This Game Is Too Real-Chapter 785: Landing on Death Coast!

"It seems a lot has happened in the Wasteland lately... in places we don’t know about."

In the captain’s quarters of the Steel Heart.

After listening to the recording sent by Fang Chang, a fatherly smile appeared on Chu Guang’s face, though his handsome face did not show a trace of age.

"Yes indeed..."

Sitting on Chu Guang’s right shoulder, Xiao Qi gently swung her legs and supported her cheeks with her hands, her face relaxed as she continued.

"...It feels like it won’t be long before master can retire and focus on spending time with Xiao Qi."

"Ha ha ha."

Chu Guang laughed cheerfully, casually turning off the holographic interface in front of him and teasing the little creature sitting on his shoulder.

"By the time I retire, that will still be far off... But it might not be too long before I start living a retired life."

To be honest, when he first recruited those guys, he never thought they would be so capable, sometimes even able to predict his predictions.

Although the forum was always full of wild guesses, saying that only someone like "a dragon among men, a reborn king of soldiers, a dragon god’s son-in-law" could get a helmet, in reality, as long as one wasn’t crazy, there was a chance of winning one.

Compared to the successful tycoons in reality, he preferred to give ordinary people a chance to start their second life.

After all, what favor could compare to the "favor of rebirth"?

Even just considering "brand loyalty", the players selected by this mechanism tended to become "Order Preservers" of the "Wasteland OL" virtual community rather than disrupt the existing order.

That was enough, actually.

The Wasteland wasn’t short of geniuses, just short of "normal people".

He had never expected to create a perfect ideal state with the brains of a group of geniuses; it sufficed if his little players did their jobs well within their capabilities.

However, while his demands for the players weren’t high, these players always managed to surprise him again and again.

Chu Guang couldn’t help but feel sentimental; it might not be long before his role as the faction boss could even be spared from appearing.

The clever little players not only learned to update game content themselves but even began designing "game rules" for NPCs.

At that moment, a communication request from the Alliance Staff Department popped up in the upper right corner of the holographic screen.

Upon seeing the incoming call, Xiao Qi chortled, conscientiously jumped down from Chu Guang’s shoulder, and sat back at the base of the pencil holder on the desk.

Without pausing, Chu Guang extended his index finger to press the button to connect the call, and a pale blue holographic beam quickly intertwined in the air to form the bust of Old White.

He was still wearing his "Dragon Cavalry" power armor. The XB-1 "Roarer" Bomb Gun was resting on his shoulder, and behind him was the cabin of a landing ship.

With a solemn expression gazing at Chu Guang and dressed in military attire, Old White set the bomb gun beside him and gave a military salute, his right fist knocking against his breastplate.

"...Respected Manager, the southern line troops have fully assembled! We await only your command, and we are ready to seize the coast of Haiya Province for you!"

The plans and operation codes for the landing operation were decided long ago; Chu Guang had reviewed them a month earlier and signed his name on them.

Until today, players stationed on North Island had rehearsed numerous times for the battle that was about to commence.

Probably thinking about potentially appearing in the game’s promotional PV, Old White even made a special call before starting.

Acknowledging his earnestness, Chu Guang adjusted his expression and seriously responded to the anticipation in those eyes.

"Very well! I have seen victory in your eyes. The people of the Alliance are waiting for your triumph, make sure not to disappoint their expectations!"

"Action!"

With a firm gaze fixed on those commanding eyes, Old White stood upright and swiftly shut his helmet’s face shield and visor.

That was the sign of the power armor entering combat mode—

"Yes!"

...

Elsewhere, in a hall bathed in holy light, a circular meeting room was furnished with thirteen uniquely designed chairs.

However, only ten people were sitting at the conference table.

The three absentees were Luo Gan, the "Beast King", and the "Human Emperor" who was currently commanding the battle at the northern front of Haiya Province.

In the middle of the conference table stood a shadowy figure, clad in a dark gray robe that stood out starkly against the white robes surrounding him.

Facing those scrutinizing gazes, Alzu felt a slight tingling on his scalp.

