This Game Is Too Realistic

In the communication channel, a busy tone accompanied by the sound of static echoed.

Chu Guang, pressing his index finger against his forehead, sat in the administrator's office of Shelter 79, wearily hung up the video call from Dawn City.

It had been three days since he gained authority over Shelter 79.

To set up respawn points and a temporary base at Shelter 79, Chu Guang had stayed on the front lines organizing work for the past few days. He didn't even return to the shelter on Neeko.

Just 10 minutes ago, his players had finally set up a temporary communication base in Lucky Valley Municipality.

At last, Chu Guang had made contact with Dawn City and learned from Luca about Kariman's situation and the Army's invasion of the Sunset Province.

He, of course, understood the principle of a shared fate.

Once the Army took over the Sunset Province, the southern corridor of the River Valley Province would become the front line of the battle against the Great Rift.

Once that happened, from Dawn City to Daybreak City... Even the entire south of the River Valley Province would become a battlefield.

All the wealth created by the players and the residents of the New Alliance over the past year would vanish instantly!

If not for the Heart of Steel arriving at their doorstep, thousands of New Alliance players would have already become mercenaries and rushed to the front lines to fight the Army.

Just as Chu Guang was planning to discuss countermeasures with Vanus, the recently restored communication was suddenly interrupted.

Footsteps came from the corridor and before the doorbell rang, Chu Guang opened the office door and. Unsurprisingly, he saw a head of silver-white hair.

Standing at the office door, Hyrja complained with a gloomy face. "I was just copying this data back to the New Alliance's server, but it stopped completely! What happened?"

Chu Guang didn't answer immediately but glanced at his VM, where a light blue pop-up window was flashing with reports from players.

[Tail: WAAAAAA! We're under artillery attack!]

[Tail: Sir! The communication balloon has drifted away!]

From her reports, he roughly understood what had just happened.

Sighing, Chu Guang briefly answered Hyrja's question. "It seems the signal source was located... The Army's airship fired a few shots at our newly deployed temporary communication device."

Hyrja's frown faded, replaced by a look of worry. "Ah? Then... Is everyone okay?"

"Since we're still getting messages from them, they should be fine."

There were many locations with cover in the urban area. Unless they detonated Hydrogen Bombs or other sub-nuclear weapons, the damage artillery could cause was limited.

For the Heart of Steel, where Chu Guang was could be considered the rear of their enemy lines. The Heart of Steel clearly hadn't reached a level where they could afford to bombard indiscriminately without feeling the pinch.

Estimating that the enemy might send troops over to assess the damage caused to the communication balloon, Chu Guang issued new orders to the players to evacuate from the area near the bombardment.

Although long-distance communication hadn't been restored, short-range communication didn't pose a problem.

Weak signals were difficult to locate precisely. At most, the enemy would know that they were there. It would be too difficult to accurately determine how many people there were.

"As long as they're fine..." Scratching the back of her head, Hyrja felt it wasn't right to press further. She quickly changed the subject. "... By the way, while searching the servers of this shelter, I stumbled upon something interesting that you might like."

"What is it?" Chu Guang raised his eyebrows in surprise.

He had barely connected to the Shelter System in Shelter 79 less than 10 minutes ago. He disconnected soon after and he didn't have time to fully scan the severs.

No matter what, Shelter 79 had already brought about enough surprises for the time being.

Having Hyrja describe her findings as something he might like... He was truly getting a little curious.

Seeing the look on Chu Guang's face, Hyrja's mouth curved up into a pleasant arc as she continued cheerfully, "In the private database of researcher A-7274, I found a set of exoskeleton blueprints designed for Deathclaws. Although the project wasn't listed in the shelter's research topics, the blueprint's completion level was surprisingly high. It's almost ready for approval... I'll send it to you."

After she spoke, Hyrja tapped twice on her VM, quickly sharing the data to Chu Guang's VM.

Chu Guang opened the file and saw a 3D model with parameters for various parts. It included hundreds of components, with complexity somewhere between the Miner Type 1 and Type 5.

