065. Cross-Dimensional Firefight

  Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

  Deadly explosives roared tinuously indoors, pletely shattering the silence of the small town. The pyer army had already infiltrated the town, breaking into smaller units, occupying high ground, moving in groups of three. They fully exploited the physical advantages of being pyers, rushing into rooms at the fastest speed to clear out threats ihe buildings.

  The sudden attapletely disrupted the Frost-Pted soldiers who were still resting. Several powerful agents barely survived thanks to military-grade cyberic impnts. After rushing out of the buildings, they were immediately met with trated fire from snipers on the high ground and soldiers hiding throughout the town.

  "Damn it!"

  A Law IV agent immediately activated her impnts. [Peak Hour Military] was the most cost-effective choice. She instantly created a series of shifting afterimages in mid-air, breaking into a soldier pyer's position, lifting a heavy handgun, and bsting the eop of their skull apart. Then, like a tiger in a flock of sheep, she extended her impnted cyberic bdes and wantonly gutted the attackers around her.

  However, she quickly realized something was wrong.

  These people—weren't afraid to die at all.

  Energy ied into the bdes could easily slice a person in half, but these ordinary humans, with no protective gear, wielding standard rifles, dared to engage her up close. They threw fshbangs at her, coldly and ruthlessly used their bodies to block her path so their rades could focus fire.

  Ratatatatatat—g thud!

  Despite the bullets tinuously hitting the same spot, even a cyberically enhanced 【Warrior】 couldn't withstand the damage. Since she had rushed out without time to put on armor, her body was soon riddled with holes, but relying on the 【Warrior】's strong physique, she mao ehe assault.

  But the female agent quickly sensed something eerie.

  "No way—why are there still so many of them?"

  She had clearly just killed seven riflemen in one go, but wheurned her head, the corpses had already been dragged away. Not long after, she saw the same people, covered in blood, who she had gutted, stand up again, rifles at the ready, p fire at her once more.

  "Shit, what the hell?! Are they undead or something?!"

  The female agent was utterly horrified. While the enemy was weak in terms of strength, their battle skills and firearms were a very real threat.

  Without reag Alpha-tier strength, no superhuman had the guts to fight against this kind of army.

  She immediately felt the urge to retreat, fighting as she withdrew and calling for support—but the unication els were filled with screams and chaos. Stepping over her rades' iines and severed limbs as she fled, she still couldn't escape the relentless pursuit of these undead-like enemies.

  A soldier pyer took a shortcut, holding a riot shield, and smmed into her. Despite having his heart and lungs pierced by her bdes, he acted like a killing mae, leveling his submae gun at her eyes and pulling the trigger.

  Her cyberic eyes went offline instantly, plunging her vision into utter darkness.

  Half an hour ter, on the Frost-Pted–Granat flict simution map, a nondescript town called Domat slowly raised the Granat volic fg.

  No one cared about this small town oskirts of the city; aside from produg milk and cheese, it had no real value.

  Even fewer noticed that this was the first enter between pyer soldiers and Frost-Pted irregur forces. After losing fifteen pyers, each dying three times in succession, they successfully wiped out the statioroops and won their first battle on the Azure Star battlefield.

  After the battle, the soldiers from Yanxia returo their base in an abandoned factory and immediately anized a review. They realized that the victory had been a close one.

  Despite having signifit advantages in intelligence, military training, and the element of surprise, the pyer soldiers still had to pay a heavy price to wipe out so many Frost-Pted irregurs.

  Out of fifty well-trained soldier pyers, including the bat ander, forty-four were near death once, and fifteen had their characters killed three times in a row, awaiting redeployment.

  Iy, these weren't Frost-Pted regur forces. The Law IV agents, riot police, and members of the Ducal Party were all just armed forces with no real battlefield experience.

  The lopsided results forced them to take things seriously.

  "Warriors, we must nnize a harsh reality."

  bat ander Major Liu Wenzhong said in a grave tone:

  "We need better equipment and to level up. In this world, individual strength holds signifit advantages, enough to offset some of the anizational advantages—but only some. If we had more powerful artillery, we could make up for these shortings. No matter how strong someone is, they still fear heavy artillery."

  Some soldiers agreed, but others raised s:

  "…Those irregur superhumans close the distance quickly in bat and cause us serious damage. Firearms are still the main on, but their stopping painst superhumans is too weak. We o switch ter-caliber ons, like 12.7mm rifle rounds, armor-pierg indiary rounds, or mercury-filled heavy rounds. Plus, our rea time and individual skills are clearly g. After this battle, each of us earned between 1,400 and 1,800 experience points on average, but it's still not enough to close the gap with the Frost-Pted forces."

