Nobody Knows Ah Guang Better Than Me

On the Death Coast, along a floating dock assembled from steel plates, a group of construction laborers in work overalls came ashore one after another, carrying shovels and toolboxes. They were soldiers of the Empire's Expeditionary Force, previously stationed at Port Youtiao. Although the Alliance occasionally dragged them out for target practice, the players clearly never intended to throw them onto the front lines from the start. And thank heavens for that. The moment they stepped onto dry land, many promptly vomited their guts out, their faces pale and their limbs numb. Part of it was naturally seasickness, but half of it was from the gruesome carnage strewn across the beach. Swollen, mangled corpses were scattered haphazardly over the sand—some blue, some green, and some human. While the bodies in the trenches had already been cleared away by the players, some mutants who had died in the sea were subsequently washed ashore by the rolling tide. It wasn't just corpses either; there were also mutant species that had wandered over following the scent. Absurdly massive sea crabs were the first to catch the stench of decay. They swarmed the corpses, rustling and gnawing away, gorging themselves on this open buffet. Swallowing hard against the bile and saliva rising in their throats, the men dragged their stiff legs ashore. Just then, an abrupt gunshot rang out from the beach. *Bang—!* The sudden crack made everyone jump. Reflexes forged by training caused them to drop flat to the ground, only to look up and see a figure clad in an exoskeleton and a blue coat walking toward them. "Don't panic, it's me." Carrying a shotgun as he strolled over to the dock, Ban Sui Cuo Tuo waved with a grin, then pointed not far from the line of floating pontoons beneath their feet. A mutated sea crab, standing over a meter tall, lay slumped in a waterlogged hollow of sand, half its head completely blown apart by the shotgun blast. Because the carapace matched the beach's color so closely, none of them had noticed it, their attention having been consumed by the corpses on the shore. Looking at the lingeringly terrified Expeditionary Force soldiers, Ban Sui Cuo Tuo chuckled. "Watch your step. Those pinchers pack quite a punch—one snap is enough to take off a leg... We've already spent enough money on you guys; we're not keen on buying you prosthetics." Seeing that no one spoke, Ban Sui Cuo Tuo dropped the banter and cut straight to the chase. "Your task is simple: clear the bodies off the beach, haul them to a spot about five kilometers from the coastline, and burn them using the fuel we provide..." "The Church of the Torch's military presence nearby has already been dismantled by us, so there shouldn't be much danger. Of course, I can only say *shouldn't*, because anything can happen on a battlefield. Keep your eyes peeled and stay ready for whatever might pop up." "That's the situation. If you have questions, you'd better ask now. If not, get to work." Having delivered his piece, Ban Sui Cuo Tuo waited a brief moment. Seeing no one speak up, he turned to leave. Just then, however, a young fellow timidly raised his hand. "I... I have a question." His voice was timid, as was typical of most Rat Clan members when speaking with them. Ban Sui Cuo Tuo didn't mind and waved his right hand. "Go ahead, spit it out." The young man swallowed hard and spoke in a rush. "Why not... just let the crabs eat them..." In his eyes, dealing with the mess was completely unnecessary; if left alone, the crabs would pick them clean anyway. Hearing such an outlandish suggestion, Ban Sui Cuo Tuo laughed aloud, asking teasingly, "Once you fatten them up, how many do you think there'll be?" *Why do these NPCs act more like NPCs than I do?* He was about to turn around again when the youth murmured softly, "What if we move them further from the docks? Dig a trench out there and bury the bodies... Maybe that would lure the mutated crabs over there instead." It wasn't that he minded hauling corpses; he just thought these crabs were edible, and scaring them off felt like a waste. Back when they had first arrived at Port Youtiao, they had gathered plenty of crabs shot dead by Alliance soldiers, even roasting and eating them alongside the troops. Ban Sui Cuo Tuo shot the lad an astonished look. *Holy crap.* *Are the NPCs in this game really this realistic?!* Truth be told, thinking it through in his head, it wasn't a bad idea at all. Naturally, the biggest factor was that he too wanted to spice up their rations. So he walked forward with a smile and clapped the young man on the shoulder. "Buddy, what's your name?" The young man answered nervously, "Dan..." "Then we'll call you Ah Dan. Haha, Ah Dan, the future crab tycoon." With that, Ban Sui Cuo Tuo tossed him a ring of keys tagged with a vehicle license plate. Then, thinking of something else, he shoved the weapon in his hands over as well, continuing with a grin: "I'm lending you a truck, and these men will take your orders... Take this shotgun and walkie-talkie too. I want your crab farm at least five kilometers from here. If you get attacked, call us." The young man named Dan stared blankly for a second, then nodded in wild ecstasy. "Rest assured, sir! Leave it to me, I won't let you down!" In the smile of that Alliance soldier, he seemed to see a chance to change his destiny! If he handled this