115: Chapter 115 Roaring Sea

Although its volume was slightly smaller than the Jupiter of the Earth era, the crushing visual weight of it still made one's heart race.

"So that giant planet I saw in the night sky was actually this thing?" Lin Li murmured to himself.

Suddenly, a suspicion flashed through Lin Li's mind.

He immediately controlled the camera to pull back the perspective, finally finding the star emitting a dim glow in the distant sea of stars.

After a simple comparison of orbital trajectories,

Lin Li came to a helpless conclusion:

"Case closed. This so-called 'outpost planet' beneath our feet isn't a planet at all. It's actually just a moon of that purplish-red gas giant!"

"No wonder the land area is so small! Even the total population of the entire Coastal City is only just over two hundred million."

Lin Li leaned back in his chair. "Whatever, a moon it is. Small has its advantages; it'll be easier to unify the whole globe later."

Subsequently,

Lin Li switched to another military reconnaissance satellite that was filming the surface vertically.

After a laborious search through latitudes and longitudes,

he finally found the clear outlines of the Fire Seed Shelter, the Northwest Grand Canyon, and Shahe Town on the surface, which was littered with ruins and desert.

The satellite's field of vision continued to move east.

Lin Li manipulated the lens, pulling the perspective closer and freezing it on Coastal City and the long Defense Force line to its north.

When he saw the scene in the image clearly,

the ease on Lin Li's face vanished instantly, replaced by a deep solemnity.

Outside the dozens of kilometers of steel defensive lines north of Coastal City,

on the vast wasteland, dense crowds of Orks, like a green carpet, were frantically massing!

It seemed as if all the Ork tribes of the entire northern wasteland had converged here.

Looking down from the satellite's perspective, the green sea stretched as far as the eye could see.

By conservative estimates, the number of Orks had definitely surpassed the ten-million mark!

In contrast, the Defense Force's weak line consisted only of a few trenches and concrete walls.

If it weren't for the fact that the area north of Coastal City was a relatively narrow hilly terrain, preventing tens of millions of Orks from fully deploying their forces at once and forcing them to use piecemeal tactics,

this defensive line would likely have been completely crushed within the first hour of contact!

"This is big trouble."

Lin Li's brow furrowed. "An Ork Waaagh! of this scale... this definitely isn't just a simple low-level mob tactic!"

"The racial talent of Orks... as long as they gather in sufficient numbers, their Waaagh! Field will undergo a qualitative change.

Not only will various cobbled-together Killa Kans and Gorkanauts appear in large numbers, but there will even be Weirdboyz capable of using rampaging psychic power and Kommando Boyz skilled in infiltration and assassination!"

Under the impact of a ten-million-strong tide that completely defied the laws of physics and common sense,

that weak defensive line at Coastal City wouldn't last more than a few days.

Once the line was torn open and tens of millions of Orks flooded into the city, it would become a brutal Hive City siege with no strategic depth to speak of!

And once the Orks fought their way into the city, the Defense Force would completely lose the strategic initiative.

Trying to match Orks in melee combat during urban warfare? The fall of Coastal City would only be a matter of time!

"I can't wait any longer."

Lin Li thought of the group of muscle-bound bros from the Brotherhood of Steel in his camp who were already so bored they were brawling with each other in octagons.

"It's the perfect time to send these lunatics to the front line as meat grinders. It'll relieve the pressure on Coastal City and burn off the players' excess energy. That secret underground railway line in Shahe Town will also come in handy!"

However, the thought of Coastal City's fat, selfish, and short-sighted Governor—who even dared to try and forcibly conscript his people—made Lin Li feel a surge of annoyance.

Lin Li felt disgruntled: "I'm spending money to send troops to work for free for a piece of trash like that? Why should I?"

Just as Lin Li was pondering how to extract the maximum benefit from this rescue operation,

"Beep—!"

A bright red warning window popped up directly on the main control room's computer screen.

[Ding! Large-scale regional crisis detected! Hidden challenge mission triggered!]

[Mission Name: Defend Coastal City!]

