Fly Over, of Course!

"Boom—!" It was early morning. Artillery shells fell one after another, throwing up rolling clouds of dirt across central and southern Pine Valley. Looking at the high ground two kilometers away billowing with thick smoke, Bear Fang, binoculars in hand, sneered coldly and waved a massive hand forward. Seeing the signal, a centurion waiting eagerly at his side immediately chambered a round into his rifle and beckoned to the brothers behind him. "Brothers, with me!" A horde of marauders raised their rifles, howling in excitement. "Cut off their heads!" "Awoooo!" Though he shouted the loudest, the centurion did not charge in front. Instead, he cleverly had several decurions lead their men ahead to take the brunt. The force of about one hundred and twenty men split into three echelons—left, center, and right—with four squads of ten in each echelon, rapidly advancing under the cover of the pine forest. According to earlier intelligence, a Deathclaw lurked within these woods; the brothers garrisoned at the northern outpost had heard its roar. Everyone kept their eyes peeled, not daring to lower their guard in the slightest even after their artillery had blown the enemy positions sky-high. Meanwhile, on the hilltop freshly plowed by artillery fire, two players slowly poked their heads out of the trench. "Holy shit... My ears are practically deafened." Digging at his ear with a pinky finger, Silver Sword spat a mouthful of dirt-filled saliva, cursing. Crouched beside him, Silver Dad craned his neck to peer outside while asking nonstop: "How many rounds was that just now? Did you count?" Silver Sword thought for a moment. "Not sure... twenty or so?" Silver Dad curled his lip. "Tsk, broke bastards!" Stopping fire after a mere twenty rounds. If you've got the guts, drop two hundred on us! Weaklings! Those preceding artillery barrages had looked fierce, but they hadn't had much effect on the players on duty. Thanks to Brother Fang Chang's foresight, he had already anticipated that the Fang clan wouldn't fight fair and would bombard their positions, so everyone had dug bomb shelters into the trench beforehand. When the first shell landed in the forest in front of their position, the players crouching in the trench immediately ducked into the shelters. By the time the marauders adjusted their fire onto the trench itself, there was not a soul left in the open. The bomb shelters built into the trench were a full five or six meters deep, with walls and ceilings reinforced using pine logs as thick as a man's thigh. Though the explosions outside shook heaven and earth, they inflicted no actual damage on the players inside. At the end of the day, 100mm artillery just wasn't powerful enough. Doubling the caliber and powder charge might have accomplished something. Meanwhile, sitting along the sides of the bomb shelter, the Burning Corps players opened their eyes one after another, gradually waking from sleep. Startled by pair after pair of eyes suddenly snapping open, Silver Hand, crouched at the entrance, exclaimed in surprise: "Holy crap, you guys logged on so fast? I was just about to have someone log off and call you." Fang Chang shook his groggy head, glanced at the dust fallen over his legs, immediately grasped the situation, and asked calmly: "What's the situation outside?" Silver Hand replied hastily: "They dumped several dozen shells on us. Around seven or eight landed on our position, but we ducked in plenty of time—zero casualties!" "To hit our trenches accurately, there must be marauder forward observers nearby..." Quickly making an assessment, Lao Bai looked over at Ye Shi. "Ye Shi, check the nearby slopes, and take a look while you're at it to see if anyone's coming toward the high ground to our north." Ye Shi, having closed his helmet visor, was already reaching for his sniper rifle and backpack. "Copy that! Kuang Feng, let's roll." "Mm." Taciturn as always, Kuang Feng nodded, grabbed his rifle and drone pack, and hunched low to slip out the shelter entrance. The two departed the shelter. Fang Chang shifted over to an observation slit and peeked outside. "...The shelling stopped. They're almost certainly planning a charge." The pine forest down the slope was deathly quiet. Faint morning light filtered through the branches. If not for the shell craters still radiating wisps of heat, hardly anyone would have associated this place with a battlefield. Yet peering through the slit nearly obscured by dirt, even though Fang Chang was not a Perception-type player, he could still smell the murderous intent lurking beneath the silence. Without hesitation, Lao Bai tapped his VM twice with an index finger, switching to the squad leaders' voice channel, and barked: "Everyone, get to your combat stations immediately!" "Prepare to engage!" The players who had just logged in scrambled out of the shelters and rushed into the trench to take their positions, mounting and chambering their rifles and light machine guns. At the same time, the marauder company moving through the woods finally reached the forest's edge! The two sides came face-to-face. The centurion at the base of the slope had no time to wonder why, after their artillery had pounded the high ground with several rounds