After Chu Guang handed it over to Little Seven, making a prototype with the Magnetic Confinement Plasma CNC Machine wouldn't be difficult. After some configurations were eliminated, producing a basic version through the heavy industries wouldn't be too difficult.

Although it was just a design, the researcher who made it gave it quite an appropriate name. It was called the Hunter!

Seeing Chu Guang's eyes that were sparkling in interest, Hyrja couldn't help but continue, "The body of a Deathclaw grows quickly, reaching a height of 1.5 meters within a year from infancy and will reach 2 to 2.5 meters in five months, entering adulthood."

"Therefore, the focus of the exoskeleton was on adaptability, enhancing the extensibility of each structure. Adult individuals with spine lengths between 2 and 4 meters can wear it. However, the exoskeleton's armor coverage is somewhat lacking, only protecting the Deathclaw's head and chest."

"My guess is that the researchers here probably considered the difficulty of operating tools designed for human bodies after transplanting their consciousness into a Deathclaw, so they designed a set of exoskeletons specifically for their new forms."

Understanding why the project was abandoned was also straightforward.

Even if Hyrja hadn't mentioned it, Chu Guang could guess.

They just had to look at the Mother of Deathclaws outside.

As long as they inject themselves with the serum, they wouldn't stop growing. No matter how perfect the equipment design was, it could only be used for a dozen years before they outgrew the exoskeletons.

Compared to endless lifespans, the duration was nothing!

Due to different growth rates of various tissues and bones, the idea of proportionally scaling the exoskeleton with their bodies was impractical. They could only redesign it for different life stages.

In the end, the idea of mechanical enhancement was simply abandoned.

"Not bad... This equipment could just be what our Wolf Cavalry needs." Chu Guang nodded in satisfaction, saving the blueprint, planning to send it to Little Seven once communications were restored.

"Wolf Cavalry?" Hyrja tilted her head to the side in confusion.

"It's a project currently being researched by our army. We plan to create a fast-moving unit... Although it sounds somewhat outdated in 2341, we plan to give it a try," Chu Guang casually replied, "Don't worry about it, leave the matters of war to us. You don't have to concern yourself with that."

Hyrja nodded, not fully understanding the intricacies of war anyway. However, she knew that if the New Alliance lost, she could not continue to focus on her research like what she had been doing.

"Anyway, it's good if I can help. I'm going back to the lab... You guys... Keep it up." Approaching the door, she paused, then teased, "By the way, you sounded like a real man when you told me not to worry."

She didn't wait for his response as her light footsteps echoed down the corridor.

...

Lucky Valley Municipality.

On the rooftop of a residential building, Spring Water Commander was holding a pair of binoculars as he gazed at the slowly dispersing thick smoke in the distance.

Next to the abandoned water tank and diagonally across from the stairwell, his current position was not directly visible from the airship.

Lying next to him, Ghostbuster also held binoculars, looking in the same direction.

A few days ago, Battlefield Cheerleader handed his ass to him and used him as war credits with the Army. It took him three days to finally return.

Although Battlefield Cheerleader said on the forum that he got rid of all traces of evidence, after careful consideration, Ghostbuster was still deployed far away from the battlefield to avoid being spotted by members of the Army. He was stationed beside Spring Water Commander.

Based on past experience, sticking close to that scared doggy would ensure he never died.

The only downside was that he was getting bored. Unless absolutely necessary, that lucky bastard who drew the most exoskeletons from the after war rewards never appeared on the frontlines!

And even if he did show up, he generally wouldn't get involved in any proper fighting.

For example... He was present on the frontliner now, but he was merely staring at the enemy and calculating his next move. He wasn't planning on getting shot at.

Forget about the exoskeletons he obtained. That asshole didn't even bring a damn gun!

Lying there out of sheer boredom, Ghostbuster couldn't help asking, "Are you sure the members of the Army will come?"

Spring Water Commander thought for a moment and answered. "Yeah. I'm 80% sure."

"Why is there no movement at all then?" Ghostbuster grumbled.

Annoyed by the question, Spring Water Commander shot him a disdainful look and snapped, "Do you think it doesn't take time for them to walk all the way over here? Shut up and wait."