Dawn City Prison.
Sitting inside the pitch-black cell, Bernie wore an expression marked with haggard weariness and dejection.
He could understand the failure of the expedition against the Great Rift Valley. They had indeed underestimated the Great Rift Valley's strength, and even more so the Sacred Shield system.
Even after two centuries, that sky-spanning energy shield still wasn't something their shells could breach. Their clone army had launched fearless charges, yet still failed to turn the tide of battle.
Under the barrage of firepower poured down by the Great Rift Valley, their ten-thousand-man legion had been systematically wiped out as cohesive units.
Yet what Bernie could not fathom was that losing to the Great Rift Valley was one thing, but why was even a seemingly unremarkable survivor settlement such a tough nut to crack?
Just then, footsteps echoed down the corridor outside the cell.
Bernie lifted his head and caught sight of a familiar face, freezing in place.
"...Vannus?"
Vannus let out a sigh.
"It really was you people... How is Dillon?"
Hearing the name of his superior, Bernie offered a bitter smile.
"No wonder... Seeing you here answers part of the questions on my mind."
Knowing this fellow had most likely credited the victory to him, Vannus shook his head.
"It had little to do with me. I merely drew up plans by the book and employed the most textbook tactics... However, their performance exceeded my expectations."
Bernie fell silent for a moment.
"I remember you were ordered to intercept the Pioneer land fortress."
Vannus nodded.
"I was."
Bernie didn't ask about the outcome.
There was no need to ask at all.
The man stood here without shackles, even wearing the same model of VM as the blue jackets. Without a doubt, both his body and mind had been completely reshaped by those people.
Seeing that Bernie remained silent, Vannus walked over to the cell window and continued on his own.
"During the period after I was captured, they sent me to work at a brick kiln. At first, I assumed they meant to humiliate me that way. But in the end, I discovered reality wasn't at all what I had imagined.
"The people working alongside me were survivors from nearby. They taught me how to shape adobe bricks from raw clay, how to fire mud bricks into solid bricks, and how to build houses from those bricks..."
Vannus paused for a beat.
"I still remember that fellow worker. I remember the day he told me, beaming with excitement, that through his own hard work he finally owned a house of his own, and that he planned to bring his family over once winter passed. The light filling his eyes... was something I had never seen across our territories.
"At first, I didn't understand what that light in his eyes was. Only later did I gradually realize: it was hope for the future.
"They chose a path fundamentally different from ours—a path where even wastelanders living at the very bottom can attain equality and dignity. The people living here are willing to give everything for the ground beneath their feet, down to their last drop of blood.
"You faced a force of warriors driven by conviction, men and women who know exactly what they are fighting for. Do you still believe you lost merely because of a few tactical missteps?"
Bernie's Adam's apple bobbed.
After bowing his head in deep thought for a long while, he gave a self-deprecating smile.
"Did you come all the way here just to mock your old friend?"
"No."
Vannus turned to look at him.
"Strictly speaking, it's an invitation."
...
Night deepened.
As players logged off one after another, the official forum of *Wasteland Online* was buzzing with unparalleled excitement.
Quite a few players were hyped over the daytime epic victory, colorfully recounting the battle on the forums.
Previously, whenever anyone wanted to boast, they could only use text. Without tangible proof, spectating cloud gamers had to rely entirely on their own imagination. While they threw around praises like "insane" and certainly felt envious, in terms of sheer shock value, it was only so-so, mainly relying on the pie-in-the-sky promises painted by the official PVs to satisfy their appetite.
Now things were different.
Ever since paid features like "In-Game Screenshot" and "Squad Voice Chat" had been developed, players no longer needed to type to brag; posting screenshots directly did the trick.
Naturally, to keep things friendly and harmonious, blood was replaced with pink pigment, and R16 or sensitive visuals were restricted from synchronizing.
After all, once they took off their helmets, the "dream filter" ceased to exist. Dreaming of severed arms or legs in a dream might not terrify someone, but seeing that in reality could easily scare someone out of their wits.
