4: Chapter 4 A Mortal Body, Harder Than Steel

"Platoon Leader!"

Jack roared, his voice swallowed by the thunderous roar of the train.

He watched helplessly as the Platoon Leader lunged toward the tracks, a movement of utter resolution without the slightest hesitation.

The handle of the large wrench was thrust violently into the hole of the fishplate where a bolt was missing.

The impact of metal produced a dull, heavy thud.

The Platoon Leader lay prone on the freezing sleepers, his hands gripping both ends of the wrench with a death grip,

his shoulder braced against the wrench handle. Using the principle of leverage and his entire body weight, he forcibly pushed the misaligned section of rail back into place.

"Get away! You'll die!" Jack rushed forward, trying to pull him back.

"Don't move!"

The Platoon Leader bellowed, veins bulging on his neck. In that moment, his voice even drowned out the whistling wind of the approaching train.

"The train cannot stop! The front line is waiting for bullets! They're waiting for these supplies to save their lives!"

The ground began to vibrate violently.

In the distant darkness, the behemoth spewing white smoke revealed its hideous face.

The massive locomotive of the steam engine surged onto the bridge with an all-consuming momentum.

The overwhelming pressure made Jack's legs go weak, and he instinctively backed away.

This is just a game...

The thought flashed through Jack's mind, but every cell in his body was screaming in terror.

The vibrations transmitted by the VR technology shot straight from the soles of his feet to the top of his head. It wasn't just feedback from the physics engine; it was a shiver from the depths of his soul.

"Woo—!"

The whistle blasted right in his ear.

The massive wheels rolled toward them, each rotation carrying dozens of tons of weight.

The Platoon Leader lay there, his body taut like a fully drawn bow.

The first engine pressed over.

"Crack!"

Jack clearly heard the sound of bones dislocating.

The massive vibrations traveled through the wrench into the Platoon Leader's arms and then through his entire body.

The Platoon Leader's body jerked violently, and his face, covered in soot and chilblains, instantly turned a deep purplish-red.

But he did not let go.

Not only did he not let go, but his hands gripped even tighter, knuckles turning white, as if they were about to be embedded into the metal handle of the wrench.

"Ah!!!"

The Platoon Leader let out a beast-like low growl. This sound wasn't to vent pain, but to squeeze out every last ounce of strength from his body.

The second car crushed over.

Blood surged from the Platoon Leader's nostrils and the corners of his mouth, dripping onto the pure white snow and instantly freezing into dark red beads of ice.

The third car... the fourth car...

Jack sat paralyzed in a snow hollow a few meters away, the so-called "god-tier gun" in his hand having long since fallen to the side.

He stared blankly at the scene, watching that mortal body struggle to endure under the crushing weight of the steel beast.

Was this the NPC he had just mocked?

Was this the "country bumpkin" he thought had a poor model and lacked dominance?

In the livestream room, the once-dense barrage of comments suddenly fragmented.

Over five million online viewers fell silent collectively at this moment.

In front of their screens, countless people covered their mouths; some even stood up unconsciously.

They were used to seeing the super captain stop a train with one hand, used to seeing tight-clad heroes acting cool and unscathed in explosions.

But no one had ever seen a scene like this.

No superpowers, no invulnerable body.

Only a body of flesh and blood, resisting the torrent of steel.

The tenth car.

The corners of the Platoon Leader's eyes split open, blood and tears flowing down together.

His back began to curve slightly, a signal that the human body had reached its limit.

"Hold on... hold on..."

Jack muttered to himself. He didn't even realize he was cheering for this NPC, his face already covered in tears at some point.

The fifteenth car.

The Platoon Leader was no longer making a sound.

His body stopped trembling, instead taking on a weird stiffness.

That was the sign of muscles completely spasming and locking up.

The eighteenth car.

The last car whistled past.

As the taillights disappeared into the vast night, the world returned to a dead silence.

Only the wind and snow continued to howl.

On the bridge, the prone figure remained motionless.

A full eighteen cars.

Even Spider-Man only dared to stop a single subway train!!

Jack crawled over on all fours; it was the most pathetic crawling posture of his life.

"Platoon Leader... Platoon Leader?"

He reached out, wanting to touch that body, but his fingers stopped half an inch away.

The Platoon Leader still maintained that posture.

Hands tightly gripping the wrench, shoulder braced firmly—his whole being was like a sculpture welded beside the tracks.

He was bleeding from all seven facial orifices, and the soot on his face was washed into streaks of blood.

Those eyes were still open, staring straight ahead with a gaze that held no fear, only a suffocating stubbornness.

Jack tremblingly placed his hand under the Platoon Leader's nose.

No breath.

The body was already ice-cold.

[Mission Complete.]

[Frontline supplies delivered.]

A line of cold system prompts popped up, followed by the stage clear summary screen.

No cheerful music, no special effects of dropping gold coins.

Jack felt as if his chest had been struck by a heavy punch, the pain making it hard to breathe.

In the real world, on a luxurious gaming chair.

That always-grinning, fast-talking Madman Jack snatched off his VR headset and threw it onto the table like a scalding branding iron.

He gasped for air, his whole body looking as if he had just been pulled out of water, sweat soaking his back.

The livestream was still going.

In the camera, Jack's arrogant face was gone, replaced by a pale, soul-shaken countenance.

His hands were shaking, a tremor he couldn't control—an instinctive reaction to the dual physical and psychological shock.

"What... what the hell is this plot?"