well, he might even be allowed to stay... Ban Sui Cuo Tuo paid it no mind, gave a casual wave telling him to get to work, and strolled back up the beach. Waiting on the shore, Yi Bu Deng Tian asked as he approached, "Is that really going to work?" Ban Sui Cuo Tuo chuckled. "What could go wrong? Putting mutant corpses to good use is a fine thing. Don't be so stiff, haha." Maybe once the war was over, mutated sea crab would become a local specialty. Seeing his grinning demeanor, Yi Bu Deng Tian made a helpless face. "Fine, whatever." He didn't really care, so long as it didn't disrupt the flow of supply shipments. ... The twilight hanging at the edge of the sky gradually sank away. Just as the Expeditionary Force from Port Youtiao was coming ashore in waves, Duke Nihak—who had clung stubbornly to the Southern Sea Alliance fleet, refusing to disembark—finally set foot on land with great reluctance after seeing General Li Minghui head ashore. He was, after all, a grand duke of the Empire; he couldn't let himself be looked down upon. Not only that. As a grand duke of the Empire, now that the Expeditionary Force had finally landed in Church of the Torch territory, failing to make an appearance would be poor form. What he hadn't anticipated, however, was that the scene on the beach would be far more gruesome than he had imagined. A thick stench of blood lingered, uncut even by a full day of ocean breezes. Standing upon the undulating steel plates, Duke Nihak felt as though his nostrils were soaked in blood, his calves trembling uncontrollably. *Is this the front line...?* His Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed what little dry spit remained in his mouth, his eyes filled with unrestrainable dread. Though he had witnessed the Alliance's true power through holographic displays, seeing death through a screen was nowhere near as visceral as what he felt now. *These people aren't human...* *Whether it's the ones rotting on the sand or the ones camping up on the beach...* *They are all devils!* Shoving aside the guards who came to steady him, he dragged his stiff legs ashore. Not far away stood the Alliance camp. Rows of tents were pitched along the edge of the sand, and searchlights swept from watchtowers. A faint glimmer of hope rose in his chest—a hope that the camp would be filled with wounded, that this battle had bled both the Torch and the Alliance dry, that the Empire might stand atop the world from this day forward. Yet the moment he stepped into the camp, all those hopes were dashed to pieces. The soldiers were lounging directly upon the positions where they had fought, lighting campfires right where their enemies had fallen. They didn't care in the slightest about the bullet craters or gore on the ground. Sitting around the blazes, they laughed, chatted, roasted meat, and sang songs. And it wasn't just Alliance soldiers. He saw with his own eyes several Expeditionary Force soldiers pulled in among them. One of them, skilled with an instrument, was improvising on a Bolo Province fife, while another beat a drum made of hide and bone, accompanying a husky, resonant chorus. "...The gears of Heaven plunge into the furnace, Boiling molten steel splatters from the hearth. The immortal calamity marches ever onward, We shall reforge the mortal realm! ... "The hound of chaos is decapitated, The flames of Retribution are where lies belong. If twisting black to white is the path to heaven... Then first we'll turn the whole world upside down!" He couldn't understand what they were singing, yet he felt the blood in his veins surging with the rhythm. A prickle of fear suddenly struck his heart, especially when he saw soldiers of the Expeditionary Force softly humming along. It was as if those lyrics carried some blasphemous, treacherous curse... Someone spotted him and pointed with a grin. Before he knew it, he had been pulled over to sit by the campfire. The two guards beside him were dragged over as well. "...Cheer up, don't look so miserable! The war's almost over!" "Even if you guys still have a mountain of headaches to deal with, at least right now we can celebrate our shared victory..." Killing Dagger laughed, clapping Duke Nihak on the shoulder. "This is a victory for all mankind. It doesn't just belong to us; it belongs to you too." "...S-stop talking nonsense!" Duke Nihak's eyes went wide, like a rat whose tail had been stepped on—and a very, very old rat at that. "We don't have problems! We are doing splendidly! The ones with problems are you! You brought all that foul, sickening filth... you brought that wasteland into Bolo Province! Before you came to our lands, we were doing splendidly!" His mustache bristled with fury, his lips turned blue, and he didn't even notice the contradiction in his own words—claiming first that they were doing splendidly now, then claiming they were only doing splendidly before the Alliance arrived. Seeing this living clown, the players burst into laughter. Killing Dagger patted him on the shoulder again with a grin. "Of course you're doing splendidly. Dead men buried in the dirt can't talk, after all." He still vaguely recalled that when they had captured this fellow, the man had been enjoying himself in bed. Before the fuming, glaring duke could snap back, Killing Dagger poured him a cup of liquor. "Come on, drink up and eat some meat. Today's a day worth celebrating. Don't ruin the mood over trifles." Looking down at the roasted leg shoved into his hands, Nihak couldn't help recalling the field of corpses. His face turned pale, and his voice trembled. "What kind of meat is this?" Seeing his terrified expression, Killing Dagger immediately guessed what he was thinking and roared with laughter. "Yaoguai meat. Fresh kill. Tastes a bit like bear... Want a bite?" Met with that challenging stare, Duke Nihak refused to be looked down on. With a dark scowl, he took a bite. The savory aroma of roasted meat bloomed across his palate, and the sizzling, juicy texture made his eyes widen slightly. *Mmh...