Chapter 1074: NO．197：Light of the End

NO．197：Light of the End

"Isn't it getting more and more off?"

"?"

Standing behind the battle line protected by soldiers and staff wielding spears, waving blades, gripping swords, and raising shields, Aimu Zhiji increasingly oddly watched the battlefield whose momentum was growing ever more vigorous.

At present, she, having finally accepted reality, had taken the power originally meant for the Saichang and used it in survival opposition, giving people an opportunity.

But it's hard to say whether it's because she realized this is a game, or simply because she was swept up by the pressure of war.

After all, in this situation where not living means death and not fighting means demise, if she were to put on any appearance of unwillingness to kill, she wouldn't even be able to stand here now.

And this is precisely why she complained like that.

"Could it be that the trial mentioned at the start wasn't referring to all kinds of training related to racing?"

"Confirmed, currently possessing strength, tenacity, endurance, and intelligence training simultaneously, I cannot understand Aizhi team member's doubt."

"... He indeed said that at the beginning, I always feel that he's just brushing it off."

"Whether it's brushing it off or not, what matters is that it's useful, self‑torturing guinea pig~" Ailisuzhi suddenly joined the conversation, her voice coming from Aimu Zhiji's teammate channel framework, "Just say whether you feel any growth—trainers who train horse girls by deeply immersing themselves in the game have always existed, but few can pull off a stage like Guinea Pig."

"Growth? Do you even have the right to say that?" Aimu Zhiji wordlessly looked at the avatar with a voice indicator, "I heard you've been holed up in the lab and never come out."

"Ha! This is exactly the growth segment I'm missing, Zhiji~" Ailisuzhi's tone was utterly elated, "You know I'm in Tresen, even in Central Tresen, no matter how eagerly I wait, I can't get such an opportunity."

"Not only is it officially participating in key research projects, but it's also a project launched to deal with conscious experimental subjects like the demons."

"You dare say I'm not doing intelligence training?!"

"... Do you really still need to strengthen intelligence training?" I never expected the opponent to be able to loop the topic back to the start; Aimu Zhiji was somewhat speechless, yet also not intimidated by the opponent's rhetoric.

"What growth segment? It's clearly just the segment where your own interest gets maximum satisfaction… how much could it have to do with training?"

Aimu Zhiji didn't even want to waste time arguing, and ultimately remained silent in a sigh.

Her current situation wasn't conducive to zoning out, let alone arguing.

Even without directly fighting the demons, she made use of her own speed, wielding an energy gun lent by a silver-haired male angel player with a cold mind and hot face, and relying on her excellent dynamic vision and steady shooting to provide cover for others.

For a girl who usually lives in a peaceful greenhouse, this is already the ideal choice.

Gaiyin firearms are inherently the most aberrant category in weapons development.

High lower limit, high upper limit, able to easily take lives, and while doing so, maximally diminish the sense of committing violence; moreover, ideally—the enemy's appearance also makes it easy to firm one's resolve.

Even when the most human-like Ishamara is in a gigantic beast form, neither demons nor the Faction can easily evoke mercy.

Although many humans assimilated by collapsed demons are mixed among the demon masses, those people have a conspicuous collapsed field of vision sufficient to cover half their face.

And as the demon corrosion deepens, they display more non-human appearance traits.

It can be said that they truly cannot evoke even a speck of human empathy.

Although conversely, if they look ugly enough, they can likewise provoke the opponent's fear.

But the commanders of both sides of the allied forces are well aware of this.

They naturally wouldn't make such a low-level mistake; the demons' erosion of the heart often seeps through a speck of panic feeling into the opponent's emotions and memories, from which they extract the opponent's true fear.

Letting the faint-hearted go onto the battlefield results not just in sending fodder, but in providing the enemy with troops.

Precisely for this reason, the Faction legion's current evolution strategy trends infinitely toward anti-intellect, with the most numerous lower-echelon legions simply having their individual selves stripped away.

Thus they become fearless war machines.

Although in truth, the troop type currently most suited for the battlefield has already been demonstrated by Aomo—the combination of Enplieza, Gibalis, and Demon ZERO (although it has its own consciousness), which once became the focus of worldwide attention.

But obviously, this is not something that the remaining technology and resource energy of the various nations of Terra can produce.

At most, relying on some NPC deities' abilities and aided by countless scientific researchers, they can barely manage to produce a dozen or so things that won't last long in a short time.

——This still basically relies on the existing technological foundation of Yan's terra-cotta warrior technology, as well as the authority talent of Nian casting shape.

Besides that, the somewhat smaller magical colossus jointly constructed by the Sakaz Stone-Wing Demon clans can actually endure longer.

Given that the battle situation is already tilted, with Terra's side gradually gaining advantage, both the short-lived things and the longer-lasting scaled-down versions indeed have ample room to be put to use.

