Destruction Comes Far Faster Than Construction

Wasteland Online Official Website. [Announcement: The Southern Sea region is now open. Players holding a VM and downloading the electronic pass plugin may enter and leave various settlements freely.] [Recommended Gameplay: 1. Production class players can register mining companies locally. By purchasing a cargo ship and a resource survey pod, you can head into the deep sea to explore and uncover underwater facility ruins from the Human Alliance era, as well as untouched seabed mineral deposits! (Recommended for advanced players) 2. The northern islands of the Southern Sea are currently undergoing reconstruction. The Southern Sea Alliance welcomes players to invest, start businesses, and seek employment. Assisting in local reconstruction will yield generous rewards of silver coins, regional reputation, and contribution points. There's no end of bricks to move and screws to turn! (Recommended for beginner players) 3. Scientific Expedition and Institute of Biological Research Quests: The Alliance Scientific Expedition and Institute of Biological Research have established research stations in Coral City. The Tianting space station, located near the entrance of Shelter 70, is now open for investigation. Once near the map area, players can accept quests by locating quest-related NPCs or directly via their VMs. 4. ...] [The above are merely the development team's recommendations. Please explore further content on your own in the game!] Not long after the announcement went live, the comment section below erupted. Especially among production class players. The past few updates had all buffed combat classes. After yearning day and night, the spring of production class players had finally arrived! Yaya: "Ooooh! Rejoice! An epic buff for production players!" Jieyan: "Even with the buff, there are no mushrooms for you to pick. (Blank stare)" Yaya: "Picking mushrooms isn't all I do! I explore the game world too, okay?!" In Debt God: "Do tell more about this 'exploration.' (Perverted)" Ye Shi: "What are the Administrator's three measurements? (Doge)" Yaya: "How should I know?!" Tyrannosaurus Warrior: "Trash dev, I'm begging you, just give me a helmet!! T.T" Thunder King Professor Yang: "Well look at that, begging for food while standing tall." Master Proud What Can You Do: "Lmao, is it worth hyping over a lousy piece of pie in the sky? Blatantly scamming people with a bunch of PVs. Heh, whoever believes this is my dad! (Sweating bead)" Elena: "Then why don't you cancel that reservation you've had for two and a half years? (Smug)" Elven King Fugui: "'My dad' is pretty good. Did this guy mean to type 'I am your dad' and made a typo? (Smug)" Far-Sighted Eagle: "If you don't know, just ask! How much does a mining ship cost, and how long does it take to make back the investment?" Battle-Hardened Wolf: "Can I become a pirate? I want to be the Pirate King! I want rivers of blood! (Rage)" Shit-Stirring Stick: "Disguising yourself as a Southern Sea mining ship to rob Wilante merchant ships shouldn't be an issue. Probably. If it is, pretend I didn't say anything. (Smug)" Wanking Dog: "Hehehe, blonde, and huge too, hehehehe." Scapegoat Sheep: "Bro, please act normal..." Ye Shi: "Ah Guang: 'How the hell should I know? Please explore on your own in the game.' (Smug)" Jieyan: "Hahahahaha, fuck!" Canyon Runaway Mole: "Work harder, Little Brother Ye Shi! When are you going to open the gates to the Wandering Marsh? (Smug)" Ye Shi: "Ugh, don't bring it up. Talking about it just brings tears. Poaching from their corner is way too hard. (Headache)" Kuang Feng: "You'd better be talking about poaching talent. (Side-eye grin)" ... While players and lurkers were chattering away on the forum, an exceptionally fast Agility-build player had already boarded the cargo submarine *Dolphin* to get an early look at the "new map." The underwater settlement nestled beside coral reefs and kelp forests had restored power to fifty percent of its areas. Many residents of Coral City who had been stranded on the islands had returned to their familiar homes. As the lighting systems powered on, transparent domes resembled motionless, luminescent jellyfish, their variegated glow spreading across the seabed like a brilliant rainbow. Gazing at the dazzling spectacle outside the submarine's porthole, Wei Ba excitedly opened her mouth into an 'O' shape, pressing her nose flat against the glass. "Ooooh! Is this the legendary Coral City?" Standing next to her, Rou Rou was even more exaggerated, a massive ball of fluff almost filling the entire window. "So amazing!!" Her cat ears twitching gently, Zhima Hu stood behind Wei Ba and let out a heartfelt sigh of admiration. "It feels just like an underwater Ideal City..." Although it was not as vast in scale as Ideal City, the level of technology here was not one bit inferior. According to Brother Fang Chang, who had stayed in Ideal City for nearly half a year and even earned a certification while there, the prosperity of Ideal City was actually somewhat inflated. This was not to say Ideal City lacked prosperity, but rather that most wastelanders' initial impressions of it were vastly exaggerated compared to reality. The reinforced concrete used there was actually early-stage technology from the Era of Prosperity, and the Endpoint Cloud was merely a quantum computing network developed from a colony ship's