Chapter 406.2 New Expansion Pack, Free Stuff From The East Coast?

Ample Time: Speaking of Old White, why did you die too?

Old White: Isn't that normal, just a pity about that equipment, oh... We suffered heavy losses.

Sideline Slacking: What's there to fear, the corps' equipment is from the alliance's stock, and personal equipment is separate. >ᵥ_ᵥ<

Gale: Although that's true, whether there's stock is another matter. (≖⩊≖)

Sideline Slacking: Uh, seems so, your exoskeleton isn't cheap.

Ample Time: It's not about the money anymore, it's about the respawn cooldown. Speaking of Old White, the contribution points you will receive in this battle alone is probably more than 10,000 points, right?

Old White: Yeah, should be enough after this battle.

Spring Water Commander: Awesome! Good buddy, let me touch that Dragon Cavalry when you get it.

Old White: What's there to be curious about, it's not original equipment, just a battle-worn version, I feel it might not even be as useful as an exoskeleton.

Sideline Slacking: Damn! If you don’t want it, give it to me!

Night Ten: Bah, annoying bastard!

Old White didn't feel like he was being boastful.

If it was really useful, would the administrator not wear it?

Other players knew it well, yet it was still the first full-service exoframe, and everyone couldn't help but envy. They also had sincere admiration.

Contribution points and silver coins were two completely different mechanisms.

When they were still in the early phases of the game, contribution points given by tasks might be more than the silver coin rewards, but as their level increased, they would earn more silver coins but any contribution point reward would remain the same.

Contribution point rewards above four digits were basically unobtainable from tasks. They would usually only appear in wars or when discovering special relics.

100,000 contribution points! That was a six-digit number!

Even playing from the start, that was too awesome.

The honor was even more dazzling than any number of medals.

He was a true hero of the alliance.

While the players were discussing fervently, a legendary ID appeared.

The post was also pinned to the front page.

Light: Thank you all for your support for the expansion pack event. Our server has safely passed the most dangerous moment, and the triumphal celebration and award ceremony prepared for all you brave warriors will be held in five days! At that time, the new expansion pack 'A Thousand Miles of Yellow Sand' will also be released, please look forward to it! >ᵥ_ᵥ<

- Additionally, to commemorate another victory of our alliance, as well as the first 10,000-man-scale battle of the server, the Wasteland Online operation team unanimously decided to erect a monument next to the new base, Falling Leaf City.

- All players who were sacrificed in action by the time the operation ended can leave their names on the monument.

- However, for the sake of game realism, as well as considering other players' immersion, there will be restrictions on the length and format of the names left on the monument, and special characters, emojis, and numbers are not allowed. The name will be recorded as a 'Memorial Title' and can no longer be used in the future.

- Also, other players' nicknames cannot be written on the monument. If you use your own nickname, you will have to change your name.

- The battle reward settlement will be completed within a day, and the points raffle event will be held during the celebration in five days.

- Let's toast to victory! Although drinking during the day seems a bit inappropriate. :)

After the post was made, the comment section instantly boiled over.

A monument in the newbie village of the future public server?!

This sounds... Quite interesting!

Quit Smoking: Wait, what does it mean the name can’t be used as a nickname anymore?

Escaping Mole: It means if you put your real name on the wall, you can't use this game name anymore, and other new players can't register this nickname, simply put, the owner of this name will be dead.

Ample Time: Got it! It's a name change card! An SSR reward! (≖⩊≖)

Quit Smoking: What what what?

Ample Time: Literal understanding! If you leave your name on the wall, you'll have to pick a new name for yourself, right? You can't say I'm on the wall but still alive, right?

Eye Owe Money: Damn, can you do that?!

Tail: Oh!!! Sounds interesting, can I use my real name? ♡૮₍ฅ ᵔ ꈊ ᵔ ฅ₎ა

Ample Time: Uh, although it's not recommended to expose your private information in the game, there are so many people with the same real name, it's not an ID number, it seems fine.

