We Came Here to Die!

The mutants entrenched within Jinhe City had long grown accustomed to raids by the Iron Tower organization, and this skirmish seemed no different from the last. Both sides left behind a dozen or so corpses, hastily wrapping things up after a chaotic clash. However, just as Chu Guang had anticipated, the local mutant tribe differed from those elsewhere, possessing a few more calculating minds. Three armed trucks had been blown apart, and nineteen mutant soldiers were dead, including a centurion who was thirty percent cybernetic. For a band of guerrilla fighters whose gear was cobbled together from scraps, such casualties were conspicuously, suspiciously high... The next morning. Amidst the debris-strewn streets stood an imposing, colossal giant. Over three meters tall and built like a wild bear, his skin was a green so dark it bordered on black. Half his body was granite-like muscle, while the other half was steel glistening with grease and mottled with rust. At first glance, it was hard to tell whether flesh was driving steel or steel was being harnessed by flesh. His name was Qi Ga'en, leader of the Qi tribe's Secular faction. He was not only the tribe's fiercest warrior, but also its undisputed supreme authority. Gazing down at the mangled corpse before him, his brows knit like a pair of centipedes, his flickering pupils harboring thoughts unknown. At that moment, an elderly, stooped mutant draped in patterned cloth strips stepped up half a pace beside him and spoke in a low murmur. "Missiles, Gauss rifles, power armor, and aircraft... Such sophisticated hardware isn't the work of ragged stragglers. In all likelihood, the humans from the north have set their sights on us." The elder's name was Qi Gemo, high priest of the Qi tribe, well over a century old. In the Qi tribe, while most of the elderly priests belonged to the traditional Ancestral faction, Gemo was an exception, throwing his weight entirely behind the younger Secular faction. This was also one of the reasons he had supplanted those venerable relics, claimed the mantle of high priest, and won Ga'en's trust. "Where are they?" Ga'en asked in a deep voice. His tone held not a ripple of emotion, yet Gemo could still detect the smoldering fury beneath. He knew this chieftain all too well. After all, he had watched the boy grow up... Gemo's gaze shifted slightly, his voice dropping very low. "I heard that several days ago, apostles from the Church of the Torch went north of Jinhe City to proselytize in a place called Dust Town, but not a word has been heard since." "In all the surrounding territory of Jinhe City, only that place called Dust Town has yet to embrace the Holy Flame. Even Pinecone Farm became the Church's puppet, and that village has only two or three hundred households. Relying on those meager numbers, they couldn't possibly stand on their own..." Clearly, someone had helped them. And who those people were went without saying. Catching the drift of Gemo's roundabout counsel, Ga'en curled his lips into a frigid sneer, his scarlet gums exuding bloodlust and cruelty. "Oge." As his voice fell, a massive, heavily armored mutant warrior strode forward, dropped to one knee before him, and rumbled, "What are the Chieftain's orders?" Ga'en took the map from Gemo's hand, glanced at it, and tossed it into the warrior's grip, commanding in an even voice: "Take five centuries north to that settlement called Dust Town and avenge your brothers." "The humans there—" "Leave not one alive!" The Church of the Torch wanted them to draw from the sheepfold with moderation, but since that place was no sheepfold, there was nothing more to discuss. This was a necessary deterrent. He would make those irreverent wretches remember the price of defiance. At the thought of avenging his brothers, monstrous battle lust and rage flared in Oge's eyes, and his hand tightened around the crumpled map. "Oge!" Leaving the chieftain's side, Oge strode toward an open-top off-road vehicle parked by the roadside and bellowed at the driver to speed off toward the military camp several kilometers away. Before long, a disheveled yet formidably equipped throng of mutant soldiers assembled at the gates, swarming some five hundred strong. Rising halfway out of the open vehicle, Oge hoisted a rifle as thick as a man's thigh and roared at the top of his lungs: "Oge!!!" "Leads you to butcher those cowardly, ugly two-legged worms!!" That guttural roar seemed possessed of a strange sorcery, igniting countless eyes gazing up at him. The mutant soldiers gathered before the gates thrust their weapons high, howling