core. Beyond that, the holographic display equipment, rail transit, and maglev highways—while visually stunning—reflected industrial productivity rather than true technological prowess. This was one of the reasons why the Academy and the Legion never took Ideal City's prosperity to heart; their forebears had originally belonged to the same family, and they knew each other's true foundations intimately. Ideal City was essentially a society that had stagnated after reaching peak prosperity. However, stagnation here was not a derogatory term, but a neutral one. Rationality considered, they truly had developed the land beneath their feet to the absolute limit. If the Era of Prosperity was their benchmark, there truly was little left for them to improve upon. Compared to Ideal City, which looked far more prosperous than it actually was, Coral City represented the opposite extreme—it was far more staggering than it appeared. It was situated in the deep sea, hundreds of meters down, reaching several hundred meters at its deepest points. Building an underwater settlement capable of supporting regular human life, production, and scientific research under such immense pressure was a remarkable feat in itself. Moreover, the technology required to keep such a settlement running was not a shred less than what was needed to operate a space station. The fact that local survivors managed to achieve this without a stable supply of nuclear fuel was proof enough that they truly possessed extraordinary capability. Listening to their excited exclamations, a proud smile crept onto Captain Chen Jianhong's lips. He chuckled and said, "This isn't even the settlement at its most magnificent. Only about fifty percent of it has been rebooted so far. Once all the facilities here are back online, it'll look far more astounding than it does now! Of course, that consumes quite a lot of energy, so we'll probably have to wait until the ocean current power stations are repaired." Sisi, who had remained quiet until now, remarked with deep emotion, "Shutting it down takes only a moment... but rebooting it takes more than half a year, or even longer." Chen Jianhong grinned. "...Pretty much. After all, destruction comes far faster than construction." This was true for Coral City, and had it not been the same for the Era of Prosperity? He had heard that in the distant past, magnificent megastructures linked the heavens and the earth into a seamless whole. Torrents of metal and concrete stretched endlessly across the horizon, boundless deserts were transformed into farmland, and the chaotic, inefficient architectural complexes of the old world were cleared away into shaded groves and open meadows. Relying on imagination and technological prowess, humanity divided the planet into distinct, pristine realms. And above the firmament, towering colony ships had even ventured on expeditions to new worlds five light-years away. In that era of extreme prosperity, the bottleneck of science and technology was no longer the boundary of imagination; rather, imagination had become the bottleneck of technology. Yet after human civilization reached the zenith of its history, the generations that followed spent two centuries without ever reclaiming even a ten-thousandth of that past glory. Coral City today could only be considered an unassuming pearl among countless lost treasures. "...Today I showed you around my old home. How about you take me to see the distant skies in the future?" Chen Jianhong teased with a smile. Leaping down from the glass window, Wei Ba turned around and gave an enthusiastic thumbs-up. "Oh! It's a deal!" "Hahaha!" Amused by her exuberant antics, Chen Jianhong did not take it too seriously, but smiled and replied nonetheless, "All right! It's a deal!" ... Just as the storm in the Southern Sea was gradually settling, an even greater tempest was brewing across the lands of Brahma Province. In the northeastern corner of Brahma Province, in Mammoth State along the banks of the Tasang River, winding trenches were carved like scars into the barren earth. Crouched within the trenches were soldiers of the Moon Clan Resistance. Some held Rippers, others clutched LD-47s, and some were paired up behind water-cooled Maxims phased out from Qingquan City. The latter had proved immensely effective during the Tide in Qingquan City thanks to its high rate of fire, low cost, and ease of maintenance. Although the Alliance had long stopped producing them and possessed far superior replacements, to Laxi, such cheap and reliable equipment was precisely what he needed most. In addition, there were 88mm mortars, early models of the 20mm Lance, and an entire assortment of Goblin Tech products. While they might no longer cut it on the front lines of Haiya Province, in Brahma Province they were still invaluable assets. After all, aside from a few 100mm artillery pieces that were somewhat respectable, many of the Moon Clan Resistance's opponents were infantry using pipe rifles or even bows and spears, incapable of even digging proper trenches! In particular, their trenches ran straight without bends, lacking any corners to dissipate shockwaves. If a single shell landed in a trench, everyone in that line would perish with nowhere to hide. Just as most players who had visited this land remarked on the forum, the atmosphere here was entirely different from that of Haiya Province and Baiyue Province. If