Volume 2, Chapter 20 – Night Is Falling

“Branch Chief, the advance force has already set out according to plan.”

Standing on the cliff, Heloise watched as the convoy kicked up rolling clouds of dust, roaring forward across the wilderness.

Their target was Twinmoon City far in the distance.

At that moment, a young man in a black uniform walked up beside her and spoke respectfully.

“Let’s go too.” Heloise smoothed back the hair that the mountain wind had been blowing all over the place, then turned and walked toward the base behind her.

9:00 a.m., June 15.

With the base of the Morningstar Resistance’s Far East Branch on Canyon Continent as the center, countless people affiliated with the Morningstar Resistance began to move.

Large-scale troops, special assault teams split into smaller units, and sleeper agents who had long been hidden inside Twinmoon City all began to play their parts.

Heloise sat inside a gray-painted armored vehicle, leaning back against the bulletproof glass window. Everyone around her, including the driver, remained silent.

Only Heloise, utterly at ease, undid one button at her collar to reveal a patch of snowy-white skin, then put on a pair of black fingerless long gloves.

The attack on Twinmoon City was the Morningstar Resistance’s first large-scale operation after lying low for five years.

The purpose of this operation was not actually to seize Twinmoon City. Their Far East Branch was merely serving as bait, and that was exactly why the higher-ups had sent her here.

The Morningstar Resistance could no longer afford to wait. It had been nearly thirty-two years since its founding, yet despite the long passage of time, its efforts against the Empire had never made much real progress.

If they delayed any longer, the older generation would gradually retire, while the younger generation’s hatred for the Empire would continue to fade. By then, with no new recruits, they would not even need the Empire to attack them. They would be facing dissolution on their own first.

Heloise lowered her head, her fists clenched. The force she could unleash in an instant was enough to punch through a wall.

She was not an ordinary person, but an ability-type evolver. Firearms were what she relied on, but her terrifying close-quarters combat ability was what truly allowed her to stand where she did.

Not many people knew that.

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“Branch Chief.”

Heloise raised her head at the sound. “What happened?”

“There’s a train coming up ahead. Should we stop…”

“How far are we from Twinmoon City?” Heloise asked instead.

The young man froze for a moment, then hurriedly replied, “At most, another hour.”

A glint flashed through Heloise’s eyes. She waved her hand dismissively. “Blow it up.”

“Huh?”

“Blow it up directly.” Heloise repeated herself.

“Yes.” The young man nodded, took out a radio, and said, “Branch Chief says to blow the train up directly.”

“Huh?” asked the person on the other end.

“Blow it up directly,” the young man repeated.

“Yes!” The person on the other end took out another radio and said, “Branch Chief says to blow the train up directly.”

“Huh?”

…

So, as they say, the essence of humanity is…

In any case, after the order had been relayed three times, it finally got through.

Several long barrels suddenly extended from the armored vehicles racing ahead, and they were aimed squarely at a train approaching from the distance.

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…

“Woooo…”

The train whistle sounded. Even sitting inside the carriage, they could clearly hear its piercing cry.

Nai Knight sat there with his arms folded across his chest. As the leader of the group, he felt he was giving off a pretty solid presence, calm and steady, very much like a proper leader.

Qingshuang, the girl in their party, was currently plastered against the window with absolutely no regard for appearances, an exaggerated expression on her face as she kept gasping in amazement at the scenery flashing past outside.

“Wow, a grand canyon!”

How ignorant.

“Wow, a pack of prairie wolves!”

Making a fuss over nothing.

“Wow, the clouds are so low over here. It feels like I could touch them if I just reached out.”

Nothing special.

“Wow, so many armored vehicles!”

They’re just armored vehicles. What’s so amaz…

Hm?

“Where did armored vehicles come from?” Nai Knight, who had been sitting there with his arms folded, suddenly shot upright and hurriedly pressed his head to the window.

Come on, how could there possibly be that many armored vehicles out in the wilderness?

“But there really are. And a whole bunch of gun barrels are pointed right at us,” Qingshuang said helplessly.

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“Gun barrels?”

This time the other three players couldn’t sit still either. One by one, they stood up and crowded by the window.

One, two, three, four…

Nai Knight had not even finished counting how many armored vehicles there were when he saw yellow flashes suddenly bloom. He only had time to shout one sentence:

“Get down!”

“Wha…”

Qingshuang stared at the scene before her in stunned disbelief.

“Boom! Boom!”

A tremendous explosion erupted not far away, and the moving train immediately began to shake violently. The passengers in the carriage instantly started screaming, and cries of panic filled their ears.

The last thing echoing in Nai Knight’s ears was a drawn-out “Aaaah~~,” and then his vision went black.

“You have suffered fatal damage. HP has been reduced to zero!”

One shot. HP reduced to zero. Instant kill!

“What happened? What happened exactly?”

After Nai Knight’s hearing returned, he found that this sentence kept echoing beside his ears. It sounded like Qingshuang’s voice.

He opened his eyes, and what came into view was…

“The square!” Nai Knight looked around. “The square in Clearwater Valley Beginner Village! Holy crap, I’m back at the spawn point!”

In Night of the Stars, after players died, they returned to their revival point. Revival points could be set, but for all players who had just entered the game, their spawn point was also their revival point.

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“Holy crap, my ticket money!” Nai Knight was heartbroken. That money had taken their whole group several days to save up.

The companions traveling with him were all dumbfounded as well.

“Huh? Why are you all here? Didn’t you already take the train to Twinmoon City?”

A player who knew the five of them suddenly squeezed out from the crowd.

Nai Knight wore a miserable expression, his face blank.

Oh heavens, oh earth, what sin did I commit? Why is this game such a scam?!

The player who got no response could only shake his head helplessly. They had obviously died, otherwise how could they have suddenly appeared here?

Poor guys!

It was not until three hours later that Nai Knight and the others suddenly received a notice from the government of Whitewater Valley. Family members of those who had taken that train could receive a compensation payment, and as “Outlanders,” they could also get a sum of money that was not much, but still decent enough.

“Let’s go. Our target is Twinmoon City! I’ll be damned if I believe this crap!”

So after getting the money, Nai Knight and his four companions once again set out for Twinmoon City by vehicle. Because of the major incident, all trains from the transfer station to Twinmoon City had been suspended, but there were still plenty of illegal cabs running the route.

…

“They took the train to Twinmoon City, but ran into an armored vehicle unit halfway there, so the train got blown up?” Anran found Nai Knight’s post on the forum and stared blankly at it.

Where the hell had this ghost story come from?

Wait, on No. 1886, the only force that would dare shell a train outright… could it be that the Morningstar Resistance had come attacking?

Anran was greatly alarmed.