Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
None of the historical war records on Earth had ever described a situation as intense as what was happening on the wasteland now.
This was a war that would involve more than seven billion creatures.
On a certain level, this was also the largest scale of war humans were going to fight on the wasteland ever, vying for supremacy against so many foreign races!
After this war, it did not matter who ended up victorious or defeated, the next war would never happen on such a jaw-dropping and terrifying scale.
It was eight o’clock in the morning, and the timing of the tsunami cycles today did not change, unlike a few days before, when it was delayed by half an hour. Instead, the tsunami cycle was maintained at one and a half hours, which would later be followed by a period of respite that would last one and a half hours.
Under such conditions, it allowed…
The foreign races and humans to “struggle” and “tussle” against each other during these periods of respite, as if they had all gone mad.
When the tsunami cycles rolled around, they retreated and watched each other like hawks, almost as if they had made an unspoken deal to recuperate their energy during these periods.
This situation repeated itself from eight o’clock, all the way till one o’clock in the afternoon.
When it was time to catch a breather once more, all the humans at sea sighed with great relief as they quickly climbed onto the decks of their ships to recuperate their energy while feeding on rations.
However, something unexpected happened. It was not until half an hour had passed that the humans from the deserter and surrender factions discovered through their chat channels that…
Some of their companions were missing!
Even with the game panel’s filtering function, with their World Chat screens running at the usual speed, they were able to notice this!
This change got them thinking that those who had initially wanted to escape or surrender had changed their minds and joined the pro-war faction.
What they were not aware, was that…
“Shelter Leader Long, reporting the status of the current war, us humans are still considered tenacious and determined. After two rounds of combat, it looks like the current casualty rate has been maintained at about 13%!”
“As for the foreign races, their casualty rate has exceeded 4%!”
“If this trend continues and ends tonight, we will only incur an additional casualty rate of around 25% in enduring this period of ferocious attacks from the foreign races.”
Individual strength was not worth mentioning in this war that involved billions of creatures.
Even those top-notch official shelters were like grains of corn scattered across the wide ocean. When combat commenced, they were buried under a sea of information.
The only thing they could do in their current situation was to collect data and plan for any unprecedented situation happening in the battlefield areas and to provide warnings to fleets nearby.
“13%… Which region suffered the largest loss?!” Long Anguo asked sharply as his face turned grim upon receiving the report from the statistician.
It did not look like a huge loss if one were to solely view this from a percentage standpoint. During the first two rounds of fierce combat, it could even be considered a pretty good percentage for humans to maintain.
However, if one were to look at the exact numbers, it would chill one’s heart…
Five hundred and fifty million!
All it took was a mere two hours for over five hundred million humans to fall in this war.
It did not matter if those five hundred million people had planned to fight, desert, or even surrender, it did not change the fact that they had been sacrificed.
The next day, humans would continue to perish at the rate throughout the day. In the end, a total of 1.3 billion people would die in combat by the time the day ended.
This result was vastly different from the 45% predicted previously. In fact, it was close to half the predicted casualty rate.
However, Long Anguo could still not stop himself from trembling after he had asked his question.
“The region that suffered the biggest loss… is Battlefield Seven… The information sent over by Dawn Sword indicated that this region has too many foreign races that know magic. This caused close to 20% of their people to suffer injuries and casualties before even touching them. Moreover, they are extremely intelligent. They attack from afar without even attempting to go head-to-head against the fleet. With such guerilla warfare tactics being, there is not much Dawn Sword can do to them.”
“Currently, Dawn Sword has made the necessary adjustments. They have chosen to split up their main unit in order to reduce casualties. It’s estimated that the severity of the next two rounds of attacks will be decreased by 50% or more. As for killing the enemy… There isn’t much hope. They require reinforcements from the other regions!”
In addition to the horrors of knowing the casualty numbers, the sudden burst of vigor from Long Anguo caused the reporting personnel to tremble slightly under the pressure.
Despite that, anyone who was able to stand here was someone who would be eminently capable back on Earth. After calming himself down, the reporting personnel immediately regained his composure.
“Reinforcements? Every battlefield area is hardly holding their own right now. Where are we supposed to find reinforcements for them?!”
“What about Battlefield Five? Don’t Polar Bear and the others possess some firearms? How are they doing now?!”
