At 7:55 a.m. the next morning.
The players and official gathering teams, who had been busy all night, had just returned to the safe zone, while the hundred-person force that truly intended to set out had already assembled in advance on the open ground in front of the service hall.
He Wuning and Yi Luo were huddled inside the milk tea car, and the commander—radiating golden light all over—was squatting there with them as well, his face full of worry.
Ji Ou lowered his head to look at the golden glow on his body, then glanced gloomily at the roof of the milk tea car. “Don’t you think the commander glowing this brightly is basically asking to be focus-fired? Am I going to get surrounded and chased the moment I go in?”
“Very likely,” He Wuning replied flatly, with absolute certainty.
“You could at least try to comfort me…” Ji Ou covered his face. “Can’t you say something nice for once?”
Yi Luo patted him on the shoulder and spoke with fake sincerity. “No way. You’re so lucky—maybe the enemies will all just happen to be blind?”
Ji Ou let out a deep sigh. “Even kids wouldn’t believe a lie like that.”
“Tsk.” Yi Luo shook his head. “So hard to please.”
He Wuning nodded in wholehearted agreement.
Q-chan landed on He Wuning’s shoulder and announced the time: “It’s coming!”
He Wuning lifted his gaze. The atmosphere outside the milk tea car suddenly grew solemn, and the Voice of the World rang out right on time: “Dungeon Siege Battle officially begins. The portals are in position. All players, please prepare.”
A portal appeared out of thin air right in front of the milk tea car.
Even though the main force was gathered at the entrance of the service hall, the portal had been deliberately opened right before He Wuning’s eyes. It was hard to say whether this was the Voice of the World blatantly playing favorites.
The Supreme Commander stood on the steps of the service hall, his gaze sweeping across every face. “Although I know all of you will definitely return alive, I still hope you’ll pay attention to your safety.”
“This is the first time we’ve gained the right to strike back in this game. Perhaps this is the real way to bring it to an end.”
“This is not only the first step of our counterattack, but also the hope of ending this game.”
“To allow the players trapped in the game zones to return to Blue Star once more, and to keep the innocent people behind us from being dragged into this vile game—everyone, defeat those monsters!”
“Move out!”
Yi Luo had already taken the driver’s seat, with He Wuning in the passenger seat. The two of them glanced back at Ji Ou, who looked dispirited but was still obediently seated with his seatbelt fastened.
The door opened and several people got into the vehicle. Tang Yu smiled and said, “This time, I’ll be serving as the commander’s bodyguard. How about it—don’t you feel much safer, Captain?”
Ji Ou forced a bitter smile. “As long as you’re not planning to deliberately scare me with something terrifying, it’s… pretty good.”
“Don’t worry.” Tang Yu’s smile was dazzling. “Before we came, the Supreme Commander specifically instructed me that for the battlefield commander’s mental well-being, I should choose interesting topics to talk about today. I hear the enemy side is a slaughterhouse—let me teach you how to pick good-quality beef! And which cuts are best for which kinds of cooking, some handy kitchen knowledge like that!”
Ji Ou’s mouth twitched. “Isn’t that kind of topic a little too… relaxed?”
Tang Yu sighed. “Honestly, Commander, don’t look so down.”
“Oh, right—let me introduce you. This is our strategist, from the tech department.” She walked over and patted Ji Ou on the shoulder. “When the time comes, you can keep crying and trembling all you want. As long as you lay your cards on the table, this strategist will guide you hand-in-hand on how to play them.”
Ji Ou: “…You’re wearing a face that’s supposed to comfort me, but you’re saying some really outrageous things without the slightest burden.”
Tang Yu: “Haha.”
The tall young man standing nearby let out a sigh. He was still wearing a white lab coat from the tech department, his expression extremely impatient. “Yeah, I’m the unlucky guy who got voted out of the tech department and sent here. Name’s Rong Jiu. Just because I usually work out and my awakened ability lets me adapt to combat a bit, they shoved this kind of hard labor onto me. Tsk.”
“Mm…” Tang Yu smiled, her eyes curving slightly. “But since it was decided by vote, perhaps you should reflect a little on your usual relationship with your colleagues?”
“Urgh!” Rong Jiu clutched his chest, as if he’d taken some damage.
“Cheer up, Commander.” Yi Luo chuckled. “Take a look at that fierce old man outside and try learning a bit of that Supreme Commander style?”
“I can’t learn that kind of thing at all!” Ji Ou grabbed his head. “Don’t force the impossible on me! Managing to stay calm is already impressive enough! Please spare me!”
“Then just sit there.” He Wuning propped his chin up and looked out the window. “They’re just teasing you.”
“The more you react like you’re scared, the more entertained they get.”
“Hehe.” Tang Yu laughed softly.
Ji Ou was on the verge of tears. “That’s too much!”
“All right, just like he said.” Rong Jiu scratched his head and sat down beside him. “Mascot Commander, you just need to sit tight here and lay out the cards in your hand.”
“Whether you scream or cry doesn’t matter—we’ll win anyway.”
He looked at the cards spread out in front of Ji Ou, shrugged, and curled his lips into a smile. “With a hand this good, it wouldn’t be easy to lose even if you tried.”
