This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 528.1: One of Us

In Sunset Province, there existed something called a Sandworm Mutant. When it reared up, it was as tall as a building and could swallow a child in a single gulp. Its combat prowess was terrifying.

Against it, even an awakener would be crushed like a tin can.

At the time, a widely held belief on the forums was that the sandworm’s destructive power would obliterate all infrastructure outside riverbanks. If the sandworm infestation wasn’t resolved, any roads or railways the New Alliance attempted to build in Sunset Province would be pointless.

That led many players to speculate that the New Alliance would issue large-scale extermination quests for sandworms via limited-time events to ensure smooth construction progress. Some high-level players even devised elaborate tactics specifically for combating sandworms.

But to everyone’s surprise, that event never came.

The sandworms, which were expected to have a major impact on the war’s outcome, never even appeared in the sight of the frontlines or logistics forces.

Of course, this wasn’t because sandworms were afraid of the New Alliance. Expecting beasts to reason would be absurd. The truth was far more strategic. The New Alliance had designed its front-line camps and logistics routes to completely avoid sandworm territory.

Which raised a question, how did they know where sandworm activity zones were? After all, these areas weren’t marked on any map, and even the most experienced merchants wouldn’t claim to know every sandworm nest in the desert. So how did the New Alliance command manage it?

Well, that was a long story.

To ensure the construction of highways and railroads leading to the Lion Kingdom went smoothly, Chu Guang had dispatched the Guard Corps to survey nearby villages and interview merchants who regularly traveled through Sunset Province.

Their investigation revealed that, despite their formidable power, sandworms had very low reproductive rates. They stayed in one place for years and didn’t expand their nests.

Later, Shelter 79’s Biological Research Institution took up the topic and discovered a striking coincidence. Sandworm nests overlapped heavily with pre-war subterranean aqueducts!

After investigating one such nest in depth, New Alliance biologists discovered that it was growing directly atop a damaged water conduit.

From there, the solution was simple.

As long as roads and railways, along with front-line encampments, avoided areas with active underground water flows, everything would be fine.

And that was exactly what they did.

It was the most efficient and economical choice. In fact, when the Corps planned their marching routes and base deployments, they deliberately steered clear of those dangerous zones.

After all, where there were sandworms, there was underground water. And where there was water, there were often other dangerous arthropod mutants like Mutant Scorpions, areas utterly unsuitable for stable transport routes. With fewer people around, the mutants grew restless.

That was one of the many hidden battles in which the two sides competed. It was not a clash of weapons, but a test of strategy. And no less thrilling for its silence. 𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

If Chu Guang had blindly trusted forum gossip or reacted rashly to minor signals, mobilizing players for a grand Sandworm Extermination Campaign, it would have gone down in history as a textbook strategic failure. It wouldn’t have done anything for the bigger picture.

Given the wasteland’s conditions, unless they repaired the aqueducts or cut off their water supply entirely, mutant creatures in Sunset Province would always return to the last sources of water.

In the short term, sure, laying a road over sandworm corpses would be faster and cheaper. The New Alliance might even earn the title of ‘Conqueror of the Sandworms’ and get a +10 prestige boost in the region.

But over the next few months, logistics and frontline troops would be crippled by increased attrition, weakened combat efficiency, and non-combat casualties.

Even if the war was won, and the New Alliance and its vassals enjoyed peace for a while, the wasteland’s nature guaranteed the sandworms, or something just as deadly, would return.

They might evolve into migratory Diggers, or be replaced by other, less powerful but equally lethal mutants.

The consequence? The New Alliance would have to assign hundreds, maybe thousands, of troops to patrol roads full-time. And the railroads and highways, burdened with constant risk, would become loss-making ventures.

One day, the New Alliance might get fed up and build an entirely new network.

If the New Alliance had unlimited cheap labor, maybe it could afford to defy nature. But regrettably, the shelters hadn’t granted Chu Guang any more player slots.

Sometimes, Chu Guang couldn’t help but wonder... Had the First Administrator predicted he would try to cut corners? Was that why they intentionally limited the release of genetic sequences?

With too many players, game companies really could treat them as expendable products. And that wasn’t just a problem with one big-name developer.

The Sandworm Report was just a small episode in the campaign.

After reviewing findings from the logistics department, Lifestyle Profession players, and New Alliance researchers, Chu Guang made a practical decision.

Since it wasn’t a major issue, and only a few players were involved in the investigation, he didn’t bother including it in the update announcement.

Compared to the war with the Army, research work like that was trivial at the time.

Things like that happened almost every day.

