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

As dawn broke, the mist from the Dadu River mingled with the morning frost.

"Squeak—"

At the east end of the village, the dilapidated wooden door that couldn't be opened no matter how hard we knocked yesterday was carefully pushed open a crack.

The old man who once stuffed rice into Baba Dashun's hand was holding a steaming black earthenware jar, peeking out cautiously.

He listened to the rumors all night, fearing that the soldiers outside, having nowhere to stay, might go crazy and set the houses on fire.

But when he saw the scene before him clearly, his cloudy old eyes widened suddenly.

There were no doors kicked down, and no neighbors causing chaos with their looting.

Along the streets filled with mud, cow dung, and ice shards, two rows of dusty figures stretched for hundreds of meters like two silent dams.

They huddled together, covered with straw and thin clothes, and some even held broken guns to their chests for warmth.

The passageway in the middle, barely wide enough for one person to pass through, was spotless, with not a single foot sticking out to block the way.

"This...this is really a soldier?"

The old man's hand trembled slightly, and the lid of the earthenware jar made a crisp sound as it was knocked.

The sound was like a thunderclap.

"Enemy attack?!"

Zhou Yibuqian, who was sleeping in the closest room, suddenly jolted awake. Without even opening his eyes, he grabbed the old sleeve from his pocket and tried to pull the plug.

As a result, his hands froze, and the gun slammed into his foot with a loud thud.

"Aww!!"

Monday's shout of "No rice on Monday!" woke up all the players on the street.

"Where? The enemy is here?"

"Holy crap, I can't feel my leg anymore, did they amputate it?"

"I'm so hungry... The system is warning me that my maximum health will drop if I don't eat soon..."

The originally solemn scene instantly turned into chaos.

The players grimaced as they scrambled to their feet from the mud, some helping each other up, others busy swatting cow dung off their bottoms.

Despite the noise and the mess, the lively atmosphere dispelled the deathly silence of the village.

As the first door opened, it triggered a chain reaction.

The second door, the third door...

More and more villagers are venturing out.

Most of them didn't have much of a good thing in their hands. Some were carrying a bowl of clear soup with a few wild vegetable leaves floating on it, some were carrying a few black cornbreads that were as hard as rocks, and some were even carrying a bucket of freshly boiled ginger soup.

For ordinary people of this era, this is all they have to offer.

"Kids... have something hot."

The old woman whose grandson had been saved by Ruan Ruan walked over, surrounded by a group of women.

She held a large, chipped blue-rimmed bowl filled with thick, white porridge.

In those chaotic years of war, a bowl of plain porridge was a life-saving commodity.

The old woman walked straight to Ruan Ruan and handed her over with trembling hands.

"Girl, last night... it was my fault for being blind."

"This porridge is freshly cooked, keep it hot."

Fragrant.

It smells absolutely delicious.

The aroma of rice wafted into their noses on the wind, a nuclear-level temptation for these players who were starving in the game and had their sense of taste maximized.

Gudong.

Someone swallowed, and it sounded particularly loud in the early morning.

Ruan Ruan looked at the bowl of porridge, her throat bobbing.

The bright red "Hunger" status bar on the system panel was flashing frantically as an alarm.

She instinctively reached out her hand.

When playing games, why wouldn't you accept supplies from NPCs?

But his hand froze halfway through its reach.

She remembered the coins from yesterday, and the saying, "We will not take a single needle or thread from the masses."

If I take it now, wouldn't all that bragging I did yesterday have been for nothing?

more importantly……

Ruan Ruan glanced at the child who was still hiding behind the door frame behind the old woman.

The child stared at the white porridge, sniffling with longing.

This porridge is the staple food for this family.

"Auntie." Ruan Ruan withdrew her hand, put it behind her back, her nails digging into her palms, and forced a smile, "We're not hungry."

"Look, we all have dry rations."

To prove it, Ruan Ruan took out the black steamed bun that was harder than a rock from her pocket, put it to her mouth and pretended to take a bite, almost breaking her front tooth.

"Yes, yes, yes! We have food!"

Zhou Yibuqian, sitting next to him, was drooling and nodding frantically.

He slapped his thigh hard, suppressing the urge to eat.

"Auntie, please keep this for yourselves! We are a disciplined army; we can't eat the people's food for free!"

The live stream chat exploded instantly.

"Holy crap? Is this the same guy who chased me for three maps just to grab an airdrop crate?"

"My family is moved to tears. Is this what they mean by 'wanting to offer an umbrella to someone else because you've been caught in the rain'?"

"Stop getting sentimental. Look at how his hands were shaking on Monday. Was he hungry or craving something?"

Ordinary people don't care about these things.

All they knew was that the soldiers hadn't disturbed the neighbors by entering the house last night, that they had treated the child for free, and that they wouldn't even eat a hot meal now.

Human hearts are made of flesh and blood.

"What discipline?!"

The hot-tempered old man got angry and slammed the ginger soup bucket on the ground, splashing up a cloud of muddy water.

"Not eating means you look down on us! You think we're poor!"

