This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 480.2: A New Life

Zheng Hao jumped out of the vehicle and glanced behind him. He failed to see any headlights behind them.

Looked like those people had really let them go.

Maybe, just maybe, like Old White said, they expected to cooperate again someday... Though he really hoped he’d never see those freaks again.

Vice Captain Song Changfeng approached with a question. "What now? Without any communication devices, we can’t report back to the Academy."

"Perfect." Zheng Hao said.

"On our return, we’ll say we were attacked by New Alliance and Enterprise reinforcements. The mission failed." He paused to arrange his thoughts, then continued, "But we didn’t come back empty-handed. We traded a vehicle and successfully recovered our captured teammates, plus, we obtained tissue samples from the Mother Body."

Losing a tracked vehicle wasn’t ideal, but it didn’t even belong to them. Trading Academy property to rescue captured comrades wasn’t a bad deal.

They discussed it beforehand, and everyone agreed. The team’s engineer even formatted the AI cores of the android members to cover their tracks.

One squad member climbed into the truck bed and found two boxes aside from the cryo-pod.

"Hey, what are these two boxes in the truck?"

Zhao Xiao heard and responded, "Oh, that? Just some rations they gave us. Said they couldn’t finish it anyway, so we could eat it on the way back."

The medic scoffed, "Who’d eat food from the enemy?"

He had already offloaded rations from the tracked vehicle. They had enough freeze-dried meals, energy bars, and fresh water to sustain the squad for 30 days.

Zhao Xiao scratched his head. "True, but it tasted pretty good."

The others exchanged weird looks.

Was his brain damaged from being captured?

Song Changfeng looked to Zheng Hao for input.

Zheng Hao didn’t say much. He nodded and replied casually. "Keep it."

He had already heard Zhao Xiao mention the boxes during the drive. Though he didn’t understand why the other side bothered with such a gesture, he didn’t think they would bother poisoning it.

They were far too capable for petty tricks.

Details like that weren’t worth his energy. His mind was focused on something else. Rather, he was thinking of which professor he should contact once they returned to the Academy.

This opportunity would come only once. He had to make that test tube count...

...

Meanwhile, to the north of Oasis No.8.

After nearly a week of long-distance trekking, Old White’s team finally rendezvoused with the main Burning Corps troops that had come to reinforce them.

As Sun Ze walked toward them, a few Enterprise pilots approached with grins, clapping him on the shoulder and arms.

"Haha, bro, I heard from the back that you took a hell of a fall!"

Sun Ze sighed, "Don’t even get me started. Who knows what got into those swamp crows? First thing they did when they saw me was fire a damn missile and blow me out of the sky! You have no idea how close I was to dying! Lucky for me, I’ve got mad flying skills and managed to pull it back!"

"What about the plane?" another pilot asked curiously.

Sun Ze waved it off. "We scrapped it! I marked the wreck on the map. The Aviation Division can send someone to handle it later... Who cares. I made it out, that’s what matters! Hah!"

He then animatedly began recounting his encounter with the Burning Corps after crashing, dramatically emphasizing how he had bravely led the troops through the Academy’s encirclement. He completely glossed over the part where he’d almost pissed himself in fear.

Nearby, a few newbie players stood by, dumbfounded, reading the subtitles projected on their visors while whispering in their own language.

"Holy crap, this guy’s full of it."

"Yeah. His face is thicker than the walls of Boulder Town."

The two rescued Enterprise pilots were scheduled to return directly to Ideal City via shuttle, where they’d give interviews and clear up a few misunderstandings.

Before leaving, though, one of their superiors pulled the still-bragging Sun Ze aside, clearly with something to say to the two lucky survivors.

As for Falling Feather and Little Feather, they would be flying back to Dawn City on an Enterprise aircraft with the biological samples recovered from the Eagle fighter.

The Enterprise wasn’t particularly interested in Little Feather.

Or, to put it more accurately, the people who were interested in it didn’t have enough clout or influence on the Highest Council.

By contrast, the android called Xuan Feng might attract attention from Health Luxury Corporate Group, but that would be something for the administrator to worry about.

Old White checked the VM for their updated mission.

Now that they had linked up with the main troop, their next task was to bring the heavy Reindeer tracked vehicle they acquired from the Academy back to the frontline and await further orders.

Word was that the frontlines were progressing surprisingly well. Under a joint offensive by the Skeleton Corps, Storm Corps, and the Lion Kingdom’s army, two of the nine retreating Army units had already been wiped out.

At that rate, less than half would likely make it back to Oasis No.2.

Victory was tipping hard in the New Alliance’s favor.

If they kept it up, they might reunite with the folks aboard the Pioneer before the end of the year.

At that moment, Gale, who was operating a drone, looked up from the screen and called out to Old White, who was busy planning their next route. "Someone’s coming from the north."

Old White’s brow raise slightly in surprise.

Had those bookworms from the north still not given up?

"How many?"

Gale rubbed the bridge of his nose and replied, "Just one."

"I’ll go greet them!" Night Ten shouted excitedly as he jumped down from the truck, eager to test out the newly acquired weapon attachments.

