This Game Is Too Real-Chapter 761: Fierce Battle on Shazhou Island!

Pale blue plumes sliced through the silent night sky as two colossal transport planes appeared above Shazhou Island.

This island was the second-largest natural island in the Southern sea area, known for its vast golden beaches. Approximately 400 square kilometers in size, it was home to 70,000 residents, about half the area of Singapore in the Real World yet with just over 1% of its population.

Unlike Ring Island’s narrow and crowded artificial landmass, Shazhou Island bore some resemblance to North Island and Anle Island, still retaining an abundance of natural tropical landscapes.

Most of the island’s residents lived on the higher terrain in the south, where modern buildings two or three stories high were tastefully scattered on either side of the circumferential highway.

Since there was no airport on the island, the Burning Corps could only land on the sea surrounding it.

The plasma plumes ejected from the engines skimmed the surface of the sea, causing the waves to give off wisps of white vapor as they sizzled.

The hatch of the cargo bay swung downward, revealing a landing craft made of steel that slid along the rails to the door of the cargo hold. Twelve exoskeleton-clad players stood ready on the craft, which was impressively armed with a 12mm caliber machine gun and a coaxial 60mm grenade launcher at the front.

The former was used mainly against light targets above the surface, while the latter was designed specifically for soft underwater targets like "frogmen."

The 60mm underwater grenades, fitted with pressure sensors and filled with metal hydrogen charge, would explode with extreme velocity near the target, relying on the shockwave to kill nearby targets.

This landing craft was primarily designed for amphibious assaults on North Island and Haiye Province, thus the 60mm grenade launcher could also fire standard fragmentation grenades for fire support against ground targets apart from underwater ones.

Although the chairman, CEO, and factory manager of Goblin Technology were addicted to peddling rubbish on the northern front, it was evident that Goblin Technology’s main business had not been neglected.

As the target area drew closer, the players in the cockpit shouted over the communications channel.

"Target approaching, one minute—prepare!"

"Thirty seconds."

"Ten seconds!"

"Go!"

With a crisp "click," the ropes towing the landing craft were released, and the two Overlord Transport Aircraft simultaneously dropped the landing crafts hanging at the cargo bay doors.

Like dumplings being dropped into a pot, landing crafts quickly filled the tumultuous sea, the waters now dotted with twenty heavily armed speedboats.

The boats split into two groups, making their way toward the southern and northern shores of Shazhou Island.

Meanwhile, on the northern side of the island, Shazhou Island Soldiers who had been disarmed were digging beachhead positions with a group of guards in exoskeletons.

Half an hour earlier, they had received an early warning from Anle Island.

A destroyer and a landing ship were coming from the direction of North Island. From those guys’ aggressive posture, it was clear they were not there to negotiate, and it was likely mutants sat on the landing ship.

Rumors said that in the southern part of Brocade River Province, being caught by mutants was no joking matter—with grisly fates awaiting both men and women.

And they were "consumed" in different manners.

So even though they had been on opposing sides not long ago, they now had to stand united for the sake of their friends, families, and themselves.

Watching the line of meticulously advancing landing crafts, a hint of panic surfaced in everyone’s eyes, but soon someone noticed the signal lights flashing on the crafts.

"Alliance reinforcements!" A Soldier’s face lit up with surprise.

The nearby guards shared the sentiment. After confirming the frequency of those signal lights, they all showed expressions of relief.

Ten landing crafts surged onto the beachhead. The exoskeleton-clad players jumped off one by one, with two Strength-type players staying behind to drag the stranded crafts ashore.

The steel plates on either side of the landing crafts were over 15mm thick; double layered, they made for 30mm, capable of stopping even some large-caliber machine gun rounds.

Together with the fixed weapons on the crafts – once the batteries were removed – they also served as excellent cover.

Additionally, the landing crafts were packed with ammunition supplies and foldable bags filled with sand and soil.

Fang Chang walked straight up to the assembled armed personnel and, after looking them over, gave a brief introduction.

"Fang Chang, Burning Corps. Who’s in charge here?"

"I am."

A man in military exoskeleton stepped forward. Slung on his waist was a Federation-standard assault rifle, but the bulletproof vest inside his exoskeleton was a police model.

"Du Men, Director of the Shazhou Island Police Department, and now... ahem, commander of the army of the new Shazhou Island authorities."

Obviously new to the equipment, he had clearly not fully adapted to the military exoskeleton he wore.

