8: Chapter 008 The Real War

Zhou Xiaoyi was completely numb.

Because she couldn't find any game UI.

Let alone settings.

"Damn, why doesn't this game have a UI?"

"Yeah, I was just saying, why did it look so strange just now?"

"Sister Yi is so miserable, why not just go and get killed?"

Seeing this, Zhou Xiaoyi immediately shook her head.

"Impossible. I'm in agony from being bombed; wouldn't getting myself killed hurt even more?"

Enduring the pain in her body, Zhou Xiaoyi immediately took the Mauser rifle in her hand and found cover at a street corner.

At this moment, a soldier who looked like a Medic ran over.

He saw that Zhou Xiaoyi was bleeding heavily and immediately stepped forward to help her treat some of the more severe wounds.

Seeing this, Zhou Xiaoyi picked up the Medic's medical kit.

The Medic immediately scolded, "What are you doing? Don't mess around, the medicine in here is very important."

Hearing this, Zhou Xiaoyi sheepishly put down the medical kit in her hand.

She had just wanted to test if this medical kit could be used directly.

It turned out it couldn't.

This wasn't like the medical kits in the games she used to play, where you click to use, wait for the progress bar to load, and then heal.

Not only that, she didn't even have a health bar now.

There wasn't a single UI icon in her field of view.

At this time, Zhou Xiaoyi saw many Chinese Soldiers carrying submachine guns and Mauser rifles rushing toward the battlefield ahead.

They were all wearing uniform German-style equipment.

Zhou Xiaoyi recognized this German-style military uniform; she had even used that equipment before.

"Zhou Yide, what are you still sitting on the ground for? If you're fine, hurry up and keep up!"

A roar came from not far away. A soldier also wearing a steel helmet was looking at her. Seeing the rank on his shoulder, he was clearly a squad leader.

His voice pulled Zhou Xiaoyi's thoughts back to the game.

Hearing this voice, it took her a while to realize that he was calling her.

Because her game name was Zhou Yide.

She immediately raised her rifle and charged with the other soldiers.

Ahead, machine guns continuously suppressed the Japanese Invaders on the other side of Bazi Bridge.

The mortars behind them were also continuously bombarding the enemy positions.

The Chinese Soldiers pressed forward, braving the enemy's machine guns and artillery.

By the seaside, the Japanese Invaders' naval ships received coordinates sent by ground forces, and their naval guns continuously bombarded the direction of the National Revolutionary Army troops.

Zhou Xiaoyi rushed to the bridge and fired two shots, only to see the soldiers around her constantly falling.

A bullet grazed her face, and the warmth she felt on her cheek made her freeze for a second.

Just from that momentary freeze, dense artillery shells suddenly flew from the sky.

Before Zhou Xiaoyi could react, an artillery shell slammed down right beside her feet.

Her vision suddenly went black. Before the intense pain could even register, a "Game Over" prompt appeared in front of her.

[Mission Failed: Failed to complete the mission to capture Bazi Bridge. Survival time: 17 minutes. Enemy kills: 0.]

[You are just like the legendary "extra," with zero presence. Game rating: 0.]

"What? Seventeen minutes? A rating of zero?"

Zhou Xiaoyi's face turned red with frustration; she couldn't believe this was the performance she had achieved.

Especially that rating—wasn't that just insulting her?

At this moment, the audience was also silent.

They were watching the livestream from a god's-eye view and could clearly see how Zhou Xiaoyi was playing the game.

Of her 17-minute survival, more than half of that time was wasted dealing with wounds after being hit by the blast at the very beginning.

In reality, it only took five minutes from when Zhou Xiaoyi charged forward until she died.

"Hahaha, the legendary 'extra,' is the streamer trying to make me die of laughter?"

"The streamer is so miserable, surviving only seventeen minutes."

"Is this a game meant for humans to play? Isn't this just pure suffering?"

"This game doesn't even have a UI; could it be that they released it before it was finished?"