Being able to let someone construct various battlefield overviews via drones and artificial communication slightly lifted the hand that had just been jumping on the keyboard.

"In that case, even if he were a general." He said.

The technology brought by Columbia indeed saved much effort in information organization, but obviously, more importantly, one must also know how to operate it.

Compared to many commanders who rely on others' help, only responsible for issuing orders, nameless, this 'military advisor' known simply as Wang, on the contrary, personally handles everything.

Specifically, he manifests as countless avatars as pawns, constantly running about busy on the board, but by now, a part of him can finally relax a little.

But there are still 'people' who have quite a few criticisms of his relaxing.

"Saying that before the results even come out is considered quite unlucky where we're from, Brother Wang."

"... We've only just played a game together; we're not that familiar yet."

"Huh? That remark obviously surprised the other party greatly."

"What do you mean not that familiar? Don't people from the Great Yan also call others 'X brother' just by being a little polite?"

"... Indeed…" Wang, slightly silent due to a misunderstanding, casually changed the subject, shifting the topic: "Nothing much, this isn't important either; speaking of the battlefield—"

"Heh? Do you think I'm calling you my elder brother?"

He hadn't finished speaking when he was cut off, which also proves that someone's attempt to change the topic failed.

"This isn't important..." Wang said with a stern face.

Faced with a youth who is quite similar to him in some respects, he really didn't want to give this topic a chance to expand, as that would allow the possibility he doesn't really approve of to surface.

"What matters is that although these demons are troublesome, they also lack a decent commander."

"Or rather, there's basically no player," the voice from the screen said in this manner, which somewhat eased his mind, and he listened as the voice continued, "The demons all act purely on instinct; we can't even be considered as fighting against AI, we're merely opposing an extremely dangerous phenomenon."

Thus, it's also hard to have any variables.

"So there's really no luckiness or unluckiness," Wang said lightly, "If there truly were an accident, Shu should have come to find me."

Being able to perceive cause and effect also means being able to see past and future.

One can see how a field of crops fares, and also see the final outcome of a war.

Although the future she sees is not without limits, Wang still believes in Shu's ability.

This ability that blurs the concept of time allows Shu to often act as if she could predict the future, treating people with an inscrutable attitude.

Even once being teased by Nian's undisciplined little sister: "If Shu Sis could meet her ideal partner, then probably at the moment they meet, she would have already truly lived a complete life in her mind."

This seems to be a recent popular saying from Dragon Gate; Wang, via knowledge from his other clones, vaguely has some awareness of it.

But for now, these aren't important.

The war that decides the future's survival naturally has no reason to ponder internet memes; even if they can rest a bit now, they still don't forget to ask:

「How's your side's progress? 」

On his screen, one can directly confirm each battle zone's combat pressure from various red-mark color differences, and the position where Aomo is located has always been a patch of blood red.

That place was originally enemy territory where main forces couldn't penetrate; although now there are scattered dozens of blue light points representing the allied forces flickering in a small area, that is still not a reason for them to feel at ease.

What truly lets them not worry about the enemy is still the large groups of the Faction that haven't been marked as friendly.

Once enemy territory, now the place where friendly forces are most concentrated; theoretically there's no safer place than there, but this theory doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

Because on this ever-changing chaotic battlefield, who knows—some big guy might get hit by something and come flying over, then turn to look at you, and immediately give you a great annihilation.

And just as he finished asking, a harsh noise came from that side, accompanied by a deafening roar, also seeming to corroborate his worry.

But even with such background noise, the reply from that side is still quite relaxed.

「Progress? Of course it's steady advancement; this battle zone might be cleared within ten minutes. 」

「Twenty minutes earlier than expected? 」 Wang is somewhat surprised by this huge deviation from the original plan, so great that merely defeating the Faction legion couldn't achieve it.

「Sounds like you have some new gains. 」

「Rather, it's a huge surprise; I should have thought of it earlier, since this world even has Ifrit, it should also give rise to other similar monsters. 」

「…Ifrit? 」 Wang has quite an impression of that giant beast, which the little girl transformed into and which he had paid attention to since the initial battle plan was drafted.

But his evaluation of that giant beast, which resembles a flame magic beast, is not high.

Feeling that it's not as strong as the three-headed steel giant summoned by Aomo Lindun—how strong could the so-called similar be…?

He saw a pop-up window suddenly appear on the screen showing the long-range footage from Area 57; in that image, which seemed to have suffered some interference and was slightly blurry, the outline of a dark-purple huge wing rose straight to the sky,

Columns of the same color were jetting and expanding from the giant ring surrounding its body, then sweeping toward the ground—!

Wherever the light reached, everything was reduced to scorched earth.

As if it were the end.