Construction Boy: Just asking, is it still time to die now?! T.T

Old White: Forget it, wait for next time, and I think dying won't get you a chance to be on the wall. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Quit Smoking: Awesome!! This game actually came out with a name change card!

Garbage: Decided, my name will be

Daniel Wu

Night Ten: Damn! Aren't you afraid of getting sued for infringement?! ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

Everyone was discussing the monument.

From the launch of Wasteland Online, there had always been suggestions for a nickname change feature, but the officials had never adopted it.

Now the feature was available, but it seemed that no one really wanted to change their names.

Although many people's nicknames were chosen for fun, like Makka Pakka or Quit Bullshit, they still carried some sentiment after being used for a long time.

With Little Seven's help, Chu Guang quickly tallied everyone's submissions. However, upon seeing that list, his eyebrows couldn't help but twitch.

Li Lei, Han Meimei... these were relatively normal.

Using celebrity names might involve the issue of naming rights, but since the other world was not governed by Earth's laws, turning a blind eye was not out of the question.

As for names like Old Six, Your Daddy, Ultraman, and Mike Oxmall, and others were a bit too much. Chu Guang directly had Little Seven tag them as failed entries, sending them back for those retards to review.

He was busy until late into the night.

Finally, Chu Guang managed to compile a more detailed list. 2934 names of ‘fallen’ shelter residents, including their life stories, heroic actions in battle, and causes of death.

His list would serve as news material, to be published in Survivor's Daily, Dawn City Daily, and other media under the New Alliance, and edited into broadcasts on stations like the Voice of the Alliance.

At the same time, it also served as proof for the New Alliance to seek compensation from its neighbors and allies.

Chu Guang felt that Boulder Town might not be willing to pay up, but for the sake of long-term interests, businesses on the East Coast would likely give him something.

After all, an ally who dared to stand up when needed and could win against their age-old enemy should be favored.

They couldn’t just leave their allies out to dry.

Apart from the players, three mercenary-composed 1,000-man teams and the First Corps and the Guard Corps also suffered significant casualties.

Especially the artillery squad of the First Corps.

The alliance's 30 100mm cannons deployed on the eastern artillery position were almost entirely wiped out, and the artillery personnel were reduced by 60%.

The equipment wasn't much of a pity, as many were seized from the Bonechewer Clan.

What troubled Chu Guang were the soldiers who died. Many of them had followed him for a long time, some even promoted from the original guards. However, there was never a perfect solution in this world.

War has always been like that.

If not for the singularity-level technology at Shelter 404, which could project players' consciousness into new bodies, even a thrilling victory would be overshadowed by heavy casualties...

...

As Chu Guang was tallying the casualties, the captured Army engineers were working under the lights on the airship's wings, using cranes to lift the broken wings and insert them into the steel-reinforced support.

Those repairs were only emergency measures, and the repaired wings' durability definitely couldn't match new ones.

However, to completely replace the wings and engine, they would have to wait until they returned to Dawn City.

The engineers promised Chu Guang they would repair it within five days, at least getting the airship moving and ensuring a speed of 20 knots per hour.

A speed of 20 knots meant a five-hour trip back to Dawn City.

If they could fix it within five days, making it to the celebration in five days wouldn't be difficult.

Chu Guang planned to return on the airship.

As for the other players, they could freely decide whether to take the airship, go alone, or find companions to travel together.

Outside the bridge's floor-to-ceiling windows. The night-shrouded ground was left with scattered lights, and the distant horizon was already faintly showing a gray outline.

Without him knowing it, dawn had already broken.

Sitting next to a control terminal, Chu Guang yawned, fighting off sleepiness, and under Little Seven's guidance, connected a VM to the terminal. "Can you control it?"

