The virtual empire starts from the game

Chapter 643 Donning Armor, Boarding the Ship!

Yayuan Town.

On the roof of a house near the cliff, Hua Zhou spread out a blanket, placed drinks, snacks, and binoculars, and prepared for the excitement.

The rooftops around her were also packed with players watching the spectacle.

The players who were being watched were forming a semicircle around the edge of the Great Cavern of the Abyss.

—The number of players involved in the [Reclaim Space] project is so large that it could surround this large cave several times over.

However, the A-rank promotion mission in "Under the Deep Rock" is quite difficult, posing a great challenge to players in terms of both dedication and skill.

It took the million players who participated in the project a week to accumulate this half circle.

Previously, Zhang Siming and Fang Shuo casually remarked, "We have already completed our career advancement."

Neither his expression nor his tone revealed anything unusual, as if this task was no different from his daily mining or bug-hunting.

This led the valiant sniper and his viewers to have a serious misunderstanding of the difficulty of the A-level promotion mission.

After the valiant sniper squad grinded enough progress to unlock the promotion mission, he was dumbfounded before even entering the mine—

[Landing point: Mercury Salt Pit]
[Main Resources: Copper Ore, Jade, Gemstone, Exquisite Pearl]
[Current mine swarm threat level: Extremely high; landslide threat level: High]
[WARNING! An anomaly has been detected in the current mine:]
[Deadly Swarm!]
[Swarm regeneration!]
[Shield breaks!]
[Havoc!]
[Surrounded by formidable enemies!]
[Overall assessment: No chance of survival!]
[Holographic map plugin activated]
[Charge into hell, and then... return laden with spoils!]

"Wardfak!"

"Five-item missions? And they're even interconnected!"

"Is this even harder than a human being???"

The valiant sniper couldn't hold back any longer and started swearing on the spot.

It was already a high-difficulty map located on the fifth level of the Abyss Cavern, with high threats and collapses, and now it has been compounded with a total of five deadly keywords!

The valiant sniper felt somewhat devastated at that moment.

But we had no choice but to bite the bullet and fight.

As a result, he, Huan Yue, Qi Hua Hua, and Orange Juice were beaten to a pulp by all sorts of giant insects. They ran for their lives in the constantly collapsing mine, but they still couldn't escape the fate of being wiped out time and time again.

Finally, we had to stop, study the mine map, analyze the bugs, assign tasks, discuss tactics, and hone our teamwork...

After a day and a night of arduous struggle, with each person's defenses breached several times, they finally completed the mission with great difficulty and returned from the mine covered in dust and dirt.

Only then are they qualified to stand on the edge of the cliff at this moment and personally participate in this event.

Instead of just shouting "Start!" and standing aside to watch others perform.
-

The "Heroic Sniper Masters" team, comprised of well-known streamers with a "player honor content" of up to 75%, naturally became the focus of everyone's attention.

Under everyone's watchful eyes, the valiant sniper raised a megaphone and shouted loudly in the live stream, team channel, and Treasure Island announcement system:

"Thank you all for your patience and hard work!"

"Whether we can reclaim space depends on this step!"

In his line of sight, players near and far were raising their arms and clapping enthusiastically in response to his shouts.

He couldn't see the faces of the players in the distance, but he could feel their enthusiasm and support—the sound waves seemed to have a physical presence, rushing towards him.

His heart was pounding, and his blood was gradually warming up.

Over the past week, he has not only been striving for A-level access, but also served as a liaison hub, coordinating communication among the leaders of various player organizations.

Many powerful party members who are used to being lone wolves tend to go directly to him when they encounter problems, rather than to the leader of the assault team.

Even later, when organizers of other large-scale space projects approached him to join the project, they also contacted him first.

He didn't refuse any of them.

Whenever someone comes to me with a problem, I try my best to help them.

Thankfully, the dream machine can work while he's sleeping, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to keep going.

But at this moment, he felt that all the work he had done in the past week had been rewarded in the best way.

"Now, all those who have successfully advanced to Rank A can call the Deep Rock Mining headquarters' spaceship!"

The valiant sniper issued the order at the top of his lungs.

"Call now, immediately!"

The players, who had been waiting impatiently, immediately called out to their drones and began contacting headquarters.

The valiant sniper and his teammates were the same—

"Ergou, come out!"

After being promoted to Grade A, this once unruly drone suddenly changed its personality, becoming extremely obedient and even able to customize its name.

