Chapter 191 : Chapter 191
Chapter : 191
[Fire's Loneliness], the mage who had just used a few Fireball Spells, squatted on the ground without any regard for his image, ignoring the mud that would dirty his mage robe. He sighed and lamented, "This mage class is too hard to deal with. Why is the skill damage so low? Those NPCs make using magic look so cool. If I had known, I would have chosen the Swordsman group."
"Who told you to insist on joining the Magic Group the moment you heard there was magic?" [Bin Storm] laughed at him. "Saying your only dream since childhood was to learn magic. Now you've learned your lesson, haven't you?"
"Come on, this is magic. Dare you say you weren't tempted at the very beginning? If the Magic Group didn't have a limit on the number of people, I bet you would have signed up too." [Fire's Loneliness] hmphed, looking at him with an expression that said 'I saw through you long ago'. "Who is the one who still believes Ultraman exists to this day?"
[Bin Storm] turned his face away, the roots of his ears burning slightly. "Don't talk nonsense, what Ultraman."
[Fire's Loneliness] looked teasing. "Oh? Then during the last dorm internal affairs inspection, whose Tiga figurine was confiscated by the internal affairs officer? It's so hard to guess, isn't it? Could it be that there's still someone among us who believes in the Light? What do you say, Brother Wang?"
[Bin Storm] was annoyed. "You!"
[Wangwang Squad] laughed cheerfully, not participating in their bickering.
[Demon Prison Cruiser] yawned. "Yan-zai and A-Bin's relationship is still so good, worthy of being childhood sweethearts who grew up together and joined the army together~"
That last term made the two parties involved reveal disgusted expressions simultaneously. They glared at [Demon Prison Cruiser] with perfect tacit understanding and shouted in unison, "What childhood sweethearts!"
[Wangwang Squad] was even more amused and laughed loudly. "Exactly, Xiao Yang, you aren't being precise. 'Childhood sweethearts' describes a boy and a girl. Our Yan-zai and A-Bin are two men, so it doesn't fit to use childhood sweethearts. It should be childhood buddies."
Being glared at by the two, [Demon Prison Cruiser] rolled his eyes. Hugging a magic staff, he looked lifeless and moribund. "Oh, okay, childhood buddies."
[Fire's Loneliness] and [Bin Storm] wanted to argue further, but were interrupted by [Ying Yi]. "Alright."
As soon as the captain spoke, the atmosphere that was somewhat tense with swords drawn instantly dissipated. The five-person squad returned to their usual harmony. Although they all belonged to the military, they didn't come from the same place, and their affiliated units were different.
Three years ago, after a secret meeting was convened, a special transfer order was sent down to their respective units. After signing non-disclosure agreements, thousands of talents from different specializations were transferred away from various units and entered this current secret operations force.
The five people in this squad were selected by that special transfer order. They signed the confidentiality agreement and entered the secret operations force, forming a five-man team. They began a grinding training period that lasted three years. Until three months ago, they didn't even know what the object of their operation was.
Coincidentally, there were two pairs of acquaintances in this five-man squad.
They were Li Yan and Li Bin, who often fought playfully but came from the same village and grew up together; and the Captain Zhai Yingyi and the oldest member, Wang Cheng, known as Uncle Wang.
The only one not familiar with the other four was Yuan Haiyang, a bona fide technical specialist. He spent his days training with a pale face, looking half-dead as if he were about to pass away the next second.
After grinding together for nearly three years, just when they thought this secret force was no different from a regular unit, the mysterious veil over their mission was finally lifted.
Three months ago, the secret force held a collective meeting. The game Return was placed before them, and they were told that this was their next objective—to play the game.
"Rest for fifteen minutes, then continue deeper," [Ying Yi] looked up at the sky and issued the order.
[Fire's Loneliness] cheered, while [Demon Prison Cruiser] had already sat down on the spot, almost lying down directly. The man-high magic staff was thrown aside by him, looking as if he was about to breathe his last.
[Ying Yi] glanced over. "Don't throw your weapon around casually. Have you forgotten discipline?"
[Demon Prison Cruiser] struggled to shift his body. His fingertips hooked the edge of the staff, dragging it over bit by bit until he placed it on his legs. His face seemed to turn even paler due to the exertion of these few seconds.
