It was supposed to be a casual game, but the Long March dungeon brought tears to everyone's eye

"Zhao?"

Kuang Ge repeated the surname, his brows furrowed.

It seems they want to savor something different from the first of the Hundred Family Surnames.

"Hmm." The Blue Knight nodded, his voice deep. "There's only one surname."

"The system displays him as 'Guardian Zhao,' but strangely, his mortar... has no mount."

"No gun mount?" Hawkeye was taken aback.

The heavy weapon in the emotional picture that's missing some weight, is it really their "mortar"?

"Mortars rely on their base plates and carriages to adjust the firing angle and cushion recoil. How can you fire them without a carriage?" Hawkeye frowned.

"You can't just rely on your hands to hold it, can you? Where that shell goes depends entirely on luck..."

"That's the problem," the Blue Knight continued, but then changed the subject.

"However, there shouldn't be any wasted strokes in Luo's design."

"I suspect that activating this 'Gunner' skill doesn't require skill or a strategy guide."

"But..."

Ruan Ruan, who had been silent all along, suddenly took over the conversation in a soft voice.

"It's not that the players are like that."

The three grown men were taken aback.

Ruan Ruan stared into the eyes of Zhao, the sharpshooter, in the screenshot, her voice unusually firm.

"In Luo Laozei's parallel world, his comrades-in-arms are the old squad leader, Xiao Hu, and those who dared to let go and sink into the swamp so as not to drag the team down."

"And what about today's players?" Ruan Ruan frowned. "Although many players are trying to immerse themselves in history, they ultimately don't have the same 'historical immersion' mentality as we do."

"It's more about a gaming mentality."

"In that 'sharp gunner's' eyes, most players might even be a bunch of thugs in military uniforms."

"So, the soul of Gunner Zhao wasn't awakened!" Madman continued, pausing for a moment.

"Then let's put together a 'decent' team for him!"

Crazy Brother suddenly looked at the time on the screen.

"Since this dungeon requires a thousand players, we definitely can't handle it on our own."

"We can't control those 990 random passersby, but these ten core team members must be the toughest nuts to crack in the entire server!"

"Hawkeye, do you have anyone over there? Looking for the kind who's quiet, skilled in bed, and whose hands won't tremble even if the sky falls!"

Hawkeye laughed, "Yes, I'll go recruit some from the former team right away!"

"pull!"

"Knight, do you have a capable assistant to coordinate the thousand people you requested, as well as handle the data calculations?"

The Blue Knights are no slouch either.

"I have a 'human calculator' that I used to carry around with me and hardly ever slept with, so it should still be there."

"pull!"

Kuang Ge also opened his friend list and focused his attention on an ID whose profile picture was a "rice bowl".

"I'll call someone too. This guy may have a bad temper, but he's the kind of guy who'd actually block a gun with his own gun."

In just five minutes.

The voice chat room, which originally had only four people, began to ring with notification sounds one after another.

The elite ten-person team has assembled.

In addition to the original four members and the eight new members brought in by the Blue Knight, five new IDs were also listed.

Early in the morning (Sharpshooter): "Ha... Hawkeye, what's gotten into you last night? I just dreamt about my fully equipped AWM..."

Hawkeye (Sharpshooter): "Wake up, I'll show you what a Mosin-Nagant looks like without a scope."

Monday No Rice (Machine Gunner): "Brother Crazy, you better be in a real hurry! I just ordered takeout! The noodles are all soggy!"

Crazy Bro (Assault Soldier): "Want to go eat 'braised pork'?"

"Damn! I'm online!"

Then there's the taciturn heavy machine gunner Yan Danhong, and the talkative data king, Number Guy.

"Knight, according to the data package released by Loan Studio, the current speed of the Dadu River is 4 to 5 meters per second, and the ballistic deviation rate..."

"Stop!" The blue knight rubbed his temples. "We'll settle this once we're inside the dungeon."

The last one was brought in by Ruan Ruan; the style of the scene changed drastically as soon as Li Luoluo entered.

"My darling! I heard someone's bullying you? They even wanted to take you to roll around in that muddy ground? I'll go bribe that old scoundrel Luo An right now!"

Her voice was sweet, but it carried an air of arrogance, as if she were saying, "I've taken over this fishpond."

Kuang Ge was a little confused.

"And this is...?"

Ruan Ruan chuckled softly.

"My best friend, um... has a little bit of money, she's in charge of bribing everyone."

Ten people gathered.

Looking at the room full of demons and monsters, Kuang Ge inexplicably felt more confident.

He opened the long-dormant live stream room, titled:

Tonight, we are determined to be the first to successfully cross the Dadu River!

The moment the broadcast started, a flood of viewers who had been watching from a black screen all day rushed in.

