Chapter 311.1: Strategic Depth?

Dawn City Prison.

Sitting in the dark cell, Bernie's face was haggard and he had a dejected look plastered on it.

He could understand the failure of the expedition to the Great Rift Valley. After all, they had indeed underestimated the strength of the Great Rift Valley, and even more so, the Divine Shield System.

Even after two centuries had passed, that sky-obscuring shield still remained impervious to their artillery shells. And their army of clone soldiers had launched a fearless charge, yet it still failed to alter the course of the battle.

Under the relentless firepower of the Great Rift Valley, their entire division was wiped out one brigade at a time.

Bernie could accept the fact that they couldn't win a battle against the Great Rift Valley. However, he really couldn't understand why even an ordinary survivor settlement was so difficult to deal with.

At this time, footsteps came from the corridor outside the prison.

Bernie raised his head and saw a familiar face. "... Vanus?" He couldn't help but freeze for a moment.

Vanus sighed, "Sure enough, it's you guys... How is Dillon?"

Hearing the name of his boss, Bernie had a wry smile on his face. "No wonder... Seeing you here, some of my questioned are answered...”

Knowing that Bernie probably attributed the victory to him, Vanus shook his head. "Your defeat has nothing to do with me. I just made a simple plan like what we were taught back in the academy and used the most common tactics... However, their performance exceeded my expectations."

Bernie was silent for a while. "I remember you were ordered to intercept the Pioneer."

Vanus nodded. "Yes."

Bernie didn't ask about the final result.

Because there was no need to ask.

Seeing how Vanus was standing before him with no shackles on his hands, with a VM on his wrist that was of the same model as that of the blue coats... Bernie had no doubt his old comrade had defected.

Seeing that Bernie didn't speak, Vanus walked to the window of the cell and continued talking on his own, "During the time I was captured, I was sent to work in a brick factory. At first I thought they were going to humiliate me till I died, but I realized that wasn’t actually the case.”

"Working with me were the nearby survivors. They taught me how to make mud bricks from a mould, how to burn mud bricks into actual bricks, and how to build bricks into houses..." Vanus paused for a moment. "I still remember that worker, and I remember that day when he happily told me that he finally had his own house through his hard work, and when he planned to bring over his family after winter. The longing in those eyes was something that I have never seen in my territory."

"At first I didn't understand what that longing was, until later I gradually understood that it was the hope for the future."

"They chose a path that is completely different from ours, a path where even the wastelanders living at the bottom can gain equality and dignity. People living here are willing to give everything for the land under their feet, even their lives!"

"You are facing a group of warriors who have faith. They clearly know why they are fighting. Do you still think that you lost only because of a few tactical error?”

Bernie gulped. After lowering his head in thought for a long while, he said with a wry smile, "Did you come here just to mock your old friend?"

"No." Vanus turned to look at him. "To be precise, it's an invitation."

...

It was getting late.

As players went offline one after another, Wasteland Online's forum became very lively.

After having a great fun during the epic victory in the game, many players went to the forum to make a post describing the situation vividly.

In the past, everyone could only describe it in text, and they couldn’t show real exciting content; cloud gamers reading the posts could only imagine what the situation was like using their imagination. Although people who still couldn't get into the game often replied that the game was sick or awesome, those posts weren't as exciting as the promotional videos created by the game company.

But it was different now.

Since the development of paid functions such as game screenshots and team chat, players didn't need to type to brag about their gameplay anymore; they just needed to upload the screenshots.

Of course, considering the child-friendly factors, the blood would be replaced with pink paint, R16 and some sensitive images would be limited.

After all, there was no dream filter after the helmet was taken off. Dreaming about a broken arm or leg in a dream might not necessarily scare people, but in reality, it was not impossible that some people would be scared shitless from seeing those screenshots.

Garbage: ... Everything happened extremely fast. When the marauder just pointed the gun at me, I quickly slid forward and took away two lives! I'm not bragging, I killed at least one hundred people in just ten minutes. The mutant sequence is freaking awesome! (Grin)

This_lord_is_arrogant_what_can_you_do: Lmao, is that it? You even have the audacity to show off with just a mere hundred kills in ten minutes? Have you ever heard of the Dragon Division? It's normal if you haven't heard of it. My brother is from the Dragon Division. Even the weakest person from that division can kill a company of soldiers with a dagger. 10 minutes is enough for them to kill those people twice.

Garbage: (Sweaty emoji)

Night Ten: Uh, Dragon Division? I have that game. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Irene: I have a question, is your brother's name Dragon Proud Sky? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Elf Wang: Bro, you think we might be living inside a web novel? ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

As usual, every time there was a major event or a major update on the official website, Arrogant Lord would come out to taunt everyone when everyone was having fun showing off, and then disappear from the forum immediately like a mole.

Both testing players and cloud gamers had gotten used to it, so no one took his comments to heart.

After Brother Arrogant Lord disappeared, Garbage went back to continue talking about his heroic achievements in the game, but at this moment, the battle report and settlement information of the Bluestone County battlefield were suddenly released on the official website.

Garbage: Holy shit? It's so fast this time!

Quit Smoking: Devs are awesome!

