"What is that thing?"
On a half-collapsed pedestrian overpass, Commander Spring—wearing a gas mask and clad in a Heavy Cavalry exoskeleton—held a pair of binoculars tightly in his hands, staring unblinkingly at the hundred-story skyscraper directly opposite him.
A thin, greyish-green haze blanketed the street, making it difficult to see very far.
Even so, he could still clearly make out a dark red ring of creeping residue encircling the middle section of the towering high-rise.
According to the marker on his VM map, the hundred-story building was named the "New Era Data Center," and a nearby subway station was named after it as well.
More than two centuries ago, this place had undoubtedly been a bustling, vibrant hub.
The three lower-level players standing beside him also took out their binoculars, peering across at the skyscraper.
Battlefield Atmosphere Group muttered, "Looks like the forty-first floor."
I'm the Darkest's heart stirred. "Could that be the broodmother?"
Battlefield Atmosphere Group looked over at the newbie in their squad. "You're an Agility-type. How about you go over and take a look?"
Zhang Hai immediately protested, "Hell no! That's obviously sending myself to die! I'm not going—if you want someone to go, do it yourself!"
I'm the Darkest shook his head and sighed. "This new batch of rookies is way too cowardly."
Zhang Hai rolled his eyes. "Who the hell are you trying to impress, acting like a big shot? You're only one version ahead of me, don't you feel embarrassed!"
I'm the Darkest: "#@%!"
Commander Spring opened his VM, cross-referencing the descriptive data in the database, and read softly aloud:
"Mutated incubation chambers appear dark red, with an accelerated rate of spore release. Nearby slime-mold mutants will instinctively congregate toward the incubation chamber, and some will enter it voluntarily, serving as nutrients for the chamber to continue expanding its creep..."
There were indeed numerous gnawers roaming the street.
While there were no overt signs that they were all moving in the direction of the incubation chamber, they were abnormally wandering the streets in broad daylight.
And the surrounding greyish-green haze was most likely caused by that so-called spore cloud!
A flash of excitement gleamed in Commander Spring's eyes. He immediately placed a marker on the map and used the headset mounted around his neck to snap a photo of the building.
Photo acquired!
"Done!"
After a brief wait, the VM's indicator light flickered faintly, and a task-complete stamp was stamped into the quest log.
Not just Commander Spring alone—the other three players in the squad also received the notification that the task was complete.
"Holy crap, a hundred silver coins just for taking a photo?!" Zhang Hai's eyes bulged.
Plus a hundred contribution points!
This money was way too easy to earn!
Although he was the type of player who pursued both life professions and combat professions, his main focus was setting up a stall by the North Gate to pull noodles.
Today, seeing the version update, he had picked the hunter profession on a whim and joined a random pickup party. He hadn't expected the quest rewards to be so lavish!
A bowl of ramen went for five silver coins, and deducting the cost of two silver coins, he would have to make thirty-four bowls of ramen to earn this much silver!
Realizing this glaring disparity, Zhang Hai couldn't help marveling inwardly.
The income of these combat-class players was absurdly high!
Ramen prices definitely needed a hike!
The low-level players beside him were completely oblivious, still grinning and bantering among themselves.
I'm the Darkest chuckled. "Understood. The meta answer to this patch is a camera!"
Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "Damn, that's some enterprise-level insight right there!"
Zhang Hai looked excitedly toward Commander Spring. "Bro, what's next? Any follow-up quests?"
Battlefield Atmosphere Group had already flipped off the safety of his rifle, eyeing the gnawers loitering across the street, itching for action. "What's the call? Want to head inside and check it out?"
Commander Spring shook his head. "The quest didn't say. It just shows that we can choose to hold position on standby. Reinforcements are currently en route from the outpost... estimated time of arrival is in one hour."
Zhang Hai: "What the heck? That long?"
Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "That's already pretty fast. Right now we can move directly from the Floor B3 tunnel to Huayuan Street Subway Station. Before, when we had to rely entirely on our two legs, walking just to Bet Street took an hour or two!"
Commander Spring checked his quest log. "There's also a resource-point search quest nearby. Coordinates are an office building two hundred and thirty meters away. An hour should be plenty... How about we knock out the side quest first and then come back to wait?"
I'm the Darkest: "Okey-dokey!"
Battlefield Atmosphere Group: "No objections from me."
