover, General Dasina had long anticipated their intention to cross the river and divide the land to hold their ground. He had already sent a ten-thousand-man company to the opposite bank to block them.

At the same time, on the Moon Tribe Resistance's position, a scout lying in an observation post immediately spotted the movement of the local forces and wasted no time in reporting it up the chain.

The message passed from level to level, reaching Rasi within half a minute.

Inside the command tent, Rasi had gathered the officers who had followed him from Golden Harbor to this place and held a brief operational meeting. They discussed the situation, each offering opinions over the map.

"A thousand-man company, all armed with rifles—must be the elite of the Mammoth Prefecture local forces!"

"That Longfang Thousand-Man Company—I hear their chiliarch is called Zakshir, a Mammoth tribesman, and apparently the son-in-law of General Dasina, the supreme commander of the local forces."

A officer sneered.

"Hmph, the bastards dare to send their own elite as vanguard—they really don't take us seriously."

Another officer rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

"Since the Longfang Thousand-Man Company is here, their commander should be on the front lines. This time we might hook a big fish."

Turning to Rasi, who had remained silent, the commander of the Resistance's First Regiment said with gleaming eyes.

"Time to close the net, General!"

"Yeah, it's damn well time to close the net. These past two weeks, we've let those fifty thousand pigs retreat far enough."

Although the local army claimed to have 100,000 men, judging by the speed of their pitching and striking camp, as well as the trash and latrines they left behind after striking camp, even counting the pack animals, there were only fifty or sixty thousand.

Laxi, who had been staring at the map for a long time, nodded, picked up a pen, and carefully drew two marks on it. Then he looked up at his trusted subordinates and ordered with a grave expression.

"Tell the brothers, the time for counterattack has come! No more holding back, damn it—hit them hard!"

The officers stood at attention, saluted with the Alliance military salute, and roared with resolute force.

"Yes!!"

With the command issued, the soldiers on the resistance army's positions moved like gears wound tight.

At that very moment, Zakshir, who was leading his men away from the front lines, was unaware of this. He only felt that the high ground was eerily quiet, and the Moon Tribe men crouching in the trenches were probably scared stiff.

A sneer curled at the corner of his mouth, and he looked at the officer beside him to give orders.

"Kukas, have your artillery fire ten rounds at that earthen slope first! Mikheno, when the tenth shell sounds, lead the men to charge!"

"Yes!!"

The two centurions received their orders and quickly ran to their respective units.

Soon, two cannon blasts rang out, and with the shells landing, the silence on the battlefield was quickly shattered.

The deafening roar of artillery echoed across the Moon Tribe resistance's positions. Young men clutching rifles pressed their heads tightly against the trench edges, their eyes gleaming with fierce light.

Not a single person showed fear.

Not a single face revealed hesitation.

Because while they endured the bombardment, their commander stood with them!

They had absolute faith that he would lead them to ultimate victory!

Amid the thunder of gunfire, Laxi, instead of taking cover in a bunker, went to the very front line, crouched in a trench, and shouted into a loudspeaker.

"Bury your heads deep in the trench! Pretend you're dead!"

"Don't feel ashamed—you'll soon rip open those wild dogs' bellies, spill their guts on the ground, and wipe your boots with their faces!"

"Remember this cannon fire! When our cannons roar, we'll return this fear, our shouts, to them tenfold!"

Just as his shout ended, a deafening explosion suddenly came from the distant northwest.

The sound seemed to come from the river.

When he heard this blast, Duke Bamt, standing on the local army's position, was momentarily stunned, wondering what that noise was. But General Dasina beside him instantly changed color.

"The dike... it's the dike of the Tasan River!"

Mammoth Province lies downstream of the Tasan River, on an alluvial plain. Though the land is fertile, the river floods every rainy season, tormenting not only farmers but also the nobles who control the various estates.

Thus, the nobles controlling several fertile stretches along the river had banded together to build a dike on the widest channel to irrigate their estates.

Recently, Mammoth Province had seen much rain, and the Tasan River was in flood season. Once the dike broke, the entire downstream would be submerged!

Not just here...

Even Mammoth City, over a hundred kilometers away, would suffer!

Hearing General Dasina's voice, Duke Bamt snapped back to reality, his face turning deathly pale. His lips trembled with rage, and his breathing quickened.

"This madman—what does he think he's doing!"

And wasn't the Moon Tribe resistance already surrounded by the river? How could someone still be causing trouble outside the encirclement?

And what were those guards at the dike doing? How could they fail to hold such a massive dike!

He had too many questions he couldn't fathom, and no time to ponder them.

