LSDWTWHA chapter 56

Chapter 55

The competition suddenly ended, and the players who were ejected from the game map were equally bewildered.

Was the battle over? But they still hadn’t seen the shadow of the reinforcements!

Was it because there were only a hundred players left? That didn’t seem to be the case either; under the command of “No Return,” their defensive pressure wasn’t too great, and very few players were eliminated afterward. It felt like there were actually many more than a hundred left.

No one noticed Su Su standing in the corner. In the subconscious of many people, he had already been eliminated early.

The remaining players didn’t think that Su Su could kill the mother worm on his own.

Only Zheng Hui, who spotted Su Su in the crowd, focused on him with a thoughtful look.

“Master, why are you looking at him? You don’t really think he killed the mother worm, which is why the game ended abruptly, do you?” “Five Spoon Ink” made what he thought was a witty joke and laughed at his own statement.

“We can’t completely rule out that possibility. I didn’t receive an elimination notice for ‘White Scale Shark’. After Su Su left, I kept an eye on the elimination list. I am certain that Su Su wasn’t eliminated until the game ended.”

Logically, the mother worm shouldn’t be too far from the competition venue, and the abrupt ending made Zheng Hui feel uneasy. He didn’t like anything outside the variables.

But the other team members didn’t think so; they were in a good mood. After all, under the command of “No Return,” they could be said to have achieved a great victory in this match.

At this moment, they had even planned how to celebrate, and at the mention of “No Return” referring to that player who was always against them, they all consoled each other:

“It must be that the expeditionary force’s reinforcements’ time has arrived, but the game didn’t create this part of the holographic image and just directly ejected us.”

“‘White Scale Shark’ couldn’t possibly defeat the mother worm. At most, he relied on his speed to escape better, dragging it out for a bit.”

“Right, ‘White Scale Shark’ is definitely eliminated this round. Even if he managed to survive until the end of the game, his score wouldn’t make it into the top hundred.”

“Letting him go against our captain’s advice, relying solely on his little bit of talent, is reckless.”

“Exactly, Captain, you had the highest score previously. This time, with the hidden mission, you’ve earned extra points. Even that crazy woman who simplifies things doesn’t have a rank anywhere near yours; there’s nothing to worry about.”

As they were talking excitedly, the system’s notification sound finally came:

“The preliminary round has ended; the rewards for this round will be announced next.”

“Player No Return discovered hidden clues, unlocked the commander subplot, and successfully led 335 players to survive from the brutal war, rewarding 33 points.”

“Wow, over three hundred players survived.”

“Impressive, Captain! Your score is now exceptionally high.”

“I heard that the ranking in the preliminary round will affect the rematch, which means our captain already has a significant advantage for the rematch.”

“I think it’s only a matter of time before our captain takes first place in the rematch.”

The players surrounding No Return from the “Chong Xiao Guild” were excitedly discussing it.

However, the system’s prompt sounded once more in the hall:

“Player White Scale Shark independently infiltrated the mother worm’s lair and successfully killed the mother worm, causing the insect tribe to lose their leading mother worm and fall into mutual slaughter, ending the battle prematurely. His strength was unanimously recognized by the judges, and he is awarded a pass to skip the rematch and directly advance to the finals.”

The entire hall fell silent.

If the previous announcement was somewhat anticipated, this one directly caused an uproar among the players.

Most people’s first reaction was, impossible! How could anyone use an S-class battleship to defeat an SS-class mother worm?

Some players thought deeper, suspecting whether the difficulty of the mother worm’s lair was too low, allowing Su Su to take it easy.

It is well known that the highest monster level in the game only goes up to S class, but if Su Su relied on killing a few S-class insects to earn a pass, the vast majority of players present would feel dissatisfied.

The most dissatisfied were the players from the “Chong Xiao Guild.”

“No Return’s commander mission was so difficult; he only got a few dozen points as a reward. Why does White Scale Shark get to pass straight to the finals?”

“I admit his words at the time were quite passionate, but what use is passion? Don’t you need to use your brain in a fight? It’s obvious that SS-class mother worms can’t be defeated.”

“If it’s because the mother worms are low level that allowed White Scale Shark to achieve the kill, that’s just too unfair.”

“Exactly, if killing a few S-class mother worms means you can kill the mother worm, I could do it too. We all stayed stationed there based on the common sense that mother worms should be SS-level.”

While the players were erupting in chatter, the hall suddenly lit up with a projection that displayed Su Su’s operation process to kill the mother worm.

The process wasn’t long; from the moment Su Su exposed himself before the mother worms to the final kill, it took less than ten minutes. But those ten minutes were more thrilling than everyone imagined.

Not only were there truly SS-class mother worms, but there were a total of four of them. The initial wave of encirclement made all players who shouted “I could do it too” fall silent.

When they saw Su Su swallowed by the insect tribe, they even instinctively tightened their hearts. Anyone witnessing this would have to admit that Su Su’s performance was already excellent; none of them could have lasted longer than him.

