This Game Is Too Real-Chapter 738: The Real Hero!

Just as the mutants emerging from the cave had anticipated, these individuals clad in exoskeletons were far more dangerous than anyone they had previously encountered!

It wasn’t just because of the heavy exoskeleton constantly firing mortar shells, nor because of their speed and strength displayed on the battlefield.

It was the aura these individuals exuded, something the mutants had never faced before.

These people seemed as if they had died countless times.

They appeared to have already adapted to death!

"Roar—!"

As an exoskeleton-clad warrior charged towards him, the orc-like giant hiding behind a rock let out a thundering roar, swinging his steel axe with tremendous force towards the man’s face, only to have it solidly caught by a square shield.

"Clang—"

A heavy, dull sound merged with the night.

The force capable of chopping a cow in half left only a superficial scratch on the ceramic steel shield!

It seemed only to have scraped off a layer of paint!

With his wrists numbed from the impact, the green-skinned giant staggered backward. But before he could regain his balance, a fist-sized gun barrel was already aimed straight at his head.

The player sneered and pulled the trigger.

"Go to hell and repent!"

A thick tongue of flame, along with the sneering sound, burst from the shotgun’s barrel, with the burning phosphorus serving as the bullet itself!

A mixture of triethylaluminum and white phosphorus could burn fully in a confined space with limited oxygen, producing temperatures close to a thousand degrees, maximizing the lethality to organic bodies!

Although the flames did not last long, their power was substantial, and unlike the omnidirectional white phosphorus grenades, this directed flame shot precisely where pointed.

Hit squarely by that dazzling flame, the mutant let out a pained howl and rolled on the ground. It soon curled up motionlessly, its muscles charred to a crisp.

The ejected shell casing, trailing faint flames, clattered down the mountainside.

The player skillfully struck the shotgun against his shield, efficiently reloading, and carrying the ceramic steel shield, he strode forward with firm steps.

Equipped with explosion-proof shields and "Type 6" exoskeletons, the heavy infantry led the assault, covering the two lighter troops wearing "Type 5" exoskeletons behind them as they advanced up the mountainside.

Watching the streaks of sparks at the foot of the mountain, the Weilante soldiers who had just retreated to the rear couldn’t help but stare in astonishment, their faces a picture of surprise.

"Is that... incendiary rounds?"

"... From the gun muzzle?"

A Centurion with an arm burned by the fire couldn’t help but exclaim softly.

"Are these guys out of their minds?!"

Incendiary rounds were not uncommon in the Army’s logistics list, ranging from 400mm rocket extended-range munition warheads to handheld projectiles issued to front-line infantry, considered an economical and efficient conventional weapon.

However, stuffing this material into bullets and firing them was beyond anyone’s imagination.

Ignoring the high temperatures the barrels had to endure, weren’t these guys worried about setting themselves on fire?

Even with secondary ignition, it was still quite dangerous!

It wasn’t just the Army that was surprised.

From the command center of the 100th Mountain Division, observing via drones, there were exclamations of amazement.

"Their light weapons have something interesting..."

"Worth studying."

"Seemingly more style over substance."

"Not necessarily just style over substance, but the overly specific design does limit its application scenarios."

"Indeed..."

For both the Army and corporations, "secondary ignition bullets" were a novel idea, and stuffing solid propellants into bullet heads made it even more bizarre.

Although the officers were initially impressed, upon deeper reflection, they all gradually dismissed the idea of adopting this concept for their own forces.

Given the technological accumulation during the Prosperity Epoch, it wasn’t difficult to produce such a thing. However, investing too much in the development of light infantry equipment was a low-return endeavor.

Both the Army and corporations had limited budgets for the development of individual equipment. The former preferred to achieve victory with larger calibers and greater numbers, while the latter leaned towards "unmanned solutions" and "military outsourcing" to cut costs.

In terms of tactical style, the most similar to the Alliance was actually the Academy, which was not known for its military prowess.

Although the Academy’s initial intent in equipping the "Alpha" Rapid Response Team with high-tech gear wasn’t to reduce casualties but to achieve a "short-cut" in areas where they were not strong, these were indeed some of the few survivor forces willing to invest heavily in individual equipment.

However, for the Alliance, lacking the vast technological reserves of the Academy meant they could only develop some "outrageous yet not so outrageous" ideas under limited conditions.

"Secondary ignition bullets" were a concept born from this design approach.

