The War Has Begun

The glow of the campfire vanished. The dark forest returned once more to silence. Prone atop the pile of rubble, Vito shifted his right eye away from the sniper rifle's scope, a flicker of surprise passing between his brows. *Spotted?* His eyes narrowed slightly. He decisively stowed the sniper rifle, raised an index finger to lightly tap near his ear, and spoke to the other two hunters closing in. "Valit, Xiu, heads up... The target is an Awakened, likely enhanced in hearing or vision. They've gone on high alert. Be careful." Two replies came through the headset. "Understood." "Copy." Once the orders were given, Vito drew the flare gun holstered at his waist without the slightest hesitation and fired a shot toward the sky. A red flare shot upward, flickering as it hung in the night sky like a crimson lantern. A patrol conducting a search mission was stationed five kilometers away. Upon seeing the signal, they would immediately rush over with reinforcements. Just then, Valit's voice crackled through the comms. The heavily muscled brute spoke in a teasing tone. "Was it really necessary to call for backup? It's just three little girls. At most, throw in one half-dead casualty and a couple of dumb bears." In his eyes, their squad leader was being entirely too cautious. He admitted that the 29th Marines' crushing defeat was cause for caution, but there was no need to scare themselves. Those poor bastards who took bullets through the skull were nothing more than fresh recruits who hadn't even served two years. In terms of both skill and combat experience, they weren't in the same league as elite Marines like them. Hearing his teammate's banter, Vito responded with complete apathy. "Better safe than sorry." Whether the enemy was an old man, a child, or a woman, so long as they were breathing, he would never let his guard down. Pausing, he added, "Besides, I only spotted two earlier. That contradicts our intelligence of three." A low chuckle and the grinding of knuckles sounded over the channel. "All the better. One for me and one for Xiu." Xiu, who had remained quiet from the start, snapped impatiently, "Cut the chatter. Finish the job so we can head back." Valit cracked his knuckles and grinned widely. "You got it!" *** With the campfire extinguished, darkness engulfed the campsite. As her eyes gradually adjusted to the pitch-black surroundings, Sesame Paste crouched behind a tree trunk, holding her breath on high alert. She concentrated every ounce of focus on the wind rustling through the forest and the faint whispers hidden beneath its flow. Her LV10 Awakening hadn't granted her any overwhelmingly flashy abilities, but it had bestowed upon her unparalleled hearing. Within a radius of a hundred meters, not the slightest rustle of grass or stir of wind could escape her ears. Seconds ticked by. The enemy did not launch an immediate assault. Just as she thought the standoff would drag on, a sharp gunshot rang out in the distance, and a red flare soared into the night sky. Faint light trickled down into the woods from above. Looking up at the descending flare, Sisi's expression shifted slightly. Almost simultaneously, a booming roar ripped through the forest's silence. Accompanied by heavy, thundering footfalls, a colossal figure came crashing toward the camp like a runaway train. Standing two and a half meters tall and built like an ox, his running speed was staggeringly fast. Within mere seconds, he was already bearing down on the perimeter of the campsite. Sesame Paste was the first to pull the trigger. Amidst flashing muzzle fire, dozens of rounds poured out in an instant, weaving a dense web of suppression through the trees. Yet it failed to halt his charge in the slightest. "Are you kidding me?!" Without time to marvel in disbelief, she scrambled to swap out the empty magazine. During the brief pause in Sesame Paste's fire, Sisi, who had been calmly lining up her sights, finally waited until the man entered optimal range. The primed magnetic slingshot snapped, unleashing a volley aimed straight at his face. Yet what followed left Sisi's eyes wide in shock. The brute threw up his massive left arm, not only tanking all six magnetically accelerated steel pellets head-on, but continuing forward without breaking his stride for a fraction of a second. *This guy—* *Is he a mutant?!