Why Did You Just Surrender?

"Hahaha! Awesome! Triple six! This autocannon of yours is way too damn fun—wait, no, it's way too damn broken!" "How is it fair if the devs don't nerf this into the ground?" Sitting behind the gun mount in the truck bed, Mosquito, having held down the trigger until he emptied a full belt, shouted in sheer exhilaration. Forty high-explosive rounds loaded in full, and once that burst went off, the air filled with a continuous barrage of thudding booms. It was infinitely more thrilling than setting off fireworks. He had to give credit where credit was due: the explosion effects and damage physics in this game were absurdly realistic! Unlike in *Sci-Fi Storm V*, where spraying a full belt from a fist-sized antiaircraft cannon felt about as powerful as shooting a stream of pee, leaving people completely unharmed when hit directly—which was just utterly ridiculous! "Damn it! Can't you conserve some ammo?!" Brother Levin, sitting in the truck's cab, cursed as he glared into the rearview mirror. That single burst just now had instantly blown through half their inventory. Was that really necessary? Forty guys were bunched together running across the snow with nowhere nearby to hide. A single fragmentation shell could blow apart two of them. Couldn't he just fire in controlled bursts?! "What's there to be afraid of! Isn't someone footing the bill for the ammo? If we don't shoot it all, where are the new orders going to come from? I'm helping you clear inventory!" Mosquito chuckled slyly and turned to look at Brother Toilet Cable beside him, speaking with high spirits. "Bro, help me reload!" "Let me spray another stream!" That earlier burst had wiped out at least four squads. Even if they weren't dead, they were heavily crippled! Without a doubt, today's match MVP was definitely his to claim! Mosquito was having the time of his life, but Brother Toilet Cable, who had been waiting beside him for ages, had only gotten to listen to the noise. Seeing that this fellow actually wanted to fire another belt, Toilet Cable was instantly furious. "Piss off!" "Get your ass down right now! It's my turn!" What happened to just trying out a couple of shots? You call that a couple of shots?! "Don't panic, don't panic. Look how accurate I was, just let me fire one more belt!" "My ass! You still want another belt?! I only brought eighty high-explosive rounds in total! Fire another burst and we're completely out!" While Mosquito and Toilet Cable were bickering on the truck, Indebted Big Eye, who had jumped down from the bed earlier, was leaning against the vehicle door, vomiting profusely. "Blegh—" Slapping rubber tracks onto this light truck made it fast, sure, but it bounced up and down like crazy. Going over a hill felt like flying through the sky; he felt like he was puking out everything he had eaten yesterday. Pulling down an LD-47j light machine gun from the truck, Construction Site Youth and Brick locked in a thick drum magazine and glanced at Big Eye, who was still retching. "Can you handle it or what?" "A real man never says... he can't! Good brother, wait for me a sec, I just ate a bit too much—blegh!" His hand had barely pulled away from the truck door for a single second before slapping right back onto it. Seeing this embarrassing sight, Edge Slacker shook his head and chambered a round into his assault rifle. "Can't count on him. Let's move." Indebted Big Eye: "Damn it! Does it have to be this realistic? Where's the brotherly love?!" Edge Slacker ignored him completely. "Brothers, charge!" "Objective: North Gate! Secure the point fast! Let's pincer them with the brothers on the front line!" Don't let the antiaircraft gun harvest all the french fries! Before Edge Slacker could even finish his sentence, Construction Site Youth and Brick, a Strength-type player, was already charging forward with the machine gun in his arms. "Go, go, go!" *** On the other side, Wang Tuo, leading ten marauder elites, had already flanked around to the south gate of Changjiu Farm. Following Gray Wolf's instructions, he was supposed to ambush any defenders fleeing from the south gate and wipe them out completely. To his frustration, however, after circling around to this position and waiting for ages, he had not seen a single soul slip out of the gate. Just as Wang Tuo was wondering whether the survivors inside the farm had already been completely slaughtered by the brothers who stormed in, a flare shot up into the sky. A signal flare? He froze. "Boss, that's the chief's flare!" a marauder beside him noticed and said immediately. "I'm not fucking blind!" Wang Tuo cursed under his breath, craning his neck up to stare at the glowing fiery-red ball in the sky, his eyes filled with bewilderment. He knew what that signal flare meant. Before setting out, Gray Wolf had told him that it was handed over personally by the chiliarch, with the agreement that it would be fired to call for reinforcements once the stronghold was captured. Yet the battle up ahead clearly wasn't over yet, was it? If anything, that firecracker-like gunfire seemed to be growing increasingly fierce. Right as he was struggling to make sense of it, a truck a kilometer away crossed the snowy plain toward the front line at an unbelievable speed. Before anyone could react to what was happening, thunderous