The situation now was completely different from when he stood here a year ago.

Back then, Luo Gan had just suffered a defeat, and the church district of Brocade River City had fallen. These Pioneers were doubting themselves, wondering if they had taken a wrong path. That was why he could stand here and boldly propose the idea of "Sanctuary No.2".

Not only could the Pioneers sitting here not gainsay him, but the Saint Heir also gave him enough trust and support, handing over the entire Southern Sea District for him to manage.

During this period, his cooperation with Charles yielded many good results, such as arming the blue-skinned mutants using technology from the survivors of the Southern sea area.

These were all his achievements, and even if the performance of the Southern Sea District was a mess later, no one could deny his contributions to the Torch Church.

However, that was precisely the problem.

The performance in the Southern Sea District was so bad that it overshadowed all his achievements.

With the occupation of North Island by the Alliance and Charles’s defeat, the Torch Church completely lost the opportunity to open a strategic space to the south.

Now they were like crickets trapped in a cage, surrounded by people who wanted to send them to the gallows...

Facing those questioning gazes, Alzu swallowed and, with a gulp, steeling himself, asserted.

"The Southern Sea District is no longer reliable... Our brainwashing doesn’t work on the locals."

Trying to justify his failure, he continued speaking rapidly.

"They are completely different from the survivors in Haiya and Brocade River Provinces. The wasteland there has ended too long ago. The locals are no longer classic Wasteland Wanderers; they are residents of Shelter No. 70... This is different from our initial assessment."

It was more than not working.

He had even been outmaneuvered by a captain of a destroyer who had used him to send false intelligence to Charles.

The fishermen were craftier than he had imagined, playing him like he was a Laken in the ocean.

"...but we haven’t lost yet, we just need to put the plan to expand the Nago mycelium into the ocean on hold for a moment."

Taking a deep breath, Alzu looked around at the surrounding Pioneers and seriously continued,

"How about heading west? Since taking Coral City in the short term is no longer realistic... I propose that we strategically relocate westward."

Saying this, he gently waved his index finger and spread a map out in front of him, pointing at the location of the Poluo Province.

"This land is adjacent to Silver Moon Bay, just across the sea from the eastern part of the Great Desert, and if you follow the equator straight through, you reach the center of the old world, the remnants of the space elevator... It is said that there’s a group there who call themselves the Enlightenment Society. They have explored clues related to the Torch Plan just like us, they should understand our situation."

"Although there’s a fundamental disagreement between us, if we could make contact with them, at least we wouldn’t have to face the pressure of the Sticky Community alone."

"Furthermore, Poluo Province has a large number of survivors. These people might be a bit foolish and unable to help us with technological research, but as a breeding ground for mutants, there should be no problem. So..."

Alzu took a deep breath and glanced at the Pioneers sitting around the table,

"I think it would be a good place to go..."

The meeting room fell silent for a while, not a single sound was heard.

If Alzu didn’t know that these Pioneers didn’t need sleep, he might have thought the old folks had fallen asleep.

The first to break the silence was Saint Heir sitting at the head of the conference table.

He sighed softly and then gently shook his head,

"...It’s useless."

Alzu was stunned.

His Adam’s apple moved, and he said anxiously,

"How can it be useless—"

"Because the plan you mentioned, we discussed it a long time ago."

Saint Heir said irrefutably, stretching out his index finger and lightly tapping the air, causing pale blue beams to stretch forward. In moments, the complete topography of Poluo Province from the Wasteland Era sketched out.

This map was far more detailed than the thumbnail map floating in front of Alzu, you could even see the mountains and rivers on the earth.

Clearly, the Torch’s Apostles had been there and had made thorough investigations before drawing their conclusions.

Watching the stunned Apostle, Saint Heir continued in a calm tone,

"About a decade or so ago, we considered choosing Poluo Province, which has not been interfered with by the Post-War Reconstruction Committee, as a starting point."

"That place has a broader area than Haiya Province, as well as more residents living under the Chaos Clock... and most importantly, it is far from the scrutiny of corporations, academies, and the Grand Canyon. Although there’s a risk of being targeted by the Army, they are unlikely to move against us. Besides, even if they decided to act, they would have to cross the Great Desert, and they might not be our match."