* "Haha! Useless—!" With an arrogant, wild roar of laughter, Valit hurled the hatchet gripped in his right hand. The distance of a dozen meters vanished in a blink. Just as the spinning hatchet was about to tear into Sisi's chest, the steel-armored polar bear bellowed, swatting the airborne axe aside with a heavy paw before digging its legs into the earth and charging headlong into the fray. Seeing the great white bear barreling toward him, Valit showed no fear. Instead, he met it head-on without flinching, crashing into Rourou in a vicious brawl. "So you're that talking bear?" Cornered under the glare of those sickly green eyes, Rourou was panicking internally, yet she forced herself to maintain composure and bellowed a menacing threat. Valit sneered. Tensing his arms, ropy muscles swelled like writhing earthworms, shockingly forcing the giant white bear back half a step by sheer raw force. Feeling the crushing pressure mount, Rourou shouted in a fluster, "This guy is crazy strong... Don't just stand there, help me!" "You two are tangled too close together, I can't get a clean shot... Why did you even charge in like that anyway?!" Holding her rifle, Sesame Paste didn't know whether to laugh or cry, hesitating to pull the trigger on the intertwined shadows. The main problem was that Rourou was enormous. Firing at this range, her teammate was bound to get turned into a sieve before the enemy did. "I—I don't know! Momentum just carried me in!" As the crushing force clamping down on her bear paws grew heavier, Rourou sounded near tears. She admitted that seeing her friend in mortal danger had made her blood rush, and she had jumped in without thinking. Who could have known this guy possessed such absurd strength? Virtually every enemy she had encountered before had been swatted flying with a single slap. Yet this man was matching her paw for pound purely through flesh and bone, his power not yielding an inch. *Is he even human?!* Sisi suddenly called out, "Sesame Paste, take Luo Hua and run east! Run as far as you can. If worst comes to worst, stash him away, but at least get the chip back!" Sesame Paste froze. "But—" "Please!" Offering no further explanation, Sisi quickly unsheathed the dagger strapped to her thigh and rushed forward to assist. However, someone—or rather, some bear—beat her to the punch. Seeing Rourou trapped in dire straits, Teddy, who had lived in captivity so long he had nearly lost all wild instincts, finally unleashed a long-forgotten primal roar. Seeing yet another mutated brown bear barreling in, the manic excitement on Valit's face gave way to a flash of alarm. "Xiu! What the hell are you dragging your feet for?!" he roared, half-frantic and half-furious. A calm, unhurried voice drifted through the comms. "I just didn't want to spoil your fun." The instant those words fell, a glint of cold steel flashed, followed immediately by a sharp whistle tearing through the air. Taking an arrow straight to the back, Teddy let out a roar of pain, but endured the agony to slam headlong into Valit, who remained locked in a stalemate with Rourou. Lowering the hand crossbow, a trace of surprise crossed Xiu's eyes. The toxin coated on his quarrel was potent enough to bring down an elephant, yet this brown bear acted as if it were nothing? Just as he readied a second shot, a tongue of muzzle flash suddenly erupted from the darkness, raining lead directly upon his exposed position. "Fuck!" Diving behind nearby cover, Xiu tossed aside the hand crossbow and unslung the assault rifle strapped across his chest. Yet just as he raised his weapon to return fire, an incoming blade whistled through the dark, forcing him to abort the shot and smash the butt of his rifle toward the figure rushing him. The rifle stock collided hard with the dagger, knocking it away without suspense. Before Xiu could even register relief, the young woman before him materialized two more daggers from somewhere, holding one forehand and one reverse, flashing twin blades toward his vitals. Startled, he stumbled backward in haste. Giving him no room to breathe, Sisi closed the distance at blistering speed, thrusting the reverse-grip dagger in her right hand forward with lethal precision. Just as the blade was about to sink into his throat, an abrupt rifle crack echoed from deep within the forest. Massive kinetic energy slammed violently into her abdomen. Sisi let out a stifled groan as her body was thrown backward out of control, crashing hard against a tree trunk behind her. A wave of intense dizziness nearly forced her connection offline on the spot. *Sniper!* Roughly pin-pointing the firing vector, she let go of the dagger in her left hand and yanked a smoke grenade from her body armor, tossing it out to obscure follow-up shots and cover her teammates. Dense smoke billowed outwards. Yet a second and third gunshot cracked in quick succession. Though the bullets hadn't been aimed at her, her heart sank even further. She immediately thought of Sesame Paste, who had been retreating with Luo Hua. However— She had no luxury to worry about others right now. Clinging to her wavering consciousness, Sisi summoned every ounce of strength left in her body and hurled the dagger in her right hand at the figure closing in. Regrettably, the man simply tilted his head, dodging the throw with effortless ease before training his rifle directly on her as she reached for her sidearm. "You girls are tough, but still far too green." "Surrender. Being my prisoner is far better than falling into Valit's hands." The wiry man gestured with his chin toward the brute wrestling the bear, mocking, "I've never seen anyone last more than a week in his clutches." Over by the clearing, the mutated brown bear had finally collapsed to the earth. Sisi remained silent, her eyes locked onto him with venomous resolve. "Heh, looks like you haven't resigned yourself to reality yet." A cruel smile twisted across Xiu's face. "Guess you need a little help." He took a step forward. Right then, three muffled thumps echoed faintly from the distance. Before he could process the sound, three deafening detonations blasted apart the forest just behind him. A scorching thermal wave swept gently through the trees alongside the night breeze. Xiu froze, his face blank with astonishment and bewilderment. *What just happened?!