Beta 0.7 Update! The War in Heaven Begins!

Atop the peak of Blood Peak, the setting sun tilted westward, and a biting chill wind swept through branches laden with shattered snow. A middle-aged man draped in a white robe stood on the mountaintop. He was slender with a high bridge to his nose, a pair of rimless glasses resting beneath his brow. If one stripped away the white robe draped over his shoulders—an attire utterly discordant with his temperament—he would bear more than a passing resemblance to an ordinary schoolteacher. Yet it was merely a resemblance. As for a name, he possessed no such thing. From the moment he entered the Sanctuary and became a Harbinger, he had cast aside both his mortal moniker and his mortal flesh. However, if one spoke of a codename for walking the mortal realm, he did have one. The mutants of Ten Peaks Mountain called him the "Beastmaster." As for humans... Those discarded by the laws of natural selection never had the chance to lay eyes on him in the first place. Expressionless, he gazed toward the peak of Mount Fu. He watched with utter detachment as guns and cannons roared in unison, as wails echoed across the slaughterground, and as a blood-soaked banner rose against the setting sun... Only when all the commotion finally subsided did he murmur to himself in pensive contemplation: "It came a bit faster than expected..." The Stone Horn Clan had been the barrier he placed at the gateway to Ten Peaks Mountain. He had thought they could delay the Alliance for at least a month, yet he had not anticipated Mount Fu changing hands in merely a single day. Though a few scattered mutants and runts still lingered there, they would hardly be capable of mounting any effective resistance—at most causing a minor inconvenience for the Alliance. At the thought, a flicker of regret crossed the Beastmaster's face. A pity... That Gray had been one of his painstakingly selected creations; he had even performed the cybernetic surgery himself—by guiding the hands of the mutant priest. It seemed its durability still fell short, and the full power of the cybernetics had not been unleashed at all. Yet he was not discouraged in the slightest; if anything, the look of intrigue on his face only deepened. To them, mutants were nothing more than tools. The entire Haiya Province was their breeding ground, capable of churning out as many of the creatures as needed. Given sufficient time, they could even pack the entire wasteland with them. By comparison, experimental data was far more precious. They needed to test their laboratory breakthroughs on the battlefield, continuously refining their designs based on empirical feedback before they could screen for a greater lifeform—until they finally fulfilled the unrealized ambition of the Era of Prosperity: the "Gestalt Lifeform." Only when humanity evolved into a grander species could the heaven they yearned for truly be realized. And when that day came, he would transplant his consciousness into a new physical vessel, taking advantage of an eternity of time to think up a proper new name for himself. Speaking of which, those shelter dwellers certainly had a knack for naming things. "...Goblins? An amusing moniker." Watching a runt hurled off a cliff edge in the distance, a faint smile played at the corners of the man's lips. He could hear the dying wails of certain chosen specimens, and naturally, he could also hear the syllables uttered by the shelter dwellers who slaughtered them. The most frequent syllable combination was clearly the term used for those diminutive greenskins. He was never particularly skilled at naming his creations. After engineering those pint-sized mutants, he had simply cooped them up together with the hulking brutes, where they were occasionally tossed into boiling oil as seasoning. He had hardly expected their enemies to solve the dilemma for him. Since the shelter dwellers had coined it, that name would do just fine. It rolled off the tongue well enough. Turning his head to look at the cowering short greenskin standing behind him, the Beastmaster left behind a nonchalant command: "From now on, 'Goblin' is your name... Make sure your enemies and your kin remember it." An expression of disbelief appeared in those wretched amber pupils, which promptly transformed into boundless fervor. "Y-Yes... Yes!" The runt prostrated itself against the ground, banging its head vigorously in gratitude for the name bestowed by the Beastmaster. A name! Tears streamed down its face in ecstatic delirium. From this day forth, they too were creatures with a name! The Beastmaster had already vanished, seemingly dissolving into the swirling snow. "Gob... l... in!" The pint-sized greenskin priest, having never fully mastered human speech, stammered to squeeze the words from its throat. Then it whirled around violently to face the other equally diminutive kin behind it. Screeching, howling, and gesturing wildly with hands and feet, it recounted the miracle it had witnessed to its brethren and shared the name the Beastmaster had bestowed upon them. Gaze after gaze initially held disbelief and cowering fear, but quickly shifted into feverish fanaticism. Those syllables acted like a magical incantation, rippling between one green head and another alongside the divine grace of the Beastmaster. And thus, amidst savage, guttural shrieks, a tribe called the Goblins was born. Though they had yet to invent their own script or language, they had learned what to call themselves. This was their first culture. Bestowed jointly by the enemies who slaughtered them and the god they worshipped... *** [Wasteland Online Closed Beta 0.7 Update Announcement!] [Major Updates: 1. The closed beta cap has increased from 50,000 to 100,000! 