This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 474.1: Assistance Is Here!

Blue arcs of light burst from the engines on both wings, slowly lifting the massive Orca transport aircraft into the sky.

As envious gazes landed on the craft, it transitioned into level flight mode and accelerated northward.

"Damn... Once I’ve got money, I’m getting one of those too," someone muttered.

A battalion from the First Corps had taken over Hill 330, guarding the surrendered prisoners of war.

As the main strike force of the New Alliance’s offensive, they would soon march onward with the Honey Badger Kingdom’s Resistance Army, advancing deeper into Oasis No.3.

On the other side, atop Hill 330...

Reporter Wu Kaian from the Distant Times was walking across the battlefield littered with wreckage, accompanied by Free Sniper.

Although the field had been roughly cleaned, corpses and severed limbs thrown into trenches and buried, countless remains still littered the ground. Blood-soaked sandbags were strewn everywhere.

Under the blazing sun, the air reeked of blood that refused to dissipate. Every few steps, one risked stepping on a dead man’s arm or leg.

Wu Kaian swallowed hard. He had once followed an Enterprise’s assault team deep into mutant camps and had seen all sorts of grotesque and bloody sights. However, compared to Hill 330, those scenes paled in comparison.

He realized he was standing on a real battlefield.

“What’s this place...”

Free Sniper grinned. “This is Hill 330. A 1,000-man battalion detachment was stationed here, plus a 100-man anti-air unit. The fighting was brutal. Gunfire raged all night before the 3,000 brothers of the Death Corps finally took it just before dawn.”

Despite his casual tone, Wu Kaian caught a hint of how serious it was and nodded silently.

3,000 men against just over 1,000... It still took an entire night to win. Not to mention those 3,000 soldiers belonged to the elites of the New Alliance.

It seemed that the enemy was even tougher than he imagined...

“Come to think of it,” Wu Kaian asked, “Didn’t the Highest Council send you guys some high-tech gear? What about the Cloudfly places? The Seagull drones? The Hellhound unmanned vehicles? Why didn’t you use them?”

“There are too few of them, and too expensive,” Free Sniper replied helplessly. “All the aid of the Enterprise is only 20 billion CR.”

“Only 20 billion?! Isn’t that enough?” Wu Kaian stared in disbelief.

His own monthly salary barely exceeded 10,000 Cr. And that included field allowances and his risk pay!

“How can it be enough? It’s not like we’re spending it all in one place!” Free Sniper shook his head. “Let me do the math for you. Building a kilometer of road costs around 100,000, the same price as a single tactical missile. So every missile fired basically wipes out an entire road.”

Wu Kaian blinked. “That... That doesn’t sound so bad?”

Free Sniper went on. “Ammo costs are just one part of it. War isn’t only about bullets. Upgrading tractor production lines alone is a bottomless pit, not to mention food, water, sanitation, fuel, and energy for the frontline troops. All of those are direct expenses.”

Wu Kaian gulped again. “There are others?!”

“Of course there are!” Free Sniper snorted. “The New Alliance only has around 100,000 people, and a tenth of them are mobilized on the frontlines. You think it’s easy to replace all the vacant jobs back home? Anything we can’t produce ourselves, we have to import. And our administrator is too proud to admit it, but the truth is, we’re almost too poor to eat. We still have to feed those prisoners, too. It’s a massive headache.”

As he spoke, even he began to believe his nonsense. He shook his head with convincing gloom.

Wu Kaian felt his scalp tighten and nodded. “... I’ll make sure to reflect your situation in my report.”

It was indeed a question worth discussing.

But still... How did an ordinary soldier know so much?

He couldn’t shake the feeling he was being played.

“Mmmm, thanks.” Seeing the mission complete notification flash across his VM, Free Sniper smiled brightly and neatly wrapped up the topic.

Good thing those extra intelligence points from his awakening helped. Memorizing all those lines had nearly killed him.

With his first mission complete, there was only one left from the list.

On the way to the detention cell where Swofte was held, Free Sniper deliberately took a detour, leading the reporter from Ideal City through a ravine.

When Wu Kaian looked down into the valley and saw the dark mass of people moving below, he froze in astonishment, just about to ask who they were when his tour guide continued the explanation. “Those are clones. The Army made them using cloning technology. They age eight times faster than normal people.”

Wu Kaian turned to him and frowned. “What do you plan to do with them?”

Free Sniper answered smoothly, “Most survivor settlements would just bury them alive. They are useless for work and always picking fights, making them just a waste of food. But the administrator said they’re just poor souls who were exploited... So maybe we’ll keep them, if conditions allow.”

Wu Kaian nodded. “May I take a photo?”

“Go ahead,” Free Sniper replied without hesitation.