  Thus, a signifit issue was brought to the forefront—not just for the Yanxia military but for armies across all nations.

  National militaries could quickly adapt to the envirohrough intelligence provided by the Qiqiao work and even purchase some military-grade ons with gover funds.

  But character levels could only be raised through personal efforts.

  "Does anyone have any ideas on how we level up quickly? Any suggestions?"

  "Should we try pleting some mainline quests?"

  "No, we're soldiers. We 't pete with civilians for quest resources, and it takes too long."

  "Then how about huntis in the wilderness? I mean, acc to the data, those monsters are so mutated that they seem impossible to pletely exterminate."

  "Unfortunately, our resources aren't enough to support long-distance hunting."

  The group of soldiers found themselves at a bit of a loss. They were good at warfare and bat, but when it came to matters like this, they were er than regur pyers.

  Just as the soldier pyers were feeling stuck, a Qiqiao work tester passing by gave them an idea.

  "Why don't you go find Li Aozi?" The tester casually suggested. "He's a 【Domination】 css trainer and just happens to be here in the Granat Republic fighting against the Frost-Pted forces. You could colborate with him."

  "Li Aozi?"

  The soldiers, especially their leader Liu Wenzhong, expressed doubt:

  "He's just an NPC. Is he really reliable? He could get killed by a stray bullet in the middle of battle at any moment."

  "Looks like you haven't seen the press ference video." The tester shrugged. "Anyway, I think he's reliable. As a css trainer, he's probably quite powerful, and since you're all willing to fight against the Frost-Pted forces, he might agree to help."

  "I saw the trailer." A young soldier recalled the press ference video, where a 【Mutant】 trolled uable Omega Energy, sughtering freely with ease. He felt tempted. "Liu, why don't we try to find him?"

  Liu Wenzhong didn't know much about this aspect, and his instincts made him skeptical of the native inhabitants of the game world. They seemed too lifelike, which made Liu secretly doubt their reliability. But out loud, he made an excuse:

  "Won't this involve peting with pyers for resources…?"

  "I support the idea."

  Vice-captain Zhao Xingzhe suggested:

  "Liu, we o i with the locals eventually. The military and civilians are like fish and water; you he vilgers to like you for them to support you—so why don't we send a few people to tact Li Aozi first? We don't o see if we gain any bes from him, just test his strength and iions. If he help us, that would be great."

  "Alright, let's do that."

  Liu Wenzhong cked enthusiasm for the idea. He still believed that what the soldiers needed most were equipment, anization, and bat readiness. As for the differences in individual character strength—in battle, it typically takes hundreds of thousands of bullets to kill one person, so surviving a few extra bullets doesn't seem like such a big deal. The gap in individual strength might not be that exaggerated.

  He wasn't the only one who thought this way; many soldiers shared this belief.

  For now, it seemed like waiting for better equipment and leveling up would prevent sutense fights. Rather than wasting time on leveling, they believed fog on improving their equipment would be more effective.

  ons decide wars, and everength of individual soldier ons doesn't determine victory. A few ons would be far more cost-effective than leveling up characters.

  Just as they were thinking this, someone checked the terminal and discovered that the Frost-Pted ons embargo included all calibers of artillery and anti-vehicle missiles.

  "Tch, what bad luck."

  Learning that they couldn't obtain artillery support, the soldiers' outlook ouation in Granat darkened. Acc to their traditional bat thinking, firepower ce was the main means of battle. Without ensuring swift and powerful firepower support, all talk of individual bat skills ointless.

  " we make our own ons?"

  "We don't uand the local stifius or chemical materials, and their armored vehicles clearly 't be peed by makeshift ons."

  With limited beta test slots, there obviously weren't enough soldiers.

  After some discussion, even Liu Wenzhong had to admit that their hopes of improving bat effectiveness would have to rely on the locals.

  However, he still preferred w with the official Bermudes group, sending his subordio apply for an armed security pany lise and see if they could secure merary slots, hoping to get as much official support as possible.

  As for the few sent to make tact with Li Aozi… Liu Wenzhong remained unimpressed by the title of "css trainer."

  From his perspective, evero superhuman was at most equivalent to a tank, and what use could oank be in a war?

  FAL