The reporting personnel looked at the data. “Battlefield Five has much lower casualty rate compared to the rest of the battlefield areas, with a current rate of 6%, and the people brought there by Polar Bear and the others attracted a majority of the foreign races into this battlefield area, giving those situated at the outer perimeter a good chance to attack from the outside. Thanks to their combined efforts, during the second round of combat, the foreign races suffered a loss of close to 5%, which made a pretty serious dent.”
“As they are situated at the center of all the battlefield areas, they should have been surrounded by the nearby battlefield areas. However, as there was a slaughter at Battlefield Three, it lessened the pressure on their shoulders significantly, and they managed to take advantage of that opportunity.”
This time, it was Long Anguo’s turn to be surprised. “What? A slaughter at Battlefield Three?”
The marine attack plan had Battlefield Five marked down as the most dangerous location on the ocean.
Without an official shelter with sufficient ability and strength there, it would have been very easy for foreign races from the five battlefield areas of 2, 3, 4, 6, and 7 to overrun Battlefield 5.
Moreover, Battlefield 3 did not have a major shelter stationed there, which meant that it posed the greatest threat to Battlefield 5.
Back then, Polar Bear Shelter had taken up this position because, even though they were not considered the strongest in terms of combat abilities, they were the most insane when it came to combat awareness.
No one had commented on this decision when it was being made, but everyone had felt worried about it.
However, given what was being reported currently, Long Anguo suddenly felt like what had transpired then had seemed like generations ago.
“That right, Shelter Leader Long, The casualties in Battlefield Three are lower than Battlefield Five, and probably even lower than Battlefield 11 and Battlefield 12 of the shallow regions. Their casualty rate is only around 2%, but their kill rate is the highest among all the battlefield areas at 6% thanks to their forceful attacks, which lightened the load of Battlefield Five immensely since they would not need to worry about the enemy attacking them from behind.”
“Moreover, thanks to the advantageous position of Battlefield Three, the enemies from Battlefields Two and Six have headed over there instead, which has resulted in a rapid decrease of the casualty rates in both those battlefield areas!”
With that, the reporting personnel took out a thick pile of documents and picked out a few pieces of paper that recorded information on the war at Battlefield 3.
Long Anguo took them from the reporting personnel and quickly scanned it for about ten seconds before a familiar, yet strange name appeared in his mind.
“Good!”
“Very good!”
“I never expected Tundra Shelter to have such great capabilities. Send out the order for our people in Battlefields Two and Six to do everything they can to buy time for Battlefield Three by obstructing the reinforcements of the foreign races to give the shelter a fighting chance!”
He slammed his palms against the table in agitation and excitement. Long Anguo had initially almost a headache over the disappointing numbers.
Victory in wars were never determined by what could obviously be seen openly on the frontlines.
This was especially true when it involved the weak fighting the strong.
For the current humans, a miracle was needed to ignite a spark on the wasteland and gradually ‘burn’ ferociously all over the wasteland and the ocean.
Long Anguo, who had studied war and completely understood its workings, had developed an excellent sense for war. He knew that…
Battlefield Three possessed the potential to become that spark that would ignite the wasteland!
All they needed now was a stack of wood, or a perfect gust of…
East wind!
…
“Shelter Leader Lu, the foreign races have surrounded us. However, if we remain in this stalemate, it’s equivalent to dying a slow death. Why not conduct an attack to break through right now?!”
“That’s right, Shelter Leader Lu. We have heavy weaponry. Those foreign races won’t be able to stop our attack. If we continue waiting, there will only be more and more of them. We have no reinforcements and waiting would only mean death for us!”
“Shelter Leader Lu, you’re choosing to wait again, but this round of combat would end up meaningless if we wait!”
“Shelter Leader Lu, you’ve got to reconsider…”
Every ship captain was standing on the main deck of Tundra One as they took turns using the binoculars to observe the ongoing battles in the distance.
With the convenience of being able to chat within the game, they were able to stay in contact regardless of where they were, and were even able to quickly issue orders and conduct a series of attack, retreat, or surprise tactics.
As they were taking turns with the binoculars, nearly every captain voiced the same opinion of disagreement after seeing what was going on in those battles.
From their point of view, the foreign races had suffered two rounds of defeat. They were surrounded by the foreign races, but were not attacking because Lu Yongyi requested for everyone to bide their time. This seemed like an atrocious command.
The foreign races and clans had been resting and avoiding combat because they were waiting for their comrades to reinforce them, yet Lu Yongyi was doing the same and getting them to rest as well despite being surrounded.
This was like an elderly man consuming poison on his birthday because he could not wait to die!