But at the same time, players who saw it from Su Su’s perspective felt an overwhelming sense of despair. Four superior mother worms, along with a massive mother worm the size of a mountain—surviving was already so difficult, how would they kill it?

But that wasn’t the end. The ensuing battle was filled with twists and turns: escaping, strategizing, utilizing, closing in, and using bait. Finally, he used an escape pod to dive in, using energy as bait and relying on mental force positioning, to achieve a counter-kill with one shell.

The continuous reversals dazzled the players; most didn’t even fully grasp Su Su’s actions—left only with their minds repeating “Wow.”

A few players understood Su Su’s operation but only felt more shocked and desperate. Because they realized that even if they understood his tactics, none of them could replicate it with the same battleship.

“Transforming Complexity to Simplicity” was feeling this way at that moment.

She had always held a sense of superiority in her heart. She was seen as a genius since childhood, learning to operate battleships much faster than others, achieving a rare SS in mental force. She understood the true battlefield better than anyone else. She had been praised by many senior pilots for her extraordinary abilities.

Her ambitions were vast; she aimed to become a top battleship pilot like Qi Hanyi. She had brushed past Qi Hanyi many times, admiring and looking up to her, taking her as a goal and a model.

Others laughed at her big ambitions, but she was unconvinced, believing that one day she could be as strong as Qi Hanyi, and compared to her, all she lacked was time and effort.

But at this moment, she realized it wasn’t the case.

Some things are destined from birth; some people, no matter how hard you strive to catch up, will always remain out of reach.

That was something an old friend of hers once said while looking at her with both unwillingness and helplessness.

She couldn’t understand it then, but now it seemed to make sense.

“White Scale Shark” was that person she could never catch up with, no matter how hard she tried.

Her friend thus gave up on battleships and turned to learning mecha, but “Transforming Complexity to Simplicity” wasn’t planning to give up; she had already taken driving battleships as the meaning of her life.

So what if she couldn’t compare to others?

If she couldn’t surpass “White Scale Shark,” then so be it; she just needed to surpass yesterday’s self.

At the end of the combat record, there was a special note: “Due to insufficient planning in the design of the competition, the game did not originally produce simulated data for the area around the worm nest. Upon discovering a player who chose this method of attack, the game administrators urgently contacted the military. The military temporarily authorized simulation map SS-32 for this game as part of the map for the worm nest. This map is a restoration of a real extermination operation conducted by the expeditionary force thirteen years ago, which resulted in the loss of 13 SS-class battleships, 27 SS mechas, 17 deaths, and 3 mental collapses. Finally, the SS-class mother worm No. 32 was successfully killed.”

This excerpt left the audience deeply shaken and unable to calm down.

Whether it was the participating players or the viewers behind the screens, most of them had little understanding of real wars; they only knew that the game “Star Wars” was created using realistic battlefield data.

Most of them had naively thought that real wars were merely this way, and the dangers of the insect tribes were nothing much, but after seeing this simulated training map, they realized that real wars were far more terrifying and brutal than anything they had seen before.

Geniuses were rare in this world, and most of those who went to the battlefield were just slightly better than ordinary people. They couldn’t execute “White Scale Shark’s” stunning maneuvers; their victories were more often earned at the cost of young lives.

Everyone was still immersed in the shock of the war, to the extent that when the system announced the rankings, they were somewhat distracted.

“Player scores are publicly displayed below; the top one hundred players automatically advance to the rematch. Preliminary round rewards have been deposited into each player’s storage; please check in a timely manner.”

“The rematch will be 1V1 matches, with higher-ranked players automatically matched with lower-ranked players. The top ten players facing elimination in the battle will have an extra chance for redemption. The schedule will be sent to each player via private message and publicly announced on the official website.”

“The rematch is scheduled for November 30th, at 10:00 AM.”

Once the rematch time was announced, the competition and live broadcast came to an end.

At this moment, Su Su was the calmest among everyone.

He quietly logged out of the game, as if all the discussions behind him had nothing to do with him.

No matter the previous laughter or doubts from others, or the subsequent amazement and admiration, he didn’t really care. After all, these people didn’t know him, and their thoughts didn’t matter at all.

Even the reward of advancing to the finals didn’t mean much to him. After all, he was confident that with his strength, he could make it to the finals in the arena match.

At this point, Su Su’s thoughts were no longer on the game; he wandered in thoughts, not realizing that the last map he played was provided by the military. No wonder it felt a little off from the game map.

He recalled not having seen “Reverse Wave & Soul’s End” for some time, and honestly, his ability to kill the mother worm was thanks to the intelligence previously provided by him. The next time they met, he must remember to thank him properly.

He thought about whether Qi Hanyi had seen his performance, and how he could extract some evaluations from her without revealing his identity.

He thought about the dinner he had with the Qi family tonight, wondering if the food would be good, whether the dishes would suit his taste, and whether he could secretly order takeout if he wasn’t full.

He thought about whether the side effects would occur again tonight, if he could hold Qi Hanyi while sleeping, and if he had enough courage, if he could steal a kiss. He really liked kissing Qi Hanyi.