As ti passed, the onslaught of the fungal mutants beca more and more ferocious, and eventually, so "new species" appeared that hadn’t been seen on the wildernesses beneath the fortresses before.
Those monsters seed endless, pouring out from the gray-green fog without pause, and their combat power grew stronger and stronger.
However—
The players of the Alliance were not frightened by this developnt; instead, they beca even more excited.
Since the three-day OB was inevitable, they might as well die with a bang!
Embracing this thought, the players’ morale seed endless as well, showing no fear or hesitation regardless of the casualties they faced.
Leading his followers, the Outlaw Maniac moved from position to position while fighting, stubbornly holding out against the relentless wave of fungal mutants with abundant ammunition.
It was well-known that the domain of heaven is governed by the Mind Interference Device, harboring a research facility hidden sowhere within, and within that facility lay the Apostles of the Torch.
Whether to conceal themselves or to preserve their strengths, those lurking in the shadows could not possibly allow this attrition to continue unchecked.
As the bodies piled higher in the wilderness, whether unable to bear the continuous losses or wishing to give the Alliance a taste of their own dicine, so unusual "Evolutionary bodies" started to erge from the mist.
With a deafening roar, an emplacent of machine guns in the front row suddenly "flew" up towards heaven.
"Ah—!"
"Crack—"
Seeing two players crash to the ground with a scream, a look of surprise appeared on the face of the Outlaw Maniac.
Just then, through the dense fog, the thudding footsteps beca audible, and a giant horn ca into view.
The creature wasn’t like any organism found on Earth but resembled a prehistoric Triceratops.
Its rotting flesh was stitched together with dark green fungal threads, and the chitin-like piled-up layers of carapace were as hard as armor. Its horn was as long as a building, and its body towered as high as a three-story building.
It was like a moving mountain!
It was hard to imagine how this thing had surfaced from underground, or whether it had been hiding in so place unseen by drones.
But these details no longer mattered; the key was that this colossal "strategic-level biological weapon" was probably beyond what infantry weapons could cope with... even a tank might struggle.
The Outlaw Maniac couldn’t help but think that if this behemoth charged at full force, it could possibly smash a corner off the massive concrete walls of Giant Stone City...
"Motherf—... is this like fighting a boss?" a player standing beside him swallowed hard.
"So the question is... what do we call this thing?"
"According to usual practice, whoever discovers it nas it, if no one nas it then the System will automatically assign one..."
"How about ’Siege Beast’?"
Even at this critical juncture, these newbies still had the spare ti to na the monster.
And the only "veteran player" present had almost accepted his fate.
"This ti we’re screwed..." the Outlaw Maniac chuckled bitterly, stuffing an incendiary round into his shotgun and signaling his brothers to take out their RPG rocket launchers and unload them on the creature’s head.
However, practice proved it was all in vain.
The flas from the shotgun could only leave a "spot" on its keratin armor; though the armor-piercing bullets from the RPG could penetrate its defenses, the insufficient tal jets were far from enough to kill it.
In the end, it wasn’t by any ans a typical organism, it was even more unnatural than those Mutants that could regenerate severed heads—it lacked sothing like a central nervous system.
Controlling its movents was Nago mycelium, which in turn were governed by the Mind Interference Device.
The consciousness from "heaven" controlled all puppets within its domain—this was the essence of the "Heavenly domain" as depicted by the Torch.
And it was its most powerful and terrifying aspect!
Perhaps enraged by the hot flas, the "Siege Beast" let out a muffled cry and moved its heavy limbs towards the players’ position, charging.
Its twisted horns carved an alarming trench in the black earth, cleaving the player’s position in two.
Two more machine gun emplacents were forced to shut down, the dense web of fire finally showed a crack, allowing the endless "Walking Corpses" and "Corpse Dogs" to find a breach. They stord through this gap and invaded the players’ last line of defense.
Pinned to the ground by a horde of Walking Corpses, having fired his last bullet, "High-end Ingredient" used his remaining strength to shout to the blood-covered Outlaw Maniac.
"Captain—! See you in three days...!"
Wiping the blood from his blurry left eye, the Outlaw Maniac gave him a grin.
"Yeah, see you in three days!"
