Chapter 4

With a combat unit of decent strength at hand and a village not far away, which is brimming with supplies and about to be captured by the enemy, what should one generally do?

Of course, the proper course of action would be to take advantage of the terrain and position the troops on the cliff, using the firepower of tanks and mechs to crush the unprepared enemy, making them flee in disarray. Then, the brave and fearless protagonist, along with equally fearless supporting characters, would lightly equip themselves and take advantage of the enemy's confusion. Under the cover of the armored unit's firepower, they would rappel down into the village with ropes, occupy the buildings to halt the enemy's advance, and simultaneously gather and destroy the supply materials. In the end, this heroic unit, which has suffered heavy casualties, including the protagonist, would successfully hold out until the helicopters arrive, and they would leave with a flourish under the furious gaze of the enemy...

Wake up, buddy! This isn't a movie. Even with a dozen layers of protagonist aura, you can't withstand the simultaneous fire of dozens of assault rifles. Moreover, the enemy, who has a numerical advantage, also has fire support, even air support. After a series of shells, bombs, and rockets rain down, the protagonist and his comrades will be unrecognizable even to their own mothers.

And there's also something called an anti-tank missile, which can fly very high and then drop vertically to collide with the vulnerable top armor of a tank. I haven't checked the exact altitude it can reach, but it should be enough to fly up this cliff and turn our armor into scrap metal.

Though everyone is willing to follow the commander's orders for the sake of the country, this is just a game, and the players are not professional soldiers, so some mistakes are inevitable.

I am not good at leading and commanding a team, especially when there are troublemakers in the group. The infantry uncle who said he wanted to practice his mech skills incited some fearless guys, ignoring my objections and sliding down the cliff on a rope.

At this moment, the opponent's forces also appeared on the road at the village entrance.

They were flying the flag of the Federation.

The grudges between the Empire and the Federation are countless, and the players on both sides in the game fight to the death, the intensity of which is breathtaking. Although it's regrettable, the Federation often wins in various confrontations, which makes everyone both angry and helpless.

Before gaining self-awareness and freedom, Nafuga helped the Federation design many powerful weapons, some of which were even ahead of their time.

I can guarantee that the moment we spotted them, they also spotted us—there's no way to hide when you're hanging in mid-air.

"Hmm, looks like they're going to restart the game," the pilot of the support mech beside me couldn't help but comment, "That death flag is set up really well."

With a loud bang, a smoking hole appeared in the chest of the mech, and it toppled over, exploding into countless pieces and sparks.

A sniper mech!? When and where? How did they spot us!?

I was grateful that I had habitually parked my mech behind the bushes and trees; otherwise, I would have been the first to be taken out. Now that we were exposed, the only option was to retreat into the depths of the forest and regroup. Once a sniper spots a target, they don't just send a fatal arrow; they also call in a barrage of heavy artillery.

In battle, being spotted means being destroyed.

I didn't have time to watch the infantry uncle and his companions turn into light points as they were riddled with bullets. I hurriedly pulled the control stick and shouted to the troops, "Fall back, fall back, all of you hide in the depths of the forest..."

It was too late. Countless metal objects with burning tails descended from the sky, like the spears of a god of destruction, heading straight for us.

They were rockets!

The Federation commander must have guessed that we would try something at the cliff, so they prepared sniper mechs and enough rockets to wear down our valuable forces before the main battle.

Damn, this is the third time I've been killed in the game without even firing a shot! The Federation's birds have been using equipment and tactics that seem like cheats lately. I haven't won a single game in the past few days—uh, or maybe I'm just incredibly unlucky?

Amidst the whistling of the rockets, I abandoned the controls and waited for the final moment.

But something unusual happened today. The rockets didn't fall but stopped in mid-air, as if time had been frozen.

What's going on? Before I could figure it out, the screen in front of me distorted, and static appeared. The world suddenly disappeared, and I couldn't help but let out a piercing scream as I felt a sharp pain in every cell of my body.