crude, ecstatic cries for the slaughter to come. "Oge!!" In the Qi tribe, names carried a sacred significance. Only warriors acknowledged by the chieftain were granted a name that could be written, and only those who amassed enough feats of arms could prefix that name with the tribe's surname. Roaring one's own name before the battle line meant staking one's honor on an oath of victory. And shouting the commander's name was the answering pledge! "Move out!!" Oge slashed his palm-leaf-sized hand downward. At his crude command, the mutant soldiers clamored and jabbered as they scrambled onto cumbersome trucks. Those who couldn't squeeze aboard jogged behind the vehicles, panting and puffing, like guests hurrying to a bacchanalian feast, terrified of falling behind. Overloaded trucks welded with ramming prows and steel plating crawled forward like snails, trailing a churning mass of green heads and black muzzles as they poured toward the outskirts. Eight armed buggies prowled along the main column's flanks, packed so tight with bun-sized bulges of muscle that hardly any room remained. One had to admit, this style of march had quite the "goblin" flair... Yet these "orcs" clearly failed to notice the drone circling high above, watching their every move for quite some time... *** Meanwhile, fifty kilometers away, Dust Town remained blanketed in a thin morning mist, still peaceful and serene. The survivors living here had never seen a flying, fire-spewing monstrosity like the Viper transport, and one after another they treated the players disembarking as "heavenly soldiers" dispatched by the Emperor. The locals seemed to have formed a self-consistent logic—or rather, a religion—believing wholeheartedly in the Emperor who had saved them, as well as the Great Horned Rat and the Great Horned Deer Gods under the Emperor's command... "What the hell is this 'Emperor'?!" Having heard about the town's situation from the mayor, Ye Shi grabbed Scavenger and demanded, "And how the hell did I become a Primarch?!" Scavenger shot an awkward glare at Wo Xiang Jingjing beside him. "You'll have to ask this guy." Wo Xiang Jingjing looked equally conflicted. He cleared his throat. "I was just joking. I never thought they'd take it seriously... Besides, a Primarch—don't you think that sounds badass?" Qiangren Suonan shot him an irritated look. "Badass, my ass! It was perfectly fine when these unruly peasants worshipped the Great Horned Rat. You just had to run your mouth and cram in all sorts of random nonsense!" Wo Xiang Jingjing bristled at once. "Random nonsense? I suspect you lack loyalty!" Qiangren Suonan spat. "Ptooey, man-thing!" Watching the man and the rat bicker endlessly, Fang Chang averted his eyes with a subtle expression. "Maybe our game libraries just aren't the same." He couldn't fathom what they were arguing about, nor could he jump into the conversation. Suddenly remembering something, Scavenger quickly pulled Ye Shi aside. "Right, I almost forgot! Where are the fertilizer and seeds I asked you to bring? And the tractors and stuff?" "How could that stuff fit on a plane?!" Ye Shi rolled his eyes, but seeing the guy's anxious impatience, he sighed. "Relax. I got them loaded onto trucks. They should arrive in a few days." "For real?!" Scavenger's amber pupils lit up instantly. His downcast face vanished into an ear-to-ear grin, and he hooked an arm around Ye Shi's shoulder with a chuckle. "Thanks, bro!" "Don't mention it. Just let me ride you next time." "Ahem. Calling me Daddy works too." "#%@$!" While the group was shooting the breeze, the two Viper transports that had flown back to Boulder City the night before suddenly emerged past the tree line, trailing twin arcs of light. Plumes of high-velocity plasma exhaust stirred up great clouds of dust as they carried the pair of matte-black hulls down to a gentle landing in the center of town. "The Emperor above!!" Beholding the aircraft's distinctive contours, Dust Town's mayor, Qin Botian, clenched his fists in excitement. Coming to his senses, he hurriedly dropped to his knees at the front. The townsfolk who had come outside to watch followed suit, prostrating themselves in agitation, bowing and praying devoutly toward the transports. Twenty players clad in exoskeletons leaped down from the cargo bays. They all wore K-10 Iron Wall heavy exoskeletons and carried rifles shaped like elongated bricks, preposterously oversized. The massive caliber looked like a shortened 20mm Lance, though set against the hefty exoskeletons on their bodies, it didn't seem out of place. Looking at the residents prostrating in the