Despite the gravity of the situation, Fang Chang couldn’t help the twitch of his lips upon hearing "commander."

There were only about two hundred men standing there, and maybe four or five hundred in total. At best, they could make up half of the "thousand team" on the northern front, probably not even filling two caves.

Yet, it all depended on whom they were compared to.

This handful might struggle against a corporation’s mountain battalion or an Army’s thousand team, but if they were to confront the West Winds Empire’s Expeditionary Army, they’d likely make the latter’s Ten thousand troops flee without much trouble.

Of course, it would be a different story against the Grey Wolf Army or the two Military Factions on the outskirts of Jin Galun Harbor.

Aware of his own embarrassment, Du Men cleared his throat and willingly handed over the command.

"I’ll be frank—we haven’t had many chances to fight here. Drills are just a formality, and the navy primarily handles our defense... Commanding will likely fall to you veterans, so feel free to give us your orders for any needed cooperation."

"A wise choice." Fang Chang didn’t waste time with pleasantries and directly tossed a tablet to him.

The tablet displayed an operations plan.

With the Alliance Staff Department anticipating two possible courses of action from Charles, they had prepared contingency plans accordingly.

Du Men’s face was a picture of astonishment as he glanced over the tablet.

"Is this... an operations plan? Did you anticipate today’s events?"

The tablet showed not only the map of Shazhou Island but also the positions and allocated troops in each area.

Clearly, the detailed work couldn’t have been done in just two hours—it must have taken at least two or three days of preparation.

Fang Chang smiled faintly at his surprised ally and said, "Exactly."

"We are accustomed to rehearsing scenarios that haven’t happened and then submitting contingency plans to the staff department, which are finally turned into draft action plans for Mr. Manager’s signature. Once the situations we envisage occur, the action plans become effective immediately, and our troops will act at once while making routine reports, rather than waiting for a response from the Manager before planning the next step."

This is actually a fairly standard operation.

As for unexpected situations, such as the West Winds Empire losing soldiers, he would respond according to the relevant clauses in the Player’s Handbook and Alliance Constitution, deciding for himself whether to retaliate and to what extent to cease fire.

Shazhou Island has been a powder keg ever since the split from the Federation, obvious to everyone except the residents themselves, and probably even the keyboard masters of Endpoint Cloud above Ideal City could see it.

They likely weren’t the only ones who had prepared a defensive plan; Charles’s side had surely considered the possibility of the Alliance taking action and made preparations for both eventualities.

Currently, two Thunder fighters are searching northwards, probing the enemy destroyers’ firepower while also scouting for possible ambushes by the South Sea Union Navy.

Having reviewed the entire battle plan from start to finish, Du Men immediately mobilized with his subordinates.

At the same time, on the southern side of Shazhou Island, Old White leading his unit also landed on the island.

However, due to the large number of civilian houses on the south side of the island, they didn’t send the landing craft directly to the beachhead but disembarked at the dock.

Like Fang Chang, Old White notified the guards bolstering the defenses on the South Shore about the battle plan upon landing.

Looking at the Alliance Soldiers taking over the defense mission, the guards at the South Shore looked at each other bemusedly.

"...It seems like there’s nothing for us to do now?"

A guard with a goatee pinched out his cigarette and tucked the butt into a trash bag in his pocket, looking perplexed at the soldiers busy fortifying their positions.

He always had this illusion.

Compared to these guys, with his well-equipped self, he felt more like a civilian.

Old White, who was directing the work, happened to hear his remark and smiled at him.

"What are you talking about? There’s still plenty for you to do; don’t think about leaving everything to us."

Pausing for a moment, Old White continued.

"Now take your families to a shelter, remembering to keep away from the coastline. In two hours, we will airdrop supplies to the center of the island to help you set up a temporary camp. Once everything is safe, we will notify you to return home."

The tasked guard immediately straightened up, delivering an awkward Alliance military salute. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

"Yes, sir!"

Seeing his comical manner, Old White smiled, patted his shoulder.

"That’s the spirit! Since you’ve had the courage to come this far, don’t give up halfway, finish the work that needs to be done."

The guard took a deep breath, nodding vigorously, but his eyes still held a trace of confusion.

Just as the Alliance officer was about to turn away, the guard couldn’t help but call out to him again.

"Wait, can I ask a question? I don’t understand... you were so well-prepared, you could have blasted Charles away from here before our uprising, so why wait until today?"