Scavenger Lv99: "...In the blink of an eye, the moment that marauder aimed his gun at me, I did a direct slide tackle and instantly took out two! No cap, I easily racked up a hundred kills in ten minutes. The Mutant sequence is strong as hell! (Grin)"
Ye Ao Nai Wo He: "Lmao, that's it? You have the nerve to flex a hundred kills in ten minutes? Ever heard of Dragon Division? Totally normal if you kids haven't; my brother's in Dragon Division. He told me the scrubbiest guy in his unit can carve through an entire company with just a dagger. Ten minutes is enough for him to wipe them out twice over."
Scavenger Lv99: "(Sweating Face)"
Ye Shi: "Uh, Dragon Lore? I actually have one of those. (Funny)"
Elaina: "Forgive my ignorance, but does your brother go by the nickname Asura, and does the corner of his mouth smirk up ninety degrees before every strike? (Funny)"
Elven King Fugui: "Ministry of Foreign Affairs: 'Kid, I advise you not to talk reckless nonsense. This isn't the intranet.' (Funny)"
As usual.
Whenever the official website hosted a major event or rolled out a big update, Brother Ye Ao would pop out right when everyone was hyping things up to launch a round of collective taunting, and then immediately vanish from the forum like a gopher, ignoring anyone who tagged him.
Both active players and cloud gamers were already accustomed to it, so nobody took it to heart.
Soon Scavenger resumed narrating his heroic feats. But right at that moment, the battle report and settlement information for the Great Victory of Qingshi County was suddenly published on the official website.
Scavenger Lv99: "Holy crap?! It came out this fast this time?!"
Jieyan: "Dev daddies are awesome!"
Usually, battle reports wouldn't be posted until the next day, but this time it came out that very evening, breaking precedent.
To everyone's surprise, the one with the highest battlefield score this time was actually the Storm Corps.
As the corps that broke through the inner city defensive line first and stormed the enemy command post, the Storm Corps had captured Lion Fang and several other bandit chieftains alive in the face of fierce enemy resistance, netting considerable bonus points.
However, that was not the deciding factor.
The weighted criterion that truly secured their commanding lead was their lightning-fast advance during street-to-street combat against the marauders within the urban district.
Relying on his outstanding command, Brother Spring led his team to wipe out two centuriae back-to-back. Using only half the expected time, they sliced through every defensive line from southern Qingshi County straight to the enemy headquarters.
Without any exaggeration, the Storm Corps's stellar performance had brought the conclusion of the battle forward by at least an hour.
Taking casualties and ammunition consumption into account, the headquarters awarded them a score of 23,000 points!
Ranked second was Brother Mole's Skeleton Corps, whose outstanding performance in assault operations earned a high rating. Third was the Death Corps.
While the latter possessed a high kill count and eliminated hidden threats lurking in stairwells and alleys, their nearly thirty percent casualty rate dragged down their total score.
As for Mosquito's Goblin Corps, they ranked fourth.
Admittedly, their rocket salvos and repeated airstrikes inflicted heavy casualties on Lion Fang's tribe stationed in Qingshi County.
Unfortunately, the Goblin Corps's own losses were equally steep.
In the end, fewer than thirty percent of the players successfully flew their aircraft back...
As for the Burning Corps, because the ambush at Pine Valley was settled separately from the siege of Qingshi County rather than combined, they ranked fifth.
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Damn it! Our corps got so many kills! Why am I not the MVP?! (Rage)"
Commander Spring: "You just don't get it. War isn't scalping; how could it be scored purely by head count? If it were, who would dig trenches or hold points? If everyone just rushed forward to steal kills, who'd guard the rear? (Smug)"
Ye Shi: "You burnt through way too much ammunition. That barrage of rockets sent logistics straight to heaven right on the spot. (Funny)"
Mole Escaping the Canyon: "Exactly! What's the point of just looking at kills? I was the one who breached the first defensive line!"
Brother Edge: "By the way, how many of your planes actually flew back?"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Does any bro know when the campaign rewards will be credited? Heh heh."
