Afternoon sunlight shone down upon the tranquil Defense Sector 06; today was clear and sunny, as always.
Patrolling the position, Li Shudong tightened the oxygen tank on his back and glanced up at the hazy gray sky, thinking to himself that a good rain would be nice.
Even if it couldn't wash away that suffocating, musty stench, at least it might make the air look a bit cleaner.
He was a soldier in the First Corps, having enlisted just before the new year.
Although the day the Tide broke out drew nearer and nearer, he felt little fear in his heart; instead, there was a faint trace of anticipation.
Word had it that after the Tide ended, the First Corps would be reorganized into the Alliance First Army, structured according to the organization of the Human Alliance era. If he could distinguish himself in this campaign, maybe he could become a squad leader or platoon leader.
Fighting a bunch of brainless mutants was bound to be easier than fighting the Wilante.
At least in theory.
Just as he was pondering this, a long, drawn-out beep echoed from behind his head.
Subconsciously turning around, he happened to see a gigantic loudspeaker protruding from a window on the wall of a nearby high-rise.
To be precise, it wasn't just one, but a whole cluster.
Dozens of speakers of various sizes were dotted across the wall like Boston ivy, pointing straight toward the city center.
Just as he was wondering what this was all about, the cluster of loudspeakers seemed to finish sound check and finally voiced up.
Resonant, standard Human Alliance language drifted out from the clusters of speakers—it sounded like they were broadcasting Survivor Daily?
Li Shudong wasn't the only one stunned; Wang Dashan, standing beside him, froze as well.
"...Why are they suddenly broadcasting the news?"
"No idea..."
Usually news was played in the mess hall at mealtime; playing it on the front lines was a first.
"What are they trying to do?"
"Did the logistics department cross some wires?"
"Who's gonna go ask?"
The soldiers exchanged glances, murmuring among themselves.
Just then, their captain walked over, cleared his throat, and said,
"Get back to your posts. Stop whispering amongst yourselves."
Seeing the captain approach, Li Shudong hastily gave a military salute.
"Report! There seems to be something wrong with the broadcast on our position!"
As if having anticipated someone bringing this up, the captain replied concisely,
"Don't worry, there's nothing wrong with the broadcast. This is a new tactic developed by the shelter to counter the Tide. High command specifically briefed us on this during yesterday's meeting. Just let them broadcast."
The operation's codename was "Bodyguard," as were the building and the radio station.
According to Army Command's assessment, this year's Tide was extremely likely to launch an assault from an unexpected direction, and the defensive line originally designed around spore cloud concentration could very well be bypassed.
To regain the initiative on the battlefield, they needed to exploit the broodmother's misunderstanding of humans by creating a false weak point in the middle section of the left defensive line as bait.
Although he didn't understand how a few loudspeakers could serve as bait, it was an idea from the shelter residents after all, so he placed great trust in it.
If the plan succeeded, the main force of the slime mold would be drawn to Defense Sector 06, allowing the Alliance to concentrate its forces and deal a crushing blow to the Tide as it penetrated their operational depth.
The soldiers looked at each other, their faces filled with utter bewilderment. Even the veterans back from the battlefields of Sunset Province wore expressions of never having seen anything like this.
A new... tactic?
What kind of tactic was this?
...
The news from Survivor Daily played for half an hour, followed by another half hour of reading the newspaper aloud, but soon they ran out of material.
Standing beside the radio equipment, the underprepared players grew troubled.
Turning to look back at the crowd behind him, Luo Yu scratched the back of his head.
"Uh... what do we play next?"
The crowd looked at one another before Quan Jia suggested,
"Weather forecast?"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes rolled his eyes.
"We don't even have a weather satellite, how the hell are we supposed to forecast the weather?... By the way, should we put it on loop?"
Fang Chang shook his head.
"Better not. If it's in the Human Alliance language, it'll be easy for them to spot the flaw... Sss, damn it, I almost forgot—we can broadcast stuff from the real world!"
Lao Bai scratched the back of his head and suggested, "Then... broadcast the real-world evening news?"
Luo Yu's eyes lit up.
"Great idea."