* Sisi was equally bewildered. Yet those three thunderous blasts seemed to have originated from the exact direction of the enemy sniper rifle. And almost in the same breath, a familiar voice rang out from beyond the smoke screen. "Die, motherfucker!" A figure swift as lightning tore through the fog shrouding the woods, plunging into the fray alongside an erupting torrent of muzzle fire. Xiu's pupils contracted violently as his peripheral vision caught sight of the girl wielding the assault rifle. Yet at point-blank range, even if he saw her, there was zero time to react. Bullets lashed out like driving rain. A mist of blood instantly burst across his body, and before he could even squeeze out a shriek, he was slammed onto the ground beneath the furious barrage. "Sisi! Are you okay!" Bursting out of the smoke and seeing Sisi leaning against the tree, Tail rushed over anxiously. "I'm fine. Tail, your timing was legendary! Ten out of ten!" Squeezing a pale smile onto her face, Sisi flashed her a thumbs-up. Tail didn't pick up the banter, however. Instead, she gasped at Sisi's blood-soaked clothing. "Holy crap! How are you hurt this bad?!" The body armor had been punched clean through. Blood had saturated nearly the entire garment. Sisi didn't care all that much. The game had pain-dampening mechanisms anyway; once the fight was over, slapping on a bandage would fix everything. "Minor detail, no bones broken. I'm a Constitution-type, so little scratches like this will be practically healed by tomorrow... Stop wasting time, go help Rourou—" "Xiu!" Peering through the thinning smoke, Valit finally spotted his slain brother-in-arms, his eyes instantly flooding with crimson fury. With a savage roar, he threw off Rourou and charged straight toward Tail and Sisi. He was about to close the gap in a heartbeat. Just then, a sharp whoosh tore through the air. Trailing a thick tail of flame, an RPG rocket surged out from the darkness, slamming square into the brute's left shoulder! It was an anti-armor high-explosive shaped charge. The molten metal jet penetrated his left shoulder like a searing spear of light before blasting clean out through the right side of his torso. Flesh and bone were vaporized and charred by temperatures reaching thousands of degrees. Even a pure-blooded mutant stood no chance of regenerating half a destroyed torso in such a short span. Valit let out a brief, agonized roar that was abruptly cut short. His towering frame pitched forward, hitting the ground with a dull thud. Shouldering the smoking launcher tube, Sesame Paste's chest heaved violently, her pounding heart practically lodged in her throat. "Sesame Paste?!" Rourou looked at her in surprise. "You didn't retreat with Luo Hua?" Sesame Paste murmured softly, "I... couldn't leave you guys behind." "Thanks. But that said... our quest is probably toast now." Looking up at the red flare slowly descending into the forest canopy, Sisi let out a quiet sigh. Oh well. It was just a game; having fun was what counted. They had done their best anyway. The only thing she truly regretted was Tail's truckload of cargo. Dying only cost three days of respawn time, but losing over a hundred thousand silver coins worth of goods would take ages to earn back. Yet at that moment, Tail beamed with boundless optimism. "No need to worry! Our reinforcements are here too!" "Our... reinforcements?" Sisi gave a wry smile, about to ask where on earth reinforcements would come from, when something struck her. She hurriedly pulled up the VM strapped to her arm. Across the pitch-black map interface... A shimmering trail of hopeful green dots had indeed lit up! "Yeah!" Tail nodded vigorously, rambling on without a pause. "It's Brother Spring and the guys! That was so close just now—I almost got tagged by that sniper!" *So those two gunshots earlier were aimed at Tail as she rushed to back us up.