The bomb gun designed specifically for combat against Mutants belonged to this category, and the white phosphorus rounds that "ignited instantly upon leaving the barrel" were also part of this concept.

Compared to focused charge explosive arrows, these white phosphorus rounds not only had no safety distance restrictions but were also cheaper to produce, with their close-range lethality even more astonishing than that of explosive arrows!

The only downside was their range.

However, this was not an issue in mountainous and trench warfare.

The distances either involved tens of meters or several kilometers.

The former could easily trigger the bomb gun’s safety distance, preventing the explosive arrows from detonating normally. The latter was far beyond the range limit of regular light weapons, typically handled by artillery.

Therefore, responding to the requests of many players, Huge Rock Military Industry developed a special 19mm caliber shotgun based on the bomb gun—"Fire Dragon."

While the transportation and maintenance of this weapon could cause logistical headaches, and it even had to be transported separately from other ammunition, that was a problem for another time.

Just as Army and corporate leaders were marveling, the vanguard of the Storm Corps had already slapped the Mutant Corps chasing them down the mountain, leaving the group of green-skinned Big Guys dazed and confused.

Realizing that seizing Black Cloud Mountain was no longer feasible, the Mutants who had chased out of the caves began to retreat, planning to pull back their defenses into the caves and tunnels to repeat a previous bloody melee with the People of Weilante.

Just then, a massive shadow, three to four meters tall, swept through the ranks of the Mutants like a hurricane.

A flash of claws in the night air whipped up a raging wind. Two green-skinned Big Guys were slashed in half on the spot, their guts spilling all over the ground.

Staring into the amber-colored pupils and the white mist-emitting gaping maw, the faces of the gathered goblins instantly revealed expressions of panic and fear. They screamed, throwing down their weapons and fleeing in all directions, tripping many of the green-skinned brutes who were retreating up the mountain.

A Mutant Centurion with eyes as large as copper bells stared at the giant beast brandishing its claws.

"Death Claw!"

And it was even equipped with an exoskeleton!

Panicking weren’t just the goblins, but the big green-skinned brutes as well, a fleeting look of terror flashing in their eyes.

They had previously heard that the Stonehorn Clan on Fushan had been annihilated by a group riding Death Claws.

Could it be those people had come?

While Trash Lord was bravely fighting with his claws, I watched enviously from afar.

"...Damn, Trash Lord is really badass!"

The chubby rat standing next to me seemed a bit reluctant but still nodded begrudgingly, acknowledging the fact.

"Indeed, if only he could last a bit longer."

I thought to myself, "Uh... that’s indeed a problem."

This Alien sequence was truly powerful, but equally useless, especially in the later stages when regular players had upgraded their equipment, yet Alien players still needed to rely on \"pet\" equipment.

Except for Mosquito Brother and Ah Wei, there were hardly any Lifestyle players willing to put in the effort to design special gear with inevitably poor sales for just a few Alien players.

And when the equipment upgrade couldn’t keep up, the disadvantage became very clear.

Other players were all coordinating their attacks, while Alien players were still stuck with old methods.

After harvesting over twenty Mutant heads, Trash Lord, who had penetrated deep into enemy lines, finally met his match against hundreds of hands; his exoskeleton’s bulletproof insert was shattered by an assault rifle, and he even took a hit from a handheld rocket launcher on his shoulder. He fell off the cliff with a roar of unwillingness...

However, although Trash Lord ultimately didn’t manage to rendezvous with Spring Brother, his sudden emergence truly startled the Mutants, slowing their retreat.

After incurring at least three to four hundred more casualties than expected, the Mutants finally retreated to the caves halfway up the mountain.

Not giving these beasts any time to breathe, the Storm Corps’ vanguard pressed on fiercely to the mountainside, securing several cave entrances located there.

The main force waiting at the bottom of the mountain followed up to the mountainside, coordinating an attack into the caves with the vanguard, engaging in a bloody battle with the Mutants defending inside the mountain.

The players still used the same tactics they employed while ascending the mountain.

A heavy infantryman carrying a large shield led the way, followed closely by two light infantrymen equipped with a mix of light and heavy weapons.

Streams of tracer bullets formed a dense net in the narrow tunnel, all of which were blocked by the ceramic steel shield.

Seeing that their rifle bullets couldn’t penetrate the shield, the hiding Mutants roared and pulled out a grenade launcher, aiming at the cave entrance and pulling the trigger.

