Chapter 963 - This Game Is Too Realistic

Chapter 963: On the Brink of War [Plague of the Mad Rats?! Domestic and wild cats lie dead everywhere, while rats overrun the capital! Family Meeting's second-in-command, Sawa, calls another meeting, urging families to unite again and declare war on the rats in the Boro Province area! —— [Survivor's Daily] Jinjialun Port Edition] [The cat ban is beginning to show results. People must eat first to feed cats, and survivors in the capital are living in harmony, all thanks to Zayed for providing us with food. Under pressure from the Family Meeting, the leader of the Mammoth Nation, Shawa, has released five hundred hostage university undergraduates and pre-undergraduates. All the children of the capital are safely home and have met with the parents of Zayed! Let's welcome the future pillars! In contrast, the southern legion's dogs who fled to New Sail Harbour live in hardship, crying constantly. They truly deserve such an outcome! Moreover, locust plagues have broken out in multiple areas such as the Hundred-Yue Strait, the southern seas, and the Coast of Death, leading to food shortages, rampant disease, and mutant infestations… It's estimated that it may result in the deaths of a million people! A professor at the Capital University analyzed the situation, citing the alliance's unfriendly stance towards the Family Meeting and how the local wastelanders lack guidance without family intervention. Let's hold a three-minute silence for the survivors suffering on the wasteland. Sooner or later, we will save them. —— [Survivor's Daily] Capital Edition] [Chips Port’s First Beauty Pageant! The champion "Drunk Laughing Beauty" is actually a cross-dressing man!? A surge in immigrant numbers! Representatives from the Hundred-Yue Strait region are planning to establish a fourth settlement! Now accepting votes from the public! The most popular cuisines this month are hot pot, crab roe paste, coconut jelly, and ice cream! —— [Survivor's Daily] Chips Port Edition] [The Free State's "Company" War continues to heat up! Gang members and hound special forces fired in the streets! During this morning’s briefing, Saren twirled a pen with his right hand, suggesting that even the conservative faction of the alliance might be unable to resist getting secretly involved?! The Boro Province's murder competition has entered the second round! Gulion, who ordered the bombing of Lion City, only ranked third?! (Accompanied by image: Zayed and Shawa arm wrestling, with crushed tomatoes in their grip, Gulion stands aghast in the corner.) General Mcklen’s opinion is that he refuses to offer an opinion. —— [Survivor's Daily] New Sail Harbour Edition] ... Grand Canyon. As guests from all directions gradually returned home, the sanctuary housing the last sparks of human civilization returned to tranquility. One rather unserious old man finally became somewhat serious. A small, empty meeting room. Seated at the obsidian long table, the chief manipulated the holographic screen in front of him with his forefinger, a smile of satisfaction suddenly spreading across his face. "One survived. That's not too bad." Everyone has their own "destiny," or rather, "historical mission." This destiny isn't decided by any single individual but is the result of collective choices, both similar and different. Although the alliance's administrators mocked this theory as "fortune-telling," he preferred to call it "the study of civilization." Facing their destinies, Abosek struggled with letting go, while Mayor Aldo struggled with picking up the mantle. Now, one has let go, and the other has picked up. Their futures are bright. As for Shawa... Although he was given a relatively easy path, he didn’t follow the proposed route. Instead, he chose another solution to the puzzle — total slaughter! This is the most challenging path. He must inherit Lasi's legacy and initiate a massacre Lasi dared not undertake! The chief suddenly recalled Reze, the lad who always accompanied Julius. They, in truth, belonged to the same category—burning themselves for the dreams of others. Shaking his head, the chief swiped his finger to close the hovering holographic window before him. "What a sin…" ... Abosek was serious. After leaving Jinjialun Port, he actually registered a company at Chips Port, named Abosek Aerospace, primarily focusing on "aerospace adaptation of plasma engines for aviation." Though the business name sounds high-end, in practice, it wasn’t as complicated as it sounded. Simply put, it involves installing aircraft engines onto spacecraft. In the distant old era, plasma engines were first born in the aerospace sector. Only after chemical engines were almost completely phased out were they adapted for aviation. What Abosek Aerospace seeks to do is to return advanced plasma technology to where it truly belongs. From the perspective of following the historical tide, this business direction wasn't a problem, and perhaps many large alliance companies were already quietly pursuing it. However, for the Boro people, who are still engaged in endless political infighting, this endeavor is quite ahead of its time; most "Valley People" still think of them only having meals on railways. As for aerospace, it’s something