* A look of realization dawned on Sisi. As for the explosions... They were probably from Commander Spring's 120mm heavy mortar. If she remembered correctly, the exoskeleton was called the "Destroyer"—the one that looked suspiciously like a Blastoise. Still, that wasn't the main issue. She couldn't wrap her head around why the Storm Corps had shown up here. Didn't they... just set off yesterday? Covering a hundred and fifty kilometers across the wasteland took at least five days at top speed. How could they have crossed from Qingquan City to Ruigu City in under forty-eight hours? As they spoke, intense gunfire broke out in the distance. The Legion squad responding to the flare had run smack into the elite vanguard of the Storm Corps, and a vicious firefight erupted immediately! Right after, three more earth-shattering explosions shook the ground. Facing the players' overwhelming firepower, the Legion reinforcements quickly suffered over fifty percent casualties. Leaving behind twenty to thirty corpses, the shattered remnants fled west in total disarray. As the distant gunfire faded, the Storm Corps players chose not to pursue. Having finished bandaging her wounds, Sisi soon saw a group of figures approaching through the trees. There were about twenty of them. Judging by the Type 5 "Light Cavalry" exoskeletons they wore, every one of them was an elite of the Storm Corps. Leading the pack was none other than Battlefield Atmosphere Group—a veteran player of the Storm Corps and a hardened grinder who had entered the game in its earliest test versions. Looking at the familiar faces, Sisi asked blankly, "How did you guys... get here so fast?" "Ran, of course." "...Ran?" "Yep." Resting his rifle on his shoulder, Battlefield Guy grinned and cursed, "That bastard Spring stopped acting like a human being again. He gathered all the players in the corps with 'Light Cavalry' suits into a separate detachment, claiming cavalry ought to act like cavalry. Then he paired us up in twos to take turns playing mount—one running while the other AFKs, forcing a continuous thirty-hour march... Damn it, my exoskeleton's battery is practically drained dry." Sisi was stunned. *Taking turns playing mount?!* She tried to visualize the scene in her head, but felt her imagination fell short. Then again, given the performance specs of the Type 5 Light Cavalry exoskeleton, it wasn't technically impossible. It was just thoroughly inhumane. "...Where's I'm the Darkest, who usually sticks with you?" Battlefield Guy chuckled. "Him? He went to help Spring adjust his firing coordinates! That guy's Awakening ability is insanely useful for directing artillery strikes. Not only can he lock down the general origin of gunfire across a wide area, he can track shell trajectories too. That camping bastard who was taking potshots from the bushes just got deleted by our 120mm mortar rounds!" Tail flashed a thumbs-up. "Whoa! Thanks, brother! That was a really close call!" "Hahaha, don't mention it!" Battlefield Guy laughed. "You guys weren't half bad either, holding out for so long." Tail puffed out her chest proudly. "Of course! My Sisi is super brave! And Tail is too!" Sisi cleared her throat lightly to change the subject. "By the way, did you completely abandon your supply train?" "Pretty much. We only have twenty-three Light Cavalry suits. Aside from Spring rolling in his Destroyer, everyone else is running KV-1s, which don't have the endurance... Oh right, why aren't you guys wearing your exoskeletons?" "Who wears those on a merchant run... But that means you guys didn't bring any rations or supplies at all?" "No problem, don't we have you?" Battlefield Atmosphere Group chuckled playfully. "Brother Spring said that the moment he flew back that day, he had a gut feeling you guys would get into trouble. He was rushing us the whole way, saying that once we rescue the sugar mommies, we can just live off them." Sisi: "..." Tail piped up enthusiastically, "Oh! Eat as much as you want! I brought a ton of delicious treats!" Battlefield Atmosphere Group laughed. "Haha, just kidding. We won't freeload on your supplies. Just tally it up and bill us at market rates—the Administrator reimburses our military expenses anyway." Sisi let out a sigh. "Let's skip the formalities for now... We made so much noise, we need to relocate immediately. Tail, could you help pack up our gear?" "Okey-dokey!" Tail ran over to the truck, and Sesame Paste hurried over to help as well. Battlefield Atmosphere Group glanced at the bandages wrapped around Sisi's waist. "You going to be okay?" Kakarot, standing nearby, chimed in, "I'm a Strength-type, I can carry you!" Hearing that, Broken-Leg Kevin instantly protested, "Dammit, aren't you supposed to be my mount?!" Kakarot rolled his eyes. "Piss off! Who the hell is your mount?!" "I'm fine... I can manage on my own." Taking a deep breath, Sisi used a rifle from the ground as a crutch and stood up against a tree trunk. Just as she was about to head back to the truck, she noticed Rourou sitting silently in a corner of the camp with her head hanging low. "Rourou?" The broad silhouette didn't respond. Lowering her gaze to the mutated brown bear sprawled motionless on the ground, Sisi froze, falling into silence as well. Walking up behind Rourou, she rested a gentle hand on the furry shoulder. Unable to hold it together any longer, the broad