Usually, battle reports would only be released a day after the battle, but this time, it was released on the same night, which surprised many people.

Contrary to everyone's expectations, the corps that had the highest War Scores this time turned out to be the Storm Corps.

As the first corps to break through the city's defense line and break into the enemy's headquarters, the Storm Corps captured Lion Fang and other marauder leaders alive in the face of fierce enemy resistance, gaining a lot of extra points.

However, that was not a decisive factor.

The factor that really determined its War Score far ahead of others was its lightning-fast advance speed during the battle with marauders in the urban area.

Relying on his excellent organizational skills, Spring Water Commander led his team and destroyed 2 companies of marauders in an instant. It took them only half the expected time to penetrate all the defensive lines from the south of Bluestone County to the enemy headquarters.

It was no exaggeration to say that it was the outstanding combat performance of the Storm Corps in the battle that ended the battle earlier by at least an hour.

Combining casualties and ammunition consumption, the headquarters gave it a massive score of 23,000 points!

Escaping Mole’s Skeleton Corps was ranked second, which received a high score for its outstanding performance in the assault battle. The third was the Death Corps.

Although the latter had a higher number of kills and cleared the hidden dangers hidden in the corridors and alleys, their total score was lowered by nearly 30% of the battle losses.

As for Mosquito's Goblin Corps... They ranked fourth.

It was undeniable that the rockets launched by his corps and the air strikes carried out by his planes in turn caused heavy losses to the Lion Fang's tribe stationed in Bluestone County.

However, they also suffered huge losses.

In the end, less than 30% of the players successfully flew the planes back...

As for the Burning Corps, since the Pinewood Forest Valley ambush was not settled with the Bluestone County battle, but was settled as two separate battles, they came in fifth.

Mosquito: What the heck! Our corps has so many kills, why am I not the MVP? (Going crazy)

𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Spring Water Commander: Don't be silly. Fighting a war isn't about the number of kills. Therefore, it can never be settled by counting how many people you killed. If it was really calculated that way, who would want to dig trenches and stay behind to guard the defence position? Everyone would be rushing forward to get kills. (Smug face)

Night Ten: Don't you think you've wasted too much artillery shells? With such intense bombardment, you're going to make the people in our logistic department work to death. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Escaping Mole: Exactly! What's the point of counting kills? The first line of defense was broken by me!

Sideline Slacking: By the way, how many planes flew back safely?

Mosquito: Does any good brother know when the battle rewards will arrive in our account? Hehe.

Quit Smoking: Damn, don't you think you changed the topic a little bit too abruptly?

Luo Yu: This stupid plane is too difficult to pilot. T . T

Sideline Slacking: Sigh, you all said that my group is the most dangerous. Now you can see which team it actually is!

Midnight Pubg: Well, the ammunition consumption of our Jungle Corps seems to be a bit high as well. (Scratching my head)

The ranking of War Scores was for reference only.

The settlement of campaign rewards would be calculated by a set of fixed formulas based on the performance of each corps in each stage of the mission.

The server would issue a basic reward containing a large number of silver coins and contribution points to the player based on the total score of the corps to which the player belonged.

The corps leader could also award 1st to 3rd class of merit to outstanding players based on their performance in battle, allowing them to obtain 50% to150% additional rewards on the basis of the original rewards.

The number of merits that could be awarded in a battle was linked to the score obtained by the corps in the battle. As for who to award the merits, Chu Guang left the choice to the leaders.

Under the existing mechanism, there was no cost for players to join and quit each corps.

A corps that had clear rewards and punishments systems would naturally grow in valor with each battle, whereas a corps that failed to have even the most basic reward and punishments system would inevitably find itself gradually marginalized.

Letting the corps leaders handle the internal affairs of the corps by themselves was not only the power Chu Guang bestowed on the corps leaders, but also a test of their organizational ability.

In the future, the size of the corps would become larger and larger. Now each corps was still a company-level unit. With the increase in the number of players and the growth of the level, the outstanding corps would soon develop into a battalion-level, regiment-level or even an army group that included multiple divisions.

Chu Guang would update the version as needed.

As for whether players could adapt to the version, that was their problem.

Of course, apart from the meritorious rewards determined internally by each corps, as usual in this battle, the shelter would award medals to players.

Although in the current version, the main fighting force of the war was the various corps, but the contributions of individuals couldn't be ignored.

As the first war campaign above the regiment level since the opening of Wasteland Online, a total of 375 basic medals and 12 special medals were given out in this battle.

These special honors came with hefty perks, and were bestowed by the shelter on individuals who stood out in the campaign.

A good example of individuals who stood out in the war campaign was Make Me.

As an underground worker active deep behind enemy lines, the intelligence provided by Make Me and the chaos created behind the battlefield played a key role in the victory of the war.

As a result, he won the server's only golden Eagle Eye Medal.

Make Me: Hahaha, who dares to say that my sequence is useless now! It's extremely awesome! (Smug face)

Night Ten: What's the point? Most people can't choose that sequence anyway. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Quit Smoking: What about your minions?

Make Me: It's okay! Anyway, I can respawn tomorrow. When I go back, I'll definitely scare them shitless! (Smirk)

...