Nearly eighty percent of his "hundred-thousand-strong army" was camped along the Tasan River. If the upstream waters surged in, it wouldn't flood just a few li—it could turn the entire area, dozens of square kilometers, into a swamp...

There would be no chance to escape!

"Quick! Load all the grain onto the carts!"

General Dasina shouted in despair, urging soldiers to hastily pack the rations and ammunition scattered under the sheds, while he himself ran to the oxcarts.

As if sensing the surging tide, the livestock in the camp grew restless and agitated.

Meanwhile, Mikheno, waiting at the front for the attack signal, had no idea what was happening behind him.

Finally counting the tenth "cannon" blast, he excitedly rallied his century to charge forward.

But before his century had advanced two steps, they heard the eleventh blast.

Mikheno was just wondering why the artillery had fired one extra round when the erratic shell landed in front of the resistance positions.

"Boom!!"

A flash of explosion came and went. The resistance soldiers weren't knocked down, but the charging soldiers, unable to hit the deck in time, were instantly mowed down by the raging shrapnel.

"Ah—!"

"My leg!"

"Arm! My arm, ahhh!"

Several soldiers with broken limbs lay on the ground wailing. The bloody, mangled sight chilled the nearby comrades, who involuntarily slowed their pace.

"What the hell are those artillerymen doing!"

Mikheno, both shocked and furious, glanced back hastily. Before he could curse, he heard the rattling of gunfire overhead.

Somehow, a machine gun had been set up directly ahead above them.

With the rapid fire, streaks of tracer rounds, accompanied by flickering muzzle flashes, rained down on their faces like a downpour.

The scene was nothing short of brutal. The soldiers at the front didn't even have time to scream before they fell silently like mown wheat.

Those behind were stunned by the machine gun fire, dropping to the ground and cowering behind cover, afraid to advance.

But then, another volley of gunfire erupted from the left-front position, bullets whizzing in from an oblique angle above.

It seemed to be crossfire from the rear positions. This time, they didn't even see the muzzle flashes before being pelted with a hail of bullets. Low cover or lying flat on the ground was useless.

Watching his men halved in an instant, Mikheno's heart ached as if bleeding. He could only grit his teeth and call back the soldiers who hadn't yet charged.

After this back-and-forth, only twenty or thirty men remained from the century, the rest wearing expressions of lingering terror.

Hadn't their commander said the enemy were just a bunch of serfs?

Was this how serfs fought?!

It wasn't just Centurion Mikheno who was stunned; Zakshir, the chiliarch positioned slightly farther back, was also dumbfounded.

What baffled them even more was how, as the battle dragged on, the mud under their feet was turning into water?!

By the time they realized it, the flood from the breached dike had already reached their knees, and soon rose to their chests.

Large amounts of driftwood and rocks were swept downstream, along with the wreckage of collapsed wooden huts.

The floodwaters from the broken dike rushed across the plain, turning a hundred li of land into a vast swamp.

The local army soldiers on the front lines were scattered by the torrent, clinging to driftwood and dead trees, crying for help. Those who couldn't swim or were shorter simply drowned in the river, becoming part of the floating corpses drifting downstream.

They didn't even know what had happened, couldn't contact their superiors, and their superiors were the same—focused only on saving themselves, with no thought for the soldiers under their command.

Watching the Imperial soldiers floundering in the water, Laxi, standing on the position, curled his lips into a cold, sharp smile.

So this is the empire...

What a damn pushover.

“...This flood will probably last five or six days.” Standing beside Rasi, his adjutant said cautiously.

Their original plan was to use the burst river to flood the imperial local army’s trenches, drive the soldiers out of the ditches, and then sweep them all away as the water rushed down.

But now it seemed that plans had to change with circumstances.

Unfamiliar with the terrain, they had underestimated the swiftness of the Tasan River; the chain reaction from the breach was stronger than they imagined—they had already won without even needing to ride the current down.

The troops hiding upstream should have finished assembling by now.

They had tied ammunition and supplies to pre-prepared rafts, and it wouldn’t be long before they arrived to join them.

Six thousand against fifty thousand, with fewer than a hundred casualties in the entire battle—this fight was enough to go down in the military history of the Boro Province...

“Not just five or six days—even if it floods for ten days or half a month, it doesn’t matter.”

Gazing at the inundated plain, Rasi continued expressionlessly.

“We’ll just go into the city and provide disaster relief.”

As long as they took Mammoth City and its docks, and let people see the hope of victory, food and money would flow in endlessly.

Whether from Golden Gallon Port or from Fries Port.

And he could then begin his subsequent plans...