Chapter 462: When Someone Gives You a Thumbs Up, They’re Not Necessarily Complimenting You
The transport team composed of new players worked very efficiently. Due to the high priority of the Maginot Line’s construction, after entering the Baroness of Shadow’s territory, the transport team entered the “cement road” built by the Stonemason Guild, which significantly increased their advancing speed.
The journey that originally required 2-3 days was compressed to 1.5 days as they hurried to reach their destination.
At a location 5 kilometers behind the Maginot Line, a massive temporary warehouse had already been constructed. Due to time constraints, this warehouse was built using the “old method” – wooden boards forming the structure, then Spirit Mages using stone to mud spell to create a square storage space.
Fortunately, this place wasn’t far from the mining area of the Baroness of Shadow’s territory, so there were enough stone materials available. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to build this thing in such a short time.
“Thanks for your hard work, brothers. After unloading, go rest at the camp.”
Tiger Leopard Rider Temporary Rider, representing Joy Stick, called out loudly to the new players jumping down from the convoy while sitting on his shadow-maned warhorse.
He didn’t know any of these new companions, but that didn’t prevent everyone from feeling like “hometown folks” after meeting.
Compared to the local Transians, these brothers who came from the same place as him felt closer.
Of course, the Crimson Hammer and Sickle Team was very good at handling relationships.
Having contacted Pink Cat Rabbit who was in charge of logistics transportation beforehand, Lin knew that the brothers transporting supplies were pure newcomers, so he had specially set up a “reward distribution” spot by the warehouse.
An NPC quartermaster stood there, handing a small purse to each new player who came over and then pointing to the weapon racks and gun boxes beside him.
The meaning was to pick whatever they wanted, considered as the Hammer and Sickle Team’s “family silver benefits” for new players.
This style of doing things made the new players exclaim “Brother Stick is righteous,” and any small complaints about having to unload cargo immediately flew away.
However, they didn’t know that as a formal military organization with official establishment, the Hammer and Sickle Team could receive a batch of free supplies from the administrative department’s subordinate warehouse every half month.
Since it was free, don’t expect the quality to be too good, just barely usable white-grade weapons.
The old blade wielders under Brother Stick naturally looked down on these, perfect for gaining goodwill among new players to make subsequent “recruitment work” smoother.
However, since both parties were satisfied, naturally no one was bored enough to come investigate the source of these weapons.
While new players and NPCs were moving supplies, Lin jumped down from his warhorse and walked to a weapon box that had been put down, picked up the crowbar beside it and opened the box, revealing three black tubes stored inside.
He immediately showed a nostalgic expression, skillfully picked up one of them, and without even looking at the simplified instruction manual beside it, assembled it in a few swift movements.
The mortar from his memories appeared before him but made Lin very unhappy, because Brother Loyalty had ignored several important devices on this thing to increase production.
“Damn it, even the sight is simplified to this extent! How the hell do you aim with this! Do we have to fire a few shots to calibrate the landing point before each firing? I was hoping for precise cold shots, one hit one kill.”
Lin cursed fiercely on the spot.
But he also knew that Brother Loyalty’s “cutting corners” was unavoidable. Currently, the armament factory was under great production pressure, and to ensure frontline firepower supply, Brother Loyalty had no choice but to omit these parts that required fine processing.
First achieve “usable,” then consider “good to use.”
And for these monkey versions of mortars in front of him, to fully meet Brother Stick’s firepower requirements for the Maginot Line, the armament factory probably needed to work overtime for a month or two.
“Forget it, forget it, everyone has it tough, I won’t complain about you this time.”
Lin sighed, picked up this tube, disassembled it and put it into a specially made bag, then placed it in his shadow-maned warhorse’s overly large saddlebag.
Such unscientific warhorse size being so huge destined their carrying capacity to be strong as well – put a mortar on the left side, and still room for several shells on the right.
Speaking of shells
“Is this ‘white phosphorus bomb’ for real?”
Lin looked at the 10 shells arranged in the second box.
He was somewhat puzzled. Although the shape was the most classic mortar shell, the “extremely dangerous” marked with red symbols on it and an eye-catching skull mark represented that Brother Loyalty’s confidence in his own products didn’t seem very high either.
“How come I’ve never heard of shells of this sequence? Is this their ‘independent research and development’? Damn this is really criminal.”
Lin complained harshly, then picked up the description card beside it and glanced at it, finding that the number one explosion master “Night Phantom Bat Puppet” under Brother Loyalty had even innovatively given this thing a new name:
“Undead Incinerator?”
Lin blinked and complained:
“Why don’t you put more of your naming creativity into safety? I don’t even dare put this thing on my warhorse, what if it explodes during a charge?”
He turned the description card over, and there was another line on the back:
“Strictly prohibited from using weapons in combat against civilized factions, violators will be subject to inquiry and punishment from the military court being established.”
“Alright!”
The veteran snorted, threw the description card aside, put the 10 shells in front of him into his spirit bag, then turned and left.