of high-explosive shells, so many people were still standing in the trench before him. Now, there was only one thing he could do— "Fire! Everyone open fire!" Bellowing at the top of his lungs, the centurion dropped behind a pine tree as thick as a thigh. Shooting uphill with his rifle, he urged the decurions beside him to press forward with their squads. The players defending the heights naturally wouldn't let them have their way. Lao Bai was the first to pull the trigger, firing the opening shot in the defense of Pine Valley. "Free fire! Repeat, free fire!" "All squad members, hit them hard!" The battle erupted instantly! The marauders had barely reached the foot of the slope before they were driven back by a hail of fire pouring down from above. Faced with such ferocious firepower from the high ground, the marauders were forced to halt their charge. They dove into craters left by their earlier bombardment, using fallen pine trunks and boulders as cover to engage in a fierce firefight with the players on the heights. Gunfire roared up and down the hill. The battle was locked in an intense stalemate! Seeing that the high ground ahead remained untaken after so long, Bear Fang, standing on the northern slope two kilometers away, grew anxious and couldn't help cursing: "Did these idiots forget to eat breakfast?!" Beside Bear Fang, Tumen, acting as military counselor, held his binoculars and observed the distant position with furrowed brows. The fire was too concentrated! There had to be around a hundred men crouched in those trenches. Over a dozen light machine guns pinned his men down so hard they couldn't even raise their heads. That position looked nothing like one that had been washed over by artillery shells. "...Those people most likely dug bomb shelters into their trenches." Tumen couldn't understand it. No matter how he calculated, the enemy had only had eighteen hours to construct defensive fortifications. Even if they had dug without pausing for a second, completing the trenches in such a short window would have been a feat. Yet not only had they dug trenches, they had even finished underground shelters capable of withstanding artillery. Even for real moles, such digging speed was absurd. Lowering his binoculars, Tumen turned to the millennium commander beside him and said grimly: "The enemy possesses extensive field combat experience. This battle may prove difficult!" Hearing his counselor's assessment, Bear Fang's eyes flashed with irritation. The memory of the mocking look from that Church of the Torch apostle made his blood boil even hotter. Difficult? He refused to believe it! Glancing back at the mortars that had just been set up nearby, Bear Fang bellowed an order: "Mortar crews, hear my command!" "Target the high ground ahead—pound them!" With several dull thuds, over a dozen mortar shells arced into the sky and crashed down onto the southern slope of Pine Valley. Explosions erupted in sequence, sending dirt flying across the southern heights. The players hadn't expected the marauders to be so ruthless—bombarding the area without caring about their own teammates charging below, shelling friends and foes alike. Caught off guard by the barrage, the players in the trench flattened themselves behind cover to avoid the whizzing shrapnel. Feeling the fragments screaming overhead, Fang Chang shouted toward Lao Bai: "There are too many people in the trench! Three squads of ten are enough! Have the rest take shelter in the bomb caves—if the front falls, the next wave can step up!" "Got it!" Lao Bai had clearly recognized the problem as well and promptly issued orders across the squads via the command channel. Twenty light machine guns remained on the line, manned by two players each—one firing, one feeding ammo—while the rest waited near the shelter entrances as reserves, ready to rotate in at any moment. With the redeployment, firepower on the position decreased slightly, but efficiency improved significantly. The marauders below suffered far worse. The mortar shells fired from behind them lacked any semblance of accuracy; fewer than half actually landed on the high ground. As for the other half... They either landed too far, or exploded right in their own comrades' faces. With machine guns blazing from the slope ahead and friendly mortars pounding from behind, caught in the crossfire, they wailed in agony, caught between a rock and a hard place. In under ten minutes, half the hundred-man company was wiped out! "Motherfucker! Think you're the only ones who can bomb people?..." Lying prone in the trench, Mosquito cursed as his index finger tapped across his VM screen, setting targeting coordinates for the northern slopes of Pine Valley. Pine Valley was roughly ten kilometers from Qingshi County—a distance nearing the maximum range of his 130mm rockets. Not a big problem, though! The Goblin Corps' rocket launchers were mounted on Electric Mule trucks. After Qingshi County was captured, they had been stationed in the camp near the department store. The moment the battle began, he had ordered the artillery team to drive the trucks mounted with launch tubes to open ground on the northern outskirts of Qingshi County for deployment. By now, his artillerymen were in position, ready