The others were long used to this. [Demon Prison Cruiser] wasn't in their squad from the start but had joined halfway. His training duration was only a little over a year. Over this year or so, they had long become accustomed to [Demon Prison Cruiser] looking half-dead after training.
At first, they would make a fuss, but now they could skillfully ignore it.
In [Demon Prison Cruiser]'s words, this was his special rest mode.
[Fire's Loneliness], who used a small wand, didn't have this trouble. He casually tucked his wand into his waistband, then took out a box of [Nectar Cake] from his backpack. He opened the box, first taking one to hold in his mouth, then tossed one to [Bin Storm].
[Bin Storm] caught it with quick eyes and hands, distributing rations to the rest of the squad. Even the captain, [Ying Yi], took a piece.
[Wangwang Squad] looked at the Nectar Cake in his hand. "Did you use all your remaining copper coins to buy food?"
[Fire's Loneliness] answered indistinctly, "Yeah. The higher-ups issue basic weapons anyway, and there's a probability of equipment dropping from fighting monsters if worse comes to worst. Keeping a little money for repairing equipment is enough. Didn't the higher-ups say the money left to us is for our own use?"
"That's true," [Wangwang Squad] said. "But it would be better to use this money to buy other equipment or items. After all, the things you eat here can't be brought back. You still have to eat when you return to the real world."
This game world was very realistic, true, but ultimately they were two different worlds. Players eating their fill in the game only refilled the game character's stamina bar; it had no effect on the body in the real world. Therefore, this behavior of spending money to buy in-game delicacies was considered not cost-effective in the eyes of most people in their strategy group.
[Fire's Loneliness] waved his hand. "Brother Wang, what's the big deal? Some people in other squads even secretly buy alcohol to drink. I've never bought that!"
They were playing the game by imperial decree; the process of playing was equivalent to a mission. Drinking during a mission was a blatant violation of discipline. If caught in a real-world unit, that would warrant a major demerit. It was only because this was a game, where supervision wasn't as strict, that those guys managed to get away with it.
He was just using spare change to buy some tasty food to satisfy his appetite; he was already very obedient!
[Wangwang Squad] shook his head. He glanced at [Ying Yi], and seeing that the captain had no intention of intervening, he didn't say anything more. Most of the gold and silver coins they obtained had been turned in; only some copper coins were indeed left by the higher-ups for their personal use.
He took a bite of the Nectar Cake in his hand. The sweet, soft texture danced on his taste buds. After one bite, he couldn't bear to stop. [Wangwang Squad] paused, wondering if he could get the recipe for Nectar Cake later and replicate it in the real world. Even if there were ingredients that didn't exist in the real world, it should be easy to find substitutes, right?
He felt that his daughter would definitely like the texture of this Nectar Cake. Thinking of his daughter who hadn't been born long ago, [Wangwang Squad]'s expression involuntarily softened.
This was caught by [Bin Storm], who looked teasing. "Brother Wang, thinking of your wife and daughter again? Then work hard later. Hurry up and finish this month's task so you can apply to leave the unit and go home a bit earlier."
[Wangwang Squad], having his thoughts interrupted, wasn't annoyed either. He said cheerfully, "Probably not possible. The higher-ups sent down some more tasks. We estimate we'll have to work around the clock for another half month before we can free up a little time."
[Bin Storm] and [Fire's Loneliness], suddenly learning this bad news, instantly had their faces collapse, matching the look on [Demon Prison Cruiser]'s face.
"Real or fake? We're already soaking in this game for eight consecutive hours every day, and we have to undergo six hours of training when we return to reality. We have to live like this for another half month? Do the higher-ups really think we're made of iron?" [Bin Storm] wore a mournful face. "Even if the body is in deep sleep while in the game, this state of high mental activity can't completely be treated as sleep!"
"Exactly, exactly!" [Fire's Loneliness] chimed in. He sought confirmation from Captain [Ying Yi]. "Captain, this can't be true, right?"
[Ying Yi] pursed his lips and looked at the sky. "Hmm... maybe even more than that."
The group looked as if they had been struck by lightning.
[Demon Prison Cruiser], who hadn't spoken and was replenishing energy, turned even grayer and whiter upon hearing this bad news.
"However," [Ying Yi] said, "once the newcomers are more or less familiar with this, um, game, we can relax a little."
He was naturally referring to the people belonging to their secret operations force among the newly added seven thousand players. Because they had prepared early, and the registration link for this beta test didn't just pop up in the middle of the night, their unit had secured quite a few spots—nearly a thousand slots had been taken by the military.