[Mission Description: An Ork tide is imminent, and the two hundred million human compatriots in Coastal City are in dire peril! Please dispatch troops to prevent the city from being completely overrun by the Orks!]

[Mission Reward: Obtain one complete Geller Field Generator!]

"A Geller Field Generator?!" Lin Li stood up abruptly.

He knew the value of this item all too well!

In the Warhammer universe, the Gellar Field is the absolute barrier used during Warp travel to protect starships from being torn apart by Daemons!

This thing was practically a divine artifact for isolating Warp pollution!

While its coverage area certainly wasn't as large as the Blackstone Matrix, its advantage lay in the fact that it could be installed on vehicles for flexible mobile deployment.

Furthermore, the system reward was the complete version!

It was definitely not the cruel, castrated version currently used by the Empire, which required burning living Psykers as human batteries!

"Good stuff! I must complete this mission!"

Lin Li slapped the table, a bold and devious multi-stage plan flashing through his mind.

"This time, I'll project the Shelter's heavy military force. If we can leverage the players' advantage of infinite respawns to successfully repel this ten-million-strong Ork tide, we can use the momentum of a grand victory to swallow Coastal City whole!"

A cunning smile tugged at the corner of Lin Li's mouth.

"When the Ork offensive is about to collapse, I'll secretly send a few players to infiltrate the Governors Mansion and assassinate that fat pig of a Governor who only knows how to collect taxes!"

"Then, I'll lead the invincible The Fourth Calamity army into the city in a savior's triumph and take over the Defense Force. It'll be perfectly legitimate and flawless!"

The plan was set.

"It's decided! All forces, move out!"

However, to get these five thousand veterans plus the twenty thousand newly online players to risk their lives, he needed a little stimulation.

Lin Li immediately opened the official game forum's backend, his fingers flying across the keyboard as he posted a brand-new expansion announcement that would make every player's adrenaline surge!

Lin Li's ten fingers flew as he tapped frantically on the keyboard.

Minutes later, a highly inflammatory large-scale game update announcement was sent directly to the pv terminals of all online and offline players, as well as the official game forum, via the Shelter's system backend.

[The first major war expansion for "warhammer 40k ol": Roar of the Coast, is officially released!]

[Background Overview: An Ork tide numbering in the tens of millions is surging like a green tsunami, frantically battering Coastal City's fragile northern defense line! Within this massive Hive City, over two hundred million of our human compatriots are on the brink of life and death!]

[Kindled Ones! Start up your war machines! Turn the tide and save the day!]

[Core Objective: All-out assault to defend Coastal City! The Orks must not break the line!]

[Campaign Rewards:]

[Upon achieving the defense goal, all participating individual players will receive a base reward of 2,000 Core Points. Participating large-scale Legions will receive an additional 20,000 points in Legion construction funds!]

[All loot obtained during this campaign will no longer be subject to mandatory recovery by the Shelter! After the war, all players can freely divide the spoils based on war merit. This includes, but is not limited to: advanced Defense Force weaponry, residential bases in the Coastal City district, and free development rights for the new urban areas!]

[Special Note 1: This expansion simultaneously opens the 'Individual War Merit System' and the 'Legion War Merit System'. The War Merit Leaderboard will be displayed in real-time!]

[Special Note 2: The shop has added the latest 'Combat Stimulants' and 'Psyker-Repellents' developed by the Stone Men. To support the front line, every player who signs up for the campaign will receive four free injections of various types!]

[Special Note 3: The secret underground railway line from Shahe Town to the outskirts of Coastal City is now fully operational. Players can choose to be rapidly deployed via underground military trains or drive their own vehicles to the front!]

As soon as the announcement went out, the entire game, inside and out, instantly boiled over!

The comment section of the official forum was completely flooded with thousands of messages within a single minute.

"Holy crap! A sea of ten million Orks?! The dev is finally cooking something big!"

"We get to split territory if we win? And we can raid the NPC armories ourselves? What kind of god-tier benefits are these!"