* *This actually tastes surprisingly good?* Though these Alliance folks were crude and barbaric, he had to admit they knew their way around a roast. Seeing the duke quiet down, the players resumed their cheerful banquet. Killing Dagger was laughing and shooting the breeze with his teammates when a pale-blue icon suddenly popped up on his VM. "Lao Bai is paging me. Probably got a mission. You guys keep eating, I'll catch you later." He gave a quick wave to his teammates, grabbed his helmet, put it on, and walked toward the command tent deep within the camp. When he lifted the flap and entered, he found Lao Bai and Fang Chang standing beside the command table, studying a map spread out before them with absolute focus. Having rarely seen the pair look so grave, Killing Dagger immediately guessed a major task had dropped. His expression turned eager. "Got a job?" "Yeah, and a big one..." Rubbing his chin, Fang Chang nodded, summarizing the intelligence they had just received from the Guards Corps. In short, an insider among the Torch's middle-to-high echelon had turned informant. Because his name wasn't on the "evacuation roster," he wanted to surrender to the Alliance in exchange for leniency. Killing Dagger figured the guy was truly down on his luck. Normally, if someone knew such a list existed, they ought to be on it. Yet this fellow was fascinating: he knew about the list, but wasn't on it. Setting aside how he had ended up in that pathetic state, what puzzled Killing Dagger most was something else. The Torch leadership was planning to flee? They were already trapped like turtles in a jar—where the hell could they possibly run? Was there anywhere left on this Earth for them to hide? Wait, could it be— Noticing the sudden realization dawning on Killing Dagger's face, Fang Chang smiled faintly. "Looks like you figured it out without me explaining." Killing Dagger nodded, his expression solemn. "The Church of the Torch has a spaceship..." Fang Chang: "..." Lao Bai gave a dry cough. "What would they need a spaceship for... Think about it a bit more." Killing Dagger was baffled. "Huh? Then... where else could they run?" "Actually, it's not entirely impossible," Fang Chang interjected. "Maybe a spaceship, maybe a space station, or even a satellite or a hard drive... But the odds of them physically boarding a spaceship to flee are slim. I'm more inclined to believe they intend to use some high-power transmitter to beam their data to equipment in outer space." A vast amount of spacecraft wreckage drifted in the outer orbit of this planet, including functional satellites and automated weapon platforms. Due to the widespread adoption of nuclear fusion technology, many orbital installations left behind from the Human Alliance era had operational lifespans measured in centuries. Pausing briefly, he continued, "If that's the case, I have reason to believe that in the time we've been standing here talking, they've already completed the data transfer. Don't forget, those individuals don't have physical bodies in the first place. They uploaded their consciousness data to that so-called Sanctuary long ago." Killing Dagger blinked, dumbfounded. "Doesn't that mean... going after them now is pointless?" "Not necessarily pointless. While intercepting the data transfer might be unrealistic, at least we can determine where the data was sent, and..." Staring intently at the map, Fang Chang added with deep significance, "...where our enemy truly is." "Enemy..." Killing Dagger didn't understand what he meant, repeating the word blankly. Lao Bai looked at him and explained, "Fang Chang and I both agree that there might be another backer behind the Torch." Killing Dagger asked, "Another backer like...?" Seeing that his buddy still hadn't caught on, Fang Chang said plainly, "Remember update note number three back in Beta 0.6? The Alpha Centauri system and the world of Gaia." "Holy shit, you mean... that cake the devs drew?" Killing Dagger stared at him in disbelief. "Wasn't that just a meme...?" Fang Chang smiled faintly. "Then you underestimate Ah Guang." When everyone thought something was a joke, it was almost certainly not a joke. He was certain the map five light-years away had already been built, and that it had been subtly influencing the game world ever since Beta 0.6—most players just hadn't realized it. He couldn't be one hundred percent sure the Torch was backed by a "Gaia faction," but he was positive this mission was the very first link connecting the players to the new world's quest chain! He would even bet that similar opportunities had appeared before, but nobody had triggered them. That was precisely why this quest had landed right in their laps like a straight fastball. Most events in this game appeared isolated on the surface, but if you dug deep