12: Chapter 12 This crappy game dares to try and piggyback on my idol's fame?

Shark Platform, Dance Section.

In a livestream room branded with 'Sweetheart Sect Master Little Dai Mei',

The pink lighting was intimate, and the camera was set to maximum beautification.

The female streamer, ID 'Little Dai Mei', was pinching her voice, gesturing wildly toward a blond, blue-eyed man on the screen.

"Wow! Captain Eagle Country is so handsome! Look at those muscle contours,

That jawline!

He just twisted a bottle cap in a variety show, and I feel like world peace has been achieved!"

What was playing on the screen was the latest interview with the lead actor of 'Captain Eagle Country 4'.

The bullet comments were filled with rainbow compliments like 'Lick, lick, lick' and 'Sister is so beautiful'.

Suddenly, a few discordant bullet comments floated by.

["The adjacent Gaming Section has exploded, isn't the streamer going to take a look?"]

["In 'ice and snow world', both Jack and Brother Bao were silenced."]

["I heard it's an anti-Eagle Country game, the streamer's Captain Eagle Country should be careful."]

The sweet smile on Little Dai Mei's face froze slightly.

An anti-Eagle Country game?

She clicked on the trending search list. '#human wrench#', '#Ice Sculpture Group#', '#Cracked Tooth Potato#'—several blood-red tags stung her eyes.

She casually clicked on a video clip, which showed Jack kneeling in the snow, collapsing and weeping while facing rows of ice sculpture warriors.

"She's acting, right?" Little Dai Mei pouted, closed the video, her face full of disdain.

"People will play anything for traffic these days. Anti-Eagle Country? Trying to ride on our Captain Eagle Country's popularity? This domestic piece of junk deserves it?"

She naturally held a prejudice against domestic products, especially a game that was trying to copy her idol's home country.

"My family, I can't stand this anymore." Little Dai Mei said indignantly to the camera,

"This kind of trash game that relies on patriotic sentiment to scam money must be exposed! I'm not dancing today. I'll take everyone to judge it and see how tacky this game really is!"

Her fans immediately went wild.

["Dai Mei is righteous!"]

["Smash this trash game! Captain Eagle Country cannot be insulted!"]

["Sister, don't be afraid, we will protect you!"]

Amidst her fans' praise, Little Dai Mei triumphantly put on the VR helmet.

The world went black, and when it lit up again, it was no longer the pink, dreamy livestream room.

It was hell.

"Boom—!"

A shell exploded not far away,

The resulting snow spray and air currents nearly knocked her over.

The deafening explosion left her mind blank.

The fake beauty provided by the beautification camera wasn't even worth a single pixel here.

The minus forty-degree wind felt like countless small knives scraping her face, bringing a fine, stinging pain.

"Where is this..."

Dai Dai whimpered, subconsciously trying to find the settings panel to exit.

"Don't make a sound!"

A rough, large hand violently pressed her down into a pile of straw.

Boom—!

The sheet metal on the carriage roof clanged loudly from the air blast.

The massive explosion detonated right beside her ear, making her eardrums buzz.

"Air raid! US military planes!"

The carriage door was pulled open, and a blinding beam of a searchlight swept across, immediately followed by the shriek of aircraft cannons tearing through the air.

Da da da da!

A series of bullet holes the size of fists instantly appeared on the carriage wall, wood chips flying everywhere.

Dai Dai didn't even have time to scream before she was flung out by the immense inertia, slamming heavily against the metal wall.

She felt like her shoulder was shattered; the pain made her vision go black, and even a scream was stuck in her throat.

Screeeech—Grrr—

The train braked urgently, the steel wheels grinding out ear-piercing sparks on the rails. The carriage shook violently, finally stopping with a loud crash.

"Get out quickly! Repair it!"

The man who had pressed her down—who looked like a Platoon Leader, his face covered in soot—yelled and jumped out of the carriage.

Dai Dai's body went soft; she was helped out by two young soldiers beside her.

The world outside was black and white: black night, white snow, and red firelight.

This was a railway bridge near a cliff edge.

The US bombing had not directly hit the train,

but a bomb had exploded next to the track, and the massive impact had loosened the roadbed.

"It's over..." The Platoon Leader lay on the ground, checking the tracks by the faint light of a kerosene lamp, his voice despairing.

"The fishplate bolts have blown off, and the two sections of track are misaligned!"

In his hand was a huge pipe wrench, the only heavy maintenance tool on the train.

In the distance, the sound of aircraft engines was fading, but a more terrifying sound arrived—a muffled roar came from the valley behind them.

"That's Car Number Two! Car Number Two, loaded with ammunition, is coming up right now!"

Someone shouted.

This was a single-track line. The train ahead had stopped,

so if the one behind didn't brake in time or pass through, it would result in a chain collision.

But Car Number Two was fully loaded with munitions and had maintained high speed to evade the air raid; it couldn't brake now!

"Fix it! Hurry up and fix it!"

The Platoon Leader went mad, using the pipe wrench to pry at the misaligned track.

The steel, hardened by the severe cold, was extremely stubborn and wouldn't budge.

Several soldiers rushed up to help, using their shoulders to carry and their hands to push. The several-ton track only trembled slightly.

"No time left!"

Strong headlights were already shining from the tunnel entrance in the distance.

The earth was vibrating—it was the roar of dozens of carriages loaded with munitions crushing the ground.