With such heavy-duty weapons, and only a paltry fifty thousand foreign races surrounding the Tundra Fleet currently, there was no way the foreign races could stop the fleet if it attacked.
All they needed was one attack and the encirclement surrounding them would be destroyed.
Even though this move would most probably result in unnecessary casualties due to the differences in speeds between the large ships, small ships, and rafts, it was still better than being surrounded by the enemy!
However, as captain of the fleet, Lu Yongyi had suddenly become…
Enraged!
“Stop requesting me to issue the order to attack. You’ve had your rest, you’ve been fed well, and you’re sitting safely on the ship while the war is ongoing. Can’t you just take a look down there and see what our brothers-in-arms are doing?”
“Zhang Long, pick up the binoculars and take a good look. Just calculate how many members of our assault team and if anyone on the raft team will be able to survive?”
“Take another look and make your own calculations on what will happen if we go all out in an attack and the foreign races catch up to us? What price would we end up paying for such a victory?!”
The silent Zhang Long’s expression changed when he heard those words. He quickly picked up the binoculars and swept his gaze across the battlefield.
This time, the look on his face instantly turned grimmer than before.
All of a sudden, he understood why the foreign races fought with such ferocity during the first round of combat, but held themselves back and only faked attacks during the second round of combat, making a big show of attacking when they did not do much in reality.
“If we were to rush headfirst and attack now, the large ships might certainly escape the encirclement, but half of the three hundred thousand people on the rafts would not be able to make it out alive.”
“The most crucial aspect is that we would also end up breaking our formation and defensive perimeter we spent the entirety of yesterday planning.”
“This is a tactic of the foreign races. They have us surrounded now. We will die if we rush and attack, but if we stay put, we will die a slow death as well. It’s quite a vicious move!”
Those from the modern era who had experienced the information age would be able to understand war strategy to a certain degree even if they had not been on the battlefield themselves, as long as they had watched television and films for a few years.
Such intuition would sometimes allow those from the modern era to imitate those from the olden days by using the tactics of ancient and classic wars.
However, sometimes they wound up becoming overconfident in their own wisdom, and ended up making a terrible mistake they could not recover from.
This war between the humans and the foreign races was not some kind of game simulation. It was not the type of combat where one could view the numbers as mere statistics after orders were issued.
After the first round of ferocious attacks from the foreign races, followed by the second round of faked attacks and harassment, they still needed to defend themselves against the tsunami disaster, which was in its sixth day.
The raft warriors below had long exceeded the limits of their endurance.
It was only because of the God of the Ocean title that they were still able to get some rest for one and a half hours, which gave them sufficient energy to continue fighting against the foreign races.
However, if they were to conduct a counterattack right now, these people would end up losing their lives before even managing to cover a few miles, and their combat capabilities would be decreased by over 80%.
At that point, the foreign races would only need to fake attacks and wait for a little while longer, and the efforts of the Tundra Fleet to plan and maintain their formation and defensive perimeter would dissolve into nothingness in an instant.
The balance in Battlefield Three would be destroyed instantly and the situation would descend into panic and chaos.
If that had happened, the person commanding the battle would become an eternal sinner in humankind’s history of war!
However, another problem arose!
“Shelter Leader Lu, if we don’t attack, we’ll be just waiting around for death. The foreign races only have fifty thousand men now. Once they have gathered two or three hundred thousand troops, it would be about the same number of people that we have.”
“We won’t be able to win in this situation unless we have unlimited ammunition. We’ll all meet our deaths in the end!”
“As for reinforcements… Every battlefield area across the entire ocean is at war now. Where can we possibly get reinforcements from?!”
Everyone nodded when Liu Neng spoke up.
Strangely, Lu Yongyi did not say anything this time. Instead, there was a look of expectation on his face.
He first nodded, but later shook his head.
“If we continue waiting, it would be just as all of you have said, we would die a slow death…”
“Although, when did I ever mention that we had no reinforcements?”
???
When Lu Yongyi said this, everyone turned to look at one another with stunned and questioning expressions.
Would there still be reinforcements coming at this time?
That would be impossible.
Unless he was able to get Almighty Su here, there was no other person with the time or ability to reinforce others on this wasteland.
However, no one present was capable of getting Almighty Su here…
No one among the three hundred and fifty thousand people in the fleet would be worthy of reaching out to him…
The captains looked at everyone bustling about on the ship, and the fact that there were even many women in battle. They smiled bitterly and said nothing further.
Lu Yongyi, this hope that you are speaking of is quite difficult to swallow!