Jack's voice was hoarse, even carrying a hint of a sob.

"Developers, come out... are you devils? Why do this? Why does someone have to die? Why did he have to die?!"

"Couldn't you give him a shot of Super Soldier Serum?"

He wanted to curse, wanted to trash this game as garbage.

But when the words reached his lips, he couldn't say them.

His mind was filled with the Platoon Leader's final gaze.

That gaze was heavier than ten thousand punches from Captain Eagle Country.

The comments in the livestream room finally resumed scrolling, but it was no longer the previous carnival.

[Was that real just now?]

[I just looked it up, this actually happened in history... that human wrench is real,]

[and he held on for 90 minutes! This game actually simplified it!]

[I don't want to play this game anymore, but why am I still crying?]

[Jack, stop cursing. This time, we really lost.]

[What 'country bumpkin' game? This is freaking hardcore! This is a true hero!]

"Bang!"

Jack slammed his fist onto the table, knocking over a nearby cola can.

The dark brown liquid spilled everywhere, but he didn't care at all.

"I'm not satisfied!" Jack stared at the camera with red eyes.

"This is too tragic! What kind of power-fantasy game is this? I want to pay! Give me a resurrection coin! I'll pay any amount! Resurrect that Platoon Leader for me!"

There was no response.

Su Yun sat in his dilapidated rental room, looking at the skyrocketing emotional value data on the backend, without a trace of a smile on his face.

He lightly tapped the keyboard, sending an in-game mail to all players who cleared Chapter One.

The mail subject was simple: [To the Survivors].

The content was just one sentence:

"There are no resurrection coins in this world, only a yesterday that can never be returned to."

That night, the game forums exploded.

The game "ice and snow world," which had previously been ignored and mocked as "tacky," was like a depth charge, creating a massive wave.

On the trending search list, the five characters for #ice and snow world# rose at rocket speed.

And below it, closely followed a term that was hard to understand but painful to look at:

#human wrench#

Someone had screenshotted the Platoon Leader's final moment.

That black-and-white screenshot became the nightmare for countless players that night, and also a totem that wouldn't leave their hearts.

"This game developer is a madman, and also a genius."

The well-known game reviewer "Sharp-Tongued Old Cat" posted overnight,

"He didn't use any fancy special effects; he only used a wrench to shatter the Hollywood filter we've worn for twenty years.

Those flying and earth-shattering superheroes seem so pale and powerless before this mortal Platoon Leader."

Su Yun looked at these comments and closed the webpage.

This was only the beginning.

Compared to what he was about to show next, these "sugar-coated bullets" were nothing.

He clicked on the system interface; the gray chapter icon was already half-lit.

"System, load Chapter One assets."

[Loading...]

[Asset Name: Chosin Lake · Ice Sculpture Company]

[Core Item: Frozen Potato]

[New Plot: Even if freezing to death, maintain the charging posture.]

Su Yun's finger paused over the "Publish" button.

"Jack, and all those who think war is fun,"

Su Yun said softly,

"Are you ready to welcome the real winter?"

On the screen, a new line of teaser text slowly emerged—the second "gift" he was giving to all players:

[Mission ends, transport channel repair complete.]

Starfire Game Company.

In the office where Su Yun had once been kicked out, a weird low pressure was currently permeating.

President Zhao held a data report, the fat on his cheeks twitching slightly.

Those were the various data points for "ice and snow world" from last night—first-day downloads exceeded ten million, peak online users broke eight million, and the positive rating was... 99%.

The most eye-catching part was that column: Average player online time—4 hours.

This was practically a miracle for a VR shooting game.

Usually, for this kind of high-intensity motion-sensing game, players would get tired and log off after an hour, but this group of people was like they were crazy, insisting on playing even while crying.

"Can someone tell me,"

President Zhao slammed the report on the table, his voice so dark it could drip water, "Is this Su Yun the same Su Yun I fired?"

At both sides of the conference table, several managers lowered their heads, no one daring to speak.

It was the planning manager who had originally mocked Su Yun for having his "brain caught in a door"

who stood up reluctantly: "President Zhao, it is indeed him. However... this is just a flash-in-the-pan viral product. Relying on selling misery and heart-wrenching moments to grab attention—this kind of tactic won't last. Players play games to feel good; once this wave of patriotic fervor passes, this game will definitely cool down."

"Cool down?" President Zhao sneered, pointing at the trending forum posts on the projection screen, "Go look at those comments! The whole internet is begging for Chapter Two! Even the official account for 'Captain Eagle Country' has been trashed! You call this cooling down?"

Just then, the secretary ran in flustered.

"President Zhao! It's bad! Our servers... have crashed!"

"What?" President Zhao stood up abruptly.

"Because the traffic for 'ice and snow world' is too large, it squeezed out all the server bandwidth next door... Our 'Mecha Frenzy' can't be logged into now, and players are cursing us!"

President Zhao's vision went dark, and he almost couldn't stand steadily.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city.

Su Yun was staring at the new round of "emotional value" collection progress on the screen.

[Extreme Sadness: Collection Complete]

[Shock: Collection Complete]

[Awakening: In Progress...]

It wasn't enough.

Just crying, just being moved, wasn't enough to truly awaken the bloody nature in these people's bones.

"Since you want to feel good, want to win,"

Su Yun's eyes turned slightly cold, "Then I'll give you a chance to win. However, the price for this win is something you might not be able to afford."

He pressed the Enter key.

[Ice and Snow Chosin, Experience Open.]