Chapter 593: Full-Scale Invasion from the Deep Forest

Thinking of this, Xiguang Duke suddenly realized.

Fortunately, those Pioneers wouldn't be turned into messenger cavalry even if they died; he, who had worked out a good plan to defeat the enemy, simply went back inside the shield.

You…… how brave are you?

They gave up a peaceful life in the Barren Wilds, traveled far just to make some extra money, and incidentally looked for a wave of exciting players: "What do you say?"

Alright, then you'll follow me into battle later, but it's best not to use firearms, use more cold weapons, and after slaying the enemy……

As the face of Radiant Light, the duke still cared about face, so he didn't dare say outright to dismember them, instead choosing a tactful approach.

... Collect their heads as much as possible; we'll need them later when we distribute rewards based on merit. Understand?

The old man originally thought his request was so strange that this group of Pioneers, known for being troublemakers, would surely object.

After all, they made their name with new weapons, and you, an old fogey, want to ban their specialty right off the bat— that's really not giving them face.

Who would have thought that before he could even roll out his prepared line, the classic 'under generous rewards there will be brave men,' he already heard them all agreeing.

Chop off heads? Jeez, my ancestors' memories are starting to awaken!

Good, good, good, it's biohazard mode, right?

Damn, I've been practicing dual blades just for today; I'll immediately show the gang a four-hit slash!

Even one person laughed and said to him: "Hey duke, I could tell you're a hidden person from Sun Moon in the Inside the Passes!"

Xiguang Duke: "Ah?"

No longer wasting time, the players who finally received the NPC quest excitedly charged out of the shield's protection, picked up swords, and joined the battlefield.

Although due to the server's population limit, the players' numbers were far less than the tens of thousands of knights—only about three thousand.

But driven by desire for wealth, a fearless spirit, and overflowing battle enthusiasm, they actually managed to burst through the knights' formation at one point.

Furthermore, Xiguang Duke had said when setting out that he wanted a death squad willing to earn money by risking their lives—those greedy for life and afraid of death need not apply!

So every player heading into battle stored the loot items that would definitely drop upon death into the game system's built-in backpack.

It sounds like an easy bug to exploit: players just need a Russian nesting doll to effortlessly obtain a super-backpack with infinite storage.

But actually, all the storage items stuffed into the backpack are temporarily frozen until the player returns to the dungeon to unlock them.

Damn, the dog designer really has a grudge against players, huh!

But that's not important; what matters is that, for the reasons above, the collected knights' heads aren't even left outside—they're directly stuffed into their backpacks.

And the underlying logic of the game backpack comes from Ji Ming, this Supreme God Calamity; its energy level is far beyond what a fledgling calamity could shake.

So if Dark Flame Consciousness had an electronic scoreboard in front of it, it would be shocked to find its population cap starting to drop—something that can't be recovered.

Cheat! Holy shit, there's a cheat!

Cheat?

Indeed there is a cheat.

Because just then, a strange buzzing sound suddenly came from the sky; everyone looked toward the noise and saw many black shadows rushing from afar.

Exactly, that signal flare Xiguang Duke fired earlier was meant to summon this.

Since we have it, we should use it; the situation is urgent, so the kingdom's expensively assembled air force should also join the fight!

The planes are bought, the pilots are hired, and even aviation fuel and ammunition— the kingdom can't produce any of these consumables itself, only purchase them.

But the high cost also brings good results: with that kind of spending, this is an air force squadron fully matching top-tier player skill.

Moreover, unlike the WWII tech used a year ago when bombing the Wolf King's Court, these main fighters are basically Cold War era and can already launch missiles.

So the knights on the ground had no time to react before being engulfed in the barrage from above, blown apart all over the sky.

The players cheered, because these were their own people, and being able to watch up close, even seeing bombers drop bombs right on them, was truly 'lucky'.

Awesome!

Jeez, buddy, my eyes are bad— is that a Bomb Six?

Of course! Forget other worlds— my sixth uncle could keep fighting until he shoots down the Death Star!