Old White grinned.

Other players might not know, but he was aware that Fang Chang indeed had made a similar contingency plan—

Which was, before Charles consolidated the defenses on Shazhou Island, to use Ring Island’s airport as a springboard to occupy Shazhou Island, thereby increasing the number of islands controlled by the South Sea Union from four to five.

Compared to the mere 30 square kilometers of Ring Island, Shazhou Island, with its flatter terrain, lower population density, and closer position to the central Southern sea area, was clearly more suitable as an air force base for the Union in the Southern sea area.

In fact, the South Sea Federation Authorities also hoped for this, and Commander Li even suggested taking a risk by sending out the fleet to cover for the troops landing on the island.

This contingency plan had been submitted to the Alliance Staff Department, and they had even developed a battle plan and execution strategy, but unfortunately, it did not get the Manager’s approval.

"...Forced equality is not equality; it’s okay if you don’t understand, I don’t understand everything either, but I trust our Manager to lead us to end the Wasteland, just like we trust him to hold off the Chewing Bone Tribe and the Tide."

Old White squeezed his shoulder and then let go.

"Go do your job well, just like us."

As they spoke, a thunderous blast came from the quiet sea, and a series of tracer bullets formed a curve in the sky like a whip, then burst into two balls of fire.

Moments later, the voice of a Goblin Corps pilot came through the communication channel.

"...This is Feng Qing, the enemy destroyer’s air defense is too dense! Our missiles can’t penetrate their Dot Defense System..."

The Federal Navy, being built with the Army as an imaginary enemy, naturally wouldn’t be foolish enough to lack an air defense system.

Moreover, the main use of destroyers is for anti-submarine warfare and air defense, and Charles dispatched destroyers for unloading escort, considering the Alliance’s "air superiority" and General Li Minghui’s submarines.

But they hadn’t expected that these guys would even have a dense air defense network...

Old White frowned slightly.

Just then, new information came from the Southern Alliance Command.

"...Enemy landing craft and escorting destroyers are approaching within 20 nautical miles to your south. We have detected sonar and radar signals from 27 vessel activities within 150 nautical miles around Shazhou Island... We can’t confirm if those coordinates are valid targets, could we bother your air force to take a look?"

coordinates!

Spanning 150 nautical miles!

Old White’s expression became somewhat grave as he said in a low voice.

"...I’ve already informed our air force; please have your submarines continue searching the nearby sea area!"

The South Sea Union operator on the other end immediately replied.

"Understood!"

Due to special orbital conditions near the Earth, there are no strategic satellites over Wasteland, and even if there were, pinpointing the precise location of a fleet in the vast ocean is not an easy task.

After ending the communication with the Goblin Corps, Old White quickly switched to the squad’s voice channel and informed his entire team about the situation in Changsha.

"The enemy intends to attack our southern position! Everyone, prepare for battle!"

Communications transmitted one formidable response after another.

"Yes!"

A hundred and twenty-man platoon split into three sections, establishing a triangular defensive pivot along the island’s southern structures.

At the same time, on the once again quiet sea, two massive ships emerged.

According to intelligence provided by the South Sea Union, that was the North Island Navy’s Reefs destroyer!

The point defense systems located at the bow and stern could unleash a torrent of mass bombs weighing 100 grams each at an extreme firing rate of tens of thousands of rounds per minute, effectively launching a ton of mass into the sky in just one minute!

Such a barrage composed of this weaponry could likely intercept anything from missiles and drones to a sufficient number of artillery shells!

In addition to the point defense systems for air targets, the Reefs were also equipped with torpedo launchers, missile launchers, and a 150mm naval gun.

If this beast were to get close to shore, the consequences would be unthinkable!

However, the "asymmetry" on the Wasteland was mutual, which was the biggest difference between the Wasteland and the Real World.

The Federal Navy, developed over 150 years, was indeed powerful, but the Alliance’s land-based weapons were no slouch either.

After enhancements by the researchers at Shelter No. 70, the "Dragon" missile developed by Huge Rock Military Industry evolved into a land-based launch "long-range anti-ship version"—the "Sea Dragon"!

Shortly after the "Thunder" fighter planes failed to break through the fire net, at the edge of the floating airstrip outside Ring Island, a boxy missile launcher raised its enormous head.

