Super Rich: Starting the game by going back ten years to buy Bitcoin

"A real-world test?" Li Yichen tilted his head, his joints cracking twice. "How will it be tested?"

Liu Guoliang walked to the control panel and brought up the holographic sand table of the underground base's war zone. A desert landscape unfolded in the air, covering an area of ​​twenty kilometers in radius.

"It's at the tactical training ground in the northwest corner of our military region." He drew a circle on the sand table with his right index finger. "I'm sending a full-strength heavy combined arms battalion here to confront your ten Sky Soldiers head-on."

Gu Shounian stopped holding the teacup.

A fully equipped combined arms battalion.

What does that mean?

Thirty-six Type 99A main battle tanks. Forty-eight infantry fighting vehicles. Twelve self-propelled anti-aircraft guns. Six Z-10 attack helicopters. Also included are supporting reconnaissance drones, electronic warfare vehicles, and logistical support units. The full strength is nearly eight hundred personnel.

"Commander Liu, are you trying to use a cannon to kill a mosquito?" Gu Shounian frowned. "Or are you trying to use a mosquito to crash into a cannon?"

"How will we know if we don't try?" Liu Guoliang rubbed his hands together. "Training rounds, they won't hurt anyone. I just want to see if these ten iron-clad tanks can withstand a heavy barrage of fire."

Li Yichen yawned and stretched. "Take any test you like."

He paused.

"Just don't use nuclear weapons."

Liu Guoliang's lips twitched, but he didn't respond.

At 3 p.m. that day, the order was issued via encrypted communication to the heavy combined arms battalion stationed on the western flank of the military region.

Battalion Commander Zhao Tiezhu was directing the tank company in obstacle course training when he received the transfer order. The communications officer handed him the telegram, which he read twice. Then he read it a third time.

"Ten men?" Zhao Tiezhu flipped the telegram over to make sure there were no additional terms on the back. "You want me to send a full-strength battalion to fight ten men?"

The deputy battalion commander leaned over for a look. "Battalion commander, isn't this a mistake?"

Zhao Tiezhu crumpled the telegram into a ball.

"Fuck you. How could the orders from above be wrong?"

He stuffed the crumpled paper into his pocket, muttering to himself, "Ten guys, even in bulletproof vests and riding motorcycles, I could take them out with a platoon. Call in the whole battalion? Who do they think they are?"

The deputy battalion commander remained silent.

Zhao Tiezhu climbed onto the command vehicle and grabbed the onboard radio. "Attention all battalion, assemble at the training ground in one hour. Replenish my ammunition load—training rounds."

He released the call button and muttered to himself, "Three minutes. I'll finish this in three minutes."

It was exactly 5 p.m.

The training ground.

A ten-kilometer-long, eight-kilometer-wide stretch of Gobi Desert was temporarily designated as a combat zone. There was an observation tower on each side, with bulletproof glass half a meter thick.

Liu Guoliang and Gu Shounian sat in the south tower. Li Yichen was nestled in a folding chair next to him, legs crossed, holding a cup of cold goji berry tea.

On the screen, the combined arms battalion had already deployed into combat formation three kilometers to the north. Thirty-six Type 99A main battle tanks formed three steel defensive lines, with infantry fighting vehicles interspersed among them. Six WZ-10 attack helicopters circled at low altitude two kilometers behind, ready to engage.

Starting point on the south side.

Ten dark black armored vehicles stood in a row. The crew-cut soldier king—number 01—raised his right fist and roared at the nine people behind him.

"Brothers! Let those guys who can open metal shells see what a dimensional reduction attack looks like!"

The nine men let out a low growl in unison. The ground trembled.

The referee team's voices came through the command channel: "Attention both sides, ten seconds left in the drill countdown. Ten—nine—eight—"

Zhao Tiezhu stood on the observation platform atop the command vehicle. He raised his binoculars to his eyes and glanced south.

Three kilometers away, ten small black dots stood side by side.

He put down the binoculars and pursed his lips.

"Three—two—one—go!"

Zhao Tiezhu grabbed the communicator, about to give the order—

My throat is choked.

Because the ten black dots in the telescope disappeared.

It wasn't crawling forward, nor was it seeking cover. In the blink of an eye, ten dots evaporated from the ground.

"Air defense radar!" Zhao Tiezhu roared. "Where is the target?!"

"Report! Targets...targets in the air!" The air defense company commander's voice trembled. "Altitude fifty meters! Speed ​​exceeding...exceeding 1200 meters! Ten targets simultaneously penetrating at extremely low altitudes!"

One thousand and two.

kilometers per hour.

Fifty meters in height.

Zhao Tiezhu's mind hadn't quite processed what was happening. Ten piercing shrieks, tearing through the air, came from afar, growing louder and more ear-piercing with each passing second.

Then he saw it.