But walking at the very front of the players' vanguard, the one who had been clearing the way for them, Xiguang Duke, fell into silence and doubt.

... Without realizing it, have I already fallen out of step with the times?

And it was precisely in this frantic bombardment that the messenger cavalry's biggest weakness was finally exposed: their sluggishness!

For the Radiant Light soldiers, this was a bloody, flesh-and-blood war; in the face of such grim reality, death truly meant the end.

For Xiguang Duke, it was the same, but because he was stronger, he had the right to choose his own fate in the face of the era's tide.

For the players, no matter how fiercely they fought today, it was still just a game— an incredibly realistic MMORPG, nothing more.

But what about the other side? Those knights are obviously not 'people,' but pieces that can be arbitrarily commanded, even sent to die without hesitation.

So for Dark Flame Consciousness, this is actually an RTS game, except he commands units numbering in the tens of thousands with even more skills.

But if you zoom out, zoom out, to the maximum, and also count Chang'an City, the transport supplies on the roads, and the layouts of other regions?

Thus Dark Flame Consciousness is actually managing a super-large-scale war while also handling every detail of affairs in other regions.

It's roughly like simultaneously playing several simulation-management and real-time strategy games, with the amount of business to handle multiplied several times over the base.

Moreover, there's no turn system, no pause, no save, no load— just constant scrolling, an ever-changing reality.

Given such a complex situation and such a novel environment, can this newly born young consciousness really handle everything?

The answer is negative; even the Merciful Lord would break a sweat, only able to copy many sub-units to assist in dividing the processing of this super-sized problem.

Thus even if Dark Flame Consciousness had swallowed countless great beings including gods, right now it has a bit of an overloaded pig brain, struggling to keep up.

As a result, those tens of thousands of knights may look obedient, but their fine‑grained actions are laughably robotic, like a crowd of NPCs— stiff as hell.

So even if the population gap remains an uncrossable chasm, no matter how brave the players are or how strong the air squadron's firepower.

After the ground troops were all wiped out, escaping that batch of madmen's messenger cavalry, they still surged forward like a wave to reach the vicinity of the shield.

But the cost is that the knights suffered over ten thousand losses, with several thousand more mysteriously missing, and the genetic information preserved in the remains is insufficient for revival.

Moreover, fighting takes time; furthermore, Xiguang Duke leading the players left and right was precisely to delay as much as possible.

So at this time the sun gradually set westward, and indeed it was already afternoon; even if the cavalry immediately launched an attack, they could only maintain the suppression for a few hours.

With just this much time… ha, for the Radiant Light Mage Legion that had been preparing in strict readiness for a long time, it might not even count as a warm-up.

Then a funny thing happened: while the city walls were still standing, the Radiant Light people were beaten back repeatedly, but once the walls were gone, they instead managed to hold the line.

Even the warriors who had to go out at night beyond the shield range to throw the city's trees outside were spared a lot of trouble, and they went about their work grinning.

Although in this situation, Xiguang Duke still could not make an effective counterattack, repelling the Deep Forest people's strange offensive full of ironic meaning.

But as the defending side, at least the enemy could not even dream of crossing their line, so his strategic goal was considered achieved.

Great, it seems everything is developing toward the better!

But if the Dark Flame Consciousness could really stop here just for such a laughable reason, that would be too sorry for their tens of thousands of years of long existence.

Therefore, on the third day, when Xiguang Duke repeated his old trick and led another batch of Pioneers out of the shield, the aviation squadron in the rear had also finished preparations and was ready to set out.

After scrambling over the wreckage of the chaotic outer defensive line, the players who were hoping to make a fortune from the war were astonished to discover that everything before them had undergone a complete transformation.

Although those lush plants still existed, they were no longer an ordinary great forest, but rather one straight, spear-like towering tree after another, like giant trees walked out of myth!

Speaking of which, plants are actually quite amazing.

Sometimes they look like a single tree, but are actually a tangle of clumps.