"Wait a second, everyone, I'm going again. I don't believe I can only survive for 17 minutes."

Zhou Xiaoyi closed the game-over screen, and suddenly, the normal game interface appeared before her.

There were three clickable options: Story Mode, Simulated Battlefield, and Settings.

Seeing "Settings," Zhou Xiaoyi's eyes lit up.

She immediately opened the settings, found the pain adjustment, and being afraid of pain, she turned it off completely.

Although the virtual pod had a maximum pain threshold protection to prevent people from getting hurt,

it still really hurt when it was supposed to.

Afterwards, she glanced at the other two: Story Mode and Simulated Battlefield.

She first clicked on Story Mode, which contained the Battle of Shanghai.

Clicking on the Battle of Shanghai, a list appeared, and only one item on it was lit up.

That was the Bazi Bridge battle.

Behind it were several other battles, but without exception, they were all grayed out, and the names of the battles couldn't be seen.

Was this trying to force her to clear the Bazi Bridge battle?

Or was it just not unlocked for the closed beta?

Zhou Xiaoyi couldn't quite figure it out, but she soon put it to the back of her mind.

She turned and clicked on Simulated Battlefield.

Opening Simulated Battlefield, she browsed the introduction.

She immediately understood the difference between Story Mode and Simulated Battlefield.

Simply put, it was the difference between single-player and multiplayer.

Thinking about being able to play online, Zhou Xiaoyi immediately became excited.

She couldn't win alone, but surely a group of players could win?

She immediately clicked on the Bazi Bridge battle and started matchmaking.

However, the matchmaking speed was a bit slow.

After all, this was a closed beta, and there were only two thousand closed beta players in total.

Not all closed beta players had logged on at the very first moment.

Only a portion had logged in.

And not many had cleared the Bazi Bridge battle as quickly as she had.

Zhou Xiaoyi looked at the matchmaking bar, which clearly read [42/100].

It seemed it required 100 people to enter the Simulated Battlefield.

Just at this moment, the comments suddenly started flooding in.

"Streamer, hurry and check out Brother Wang next door. Brother Wang has charged onto the bridge and is still alive; the battle is extremely intense."

As soon as this comment appeared, it quickly drew away many viewers from Zhou Xiaoyi's livestream room.

Seeing this, Zhou Xiaoyi immediately became anxious.

But she quickly calmed down, and then she clicked on Brother Wang's livestream room.

It was as if the livestream screen of Brother Wang next door suddenly appeared before her eyes.

At this moment, Wang Ye was holding an old-fashioned Mauser rifle, hiding under a guardrail, using the terrain to reduce the risk of being hit by bullets.

At the same time, there were many corpses beside him.

Although the bloody and mangled appearance of the corpses made him feel a bit uncomfortable,

he could still endure it.

He even used the corpses as cover, blocking them in front of himself.

"Brothers, the streamer is very nervous right now; this position of mine is too dangerous."

"Really, I've never played such a realistic and hardcore gunfight game."

"No health bar, no UI, pain maxed out. And holding such a piece-of-junk gun, relying entirely on iron sights." Wang Ye chatted with the viewers in the livestream room while working the bolt and firing.

Around him, smoke filled the air, scorching flames burned the air, and the sky was overcast.

At this moment, he didn't dare to stand up at all, not even daring to move.

Because if he moved even a little bit further forward, he would definitely die.

Wang Ye wasn't a fool; the enemy's machine guns were still firing wildly.

If he poked his head out, he would immediately become a target.

Just at this moment, the naval guns by the seaside sounded.

Artillery shells continuously landed on their own positions behind Wang Ye.

A severed hand slammed onto his forehead. He picked it up to look, and his expression changed drastically.

"Damn, this won't get my livestream banned, will it?"

The viewers in the livestream room were also startled by this severed hand.

From their god's-eye view, they could clearly see that the severed hand had landed on Wang Ye after a corpse was blown apart.