Dai Dai collapsed onto the snow. That realistic sense of oppression made her even forget she was playing a game.

She looked at that Platoon Leader, at the man whose face was covered in blood.

"Get out of my way!"

The Platoon Leader shoved aside the soldier beside him.

He raised the huge pipe wrench vertically and jammed it deeply into the gap between the sleeper and the track.

This was the principle of leverage; he was going to use the wrench as a fulcrum to forcibly push the misaligned track back.

Crack—thud.

The track moved, it realigned.

But the moment he let go, the track would immediately spring back to its misaligned state.

Someone had to hold it continuously.

But the train was coming.

The massive engine, accompanied by a whistling wind pressure, was like an out-of-control steel behemoth, less than fifty meters away.

"Platoon Leader! Retreat quickly!" The soldiers cried out, trying to pull him away.

"Get lost! If these supplies don't reach the front line, what will they eat! What will they use to fight!"

The Platoon Leader roared, planting his feet firmly against the frozen sleepers.

He didn't dodge.

Instead, he stepped forward, wedging the handle of the pipe wrench tightly under his shoulder collarbone, his entire body forming an angled triangular support.

He was human.

But at this moment, he had turned himself into a nail, a lock, a piece of the roadbed.

"Ah—!!!"

The Platoon Leader erupted with a final roar.

That was not a sound a human could make; it was the final burst of life before being completely extinguished.

Dai Dai's eyes widened, her pupils contracting violently.

The giant engine roared past.

Even in the game, the rushing airflow nearly flipped her over.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

The first set of wheels rolled over the joint.

A massive vibration transmitted through the pipe wrench into the Platoon Leader's body.

Dai Dai heard the sound of bones shattering. The sound was brittle and dense, as if in that instant, the bones in half of the Platoon Leader's body had been pulverized.

But he didn't fall.

He was bleeding. Blood flowed from all seven orifices. Fresh blood dripped from his chin onto the snow, instantly freezing into red ice.

His eyeballs bulged due to extreme congestion, staring fixedly ahead, as if he intended to support this entire train to the front line with his gaze alone.

Clang! Clang!

The fifth set.

The tenth set.

The Platoon Leader's body visibly sank. This was the sign of his spine being compressed and his leg bones being crushed.

But he still maintained that posture, his shoulder pressing the wrench handle, his hands tightly gripping the iron wrench, like cast iron poured onto the sleepers.

Dai Dai covered her mouth, her stomach churning.

The realistic sensory simulation allowed her to smell the intense, warm stench of blood, mixed with the acrid smell of friction from the train's bearings.

The eighteenth set.

The last carriage passed.

That deafening roar finally faded away.

Beside the track, only a 'sculpture' that was already unrecognizable remained.

The Platoon Leader was still kneeling there.

The pipe wrench was deeply embedded in his flesh, fused with his collarbone. His entire right arm was now purplish-black, hanging limply.

But he had not fallen.

Until the very last moment, he treated himself as a component, tightly riveted onto this lifeline.

"Platoon Leader..."

A soldier crawled over, trying to support him.

As soon as his hand touched the Platoon Leader's body, the already shattered shell seemed to have finally completed its mission and collapsed with a crash.

No last words.

No sentimental background music.

Only the sound of the wind, whistling past the pipe wrench still standing between the sleepers.

The system prompt sounded in Dai Dai's ears, cold and devoid of emotion:

["Mission complete."]

["Supply train has passed."]

["Current casualties: 1 person."]

Dai Dai sat in the snow, trembling all over.

Her expensive, virtual cotton coat was soaked with cold sweat.

She looked at the blurred mass of flesh collapsed in a pool of blood; her mind was filled with the image of the Platoon Leader's bulging eyes from moments ago.

Could a human do that?

Could a carbon-based lifeform endure that kind of pain?

For a few carriages of ammunition and potatoes, he turned himself into a nail and nailed himself here?

"Is this... what you guys call... boring?"

Dai Dai muttered to herself. She wanted to stand up, wanted to escape this hell, but her legs wouldn't obey.

In the real world.

The livestream screen froze on that snow-covered ground dyed red with blood.

The bullet comments disappeared.

The people who had just been typing 'Streamer 666' or 'This must be special effects' were now all silent.

The camera captured Dai Dai's current appearance.

She took off the VR helmet, her entire body looking as if she had just been fished out of water.

The delicate 'battle damage makeup' on her face was smeared into a mess by tears and cold sweat, making her look wretched and comical.

She opened her mouth, gasping for air in the air-conditioned room like a fish out of water.

"That..."

Dai Dai finally spoke, her voice hoarse as if rubbed by sandpaper.

"That... was real?"

She looked up, her eyes empty as she stared into the camera, tears breaking forth without warning.

"He... was holding up... eighteen carriages... pressing over him... just now..."

"That was a person... that was a living human being..."

"Waaah—"

Dai Dai could no longer hold back.

She didn't care about the livestream performance or her goddess image. She hugged her head with both hands, burying her face in her knees, letting out heart-wrenching sobs.

It wasn't for show.

It was because the immense power named 'Sacrifice' that transcended time and space had completely shattered her mental defenses.

On the computer screen, the game icon named 'ice and snow world' no longer looked like an entertaining toy in the eyes of countless viewers.

It resembled a monument, coldly looking down upon this world where entertainment was everything.