Zhalas's marines were deployed here, they would likely win even more easily than the Burning Corps had defeated them. Of course, that was without factoring in logistics and terrain. Once those two elements were considered, victory was still a matter of delicate calculation. At the Mammoth State local army's positions, Governor Bamute of Mammoth State held a monocular, gazing toward the nearby heights with a smile, a faint sneer curling at the corner of his lips. Nothing more than a pack of serfs. With so few men, they dared to challenge His Majesty's authority—they truly had no sense of their own insignificance! Although Mammoth State was somewhat far from Tiandu, he had not skimped a single copper on the military. Furthermore, unlike the spineless weaklings of Tiger State who had been corrupted by merchants, Mammoth State harbored none of those pervasive, crooked traders. The local army remained firmly held by the nobility and was fiercely loyal to His Majesty Wutuo. The Fierce Tiger Army did not dare touch these Moon Clan people, but he would not show these traitors the slightest courtesy. He would sever all their heads, load them onto wagons, and send them all the way to Tiandu to show those restless rebels what awaited traitors! "...I heard that Laxi was merely a slave. It seems Duke Nihak didn't discipline him properly." Hearing Duke Bamute's remark, General Daxina standing nearby smiled with a hint of fawning in his voice. "Haha! How could Duke Nihak compare to you? If it were you, you'd certainly have trained him to be submissive and obedient, never daring to bare his teeth at his master." Duke Bamute smiled faintly. "Discipline? An ungrateful dog like that is better off hanged from the city walls." Pausing, a thought suddenly crossed his mind, and he asked, "Speaking of which, does he have any family?" General Daxina paused and shook his head. "Doesn't seem like it." "What a pity." Bamute clicked his tongue in regret and handed the monocular back to the attendant beside him. Facing an opponent who was an unattached bachelor with nothing to lose but his worthless life was terribly dull; even in victory, there was little satisfaction to be had. Still, his identity as a Moon Clan native held some value. Hopefully, His Majesty would appreciate the gift. Just then, a two-meter-tall giant of a man stepped forward and bowed respectfully. "Honorable Duke Bamute, General Daxina, please grant me permission to lead the vanguard! I swear before sunset to bring that dead dog before you!" Bamute looked him over, finding the warrior remarkably imposing, and an appreciative look crossed his brow. Seeing this, the general beside him took half a step forward and tactfully introduced him: "This is Zakshir, a millurion under my command. His Long Tusk Battalion is considered an elite unit of our army! Having him lead the vanguard will pose no issue!" "Very good," Duke Bamute nodded approvingly after receiving the professional assessment. Looking at the two-meter-tall giant, he said, "Millurion Zakshir, since your commanding officer holds you in high regard, the vanguard is yours to command." Delight flooded the giant's face, and he repeatedly expressed his gratitude: "Thank you, Your Grace! Thank you, General!" Mammoth State was remote, and opportunities to suppress such a major bandit uprising were rare. If he could achieve military distinction, he might very well become a myriarch in his lifetime! Having received his orders, Zakshir did not hesitate. He immediately turned and returned to his camp, gathered his officers for a brief mobilization meeting, and then led over a thousand men surging forward toward the front line. Every one of them was armed with a Ripper rifle, accompanied by two 100mm infantry guns towed by two two-headed oxen—firepower that could certainly be considered ample! Watching the ferocious procession, the soldiers in the local army's positions looked on with reverent awe and willingly made way for them. "It's the Long Tusks..." "Millurion Zakshir is taking the field in person!" "Those Moon Clan folks are as good as dead..." To them, the Gray Wolf Army and the Wilante officers were far too distant, but the Long Tusk Battalion was a god of war they could see with their own eyes, standing right beside them. Not only did these men wield the finest equipment, but every one of them was towering and built like a sturdy ox. Hardly anyone doubted that as soon as these men struck, those ragtag bandits would shatter instantly. In truth, since the Resistance had entered Mammoth State, they had never lost a minor skirmish, but they had never won a major engagement either. Their main force had retreated repeatedly, and now they were backed up to the Tasang River, barely holding their ground thanks to the elevated terrain. With heavy rainfall in recent days, the Tasang River was rushing violently. Even if they wished to cross the river and flee, they likely had no chance. What was more, General Daxina had anticipated their desire to cross the river and establish a separate domain, having already dispatched a ten-thousand-man legion to wait on the opposite bank. At the same time, in the Moon Clan Resistance's positions, scouts lying in observation posts immediately spotted the movement of the local army and reported it up the chain of command without delay. The message passed through the ranks and reached Laxi in less than half a minute. Inside