Corps System Upgrade!

Dawn City, North Runway. A wooden airplane banged crookedly onto the runway, bounced violently up and down several times, and finally ground to a halt. Watching the airspeed indicator drop to zero, Mosquito slowly let out the breath he had been holding, his pounding heart finally settling. "Holy crap..." He had actually managed to touch down! Two rounds had punched through the belly and five had hit the wings—and that was after he risked tearing the airframe apart by pulling a barrel roll during his climb. Were these hostile NPCs the damn scav bosses from Tarkov or something? Getting accuracy like that while spraying rifle fire was completely absurd! They were definitely running hacks! Tossing his cap into the cockpit, Mosquito braced his hands and hopped down to inspect his craft. Looking at the bullet holes and fractures, an ache pierced his heart. Because the wings and fuselage were made of wood, their defense was roughly zero; practically any brush with a bullet left a gaping hole. One round had even grazed the wiring harness, nearly smoking the battery bank on his left. Still, it was also lucky the wings were wooden. Because the enemy's bullets had surplus kinetic energy, they overpenetrated cleanly, which actually spared the wing from catastrophic structural damage. Mosquito had even circled in the sky for a bit, only noticing the drafty cockpit and cracked wing during the flight back, though by then he was already just a few kilometers from the runway. Panicked as he had been, it wasn't a fatal problem! His four apprentices gathered around. Duo Ming eyed the bullet holes on the plane and exclaimed in astonishment, "Holy shit! You went dogfighting in this jalopy?" "Took a few hits while farming noobs. Nothing major... Can this plane still be fixed?" Mosquito stroked the wing, speaking with heartache. Quan Jia stepped forward, peered closely at the wing, and shook his head. "Unfixable. Fuselage and wings... you'll have to rebuild them." Zhui Hun patted Mosquito's shoulder consolingly. "Don't sweat it. Wood's cheap anyway. The battery, motor, and machine gun are all intact... and you made it back in one piece." "That's true, but..." Still, if only he hadn't taken those hits. Deducting the cost of replacing the wings, this mission rounded out to roughly breaking even. His only real consolation was the contribution points and flight skill proficiency. Mosquito gave a long sigh, his heart still bleeding for the lost silver coins. "Pain!" ... East suburbs of Qingquan City. Led by Lü Bei, twenty indigenous soldiers wearing Light Cavalry exoskeletons and belonging to the Guards Corps rushed to reinforce the area where the red smoke was rising. As the elite of the New Alliance's standing corps, every man standing here was a veteran who had fought through and survived at least two battles. Having undergone modification via the induced expression serum, their physical capabilities across all metrics far surpassed those of ordinary people. Yet unlike the "specialized" enhancements of the clones, the stat distributions of Awakened natural humans tended toward an even spread across three or more attributes. Only a handful of test subjects with exceptional innate talent or extraordinary luck stood out dramatically in a single attribute. Such individuals generally filled specialized roles within squads. For instance, Agility-type Awakened typically served as designated marksmen thanks to their sharp vision and quick reflexes; Strength-type Awakened often handled ammunition transport or heavy fire support; and Constitution-type Awakened took up forward positions, and so on. These were all guidelines forged by the players through countless deaths and forum discussions. Leading his men toward the abandoned heavy exoskeleton in the center of the flowerbed, Lü Bei stepped forward to inspect the charred corpse beside it, then tapped the side of his helmet with his index finger. "...Report: We have located a wrecked exoskeleton near the signal flare! Friendly forces have evacuated the target zone. Requesting further orders!" Sitting on the couch in the browsing room, Chu Guang listened to the frontline soldier's report. After pondering for a moment, he ordered: "Salvage the wreckage. Don't leave a single scrap behind!" Lü Bei: "Yes, sir!" Hearing that crisp, forceful reply, Chu Guang terminated the comms and turned his eyes toward the tablet beside him, which was buzzing with static. A faintly amused look touched his brows. "Anti-drone?" These guys had some real tricks up their sleeves. A few minutes ago, he had redeployed the Hummingbird drone stationed near Shelter 401 to the frontline, hoping to track the unidentified armed force fleeing into the ruins. Yet as soon as those fighters pulled back from the battlefield, they spotted the drone trailing them. One of them produced a blunt-nosed, boxy long gun—likely some sort of anti-drone electromagnetic rifle—and pointed it straight at the Hummingbird. Right after that, the connection between the drone and the control terminal was severed. Still, severed though it was, the Hummingbird drone was a pre-war product after all, and its anti-intrusion capabilities were by no means feeble. Once the signal was hijacked, protective fail-safes triggered immediately. The control unit proactively shut down communications, entered radio silence, and used optical tracking to retrace its flight path back to base. The only pity was that they had lost track of the group. Chu Guang could only deduce from their flight path that they were heading north. "They're Torch people." Tapping his index finger lightly on the table, Chu Guang mulled it over for a second, then asked, "Xiao Qi, is there any way to hack their exoskeletons?" Xiao Qi remained silent for a moment before replying in a small voice, "Master, the chips used in their exoskeletons are very likely knock-offs of pre-war chips. If they wrote the operating system themselves, it wouldn't be too bad..." "But if they directly repurposed a pre-war OS, it will be extremely difficult." Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully. "I see." Although unexpected, it made sense. Spear and shield did not exist in isolation; where offensive intrusions existed, armor capable of defending against them was bound to follow. In the early days of the People's Federation, even before the Prosperity Era, machine learning had already become widespread. Rather than writing every line of code by hand, people preferred to build AI algorithms and let them learn like humans, adapting automatically to diverse application scenarios. It was effectively automation in programming. And with the advent of quantum computers, traditional encryption methods became almost obsolete. Human computing power evolved from two isolated points, 0 and 1, into an infinitely stretching line, and corresponding encryption measures naturally emerged alongside it. In the Prosperity Era, even the most basic anti-intrusion plugin possessed agile recognition and judgment capabilities. Like a human immune system, they could identify unfamiliar viruses and produce targeted antibodies, ensuring that deliveries would reliably reach customers' hands under any circumstance, and that missiles would reliably slam into enemy heads. Though Xiao Qi was an AI approaching "General Artificial Intelligence," she was ultimately a general-purpose model. Her defining trait was versatility—she could do anything, but that did not mean she excelled at everything above all else. Crafting convenient applications, flexibly accommodating user requests, or even offering emotional support and encouragement—she could handle all of that. But within any specific niche, her abilities were not necessarily superior to an AI specialized in that domain. If the maximum level was 5 and the average was 3, her intrusion capability was around 1 to 2, perhaps reaching a 3 with raw computing power behind it. However, even though Xiao Qi was no professional hacker, the shelter still did not need to worry about cyberwarfare intrusions. The defensive plugins installed on the shelter's servers, paired with the servers' own computational capacity, pushed anti-intrusion to the MAX—effectively the ceiling of the current era. Therefore, while her offensive capabilities might not be dominant, no one could breach the shelter's security systems through hacking. As for the intrusion and anti-intrusion capabilities of Earth's nations in the parallel world? Optimistically speaking, around 0.1, which rounded down to practically nonexistent. After all, they belonged to entirely different eras; comparing cavalry to tanks in combat power was pointless. Yet out of 7.5 billion people, at least 3.5 billion had an information technology dependence of 90% or higher. The market capitalization of tech-related industries ran into the tens of trillions, indirectly governing transportation, logistics, finance, manufacturing, agriculture, and countless other fields. Vast numbers of people could barely survive without the internet. Precisely for this reason, an information-level dimensional strike could exert "effective deterrence." If one were to regress to World War I or even further back to the Age of Sail, the deterrent power of electronic warfare would become negligible; broadcasting an open call for traitors might not even reach a single receiver. As for why his Administrator system could take over other shelters whose "anti-intrusion was also maxed out"? Chu Guang leaned toward attributing it to backdoors left behind at inception, rather than unauthorized infiltration by Xiao Qi. For instance... A line of hidden code within the People's Federation shelter programs: "Upon the death or voluntary abdication of an Administrator, the Administrator of another shelter, upon meeting specified criteria, shall automatically acquire Administrator privileges for this shelter." The drone's video feed reappeared on the screen; the Hummingbird drone, having returned to its staging point, was once again under terminal control. Xiao Qi: "Master, should I continue following them?" Chu Guang shook his head. "They're too far away now. Pursuing them serves little purpose." Xiao Qi: "Wuu..." Hearing her pitiful, self-reproachful tone, Chu Guang smiled and said, "It's fine. It's not your fault. Probing out their capabilities is more than enough." Besides, he could guess where they were heading. North. They were either looking for the Bone Chewer tribe, or... well, it couldn't be the Great Rift Valley, which was totally out of left field. Earlier, Chu Guang had captured plenty of neural-link gear belonging to the Church of the Torch from those marauder trucks, which was ample proof that the Bone Chewer tribe was backed by the Church of the Torch. These rats weren't getting away! Chu Guang grabbed the tablet from the table, slipped it into his pocket, and stood up from the sofa. "Call Yin Fang