What the hell is going on!?

"Xiao Yi, Xiao Yi! Are you okay?" A clear and pleasant voice pulled me back from the brink of collapse. My helmet was removed, and the world reappeared before my eyes. "What happened?"

It was Senior Lan Yu.

I sat up, gasping for breath and trying to calm myself down. I rubbed my forehead and asked, puzzled, "Am I in reality?"

"Yes." Senior Lan Yu bent down to examine my face closely. "You seem to have calmed down. You were lying in bed and suddenly started screaming. Can you tell me what happened?"

"Sorry, Senior, let me gather my thoughts first," I swallowed hard and gestured to her, and she cooperatively stopped asking. "Let me think. I was in the game 'Frontline,' planning to ambush the enemy, but I was discovered. Just as I was about to be killed by the rocket barrage, the game froze and I was kicked out. Uh, did I just get disconnected!?"

That's impossible. With Nafuga's optimization, as long as your computer isn't an ancient relic that crashes all the time or your neighborhood isn't experiencing a power outage, the chance of getting disconnected is even lower than winning the lottery.

Senior Lan Yu walked to the wall and pressed the light switch. The white light from the 40-watt fluorescent lamp instantly blinded my eyes.

"It doesn't look like a power outage." Senior Lan Yu said, turning off the light and walking over to Liu Tao. "Could it be the virtual projection device... meow!"

As I watched, drenched in cold sweat and used to it, Senior Lan Yu performed a classic face-plant, even lifting her skirt.

Is it a light blue pair today? Uh, I should pretend I didn't see that. I quickly turned my head to look at my good friend and was shocked by what I saw.

The indicator light on Liu Tao's helmet also showed that he was disconnected, but he didn't wake up. Instead, he had a large amount of white foam at the corner of his mouth.

I couldn't care less about the accidental view of Senior Lan Yu's undergarments. I quickly removed Liu Tao's helmet, lifted his head, and slapped his cheeks, shouting, "Hey, Liu Tao! Wake up, don't sleep. If you're going to die, die in a girl's arms!"

After my折腾, Liu Tao finally showed some reaction, mumbling and snoring comfortably, a bubble forming at his nose.

Without a mirror, I knew my face must have been very expressive. To let my sleeping friend continue to sleep, I decisively threw him back to his original position—hard.

"What's wrong with Xiao Tao?" Senior Lan Yu, who had finally straightened her skirt and stood up, tilted her head and asked curiously.

"Nothing, just a cockroach crawled into his helmet," I waved my hand nonchalantly. "You don't need to worry about it. By the way, can I use the computer?"

"Of course."

Before Senior Lan Yu joined the club, we could only use ordinary computers. Although a bit old, they still worked. I needed to find out if it was a normal disconnection or if there was a problem with the network or even Nafuga.

Thankfully, the network was still working. Everywhere I looked, there were posts asking what was wrong with the game 'Frontline,' and it seemed that all players had been disconnected and kicked out of the game at the same time.

Could it be that Nafuga encountered some kind of problem during the computation?

I tried to contact Nafuga using PP, the most commonly used chat software in the Tang Empire, but I didn't have much hope. With such a big issue, countless people, including government officials, would be trying to contact her. I couldn't imagine what it would be like with millions of PP notifications buzzing at the same time. If I were Nafuga, I would describe my feelings with one word.

Annoyed.

Surprisingly, Nafuga replied. I could only marvel at the AI's incredible information processing ability.

"Nafuga, what's going on?"

"Zhou Yi, I don't know what happened either," the words on the screen made me speechless. "A global electromagnetic wave just erupted. Although it wasn't strong enough to affect real-world electronics, it had a significant impact on the network. Therefore, I had to shut down the high-computation 'Frontline' game for repairs. It will be about three days before it can be reopened."

An electromagnetic wave, and a global one at that!?

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