Fang Chang gave a soft cough.
"Open your minds a bit, it doesn't have to be news. We can play cross-talk, comedic skits, music—anything, as long as it's content Thea can't decipher and can't find a pattern in."
Brother Mole scratched the back of his head, feeling that this plan wasn't entirely reliable, but he couldn't think of a better alternative.
"And then it'll think this is our broodmother? Isn't that a bit too simplistic..."
Fang Chang shook his head.
"Of course that alone isn't enough. Whenever the BGM starts playing, we need to adjust our troop deployments, or launch feint attacks outside the defensive perimeter... None of that is hard. As long as we make it believe it has figured out a pattern, our operation will be a success."
Finally understanding that part, Brother Edge grinned and picked up the rifle resting beside him.
"Understood. Leave the feint attacks to our Death Corps!"
Mosquito chuckled as well.
"Leave the singing to me! I'm an expert at that!"
Seeing him trying to act cool, Luo Yu couldn't resist rolling his eyes.
"Get outta here. With that quacking-duck voice of yours, don't go sending our allies to an early grave."
Ye Shi: "Hahahahaha!"
The room was filled with merry cheer; even Kuang Feng, usually expressionless, couldn't help but curl the corners of his mouth. Only Mosquito wore an offended scowl.
"Tch, looking down on my heavenly voice, huh? Today I'm definitely showing you how it's done!"
With that, Mosquito reached out and snatched the microphone sitting on the radio console. Seeing this, Luo Yu didn't stop him; instead, he grinned and switched the radio from pre-recorded to live broadcast.
"Ee-woo?"
"It's fine, Yu! Since this guy wants to show off so badly, let him show off!"
The room fell silent for a moment.
Everyone waited for Brother Mosquito to start singing.
After brewing his emotions for a moment, Mosquito coughed and cleared his throat vigorously.
"Ahem!"
The mood was set, all that was left was to sing.
However, an awkward situation arose.
Although he had resolved to show off his skills, he hadn't decided at all what to sing.
Yet with the microphone already in hand and pairs of eyes watching him, if he didn't sing something, he really wouldn't be able to step down gracefully.
Facing the quiet room, Mosquito looked utterly embarrassed, his toes digging hard into the floor.
Only just now did he remember that this broadcast wasn't reaching a mere dozen people, but hundreds of thousands.
With the sheer wattage of that row of speakers outside, people in Boulder City could probably hear him cough!
Whatever the NPCs thought didn't matter.
The real problem was that some bastard would definitely record his singing and upload it online.
If he embarrassed himself, how was he going to brag in the future?
Cold sweat beaded on his forehead in panic.
Right then, a spark of inspiration hit him, and an idea instantly formed.
What to do when feeling awkward?
Just lean into something even more cringe!
"Next up, I'd like to bring everyone a signature track by my favorite singer!"
Taking a deep breath, the man's opening stance looked just like a master carpenter raising a saw blade poised over a violin.
"Zhi-yin—!"
Before his vocal cords could fully warm up and with only two syllables out of his mouth, the crowd pinned him down and wrestled the microphone away.
"All right, all right, we believe you can sing!"
"Forget it, Mosquito! Brother Mosquito!"
"I'm begging you, please don't sing!"
Watching several Strength-build brutes wrest the microphone from his grip and drag him toward the door, Mosquito wailed continuously,
"Let me go! I can still sing! Let me finish singing, aaah—!"
Watching the figure disappear outside the doorway, Fang Chang quietly looked away and gave a light cough.
"...Let's stick to playing some normal music."
Luo Yu nodded in deep agreement.
"+1."
...
After a whole afternoon of messing around, the field radio station codenamed "Bodyguard" finally got on the right track.
Though called a field radio station, in reality it had become a song-request booth for the troll players.
The request process was simple.
By leaving a comment under the corresponding thread on the official forum, anyone could slip their favorite songs into the playlist.
Logging onto the official website was easy now; there was no need to go offline, as players could simply pull up their VMs anywhere within signal coverage. Synchronizing real-world data into the game wasn't difficult either—a single VM could handle that as well.
At first, the songs played on the radio were relatively normal.