cannon blasts echoed from ahead. Yes. That was the sound of artillery. Wang Tuo was certain his ears weren't deceiving him. Having served as a mercenary in the north alongside Gray Wolf, he knew all too well what that sound signified. Those thunderous booming thuds made his heart pound with dread. Before he could even fathom how those survivors were driving a truck across deep snow as fast as an airplane, two headlights appeared on the southern road, drawing closer and closer. Soon, he saw a light truck driving straight toward them. Reinforcements! Lying in ambush by the roadside, Wang Tuo's heart leaped in alarm, and he immediately turned to the man beside him carrying a tube. "Blow their truck to pieces for me!" They absolutely could not let it enter the stronghold! "Yes!" That marauder possessed decent combat discipline. Receiving the order, he instantly unslung the Panzerfaust rocket launcher from his back, prostrating beside a snowdrift by the road to wait until the truck drew closer before firing. Yet just as he hoisted the tube into position, the approaching truck seemed to possess an all-seeing eye. The roof-mounted machine gun swung directly toward him, its muzzle instantly spitting a tongue of fire. *Rat-tat-tat-tat—!* Orange-yellow tracer trails wove into a lethal net. In the blink of an eye, before the marauder carrying the launcher could make any move to evade, a cloud of blood mist burst across his body, and he was shredded into a sieve by the concentrated barrage of bullets. The marauders prostrating in the snow were terrified senseless by this sight. Wang Tuo, in particular, had no idea how their position had been exposed. A drone? Or an Awakened?! Whatever it was, the enemy had clearly spotted them. The truck came to a steady halt in the middle of the road three hundred meters away, its blazing headlights pointed directly at their position. If they didn't do something now, every single one of them was going to die here! "Scatter!" Wang Tuo roared at the top of his lungs, snatched up the launcher that had fallen to the ground, and was the first to sprint toward the reverse slope. "Flank around via the reverse slope!" Almost the instant his words fell, a lethal rain of bullets swept across the ground, cutting down two more marauders who failed to dodge in time. The vehicle-mounted machine gun chattered relentlessly, kicking up bursts of flying snow across the white field. No longer able to care about the lives of his men, Wang Tuo clutched the rocket launcher and sprinted forward along the reverse slope with gritted teeth. A distance of three hundred meters was beyond the effective range of the Panzerfaust rocket launcher. He had to close the distance to one hundred and fifty meters, or even one hundred meters, to ensure the cumbersome warhead could reliably strike the target. Yet right at that moment, the vehicle-mounted machine gun suddenly ceased fire. Reloading? Wang Tuo felt a brief flicker of surprise, but without dwelling on it, he seized the opportunity to rush forward. However, in the very next instant, the expression on his face froze solid. Directly ahead of him, a suit of power armor holding a warhammer quietly watched him. What that power armor held in its hands no longer mattered at all. It took Wang Tuo merely a single second to make his choice. Tossing aside the rocket launcher in his hands, he dropped to his knees in the snow with both arms raised high above his head, drawing upon the power of his awakening as he screamed at the top of his lungs: "I surrender! I surrender!" Chu Guang, who had been just about to unleash a strike, paused in surprise, swallowing the cool line he had spent moments rehearsing right back down his throat. *Damn it.* *You charged all the way here.* *Why the hell did you just surrender?!* *** "I surrender!" Facing the blinding headlights, Gray Wolf walked forward toward the north gate of Changjiu Farm with both hands raised high. The fighting around this area had already concluded. From the dense cluster of bullet holes riddling the wall, one could easily tell just how brutal the battle had been tens of minutes earlier. Looking at the severed limbs and shattered remains scattered across the ground, as well as the snowdrifts soaked crimson with blood, Gray Wolf felt a bone-chilling dread. The guards approaching him possessed icy eyes. Gray Wolf could sense that they wished nothing more than for him to pick up a gun from the snow so they could gun him down on the spot with clear consciences. Gray Wolf could not help feeling fortunate; it seemed he had gambled correctly. The civilized restraint of these people made them reluctant to execute prisoners of war—they were just like the people from the Great Rift Valley. If this had been anywhere else, even if he had raised his hands, his ultimate fate would likely have been hanging from the gatehouse. With such a catastrophic defeat, combined with that signal flare fired ahead of time, returning would guarantee his execution. And if he didn't return, there was nowhere else to go in the surrounding wasteland, nor could he get very far trudging through knee-deep snow. Surrendering was his only chance to live. At the very least, he wouldn't be thrown into a boiling vat of oil or freeze to death in the snow. "I surrender." Worried that these men might open