More pressing threats than Na Fruits popped up hourly. The Wasteland teemed with bizarre species and technological relics.

If wastelanders thought they’d seen it all, even talking Deathclaws, Chu Guang was the ultimate collector of strangeness. The stories he heard from Little Seven and the players likely made up half the New Alliance’s total information flow.

Unless the New Alliance built a giant wall like Boulder Town, it was nearly impossible to create a true, layered defense mechanism through unified effort like nations on Earth had. Total threat isolation was a fantasy.

The kind of freak event that might happen once in a century on Earth happened daily in the wasteland. Some players, after raising their regional reputation, even joined the guardian forces just to document all the weirdos and bizarre cases they encountered. The better ones even got a loyal audience for it on the forums.

That was why Chu Guang relied on professional judgment rather than wild player speculation based on real-world logic.

In any case, Na Fruits hadn’t ruined the New Alliance’s victory celebration.

That unclean fruit, and all the chaos it brought with it, was swiftly cleaned up by the guards and the Festival Committee.

Because of Chu Guang’s urgency, Hyrja immediately dropped what she was doing and focused on analyzing Na Fruits. Before dusk, she called him back.

“... To begin with, I can confirm it’s not a product of Slime Mold. Also, based on my observations, it doesn’t behave like a typical crop. Once a patch of soil is infected by this fungus, no other plant can grow in it.”

She paused before continuing, “Also, it’s not a fruit from a plant. It’s a fungus that lives in symbiosis with plants. You’ve heard of wood ear mushrooms, right?”

“Of course... Wait. You mean it doesn’t grow on trees, but is attached to them?”

“Exactly.”

“But soil infected with these fungal threads can’t grow crops?”

Hyrja nodded at Chu Guang’s confused holographic projection.

“Smart... But you thinking is still a little rigid.”

Chu Guang cleared his throat. “I’m busy. Just get to the point.”

Hyrja uncrossed her arms and patiently explained, “What makes Na Fruits unique is that normal plants, animals, and even microbes can’t survive in its territory. But infected hosts not only survive, they thrive. For example, the rubber-producing trees do not wither when infected. It becomes a breeding bed for Na Fruits. You get what I mean?”

“So the way to cultivate Na Fruits isn’t through seeds, but...”

“Just pour the feces of a creature that ate Na Fruits at the root of a tree,” she said bluntly. “Na Fruits doesn’t have seeds, just sweet, honey-like flesh filled with fibrous fungal strands, those are its seeds. It’s pure fungus, completely different from Slime Mold.”

Slime Mold only displayed fungal traits during specific life stages. Most of the time, they behaved like animals.

They were predators, consumers in the food chain!

Like tigers and lions... Or rather, mutants and Deathclaws.

But Na Fruits was something else entirely. It rewrote the rules of the food chain.

Instead of battling for survival, immune systems coexisted with viruses under Na Fruits’ influence. Natural adversaries became allies in a new ecological order.

Bright green contaminant invaded the soil. Old-world seeds could no longer sprout. Only life that embraced Na Fruits thrived and spread it farther.

Good grief.

What paternal love!

Chu Guang was stunned.

Those weren’t fruits. They were filth incarnate!

Swallowing hard, he asked, “Is there a way to purify land contaminated by it?”

“... A strong acid disinfectant will work. It’s not anaerobic, so it doesn’t penetrate deep soil layers. But honestly, fire’s better. Ever heard of flame weeding? I’ve seen your players use it as herbicide.”

Chu Guang blinked. “... It’s that easy?”

Fire could burn it...

Come to think of it, they used fire against Slime Mold too. Back when he and the players fought the Tide, they’d relied on incendiaries to destroy fruiting bodies.

Against anything that wasn’t an evolved form, oil barrels worked better than explosive or armor penetrating rounds.

Watching him overthink it, Hyrja rolled her eyes. “Don’t mystify biology. Slime Mold was a legacy of the Prosperity Era, Na Fruits are the child of the wasteland. Still, I’m continuing my study. There are some peculiar things...”

“Like what?”

“Its rejection by Slime Mold. Normally, Slime Mold devours all organic matter. But it avoids Na Fruits’ fungal threads. Even the Crunchers we captured refuse to eat the fruit. I’m wondering... what if this is an artificial problem, created by a shelter or lab trying to fix the Slime Mold issue?”

That moment, Chu Guang suddenly understood why the Academy moved to the swamp.

In the Wasteland, the greatest threat wasn’t radiation or Slime Mold. It was mad geniuses with too much knowledge.

Hives had natural limits. But Na Fruits... had none.