“Exactly—relax.” Tang Yu took out the milk tea allocated to each of them from her bag. “Why not have some milk tea? Leave the rest to this annoying strategist.”
Rong Jiu: “…”
He Wuning withdrew his gaze with little interest. “If you’re going to start fighting, remember not to smash anything inside the vehicle.”
“Oh—and don’t smash Ji Ou either. If the commander gets taken out, our offensive ends right there.”
This was the conclusion he had reached after, at Li Liangzi’s request, questioning the Voice of the World in detail: the conditions for the attacking side’s failure were either total annihilation, or the death of the commander.
And the condition for fully clearing a dungeon training camp was to destroy every single camp.
Ji Ou let out a sigh. “Don’t talk about me like I’m some piece of furniture inside your vehicle!”
Yi Luo laughed lightly. “We’re setting off, then—Mascot Commander, Annoying Strategist, Sharp-tongued Bodyguard…”
Tang Yu chuckled softly and didn’t deny it.
Yi Luo turned to look at He Wuning and broke into a brilliant smile. He Wuning suddenly had a bad premonition, but before he could stop him, Yi Luo rattled on cheerfully: “And also little He Ningning, the well-behaved, obedient child who never runs around.”
Before He Wuning could stand up and kick him, Yi Luo slammed down on the accelerator. The milk tea car shot forward like a gust of wind, plunging into the portal and entering first the so-called “Dungeon Training Camp.”
The Slaughterhouse Dungeon Training Camp.
At the entrance, it looked no different from an ordinary slaughterhouse dungeon. The only difference was that in a real dungeon slaughterhouse, the entrance would have a handful of minotaur cooks out gathering firewood—whereas here, there were vast swarms of minotaur cooks, stretching as far as the eye could see.
Aside from their numbers far exceeding those of a normal dungeon, behind the army of minotaur cooks stood a tent. At regular intervals, another group of minotaur cooks would emerge from it, continuously generating more troops.
The milk tea car only rammed through a few of the minotaur cooks blocking the way, then—rather than charging recklessly as it usually did—came to a steady stop.
Yi Luo lifted his long staff, while He Wuning hoisted the Tang Broadsword onto his shoulder. The two of them glanced back at the same time.
“We’re heading out.”
“Don’t worry.” Tang Yu smiled softly. “From the start, I never expected you two to obediently stay here and protect the commander. You’re absolutely the type to charge in first.”
The two of them nodded righteously—one on the left, one on the right—and then rushed straight out.
The long staff swept down a swath of minotaur cooks, while the young man wielding the Tang Broadsword stepped on their heads as he surged forward. Their goal was clear, with only one destination—the camp ahead.
Only by destroying that camp could they continue onward.
“Hey! If you’re leaving, at least close the door!”
Ji Ou’s anguished shout came from behind.
Tang Yu took two steps forward and shut the door. Q-chan helped close the other side, then patted their small chest and stood tall. “Don’t worry! Even if they’re not here, as long as I, Q-chan, am around, this place is totally safe!”
“If danger shows up, I’ll go in blazing—leave it to me!”
Ji Ou let out a long sigh. “I can’t believe I actually feel reassured looking at a system like this…”
Strategist Rong Jiu looked at the virtual battlefield materializing before the commander’s eyes and raised an eyebrow slightly. “Looks like it’s officially begun.”
On the semi-transparent, floating virtual battlefield, red dots representing the enemy were continuously spawning from the camp, while blue dots representing their side clustered around the milk tea car, escorting and protecting the commander as they advanced in orderly fashion.
Of course, there were two blue dots that completely ignored commands and had already charged deep into the mass of red dots. Just looking at the sea of red that seemed ready to swallow them made Ji Ou feel like his heart was about to stop.
He swallowed. “Should we help them?”
“Not yet.” Rong Jiu kept his hands in his pockets, gazing into the distance through the window. “Thanks to the enthusiastic players, we’ve been stacked with quite a few buffs. Let’s first see whether these monsters have been strengthened as well.”
“Maybe we won’t even need to use these cards—they might be able to carve through the first stage on their own.”
“And besides… we also need them to go a bit deeper.”
Ji Ou followed his gaze forward.
When He Wuning and Yi Luo fought, they showed no restraint at all. Though they had charged out from opposite sides of the vehicle, at some point, they had already converged in the middle of the monster horde.
Like the tip of a blade, they were stabbing straight toward the monsters’ heart—the camp that endlessly produced them.
“Just a little closer, and we can make our move.”
Rong Jiu was perfectly calm.
These cards also had a usage range: they could be activated in any area that contained a blue dot.
So as long as He Wuning and Yi Luo reached the front of the camp, and Rong Jiu already had a card in hand, they could act.
Ji Ou swallowed again. “Is it really necessary to use this right at the start?”
“Open with a big move.” Rong Jiu curled his lips. “That’s basic courtesy to the enemy.”
“I’d call it intimidation.” Tang Yu added with a smiling squint. “Like telling them to give up useless resistance.”
Rong Jiu shrugged. “If the other side were as sensible as you, I could hurry back and continue my own work.”
----------
No comments:
Post a Comment