There was "Lonely Warrior" popular among kids, as well as "Ni Zhan" favored by older uncles and aunties.
There were also some trending TikTok BGM tracks, such as "Flakturm Berlin" and "Playing in the Mud in the Northeast."
But two days later, most of the popular tracks had been played, and everyone grew tired of hearing them, running out of new ideas.
In truth, aside from a few top players like Fang Chang and Brother Spring who were still acting their roles conscientiously, most players had almost forgotten what Operation Bodyguard was even supposed to do.
Consequently, some meme-loving trolls popped up, sneaking bizarre stuff into the playlist.
Like "My Little Pony."
And things like "i got smoke."
One moment the radio was blasting "Nae Nigga," and the next it was puffing on a Relx 5 vape.
Players crouching behind machine guns clutched their stomachs, dying of laughter, while Brother Edge, who routinely led patrols outside to the rhythm of the music, almost couldn't keep a straight face.
The NPCs, on the other hand, listened with great relish. The crucial point was that they couldn't understand the lyrics; they just found the rhythm catchy and even hummed along to the upbeat tempo.
Operation Bodyguard had only been running for three days, so it was still too early to see the results of this deception campaign.
However, the field radio station named Bodyguard had been utterly ruined by memes.
Not only were veteran players like Fang Chang, Lao Bai, Brother Spring, Brother Mole, and Edge struggling to keep a straight face, but Chu Guang also had black lines running down his forehead.
His persona in the game was an NPC; although publicly billed as an ultra-realistic artificial intelligence, if he could understand real-world internet memes, that "realism" would be a bit hard to explain away.
Real people pretending to be AI to interact with players wasn't rare for game companies looking to fleece suckers, but if the players suspected that he and the dog developer Ah Guang were one and the same, it would seriously damage immersion.
These past few days, he had felt too embarrassed to show his face in front of the players, fearing he wouldn't act well enough and might suddenly burst out laughing.
Just as Chu Guang and the elite players were gradually losing confidence in Operation Bodyguard, the covetous gaze lurking beyond the defense sector finally began to stir...
...
Deep in the pitch-black underground tunnels, inside a scarlet palace overrun with creep, Thea stood in the center of the fungal mat and opened its abstract eyes.
"I have found their broodmother."
Spores floating around it undulated gently, sending this message to the mother enveloping it.
Yet the responding ripples were unexpectedly violent, as if hearing something unbelievable.
"Their broodmother?! Those organisms have no broodmother. They are merely a cluster of filthy, grotesque, chaotic minds!"
Thea pondered for a moment, conveying its view with conviction.
"No, they do. Remember the prey I captured last time? They were empty husks, all three of them. Their brains were like blank slates."
Hearing this, the broodmother fell into a brief silence, not refuting it directly.
This contradicted the common sense It knew, yet it was not entirely impossible.
After all, a similar occurrence had happened once before.
And right during the previous Tide!
Those humans who suddenly appeared in the north did not seem to be of the same kind as those living inside the walls; there were many bizarre peculiarities about them that It had never witnessed before.
It knew very well that these humans were attempting to study It, even building a colossal wall for that purpose and resting and multiplying upon these ruins for countless generations...
A trace of vigilance surfaced in Its consciousness.
It did not know what stage human research had reached, but if they too had evolved a unified collective consciousness, that would undoubtedly pose a tremendous threat to It.
Seeing that its mother didn't reply, Thea continued conveying its findings with certainty:
"Something is controlling their emotions, and I have sensed his presence. Whenever he produces a sound, his fruiting bodies experience genuine feelings of pleasure from within... I believe that is their broodmother, and his voice is their spores."
It was all too familiar with that sensation.
It was almost exactly the same as when it stayed beside its mother!
"...If we can assimilate their broodmother, analyze him, understand him, and even become him... we will be able to control everything about them and turn their experience to our use."
The frailty of human flesh was indisputable; except for a few individuals possessing extraordinary power, most relied on tools to enhance themselves.
Yet that was precisely what made them unusual.
It could utilize their tools; It had mastered that capability long ago.