As the grenade, dragging a trail of white smoke, flew towards them, the Strength-type player at the front quickly lifted his shoulder, the shield in his hand rising to intercept the delayed explosion grenade, knocking it back and exploding in the middle of the tunnel.

Shrapnel hung on the shield like raindrops, a series of clinking and clanging sounds echoing.

Taking advantage of the suppressive effect of the grenade explosion, before the hiding Mutants could fire another shot, an Agility system player carrying an RPG rocket launcher quickly crouched next to the heavy infantryman and skillfully flipped the safety off.

The "convex" shaped warhead and cylindrical body had already revealed the identity of this object, It was a thermobaric bomb warhead produced by Goblin Technology, designed after the "RShG-2" model!

"RPG!"

An excited roar erupted, and the player didn’t hesitate to pull the trigger.

A thick plume of white smoke shot towards the depths of the tunnel, followed by a glaring fireball exploding at the end of the tunnel, the blast pressure felt as if it shook the entire space.

Although the very dark technology wasn’t used, the lethality of this thing was unquestionable.

Nearly four kilograms of high-performance fuel packed in the warhead, its explosive power even surpassed that of a real-life rocket warhead of the same size!

The sweeping heat wave nearly flipped over the strength-type players wielding shields.

Needless to mention the mutants who took a direct hit, instantly suffering countless casualties, cries of agony echoed messily within the cave.

However, these guys truly deserved to be called the products of singularity technology; even after taking a thermobaric bomb, a few had survived.

Even a resilient "Super Mutant", relying on "muscle memory," stumbled across the cover and charged out.

The strength-type player steadied himself and raised his flamethrower, firing two incendiary rounds straight into the mutant’s chest.

The thick flames, like the breath of a dragon, silently pinned the creature to the ground.

"Charge!"

Yelling out, "Kakarot" gripping a shotgun, stepped over the body twisting in the flames, leading the way into the cave that had been cleansed by the thermobaric bomb.

A few green-skinned big guys tried to stand up from the ground to resist, but the players who followed into the cave finished them off one by one, pinning them directly to the ground.

The scent of charred meat filled the tunnel, yet it sparked no appetite.

Looking at the scattered, twisted bodies strewn across the floor, "I Max Black," who followed closely behind "Kakarot" into the cave, clicked his tongue and muttered.

"These Weilante people are really ruthless..."

Just this short tunnel, less than ten meters long, was littered with nearly half a company of bodies...

"Kakarot" curled the corners of his mouth, reloading his shotgun that had run out of ammo.

"You’ve fought against them before."

Recalling past events, "I Max Black" nodded slightly with a hint of emotion.

"That’s true..."

If it weren’t for the ability to respawn, winning against those guys would probably still be tough...

But then again, if there were no respawn mechanics, and dying meant deleting the account, who would still play this game!

And speaking of cheats, who could surpass those old monsters who inherited the legacy of the War Construction Committee?

Whether it was armies, corporations, or academies, the cards they held were insanely powerful.

By comparison, the advantage that Shelter No. 404 held wasn’t so clear.

The reason it could produce such explosive effects...

Of course, it was because the Manager played his cards well!

Just as "Kakarot" had captured a position with his brothers, the other squads that had penetrated deeper into the "Maze" also made significant progress.

In just half an hour, the Storm Corps had pushed the front lines back to the previous position and surged forward by a full several hundred meters!

During this time, they destroyed four ammunition depots filled with a large amount of weapons and equipment, and a hatchery that held more than five hundred survivors.

Although the Storm Corps had lost two companies as casualties, the mutants’ losses were even more severe— at least five times higher!

Allocating half a company to move those survivors, "Kakarot" continued his attack on the mutants’ positions.

Faced with the continuous assaults of the allied forces, the mutants in the cave finally showed signs of fatigue.

After all, even if these green-skinned beasts had strong regenerative abilities, they still had limits.

They needed rest to heal; only well-fed and well-rested could they return to their optimal state.

However, these humans had fought them all night without stopping even once.

As daylight approached outside, the firefight in the cave continued, and both the green-skinned giants and the goblins began to feel a tinge of fear.

They had never seen humans like this before—

No!

These guys weren’t humans at all!

They seemed more like something else wearing human skin!

Thus, the flames that had pierced into the cave spread along the tunnels within the mountain, eventually reaching from the frontline’s ammunition depots all the way to the forge located at the deepest part of the mountain!