Following the launch order, a white smoke burst through the dust cover and soared into the sky, pushing a silvery missile through the dense clouds.

The missile, sharp as a dagger, drew a parabolic trajectory and struck the Reefs, which served as "bait" and willingly exposed itself to the radars of both the Alliance and the South Sea Union.

The Reefs’ point defense system functioned without a hitch, unleashing a dense onslaught from its raised cannons like a swarm attacking the "Sea Dragon" as it descended from above!

A blinding light exploded in the air, but that wasn’t the Sea Dragon detonating—it was the warhead initiating a deliberate explosion upon detecting a high-speed object’s approach!

In the vessel’s bridge behind Reefs, a man with epaulettes on his hat sharply narrowed his eyes, sensing something amiss as the missile exploded.

Their radar had detected no enemy ships nearby!

This was a land-launched missile!

At the same time, just a short distance ahead at the terminal, cries of alarm and curses could be heard.

"Radar components overloaded! Launchers cannot function properly!"

"Unable to lock onto enemy aircraft position!"

"Sonar system failure! Damn it!"

"It’s an EMP! Notify the repair team to fix it immediately!"

"How long will it take?!"

"The damage isn’t severe... it should be handled within five minutes!"

"Five minutes?!"

The Reefs destroyer was fitted with a "counter-strong electromagnetic pulse device," but it required shutting down the active phased array radar and sonar, entering a radio silence state for activation.

However, their attention had previously been entirely on the hair-trigger aircraft and the unknown location of submarines; they had not anticipated the Alliance would use such a tactic.

Reliance on passive anti-EMP components alone was clearly insufficient to completely shield from the direct hit of this strategic EMP weapon.

The spear and shield are always relative concepts—there is no defense that is absolutely impenetrable.

The loss of sonar and radar was tantamount to Reefs losing both its eyes.

Although the destroyer’s point defense system has two sets of recognition devices that could use optical lenses for visual identification and locking of flying objects without depending on radar, the interception efficiency couldn’t match radar’s.

And the most critical was the sonar system...

The three attack submarines were the greatest trump card of the South Sea Union!

Realizing the gravity of the situation, the Captain’s forehead beaded with cold sweat as he quickly turned to the main artillery operator.

"What about the fire control system?"

"Temporarily... no malfunctions found!" The main gun area operator, sitting before the terminal, swallowed nervously and responded.

Hearing this answer brought no comfort to the Captain and just then, the radio operator suddenly spoke up.

"Sir! The command is requesting us to bombard the coastline! The landing ships in front of us will lower their landing craft in thirty seconds!"

The Captain was stunned, his eyes widening in disbelief.

"Have they lost their minds?! Those are Shazhou Island residents!"

While the operation plan did mention covering the landing troops reaching Shazhou Island and even detailed how he would serve as bait to lure out the "Rebel Fleet" from Anle Island and coordinate with the nearby main Fleet to sink them, the plan never called for him to bombard his own people!

Though what happened on Shazhou Island infuriated him, it was the guards who had caused the trouble; the survivors living on Shazhou Island were innocent.

At least in his eyes, those people were his compatriots!

The radio operator conveyed the situation to the command and after receiving a response, hesitated and looked towards the Captain.

"Command says... they’re traitors. We’re ordered to open fire immediately."

There was no time for hesitation.

The Captain clenched his teeth and turned to the gunnery operator.

"... Aim for the coastline! Fire away from the city!"

The gunnery operator hesitated but eventually acknowledged the order.

"Yes!"

As the order was issued, the 150mm naval cannon on the Reefs destroyer slowly raised its barrel and fired a correction shot toward the south shore of Shazhou Island, which was followed by a continuous barrage of fierce artillery.

Hearing the deafening boom of the cannons, Old White, crouched in a building in the urban area, took a deep breath, clutching binoculars tightly in his hands as he stared at the landing crafts growing closer on the sea, and issued the order for combat on the communication channel.

"All teammates ready! Safety off! Let our enemies land on the shore first, then hit them hard!"

After a brief pause, he switched the communication channel to Brother Chicken and spoke gravely.

"EMP successfully detonated... Enemy ships did not respond to our fighter planes sweeping from above the clouds, their radar systems seem to be paralyzed, and if the engineer from Shelter No. 70’s analysis is reliable, their sonar systems are probably in trouble, too. Now it’s your turn to make a move."

A cheerful reply came through the communication channel.

"Roger that!"