Little Seven's voice rang in his ears. "Woo woo... Sorry, master. The level of electronics here is too low, I can only connect to the radar and shield systems. I can adjust the power output of the energy system, but it seems like the gear switching needs to be done manually..."

Although it was expected, Chu Guang still sighed, “No worries, just connect the radar and shield systems for now."

Little Seven energetically replied, "Alright!"

After connecting the systems, Chu Guang briefly checked the radar of the Heart of Steel and found it was more advanced than he thought.

As a mobile radar station, its detection limit reached 1,200 kilometers, although at that distance the signal was very vague. They were probably only able to detect larger targets, and useless against small aircraft.

But on the wasteland, the capability was already quite impressive.

With the monsoon-carrying radioactive clouds naturally carrying ionizing effects, huge clutter was enough to drown out the radar signal. Radiation wasn't the main threat on the wasteland, nor what actually caused it to turn into a wasteland, but that didn't mean nuclear weapons hadn't impacted the planet.

Besides the environment itself, there were also out-of-control satellites running in low orbit and interference devices, making the effective detection radius of the Heart of Steel's radar only 100 to 150 kilometers.

Improving the distance wasn't very difficult, All they had to do was convert a gun bay into a radar bay.

However, that seemed somewhat pointless.

The vast majority of wasteland survivors' settlements didn’t even have aircrafts, let alone beyond-visual-range strike capabilities. The Heart of Steel only needed to be wary of some unexpected technology that might appear from time to time.

While Chu Guang was fiddling with the radar, Little Seven's voice suddenly came again. "Hmm... Master, the airship's communication system has received an unidentified communication request. It’s coming from the east... Should we connect?"

The east?

Chu Guang was slightly stunned, then immediately said. "Connect immediately!"

Accompanied by the noise of static, intermittent voices from the other end of the communication channel came through.

The signal from the other side was quite poor. It wasn't clear what was being used as the signal node, but Chu Guang still made out the content.

"... This is Enterprise."

"If you have any respect left for the ancient contract, immediately cease your invasion of our allies and release the Pioneer and its crew, or this will be regarded as a declaration of war, and we will respond mercilessly."

Ancient contract?

Chu Guang slightly frowned, the diplomatic phrasing made him sense something unusual.

It seemed that something unknown to him had happened two centuries ago.

But that wasn't the point.

Hearing the second half of the sentence, he couldn’t help but chuckle softly to himself.

It was fine to send a declaration of war. But for them to fight up to that point, they were basically already killing each other on sight. What mercy was there to speak of?

But those East Coast tycoons actually called the New Alliance an ‘ally’, which was beyond Chu Guang's expectations.

There were no alliances between them. Strictly speaking, Shelter 404 was just the Enterprise’s strategic trading partner.

No matter the reason, at least when facing the threat of the Army, they indeed saw themselves as allies on the same front.

Even if if was just a verbal alliance, the Enterprise still had to do it.

Chu Guang looked at the screen and asked Little Seven, "Can we reply?"

Little Seven buzzed with consideration, "Yes, master, just speak, I'll record it and send it for you!"

Looking at the signal light lit up in the upper left corner of the tablet, Chu Guang cleared his throat and spoke in a solemn and clear voice, "... This is the New Alliance, you are a step too late."

"To avoid further escalation of the conflict, we had no choice but to launch a preemptive strike, and we have taken the airship."

There was only the sound of static from the other side of the communication channel. It wasn't clear if they were stunned or hadn't heard.

Chu Guang glanced at the screen. Seeing a thumbs-up emoticon from Little Seven, he knew that the other side should have heard him.

After brewing his emotions for a moment, he continued with a slightly heavy tone, "However, we also paid a heavy price of thousands of lives."

"Even if not for those forced into the conflict, not for the survivors of the Sunset Province and River Valley Province, For the sake of Shelter 0, for the sake of your distressed crew of the Pioneer..."

"... If you can hear our voice, while you still can, please send reinforcements immediately!"