survivors from Dawnbreak City and Megalith City might undertake. As the saying goes, knowing shame leads to courage. Though he had accepted his fate, a part of Abosek still harbored a lingering spark, not fully extinguished. He intended to prove to the wasteland’s other races that the Boro people weren't only proficient in internal conflict but also capable of advancing progress, maybe even leading the world’s races! Clearly, he wasn’t alone with such aspirations. Upon hearing the news, Asin, who had long decided not to fund Boro Province's reform efforts, wrote a check worth ten million silver coins, instructing his confidant to deliver it to Abosek. This mouse-clan lad was still as headstrong as ever, even if he didn’t fully understand what aerospace was. And it wasn’t just Asin; some Moon-clan individuals, who had made fortunes earlier in Chips Port, also got involved. Reform might be impossible, but with funds to spare, setting off some firecrackers might suffice to leave their names in this grand epic. Thus, this newly established startup company with a registered capital of less than ten thousand silver coins gathered nearly fifty million silver coins in just half a month, thanks to support from Asin and various Moon-clan sponsors! Even Abosek didn’t expect that he, a deposed chieftain, still possessed such influence. With so much selfless support, he resolved in his heart to achieve something significant in the aerospace sector. Meanwhile, Abosek's right-hand man, Interior Commissioner Wadia, after relocating his family from the Wolf State of Boro Nation to Jinjialun Port, also embarked on a path similar to Abosek’s. However, unlike Abosek, he didn’t wait for the committee to expel him from Jinjialun Port but instead proactively submitted a resignation letter to the Boro Nation Embassy in Jinjialun Port. His battle was over. With no plans yet in mind, after some consideration, he bought a ticket, settled his family, and went alone to Chips Port to join his former leader, who was embarking on a "second venture." Abosek, pleased to see this former intelligence officer despite his unfit skills for their new venture, welcomed him warmly and appointed him head of the Inspectorate, tasked with managing risks related to sensitive projects and overseeing background checks on employees with access to confidential materials. These tasks were mandated by the alliance. After all, hoping to secure cutting-edge alliance technology with only tens of millions of silver coins was somewhat fanciful. Regardless of whether the technology was excavated from relics or borrowed from allies, it belonged collectively to all alliance citizens. Everyone had a right to use these technologies and improve them, or even register patents based on them, but first, they must undergo background checks. This investigation spanned areas such as founders’ backgrounds, funding sources, and application scenarios; it wasn’t conducted by economic departments but overseen directly by the Paladins. The alliance's intelligence departments also collaborated long-term with the inspectorates of non-governmental enterprises with access to sensitive information to jointly eliminate potential leaks. Wadia, as Boro Nation's former head of intelligence during wartime, was perfectly positioned to liaise with the alliance’s Paladins given his experience interacting with many of them. His outstanding resume making him head of an inspectorate in a startup seemed an underutilization, but Wadia felt no regret. Instead, he was delighted to serve a leader he trusted and respected once again. Though he considered other roles, staying by Abosek’s side provided a sense of peace, where he didn’t have to tread cautiously among a crowd of smart people. Perhaps this was charisma. Or rather, it was the ability to make talented individuals willingly commit themselves… As February rolled in, the days slipped by, bringing the promise of spring in the Northern Hemisphere. On the western coast of the Great Desert, the battle remained tense, though not as fierce as it had been at the end of last year. The Southern Legion was struggling, its strength nearly exhausted, both in manpower and resources, reaching the brink of collapse. In contrast, the corporate forces were gaining momentum, escalating from initially deploying two divisions to a full ten divisions. Over a hundred thousand citizens from Ideal City directly participated in the ground warfare against the Southern Legion! The last time the corporation launched such a large-scale military operation was more than a century and a half ago when mutants first escaped laboratory confines… Facing the corporation’s mechanized forces and the consecutive assaults from various alliance brigades, the Southern Legion's front-line units were like kindling tossed into a blaze—they offered little effective resistance and ended up battered and bruised. The battlefield wasn’t their only area of defeat; they were losing the war of public opinion too. Although the "Southern Legion Victory Bulletin" was still desperately weaving imminent victory tales, repeated debunking left even the Southern Legion's own soldiers skeptical of its reports. Moreover, Valant units, which had previously fought to the last moment under any