At this moment, on the billowing waves, more than thirty landing crafts approached the shallows of Shazhou Island’s south side under the cover of gunfire, and directly charged onto the beachhead.

As the hatches of each craft opened, a horde of green-skinned mutants roared onto the shore, their amber pupils emitting a terrifying green glow.

They held large-caliber rifles and even machine guns in their hands, wore modified exoskeletons, and had thick bulletproof steel plates hanging in front of their chests, some even with remnants of vomit.

Clearly, this was their first time on a boat, and with a high probability, the only time in their lives.

Seeing the mutants, and highly likely those transferred from the northern line, the players crouched in the urban area had no more traces of mercy in their eyes, and they became fierce.

"Open fire—!"

With that roar, darkened windows were instantly illuminated by the muzzle flash of heavy machine guns.

Tracers like rain pelted toward the beach, colliding with the mutants who had reached the beachhead.

Spattered blood dyed the beach red, but these mutants had the upper hand in numbers; nearly a thousand of them had packed into more than thirty heavy landing crafts, scattering on the beach like cockroaches crawling everywhere.

Moreover, Charles had apparently used North Island’s industrial facilities to modify these mutants, even manufacturing fully protected exoskeletons and assault rifles specially designed for mutants.

The mutants who landed on the island split into ten teams, encircling the streets along the coastline like a huge bowl turned upside down, and the boiling battle raged along the contours of the urban area!

Meanwhile, the Reefs destroyer that bombarded the coastline also ceased firing, according to plan, to be on the lookout for the possible appearance of the main fleet of the South Sea Union or submarines.

Then, to Charles’s surprise, the fleet of the South Sea Union did not materialize.

After sending ground forces to Shazhou Island, the Union seemed to have only probed the Reefs with aircraft, then fired a ground-launched missile, and ended all sea offensive, even ignoring the artillery fire from the Reefs directed at their ground forces sent to Shazhou Island.

Honestly, this was abnormal!

North Island Command.

Watching the fierce battlefield through a drone’s view, Charles cursed.

"...What the hell is Zhang Ruowen doing! Not a single shell fell into the urban area!"

Zhang Ruowen was the captain of the Reefs.

More than ten minutes into the landing battle, over half of the thousand or so mutants who landed on the island had been killed or wounded. Only then did he realize that the previous artillery round had been futile.

The defensive forces stationed in the urban area suffered almost no losses, with the artillery fire at most damaging a few roads.

Now that the landing forces were obstructed and the Union’s main fleet had not been drawn out, his fleet ambushed in the nearby sea area had also ambushed in vain.

Standing by Charles, a staff officer spoke in a low voice.

"Given the current strength on Shazhou Island, we probably aren’t enough to capture the entire island; the Union has another defense team deployed at the northern beachhead... If the bait operation doesn’t work, I suggest we pull the Reefs back."

Charles said grimly.

"Our operation has not failed yet."

The staff officer nodded and said.

"Indeed, but continuing to wait won’t yield better results, especially since Anle Island has been informed that our main fleet is not at North Island..."

Hearing the latter half, Charles quickly calmed down.

Indeed.

The greatest risk of the entire plan was not the potential loss of a destroyer but the possible risk of creating a defensive vacuum on North Island.

Folding his arms across his chest, he tapped his upper arm twice with his index finger and immediately turned to the communication officer to issue an order.

"Tell the Reefs to come back... never mind, let me speak to their captain on the phone, give me the headset! I’ll talk to that idiot myself!"

As he said this, he snatched the headset from the communication officer and put it on.

"What the hell are you doing! I told you to bombard the urban area of Shazhou Island, where the hell did you drop the shells, in some godforsaken place?"

There was no response in the communication channel.

Apparently conscious of his guilt, the man couldn’t utter a word in shame.

After scolding his subordinate extensively, Charles took a couple of breaths to calm himself and continued.

"...I don’t care what thought or excuse you have, because of your dereliction of duty, we missed the opportunity to crush our opponent in one fell swoop! Now get your ass back here immediately!"

However, what he didn’t expect was that the long-silent communication channel suddenly transmitted a strange voice.

"They can’t come back."

Charles shuddered through his body, blurting out reflexively.

"Who the hell are you?!"

The voice on the other end laughed heartily and freely introduced himself.

"Midnight Chicken Killing, commander of the Jungle Corps! Anyway, thanks for the ship."

Charles: "???"