Ten black afterimages streaked across the ground, moving so fast that the naked eye could only perceive a blurry series of lines. White and blue trails of light shone behind them.

The self-propelled anti-aircraft gun's barrel didn't have time to rotate and track the target—it had already flown out of the firing range.

The dot on the radar screen jumped once, then jumped again.

"Target lost!" "Signal jamming too strong!" "Holy crap, what kind of speed is this—"

Inside the observation tower, Liu Guoliang gripped the telescope tightly. His mouth was agape, unable to close for a long time.

The ten mechs traversed the three-kilometer distance in less than ten seconds. Then they simultaneously came to a sudden stop, climbed, and dispersed.

They leaped from a height of fifty meters to two hundred meters, breaking into ten independent combat units that surrounded the entire combined arms battalion from ten directions.

From the moment the first armored vehicle launched its attack until Zhao Tiezhu reacted, twelve seconds had passed.

Number 01 – the short-statured soldier king – fell straight down from a height of 200 meters and crashed onto the top of the turret of a Type 99A tank right in the center of the first tank defense line.

The 300-kilogram armor combined with the kinetic energy of the fall.

The turret top was smashed and dented.

With his hands gripping the base of the gun barrel, the hydraulic system was at full power – the entire 125mm smoothbore gun barrel was bent upwards at a 45-degree angle.

An electronic voice from the referee system came from inside the tank crew: "Target identified as incapacitated."

Zhao Tiezhu stood frozen in the command vehicle for a full three seconds.

"Fire! All vehicles, fire freely! Engage aerial targets!"

The turrets of thirty-five tanks began to rotate. Armor-piercing rounds (training rounds) were loaded. Machine guns swept the sky.

Useless.

The armored vehicles fly at speeds exceeding the speed of sound at low altitudes, and the 99A's fire control system was never designed with the intention of "shooting a humanoid target that is flying at supersonic speeds in the air and can make 90-degree right-angle turns."

The shells chased after the afterimages, but all missed. Tracer rounds wove a net of light in the sky as night fell, creating a spectacle, but not a single one hit its mark.

The No. 03 armored vehicle charged head-on at an infantry fighting vehicle. Its 30mm autocannon blasted at it—training rounds clanged against the breastplate like a child shooting at sheet metal with a slingshot.

Number 03 didn't slow down at all. It crashed headfirst into the side of the armored vehicle, inserted its hands into the gaps in the armor, and pried it apart.

The entire side armor was torn open, leaving a half-meter-wide gash.

Referee system: "Target determined: Defeated."

The crew members inside the vehicle peeked through the gaps and saw the massive black steel behemoth staring at them expressionlessly. All three of them shrank back simultaneously.

Although it was a drill, the sense of pressure was real.

The WZ-10 finally reacted, and the six helicopters in formation climbed up, attempting to lock onto the aerial armored vehicle with anti-tank missiles.

Number 07 noticed them.

He climbed to the same altitude as the helicopter formation—300 meters. Then he cut across at Mach 2.

The pilots of the six WZ-10 attack helicopters heard the lock-on warning at the same time.

Not just once.

It happened six times in a row.

Within two seconds, No. 07 flew past each helicopter directly in front of it, coming within 15 meters. Each time it passed, it triggered a lock-on signal directly in front of the other helicopter's nose.

A red warning popped up on the control screens of all six pilots simultaneously: "You have been killed in action."

"This isn't fair!" the lead pilot exploded on the radio. "He's faster than my missiles! How am I supposed to hit him?"

No one responded.

Because the fighting on the ground was even more brutal.

In the first hour of the exercise, the combined arms battalion lost twelve tanks, eighteen infantry fighting vehicles, and all six helicopters.

The elite soldiers were getting better and better at the battles. The AI ​​subsystem was constantly learning and optimizing its tactical suggestions. From the initial solo operations, it gradually evolved into two-on-three teamwork.

Tank No. 02 and No. 05 developed a tacit understanding—No. 02 would fly low over the tank to attract fire, while No. 05 would rush in from the side and flip it over by hand.

They coordinated like they'd been playing together for ten years. In reality, they'd only been wearing these things for six hours.

Zhao Tiezhu stood on the command vehicle, watching his troops being slaughtered by ten dark figures, his temples throbbing.

"Concentrate fire across the entire battalion! Cover the airspace with crossfire! Block out the airspace with a dense barrage!"

Thirty-six tanks—no, the remaining twenty-four—fired simultaneously. Shells, machine gun bullets, and anti-aircraft shells wove together a dense, impenetrable metal net in mid-air.

The armors didn't try to drill through.

Ten battle suits simultaneously rose to a height of 500 meters and hovered above the barrage of bullets.

Then, at a near-vertical angle, it weaves down through the gaps in the bullet comments.

One unit. Two units. Three units.

Zhao Tiezhu watched them fall into his position one by one, just like an eagle catching chicks.