2. The Slime Mold Research Community is officially established! Beyond reaching a consensus on the agenda of "jointly resolving the mutant slime mold crisis," signatory factions have agreed upon a series of concrete cooperation measures: Electronic Pass System: Jointly developed by research bodies including the Academy, Camp 101, Endpoint Group, and the Triumph City Digital Research Institute, Alliance players can apply directly through their VMs. Players holding an electronic pass may enter regions under the actual control of Community signatories (limited to public areas and infected zones, excluding sensitive facilities) to engage in production, commerce, exploration, and investigation. Signatories pledge to guarantee the personal safety and basic legal rights of entrants (see detailed regulations) and to vet each pass issued on their end. Cross-Border Information Services: Community signatories will collaborate on information exchange, erecting mutual signal repeaters and wired cables as redundant measures against obstructed satellite communications. Simultaneously, all parties commit to refraining from eavesdropping on signatory wired and wireless transmissions. In short, your VM can now access the network outside Alliance territory! (Provided an interconnected signal station is nearby.) Electronic Accounts: Linked to the Electronic Pass System, players may withdraw or convert VM digital currency at major banks belonging to any Community signatory, backed by Alliance Bank guarantees. The daily conversion limit without prior application is 1,000 silver coins; amounts exceeding this limit must be declared on the official forum website! Additionally, while operating in signatory-controlled areas, players can accept local currency as compensation via VM (currently supporting Dinars, Cr, and non-Science Committee member dedicated G-points), which Alliance Bank will settle and deposit into player accounts as silver coins at the daily exchange rate. 3. War in Heaven! All Community members have officially declared war on the Church of the Torch! Players may freely choose to join the Northern or Southern fronts based on their circumstances, or support the war effort through rear-area production! Northern Front: The allied forces' primary offensive direction! The current frontline is the Ten Peaks Mountain region in southern Jinchuan Province. Primary enemy units include mutants and biological derivatives engineered by the Church of the Torch. Troops from Enterprise, the Academy, the Legion, the Bugra Free State, and various other factions will arrive on the battlefield—by boarding our trains or using their own means. Southern Front: The Alliance's second theater opened in the south! Our allies are contesting control of the Southern Sea against the North Federation. The Church of the Torch has intervened in the regional conflict, and we cannot leave our allies to fight alone. Secure this region, and the warships of the South Sea Alliance will provide covering fire! Let our tanks hit their beaches! 4. New Maps Added: Port Golden Gallon, Port French Fries, Southern Sea Alliance Islands, Shelter 70, Weifu Wasteland, Weifu Military Base, Ten Peaks Mountain, Binghai City, Yunxia City Settlement, and more... 5. Fixed several minor bugs. ...] The patch notes popped up without warning, completely out of the blue. One second, the forum was passionately debating the bloody battle at Ten Peaks Mountain; the next, topics about the new patch rocketed straight to the trending list! Tail: "Giao! ∑(°Д°ノ)ノ" Jieyan: "Holy crap! Beta 0.7!" Thunder King Professor Yang: "One hundred thousand closed beta slots! Open beta is just around the corner! Hype!" Ye Shi: "Holy hell! We sacrificed one Scavenger and summoned an entire new patch!" Level 99 Scavenger: "Fuck! Where are your manners?! (angry)" Makabazi: "Hahahaha!" Sisi: "Hmm... why do I feel like it's because I retrieved and submitted the manager's log for Shelter 70? Oh well, minor detail, probably not that important." Tail: "Ooh! Maybe the sudden explosion of beta slots really is because of Shelter 70!" Rou Shan Da Mo Mo: "Just a coincidence, probably. (crying-laughing)" Currently, there were only around forty-some thousand closed beta players in the server. Compared to the ever-expanding game world and the Alliance's burgeoning sphere of influence, this handful of players was indeed far too meager. Especially after the Beta 0.6 update, when the game map had expanded by what felt like five light-years, yet the entire server still hosted only forty to fifty thousand players. While the surge in player caps wouldn't instantly translate into simultaneous active server population, past precedent dictated that every increase in the maximum cap boosted the daily allocation of invitation slots. And that was what mattered most. It was also what countless pre-registered reservation players had been pinning their hopes on. Quite a few had already invested in or established actual businesses in the game through proxy, yet were still stuck outside waiting in line—a thoroughly infuriating state of affairs. Compared to the beta invitations coveted by spectator players, veteran players cared much more about the actual patch content. The