His drone rose above the ravine, took several pictures of the clones, before returning to hover above him.

The rest of the journey passed in silence.

Wu Kaian said nothing, lost in deep thought.

Free Sniper also stayed quiet, because his mission had just been completed!

...

Inside a dim barrack. Hearing footsteps and seeing a sliver of light through the doorway, Swofte slowly raised his head.

A strange man stood in the doorway.

The man was strange because there wasn’t a trace of military bearing in his clothes or his demeanor.

Swofte frowned slightly, a look of confusion in his eyes. “What do you want?”

“Hello, my name is Wu Kaian, a reporter from Distant Times. Wu Kaian introduced himself smoothly and sat down across from Swofte with a polite smile.

Swofte glanced at the drone hovering behind him and growled, “Distant Times... What’s that?”

Wu Kaian smiled. “It’s a media outlet from Ideal City with 200 years of history. Besides printed newspapers, we also run our own client and even a virtual space on Endpoint Cloud. It’s one of the main windows through which Ideal City citizens learn about the outside world.”

“Oh.” It sounded similar to Triumphant Reports back in the west.

Swofte suddenly seemed to recall something and sneered coldly, “You’re here to mock me, aren’t you?”

Wu Kaian chuckled and clarified, “Of course not. As one of the parties involved in this war, we only wish to understand... How someone on the enemy side like you views this conflict and your opponents?”

Swofte leaned back in his chair, voice icy. “I have no opinion on any of this.”

As a professional journalist who had traveled nearly 10,000 kilometers for this interview, Wu Kaian wasn’t about to give up over one dismissive remark.

He caught a flicker of reluctance in Swofte’s eyes and coaxed gently, “Not even a little resentment?”

Perhaps the words hit home, his reaction exceeded expectations.

Swofte snorted and crossed his arms. “Resentment... Heh, yeah, I hate them. I never should’ve believed that skunk Griffin’s bullshit.”

“So you think the failure came from command errors?” Wu Kaian pressed, eyes gleaming with interest.

“Partly,” Swofte said flatly.

“And the other part? Was it the weapons supplied to the New Alliance by the Enterprise?” Wu Kaian leaned forward eagerly, not even bothering to hide his intent.

Yet instead of flying into a rage like McClennan had, Swofte just gave a bitter, self-mocking smile. “Those weapons? Heh... Maybe they helped a bit. But what defeated me wasn’t any weapon.”

That answer caught Wu Kaian completely off guard. After a few seconds of stunned silence, he asked, “Then... What do you think it was?”

“What was it? Infantry who dared to abandon their supplies and march for 12 hours, cross 150 kilometers of mountain terrain, and storm the hill without fire support. Paratroopers who jumped even without air superiority, without reinforcements, and without clear knowledge of enemy ground positions... A bunch of maniacs who didn’t care if they lived or died. If I’d known how hard those men were to deal with, I would have deployed my troops differently.” Swofte spat a curse under his breath.

Yet despite that wary look, a trace of admiration involuntarily showed in his eyes.

Those men were real warriors.

They weren’t just strong... The entire unit, from privates to officers, had pushed their potential to the limit.

Their fighting will reached a state of singular unity. They would pay any price for victory, accomplishing tactical and strategic feats that were almost impossible for ordinary humans.

Swofte knew clearly he had not lost because of bad command, nor simply because of some awakener or exoframe. Those were strong, but not invincible, not unlike the Conqueror tanks they had once boasted about.

Both he and Griffin had made the best decisions they could with the intelligence available to them, and they had accounted for plans failing within expectations.

Even if he could do it all over again, he might not do any better.

What he truly resented about Griffin and the already-dead McClennan were the lies they spread.

There were no fields strewn with trophies and treasure there. Their opponents were not a herd of docile natives led to slaughter, but a genuine fighting force, bleeding pointlessly in a war with no visible end.

So many promising young men were dead. There was Simond, whom he had personally promoted, and Yote from the anti-air team...

He never should have brought them here.

A flash of disappointment passed through Wu Kaian’s eyes.

Swofte hadn’t said the part he’d wanted to hear, but it didn’t matter.

Before coming, Wu Kaian had already taken photos with enough impact and collected material more suitable for a story.

Compared with the allies’ bravery, strength, and capabilities, the residents of Ideal City preferred to learn about their tragedy, sacrifice, and other sympathetic angles. Also, there were the novel, harmless cultural phenomena born from the ruins.

As for the image of the beacon of civilization, the elder brother, or the head of the household... That was the Highest Council’s honor to claim.

After years in the media, he knew his audience better than anyone. Most people didn’t want raw facts as much as the satisfaction those facts delivered. A good journalist should show their readers what they want to see.

Wu Kaian quietly made his decision. He would trim down the segments of the interview focused on Swofte.