to launch a counter-battery strike against the enemy mortars at a moment's notice! "Goblin Corps artillery crew, attention! Firing coordinates updated. One volley of rockets—" "Blow them to hell!" After a few minutes of waiting, a howling drone roared overhead like a pipe organ in full crescendo. Accompanied by screaming sirens, thick trails of exhaust ripped through the quiet morning light, raining down upon northern Pine Valley. Fifty rockets poured down in an instant! Though these rockets lacked precision, sheer volume made up for it. The deafening roar silenced the northern mortar positions at once, leaving the northern heights cloaked in billowing smoke as far as the eye could see. In less than half a minute, dozens died under the wild saturation bombardment, and nearly a hundred were wounded. Howls and shrieks echoed across the smoldering position. Marauders with severed limbs lay everywhere—a scene straight out of hell. Scrambling to his feet from the muddy ground, Bear Fang ignored the filth coating his face, his expression stricken with shock. "Damn it, what the hell was that?!" He had never seen a weapon so terrifying. Countless missiles had practically blotted out the sky. One had landed less than twenty meters from him, the blast wave knocking him clean off his feet. He had never been so close to death. For a moment, he had felt as if he couldn't breathe. Perhaps he shouldn't have spoken with such grand confidence... "Rockets... Fuck, they even managed to build those!" Not far from Bear Fang, Tumen was in an equally disheveled state, but having seen his share of the world, he remained relatively composed. Glancing at the devastated position behind him, Tumen's heart sank to the bottom. Lacking fortifications and cover, this sudden saturation strike had cost them at least a company's worth of combat strength. Fortunately, he had exercised caution and hadn't brought all the rear units forward, or the casualties would have been catastrophic... "The enemy's fire support is likely superior to ours. We need armored vehicles... Otherwise, even another thousand men won't be enough if we keep fighting like this." "Order your men to pull back!" Though loath to admit it, the facts were right in front of them. "Damn moles... If you've got the balls, come down from that hill and fight me like real men!" Cursing through trembling lips, Bear Fang drew a flare gun from his waist, chambered a green flare, and fired into the sky. As the green light rose into the air, the centurion directing combat on the front line saw the signal and breathed a huge sigh of relief, shouting for the surrounding marauders to fall back. "Lao Bai, they're retreating! What's the call, do we chase?" Seeing the marauders below pulling back, Jieyan, bracing his machine gun, yelled excitedly toward Lao Bai. Gazing down the slope with furrowed brows, Lao Bai shook his head. "Hold the position!" Compared to the five hundred men they had ambushed yesterday, this lot was noticeably tougher. At least they knew how to seek cover and advance spread out, rather than swarming mindlessly into their line of fire. It seemed the level difficulty was scaling up... Just then, Lao Bai noticed Scavenger crouching by the shelter entrance, rubbing his claws together eagerly. A thought struck him, and he added to his previous order: "Except for Brother Scavenger." Hearing this, Scavenger Lv99, who had been unable to contain himself, burst out of the bomb shelter. "Hahaha! Finally my turn! Cover me, boys!" With that, the heavily armored lizard threw back his head, let out an excited roar, and vaulted over the trench without hesitation, sprinting straight into the pine forest below. Seeing the giant lizard leaping out of the trench, both the millennium commander and the counselor on the opposing position stared in disbelief through their binoculars. "...What the hell was that just now?" Bear Fang swallowed hard. Staring fixedly at the edge of the pine forest, Tumen forced out: "It looks a bit like a Deathclaw... though smaller by a size." If that monster hit them from behind, not a single man from the company sent to seize the high ground would make it back. Bear Fang dared not hesitate. He roughly shoved the centurion beside him, barking: "Quick! Take your men up!" "Cover our boys so they can pull back!" Armed with Panzerfaust rocket launchers and heavy rifles designed to hunt large mutant species, another company braced themselves and advanced down the slope. Yet they were a step too late. Charging into the crowd like a rampaging tank, Scavenger claimed several lives with every sweep of his steel claws. By the time the reinforcements rushing down reached their routing allies, barely a dozen men remained of the company sent to take the heights. Spotting the enemy reinforcements, Scavenger didn't linger. He immediately abandoned the pursuit and slipped back into the pine forest behind him. Thus concluded the first clash between Bear Fang's tribe and the Burning Corps. The marauder company that had spearheaded the assault left behind well over a hundred corpses, with only a dozen or so fleeing back to their northern positions. The preceding rocket strike had not only caused over a hundred casualties, but had also thoroughly shocked