Commander Spring gave a grand wave of his hand. "Alright then, let's roll!"
...
In truth, it didn't take an hour at all.
Neither the side quest to scavenge the resource point nor the reinforcements coming from several kilometers away took that long.
However, what Commander Spring had not anticipated was the surprisingly star-studded lineup of the reinforcements.
Not only had the Administrator arrived in his azure-blue power armor, but even Miss Heya, who rarely stepped outdoors, had come along.
Standing on the half-collapsed overpass, Heya took merely a single look before making a definitive assessment.
"No mistake... the creep has already spread to the exterior of the building. If these creep mats formed by the slime mold are allowed to keep expanding, they will develop into a new broodmother in a month at most."
Chu Guang glanced at Heya. "Is it alright for you not to wear a gas mask?"
"It's fine," Heya said nonchalantly. "A spore cloud of this density is nothing more than a bit of dust to me."
Fair enough.
Bionic organs really were convenient.
Chu Guang couldn't help pondering to himself that once an opportunity arose, he might as well get a set for himself.
Standing on Chu Guang's other side, Vannus, clad in an orange hazmat suit with a gas mask covering his face, also stared fixedly at the skyscraper ahead.
After pondering for a moment, he said, "I recommend demolishing the building with explosives."
Chu Guang looked at him and asked, "Will collapsing the building eliminate the incubation chamber?"
Vannus replied succinctly, "Not necessarily, but it will make a complex problem much simpler!"
"Slime mold possesses very poor survivability in open spaces. Aside from a few natural caves, gnawers are rarely seen out in the open wilderness. To completely eradicate the latent danger posed by the slime mold's proliferation, the only way is to thoroughly clean out this concrete garbage."
Pausing briefly, Vannus added, "That is how we did it on the western side of the continent!"
Having never heard of such madness, Heya stared at him in utter shock.
"That's completely insane... Have you considered the chain reaction that might cause?"
Demolishing a skyscraper was far easier said than done.
These were concrete structures that had survived nuclear blasts and stood tall for two centuries; their structural integrity was beyond imagination.
Taking ten thousand steps back, even if enough explosives were prepared to completely demolish the load-bearing framework, the collapsing reinforced concrete slabs were unlikely to crumble into fine dust like blocks of tofu. More likely, they would form a multi-level labyrinth several dozen meters high and hundreds of meters across.
That could very well make the situation even more convoluted!
At the very least, before the building was blown up, both the emergency stairwells and the elevator shafts offered a direct route up to the forty-first floor.
Faced with Heya's astonishment, Vannus remained entirely unimpressed.
"First of all, we conduct concentrated demolitions over entire contiguous sectors. Second, we certainly don't just detonate the explosives and walk away."
"Once the demolition is complete, we bombard the area with heavy artillery, drop incendiary bombs from airships, and deploy our clone soldiers... until the source of infection is utterly eradicated."
"Not just this concrete garbage—we also demolish and clear out the paralyzed subterranean transit networks and drainage systems."
Heya couldn't resist retorting, "Perhaps you're merely burying the problem where it can't be seen."
Vannus shrugged. "Perhaps. I am merely offering a line of thought. This work has been ongoing for two centuries, and at least in the sectors where these strategies have been implemented, the results have been fairly decent."
There was simply no need for such high-density housing on the wasteland. The massive maintenance costs traded for population concentration were worthless here.
At least in Vannus's eyes, the only difference between these useless relics and genuine trash was that the latter could at least be recycled and repurposed.
As for these towering high-rises, once whatever usable resources inside had been salvaged, nothing remained but endless trouble.
Heya turned to Chu Guang.
"I do not recommend demolishing the entire skyscraper. Unless you have one hundred percent certainty that collapsing the building will completely eradicate the slime mold inside, the convoluted environment might only make matters more troublesome."
"Regardless of what choice you ultimately make, please bring me at least one test tube's worth of samples! I need to unravel the biological process of how these mutant slime molds progress from incubation chamber to broodmother. This is critical! It will help us understand our enemy!"
Chu Guang did not immediately give Heya an answer. Instead, he looked toward the outpost's "chief contractor" standing nearby—Spare the Blade.
Among all the players, he was probably the one most knowledgeable about engineering.
"How many kilograms of explosives would it take to demolish a skyscraper like this?"