Finishing his words, he raised the shotgun and fired an incendiary round, the blindingly bright phosphorus engulfing the newbie and the Walking Corpses sprawled on him.
Before long, surrounded by Walking Corpses, he detonated the Dynamite strapped to his body, vanishing in a burst of bloody rain amidst the explosion’s dust...
At the sa ti, the coordinates for the artillery strike were sent to Lai Mountain, tens of kiloters away.
Until the last player fell, the battle had lasted for a whole hour.
And the number of fungal mutants eliminated was a staggering three thousand!
That equated to an average of over a hundred kills per player.
For the novices who had just completed the Pass the Torch mission and had officially entered the Wasteland with their vm, designated "Beta0.7," this achievent was already quite exceptional.
Facing the badly damaged ruins, the aimless fungal mutants began to turn their attention to the corpses at their feet.
Their life processes required nutrients, and not a speck of organic matter could be wasted, whether it belonged to enemies or their own kind.
The dark green liquid flowing beneath the land started to accumulate around this area, extending thin threads from the thick main trunk that entwined with each of those bodies.
They were like blood vessels, drawing every bit of usable nutrients from the dead.
Though the corpses bore so foul-slling "dirty stuff," all it took was to first deactivate and then digest that part.
Not just the corpses.
The walking corpses, corpse dogs, and even the siege beasts—all sorts of fungal creatures—prostrated on the ground, allowing the dark green vines to crawl over their bodies.
However, the rciful heaven did not devour its children outright but, after establishing a connection with them, slowly pulled them under the surface of the earth...
Material transformation cos with losses, and the more complex the synthetic pathway, the greater the loss.
If they reverted to the most primitive thods of recycling fungal mutants after every synthesis, it wouldn’t take long for heaven’s nutrients to be exhausted, expanding to the limit like sli molds before collapsing.
Therefore, they chose another "smarter" way to recycle—
Bury the temporarily unused "organs" in the ground.
But just as they were about to do so, a shrill whistle suddenly ca from the sky.
That sound was like the whisper of the Grim Reaper, descending upon their heads in an instant.
The siege beast had just lifted its cumberso head, opened its sleepy eyes, when a blinding white light took away its vision.
In its dazed consciousness, it seed to see a mushroom cloud rising and the heat wave sweeping across the land.
The deafening roar was much louder than its own vocal cords, even collapsing the ground under its feet.
Before it could react, the scorching shockwave tore its flesh...
...
In the distance, a thin trail of white smoke trailed from the main cannon of the Loyalty Airship up into the clouds.
The 400mm main cannon fired a rocket-assisted projectile, delivering a cloud burst bomb warhead to the targeted battlefield.
This was the last step of the operation, clearing the battlefield after the battle had ended.
And the initiation of this step in the operation plan also ant that there were no surviving allies left in that area...
"Impact point confird."
"Hit effective."
Atop the mountain of Lai Mountain.
The Weilante soldier who had been guiding the artillery fire to the target for those behind reported the bombing results to the airship. After disconnecting the communication, they all fell into silence.
Minutes earlier, as planned, they had received the artillery coordinates from friendly forces.
While it was unclear what the intentions of the United Army Headquarters were, they were well aware of what that ssage with coordinates implied.
Even they, who had war written into their genes and veins, could not execute those suicidal missions, nor would their commanders ever issue such orders.
Even for opponents, they couldn’t help but feel a hint of respect in their hearts and silently saluted them with a soldier’s courtesy.
These guys... are real tough!
And at that mont, staring at the burning battlefield, the Human Emperor had an astonished look on his face.
Monts later, his expression returned to calmness, and he pondered aloud to himself,
"... So you’re engaging in a war of attrition?"
Even the well-preserved corpses had a less than 100% nutrient recovery efficiency, reaching 50% at most was already quite high.
Especially those highly diversified "evolutionary bodies," decomposing their corpses itself consud a vast amount of energy, with the final nutrient balance being less than 10%.
By comparison, the smaller sporadic entities—referred to as "fungal mutants" by the soldiers of the allied forces—were relatively easy to recycle.
But even for those creatures, the efficiency of conversion was only about 30-40%.
Recycling three corpses could perhaps synthesize another one.
If the allied forces adopted a strategy of attrition, it indeed made sense.