The unloading of 10 fully loaded wagons continued for 3 hours. These things couldn’t be bumped or knocked, so they could only use the most primitive manual labor. When the new players finished moving things and received their rewards, excitedly planning to go wander in the swamp, Lin found them again.
“Don’t wander around when you go to the swamp!
Follow the road we’ve opened up to enter the forward camp of the northern defense line, then select the specific battle line you want to go to there.
Remember not to go too deep into the swamp, your levels and skill proficiency are too low, just stay on the outskirts fighting those lone skeletons and swamp beasts running around everywhere.”
He earnestly advised the group in front of him:
“Considering you will be going to three battle lines as reserve manpower supplements, we have an extra mission for you, requiring you to bring some supplies to supplement the three battle lines and let them familiarize themselves with the new weapons in advance.
You don’t need to bring too much, and brothers don’t need to carry things on their shoulders and hands anymore, we will provide specialized campaign spirit bags, you just need to make one trip.
Of course this is not a mandatory mission.
For brothers willing to help, we will provide an additional set of recruit armor as mission rewards.”
“Then let’s do it.”
Someone in the crowd shouted:
“We’re going to the swamp anyway, it’s on the way, but can we choose the recruit armor ourselves? I plan to switch to mage, you can’t give me a set of plate armor, right?”
The crowd burst into laughter, making Lin laugh heartily too as he explained to these newbies:
“In this realistic game world, mages can also wear plate armor, there’s no real armor division, you can dress yourself up as a warrior. And you want plate armor?
I think you’re daydreaming.
Now the frontline can’t even ensure commanders each have a set of plate armor, that thing is so expensive, and to be honest it’s not as good as more convenient chain mail in close combat.
You can pick whatever you want from the warehouse.
But my advice is to all choose hardened leather armor, armor in this game is paper, even if you wear plate armor you’ll still be taken down in two hits when encountering powerful monsters.
After all, spirit energy inherently has penetrating properties, ordinary armor can’t really provide effective protection against it, better to maintain agility so you can maintain speed when you need to run.”
After explaining this, Lin also found Rainbow Cat Hero who was planning to head back, and said to him:
“Village Chief Pink Cat Rabbit just sent a message to Brother Stick, he plans to extend the logistics route to the Goldflower vanguards’ station in the Saxony region and monopolize the material transportation there, of course the specific implementation has to wait until this battle is over.
Your boss’s meaning is, hoping you can personally make a trip on this route, bring back first-hand information for him.”
“Damn! Senior is really being unreasonable? Making a level 4 rookie like me go explore routes in the swamp?”
Rainbow Cat cursed:
“This heartless dog, what if I encounter danger in there?”
“Don’t be afraid, if you follow the road on the map there definitely won’t be problems, the student party has cleared that area once, there won’t be any undead suddenly appearing to stab your butt.
Just go together with this team of newbies, so you can look after each other on the way.”
Lin comforted:
“Although the swamp road is difficult to walk, there’s no need to be so afraid if you’re just going to the safe rear area, the dangerous areas are all on the frontline. And after your boss personally escorts the ‘superweapon’ over tomorrow, let’s see how we deal with those bastard undead.”
“Sigh, this is the fate of working people.”
Rainbow Cat sighed helplessly.
He stamped his feet and said:
“I’m just an intern now, when I get familiar with this system, I must go out on my own, set up my own village and develop myself.”
“Yes, that’s the confidence we want!”
Lin saw he successfully convinced someone, immediately smiled happily and took off a spirit bag to stuff into Rainbow Cat’s hands, saying:
“These are new guns for the student party, since you’re going that way just deliver them together.
Here, this bayonet counts as my support for you, can be directly inserted into the bayonet mount, this is limited purchase stuff, you can’t buy it even if you have money at this stage.”
“Hehe, at least you have some conscience.”
Rainbow Cat didn’t stand on ceremony and accepted it, putting the cool triangular bayonet on his waist, then carefully studied the map with Lin. After about 10 minutes, he set off with two teams of 10 newbies towards the direction of the swamp’s western battle line.
As Lin said, the first half of this road was very safe, walking in the swamp’s mud was so quiet there wasn’t even a bird call around. The newbies heavily complained about the environment as they successfully completed half the journey, then, unsurprisingly, something unexpected happened.
“Damn! Brothers, look! What the hell is that thing in front?”
Three Jin Sweet Potato Wine had good eyesight, after passing a swamp shrub, he immediately saw a huge shadow advancing hundreds of meters ahead.
Those ghostly things advancing silently in the swamp seemed to be shrouded in mist, making it impossible to see clearly with the naked eye, but one could vaguely see people’s heads moving inside and it stretched for several hundred meters front to back.
Sweet Potato Wine was about to climb a tree to look carefully, but was grabbed by the collar from behind and pressed into the low shrubs.
The college student almost fell flat on his face, immediately glared back angrily, but saw that Old Qin, who was just telling dirty jokes carelessly, now had a serious face lying there, pressing down two guys with no vigilance at all with his left and right hands to prevent them from exposing themselves.
“It’s the enemy!”
