The Tide Returns!

"Roar—!!" In downtown Qingquan City, bleak, ruined streets were shrouded in grayish-green fog, presenting a desolate and chilling sight. A battered, heavily scarred beast struggled furiously, yet the iron hand pinning its head—mottled with scarlet fungal growth—remained completely motionless. From the slit in the center of the helmet gleamed a terrifying red light, like the pupil of a demon. Out of fear and reverence, those noisy two-legged creatures called it an "evolved organism" or a "Decay Knight." Yet to the broodmother that governed every single slime mold cell in this city, this tiny one in a billion was merely a negligible atom that made up Its existence, not even warranting a name of its own. Thea was fundamentally no different. However, unlike the other slime molds, when It created Thea, It had poured extra care and effort into her. The newborn mother body not only inherited the essence and nutrients It had accumulated over two centuries on the evolutionary path, but also inherited Its will. At the same time, she who was called Thea carried more of Its expectations— Namely, to spread their species' footprints to even farther places. To spread to places Its tentacles could not yet reach! That "little fellow" who had strayed into their territory was still struggling and snarling in vain, attempting to defy two centuries of evolutionary culmination with its brutish brawn. It silently watched this uncivilized organism. Instead of commanding Its billions of fragments to devour and assimilate it as usual, It looked down at Thea, who stood in the middle of the ruined street. "Eat it." Pheromones propagated through the intertwining spores. Sensing the call from Mother, Thea slowly nodded, then raised scarlet tentacles that resembled slimy mud. Those tentacles served as her arms. The cilia at the tips issued a silent call, rippling invisible waves through the sea of spores. A grayish-green color began to converge toward the shaggy, bear-like beast, wrapping around its body and growing increasingly dense. "Roar!!!" Panic began to surface on the beast's face. It struggled even more violently, its thick-furred muscles twitching like writhing caterpillars as it tried to break free from the hand pressing down on its head. Thea merely watched it, then gently clenched the "hand" extended forward. In an instant, the dense grayish-green fog surged outwards by several inches. The beast's chest expanded abruptly, its eyes bulging. It panted desperately, but its body grew uncontrollably heavier, until finally all strength drained from it completely. Unable even to resist the downward weight on its shoulders, it ceased struggling altogether. A wisp of gray mist drifted from the helmet's slit. The Decay Knight released the hand holding down the beast's head and stepped aside like a true knight. "Very good." Watching Thea master her power, It gave a gratified smile, and the spores across the entire city undulated with the slow frequency of joy like ocean waves. Its child had fully mastered the ability to strip prey of breath. She would be stronger than Its previous child. It could almost see those frail organisms fleeing in panic under the pursuit of the young assimilation champion. Thea gazed at the tentacles—or arms—she had extended forward, and after a moment, she spoke. "My body cannot breathe. I feel their mourning." The spores permeating the surroundings and the fruiting bodies under her control were all parts of her body, serving as both conductors and vessels for her consciousness. Facing the confused child, It said softly: "Do not worry, my child." "Your enemies are no different. Those frail lumps of flesh are just like the prey at your feet, needing to breathe every second to stay alive. You can endure far more than they can. You are far better suited to the ground beneath your feet than they are, and this world will ultimately belong to those who can adapt to it." "Now, eat it." Thea nodded slowly. Her skirt-like lower body squirmed forward, gliding beside the comatose beast. The flared skirt resembled a bloody maw, peeling open a slit along the ground. Countless scarlet tentacles surged from that crevice, like slender leeches impaling the beast into a pincushion in an instant. Piercing through skin and draining blood, they swept the remaining organic nutrients into her body as well. The surrounding spores vibrated with joyful frequencies. Standing nearby, the Decay Knight bowed its head even lower, though the scarlet gleam in its eyes burned even brighter. At this moment— Every slime mold fruiting body across the ruins bore witness to the "coronation" of a new king, rejoicing and celebrating its birth. Save for a certain anomaly. Feeling the bloodlust drifting through the air, it held its breath involuntarily, daring not make the slightest "sound." Fortunately, it did not rely on spores to transmit information, so the other mutant slime molds could neither identify nor perceive its existence. Otherwise, there was no doubt those creatures would stop at nothing to strangle this heresy in its cradle... *** On the official website of *Wasteland OL*, the forum was bustling as ever today. And all of this was because of a freshly posted server announcement. [Server Announcement: "The Tide Returns" Expansion Pack Released!] [Introduction: Spring has arrived, once again the season when