After all, he couldn’t ignore those forces and let those creatures roam around his territory, searching for the mind interference devices buried underground, even the research facilities.
The latter were necessary components to complete their final plan, while the forr was key to their dominion over this heavenly domain.
It was a huge and complex system, which they had taken over a decade to perfect into its current astonishing form.
"Interesting thought..."
Seeing right through the Manager’s intentions, the Human Emperor let out a soft tsk-tsk and the corners of his mouth couldn’t help but rise in a aningful smile.
"I admit your abilities are strong, but what if I had billions of chess pieces? How would you deal with that?"
Three thousand fungal variants were but a speck of dandruff on the giant’s head compared to the districts under his rule, yet they had to sacrifice 40 elite mbers just to remove this piece of dandruff.
Even with the loss of an evolutionary body, such a loss was rely a drop in the ocean for him.
To fight against Heaven disaster with the flesh and blood of mortals, that guy really thought of an absurd idea.
Then let it be as they wish, and let’s see who is truly the endless tide!
...
On the "Wasteland OL" official website, the forum was bustling with activity.
Many players had just experienced their first dog-led death in the ga, now sharing their post-mortem reflections.
I co to form the head: "So thrilling! The Death Legion rocks!"
The Retreating Dwarf: "Indeed, thrilling enough, but how am I supposed to survive these few days? TaT"
Midnight Sudden Death: "Didn’t feel any pain at all, there’s still a difference compared to real life, seems they dulled down so of the reality to cater to most people’s tastes—just average I guess... However, watching my own intestines being pulled out was indeed a new experience."
Quit smoking: "Holy shit, you’ve experienced that in real life??"
Elena: "This batch of newcors is incredible, suggest we investigate. (funny)"
Tail: "Ha people, Si Si looks too much. (⊙x⊙;)"
Si Si: "...?"
Amidst the clamor of players, with the last wave of players disconnecting, a new announcent was imdiately updated on the forum.
[North Line·Seaside Province Information Update!
Fungal Variants: A collective term for stitched-together organisms of Nago mycelium, distinct from the "addicts" corrupted and manipulated by Nago. Generally lack distinct biological features, have no nerve center, no fatal weak points, death judged when tissue damage reaches 10%~50%, more resilient (HP) than Mucosal Entities, but comparatively weaker in recovery abilities. Resistant to piercing damage, weaker resistance to explosions and fla damage.
Walking Corpses: The most common type of fungal variant, with an appearance close to humans, mainly attack by tearing and biting, first seen in the Wei Mansion Wasteland, suspected to have been developed at Pine Farm, individually weak in combat but quite dangerous when in groups. Danger coefficient 1.
Corpse Dog: The second most common type of fungal variant, resembles humanity’s best friend, also mainly attack by tearing and biting but with a smaller fra and faster speed. Danger coefficient 1.
Crawler: Similar in form to those spawned from the "Crawler" nest in Qingquan City, sowhat smaller in size with burnt-skin appearance, attack thods similar to Walking Corpses but with over three tis the speed and strength, danger coefficient 2.
Spewer: Significant visual differences compared to the "Spewer" spawned from the nest in Qingquan City, resembling a giant worm that can hide in narrow terrain, mainly attacks by spitting highly corrosive organic acids and organic toxins, danger coefficient 1~3.
...
Incubator: The nesting ground for fungal variants, "barracks" for the Torch Church, incubation organs for Heaven. When the Apostle (or Pioneer) in the region deems the danger coefficient 1~3 fungal variants insufficient for threat removal, they deploy more efficient Incubators on the surface, using locally stored nutrients to synthesize more advanced fungal variants with danger coefficient greater than 3, or even incubate "Evolutionary Bodies."
...
Siege Beast: One type of evolutionary body among the fungal variants, large as mountains, shaking the Earth when running, with a horn-like armor impenetrably hard, can easily flip tanks and armored vehicles, typically appears on land with high corruption, will burrow into the soil to hibernate after disengaging from combat.
...
"Land Corrosion Degree" Concept: Related to the amount of Nago mycelium in the local soil, can be asured using test strips developed by the Alliance Biological Research Institute. Generally, the deeper into the Torch Church districts, the higher the degree of corrosion, the faster the rate of monster spawning, and the higher the upper limit of danger coefficient.