"Why not then?" Alzu asked urgently, looking at the Saint Heir, "Why don’t we go there?"

If it was there, the Academy wouldn’t have been able to target them so quickly! It might even have taken until their expansion reached Luo Xia Province to be discovered!

Of course, there might be other variables, but compared to the current situation, those were trivial.

Facing Alzu’s confusion, the voice of the Saint Heir carried a rare tone of helplessness.

"Because... the Red Soil."

Red Soil?

Alzu was taken aback.

What did Red Soil have to do with it?!

But just as he thought this, he suddenly came to his senses.

Could it be—

As if confirming his speculation, Saint Heir gently closed his right hand into a fist.

The map of Poluo Province floating before him crumpled like crushed paper into a lump of red soil.

"Poluo Province has a special kind of soil, or rather a fungus affixed to the soil, that has almost no effect on normal life, but it drains the nutrients from the soil and prevents other microorganisms from growing in it... like tetanus and botulinum bacteria. They, like animal remains buried in the Red Soil, are digested by the Red Soil."

Without other miscellaneous harmful bacteria or viruses, it’s also one of the reasons why Red Soil can be directly eaten.

After all, normally speaking, humans can’t eat soil not just because they can’t digest it, but largely because the harmful substances contained in the soil could lead to poisoning or even death.

And the magic of the Red Soil lies in that while it accumulates a small amount of nutrients, it kills most of the harmful substances.

In other words, if Nago met this stuff, it would likely be devoured by the Red Soil and turned into new Red Soil.

Alzu looked at the Saint Heir, his Adam’s apple moving up and down with difficulty, squeezing a sentence out of his mouth,

"This... how could it be possible, that kind of trash-like stuff, could actually counteract an achievement we’ve spent decades researching."

"Yet, that is the fact."

Looking at those shocked eyes, the Saint Heir sighed softly,

"Moreover, don’t underestimate that stuff—it was achieved by scholars of the Era of Prosperity during the early Wasteland Era. You know how powerful those scholars were, the singularity-level technology is actually something they almost touched but ultimately couldn’t reach."

The Apostle named Eure, captured by the Alliance and imprisoned somewhere in River Valley Province, was a scholar from the Era of Prosperity.

The anti-radiation agent and de-radiation agent he completed in the early Wasteland Era are still the "most economical solution" for removing radioactive damage in the Wasteland two hundred years later.

"...According to the results of our experiments, the Nago mycelium would be devoured by Red Soil just like the bodies and feces buried in it. If we can’t find a technical way to get the Nago mycelium to devour the Red Soil, the rapidly expanding Nago mycelium will only end up becoming a catalyst for the rapid spread of Red Soil, allowing it to spread across the prairies of Poluo Province like wild grass."

Pausing, the Saint Heir continued,

"This runs counter to our ideology, and it is also meaningless."

The ideology of the Torch Church is to enable the human species to ascend to a higher existence, not to become an edible "defense."

Therefore, they ultimately abandoned the plan to enter Poluo Province and chose the comparably intermediate Haiya Province as the first step for the descent of Heaven.

Although it was clear that General Lowell couldn’t possibly know what would happen two hundred years later, he did, somewhat by some mistake, once again save the survivors of Poluo Province.

Alzu swallowed a gulp of saliva, his voice straining to say,

"...What if we first artificially remove the Red Soil?"

If only the Red Soil could be removed before planting Nago—

"That would be the stupidest act of the century."

The Saint Heir didn’t hesitate to interrupt him and continued.

"That kind of thing can only slowly disappear naturally, we have tried for many years and haven’t found a biological solution."

Indeed, even if they had found it now, it would have been meaningless.

Starting anew in Poluo Province under the watchful eyes of various powers was perhaps no less difficult than holding out under the siege of the Sticky Community.

This was not just his opinion, the other nine Pioneers present shared the same thought.

However, upon hearing his response, a look of despair appeared on Alzu’s face.