fire, Gray Wolf repeated his words with his hands raised, looking at the man who appeared to be their commanding officer before continuing: "A thousand-man force is stationed in Yuanxi Town, and I am merely an insignificant mercenary, cannon fodder sent here to reap some autumn plunder." "You've won. Killing me serves no purpose; my death means nothing to Lion Fang. But if you spare my life, I might be able to help you win." Wrench, clad in an exoskeleton, walked forward. Only half of the composite ballistic plate on his chest remained, and embedded in that surviving half were two crushed bullet slugs. Wrench stared at him for a moment, then shifted his gaze from Gray Wolf's face to a youth beside him whose cheeks were spattered with blood. "Take him to see the Administrator." The youth glared at Gray Wolf with burning hatred. Though he wished he could hack the marauder into a thousand pieces, he still obeyed the order and nodded. "Yes." Gray Wolf walked ahead submissively with his hands raised, making no suspicious movements whatsoever. He knew the person behind him was waiting for an excuse to pull the trigger; he couldn't afford to give him that chance. Passing through Changjiu Farm, he arrived at the south gate. Two trucks were parked there, surrounded by heavily armed personnel, and crouching on the ground were none other than the ambushers he had dispatched to intercept the fleeing defenders. Judging by the relaxed expressions on the faces of those heavily armed survivors, they must not have encountered any stiff resistance. In fact, by the time they arrived here, the fighting had probably already ended—to the point where quite a few had expressions that looked... uh, disappointed? To Gray Wolf's immense embarrassment, among the prisoners crouching on the ground, he spotted his trusted confidant, Wang Tuo. Wang Tuo, crouching with his hands behind his head, spotted him as well. Their eyes met. Both felt awkward and instinctively looked away. Just then, a suit of deep-blue power armor strode over. Upon seeing that power armor, Gray Wolf finally understood why Wang Tuo didn't have a single scratch on him. *Holy hell.* *They even have power armor.* *How the fuck was anyone supposed to fight this?!* No matter how strong an Awakened was, they were still flesh and blood. The only things capable of matching power armor were true "monsters" like a Deathclaw or a Split-Claw Crab Queen. Chu Guang wasted no words with the man. Looking at his face, he got straight to the point. "Name." Gray Wolf lowered his head respectfully. "Gray Wolf, my Lord." "Centurion? Or staff officer?" "Centurion, my Lord." Before Chu Guang could ask another question, Gray Wolf took the initiative to speak in a reverent tone. "Respected Master of Qingquan City... Lord Administrator, the valor of you and your men is truly awe-inspiring. I know full well that I am no match for you. Please grant me an opportunity to forsake the dark and step into the light." *Forsake the dark and step into the light? Sure.* Chu Guang stared at him for a moment, finding this fellow rather amusing, and chuckled. "I don't dislike sensible people. If you had brought your men to defect to me from the very start, I might have even offered you a chair. But don't you think it's a bit late to be saying this now?" Gray Wolf kept his head lowered. "My Lord, I am merely a mercenary. To the Bone Chewer Tribe, I am nothing more than an outsider who knows how to fight. Even if I admire your—" "It's already past midnight, not the time for jokes. Don't waste my time," Chu Guang interrupted impatiently, staring intently at him. "You have two choices right now: go crouch over there, or tell me something that makes me think you're useful." And then go crouch somewhere else. Still, working in a brick kiln would be slightly more comfortable than clearing roads in a blizzard. Gray Wolf dared not hesitate, let alone negotiate conditions. He hastened to spill everything he knew. Just as Vannus had deduced, the thousand-man marauder force stationed in Yuanxi Town twenty kilometers away was not the same group that had attacked Winter Willow Camp and the battery factory earlier; they were led by a chiliarch named Lion Fang. Because Lion Fang's thousand-man force lacked sufficient vehicles, their march had been very slow, falling behind Black Snake in their southward raiding campaign. It wasn't until the first blizzard hit the southern part of River Valley Province that they barely reached Yuanxi Town, where they were forced to halt their advance and set up camp to weather the storm. "...Black Snake and his men had plenty of vehicles, perhaps even a Legion tank, so they moved much faster than us. They arrived at the southern outskirts of Tianshui City half a month ahead of schedule." "Originally, according to the agreement, after passing through Tianshui City, they were supposed to head east along the plains corridor in southern River Valley Province to raid the area around Red River Town and expand territory toward the east. But they didn't follow the rules. Instead, they kept heading south, stretching their claws into the northern outskirts of Qingquan City... which was originally territory granted to Lion Fang by the Chieftain." "Their actions infuriated Lion Fang, especially when they rejected his invitation to join forces and