for me. Tell him to wait for me by the elevator." Xiao Qi: "Understood, Master. Are you heading out?" "Yeah." Straightening his collar in front of the mirror, Chu Guang gave a nod. "I'm going to make a trip to Shelter 401." ... East District of Qingquan City. A five-meter-long Deathclaw wearing a collar around its neck bounded across the ruins, carrying a man and an iron block on its back. "Why aren't we taking a truck?" "Tires can't get through these ruins. This is the fastest ride we have." "I'd rather go slower. Didn't we walk it last time?" "All right, cut the chatter. My time is valuable." Beneath them, Neko let out an aggrieved rumble, but the marrow-deep fear kept it from acting up; it could only vent its frustration on the concrete blocks underfoot. Straddling the Deathclaw's back, Chu Guang felt like a dragon knight clad in heavy armor. A pity. This clumsy lizard didn't have wings. Maybe when the chance arose, he could fit it with mechanical cybernetics? While Chu Guang let his mind wander, the two of them arrived near the Third Ecological Park. The innate terror radiating from the Deathclaw sent the nearby troops of monkeys scattering. Not a single mutant dared approach along the way. As for gnawers, daytime was not their active period. At a guard post near the Third Ecological Park ticket gate, two sentries with rifles slung over their backs threw reverent glances toward Chu Guang, pounding their right fists against their chests in a military salute. As expected of the Administrator! To ride a Deathclaw as a mount—on this wasteland, there probably wasn't a second soul who could pull that off! "Respected Administrator!" Carrying a coffin-sized crate and wearing his battle-scarred exoskeleton, Lao Bai stepped forward and said respectfully, "We have brought the fuel rod you requested!" "Good work. Leave it here." Chu Guang nodded approvingly, jumped down from the Deathclaw's back, and lent a hand to Yin Fang sitting in front of him. Once his feet finally touched solid ground, Yin Fang, who had nearly been shaken to pieces, wobbled on his feet and almost took a spill. Neko snorted loudly through its nostrils, seemingly mocking him, but after a sharp reprimand from Chu Guang, the lizard quickly behaved, pressing its head contritely against the ground. Lao Bai stared at the creature in disbelief. Was this really the Deathclaw that had almost wiped their squad out? How had it ended up as the Administrator's mount? "Your mission is complete. On behalf of the Alliance, I thank you for your contributions!" "Go back and rest up properly!" With a phantom swipe of his finger, Chu Guang settled the mission rewards for the Ox and Horse Squad on Yin Fang's behalf. Looking at the numbers ticking up on their VM settlement displays, surprised delight washed across the five players' faces. For the final leg of the quest chain, beyond the baseline payout of 1,300 silver coins and 500+ contribution points per person, there was a bonus reward of 1,200 silver coins and 200 contribution points. It felt utterly glorious! Seeing the players' ecstatic expressions, Chu Guang couldn't help smiling. A fuel rod bought for just a few tens of thousands of silver coins. His little players were simply too useful! If they were willing to sell the silver coins they'd earned cheaply to lifestyle players to invest in production and expand exports, that would be even better. Or buying nice goods from the outside and bringing them back was fine too. Of course, how they played the game was their own business. Right now, Chu Guang's priority was tilling fertile ground for new crops of fresh leeks, giving more players the opportunity to come work for him. Chu Guang opened the crate for a look, closed the lid, and picked it up by the handle, then turned to Yin Fang, who had just dismounted from Neko. "I'll leave the rest to you." After being jostled the whole trip, Yin Fang's calves were still trembling. He said with a long face: "No problem... Just let me catch my breath first. That ride practically shook my bones apart." Neko gave another derisive snort, practically wearing the word "weakling" on its snout. Before long, however, another smack from Chu Guang landed on the back of its skull. It whined mournfully, prostrated itself on the ground, and went completely docile. "It'll be much easier once the underground tunnels are cleared through," Chu Guang replied casually to Yin Fang. He then took out a half carcass of a plucked hyena from the pack behind his armor, tossed it to Neko as a snack, and used the neural-link device to order it to wait for him where it was. Having done all this, Chu Guang carried the fuel rod and led Yin Fang toward the subway station. Neko gleefully tore into the half hyena on the ground, making crunching chewing sounds. The two NPC soldiers nearby watched it nervously, fingers tightening involuntarily around their rifles. The clinking iron chains always gave them a sense of dread, as if this beast might snap its bonds at any moment and pounce. Yet the Deathclaw had no such intention; after finishing the bones, it curled its tail into a circle and dozed off by the gate. The beast had been completely domesticated. Watching the Administrator walk away, Ye Shi looked again at the balance on his VM and swallowed hard. "If this was converted to RMB..." Even if the price had dipped a bit... That would still be tens of thousands! "Can you show a little ambition?" Fang Chang laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "Wouldn't it be better to buy local specialties, haul them to Boulder City to trade for chips, and upgrade our gear?" There had always been lifestyle players buying silver coins on the forums. Setting up caravans and scaling up production both cost money; one had to either earn it from NPCs or whale it by purchasing currency from combat players. Fang Chang had bought up quite a bit when the exchange rate dipped earlier. Once this mission wrapped up, he planned to gather his brothers, purchase goods, haul them to Boulder City, and use the chips they earned to buy better gear. With trade routes newly restored, selling almost anything yielded a profit. Once the trade route matured and the information gap shrank, margins wouldn't be anywhere near as fat. This game's economic system was governed by supply and demand, realistic to an insane degree. Ye Shi rubbed the back of his head sheepishly with a grin. "I just calculated it instinctively... By the way, when are we heading to Boulder City?" "Tomorrow. We've basically cleared out every quest we can do." Checking his VM, Lao Bai suddenly noticed a little red notification dot on the Corps System icon. Clicking on it out of curiosity, Lao Bai was startled to see that his original LV0 indicator had changed to LV1. Not only that, a stat panel had appeared. [ID: Burning Corps] [Corps Level: LV2 (+1 Assignable Point)] [ Scale: 2 (+10 Recruitment Cap per level) Logistics: 2 (+10 Logistics Points per level) ] [Doctrine: (Unselected)] Previously, the Corps System interface seemed to have only a roster and a level, but now it even featured a stat panel. A stealth update? Lao Bai stared at it for a while without figuring out what these stats meant, scratching his head. "Looks like our corps leveled up." Hearing that, Jieyan immediately crowded over with excitement. "The corps leveled up?! Let me see!" "Yeah, an LV2 corps increases the recruitment cap to 20 people and awards one assignable point... but I haven't figured out what this stat panel does yet." Scale was easy to understand—presumably the recruitment cap. Logistics probably meant budget? But he didn't quite get what logistics points were. Previously, ammunition expenses had been budgeted in silver coins. Was corps logistics going to separate from the economy system in the future? And that selectable Doctrine—it seemed that upgrading it would cost points too. Lao Bai tapped into it for a brief look. It was broken down into several major categories: Light Infantry Doctrine, Mobile Warfare Doctrine, Superior Firepower Doctrine, and so forth. Beneath them were specialized sub-branches, primarily providing strategic-level buffs. For example, unlocking "Human Wave Assault" under the Light Infantry Doctrine gave +100% Recruitment Cap. Unlocking that branch meant each point in [Scale] would boost recruitment cap by 20 instead of 10. By LV5, it would become a full company of a hundred men! Of course, that assumed they could recruit that many players. Staring at the corps level, Jieyan suddenly remembered something and spoke up: "Wait, wasn't this an Expedition Squad mission?" Fang Chang knew what he wanted to ask and nodded. "In team quests, if four or more members of a squad belong to the same corps, completing the quest awards a proportion of Corps Merits based on contribution points." Merit points were the experience required to level up a corps. Jieyan froze. "Holy shit! So once we have more people later on, couldn't we just power-level it?!" If every level-up point went straight into [Scale], a corps with several hundred members split into four-man teams running quests would rake in Corps Merits like crazy! Fang Chang wore a nuanced expression as he replied: "In theory, yes. Numbers are a form of power, after all. But payouts differ widely from mission to mission. The rewards for a Tier-0 quest and a Tier-3 quest can differ by an entire order of magnitude, so the overall efficiency might not actually be higher." Pausing, Fang Chang looked over at Lao Bai, who was still pondering how to allocate points. "Let's not rush to assign points. Wait until the update announcement drops and I study it a bit." Closing the interface, Lao Bai chuckled. "My thoughts exactly!" ... Meanwhile, north of Qingquan City. Having gradually cleared the New Alliance's territory, Dimit let out a breath of relief and continued northward with his remaining seven subordinates. The Snake Clan was engaged in battle with Red River Town; the only ones who could spare the manpower to help them reclaim the black box were the Fang clan stationed in Xizhou City. Nobody knew what had happened, but after those marauders stationed themselves in Xizhou City, their southward advance had halted. Just then, a group of figures appeared to the north, coming face-to-face with them. Dimit involuntarily gripped his weapon, but upon seeing their ragged clothing, he soon relaxed. Just a band of refugees. "Should we take them out? They saw us." Wulun had already flicked off his safety, grating the words through gritted teeth. "No need to complicate things. So what if they saw us? We've already made it this far," Dimit glanced at him and consoled, "I know Ted's death is hard on you, but killing these people won't bring the dead back to life." "We need to conserve ammunition. They aren't worth it." Sparing the refugees, Dimit narrowed his eyes in the direction they were heading. Just wait. He would be back!