Players Invade Cyberpunk

That means assessing terrain, digging trenches, and preparing for defensive battles.

With conflicts breaking out in both Night City and Stone Ridge Mountain, Lin Miao did not believe that Huang Ban and the Chaotic Blade Association would ignore such a strategic place as Big Sur.

Besides players and workers, there was another group of troops stationed in Big Sur.

A 600-person infantry battalion under a military technology company.

Anderson stood every day on a hilltop, overlooking the players' every move with binoculars, ready to eliminate them if they dared to cross the line.

Fortunately, these people were quite well-behaved, staying put in Big Sur without any intention to move north towards Terimon.

As for the players digging trenches and preparing for war, this did not surprise Anderson.

After all, he was at least a Major in military technology, with sources of information not accessible to the people below. Even if it was Huang Ban and the Chaotic Blade Association, their movements could not easily evade military technology.

"Is there any activity from the Chaotic Blade Association in Golden City?"

"Nothing yet."

said the adjutant beside him

"The Douglass family is involved this time, with their leader Olivia. They are currently stationed in Golden City. Judging by their activities over the current period, they seem to be training members to master new equipment."

"Quite smart."

Anderson nodded in tacit approval, lowering his binoculars and wiping his coat

"It's likely that the failure at Stone Ridge Mountain rattled them, making them fear that there might be a powerful hacker hiding here, causing them to lose the cyber war and disabling the smart weapons by invading servers."

The adjutant was skeptical

"They have six thousand people, a whole brigade, while we have only a few hundred here, at most a hundred combat personnel. They could easily overwhelm us, couldn't they?"

In his eyes, even if the Horizon Corporation had the support of some nomadic tribe, they had lost so many combat personnel in a short period, so it must have been painful. Moreover, only one or two hundred people had arrived from Night City to Big Sur over these past few days.

The absolute numerical disadvantage aside, even without smart weapons, the Chaotic Blade Association's equipment certainly wasn't worse than Horizon Corporation's, with an advantage in heavy firepower, at least one artillery company with eight 155 howitzers, and further distributed armored vehicles and even tanks, making it easy to handle a deployment point of less than five hundred people, not to mention a ten-to-one advantage?

Not only the Horizon Corporation but even facing their battalion, the outcome was uncertain.

"Don't underestimate these people and let your guard down."

Anderson reminded

"Huang Ban suffered a substantial loss at their hands."

"When do you think the Chaotic Blade Association will launch an attack?"

"At the latest...."

The adjutant thought for a few seconds

"Definitely before the end of this year. Ideally, they should take down Horizon Corporation before the water plant is completed, as it must contain purification technology uncovered from the old net, allowing Huang Ban to effortlessly take over the whole plant and related technology."

Even if Horizon Corporation eventually won against the Chaotic Blade Association, it would surely be a Pyrrhic victory, providing military technology with ample opportunity to intervene.

And the same goes for Huang Ban.

Although Huang Ban cannot stir up too much trouble in North America, a small elite force could take advantage of the situation with a quick raid, as long as they act swiftly to cover their tracks.

Horizon Corporation was aware that the Chaotic Blade Association was planning to attack, and the Chaotic Blade Association knew Horizon Corporation knew they were coming, so Anderson believed it would inevitably be a fierce and bloody battle. All they needed to do was wait it out and clean up the aftermath.

It's just that, possibly, the world has been controlled by corporations for so long that people had become accustomed to balancing pros and cons, making decisions about profit and loss to the point that they'd almost forgotten

warfare isn't something you start or stop just because you say so.

————

Following the engagement with Huang Ban in the Watson District, the lack of a unified command structure among players, with their tendency to act independently, had become evident, leading to chaos during the conflict with the Chaotic Blade Association on the night in Stone Ridge Mountain.

Although they eventually won, it was clear that there had been many unnecessary losses.

While regular gangs and bandits might not care, players accustomed to gaming would fastidiously time everything, from combos to shield counters to launch sequences.

Otherwise, how could they achieve swift clearances and Ace Combat achievements?

After a collective self-examination on the forum, they quickly determined that there was a need to establish a command center to coordinate all players on the battlefield.

Going so far as to say, "Second Company, move your machine-gun positions forward by five meters."

This was no joke.

A three-dimensional real-time dynamic map combined with interference-free real-time communication could indeed achieve this.

Temporarily, this command center was to be staffed by veteran players and bystanders from the forums as advisors. As for the effectiveness, that would have to be tested.

"We can't sit idly by; we must take the initiative to attack."

Upon hearing Wildman's suggestion to take the initiative, the leader quickly objected

"Take the initiative? But I don't even know where the Chaotic Blade Association is, so where are we going to attack?"

Before them lay a paper map, as the players' organization was still under construction, and they couldn't afford anything better, so they had to make do with this paper map.

At that moment, a master strategist and another person opened the door and entered

"No, I've already found their location."

Seeing the return of the two, the few people in the shack were surprised

"Damn, you even remembered to come back?"

"How long have you been gone? More than ten days, right?"

At this moment, the two strategists could no longer be described as disheveled; they were covered in dirt, their clothes caked with dried mud and dust, looking no different from homeless people.

"It's been 13 days."

The strategist corrected

He and his companion had taken provisions and went out in an off-road vehicle for a full thirteen days without returning, almost dying outside.

But it was all worth it.

Even though it was conducting field surveys on American soil, even if the terrain wasn't entirely accurate, it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, and it would have been worth dying out there!