shoulders trembled softly. Rourou kept her head down, her voice breaking with sobs. "Teddy... has no heartbeat." Although she had initially kept the clumsy, goofy bear in the guild on a whim, after traveling together for so long, she had long since come to see it as a true companion. The rest of the White Bear Knights felt the same. The clearing fell dead silent. Sesame Paste discreetly wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. Even the usually cheerful and noisy Tail went quiet, lowering her head in silence. The surrounding players stood without a word. Most of them were veterans who had secured closed alpha access early on. They understood all too well the hollow ache of knowing someone from their memories would never return. The most realistic, yet cruelest design feature of this game was that NPCs could not respawn. Players could die repeatedly with memories intact. No matter how recklessly they threw themselves into danger, death was never permanent; they always had another chance, always able to see the sun three days later. Yet the NPCs who accompanied them possessed only a single life. Those memories sometimes felt like a curse—the only pain that the gaming helmet could never filter out. That was precisely why they always threw themselves onto the front lines without hesitation. Battlefield Guy scratched the back of his head. He hated interrupting at a time like this and wasn't good at offering comforting words, but they had to move. "Brother Spring said that once we link up with you, we need to relocate immediately... The enemy might drop area-of-effect fire on us. We don't have much time." Sisi nodded quietly. Gently patting the furry back, she said softly, "Let's take him with us." Rourou nodded with a heavy heart. "Mm..." *** Aboard the *Heart of Iron*. An officer sprinted through the corridor, bursting onto the bridge in sheer panic. The doors slammed open. His voice trembled as he shouted, "Report! The 29th and 31st Marines have been wiped out! A hostile force ambushed our ground units sent to recover the parachute drop in the eastern outskirts!" On their very first day arriving in River Valley Province... They had suffered such catastrophic losses. "A pack of useless trash!" Furious, General Macklen erupted in venomous curses. Glaring at the crewman seated before the fire control console, he bellowed an order at the top of his lungs. "Load the 400mm main battery!" "Blow those wild mongrels to absolute dust!" He knew they had undoubtedly fled already. No one would be foolish enough to stand still and wait to be bombed. Yet he would do it anyway. For no other reason than to force those ants to witness, hear, and feel the wrath rising from hell with their very souls—to make them tremble before his bombardment and kneel in regret over their brainless insolence. No one could stand against the Legion! No one could stand against him! The crewman at the console responded with a booming voice, "Sir, yes, sir!" *** Across the silent night sky, a streak of fire flared as a thick column of pressurized gas erupted toward the heavens. The thunderous boom of the artillery cracked across the clouds like rolling thunder. That night, every wasteland dweller in Ruigu City—survivor and marauder alike—heard the apocalyptic roar. The shell slammed into a forest-covered mountain basin twenty kilometers away. A crimson fireball swallowed the terrain as billowing smoke surged into the sky, sending shattered rock flying and shockwaves sweeping clean across the woodland. Standing on a ridge several kilometers away and peering through the dark, Commander Spring passed his binoculars to Battlefield Guy beside him. "Normal mortars can't reach this far; it's almost certainly a rocket-assisted projectile... Judging by the smoke pillar and blast radius, the warhead is a fuel-air explosive." A legendary sub-nuclear weapon. Capable of instantly consuming all the oxygen across an entire zone. Pausing for a second, he added calmly, "The war has begun." Battlefield Guy stood speechless. Only after a long while did he seem to snap out of his trance, blurting out, "Holy shit, that's insane firepower!" "Should we build one ourselves?" Hearing that, Commander Spring rolled his eyes. "What good is building one without air superiority? Turn ourselves into a sitting duck?" Battlefield Guy scratched his head. "Then what do we do?" He was good at charging, but only at charging. Ask him how to fight an operational-level war, and he was completely out of his depth. Commander Spring chuckled softly, completely unperturbed. "We fight how we have to. It's not like you can't wage war without air superiority; it just takes a different approach." What fun was there in bullying a bunch of savages armed with fire pokers? This right here was a real battlefield! Gazing at the smoke lingering stubbornly in the distance, Commander Spring's eyes held not a shred of fear, but sparkled with mounting excitement. It was time to show off some real skill!