Jieyan: "Holy crap! That subject change was way too unnatural!"
Luo Yu: "That broken plane was way too hard to fly. T.T"
Brother Edge: "Sigh, everyone calls me a rogue driver, but who's the real crash-test dummy here!"
Midnight Chicken Killer: "Mm, our Jungle Corps's ammo consumption seems a bit high too, scratching head."
The ranking of battlefield scores served merely as a reference.
The settlement of campaign rewards was calculated via a fixed formula based on each corps's performance across various phase objectives.
The server would directly distribute a base reward containing a substantial amount of silver coins and contribution points to players according to their corps's total score.
Corps commanders could also award First- to Third-Class Merits to standout players based on their individual performance in combat, granting them a fifty to one hundred and fifty percent bonus on top of their original rewards.
The number of Merits that could be awarded in a campaign was tied to the score earned by the corps. As for specifically who received them, Chu Guang left the decision entirely up to each corps commander.
Under the existing mechanics, players faced zero cost to join or leave a corps.
A corps with clear rewards and penalties would naturally fight with greater valor, while one that couldn't even maintain basic fairness would inevitably be marginalized.
Allowing corps commanders to manage their own internal affairs was both an authority Chu Guang granted them and a test of their organizational skills.
In the future, the scale of corps would only expand. Currently, each corps was at the company level. With growing player numbers and rising levels, outstanding corps would soon evolve into battalions, regiments, or even field armies containing multiple divisions.
Chu Guang would update versions according to need.
Whether players could adapt to the updates was their own business.
Of course, besides the internal Merits decided by each corps, this campaign—like past ones—would see medals officially bestowed upon players by the shelter.
Although the corps formed the primary body of warfare under the current version, individual strength remained impossible to overlook.
As the first regiment-scale-or-larger engagement since the launch of *Wasteland Online*, this battle produced a total of 375 standard medals and 12 exceptional medals.
These special honors carried hefty bonus rewards, awarded by the shelter to individuals who had distinguished themselves during the campaign.
For instance, Qiangren Suonan.
As an underground operative active behind enemy lines, the intelligence provided by Brother Qiangren Suonan and the chaos he sowed in the enemy rear played a critical role in securing victory.
Because of this, he earned the server's sole golden "Eagle Eye Medal."
Qiangren Suonan: "Hahaha, who dares call my sequence useless now! It's overpowered as hell, alright! (Smug)"
Ye Shi: "What's the point? Normal people can't choose that sequence anyway. (Funny)"
Jieyan: "By the way, what about your lackeys?"
Qiangren Suonan: "No problem! I'll respawn tomorrow anyway. Once I head back, I'll stage a rising from the dead! (Smirk)"
...
Shelter Medical Lab.
Sitting up from the scanning bed, Chu Guang checked his updated attribute panel through a tablet.
He had broken into another sweat last night, so the moment he got out of bed, he had headed straight to Heya's lab.
Sure enough.
Thanks to the players' stellar performance in the campaign, he had leveled up again.
[ID: Chu Guang]
[Gene Sequence: Administrator (Stage 3)]
[Level: LV.20 -> LV.22]
—Basic Attributes—
Strength: 23 -> 25
Agility: 18
Constitution: 21
Perception: 19 -> 20
Intelligence: 20
"...Your sequence development progress actually grew by two percent this time."
Sitting on the chair opposite Chu Guang, Heya gave her silver-white hair a gentle flick and looked him up and down with curiosity.
"I'm used to it by now, but the only thing that baffles me is the underlying principle behind your sequence's growth."
"Isn't that the research project I assigned you?" Feeling somewhat uncomfortable under her direct stare, Chu Guang picked up his jacket draped over the head of the bed and slipped it on.
Heya nodded and continued.
"Mhm. I have several conjectures so far, but lack sufficient evidence."
"Just tell me the most probable one."
"The broodmother."
Chu Guang's hand pulling the zipper froze. He cast a puzzled glance toward her.
"What do you mean?"