hunt together, intending to hog all the spoils for themselves." "So you people made a move early?" Chu Guang asked, looking at him. Gray Wolf nodded. "Lion Fang planned to establish a bridgehead in the northern outskirts of Qingquan City before the snow melted, allowing the main force to push through the snow. I was the vanguard sent by Lion Fang, but looking at it now... I was probably treated as cannon fodder." Chu Guang let out a dry laugh. "So you're saying you were forced into this?" Gray Wolf smiled bitterly. "My Lord, before joining them, I was just a mercenary trading my life for coin, and many of my subordinates were outsiders to them as well. Our lives mean nothing to them; being treated as cannon fodder is nothing out of the ordinary." Chu Guang chuckled, not taking these excuses to heart. Excuses were utterly meaningless. Who cared whether he had come to Qingquan City out of greed, volunteering to lead the vanguard, or had been sent here to die as cannon fodder? Chu Guang couldn't be bothered to verify how much truth lay in such trivial matters. There were issues far more worthy of his attention. For instance— "You said Black Snake might have a tank? What kind of tank is it? How thick is the armor, what's the caliber, and what's the tonnage? And... what's its power source?" Hearing this barrage of questions, Gray Wolf looked bewildered and immediately answered: "I haven't seen it... It's just that Lion Fang often complained, saying the Chieftain had actually bestowed a tank upon that bastard, while he hadn't even been allocated an armored car." Pausing for a moment, Gray Wolf continued with a solemn expression: "My Lord, you must be careful. That Lion Fang is an extremely cunning fellow. Although his name contains the word 'lion,' he acts more like a hyena. Furthermore, the Fang Clan he belongs to is the core lineage of the Bone Chewer Tribe, and Xizhou City directly to your north is the Fang Clan's main stronghold!" After listening to Gray Wolf, Chu Guang gained a preliminary understanding of the Bone Chewer Tribe's strategic disposition in the southern part of River Valley Province. In truth, it could hardly be called a strategy. These marauders who survived on pillaging were like barbarians, raiding wherever they could reach, merely happening to hold the deadly tools of civilization in their hands. After a moment's thought, Chu Guang continued: "I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself right now. Write down everything you know about the equipment, troop strength, supply counts, patrol routes, and defensive installations—including trenches, foxholes, and machine-gun nests—of the thousand-man force stationed in Yuanxi Town, and mark them on a map." Gray Wolf bowed his head respectfully. "Yes, my Lord." After having the man escorted away, Chu Guang interrogated several other captives separately. The intelligence gathered from them did not differ significantly from what Gray Wolf had provided. Summarizing the collected intelligence, Chu Guang summoned Vannus to the temporary command post at Changjiu Farm and casually tossed the notebook into his hands. "You guessed right. We are now facing two thousand-man forces, totaling between two and three thousand men." "Fortunately, they aren't a unified monolith." "Lion Fang, stationed to the north, commands about fifteen hundred men, and there are suspected reinforcements further north. Black Snake, to our northeast, has fewer men—around a thousand—and took a heavy beating from us earlier. But the trouble is, Black Snake's side has many vehicles; they might be able to muster twenty or thirty trucks, and possibly even one of your Legion's tanks." Vannus asked immediately, "What model of tank is it?" Chu Guang answered, "Unclear." Vannus shook his head. "The expeditionary force primarily carried three types of tanks. One is the Conqueror No. 5 light tank used against infantry; another is the Conqueror No. 10 heavy tank used to advance alongside infantry and handle anti-armor duties; the third is a support variant utilizing the Conqueror No. 10 chassis, with its main gun replaced by a hundred-millimeter howitzer." Chu Guang asked, "If it's one of the latter two, can a twenty-millimeter autocannon penetrate it?" Vannus fell silent for a moment. "It should be able to break the tracks. I can't say for sure." Chu Guang: "..." "Actually, a tank isn't hard to deal with, especially if there's only one. I believe what you should be worrying about right now isn't the tank, but..." Pausing, Vannus looked toward the map on the wall. "The enemy directly to your north probably didn't send an advance detachment just to establish some bridgehead in the northern outskirts." Chu Guang furrowed his brows. "You mean that Gray Wolf was lying?" Vannus shook his head. "Not necessarily lying; he might simply not know. After all, if I were the commander, I wouldn't tell him all my intentions either." Tracing the map, his gaze shifted from Yuanxi Town all the way to the southern outskirts of Tianshui City. Vannus pondered before continuing: "If I were the commander, knowing my adversary was formidable while my ally refused to cooperate with me, I would know this campaign would come at the cost of heavy casualties." "I would have two choices." "Either notify high command." "Or force them to make the first move."