street, the leading Midnight Chicken Slayer froze, utterly bewildered by the full kowtow treatment. What kind of circus was this? Just as he stood there at a loss, a familiar voice drifted over from nearby. "Holy crap?! Brother Chicken?!" Spotting Midnight Chicken Slayer at the front, Ye Shi's eyes widened in surprise. He strode over, slapped him on the shoulder, and grinned. "Long time no see! Done chopping trees?" Though they occasionally ran into each other on the forum, it had indeed been a long time since they had met in-game. Throughout the entire Luoxia Province campaign, the Jungle Corps had barely participated in the frontal theater. Instead, they had operated around the Alliance's northern border, hunting mutants and mutated beasts nesting near Daybreak City, and tracking remnants of the Bear Clan roving along the border between River Valley Province and central Luoxia Province. Surrounded by towering peaks and deep ravines, the area had no roads. Where men could pass, supplies could not. But to Brother Midnight, this was obviously no obstacle. A band of Strength-type hulks, each armed with a felling axe, had hacked a path through the jungle by sheer brute force. Along the way, they also discovered many survivors hiding in the forested mountains to flee the Bone Chewer turmoil, naturalizing that unexpected bounty of population into Daybreak City. In a sense, they had expanded the Alliance's territory. Among the many playstyles in Wasteland OL, the woodcutting style pioneered by Brother Midnight stood in a league of its own. Tedious though it was, with very few players able to endure it, the sustained physical tempering served as an excellent leveling path for Strength builds, hardly inferior to grinding on battlefields or construction sites. At present, his level was 34, trailing Lao Bai by a mere two levels. Had his combat style not been overly reckless—leading to slightly high casualty rates—he might already have claimed the number one spot among Strength players. Looking at Ye Shi after so long, Midnight Chicken Slayer gave an honest, hearty grin. "Still gotta chop trees, of course! But the Administrator told us to chop somewhere else, so we rotated out with Brother Spring!" Glancing at the hefty piece in his hands, Ye Shi asked curiously, "What the heck is that? How come I haven't seen it in the shop?" "The XB-1 Howler boltgun! Fires 19mm bolt shells!" Seeing the envy in the players' eyes, Midnight Chicken Slayer patted the weapon and beamed with excitement. "This baby is probably the largest-caliber small arm the Alliance has right now... It's still in field testing, and that's exactly why we're here." "Holy crap?! A boltgun?" Hearing the description, Wo Xiang Jingjing's eyes went wide, his starstruck look practically screaming "WANT" across his face. Qiangren Suonan was just as envious, but after glancing down at his own small frame, he gave up in defeat. The gun was nearly as big as his entire rat body. In the end, Goblin Tech gear suited him better—if only Brother Mosquito didn't fool around so frequently. "Damn... 19mm?! You call this thing a rifle?!" Piltover Paratrooper, standing next to Midnight Chicken Slayer, chuckled. "The power on this thing is unreal. We tested it—it blew right through steel plating as thick as your thumb! The magazine capacity is on the low side, though. The stick mag only holds twenty rounds, and the dual drum only manages fifty. Even in an exoskeleton, you can only carry three drums." Ye Shi reached out with an envious look to stroke it. "Good brother, let me have a go." Xiao Xiao Xiao Bookworm clapped him on the shoulder with a laugh. "Forget it, Perception guy. This baby requires at least 30 Strength, or you have to wear a heavy exoskeleton." Ye Shi: "Damn it! Can't I just throw on an exoskeleton?" Midnight Chicken Slayer gave Ye Shi a curious look. "By the way, where's your power armor?" Word was that during his days in Boulder City, this guy had flaunted it nonstop, uncaring about battery drain, practically welding the thing to his body. Ye Shi scratched his head, looking embarrassed. "...Durability bar got beaten down to yellow. Sent back for a major overhaul." Xiao Xiao Xiao Bookworm: "Hahaha! My condolences!" Ye Shi, having already endured a round of ribbing on the forums, sighed. "Damn it... Next time, I'm switching to lighter gear." Last night's flight had carried his power armor back. The repair bill came out to a whopping one hundred thousand silver coins, enough to buy a Type 6 Heavy Cavalry exoskeleton. Taking a lesson from the last fight, he planned to follow Fang Chang's advice: get a