It seems that after the player advanced to Rank A, its ownership was transferred from Deeprock Mining Company to the player's name.

Although its attitude has changed, the bad impression it left on the brave snipers in the past has not changed, so it is impossible for it to get a good name.

The drone quickly approached the valiant sniper, its attitude even bordering on obsequious: "Respected sir, how may I help you?"

"My three teammates and I would like to apply for a visit to Titan's headquarters."

"Okay! I'll contact headquarters for you right away." Er Gou didn't waste any words and immediately began contacting headquarters.

The valiant sniper watched the drone intently, fearing it might remain silent for a few seconds and then announce that it was "unreachable."

Then all the extensive preparations this week will become a complete joke.

Fortunately, just a few seconds later, Er Gou spoke again: "The application has been submitted to Titan headquarters and has entered the review process."

"Approved. The [Tunneling No. 1] small spacecraft will be dispatched to the Abyss mine for retrieval."

"[Tunneling No. 1] has taken off and is expected to arrive in 30 minutes. Please prepare to receive it."

Looking at the team channel, everyone else had also received good news:
"Success! The spaceship is coming soon!"

"Tunneling Unit 1, arriving in 30 minutes!"

"This is Tunneling 2, 33 minutes. Wow! Isn't this speed insane? It takes at least an hour to travel from Saturn to Earth, right? This spaceship is faster than light?!"

"Hilarious! I thought 'Sailing the Blue Sea' crossing the Atlantic in half an hour was already outrageous, but this is crossing half the solar system in half an hour!"

"It must be some kind of acceleration, so as not to keep us waiting too long, right? Hurry up and say 'thank you, Boss Xu'!"

……

In the command channel, Yanluo, Maocha, Longcheng Feijiang, and others all breathed a sigh of relief and then quickly turned their gazes to space.

During this week of preparation, the space telescope sold extremely well.

The players who were just watching the spectacle bought them without hesitation, and of course, each of the commanders also got one.

Next came the anxious wait.

Of course, only they were anxious.

Hua Zhou, sitting on the rooftop eating sunflower seeds and drinking milk tea—along with other casual players who were just joining in the fun—wasn't in a hurry at all.

While keeping an eye on the situation here, he switched between other live streams, watching the live stream of slave laborers on the Plans Shrimp Man spaceship and the live stream next to the Deep Space String Cannon in the Sprawling City.

I posted a few more comments and chatted with netizens; time flew by.

The first to see progress were still the players who were working as slaves for the shrimp people in space.

Over the past week, more than half of them couldn't stand the boredom, killed a few shrimp people, and then died together, returning to the surface.

Only eight people remained on the shrimp-man's spaceship.

They have now all started live streaming, providing the main force with a front-line perspective.

This perseverance has once again yielded significant results.

In the pitch-black depths of the sky, a group of stars suddenly became bright.

Soon, they realized:
Those weren't stars, but shining spaceships!
The brightness of these spaceships themselves did not change, but because the distance was rapidly closing, they appeared to become brighter and brighter to the player!
Moreover, judging from the number of bright spots, the number of spaceships is quite considerable.

There must be at least a hundred!
The frontline reconnaissance soldiers, who had anticipated this, immediately relayed the message to the command channel.

Then, without any distraction, I focused the camera on the spaceships that had come from afar. Soon, the small outlines of the spaceships became visible through the dots.

But before they could see any more details, they heard a sharp, piercing whistling sound.

Then, the hatches of their compartments closed one by one.

Unidentified indigo patterns also appeared on the gate.

"The shrimp people are on alert!"

On the command channel, Yama quickly understood the shrimp-man's actions.

"Good news! It seems they are not allies with Deeprock Mining Company, and may not even have known of Deeprock Mining Company's existence before! Otherwise, they wouldn't be so vigilant, even towards unarmed prisoners!"

Yama's guess was completely correct.

The Plans Shrimp Man's warships started moving again.

This time, their cannons were no longer pointed at the ground, but rather towards deep space.

Whether they communicated with each other is unknown to the players.

But the result was quickly revealed to everyone—

The main cannons of the Plans Shrimp Man's warships suddenly began to charge up!
The valiant sniper watched with excitement as the conflict escalated, rubbing his hands together in agitation.

Yama, however, calmly noticed the new intelligence once again:
"Faced with hundreds of spaceships, they only deployed three main cannons!"

"So either they have this rule that the first round of attack must be with 3 cannons, or... their main guns have limited energy and can't afford to waste it!"

"What about Deeprock Mining? Will they launch a preemptive attack?"