The forge was where the Rock Axe Tribe repaired and processed equipment, equipped with several forges and large workbenches designed by the Torch Church, as well as a dynamite workshop filled with chemical synthesis equipment, all connected to the artificially carved tunnels within the mountain, essentially the very heart of the entire Maze.

Seeing the situation worsening by the minute, even Ollon, who was originally calmly sitting in the "palace," couldn’t help panicking and dragged his heavy body to the front lines.

He thought that the humans would panic and run away upon seeing him, just like the groups from yesterday and the day before.

What he hadn’t expected was that the moment he roared emerging in the forge, the slightly weary humans actually became more spirited.

It was as if they had found a treasure, excitedly shouting at him.

"Fuck! Maze BOSS!"

"Brothers! It’s time to farm the BOSS!"

"Grab your weapons and beat it!"

"Awoo! Awoo! Awoo!"

Seeing those humans who were howling and charging at him, a rare trace of fear finally appeared on his toad-like face.

"What the hell is going on with these people? Beast King! You, goddamnit... Where are you? Tell me what to do now!"

For the first time, he addressed him as "Beast King" instead of "that guy".

However, the one who always responded to his calls was nowhere to be found this time.

It was as if he had never existed.

Seeing no response no matter how much he called, a hint of despair appeared on Ollon’s face, quickly filled with raging anger.

He had been abandoned!

Those human creatures really couldn’t be trusted! Even if they were just something else wearing human skin!

Watching the human soldiers who opened fire, Ollon bellowed furiously, charging forward like a moving tank, his blood-soaked feet making the ground tremble.

7mm bullets only left small blood holes on his body, while the wounds from rocket launchers twisted with bunches of flesh like centipedes.

Even if his head exploded, he wouldn’t die; his vitality surpassed all known life on Earth, even comparable to the evolutionary bodies of slime molds!

Amid the pain caused by incendiary bullets, Ollon, dragging his blood-soaked colossal body, charged at the group of players, swatting away an agility system player wearing a heavy exoskeleton with his fan-like palm, then sprayed corrosive acid, causing everyone to exclaim and scatter backwards.

"Die!"

"Everyone die for Ollon—!"

Inspired by that crude bellow, the spirit of the mutants in the forge erupted like a dying light, as both the green-skinned giants and the goblins howled and rushed towards the players who had entered the cave.

Observing the rampaging giant beast, "Kakarot" couldn’t help showing a hint of solemnity in his expression.

But more than that, he was excited!

Ever since the lair at the center of Qingquan City was taken down by the brothers of the Burning Corps, it had been a long time since he had felt this exhilarated!

"Rocket launchers ready! Stop using armor-piercing and thermobaric bombs, switch to incendiary warheads!"

"I want to see whether it heals faster or we burn faster!"

"Bomb the hell out of it!"

...

Inside Broken Blade Mountain, the intense battle was shocking, but outside, it was quiet except for the faint sounds of explosions coming from the cave entrance.

Black Cloud Mountain.

General Modlin stared unwaveringly at the distant cave entrance halfway up the mountain, his brow furrowed, deep in thought.

Standing beside him, his adjutant was similarly silent, gazing in that direction.

Although those guys were his rivals, he couldn’t help but silently pray for them in his heart.

It was out of respect for a fellow warrior.

Those guys were true heroes!

They could have easily ignored their former adversaries, using the excuse that the corps had not been informed about tonight’s attack plans to just stand by, watch them shoot themselves in the foot, and then mock them in the subsequent "review meetings," or even pressuring Triumph City through the Sticky Community to weaken General Lucien’s command...

However, they didn’t.

For the sake of the general war situation, for the unity of the Sticky Community, for the overall benefit of all humanity, those noble individuals still charged forward unhesitatingly, using their flesh and blood to plug the hole General Lucien had poked out of his own interests...

The thought alone made the aide’s back flush with heat, and his face betray a hint of shame.

Although not all the people of Weilante shared his thoughts, in just a few hours, many officers and soldiers from the thirty-first ten-thousand troops had altered their views about the alliance—

especially those who had survived the front lines.

Their hearts harbored not only gratitude but also awe and respect...

On the other side, the six Cloud Dragonfly Flapping Machines, having exhausted their ammunition, saw that their allies’ position on Black Cloud Mountain was not in danger, and began to retreat toward the rear military base.

Corporate front-line headquarters.

Lin Shangwen had called Chu Guang and briefly reported the situation at the front, then continued,

"...The enemy units outside the mountain have been largely eradicated, but the firefight within the mountain continues. It’s unfortunate, but we really can’t be of much help."