However, steadily mass-producing those tools as humans did remained beyond Its capabilities.
Conquering the entire planet was merely a matter of time. But if It wished to sow seeds across more distant worlds, It needed to do far more than just digest them—It had to thoroughly assimilate their knowledge, and even their foundational ideas and culture.
After prolonged contemplation, It slowly spoke.
"You are the cleverest of all my children. Perhaps this is an extraordinary discovery."
At least it was worth attempting.
Receiving its mother's validation, Thea felt joy throughout its body and mind, the tentacles beneath its skirt-like mantle swaying cheerfully.
"I have a better idea, far more perfect than our previous plan of bypassing them."
"The people inside the walls and the people to the north have united. All we need to do is apply pressure to that wall and pin down the northern humans' forces—"
"Then, by launching a surprise attack, we can completely capture their broodmother!"
...
Outside Boulder City.
At the defensive positions along the edge of the West Third Ring Road, Joy, clad in power armor, stared intently at the projection inside his helmet visor.
According to aerial footage captured by drones, millions of fruiting bodies were emerging from subway station entrances and ruined buildings between the Second and Third Ring Roads, deliberately surging toward Boulder City.
Looking upon the surging tide, Joy's brow furrowed with deep gravity.
The adjutant standing beside him looked pale and couldn't help swallowing hard.
"Dammit... how are there so many?"
Once the spore concentration in the air breached the critical threshold, the annual Tide had finally broken out after all.
Only the sheer quantity and quality utterly exceeded the expectations of the militia officers.
Based on the experience of past years, if the visible fruiting bodies already numbered in the millions, the actual deployed total was likely ten times that!
And what caused even greater concern wasn't just the sheer numbers.
Beyond cannon fodder like gnawers, the horde was peppered with vast numbers of fruiting bodies possessing immense individual combat prowess—such as Butchers and Tyrants—as well as a small number of extremely dangerous evolved organisms.
Including behemoths three stories tall.
Including flying mutants flapping their wings.
The creatures came in all varieties, every single one ferocious and sinister.
These fiends seemed to have completely forgotten that Dawn City existed to the north, hurling themselves headlong toward Boulder City in unison.
Upon discovering that the slime mold fruiting bodies were deliberately gathering, Joy did not hesitate, immediately mobilizing five thousand-man regiments of the militia and deploying the five-thousand-strong penal battalion to the front line.
At the same time, he ordered the P-2 Lightning attack aircraft on standby at the helipads to take off immediately and conduct the first round of airstrikes against the tide along the main thoroughfares.
Two plasma plumes streaked across the gray, mist-laden sky, releasing two dark shapes that plunged toward the neighborhoods packed with fruiting bodies.
Orange-red flames surged skyward, engulfing swaths of gnawers.
Yet an eerie phenomenon occurred.
The flames, which should have raged fiercely, seemed doused with cold water. After consuming gnawers along half a street, the fire didn't grow, but instead rapidly dwindled, leaving behind a field of half-charred carcasses and viscous, oily sludge.
If these nutrients couldn't be completely incinerated, the slime mold would soon repurpose them.
On the surface, they were fighting the slime mold, but fundamentally, they were contending with the nutrients controlled by the broodmother.
The slime mold would continuously harvest organic matter from the battlefield, bring it back to the incubation chambers, and convert it into combat units at a set ratio.
And that was the most troublesome aspect of the Tide.
Joy's brows locked in a tight frown.
It seemed the Alliance Biological Research Institute's analysis had been correct: the spore clouds generated by this new round of the Tide could effectively suppress the combustion of conventional fuels.
Through the drone's lens, he clearly saw that the moment flames flared up, the grayish-green fog rushed toward the fire as if possessing an awareness of its own.
Suffering from the aerial strike, the Tide merely paused for a fleeting moment before continuing its grand march toward Boulder City.
Several gnawers pounced on the charred corpses, circling up on the ground and gorging themselves, not wasting a single scrap of nutrient.
The noble evolved organisms naturally looked down on these scrawny wretches, merely gazing up at the sky that had rained fire with cold mockery.
They seemed to know where the attack had come from, and knew someone must be watching them from above.
