This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 443.1: Clash of Blood and Steel
As the last rays of the sun fell from the sky, it seemed to ignite the horizon. Over the endless desert, endless flames accompanied it.
At the same time as the Cloudfly launched a raid on the airfield, a massive tank battle between the New Alliance Skeleton Corps and the Falcon Kingdom's First Armored Motorized Battalion had reached its climax nearly 100 kilometers east of Lost Valley.
The Falcon Kingdom's First Armored Motorized Battalion's 40 heavy tanks were almost completely annihilated!
The only four remaining were also immobilized due to damaged engines and tracks, waiting for an uncertain rescue...
In front of the New Alliance’s Model 60 Railguns, whether it's 1 meter of armor or 1.5 meters, both were as fragile as paper mache.
After all, before the Prosperity Era, such cannons were mounted on warships!
Dealing with tanks, which run on land, whether hitting the hull or the turret, only one shot was needed to end the tank’s lifespan. Unfortunately, due to the Army underestimating the New Alliance's firepower, stretching their defenses too thin, the New Alliance's armored troops almost effortlessly pierced through the Falcon Kingdom's paper-thin defense line.
The heavy tanks scattered along a dozen kilometers of the frontline had no choice but to leave their cover, turn around, and regroup while pursuing.
Due to the huge disparity in range and the relatively open terrain of the desert, those heavy tanks quickly became moving iron coffins.
And due to poor mobility, those targeted by the Railguns didn't even have a chance to evade, merely serving as sitting ducks.
Facing a hopeless situation, many of the Falcon Kingdom's crew simply gave up trying to repair and abandoned their tanks as soon as they were targeted by the New Alliance’s Model-B Tank 2s.
After all, the tanks were provided by their backers. They wouldn't grieve over the scrapped metal.
At least one-third of the Conqueror No.10s were scared stiff and stopped moving.
In contrast, the 50 Conqueror No.5 light tanks, with their superior mobility, caused significant trouble for the New Alliance. However, light tanks were still light tanks at the end of the day. No amount of mobility could compensate for the disadvantages in armor and firepower. It didn't even require tank destroyers to intervene. A single 155mm high-explosive shell was enough to take them down.
Most of the Conqueror No.5s were not destroyed by penetrated armor, but rather by the overpressure effects of the high-explosive shells, which killed the vehicle's crew instantly.
Escaping Mole even suspected that if their mission target wasn't the airfield, and if they had enough time and ammunition, they could have annihilated the entire armored unit without any damage...
However, things never go as smoothly as planned. It was usual for their plans to not keep up with the changing situation.
If the Army had anticipated that they could mount a 60 megajoule Railgun on a tank, they definitely wouldn't have set up such a long snake formation in the desert, but would have concentrated all their armored units together like the New Alliance, using the gaps between tank destroyer fires to quickly advance.
If the New Alliance had anticipated that the Wanderer tank had already been deployed to the Sunset Province and knew from intelligence that it was waiting in the direction of the Skeleton Corps' advance, they would definitely have delayed the end of the entire operation... Even if it would increase the risk of a nuclear strike.
Alas... There were no ifs in the harsh reality of life.
With the Wanderer tank joining the battle, the originally smooth breakthrough of the Skeleton Corps quickly turned into a tough fight.
Even the 20 kilogram steel needles, they could not penetrate the Wanderer tank's armor. After a tense and desperate struggle, the only five Model-B Tank 2 tank destroyers were eventually destroyed by that indestructible monster.
On the official forum, there was a chorus of wails.
Players who were kicked offline by that boss-level tank continuously appeared on the forum to share their experiences, typing posts and exclaiming how unscientific it was.
"Damn! Is that thing health-locked?!"
"I definitely hit it with at least two shots, and it didn't even flinch!"
"60 megajoules, huh! Can't even a naval gun penetrate it?! They have to be cheating."
"Where's the doggy dev?! Call him over now! I wanna talk to him!"
"That dog is probably operating that thing!"
Unfortunately for them, they received no reply from the busy Light and they simply assumed he was working overtime.
And in many people's eyes, his silence further confirmed their suspicion.
"That doggy developer is definitely the bastard torturing us with that thing."