Sometimes they look like a patch, but are actually a single plant sharing one root system.

So although their category has a touch of the uncanny, as a technical foundation they are still plant-based messenger cavalry, and they actually possess another trait as well.

Crack!

If before it was merely an alien egg, now it is a dinosaur's egg, a monster's egg.

When these mythic giant trees turned withered and their trunks were violently torn open, what walked out were already black-faced, black-armored war giants, one after another!

——I may indeed be unable to finely micromanage tens of thousands of people, but merging my tens of thousands into several thousand should be doable, right!!

Moreover, if any observant person were to watch, they would notice that the messenger cavalry responsible for transporting supplies within Deep Forest's borders seemed to have suddenly become much duller.

Furthermore, some idle existences with no important tasks simply found an empty spot, turned directly into tree form, and logged off in broad daylight.

Under such 'open source, conserve flow', this group of war giants resembling primordial strange beasts erupted with considerable power.

Running, jumping, dodging and weaving, they were as nimble as living individuals, even capable of fine micromanagement, shifting the position left by five centimeters.

Moreover, in terms of aura, this thing is actually similar to a United Vajra; on a single unit you can sense the presence of several entities.

Therefore his total energy is equivalent to the sum of several cavalrymen; although it cannot double the level in place, the four-dimensional values certainly add together.

"No, why is it still getting anxious?"

So the players could hardly withstand such a presence; they immediately suffered a major loss, and just from the giants' trampling many unlucky souls were stepped to death.

The rest were also beaten into utter rout, having lost yesterday's heroic willingness to die; anyway, the guys could still exchange a few heads back with their bravado.

After all, this thing is tens of meters tall, each one like a monster; unless you wield a forty-meter blade, how could you possibly take heads?

Come on, come on, Mikasa, open the wheat, quickly give everyone a live demonstration!

Unfortunately, Yangyue World had no troops skilled against giants, nor any three‑dimensional maneuver gear; having gone out without firearms, they could only keep retreating.

And probably to avenge his own unfulfilled petty merit, he died twice in frustration at the hands of Xiguang Duke.

There was a particularly strong war general, level over eighty, who kept his eyes on the old man, throwing wall‑like punches one after another.

Although in agility and speed Xiguang Lord still had a third more than him, dodging each attack in turn, yet this thing's defense was simply too high.

Even if Xiguang Lord joined forces with his own positive‑qi incarnation and landed a solid blow on his obviously fragile knee, it could only barely interrupt him.

And even if he were interrupted, what could it matter? They are a strange plant blessed by divinity, possessing spirituality.

As long as their feet stay on the ground, as long as they have time to take root, they can quickly repair damage by drawing nutrients from the earth.

On the contrary, it's you—if they spot an opportunity and kick you squarely with a foot, how would you respond?

The two hundred and seven bones on Xiguang Lord's body: "I feel…"

"Cough!"

After being tripped by a few suddenly sprouting vines, even if Xiguang Lord tried to dodge, he was still stepped on by the war general.

In an instant his bones shattered everywhere, his viscera overturned, and he fell straight into the wreckage, blood pouring out.

And just at this critical moment, under the morning sun, the first aviation squadron finally arrived.

"Report, Commander: the frontline troops' report is true—the Deep Forest people have at least conscripted several thousand strange giants."

After uttering a meaningless sentence to the game system, not knowing who they were communicating with, they shook their wings and began combat.

But since the Dark Flame Consciousness has already devised a means to deal with the Pioneers, how could it possibly fail to guard against them?

"Roar!"

One could say they weren't even pretending; a huge flock of evil spirit magic dragons usable as aerial units suddenly appeared in the western sky.

Probably to enact the combat philosophy of "Anyway, I just want to be three times stronger than you!", they also have an exceptionally strong and forceful leader.

It is a skeletal dragon entwined with countless vines and flowers, exuding a vigor so intense that even the living would feel nauseated.

He is called Kasidorio, has no surname, no title, and is a strange dragon lurking in the dark, existing as a test subject of the Forest Church.