lighter exoskeleton and equip it with modules like active camouflage and nitrogen thrusters. That suited his sniper-ambush playstyle much better. "Enough shooting the breeze. Where's Lao Bai? I've got business with him." As he spoke, Midnight Chicken Slayer glanced behind Ye Shi and happened to spot Lao Bai and Kuang Feng walking over from the town entrance. "Over here. Long time no see." After greeting Midnight Chicken Slayer, Lao Bai looked at him, his expression turning solemn. "I'm sorry to share some bad news. You picked a bad time to arrive. We have to relocate." Xiao Xiao Xiao Bookworm blinked. "Relocate?" "Yeah." Kuang Feng, beside Lao Bai, nodded and followed up, "I just spotted it from the air. The mutant tribe in the city center has mobilized. A large force of mutant soldiers has massed and is heading right toward us." At those words, surprise registered across everyone's face. Scavenger, Qiangren Suonan, and Jingjing were caught completely flat-footed, dumbfounded on the spot. Swallowing hard, Jingjing asked in a trembling voice, "...How many?" Kuang Feng: "At least five hundred by our count." Ye Shi sucked in a breath of cold air. "Hiss... That's more than what we ran into last night." Qiangren Suonan smacked his forehead, a pained look on his face. "We're so screwed." Still reeling from what Kuang Feng had said, Jieyan asked in confusion, "Wait, how do they know we're here?" Kuang Feng shook his head, preparing to explain, but Ye Shi rolled his eyes and cut in, "Isn't it obvious? Those green-skinned meatheads are aggressive, not blind. In the whole Jinhe City area, this is the only spot that hasn't been corralled by those Church lunatics. Not to mention we made them eat dirt a few days back—that preacher named Zhang Zhengyang is still locked up in our cell!" Fang Chang glanced at Ye Shi with mild surprise. Well, well. The kid's actually made progress. "In any case, that's the situation. We need to start organizing the residents to evacuate immediately. There's about half an hour to pack up. The communication gear and respawn-point equipment must be taken along. Take as much grain as possible..." Having given orders to the corps members, Lao Bai turned toward the silent Scavenger and said earnestly, "Brother Scavenger, I'll need your help to explain things to that NPC... Please." Though he spoke the Human Alliance language himself, his prestige among the locals was hardly a match for a certain talking lizard. Every second counted right now; there was no time to waste. "Got it." Even with complicated feelings welling up inside, Scavenger knew all too well that this was no time to be stubborn. He gave a slight nod. Walking over to the bewildered Mayor Qin, he explained the situation in concise terms and gave instructions for the evacuation. At first, the old man couldn't believe it either, asking repeatedly whether it was really true. But seeing that this "god" bore an expression that was clearly not joking, he ultimately abandoned any unrealistic illusions, gritted his teeth, and trotted off to notify everyone. Thanks to the two aircraft earlier, many people had already stepped outside to watch the commotion, so word spread quickly throughout the town. Even so, upon hearing that those ruthless mutants were coming, the townsfolk went pale with terror. Clattering and banging echoed from every house, mingled with arguing between men and women and the crying of children. The former peace and tranquility seemed like a fleeting dream. Watching the chaotic street, Jingjing, having held his tongue for quite some time, finally couldn't help speaking up. "Can't we... try to defend it?" He knew the fortifications here were laughable; a one-meter-high low wall and a few dozen rifles couldn't possibly stop mutants. But the thought of abandoning this place pained him. Fang Chang glanced at the newcomer, roughly guessing his thoughts, but spoke the unvarnished truth. "It's near impossible. We have far too little preparation time. This place is only fifty kilometers from the urban core; they'll be here shortly, while our main force and logistics are still on the way. Even if we repelled their first wave, we'd soon be overwhelmed by the second and third." "Moreover, this is essentially open plain. We have neither adequate fortifications nor sufficient reserves of weapons and ammunition. Right now, the most realistic move is to relocate fifty kilometers north and establish a new operating base in the elevated mountainous terrain." "I'm sorry. We might have dragged you into this," Lao Bai said, lightly patting the newcomer's shoulder with a quiet sigh. "All