Spare the Blade knitted his brows in deep contemplation for a good while before speaking up.
"1.1 tons of TNT and thirty-five hundred detonators ought to do it."
Chu Guang was slightly moved. "That much?"
Spare the Blade smiled wryly. "That's a conservative estimate... In reality, the explosives required will probably be even more."
Hundred-story skyscrapers were a dime a dozen in Qingquan City, easily reaching five or six hundred meters or even past a kilometer in height. Going toward the city center in particular, whole swathes of urban districts pierced straight into the clouds. Plucking any single one out and dropping it into reality would effortlessly put the world's tallest building to shame.
Of course, Spare the Blade also conceded that a game and reality were beyond comparison. Only a fool would seek absolute realism in a virtual world, even if operators frequently advertised as much.
However, assuming the physics engine of Wasteland OL was sufficiently rigorous, analyzing it strictly from a professional perspective meant that if such a skyscraper were designed to withstand earthquakes and other potential natural disasters, not only would the concrete's strength have to be a couple of tiers higher than reality's concrete, but the volume of structural steel poured into it would likely be an astronomical figure as well.
While Spare the Blade ran the numbers in his head, Chu Guang was calculating a balance sheet of his own.
1.1 tons of explosives could be used to manufacture three thousand 100mm artillery shells!
Far too expensive!
And that was still a conservative estimate...
If it turned into a structural hazard, precariously half-collapsed right here, it would be an outright ticking time bomb.
Conversely, if he dispatched players to conduct a surgical strike against the mutated incubation chamber located on the forty-first floor, the price paid might amount to nothing more than a bit of active substance, a thousand or so rounds of ammunition, and a few liters of fuel.
Thinking up to this point, Chu Guang immediately made his decision and issued the quest via his VM.
[Primary Objective: Destroy the slime-mold incubation chamber located on the 41st floor of the New Era Data Center!]
[Secondary Objective: Collect mutation samples!]
With the quest issued, Chu Guang looked toward the players standing nearby.
"We now possess sufficient evidence proving that the spore cloud gathering across this sector is being released from the forty-first floor of the New Era Data Center."
"To prevent the creep from expanding further and creating a greater threat across the region, we must completely eradicate it before the Tide arrives!"
"This mission is critical. It concerns whether we can face the threat of the Tide with greater composure, and we have only one week remaining."
"I need you to resolve this trouble within one week!"
Hearing the Administrator's grave and urgent tone, Commander Spring and the rest of the players showed not the slightest hint of tension. Instead, their faces were plastered with sheer excitement.
A time-limited quest?
And a main-story quest at that!
This was infinitely more thrilling than grinding dailies and running side quests!
"Rest assured, Lord Administrator!"
Commander Spring raised his right fist excitedly and thumped it against the breastplate of his Type 6 Heavy Cavalry exoskeleton. "For the revival of the People's Federation! For the peace of the northern suburbs! We shall not fail our mission!"
This fellow had hogged all the heroic lines to himself, leaving the other players temporarily struggling to come up with fitting words. Battlefield Atmosphere Group's mind worked quickly, and he chimed in right behind him:
"Same here!"
I'm the Darkest, Zhang Hai, and the players who had followed from the outpost hurriedly jumped on the bandwagon.
"+1!"
"Me too!"
Pleased that these players possessed such admirable resolve, a smile of approval appeared on Chu Guang's face.
"Mm."
"The future of us all rests upon your shoulders!"
...
With the quest published, the raid operation commenced in short order!
A total of twenty players participated in the operation, with Commander Spring—who possessed the highest proficiency in the "Command" skill—serving as the expedition leader.
The required supplies were quickly transported from the warehouse on Bet Street to the target location using two-headed oxen.
Having obtained the building's blueprints from the scientific expedition team, Commander Spring did not jump straight into action. Instead, after conducting a thorough reconnaissance of the surrounding terrain, he divided the twenty people, including himself, into four five-man squads—A, B, C, and D—and drafted a meticulous battle plan!
"Squad A will serve as the vanguard, with Agility-type Battlefield as squad leader and Perception-type I'm the Darkest as deputy. You will take the elevator shaft directly to the forty-third floor, enter the room to the left of the exit, and use explosives to breach the floorboards, pushing downward to the forty-second floor—directly above the incubation chamber!"
"Your task is the most critical."