The exercise has entered its third hour.

Only seven tanks and eleven infantry fighting vehicles remained operational in the combined arms battalion. Zhao Tiezhu's voice was hoarse from shouting, and his eyes were bloodshot.

"Withdraw! The entire battalion must retreat and reorganize!"

They didn't evacuate.

Number 01, along with Numbers 04 and 06, formed a three-person team and cut off the combined arms battalion's retreat at supersonic speed.

Just as the exercise entered its fourth hour, and the situation had completely spiraled out of control—

An accident happened.

On an infantry fighting vehicle numbered 327, the fire control system of its 30mm autocannon suddenly displayed a string of garbled characters. An abnormal voltage signal generated by a short circuit in the circuit board was misinterpreted by the fire control computer as a firing command.

Automatic belt feeding.

The cannon barrel was pointing towards the location where the No. 09 battle suit was hovering. The altitude was less than thirty meters.

However, this time the ammunition loaded into the chamber was not a training round.

It was a live bullet mixed in with the ammunition belt.

30mm armor-piercing high-explosive shell.

The muzzle flashed.

The bullet leaves the barrel.

Thirty meters from Warframe No. 09. Flight time: 0.02 seconds.

The human reaction speed of Soldier No. 09 is 0.15 seconds.

It's too late.

It's absolutely too late.

The AI ​​subsystem completed the trajectory calculation within 0.003 seconds after the warhead left the barrel.

0.005 seconds — Forced takeover of supreme control.

0.008 seconds — vector nozzle limit deflection, hydraulic system overload output.

The armored vehicle executed a twisting dodge in mid-air that defied the limits of human ergonomics. Its entire torso shifted 1.2 meters laterally in 0.01 seconds.

The armor-piercing projectile grazed three centimeters from the outside of the left arm of No. 09.

Then the AI ​​performed a second action.

Raise your right palm. Pulse cannon—lowest power.

A beam of blue light struck the left track of infantry fighting vehicle number 327 with pinpoint accuracy.

The track broke. The vehicle spun around in place and landed sideways in the sand.

The gun barrel drooped limply.

The live bullet flew over the armor and landed in a sand dune 300 meters away.

boom.

A fireball shot into the sky.

This is not the effect that training rounds should have.

Inside the observation tower, Liu Guoliang suddenly sprang up from his chair. The teacup slipped from his hand, hit the edge of the control panel, and shattered.

"Those are live ammunition!"

Gu Shounian's face turned pale.

Li Yichen hadn't spilled his goji berry tea. He glanced down at his watch. Ling'er's data had been updated—fire control short circuit, accidental attack, not human error.

"Don't worry." He took a sip of tea. "He's alright."

The voice of Soldier No. 09 came through the channel; he was still panting.

"I...I didn't do anything. The Heavenly Soldier Armor moved by itself."

The crew cut flew over from the other side and hovered next to number 09. "You're lucky, kid."

"It's not just luck." Number 09 looked down at his undamaged armor. "It's just that this system is fucking weird."

Liu Guoliang had already picked up the communicator. "Exercise terminated! Immediately terminated! All units cease fire!"

Twenty minutes later, all vehicles were shut down and the armored vehicles landed.

The drill ground fell silent.

Zhao Tiezhu climbed down from the command vehicle, his legs trembling. His combined arms battalion—an elite heavy armored force of eight hundred men—had been unilaterally crushed by ten mechs in five hours.

Final results: 92 percent of the combined arms battalion's equipment was deemed "destroyed" or "incapacitated".

Heavenly soldiers lost: zero.

Liu Guoliang stood at the top of the stairs in the observation tower, his whole body still trembling. Not from fear. It was a physiological reaction to the release of excitement that had been suppressed for so long.

He turned around and stared at Li Yichen.

"From today onwards—the Celestial Armor is classified as a top-secret strategic deterrent force. All personnel participating in the exercise must immediately sign a top-secret agreement."

He gritted his teeth.

"Leaking even a single word will land you in a military court."

Li Yichen stood up and threw the paper cup into the trash can.

"Alright, I'll head back now." He yawned, a single tear welling up from the corner of his eye. "I haven't slept for two days. If I don't get back soon, I'm afraid I'll suddenly die in your military region, and that would be a mess."

Gu Shounian caught up. "Brother, how about staying at the base for the night?"

"No thanks." Li Yichen waved his hand. "Nothing in the military area is as comfortable as my bed at home."

Behind him, Zhao Tiezhu stood in the middle of his troops, which had been "destroyed" by 92 percent, looking up at the ten black steel machines that were being lined up and retracted.

The deputy battalion commander next to him leaned over and opened his mouth.

Zhao Tiezhu spoke first.

"I'll finish this in three minutes." He repeated with a wry smile what he'd said a few hours earlier. "I was fucking talking about myself, wasn't I?"