Chapter 447.1: Hundred Year Old Lonely Fella

[Colonel, our operations in the center of Clearspring City have reached a stalemate. The soldiers are fighting bravely, and our enemies have suffered heavy losses, but unfortunately, we still haven't been able to approach the Hive.]

[Although the Wanderer tanks are highly mobile and have reliable armor, they require major repairs after each battle, and the parts needed for replacement are simply not available here.]

[Our equipment has no advantage when faced with the siege of Mutant Slime Mold. They fall in swathes and then surge forward in groups... It's just like a tidal wave. We might collapse due to logistical breakdowns before we can eliminate them all.]

[What is most worrying are those ‘evolved entities’... The name was coined by the technicians who entered the city center with us. We discovered that some Mutant Slime Mold have undergone a secondary mutation on top of their initial mutations and have even begun to mimic us, evolving structures similar to exoframes and exoskeletons, even corrupting our drones and tanks.]

[This is not me spouting nonsense. I know this sounds incredible, but if we continue to treat them as mere beasts with teeth and claws, or as bio-weapons deployed by the enemy, we may pay a heavy price... In fact, our casualties are already severe.]

[Rather than advanced weapons, we need more maintainable equipment in sufficient quantities. Right now, we are using precious equipment and manpower to fill a line that cannot be held.]

[Finally, some good news. The exterior wall of the Giant Stone Building has been completed. The brothers in the production department are as reliable as ever, and this magnificent project can at least shelter 100,000 people through the toughest winter. The refugees in the south no longer need to migrate north. They can be settled in the western suburbs of Clearspring City. At least we have completed our first phase goal. We will commence the second phase operation after a brief rest.]

[I heard that the technical department is looking for a way to solve the Slime Mold problem at the genetic level.]

[I have an idea. Why not use the genes in the gene bank to produce a group of super soldiers who are not afraid of death?]

[Even if they are not useful on the battlefield, they can at least help us move things around. The maintenance of those androids and robots is too troublesome. We might need to allocate another maintenance company to keep up with so many of them.]

[Telegram from the front (3/3), March 21, 2150.]

Aboard the Heart of Steel.

Chu Guang, resting in the captain's quarters, was browsing the official forum through a holographic computer.

The information was collected by players of the Death Corps and synced to the shelter's servers via the shelter’s radio station.

Watching the players upload photos to the official website, he thoughtfully stroked his chin and leaned back in his chair.

"2150... That should be the 21st year of the Wasteland Era."

He was sensitive to numbers and clearly remembered that the first year of the Wasteland Era was 2129.

"But to be attacking the center of Clearspring City in March... That's not too smart of them."

Spring was the peak outbreak period for Mutant Slime Mold. Their reproduction speed would reach its peak, and the density of spores in the air would also be at its highest.

Of course, that was from someone who knew everything...

Perhaps the survivors at the time had not yet grasped the concept of the Tide, like they indicated in the telegram. The Post-War Reconstruction Committee underestimated the threat of those Mutant Slime Mold.

Also... Shouldn’t it have been a nuclear winter then?

Whatever it was, that wasn’t the main point.

What concerned Chu Guang more was the last line of the telegram.

"... A group of soldiers who are not afraid of death... Are they referring to the Wislander people?"

Chu Guang was puzzled.

Those big-nosed guys aren't as fearless as imagined...

Maybe it was because his players were basically all awakeners, or maybe his attribute panel itself was outragetous... But he didn’t think that those big nosed fools were strong.

Maybe they are somewhat stronger than ordinary people.

"Little Seven...” Chu Guang spoke suddenly.

A sexy voice soon entered his ears, and it sounded extremely excited. "Master... I’m here."

With his eyelids twitching slightly and after pondering for a moment, Chu Guang spoke. "... Retrieve the information collected by the Death Corps. Not just about the Wislander people. I need all the intelligence on the Army, Enterprise, and the Academy.

“Alright."

Chu Guang waited briefly after Little Seven’s response. In less than a minute, a compiled version was available.

Whether uploaded by the players or saved in personal albums, all the information was organized into a text document with a table of contents for easy reference.

Although most of the clues collected by the players were fragmented, they actually pieced together quite a bit of significant information.

Just as he had guessed.

The Wislander people were indeed created through genetic modification technology.

Although the project initially faced opposition from the committee's technical department, the continued heavy casualties on the front lines and a large amount of unresolved work forced the committee's defense department to put pressure on the technical department.

In the 21st year of the Wasteland Era, 2150, spurred by the heavy casualties of Operation Clearspring, the super-soldier project named ‘Wislander People Plan’ was finally approved despite immense pressure from all sides.

And the committee's defense department, the predecessor of the Army, had a name indissolubly linked to the chaos of a century and a half ago.

Curiosity arose in Chu Guang's heart, and following the clues organized by Little Seven, he continued to read.

All 23 pairs of chromosomes of the Wislander people were completely designed by genetic modification technology, and the materials were extracted from an incomplete gene bank named ‘Wislander’.

The first thousand gene prototypes truly possessed extraordinary combat abilities.

They retained human qualities but had almost beast-like combat instincts, able to defeat more than five trained veterans in combat even without systematic training.

However, the downside was also evident.

Even after the Prosperity Era, there was still little opportunity for hand-to-hand combat on the battlefield.

Their robust physiques made them more suitable for participating in the most dangerous tasks with the highest casualty rates, although their super-reflexes and mobility allowed them to kill enemies more efficiently. Unfortunately, their numbers were too few.

Those super-soldiers ultimately did not play a significant role on the battlefield, which also led to their further political marginalization.

After several combats against Mutant Slime Mold, the Wislander people were formed into a separate rapid-response brigade under the leadership of a young commander named Julius, using low-logistical-demand, inexpensive equipment to support regular military operations.

Julius was a legend. He was born in the same year as the Wislander People Plan and, because his father was a high-ranking officer in the 111th Orbital Airborne Division, he received military education from an early age.

As an ‘old human’, he almost grew up with those new humans. 15 years later, he stepped onto the battlefield against the Mutant Slime Mold as a commander.

Chu Guang used the search function to look up the name ‘Julius’ and found that this seemingly special name unexpectedly appeared hundreds of times in less than half a million characters of documents.

"... Come to think of it, the Marshal of the Army is also called Julius..." Chu Guang vaguely remembered hearing about his name from Vanus.

However, on the West Coast, few people directly mention his name, and they would call him the Marshal instead.

"If the Marshal of the Army and the Julius in the documents are the same person, then this guy must have lived at least 150 years!" Chu Guang was slightly amazed, unable to imagine what that would feel like.

In

Stellaris

, an officer who has lived for 150 years, even if just sent to patrol fleets to mix with pirates, would have reached the max level.

His index finger continued to slide on the holographic screen, and he quickly flipped to the next page.