newly founded Slime Mold Research Community more than doubled the players' accessible stomping grounds. Now, Enterprise and Academy territories featured Alliance save points and communication stations, even permitting transactions, quest hand-ins, and reward payouts directly via the VM. Combined with the "War in Heaven," the developers had unquestionably delivered a patch packed with genuine substance. Only those few "newly added" maps felt a bit shameless. Luo Yu: "Wait, Port Golden Gallon, Port French Fries, Southern Sea Alliance Islands, Weifu Military Base, Binghai City, Yunxia City Settlement... Holy shit! Aren't all these 'newly added' maps places we've already explored?!" Qing Deng Gu Jiu: "And several of them were built with our own hands!" Elaina: "Congratulations, you've discovered the essence of a sandbox game. (funny)" Elven King Fugui: "Trash devs cutting corners confirmed. (funny)" Fang Chang: "Can't really put it that way. The transit rights for Binghai City and the settlement in Yunxia City were direct results of the Community summit... Though Port French Fries and Port Golden Gallon were indeed developed by us, and our allies in the South Sea Alliance were reeled in by us as well. (smirk)" Han Bagui: "Veterans, forget the new maps for a second—which of the two fronts is better to join? Rookie joining a raid for the first time, never seen big battles before, kinda nervous. QAQ" Fang Chang: "Up to you. If you're in a corps, just follow your corps leader's deployment. If not, pick whatever suits your taste. For now, the Northern Front probably has more quests. The Southern Front is still contesting island control, and both main combatants play super safe. Plus, naval combat is almost entirely beyond-visual-range; once locked on, it's just a matter of a few torpedoes or missiles. If you don't know how to fly planes or steer ships, better wait until the landing phase." Midnight Chicken Slayer: "Yeah. Without command of the sea, there's no air superiority. If only we could use the production facilities at Coral City and Anle Island to build an aircraft carrier, but those are all submarine yards. The Federation's largest shipbuilding base happens to be in Charas's hands; in two months, they might launch another destroyer." WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "Why not consider a submersible carrier? (funny)" Midnight Chicken Slayer: "What the hell is that? (blank)" Starry River: "A submersible aircraft carrier. Antique concept from World War I. Got dusted off and discussed after the Gulf War in the nineties, but the technical hurdles were monstrous. After all, jet aircraft and piston planes are completely different beasts with totally different deck requirements... Seems like a long shot to me." Commander Spring: "Mm, looking at it rationally, not necessarily. This is a game, not reality; copying real-world limits blindly doesn't work. Look at the Dolphin's cargo bay—honestly, it doesn't look much different from a carrier deck. In reality, building a non-submersible equivalent would already be nuts." "If that cargo bay could be redesigned into an upward-angled runway or catapult rail, with the top deck configured as a landing strip, we might not even need extensive blueprint changes. Even if it merely serves as a mobile-deployable airfield that can dive to dodge missiles while refitting ammo and recharging planes, it'd be fantastic... If I remember correctly, that submarine runs on nuclear fusion, right?" Starry River: "Holy shit, that's insane..." Fang Chang: "Hmm, sounds intriguing... Guess I'll head in-game to consult some professionals. (smirk)" *** "True geniuses... These guys are getting better and better at playing this game!" Inside Shelter 404, Chu Guang, having just uploaded the patch announcement, marvelled with genuine admiration and couldn't resist dropping likes on the forum replies. To be fair, his little players possessed sharp intuition, having skirted astonishingly close to the truth several times. Indeed, the distribution of closed beta slots in *Wasteland Online* was directly tied to unlocking new shelters. Then again, there was no need to hide it. Even if it seemed a bit strange, it functioned perfectly as game lore: only by unlocking more "starter villages" could more new players be admitted into the game. For veteran players, if they didn't want to mess around with the same few familiar faces every single day, exploring more shelters offered clear benefits. Ever since unlocking the processing center on level B7, the shelter system had effectively relinquished a great deal of authority to him. Even incubation pods and hibernation pods—which previously had to be produced via the black box or received as quest rewards—could now be manufactured directly on B7. Low-tech structural components could even be outsourced to factories in Daybreak City, conserving B7's precious high-grade production capacity. Aside from triggering emergency missions when specific prerequisites were met, the system no longer micromanaged him like a nanny on how to be a manager, nor did it assign daily chores of chopping trees, hauling bricks, and tilling soil as it had in the early days. Recovering manager's logs unlocked varying numbers of gene sequences. Short of completing sudden emergency missions, this was virtually the sole method of acquiring gene sequences—which, through the players' lens, translated directly into closed beta slots. Previously, Pioneer City had managed to