Chapter 790.2: NO ONE KNOWS LIGHT BETTER THAN ME

Before the glaring, bristling duke could argue back, Peepo poured him a cup of alcohol and laughed, “Come on, come on. Drink up and eat some meat. Today’s worth celebrating. Don’t ruin the mood over something trivial.”

Looking at the roasted meat that had been shoved into his hands, Nihake couldn’t help thinking of the corpses scattered all over the beach. His face paled slightly as he asked in a trembling voice, “What kind of meat is this?”

Seeing how frightened he looked, Peepo immediately realized where his thoughts had gone and burst out laughing. “Monster meat. We just killed it. The texture's kind of like a bear... Want to try some?”

Seeing the provocative look in his eyes, Nihark refused to let himself be looked down upon. With a dark expression, he took a bite.

The next second, the aroma of roasted meat spread across his tongue, and the rich, oily texture made his eyes light up despite himself.

Hmm... This is unexpectedly good?

The New Alliance people might be a little rough around the edges, but he had to admit those fellows knew how to cook.

Seeing that the duke had finally stopped making a fuss, the players resumed their banquet amid laughter and chatter.

Peepo was joking around with his teammates when a pale-blue icon suddenly appeared on his VM.

“Old White’s calling me. Probably got a mission. You guys keep eating. I’ll head off first.” After cheerfully saying goodbye to his teammates, he picked up his helmet, put it on, and walked toward the command tent deeper inside the camp.

When he lifted the curtain and stepped inside, Old White and Ample Time were standing beside the command table, staring intently at the map spread across it.

It was rare to see the two of them looking this serious. Peepo immediately guessed that something big had come up, and excitement appeared on his face as he asked, “You got something?”

“Yeah, and it’s a big one...” Ample Time nodded while rubbing his chin, then briefly summarized the intelligence they had just received from the Guards Corps.

Simply put, a mid-to-high-ranking Torch Church insider had decided to turn traitor. Since his name wasn’t on the evacuation list, he hoped to surrender to the New Alliance in exchange for lenient treatment.

Peepo thought the guy was seriously unlucky. Normally, if someone knew such a list existed, they should at least be on it. Yet that fellow somehow knew about the list and still wasn’t included.

Leaving aside how he had managed to land himself in that situation, however, there was something else that confused Peepo even more.

The Torch Church’s leadership are planning to run?

Those bastards had already been surrounded like turtles in a jar. Where the fuck could they possibly run to? Was there even anywhere left on Earth that would take them?

Wait... Could it be?!

Seeing the stunned expression spreading across Peepo’s face, Ample Time smiled faintly. “Looks like you realized it without me explaining.”

Peepo nodded, his expression turning grave. “The Torch Church has a spaceship...”

Ample Time nearly chocked on his own saliva. “Huh?!”

Old White coughed. “What would they need a spaceship for... Think about it again.”

Peepo froze before muttering, “Huh? Then... where else can they run to?”

“It’s not entirely impossible,” Ample Time suddenly said. “Maybe it is a spaceship. Maybe it’s a space station, a satellite, or even a hard drive... But I think the possibility of them physically boarding a ship and escaping is pretty low. I’m more inclined to think they plan to use some kind of high-powered transmitter to send their signal to equipment in outer space.”

An enormous amount of spacecraft debris drifted through the planet’s orbit. Among it were still-functioning satellites, automated weapons, and plenty of other devices. Thanks to the widespread use of fusion technology, many orbital systems left behind by the Federation of Human had service lives measured in centuries.

After a pause, he continued, “If that’s the case, I have reason to believe they may already have finished transferring their data while we’ve been standing here talking. Don’t forget, those guys don’t have physical bodies to begin with. They uploaded themselves to the so-called Sanctuary long ago.”

Peepo stared blankly at him and eventually choked out a few words. “Then wouldn’t that mean there’s no point in us going after them now?”

“I wouldn’t say there’s no point. Intercepting the data transfer is probably unrealistic, but at the very least we can figure out where they sent the data, and...” Ample Time stared at the map and continued meaningfully, “... where our enemy actually is.”

“Enemy?” Peepo didn’t understand what he meant and repeated the word in confusion.

Old White looked at him and explained, “Ample Time and I both believe the Torch Church may have other backers behind it.”

“Other backers meaning...?”

Seeing that Peepo still had absolutely no idea what they were talking about, Ample Time got straight to the point. “Remember the third update item in Beta 0.6? The Proxima Centauri and the Gaia update?”

“Holy shit, you mean... that pie-in-the-sky promise the devs made?” Peepo stared at him dumbfounded. “Wasn’t that just them messing around?!”

Ample Time smiled faintly. “Then you’re seriously underestimating our Doggy Light.”

When everyone believed something was a joke, chances were it probably wasn’t. He was certain that the map five light-years away had already been created, and that it had been influencing the game world ever since Beta 0.6. Most people simply hadn’t realized it yet.