we can do is take the residents with us." Jingjing lifted his head, a bitter smile on his face, and shook his head gently. "Please don't say that... Even without what happened last night, the Church of the Torch was never going to leave this place alone. If not for you guys, we would've been wiped out on day one." No matter how strong Scavenger was, going up against a hundred madmen wielding automatic rifles was still pushing it... Half an hour passed in a flash. The townsfolk had packed their belongings, standing at the town gate burdened with bundles and luggage, families huddled together. Adults carried shoulder poles, elders held the hands of children, and their eyes were filled with dread, helplessness, and confusion. Leaving the land they relied upon for survival, they didn't know where to go next, let alone how they would survive the coming year. Yet with the mutants descending upon them, they had no choice but to flee. If marauders left room for negotiation, to mutants, these humans were little different from livestock. Men would be slaughtered on the spot and turned into jerky; women, whether fifty or five, would be locked into cages. With a conflicted look back at the town and the residents clustered at the gate, Scavenger made up his mind and stepped up before Lao Bai. "I'm staying behind." Evidently thinking along the same lines, Qiangren Suonan followed beside him, resting a paw on Scavenger's tail with a wistful sigh. "Rare as it is to be on the same page as this stupid lizard... I'll stay too." Wo Xiang Jingjing stepped forward as well. "Count me in." Lao Bai gave the three a surprised look, his expression growing solemn. "Think this through... This is no different from throwing your lives away." Wo Xiang Jingjing smiled sheepishly and scratched the back of his head. "It's fine... I already saved my progress on your equipment anyway. Three days is just three days. Besides, having someone cover the rear will buy you more time to pull back." Before, he hadn't quite understood the extraordinary attachment Alpha testers felt toward the Alliance. It was clearly just a game, yet they fully embraced the Alliance's perspective, considered matters from the collective interest, and even risked losing their save points to do things with no clear payoff in sight. Now, however, he suddenly understood. Though they were not natives of this virtual world and shared not a drop of blood with the NPCs, this was a home they had built with their own hands, brick by brick. Much like in Minecraft, the items in a player's inventory were never the true save file—the home they had built together was. And right now, he felt the exact same way. Whether the paving stones forming the road or the sails spinning on the mill, every grass and tree here held the memories of his past six months. He still remembered clearly that when he, Scavenger, and Qiangren Suonan first arrived, there was only a crooked watchtower and a scatter of thatched shacks hardly worthy of being called huts, inhabited by cutthroat marauders and emaciated, starving wretches. Now, they had finally helped everyone live a normal life. If someone wanted to destroy it—then come and try. Even if he was just a noob, he would give everything he had, using this life to stall them for at least two seconds! Lao Bai stared at him for a moment, saw the resolve in his eyes, and nodded. Taking a 20mm Lance modified with an altered receiver and magazine from a comrade beside him, he shoved it into Jingjing's hands. Catching the heavy firearm instinctively, Jingjing felt his arms sink under the weight and looked up at Lao Bai in surprise. Lao Bai looked at him and said, "The LD-47 isn't very effective against mutants. Use this." Gripping the hefty weapon tightly, Jingjing said with emotion, "Thank you..." Lao Bai smiled. "Don't mention it. You're buying time for our retreat; we're the ones who should be thanking you." "Aw, cut the sappy crap, it's making me blush!" Scavenger clapped Lao Bai on the shoulder and grinned widely. "Killing marauders isn't half as thrilling as killing mutants! Wait for my update on the official forum. If I don't take down twenty or thirty of the bastards today, you can spell my name backward!" Watching the three bid farewell to the others, Midnight Chicken Slayer, who had remained quiet all this while, suddenly let out a booming laugh. "Haha! How could something this fun leave us out?!" Scavenger glanced at Brother Chicken. "What kind of fit are you throwing now?" Looking at the startled crowd, Midnight Chicken Slayer grinned. "Almost forgot to tell you guys." "We came here to die!"