Besides those curses, many were also analyzing the weaknesses of that solid armor.
"What's the deal with that turtle shell?"
"The official settings mention it's related to superconductivity... But it didn’t specify how it works, nor the principle."
"Superconductivity... So does that mean no conductive shells work?"
"Probably. And since electromagnetic cannon shells are inherently highly conductive, it looked like our shots hit, but maybe they didn't even touch it."
The so-called Meissner effect was the phenomenon of repulsion of magnetic fields during the phase transition of a superconductor to its superconducting state. According to descriptions on the official forum, when shells approached the Wanderer tank, they would transition to a superconducting state for some reason.
Meanwhile, the Wanderer itself would provide a magnetic field, and the entering superconductor would possess an induced current on its surface, thereby generating a magnetic field of the same magnitude but opposite direction to that provided by the tank.
On the surface, it appeared that the shells were deflected by the armor, but in reality, the shells never actually contacted the tank itself and had already been repelled by the magnetic field at an infinitesimally close distance.
Paired with steeply angled wedge-shaped armor, special kinetic energy weapons simply could not breach its defenses. At most, it could scrape the surface of the tank.
The only consolation for Escaping Mole is that although the boss fight was not going smoothly, the overall balance of the battle was still on their side. The mission's objective was not to annihilate the enemy tanks, but to raid the airfield on the northern side of Lost Valley, 150 kilometers away from the battlefield.
Although the Wanderer was unreasonably strong, it was ultimately just one tank.
His last command to split up and move ultimately had some effect, and the number of brothers who were destroyed and went offline was not as many as imagined.
After suffering heavy casualties, there were still 15 Tank 2s that successfully left its firing range. The remaining nearly 100 kilometers should take about two to three hours of driving. If nothing unexpected happens, they should be able to arrive before sunset.
As for those left behind to block the members of the Falcon Kingdom, he could only trust them to complete their tasks.
Shaking his groggy head, Escaping Mole, who had been offline for quite a while, finally dragged his faltering consciousness awake from the coma.
Half an hour ago, his tank took a hit.
He didn’t feel anything, just a soft tremor before the light blue pop-up window appeared in front of his eyes.
No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t reconnect!
Since their Model-B Tank 2 used a Model 60 Railgun that was equipped with a metal hydrogen battery, survival was basically impossible once the tank was penetrated. After discovering he was offline, Escaping Mole had almost given up any hope of reconnecting. 𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚
However, no resurrection cooldown timer appeared in the helmet, reigniting a sliver of hope in his already cold heart. Perhaps his persistence moved the server, and after trying for nearly half an hour, he suddenly found himself back in the tank in a daze.
He actually reconnected!
Discovering that their iron box of explosives didn’t actually blow up, Escaping Mole didn't have time to be glad, nor did he hesitate. He immediately went offline and called the other two crew members to reconnect.
However... Only the driver sitting in front of his left leg seemed to have successfully reconnected.
The other had already turned into a sticky mess of blood and charred flesh, probably unrecognizable even to the developers.
"Damn..." Escaping Mole smacked his tongue.
Even with sensory filters, looking at that bloody, mangled corpse, he still couldn't help but feel a wave of scalp-numbing horror.
If the damn game could get a license to be released in the country, he would write his name backwards!
Forcing down the churning in his stomach, he began to check the tank's condition.
The shell had hit the right front side of the hull's lower armor. Although it shot through the sturdy body along with the engine and the human flesh-powered strength type loader, it didn't damage their Railgun.
The left fuel tank was still intact, eliminating the risk of fire.
The metal hydrogen battery was on the upper right front of the tank and escaped being hit. Escaping Mole tried to charge the capacitor, but found that the charging switch didn't respond. All he saw in response was the red indicator light. After confirming the damage, he immediately shouted to the driver, "The capacitor is broken! What's your situation?"
"Engine's scrapped! The chassis's transmission structure is broken and we can pretty much send this back to the factory to be recycled... Shit, there are infantry outside!" Squeezed in the twisted steel, the other strength type player brought his eyes close to the observation port and yelled casually, "It's guys from the Falcon Kingdom!"