"I need you to plant explosives directly above the broodmother, bring down the entire ceiling over its head, and then pour in the pre-prepared fuel to physically incinerate the slime mold inside the incubation chamber!"
Hearing the assignment he was responsible for, Battlefield Atmosphere Group clenched his fists in excitement.
"Thrilling!"
Commander Spring turned his gaze to the other squads.
"Your tasks are equally vital."
"Squad B will serve as the reserve, led by Awakened Strength-type Kakarot, coordinating with Squad A inside the building."
"If Squad A wipes out, you will take over their positions."
Kakarot rested a light machine gun on his shoulder, grinning wide. "Understood!"
Commander Spring looked toward the adjacent players and continued, "Squad C will act as the covering force, led by Old Wang Next Door. Your task is to clear the mutants from outside the building up to the interior elevator area, watching Squads A and B's rear, and covering their withdrawal once the operation concludes. Alternatively, if an accident happens, recover their gear and VMs."
"Squad D will act as the fire support group, led personally by me. We will proceed to the other high-rise directly to the east. Near the fortieth floor, we will set up four 20mm anti-tank rifles to provide heavy fire support from outside the battlefield!"
"That is all!"
Commander Spring was immensely satisfied with his plan.
Formulating detailed operational schemes was what he did best.
Just then, however, I'm the Darkest suddenly spoke up.
"Wait a minute, why the hell are you spectating from outside the combat zone again? Aren't you an Awakened too?"
Zhang Hai couldn't resist roasting him either. "Exactly! You're wearing power armor, for crying out loud—don't you feel any shame?"
The other players snapped out of it as well.
Right.
Why did this guy tuck himself away in the back row yet again?
Commander Spring's face flushed red, and he argued defensively, "What power armor? This is an exoskeleton! Do you even know what an exoskeleton is? Besides, I'm an Intelligence-type! What's wrong with me sitting in the rear directing the battle?"
Was there anything wrong with that?
Nothing wrong at all!
Clad in his Miner Type I, Battlefield Atmosphere Group rolled his eyes and chambered a round into his drum-fed LD-47j.
"Alright, alright, stop making excuses. Let's get a move on."
Having been teammates for so long, he had long grown accustomed to this old coward's habits.
Teasing aside...
Having a dependable commander was still very reassuring.
The squads began moving out methodically. Squad D ran into a spot of trouble on their way to the fire-support vantage point, but they still managed to reach their designated position within half an hour.
Instructing his squad members to mount the anti-tank rifles beside the floor-to-ceiling windows, Commander Spring calmly spoke into the comms channel:
"Squad D is in position! All other squads, commence operation!"
Three crisp responses sounded across the comms channel:
"Roger!"
The three squads waiting on standby beneath the overpass immediately sprang into motion.
The five players serving as the covering force fanned out ahead of the formation, expertly raising their rifles to dispatch the gnawers blocking their path with clean, controlled bursts.
The gunshots echoing down the street swiftly drew the attention of other gnawers. The bloodthirsty beasts snapped their heads in their direction, charging forward like a pack of wild dogs.
Gunfire erupted violently across the street!
Combat flared into full swing in an instant!
Lurking amidst the ruins, a Crawler locked its crimson gaze onto the figures on the street, a menacing growl rumbling in its throat.
Sensing an opening, it snarled and lunged forward from beneath the rubble.
An ordinary mercenary squad would likely have been caught off guard by the beast. Yet what it faced were no ordinary people, but a crew of battle-hardened players!
The moment its head peeked out from the street corner, a thunderous volley echoed from the midsection of the skyscraper directly to the east.
Fire spat from 20mm muzzles as four thick tracer rounds plunged from the sky.
Two high-explosive rounds detonated beside the monstrosity, while two armor-piercing incendiary rounds tore straight into its back and shoulder.
*Crack—!*
A shrill screech echoed down the street as the freshly emerged Crawler stumbled and toppled sideways.
Seizing the opportunity immediately, Battlefield raised his rifle and pumped a full burst into the beast's skull. Then, freeing his right hand, he flashed a thumbs-up toward the skyscraper behind him.
"Nice shooting!"
The four squads worked together with remarkable synergy.
In merely three minutes, they had wiped out over a hundred gnawers on the street. The three rookies waiting beneath the overpass received their quest and came jogging forward, huffing and puffing with resupply crates in hand.