the command tent. Laxi gathered the officers who had followed him all the way from Port Golden Gallon for a brief tactical meeting. Everyone exchanged views around the map. "A thousand-man battalion, and every one of them is armed with rifles. They're likely the elite of the Mammoth State local army!" "That Long Tusk Battalion... I heard their millurion is named Zakshir, a Mammoth clansman, and apparently the son-in-law of General Daxina, the top commander of the local army." An officer sneered. "Heh, daring to put their direct kin in the vanguard—these bastards really don't take us seriously at all." Another officer stroked his chin in thought. "Since the Long Tusk Battalion is here, their commanders should be at the front line as well. We might just land a big fish this time." Looking toward Laxi, who had remained silent, the commander of the Resistance's First Regiment spoke with burning eyes: "Time to pull the net, General!" "Yeah, it damn well is time to reel it in. Over these past two weeks, we've yielded enough ground to those fifty thousand pigs." Although the local army claimed to have a hundred thousand troops, judging from the speed at which they pitched and struck camp, the garbage they left behind, and the latrines they dug, they numbered fifty to sixty thousand at most, even counting the pack beasts hauling supplies. Laxi stared at the map for a long while before nodding. Picking up a pen, he made two deliberate marks on it, then looked up at his confidants and issued his order with a stern expression: "Tell the men the time for our counterattack has come! No more holding back—hit them with everything we've got!" The officers snapped to attention, delivered an Alliance military salute, and roared with resounding resolve: "Yes, sir!!" With the order given, the soldiers in the Resistance positions moved like gears wound tight. Meanwhile, Zakshir, who was leading his men out from their positions, remained entirely unaware. Seeing how quiet the high ground was, he assumed the Moon Clan crouched in the trenches were paralyzed with fear. A sneer curled on his lips as he looked toward the officer beside him and ordered, "Kukas, have your artillery blast that ridge with ten shells first! Mikhayno, the moment you hear the tenth blast, charge with your men!" "Understood!!" The two centurions acknowledged their orders and sprinted back toward their units. Soon, two cannon shots rang out, shattering the silence of the battlefield as the shells struck. Deafening artillery fire echoed across the Moon Clan Resistance's positions. Young men clutching rifles pressed their heads firmly against the trench walls, fierce glints shining in their eyes. Not a single face showed fear. Not a single face showed hesitation. Because even as they endured the bombardment, their commander was standing right beside them! They believed without a shadow of a doubt that he would lead them to ultimate victory! Amidst the roaring barrage, Laxi had not retreated to a shelter. Instead, he had gone to the foremost trench line, crouching against the dirt and bellowing into a megaphone: "Keep your heads buried deep in the dirt! Act like you're already dead!" "There's no shame in it! Soon enough, you'll be gutting those wild dogs, spilling their intestines across the ground, and wiping your boots on their faces!" "Remember the sound of these guns! When our cannons fire, we will pay them back tenfold with this terror, with our roar!" Just as his shout faded, an earth-shattering detonation suddenly echoed from the far northwest. The sound seemed to come from the river. Hearing the blast, Duke Bamute on the local army's positions blinked, wondering what the noise was, but General Daxina's face beside him turned pale instantly. "The embankment... it's the Tasang River embankment!" Mammoth State lay in the lower reaches of the Tasang River upon an alluvial plain. While the land was fertile, the river flooded whenever the rainy season arrived, bringing misery not only to the peasants but also to the nobles who held estates large and small. Consequently, the nobles who controlled the fertile lands along the river had banded together to build an embankment along the widest channel to irrigate their estates. Recently, Mammoth State had seen abundant rainfall, and the Tasang River was in the midst of its flood season. If the embankment breached, the entire downstream region would be submerged! Not just here... Even Mammoth City, over a hundred kilometers away, would suffer! Hearing General Daxina's words, Duke Bamute snapped back to reality. His face went as white as a sheet, his lips trembling with rage as his breathing turned ragged. "That madman! What does he think he's doing?!" And hadn't the Moon Clan Resistance been completely trapped by the riverbank? How could there still be people causing trouble outside the encirclement?! And what were the guards at the embankment doing?! How could they fail to defend such a massive embankment?! He had too many questions he could not comprehend, and no time left to ponder them. Fully eighty percent of his "hundred-thousand-strong army" was stationed right along the Tasang River. Once the upstream floodwaters poured in, it would inundate far more than a li or two—it could turn the land for ten to twenty kilometers around the river into a swamp... They wouldn't even have a chance to flee! "Quick! Load the grain onto the wagons!" General Daxina screamed in despair, urging the soldiers to hurriedly gather the provisions and ammunition haphazardly stacked under the sheds, while he himself ran toward the ox carts. As if already hearing the roaring tide, the livestock in the camp grew restless and panicked. Meanwhile, at the front line, Mikhayno had no idea what was happening in the rear as he waited for the moment to attack. Finally counting the tenth blast of "artillery," he excitedly rallied his hundred-man company and charged forward. Yet before the company could take more than two steps, an eleventh cannon shot rang out. Just as Mikhayno was wondering why the artillery had fired an extra round, the erratic shell slammed down right in front of the Resistance's positions. *Boom!!