He still couldn’t say with 100% certainty that the Torch Church was being supported by the Gaia faction, but he was absolutely certain that the mission in front of them was the first link connecting the players to the new world’s quest chain! He would even go so far as to say that similar opportunities might have appeared before, but nobody had triggered them. And that was precisely why this quest had flown straight at them like a fastball.

Most events in Wasteland Online appeared isolated from one another, but if one dug deep enough, you could eventually uncover connections between nearly all of them!

He could confidently say that nobody understood Light better than he did!

After listening to Ample Time’s analysis, Peepo also began to think it sounded plausible. His eyes grew brighter and brighter. “So the opportunity to establish a connection with the world five light-years away is hidden in this mission? Wait, fuck! If we fail, won't we miss our chance to unlock the new map?!”

Ample Time shook his head. “Probably not. If the development team made the map, they’ll definitely give players a chance to reach it. But a lot of quests in this game are unique, and the number of opportunities given to each player is limited. If we miss this one, the next trigger will probably fall to someone else.”

“There’s no point analyzing that right now. Let’s get back to the mission itself.” Old White coughed lightly, ending the increasingly off-topic discussion, then looked down at the map spread across the table and continued, “According to intelligence from the Guards Corps, the Torch Church’s leadership is currently hiding inside an underground facility called Shelter 20. The entrance is located within an abandoned industrial park from the old era. Like Shelter 182, it was abandoned for many years before being reactivated, so breaking through its security system shouldn’t be particularly difficult for us.”

“The NPC providing us with intelligence is named Karen. We currently have her biometric information like her fingerprints, iris data, measurements... ahem, anyway. She may possess important intelligence, including the destination of the Torch Church’s leadership, whoever is backing them, and information on Project Complete Human. Our primary objective is to ensure her safety. Only after that do we suppress the entire research facility and seize control of Shelter 20.”

“According to coordinates supplied by the Guards Corps, the shelter is roughly 100 kilometers from our landing point. About a third of the route passes through hills, and the roads are in terrible condition, so we probably won’t be able to commit much heavy equipment to this operation.”

Ample Time nodded. “A rapid insertion using Viper transport planes would be better... That area is inside the Kingdom of Heaven after all. It’s better to finish things quickly.”

“I was thinking the same thing.” Old White grinned slightly, though his expression remained serious. “Also, the Guards Corps warned us to be careful of friendly forces... This research institute is only about 50 kilometers from the Army’s 31st battalion. If we make too much noise and they realize there might be something valuable there, there’s no telling whether they’ll stick their noses in and screw things up. We absolutely cannot let the researchers of the Torch Church fall into their hands.”

The Wislanders were also holders of the technology related to Project Complete Human. Their clones grown at eight times normal speed were one product of that project.

In fact, it wasn’t only the Army they needed to watch out for. They also had to be careful of the Academy.

At least the former operated openly. The little bitches from the Academy spent most of their time moving in the shadows, making it difficult to say whether they had already learned something. After all, while the New Alliance had certainly been the faction fighting the Torch Church the whole time, it might not actually be the faction that understood the Torch Church best.

Long before the New Alliance had even been founded, the Academy had already noticed the crisis emerging in the Ocean Edge Province. They were the ones who had encouraged the New Alliance to move into the Brocade River Province in the first place.

“So we don’t have air support?” Peepo asked with a grave expression.

Ample Time replied, “Air support itself isn’t a problem. Limited artillery strikes should be fine too. But saturation bombardment needs to be used carefully. That would basically announce to the Army that we’re conducting a large-scale operation in the area... Best case, we resolve this quietly. If we absolutely have to use heavy firepower, try to save it for the withdrawal or cleanup phase.”

“That’s basically it.” Old White nodded, then looked at Peepo. “Also, according to our source, the forces stationed near the facility include a Punishment Squad from the Torch Church’s Judgment Panel, as well as the Holy Knights loyal to the First Sanctuary. The Punishment Squad has less than 100 people, but the Holy Knights is roughly battalion-sized and equipped with a large amount of high-tech weaponry.”

“Besides that, our drones spotted a Mutant Human force in an abandoned urban district not far from the facility. Their numbers exceed 1,000. They appear to be a mutant tribe withdrawn from Ten Peaks Mountain. Once one of the Torch Church’s key facilities comes under attack, there’s no reason they wouldn’t rush over as reinforcements.”

“Now, I plan to split our forces into two groups. One group will act as the diversionary force. They’ll carry light equipment, ride Overlord transport planes, and air-drop near the abandoned urban district to launch a surprise attack on the local mutant forces and attract as much of the Torch Church’s attention as possible. The other group will use Viper transport planes to insert themselves directly at the entrance to Shelter 20 and coordinate with our insider to seize the entire facility!”

“That sounds great!” Peepo’s eyes lit up as he nodded, then he noticed that both men were staring directly at him.

He froze instantly.

“Uh... why are you two looking at me like that?”

Come to think of it, why was he the only one attending such an important operational meeting? Where were all the other brothers?

Old White and Ample Time exchanged a glance before Ample Time walked over to Peepo and solemnly placed both hands on his shoulders. “We’ve decided to entrust this difficult and glorious diversionary mission to you guys!”

“...”

Fuck!

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