Each resupply run granted ten silver coins and ten contribution points.
Even though they didn't get to fire a shot, experiencing the battlefield atmosphere up close wasn't bad either.
In terms of both payout and fun, this quest beat chopping trees by a mile!
Watching the players push all the way to the foot of the skyscraper, Vannus wore a look of surprise and couldn't help remarking:
"Are all the residents of your shelter soldiers?"
This wasn't the first time such a thought had crossed his mind.
Previously, however, he had only seen drone aerial footage on a screen; it came nowhere close to the visual impact of witnessing it in person.
Gazing at the muzzle flashes flickering inside the skyscraper's main entrance, Chu Guang said in a relaxed tone:
"Some are, some aren't, but that doesn't matter. The battlefield is the finest teacher. Regardless of whether their starting point is a one or a zero, here they all have the chance to become a ten."
In the beginning, the players had simply charged in a mindless swarm. Later, they quickly discovered that certain "monsters" had morale settings in their AI; splitting into squads to execute tactical penetrations against weak links in enemy lines proved far more effective than headlong rushes.
Later still, beyond tactical penetrations, they learned fire support, bounding overwatch, flanking and encirclement, and tailoring distinct tactics to different varieties of foes.
Here, even the dullest person would figure out what to do next time after dying once.
Vannus looked somewhat stunned.
He couldn't shake the feeling...
Why did this philosophy sound so remarkably similar to the clone tactics he had studied at the military academy?
What about casualties?
Did they simply not factor them in?
Since when had the bluecoats become so ferocious!
Vannus was thoroughly baffled.
Standing to the side, Heya didn't care much for these operational details. Her pretty face was brimming with excitement, though it had nothing to do with the tactical situation itself; rather, her hypothesis had been validated.
"As expected, my hypothesis was correct!"
"An increase in atmospheric spore concentration makes the fruiting bodies more aggressive, while the resulting spore clouds attenuate the restrictive effect of sunlight on their mobility!"
"Truly incredible!"
Chu Guang's heart stirred slightly. "If we use incendiary bombs to purge the spores in the area—"
Vannus shook his head. "The fuel consumed by doing so would be an astronomical figure, and it would only treat the symptoms, not the cause. Only by stamping out the source can the Tide truly be brought to an end..."
The distant gunfire had largely died down; the mutants on the skyscraper's ground floor had been completely purged.
The rookies serving as logistics brought a second wave of ammunition to the front line, and the three squads inside the building had already reached the elevator shaft.
Victory was only two loud detonations away.
Tearing his gaze from his VM, Vannus looked toward the south.
That was the direction of the city center.
Behind the concrete jungle should have been a clear blue sky, yet now it was swallowed by an expanse of greyish-green clouds, resembling an endless sea of mist from afar.
Pausing for a moment, he continued:
"Otherwise, it will end up like this—returning every year or two."
...
At the same time, over a dozen kilometers away in Boulder City, a sharp, piercing alarm siren reverberated across the streets, apparently originating from the massive outer wall.
Yaya, who was rummaging through items in a general store, jumped in fright at the sudden blare of the alarm and hurriedly peered out through the shop window at the street.
A commotion swept through the pedestrians outside, many quickening their steps. Several militiamen jogged past, shouting something at the crowd.
Setting the glass bottle in her hands back onto the shelf, Tengteng stood on tiptoe to peek outside as well, but she couldn't see clearly. She asked in a low voice:
"What's happening?"
Yaya swallowed nervously. "No idea."
Standing beside them, Xu Shun looked even more tense than the two of them, his hand unconsciously slipping into his pocket.
Noticing the reactions of her customers, the elderly woman seated behind the counter smiled and spoke in a slow, drawling voice:
"This is your first time here, isn't it?"
Xu Shun nodded and immediately asked, "Excuse me, what's going on out there? Has something happened?"
"You could say that, but there's nothing to panic about. It's just the Tide... It's not the first time."
Reaching out with a trembling hand, the old woman picked up a pair of bronze-rimmed spectacles from the counter, put them on, and practicedly pulled three gas masks from beneath the counter, setting them before them.
With an amiable smile on her face, she continued:
"Gas masks. Brand new. Just twenty chips a set."
"If you don't want to get sick, you'd best buy one to wear."
Chapter 263