To Yama's dismay, Deep Rock's spaceships did not attack immediately, but instead quickly dispersed, attempting to evade the Shrimp People's main cannon fire.

However, in space warfare, the two sides are already too close.

The shrimp-men's three main cannons fired dazzling high-energy particle beams, instantly flying over the three largest spaceships in the Deep Rock Mining fleet.

A clear "bubble" immediately appeared outside the three ships, attempting to defend against the attack.

But the bubble only lasted for two seconds before it burst.

The beam easily pierced through the large spaceship, destroying it completely—and even the smaller spaceships in the trajectory were not spared.

The main gun then continued firing.

However, the charging time is greatly shortened, and the power is reduced by one energy level.

A large number of warships actively engaged the enemy, using the greenish-blue shells that players had seen before to harvest small spaceships.

Deep Rock Mining's transport ships, facing encirclement by warships, were almost powerless to resist and were quickly destroyed.

Only a handful of extremely lucky small boats managed to escape in the chaos.

"What a pity..." Cat Tea sighed.

Everyone worked hard for a week—and that doesn't even include the blueprints and materials they accumulated beforehand—and they still haven't managed to build 100 spaceships.

But now, in less than half an hour, hundreds of spaceships have been destroyed by gunfire.

Among them are six rather large spaceships, which look very valuable!

Such a loss is heartbreaking for everyone.

"If only we could have this!" the valiant sniper sighed repeatedly.

The only thing that can comfort everyone is:
Deep Rock Mining Company is also heartbroken!

The drone's indicator light is flashing wildly:

"Deep Rock Mining Company's fleet was ambushed by an unidentified alien force and suffered heavy losses!"

"The task of guiding A-level employees has been temporarily suspended."

"The reception time has been changed to 24 hours later."

"Activate Level 1 combat alert."

"The Furnace-class space carrier is departing from port, while the Anvil-class frigate and Thunderstorm-class destroyer are taking off."

"Prepare for battle in 10 minutes, and engage in battle in 45 minutes!"

"All employees who receive this combat alert, immediately mobilize all available resources to support the battlefield! The company will bear all combat losses and award prizes based on your combat contributions!"

……

At this moment, it's not just the A-level employees who participated in the operation.

All players of Under the Rock have their drones broadcasting this announcement!
Players on the cliff edge were very excited upon hearing the announcement.

This is especially true for valiant snipers:
"Friends! We did it!!"

"Deep Rock Mining and the Plans Shrimp are going to fight!"

"Our first step was a complete success!"

"Thank you all for your contributions!"

"Next comes the second step—let's once again activate the Deep Space String and charge into space!"

"Everyone, we'll see you in Mansheng!"

As soon as the words were spoken, the first to take action were not the players who participated in the action, but the players who were watching the excitement from the rooftops near and far.

They immediately packed their things and moved on to Mansheng City.
-

It will spread everywhere.

The plaza where the Deep Space String is located is once again packed with people.

This time, however, the people gathered here were not just onlookers, but players waiting to board the ship.

The players who were there to watch the spectacle are now scattered on buildings further away.

The sheer number of players mobilized on a large scale resulted in an astonishing production capacity:

Not only was [Deep Space String] quickly repaired.

In just one week, they built 38 [Sky Shuttle] ships and 6 [Cloud Pivot] ships.

The former is a cargo ship that comes with the [Deep Space String], but after removing the obstructions and filling it with people, it can accommodate 80 people.

Of course, in this situation, don't even think about the riding experience.

They were all like luncheon meat stuffed into a box, almost face to face.

[Yunshu] is better. It was designed from the beginning as a manned spaceship and can accommodate 150 people at the same time.

They could even assign each person a spot.

—Of course, that was before the renovation.

After the renovation, all the seats were removed, and 240 people were crammed in.

Since they're all wearing armor, they shouldn't be crushed by acceleration like tomatoes.

But obviously, being dressed like a tin can and crammed into a narrow cabin is not a comfortable experience.

So before the war was officially confirmed, everyone waited patiently in the small square outside.

And now, the war horn has finally sounded!
Yanluo appeared at the front of the main force, holding a megaphone just like the valiant sniper, and shouted simultaneously on all channels:
"Fellow commandos!"

"The war has begun!"

"The first phase of the plan has been a success! Now it's our turn to shine!"

"No more nonsense."

"Put on your armor! Board the ship!"

"Let's go teach those aliens a lesson!"

(End of this chapter)