"It's inspiration I gained while studying the broodmother. Don't you think your evolutionary pattern bears a slight resemblance to it?"
Heya continued with keen interest.
"A broodmother releases specialized evolved organisms to integrate surrounding fruiting bodies. Those fruiting bodies evolve through consumption, and as their command tower, the broodmother grows from their evolutionary process... though the analogy is a bit forced."
Chu Guang: "...I'd say it's more than a little forced."
"Well, my understanding of morphogenetic field technology is essentially a blank slate, after all," Heya said, giving a helpless shrug. "It would help if you could procure more detailed data."
Chu Guang: "I hope so too. If there's any news, I'll let you know right away."
As a "Singularity-class" technology preserved within Shelter 404, the only intelligence he possessed regarding that morphogenetic field was a fragmented piece of audio containing mere scattered phrases.
There were many conceivable possibilities, but until rigorous evidence emerged, they remained purely conjectures.
Just like Schrödinger's cat.
Only when the box was opened could one know what lay inside.
As for now.
Lacking sufficient clues, curiosity served no purpose.
After leaving the Medical Lab, Chu Guang returned to the browsing room. He fetched a bottle of milk from the refrigerator, sat down on the sofa, and logged onto the official *Wasteland Online* website.
Just as he anticipated.
Regarding the first regiment-scale engagement in *Wasteland Online*, the players were as giddy as two-hundred-pound children, and the forum was as lively as New Year's Eve.
Especially after Xiao Qi uploaded the edited combat footage—spanning from the air to the ground and into cramped residential buildings—the rendered details were pushed to such an extreme that it looked just like an actual battlefield!
The players had already enjoyed their thrill in the game, and the cloud gamers got to share in the excitement as well.
Spectators who had been hesitating could no longer hold back their impatience, sparing ten precious minutes of their lives to fill out a reservation form.
Even though only thirty-odd accounts were released daily, what if they were drawn?
Driven by hype, the number of registered reservations surged by another significant margin.
However, compared to the colossal base of pre-registered players, a five-digit increase was no longer as noticeable.
"Way more hype than 2042!"
"Say no more, even if they fleece me I'll take it. When are you opening the cash shop? Let me drop fifty cents first!"
"A thousand players on screen for PVE! Too bad there's no PVP mode, otherwise it'd definitely be even wilder."
"Forget about PVP, there's only one joinable faction right now. But the AI in this game is nuts, so playing PVE isn't really any different."
"+1, wasting tech this insane on a video game is such a shame. (Funny)"
Skipping past the fluff comments, Chu Guang scrolled down and found quite a few players analyzing the campaign scoring mechanism and the payout formulas.
Although he had never made those public, players were still able to deduce certain patterns from the published information.
For example, Brother Fang Chang.
Less than two hours after the battle report went live, a guide regarding the updated corps system and campaign rewards appeared on the forum.
"...To make a long story short, two main points: one regarding the corps, and one regarding players within the corps system.
"Many people probably noticed during this campaign that allocating corps development points doesn't just dictate a corps's growth path; it also determines the types of missions the corps is likely to receive during specific operations.
"For instance, a corps with higher armor values is more likely to trigger fortification assault missions. A corps with higher mobility is more likely to trigger flanking penetration missions. Players on the fire support path practically have no chance to advance to the front lines—they either fly aircraft or shell from the rear.
"Battle scores are primarily determined by phase completion, and different mission types carry different KPI evaluation standards. For example, in an assault mission, the weighted criterion is breakthrough speed. In an urban street-fighting mission, the weighted criterion is casualty rate. Fire support missions demand firing precision, and so forth...
"Following the Beta update, the division of labor between corps will become clearer, and score calculations will align more closely with reality. As for capturing high-value targets, intercepting critical intelligence, or annihilating enemy forces outside of intelligence estimates during skirmishes, these do not factor into phase evaluations; rather, they count as bonus points applied directly to the final total.
"In short: complete your respective combat missions within the allotted time using standard ammunition allocations, and you will earn a high battle score.
"At the same time, the base income earned by players in a campaign is primarily determined by that score.