Yet it didn't matter—
Under Its will, all resistance was futile!
All carbon-based life would become nutrients fueling their prosperity!
The vanguard of the Tide was now only one kilometer away from Boulder City's defensive line.
At this rate, within an hour at most, the penal battalion's first line of defense would collide head-on with the slime mold.
Standing beside Joy, the adjutant clenched his fists and finally couldn't help saying,
"We have to use nuclear weapons!"
Not out of pity for those convicts—he couldn't care less whether that scum lived or died.
He simply didn't believe that bunch of cowardly bullies could hold back the surging tide with just a few machine guns and rifles without the support of incendiary bombs.
Before Joy could speak, a staff officer from the militia interrupted the adjutant.
"No! Radioactive material accelerates the slime mold's evolution! We proved that before—using nuclear weapons against the Tide will only make next year's Tide even fiercer!"
The adjutant clenched his fists, unable to contain himself.
"Incendiary bombs don't work, and we can't use nukes... Are you expecting to clean up that garbage relying on five thousand cannon fodder plus conventional artillery?"
Joy spoke with a solemn expression,
"I have already requested reinforcements from the Alliance Army Command. They promised to spare more personnel to aid us."
The adjutant frowned.
"Speaking of which, it's strange. Why hasn't the Alliance come under attack while we're the only ones targeted by the Tide? Could the Alliance Biological Research Institute have discovered a way to make the Tide ignore them—"
Before he could finish his sentence, he was cut off by an angry rebuke.
"Shut up!"
Looking at the stunned adjutant, Joy reached out, grabbed him by the collar, and glared into his eyes, enunciating every word:
"What I need from you is professional advice, not baseless nonsense! No one can escape the Tide unless it is destroyed. I have met that man. Perhaps I don't know him well enough yet, but I can assure you he is by no means the useless lightweight you make him out to be!"
The adjutant nodded tremulously.
"Understood..."
"Then get moving if you understand!" Joy released his grip on the collar. "The front lines need heavy equipment. I need you to immediately requisition another batch of heavy machine guns and mortars from the stockpiles and send them over!"
The adjutant took a deep breath, composed himself, snapped to attention, and saluted.
"Yes, sir!"
...
News of Boulder City coming under attack swiftly reached the Alliance positions.
Still standing guard inside the broadcast station, Fang Chang looked at the markings on the map and couldn't help but frown, his previously confident expression wavering slightly.
"Did the plan fail?"
"No... quite the opposite!"
Clenching both fists over the map, Brother Spring, standing beside him, was invigorated with excitement and offered a completely different take.
His perspective was the polar opposite.
If a few minutes ago he still harbored doubts about the finer points of Operation Bodyguard, now he could say with near certainty that their plan had succeeded!
This Thea possessed some cunning!
It was just that this level of scheming was a bit too "naive," so much so that it ended up revealing what it tried to hide.
If it were him, he would have detached a fifth or a quarter of the forces to put pressure on the Alliance's side, patiently replaying last year's script.
Yet what it was doing now was tantamount to telling them: *I've noticed you, but I'm pretending I haven't.*
It was glaringly obvious!
The assault on Boulder City was merely a feint; the Tide's main force was likely already lurking beneath the dense fog in the northern suburbs, ready to strike at any moment.
Fang Chang came to his senses at that moment. After a brief pause, his solemn expression relaxed into a grin.
"I see."
Good grief.
The broodmother was actually playing mind games with them.
That was something he hadn't anticipated.
Just as Fang Chang snapped out of his thoughts, Brother Spring had already grabbed the walkie-talkie resting on the desk.
"Our enemy has taken the bait! Edge, take your boys and head out immediately to reinforce the western district of Qingquan City... but be careful not to move too fast, and be ready to turn back at any moment! Wait for my signal!"
Brother Edge's response quickly came over the comms channel:
"Copy that!"
Ending the call with Brother Edge, Brother Spring switched the channel to the front lines of Defense Sector 06 and shouted energetically,
"Notify the brothers on the position to stay sharp!"
"The prey is on the move. A tough battle is right around the corner!"
Chapter 632