Bear Fang's tribe, who had arrogantly boasted of capturing Qingshi County within ten days. Let alone Qingshi County— A single hill to its north had already cost them nearly twenty percent of their force... Weighing the pros and cons, Bear Fang followed his counselor's recommendation and abandoned the northern position in Pine Valley, pulling back five kilometers toward Xizhou City to make camp, leaving behind only two companies on their original position to dig trenches and blast shelters. As for the players, they had suffered seventeen casualties of their own, half of them carried off by the enemy's mortar fire. Seeing the marauders on the northern position retreat, the players in the trench didn't even have time to celebrate before their corps commander led them to reinforce their position. The enemy obviously wouldn't let things rest. No one knew when the next bombardment would arrive. Meanwhile, digging trenches alongside his comrades, Lao Bai soon received a new mission via his VM: Hold the southern heights of Pine Valley for at least forty-eight hours. Supplies would arrive within two hours, including ten 10mm heavy machine guns and a mortar team of twenty NPCs. After forty-eight hours, the Death Corps would relieve them. ... Qingshi County. Temporary Command Center. Reviewing the battle reports sent simultaneously from the frontline and logistics, Chu Guang felt a mix of joy and concern. Only twenty-four hours into the war, his players had already expended 150 rounds of 130mm rockets, 400 rounds of 100mm howitzer shells, dozens of 100-kilogram aerial bombs, and the planes that dropped them. In addition, nearly 31 tons of basic ammunition had been consumed—including 670,000 rounds of 7mm full-power rifle cartridges and numerous machine gun rounds. As for the mission rewards distributed to the players? Those were actually the least of his worries. Even at an average campaign reward of 1,000 silver coins per person, the total payout was only a little over a million silver coins. With the silver coin consignment platform acting as a "secondary market" reservoir, some players would exchange silver coins for real currency to improve their lives, while the massive pool of preregistered reservation players would absorb this inflation for him. The bullets fired, however, could not be bought on credit. This was perhaps the biggest difference between a virtual economy and a real one. Despite thorough preparations before the war, now that the fighting had truly begun, Chu Guang acutely realized just how money-burning war could be. Of course, backed by superior firepower, the results were astonishing. In less than half a day, a thousand-man corps had annihilated an entire millennium of the Fang clan, while the Burning Corps defending Pine Valley had driven off an entire regiment sent to seize the heights with merely a company of men. Furthermore, the equipment captured from Lion Fang and the copper mine resuming production had recouped some of the expenditure. While Chu Guang silently tallied the costs, the officers in the command post were discussing their next operational plan. Currently speaking was Wrench. Tempered by several campaigns, though his frontline combat experience still had gaps, his strategic vision had improved leaps and bounds compared to his days in the militia guard. Normally, Vannus would have been speaking at such moments, but now Wrench could offer his own insights based on reports fed back from frontline units. "...Pine Valley is the only corridor from Qingshi County to Xizhou City. As long as the Fang clan's commander isn't a total incompetent, he'll seize this strategic chokepoint at all costs." "Right now, the Fang clan millennium has been repelled by our corps, but before long, a fiercer second wave will surely come!" "I agree." Standing nearby, Vannus stared at the map and nodded slowly. "...If the Fang clan occupies the southern heights of Pine Valley, their 100mm artillery will be able to shell inside the town of Qingshi County." "Since we have the ability to hold it, my recommendation is to reinforce the position and maintain control of it by all means necessary!" Although until this morning Vannus had considered pushing the front line another ten kilometers north overly aggressive, seeing the battle report sent back by the Burning Corps had dispelled every single misgiving in his heart. The strength of this elite corps went far beyond his expectations! If each of them possessed the capability to take on ten opponents alone, they might truly work a miracle and turn the impossible into reality. Listening quietly to the officers' discussion, Chu Guang, seated at the command table, suddenly spoke up: "How many men do you think we need?" Vannus considered for a moment. "The terrain of Pine Valley can deploy three millenniums at most. If we are to stop an assault by three thousand men... conservatively speaking, we need at least a thousand." Chu Guang asked: "And a more aggressive estimate?" Vannus went silent for a moment. "Five hundred." At this point, Bernie, who had remained quiet all along, spoke up: "Five hundred likely won't be enough. I know your infantry is formidable, but the Fang clan has tanks. They've already suffered at your hands once; they