]
[Recomnded Gaplay:
1. Build Purification Stations:
Players can form Armies or small groups to venture into corrupted regions and establish "Purification Bases" or "Purification Stations," earning "Purification Scores" by defeating enemies or completing tasks. Points can be exchanged for battlefield support, including supply drops, artillery bombardnt, close-range air strikes, and sub-entity reinforcents until the Purification Station is breached or the local corruption effect is entirely removed, which is considered clearing the zone. Remaining points will be automatically converted and accumulated under ’Final Support Ti.’
Task rewards will be calculated based on ’Support Ti’ and ’Land Corrosion Degree’ at the signal’s location. If you thoroughly remove corruption in an area with sub-entity reinforcents, extra reward bonuses can be obtained!
2. Search and Destroy Torch Church Control Facilities:
The Torch Church has corrupted a group of researchers desperate about reality to conduct secret experints. Clearing the corruption in Haiye Province treats the symptom, but destroying the Torch Church-controlled research facilities strikes at the root!
These facilities are mainly located in shelters that have been opened (or abandoned) or other underground research facilities. As most of these refuge facilities were designed to resist strategic war weapon strikes, they’re hard to directly destroy from the outside.
The United Army Headquarters has authorized necessary invasions of refuge facilities controlled by the Torch. If the controlling party refuses to surrender, all ans may be used to paralyze the facilities.
Apart from research facilities, so suspected to contain Black Boxes from the Prosperity Epoch. If discovered, residents of Shelter No. 404 are obligated to ensure their integrity and recover them as tools for rebuilding civilization.
(Note: This operation requires that battle recording be maintained throughout, and task rewards will be judged on the overall behavior of players.)
]
In the sa instant the announcent was posted, the newbies who were sharing their death experiences were imdiately drawn to this sensational update.
Quit smoking: "Holy crap! Did they just launch an Endless Mode?"
Edge Shoveling: "Infinite spawning!!"
Construction Youth and Brick: "Brothers!! Band together!"
Debt Giant Eye: "Aoaoao!"
Spring Water Commander: "It’s not exactly Endless Mode. Once the corrosion level inside the land is cleared to zero, as long as we maintain the occupation with Strain B, the area is considered restored to normal and no new monsters would spawn... I guess?"
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "So if we just keep not using points to exchange for Falling Feather’s son and only use them to exchange for ammunition and airstrike support, we can keep farming points indefinitely, right? (amused)"
Falling Feather: "??? Are you even polite?"
Spring Water Commander: "Well, theoretically yes, but this loophole in the rules seems too obvious. I’m more inclined to think of it as a ’tacitly allowed move.’"
Quit Smoking: "What do you an? (confused)"
Spring Water Commander: "First of all, apart from supplies exchanged with points, players have to pay for the ammunition they use during missions out of their own pocket. However, mission rewards aren’t calculated by the number of monsters killed but by a combination of ’support ti’ and ’corrosion level.’ According to the Death Legion’s test results, the difficulty of the instance keeps increasing."
"Suppose the yield is y and ti is x, the planners just need to set up an S-shaped non-linear function for the player’s profit calculation formula and set a ti threshold t. When the ti x is less than the threshold t, ti carries the main weight in the calculation; when the ti x exceeds the threshold t, the cumulative effect of ti on profit y becos smaller and smaller, turning corrosion level into the main weight for calculating profit. This way, the continued profit from holding out becos negligible."
Edge Shoveling: "Dragging out an instance without ending it only squanders ammunition and has no other benefits. To get higher profits, we need to try to end the instance near that ’threshold’ to exchange for the highest possible returns, then consciously move deeper into the map, challenging more difficult instances... I see."
Spring Water Commander: "This is just the most basic value design, really. The details can be set with multiple ti thresholds, or even link the ti thresholds to difficulty — which is the corrosion level parater. In fact, seen from the ga’s perspective, this move is very reasonable. Dragging on allows players to consu the nutritional substances needed for the Torch Church to spawn soldiers, and clearing instances helps to expand the Allied forces’ control area. Whatever the players choose, it’s profitable for the Allied forces."