animals reproduce, and asexual slime molds are naturally no exception. Once upon a time, we naively believed that broodmothers were formed by the natural mutation of incubation chambers once spore concentrations exceeded a threshold. However, more and more evidence indicates that broodmothers are born from mother bodies, while mother bodies are hatched from old broodmothers. A newborn mother body inherits not only the old broodmother's genes, but also the experience of fighting us. Compounded by the warm winter, this round of the Tide will likely be fiercer than in previous years! According to forecasts from the Institute of Biology, the Tide is expected to arrive around March 1st in-game time! Players, please be prepared! This may be the severest test since the server went live!] [Event Rewards: Completing event quests and slaying evolved organisms will grant event points. Points can be exchanged for limited equipment and titles, and can also be used in the final prize draw! The prize pool is rich with rewards, including mysterious items that even the big lead planner doesn't know about, as well as expensive prizes such as the DLZJ-1 "Glow" powered armor! We welcome everyone's enthusiastic participation!] After a gap of more than half a month, *Wasteland OL* had launched a brand-new expansion pack once again following "Operation Firefighting." Such an astonishing update speed truly blew away many players. And just as Chu Guang had anticipated, the moment the announcement went up, it triggered a magnitude-18 earthquake across the official site. Discussions about the new expansion instantly surged to the top of trending topics among players and stream-watchers alike. "Holy shit! Where's version Beta 0.6?!" "I remember back in Alpha 1.1, the Tide was just a sub-item in a server update? Slap on a new reskin and it's suddenly an expansion pack?!" "This event is way too half-assed!" "Negative review! This is even worse than Paradox copying mods or CA hiking prices on blood DLC!" "Brother Guang, you're my daddy, please give me a helmet! T.T" "Thirty thousand helmets in two years—this production capacity makes zero fucking sense! Ah Guang, can you do this or what?!" "I don't think this is Brother Guang's fault. Could the wage slaves in the factory be slacking off? Come set up a plant in our village! I'll tell the village chief to help you recruit!" "Better come to ours! I'm the village chief, I'll bring folks to work for you for free!" "I'll let you do me for free!" "???" "Holy shit, bro, you've got some heavy tastes!" "Pass it on: someone wants to do Brother Guang." "Crazy! Everyone's gone crazy!" "Trash! Is a broken helmet worth all this? I'm laughing, even dogs wouldn't play this!" Sitting in the browsing room, Chu Guang browsed the official site, chuckling without a word. He was long accustomed to these fellows' banter. Truth be told, however, the Alliance had a population of a million now, and that figure was continuing to grow. In comparison, handing out 50 to 100 closed-beta slots per day was indeed lagging behind the development needs of the Alliance. Counting the slots already distributed, he only had thirty thousand accounts in hand. Even if he gave them all out, players would make up less than three percent of the total population. While that sounded like a considerable number, once divided across a wide array of affairs in each region of the Alliance, manpower became rather stretched. Chu Guang suddenly realized he felt like he was playing a dough-kneading strategy game—adding flour when it was too wet, adding water when it was too dry. One moment he lacked food but had plenty of people; when food was no longer short, he lacked hands. When neither was lacking, he lacked territory; when territory was no longer short, he was short on people again. "...If the broodmother downtown is dealt with, I wonder if a new floor can be unlocked." There should be new "activation codes" made available then, right? Looking at the little leeks crying to be fed on the holographic screen, Chu Guang could not help showing a faint smile. No need to rush. Everyone will get their turn to be harvested! Everything will come in time! Just then, Xiao Qi, perched on the pen holder, looked up and said in her melodious voice: "Master, your little players have reached the Second Ring Road downtown!" Chu Guang's heart stirred. He swiped his index finger to close the webpage on the holographic screen. "Switch the feed to them." Xiao Qi snapped a playful salute and said with high spirits: "Roger that!" *** At the very moment the event notice was posted on the official site, two Viper transports took off from the tarmac in Dawn City. After flying for a period, they arrived at the edge of Qingquan City's Second Ring Road and hovered gently beside the rooftop of an abandoned skyscraper. A dozen or so slump-shouldered gnawers stood dazed on the rooftop, while a long-limbed Crawler lurked between an abandoned water tank and a ventilation duct, vigilantly watching the two plumes of fire hovering beside the tall building. "Enemy units marked. A total of nineteen gnawers and one Crawler. No evolved organisms or other high-threat targets detected." "Prepare to attack." "Roger." One Viper transport swung its nose, training the machine gun on its cabin side at the rooftop, ready to provide fire support at a moment's notice. The other