"To earn greater rewards, one must secure a higher score for the team. For individuals who distinguish themselves in combat, corps commanders can use their authority to award additional bonuses of fifty, one hundred, or one hundred and fifty percent.
"While commanders can decide whom to award Merits based on subjective judgment, the total number of Merits they can distribute is tied directly to the battle score.
"In other words, if a corps fails to maintain clear rewards and penalties, its cohesion will plummet, making it harder to secure high battle scores in combat and plunging into a vicious cycle of dwindling rewards and declining member counts.
"I strongly recommend all corps establish a comprehensive reward and penalty system as soon as possible. As corps levels grow, their player capacity will expand. Down the line, the possibility of players directly commanding an entire field army cannot be ruled out. The earlier institutional construction is completed, the less resistance there will be to future reforms.
"Additionally, I advise newcomers, when selecting a corps, to look beyond level rankings and carefully consider whether the corps's rules are sound, as well as how existing members evaluate their own corps!"
Not bad.
Brother Fang Chang understands me as well as ever.
Chu Guang nodded with satisfaction.
When designing the corps system, his foremost intention had been to allow players to gather like-minded companions based on their play styles, establish an organizational structure suited to them, and maximize the combat potential of a specialized group.
As for what that system was called, those were trivial details.
He couldn't possibly design an individual development path for every single player, but players were free to craft their preferred play styles within the framework of the rules.
If someone truly couldn't find any enjoyment in it, they could always pass their helmet to someone else who could, and lie in bed enjoying a peaceful night of sleep.
Beyond discussions of the corps system itself, quite a few players focused on the economic aspects outside the war.
For instance, Mole Escaping the Canyon.
This brother asserted bluntly in a post that the New Alliance would soon witness a massive infrastructure boom.
His reasoning was simple:
"Qingshi County is at least eighty kilometers from Dawn City, right? How much cement, steel, sand, and asphalt will it take to build railways and highways out there? You don't even have to think about it—demand for these bulk commodities is bound to skyrocket! Setting up a sand quarry and a biofuel refinery in Yuanxi Town right now would definitely rake in a fortune!"
Tail: "Whoa! Amazing! Sisi, take notes quick!"
Sisi: "Writing them down, writing them down."
Mole Escaping the Canyon: "Damn it! You free-riders, if you make money, at least cut me in for a share! (Rage)"
Chu Guang read the post from start to finish. Amidst his silent admiration, he quietly pinned it as a featured post.
With smart little players like these, why worry about failing to restore the Human Alliance?
Naturally, everything Brother Mole mentioned in his post had already crossed Chu Guang's mind.
Once Xizhou was conquered, not only would highways and railways be extended there, but Chu Guang also intended to relocate heavy industry along with them.
Dawn City was situated too close to its formidable neighbor, Boulder City. Developing heavy industry right under their noses carried too great a risk.
The New Alliance required sufficient strategic depth to counter potential threats.
Once this war concluded, Chu Guang planned to establish a new settlement in Xizhou City, take in the local survivors, and gradually shift Dawn City's heavy industry northward.
Xizhou City was surrounded by mountains, bordered lakes and rivers, possessed numerous surveyed mineral deposits, and most crucially, was free of mutant slime mold. Developing heavy industry there would be far easier than in Qingquan City.
As for Dawn City, it would serve as a base for light industry, agriculture, and commerce, producing daily necessities and various consumer goods required by the residents of the New Alliance.
However, to turn these plans from blueprints into reality, he had to eliminate the Fang Clan stationed in Xizhou City first...
Chu Guang closed the official website and prepared to leave the browsing room for the surface.
Just then, Xiao Qi's voice suddenly rang out from the side.
"Master! The position of the players you stationed at Pine Valley has come under artillery fire!"
The instant he heard those words, Chu Guang's gaze sharpened slightly.
Here it comes!
"Notify all players in the Burning Corps to get online immediately!"
Xiao Qi's voice sounded as full of vigor as ever.
"Yes! Master!"
Chapter 311