Noticing his expression, the Saint Heir slightly furrowed his brows.

"What happened?"

Alzu was silent for a while, a bitter expression emerging on his face.

"The Alliance’s forces are gathering in the Northern Island of the Southern sea area, I’m worried—"

Before he could finish, his speech faltered and he seemed to disconnect from the meeting, his ethereal figure also momentarily flickering.

Watching his sudden change, surprised expressions emerged on the faces of those around the conference table, uncertain of what had happened.

"Is it a chip malfunction?"

"What is Alzu up to!"

"Couldn’t he find a place with better signal for such an important meeting!"

"That’s why I say, keeping a Mortal body is really troublesome..."

Discussions spread around the conference table.

Seeing Alzu, who had not reconnected for a long time, displeased expressions appeared on the faces of the Pioneers.

This guy is taking way too much time!

Sitting at the head of the conference table, the Saint Heir frowned lightly, a foreboding look briefly emerging in his void-like eyes.

Technically, he should be able to perceive the presence of each chip.

However, just now, he suddenly couldn’t sense Alzu’s presence anymore...

...

Above Haiya Province, an orange-red glow pierced the sky like a sharp sword.

With a sudden explosive sound, dazzling white light flashed, and a broad electromagnetic pulse instantly enveloped tens of thousands of square kilometers below.

"Ouch...?"

The blue-skinned mutants wandering along the coastline all stopped what they were doing and raised their ugly heads.

It seemed something had exploded above their heads, but it had no effect on them, making all the mutants show puzzled expressions.

What exactly had happened?

Meanwhile, seated not far from the coastline in an underground facility, Alzu abruptly opened his eyes, a trace of confusion in his turbid pupils.

EMP!

The data transmission capacity of the bionic chips was limited and, given the material’s properties, they were almost unaffected by a broad electromagnetic pulse.

But bionic chips were not everything in the Holy Land; there were also signal bases.

Only when close by could chips connect directly point-to-point to form a distributed network, such as all chip bearers being in the same settlement.

But once the physical distance stretched beyond several kilometers, it was necessary to rely on signal bases to achieve "domain-to-domain" connections.

This was determined by physical constraints.

At the same time, communication components that frequently transmit and receive electromagnetic waves were far more vulnerable to the effects of electromagnetic pulses compared to data-processing components.

Especially when an EMP strike occurred, and during a Hall meeting, in an effort to connect all chips and minimize blind spots in information, nearly all signal bases were activated.

This EMP had silenced him!

Especially since he was currently in an underground facility and had to rely on signal repeaters to connect to the external chip groups.

Even if the wired sections were still intact, the wireless sections were virtually annihilated...

This was probably no longer a tactical weapon strike, but a strategic one.

"Damn... precisely at this time!"

Realizing the severity of the situation, cold sweat broke out on Alzu’s forehead as he abruptly stood up, quickly rushing into a monitoring room along a narrow, dark corridor.

The screens covering the entire wall were split into hundreds of large and small blocks, and almost ninety percent of those screens were now showing static.

The staff seated next to the monitoring terminal looked at Alzu apprehensively.

"...I don’t know what happened, it suddenly turned like this."

Alzu grabbed his collar, staring intently into his eyes.

"What about before this? Did anything appear on the monitor?"

The collared man stammered, unable to speak a word, while another staff member seated not far from him nervously said,

"I think I saw a white light... it came from the direction of Northern Island."

Northern Island!

Alzu’s face drastically changed, immediately diving his consciousness into the chip in his brain, connecting all the brains he could in this underground facility.

"Transfer the surface materials to underground! Sound the physical alarm! Put the beachhead troops on battle alert!"

They’ve come!!!

The Alliance people were here!!!

His shoulders trembled uncontrollably, a shiver emerging in his murky pupils.

But it wasn’t entirely out of fear—excitement also played a part.

Previously in Brocade River City, he had cleaned up the aftermath for Luo Gan and had a confrontation with Alliance people.

Unfortunately, when he took over, failure was nearly irredeemable.

But this time was different; everything at Death Coast was orchestrated by him.