Old Qin said in a low voice:
“Standard marching formation! The advancing direction is exactly towards the rear of the western direction indicated on the map earlier, if they don’t change direction, they will thrust directly between outposts 3 and 4 of the western battle line in at most 30 minutes.
That’s exactly the gap where the enemy’s outermost defense line was broken through, once they complete the encirclement plus the coordination of enemies on both flanks, they can instantly launch an annihilation battle against the three protruding outposts.
I noticed it when looking at the map earlier!
These student party members are too green, they stretched their battle line too long but their manpower isn’t enough to complete the rear traffic line’s cleanup and protection.
Just like the snake of Changshan, getting hit in the waist will cause big trouble.
This must be an assault by the gnoll mages from Plague Town, damn, they can use tactics of this level? The NPCs in this ghost game are really intelligent.
Those strange lights shrouding them should be ‘spirit energy’? Actually able to suppress the movement of thousands of people marching to such a low level?
This is too amazing.”
“Is this the time to marvel at this?”
Rainbow Cat was also a bit anxious.
He lay on the ground poking his head around to look, his body trembling slightly. Although he entered the game half a month earlier than the newbies, he was a proper administrative player with absolutely no combat experience.
This was his first real encounter with strong enemies.
The other four young student party members and newbies also had no ideas, they looked expectantly at Old Qin, the only one with combat experience present. However, he didn’t say anything, just made a gesture indicating them to hide here, while he himself crawled up the nearby low tree like an agile gecko in two or three steps to scout the enemy situation.
The newbies were so scared they didn’t dare to breathe heavily.
Compared to the elite skeleton army executing assault tactics ahead, their small group didn’t even count as a midnight snack, just being discovered meant instant death from a volley of bone arrows and bone spears.
Several minutes later, Old Qin returned and silently untied the spirit bag at his waist. He said seriously to others:
“Can’t let them advance into the preset battlefield so smoothly!
I estimate the student party over there hasn’t realized they’re being flanked from behind at all, seems recent battles going smoothly made them lower their guard.
Contact them immediately to report this situation, we also need to take action to delay these guys’ movement.
I just found suitable terrain for defense nearby, and we happen to have enough tubes in hand, with proper coordination, delaying them for half an hour won’t be a problem.”
“Damn! We only have 13 people! Old Qin are you crazy?”
Sweet Potato Wine shouted in a suppressed voice:
“One knife per person from them and we’ll become meat paste.”
“War isn’t as simple as you think, victory and defeat isn’t purely comparing numbers, otherwise how did the legend of three old veterans capturing a battalion happen?”
Old Qin shook his head while skillfully assembling tubes taken from the spirit bag, saying:
“Moreover, taking a step back, even if we die it’s just 3 days, what? Being afraid of death in reality is human nature and nothing to criticize, but you’re this cowardly playing a game, isn’t that a bit too much?
Why not cut off those two taels of meat between your legs?
Then I won’t mock you young people for having guts smaller than a mouse.”
“Pah, only dogs are afraid! I’ll risk my life fooling around with you today!”
Sweet Potato Wine lived up to being young, immediately fired up after being provoked.
Others also started cracking their knuckles eagerly, Old Qin was right, damn it dying is just 3 days, if we fight well wouldn’t we become famous?
“What do you say?”
Old Qin turned to look at Rainbow Cat, who said with a crying face:
“Even if I want to run I can’t get away, damn it, I’m in with you guys! Just tell us what to do, Uncle Qin.”
“Call me Old Qin, I’m not your relative, stop trying to get close.”
Old Qin twisted his mouth, put on his tube and made a gesture to others, indicating them to follow.
This group waded through mud water to circle around the nearby terrain and quickly climbed up a protruding high ground about 10-20 meters tall. Under Old Qin’s command, eight tubes were quickly assembled and lined up, but the guys here had no experience using these things and could only watch Old Qin “showing off his skills”.
“Bastard! Making the sight this crappy deserves military court!”
Old Qin cursed, simply gave up using that terrible sight.
He knelt in military posture, stretched out his left hand to hold his thumb horizontally in front of his eyes, muttering while raising his thumb vertically.
This classic scene from military movies continued for one minute, then Old Qin started fine-tuning the tube in his hands, and others also adjusted their tubes to an upward firing angle according to his instructions.
“Don’t be afraid, kids.”
Old Qin picked up a white phosphorus bomb marked “extremely dangerous” holding it with both hands placing it at the tube’s mouth, he turned back to look at the young people behind him, grinned and said:
“Consider this a special military training, to be honest it’s not easy to play with this in peacetime, you guys got really lucky today.”
“Old Qin your smile is so creepy!”
Sweet Potato Wine also knelt by his tube, copying Old Qin’s actions holding the shell, he complained:
“If I met someone smiling like you in an alley at night, without even saying anything, I would definitely hand over my wallet and phone voluntarily.”
“Hmph, that’s if you can meet me first.”
Old Qin snorted, shaking his head and complained:
“Even if the guards don’t stop me, could I in a wheelchair outrun a strong young man like you? Ready! Calibration firing first shot, fire!”