"Exactly! How can we let our benefactor go hungry!"

"Take it! You must take it!"

The villagers were honest and got right to work.

Several middle-aged women surrounded Zhou Yibuqian and insisted on stuffing several steaming hot boiled sweet potatoes into his arms.

The old woman held Ruanruan's hand tightly, insisting on bringing the bowl of porridge to her lips.

The situation briefly spiraled out of control.

This time, however, it wasn't players stealing NPCs; it was NPCs "besieging" the players.

"No, no, no! Sir, please don't hit me!"

"Holy crap, this sweet potato is so hot! I can't eat it! I really can't eat it!"

Just when things were in complete chaos...

"Stop arguing."

Crazy Brother parted the crowd and walked over.

He glanced at the villagers who were eager to repay their kindness, their faces flushed, and then at the players who were clearly craving food but were stubbornly holding back.

He took a deep breath and turned to look at Ruan Ruan.

"Ruanruan, paper and pen."

"Huh? Oh!"

Ruan Ruan realized what was happening and quickly pulled out a crumpled little notebook and half a pencil from her precious first-aid kit.

Kuang Ge took the paper and pen and, without the slightest hesitation, quickly wrote down a few lines.

His movements were rough, yet they conveyed a sense of solemnity.

tear-

Kuang Ge tore off the piece of paper and handed it to the old man who was leading the group.

"Grandpa," Kuang Ge's voice was deep, "we'll eat this meal."

"But let's be clear from the start, this isn't something to be taken for granted."

"This is an IOU."

Kuang Ge pointed to the note, on which was written in a crooked hand:

[The Red Army's advance team borrows a bowl of white rice porridge, three sweet potatoes, and a bucket of ginger soup from the villagers. They will repay double with the spoils they capture the other side. Signed: Mad Brother.]

"We're poor right now, we're broke." Kuang Ge grinned, pointing to the roaring Dadu River behind him, "But as long as we cross this river, as long as we're not all dead."

"This debt, the Red Legion... well, we accept it!"

The old man held the flimsy piece of paper, his hands trembling even more violently.

He couldn't read many words, but he recognized the five-pointed star drawn in the corner of the note.

That was a promise.

A promise heavier than the ocean.

"Eat! Eat up!" Madman turned around and roared at the group of players who were already itching to fight. "It's from our fellow villagers, don't waste it! You need to be well-fed to have the energy to fight!"

"yes!!!"

The roar was deafening.

The players finally abandoned their inhibitions and began to wolf down their food.

That ordinary bowl of white porridge and that sweet potato with the smell of earth tasted more delicious than any grand meal they had ever eaten in real life.

Because what you eat with this meal, besides carbohydrates, is something called "dignity".

Not far away, on the riverbank.

Zhao, the gunner who had been sitting like a statue in his gun position since the start of the instance, showing no reaction to the outside world.

At that moment, as the morning breeze carried the sounds of laughter and the aroma of rice, his neck stiffly moved slightly.

Zhao slowly turned his head.

For the first time, those bloodshot, empty, lifeless eyes regained focus.

He looked at Kuang Ge, who was surrounded by villagers, and at Ruan Ruan, who was feeding porridge to the child.

The fingers that had been tapping on his knees stopped.

Then the hand, calloused and smelling of gunpowder, slowly moved down, as if to grasp the cold mortar barrel beside it.

……

After eating and drinking to their hearts' content, they sat on a large, bare blue stone, washed smooth by the river.

The blue knight held a piece of charred charcoal in his hand and drew several rough lines on the surface of the stone.

"Brothers, the situation is not good."

The Blue Knight's voice carried a hint of exhaustion from staying up all night.

He smacked the curve representing the river surface with charcoal.

"The 'Digital Bro' just calculated that we are facing three dead ends."

"First, the flow rate deadlock."

"The Dadu River is currently in its flood season, and the flow rate exceeds 4.5 meters per second."

"Second, a deadlock in firepower."

The blue knight drew a circle on the opposite bank and then crossed it out.

"That bunker over there, combined with the machine gun positions on the flank, forms an absolute crossfire network, while our landing point..."

He pointed to the small, pale, pebble beach on the opposite bank.

There is no cover whatsoever.

"Even if the ship can dock, it will be a sitting duck."

"Third, and most deadly—vehicle deadlock."

The Blue Knight threw the charcoal in his hand onto the stone, sending ash flying everywhere.

"We're upstream, and there's only that one ship."

"This dilapidated boat can only carry less than twenty people at a time."

"Even if we're all sharpshooters, even if we're fearless, there's a limit to how much space a ship can hold."

"What's even more deadly is..." The blue knight's gaze swept across the entire area, "There are no boatmen here, and none of us know how to row a boat in this godforsaken place."

The moment those words were spoken, the entire room fell into a deathly silence.

"I can paddle a kayak..." one player said timidly, raising his hand.

"It's useless," a guy next to me who does outdoor sports in real life retorted.

"With waves like these and whirlpools like these, you couldn't even sail a jet ski, let alone a kayak—only someone who understands the river's temperament can handle it!"