enough, you'd ultimately find they were all interconnected! He could say with complete confidence: nobody understood Ah Guang better than him! After hearing Fang Chang's breakdown, Killing Dagger found it sounded remarkably plausible, and his eyes grew brighter and brighter. "So you mean our chance to establish a link with a world five light-years away lies within this quest? Wait, fuck! If we fail, wouldn't we miss our chance to unlock the new map?" Fang Chang shook his head. "Not necessarily. If the dev team built the map, they'll definitely give players a way to get there. But many quests in this game are unique, and every player gets limited shots. If we miss this one, another player will probably trigger it next time." "No point overanalyzing that now. Let's get back to the mission itself." Lao Bai gave a soft cough, steering the conversation back on track, and looked at the map spread over the table. "...According to the Guards Corps' intel, the Torch's upper echelon is currently hiding in an underground facility known as Vault 20. The entrance is located within an abandoned pre-war industrial park. Much like Vault 182, it was reactivated after being abandoned for years, so cracking their security system shouldn't be too difficult for us." "The NPC feeding us intel goes by the name of Karen. We currently hold her biometric data—fingerprints, retinas, body measurements... ahem, anyway, she likely holds critical intelligence, including the whereabouts of the Torch's leadership, the backers behind the Torch, and research data on the Gestalt Lifeform project. Therefore, our primary objective is to secure her safety; subjugating the entire research facility and seizing control of Vault 20 comes second." "Based on the coordinates provided by the Guards Corps, the vault is roughly one hundred kilometers from our landing point. A third of that route runs through hilly terrain with terrible road conditions, so we probably won't be able to deploy much heavy armor for this op." Fang Chang nodded. "A rapid insertion via Viper transport is the better option... That area falls within the Heavenly Domain after all. It's best to hit hard and finish fast." "My thoughts exactly," Lao Bai said with a tight smile, his expression turning solemn. "In addition, the Guards Corps warned us to watch out for our allies... The facility is very close to the Legion's 31st Myriad, only about fifty kilometers away. If we make too much noise and they realize there might be treasure there, there's no telling if they'll meddle and botch things. We absolutely cannot let the Torch researchers fall into their hands." The Wilante also possessed Gestalt Lifeform technology; their octuple-growth clones were products of that very project. In fact, it wasn't just the Legion they had to watch out for—they had to be wary of the Academy too. The former operated out in the open, while the latter stayed mostly in the shadows. It was hard to say whether they already knew something. After all, while the Alliance had been the ones fighting the Torch all this time, the ones who understood the Torch best might not be the Alliance. Long before the Alliance was even born, the Academy had already noticed the brewing crisis in Haiya Province; it was them who had "nudged" the Alliance toward the Jinhe City region. "So no air support available?" Killing Dagger asked, his expression growing serious. Fang Chang replied, "Air support won't be an issue, and light artillery strikes should be fine too. But saturated barrages are out of the question—that would be practically announcing to the Legion that we're running a massive operation in the area... It's best if we can wrap this up quietly. If we must use heavy fire, we should hold off until the exfil or mop-up phase." "That's essentially it," Lao Bai said with a nod, turning back to Killing Dagger. "Furthermore, according to the informant, the forces stationed near the facility include an adjudication team from the Torch Inquisition and the Knights of Holy Light loyal to the First Temple. The former is under a company in strength, but the latter is roughly a battalion and heavily equipped with high-tech weaponry." "On top of that, our drones spotted a mutant force in an abandoned urban area near the facility, numbering well over a thousand... likely a mutant tribe that pulled back from Ten Peaks Mountain. If a key Torch facility comes under attack, they'll have every reason to rush over in support." "Therefore, I plan to split our force in two. One group will serve as a feint, carrying light gear and dropping near the abandoned ruins via Overlord transport to launch a surprise attack on the local mutant forces, drawing as much of the Torch's attention as possible. The other group will fly straight to the entrance of Vault 20 in Viper transports, coordinating with our inside contact to seize the entire facility!" "That's a solid plan!" Killing Dagger's eyes lit up as he nodded, but seeing both men staring fixedly at him, he froze. "Uh... why are you looking at me like that?" Come to think of it, why was he the only one in such an important tactical briefing? Where were the other guys? Lao Bai and Fang Chang exchanged a look. Finally, Fang Chang stepped up to Killing Dagger and placed both hands solemnly on his shoulders. "...This arduous and glorious feint mission—we've decided to entrust it to your 1st Battalion!" Killing Dagger: "..." Fuck!