"Say no more! Brothers, what are we waiting for? Charge! If we're late, we won't even get a sip of the soup!"

For these creatures known as the The Fourth Calamity, loot and territory certainly held massive appeal.

But what truly drove them into a complete frenzy was the newly released real-time War Merit Leaderboard.

As the saying goes, there's no first in literature, but there's no second in martial arts.

In a game, what could be more satisfying than having your name pinned at the very top of the leaderboard for tens of thousands of people on the server to worship?

That itching competitive urge was practically more unbearable than death itself!

The war machines of the major Legions and solo guilds were fully activated at this moment.

...

Northwest Grand Canyon, Brotherhood of Steel base.

Legion Commander Flame Fist kicked over the octagon's wire mesh in front of him and let out an excited roar toward the sky.

"Brothers! A big job is here!"

Flame Fist raised the chainsword in his hand, which was still dripping with engine oil.

"A massive city of two hundred million! Tens of millions of Orks! This time, we don't have to scour the wasteland for mobs to grind!"

The muscle-bound bros throughout the camp were in a total frenzy.

They dropped the wooden clubs they had been using for brawling and rushed into the warehouse.

Large chunks of dried mutant beast meat were stuffed into backpacks, and heavy bulletproof steel plates were forced onto their bodies.

Everyone was howling, shouldering a variety of heavy melee weapons.

"Get in the vehicles! We're going to Shahe Town to catch the train! I'm going to be the first to take the head of an Ork Warboss and claim the top of the leaderboard!"

Trucks and off-road vehicles roared as they charged out of the canyon, kicking up clouds of yellow sand as they headed straight for the underground train station in Shahe Town.

...

Eastern Mining Area, Scourge Legion base.

This place had already transformed into a massive heavy industrial base.

Legion Commander Ming Shen stood on a high point, directing the assembly of the heavy units below.

"Quick! Bring out all the light tanks and APCs!" Ming Shen shouted through a megaphone. "Bring plenty of smoothbore shells! Don't worry about maintenance; just get it done at the front!"

Ruggedly designed self-propelled smoothbore tanks with thick barrels crushed the gravel of the mining area, spewing thick black smoke.

The metallic clanking of tracks grinding against the ground merged into a single, majestic roar.

"Logistics brigade, keep up! Armored units will push directly across the surface! We must use large-caliber cannons to teach those Orks that truth lies within the range of our guns!"

...

Southwest Depression, Galactic Empire Stormtroopers base.

Legion Commander ikun stood beside a simple concrete runway that had just been leveled and marked with white lime lines.

At the end of the runway sat a flight vehicle that looked remarkably similar to those from the end of Earth's World War II.

This was no longer the clunky Kirov Airship from before, but a single-seat jet aircraft prototype manually assembled by players using high-precision parts printed from the Matter Constructor!

The plane had no sleek paint job, only gray metal skin, with two homemade bombs and a row of heavy machine guns mounted under the wings.

"Turbojet engine preheating complete!" a ground crew player reported loudly.

The player in the cockpit pulled down his goggles and gave a thumbs-up to ikun below.

"Go! Fly east at full speed, past the Coastal City line!"

ikun waved a red signal flag and shouted,

"Remember your mission! You're not there to bomb Orks; you're there for high-altitude reconnaissance of the enemy's large-scale troop deployment and to map out the bombing targets!"

"Understood! Watch me, Commander!"

The engine let out a scream that tore through the air.

The jet aircraft accelerated on the simple runway, lifted off, and with a white contrail, soared into the sky, whistling toward the eastern battlefield.

...

Even the casual 'life' players, who usually only enjoyed farming, building houses, and cooking, could no longer sit still.

The pure life-player legion, Baby Bus, set up massive iron pots in the camp square.

"Move faster! Prepare more meat wraps!"

Although these life players lacked combat power, they knew that with tens of thousands of people fighting at the front, the food consumption would be astronomical.

They quickly organized a massive logistics support team.

Truck after truck, loaded with flatbread, smoked meat, and medical supplies, drove toward the underground train transfer station.