The chance to redeem himself was right in front of him!

He should be happy—

No, what did ’should’ mean, he was happy!

"Hehe... finally arrived." His right hand tightly gripped his left wrist, Alzu’s mouth revealing a crazed laughter.

Watching the incessantly trembling head, several workers in the control room couldn’t help but swallow their spit.

Though the Alliance was indeed tough to deal with, there was no need for him to tremble like that...

...

The reason why the "Dragon" missile launched from North Island with a strategic EMP warhead had hit its mark was not because of the players’ luck.

The timing and coordinates of the strike had been precisely calculated to ensure maximum destruction of the enemy’s communication systems along Death Coast.

In fact, since the Alliance’s forces landed on North Island, communication stations established there had been monitoring electromagnetic signals from Haiya Province.

Although Torch Church’s encryption techniques were strong, even the Sticky Community Allied forces, which gathered talents from all parties, failed to crack its codes. For a "desolate" province, estimating the timing of Torch Church’s "meetings" was too easy.

Just targeting the peaks of electromagnetic waves was enough, bombarding wherever signals clustered.

As expected by everyone, this electromagnetic pulse immediately stunned the mutants along the coastline, root-bound and motionless for a long while.

Obviously, with the information nodes destroyed, the frontline troops couldn’t receive signals from the command center at the rear.

North Island operations command center.

The workers sitting at the control terminals were nervously and excitedly exchanging information.

"EMP successfully detonated! Confirm effective strike!"

"Our air force has reached above the enemy space! Successfully destroyed the enemy’s communication infrastructure and active radar!"

"Nicely done!"

"Send ground scan data to the frontline landing forces!"

"Synchronizing!"

Meanwhile, on the azure sea, eight landing ships advanced towards Death Coast under the escort of the South Sea Alliance fleet.

The thick gun barrels, like the lances of cavalry, pointed directly toward the coastline.

General Li Minghui, the wartime president of the South Sea Alliance, stood on the bridge of the Harpoon cruiser.

Not just him.

His mysterious and wealthy "old friend," Duke Nihak, was also standing on that bridge.

Although Nihak had volunteered to board the ship to watch the battle, despair made his legs weak, and his usually composed and confident face now showed only shock, his lips trembling intermittently.

"Is this the South Sea Alliance’s fleet?"

He unconsciously glanced at Li Minghui standing beside him, only to see that the usually courteous president seemed like a completely different person now.

No—

This was probably his true self.

The guy was a general, who had only taken on the president’s role due to urgent circumstances... he had actually forgotten such a critical fact!

The eyes beneath sharp eyebrows sparked like thunder, meticulously fixating on what lay ahead of the bridge.

Duke Nihak swallowed, trying to say something to cover his unease, but the imposing air around stifled his words.

"All hands, ready the artillery!"

The commanding voice suddenly rang out, startling a distracted Nihak.

With his right hand gripping the communicator, Li Minghui’s eyes firmly staring ahead, suddenly roared.

"Release the barrage, fire eight rounds!"

"Fire—!"

As those words fell, a deafening explosion abruptly spread from both sides of the flagship. Blasts of fire surged forward, slicing through the rolling smoke and waves!

"Boom!!!"

The hissing sound of ripping air crossed the battlefield, igniting deadly fireworks on the sands of Death Coast!

Simultaneously, eight landing ships opened their forward hatches, as "Short Snout" amphibious armored vehicles plunged into the sea like dumplings being dropped into boiling water, pushing through the waves towards the smoke-filled coastline!

Alongside them was a landing craft, carrying dispersed troops within.

Metal, fire, and sea merged at that moment, as rounds and rockets struck continuously like a pipe organ’s interlude, raining death upon the players’ heads along the shoreline.

Blood seemed to burn!

Players crouched in the landing craft clenched their rifles tightly, their eyes unanimously filled with excitement and high morale!

Time to end it all!

The chaos corrupting the earth—

Loud shouts burst through the communication channels, even overpowering the screeching of mutants on the coastline.

"For the Alliance!!!"

"Charge!!!"