Once this batch of newcomers got up to speed, their tasks would be lighter.
Hearing the captain's consolation, although everyone's expressions still weren't great, they softened a bit. At least there was some hope of rest, not an endless hell of overtime.
"By the way, Yan-zai, why do you have such a long face? Don't you like playing games?" [Wangwang Squad] couldn't help but say. "Back during integration training, you would always make time to secretly play that... Gen〇in? Shouting every day about Raiden something Mei being your wife. Now that you're actually allowed to play, why aren't you happy? Isn't this also a game?"
[Fire's Loneliness]: ...
"Gen〇in is the Shogun wife! Raiden Mei is from another game!" [Fire's Loneliness] corrected solemnly. "Although they both have purple hair and straight bangs, they have different kinds of beauty!"
[Demon Prison Cruiser] quietly roasted, "Damn otakus are gross."
[Fire's Loneliness] turned red in the face. "I told you, I'm just a humble gamer, not a dead otaku!"
"Besides, games only bring happiness when you play them for entertainment, right? When a game becomes work, it gets tiring too!"
This statement received approval from the group, especially the older [Wangwang Squad] who wasn't interested in games to begin with. He had been bewildered for a long time when he learned the upcoming mission was to play games by imperial decree.
"I'm already this old; I didn't expect to have the chance to be 'addicted' to games." [Wangwang Squad] sighed. "It's a pity I signed a confidentiality agreement, otherwise I would definitely complain to my wife about this."
"Brother Wang, you aren't that old, only forty-something," [Fire's Loneliness] disagreed.
"Haha, I'm already very old. In the entire secret operations force, there aren't many older than me, and those are basically the commanders and such." [Wangwang Squad] shook his head.
"By the way, Brother Wang, if you had known from the start that this secret operation was playing games, would you still have accepted the transfer order?"
"Hmm? If I knew back then... hard to say. But I probably would have accepted it." [Wangwang Squad] thought for a moment. "Since the higher-ups chose me, there must be special considerations. And with such a high level of confidentiality, one can imagine this mission is very important, so I would still accept it."
After speaking, the few of them looked at each other and fell into a tacit silence.
If they had doubts about this mission to play games by imperial decree at the beginning, after personally experiencing this so-called holographic game and seeing the content of the tasks issued from above, they could more or less guess some of the things the higher-ups were concealing.
It was incredible, but after eliminating all impossibilities, this was the only answer that could explain everything.
The future of Blue Star might undergo changes because of this game that had appeared out of nowhere.
And they, the so-called players, would become the pioneers.
Even they found it hard to refuse the opportunity to unveil the mystery of a world.
The five of them were quiet for a while. [Ying Yi] ate the last bite of the Nectar Cake and clapped his hands. "That's about it. Let's continue the mission. If we finish early today, we can rest a bit longer after going back."
"Stand up."
With one command, the four stood up quickly, no longer engaging in superfluous conversation.
Obeying orders and prohibitions; this was something only people from the army possessed.
The small black cat that had been squatting in the tree the whole time took everything into his eyes. Seeing that they were finally ready to continue moving forward, he lazily stretched his back, preparing to follow.
Yan Yunqing had been following these people since they encountered the Ghost-faced Earthworm. He had also heard all their banter during their rest. Although some things were spoken of vaguely in their conversation, Yan Yunqing could guess seventy to eighty percent of it by substituting in some information he already knew, so he wasn't completely lost.
After hearing it all, he also gained a certain understanding of the 'State Father's' actions.
So they had started preparing three years ago? There was even a secret operations force.
And this was all just for a game. If this were back when Yan Yunqing was still on Blue Star, he definitely wouldn't have believed such rumors.
Yan Yunqing even picked up a hidden meaning from their dialogue: their secret operations force was collecting items from the world of Return in large quantities—items that could be bought via trade, dropped from monsters, dungeons, and so on.
At first glance, this seemed useless. After all, large player guilds in games did this too, consolidating game resources in the early stages to concentrate on upgrading their top combat power.
But it was different when it was official government personnel.
They were collecting these items... presumably for research.
But what use was researching items in a game? Unless... the official people believed that reality could replicate these items?
Yan Yunqing was a little frightened by his own guess. He glanced at the five-person squad that had already walked some distance away, then leaped into the air to follow their footsteps.