Kuang Ge zoomed out the matchmaking interface for the "Crossing the Dadu River" dungeon to its maximum size.

"Brothers, I won't waste any more words."

"Me, Hawkeye, Softie, and these guys, plus a rich woman, are going to the Dadu River to pull off a big heist."

"This is a 1,000-player dungeon, meaning that 1,000 players will be in one session."

"I can't control passersby, but I trust you."

"Those who want to team up with us to complete 'Crossing the Dadu River' and then 'Seize the Luding Bridge' to recruit people..."

"Let's match up for the Dadu River in three minutes!!"

……

Half an hour later, the match was successful.

When Kuang Ge opened his eyes, before he could even see the scene clearly, he was first covered in a face full of water vapor.

He wiped the water off his face, his vision gradually cleared, but all he could hear was noise.

"Holy crap! This is the Dadu River? Are you serious about this current speed?"

"Where's the boat? Didn't you say there was a boat? I don't see it!"

"Don't push! Who stepped on my foot!"

Before me stood countless players dressed in worn-out gray military uniforms.

A thousand players were crammed onto this narrow riverbank, like a pot of boiling porridge.

The Blue Knight shook his head helplessly; the situation was still a headache.

However, it's much better than the previous two days. At least no players will be foolishly grabbing, rushing, or giving away resources, and then the game will end in a flash.

Upon seeing this, Kuang Ge immediately opened the regional voice channel without any further ado.

"Shut the hell up!!"

With that shout, Crazy Brother used the same strength he used to roar military songs in the grassland.

The riverbank, which was originally as noisy as a vegetable market, fell into a brief silence.

All one thousand players turned to look at the Madman standing on a large blue stone.

Although many of these players came from the live streams of the three members of the "Crazy Brothers" group, most of them were casual players who joined after seeing the server-wide announcement.

They wore drab military uniforms, but their faces bore the restlessness and bewilderment of modern people.

"It's Madman! And Hawkeye and Softie too!"

"Holy crap, we got matched! Bro, carry me!"

"This dungeon is so hard! I almost drowned in the river yesterday!"

After a brief silence, an even more intense uproar erupted as countless players tried to squeeze in.

The already crowded riverbank instantly descended into chaos, with some people being pushed to the ground and others hurling insults; the scene was on the verge of spiraling out of control.

"Stop! Keep your distance!"

Blue Knight shouted in the regional channel, but his calm voice was instantly drowned out by the noise of thousands of people.

He rubbed his temples, turned to look at Brother Kuang, and looked helpless.

"This is the current situation."

"Even if they know they need to cooperate, as long as there are many people, and everyone has their own ideas, it will just be a disorganized mess."

Even Kuang Ge felt a chill run down his spine watching this scene.

If the old squad leader saw this, he'd probably be so angry he'd elbow them to death!

"Those bastards..."

Madman gritted his teeth, preparing to draw his gun and fire a warning shot.

At this moment, Li Luoluo, who was standing next to Ruan Ruan, suddenly stepped forward.

She calmly opened the regional channel and said lightly.

"From now on, everyone who joins the group and follows orders will receive a 500 yuan red envelope."

The noisy riverbank immediately quieted down.

one second.

two seconds.

"After joining the group, anyone who strictly follows orders and survives to the end will receive an additional two thousand," Li Luoluo added slowly. "The first pass will be five thousand each."

Whoosh—!

The entire audience erupted in uproar.

"What the hell? Five hundred just for joining? And two thousand if you're obedient?"

"5,000 yuan for the first fare? Really?"

Just as the doubts began, Kuang Ge, Ying Yan, and Ruan Ruan started to jointly defend each other, and the tone of the regional channel changed again.

"Holy crap! So she's a real rich woman! I'm starving! Time for food!"

"Stop pushing! Anyone who pushes again will get me!"

"Rich lady, look at me! I'm the most obedient; if you tell me to go east, I'll never go west!"

The chaotic crowd that had been trying to rush forward was instantly calmed down, and everyone stood still obediently in place.

On Earth, sentimentality may not be able to silence everyone, but money can.

Kuang Ge stared wide-eyed at the scene and couldn't help but give Ruan Ruan a thumbs up.

"Your best friend... is pretty tough."

Ruan Ruan smiled helplessly.

"She is the typical person who believes that 'problems that can be solved with money are not problems.'"

Only then did the Blue Knight begin to take command and adjust the team.

Meanwhile, Madman, Hawkeye, and the others made their way through the crowd to the very front of the riverbank.

At this moment, the sky was overcast, and the Dadu River roared loudly.

On the banks of the murky river, behind a makeshift shelter made of a few piled-up rocks, sat a person.

Its eyes were large and empty, staring straight at the enemy's bunker on the shore.