"So what do we do? Wait to die? Or refresh and start over?"

"Restart my ass! There are still four hours left in the dungeon countdown!"

Anxiety spread among the people.

The morale that had just been built up because of that bowl of porridge suddenly became precarious.

"Looking for someone from my hometown!"

Just then, Ba Ba Da Shun, who had been squatting at Kuang Ge's feet wrapping his legs with leg wraps, suddenly stood up.

"Since we can't, the locals certainly can!"

"Growing up by this river, how could there not be a skilled surfer among them?"

Ba Ba Da Shun pointed to the village behind him where smoke was still rising from the chimneys.

"You drank that bowl of porridge too. The villagers don't see us as bandits anymore."

"Let's go and ask. As long as we're sincere, I don't believe no one will help us!"

"That's right! We are now a 'righteous army'!"

"Let's go! Let's go find the village chief!"

A few minutes later.

Crazy Bro, Softie, Eight-Eight Great Smooth, and Blue Knight surrounded the old man who had delivered rice to Eight-Eight Great Smooth back then.

Upon hearing their purpose, the old man's kind face instantly fell, and his pipe trembled in his hand.

"Kid...it's not that we don't want to help."

The old man sighed, his cloudy old eyes filled with fear.

"This river is like a tiger's mouth that eats people."

"In previous years, it was impossible to sail at this time of year."

"Besides... all the boatmen in the village have long since run away."

"They ran away?" Kuang Ge frowned.

This instance has only been open for a short time, and it has already changed so much.

The dungeon designed by Luo Laozei is clearly not unchanged after being reopened.

"They're all terrified of being arrested by the soldiers over there!" The old man pointed to the other side of the river.

"A few days ago, they were conscripting men over there. They took all the good men in the village to build bunkers and transport ammunition. If they didn't do something right, they would shoot them and throw them into the river to feed the fish."

"What young people left would dare to show their faces?"

Kuang Ge's heart sank.

In this parallel world, the warlords' atrocities instilled in the common people a physiological fear and distrust of anyone "wearing a military uniform."

Even a simple bowl of porridge wouldn't be enough to make them risk their lives.

After all, this hellish difficulty was created by the players themselves, but now it's Crazy Bro and his friends who are paying the price.

If they had come to clear the land a day earlier, none of this would have happened.

"Is...is there really no other way?" Ruan Ruan bit her lip, her voice trembling.

The old man couldn't bear to see the anxiety in the eyes of these young men.

He hesitated for a long time, then lowered his voice and pointed to the gray reeds upstream.

"If we really want to cross the river... there's only one hope."

"There's a guy hiding in that reed bed. His name is Shuai Bazi."

"He is the best boatman in the surrounding area, and people call him 'the godson of the River God'."

"As long as he's willing to come out of seclusion, even if the river boils over, he'll still dare to venture out."

"But..." The old man paused, his face turning grim.

"This person has a strange temper and won't listen to either soft or hard tactics."

"And what he hates most right now... is soldiers."

……

Upstream, reed marshes.

The wind here is colder than at the ferry crossing, rustling through the withered reeds like the wailing of ghosts.

The mud underfoot was black and smelly.

With each step, black water would overflow your ankles, and when you pulled it out, it made a sickening sucking sound.

Kuang Ge walked in front, followed closely by Ruan Ruan and Ba Ba Da Shun.

To show their sincerity, they only brought pistols and carried the somewhat intimidating large knife on their backs.

They found the man beside a wrecked boat overturned in the mud, covered in moss.

A man who looked to be in his forties was sitting on a dead tree with his back to them, mending fishing nets.

He was shirtless, his back tanned dark and shiny by the sun, and his spine was slightly hunched.

Having spent years rowing boats, his muscular physique is not an exaggeration, but rather full of explosive power.

The man had an unlit pipe dangling from his mouth, and even when he heard footsteps behind him, he didn't turn around.

"A handsome master?"

Ba Ba Da Shun stepped forward; although he was a rough man, he tried his best to be polite.

"We are from the Crimson Legion, and we would like to ask for your help..."

"roll."

There is only one word.

The sound wasn't loud, but it was like two stones colliding head-on, cold and hard, jarring to the ear.

Eighty-eight-smooth was taken aback and wanted to explain.

"Master, we..."

"I said, get out."

The handsome guy finally turned around.

It was a weathered face, with a long scar at the corner of his left eye that stretched all the way to his ear.

He looked indifferent, threw the shuttle in his hand on the ground, and stood up.

The oppressive feeling was so strong that even the boxer, Ba Ba Da Shun, subconsciously took a half step back.

"The river is swollen, and there's a hail of bullets; it's like going to your death."

The captain took his pipe off the boat and banged it on the deck, shaking off a layer of ash.

"Our lives matter too; we won't be cannon fodder for any team."

【

Hmm, I saw someone say that 2,000 words per chapter is too short. Apart from the two chapters at midnight, I'll try to keep the bonus chapters to 3,000 to 4,000 words each. Of course, the gifts will also be included as a thank you. That's all.

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