circumstance, were now beginning to surrender in complete formations. Most of these surrendering units formed hundred-man teams. They were either assigned impossible missions, lost track of their commanders, or thrown onto the battlefield with just rifles handed to them. Of course, these reasons might have been secondary. The most pressing issue was that the zealous militarists had been utterly consumed by previous battles. The remaining forces consisted of either child soldiers, civilians pushed to the front lines with minimal training, or disinclined non-ethnic legionnaires unwilling to die with the legion. Nearly three hundred thousand regular troops and auxiliaries were encircled by the corporate forces in the Great Desert's northwest corner, while a remaining force of just over one hundred thousand was cramped near Avent City, retracting their defenses toward urban areas. Meanwhile, the southern part of the Batoia Province had opened its doors to the alliance. Convoys of supplies moved along the desert’s fringe via rail and road, supplying the southern front of Batoia Province. These supplies included not just military provisions but also engineering machinery for clearing bunkers and mines, such as large bulldozers and loaders. Eliminating the remnant forces of the Southern Legion was merely the beginning. Post-conflict, they aimed to embark on reconstruction efforts in the Batoia Province region. Killing the beast alone would not eradicate the savagery. They had to plant the seeds of civilization there, establishing a new order to replace the old. Outside Avent City. The Death Brigade, having trucked to the front lines, was the first to take position in the battle. As [Debt-Laden Big-Eye], carrying large bags in both hands, disembarked from the truck, the group of players who had been bantering fell silent, casting astonished looks in his direction. “Whoa?” “Why do you have so much luggage?” “Damn! Are you moving in?” Debt-Laden Big-Eye chuckled awkwardly, trying to conceal his bags behind him. "What are you talking about? It's just some supplies—" Before he could finish, [Umbrella-at-Midnight-No-Knife] mischievously unzipped one of the bags behind him. Unexpectedly, the contents tumbled out like a mini-avalanche. “Holy crap! What are you doing?!” Debt-Laden Big-Eye panicked, bending down in a rush to pick the items up. However, the sheer volume made it a daunting task. “Sorry, man, I was just kidding. You have so much stuff, why not pack it better…” Umbrella-at-Midnight-No-Knife apologized, crouching down to help. But then, [Construction Site Kid and Brick], picked up a palm-sized package from the ground. The packaging looked quite exquisite, with a carefully tied bow on top. Construction Site Kid and Brick shook the box, looking bewildered at Big-Eye. “...Chocolate? Why the hell did you bring so much chocolate?” Judging by the similar boxes scattered around, it seemed most were filled with chocolates or candies—there were easily over a hundred of them, explaining why his bags were bulging. Debt-Laden Big-Eye’s face reddened instantly, grabbing the elegantly packaged chocolate box abruptly and spouting a nervous excuse. “Cough! Isn’t there a famine in Avent City? I read in the papers that many are starving, so I thought of helping... You know, it’s just about being helpful.” The group burst into laughter at his far-fetched excuse. “Ha! Being helpful, sure.” “Come on, your excuse is worse than admitting you’re worried about your harem going hungry!” “+1! If his motives were that pure, I'd eat a pile right here and now!” “Guys, don’t be so crude! I’m a genuinely pure-minded person!” Debt-Laden Big-Eye protested with a strained red face, to no avail. At this moment, Construction Site Kid and Brick, still scrounging around, raised his head with a puzzled look, holding up a bag. “And what’s with the sanitary pads?” Lawbreaker: “???” Laplace: “Whoa!” Missus-you-don’t-want: “Hahaha, oh man! Didn't expect that from you, Big-Eye!” As everyone laughed uncontrollably, [Drum-Washer] sighed and rubbed his forehead in exasperation. “You act like this is your first time meeting him.” So he wanted to aid some homeless girls—what’s wrong with that? Just be transparent about it! The worst case, give someone else your helmet. Unable to take it any longer, [Peripheral-Drifter] walked over and cleared his throat. “Although the Southern Legion is cornered, don’t underestimate our enemies. Each of them is like a beast backed into a corner, and the city might have some surprises waiting for us.” Laplace chuckled. “Perfect! They can send us back to Dawn City with a bang!” Lawbreaker: “Hahaha!” I’m-first-to-die: “You really are something!” They were players. Undying spirits. What would be fatal to ordinary people was merely a three-day wait for them. Having fought from the Acarle County in Boro Province to here, none had uttered a word of defeat, and with victory near, there was certainly no reason to fear now. Peripheral-Drifter also laughed along with everyone, then turned his gaze toward Avent City in the distance. That fortress of steel loomed like a reef beneath turbulent waves. Barring surprises, this was to be the final battle… (A slight fever today, sorry for the shorter update…) To be continued.