But Old White reached out and stopped him. "They might not be here to cause trouble. I’ll check it out myself." 𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

Saying that, Old White walked alone out of the camp.

Roughly ten minutes later, a figure appeared on the distant sand dunes.

She had come alone, and she wasn’t carrying any weapons.

When Chen Yutong walked up to him, Old White smiled and asked, "Did you leave something behind?"

Chen Yutong shook her head. But a moment later, she gave a small nod.

"I want to go with you, to that place you mentioned. Where the wastelanders band together for warmth."

Old White stared at her in surprise.

Seeing that she wasn’t joking, he didn’t ask any more questions. He simply smiled and extended his right hand. "Looks like you’ve thought this through. Since you’ve decided, I won’t try to change your mind. Welcome on board."

"Thank you. If you hadn’t taken me in, I’d be homeless by now." She reached out and shook his hand. Her expression relaxed a little as she joked, "After making this decision, I guess I’m officially listed as dead by the Academy."

Old White quipped with a grin, "Congrats on starting a new life. Want a new name to go with it?"

Chen Yutong answered calmly, "No need. I don’t plan on forgetting the past. Besides, with so many people sharing the same name, I doubt anyone cares about an E-class Prospector’s fate."

She was just a small fry. She wasn’t worth the attention of those high-and-mighty A or B-class bigshots.

After a pause, she glanced around the camp and asked, "Didn’t you guys get a tracked vehicle from Zheng Hao? I don’t see it here."

Old White scratched his head sheepishly. "It’s still on the way. My guys just took over its controls and are trying to figure out your captain’s instructions. Shouldn’t be more than a few minutes."

Compared to the New Alliance’s trucks, that thing was a pain to operate. The 12-inch central control screen had something like 50 buttons.

Honestly, it wasn’t much easier to drive than the flapping-wing planes the Enterprise had sold them.

Chen Yutong chuckled softly, "Perfect. Once they get back, I can show you how to drive it."

A look of genuine delight crossed Old White’s face. "That would be great!"

A few strands of hair fell over her eyes. She casually brushed them aside and said, "Don’t mention it. It’s no big deal. Just buy me a drink later, the one brewed from potatoes... What was it called again?"

"You mean vodka?" Old White looked at the brave young woman in amusement and teased, "I heard Academy folks don’t drink. Ethanol’s just a reagent or fuel to them. You sure you can handle it?"

Chen Yutong smirked. "I’m not from the Academy anymore. And how would I know if I don’t try?"

Maybe it was because her identity had changed, or maybe she had just let go of things. But Old White couldn’t help feeling she seemed different from the day before.

It wasn’t a bad change.

Trying new things was probably a good step toward adapting to a new life.

"Alright, I won’t stop you. But I recommend a rookie-friendly version. Mix it with Cola or Sprite."

Chen Yutong asked curiously, "What’s that? Is it good?"

"It’s a drink... Something the Lifestyle Profession Players, I mean, the life-loving residents of the shelter, came up with. Basically, just sugary water with fizz."

"Carbonation? That stuff has flavor?" she asked, brow furrowed.

Of course, the Academy had drinks that supplemented sugar, caffeine, and vitamins.

But carbonated water? That was something they kept in clearly labeled sample cabinets, like ethanol.

It had no nutritional value, didn’t stimulate dopamine, and could even cause mineral loss in the body, just like alcohol harmed the brain.

Even if the harmful dose was negligible, it made no sense to introduce avoidable risks for something meaningless.

"No, it doesn’t taste like anything. But the way the bubbles burst on your lips gives a twist to ordinary sugar water. Try it and you’ll see."

Old White’s reply was what she had expected.

What surprised her more was his different take on it.

For someone who had just started over, that made her more curious than flavor ever could.

"I see. Can you... tell me more about Sprite? I’m a little curious."

Seeing the look of genuine interest on her face, Old White scratched his head and tried to explain, "Ugh, that’s too technical... Basically it’s like Cola, but we use citric acid instead of caffeine."

"Citric acid instead of caffeine? I see... That sounds exciting."

At some point, the two of them had started walking back.

Chen Yutong naturally walked beside him, asking all kinds of questions she had previously been curious about but never had the chance to ask.

They talked like old friends who’d known each other forever, walking and chatting with no barriers between them, for a long, long time.

On a nearby sand dune, Night Ten, who had his sniper rifle propped up, grumbled as he packed it away and got to his feet. "Goddamn it! I was worried something might’ve happened, and instead I get force-fed a whole bag of lovey dovey nonsense."

Gale, still holding his binoculars, glanced at Night Ten from the corner of his eye. "What makes you think that? Can’t it just be pure friendship?"

Night Ten scoffed, "Yeah, right. You forget how Ample Time was all 'mission this, mission that' in the beginning, and before you knew it, he was calling her his wifey, ugh."

He couldn’t handle those loving nonsense... Unless it was his own.

Gale cleared his throat. "Ample Time is Ample TIme. Old White is Old White. They are totally different."

Night Ten rolled his eyes. "Whatever. Let’s go back."