salvage several abandoned shelters in the Great Wasteland, yielding around twenty thousand gene sequences from their manager's logs. Shelter 70 had awarded another twenty-some thousand, totaling just over fifty thousand. Considering the Alliance's ever-broadening territory and the ongoing War in Heaven, Chu Guang simply released all the available beta slots and adjusted the daily invitation quota to triple its baseline. At this rate, three months would inject thirty thousand newcomers into the server, and the ongoing war was ideal for absorbing this sudden surplus of manpower. Whether they chose to work rear-line production or fight on the front lines, there would be ample "positions" accommodating their preferred playstyles. Furthermore, with veterans showing them the ropes, there was no fear of newcomers running amok. Once they progressed through the gameplay loop and obtained their VMs, they would effectively be assimilated into his ranks. Moreover, on the second theater opened in the south—the Southern Front—developing a submersible aircraft carrier was indeed a brilliant idea. When he had met with Captain Chen Jianhong earlier, they had actually touched upon this topic: the Dolphin's cargo bay was ridiculously cavernous, so could it be converted into a flight deck or runway? Influenced by the inertial experience of the parallel world, Chu Guang felt that not just his players, but even he himself had an enduring fondness for aeronautical assets. And practice had proven that planes were undeniably effective. Especially when piloted by the Alliance's "suicidal ace" flyers, who could not only drop bombs squarely on an enemy's head, but could also transform their own bodies into precision-guided munitions on a 72-hour cooldown. Unfortunately, Chen Jianhong had only offered an ambiguous response at the time. After all, the man was merely a submarine captain, not a shipbuilding expert, and was hesitant to pass judgment on something he had never seen. The experts from Camp 101 had little experience in naval construction either, so the idea had been shelved. The South Sea Alliance's submarine specialists were all stationed on Anle Island. Now that Commander Li Minghui had agreed to form a new joint government with the members of Shelter 70, borrowing equipment and technical talent shouldn't pose much of a problem. Chu Guang had plenty of confidence in the players he had personally fostered, trusting they had thoroughly mastered the art of communication that "didn't make people hate them." "...Seems I don't need to fret too much over the Southern Front. Until the South Sea Alliance seizes control of the Southern Sea, we can concentrate our attention on the Northern Front. By the way, Xiao Qi, what about the Wilante? Where are they now?" Noticing Chu Guang's gaze, Xiao Qi, who had been swinging her little legs on the rim of the pen holder, instantly sat up straight and reported in a crisp voice: "Reporting, Master! The Legion's forces reached Bicester Town yesterday! According to the local mayor's report, the Glory Army, comprised of fifty thousand clones, is currently queuing to board the trains. They will travel directly to Jinchuan Province on the dedicated trains we prepared for them!" Pausing briefly, Xiao Qi continued: "Also, the Citizens' Autonomous Council of Falcon City sent word that the Eastern Legion's directly subordinate 31st Myriad has embarked aboard the airship *Loyalty*. In addition to tanks and self-propelled artillery, they brought along a 'Bison' all-terrain armored walker, which is slated to arrive at the front within three days!" Chu Guang's heart stirred, and he asked, "Is it the one we saw outside Falcon City?" Xiao Qi nodded with a solemn expression. "Word is that it seems to be, yes!" As for that "Bison," Chu Guang naturally remembered it. He had caught a glimpse of it outside Falcon City. In the Academy's assessment, that monstrosity was a bizarre hybrid of diesel and nuclear fusion power, though in his eyes, it resembled a four-legged railway gun. Equipped with a 200mm cannon and an autoloader, it could unleash the firepower of an entire artillery battalion in short order, supplemented by deflector shields and steel armor... It was evident that the Marshal in Triumph City took the Church of the Torch very seriously. Otherwise, he wouldn't have braved such immense logistical strain to transport so much heavy equipment all the way from the West Coast, over ten thousand kilometers away. Watching Chu Guang sink into contemplation, Xiao Qi paused, then added: "Additionally, troops from Enterprise and the Academy are arriving soon! According to Yi Chuan's report, the 100th Mechanized Mountain Division and the 7th Air Fleet are advancing from Yuema Province into Jinchuan Province, totaling around ten thousand personnel. Word from the Academy indicates that the Science Committee's 'Alpha' Mobile Task Force will arrive at the air base north of Daybreak City the day after tomorrow. Judging by their pass applications, there are roughly a thousand people." "Besides them, survivor factions like the Bugra Free State, the Lion Kingdom, the Honey Badger Kingdom, the Falcon Kingdom, the Xilan Empire, and Garbage City have dispatched forces to the front lines as well, expected to arrive gradually within the next fortnight." Hearing this, a faint smile surfaced on Chu Guang's thoughtful face. The stage was set. The actors were falling into place one by one. "Looks like we're in for a hell of a show."