won't make the same mistake again." Everyone turned to look at him in unison. This man had once been a millennium commander in the Legion Expeditionary Force's 21st Division. Following his superior's surrender to the Bone Chewer tribe, he had served under Lion Fang as a military counselor. Having surrendered to the New Alliance under Vannus's persuasion, he was currently working off his guilt as a prisoner of war, serving temporarily as an "Adviser on Military Operations Against the Bone Chewer Tribe." Though Bernie's status was sensitive, Chu Guang did not ignore the intelligence he provided, looking at him and asking: "How many tanks do they have?" Bernie shook his head. "I don't know the exact number either... If it's just the equipment transferred from us, around twelve. But if you count what they've purchased from other places, it's hard to say." "Purchased?" Chu Guang's brows knitted slightly. "Someone sells tanks to them?" Bernie offered a bitter smile. "Not just tanks, but replacement parts, maintenance tools, fuel, and shells... Surely you don't think those savages are self-sufficient?" Chu Guang said, "Go on." Bernie paused briefly before continuing: "...From what I know, there is a place called 'Bugra' in the north-central region of River Valley Province. They call themselves the Bugra Free State. Most of the residents there are bounty hunters, mercenaries, or thieves... along with merchants who fence stolen goods and factory owners who pay for them. These people are never picky about buyers or sellers, so naturally they do business with marauders. Being close to the Great Rift Valley, they can even get their hands on plenty of rare treasures seldom seen on the wasteland." Chu Guang looked mildly surprised. "I assumed the Bone Chewer tribe pillaged everything they came across." Bernie made a helpless gesture. "They do, and they even want to establish a marauder kingdom in River Valley Province. But nothing is absolute. The treasures they loot have to be traded somewhere, so they don't rob everyone. For example, Red River Town was once their second-largest fencing hub, but the junk mountains there were too tempting, and the town happened to sit directly in the path of the Snake Clan's eastward expansion... So their honeymoon came fast and ended just as quickly." "As for the Bugra Free State... it's too close to the Great Rift Valley. The Bone Chewer tribe doesn't dare provoke those vicious people, which is why they keep pushing south." No wonder. Chu Guang nodded thoughtfully. He had previously wondered how those marauders had driven tanks all the way from the north down here. Even if they had fuel, if a part broke down along the way, it had to be repaired, didn't it? Equipment cut off from logistical support was a non-renewable resource. That was also one of the reasons why Boulder City would rather pay to hire swarms of cannon fodder against the Tide than deploy their power armor. As for this trading partner of the Bone Chewer tribe, Chu Guang wasn't overly concerned. Those people were doing business, not charity. The Fang clan's southward advance had ground to a halt. Without enough plunder or revenue-generating industries, even having a trade route was just decorative. As for those tanks? Chu Guang was even less worried. Did they fear 100-kilogram aerial bombs? No matter how thick the Legion's leftover steel coffins were, the people inside were still made of flesh and blood. Dropping a hundred-kilo aerial bomb would blast even slime molds into ash, let alone a few rookie tank crews. If anything, Chu Guang hoped they would roll out their tanks soon. Like Boulder City's power armor, every one destroyed was one less they could replace. "...The longer this battle remains in a stalemate, the more advantageous it is for us. While the Fang clan has numerical superiority, their logistical situation isn't even in the same league as ours!" "As long as we do our utmost to pin them down against our positions, grinding away their manpower and supplies with a fortified front line and artillery, final victory will definitely be ours!" Liu Ding, who had been staring at the map all along, suddenly remarked with a sigh: "If only we could send a unit to infiltrate behind their lines... Even if they don't engage in direct combat, just linking up with local resistance groups to stir up trouble would help." Of course, he was merely musing. Infiltrating behind enemy lines sounded simple enough in words, but carrying it out was exceedingly difficult. It meant asking a group of soldiers to fight continuously while cut off from supplies and surrounded on all sides. Without having gained a decisive advantage, such a reckless plan amounted to sending people to their deaths. Yet upon hearing this, Chu Guang's eyes lit up. "That's a fantastic idea!" Bernie furrowed his brow and shook his head. "It's very difficult... From what I know of the terrain around here, Pine Valley is the only path from Qingshi County to Xizhou City. Unless we take a detour by way of the Tianshui River, but that's Snake Clan territory." Vannus turned a puzzled gaze toward Chu Guang as well. "How do you intend to get the troops across?" Chu Guang stood up, looked at the map, and smiled faintly. "Fly them over, of course!"