hovering Viper transport quickly advanced, flying straight over the rooftop at a distance of less than five meters. Crouched in the shadows, the Crawler let out a low hiss, its thick, powerful limbs flexing in preparation to strike first. What it did not know, however, was that the players in the sky had spotted it long ago. Before it could gather enough strength to leap upward, a massive dark figure descended from the sky, trailing a searing red glow as it slammed straight toward it. Before the Crawler could realize what was happening, an unsharpened, blunt axe blasted into its face, followed by bursting sparks that smoothly split its body apart. Without even having time to let out a shriek, the unfortunate Crawler turned into mush plastered across the ground, accompanied by a succession of heavy thuds as boots hit the concrete. A total of ten warriors clad in exoskeletons had completed deployment, racking bolts to chamber rounds, flipping off safeties, and leveling their muzzles. Noticing the commotion from the side, the gnawers raised their heads one after another, their turbid pupils gradually tainted with a bloodthirsty scarlet. Dragging their frostbitten legs, they opened their rotting maws and directed hiccup-like groans toward the landed warriors. "Urrgh—" Flicking the black slime off his axe, Lao Bai hooked it onto his powered armor while snapping his hand forward in a clean gesture. "Fire." The understated command had barely fallen when thick tongues of flame lit the mist-shrouded rooftop like broad daylight. Amidst a burst of chattering gunfire, the nineteen gnawers on the roof, along with a dozen more surging up from the stairwell, were instantly turned into sieves. Just as planned, the ten players swiftly split into two squads. One squad quickly swept every corner of the rooftop to confirm no slime mold fruiting bodies had been missed, while the other rushed to the stairwell entrance, shoved a steel plate slightly wider than the doorway against the opening, pulled the safety pin, and punched down on the red button. With a series of loud bangs, steel spikes fired into the concrete walls, firmly wedging the steel plate into the doorway. That was not all. Several players pulled out portable electric drills, rebar, and welding torches to give the doorplate embedded in the wall a secondary reinforcement, lattice-welding a crisscross grid of steel bars over the outside. From behind the steel plate sealing the stairwell entrance came heavy thuds of banging, but the plate remained firmly lodged in place. Let alone dozens of gnawers, even a Tyrant wouldn't be able to batter through this thing now. Having successfully secured the stairwell, Team B lowered their weapons and engaged their safeties, while Team A, having finished their task as well, dispersed to the four corners of the building's edge to guard against airborne mutants flying over to harass them. Although they were already deep within the territory occupied by the mutant slime mold, neither the players nor the NPCs displayed excessive tension. With the Alliance's Institute of Biology conducting ever more in-depth research, the Alliance now understood more and more of the mutant slime mold's secrets. Conclusions that had once rested purely on experience or even speculation were now backed by more scientific, rigorous theory. Every slime mold fruiting body in Qingquan City was connected to the broodmother consciousness, but that did not mean the broodmother could monitor every single fruiting body at every second—just as the Alliance's Administrator could not keep his eyes on every player around the clock, at most pulling VM or website records when necessary. The slime mold broodmother was the same. Minor, passive threats were mostly relegated to sub-servers like "incubation chambers" to handle. Only when unidentified organisms invaded its territory on a massive scale would the broodmother be directly alerted. Just like right now. At most, the broodmother downtown would feel a few small flies landing on it as usual, never dreaming that what these few small flies were doing might threaten its very life. Looking at the packed equipment in the cabin and the staff members wearing protective suits, Jiang Xuezhou—who had virtually strapped herself tight to her seat with the safety belt—finally could not suppress her curiosity and spoke up: "What are you guys doing?" Seeing her bewildered, provincial expression, Ye Shi, sitting beside her, smugly curled his lips. "See, that's what you don't get. We plan to wait until the Tide is in full swing, then give that big guy downtown a little Alliance shock... The shock is ready; right now is the prep phase." Jiang Xuezhou had a look of utter bafflement. *What the heck?