* The flash of the explosion vanished in an instant. Not a single Resistance soldier was struck down, but the charging soldiers, unable to drop to the ground in time, were immediately shredded by the rampant shrapnel. "Aaaah!" "My leg!!" "My arm! My arm, aaah!" Several soldiers whose limbs had been severed writhed on the ground, wailing. The gruesome sight sent a chill down the spines of their comrades nearby, instinctively slowing their advance. "What the hell is that artillery doing?!" Mikhayno was both shocked and furious. He cast a hurried glance back, but before he could curse, the staccato rattle of machine-gun fire erupted overhead. Without anyone noticing, a machine gun had been set up directly in front of them. As the rapid gunfire broke out, streaks of tracer rounds accompanied flickering muzzle flashes, raining down upon their faces like a torrential squall. The scene was nothing short of brutal. The soldiers charging at the very front were mowed down like wheat, collapsing silently to the ground before they could even scream. The soldiers behind were stunned by the machine gun, hitting the dirt and cowering behind cover, terrified to advance. Yet right then, another burst of gunfire rang out from the positions to their left front, and bullets slammed down at an angle from above. It appeared to be indirect plunge fire from a rear position. This time, they didn't even see muzzle flashes before being pelted mercilessly. Low cover or lying prone offered no protection at all. Watching half his company wiped out in the blink of an eye, Mikhayno felt as though his heart were bleeding. Gritting his teeth, he could only shout for the soldiers who hadn't yet charged to fall back. After all that, a company of a hundred men was reduced to barely twenty or thirty, the survivors wearing expressions of sheer horror. Hadn't their commanders said the people opposite them were a bunch of serfs? How the hell was this how serfs fought?! It wasn't just Centurion Mikhayno who was stunned; Millurion Zakshir, positioned slightly farther back, was equally dumbfounded. What bewildered them even more came next—how had the mud beneath their feet suddenly turned into standing water mid-battle?! By the time everyone gathered their wits, the floodwaters from the breach had already risen to their knees, and moments later reached their chests. Massive amounts of driftwood and boulders washed down from upstream, alongside the wreckage of collapsed wooden cabins. The torrent poured over the plains with unstoppable force, turning everything within a hundred li into a watery expanse. The local army soldiers stationed at the front lines were swept away in disarray, clinging to driftwood and dead trees while crying desperately for help. Those who couldn't swim or were shorter drowned directly in the river, becoming floating corpses carried downstream. They had no idea what was happening and could not contact their superiors; their superiors were no different, caring only for their own escape and completely disregarding the soldiers under their command. Looking at the imperial soldiers soaking in the water, a cold smile curved at the corners of Laxi's lips. So this was the empire... Truly frail beyond measure. "...This flood will probably take five or six days to recede," his adjutant standing beside him noted cautiously. Their original plan had been to use the breached river to flood the imperial local army's trenches, forcing the soldiers out so they could charge down alongside the floodwaters and wipe them out in one stroke. Now, however, events had outpaced their plans. Unfamiliar with the terrain, they had underestimated the Tasang River's ferocity. The chain reaction triggered by the breach was far greater than anticipated; they had won without even needing to sweep down with the waters. The troops concealed upstream should have finished gathering by now. Having strapped their ammunition and supplies onto pre-assembled rafts, they would soon arrive to rendezvous with them. Six thousand against fifty thousand, with fewer than a hundred casualties on their side across the entire battle. This fight was enough to go down in the military history of Brahma Province... "Never mind five or six days; even ten days or half a month wouldn't matter," Laxi continued impassively, staring across the flooded plain. "It gives us the perfect pretext to enter the city for disaster relief." As long as they took Mammoth City and its docks, giving the people a vision of victory, grain and funds would naturally flow in steadily. Whether from Port Golden Gallon or Port French Fries. And from there, he could begin the next phase of his plan...