Midnight Chicken Killing: "This is too complicated! If it were up to on the North Line I’d probably pick option 2. (bitter smile)"
Spring Water Commander: "What’s so complicated about it? If you can’t farm any further, just call over Xiaoyu’s subsidiary entity to clear the instance, and that’s that. The second gaplay thod is actually more troubleso. You have to investigate local intelligence while searching for traces of the Torch Church... The key point is that you can’t expect any living people to trigger a dialogue with you there, so carpet-style searches might only be feasible after clearing the area’s corruption."
WC Really Has Mosquitoes: "But if you think about it from another angle, it would be amazing to pick up a Black Box! (mischievous)"
Night Ten: "@Fang Chang, can you handle this or do we need Ah Guang to update it himself? (amused)"
Fang Chang: "I’m on the South Line so no rushing . I’ll tag that guy for you who’s on the North Line. @Canyon Escapee Mole."
Canyon Escapee Mole: "Bla-shifting, huh? I’m not the planner’s leg—pfft, I an I’m not the planner’s lackey!"
Night Ten: "Ah Guang: Now that it’s been posted, say goodbye to your account. (amused)"
Canyon Escapee Mole: "Brother Guang, I’m sorry! You’re my actual brother!! (panicked)"
Makabazi: "Hahaha! Chicken! (amused)"
...
On the bridge of the Iron Heart.
Chu Guang, standing in front of a floor-to-ceiling window, was browsing the forum posts on a holographic screen, a faint smile on his face.
As the planner and a "hidden player" of "Wasteland OL," he had always been very clear about his understanding of the role of the "Manager."
His job was not to study how to tackle a particular monster or instance. That’s what the "big players" inside the server should be doing.
Using the available resources to establish a set of rules with a reward and punishnt chanism, encouraging those big players to exert their strength in the "right direction," was what he needed to do.
As long as the rules were well established, players would naturally weigh the pros and cons, carefully select the locations for large purification bases or small purification stations, and consider how to use limited ammunition and Xiaoyu entities to more efficiently eliminate regional corruption.
No one knew their limits better than those on the front lines.
And whether it was a failed attempt or a successful experience, it would be summarized into strategies on the forum by them.
When distributing the Ga Helts initially, Chu Guang considered forum activity as one of the reference weights, precisely to bring as many "willing to share and cooperate" players as possible into the Ga.
Of course, not everyone needed to be like this; just having a majority of such players overall was enough.
As for the specific in-ga behavior of a player or several players, that was their own business, and as long as it wasn’t a common occurrence, it didn’t fall within his scope of concern; micromanaging could lead to negligence of other areas, whereas allowing them freedom to operate could lead to unexpected gains.
Just like now.
Even without his hinting, his little players were doing very well, even having taken the "value design strategy" into consideration for him, sothing he hadn’t yet thought of.
Later, when setting task rewards, he would let Xiao Qi use the opinions of Spring Water elder brother as reference, reflecting this aspect in the task reward settlent phase.
Now, the Alliance Biological Research Institute had completed the analysis of soil samples, and the Death Legion had completed the "stress test" of Heaven; next month’s "work schedule" was also arranged.
Judging from the feedback on the posts on the forum, players were quite enthusiastic about the new activities.
Especially the newbies who joined the ga in Beta 0.7, several were already eager to organize caravans on the forum, pondering where to set up the purification stations.
In fact, the outline of the Allied forces’ combat plan for the Haiye Province area was basically what was written in the announcents.
That is, on the one hand, to clear the corruption in Haiye Province, and on the other hand, to search for the facilities of the Torch Church within the purification zones.
He had simply woven it into the language of the Ga and then assigned it to the players.
Not just the Alliance, but soon the Army, Corporations, Academies, and other Survivor Forces would also develop their own battle plans, delineating their respective combat zones.
Soon, purification stations and bases would spring up across Haiye Province, and hopefully, the guy who fancies himself the "Human Emperor" wouldn’t be too surprised by what’s about to happen.
"I admit Your Excellency has many pieces at hand, but what if my players make a move?"
Chu Guang smiled faintly, his forefinger gently swiping across the holographic screen, gathering the azure light on his fingertip.
It was only the beginning of August now.
The Allied forces had crossed Ten Peaks Mountain and entered Haiye Province earlier than planned, and what was once a thorny issue for all parties had now successfully torn open a breakthrough.
Use technology to confront power, use tide to confront tide.
This war might end sooner than he expected...
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