* Without bothering to explain in detail, Ye Shi glanced at her and continued, "By the way, why did you come along anyway? Weren't you here to help us deal with that Na fruit stuff?" Compared to the broodmother, which exhibited "self-limitation," the haphazardly expanding Na fruit clearly alarmed the fallen empire in the north much more. Ye Shi remembered clearly that Jiang Xuezhou and her never-seen mentor had come to help resolve the Na fruit problem. As for Qingquan City's broodmother, that was outside their scope of work. To Ye Shi's question, Jiang Xuezhou cleared her throat and said solemnly: "According to our analysis of the samples, a massive amount of DNA in the Na fruit strain's gene pool overlaps heavily with Qingquan City's mutant slime mold. We can basically conclude that this biological weapon was created based on Qingquan City's mutant slime mold... My mentor suspects that residents of Shelter 117 once explored the ancient battlefield in downtown Qingquan City, and clues we need might exist there. Don't worry, I submitted a request to your Administrator, and he already approved my participation in Tide-related operations as an accompanying researcher." From her observations, the Alliance residents held extraordinary respect—reverence, even—for the Administrator; many frequently brought him up in conversation, wishing him long life. She had no particular interest in that man, but since she was on someone else's turf, she showed some respect in the spirit of following local customs. What she didn't expect, however, was that a certain someone didn't care about the second half of her sentence at all, focusing instead on an inconspicuous detail. "Wait, you're saying residents of Shelter 117 might have gone to the city center?!" Ye Shi stared at Jiang Xuezhou in astonishment, looking as if he had discovered a new continent. "I..." Realizing she had let something slip, Jiang Xuezhou silently cursed in panic. She was about to clamp her mouth shut, but seeing the exaggerated expression on Ye Shi's face, she quickly realized this wouldn't be easy to gloss over. "I—I never said that..." Guilt-ridden, she added superfluously in a whisper, "Don't go running your mouth, okay?" Ye Shi gave a cheeky grin and shot her an "I get it" look. "Relax, I get it, I get it. You never said that." *Holy crap!* *Another free batch of contribution points in the bag!* Earlier, right after waking up aboard the *Heart of Steel*, he had received a quest in his quest log directing him to serve as a bodyguard for a certain Class D researcher visiting the Alliance and to report any intel about the Academy heard from her. Depending on the value of the intelligence, the Alliance would reward him with contribution points. Ye Shi still vividly remembered the jealous, resentful glare Fang Chang had given him when he bragged about it in the group chat that day. Seeing that Ye Shi clearly didn't get it, Jiang Xuezhou grew frantic. "I really didn't say that! Don't go spreading it around. If word reaches my mentor's ears, I'm dead meat, seriously dead meat..." Ye Shi: "Relax, relax. Our Administrator's lips are super tight." Jiang Xuezhou: "???" In the brief moments of their exchange, the battle on the skyscraper's rooftop was already over. Standing beside the Crawler's corpse, Lao Bai reached up to tap the side of his tactical helmet, switching to the command channel. "Landing zone secured. Ready for deployment at any time." Over the comms channel came static, followed by a crisp, clean reply. "Roger." As the words fell, the two Viper transports landed one after the other on the skyscraper roof, searing plasma plumes blasting away thick layers of lingering snow and dust. Once the aircraft settled, twelve personnel in hazardous materials suits, wearing gas masks and oxygen tanks strapped to their backs, disembarked onto the rooftop. Deployed alongside them were a communication radio station, an air monitoring unit, disassembled paraglider packs, and more. The Alliance's Institute of Biology would calculate the rough coordinates of the downtown broodmother based on changes in spore concentration and the movement trajectories of slime mold fruiting bodies during the Tide. So long as they obtained approximate coordinates, the Alliance could drop ground troops straight in and deliver a surgical, precision strike against the downtown broodmother under the fire cover of "Dragon" missiles and 400mm naval guns! Even if that monster hid in a nuclear crater or fallout shelter and could endure conventional bombardment, it certainly wouldn't withstand a face-to-face assault from the Burning Corps. Seizing the opportunity presented by this surging Tide, the Alliance would end the threat that had plagued Qingquan City for two centuries once and for all. Lao Bai was full of confidence in this. It didn't matter if this year's Tide was different from previous years; after all, today's Alliance was no longer the Alliance of old. Qingquan City's survivors no longer fought isolated battles, nor did they have to face the threat of the Tide alone. Survivors in Sunset Province sent an endless supply of grain, while survivors in Daybreak City supplied them with weapons and steel. Not only had the NPCs united. The players' numbers and caliber were also completely beyond compare to earlier versions. If he remembered correctly, back then the Administrator had been under Level 20. Now, the Burning Corps' average level across the board exceeded that number, and he himself was already Level 43. In pure strength alone, among all the players on the entire server, probably only that guy Brother Trash—who refused to act like a human—could arm-wrestle him. As for combat experience beyond raw stats: Every single one of them was a battle-hardened veteran. "Bring it on." Gazing at the treacherous, shifting grayish-green fog in the distance, he felt his fighting spirit blaze like fire, and a grin curled the corners of his mouth. "Let's see what new tricks Ah Guang has cooked up for us!"