"That’s fine; leave it to us."

Chu Guang nodded, his eyes, however, were fixed on another screen displaying the first-hand war reports from the "Wasteland OL" official website forum.

As he had anticipated, those Mutants were not easy to handle; otherwise, both corporations and armies wouldn’t have suffered a setback, only for his people to pick up the pieces.

This also indirectly confirmed Heya’s speculation,

that is, the Torch Church had used the technology information gathered from Wasteland on "Perfect Life forms" to enhance these aberrant products known as "Mutants."

The green skins on Broken Blade Mountain were different from those naturally evolved on Wasteland.

They possessed a more robust vitality, and a few mutants in the tribe were unimaginably strong, capable of regrowing their heads even if they were decapitated.

Especially that Super Mutant who kept shouting "Ollon."

His physical strength was somewhat absurd; he could take ten thermobaric bombs and still fight like nothing happened.

And it was precisely because of this, this individual had inflicted heavy casualties on the Storm Corps.

However, seeing the players sent back to wait for their resurrection CD, they were overwhelmingly positive about this extremely tough boss; they didn’t seem discouraged at all.

It was clear they hadn’t encountered an opponent that allowed them a fierce and refreshing fight like today’s for quite a long time...

Seeing that Chu Guang had no further demands, Lin Shangwen breathed a sigh of relief, but quickly remembered another matter, hesitated for a moment, and then opened his mouth with some difficulty.

"By the way,"

"What is it?"

"We did put in quite a bit of effort on this mountaintop..."

Seeing Lin Shangwen’s hesitant expression, Chu Guang quickly understood what he meant and replied with a slight smile,

"No problem, the mountaintop is yours... Of course, as we stated in our previous contract, I’m afraid you’ll need to bear the costs of this battle."

Hearing this, Lin Shangwen finally showed a relieved smile and continued sincerely,

"On that, you can rest assured; we definitely won’t let our friends lose out!"

He paused, seemingly feeling a bit embarrassed, and coughed lightly before speaking,

"Also... you don’t have to credit it all to us; say we did it together."

Chu Guang waved his hand with a smile,

"These are trivial matters; the bigger picture is what’s important."

Dawn was already rising from the horizon.

Although the ground was still engulfed in the long night, Chu Guang, standing inside the bridge of the Steel Heart, could already see the end of the night.

In the distance on Broken Blade Mountain, a player clad in an exoskeleton had climbed atop the highest rock and firmly planted the flags of the Storm Corps and the Alliance.

Chu Guang saw the player, and the player seemed to notice him on his airship, excitedly waving at him before suddenly remembering something and resting his fist on his chest.

Although he knew the player couldn’t see him, Chu Guang smiled and waved back at the floor-to-ceiling window.

"...who would have thought the Storm Corps would capture it before dawn." Vanus glanced at his wristwatch, a look of surprise on his face.

From all indications, there must have been a division’s worth of Mutants hidden on that mountain, while the Storm Corps had only drawn a regiment’s worth of troops to the front line.

Even though the corporations and the Army had already depleted a significant amount of the Mutants’ viable force, taking down this tough bone was still not easy.

Chu Guang, narrowing his eyes with a smile, withdrew his right hand and said,

"I’m not surprised at all."

After all, he had been watching the entire process on the official website forum—it was no different from witnessing the whole battle firsthand...

Meanwhile, on the bridge of the Loyalty Airship.

Lucien, sitting in his chair, also watched the two flags rise on Broken Blade Mountain, but his heart felt no joy, his face displaying a complex expression.

The cooked duck had flown away, and that was pretty much what he felt.

At this moment, his aide approached him hesitantly, leaned in, and whispered,

"General... The marshal of the Allied forces has invited you to a meeting at the military base’s headquarters, planning to address the lack of coordination and rampant self-interest among the armies."

Lucien’s facial muscles violently twitched, his face turning red then pale, his eyes fixated on the bulletproof glass in front of him as if wanting to find a gap to escape through.

The inevitable had finally arrived.

Thinking of how those corporate guys would mock him later, he almost wished he could jump off the airship.

And not just the corporate people.

Being bested by a group of Mutants...

This was indeed the shame of his life!

Seeing his superior’s fluctuating expression, the aide hesitated slightly and whispered lowly,

"...shall I go for you?"

"No need."

In the end, still a man who dared to face the music, Lucien darkened his face and interrupted him, gritting his teeth, "...I’ll go myself!"

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