Beside the sharpshooter Zhao, a mortar lay quietly.

As the Blue Knight said, this cannon is too strange.

It only had that dark, gaping barrel, but lacked the most important base plate and tripod, and didn't even have a decent ammunition box.

Only three lonely shells remained, stuck in the mud like three radishes.

Kuang Ge strode forward and tentatively called out.

"Comrade?"

no response.

Zhao was like a weathered sculpture, not even blinking an eye.

No one was surprised.

But Hawkeye suddenly spoke up.

He stared into Zhao's empty eyes, which were completely unfocused.

It was as if his soul had been lost somewhere along the Long March.

"He's watching the bunker," Hawkeye said in a deep voice. "He's calculating the distance."

"What?" Everyone was stunned.

"Look at his fingers."

Hawkeye pointed to Zhao's right hand, which was resting on his knee.

The withered, skeletal hand, its index finger trembling slightly, was gently tapping a certain rhythm on the thigh.

Tap, tap, tap.

"That's mental arithmetic," the data guy reacted first. "He's calculating wind speed, ballistics, and whether those three shells can blow that turtle's shell off the other side!"

"If he's calculating, why is he ignoring us?" Zhou Yibuqianfan asked, puzzled.

Kuang Ge was silent for a moment, then looked back at the group of players behind him who, although they had quieted down, were still whispering to each other, and some were even taking selfies.

"Because we are still not like that."

Kuang Ge turned around and looked at that lonely figure.

"In his eyes, the people standing behind him might not be his comrades-in-arms, but a group of strangers in military uniforms..."

"How can you give a soul to a group of soulless soldiers?"

"Only with a soul could he fire those three shells."

The atmosphere suddenly became somewhat tense, which made things difficult.

They can use money to make players obey, and they can use commands to make players choose sides, but how can they turn these modern people into a real "Red Legion" in a few minutes?

"No matter what, the war must continue."

Crazy Brother took a deep breath and began to examine the weapon in his hand.

"Hawkeye, you take me to find a high vantage point early this morning and keep a close watch on the firing ports of the enemy bunker."

"On Monday, you and Yan Danhong will provide heavy machine gun fire suppression."

"Yes!" The group quickly got into the zone.

On the other side...

Ruan Ruan, holding onto the fence, was making her way toward the dilapidated little village behind the riverbank.

However, Ruan Ruan suddenly felt that something was wrong here.

"Something's not right?"

"It's too quiet."

Ruan Ruan stopped and looked at the desolate village in front of her.

According to the guide, there should be wisps of smoke rising from chimneys and hospitable villagers here.

But now, every household keeps its doors and windows tightly shut.

Some windows even had wooden planks nailed haphazardly to them.

The feeling was like guarding against some kind of flood or ferocious beast, or like guarding against... bandits.

Ruan Ruan's heart skipped a beat.

She suddenly remembered that this instance had been open for two days.

In other words, countless groups of players of varying quality have come here in the past two days.

Some of them might vandalize villagers' homes to steal food; some might kick down villagers' doors to find clues; some might act like bandits, wantonly venting their malice known as the "Fourth Calamity" in this virtual world.

If this were just a normal game, the NPCs would refresh their memories after a while.

But this is Luo Laozei's game.

These villagers probably had some nightmares too.

Then they became wary of the upcoming thousand-player squad that didn't seem like the Crimson Legion.

Ruan Ruan looked at the tightly closed doors and windows, as if she could see pairs of trembling, fearful eyes in the darkness.

They thought they were part of the Red Army.

But in the eyes of these villagers, they were probably more terrifying than warlords.

At this moment, even though Li Luoluo was a warrior with "money power," she was also feeling a bit uneasy about this strange atmosphere.

"Ruanruan, what should we do?" Li Luoluo shrank closer to Ruanruan.

"There are no fellow villagers here, it feels like a ghost village."

"Someone's there." Ruan Ruan stared at a dilapidated thatched hut in front of her, her voice soft but firm, "I heard it."

Amidst the howling wind, there was a faint, extremely suppressed groan of pain.

If you don't listen carefully, it's easy to be drowned out by the sound of the waves of the Dadu River.

Ruan Ruan took a deep breath, tidied up the sanitation worker's bag that came with the system, and walked over quickly.

Seeing this, Li Luoluo followed.

She walked up to the dilapidated wooden door, stopped softly at the doorway, and knocked three times gently.

"Tap, tap, tap."

The suppressed groans inside the room vanished instantly.

After a moment of silence, there was a flurry of moving sounds, as if someone was propping something heavy against the door, or hiding someone in the cellar.

"Fellow villager?" Ruan Ruan tried her best to make her voice sound gentle.

"We're just passing through and wanted to ask for a drink of water."